Page 16 of Adore Her

“Stop!” I scream, bolting up onto my feet and scrambling off the deck toward the guys. “Jesus!Stop!”

As I rush toward them, Jude manages some kind of maneuver that drops them both to the ground.Hard. Both men are cursing each other out now, each struggling to gain the upper hand. I’m so pissed at both of them for acting like this that I’m fully prepared to jump on them and try my best to pry them apart. But Kurt and Graham intercept me, forming a barrier between me and the guys. I realize they’re just trying to prevent me from accidentally getting hurt, but right now I really don’t appreciate it.

“Stopit! Stop fighting!” I yell again, trying to push my way through Kurt and Graham. When it’s clear that I’m not going to succeed, I let out a frustrated scream and stop trying. All I have left is my voice, but if that’s all I have, I’ll use it.

“If you two don’t stopright now,” I scream at Jude and Maddox, “I’m not talking toeitherof you for the rest of the goddamn year!”

8MADDOX

I’ve got Jude pinned down on the grass, and am nowhere close to letting up, but as soon as I hear Cora’s threat, I release Jude’s arms and back the fuck off. I’m half out of breath, my blood is still boiling, and my hands are clenched into tight fists.

But I’m also in control.

Down on the grass, Jude murmurs something, swipes a hand under his nose, then checks his palm for blood. There isn’t any, but I’m not surprised that he felt the need to check. We got pretty out of control there for a minute.

I’m not proud of the fact that my best friend and I just got into a brawl like this. It was immature of us. And pointless.

And it felt fucking awful.

I step forward and offer a hand to Jude to help him up from the ground. He ignores it, doesn’t even look at my hand, and pulls himself up on his own.

“Look, man—” I start, ready to talk this out with him.

Before I can get out another word, Jude turns and starts walking away from me.

“Jude,” I say loudly. “Come on.”

Jude’s feet keep on moving. But I’m not letting him walk away from this. If he won’t engage in a conversation, I’ll talkathim. I don’t care how long it takes to get through to him.

“I know this whole thing is weird for you,” I say. I’m walking after him now, talking to his back. Nothing about his posture indicates that he’s listening to me, but I know he can hear me.

“I’d be all fired up, too, if I was in your shoes,” I continue. “I get it. But I swear, man. Everything that’s happened between Cora and me is the real deal. I’m genuinely in love with her.”

“What’s her middle name?” he snaps, still not looking at me.

“Rae,” I say. “And if you think that quizzing me about her is somehow going to prove that I don’t truly know her and therefore can’t actually be in love with her, you’re about to be real fuckin’ disappointed.”

Jude grumbles something I can’t make out.

“Come on. Talk to me, dude,” I say. “We need to get past this. It’s not something that’s gonna go away.”

I follow him down to the edge of the lake and out onto the private dock. At the end of the dock, with nowhere else to go, Jude finally stops.

I sidle up beside him and finally get a look at his expression. He doesn’t look as pissed as he did a few minutes ago. But there’s worry lines all over his face.

“You’ve never been in a serious relationship, Maddox,” he says. “You’ve never even dated a girl for more than a few weeks.”

“Point being?”

“I love you, dude. But let’s be honest. You’re always really into a girl at first, and then you pretty quickly get tired of her.”

I set my jaw. “That’s not true. I’m just realistic when it comes to relationships. I don’t like dragging it out if I can tell it’s not going to work.”

“How do you know you won’t get that feeling about Cora in a couple weeks?”

“I just fucking do. It’s going to work. It’s going to last.”

“And if you’re wrong?”

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