One More Thing - a friends to lovers romance

F O U R - Maddie

          I took my time making my way back up to the upper deck, ignoring his final statement. I wanted to be mad at him, but I knew he was doing it for my own safety. He knew these guys better than me, and he saw them when I was back home, 3 hours away from everyone that knew these guys for who they were.

I didn't mix my summer life with my normal one. Sure, I saw them all throughout the year, but summer was the only time that I spent months on end with these people, like my whole year I was counting down the days until I was back. They were like my own personal secret, one that I liked to keep all to myself. The only person ever to know about my life with the boys was my best friend, Lauren and even then, she only ever got to visit with me on a few occasions when she got to take the time off work.

Sometimes though, they did come down to visit. Never with their girlfriends though, just them. I'd spend the whole day taking them to all my favorite places, showing them things that I loved about my hometown.

-

The sun was fading as the boys finished up their little competition, I was now currently sat up on the dock in silence with Chase. I scrolled through each picture trying to determine who had caught the most and more importantly who had caught the biggest, before we all headed back, and they would be waiting on my conclusion.

"Hey"

His voice caught me off guard and I almost thought I was going to drop my phone down into the water when he plopped down beside me.

"Hey" I finally responded, pushing my shoulder into his. I catch his grin before I swing my gaze back into the reflection of the water.

"Shit, I probably shouldn't do that anymore. Wouldn't want Emma to get her feelings hurt" A giggle slipping past my lips without warning, I wanted Chase to think it was a joke, but deep down inside I knew he saw right past me. Especially after the close encounter we had earlier.

The sigh before he responded told me I should've kept my mouth shut, but the starting and stopping like he couldn't come up with the right words to say to me in this moment solidified that maybe I still had a little bit of an effect on him too. "She wants to be friends again you know" he mumbles, though he can't bring himself to look at me now and it's causing my heart to race in my chest.

I contemplate my response, so I don't sound like a complete and utter idiot. The last thing I wanted was to ruin my own friendship with him. It was easy enough to blame Emma for all of our failed conversations and petty fights, but I knew it had to be more for him to completely ghost me for the last few months.

"She wants to be friends so I don't go behind her back with you" my words betray me before I can stop them, and I feel the rush of heat coating my face. I refuse to look at him, especially when I hear the deep rush of breath he sucks in between his teeth before he responds to me.

"That's not it, Maddie and you know it" His voice is stern, but low. His head sinks down while he plays with his fingers in his lap. I watch him pick at the dry skin around his fingernails and I want nothing more than to teleport anywhere but here. I took in his every word though, so much so, that I could recite you each word he spewed as his brown hair started falling in front of his eyes.

My first urge is to argue, but I didn't want to at the same time. I just wanted him to be happy and if it wasn't going to be with me then I needed to get used to the idea of Emma always being around again.

She was small and skinny, long blonde hair that reached the bottoms of her shoulder blades. She is the walking poster child for a magazine and as much as I try to tell myself she's right for Chase, I have a hard time placing her manicured hands in his callused ones. She looks nothing like me at all, really none of the girls any of the guys had brought around did. My long wavy brown locks with green eyes to match, almost the complete opposite of the girls they usually brought around. I wasn't short, but I also wasn't tall, I was just average looking. But the boys had never made me feel like I was a flaw, really no boy had. But I saw it, and I know the other girls noticed it, I could see it in the way the eye me a little too long during the long summer days at the lake.