Author's Note-

    Damn, guys! Do you believe that The Quarterback's Princess just made over 20,000 reads and 1,000 votes. That is just so surreal to me. Honestly! I remember when I was 9 chapters deep and only had like 300 reads and 5 votes. Now look!

    I'm so thankful to every one of you guys that's reading this. Now, the only goal I have for TQP is actually finishing it. Which will happen!

    Thank you all, again.

X O 💕

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Brooke's POV

As soon as I got off the phone with my sleepy family, I heard a knock at my front door. I had every intention of letting this person knock since all the important people already have a key to the house. But the person at the door was very reluctant to leaving me alone since the knocking continued the whole time I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth. And since I could still hear Brody snoring and no one else answered the door, I'm going to assume my parents went on their annual Christmas date for brunch this year instead of dinner.

As I made my way downstairs, I tried to make myself look semi-decent, considering I just woke up a half hour ago. But the moment I looked through the peephole, a quick second of fury overtook me and I no longer gave a fuck what I looked like.

    I swear to God if Leila told her to come here, she was so dead!

    I opened the door and gave the person in front of me the most uninterested look that I could come up with. I didn't move. I didn't speak. Hell, I didn't even blink. That's how badly I didn't want to entertain her.

I should've just ignored the knocking.

    "Hey," Maddison shyly mumbled.

    I leaned against the door frame with my arm propped up against it and wagged my eyebrows at her. A look of hurt spread across her face and for a split second, I thought she was going to turn around and walk away. But she didn't. Instead, she took a deep breath and confidently asked to come in.

    I guess now's the time to have this conversation. I'd rather have had it later rather than sooner but I guess no time is better than the present. Right? I mean, I could always just turn her away. But honestly, I don't think I'll ever be stronger than I am right now to have this talk.

    I rolled my eyes and shrugged at her, then moved to the side to grant her entrance into my house. I can't help but act like a bitch towards her. It's like second nature to me. Whenever I just hear the names Maddox, Maddison, or Angel, my body automatically goes into defense mode.

    As soon as she stepped past me, she went to walk up the stairs, but at the last second made the decision to walk towards the living room instead. It was probably just out of habit since every other time that she came here, she's always just went straight up to my room, even if I wasn't home.

    She took a seat on the two seater in my living room, while I sat on the arm rest of the couch directly in front of her. She looked stiff and uncomfortable as hell. The atmosphere that surrounded us was so awkward, I didn't even want to look at her.

    But I did. Intimidation just radiating out of my pores.

    "I didn't test positive for anything so you can relax over there," I told her.

She guiltily looked down at her feet. That probably wasn't the best line to use to break the ice.

    Oh, well!

    "Umm..." She cleared her throat. "I heard you were in town."

    "Yep."

    She nodded her head at me. "Yeah. So, umm, you look good."

    I put on a fake smile and slightly nodded my head back at her. She knew it was fake. We were friends for nearly two decades. She knows me like the back of her hand, just like I know her like the back of mine.

    I could see anger start to form in her eyes. Her hands started to open and close at her sides as she ground her teeth as if wanting to say something but chose to hold it back. I don't know why? We're both adults here. If she has something to say, she should just man up and say it.

    "How's college," she asked me instead.

    "Alright," I responded in a bored tone.

    "Can you stop being a fucking bitch for like two fucking seconds," she exploded.

    I cockily smiled at her, proud that I was getting under her skin. If there's one thing that Maddison couldn't stand, it was being given one worded answers. Maybe if I kept up this act, she'll leave without us having to have this unwanted talk.

    "Well, you're the one who knocked on my door. I'm just waiting until you get to the fucking point of this little discussion," I said still smirking at her.

    Thank you Cayden Jourdan for teaching me how to irritate the fuck out of someone by using your annoying ass smirk.

    Maddison took in a deep breath, then loudly exhaled. She was dramatically trying to show me that she was trying to keep her emotions under control. I don't know why her emotions are all out of whack. She's the one who lied to me. Betrayed me. Hurt me!

    As if instantly deciding an argument with me wasn't worth her breath, her irritation and anger dissolved off her face. "I'll just say what I came here to say," she sighed. "Then I'll leave you alone." She looked so lost and alone. I almost felt bad for how I was behaving.

    "Whatever," I shrugged, throwing my couldn't-care-less attitude her way.

    After clearing her throat, she inhaled deeply again. She then closed her eyes, trying to gather all of her thoughts before opening them and stared directly into mine. "I just wanted to say how sorry I am. I know you've heard it all before but I really, truly, am sorry, Brooke."

