Maddy

I shut the door to my car and brush my hair off my shoulders. My phone rings on the Bluetooth as soon as I turn on my car. It's Novalee. I pick up, "Hello?" I say, hiding my frustration. The line is full of a bunch of background noise until her voice finally comes through. "Hello? Are you almost here?" she basically yells this out. I lower the volume on my dash and try to calm myself down. I didn't want to drive tonight for a reason. This was supposed to be a night where I got totally wasted. Nevertheless, I hide the anger in my voice.

"I'm just leaving school now, it took forever to do my makeup," I half-lie. I'm still in Chris' driveway. She doesn't say anything again for a couple of seconds. "Okay, because the bouncer doesn't believe that we know you!" she says. I roll my eyes. The guy who owns the place is an old friend of my father's who just so happened to move out to Oak Hill this year. I ran into him at the store and he mentioned how he was opening up a bar and how I could swing by if I wanted to. I noted that I still wasn't 21 but he said to just let him know and he'd let me and anyone I invited in.

"Tell him you want to speak to the person who owns the place and when he comes give him the phone," I tell her. "Okay!" I only hear the loudness of the people I assume wanting to get inside as well for about a minute. The lights in my car turn on from the inside as the door opens. I freeze for a second until I see Xander getting into the passenger side. "What the hell!" I say. He closes the door and fixes his short hair. "Hello?" A male voice fills the car. I glare at the man next to me but don't say anything.

"Hey, Jonathan, it's Maddy! Those people are my friends and I'm on my way now, could you please let them in?" I say. "Oh, yes of course, of course! I'll see you in a bit," he says quickly. "Thank you!" I say before the line goes dead. I put the phone down in one of the cup holders and turn back to the body in the passenger seat. He turns to look at me too. "What? Are we going to this bar or not?" he says easily. I narrow my eyes at him. "I thought you didn't want to go out tonight," I say.

He's fully changed out of his sweats and t-shirt, wearing some better-fitting going out clothes. "I changed my mind," he says, putting on his seatbelt. Actually, my seatbelt. He looks back at me when he clips the buckle in. I'm still glaring at him, but it doesn't phase him at all. "You driving or what?" he adds. "I don't want to show up with you," I say. He rolls his eyes. "We'll just say we got there at the same time, in different cars. Do you actually think they'll believe us if we said you gave me a ride? I'll say I took an Uber." He shrugs his shoulders lightly.

I think about it for a second. "Fine," I say under my breath. He grins and I almost want to say 'never mind'. I stay quiet for the sake of just wanting to get to the bar for a drink. I've had a long two weeks since I told my manager to give me as many hours as possible. I don't want to sound like a brat, I just forgot how working felt. I'm sure I'll get used to it again eventually. I work my schedule around my classes that are all over by at least 1 p.m. every day which adds to recent stress I've been having.

I pull out of the driveway, making sure to check no cars are coming. When I see an empty road, I reverse back quickly and get on the road. Xander lifts his hand to the handle above the car door. I glare at him, "Calm down, I didn't swerve onto upcoming traffic." He only smiles at this and turns his head back onto the road. His hand stays on the grab handle. I begin to drive out of the neighborhood, staying far right since everyone seems to park their cars on the left side of the road.

A car is pulling into the same road as I'm barely coming out causing me to glide more to the right to give them room. I don't realize I'm a little too close to the sidewalk, so my car bumps up onto it. My ass lifts off the seat at the impact. "Shit," I say under my breath. I quickly steer back to the middle of the road. I shift my gaze to the right, realizing Xander is there. His body is closer to the middle console separating us, hand still grabbing the grab handle. He scoffs, "What were you saying?" he says.

I roll my eyes and turn onto the main road finally. "I'm a good driver," I defend. A low chuckle escapes his lips like saying yeah, right. I almost defend myself again until I realize that I rather save my breath. I also couldn't care less what he thinks about me and my great driving. A silence falls over us, the only noise coming from my music playing lowly on the speakers. A Summer Walker song comes to an end and Bryson Tiller's Keep Doing What You're Doing, plays next. "Shit, you like this song?" Xander's voice fills my ears. I just nod, focusing on the road ahead of me. He doesn't say anything else and turns up the song. I'm guessing he likes it too.

