AllFreeNovel
Share Us
28
Cece
When the week started, I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it without going crazy. After talking to Stephanie, she ended up canceling her plans and hanging out with me for the rest of the day, but my mind still ran in circles. I feel like there’s a hamster wheel my brain is running on, and it just keeps going round and round. Spinning with unanswerable questions as to why Maddox did what he did. Maybe I’m a complete idiot, but I believed him when he was telling me he was being the real Maddox.
At the beginning of the week, I tried to occupy myself with all of the paperwork and calls I usually have to deal with. Wednesday was the first night we opened back up for the week, and though I knew I wasn’t going to see Maddox anywhere, I couldn’t fight the nerves. But even more than that, an irritation started to build.
With no reason in sight for the way he acted and what he said, as the days have gone by, more vexation has grown. If it was all a game, why pretend for so long? And if not, then what was the point in doing what he did? They are unanswerable questions that leave me in a constant scowl, trying to come to grips with everything.
So, by the time Friday rolls around, any trepidation about seeing Maddox is mostly gone. It’ll be awkward, I know that, but it’s been six days, and I feel like I now need to know what happened. It can’t be that Maddox suddenly decided to resume his bad boy ways and throw everything between us out the window. It can’t be.
Stephanie’s been hounding me all week that she’d be here tonight, and she is despite my protests. As the club fills up with guests, the early DJ who simply spins the popular hits on the radio plays the music. I’m waiting in the office, staring down at everyone, knowing he’s about to show up any second. He usually gets here about thirty minutes before his set time.
“You should just fire him,” she says. It’s one of the things she’s been telling me to do all week. The other thing she’s been saying is that I should throat punch him. I think she’s joking about that one, but I can’t be sure.
“I told you it’d look horrible if I fire him. Over what? Acting like an ass with me? Maybe if he did it during our business dealings I could, but what would I tell my father?”
“Make something up,” she says. When I look over at her to see if she’s joking, she simply shrugs. “Who cares? Do you really think he’d fight you on it?”
I take a deep breath, because when she first told me the idea, it did linger for a bit. It’d be completely unethical, but I don’t know if he would. Then again, I didn’t think he’d act like what we had meant nothing to him either, so what the hell do I know?
Walking into the club, everyone inside greets him with cheers, and he replies in kind, waving like the King he is. I half expect to see the girl with him, but he’s alone—a loose tank top showing off his shoulders and tattoos, with his hat on backward. Like he doesn’t have a care in the world. The sight, along with my own imagination, starts to build up the frustration again.
“I’ll be back.”
“No, wait.” She gets up from the couch, hurrying over to the door with me. “I want to go.”
“Steph, no. Please, just let me do this by myself.”
Her eyes linger on me for a moment with a concerned gaze. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
Taking a deep breath, I nod. “I’ll be fine.”
I don’t know if I believe the words I’m saying. Making my way out of the office, the music almost feels like a soft buzz. A light ringing as I walk through the crowd, blocking out everything except what’s going through my mind. I want answers.
Getting to his door, I don’t knock and wait. I go inside and stare at him; he seems confused. The silence drifts between us, and it appears like he’s about to say something. But he doesn’t. He turns his attention back to the phone in his hand, sitting on the couch, ignoring me.
“Seriously? You can’t even talk? You were pretty chatty last week.”
His head jerks up to say something, but again, nothing comes out.
“Maybe I shouldn’t be here right now.” I take a step closer to him. “Maybe I’m insane for even thinking that the person you said was the real you was the truth.”
“Well, now you know,” he finally speaks.
But I don’t know. I don’t know anything. “I don’t believe you, Maddox. Your friend is the actor, not you. You couldn’t have made all of that up. I refuse to believe you just happened to flip a switch—”
“Cece, I don’t care what you believe,” he spits out, getting to his feet. “What I told you last weekend was the truth. It’s better you just leave it at that.”
“You see!” I shout. “Right there. What does that mean? Why is it better? If it’s really the truth, why not explain it to me? I cried over you; do you know that?” My words force him to look away, and it confirms all of my suspicions. If he’s feeling guilty, last weekend couldn’t have been the real him. “But I’m done crying. I want you to tell me the truth, right here and now. Don’t give me some line. You said it yourself, your lines don’t work on me. Why were you acting like that? Why did you tell me those things?”
“You …” He struggles to get the words out, but shakes his head, staring down at the carpet. When he lifts his head, his face is wrought with … despair? “You don’t know everything that’s going on. That’s all I can tell you.”
“No,” I yell at him. “You cannot say something like that and just leave me on a cliffhanger.”
“It’s all I got, Cece.”
“Bull.”
