Confiding in You ϟ a.i.

Chapter 54

==Maddie's POV==

"Are you ever going to wake the hell up?" Cooper says, kicking the leg of my bed and causing it to shake.

I groan, rolling over to look at him through heavy eyes. He's standing over me with his hands on his hips and his usual, angry expression on his face. He's tried waking me up at least four other times, but I've gone back to sleep each time.

"I'm serious, get up," he grabs onto my arm, pulling on it.

"Let go of me," I say, ripping my arm from his grip and suddenly much more awake. I sit up and he's satisfied, but still refuses to leave. "What time is it?"

"It's three," he says, his voice laced with judgement. To emphasize how much he wants me to get out of bed, he pulls my comforter off of me completely to reveal the pair of boxer shorts that I never gave back to Ashton after the first time I stayed over his house.

I kick my feet over the bed and end up knocking Cooper's legs in the process. It's an accident, but he groans and takes a few steps back, so I smirk at him. Annoying him has become less terrifying and more fun, lately.

"That would have been really bad if I was only wearing my underwear," I laugh, standing and pulling my shirt down.

Looking at it, it's one of Ashton's band shirts, too. I've gone from cautious to nearly obsessed with him in a matter of two days, but I'm hardly ashamed. I've told myself that I deserve the feeling that comes with it enough to start believing it.

Cooper groans again, "Well you're wearing my best friend's underwear, which is bad enough."

"I got these when you locked me out," I tell him, grabbing my phone from my nightstand before following him out into the hallway, "So, this is technically your fault."

As we walk down the stairs, I trail behind my brother to check the text messages that I had missed while I was asleep. There are a few, mostly from people wishing me a happy thanksgiving. I type back a generic reply to each of them before scrolling to the conversation that matters to me; the one that makes me smile the most.

good morning bb :-)

When the butterflies come, I don't fight them. Since I decided to give him another chance, I've forced myself not to question everything Ashton does. I realized, after a lot of consideration, that I don't think I have a good reason to be suspicious of his feelings for me.

After everything he has done for me, I should finally be able to accept it and enjoy it. There's no point in making myself unhappy now, with worry that I'll be unhappy in the future.

I was terrible at convincing myself not to be nervous to begin with. But since I have been putting all of my energy into indulging in the positive feelings he causes, it has quickly gotten easier to push the anxiety to the side.

It's still there, it always will be. But I'm actually fighting the thoughts instead of letting them take me hostage and keep me up at night.

Did you really just say bb instead of baby? I type back, smiling down at my phone. I almost run into Cooper at the bottom of the stairs as I do.

He turned around to face me as soon as he reached the first floor, and he isn't having any of my lovey, happy feelings at the moment. Well, I don't think he ever is. But he definitely isn't today.

"Why did you sleep so late, anyway?" He asks, suspicious. "Or am I not supposed to ask?"

I have fought him on his beliefs about my sex life far too much to try anymore, so I only roll my eyes at him. As long as he's not hitting me for it, I couldn't care less what he thinks.