CHAPTER 5
***WALKER***
“I’m so sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going,” Walker said, lying through his teeth. “I really should pay better attention. I’ve ruined your date, what a shame.”
“What the hell do you think you’re doing, Price?” Thomas demanded instantly on his feet. “You did that on purpose. Look what a mess you made. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
“Hey, it was an accident, I swear, this place is so crowded,” Walker said, backing away from them and holding out his hands. “I wouldn’t dream of trying to interfere, I’d never even think about telling Maddie what you’re really like, and I certainly didn’t plan on telling her about all the other women in your life, or the…”
“Back off, Walker,” Thomas said, getting in his face. “This is none of your business. Stop harassing Maddie, or I’ll report you to campus police. She doesn’t want anything to do with you, get that through your head and leave us alone.”
He looked over at Maddie, unable to believe that she really wanted to be with Thomas, but she didn’t disagree; she didn’t step away from his enemy. Instead, she looked away, letting silence speak for her. It wasn’t what he’d expected. He wasn’tsure what he thought would happen when he broke them apart, just that he couldn’t watch them holding hands and making puppy dog eyes at each other. Now he felt like his guts were being ripped out and when Maddie turned her back on him, he had no choice but to back away.
Feeling like something inside him was broken, he stumbled out of the student center, the picture of Thomas putting his arm around Maddie as he walked away burned into his brain. What he didn’t see was Maddie shrugging away Thomas’s touch or her gathering up her things and walking away from the other man without a backward glance.
Physically ill by the time he got home, he collapsed at the kitchen table as soon as he walked through the door, sure that there was something terribly wrong with him. “Walker, what’s wrong?” Hattie, their housekeeper, asked, rushing over to him. “You’re white as a sheet and sweating. Let me feel your forehead. When did you start to feel this way?”
“I was okay all day, this just hit me out of nowhere,” he said, groaning as his head began to spin. “I’m dizzy and hot…I’ve never felt like this before. Maybe I need to go to the hospital.”
“What’s this about a hospital?” Jackson asked, walking into the kitchen. “Is someone hurt?”
“Walker is sick,” Hattie said, setting a glass of water down in front of him. “You’re the medical student, come look at him. We might need to take him to the hospital.”
“I’m not a doctor yet, I haven’t even started medical school, but we don’t get sick, there must be something else wrong with him,” Jackson said, then sat down next to him and studied him for a second. “What were you doing when you first started feeling like this?”
He looked over at Jackson, opened his mouth, then closed it again and looked away, then shrugged his shoulders to buy himself a couple of minutes to come up with an explanationwithout exposing his feelings for Maddie. The last thing he wanted to do was admit out loud that he was in love with her; putting those feelings into words would mean that he could never take them back.
It had been too much for him to handle back then and it was still more than he was ready for now. His life was a mess, he had no idea what he was going to do with his life, he didn’t even have a job. There was no place for love in his life. He realized with a start that he’d been silent for too long and looked over to find Jackson watching him, a mixture of surprise and curiosity on his face.
“Holy crap, you’re in love,” Jackson finally said, shaking his head. “Who is she?”
“I am not…that’s ridiculous…I don’t fall in love…” he stammered, wondering how his friend knew. “That’s not what’s wrong with me.”
“Really? Are you lying to me or yourself?” Jackson asked, relaxing back in his chair, a silly grin on his face. “I can feel it, you idiot, you’re broadcasting it loud and clear. All the guys are going to know after they spend five minutes with you.”
“Great, this sucks,” he said. “I didn’t ask for this, I sure as hell didn’t want it, I’m too young to be tied down, no offence, Abby is a great woman and I’m glad that you found her, but…I’m not ready for marriage and all that.”
“We don’t always choose when it happens, and fighting fate usually doesn’t work that well,” Jackson said, shrugging his shoulders. “You still haven’t told me who the mystery woman is. Have I met her before?”
“Once, when we were freshmen,” he said, then let out a long sigh. “Do you remember Maddie? We dated for the first few months of first year.”
Jackson was silent for a second, then his face lit up. “I remember her,” he said. “Tall, long black hair, big green eyes,she was a doll. I never could figure out why you broke up with her.”
“Things got too serious if you know what I mean, she’s a regular human, Jackson, when I realized what I’d done…well…it scared me,” he said, staring down at the table, unable to meet his friend’s eyes. “Then I started feeling all this stuff…that scared me even more…so I just…well, I ghosted her, didn’t talk to her, blocked her on all my social media, and when she tried to talk to me, I walked away like I didn’t know her.”
The silence that followed seemed to drag on forever, and he finally forced himself to look up at Jackson, who was shaking his head. “I never pegged you for a coward, but I guess you’re paying the price now,” he said. “You bonded with Maddie, you idiot. There’s nothing you can do about it now. I know that feeling, the one that makes you think nothing will ever be right again unless you’re with her.”
“Bonded…that can’t be…we only…I mean…it was just once,” he stammered. “It takes more than that, I mean that’s what the legends say, it didn’t happen that fast with you and Abby, I mean it couldn’t have…”
“Sorry, buddy,” Jackson said, slapping him on the back. “I think you’re stuck, but hey, you could have done worse. Maddie’s a knockout, and she’s a sweetheart if I remember right. Now you’re only problem is convincing her that you’re not the colossal jerk you were back then.”
“Have you lost your mind?” he said, jumping to his feet, knocking over the chair. “I’m not in love, I haven’t bonded with Maddie, I’m just sick or something.”
“Heartsick,” Jackson said, an understanding look on his face. “I feel the same way when I have to be separated from Abby. The difference is, she’s mine, and I know that she’s coming back to me. Trust me, if you want to feel better, figure this thing out with Maddie.”
“You’re wrong,” he said, stomping out of the kitchen. “I am not in love.”
***Maddie***
