One Temptation

Reality Morning Check? (Chapter 11)

The shrill blare of my phone alarm shattered the peace of my room, and I groaned, louder than the damn thing itself.

I poked my head out from under the covers, swiping lazily at my phone to snooze the alarm—for the tenth time.

Except this time, I miscalculated. The phone slipped off my bedside table with a clatter.

I groaned again, this time dramatically. Just my luck.

I rolled over, stretching out to grab it, and—thunk. I hit the floor, still cocooned in my blanket like some tragic human burrito. 

Perfect. 

I was now on the floor, wrapped like a bad Christmas present, trying to find my stupid phone that wouldn't shut up.

"Madison, you absolute disaster," I muttered to myself, sweeping my hair out of my face with one hand and groping around under the bed with the other.

Finally, after two minutes of blindly scratching at the hinges of the table, and God-knows-what, I found the phone.

Comfortably seated on the floor now, head resting against my bed frame, I yawned and glanced at my notifications. I blinked. Then I blinked again.

Holy. Fuck.

I had about a million messages, missed calls, and group chat notifications—like I'd accidentally time-warped and missed a global event.

32 new messages from 'A1 ASSHOLES' 8 missed calls from 'Lia Patootie' 6 missed calls from 'Emmyyy' 27 new messages from '3 Reasons to Wear a Condom'

(A1 ASSHOLES included me, Jake, Lia, Cole, Em, and the infamous Kaleb West- who I've never acknowledged once in this gc.)

'3 Reasons to Wear a Condom' That's just me, Lia, and Em. You probably get how these chats go.

I kept scrolling through the list, feeling a wave of impending doom wash over me.

4 missed calls, 8 new messages from 'Moo Moo❤️' — AKA Mom. Her contact's been that since I was twelve. It's too iconic to change now.

2 missed calls, 3 new messages from 'Papa Bear🐻' — Yeah, Dad. A missed call from him is enough to send anyone into a panic.

52 new messages from 'Jakey' — Clearly Jake had a lot of nothing to say.

4 new messages from 'CJ'

3 new messages from 'little bro'

Why in the actual hell was everyone messaging me? Was it the apocalypse? Did I miss a global event?

I was about to throw my phone across the room and go back to bed when one particular message caught my eye.

1 new message from 'Wessie the Asshole'

You know in movies when people dramatically rub their eyes to make sure they're not imagining something? I always thought that was dumb. Until now.

I blinked. Shook my head. Blinked again.

Yup. That was West. The West. 

The one person I hadn't texted in, like, two years. 

Last time we spoke, it was because this idiot was two hours late to his own birthday party. I spammed him with curse words, then he left me on read for five hours and replied with a simple "fuck off."

Against my better judgment, I opened his message.

Wessie the Asshole: Sweetheart, I know you're too busy dreaming about me but get your fucking ass to school if you want me to actually show up for the project today. Mr. Winters has been ranting my ass because you're not here.