Bad Girl
Madeline’s eyes rolled to the back of her head when she heard Chloe starting to loudly strum her guitar. The inconsistencies told her that Chloe was writing something. It was annoying nonetheless. A huff of air from Madeline’s nose let her annoyance known to the older girl across the room who smirked and strummed louder. Of course she did. Chloe, on the other hand, was enjoying the annoyance that she was causing the younger blonde girl. Madeline’s squirtle-esque face looked cute when annoyed. Chloe strummed a bit louder and glanced at the pastel pink clad girl. Madeline ran a hand through her long blonde hair and pursed her lips.
“Am I annoying you, Madeline?” Chloe asks in a patronizing voice.
“You wouldn’t be asking if you weren’t,” Madeline shot the black haired girl a glare. Madeline’s eyes then trailed down to Chloe's exposed shoulder where a small black tattoo was. It was the word ‘free’ with a bird coming of the last e. “Are you planning on getting anymore tattoos?” Madeline’s attempt at being civil was futile as Chloe made a some sort of a vulgar joke that made Madeline, once again, roll her eyes to the back of her head. These two girls were different by everything in their life. Chloe’s appearance was that of a emo kid who refused to let 2004 go or Marceline from Adventure Time. Chloe’s closet was made up of low cut tank tops, dark colored flannels that she wore over said tank tops, gray and black beanies, and a worn out leather jacket that she refused to not wear over her long sleeved flannels, causing her to die in the summer. But hey, she looked hot in them. Chloe’s favorite pair of shoes, and the only shoes Madeline’s ever seen her wear, were a pair of black worn combat boots. Madeline’s appearance was a pastel lollipop land or Princess Bubblegum from Adventure Time. Madeline’s closet was made up of pastel sweaters, bracelets and necklaces, headbands that have flowers on them, and skirts. Her favorite pair of shoes are these white vans she coloured on. These two are an odd match but who knows, they just might work out.
Brittany and Keiarrah, Chloe’s friends that are overgrad now, know all about the torture that Chloe puts the young girl through. Keiarrah scolds Chloe mainly while Brittany is off to the side being completely in love with Keiarrah.
“But really Cho, lay off the girl she’s a freshman. She’s probably stressed about making good grades and not failing.” Keiarrah’s chiding was soft as she had a soft spot for their young friend. Brittany nods, “Plus, if you like her why be mean? That’s not very nice.” Instead of confronting the conflicting feelings for the girl, Chloe tugs at Brittany’s short bright orange hair and tells she looks like a hotter version of charmander.
“Chloe! Stop making fun of my girlfriend!” Keiarrah pushed the taller girl off her lap as punishment for making fun of Brittany’s fine self. Chloe laughs and gets up to sit in Brittany’s lap, knowing the giant teddy bear was too soft and nice to push her off. She loves these two so much.
Madeline on the other hand, was complaining to Anna, her friend. Anna didn’t have a boyfriend or girlfriend to be cute with because she’s aromantic and asexual and prefers pizza over love. While Anna sat on the floor, making love to a piece of pizza with her mouth, Madeline sat on her bed complaining about Chloe, barely touching the piece of vegetarian pizza on her plate.
"Ok, Mads I get it. You hate this girl. Now are you gonna eat that pizza or not?” Anna having finished her previous piece was looking for more.
“Dude, there’s like a whole other pizza right there!” Madeline pointed to the unopened box of more vegetarian pizza. Anna nodded and dove into the pizza.
“But, like I just don’t get why she likes annoying me so much,” Madeline said taking a sad bite of her pizza, a deep pout on her face.
“That’s why.” Anna said through her chewing. Madeline cocked her head to the side, confuse.
“You look cute upset,” Anna shrugs her shoulders as if it's obvious, which it is.
Madeline shook her head .“That’s not it. She’s probably a sadist or sumthin’ like that.” Anna choked on her fifteen thousandth pizza slice at her younger friend dirty joke.
“She’s corrupted my baby no!” Anna throws herself onto Madeline, cheering up the younger girl.
“But seriously, what is this girl's problem? You've done nothing to her since y'all became roommates,” Anna joked as she rolled off of Madeline. Madeline shrugs.
“All I know is that she’s mean and is a music major. Also she hooks up a lot, like a lot.” Madeline felt a bit uncomfortable talking about this with Anna, knowing her friend is sex repulsed. Anna makes a weird face.
“Like sex or something’ else?” Madeline has to really think hard because she usually puts in her headphones and blasts this really cool kpop girl group called Red Velvet.
“Making out mainly. She kicks them out before it gets any further.” That doesn’t make sense to Madeline. Why bring someone home and lead them on like that? Doesn’t seem right to her. But, what Chloe does is none of her business. Madeline and Anna cuddle and watch this anime they’ve been working on finishing.
