If I Never Knew You (If I Never Knew You Series) (5 page)

I woke up and groaned. I took the pillow from under my head, and put it over my face. My head was throbbing and I felt really groggy.

"Madison, babe, you've got to wake up."

"Nope...don't wanna," I muttered, waving my hand to get Orion to leave me alone.

"Come on, Mad."

I ignored him for a few minutes, then finally I looked up at Orion's face. My hands flew to my body, but I relaxed when I felt that I had a sweater over my dress.

"Do I even wanna know what happened last night?" I moaned, holding my aching head in my hands.

"Maybe not," Orion advised me. "It was nothing serious, if that's what you're worried about. I called your work for you to tell them that you weren't feeling well." I looked at him to see him smiling. "They said that it was about time."

"Oh God," I said, falling onto my side on the bed and using my arm to hide my smile. Orion laughed. Eventually, I uncovered my face and saw he was holding a glass of water with a couple of pills.

"This will hopefully help with the headache," Orion said, noticing the look on my face. I swallowed them and finished the water in four big gulps. "I also texted Andy, and told him you had spent the night here."

"Oh boy, I bet he got the wrong idea," I muttered.

"Don't worry about it. I explained that you were resting here because you were sick, so I think he'll understand," Orion said. "Now, my lovely Madison, you've got the day off. Whatcha wanna do?"

"Well...First, I need to go home and change my clothes," I suggested. Mom would be home soon, too, and I wanted to be there when she got home, if only to avoid a lot of nosy questions about my "illness" last night.

"Good idea," Orion said.

He drove to my place and entertained himself by playing a video game while I took a quick shower and changed into a pair of jeans and a black hoodie. Today was going to be awkward. While I remembered most everything about last night, I didn't want to think about what Orion had said before I had fallen asleep. As long as I was stuck with Damian, nothing was going to happen between Orion and me. Just thinking about what would happen if Damian ever found out made my stomach curdle.

"Okay, now I'm dressed. What now, oh Master of Wonderful Plans?" I asked sarcastically, coming into the living room.

Orion turned off the game, looked at me admirably and complimented me on how beautiful I looked with a smile.

Then his smile suddenly turned mischievous and I didn't know if I should have been scared or not. He told me that he had a surprise in store for me and I wondered what on earth it could be.

Ten minutes later, we were getting out of his car in front of a local indoor go-kart track called Hot Speeds Motorway. I had been there before, but it had been at least two years and in the meantime a huge addition and renovation had been finished. It was a popular spot for nearly everyone who could afford to go all the time.

"Come on," Orion said, taking my hand and pulling me inside. When he looked back at me, I smiled at him in the same mischievous way that he had earlier. "Well, I'm hoping you're a girl who can handle some speed."

Feeling cocky now that my headache was gone, I said, "You are so going down, you know."

"We'll see about that," Orion replied.

He paid for ten tickets and we went through the door to the indoor track. In the equipment area, Orion just grabbed any helmet and put it on, but I spent a while looking at them. They had dozens with all kinds of different patterns and stickers and even some hand-painted ones.

"They're all the same, you know. Or do you especially want a pink one?" Orion mocked me.

"Ew, no," I said. "They are not all the same." I held up two. "This one has less padding then this one."

"Are you afraid?" Orion asked.

"Only for you," I said, picking the helmet with more padding. "And how bad your pride is gonna hurt when I whoop your ass." I flipped my head upside down so that I could get my hair into the helmet before putting it on my head. "Umm, can you help me, please?"

"Sure, boss," Orion said. He stepped forward and fastened the helmet on for me, but I noticed that his fingers stayed on my skin longer than necessary.

"Okay, you two are next," the employee in charge of the pit said to us.

I climbed into a blue cart and Orion chose a black one.

We went around for about twenty laps, as we had lots of tickets. I wasn't counting, but near the end, the guy in charge would hold up his hand and drop a finger to show how many laps we had left. I was ahead of Orion for the most part, but on the last lap he was right beside me the whole way. I couldn't tell, but I figured he might have been letting me win when he spun out a couple times and caught right back up. When our last lap was done, I pulled into the pit with him right on my tail, so I guess you could say I won. At that point, I figured I had had so much fun that I didn't care if he let me or not.

"Wanna go to the arcade and see if we can decide a clear winner in those games?" Orion asked me.

"Psht, you're just mad I beat you at your own game," I laughed.

"Yeah, yeah, rub it in," he said, unconvincingly.

We went through the doorway leading to the parking lot and passed a rather attractive couple. The girl looked at us as we went by.

"Madison?" she said, suddenly. I stopped and turned. She had red hair and hazel eyes. "Madison Summers?"

"Oh, my God!" I said, suddenly recognizing her. "Nora!" She was one of my friends from high school, but I hadn't seen her in a few months. I had been so busy with my work and Damian that I had not kept up my high school friendships.

"I haven't seen you in ages!" Nora cried. "Everyone was saying you were pregnant."

"Uh, no," I said, coolly, somewhat offended that she would believe such gossip.

She looked at Orion with an expression of curiosity on her face.

"Hi, I'm Orion. Nice to meet you, Nora," Orion said, stepping forward and shaking Nora's hand.

"Hey, Orion. Are you Madison's boyfriend?" Nora asked, giving me a sly look.

"Sure, why not?" Orion replied.

"Cool!" Nora said. "This is Colby." She motioned for the guy with her to come over. "He and I have been together for three months next Monday."

"Oh, that's nice," I said.

"Good to finally meet you," Colby said. "Nora's told me some nice things about you."

"Really?"

"So where are you guys going?" Nora asked.

"We were just heading over to the arcade so Madison can try and beat me at a few games," Orion said with a grin.

"Dude, you know the rule...you're supposed to let the ladies win," Colby said.

