You Gotta Love Life... Right?

Chapter 24

Three weeks later Kira and I come home from American Eagle to find the apartment in more of a mess than normal, and that's saying something! It's absolutely silent except for Maddi muttering under her breath as she puts the couch cushions back on the couch.

"Uh... what happened here?" Kira steps through the mess, 'Maddi?"

She looks up from the couch, "Adam's a freaking jerk."

"Explain?" I ask as Phosphorus streaks out from under the couch, I catch him and hold him against my chest.

"He told me 'in the middle of making out-"

"T-M-I." Kira interrupts her bluntly. Maddi glares at her before continuing, "ANYway, he told me in the middle of making out that he had to go because he had date. A date guys! What. An. Idiot." She slumps onto the newly repaired couch and runs her hands through her silky blonde hair. "Then I threw some couch cushions and a bowl of chips at him while he whined that I hadn't let him explain."

Kira and I give each other a quick glance, and for a while none of us say anything. Finally, I decide to take one for the team and break it to her. I sit on the arm of the couch and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Maddi, are you sure he didn't mean 'date' as in another thing he had to do at that time, like a lunch with his mom or something?"

"Well then he would have said that wouldn't he?"

I sigh, to be honest, I think she's overthinking it, but I let Kira take over and keep my mouth shut.

"We'll figure this out, okay?" Kira out her hand on Maddi's other shoulder, "For now, let's get some food and deal with this tomorrow morning."

"Good point, boy problems are for lunch time." Maddi agrees and gets up from the couch.

"Also, why did you have a bowl of chips while you were making out? And you didn't throw the actual bowl at him right? Because those are expensive!" I blurt out, which gets a laugh and a shrug out of her.

We eat dinner in front the of the TV that night, and when Morgan gets home we all chill out and watch some teen movies, you know, the ones that you watch to escape your boy problems, even though they're all about boys At about twelve my phone rings, so I stand up and walk over to a quiet corner of the room, "I'll be back." I mouth to Morgan, and smile when I see the name on the screen.

"Hey Jackson." I say as soon as connection is made, "What's up?"

"Wait, you're actually awake?" He laughs, "I thought you'd be asleep!"

"Well, normally I would be, but Maddi's having boy issues, so we're watching chick flix."

"Ah. Wait, don't those all have 'boy issues' in them...?"

"My point exactly." I laugh.

"Yeah, that always confused me... Anyway, I don't know if this is um, moving too fast or anything but... my younger sister is having a birthday party tomorrow and I don't really want to be there."

"So...?" I like to actually make him say things outright, I'm not nice enough to assume what he wants for him.

"So... I was wondering if maybe I could come and hang out with you guys, like, come over to your apartment, because I'm kind of done with my group of friends and you friends are better anyway." It comes out in a rush, and he ends up breathless.

"Okay." I answer, then I start to tease him a little, "I don't know if you've ever had a... a girlfriend like me before, but I'm used to random people walking into my house all the time, so you wouldn't be any different. It doesn't matter to any of us."

"Well I'd hope I made a little more of an impact than just a random person walking into your house, but I'll take it." He laughs and teases back.

"Oh. Oops. Well yeah." I respond. Smooth Emma, the sarcastic one is at a loss for words.

"Anyway, thanks, I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Sure thing. See you then."

"Bye."

I hang up and walk back to the gang, knowing full well that Maddi paused the movie as soon as she heard me say 'Jackson'.

"You called you his... girlfriend!" Maddi shrieks. I brush her off, hiding the slight pinkish colour creeping onto my cheeks, and sit down next to Morgan.