Ex's Can't Be Oh's

“Mads, I’m going to work, see you tonight,” Cassie called as she swung the front door shut, muffling half of her words. Madeline rolled her eyes, muttered something about slamming doors and surveyed the mess in her living room.

Plastic red cups littered the floor, disguising anything that lay beneath them on the beige carpet. Empty bottles stood completely drained on the dining table along with a stack of leftover cups and an ashtray full of cigarette butts. The brown leather sofa had been left strewn with people’s jackets and a stray t-shirt that Madeline assumed someone had lost during a heavy petting session.

With a slightly pathetic whimper Madeline grabbed a large black bin liner and made her way across to the far corner of the room; her starting point. Knowing there was no avoiding the clean up unless she wanted to live in squalor she grabbed the first of what seemed like a thousand plastic cups.

Madeline moved swiftly around the room as she tidied, stopping just once to press play on the stereo and turn the volume down. As Adam Lazzara’s voice filtered out of the speakers and filled the room, a small smile graced the pretty brunette’s face.

Within an hour and a half she was in full swing and had worked up a small sweat. Madeline had gone from simply tidying the lounge to having a full blown spring clean; every room had been given a thorough tidy and in the case of the lounge and her own bedroom, even a small rearrangement of the furniture.

With an exhausted sigh Madeline collapsed on the newly positioned couch and grinned. Reaching across to the other arm of the sofa to grab the remote she flicked the television on from standby before relaxing back amongst the cushions.

“You’ve got me poppin’ champagne, I’m at it again.” as quick as the television image had popped up on the screen it was gone. Madeline hated that song; she hated that band. All Time Low were dead to her and she planned on keeping it that way.

Settling on a Will & Grace rerun that she had seen about a million times before and Madeline settled back down into the cushions and attempted to relax, “Jack, C-3PO is not gay, he’s British.”

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“Honey, I’m home!”

Madeline bolted upright and wiped the sleep from her eyes in confusion; she hadn’t even realised that she had fallen asleep. Quickly glancing over at the silver clock on the wall Maddy widened her eyes in shock and stood up abruptly.

“Hey, you’re home a little later than usual,” she said quietly covering a hand over her mouth as she stifled a yawn. Cassandra nodded slowly as she observed their home; all the cups were gone and the smell that always seemed to last months after a party had too disappeared as though it never even existed.

With a smile she dumped her handbag onto the dining table and shot her friend a thumbs-up, “Girl, you done good.”

Madeline ignored her friend’s terrible grammar and returned the smile before taking several long strides into the kitchen. She filled the kettle to maximum capacity before flicking the switch and allowing it to boil, “Have a good day?”

Cassandra shrugged her shoulders gently before answering, “It was work, how much fun could I have?”

Taking her friends question as one that was rhetorical Madeline pulled two cups from the cupboard above her head and muttered a, “fair point,” under her breath. She continued to make the tea’s as her roommate began to rummage around in her handbag in the other room. Maddy could hear the irritating ringtone that Cassandra had on her cell immediately and rolled her eyes.

“You really need to change that thing, The Beach Boys are not cool,” she called as the music was muted and Cassandra’s flirty voice replaced it.

With another roll of the eyes Madeline silently mimicked her friend’s side of the conversation whilst taking a sip from her mug. It was typical for Cassandra to receive calls from guys and from the content of their conversation this guy had been on Cassie’s radar for some time.

“What now?” Cassie almost shouted causing Maddy to raise an eyebrow at the wall in front of her as a loud knock on their front door resounded through the building.

Madeline’s first thought was how on earth they had gotten inside the building without being buzzed up but that was soon thrown out of the window when three of her four least favourite people walked in through her door and straight into the lounge.

“Hey Mads, I uh invited some friends over.”