    All at once and out of nowhere, everything hit me. The sadness I felt when I opened Maddox's door and saw him cheating on me. The anger that flowed through my veins and throughout the rest of my body when I heard that he's messed around on me for months. And the hurt that consumed me when I found out that the person who I trusted the most had been stabbing me in the back without me knowing, all while smiling right at my face.

    "Okaaaay," I drug out the word, trying hard as fuck not to let my true feelings at the moment show up on my face. "Is that all," I asked her, while sassily shaking my head.

    I watched as her eyes started to glisten. She was either thinking of how to respond back to me or trying hard as fuck not to let those teardrops fall. I glared at her in suspicion, wanting to see what her next move was. She shifted around on the seat, probably feeling extremely nervous with all the daggers that my eyes kept throwing at her.

But hey, what'd she expect? She said so herself, I've heard it all before.

    As if finally accepting defeat, she nodded her head. "Yeah," she replied. "I guess so."

When she stood up and turned to make her way to the front door, I could feel my own tears start to form. I guess the 'no fucks given' armor that I was wearing was beginning to weaken. But it does makes sense to me on why that was.

    Everyone has a weakness. Even Superman. And it just so happens that Maddie is my kryptonite.

    "Wait," I quickly uttered. She stopped in her tracks and eagerly turned around. "Can I ask you something?"

    "Anything," she whispered.

    There was something I've always wanted to ask her. Something I don't think that I could go another day without knowing.

    We stared at each other, eye to eye, as I started talking. "This whole time, I've always wondered what was going through your head to make you decide to not tell me. Because I know you, Maddie. We couldn't be anymore different from each other but I know, deep down in your heart, you knew the right thing to do was to tell me." A tear suddenly fell from both of my eyes. "So, please tell me why you didn't, Maddie. Because I really need to know."

    She looked away from me and stared at the wall beside us as if trying to remember why. "I didn't know this at the time," she started. "I've always just blamed Maddox for it. I mean, it was his fault." She shook her head. "But it wasn't until after you stopped talking to me that I realized the real reason on why I didn't tell you. And it had nothing to do with Maddox begging me to not say anything." At this point, her tears started to drain down her face, making me continue to cry right along with her. "I'm so sorry, Brooke. I just couldn't do it. I didn't want to be the one to tell you because I didn't want to be the one to hurt you. I didn't want to be the one who had to watch your heart break for the first time."

    She fell back against the couch and covered her face with her hands. Everything in me told me to go over there and comfort her but I was dealing with my own struggles at the moment. I closed my eyes, willing my tears to stop from freely flowing.

    "So, instead I chose to believe him," she continued, obviously with her hands still over her face since her voice seemed muffled. "I believed him when he said that it wouldn't happen again. I believed him when he promised to tell you. I even believed him when he said that he was going to fix everything after you found out. And that was my biggest mistake. Believing him."

    I opened my eyes to see her puffy, red ones staring right back at me. "It had nothing to do with the fact that he was my brother and everything to do with the fact that I'm a coward and a fucked up person."

    "Maddie," I softly cried out to her. "Don't say that."

    "No, it's true. You don't have to sugarcoat it for me. I've already come to terms with it. And if I'm being completely honest here, I wanted him to be the one to tell you because he deserved to see what his actions would do to you." She started cry harder. "Tell me that's not fucked up. Tell me that it doesn't make me a horrible person to want my best friend, my sister, to show my brother how broken she is, just to prove to him how much of an asshole he is."

    Well, when she puts it like that...it does seem pretty horrible.

I paused in thought for a quick moment, thinking about what she just told me. In a weird way, even though logically that explanation does seem stupid, I kind of understand why she couldn't tell me. In my personal opinion, being the bearer of bad news wouldn't have stopped me from telling her the truth because at least at the end of the day, I could've been there to help her fight through the pain.

But Maddie's a softy. She doesn't like seeing the people she loves going through a hard time and she doesn't like to be made the bad guy. Although in this case, that backfired on her.

It may not have be a good excuse, but it's an excuse I can comprehend coming from her. And only from her.

    "What I'm really sorry about, more than anything, is letting you blindly continue being Angel's friend. That's probably the worst part of this all. Letting you stay friends with that bitch."

    "I know, you fucking jackass," I said in a teasing voice with tears still falling down my face.

    She smiled at me, noticing that I was trying to lighten the mood. "But in my defense, I always tried to get you to ditch her. You were the one who always used to tell me to stop being mean."

    "Well, bitch, had I fucking known, obviously I wouldn't have gave you a hard time about it," I laughed.

"Did you ever wonder why the two of us stopped being friends? You've never asked."

