Page 7 of Love me, Maddie Mendoza

“Any news?” I pressed.

“News, yeah.” She nodded. “But not what you think.”

We were waiting for acceptance letters for college. We applied to the same schools; we calculated the risks and talked endlessly about how to be sure we were going to go to the same place. Maddie kept reminding me it was all going to be all right, but I was still…scared. We both had good grades, but I was going wherever basketball sent me, and I needed to believe she’d follow. It wasn’t a fair plan, in my opinion, but Maddie was adamant.

Maddie’s shoulder bumped into mine. “It will be ok.”

I rubbed my face, exhausted from thinking about the future. “What’s your news then?”

Maddie turned to me, biting back a smile. Suddenly giddy.

“I had sex.”

I blinked. Her hands came to me and shook me like she was trying to shake a better reaction out of me. “Z, I lost my virginity.”

“I heard.” I licked my lips. “Who? Ben?”

Ben was her lab partner, always around her. He was the only guy in her life besides me. Unless Maddie liked girls, but I didn’t think so.

“What?” She shook her head. “No, not Ben. Adam.”

“Adam?”

She bobbed her head, eyes wide, like I should be excited about the news too.

Adam was on the team with me. He never said anything about Maddie, at least not to me. Like all the other guys, he wondered out loud once or twice if we were actually just friends, but it was never more than that.

“How…? Adam?”

I sounded stupid. It didn’t occur to me that Maddie was going to date. It felt dumb not to foresee it. I had dated plenty, but for some reason, she remained single. I knew she kissed a guy or two before, but they were usually just passing stories she barely cared to share. Maddie took her time with everything, and for some reason, I always thought she was going to carry her virginity to college.

Here I was, getting anxious about us going to college, when the biggest change yet was knocking on our door.

“He was always nice to me when I watched you guys play….” She lifted one shoulder, unaware of my internal turmoil. “But he’s hot, so I was like…” she blew a raspberry.

I rolled my eyes. Maddie was cute, always had been. She was little, with a bright smile, a lot of hair for her size, and big framed glasses. But she was also curvy, witty, and had the biggest tits in our class so I couldn’t understand why she thought Adam wouldn’t try something.

Did she think no one could see her?

They all did.

“So, he came on to you?”

She nodded. “Yeah, apparently he tried before, but I was blowing him off? I wasn’t, by the way, I just didn’t know I was being asked out. So he finally put all in the table that he liked me and…”

“And you had sex with him for his good work?”

She slapped my arm, laughing. “We got caught up in the moment.” Maddie giggled, brushing her hair out of her face. “I’m glad, though, I really didn’t want to go to college a virgin.”

“Was he…” I cleared my throat. “Good to you?”

Maddie shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Don’t act like you are the experienced man and you have to take care of me, Z. You lost your virginity yesterday.”

“Excuse me?” I scoffed. “A year ago.”

“Who cares? You aren’t practicing much, are you?”

Yeah, I wasn’t much into dating during our senior year. I just didn’t care anymore, my focus was on college and making the best decisions for my life. The only person I’d consider changing my life for was Maddie. I didn’t need to add another girl to the equation.

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