I'm a Fighter and He's the Hottie

Chapter 26: The Truth at Last

“Can I come in?” Tristan asked, cocking his head to the side.

Thoughts ran through my mind told me to kick him out and never speak to him again, but something else inside me wanted to know the truth. Something inside me wanted to know why Faith acted the way she did.

“Come in,” I sighed giving into that side of my reasoning.

I stepped aside so he could enter. I watched him carefully as he stepped through the door. My stomach felt uneasy as he closed the door. I clenched my hands into tight fists, feeling the sweat build up in my grasp. When Tristan shut the door, I turned and went into the kitchen, hearing his heavy footsteps following calmly behind me.

I took a seat on one of the stools underneath the counter, leaning my back against the cool granite table. Tristan followed me and took the stool to the right of me. I moved a little over to the side, making sure I didn’t touch him as he sat down. I was feeling annoyed, anxious, and nervous at the same time. How was I supposed to start off with the topic? Would we really be broken up?

“Princess?” Tristan’s low voice shook me out of my daze to look up at him. He was studying me intently, staring into my eyes.

“What?” I replied tearing my gaze away from him to look at the floor.

“Is everything okay?” He inquired in what seemed to be in a worried tone.

I took a long, deep breath and responded, “No, everything isn’t. I-I have a few questions for you.”

I bit my inner lip, cursing to myself, mentally, when I heard my voice waver a little.

“What is it?” He said slowly, unsure of what I was going to say.

I answered quickly, not giving myself time to chicken out, “Faith told me to break up with you today.”

For a moment, I thought I saw a flicker of shock on his face, but it disappeared just as quickly as it showed; “Really now?”

When I realized he wasn’t going to say anything else, I clenched my jaw together. So there is something he’s hiding.

“Yeah, do you know why?” I kept my voice level this time not, showing how annoyed and irritated I was.

Tristan cleared his throat and tried to stall, “Uhh, no I don’t?”

“Tristan, if you’re hiding something from me, I want to know what it is.” I whispered in an irritated voice.

A sigh emitted from his lips as he made eye contact with me. He seemed uncomfortable with the situation he was in, but that wasn’t my fault, it was his. He shifted in his chair as he thought about his words.

Getting even more impatient, I blurted, “Well?”

“Maddie, before I tell you anything, I want you to know it’s the past okay?”

I didn’t want to hear this, I wanted to know what he was hiding, “Just tell me, Tristan.”

He nodded stiffly and began his explanation, “Well, my parents wanted me to marry this girl. You know like an arranged marriage.” He paused to see if I would respond, when I didn’t he continued, “Well, I made a deal with them. The deal was if I could find a real girlfriend that would meet their requirements; I wouldn’t have to marry her. So I-“

“You used me.” I cut him off, realizing what he was going to say.

I felt my cheeks heat up, but not from embarrassment but from anger. He used me, all this time I thought he actually cared about me, but I was just a pawn in his plan.

“Maddie,” Tristan’s words sliced through my thoughts, “I told you it was in the past.”

“Don’t give me anymore of this crap.” I answered without thinking. I wasn’t controlling my anger very well, and I just let it absorb me.

“Princes-“ He tried to reason again.

“Don’t call me that anymore.” I felt my eyes water from my anger, “I want you to get out.”

I stood up from my chair, realizing my hands were shaking I clenched them into tight fists. My nails bit into my skin, but I was too pre-occupied to care.

“You didn’t let me explain, Prin- I mean Maddie.” Tristan replied standing up from his chair also.

“Didn’t you hear what I said? I want you to get out!” I fumed, circuiting around to glare at him.

When he saw my expression, he shut his mouth and nodded, walking pass me. I watched him go through the front door before I slammed it behind him.

Strangely, I didn’t feel like crying, instead I felt like screaming. How could I be so stupid and fall for such a guy? Tristan Price was the playboy and major jerk at our school, and I thought…I thought for past couple of weeks that he wasn’t anything like that. I was definitely right about him from the beginning. He made me feel special, he made me believe I was being loved, and he made me believe I could have a normal teenage romance.

I trudged upstairs and into my room, shutting the door behind me.

I hate him.

***

Tristan’s POV

“Faith!” I hollered as soon as I entered my house.

I made my way to the living room, where I guessed she would be there. When I noticed the light was turned off, I frowned a little bit. Faith’s always usually in the living room watching T.V. or something.

Changing directions, I went to the elevator and clicked on the third button. The doors closed and I waited impatiently for the elevator to hurry up. Finally, it stopped and I bolted out the elevator as soon as it opened, and I went to directly to Faith’s room.

