Cause and Effect || Jonah Marais

18

   I woke up the next day with two things on my mind: one, I'm going to find Maddie. And two, man is this hangover terrible.

I immediately turned over to Jonah, who was sitting on the bed looking at his phone.

"Hey Jonah? Do you think we should forget about Maddie, or was it important?" I asked.

He set his phone down. "I have no idea. Maybe we should talk to Corbyn about it."

I nodded and got up to get ready. I decided to wear one of Jonah's T-shirts and some Nike pro shorts. I walked downstairs, where the rest of the boys were. I found Corbyn sitting on the couch on his phone, and I slowly approached him.

I set down, and Corbyn's hand went to his head.

"How's the hangover?" I asked, rubbing his back.

"Terrible," He mumbled. "I threw up 4 times this morning."

"Drink some water." I handed him a bottle that was sitting on the coffee table.

"Do you want to talk about last night?" I whispered, even though the boys were in the other room and couldn't hear us. "Who's Maddie?"

Corbyn looked defeated. "I told you about that?" I nodded and smiled gently.

"Who is she, Corbs?"

"Maddie and I dated for a few years. We broke up a while ago because she got a job." He took a shaky breath. "I loved her."

   "And she blocked all of you on social media?"

   He nodded.

   I am so stupid. Why haven't I thought of this yet?

   "Do you want to see her again?" I asked. His eyes went wide and he nodded frantically.

   "But there's no way to find her. It's impossible." He pouted.

   Standing up, I rubbed Corbyn's knee and quickly walked into the kitchen, where everyone was having breakfast.

   Sitting down at the breakfast bar, I pulled out my phone and opened Instagram.

   "What was Maddie's last name?" I asked Zach, who was making pancakes.

   "Uhhh, I think it was Smith." He shrugged before going back to the stove, flipping a pancake over.

   I typed in Maddie Smith and waited for it to load.

   Hundreds of results came up. I sighed and looked up.

   "What did she look like?"

   "She was pale and had dark brown hair. That's all I remember, really. I only knew her for a few months." Zach said.

   I looked through about 18 accounts until I came across one that caught my eye.

   Maddie Smith
   Photographer || 18

   Looking through a few photos, I saw that they matched the description that Zach had given me.

   "Is this her, Zach?" I showed him her recent photo, which happened to be a selfie.

   Zach's eyes went wide and he set down the spatula before running over and sitting down next to me.

   "How did you find her?!" He asked me in a hushed voice. He nervously glanced behind us at the table where the boys were waiting for breakfast.

   "I just searched her up on Instagram." I shrugged. "Should I DM her?"

   "Just wait. We need to tell the others," Zach said. "But we need to distract Corbyn, first."