Split

by Alicia Rades

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Epilogue

  Split

  Alicia Rades

  Copyright © 2017 Alicia Rades

  All Rights Reserved

  Edited by Melanie Williams

  Cover by The Cover Collection

  Formatted by EK Formatting

  Published by Anchor Group Publishing

  PO Box 551

  Flushing, MI. 48433

  http://www.ancorgrouppublishing.com/

  All rights reserved. Published by Anchor Group Publishing. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

  To all the girls who couldn’t decide.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Epilogue

  CHAPTER 1

  I stared down into the jewelry box, knowing this was the hardest decision I ever had to make. On one end of the box sat an angel wing pendant with a chain attached. The opposite section held a hand-made bracelet with a treble clef charm wove into the purple string. Each one represented one of the men I loved. Each one was a reminder that I had to choose between them or I’d lose them both.

  These two pieces of jewelry were the only ones I owned apart from the two studs in my ears and the ring shaped like a rose I’d bought on a whim a year ago, before all this started. I only remembered I had it a few weeks ago when I opened my great grandmother’s jewelry box to deposit my two birthday presents. There it sat wedged in the ring slot that ran through the middle of the box.

  My eyes locked on the angel wing necklace. Aaron, I’ll choose him, I thought. My gaze drifted to the music bracelet. No, I should choose Logan. I rested my face in my hands and glanced between the two beautiful pieces of jewelry. Why did I have to choose between them? Why couldn’t I keep them both?

  “Maddie?” a voice called my name.

  I jerked in my seat and slammed my right knee against the underside of my desk. My heart rate slowed when I noticed it was only Alaina. She stood in my doorway dressed in her typical jeans and solid swoop-neck tee. A headband—her signature hairpiece—wrapped around her skull. Today, it was burgundy to match her shirt. Her stick-straight brunette hair fell to her shoulders, and her expression read curiosity.

  “Don’t you knock?” I teased after I had a moment to relax.

  My best friend inched her way into my room and crossed over to my queen-sized bed. She tossed her purse, printed with Van Gogh’s Starry Night, onto the mattress. “I did knock. And rang the doorbell. And knocked again.”

  She plopped down at the end of the bed next to my cat, Parrot. It was the worst name for a cat, but my sisters and I had named him when we were little. He got his name because every time we talked, he’d meow back at us like he was “parroting” us. Now he just sat around and didn’t make a sound. He could have easily been mistaken for a thick towel.

  Alaina petted his ragdoll fur and then looked up at me. “No one answered, but I knew you had to be home, so I let myself in.”

  I twisted in my chair to face her, rubbing my aching knee. “It’s okay. Maybe the doorbell is broken or something.”

  It probably wasn’t. I’d been so spacey lately that there was a good chance I didn’t hear it. It was the Monday before the first day of school—my senior year—so my parents were at work. Both of my sisters, Kayla and Amy, had already moved into their college dorms last weekend, so I had the whole house to myself for the next week.

  “It looks like you’re still having trouble deciding,” Alaina pointed out, gesturing to my jewelry box.

  A blush rose to my cheeks. “To be honest, I don’t want to.”

  She picked at her fingernails and shrugged. “Then don’t.”

  “What?” I nearly choked. “They told me if I don’t decide by the time school starts I don’t get either of them.”

  “So, they’re just both going to move on like that?” Alaina snapped her fingers when she said the word that.

  I absentmindedly scanned the room in thought. “I guess so. I have to choose. I’d rather have one of them than neither of them.”

  “Then choose. You’ve had a whole week to think about it since they gave you the ultimatum.”

  “It’s not that simple, Alaina,” I complained, burying my face in my hands. She wasn’t exactly helping. “I’ve thought about it and thought about it, and the truth is, I’m in love with both of them.” I dropped my hands and sucked in a deep breath.

  She narrowed her eyes in skepticism. “You can’t be in love with two people at once.”

  Alaina would never understand. She and Jordan had been dating ever since freshman year. She never had eyes for anyone else and never gave another guy a chance. She would never know how it felt for your heart to ache for one man as equally as it did for another. She wouldn’t understand how picturing a future with one guy could fill you with such happiness only to simultaneously cause pain when you realized that future didn’t include the other.

  “Go with Logan,” Alaina told me. She’d said the same thing at least three times in the last week.

  “But,” I countered, “I don’t know if he’s the right choice.”

  “Then choose Aaron.”

  “I don’t know if he’s the right choice, either!”

  “Well, let’s look at this logically.” She shifted on my purple comforter to cross her legs. “What are the pros and cons of each guy?”

  I shrugged. “Everything about both of them is good.”

  She pressed her lips together. “Well, if you choose Aaron, at least your families will get along.”

  “Okay,” I agreed. “That’s a pro for Aaron.”

