“Clara, please, I can explain—” I reach for her, trying to pull her into a hug so we can work this out, but she jumps away from me like my touch is toxic.
“Don’t touch me,” she spits, using her scary, quiet voice again. “I can’t even look at you right now.” She grabs her purse from by the door and storms out.
The second the door closes, I crumple into a heap on the floor and start crying.
Fuck. What have I done?
18
Maddox
I’m pulling on a pair of pants, getting dressed for work, when my cell phone rings.
I smile to myself, thinking it’s probably Madison. I miss her already, even though I dropped her off not too long ago.
It’s going to be awkward telling Clara about us later, but I don’t care. I want to tell the world that I’m in love with Madison Taylor and she is mine. I’m on cloud nine and nothing can bring me down.
Well, almost nothing.
The screen shows that it’s Axel calling, not Madison. Why is he calling me now? I’m about to see him at work.
I answer, thinking maybe he’s sick and just letting me know he can’t come in today. Although it’s more likely he’s hungover than actually sick.
“What’s up, brother?” I answer, sitting down on the unmade bed to pull on my socks, cradling the phone between my ear and shoulder. “Playing hooky?”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” says Axel, his voice icy and serious.
“Excuse me?” I ask, completely abandoning the task of getting dressed.
“Madison?” he hisses, and I can feel his disdain through the line. “You’re fucking Madison Taylor? Our little sister’s best friend?”
My jaw drops and I’m speechless.
“How did you… I mean…” I stutter.
“I just got off the phone with Clara. She called me and she’s really upset,” Axel says angrily. I hear the noise of people talking and papers shuffling in the background.
“Are you at the office right now?” I ask dumbly.
“Yeah, I’m at the fucking office, Maddox, unlike you, Mr. Works From Home All The Time All Of A Sudden,” he says sarcastically. “Guess now I know why.” I hear mumbling in the background. “By the way, Declan says you’re an idiot too.”
“You told Declan?” I ask indignantly.
“Oh, don’t you dare try to turn this around on me! You’ve been sneaking around, fucking… a fucking kid…” this part he whispers, “behind my back. How could you not tell me something like this? I’m your twin.”
I feel a pang of guilt, then annoyance. “I’m sorry,” I say insincerely, “I didn’t realize we were supposed to tell each other all of our sexual activities. Would you like a play-by-play?”
“God, you’re such a dick!” Axel shouts into the phone. “How could you do this to Clara? Why would you pick the one totally inappropriate person to help get you over Jasmine?”
“It’s not like that—”
“I mean, I could tell you had the hots for her, it’s insanely obvious,” he continues, ignoring me. “But I thought you’d be smarter than this. Or at least care more about Clara than your sorry dick.”
“Look, calm down. I can explain everything. I’ll be at the office in twenty minutes—”
“Don’t bother,” says Axel coldly. “You like working from home so much, you can keep doing it. I don’t want to see you. Just stay away from me, Maddox. Oh, and tell Madison I said hello.”
He hangs up the phone, and I stare at the offending piece of technology in my hand in disbelief.
Fuck.
What have I done?
19
Madison
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
I’m standing outside the door of my adviser’s office after one of the worst meetings I’ve ever had, second only to the one we had my freshman year when he told me that I had to get my grades up or I’d be expelled.
It’s happening again. I’m fucking up.
It’s been a couple of weeks since the day Maddox told me he loved me, the same day that Clara stormed out of our apartment. I haven’t seen or heard from her since, even though I can tell she’s been in and out of the apartment to get her things and I’ve left her hundreds of texts and voicemails.
Honestly, I don’t blame her for being so upset. I’ve been a shitty friend to her, even before all this stuff with Maddox. I don’t deserve anything from her.
I know I’ve been distant with Maddox since then. I haven’t even spent the night with him since that day. I keep waiting at home, unless I’m working or in class, hoping to catch Clara so I can tell in person her how sorry I am. But she seems to be purposefully avoiding me by only coming home when she knows I’ll be gone.
To top it all off, I got my semester grades back, and somehow I managed to get a C minus in one of my classes. A C minus! I haven’t gotten anything less than an A since I turned myself around after freshman year. I thought there had to be a mistake, so I set up the meeting with my adviser.
He has just informed me that that had been no mistake, except for one on my end. Apparently, I completely missed an essay that was due before the end of the semester that was worth a huge portion of my grade for the class.
He pulled out the syllabus for the class to show me, and I stared in disbelief at the assignment he pointed out.
How could I have missed something like that?!
But I know exactly how. I’ve been too distracted by Maddox and all the drama with Clara.
I start stomping toward the library, furious with myself. How could I have let this happen? This is exactly why I promised myself not to let boys or partying or anything else get in the way of what’s really important: helping people by becoming the best lawyer I can be.
My adviser told me he’d communicated with my professor for the class, who had agreed to let me complete the essay for a half credit, which, if I do a good job, will bring my grade up to a B. So now I have to write an essay I was supposed to have been working on all semester, on top of studying for finals this week. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
I throw myself into a chair in the library and fling my backpack onto the seat next to me, yanking out my laptop. My phone rings and I silence it quickly, seeing that it’s Maddox calling me.
No more distractions.
20
Madison
Hours later, I’m still holed up in the library, working furiously on the overdue essay. I can see through the windows that it’s gotten dark outside, and there’s no one else left in the library besides me.
My phone kept lighting up with calls from Maddox, so I finally just shoved in my backpack after firing off a quick text, asking him to pick me up from the library later tonight. I know I’m not being a very good girlfriend right now, but this is more important. He’ll understand.
I sigh, pulling my phone back out to check the time. I’m alarmed to see that not only do I have almost no battery left, but I have two missed calls from Clara.