WE STILL EXIST

Chapter Eleven- Rumors

NOAH BLAKE

"It feels like forever since I last saw you," Maddie nudges my side as we walk to school together.

Her long blonde bounces off her back, "my brother said you and Avery have been getting along well."

I haven't told Maddie everything that happens at the party nor have I really talked to her about Avery in general. Her talking about it makes me miss her, I feel bad that I have left her out of the loop for so long.

"Yeah. We've been good." We walk across the road to the lawn, "Avery and I have been hanging out a lot. We actually got into our first argument the other day."

She flicks her hair, "really?"

"Yeah, he was upset about me talking to your brother about something." She cocks her head, "wow."

"We are okay now, it was just a misunderstanding." I brush it off and ask her about Andrew, "I heard you have been getting close to Andrew?"

I see her lips turn up into a small smile and her cheeks blush. Looking away, she tries to hide her smile.

"There is really nothing to tell, we are just friends." I giggle, "then why are you blushing?"

She slaps my shoulder, "We are really good friends, I don't want to mess that up."

"He is really cute, except for at the party a few weeks ago." Her eyes go big, "yeah that was not cute."

My mind drifts back to the night of the party before Avery and I got together, she was with a different boy. Someone who she hasn't talked to me about, is there something going on there?

"What about that guy you were with at the party?" Her smile falters, "mm- he was one of Coden's classmates."

"You know how my brother is," she doesn't elaborate.

I bug off of it, she will tell me when she is ready. She and Andrew seem good together and I am happy she is happy.

The school doors are open when we arrive. The younger kids scramble to their classrooms and we older kids have some time before we have class. The times are different for each grade.

Maddie and I go to the bathroom before class, there are some other students in our class in the bathroom. We move around them to get to the stalls and we here a few more people come in.

"How was the party at the college?"

"It was pretty fun, but the storm was coming." Someone places something on the floor, "we had to all get in the house."

A girl laughs, "it was quite funny when Andrew was so drunk he couldn't even walk straight."

That isn't funny, "did you get with him?"

"No, he was way too drunk." Thank god, "he couldn't get it up if he wanted to."

Maddie gasps in the stall next to me, "what about that guy you were dancing with?"

"You said that you were going to hook up with him, it was Coden James, right?"

The girls giggle when his name is mentioned, "he was so hot. He, however, seemed to be preoccupied with Maddie's friend."

"What's her name? Isn't it a boy's name or something?"

No, he wasn't. " Yeah, Noah. He was staring at her all night long," silence fills the bathroom.

"I tried to hook up with him, but he insisted that I was not sober enough. I only had one drink," the girl pouts.

The bathroom door opens and then closes. Maddie and I get out of the stalls, wash out hands, and look at each other.