Robot meets Girl

Nobody knew that Madison had gotten her memories back. The second that she saw Nate kissing the mysterious girl, everything resurfaced. She hadn’t mentioned it to Curtis or anyone else. Not even Nate.

She wasn’t exactly mad at him about the kissing incident, it just didn’t make sense. If he wanted to break it off, he could’ve just said so. Why would he kiss in front of her? To bring her pain? Madison sighed, glaring at her Converse.

Maddie looked over to Curtis, who was still writing. “Let’s go do something.” She cleared her throat. “C’mon!”

Curtis just looked at her. “Madison—”

“Come on, Curtis.” Madison grabbed his hand, pulled him to his feet, placed her book bag on her shoulder and smiled at him.

“Okay, Madison.” They walked along the park and went on the swings.

The rain came when they jumped off the swings and they saw Nate—walking alone. Madison thought that the world had ended, because he didn’t have his new girlfriend hanging on his arm. This gave her confidence, not that she was frightened of the new girl, it was who Nate had left Madison, the Goth girl, for Miss Popular.

“Nate!” Madison paced toward him before Curtis could protest. “Nate.” As she got closer, she observed that he ignored her. “Nate, it’s me, Madison!” All he did was walk...away from her.

Her legs felt weak from a weight that she wasn’t aware of until it brought her to knees. Tears ran down her face quickly. Quick enough that no one could tell she was crying from the heavy rain. Madison didn’t want comfort and Curtis made a note of that, sitting on the swing. All she wanted was the only guy she had ever loved deeply enough to love her. Maybe she was asking too much and she didn’t care; she never asked for anything. Madison didn’t ask to be his friend or even acknowledge him; she didn’t ask to love, even though she tried to make it so she couldn’t, until she finally gave in; she didn’t ask for him to be a robot and risk her life; and she didn’t ask for this heartbreak.

Curtis sat on the swing, watching his friend cry and cringed. How could he help her? He thought it was bad when she didn’t see him for a month, but seeing her like this, he knew what had happened before was nothing. His best friend was in pain, a horrible pain that he couldn’t fix. Curtis found himself thinking of Julian and how happy he had been—and how unhappy he was now.

The rain became harder and Curtis knew he had to take her inside before she got sick. He got off the swing took her hands in his and walked her back home. When they got her there, she slipped on her pajamas and fell asleep on the couch, watching Fuse.

Curtis opened his journal and looked at the poem he had written for Julian:

Me leaving you is for the best,
Now there won't be a day,
Where your eyes will fill with tears,
Over something I do or say,
I've never been good at love,
And I am scared of what will be,
When you wake up and realize,
The one you love isn't me,
I know it may be foolish
To let a good thing go,
And I know it may be selfish,
To never want to feel,
The pain and sorrow,
When you see your love isn't real.

-Curtis

“I didn’t know you were a poet,” Madison said, half asleep. “I read it and I didn’t know you loved him.” She smirked. “That makes two of us.”