Chapter Twenty-Three

This Is How It Goes

As rain begins to lash down on the car bonnet, Mel rolls up the driver side window and rests an arm across the steering wheel.

"I'll save you what you already know, which is that Madeline Parrish is awful. A true mean girl in every sense of the word."

I nod, finding it hard to look her in the eyes, especially since she looks so mad.

"And you know that Max left school halfway through Year 8, right?"

"I do."

Twisting in her seat, to lean against the door, she sighs loudly and lifts the strands of sea foam green hair away from her face. "Did he tell you what Maddie did to him?"

My stomach tenses. "Not specifically. All I know is that he's not exactly her biggest fan, but then, no one is."

"You got that right, so forgive me for getting my knickers in a twist seeing the pair of you chat away like your old time friends," Mel says, her grip on the wheel tightening. "Maddie is the reason why Max left school. The reason why his condition got worse."

"What did she do?"

Mel's shoulders slump. "Buckle in."

"What?"

She scans the car park and the bunch of students milling by the entrance. "We can't talk here, besides, Max and Libby will start to wonder where we've gotten to if we hang around here much longer." Starting the engine, I grab my seat belt and sit in silence for the slow journey to the Montgomery's.

When we're two roads away, Mel pulls over outside a grand house with three garages and cuts the engine.

"Once upon a time," she begins, rolling her eyes, "when we were new to Southbrook, Maddie's dad sold my dad a new car, and well, one thing lead to another and he invited the Parrish's over for a BBQ, before school started in September. This was like, a few weeks before."

I let all her words sink in, listening carefully, even though the grating sound of afternoon grass cutters and leaf blowers makes it hard.

"Max and Maddie met. I met her. We all did. She seemed sweet at first. Normal, you know, not a total manipulative heinous bitch, but whatever, I digress." She sucks in a deep breath and exhales forcefully, as if it hurts to have the memories of the past inside her. "He never saw it, but I think Maddie quite liked him."

I can see her jaw tense. Mine does too at the thought of her ever liking Max. And I don't like the way it makes my insides feel. "She did?"

Mel laughs, "Ironic right? He wasn't interested though, even though she was like, the first girl to speak to him in ages. The blushing thing didn't exactly make him the social butterfly of our last school as I'm sure you can imagine."

As if on cue, my cheeks begin to heat, turning peachy pink to bright red in seconds.

"So...because he didn't repay the interest, she set out to ruin his life?" I say, because it doesn't sound so far-fetched, it being Maddie and all.

"No, well. Not just because of that. Max trusted her. She was his first 'so-called' friend here in Southbrook and Southbrook High, and Maddie betrayed that trust by running her mouth and being a garbage human being."

I'm nodding so much it feels like my head might fall off.

Swallowing hard, Mel glances out the window and drums a finger on the wheel. "Our dad didn't really get Max. He didn't understand why he wasn't like the other kids or why he found it hard to speak up or why his face went bright red whenever someone else did. Mum was totally against it but dad pushed him into going to these stupid hypnotherapy sessions with this total dickhead guy, who turned out to be a complete fraud, by the way. Anyways, Max told Maddie about it and about what he'd found out..."

"Found out what?" I ask, mentally preparing myself.

"Max worked out that our dad had booked all those sessions so he could get an hour or two uninterrupted to continue on his affair with a woman who worked for him."

My mouth falls open. Mel briefly laughs at it and then, continues casually.

"Yeah, well, no one suspected a thing, but Max did. He found out and he told Maddie. He made her promise not to say anything about the sessions, or the blushing or about our dad being a sleazy bastard. But this was after Max made it clear he didn't like Maddie in the same way she did, so...not his smartest move."

Mel's drawn out pause says it all.

"Wow, okay. I didn't know that."

"Everyone has a chapter they don't read out loud."

"True," I take stock of her words, and sigh, "So, what happened next?"

"First day of school, Max goes to sit with Maddie but she pretends like she doesn't know who he is. She basically shuns him. Makes up some story about him being a weirdo, because of the blushing and acts like he never existed."

Sounds about right.

"Maddie lit the match for all the rumours about him and the bullying to ignite," she says, sighing. "You know how it is, right? One thing, the tinniest thing, however stupid or untrue can turn into something awful?"

I think of my nickname Rosie Josie, assigned by Maddie the last year of middle school. I know all too well.

Still lightly drumming against the wheel, Mel says, "She orchestrated this whole, weird whispering campaign and then, of course all the sheep followed her lead and everyone was a total dick. Max came home crying pretty much every day. There was also this stupid fight, between him and Spencer, Maddie twisting things again, telling everyone that Max was obsessed with her."

