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Grimly she stares me down and I lift a shoulder, glancing at the wall. “Me, Cole, the hellhounds…”
Her lip twitches the smallest amount. “Allthe hellhounds?”
I angle my head up, confused but she dismisses me with a very aloof hand wave, and I want to know what it means.Reallymeans.
Still, what an odd question to ask. She knows Cole’s with me, is there someone else she’s referring to?
I don’t get long to ponder the thought because her mouth opens and she’s talking again. Rushing out an explanation that’s not necessary and the jumbles of it makes me think she’s now the one who’s anxious.
She’s somehow turned into the one who messed up, misspoke, and is trying to correct her actions. I watch, tilting my head farther as her frustrations grow. For once I don’t think it’s directed at me, but herself.
“You said you needed something?” she heaves, finishing as her nose points back in its natural direction. Upward.
Winded, she’s winded.
“Uh, yeah… you remind me of someone, and I was wondering what you do when you get mad? Do you go somewhere,buysomething?” Madison’s eyes narrow to slits as I emphasized that one word.
“Are you stereotyping me because I hold myself up to a certain standard? I’m not that vapid,” she denies.
She’s offended, but I don’t care.
“Okay, so if you don’t use a credit card to solve your problems, whatdoyou do?”
“Why do you care?”
“I don’t, like I said you remind me of someone.”
Her sneer sits, stuck to her face like epoxy. “If I remind you so much of this person then why can’t you ask them?”
“Because… because I-I… just can’t,” I push out.
Earlier, I concluded there were no bad ideas. I retract that statement. This isn’t only bad but stupid with a waste of time sprinkled in as well.
“Don’t you have a boyfriend you can annoy with this?” Her voice is cold and stabbing as she bites into a potato chip. Holding, she has her can of soda in the same hand as the bag.
She starts moving and I despise how effortless she makes looking walking away in her heels. Her confidence the most charming thing about her.
“Madison, I’m serious,” I argue.
Her nostrils flare as I stall her in her place.
“Doesn’t matter, because it’s not my problem,” she says, flipping her hair over her shoulder. “If it involves you, oranyof the other hellhounds, count me out.”
“Answer the question and I’ll go away.” Sidestepping and blocking her as she tries to pass again. She grunts out her annoyance.
“Or I could turn around and go the other way. Go hunt down Coley and remind him what it’s like to be with someone who’s on his level.”
“So why haven’t you then?” I challenge, even as her words splinter inside my chest. “You’ve had your shot and yet you haven’t moved.”
We stay like this in a silent standoff for several drawn-out moments until she breaks. Her eyes find the ceiling on a scoff.
That tearing feeling stops with a constricting force. It’s almost… almost like she doesn’t care?
My stomach loosens from its gripping sensation. I see it now; Madison isn’t into Cole like that anymore. Maybe she never had been, to begin with?
Her words were carefully chosen only out of strategy, and not envy. Trying to get a rise out of me to shield her own discomfort.
It’s manipulating but almost impressive how quickly she’s learned to deflect.
