Wasted Time

Chapter 30

Emily's POV

The knock on the door surprised me; I had got up a few hours before I would have liked to in order to finish some work before a lecture that afternoon, but I hadn't been expecting any visitors, and none of my friends tended to surprise me with early-morning visits. I opened the door slowly, slightly suspicious.

"Maddy?" I opened the door wider to reveal my best friend standing outside the door of the flat we used to share, carrying a half-zipped-up suitcase and rubbing at the mascara stains around her eyes. "Hey, come in. What happened?"

I instantly ushered her into the living room and encouraged her to sit down on the sofa with me, concerned at what had happened to make her like this so suddenly when she had seemed so happy the last time I saw her, just a couple of days ago. She took a deep breath, as if composing herself to tell a story, then immediately burst into tears.

"Sshh, it's okay," I said, hugging her close and doing my best to try and calm her down.

"Chris," she managed to choke out after a while.

"What happened?" I said, my heart sinking. I had really trusted Chris to look after Maddy while she was living with him, since he was the only thing keeping her happy right now. "What did he do to you? If he hurt you..." I spoke through gritted teeth.

"No, it's not like that," she sobbed. "He said th – that he knew I still missed Ashton, and that he couldn't replace him, and that it was best if we broke up." I shook my head. I had privately been thinking the same sort of thoughts myself, but it sounded cowardly coming from Chris.

"I can't believe he would say that..." I said, still angry.

"No, it wasn't like that," she sniffed. "He was so nice about it Emily, it was the right thing to do. And we're staying friends, he promised to help me through this."

"Hmm," I considered that statement, admiring Chris for not backing out of her life altogether. "How come you're back here?"

"Even though we're staying friends, it just isn't the right place for me at the moment. We discussed it, and Chris agreed. Plus, my room's been ready for ages, I've felt kind of guilty not moving back in with you."

"Yeah, I was kind of starting to miss you," I admitted. "I didn't want to take you away from the thing that seemed to be making you happy, so I didn't say anything, but it was starting to feel a little lonely."

"Aw," she said, wrapping her arms around me. "I missed you too. How could we let these boys do this to us?"

"I'm pretty sure they said the same about us," I laughed. "I can't decide if they were good for us or not... I mean when we were all friends, it seemed great, but look at us now."

"How are we going to fix this?" she sighed quietly. "If every guy I meet sees how much I'm missing Ash, I'm never going to have a successful relationship! I know everyone says it takes time to get over people, but it doesn't feel like that this time. It still feels unfinished, like there's more that needs to happen."

"So go make it happen," I said firmly. "Look, we all thought from the start that this breakup was the wrong thing for both of you. I know that you've moved on from the frame of mind you were in when you had that argument, I'm sure Ashton has as well. You haven't spoken to him in months, maybe it's time to try again?" Maddy looked at me wide-eyed, as though she hadn't even considered this idea.

"But... we broke up, we said it was over... those things we said to each other, we can't take those back."

"Of course you can! All couples have arguments, it would be weird if you didn't. I mean, think of all I had to go through to get with Luke..." I stopped, remembering that probably wasn't the best example.