You can Bet on Me

Part 13 ~ Unwanted Kiss

Maddison
Michael had helped me down from the fence and we went straight back to the party. The boys were having a game of poker and were betting on some money and Michael had assured me that he would win. I had laughed, but had no doubt that he wouldn't. The loud noises and obnoxiousness of it all made me cringe and stay alone in the corner of the room with a cup of soda for a large majority of the time.
That was when I was approached by a tall, muscular boy with shaggy, dark brown hair and the confident grin that Michael usually wore.
"Hey, beautiful." He grinned. I almost puked, but managed to keep a straight face as I stayed silent. His grin widened. "You're not going to say anything? What, you mute?"
"No, I just don't waste my time talking to people like you," I said, looking beyond him, refusing to acknowledge his presence.
He laughed. "Come on, baby girl. Everyone wants a piece of me, even stubborn girls like you, so just give in to the temptation. But you and I know that what you said ain't true."
"It is," I snapped coldly.
I turned around to walk away from him, but he grabbed my arm and when I turned around to yank away from him, he kissed me.
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Michael
Beautiful had been an understatement. Maddison had arrived at the party looking amazing. I knew that she was pretty already, but she looked even better with the clothes and with her hair out. I would have called someone like her hot, but that didn't seem right. There was only one word in the whole world to describe how she looked – beautiful. She was calm and serene and even slightly shy; not exactly someone I would call hot but rather a silent beauty.
And that silent beauty was kissing Xavier. On the lips. Right now. Seeing that sight both hurt and made me fill with anger – not at Maddison, but at Xavier. Anger that he knew very well that she was my girlfriend – probably better than any of us – and yet there he was, kissing her. The hurt came from the fact that she had pecked me earlier – on the cheek, but it had still made me feel better than any kiss on the lips from other girls.
And now she was kissing Xavier. I couldn't help but wonder – did she do this to anyone else? I pushed through people to get to her, but the progress was slow because of the amount of people. I apologised several times to people I hardly knew but who greeted me by name as I charged through the crowd desperately to get to Maddison.
As I got closer to them, I noticed the alarm and anger and fear in Maddison's eyes. Her eyes told me that she didn't want this. Before I could intervene, probably punch Xavier squarely, she slapped him on the face.
It was quick – a hard, cold slap on the face. She had slapped Xavier in the face – hard. Both anger and relief spread through me as I finally reached them.
"What do you think you're doing to my girlfriend?" I practically growled. Still clutching his cheek in his right hand, he ignored me and said, "damn, girl. You slap hard."
Before Maddison could reply, I punched Xavier on the other side of his face. He went flying like a ragdoll into the wall and slumped over.
"Well then don't touch me," Maddison snapped coldly. Despite her harsh words, I could see the relief in her eyes.
I grabbed Xavier's collar and pushed him against the wall. "You hear that, Xavier? Don't touch her, and you won't get hurt. If you dare to touch her again, it's not just her you're going to get hurt from."
"Okay, okay. Let me go." He grabbed my arm holding his collar but before I could let go and walk away, he punched me back.
"The hell man?" I yelled as I began fighting him. Xavier fought back. Was Maddison really that much to him that he was willing to fight over her with me? Well too bad – Maddison meant just as much and even more to me, and I was also willing to fight him. Not just for what happened today, but for all the snarky comments, all the annoying pranks and jokes, everything he had ever done to me. I landed three more punches and he landed two blows to my face and my shoulder, and as we stood there squaring off, Maddison stepped in front of us, not particularly defending either side.
A circle of space around us had formed by the crowd as they all cheered on different people. I wanted to charge at Xavier again, but Maddison's touch stopped me. She grabbed my hand gently and whispered, "stop. Please."
I let my hands fall to my sides as I heard Xavier taunt, "what, you give up already?"
"Fuck you, asshole." Maddison glared at him. She grabbed my hand and walked through the crowd as they parted for her.
"Where's your car?" Maddison asked.
"Parked across the street," I replied. "That one." I pointed to my red Ferrari that I had solely brought to the party to show off.
"Fancy," she murmured as she walked over to my car, still grabbing my hand. Her hand was warm and soft and I wish I could have held her hand forever. She opened the shotgun seat door and said, "I'm driving."
"No you're not," I said, indistinctly reaching to my pockets to stop her from taking it. It sounded like something she would do.
"Yes I am," she smirked. She was adorable when she was teasing and I temporarily let my guard down. She quickly snatched my keys and I was left laughing at how she lowered my guard every time. "Now get in."
When she let go of my hand, I shivered. I felt cold immediately. But I didn't protest and sat shotgun while she rounded the car and got into the drivers' seat. Starting the car, she seemed surprised and confused at all the fancy settings. I had to direct her how to use the GPS and I set in my address. She drove off, and we sat in a comfortable silence. I usually hated awkward silences, but the silence we had was comfortable to me.
