Second Chance At Love

Except Her.

Cgc

"So when's your flight?" I ask Maddy, plopping a grape into my mouth. It's Friday night and as much as I could use a drink right now, I refrain from it. I had my last final today and final grades should be posted no later than Monday morning. The fall semester is finally over and now we have a long winter break. I've been waiting for this since school started. Sure, I don't mind school, but sometimes it causes me too much stress. Especially on finals week. My friends and I are all relieved and excited to have some time off.

Novalee and Christian left for Los Angeles a couple of hours ago for their flight to New Orleans tonight. Xander left to New York two days ago, finishing his exams early. Rhys is out right now, staying back for winter break like always. Maddy is catching her flight to New York so she can spend the week with Xander and his family. After living with them for the summer, she's grown on them and Xander's mom, Kendra, said she's always welcome. Plus, her family sucks so it's not like she's returning to her hometown in Texas. I'm staying in Oak Hill too which I don't mind too much since my girlfriend lives here. She's more than enough company for the next week until the boys come back.

Even though the regular season is over, we still have a Bowl Game to play at the end of the month. Hopefully, by winning, we'll play in the National Championship game come the new year. Coach gave us time off but we start practicing again the week after next week. Despite the lack of practice, I've still been hitting the weight room and practicing throws with either Xander or Rhys. There is no chance in hell I'm not going to take my team to the National Championship. It would feel like another failure and since it's my senior year, it's my last chance. Valdez, Rhys, and Xander's future kids will be playing football at Oak Hill one day and trying to break the number of records I've — and we've — set. Spoiler alert: they'll most likely fail. Sorry, future nephews.

"Tomorrow morning. I'm only here because Scott is in town visiting Nat and I let her enjoy the dorm room for one more night before they both go back to Washington," Maddy says, looking at her phone instead of me. "Fine with me," I say, walking over to sit on the couch next to her. She types away on her phone as I contemplate what to say next. Back in junior year when Nova and Chris barely started getting together, I had a closer relationship with Maddy. This was after we had slept together a couple of times — I hate mentioning this by the way — and I had called things off. I was sure she hated me for it but eventually, we became friends. She was a lot more friendly with me. That was until she started dating Xander, of course.

It's not like she's a total bitch or something in our friendship shifted. We're just not as close as we used to be. It's felt out of sync for so long and I hate feeling that way with any of my friends. Also, she and I are a lot more similar than she knows. I've been pushing the subject of what happened in New Orleans away, not even wanting to talk about it with Brynn. The main reason being that she just doesn't get it. Sure, I appreciate her words and advice, but no one really understands how it feels like to have your parents feel nothing when you decide to take them out of your life. To have been raised by them for 18 years before you took a chance and escaped that toxicity by moving states for college.

Except for Maddy. She knows exactly how this feels.

I lower the volume of the NFL recap Thursday Night football game. "You know," I start, clearing my throat, "when I found out that your parents were the way they were, I was kind of relieved." That probably wasn't the best way to word that, but oh well. Maddy turns slowly, her green eyes shooting daggers at me. "Excuse me?" she questions, her voice hard. "I mean, it sucks, no? I was relieved because I wasn't the only person I knew going through something like that," I say. "What are you going on about?" she spits, putting her phone down. "Me. Your shitty parents? I have them too," I say like it doesn't affect me even though it still does. I wish I could be as careless as Maddy.