Weak, But Not Defeated

“Girl, you look like a hot mess.”

“Thank you, Eric, you look dashing, as always,” Maddie replied, wiping the sleep out of her eyes.

“Is this awkward because I look so good right now?” he asked, sitting on the edge of her bed.

“Shut up,” she said, “Why are you here?”

“I came to check in on my favorite. I heard you and John had a fight,” he said.

“It wasn’t a fight. He just sucks,” she replied.

“Well he definitely knows that. He’s just moping around his apartment… crying, eating junk food,” Eric said, smiling as he picked up an empty pizza box from Maddie’s floor.

“It’s too early to make fun of me. What is John really doing?” she asked.

“He’s really sad. It reminds me of the day after he slept with Carly,” Eric said.

“What do you mean?”

“Well after he did it, he regretted it, obviously. He wouldn’t come out of his room for the whole day. And as I recall, you brought him soup,” Eric smiled.

“Oh boy, I was such a good friend,” Maddie replied.

“Yeah, you are. Which is why you need to call John back,” Eric told her.

Maddie buried her face in her pillow. She hated the Eric had snuck up the tree to her second floor window and climbed in. She was miserable and John deserved to be too. But his letter was so heartfelt. She knew John inside and out. Maddie knew without even having to ask that John felt horrible.

His letter told her that he loved her. John was in love with Maddie but it was too late. She was already with Garrett and John had his chance.

He had ruined it when he slept with Carly.

Garrett came home in two days and Maddie was excited to see him. She missed her boyfriend; the one guy in her life that she could always count on.

“Come on, kiddo, give him a chance,” Eric said as he stood, “Call me once you two bang.”

“I’m dating Garrett, you douche bag,” she rolled her eyes.

“Well after you break up with him, let me know,” Eric winked.

“I’m not breaking up with him,” Maddie said, annoyed.

Eric tilted his head sideways, “You really like him, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Maddie replied.

Eric smiled sweetly, “Then call me when you and Garrett bang.”

Maddie shook her head as Eric skipped out of her room. She took her phone from underneath her pillow and called John.

He answered on the first ring, “Hello?”

“Hi,” she said, “I just want to tell you I’m not mad at you. I’m just not very happy with you.”

“I understand. Do you want to go get breakfast? It is Sunday,” he said hopefully.

Maddie sighed, “No, I don’t. I think we need some space, just for today. I’ll hang out with you tomorrow, okay?”

John sighed in defeat, “Okay. I’ll talk to you later.”

Maddie hung up her phone and lay back. For once in her life, she didn’t want to be with John. Even when she was angry at him she wanted to see him, even if it meant a fight was imminent.

But now she just wanted to wallow. Carly’s bedroom door had been shut since Maddie had thrown her things away. Before she could even think about making things better within her and John’s relationship, she had to remove the hate she felt for her older sister.

It didn’t surprise her that to do the latter, she would need the help from the boy she was trying to avoid.

*

Maddie stared at the boy next to her. His scraggly brown hair was in his face and he was avoiding her eyes.

“Patrick, tell me why you’re acting so weird,” she demanded.

He looked at her, “I resent that you think that this is me being weird. You obviously don’t know me very well.”

“Why won’t you just tell me!?” she exclaimed.

Pat exhaled a frustrated breath. Then finally the bell rang and he grinned, “See you!” he said before scurrying out of the classroom.

Maddie shook her head as she walked to her third period. She saw about ten of her peers crowded in the center of the room. She stood behind them, trying to get a peak at what was so interesting. She pushed herself to the front and tilted her head to the side when she saw it, utterly confused.

In an old wagon was a block of ice; a humongous one. Maddie’s name was written on the wagon, in her handwriting from second grade. Someone had put a huge block of ice in her dirty old wagon. The only thing she could think was- what the hell?

She saw two ice picks on top of it and narrowed her eyes. She heard Kennedy behind her, “I think you’re supposed to break it up. There’s a note inside, see?”

Maddie brushed away the frost and saw a rolled up piece of paper, “No way.”

Mr. Watts surveyed the block, “Miss Riggs, I was just going to assign some homework to let you do in class today, so how about you and Mr. Brock go out in the hallway and break this baby apart?”

Maddie rolled her eyes as she pulled the wagon out in the hall. Kennedy smiled before he swung into the ice, letting pieces of it fall into the bottom of the wagon. “What is this?” Maddie asked.

“Stop complaining,” he laughed, “This is fun.”

“It’s actually the opposite of fun. I never wanted to do this in my whole life,” Maddie said, digging into the ice.

Kennedy rolled his eyes as the two continued. It took them the whole class period to finally reach the portion where Maddie could reach in and take the piece of paper.

She read it aloud, “Get to your car right after school, there’s a surprise waiting for you.”

“Looks like you’re getting asked to prom, little lady,” Kennedy said.

Her frown suddenly turned into a smile. The rest of the day she looked forward to the end of the day. When the final bell rang she practically ran to her car. But as she saw the boy leaning against her car holding flowers she got confused.

“John?”

“Hello, baby. How was your day?” he asked.

“Oh, great. You know just taking an ice pick to a huge block of ice… the usual. What are you doing here?” she asked.

He smiled at her, “Get in the car.”

She sighed before climbing in. Before he started the engine John turned to her, “These are for you,” he said, handing her the flowers.

She inhaled the roses, “They’re beautiful, thank you.”

The two sat in silence as John drove. After about twenty minutes Maddie spoke up, “Where are we going?”