Eventually, she asked, "why?"
"Why what?" I asked.
"Why did you fight him?" Maddison said.
"For you." The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. The car suddenly was thrown forward and the only thing between me and slamming my head on the dashboard was my seatbelt.
"Woah, calm down." I laughed.
"Sorry," she murmured. "Such a new car. So easy to press the pedals. Nothing like my car."
I laughed. She gave me a frown but then smiled. Her smile was like a ray of sunshine into the night – it lit up my world and my mood. No more words were spoken until I pointed out my house – more of a grand mansion than a house – on the left of the road. She pulled up and I opened the garage remotely for her to park in.
I got out of the car and Maddison followed. I led her into our house and she made a face.
"'House'. Yeah right," she laughed. "This is a mansion." I nodded and smiled and sat down on the couch. Sitting down beside me, she eyed the bruise on my face from where Xavier had managed to land a punch.
"Do you have a medic kit of some sort?" she asked.
"Yeah, in the kitchen cabinet. But you don't need to worry – I'm fine. I don't need medical attention," I said, grinning. She didn't answer but instead pushed her thumb to the bruise that was rapidly forming on my face. I winced but didn't push her away.
"As if," she snorted, getting off the couch. She disappeared from sight as she went to the kitchen (I guess she had to navigate herself through our mansion) and returned with a medical kit.
"How the hell did you find it?" I asked. "I can't even find it, and I've lived in this house my whole life. I always knew it was in the kitchen cabinet, but I never found it."
"What can I say? I'm good at finding things," Maddison laughed. "I usually have to find my siblings' lost stuff, so I've gotten used to finding things." She opened the kit and grabbed a cotton swab, dipping it in some sort of ointment. Before I could stop her, she reached up to my face and began dabbing at the bruise. It burned – it burned like hell.
Compressing my pain to a wince, I tried to think of something other than the pain – like how close Maddison was to me at the moment. Finally, I couldn't compress the pain any longer and gently pushed her arm away.
"I'm alright," I winced.
"Guess Mr Tough Guy isn't so tough after all," she laughed as she kept on dabbing at my cheek with the cotton swab. "My little sister Ellie scrapes her knees all the time from running around and I do this for her at home, and she doesn't even complain. Just waits for me to finish so that she can go and run around outside again."
I had nothing to say to that. How could her little sister – maybe seven or eight – possibly deal with that much pain without even a wince? A bigger question – how couldn't I take that pain? I was partly determined to not wince again as she continued to dab at the wound, but I failed.
"I'm okay, I'm okay." I was eventually repeating again and again and again as she laughed and kept dabbing. We eventually began wrestling around as she tried to keep dabbing at my wound while I laughed and tried to push her away. We became a tangle of limbs on the couch until we stopped with me on top and her on the bottom on top of the couch.
Both of us laughed like hell and my stomach had hurt so much from it, but as soon as we landed in that position, we stopped laughing and I could see Maddison blushing. I could feel a blush creeping up my face as well and I quickly got off her, careful not to crush her fragile body under me.
"Sorry," I said quickly.
"No, it was my fault." We didn't say anything else as she put away the cotton swab (finally) and returned to medical kit to its rightful place. We sat in silence for a while – not an awkward silence, but a comfortable one.
"So what now?" she eventually asked, looking up at our diamond chandelier.
"I don't know. Have you had dinner yet? If not, I can ask the chef to—" before I could finish my sentence, she put a finger to my lips and smiled, "what chef? I'm the only chef here. So I'll make dinner, if that's alright. Well, actually, I'm more of a baker, but I could be a chef if I wanted to."
"Go ahead," I said. Her smile widened and she skipped off towards where I directed her to our kitchen. Without her, the whole house looked so... empty. Quiet. Cold.
Even in my mansion of a house, she still lit up the room with her smile and everything seemed less cold and miserable and lonely. No one had ever made me feel like that – not even Sarah. She always brought a sassiness into the house and sassed even my parents, who took an instant dislike to her short skirts and revealing clothing and sassy attitude. After being with Maddison, I wondered: how did I stand Sarah? All memories of Sarah and me were clouded, and some were even replaced with Maddison. Only after I was with Maddison did I realise just how much Sarah had loved me – not at all. I was a source of money and popularity for her.
In truth, she had been after a college guy for months and he had finally said yes, so she broke up with me for him in the cruellest, coldest way ever. She publicly humiliated me and it took me months to rebuild the popularity that I lost from it. Just the thought of Sarah made my heart ache.
After a short while, Maddison called from the kitchen, "ready!"
I got up, smiling to myself as I went into the kitchen to find Maddison expertly balancing four plates all of different meat and vegetable dishes on her forearms and in her hands.