He mumbles along to the words and I almost tell him to shut it, but I decide not to. I don't usually question how mean I am to people, but I was a little... over the top earlier. I think. Who cares. My frustration came from the failed plans my friends seemed to surprise me with. "Why'd you even get a job?" he suddenly says whenever the song changes to something much more me and much less him. It's a random question. I was sure Christian would've disclosed him the details about why his girlfriend was getting a job alongside me.

I'm not sure why he cares. Or maybe he's just trying to fill the awkward silence upon us. Even though it's Xander we're talking about here, I've never really held back from talking shit about my parents. I wouldn't really consider telling people that my parents hate me talking shit though. It's just simply a fact. A sad one at that. "My parents don't like my choice in major, so they cut me off financially," I shrug. I don't bother looking at him since I haven't this whole car ride. "Damn. That's kind of fucked up," he says.

I scoff, "Kind of? It is fucked up." I make a stop at the red light and flick my hair behind my shoulders, out of my face. "Whatever, I don't care," I add. That is the last thing I want to think about tonight anyway. "Sounds like you do," he says lowly, dragging the last word. I glare at him as the stupid light still hasn't turned green. When it finally does, I turn back around and drive. "I mean how would you feel?" I retort.

I see him shrug from my peripheral vision. "My mom wouldn't do that to me so I'll just assume your parents despise you," he says nonchalantly. Well, he's not wrong. "They do. It's whatever, I've come to accept it," I admit. I show no emotion on my face despite the ones I do feel deep inside of my core. It's easier to pretend like nothing gets to me than actually show that it does. No one knows it actually bothers me as much as it does. I'm a pretty good actor. I might have to join Novalee on her own show.

"Even your own parents hate you? Damn girl, who in this world likes you then?" I roll my eyes for the hundredth time and grip onto my steering wheel tighter. Why did I even let him catch a ride with me? That comment pissed me off. "Myself," I say "that's all that matters." I won't list names of people who can actually put up with me and like me because I don't want to feed into his stupid game. Finally, I make it to the bar. There's a line of people waiting to get in. I'm guessing it's already packed in there so I just hope they were able to get us a booth or some kind of seating. I parallel park down the street.

"I'm shocked you know how to park," Xander says. I roll my eyes and turn off the car. "Fuck off." I get off the car and quickly lock it. The chilly February air hits my bare skin quickly. I'm wearing a lingerie top that's very see-through meaning I have nothing keeping my skin warm. I wrap my arms around myself as I walk quickly up to the bouncer. I show him the verification Jonathan told me to show him and he lets Xander and me in. I smile at him and walk inside quickly. To my luck, it's much warmer inside.

Just like I imagined too, the place is kind of packed. We stand at the front and look around the bar in hopes of finding our friends. They're not anywhere near the bar and not sitting on any of the tables in the middle. "Let's check the booths," Xander says over the music and chatter of lots of people. I nod and he leads the way. I follow behind him and stare quickly into the booths. When we finally get to the back of the bar, I spot Cgc first as he sits on the edge of a large round booth. "Xander!" Cgc shouts. All eyes follow us as we inch toward the booth.

I don't look at anyone for too long, scared of the way they're looking at me right now. "We happened to get here at the same time," I say to my best friend who sits between her boyfriend and Rhys. She nods her head, believing it immediately. Thank God. Cgc gets out and allows Xander in and then me. "I'm glad you changed your mind," Valdez says and holds up his beer to his best friend. Cgc motions down a waitress and she appears ten seconds later. I skim the menu quickly, "I'll have a strawberry daiquiri." I give her the menu. "I'll have two beers, Corona," Xander says next to me.

The girl smiles and then leaves.

"You two got here together?" Cgc asks, taking a sip of his foamy beer. I shake my head quickly, "I came in my car and he Ubered. He's just lucky we got here at the same time," I say. Again, everyone seems to believe the lie. Xander says nothing, only nods his head like he's agreeing with my lie. I think everyone here knows that there's no way in hell we could ever be in a car together. Alone, especially. I didn't either until it happened just now.

Luckily our disliking towards each other doesn't make anyone second guess our little lie.