"Well, well, well, if it isn't the tree hugging, bleeding heart liberal, Maddie Fitzpatrick."
Maddie's eyes narrowed as the familiar voice drawled sardonically from behind her. She spun around to face the last person she ever expected to see.
"Trevor, My favourite establishment puppet. What the hell are you doing here?"
"Um, I go here?" Trevor shrugged in bemusement.
"Seriously? You got into Berkeley?" Maddie raised her eyebrows in alarm.
"Hello, merit scholar here!" Trevor laughed.
"Riiiigght." Maddie nodded, and despite herself, she smiled.
"So what are you doing at Berkeley?" Trevor's face fell a fraction.
"Erm, I'm on a Miller scholarship, actually." Maddie frowned defensively and looked at the ground.
"Really? That's so cool, I hear they're really hard to get." Trevor's bright tone surprised himself, and he could tell from the look on Maddie's face it surprised her too.
"Oh. Yeah, there were so many times when I was applying I felt like giving up, but, you know, I worked through it and it turned out to be worth it. So, here I am, out of Boston and in sunny California!" Maddie mentally smacked herself for rambling, but Trevor didn't seem to mind.
"That's awesome. How's London doing?" Trevor grinned at the memory of the bimbo-ish girl.
"She's actually engaged to Todd St. Mark, you probably heard about that in the papers." Maddie shrugged.
"Yeah, I did. I thought they were like, massive rivals, you know, coz of their fathers?" Trevor wrinkled his nose.
"It's a long story," Maddie sighed.
"I've got time," Trevor shrugged. "Wanna get some coffee or something?"
Maddie hesitated. "Hold on a second, are we really doing this?"
"Doing what?" Trevor paused too and furrowed his brow.
"Actually having a civilised conversation, making plans together, etcetera?" Maddie gasped melodramatically.
"Good god, we are too. Guess you're not as heinous as I thought you were," Trevor smirked.
"Speak for yourself, asshole!' Maddie bit back in offense, turning on her heel and marching away.
"Maddie! Hey, Maddie!' Trevor called as he chased after her.
"What?" She snarled as she whipped round to face him.
"I was kidding! You know, ha ha, funny joke?" Trevor mumbled.
"Mm, right," Maddie raised an eyebrow cynically.
"No, seriously, Maddie, I was only joking. I kind of have this thing where I never really emotionally matured, so I'm still as horrible to the girls I like as I was in the fourth grade," Trevor shrugged.
"Well, that explains… wait, did you just say you liked me?"
"Maybe." Trevor grinned. "Think of it as an equivalent to pulling your pigtails."
"Oh, I get it." Maddie grinned mischievously, drew her leg back and kicked Trevor sharply in the shin, catching him by the collar as he lurched forward and pulling his ear close to her mouth.
"Think of that as an equivalent of saying 'I like you, too', okay?" she hissed, before twisting his head to face her and smothered his lips with her own.
Before either of them knew what had happened, they were kicking Trevor's dorm room door shut behind them and shedding their outer layers of clothing. As Trevor's hands roamed her body, as his lips caressed her jaw, Maddie had to bite her tongue to stop herself from moaning in pleasure. She didn't want to give him that satisfaction.
"This feels so wrong," Maddie gasped, breaking away.
"Crap, I know." Trevor panted, untangling his fingers from her hair.
"Like it isn't supposed to be happening,"
"Like we're breaking some sort of unspoken rule,"
"And I've always hated breaking rules," Maddie nodded curtly.
"Funnily enough, I've never had a problem with that," Trevor smirked, pulling Maddie along as he threw himself backwards onto his bed.
Maddie woke in the morning to an unfamiliar dorm, an unfamiliar arm draped over her body, and an unfamiliar ringtone that was blasting out of her cell phone. But suddenly the unfamiliar arm grabbed her tighter, before releasing and reaching across to the bedside table. Suddenly the unfamiliar ringing stopped and Maddie realised it wasn't her phone at all.
