All Men Are Not The Same

Confusion

The next day started with a phone call and bitter sobs at the end of the line. A call which pulled Maddox right out of his bed despite that his eyelids were still being weighed down by the need for more sleep and his body did not want to be dragged out of the blankets to face the early morning chill.

In utter confusion, after the abrupt end of the call, Maddox rushed out of the house to go to the caller's place. The desperation to know why the latter was crying so much that she could barely formulate a word was suffocating him.

It took Maddox a quarter of an hour of vigorous cycling to reach his destination. Leaving his bicycle on the ground, the young guy hurried towards the house and reached for the doorbell. As he waited for the door to open, his breaths got deeper and his heartbeats faster.

The few seconds that went by seemed endless.
"Open the door. Open the door," he said to himself as he kept shifting his body weight from one foot to another.

"Hello...," he uttered as the wooden door was flung open.

Maddox was disappointed as the person who stood at the door was not the one he expected. A medium-height, semi-bald and tanned-skin man was facing the young blond guy. The man's dark eyes were stuck into the young guy's grey ones giving the impression that he was reading into them.

"Hello Sir. I am Maddox. Maddox Howard. I've come to meet Deborah."

"So, it's you?" The man asked in an angry tone as he squinted his eyes, taking a closer look at Maddox. "How did you dare come here to meet her?"

"Who is it, honey?" a female voice asked in the background.

"Come and see for yourself," the man replied back.

"Sir, what happened? Where is Deborah?" Maddox inquired, startled by his interlocutor's tone.

"You do not need to know where she is! You don't even have to know anything about her!" the man yelled.

At that moment, Maddox saw a woman he recognised walking through the corridor, coming towards the door. It was Deborah's mother - the kind lady he met a few months before. Yet, the look on her face was not the one she had before. She looked strangely stern and cold.

"Good morning, Mrs Franklin," Maddox greeted with a smile which was not returned back. "Anything wrong?" Maddox now knew that the man in front of him was Deborah's father. He looked at both of them, hoping for an answer.

Mr and Mrs Franklin stared at the young guy for a few seconds without saying anything. Maddox could not figure out what was going on. His impatience grew with each minute that went by.

"Can I meet Deborah for a minute, please?"

"No you can't. For heaven's sake, you can't!" Mr Franklin shouted angrily.

"But why?"

"I don't owe you any explanation," were Mr Franklin's words before he slammed the door shut.

Not knowing what to do next, Maddox paced up and down the small alley leading to his girlfriend's house. Then, he stopped, dragged his phone out of his pocket and dialled Deborah's mobile phone number.

After the second ring, Maddox heard the front door open. He turned to face it but was once more confronted by Deborah's parents.

"Why are you calling her?" Mrs Franklin asked as she held Deborah's phone in her left hand, raising it to show it to the disheartened teenager who saw his name illuminating the screen. "Her phone is with me. I do not want to see you call her ever again."

The door was abruptly closed leaving Maddox in his confusion. The young guy had no option left except for cycling back to his house, pondering upon what might have happened in one night.

Yesterday night we were chatting. Everything was fine. Today morning, barely twelve hours later, everything went so wrong and I don't even know why. Oh God! What's going on?

He was lost in his thoughts all along his way. He badly wanted to hear from his girlfriend to ask her why her parents were preventing him from meeting her. He was digging his mind to find a way to contact Deborah until an idea lightened up his face.

I have one more way to get in touch with her. Yes! Facebook!