for, liar

Chapter 103

Maddy comes rushing out of her room in her bathrobe. I look over at her from the couch and wait for Ben to walk out of the apartment before I start talking. I don't need him to hear any of this conversation just so he can ridicule me.

She crosses her arms. "What's going on?" She asks.

I motion for her to sit down. She rolls her eyes and takes a seat in the recliner to the side of me. I put my hands on my knees and rub them a little, trying to prepare everything I'm going to say in my head. I don't even know where to start.

"Before I begin, can you just promise that you'll be honest with me and tell me if I'm being crazy?"

"You know I'll tell if you're being crazy." She says.

That's true. Nothing has ever stopped her before.

"Okay, wonderful." I say between breaths. "I don't know if you remember everything but you know how I was being skeptical of Miles because of what happened at Scream Beans with that guy he acted like he didn't know?"

She raises an eyebrow and nods.

"And then the whole thing with him not telling me about his dad coming down and literally disappearing for two weeks."

She nods again. "He told you it was a family thing, right?"

"Yeah, so of course I didn't question it because I trust him, but now things aren't starting to line up and I'm kind of freaking out."

She chuckles under her breath. "I swear it's like you want something to be wrong. Why are you paranoid about Miles? He's literally harmless."

He is harmless. He's done nothing wrong. I'll keep telling myself that I shouldn't be acting crazy over this but if I don't know all of the truth, it's going to keep me up at night.

"I don't want anything to be wrong with my boyfriend, Mads. Of course, when old women are in my ear at the New Years party about Miles being some sketchy delinquent, I can't help but wonder."

She pinches the bridge of her nose and closes her eyes for a second. I can tell her patience with me is running low.

"Miles lived in the trailer park not even twenty minutes from my house with his mother who now owns a fucking beach house. He was friends with the guy he said he had never met before and they fell off the face of the earth four years ago."

Her eyebrows furrow. "Freshman year?"

"Yep."

"When Selena died? That was in Charlotte though."

"Charlotte is only a twenty minute drive from my mom's house." I say.

"Okay, yeah but that still doesn't mean anything. Miles has childhood baggage that he didn't feel like bringing up because it wasn't relevant and you hear from crazy old ladies that it's bad he's back in town so you think he had something to do with our best friend being hit by a car?"

"Oh my God, no I don't think Miles murdered Selena. I'm not that stupid. I'm just saying something doesn't add up to why he wouldn't tell me about his childhood best friend or why he lived so close to me."

"You could always try asking him, y'know."

I am not going to ask him why his stories aren't adding up. If I wanted to bring any more distrust in our relationship, I would've questioned him the moment it happened.

"If I ask him about it then he will think I don't trust him and we've been doing really great since the fair." I explain.

She sighs and gets up from the chair. "Then I don't know what you want me to tell you. I think you're being stupid and I think the only way you're going to be able to ease your mind is if you go ask the boy why he wasn't being honest if that's even the case."

I hate when she's right. There's no reason I should be sitting here wasting time when I could just communicate with my boyfriend like a normal, healthy person would do.

I get up to grab my keys. "Fine. I'll go over there right now."

"Right now? You just saw the boy!" She yells.

"It doesn't matter. Like you said, I won't be able to rest until I talk to him."

I rush out of the front door and over to my car parked next to Maddy's. Ben's car is still parked in the lot on the other side. I didn't even see that it was there before.

He's sitting in the driver's seat typing on his phone when I walk over and tap on the window. He jumps, definitely not noticing me there at first and hesitates to roll down the window.

"Yes?" He asks with angst.

"You can go back in there now. I'm leaving for a little bit." I say as cordial as I can.

He purses his lips and turns off his phone screen. "Thanks." He goes to open the door and get out.

I step to the side, leaning up against the backdoor of his car. "Can I ask you something?"

He climbs out, closing the door so we're standing in front of each other. "I guess."

"At the fair when you tried to get me away from Miles...you said no one in the city trusted him. What were you talking about?"

His eyes narrow and he sucks on his teeth. "I dunno, I just heard some stuff. People talk."

"I've never heard anything about him from anyone. I didn't even know people knew who he was."

"It's just a rumor, Bree. Don't take everything to heart."

I cross my arms. "Just tell me what the rumor is." I say impatiently.

He steps up behind him on the curb and shrugs his shoulders. "You're going to go see him right?"

I nod and shove both of my hands in my pockets.

"Ask him about his car." He suggests, disappearing back into the apartment.

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