"Hello?" Trevor mumbled, before sitting bolt upright, startling her. "Hey! Oh no, I wasn't sleeping. Yeah, just in my dorm. Yeah, I'm ready. Yep. Cool. I'll see you in a couple of hours. Bye!"
"Who was that?" Maddie yawned, snuggling into him some more
"Well, she's one of my father's business partner's daughters, and my father wants me to date her, but…"
"She's your girlfriend?" Maddie's yelped, sitting up and facing him.
"Well, not really, sort of…" Trevor babbled.
"Great. Just fucking fantastic. I knew something felt wrong about last night!" Maddie spat, throwing off the sheets and rolling out of bed.
"No, Maddie, I was going to ask her out, but I'm not anymore!" Trevor wrapped the sheet around his wait and stood to face her.
"Oh yeah, then why are you meeting up with her later?" Maddie scowled as she collected her clothes off the floor.
"We have a meeting with our parents, something about a new mining contract…" Trevor shrugged.
"Wait… is that the ExxonMobil company contract?" Maddie stopped fiddling with her bra to gape at him.
"Yeah, I've worked on it with my dad for like the past year. How did you know about it?"
"That's what my environmental group is protesting today," Maddie whispered.
"Oh," was Trevor's reply, as he uncomfortably shifted from foot to foot.
"Do you know about all the serious effects that would happen to our planet if this mining contract goes through?" Maddie forced her words out through the lump in her throat.
"Oh, don't give me that martyr speech! All future carbon emissions have been thoroughly investigated; it's not all that bad!" Trevor snapped.
"Are you serious?" Maddie huffed. "First of all, we're trying to reduce carbon emissions, so obviously this is going be detrimental! And second, it's not just about fossil fuels and greenhouse gases! What about the trees? The animals? The people who rely on the land for the livelihood?"
"They've all been paid great amount of money for their co-operation," Trevor mumbled.
"They're fucking squirrels, Trevor! They don't use money! And they're losing their homes! And the trees can't even leave!"
"Well, yeah they can, they have leaves," Trevor snorted.
"This isn't funny! How could you do this?" Maddie's voice increased in pitch the more upset she got.
"Well, it was kinda of my job before college, and it was really the only way my father would pay for me to come here to do PolySci," Trevor rushed to get all his words out.
"Please, Trevor, this is wrong. Tell me you're not going to go through with it," Maddie's tone got dangerously low.
Trevor bit his lip and took a step towards her. "I can't."
"You're despicable!" Maddie spat, slapping him across the face a turning to leave.
"What? No, Maddie, wait…" Trevor's arm shot out and grabbed her arm, but Maddie batted him away.
"Get away from me you fascist, corporate pig!" She shrieked.
"Maddie, please, just listen!" He begged.
"No! Why should I?" She snapped as she slipped her dress back over her head and slid on her shoes.
"I don't want you to hate me!' Trevor yelled.
"Oh, Trevor, I could never hate you." Maddie sneered. "See, hate is a word that implies passion, anger, feeling. But I'm just not that attached. I guess I just really, really don't like you."
Trevor was silent as Maddie stormed over to the door, but her face softened as she turned to have the last word. "But if you ever decide to cross the picket line, I'll be waiting to hate you."
And with that, she was gone.
"Hey, Trevor!" The sprightly auburn-haired girl called from the black convertible.
"Hi, Rebecca," Trevor sighed, sliding into the passenger's seat.
"What's the matter, Trev? We're about to close a multi-million dollar deals and score job security for life!" Rebecca burbled as she sped off.
"I had a fight with a girl I hate," Trevor sighed, resting his hand on his chin.
"Well, that's good isn't it?" Rebecca asked in puzzlement.
"I guess," Trevor sighed.
He tried to ignore the nagging feeling in the back of his mind as they pulled up to the ExxonMobil building. He tried not to desperately search the field of yelling people for the bright blonde mess of hair he wanted to hate him. God, did he want her to hate him. Anything but indifferent dislike.
