Bloodlines

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Maddie sat on Hope's bed, reading Annabeth's journal while Hope was on the phone with her boyfriend. Yesterday was the worst day in the history of worst days, and Maddie's had a lot of those. Yesterday, Luke told her that he loved her and she did not answer back like a normal person. To top all the bad things that happen yesterday, nothing didn't beat Cole's visit.

Yesterday, Cole came into her house and sexually assaulted her. He kissed her neck without her consent, and Cole then threatened to kill Alex if she didn't cooperate with him. Luke lied to Cole about Annabeth just to protect Maddie, but that just made Cole pissed and almost rape her in her own home. Luckily, Luke saved her before Cole raped her, but Luke acted differently when he did.

Luke scared Cole off, but when he held her to comfort him, it felt different. His hugs normally felt reassuring and safe whenever he hugged her, but yesterday it felt all forced. She doubted that he wanted to stay with her the whole night. He didn't even look her in the eye last night, and he only did one time because she accused him of lying. He didn't stay with her the whole night because when she woke up this morning, he wasn't with her. While he was gone, she had the worst sleep in her life.

Maddie kept having nightmare after nightmare of the same nightmare; it was all the people she loved dying in front of her and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She watched Jessie being stabbed to death. She watched Alex being stabbed to death. She even watched her little sister, Elizabeth, be stabbed to death. What made her wreck when she woke up this morning was that she watched Cole stake Luke and rip his heart out at least fifty times. That dream completely woke her up and made her cry. Thinking about the dream made her get tears in her eyes.

Maddie heard her door open and she saw Hope walk in with a Chipotle bag. all happy and jolly. Seeing Hope all perky made Maddie want to nauseate. She probably said "I love you" back to her boyfriend and now they probably reached a new milestone in their relationship. Maddie was stuck feeling confused and having her own boyfriend ignore her calls and text messages. Luke left her on read five times, and he knew that she hated when people did that.

Hope closed the door and she just stared at Maddie. Hope was in her normal preppy clothing—blazers, glasses, and collared shirts. Hope rolled her eyes and walked over to the window where Maddie had purposely closed the shades so she could wallow in darkness. Hope opened the shades, letting the setting sunlight enter the green room. Maddie groaned as Hope walked over and sat on the floor.

"Thank my mom for buying us some dinner," Hope said, gleefully. Maddie sat herself on the floor.

"Thank you, Meredith Lancaster." Maddie grabbed her burrito bowl from the bag and opened it. "Do you have tea by chance?"

"No, but you do." Hope sipped her water as she let her comment float around in the air as if it was a feather.

Maddie rolled her eyes and grabbed her phone from her nightstand. She saw that Luke had not answered her text messages yet. Maddie frowned and groaned as she threw her phone across her bed. "Hope, I've become a bad influence on you."

"Oh, so the tea is good then." Hope took a bite of her food and mixed it around. "Relationship troubles?"

"Yep."

"Same," Hope said glumly.

Maddie gave her a look, staring at this new depressing person instead of the normal, upbeat, too smart for her own good person. "What's wrong with you and you know who?"