“You’ll see,” he replied, “You’re going on a kind of scavenger hunt.”

Maddie crossed her arms over her chest, “This is Garrett, isn’t it?”

John shrugged but the smile tugging at his lips told her it was a yes. Garrett told her he was coming in tonight, but he obviously came earlier to make her life miserable.

In another ten minutes they had surpassed the city and were stopping at the base of a mountain.

They stepped out of the car and stared up at the mountain. “Are you going to like, kill me or something?”

“What?” John asked, unbelieving.

“You bring me to a deserted area and you expect me not to be scared?” Maddie asked.

He rolled his eyes and pointed to the trail at the foot of the mountain, “Go climb to the top.”

“Are you joking?” she asked.

“Do it,” John commanded.

Maddie begrudgingly began walking the path. She knew it was an easy trail and not very long, as she had hiked it a few times before.

When she finally reached the top she saw a soccer ball. There was nothing written on it, just a plain soccer ball. She stood at the edge of the mountain and saw John looking up at her with squinted eyes, “What the hell?” she yelled.

John laughed, “Bring it down here!”

Maddie walked back down and threw the ball at John, “I don’t understand.”

“Think about it, dummy. When do you use a soccer ball?” he asked.

“To throw at Garrett’s head!” she replied.

He laughed as he gave her the ball and began walking back to the car. They sat in silence and John didn’t start the car.

“We’re going to a soccer field, aren’t we?” Maddie asked.

John grinned as he turned the key and began driving. They arrived at the park quickly, and Maddie rolled her eyes when she saw a red balloon among the leaves of a tall tree.

She reached her hand up, grabbing a branch. John gently put his hands on her waist, giving her a boost up. She climbed the tree to the top where the balloon string ended. It was attached to a bucket of nickels.

Maddie laughed out loud. Ever since third grade Garrett had been obsessed with his last name. He insisted upon nickels for his birthday and he had been collecting them his whole life. It was kind of weird, actually.

Maddie realized this was Garrett’s cue to go to his house. She looked down at John, “Come up here,” she directed.

John climbed it effortlessly and was soon sitting across from Maddie, balancing his weight on a branch.

“So that means Garrett’s house, then?” he asked, looking at the nickels.

“I guess. I just want to stay up here for a while,” she replied, looking out at the beautiful skyline. Phoenix didn’t seem so polluted and busy when you looked at the nature of it. The mountains in the distance still had a light dusting of snow from a late storm, and trees were beginning to bloom again in the April weather.

“Do you remember the last time we were here?” John asked.

Maddie’s eyes widened when she remembered, “Oh my goodness, it was my birthday.”

“That was a hard day,” he said.

“That was the last time you kissed me before… everything,” she said quietly.

“We sure have a lot of memories,” John said.

Maddie nodded her head before changing the subject, “Are you going to ask Courtney to the prom?”

He shrugged, “Yeah, I think she wants to go, and I’m a people pleaser so… probably.”

Maddie laughed, “I guess we’ll be in the same group then.”

“Do you remember when you asked me to take you to your senior prom when you were twelve?” John smiled.

“Shut up,” she laughed as blood ran to her cheeks. “Are we going to bring up how I was in love with you? Because it’s embarrassing!”

John laughed, “I said that I would go with you. And as I recall, you made me pinky promise.”

Maddie shrugged, “Things change, I suppose.”

John spoke after a pause, “Will you promise me a dance?”

Maddie smiled lightly as she held her smallest finger out in front of her. John wrapped his around it and they both kissed their hands.

They met eyes as they kept their pinkies together. Their bodies were close, almost too close for comfort for two people had significant others.

John took his pinky out of Maddie’s grasp but kept his hand touching hers. He traced his fingertips over the palm of her almost shaking hand and she watched him intently. She was so caught up in the moment she couldn’t even protest; she couldn’t speak.

The wind blew lightly, causing the leaves of the tree to shake and the red balloon to come floating down in between John and Maddie.

All over it was the word Prom? in Garrett’s scraggly handwriting.

Maddie moved her hand away from John’s and took in a breath, “We should get going.”

John sighed and climbed down the tree first, helping Maddie down.

They drove to Garrett’s house and when Maddie saw what was in Garrett’s front yard she grunted, “This is unreal.”

Maddie stood in front of a large boulder, the word no written on it. It had to have weighed at least twenty five pounds. Next to it was a pebble with the word yes written on it.

Maddie picked up the note on the ground and read it to John, “Carry your answer upstairs.”

John laughed, “Oh, Garrett- clever.”

Maddie’s lip turned up into a smile. She walked to the boulder, wrapping her arms around it and picking it up. “Get the door for me.”

John laughed loudly as he opened the door for her. They greeted Garrett’s family as they all laughed at Maddie’s choice. She struggled up the stairs and when she got to Garrett’s room she dropped the large rock on his bed.

He soon walked out of his bathroom and gasped when he saw the boulder, “How did you even do it!?”

“You forcing me to do manual labor all day really built up my upper arm strength!” Maddie said.

Garrett frowned, “Don’t say no.”

She smiled at him, “I guess I’ll go to prom with you.”

He grinned as he wrapped his arm around her waist, “I missed you.”

“You have no idea, baby,” she replied.

He kissed her chastely, “Did John do his job like I asked him to?”

She nodded her head, “He did great.”

“So you guys are okay again?” he asked hopefully.

Maddie felt the guilt in her heart as it radiated through her fingertips that lightly traced circled on Garrett’s shoulder, “Everything is perfect.”