THE MATCHMAKER ➢ JB MZ

thirteen

"COME TO MY PARTY," joey had just gotten the text message as he read aloud. it was a text message from luna blaise, who's parents were out of town for the weekend. it seemed like every weekend they were out of town, more like everyday. they never supervised her.

maddie had gotten the same text message too, well they were like best friends now, so she already knew about it.

"are you going?" maddie asked joey, she already knew the answer would be yes, but she just asked anyways.

he nodded and said, "i guess yeah. charles and my friends will be there so why not."

maddie knew vanessa would be there, everyone would be there, so that was the perfect place to matchmake. although she didn't want to, vanessa would probably force her to considering that it was the perfect time.

"okay," maddie responded. "me too."

the two of them then continued their walk to joey's car. they planned on hanging out, but they didn't want to be seen by vanessa. maddie thought she could always pull the matchmaking excuse, and it would work in her eyes. however, it clearly wouldn't because vanessa already knew what happened and maddie had no idea. thanks to greg.

she quickly got into the passenger seat of his car. because they walked together while talking, it wasted some time. the busses were just leaving and they had to sit in traffic. maddie wanted to duck down so she wouldn't be visible and that's exactly what she did.

"what are you doing?" joey questioned her. she didn't look up, she just stayed like that while they still sat behind other cars desperately wanting to get out of there.

"hiding!" maddie yelled, well in a whisper tone.

joey laughed and asked, "why?"

"vanessa!" she said again, in the same way and in the same tone.

"what? do you not want to be seen with me?" joey clearly was joking, but even if he was, maddie still looked up.

"no! of course not," maddie paused. "don't say that!"

he chuckled, finding it both funny and adorable. "kidding."

maddie laughed and put her head back down. "i still mean it but, i can't let anyone see me because they'll tell vanessa that we're with each other."

makes sense. joey thought to himself. "but wouldn't she just assume that you're trying to get me to like her or?"

maddie shrugged. "i don't know. usually i'm supposed to do that at school."

she thought about it for a moment. "you're right." she then sat back up normally while the cars finally moved out, and they could finally leave the building they've been stuck at for seven hours.

they went to joey's house, which was large and beautiful, just like the other homes in the development. maddie couldn't help but feel jealous.

"lucky," maddie murmured while laughing, and ran inside. joey smiled at her and followed behind.

his mom wasn't home, but his sister was. she was sitting at the kitchen table, on her phone and eating. she didn't seem startled when she heard their laughter as they came in.

"hey soph," joey greeted his little sister. he went upstairs real quick before soph could even answer.

"oh hey-" she sighed when she realized he couldn't hear her. "oh hey!" she said when she saw maddie standing there.

"hi!" maddie replied and walked over to her in the kitchen, which was actually a nice one at that. she almost said that out loud but it would only make the conversation more awkward.

"what's your name?" sophia queried.

"maddie-"

"so you're the girl who always talks about!" sophia almost cut her off, but she managed to say her name in time. maddie smiled, he talks about me?

"he talks about me?" maddie raised an eyebrow, excited to hear the answer.

sophia shrugged. "nah. aren't i supposed to say that to every girl joey meets?"

she thought about it for a moment and then nodded. "true," maddie replied, sorta disappointed that she let an eighth grader get her hopes up.

"but by the looks of you," sophia continued. "he probably talks about you, maybe a little too much, maybe a lot."

maddie took that as a compliment. it barely helped though, she still felt a tiny bit of disappointment.

"so," sophia broke the silence. "tell me about yourself. name, age, date of birth, in MLA format, five paragraphs. you get the point."

"you want me to type something up?" maddie looked at her, confused.

"well there's a computer over there." sophia pointed.

"okay?"

"look!" sophia then said, almost scaring maddie. "if you ever break my brother's heart, honey you got a big storm coming!"

maddie wanted to laugh but now she was scared, by a girl three years younger than her.

"i won't-" maddie tried saying.

"you mess with my brother you mess with me! if you even try to pull anything, just have you know that the police are just a phone call away! i'll have you know that i'm-"

joey then came downstairs, interrupting sophia who immediately stopped talking when she saw him enter the room.

"hey joey," she pretended like she wasn't just harassing his possible girlfriend.

"hey soph, what's up?" he asked.

"oh nothing," she faked a laugh. "just getting to know maddie, haha!"

maddie was now annoyed, and that wasn't even an exaggeration. sophia then skipped away and upstairs. joey wasn't looking but sophia pointed to her eyes, and then back at maddie.

he looked back and when she was finally gone, maddie said, "your sister is scary."

"and crazy?" joey asked as maddie nodded vigorously. "yeah, i get that a lot."

maddie then laughed. "i mean it. she's just so.. i don't know. she's like vanessa."

joey looked at her and said, "maddie i love you and all, but never compare my sister to vanessa."

he almost gagged, clearly joking about it. but just like every other girl, she couldn't help but think about the 'i love you part'.

she shook the thought away, but it was still there in the back of her head.

a/n

i need to stop being cliche! ha! ha!

but please leave a vote uh sorry this chapter is so short and boring but soph is literally my second favorite character now (besides my man greg) but thanks for reading!