The Dead Mans Games

12

It was the first day of school, Maddie was new to Wallstone middle school. I was still a little shy, though when I was seven I would talk to everyone. That's not the point though. Maddie was new and she sat in front of me in history class. For two weeks I said nothing to her. I was afraid to talk to her. I didn't know what to say, such a cute girl, and then there's little old me. It was like putting a potato next to a rose.

Those two weeks without saying a word to her was just full of my thoughts. "What's she like? Will she like me? Wait no I mean as a friend! God damn it Nick keep your mind straight. Is she funny? Oh wait, even better question is; will she like my sense of humor. Is she the quiet type or is she loud like me?" All those thoughts and yet I didn't ask myself. Until the fourteenth day of school.

She was in almost all of my classes but I only sat near her in one of them. On that fourteenth day we had to elect class officials and she wanted to be apart of it. Knowing nothing about her other than how beautiful she was, I voted for her.

~~~

The bell rings after a long, yet enjoyable, class of social studies. Maddie is the first to leave and I push the the crowed of people trying to get out and catch up right near the door. "Hey, Maddie?" I said like an awkward kid with a little crack in my voice. She smiles and responds back with "Are you asking if that's my name or are you saying it?"

For a moment I swear time stopped. That smile. The person wearing it. That girl in front of me was the one person I was gonna want to be by my side for the rest of my life.

"Um... I uh..." I have no clue what to say, I stutter a bit and push out these few words "I-I voted for you. I hope you win." "Thank you." She turns and walks towards her locker. I walk by her thinking to myself "I hope I'm not coming off to strong." "And your name is Nick right?" "Yea. Hey I have a weird question. Do you like video games?" "Yea, love 'em," she responds.

I was always playing games. Never off of them. They were always fun to me. That was the only nerdy question I asked though. The rest were more or less personality questions for the rest of the day. I made it my goal to make her laugh, and I did. A lot. She was perfect in my eyes. I had just met her and thought I was in love.

"HI NICK!" A voice yells out to me. That very voice is attached to a girl as well. A girl I was dating. She was a real tomboy and no one liked her but before we started dating we got a long really well. We had been together about seven months, never kissed, never held hands. We only hugged and that was because I was awkward about that stuff in public.

This persons name was Alison. She was clingy and mean. A weird combination if you ask me. She could hate you but still want to be around you. It made no sense. I had wanted to break it off with her for a while because I was a bit miserable with her, and this is the day I realized I need to do something, I just don't know when or how.

"Hey.." I said. She completely disregards my hello and asks "who's this?" Almost as if she wasn't in front of us. "Alison this is Maddie, Maddie this is Alison." And now almost like I'm not here Alison has Maddie walk with her to lunch and they both just abandon me. "Please don't become friends. That's the last thing I need."

  ~~~

A few weeks later I mustered up the guts to end my relationship with Alison. I wanted it to happen, it needed to happen in my book but I felt horrible about it. I mean not much but I felt sorry and I couldn't talk to her or look at her in the hall. It was to awkward. Now I wouldn't say anything to her but she would tell me to die in a hole almost every chance she could.

Within the last few weeks I had dated Alison I became great friends with Maddie Best friends actually. The whole time I didn't want to just be her friend though and I knew that.

Maddie approached me one day (few weeks after me and Alison broke up) "Alison thinks we like each other." She tells me. "Why does she think that? I ask with the thought of "she's half right at least" "I don't know! She was telling me about all the boys here for some reason. Who to try and date and who not to. She kept the list simple and said don't date so and so, or date so and so. I had asked about you because you were the only person I knew who she didn't mention and she told me to stay away from you and got really angry."

"Huh. That's weird. Well I meant to ask if you could yesterday, wanna come over and play call of duty? I'm not that good at it so it should be a fair match," I tell her. "Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I'm bad at games! And sure." "That's not what I meant, I've seen your kill to death ratio and it's horrible." She looks at me for a second. "My little brother plays it all the time, he's why it sucks." Quickly I respond (way to excited) with "great, and well, we'll see about that."