“Earth to Madison.” He whispered and motioned his hand in front of my face.
I shook my head and stepped towards my door, “Sorry, I zoned out. Let me go get something to clean your hands up.” I rushed out of the room before he could say anything.
I felt like I was taking forever. I was lost in thought again and nervous as all hell. I don’t know why I was getting so nervous now. Maybe because we were going to spend the night together where I’m actually sober and could remember. The other part of me thinks maybe because this is all new. Usually he was always pissing me off, but now that he was being his old self, I had no idea how to act.
I knew I had to hurry back before he wonders what was taking me so long. I threw on my pajamas and headed back with a first aid kid. When I snuck back into my old room, I was shocked to see he found it.
“Jude?” I slowly closed and locked the door behind me. He was sitting on my bed, staring at the sketch he made me the last day we saw each other.
“You kept this?” His eyes never left the paper.
“Of course I did.” The sketch he gave me was one of my most treasured belongings along with my mama’s favorite shirt I wore to bed.
“I was a nervous wreck that whole day before I gave it to you. I thought maybe you only saw me as a friend or worst, a brother.”
“I always saw you as my best friend, but I wanted to be more than that.” I wish things worked out differently, but maybe if they did we wouldn’t be where we are now.
“I was wrong about many things and I made a lot of mistakes, but I’m going to make it up to you.”
“It’s ok I forgive you.”
He pulled his hands away from me and lifted my head up so we were facing eye to eye. He then said, “Don’t do that. Don’t take less than what you deserve. You, Madison Bloom, deserve a lot better than what you’ve been given. I may not be the hearts and flowers type of guy, but for you I would be.”
I reached around his neck and pulled him in closer saying, “This.” I motioned to the sketch. “Is better than any type of flowers you can give me. I want you, the old and the new, I just want you.” He slammed his lips against mine and his kiss said everything else we hadn’t said. We laid in my bed for the rest of the night catching up on all we missed until he started to sing my mama’s song for me, “Black Bird”, and I drifted to sleep for the first time without any nightmares.
Chapter Thirty
Madison
For the next few weeks, things have been going great with Jude. We have been taking things slow, but I’m honestly ready to ask him if we were now boyfriend and girlfriend. I was afraid to put pressure on him, so I haven’t brought it up. Now that we were coming up on Christmas break, I was getting anxious.
Thank god this was the last class before Christmas break. I couldn’t handle one more final exam or my brain would explode. I packed up my belongings and headed out to the door, only to bump into Stella. She was smiling big at me, excited about something.
“What are you dying to tell me?” Her smile grew bigger and she was a blabber mouth, so it surprised me when she said, “I’ve been sworn to secrecy and trust me I really want to tell you, but I’ve been bribed with five new romance novels that just came out, so here!” She pushed a white envelope in my hand and ran the other direction away from me. That girl and her novels, I wish I thought of that.
I started walking out to my car and when I got inside I opened the envelope. Inside was a sketch of the coffee shop Jude and I go to after class. There wasn’t a note, but I knew Jude sketches, so I headed there. When I got there, the barista waved me over with a coffee, croissant, and another envelope.
I sat at our usual table and eagerly opened the next envelope. Inside was a sketch of a boutique down the street. What does he have planned? Even though things have been going great the last few weeks, it was taking me a minute to remind myself that this was him doing something sweet not bad. He wouldn’t go back to hating me, right?
I shook my head at the nonsense I was thinking and scarfed down my croissant and coffee before heading down to Miss Dolly’s Boutique. I was anxious to see where this scavenger hunt was going to lead me to. I walked down to Miss Dolly’s and headed straight to the register.
“Hi, uhm this may sound weird, but I’ve been sent on a scavenger hunt and there might be something here for me. My name is Madison.” The sales girl squealed and bent down pulling a box from underneath the counter.
“Girl, don’t mind me saying, but you got yourself a total hottie! Here you go, enjoy!” I can’t blame her, Jude would have a blind woman drooling. I smiled back at her and headed towards the velvet couch to open the box. Inside was another envelope and under it was a beautiful white dress. It was strapless and short, but I love how simple it was. I opened the envelop next to see the next sketch, but it was a note instead.
“Hello Beautiful. Meet me at my house at eight tonight wearing this.
