New Girl - Ondreaz Lopez

10

-Ondre's P.O.V-

We had just come in from swimming and all gone to our separate rooms. It was about 9:30PM and I wasn't tired at all. I thought I'd make a TikTok in the mean time. I could hear Maddy playing music in her room which is next to mine. I laughed, I could kind of hear her singing to it. It was definitely country music, I'm not familiar with many country songs. I looked up the lyrics I could make out, "girl like you" by Jason Aldean came up. I played it and confirmed that's what it was. It's actually a pretty good song. I've never actually tried to listen to country but it's growing on me since she started living here and that's all she listens to.

I couldn't concentrate on anything. I kept thinking about her. Every part of me just wanted to get up and knock on her door and just hang out and chat. She's different than every other girl here.

All of a sudden her music stopped. I guess it was connected to a speaker because her ringtone started playing through it. I heard a loud thud. And then silence. Should I go over there? I feel like I should see if she's okay. But also that's none of my business. She's an adult she can take care of herself. Why do I care so much? Am I doing too much am I just way too in deep like I need to just back off and give her her space. I'm staying here. She's fine.

Fuck it I'm going over.

"Hey Maddy" I knocked. "I'm coming in in 3 seconds" I counted down, opened the door and saw her sitting on the floor beside her bed with her head in her hands. I went over and sat next to her, I lifted her chin to see she was crying.

"Sorry I'm okay. I didn't know you could hear me." She said looking down.

"What's wrong why are you crying?" I asked pulling her close.

"Well mostly because I just shattered my phone," she said kind of laughing. I looked over to see her phone on the floor, the screen shattered to bits. That must have been the noise I heard. "But my ex keeps calling me and I got so annoyed that I threw it, I just couldn't take the calling and the texting anymore he's taunting me"

"Why didn't you just block him?" I asked

"I don't know, I guess a part of me didn't want to let go. We dated for 7 years. We lived together. I put so much of my life into that relationship and to have it be over is really hard to deal with. We broke up a month before I moved here. It's kind of the reason I left." She trailed off. "I'm sorry for getting into it you probably don't care"

"Woah woah Maddy if I didn't care I wouldn't be here. If you want to get this off your chest I'm here. You can tell me I'm not going to judge you." I said holding her tighter. "7 years is a long time, if you don't mind my asking, what happened?"

She took a deep breath and started to explain.

"He came home from the gym one night. I was doing laundry, and so I grabbed his gym bag to wash his clothes. And I found a pair of women's underwear. They weren't mine." I saw a tear fall down her cheek, and then another so I quickly wiped them away. "I didn't say anything at first. But I wanted him to know I knew. He had been acting so shady for a couple weeks prior to me finding out. I was suspicious and finding that pair of lacy black underwear was the nail in the coffin. I washed and dried the clothes. And when I was finished I packed a bag full of most of my clothes. I left the underwear on his side of the bed. And I left. He's been trying to get ahold of me for a while now. And I know what you're thinking. But we did eventually talk about it. He admitted to it and blamed it on me 'never being in the mood' but we had different sleep schedules I was always asleep when he was going to bed. It was hard to keep the romance alive yes but I didn't think cheating was the solution." More tears rolled down her cheek. "And now he won't stop trying to figure out where I am and why I left. He keeps trying to get me to give him another chance. I can't keep doing this I need to move on and forget about him and he's making it almost impossible. Yet I can't let go either. And I really want to let go Ondre" she said looking up at me, "because I know there are better opportunities out there" she looked at my lips and then back up "and I don't want to mess it up because I can't let go of my past."

We were really close at this point. I really wanted to kiss her. But she's vulnerable right now she not in a good head space. She needs time. I cleared my throat and looked down.

"Don't worry, about messing anything up I mean. You shouldn't rush into anything before you're ready" I said

"I feel like my phone needed to go. It was making me crazy. It's a step in the right direction I think." She said "I am kinda sad I have no phone and no music now" we both laughed.

"Here" I said handing her my phone. "You make your own playlist on my phone and anytime you want to listen to music let me know and it's all yours."

She smiled as tears flooded her eyes, and she hugged me tightly.

"Thank you" she said into my sweater.

She spent the next hour adding songs into my phone. I cleaned up the glass and got rid of her old phone and while she was working away I went on my laptop to find her a new phone, and think up ways to surprise her with it.