  Aaron’s family and I went way back. Our moms had been friends since high school. We grew up playing together at the park and attending each other’s birthday parties. We hadn’t talked much since the start of junior high school, though. It wasn’t until his brother, Chris, graduated college last December that we got to talking again at Chris’s graduation party. Aaron had asked for my number, and we’d been texting ever since.

  “But then again,” Alaina pointed out, “at least Logan is part of our group.”

  Logan and I had started talking around the same time last year. His two best friends, who were twins, moved away over Christmas break, and our friend Emily invited him to sit by us at lunch. We grew close, and I fell for him. The only problem was that I was falling for Aaron at the same time.

  I sighed. “Okay, a point for both. I wish they didn’t make me have to choose!”

  I would never forget the meeting we had last week. Logan invited me out for lunch, only when I reached the café, both he and Aar
on were waiting for me.

  “What’s this?” I’d asked. I plastered on a smile like seeing the two of them side-by-side didn’t bother me.

  Aaron smiled back, but Logan’s face remained expressionless.

  “Maddie,” Aaron said with a sigh, “we need to talk.”

  I wasn’t sure if my heart stopped or raced, but my fingers quivered as I slid into the bench across from them. The red leather squeaked as I sat.

  “It’s time to choose,” Logan had said. Even though I couldn’t read his expression, my heart fluttered in response to the way he looked at me. Even behind his glasses, his blue eyes were breathtaking.

  “Choose? Like, choose an entrée?” I feigned. I reached for the menu at our table and flipped it open, except I could already sense where this was going.

  “No.” Logan gently closed the menu on me, pulling my attention back to him. “We mean, it’s time to choose between us.”

  My heart dropped. Choose between them? But that meant someone would get hurt.

  “It’s not fair to any of us,” Aaron told me. His gaze locked on mine from under dark lashes, and for a moment, the café seemed to disappear. He had perfectly symmetrical features with brown eyes you could get lost in and a to-die-for smile with a dimple on the left side. My insides warmed when I looked at him.

  Logan nodded in agreement. I caught the movement out of the corner of my eye and immediately forced my gaze off Aaron. Only, looking at Logan didn’t help slow my heart rate. Although he wasn’t as physically attractive as Aaron, having a smaller build and unkempt blond hair that fell into his eyes, something about him turned my insides to mush—in a good way—every time I saw him.

  I stared down at the menu in front of me. They were both right. I wasn’t being fair, but that didn’t make the decision any easier.

  “Neither of us wants to be the other guy, Maddie,” Logan stated.

  My gut twisted, causing me to lose the appetite I had when I walked into the café. “I don’t want to lose either of you,” I managed in a whisper, but my eyes remained locked on the image of freshly brewed coffee on the front page of the menu.

  “Neither of us want to lose you, either,” Aaron promised. “But eventually, you can only end up with one of us. The other can’t move on until we know who you’ve chosen.”

  “Hey,” Logan said soothingly. He shifted in an attempt to get me to look at him. I finally did, but it didn’t help with the whole insides-turning-to-mush thing. “It’s clear we both have feelings for you and that you feel something back. But we can’t keep sharing you.”

  My mouth hung open slightly. As soon as I noticed, I snapped it shut. It wasn’t like I was dating either of them. I mean, sure, I’d hung out with them both and we texted a lot, but I wasn’t fooling around with them or anything.

  I swallowed hard. “Do I have to choose right now?” My voice came out so small that I wasn’t sure they even heard me. It felt like my heart was ripping in two, one half longing for Logan while the other reached toward Aaron.

  They both exchanged a glance.

  “We can give you two weeks,” Logan told me. “By the time school starts, you’ll have to choose one of us.”

  I took a deep breath to stall, but eventually, I had to force myself to speak. “What if I can’t decide by then?” I blinked several times to keep the tears at bay.

  “Then we’re both moving on,” Aaron said with confidence, a trait I greatly admired in him. “It’s not fair to lead us on like this.”

  When I couldn’t bring myself to say anything else, they both stood and exited the café. It was like they had a mutual agreement to abandon me at a calculated moment so their words would sink in. Logan went left while Aaron headed right, and in that moment, my heart split in two.

  Alaina’s voice pulled me back to the present. “You still have a week left.”

  “You’re right.” I twisted around in my chair to face the jewelry box again. The angel wing pendant dangled delicately from its chain when I lifted it. “I just don’t know if a week will make any difference.” I fastened the chain around my neck and looked into the mirror on my wall to test how I felt with it on. The corners of my lips twitched up as I thought of Aaron.

  Alaina stood from the bed and situated herself behind me to view my reflection. “It looks pretty on you.”