I didn’t bother to knock, but instead pushed the door in, and scanned the room for my older sister. She lied sprawled out of the bed, staring up at the ceiling.

“Faith,” I huffed drawing closer to her.

“I’m guessing you already know?” She said sitting up from her bed.

I scrunched my brows together and tried to compose my aggravated self, “Why did you do that?”

She stared directly into my eyes, the familiar grey eyes that I had didn’t seem annoyed, but calm. “She needed to know. You were just hurting her.”

“So, you just stopped it after all this time? Now, I’m out of time.” I explained, rubbing my thumping head.

“I’m sorry, bro. I was trying to hold it in, I really was, but Jake likes her and Maddie likes him too.” Faith replied, her expression turning sympathetic.

An unfamiliar feeling washed over me, it was no surprise that Jake liked Maddie, but Maddie liked him back? All this time, I thought the bipolar kid just had a one-sided love with my Pri- Maddie.

I felt my lips move numbly, “How do you know?”

She shifted around on her bed, smoothing out the wrinkles, “Well, a couple of nights ago, I saw Maddie and Jake… kissing.”

My sister’s words processed slowly through my mind. Kissing. My insides felt as if they were on fire and I couldn’t do anything about it. It was something I’ve never felt before, it was foreign. Maddie was pissed off when I was hiding something from her, but it turns out she was hiding something from me too. That was probably why she didn’t kiss me at the tree.

“Bro?” Faith said, gaining my attention, “You okay? You look sick.”

“I’m fine. I’m going to need to think of a new plan before this Monday. Thanks to you, my plan is ruined.” I replied and turned around, exiting the room.

Right before I left, I heard Faith mutter something under her breath, but it was too low for me to make out.

***

Maddie’s POV

Beep! Beep! Beep!

“Ughh,” I groaned, hearing something wake me up from my sleep.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

I opened my eyes, and quickly shut again. The light flooded my vision and hurt my eyes. I waited a few moments, then I opened my eyes slowly again. My vision was still blurry, and my body felt stiff and achy.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

“Damn it. Shut up.” I muttered, whacking my alarm clock in one motion.

For a moment, everything was still unclear, and the only thing I knew was that I needed to buy a less annoying alarm clock. Then, all at once all the memories of last night flooded back into my mind. The fight with Tristan, the lies he told me and the fit I threw as soon as he left. Well, it wasn’t like I could do anything about it now. For all I knew, whatever was between Tristan and I, was completely over.

I stood up from my bed and stared at the clock. It was 8:34; a yawn escaped my mouth as I tried to figure out why I was awake this early. When nothing hit me, I decided I would just clean up around the house. It wasn’t like I could go back to sleep now since my brain was filled with that arrogant jerk.

I ran my hand through my hair as I exited my room. My hair felt oily and gross, I would need to take a shower as soon as I finished cleaning. I turned towards the kitchen and nearly jumped when I ran into someone. I peered up at the person who I bumped into and realized it was Jake.

“How did you get in here?” I inquired, staring at him questioningly.

Jake shrugged his shoulders, “Key under the mat.”

“Oh,”

“So, what’s for breakfast?”

I gave him a flat look, “You barge into my house, and you want me to cook breakfast for you?”

He nodded his head, which made me roll my eyes. I pushed past him and entered the kitchen looking inside the pantry. I pulled out a Cheerios cereal box and shoved at Jake.

“Enjoy.”

“That’s it? No eggs? Toast? Bacon? You know how much I like bacon, Mads.” Jake frowned at his box of Cheerios.

“Go make it yourself;” I answered sourly, “I’m not in the mood for cooking.”

For a moment everything was silent, and then Jake said, “Something happened last night. You figured out something?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” I brushed off his accusations and walked to the sink. I crouched down and opened the cabinet, looking for the Windex.

“Well, I do.” Jake responded, opening his cereal box, grabbing a handful of hit.

I recognized the blue liquid in the spray and pulled it out. I closed the cabinet and laid the spray bottle on the counter and glanced at Jake, “That’s great.”

“It’s hurting you.” Jake’s words made me stop moving.

I turned back around to him, “No, it isn’t, okay? It wasn’t meant to be.”

“Maddie.” Jake said in a sharp tone, “You’re obviously in denial, now tell me about it.”

An angered puff of air forced its way out of my lips, “You want to know? Well here it is, Tristan has been using me all this time. For what you want to know? Apparently his parents wanted to put him in an arranged marriage, and I was supposed to be a bail for him. Are you happy now?”

I hadn’t realized I was crying until I felt the warm teardrops stream down my face. When the words actually came out of my mouth, my mask of trying to stay angry dissipated and was replaced with tears.

I couldn’t believe I let him use me like that.