FROM FRANCE TO USA

Too late

After bumping into this brown haired girl I found Mal in the living room talking to Lindsey and some of Lindsey's teammates. When she saw me, she immediately ran and hugged me, I didn't hug her back because I was pretty mad at her, she didn't catch it right away because she seemed a little tipsy.

"Happy New Year Madiiiiiiii." She said with a big grin. "What's up with you ?" She asked concerned when she saw the tears that I wasn't able to hold back anymore. She still had her arms around my neck, so I took them off gently, and she was now frowning.

"Did you know ?" I asked her with a trembling voice.

"Did I know what ?" She replied.

"For Kristie ?" I said and she narrowed her eyes at me.

"Can you stop playing guessing games right now and tell me what's going on?" I looked at her in the eyes and understood that she had no clue of what I was talking about.

"I totally made a fool of myself Mal..." I said and looked down.

"What the hell happened ?"

"It turned out she has a girlfriend, who kissed her right in front of me just after I told her I liked her..." I sniffled and wiped away the tears which were falling down on my cheeks. Mal hugged me tight and suddenly I started to breathe hard. "I need...some fresh...air". I said and Mal directly guided me on the balcony. Once out there I took a deep breath and started to feel better. "Alcohol makes me too emotional." I said rubbing my eyes.

"You drank without me ?" She said faking a pouty face and I chuckled. She was « disappointed » for not being there when I had my first ever glass of alcohol. "I swear I didn't know she had a girlfriend, otherwise I wouldn't have pushed you to confess to her." She said in a more serious tone while rubbing my back.

"I know..." I muttered. She wrapped me in a side hug, and we stayed in silence, watching the stars for a couple of minutes before being interrupted by a voice.

"Can we talk ?" I turned around and saw Kristie. I pursed my lips to keep me from crying again, and looked at Mal, shaking my head as a no, so she'd understand that I didn't feel like talking to Kristie right now. I was now looking back into the horizon when Mal spoke.

"I think it's better if you two talk later, not now."

"I don't want to talk later." Kristie said, and I was still not looking at her.

"Kris..." Mal said but Kristie ignored her.

"If you don't want to talk to me, fine. But at least, listen to what I have to say, you don't even need to turn back, I don't care." She said and I shrugged to show her I was listening. " I'm sorry, if it hurts you, but why telling me this now ? I mean, I don't understand Madi. You knew I liked you, and you've waited the last minute, when I finally turned the page and when I'm trying something with someone to tell me that !"

"I didn't know you liked me, it's not like you ever confessed it to me." I snapped back turning around to face her and saw her chuckled. I was starting to boil inside with rage.

"I confessed it to you in the voicemail-"

"And I told you I hadn't listen to it cause Becca erased it." I cut her off.

"BUT SHE TALKED TO YOU ABOUT IT !" She shouted. "You knew, and I don't know why you waited so long to talk with me, everything could have been different." She said softer. I tilted my head back to keep the tears from flowing. She was right, it's my fault, maybe if I hadn't excluded her from my life in the first place she would have confessed her feelings to me, and we wouldn't have been where we are today. I was so angry at myself and annoyed by the situation, that I decided to walk away but before I could get through the door, Kristie grabbed my wrist.

"Why don't you talk to me, instead of running away like always ?" She said and I broke down.

"What do you want me to tell you ? That you're right ?" She shrugged still holding my wrist. "You're right, I fucked up everything, it's my fault, it's my fault for realizing I-I loved you too late." As I said that she let go of my wrist and I took this opportunity to leave, wiping away my tears. I heard Mal calling me back but I ignored her and decided to go clear my head out.

MAL POV:

"Did you see where she went ?" I asked Kristie as we walked in the living room where people were still dancing.

"No... I- I didn't sorry." She said and I looked at her. She was as saddened by the situation as Madi was.

"Hey, it'll be ok." I said raising her chin up.

"She said she loves me, Mal..."

"I know... Do you ?"

"I'm with Rachel now." She said and I sighed. I could see that what Madi told her impacted her, plus her answer didn't answer my question at all, but I decided to let it slide for the time being because I needed to find Madi.

"I know, and you should've told me you had a girlfriend, that would've certainly saved us the trouble." I said and she nodded.

"Trouble ? What happened ? Are you okay ?" A voice from behind me said and I turned to see Rachel who ran straight away towards Kristie.

"Yes I am, don't worry." Kristie said.

"Are you sure ? You don't seem like-"

"I am, It's really nothing we were just talking about Mal and her issues to get a boy..." As she said that I was a bit offended, I'm doing perfectly fine with boys.

"Oh really ?" Rachel said looking at me.

"Y-yees, huge trouble to find a boy these days... Anyway, I'll let you two talk I need to find someone, see ya." I looked around the room and there was too many people that I couldn't see Madi anywhere. Why did I let Rose take care of the invitations ?

MADI POV:

I had just left Mal and Rose's building when I heard a voice behind me.

"Hey ! Where are you going like that ?"