Delicate Hearts | Completed

17 || Using Him

make sure you vote and comment! there's a little bit of angel and harley content! we're leading up to the drama ;) but make sure you comment. 
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"Madison?" Ashley asks through the phone. She sounds surprised, to say the least.

"Hey, Ash. Do you wanna come over?"

"Of course, I'll be there! See you soon, I'm so glad you called," She gushes.

"Thanks," I reply. I can't seem to match her excitement like I used to but I am happy she's not totally cut me off after I ghosted her for two weeks. Now it's time to call Jasmine and Veronica. I just hope they react like Ashley.

When I call Jasmine, I think I hear her cry. I can't imagine why, but she agrees to come over. Veronica tries to act cold and angry, but when I ask her to come over, she melts and agrees immediately. I feel like a small weight has been lifted off my heart when all of them agree to come over.

I don't know what I'll tell them, but either way, I hope they'll understand and not pry. I'm doing an awful lot of hoping lately. I'm setting myself up for disappointment. Not that I can be any more disappointed with the way my life is going.

The first person I see when I pull up into my driveway is Jasmine. She's fast. A few seconds later, I see Ashley walking up to my place. I don't see Veronica but I know that's just because she's trying her best to be petty by walking in late. I give them a small smile and wave. As soon as I leave my car, Jasmine runs towards me for a hug. I wince as she presses her hands and body against my burns.

"Maddie!" She cries, burying her face into my neck. I swear she's crying. "I missed you so fucking much! I was worried sick and it was even worse when Mr.-" I knew what she going to say next, but Ashley elbowed Jasmine to get her to stop talking. My heart sank. I felt worse than I did before.

I push Jasmine away from me, and try to read her face. I look at Ashley, whose expression reeks of guilt. Guilt. Fuck. "You guys know," I whisper.

"No, we don't know anything," Ashley assures. "We just have a guess. But no one can tell us what happened apart from you. And you don't have to tell us." As if that was supposed to make me feel better. If you think the signs are strong enough for them to guess sexual assault, then it's as good as them knowing for sure what happened.

I feel my blood run cold. I'm so embarrassed. I'm a fucking charity case. They only came running because they knew what happened and felt bad.

"I- I'm sorry," I say, before running into my house. They're right on my tail so I don't have the chance to close the door before they get inside. "Listen, whatever you think is probably true so if you came here to hear it from me, then don't expect me to tell you. Just go with your guess."

"We're not here to listen to you talk about what happened!" Jasmine yelled, exasperated. "Maddie, we came here because we fucking missed you, and we wanted to hang out with you. We're not trying to get a confession out of you." I stare at them.

"Well, you don't need to pity me either."

"Holy shit, girl. We don't pity you. We're not here to know anything about what happened. We're here because we're your friends and we want to hang out with you."

"Oh, okay... What do you guys wanna do?"

"Let's eat ice cream and watch a romance movie," Jasmine suggests. I shrug.

"Sure. There's ice cream in the freezer for you guys. Don't bring any for me." So much had changed since the last time we hung out, it was crazy. For starters, I loved ice cream. I would fight my friends for the entire bucket. Once, I started crying because Veronica finished the last of the ice cream.

Now I shudder at anything remotely cold. I hide from the cold like my life depends on it. To the point where I burn myself in the shower. Ashley has already started choosing the movie, and I sit on the couch, on my phone. As I stare at the screen, curiosity blossoms in my mind, and I open social media for the first time to search for Angel Andino's name.

He said he's a model, which means he probably has an Instagram account with a lot of followers. I was right. He does have a lot of followers.

His username was angel.andino. Kind of basic, but it makes it easier for me to stalk him. His bio just says model and then has his other social media. A man of few words. I see. His follower count was crazy though. I can't believe I never knew him.

He has over 900,000 followers and follows no one. Except for the brands he models for. I debate on whether I should follow him or not. He probably won't even notice if I follow him or not. People probably follow him every minute. I'll mix in with the rest of them.

I click follow.

Then I scroll through his posts, being careful not to like them. They're mostly of him modeling for expensive brands. I can tell why they want him to model. He's smoking hot. His body is perfect for modeling. He's slender, but he also has abs and muscles. He has dark hair, that complements his light, porcelain skin. He has siren eyes, which are sharp and definitely sell the look.

He's tall. He's famous. He's got a mysterious personality. Everything we crave in a model.

And I had his jacket.

"Ooooh," Jasmine squeals. "Are you stalking Angel Andino? Did you follow him too?! You're so obvious, Maddie."

I quickly turn off my phone and look up at her. "No... I'm not obvious."

"Come on, Jas. Don't call her out like that. She probably doesn't like him like that. You can't help but admire him though. He's hot as fuck," Veronica says, making a dramatic entrance as usual. I smile at her. "Hey, Maddie."

"Hey, Veronica."

"Now... do you like Angel?"

"I dunno," I shrug. I really don't know. "I mean, we went for a walk last night and he lets me keep his jackets. Something about him being allergic to cats."

"Bitch, he owns a cat," Veronica points out. "Do you not see him posting with that white, sleek feline?" She grabs my phone and finds a post where he's holding a cat and seems to be inside his home."

"Oh. So he lied?"

"Yeah, because he's interested in you," Jasmine drawls dreamily. "Our bestie's romantic is finally taking off."

And just like that, all three of them started gushing over romance, Angel's abs, his beautiful fingers, his eyes, and how we could totally be a power couple. I laugh along with them, having fun until I read a text message.

Harley:

4.19 pm - hey, do u wanna come over tonight?

4.20 pm - just to hang out.

My smile fades away.

He was just my trauma response. I used him to gain control when I was actually out of control.

The worst part is, he wants me to keep using him. 

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a/n: i feel bad for harley. but i kind of feel light-hearted now that she's talking with her friend again. i might be team angel again, but honestly, idek. 

i started reading twisted love, bc everyone is crushing on alex volkov apparently. lowkey wanna read about rhys larsen tho. i heard he's HOT. 

anywayyyyyy... i hope you liked this chapter <3 thanks so much for reading! i love you sooo much! <3 <3