There Will Be Blood (not mine)

34. Valentine's Day Massacre

MADDIE POV

The pounding on the door was enough to jerk me awake, but it took me a while to blink my eyes open. I didn't know what I was going on, and my body was suddenly freezing from the lack of covers that had just fallen off of the bed.

"What the hell?" I exhaled heavily and looked around. The clock on my nightstand read seven. It was way too early to even be thinking about getting up, especially on a Sunday.

"Maddie, wake the hell up." The pounding continued, and I heard Bridget's voice from the other side.

I stumbled out of bed and went to open the door.

Bridget was standing there with a bushel of red roses and a bright smile. "Morning, Sunshine." She stepped into my room.

"What are you doing here?" My voice was raspy.

She was in a hot pink dress that clung to her curves and had a pretty dramatic neckline.

"How the hell did you get up here?" I grumbled.

"I flirted the heck out of the stupid boy downstairs. Your security isn't very good here." She sat on the bed. "I brought you roses." She held them up for me.

I took them and almost wanted to burn the things.

"What are these for?" I bypassed her and got under the covers. I felt her lay down next to me.

"It's Valentine's Day." Bridget's face broke out into a rare smile. "It's the day of love."

Shit!

I groaned and rolled over, "Go away."

"No, Maddie. You have to stop all this mopping. Get up," she commanded.

"I don't mope and I'm not going to church," I deadpanned. I knew that's what she was alluding to.

"You haven't been in over a month, and I'm starting to get worried."

"I don't want to go."

"This is getting really annoying, Maddie," she huffed.

"What would you have me do?" I sat up. "He doesn't want to talk to me."

"So force him to sit down and shut up."

This had been our conversation for the past six weeks

Justin and I hadn't seen each other in over a month. I hated to admit that I missed him, but I did. I had come to terms with things in my head. Now that I looked back on it, I realized that I was slightly dramatic back in Thorp. I should have told Justin all the things that were going through my head because that would have been the adult thing to do. Didn't adults talk about their problems with each other?

As much as I claimed to be mature, I sometimes forgot that I was still the young eighteen-year-old who shut down easily. I needed to talk to Justin. That was the only way things were going to get better.

I called the first time, two weeks after New Year's. He didn't pick up. I tried again a couple days later, and he didn't pick up then, either. After the fourth time, I quit. I figured he didn't want to speak with me, so I stopped trying. Olivia refused to give me any information on how he was doing because she said we were both being stupid. She wasn't going to play "the messenger" as she called it.

From Bridget, I got that Justin wasn't doing so well. She didn't know specifics because he didn't really say much nowadays, but everyone could tell that he was hurting. On some level, I blamed myself for that, but I also knew that this wasn't entirely my fault. I was hurt. I just needed to tell Justin that. How was he supposed to know? When I said I needed time, I meant it, but I had cooled and realized that Justin's mistake was forgivable.