105well, so far, i have had a good response from Betrayal and its newness (: id just like to thank all of you for reading, reviewing, adding Betrayal to your favourites etc.
thanks to: pinkeclipse; Ashen Eyes; EarnYourStripes; RomanceObsession96.
this chapter is dedicated to all of you lot ^
(i own nothing recognisable; song and title credit goes to Jay Sean.)
02. Let it go.
"I can't believe it, Mads," Adrianna's voice whispered down the phone. "I just – why would he do this?" Adrianna was having a hard time believing that Alex could cheat on me – with one of our best friends, too – and was trying to wrap her mind around it.
"I don't know," I blinked off tears. It had been a few days since Alex had cheated on me, but the hurt was still the same. Alex had apparently been too cowardly to tell his sister what had happened, fearing her wrath; I had needed to speak to her though. If anyone could make me feel that little better, it was Adrianna.
"Ur, he's such a dickhead; I can't believe I share genes with that boy," Adrianna was furious now – she rarely swore, but when she did she meant business. "Why would he want to do that? You're beautiful, Mads, honestly. And I can't believe Melissa! That whore."
I laughed a little at that; like I said before, Adrianna always knew how to make me feel better. We chatted for a while longer before Adrianna had to go – they were coming home tomorrow and I couldn't wait. It had always been Addie and Maddie. As I got off the phone, my mom called me from downstairs.
"Yeah?" I called back.
Minutes later, she came into my room. "Sweetie, Dionne's in town and I was wondering if you'd like to join the two of us for dinner?" Dionne was my mom's best friend and my godmother.
"That'd be good," I hadn't seen Dionne in a while. "Is she coming here or...?"
"We're actually going to go out – if you're up to it," my mom knew about the breakup between Alex and myself; she was obviously angry for me, but I knew that she had liked Alex a lot.
"Yeah, trust me, its fine," I smiled slightly at her. "I've got to get over it, someday. Better sooner than later, right?"
My mom pecked me on the head, before telling me to wear something other than my sweats. I decided on a casual dress that was grey and long-sleeved. I didn't bother to do anything with my hair, it was fine down anyways.
Fifteen minutes later and we were at Pine Tavern Restaurant – it was a favourite haunt of my mom and Dionne's. As we all seated at the table and ordered (hazelnut brie for me; house salad and salmon for Mom and Dionne), Dionne asked the unavoidable question:
"Are you still with Alex, hon?" Dionne smiled at me, not knowing that she had mentioned the topic that I least wanted to talk about.
I cleared my throat, awkwardly. "Ur, we're actually... um, we're not dating anymore," I took a sip of my water.
"Really?!" Dionne looked appalled – at the fact that she had mentioned Alex or the fact that she didn't expect the two of us to break up, who knows.
"Yeah," my mom sighed. "Well, what can I say, relationships don't last forever. It's like that time when I dated Aaron Har—" I tuned my mom out: I had noticed someone - plus I'd heard this story hundreds of times.
Beck James and his family had just walked into the restaurant. Beck was Alex's best friend; what was weird is that even though I had been dating Alex for six months or so, Beck and I had never come into much contact. In fact, I hardly knew anything about him – he did once date Adrianna though. The two had dated around the time that Alex and I had first gotten together, but their relationship wasn't as successful as ours used to be. Beck had been the perfect cliché for Adrianna – tall, dark, handsome and her elder brother's best friend. How could it have gone wrong?
Well, turns out the mysteriousness of Beck hadn't been as endearing after the two had started dating and Beck had failed to mention key things about his life to Adrianna. It was there that their relationship went wrong and there that Adrianna had had enough. Alex hadn't really intervened too much, but he was pretty pissed when Addie had broken down crying because she was 'sick of Beck not telling her anything' one time when I had been at their house.
It was because of the way he had treated my best friend that made me think of Beck as pretty much heartless and cold. Eh well, I wasn't really interested in becoming best mates with Beck anyway – especially not now that Alex and I were pretty much over.
I decided to tune back into the conversation; my mom and Dionne were now talking about the 'good old days of high school'. Our food arrived shortly after.
"I'm just going to the bathroom," I said to the two women, whilst we waited for dessert.
I looked at myself in the mirror, frowning at the deep-set circles under my eyes – yeah, I was having trouble sleeping... thanks, Alex. I know that I sounded nonchalant and sarcastic about our breakup; but honestly, it was tearing me up inside. I had never really had a serious boyfriend before Alex so, yeah, he was pretty much my first love.
After staring at myself for a while, I decided that dessert was probably served and my ice-cream was probably melting; and here I was, inspecting my appearance.
Grabbing my clutch off the counter, I walked through the doors ready to go back to the table. Well, I tried to. A hand grabbed my wrist gently, pulling me behind a large potted plant. I looked at my 'captor' in shock – Beck.
"Ur, can I help you?" I asked, a little surprised and curious to Beck's behaviour. We'd never really spoken before, so what was up with the wrist-pulling?
"You okay?" He asked, smouldering grey eyes locked on mine.
"Um, I'm fine, yeah... you?" I was a little confused as to why Beck wanted to ask me how I was – especially since we had never once spoken before.
"Yeah, I'm good," he pressed on. "I just wondered how you were after Alex..."
"Oh." So Alex sent him to 'check up' on me. "Well, you can tell Alex that I'm doing just fine without him. In fact, I've never been happier." Okay, obvious lie – but who cares.
"Alex didn't send me."
"He didn't?" Oh. Now I felt stupid.
"No," Beck said, smirking at me. "I just wanted to know how you were. See you around, Madison Cole." And with that, he sauntered off without as much as a look in my direction.
Okay... what?
"Either way, he's still an asshole," Adrianna muttered heatedly. She had returned from the road trip a few short hours ago, ranting and raving about her 'idiotic brother'; now she was ranting and raving about her 'idiotic brother's idiotic best friend'.
"Hmm," I mumbled, knowing from experience that it was better to just agree with what Adrianna was saying, rather than to disagree.
"I mean, yeah, he acts all concerned at the start," she ranted, pacing my room, "but he's a downright asshole through and through." She stopped her huge rant with a big sigh. "Anyway, Beck's not even the agenda. It's Alex, right?"
Without waiting for my reply, she launched into another outburst. "I've not even seen him yet – he was at football practise – but when I do see him, he won't know what's hit him. God, Mads, I don't know what the ass is thinking; you were obviously the best thing to ever happen to him. Does he see that? No. He doesn't."
Smiling at my best friend, I wrapped her in a hug. "I've missed you, Dria. Sure, the situation is... well, not very pleasant at all, but, you're with me and by my side."
"Always, girl, always," Adrianna smiled back at me. "You know what you need? A good party to go to – you can get shitfaced, reckless and wild."
Raising my eyebrows at her, I pointedly said no. "Now isn't the time for parties, Dria. I'm not in the mood to be asked by half the school if Alex and I are no longer together – I don't want their mock sympathy. And what'd happen if I bumped into Alex?"
"Nothing would happen," Adrianna said, looking at her appearance in my mirror. "In fact, I know for a fact that he's already kicking himself for losing you – he'd just want you back. Don't you want him back?"
"Obviously. But... but, he cheated on me! With one of my so-called best friends too; why would I want someone like Alex back? He was meant to have changed for me – I don't want to have to listen to any more of his empty promises." Tearing up, I finished what I was saying.
"Oh, don't cry, Maddie," Adrianna wrapped me in a hug. "We'll find a way to get back at my brother, okay? He'll surely change for you – if we get the plan right."