Chemistry of a Car Crash

“Yes mom,” Maddie said rolling her eyes, “I know what to do when I get there mom. Alright. Bye.”

“Hey Rian sorry, my mom kinda called,” She huffed, switching the lines back.
“It’s okay,” He shrugged, “Alex still doesn’t know.”
“Do Tay and Molls know?”

He nodded, “They know, but they swore they wouldn’t say anything.”

“Then the plan is in full action!” Maddie shouted.
“When are you coming here?”
“Well as soon as I give this lovely cab driver his money, I will be walking through the door,” She said handing the driver forty dollars and saying thanks.

“Meet you by the door in a minute,” Rian said and hung up. Maddie jammed her phone in her back pocket and slung her duffle bag over her shoulder. As promised, Rian was waiting by the back door for her.

“Hello New York again,” She giggled, greeting Rian with a hug.
“It’s been three weeks and I’ve missed you!” He said gripping her tighter.
“Owch, jeeze Ri! Don’t kill me!” She whined. He quickly released her.

“So I was uh thinking you could hide in Boys Like Girls dressing room until we go on, unless you want to go hang out with Andrew from Friday Night Boys.”

“Me and Andrew haven’t talked in forever, I think I’m spending the next two hours with him!” She said bouncing on her toes.

“If you’re this happy when Alex sees you, then we better get some duct tape,” Rian chuckled and showed her to the dressing room.

----

“I hate this,” Maddie complained for the fifth time in a mere half hour.
“It’s a surprise Anna; you really want to ruin it?” Andrew asked, looking up from his phone.

See here’s the funny thing about Maddie and Andrew’s relationship. He’s the only one who ever calls her Anna or Annalise. Anyone else who dared to say that name, she would murder.

“Fucker,” She cursed under her breath and pulled out her phone as well.

---

“Wake up Maddie!”
“Wha- Oh shit!”
“Chill!” Danny laughed, “They’re two songs in if you would like to come out now.”

She yawned, “Alright. Meet you out there in a sec.”

He nodded and left her to find her way to the stage, which wouldn’t be that hard since there were signs pointing which way to go.

“How many of you know my girlfriend Maddie?” She heard Alex asked the crowd and they answered back with screams.

“Well how many of you know that she’s back in Maryland?” Again, screaming.
“Have you ever missed someone so much that you wished you could see them right now?” Once again, more screams.

Maddie smiled to herself as she neared the stage. Matt saw her coming and told her to stay behind the cases so she wouldn’t be seen just yet.

“Well I know this isn’t one of our songs,” Alex said taking off his electric guitar and trading it for an acoustic one in Danny’s hand, “But I learned how to play this song for her and I wanted to know what you guys thought. So here it goes, this one’s called Collide by Howie Day.”

She couldn’t help but have a smile on her face the whole time. It was the most adorable song ever, and it happened to be one of her all time favorites.

When it ended, the crowd was silent. This made Alex uncomfortable since they were mostly all girls and if they didn’t like it, who said Maddie would?

“Mads! Go!” Matt whisper yelled to her and she stepped around the case an into the light. The crowd starting cheering when they saw Maddie, but Alex was lost in his own world, looking down at the floor and sitting on the steps they used on stage.

She walked up behind him and covered his eyes with her hands.

“Taylor,” He groaned.
“Take another guess,” She giggled.

He spun around on the step and took a double take before tossing the guitar over her shoulder. Grinning from ear to ear, her picked her up and hugged her tightly. Almost the entire crowd awhed at this moment.

“Well why don’t we give mister grumpy gills some time with his girl,” Jack announced, “We can have Molly come out and sing with us!”

Molly’s eyes widened and her face dropped, “Fuck. No.”

“Alright, how bout Martin then?” Jack proposed.

Maddie laughed as she laced fingers with Alex and walked off stage for a few minutes.