I flinch at the thought. "Wait, why are you locking the doors?"

Mel narrows her eyes at me. "You look like you might jump out the car, run back to college and punch her, that's why."

In a sense I do. The feeling of resentment towards her returns to it's normal level, but it also gets me thinking about the bet made with her, and the talent show, how I can possibly make one thing right in all the mess of lies.

"I'm okay."

"Yeah well, Max wasn't. He wanted to leave Southbrook high and those hypnotherapy sessions, but that would mean all of dad's lies being exposed and then, Maddie told her parents and the truth spread and Max ended up having to tell our mum before she found out shopping in the supermarket or from some random in town."

"I'm really sorry that happened," I say, my tone light, my throat struck by a hard ball of pain. "To your mum, and you, and Max."

"Maddie lied through her teeth about saying anything, but we all know if she hadn't been so purposefully mean, it might have worked out differently. At least for Max. My mum and dad were never going to work, on the account of him being a bastard," she laughs, before her face turns serious again, "but Max is different. He shouldn't have missed out on so much. He shouldn't have been humiliated and made to feel like he was a freak."

"Me too," I say, "Max is one of a kind. The good kind."

"And sensitive and fiercely loyal," Mel adds, "He see's the best in people, mostly and he trusts too easily. All the lies, Maddie's lies and little games really fucked with that, and yet he still does."

Now it makes sense why she'd been so overly protective of him, why she'd kept me at arms length. She thought I'd hurt him.

"And don't you dare tell him this, but Max is one of the coolest people I know."

I softly chuckle, agreeing. "He is."

"Can I ask about what she did to you, at school?"

My mind fills again with memories that I don't like to drag up, but for the sake of being open, I allow. "General name calling. Throwing stuff in my hair during English class. Hiding my stuff in the P.E changing rooms. I thought she might change once we got to college, but then the spreading false rumours about my 'torrid affair' with Mr.Cockburn, my media studies tutor started and the nicknames continued, so..."

"Seems like she's still in business then," Mel says, her voice cracking. "Well, you know what, some people don't deserve second chances, especially compulsive and pathalogical liars. Max doesn't need people like that in his life anymore."

"Is that why you're annoyed that I talked to her?"

"I just don't want her tricking you into believing she's someone she's not, which is redeemable."

I recoil back from the force of Mel's words and how she eyes me up and down, as if all my lies and knowledge of the bet is seeping out from every pore. I think about telling her the truth, blurting it out, but I'm in too deep.

I wouldn't know where to start, and something tells me Mel would be less understanding than Max, which terrifies me further.

But I have to make this right. I have to make Maddie aware of just what she's done.

And that's when I realise what I've got to do.

How to make it marginally better.

How to redeem myself.

But most importantly a way to give Max a long overdue apology.

"I really like him," I say, slowly, as the expression on her face softens. "I really do. I would never want to hurt Max."

"I know," she shrugs, "I just have a tendency to flip my lid at the sight of her, or anyone that allows her to burrow into their lives."

"You can trust me. I know what I'm doing."

Mel gives me a weird look. "Sure...okay."

"Oh crap!" I sink down into the seat, my feet hitting the footwell. "It's him!"

Twisting her head from side to side, she spots Max, merrily bounding down the sloped street, bulky headphones on, music blaring out and a rain mac pulled tight over.

My tummy flips, like I've been driven over a bumpy hill. "Do you think he's seen us?"

"Too late," she whispers, giving him a big thumbs up as he tilts his head low and stops by her door.

"Hey," he says, his eyes wide and bright, surprised to see us. "What are you both doing? Having a bonding sesh?"

"God no, as if! We were actually just on our way back but Josie thought she'd left her phone at college so we stopped to have a look," Mel says, quick on her toes. She shoots me a withering look as I raise my brows from hearing such a white lie.

"Um, yeah, but - silly me, here it is!" I hold my phone aloft for him to see. And I smile wide too. "I'm such an idiot."

Max peers further in. "Glad you found it."

"Where are you going?" Mel asks, skilfully changing the subject.

"I'm off to get some snacks for band practice. The house is empty, mum's on this new health kick."

"Pah, don't even go there," she laughs, "Get in, I'll give you a lift. It's chucking it down!"

"Cheers sis." Pulling the back door open, he slides on to the back seat and shakes his hair spraying rain drops forward.

I look at the outer wing mirror. Max's face beams back.

He's none the wiser.

It doesn't make me feel much better.