"Yeah, but I just assumed you guys just got into a small disagreement and that it was no big deal. I thought if it was something huge you would have said something. But neither of you guys ever did. And now obviously, I know why."

"I'm sorry," she mumbled.

"You said that already," I smiled. "And btw, from now on she will be known as Lucifer."

    "Well, the name definitely fits." She smiled at me, a look of proudness in her eyes. "I'm glad that you're at this point in your life where you can joke about her now. You know, instead of shutting yourself out from the world." She obviously knew this tad bit of information thanks to my ever so loving cousins.

"Yeah, only because I beat that bitch's ass."

"I heard about that. I was so bummed that I missed it. I was gonna go to that party, too, but I decided to skip it at the last minute. I did see her a few days ago, though, and bitch. You. Fucked. Her. Ass. Up!"

I thought back to Friday night. Had I been still in high school, I probably would've been proud of that moment. But since I'm not, I'm actually pretty embarrassed.

I'm grown now. I'm an adult. I shouldn't be acting that way. I'm better than that.

    I have yet to see a video of that fight anywhere but I know it's out there. My biggest fear is that one day Cayleigh is going to see it and be ashamed to call me her mother. And I wouldn't blame her one bit.

    "Honestly," I told Maddie. "Even though she deserved it, especially since she threw first, I shouldn't have reacted the way I did. I should've just walked away, you know. If my school was to ever see that online, I could easily be suspended. Or worse, my scholarships could be taken away."

    She looked at me with a shocked expression on her face. "Holy fuck," she eyed me suspiciously. "Look at you all grown and shit. The Brooke I know would've ran her name through the mud on social media, just like she did to you."

    That's because the Brooke you know doesn't have a four year old daughter. One who also just so happens to have internet access.

    I gleamed at the thought of Cayleigh. She's the reason for this sudden change in me that Maddie is so surprised to find out about. Who would have thought becoming of parent would change your whole outlook on life?

An alarm on Maddie's phone started to go off, causing me to come back to our conversation. "I gotta go," she told me. She shut off the alarm then looked back up at me. "You know, since it's Christmas and all."

I nodded. "Yeah. That's probably the only reason why you came here today. Because you knew I'd be in a good mood with it being my favorite holiday," I joked.

"No," she laughed. "But I did come here today hoping that you'd be in the holiday spirit."

    I walked her to the door and gave her a friendly hug before she walked out. As she got into her car, I yelled out a quick thanks to her for watching out for Leila and Kelsey since I'm not here.

Although I was originally pissed that the two of them still hung out with her, I'm glad that they had someone who could actually be there for them. Unlike me, who can only be there for moral support, since I'm all the way across the Pacific Ocean.

    I watched her as her car disappeared from my street. I don't know if things will ever be the same between her and I. I don't even know if I'll ever see or talk to her again after this. But what I do know, is that I no longer have any ill feelings towards her.

I spent a long time holding all this animosity inside of me. Hatred towards her. Loathing towards Maddox. Malice toward Lucifer's ass. That was a lot of negative energy that I held within. And because of that, I made a lot of poor decisions, including exiling myself from everyone I loved. I gave them a power over me that neither of them deserved to have.

But now, I'm taking that away from them and letting that burden go. So far, it feels nice. Kind of like a weight was just lifted off of my shoulders. As extra as it sounds, I even feel a little more at peace.

    I walked into the kitchen to make my first meal of the day. While I waited for the toaster to warm up, I started to look through Instagram.

    cdnjrdn tagged you in a post.

    When I clicked on the notification, I saw that Cayden posted a picture of Cayleigh and I from when I was making breakfast the morning of my flight back to here. With our backs to the camera, I had Cayleigh in one arm with her legs wrapped around my waist and a spatula in another.

cdnjrdn Get you a girl that can do both 😍
yahboy_jake Yous a blessed man mah dude!
_myabailee97 Agreed 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
x_leilahhh Yup! Just look at that 🍑 @brookexhk Your squat game is strong 💪🏽
theeeyooo I cook for you all the time and I don't ever get an appreciation post.
yahboy_jake Cuz you ugly!
cdnjrdn #thetruth
kelxslaay Damn! You guys are cut throat.
_myabailee97 I still love your ugly ass babe 😘
theeeyooo Thanks baby 😘😂
theeeyooo @yahboy_jake @cdnjrdn🖕🏼🖕🏼
brookexhk 😘💨❤️😍 @cdnjrdn
brookexhk You already know 💁🏽‍ @leilahhh
brookexhk I love your ugly ass too @theeeyooo
theeeyooo 🤚🏼 Sorry B. I'm happily taken 🔒💍
brookexhl 👊🏽👊🏽👊🏽 @theeeyooo 😂