Deciding on You || a.i. (Book 2)

20 | Maddie

In an instant, everything I've worked toward can feel like it's being ripped from my grasp and held out of reach. Just like that. My life is made of dominoes, and once one thing falls apart, it all does. Rarely does one fall and allow me to pick it back up like nothing happened.  

"What are you doing?" Reagan asks me, a half-eaten strawberry in her hands. 

I lie on the black, shag rug that covers the wooden floor of her bedroom. I've just jumped off of her bed and began doing constant, quick sit ups and every time I come up to my knees, I can see her staring at me. 

Lying my head back down on the fluffy surface, I huff out, "I've decided that every time I want to hurt myself, I'm going to do sit ups until my stomach burns."

"I mean, I guess that's one way to get your ballet abs back," she says, tilting her head to the side to meet my eyes from atop her white, frilly bedspread. I'm only just now noticing how much it contrasts with the posters of 70s and 80s punk bands behind her. "Do you want to throw more apples at walls? I just got paid so we can buy you, like, a thousand apples." 

"Not today," I grumble, covering my face with my hand.

It's been a week since Calum and I released the puppies into the back room of the pet store, but it's only been an hour since we sat in Jen's office together. 

He had flicked his eyes over to me, and I looked back at him. As soon as we made eye contact, it was clear that we both knew exactly why she was calling us in there. 

"So I've been told that you two let twenty puppies loose on Thursday," Jen said, swiveling back and forth in her chair and tapping her pen against a stack of papers. "Is that true?"

"Yes," I had muttered, and Calum nearly broke his neck turning to look at me with his eyebrows raised. I have a hard time lying, especially with authority figures. "And it was seventeen, um, seventeen puppies."

"Well, that was easier than I thought it would be," Jen snickered.

"Who the hell told you that?" Calum snapped, sitting up in his chair, "Was it Clifford?"

I sat quietly then, crossing and uncrossing my legs. It was getting harder to breathe. I had never gotten in trouble for anything like this before, and I didn't know how to deal with it.

"No, it wasn't Michael," Jen sighed before writing something down. I bit my lip and watched her, trying to figure out exactly what she was writing.

"Then who was it?" Calum kept at it, crossing his arms, "Was it that new kid? Chuck or whatever?" 

She stopped writing and looked up at him through narrowed eyes, shaking her head, "Cal, I can't tell you who told me. They came to me in confidence, and it would be wrong of me to tell you when I know you want to start trouble."

"It was him, wasn't it?" he grunted, "He was the only one working with us. This store is a small place, Jen."

"How do you know it wasn't a customer?" she raised her eyebrows and he sunk back down into his seat. Jen went back to what she was writing, "Anyway, Maddie, I talked to my dad about it, and we decided that after calling in sick last minute a few times and now this, we're going to have to let you go. I'm sorry."

At that, I think I actually stopped breathing. I turned toward Calum and he squinted at me, his lips pursed into a straight line.

"Wait, just her?" he asked. He was back in attack mode, sitting up in his seat again. "It was my idea! That's not fair."

"Cal, Maddie was still in her probation period. You weren't. It's reasonable and fair." 

After she was done scribbling things down, she handed a small stack of papers to me. Each of them wanted me to confirm different things: that I received the information about being terminated, that I understood why, and that I wouldn't sue. My vision blurred as I read them, and I started to sign them shakily.