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𝐓𝐀𝐏𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 | 𝖲𝖨𝖣𝖤 𝖠 𝗃𝖾𝗌𝗌𝗂𝖼𝖺'𝗌𝗉𝖺𝗋𝗍𝗒 !
PART OF ME knew I shouldn't go to Jessica's house that night. But another part of me couldn't help but wonder what or who I might be missing out on. So here I am, the brand-new me... living the same old life.
I thought maybe starting over didn't mean cutting myself off completely. Maybe I'd been hanging with the wrong people. Maybe I could start over with the right person. But if I'd have known what was going to happen, I never would have walked through that door.
❚❚
Maddie stood facing her open locker, holding it open as she hid her face and took a few Advil. After Clay's surprise talk with her in the classroom, the girl started to feel ill, and her head started to pound harder.
"Hey," she heard, causing her to crank her head to the side, seeing Courtney Crimson gazing at her. "Is everything okay?"
Maddie shook her head as she shoved her bag into her locker. "Clay listened to the tape about Jessica's party, meanwhile I've barely even started it. Whatever Hannah said, though, he of course believes it. He said he wants to help me with it, whatever it is, but he needs to know what I remember from the party." Maddie turned away from the girl, allowing her to pull her shirt over her head.
"So whatever Tony did didn't work," Courtney said.
Maddie shrugged, "Or he never did anything but talk to him nicely. I mean, they're best friends. Tony wouldn't hurt Clay, even if his life depended on it." Maddie took a deep breath before she lowered her head. "Hannah would have told me if something happened, right?"
"I mean, we both know she made all that stuff up," said Courtney as Maddie shut her locker.
Maddie furrowed her brows. "Did she? Because the photo of her and Justin on the slide was real, the 'Hot or Not' list was real, so maybe the rest is too?"
"Maddie, Justin is your boyfriend. Who are you going to believe, him or... a girl who was jealous because you were dating her first kiss?"
►
If I had known what would happen... what that night had in store... I might never had walked through that door. But parties have a weird magic. They're like an alternate universe. They can make you believe that maybe anything is possible. Maybe you do fit in after all.
❚❚
"Well, well, well, look who finally decided to show up," Maddie said when she found her boyfriend wandering through the crowd of people in Jessica's home. Maddie wrapped her arms around the boy as she turned toward him, "You know, fashionably late doesn't fly when your girlfriend is the co-host of the party."
