Recap: "Go near Max again," Mona threatened Roxanne, "and I will assure that you will regret it. So much worse that that ugly scar on your leg, my dear." Then before shutting the door locked, she turned and added, "And don't ever call me 'Mo' again!"
Sbam.
Chapter 5:
"Hey, Mona, where's Roxanne?" Max looked up from his heated conversation to turn his attention on his girlfriend who came strolling around behind the person he was having the argument with.
"Oh, I dropped her off at the bathroom," Mona replied. "I think she had a stomach ache, and was really persuading me to leave her. She acted a little weird." She twirled a brown lock around her long-nailed forefinger. "She might want us to leave her and grab a cab home."
Max sighed and shook his head. "That's just like her. I wouldn't be surprised if she were sneaking outside right this second. Come on, we better go after her." He gave Bradley a stern glare. "See you around, Uppercrust."
"Oh yes, in fact, I was going to ask him around for dinner!" she flashed her raven-haired boyfriend a toothy smile, clinging to his arm. "How does that sound, darling? You can tell me all about you college experiences together."
"I believe the lady has come up with an absolutely smashing idea," Bradley grinned. His pearly choppers reflected Max's growling face. He resembled a genuine canine. Max turned away to look at the brunette at his side, only to meet a pair of small, innocent, twinkling eyes. After a round of stuttering and a smug look from Uppercrust, he gave in.
"Oh, fine," he said at last, his annoyed looking eyes buried under a deep frown. "Now let's go find Roxanne."
They strolled over to the exit, Mona doing her hardest to get Max off what they were looking for. It worked twice or thrice, but he snapped back to reality when they came to the parking lot and found no redhead in sight. He scratched his messy haired head. "Ugh… could it be that girl's at the cab already?"
"She's rather strong, she might even have stopped to go somewhere on the way," suggested Mona, knowing Roxanne wouldn't be there when they got back to the apartment building. If she were lucky, the items in the closet might be unneeded for a long time, and the girl would 'die' from lack of probation or something. If she had gone crazy in the darkness before being let out, that would be much better.
Max sighed. "I guess I made the right choice by giving her the ointment," he said. "I just hope she doesn't plan on doing anything reckless during her 'free time'."
"I'm pretty sure she won't." Mona smiled.
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"Hey! Hey! Let me out of here!" After shouting out these words for sometime, Roxanne settled on the ground, hugging her legs. Of course she would be found—but she was still worried. 'What if it were too late?' she kept thinking, even though she would chuckle uneasily a bit about what would be too late…
I mean, if I'm stuck here for a day or two, what's the worst thing that could happen?
Mona could have already swept Max off his feet so much he could forget about you…
What? I can't even imagine that.
Well, maybe, but what if Mona gets into Max's head? Like convince him simultaneously with her stupid attempts of love that you're no good as a person he can hang out with?
Roxanne paused.
Well?
But instead of keeping silent, Roxanne burst into laughter. You know what, Conscience? Roxanne thought, rubbing a tear out of her eye. Sometimes you are just so pessimistic!
And Conscience shook her head, arms folded as her ward expressed her feelings of mirth.
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"And soon after, I told Lawrence, 'I told you to eat my shorts, not to kiss them!'" Bradley chuckled in the most gentlemanly way possible and dotted his face with a napkin whilst Mona laughed out loud, careful not to overexert herself. She wanted to make sure that Max got the 'right' idea about her.
"Oh, Bradley, you are just too much," Mona calmed down after finishing this sentence, then dipped her spoon into the orange stew in the white bowl in front of her. She took a small sip, succeeding in her look to seem elegant and refined in front of the two boys. Her boyfriend, however, kept his sarcastic glare at Uppercrust.
"Oh yes, you really are too much." Max rolled his eyes tiredly then dug his own spoon into the stew before shoving it into his mouth. The night had been crashing down with lame jokes that only people without lives thought were funny. Mona was obviously being polite. Rolling his own eyes, Uppercrust was just starting to aggravate Max about his current table behavior, but the person he was previously irritated with changed the subject. "The soup is really very good today," he commented. "I can see you're getting better at it, Mona."
The owner of the name mentioned smiled at the compliment. "Why, thank you."
"You made this?" Bradley said, showing the surprise in his voice. "Why, it is absolutely scrumptious!"
"Thank you," she said again. "I do like to control the taste of the food for my pleasure. After all, your enjoyment is my delight." She grinned with a beam that showed all of her canine teeth.
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Morning soon came and at the hospital a janitor with a slightly hunched back and a grim expression scratched his unshaved chin before reaching into his orange suit for the key to the storage room he stood in front of. The corners of his mouth were drooped into heavy creases below his chin. It would seem to people that he was an extremely grumpy person, or otherwise blame it on the fact that Joey the janitor was a bulldog.
But the droopy wrinkles under his eyes hidden by the wrinkles of his natural frown then widened when he caught sight of the redheaded girl curled up in a cat's sleeping position, hidden under his shadow. Hearing the creak of the door, the girl stirred and stretched, then opened her eyes to take in the sight in front of her.
"Wha—g-girl, whatchoo doin' here?" he demanded in a state of surprise. Roxanne, however, was already up and walking toward the stranger.
"Thank you so, so much for letting me out," she said thankfully, grinning as rainbows glimmered in the background. At her smile he seemed to forget his shock in the situation. "I'll be leaving now."
And he waved after her, smiling radiantly, even after she had vanished. When he snapped back to reality, he cursed to himself. "This is another reason why I'm a janitor," he grumbled, reaching in for his mop.