  My hand came up to gently touch the charm. My reflection stared back at me with sad brown eyes, the bags under them an indication of the toll this decision was taking on me. My dark hair was pulled into a messy bun that needed some serious help, and my pale skin had gone make-up free for the past several days. I hadn’t worked up the courage to leave the house and talk to Logan or Aaron yet, not before I made my decision.

  I reached toward the jewelry box again and pulled the purple music bracelet out of it. “Can you help?” I held my wrist out to Alaina.

  She agreed with a friendly smile. “How’s that?” She tugged at the strings slightly to test how tight it was.

  “It’s fine, thanks.” I looked into the mirror again and rested my knuckles on my chin to see how I felt about Logan’s gift. It was perfect, or at least it would be if I wasn’t distracted by the angel wing necklace hanging across my chest.

  I pursed my lips in frustration. “Forget it. I can’t decide right now. Can we talk about something else?”

  Alaina returned to her spot on my bed, and I leaned my elbow against the back of my chair to face her.

  “I met this guy at the flea market yesterday who was really interested in my paintings,” she told me excitedly.

  “Oh, awesome! How much did you make?”

  Her lips twisted in disappointment. “He didn’t want to buy them.”

  I scoffed. “Typical.”

  Alaina laughed, and I joined in. When she finally composed herself, she continued her story. “He said I was really talented and told me about this art night the library is hosting in a couple of weeks. It’s this thing where people from the community display their work, and at the end they hand out prizes. There’s even a chance someone might buy my art. They’re holding an opening night party where people can come in and look at the art. Then over the next week, the community gets to vote on which ones they like best.”

  “That sounds awesome! How come I’ve never heard of it before?”

  She shrugged. “I guess this is the first year they’re doing it.”

  “Maybe I should enter some of my drawings,” I suggested.

  “If you want to. The deadline is soon, so you better get drawing.”

  “I might have something I could use. You always seem to meet the coolest people at the flea market.”

  Alaina smiled. I knew she really enjoyed going, and it was a great way for her to earn some extra cash on her paintings. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing.

  “Well, if you wanted to sell some of your drawings, we could split the cost of a space,” she suggested.

  I fell silent for a beat while considering her offer. “I don’t know. I don’t feel like I’m good enough to sell my art.” It was one thing to display it for fun. It was another to ask money for it. My drawings meant more to me than almost anything, which made it difficult to accept the idea that someone might find as much value in them as I did. I didn’t want to jump into selling them before I knew they were the best they could possibly be. Besides, it’s not like I could sell my drawings to just anyone. They deserved to go to someone who really appreciated them.

  Alaina rolled her eyes. “Whatever. You’re great. If you joined me, you’d get a kick out of some of the crazies.”

  “The crazies?” I asked warily.

  She laughed. “Oh, we don’t get them often, but yesterday I had a psychic come look at my paintings. She runs that little shop downtown.”

  My brows shot up. “A psychic, huh?”

  “She said one of my paintings looked pretty mystical and would look good in her shop.”

  “So, she bought it?” I asked hopefully.

&n
bsp; Alaina smiled like she was trying not to laugh. “Do they ever? No, but she gave me her card and said I might need it.”

  “I’m sure you will.” The sarcasm was heavy in my tone.

  “Well, maybe you could use it.”

  “Me?”

  Alaina wiggled her eyebrows. “Yeah. Maybe she could tell you which guy you’ll end up with.”

  “It’d be easier than trying to decide on my own,” I admitted.

  “Well.” She dragged out the word.

  “What? You’re not suggesting …?”

  Her expression lit up. “Why not? You won’t listen to me. And girl, you really need to get out of the house.”

  I turned back to my reflection and silently scrutinized my disheveled appearance. I did need to get out, and I could use a sign of some sort.

  “No, Alaina. I’m not turning to some psychic. You know I don’t believe in that stuff.”

  She rolled her eyes again. “Well, of course not. It’s just for fun. And her shop is just down the street from that Chinese buffet you love.”

  I shot out of my seat and grabbed my bath towel from the hook on the back of my door. “Say no more! I’ll do anything for orange chicken. Let me take a quick shower.”

  I rummaged through my dresser for a clean outfit before exiting the room. Alaina’s laughter echoed down the hall on my way to the bathroom.

  After clicking the door shut, I removed my necklace and bracelet. The hot water soothed my nerves slightly, but they quickly returned when I stepped out of the shower and spotted the two pieces of jewelry on the countertop. I dressed and brushed my hair into a high wet ponytail and then shoved the jewelry in my jeans pocket. I found Alaina waiting for me in the living room, fiddling with her phone on the couch.

  “Ready?” she asked when I made it down the stairs.

  “Yep, just let me get my shoes.”

  We climbed into Alaina’s car a few minutes later. I didn’t really care about the psychic thing—I was only doing it to get a ride to the Chinese restaurant—but for a brief moment, I hoped that somehow this psychic could make my heart whole again.