Before She Even Knows

Chapter 28 - A girl named Olivia

I'm just looking at the scene in front of me, completely shocked.

Mads is sitting cross-legged on her bed, a box of tissues beside her. Her eyes are bloodshot and she's crying.

No, not crying, she's sobbing.

I wonder what the hell happened to her and whatever it is, I want to take the pain away. If someone did something to hurt her, I'll hunt them down and they will learn the true meaning of the word hurt.

All this time I've known Madeleine, I've never seen her close to anything like crying. Actually, I've never even seen her in a different state other than happy or excited. Seeing her a complete mess and sobbing like that is devastating and I know something is terribly wrong for her to be like that.

She's dressed in her pink rainbow pajamas that normally would match her perfectly, but today it looks misplaced. Her hair is a mess and I know she barely got out of bed today.

I don't know how, but I want to fix whatever there is to be fixed.

"Mads, oh my God, what happened?"

I run to the bed and sit next to her. I throw my arms around her shoulder as if this could make things better, whatever there is to make better and I wish my hug actually had that special power.

"Mark is cheating on me."

I let her go from my tight hug and lean back to be able to look at her, feeling even more shocked than before.

Of all the things that could possible have happened, I was absolutely not expecting that.

''Are you sure? What makes you think that?"

Without answering me, she gets her phone and shoves it to my face, the bright screen almost blinding me for a second. There's a picture on it and I take a while to understand what it is about.

It's actually a photo of another phone with a text message showing on its screen.

"I didn't have time to think about it, when I saw the text on his phone, I just took a picture of it. If I forwarded me the text or screen shot it, he'd know I saw it."

It's a text from Mark to a girl. A girl named Olivia.

Hey, are we still meeting tomorrow morning? - Mark

We're so on. Can't wait! - Oli

Oli? Really?

"I know her. She's in his Business Management class. He texted her during the party last night. Can you believe this? He sent this message when he went to get me a drink. How fucked up is that?"

The fact that she just sweared, makes the whole thing ten times worse than before.

"Mads, maybe this is just a misunderstanding, maybe they were just going to study or do an assignment or something like that. It makes sense if they have classes together. Mark would never do that to you."

"I thought so too Emma, that's why I asked him. Well, not exactly, but I asked him if we could spend the day together just to see what he would say and you know what he said? That he made plans with Logan. He lied, he fucking lied. I called Logan and he said that he didn't even talk to Mark the whole day."

And then she starts sobbing again.

"I'm so sorry Mads, I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for that."

"Yes, there is. He's a fucking cheater. After all this time we're together, how could he?"

God have mercy of Mark's soul if this is true, because I'll kill him with my bare hands.