-
Roxanne managed to exit the hospital uneventfully, her mind however clouded with heavy thoughts. Climbing into a taxicab, she knew her destination was back home at her apartment, but living in the same subdivision as Mona, the person who had hurt, threatened, and locked her in the janitor's closet made her feel reluctant.
"Go near Max again and I will assure that you will regret it."
Right. So all she had to was never associate, talk or look Max's way again. It was easy. Right?
Right. Sure it was. But who was she to talk to? Roxanne had moved here to accept a job offer that she knew would start in like two weeks, and she didn't realize all this would come crashing down on her!
The redhead sighed and leaned her head against the car window, staring at the passersby having fun with each other. She decided she would need more friends to occupy herself. But obviously, Mona didn't deserve Max. She was all sweet and kind when they met and Roxanne had no intentions at all to break them up before this. She was sitting back and watching her high school sweet fall in love for real this time, and not run off into a different direction.
…Max deserved best. And Mona needed someone who would never look at anyone else. Roxanne pressed the space between her knees. Yes. She would be the matchmaker, making things better for everyone else.
At this point she expected her Conscience to intervene, to scold her, to complain and grumble. But what she heard instead in her mind was a sigh and these words:
That's a good girl.
-
She soon arrived and she carefully climbed out of the vehicle. As soon as her bandaged leg left the car, the taxi door slammed shut and it sped off, leaving puffs of smoke. She inhaled, then took a step forward. She walked cautiously, her mind whirling with thoughts. She had made up her mind in the car, but confusion seeped in as she had arrived so quickly. However, it wasn't long before a figure came into view.
"My, my, Roxanne, was it?"
The redhead looked up into a familiar face. "Ah! You!" she said. "I remember you at the hospital… Bradley, right?" she smiled brightly. "Nice to meet you!"
"It's much nicer to meet such a pretty girl like you." He took her delicate hands and gave her knuckles a kiss. Hmm, she is rather cute, he thought, smirking through his lips.
"Ohh, you flatter me." She smiled again. "Anyway, I've got to go… as you can see, my apartment is here. By the way, what brings you here?"
I was brought to check the usual rounds by the girl that wishes to persecute you, thought Bradley, smiling. "Well, I visit here a lot now. Max and I were college buddies, and Mona wants to know more about Max's pathetic college life." He chuckled to hide the fact that he thought Max really was pathetic.
Roxanne fell for it, and giggled back, but stopped quickly when she recalled Mona's name being mentioned. Her eyes lowered and she excused herself once more.
"Well, all right," said Bradley, "but since we're going to see a bit more of each other, how about you invite me into your apartment and we get to know each other?"
Roxanne would have much rather be alone, but she remembered that developing other relationships would be good for her before she started helping everyone else. "Oh, I guess that would be a good idea." She smiled broadly, her wide grin spreading largely across her face.
-
"Maxie, what are you doing?"
"I don't know," said Max stupidly, though somewhat serious evidences were visible in his facial features. One knee was sunk onto the couch beside the window and a single gloved finger held the blinds down. "I just have this strange feeling that something bad I should know about it going on."
Well, if you're looking for something bad, you're looking the wrong way, Mona thought dryly. She then plastered an angelic look on her small face and approached her boyfriend with a tray in her arms. Gently but firmly, she grasped his shoulder and pulled him into a sitting position on the couch. She smiled again and handed him a glass of what looked like iced tea. "How about refreshment?"
"Oh, thanks," he said numbly, taking the glass. He took a nip and his head fell back on the couch, eyes closed. With the blinds down, the room was rather dim and Mona smiled, a knee on the couch beside her boyfriend. Before she could lower her face into his, his eyes snapped open and his gloved fingers once more flicked onto the blinds.
"That drink was scrumptious," he said randomly, just to have a conversation go on lightly. His eyes, however, scanned the grounds outside the window guardedly. "It didn't taste much like iced tea though. What was the brand?"
It wasn't iced tea, but you could call it iced wine. Her eyes holding a bored expression, she laid herself down on the divan with her palms behind her head, legs crossed. "See anything?" she asked dryly.
All of a sudden he jumped. "It's Bradley—and Roxanne!"
"WHAT?" she propped herself onto her palms, deeply shocked. She knew this might happen, but it seemed that her daydreams and optimistic thoughts convinced her otherwise. Roxanne wasn't to be expected for weeks and she was here the day after? And with BRADLEY! This thought made her eyes grow as wide as saucers. But before she could cry out a word of understanding, Max was up and out there before any one of them knew it, even Max.
"Uppercrust! Roxanne!" he cried, standing so suddenly in front of them with a crumpled posture.
"Max," said Roxanne, blinking. Her mind whirled. Things weren't going as her mind scheduled.
"Humph. Goof." He glared coldly at his rival from the corner of his eye, and rested a hand on his companion's lower back. "It seems that unexpected and unpleasant surprises are once more brought by you to my intentions."
"What intentions?" Max demanded. A normal person would have been confused by the overactive situation, and that was exactly how the redhead in the middle felt.
"I was just getting to know our little Roxanne better," he replied, getting closer to the blank-minded girl beside him.
"We'll see about that." Max's teeth were bared, and it looked like he was going to march toward them.
It seemed that the jealousy matches had just begun.
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A/N: Sooooo sorry! You see, the computer crashed (again). Have mercy! More details that will prevent this author's death are in my profile. Please check it out.