Ex's Can't Be Oh's

When Zack and Madeline met they were at school. It was during biology and no matter how hard he tried to concentrate Zack couldn’t stop staring at the girl sat in front of him. Her boyfriend of the week was sat to her right and the way that she sat leaning to the left of her desk made Zack snicker; she clearly wanted to be away from the football brute.

He watched her throughout the entire lesson, taking in the way she did everything. He took in the way she played with small strands of her long brown hair, twisting it around her fingers gently before letting it unfold. He watched as she took notes, her hand travelling across the white page at an insane speed. He loved the way she would laugh ever so softly every time their teacher said a rude word or mentioned something silly. Silently Zack thanked the gods for allowing him to share this class with her, even if she still didn’t know he existed.

When the class finished Zack slowly collected his belongings before starting to leave the room. As he walked by Maddy’s desk she dropped a book and being gentlemanly he bent down and picked it up, handing it back over to the now slightly flustered object of his affections.

She accepted the book back with a gracious smile and a pleasant, “thanks,” to which Zack sent her a shy smile.

It was just one of many occasions that Zack interacted with Madeline without ever muttering a word to her. He was a little scared of her and even though he knew that physically she could do him no harm, emotionally he was sure she could break his heart.

And she did, four years later when she left him and all of their memories behind.

-------------------------------

Silently Maddy stood aside and allowed Zack to enter her home. As he took the first few tentative steps into her humble abode she could feel his eyes on her and in a desperate attempt to avoid confrontation Madeline grabbed her coat from the hooks and brushed past him, running as fast as she could down the steps and out into the street.

She could faintly hear the footsteps of someone following her as she stumbled around a corner, slowing down from a run to a very brisk walk. Pulling on her coat Madeline wrapped her arms around herself tightly and swore. Why had she run away? She felt stupid for doing so and now she knew that when she returned to the apartment there would be several questioning glances. For someone who was going fine, she certainly hadn’t acted that way.

As she came to a complete halt outside a busy bar Madeline waited for the person who had followed her to catch up. She knew that it couldn’t be Zack because he would have caught up with her easily, and besides it wasn’t as if he cared about her anymore.

“Maddy what the hell are you doing?” Jack gasped bending over to catch his breath. Maddy sighed and shrugged her shoulders before starting to walk once again. Standing up to follow her Jack coughed lightly before falling into to step behind her. They weaved together in and out of people strolling down the path in no specific direction and the further away from home they got the more content Madeline felt.

She was frustrated with herself for failing to keep up her pretences. It should have been easy; for six months it had been so easy to pretend that she was fine. She had even lied to and convinced her mother that she was absolutely fine. On some level Madeline had even convinced herself that she was fine, right up until Zack Merrick walked back into her life.

“Why do people do that?” she asked softly tilting her head towards Jack slightly watching him frown in confusion.

“What do you mean?”

Madeline sighed, “Why do people feel the need to come back into your life just when you think you’ve moved on?” she asked with a shiver. “Why couldn’t he just stay away?”

She hoped that her final whispers hadn’t been caught by Jack but they had and as soon as his long arms wrapped their way around her slender frame she was in tears for the second time that evening. Madeline hadn’t cried for so long and the emotional release was having a physical effect on her body. She felt incredibly tired and far too quickly she found herself almost slipping away into a deep sleep as she stood in the middle of the street with Jack’s arms wrapped around her waist.

Back in the day Madeline would have considered Jack her closest friend. He was stupid, immature and the single most irritating person she had ever met but he was also the loveliest and she knew that whatever she told him would go no further. Jack was the first person she admitted her feelings to, admittedly it was after he had teased her for two months about it but when she cracked he was there for her to help her through the emotional turmoil.

Madeline knew that she wouldn’t be allowed to date Zack; he was different to her, his family was different to hers.

And so it was Jack who told her that she should be happy and if it was Zack that made her happy then she should be with him, with or without her parents blessing. And she did, three days later Madeline enjoyed her first date with Zack and when it was over she was possibly the happiest she had ever been.

But everything was different now, Jack was no longer her best friend of the male sex. He barely knew her and even though she liked to think that he hadn’t changed she was certain that he had. Fame changed everyone. Pulling away Madeline wiped her eyes and brushed the stray hairs out of her face, “We should go back, I’m kinda tired.”

Jack nodded once before turning on his heel and leading the way back, he knew exactly why Zack couldn’t just stay away but he was sure that Madeline wouldn’t be pleased to hear it.