All Men Are Not The Same

Seven Days

Seven days.
It took Maddox seven whole days to coax Deborah into speaking to him after the birthday incident.

During the whole week, the young boy had to deal with several rejected calls and unanswered messages. Even if each of his messages started and ended with the words 'I'm Sorry', the angry young girl remained firm on her decision of ignoring Maddox. Yet, the latter did not give up.

Both Maddox and Deborah were stubborn. While the blond guy kept sending messages to apologise, the brunette did not relent. She did not reply a single message of his.

On the eve of the weekend following his birthday, Maddox sent a message to Deborah, telling her that, as usual, he will be waiting for her at the park. Once more, Deborah kept Maddox waiting and she did not turn up. The sadness which filled the young guy's heart however made him more motivated to earn his friend's forgiveness. He remembered his stepmom's words and did not give up. He understood that Deborah needed time to get over the pain he gave her and he also knew that he had to work harder to be forgiven.

"If in one week's time, there is no sign of Deb, I will have to change strategy. I will have to invest more energy into this matter," he said to himself while returning back home from the park, carrying with him the disappointment that his friend did not meet him.

The following Wednesday morning, as Maddox woke up, the first thing he did was to start counting the number of days which went by.

"Oh God! Again no message from her! So, my birthday was last Wednesday. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday! Seven days! Today is the seventh day that I haven't heard of her!" Maddox gasped, counting the days on his fingers while he was still in bed. "You will definitely talk to me today my Deborah Zebra!"

Maddox started that new day with another message sent to his friend asking her to meet him after school at their usual meeting place. He smiled to himself as he already had in mind a second plan.

That day, after the long unending school hours passed by, Maddox hurried to the park and was again faced with a rejection from his friend. Deborah did not show up despite the numerous phone calls and text messages from Maddox. This time Maddox was not too disappointed though. He took out his diary from his schoolbag, verified something, smiled and walked away.

An hour later, Deborah was walking to her house while reading Maddox's messages which she has been ignoring during the whole day. She grinned proudly and made up her mind to ignore Maddox for some more days. "I should not give in so easily. He owes me a good explanation!" she said to herself as she reached her house.

"What is this?!" Deborah exclaimed as she fell on a note stuck on the front door. She removed the yellow piece of paper, reading aloud, "I'm sorry Deborah Zebra." She laughed as she saw the awkward drawing of a zebra scribbled down the characters accompanied by a sad face carelessly drawn.

"Stupid Maddox!" She smiled but within seconds, her smile was replaced by a frown as she wondered, "but how did he manage to stick this here?"

She was still busy in her thoughts when she heard an unusual voice echoing inside her house. 'Unusual' in the sense that she was not used to hear that voice at home, yet, the voice was not unfamiliar. It was a voice she knew.

Deborah pushed the door open and walked through the corridor into the dining room. Her mouth dropped open as she saw her mother sipping over a cup of tea in the company of a young guy who was none other that M a d d o x.