Coming Back Home

Chapter 38

*Madison

I was waiting for Natalie to come over when I heard my phone ring. I picked it up and looked at it and saw her name flash up on the screen.

"Hey, what's up?" I answered.

"Hey um, I had something come up so - so I won't be able to come over tonight...sorry," she said.

Something definitely sounded off about her, but I didn't want to question anything too much.

"Oh...alright, is everything okay?" I asked her.

"Yeah - I just - are you going to be good tonight?" She asked.

"I'll be fine, I'll go talk to Trevor if I need to..." I responded, still trying to figure out what was going on with her.

"Alright I - I have to go," she said abruptly.

"Okay...I'll talk to you soon then I guess," I said hesitantly.

There was silence on the other end and I knew she had hung up. Something weird was definitely going on.

I cautiously made my way around my apartment that night, still not liking where Natalie and I had left things. My mind was racing between her and Kyle and I couldn't stop it.

Maybe Natalie had finally decided that she'd had enough of my crazy ex, or maybe I was just overthinking things. Both were very possible.

***

I tried not to let Natalie backing out on me bother me too much, but with everything else going on it wasn't very easy.

When I got to work the next morning, I walked down the hallway to find her already in her office.

"Morning," I said as I knocked quietly on her door.

"Hey Mads," she said without looking up from her work.

"So uh, what was going on last night?" I asked hesitantly.

"Oh," she said as she finally looked up at me, "it wasn't a big deal I just had some stuff come up."

I was having a hard time reading her expression, but it seemed like it was best to drop whatever this was for now.

"Alright, you're being really weird but I won't push it," I said.

I turned around and walked back towards my office but Ella stopped me on the way.

"Madison!" She said from her desk.

"Hey Ella," I responded.

"How are you doing?" She asked.

"Um, I'm okay, I think..." I looked back down the hallway towards Natalie's office.

"Love life problems?" Ella asked innocently.

"I'm not really sure honestly," I said with a sigh, "but yeah something seems off."

"Something has kind of seemed off with both of you lately if you want my honest opinion," she said.

I wasn't sure that I did.

"Yeah, we've had some stuff going on," I said, "but I guess I thought we were okay."

"I wouldn't think anything of it quite yet, maybe she's just having a rough day," Ella said with a shrug.

"Maybe," I mumbled.

I absent-mindedly walked back over to my office and sat down at my desk. Hopefully Ella was right.

***

I kept trying to find opportunities throughout the day to talk to Natalie, but she still wasn't having it.

I asked her to come to lunch, she was too busy; asked her to come to my apartment after work, too busy. What the hell was happening?

When work was over I caught her outside in the parking lot.

"Hey, Natalie," I called after her, "hold on."

She already had a hold of her door handle but she stopped and looked up at me.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked her quietly, trying not to draw too much attention to us.

She opened her mouth to say something, but then she stopped and shook her head.

"We'll have to talk later Madison, I'm sorry, I have to go," she said.

Her voice had a sadness in it, which was concerning me even more. She got into her car and drove off, leaving me standing there. This felt familiar.

***

When I got home, I ran into Trevor outside of our doors.

"Hey Trev," I said as I gave him a small wave.

"Hey! Oh, you don't look great...Kyle again?" He asked.

"Actually no, well yes that's still been happening," I said, "but now Natalie is being really weird. You haven't noticed anything off about her, have you?"

"I don't think so," Trevor shook his head, "well she did ask me to make sure you got up here okay last night when she went to get her stuff...but I didn't really think that was weird."

"So maybe she knew she wasn't going to come back?" I contemplated to myself, "shit, I don't know."

"Have you tried to talk to her about it yet?" He asked me.

"Yeah, I tried a few times today and right after work. She wasn't having it, said she was too busy," I said.

"Weird..." Trevor responded, "I can try to talk to her if you want?"

"No, that's fine. Thanks though, I don't want you to have to get involved. I'll figure it out eventually," I said.

Trevor nodded and turned back towards his door before he stopped and looked at me again.

"Hey what if we went down to the bar for dinner?" He asked.

"That actually does sound perfect," I said, "let me change quick and I'll be right back out."

The dinner with Trevor felt like exactly what I needed. The time to just talk to him and not think about what was going on with Natalie or Kyle was perfect.

It was still in the back of my mind of course, and I felt like I was checking around the bar every few minutes to see if Kyle would pop up somewhere.

I hadn't heard from him or seen him since he showed up at my apartment complex, but that had only been a couple of days ago.

The good thing was that if he decided to come around here, I was with Trevor. I had no doubt that he would take care of him. It wasn't like Kyle was a small guy, but Trevor was definitely bigger.

We had a nice dinner and the food was delicious as always. We walked back to our apartment building and I felt like I was on high alert the whole time, I couldn't help it.

"Thanks for getting me to come out tonight," I said to Trevor as we got up to our doors.

"Of course, and let me know if you need anything else," he grinned.

"Oh and Madison?" He continued.

"Yeah?" I said as I turned to face him.

"I'm sure you and Natalie will figure things out."

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