He tried to ignore the jeering boos thrown at him and Rebecca as the made their way up the steps, but one stood out above the rest. The squeaky, sarcastic voice that had been screaming at him only hours earlier. But he didn't turn around to face her. He didn't want to face the same bitterly disappointed expression that Maddie had used on him that morning.
"Ignore them," Rebecca leered, taking his hand and pulling him through the large double doors of the building.
"Mhm, do you know why they're so angry?" Trevor mumbled as they stepped into the elevator.
"Oh, something about some inconsistencies in the environment policy. Apparently we're cutting down 500 more trees than expected and our carbon emissions are going to be double what was originally predicted." Rebecca sniffed as she inspected her fingernails.
"What?" Trevor spluttered.
"Oh, come on, don't tell me you've suddenly become an advocate for the cause!" Rebecca snorted.
"No, but, what about… what about the agreement?" Trevor stammered.
"Please, you know we really only drew that up to get the big environmental agencies off our backs. But once this contract goes through, they won't be able to touch us." Rebecca cackled.
Trevor bit his lip, and at the last second before the elevator door slid shut, he leapt out, and started running towards the exit.
"Trevor!" Rebecca screeched. "What the fuck are you doing?"
"The right thing!" He yelled over his shoulder.
"No! The right thing is upstairs with our fathers and our careers! Trevor, without you this whole contract falls apart!" Rebecca wailed out of the rapidly closing doors.
"I know," Trevor grinned to himself, bursting out of the building and into the sunlight, to come face to face with a still screaming mob of environmentalists.
But he ignored all of them, and stared our across the sea of people, to finally meet Maddie's dumbfounded face at the very back of the crowd. He leapt down the steps two at a time, and threw himself into the throng. Jostling past the demonstrators, he met Maddie in the middle.
"What are you doing out here?" She yelled over the buzz of protests.
"The contract was dirty! I pulled out!' Trevor bellowed back.
"So it's not going through at all?" Maddie squealed in delight.
"Well, maybe! If I'm not fired, then I'll be re-writing it to be more environmentally and morally friendly," Trevor chuckled.
"Wow, Trevor. That's so great! Hey, guys!" Maddie drew attention to herself in the midst of her fellow activists. "The contract's off for today!"
Her cry was greeted with a loud cheer and general congratulations all around. Silly liberals, Trevor thought to himself. You have no idea that it wasn't all of you that broke this thing. It was just one of you. Her. It was Maddie Fitzpatrick. The girl who was beaming her pretty smile at him with big happy tears in her eyes.
"So, do you hate me, now?" Trevor asked hopefully.
"Oh, absolutely!" Maddie laughed, throwing her arms around him.
"Good, because I hate you too," Trevor grinned. "But this might change your mind."
Amidst the gaggle of staring protesters, wondering why this bigoted business man could possibly be in their horde of left-wing hippies, Trevor kissed Maddie with as much passion as he could muster. He'd show her how much he really despised her.
"This doesn't change anything you know," Maddie grinned, pulling away. "I still hate you,"
Trevor glared at her before cracking a smile and replying "The feeling's mutual."
Yeah, so, I watched the episode with Zac Efron in it on the weekend and was like HELLO CHRISTMAS! And this is blargh-tacular, I'm quite aware of that, but just so you know, not only have I been battling writer's block, but I've been busting to pee for like two hours now, but I'm in the library and too intimidated by the librarian to walk past her. She keeps glaring at me, and it's freaking me out. OH, I'M SORRY LADY, IS MY TYPING TOO LOUD FOR YOU? I've also noticed she's not glaring at this really hot guy a few tables away. He's probably her boyfriend, and she's just jealous that I keep flipping my hair to try and get his attention. But nooo, he's too absorbed in his quantum physics book, pssh, whatever! So yes, that is pretty much my awesome day so far. OOOH THE LIBRARIAN'S GONE, I'M GOING TO MAKE A RUN FOR IT! Don't forget to review!!