Chapter 60 He Doesn’t Deserve You
Elara Pov
I waited outside the locker room until most of the other girls had left. I needed to talk to Maddie alone. I needed to say what I had been thinking all through practice.
The way Calix treated her today was completely unacceptable. He yelled at her more than anyone else. He singled her out constantly. He made her look weak and incompetent in front of the whole team.
And I knew there was history between them. I wasn't blind. I saw the way they looked at each other when they thought nobody was watching. I saw the tension. I saw the pain.
But that didn't give him the right to humiliate her.
Maddie finally came out of the showers with her bag over her shoulder. She looked exhausted. Her face was pale and her eyes were red like she had been crying.
"Hey," I said. I pushed off from the wall where I had been leaning. "Can we talk for a minute?"
"I'm really tired Elara," Maddie said. She tried to walk past me. "Can it wait until tomorrow?"
"No," I said firmly. I stepped in front of her to block her path. "It can't wait. We need to talk about what happened at practice."
Maddie's shoulders slumped. "I don't want to talk about it."
"Too bad," I said. "Because I'm going to talk about it whether you want to or not. What Calix did today was wrong. The way he treated you was completely out of line."
"He's the team captain," Maddie said quietly. "He was just doing his job."
"His job isn't to tear you down," I said. My voice was getting louder with anger. "His job is to make the team better. Not to make you feel like garbage."
"Elara please," Maddie said. She looked around nervously. "Can we not do this here?"
"Fine," I said. I grabbed her arm gently and pulled her into the empty locker room. "Now we're alone. Now you can tell me what's really going on."
Maddie sat down on one of the benches and put her face in her hands. She was quiet for a long moment. I sat down next to her and waited.
"He saved my life," Maddie finally said. Her voice was muffled through her hands. "A few weeks ago. A beam was falling and he caught it before it crushed me. He risked himself to save me."
"I know," I said. "I heard about that. Everyone heard about that."
"So why does he treat me like this now?" Maddie asked. She looked up at me with tears in her eyes. "Why does he save me one day and then act like I'm nothing the next? Why does he look at me like he cares and then say things that hurt so much?"
"Because he's an asshole," I said bluntly. "A complicated asshole but still an asshole."
Maddie laughed sadly. "That's one way to put it."
"What happened between you two?" I asked gently. "And don't say nothing. I've seen the way you look at each other. There's definitely something."
Maddie was quiet again. She seemed to be debating whether to tell me the truth or keep lying. I waited patiently. I wasn't going to push her if she really didn't want to talk about it.
"It's complicated," Maddie finally said. She looked down at her shoes. "Really really complicated."
"Most things worth caring about are complicated," I said. "But that doesn't mean you have to deal with it alone."
"I don't know how to explain it without explaining everything," Maddie said. "And I can't explain everything. Not yet. Maybe not ever."
"Okay," I said. "Then just tell me this. Do you have feelings for him?"
Maddie nodded slowly. Fresh tears spilled down her cheeks. "Yes. I have feelings for him. Strong feelings that I shouldn't have."
"Why shouldn't you have them?" I asked.
"Because he doesn't want me," Maddie said. Her voice broke. "He made that very clear. He told me to stay away from him. He told me we could never be together. He told me the mark meant nothing."
"The mark?" I repeated. "What mark?"
Maddie's hand flew to her neck instinctively. She covered something with her palm. "Nothing. Forget I said that."
But I had already seen it. When her hand moved I caught a glimpse of two small puncture wounds on her neck. A claiming mark. A mate mark.
"Oh my god," I said. My eyes went wide. "He marked you? Calix marked you?"
"Please don't tell anyone," Maddie begged. "Please Elara. If people find out it will make everything worse."
"I won't tell anyone," I promised. "But Maddie if he marked you then you're mates. That's not something you can just ignore or walk away from."
"He's trying to," Maddie said bitterly. "He's trying really hard to pretend it doesn't exist. To pretend I don't exist."
"That's not how mate bonds work," I said. "Trust me. My parents are mates. I've seen how strong the bond is. You can't just ignore it. It doesn't go away."
"Tell that to Calix," Maddie said. "Because he seems determined to prove you wrong."
I put my arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a hug. She was shaking. I could feel how much pain she was in. How much she was suffering.
"Why would he mark you and then push you away?" I asked quietly. "That doesn't make any sense."
"He has his reasons," Maddie said. "Reasons he thinks are good enough. Reasons that have to do with keeping me safe."
"Safe from what?" I pressed.
"From him," Maddie whispered. "He thinks being with him will hurt me. He thinks his curse will kill me like it killed everyone else he loved."
"So he's pushing you away to protect you," I said slowly. Understanding was starting to dawn. "That's why he treats you badly. That's why he acts like he doesn't care. He's trying to make you hate him."
"Exactly," Maddie said. She pulled away from the hug and wiped her eyes. "And the worst part is I understand why he's doing it. I understand his fear. But that doesn't make it hurt any less."
"You don't have to carry this alone," I said firmly. "I'm your friend Maddie. That means I'm here for you no matter what. Even when things are complicated and messy and impossible to explain."
Maddie gave me a small sad smile. "Thank you. That means more than you know."