*A Friends to Enemies to Lovers Romance*
Madalynn Reese never expected to see Liam Tucker again. Not after all of these years, and not after he broke all of their promises. But when she heads off to her dream college and runs into her ex-childhood b...
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Laying on my bed contemplating life, a knock on the door had me rolling off it in the same moment, and I landed with a thud on the carpet.
Ouch.
"Um, coming!" I scrambled up, racing to the mirror to smooth down my hair and look presentable, before remembering I was supposed to look sick. I tousled my hair and ran back to my bed to grab a throw blanket, wrapping it around me before heading toward the door.
If my charade isn't obvious yet, let me lay it out for you.
I copped out.
Last night, after my showdown with Liam, I texted Aaron and let him know I wasn't feeling well and had to leave. I took an uber home and have been laying on my bed in self-pity since. I felt horrible leaving Aaron and lying at the same time, but truthfully, I wasn't feeling good.
I was a big, fat, emotional mess.
I opened the door to see Aaron standing there with a small smile, his eyes dancing across my body as if searching for signs of illness.
"Can I come in?" He asked, after a moment of us standing there.
I opened the door all the way and stepped aside, allowing him access to my spacious dorm. He walked towards my bed, before turning back to face me.
"How are you feeling?"
I shrugged, forcing a cough. "I've seen better days, but you know, I'm okay."
He nodded, taking a step toward me. "That's good to hear. You know, for a moment there, I thought maybe you made up the whole being sick thing because of what all went down at dinner."
He studied my expression which I'm sure gave everything away. I could never play poker.
"Listen Maddie, I know what went down was intense. I'm sorry. That uh, wasn't exactly how I imagined you meeting my parents would go. But I told you, Liam can be a handful."
I was nodding, until the end of his comment which caused me to freeze and peer up at him with narrowed eyes.
"Wait, I'm sorry, what part of the night was he a handful? Was it the part where he remained silent when he was being publicly attacked by his own family, or the part where he had finally had enough of it and chose to stick up for himself?"
Aaron's eyebrow shot up, as his head jerked back in surprise. He grabbed the back of his neck, blowing out a deep breath before taking another step forward.
"I get it, okay? They can be pretty hard on him. But they only do it out of love. He has a lot of potential. They hate to see him waste it."
"Waste it on what, exactly? Aaron, you're supposed to be his friend, you're his stepbrother. But you heard how his dad was speaking about him, and about you, and you practically soaked it up."
