The Wrong Way Back To You

Ch. 9

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Something like that."

"What's wrong , Babe?"

"Nothing. I'm fine. "

"You don't feel fine. You seem really tense. Did you guys get into it?"

"I said I'm fine, Maddie. Drop it."

Maddie sat upright in the bed and turned on the bedside lamp. "What the hell is your problem," she questioned, her eyes adjusting to the light.

"Nothing. Go back to sleep."

"You are so full of s**t. I know when there is something wrong with you. I am not an idiot."

"Just drop it. I do not want to talk about it."

"So there is something wrong. I don't know why you just don't tell me."

"Because I said that I do not want to talk about it. Plain and simple. I gotta get some sleep."

"Then maybe you should not have drank all night with your brother. "

"I don't need this s**t, Maddie. If you keep riding my ass I am going to sleep on the couch."

"Whatever. Do whatever the hell you want to do." Maddie forcefully rolled over and turned off the light, taking the majority of the blanket with her. She was fuming about the way Jake was behaving. She was even more mad that he was keeping her completely in the dark with what was wrong.

Maddie laid there wondering what had put him in such a foul mood. Normally, when he was hanging out with Randy, he would always come home in a great mood. His relationship with his brother was a close-knit bond, and they rarely had disagreements as adults. Not today, though. Something had happened. While she didn't know at the moment what the issue was, she was determined to find out in the morning.

They laid in bed, back to back. Jake really wanted to go back into the living room and sleep on the couch but knew that would just add fuel to the fire. He was really not in the mood to deal with her any longer. Jake was more worried about figuring out what he was going to say to Allie in the morning.

He didn't get much sleep that night, his mind would not let him. There were so many questions running through his head. There were so many answers that he wanted. So many answers that he deserved.

Jake slid out off bed before the alarm went off. He wanted to be as quiet as possible so he did not wake up Maddie. He was hopping that he could get out of the house while she was still asleep. He had to get to his parents' house without her knowing. If she knew he was headed over there, she would want ask to go. If he told her no, he knew she would be demanding to know why not. He also knew that she would just show up there unannounced and uninvited.

He slowly shut the bathroom door and started the shower. He prayed the entire time that it did not wake her up.

Maddie laid in bed, feigning sleep until she heard the bathroom door shut and the shower turn on. She knew she had at least ten minutes before she was out and back in the bedroom. She rolled over and grabbed his phone from the nightstand. She typed in the password and started scrolling through his text messages, looking for a number or contact name she did not recognize. She found nothing suspicious or incriminating in his texts so she went through his call log next. There was only one number listed on there that did not have a contact name that she did not know. She grabbed her phone and typed the number in the search bar, only to find it was of a restaurant that she figured he had placed a lunch order at.

She was about to set his phone down when she decided to scroll through his photos and make sure that there was nothing hidden in there. No such luck. She was a little relieved that she did not find anything but also angry because she was no closer to knowing what was going on. As soon as she set the phone back on the nightstand, exactly how she found it, the screen lit up with a text message. She quickly grabbed it and saw it was from his mother.

[When will you be here? We need to figure this out.]

Figure what out, she wondered. When she heard the shower stop, she set the phone back down and leaned against the headboard. She was not going to let his slide. She was not going to pretend that she was sleeping and let him slink out of the house. She had every right to know what he was keeping from her.

Jake came back into the bedroom quietly but stopped in his tracks when he saw that Maddie was awake and staring him down. "Hey."

"Are we going to be adults this morning?"

"What are you talking about? Listen, I am sorry about last night. It was a long day and I should not have taken it out on you. I am sorry for that."

"What do you need to figure out with your mother?"

"What?"

"You're mom sent you a message. She wanted to know when you were coming over and that you needed to figure it out. Figure out what?"

"You went through my phone?"

"No," Maddie lied. "You were in the shower and your phone went off. I looked and saw it was your mom. What is the big deal? You never had a problem with me looking at your phone before. Why the sudden change?"

"I didn't mean it like that. Sorry. I haven't had my coffee this morning." Jake was trying to do damage control and was failing. He had to regain control of the situation quickly before it escalated further. "It's fine. I don't have anything to hide from you and I am not keeping anything from you."

"So, what do you need to figure out with your mom?"

"Me and Randy got into it a little bit last night. I'm sorry I didn't say anything last night. I just really did not want to get into it again. We were joking around and he just said something that set me off, so then it turned into an argument and we got a little loud and I left my mom's. You know how my mom is. She hates to see us even having the tiniest disagreement."

"Are you sure that is it? There isn't anything else?"

"I swear," Jake lied. He hated lying to her but he knew it would be best to keep her in the dark about the situation until he was able to talk to Allie and come to terms with things. "Honey, it was just a little blow up between me and Randy,. And with me drinking last night, I just didn't want to deal with it. Honestly, I was the asshole in the situation and I was worried that you would say I was an asshole. I felt bad enough about it and just didn't want the confirmation from you of it."

"Okay." Melissa sighed and relaxed a little bit. "Don't shut me out like that any more. I don't like it. All you had to do was tell me that last night so it didn't turn into a huge thing."

"I know, and I am sorry." Jake walked over to the bed and kissed the top of her head. "Forgive me?"

"I guess, this time." She smirked at him and Jake knew that he had put out that fire.

"What are your plans today?" Jake started pulling his clothes out of the dresser and getting dressed.

"Cindy and me are going to town to grab some lunch and do some shopping."

"Okay. I am going to head to my parents' place and smooth things over. I was supposed to help Randy with his truck today but I don't know if that will happen or not. I will call you later and let you know what the plan is for later tonight."

"Sounds good." Jake leaned down and kissed her and grabbed his stuff. He was trying to play it cool when, in actuality, he wanted to run and race to see Allie. "I love you.

"Love you, too."