A week passes and Madeline is in full stress mode. She has to turn in a portfolio that she’s been working on and it’s still not finished. Mainly because of this tree outside the girls dorms. It’s an old oak tree with twisted branches and gnarly roots that stick out from the ground. Madeline admires the majesty of the nature of the ancient tree and wants to get the best picture of it. Madeline has tried different angles, different times of day, and she even tried decorating it a little and it just feels off. Chloe is still relentlessly teasing her, not helping with the sleeping problem she’s developed. Madeline spends her nights shifting through her photos and tries to sleep in the afternoons after her classes. Chloe is also at the dorm in the afternoon, but she keeps Madeline up since Madeline keeps her up at night. Needless to say but I’m gonna say it anyway, neither of the girls are very happy with the current situation. Chloe watched angrily as Madeline slept, this time putting in earbuds to drown out the noise of Chloe’s guitar. Instead, Chloe decides to snoop through her photos. The portfolio laying on Madeline’s desk is filled to the brim with photos, as well as some scattered on her desk. Chloe likes the shots of nature, which is most of them. They really capture Madeline’s craftsmanship of photography and seem to be true labors of love. There are also several variations of the tree outside their dorm. All the photos are good to Chloe’s untrained eye. Chloe then notices a dark photo with a girl that was half hidden by a binder. Chloe reaches but then the worst happens. Her arm knocks over the water bottle on Madeline’s desk. The lid wasn’t screwed on all the way and water runs everywhere. Chloe scrambles to fix everything and save some photos.
“Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!” Chloe whispers urgently to herself. Madeline’s overwhelming need to pee is what stirs her out of bed to see Chloe standing over her photos and water running all over her desk. She rips out her ear buds and shoves Chloe out of the way. She stares down mortified at what she saw. All of them were ruined, Every single last one.
“Why?” Madeline looks to Chloe, tears filling her eyes. Chloe opens her mouth but closes it.
“Do you really hate me that much?” Madeline’s small voice quivered as she looks to the damage. All that work for the last three months. Ruined. Destroyed. Madeline pushes Chloe out of her way and grabs some clothes and puts them on.
“Where are you going? You don’t need to go out, it’s late you might get kidnapped,” Chloe follows Madeline towards the door, trying to grab her arm.
“Oh like you would care!” Madeline snaps and gives Chloe a death glare that’s different from her usual glares. Chloe feels her heart drop. She really messed up. Madeline leaves and slams the door behind her, leaving Chloe there in tears.
Madeline had gone to Anna’s and cried in her friend’s arms. Anna felt anger boil in her stomach. She had never gave the teasing much thought, but this was crossing so many lines. When morning came, Anna was going to find Chloe and give her a piece of her mind. Chloe on the other hand had taken one of Madeline’s back up cameras and trying to take a bunch of photos to make up for it. She had written a note already but she wanted to do a little more than a measly note. She had taken photos of the lake, the stream, a busy train station, and some other miscellaneous things around the city. When she arrived back to campus, it was sunset. That’s when she saw Madeline, sitting beside the oak tree she had tried to get a good shot of so many times. Chloe gets on her knees and gets a quick photo before running back to the dorm. When she sees the mess from last night she cringes. She cleans it up and painfully throws away the ruined photos. She cleans the desk off and dries it. She tries to set up the photos and note in a pleasing way. Chloe is having a hard time though. She finally decides to just text Madeline and tell her to come to the dorm. Madeline’s response to the text is dry but who can blame her? Madeline reluctantly returns.
The surprise Madeline has when she sees her roommate playing with her hands and looking nervous. Chloe was a confident person, why is she nervous? She looks to her desk and gasps. There are at least twenty photos there, all of things she took pictures of or never noticed. There’s also a note.
Dear Madeline,
I’m so sorry about your photos. It was an accident I promise, I was looking through them and accidently spilled the water. I know you won’t get back those months of taking those shots but I can at least give you something to turn in. I hope you are able to forgive me. I won’t be mad if you don’t.
Sincerely, Chloe.
The photos are all lovely, taken in odd moments but that’s the beauty. Chloe, or ‘Chloe’ Madeline supposes, was unbiased as to what looked good so there was a natural beauty to the photos. One was of Madeline sitting by the oak tree outside their dorm. The photo looked complete with the pink sunlight bathing everything and her there reading. Madeline’s eyes prick with tears at the heartfelt apology. She looks to Chloe who’s standing there picking at her fingers. Madeline feels a tug to her heart and decides to give the girl forgiveness. Chloe notices Madeline’s tears and immediately stresses that the gift wasn’t good enough. Madeline marches over to a stressing Chloe and grabs her face. Chloe is pleasantly surprised when Madeline smashes her lips against her own. They stand there and kiss for what seems like forever.
This feels right.