"Do you two wish to join us then?" Orion asked.

"Sure, if that's okay with you, Madison," Nora said.

"Why not?" I said, smiling.

Nora and Colby went back and got in their cars and I climbed into Orion's. "Why did you do that?" I demanded an answer when Orion got in.

"What? She's your friend," Orion said in his defense.

"Okay, I can understand the invitation to the arcade," I said, "But why did you tell her that you were my boyfriend?"

"Well, what else was I supposed to do?"

"Say you were a friend."

"Well it's too late now," Orion said.

We drove to the arcade without speaking until he pulled into the parking lot and turned off the car. He leaned in close to me. "Hey, if it's really all that bad, I'll fix it. I'll tell her that I was just joking and that we're just friends, alright?"

"Don't worry about it. It's not like I'm planning to see her again after today anyway." In all honesty, I liked thinking that Orion
was
my boyfriend. That idea gave me a warm, secure feeling that having a boyfriend should give you.

After a few minutes, the other car pulled up. "Well, it's show time, Mad. Let's give 'em a hell of a show, right?" Orion laughed.

I LEANED BACK against Orion as he took hold of the control stick for some fighting game we were playing. Colby was going against Orion in this game and it was going to be an exciting match. Nora was standing next to the machine. I had originally been playing Colby, who destroyed me-so much for chivalry-and now it was Orion's turn. I tried to move aside to give him room, but he just came up from behind and wrapped an arm around me, telling me to stay put.

"Hey, do you guys want anything to drink?" Nora asked.

Orion and Colby were both mashing furiously at buttons and muttered that they wanted cokes.

"Madison, would you like to come with me?" Nora asked.

"Alright," I said. We walked out to the long snack bar, which was crowded at lunchtime, and waited in line.

"So how long have you known Orion?" Nora asked, as we waited for our drinks.

"We've been together for a couple of weeks," I lied.

"Really? You guys seem like you've been together forever," Nora said. "How did you meet?"

"Through my brother," I said, not really wanting to give further information. Nora always did seem too nosy for her own good.

I ordered a large blue raspberry slushy and told Nora that I intended on sharing it with Orion even though I was also getting a coke for him. Nora got a chocolate milkshake for herself and a coke for Colby. We also decided to pick up two large orders of fries that we would share with our "boyfriends".

"Hey Madison, think you could still beat me at
Dance Evolution
?" Nora asked after we finished our lunch.

"Oh, I so could," I boasted, hoping that I was still good at it.

"Well, we'll just have to see about that," Nora said.

We found the game unoccupied and I took a long draw from my slushy and handed it to Orion before jumping on the game. Nora and I went through about fifteen minutes of dancing on the highest level, desperately trying to beat each other. Sweaty and tired, I won in the end. Nora gave me a congratulatory hug and we rejoined the guys.

"We should probably be heading back home now," I said. "I'm guessing Andy will be there by now."

"Yeah, we should," Orion said. "It was fun getting together with you two."

"Same for us," Nora said. "Oh, Madison," She gave me a piece of paper with her phone number. "Please give me a call sometime, okay? I really miss you."

"Will do," I replied, put the paper into my pocket and hugged her again before Orion and I left the arcade.

"Nice girl," Orion commented.

"Yeah...I feel so bad about having ignored her texts and calls, though. She sent me a few after we graduated, but I never got back to her. Luckily, she didn't ask me why. God, I'm a crappy friend."

"No, you're not," Orion said. "You just have a lot of other things to deal with."

I realized that what he said was true, thanks to my jerk father, who, besides just leaving us without notice a few years ago, rarely visited Andy and me. This really bothered my mother, who already had enough troubles already, so that she didn't need any more emotional turmoil. That is one reason we were all so close-we all got left and we all had to pick up the pieces together. Together, we were a family; alone, we were nothing.

I realized I was discussing some of these thoughts out loud when Orion got so distracted that we started drifting into the other lane. "Geez, what am I doing?" he shouted.

After we both calmed down, Orion changed the subject and decided to ask me about my relationship with Damian. "So, Andy tells me he's some sort of provider or something?" Orion asked. "He helps you and your mom with bills and other things? What does he get in return?"

"Don't worry about it," I said. "It's none of your concern."

"What happens to my friends
is
my concern, Madison," Orion said.

"I'm telling you not to worry about it!" I shouted.

Suddenly, he pulled the car off to the side of the road and put it into park. Turning to me, he said,

"I'm just worried about you and Andy. I may have only known you a few days, but it's not that difficult to pick up on what's going on. Every time his name gets mentioned, you never want to talk about him. Every time he calls, you don't want to answer. But you do." Orion sighed. "He is intimidating you, isn't he?"

I looked away from him and out the side window.

I felt his hand on my arm, light and gentle, which made me relax somewhat.

"Madison, would you please just look at me?" I turned my head back to face him. "I don't know what's going on with you and him. I don't even think I want to know."

"Then why are you going on about it?" I asked.

"Because I'm worried about you," Orion said. "I know I don't really have any right to be, but I do care about you. You're my best friend's sister, and you've become one of my friends too. I don't want to see you getting hurt in any way."

"I'll be fine," I said. "But thanks...for the concern."

Orion nodded and began driving again. We were at my house within minutes. "Thanks for today, all of it," I said as I gave him a hug.

"It was my pleasure," Orion answered. "Please remind Andy that I'll see him at seven tomorrow, alright?"

"Sure thing," I said. I opened the car door.

"Madison," Orion said. "Andy doesn't have this number, so..." He wrote down something on a small card and handed it to me. "That's my cell phone number. If you ever need to talk, or need me for any other reason, like pretending to be your boyfriend," He grinned broadly, and I giggled at what he had said, "don't hesitate to call, alright?"