"Let me help you with that," I offered, taking the two dishes from her forearms before she could protest. "The dining room is in here."
I lead her to our overly fancy dining room complete with expensive vases of fake flowers made from crystals and a large chandelier, but smaller than the one in the main entrance. On the long table, we decided to take up the far end and put down the food there. Maddison left the room and brought in some rice enough for two.
"I would have made something better, but this was the quickest and your kitchen has... not so many ingredients," Maddison explained as I pulled out a chair for her. Since when did I become such a gentleman? Since Maddison.
She smiled and sat down. Just her smile made me feel something inside – like my heart had missed a beat. I ignored the feeling and sat down in front of her. I looked down at the food that was still steaming – she had obviously given me more rice. In front of us laid four dishes – two meat and two vegetable dishes.
"I wasn't sure which one to make, so I made them all." She smiled as she added, "they're all my own special recipe, or a tweaked version from the actual recipe. That one is garlic chicken, that one is satay spinach and prawn, that's sweet and sour pork, and that's a salad I made." She pointed to each one as she mentioned them and they all looked amazing.
Trying some, it was delicious. I constantly complimented her cooking and she had thanked me shyly – unlike her usual bold, brazen character.
After we finished eating, she offered, "I'll help wash up."
Before I could protest against that, she took all the dirty dishes from the table and went straight to the kitchen. I followed her into the kitchen and she was quick to get to work. Rolling up the sleeves of her cropped cardigan, she rinsed the dishes and squirted our pine-scented dishwashing soap onto a sponge. Honestly, I had never washed dishes myself, but I still offered to help her since I couldn't just let her do it all alone.
"Do I just...?" I scrubbed at the plate with a soapy sponge and she laughed.
"No, you rinse it first," She took the plate from me and rinsed it warm water. "Now you scrub it." She handed it back to me and I told her sheepishly, "I... I've never done the dishes before."
"Of course you haven't, which is why I'm here," she laughed good-naturedly. Rinsing soap studs off a spoon, water from the tap deflected off the spoon and onto Maddison's cardigan.
"Sorry," I apologised.
"You think I'll let you go just like that?" she said, almost teasingly. Grabbing the spoon from me, she deflected tap water purposely onto me and I yelled, "hey!"
She laughed as I retaliated by splashing water on her with my hands. Eventually, she grabbed some of the soapy water and flung it at me. Eventually, I burst out laughing too as I flicked water off my fingers at her. She squealed and laughed and kept flinging water back at me until we were both half soaked and still laughing like maniacs.
Somehow, we had managed to finish washing the dishes and putting them messily away onto the drying rack beside the sink, and we both flopped onto the couch exhaustedly.
"That was fun," I admitted. "It's been a long time since I had fun like that."
"Well, as fun as that was, now we're both soaked," Maddison laughed.
"I'll go get changed," I said, sitting up and getting off the couch. I paused as I stood up. "I'll get one of my hoodies for you."
"No, it's fine," she insisted.
"You'll catch a cold. No, it's not fine," I replied, rushing off before she could protest further. Since when did I care if she caught a cold or not? Something inside of me had changed – something inside that I had felt towards Maddison had changed, and it both scared and thrilled me. I quickly pulled off my wet clothes and changed into a dry hoodie and jeans, snatching up one of my old hoodies that were too small for me for Maddison.
Coming back to the couch, I found Maddison sitting up, waiting for me as she admired my house. She looked at me when I came back and smiled. Her smile sent electric jolts through me as I tossed her the hoodie.
"It's one of my old ones – it was too small for me, so I figured it would fit on you best." I explained as she pulled off her wet cardigan and pulled on my hoodie.
"Thanks," she smiled again and I thought how cute she looked in a skirt and a baggy hoodie. Wait – what the hell? Since when did I start thinking things like that on impulse? Suddenly, her phone pinged and she pulled it out, reading the text on the screen.
"I've got to go," she said and I felt a strange disappointment.
"Should I take you home?" I asked.
"No," she shook her head. "My house isn't far from here. About a five-minute walk."
"Alright," I nodded. "But if anything happens, call me."
"But I don't have your phone—" before she could finish her sentence, I snatched her phone from her and inserted my phone number. I grinned and gave her phone back. She looked a little stunned for a moment, but she smiled and I walked her to our door and into our massive frond yard. She didn't leave straight away – she lingered in front of me a little while, her emerald-green eyes fixed on me.
"I had... fun." She hesitated for a heartbeat. "I'll come over next time after our date to meet your parents, I guess."
"Yeah," was all I could muster, and I internally yelled at myself for not saying more, but what else was there to say? "You should get going, it's late."
Great. Now I sounded like I didn't want her to be there. My head yelled that yes, I did want her to be there, and my head was even willing for me to tell her to stay, but I stayed quiet. She lingered for a little longer before giving me a faint smile and walking away.
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