You can Bet on Me

Part 21 ~ Regret

Michael
I watched Maddison run away, frozen to the spot. By then, everyone in Ferguson's was watching us, and some looked on at me in pity and sympathy whilst others looked at me with scorn. But I didn't care. The only one I cared about was Maddison, and now, I had just lost her.
It didn't help to know that she had trusted me. Once. Even after hearing others say that she had been a bet, she had trusted me enough to believe that I was a good person and that I would never do that to her. And I had betrayed her trust. Sarah was cackling an evil laugh and looked at me, her eyes bright with amusement and satisfaction as she took a look at my crushed face.
"Remember one thing, Mikey," she purred. "I always get what I want." With that, she ran her fake fingernails on my face and sauntered off, clearly pleased with herself and her evil deeds. My head was hurting. Throbbing. It was killing me that Maddison had found out that way, that she had found out from Sarah and not from me. But I knew that if it were up to me, I would never have told her. That realisation only served to feed my guilt.
I wanted to run after Maddison. Run after her and hold her in my arms and never let go, but one thing was clear now – she would never trust me again, much less look at me in the same way as she used to. Already I missed her bright smiles and sparkling emerald eyes that always seemed to shine with amusement and happiness. Missed her warm laughter and teasing words. Remembering the all the good times we had together made my heart ache more, and all of a sudden, the world around me seemed to fade. I was barely able to stand upright, much less move. It was like Maddison had tied a rope around my heart and now that I had lost her, the rope had began to suffocate me.
There was nothing I wanted more than to be able to go back in time and change everything, but I was no genius to invent a time machine. I was just the giant asshole who had absolutely shattered Maddison's heart, and now, so was mine.
My hands were shaking uncontrollably and I felt like crying. One moment ago, I had been enjoying a nice evening at Ferguson's with Maddison while we talked and chatted and laughed, and now she was gone and hated me. I wish that I had been there to wave Sarah away before she got the chance to tell Maddison all those world-shattering things she did, but I knew that even if Sarah hadn't been the one to tell Maddison, she would find out one way or another.
Maddison. Just her name made my heart ache all over again. I wanted her back again. I wanted her to be mine and to look at me with that same smile and sparkle in her eyes forever, but we don't always get what we want.
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I could hardly bring myself to go to school. As I looked at my sad figure in the mirror, I realised just how much Maddison affected me. I had spent a good amount of the night tossing and turning in my bed, wishing things had gone down differently between me and the girl I loved, and as a result, I looked terrible. My eyes had thick, dark eyebags and even though I tried to cover it up with some makeup, it was still there.
But no amount of makeup could ever cover the terrible feeling I had inside. I felt so guilty, hurting Maddison the way I did with my foolishness and hunger for money. I smiled sadly at the memory of the bet. At the start, it had all been about the money and proving my friends wrong, but now, none of that even mattered to me anymore. I had hurt the one person I really cared about, and they always said that the person you love is one in a million.
No matter the billions of people on earth, I could only think that Maddison was the one for me. The one I would truly love and want forever, even if I fell in love with someone else.
Trying to pull myself together, I let out a deflated breath and got in my sleek sports car. I would surely be made fun of for how sad and miserable and broken I looked at school, but did any of that matter anymore? The drive to school was quiet and cold and empty and my thoughts kept wandering to the 'what ifs' of if I hadn't made the bet. If things hadn't gone down between us the way it had. Hoping and wishing and thinking about the 'what ifs' made my heart ache all over again and I almost laughed at how pitiful I was.
School was no better. I had been right – I was partially made fun of by my friends for how I looked, but my terrible condition didn't deter the girls at all. They kept chasing after me after knowing that I was single again, but I pushed them all aside. It wasn't hard to figure out how they knew so quickly when we had just been over yesterday – it was obviously Sarah. By the smug grin she gave me whenever she passed my miserable self in the hallways, it was clear that she had been the one to start gushing about my brutal breakup.
Twice I imagined that Maddison walked right past me and when I turned around, it was just another girl with brown hair who blushed when they saw me staring.
I had Spanish at the end of the day, and I didn't have the patience to wait around for it. I had attempted to find Maddison around the school during break, but I couldn't find her anywhere. The only chance I had to see her was during Spanish at the end of the day since it was one of the few classes we shared, but I was too impatient to wait. Even the teachers of my classes picked up on my misery and decided to spare me from answering their stupid questions, which all apparently fell on the poor guy who sat next to me.
By the time Spanish came around, I was nervous. If I saw Maddison, what would I say to her? I'm sorry that I betted on you? I'm sorry that I hurt you so badly because of my own stupidity? Nothing seemed good enough to say to her and I could barely bring myself to go to Spanish class. When I stepped into the classroom, my eyes indistinctly fell upon Maddison's seat in the front, but she wasn't there. Maybe she was late.
I sat down in my chair, a mob of girls and guys rushing to grab a seat next to me and some people trying to engage in a conversation with me, but I didn't budge and just nodded at the right times. I didn't hear what anyone was saying and my eyes focused on Maddison's empty seat, my foot tapping against the ground impatiently. Finally, the teacher came in and Maddison still wasn't there. She was absent, and I had a painful feeling that I knew why.
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