Maybe Someday

Chapter Ten

Sydney

It’s been two weeks since Ridge and I have

worked on lyrics together. A few days after Mag-

gie went home, Ridge ended up leaving for six

days because of a family emergency. He was

vague about what the emergency was, but it re-

minded me of when I still lived with Tori and he

was absent from his balcony for several days. A

family emergency was his excuse then, too.

Based on conversations I’ve heard Warren

have on the phone with Brennan, I know it didn’t

have anything to do with Brennan. But he’s never

mentioned having family other than Brennan.

When Ridge returned a few days ago, I asked

him if everything was okay and he said things

were fine. He didn’t seem to want to share any

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details, and I’m trying to remind myself that his

personal life is none of my concern.

I’ve immersed myself in school, and every

now and then, I’ll attempt to write lyrics on my

own, but it isn’t the same when I don’t have the

music to go along with it. Ridge has been home

for a few days now, but he’s spent most of his

time in his room catching up on work, and I can’t

help but wonder if he’s kept his distance for other

reasons.

I’ve been hanging out with Warren a lot and

have learned more about his relationship with

Bridgette. I haven’t had any more interactions

with her, so as far as I know, she still assumes

I’m deaf.

Based on what Warren has told me, their rela-

tionship is anything but typical. Warren never

met Bridgette before she moved in six months

ago, but she’s a longtime friend of Brennan’s.

Warren says that he and Bridgette don’t get along

at all, and during the day, they live separate lives.

But at night, it’s a completely different story. He

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has tried to go into more detail than I care to

hear, so I force him to shut up when he begins to

overshare.

I’m really wishing he would shut up right now,

because he’s in the midst of one of his overshar-

ing moments. I have to leave for class in half an

hour, and I’m trying to finish reading a last-

minute chapter, but he’s intent on telling me all

about last night and how he wouldn’t let her take

her Hooters uniform off because he likes to role-

play, and oh, my God, why does he think I care

to hear this?

Luckily, Bridgette walks out of her room, and

it’s more than likely the first time I’ve ever been

happy to see her.

“Good morning, Bridgette,” Warren says, his

eyes following her across the living room. “Sleep

well?”

“Screw you, Warren,” she says in return.

I’m beginning to understand that this is their

typical morning greeting. She walks into the kit-

chen and glances at me, then at Warren seated

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next to me on the couch. She narrows her eyes at

him and turns toward the refrigerator. Ridge is at

the dining-room table, concentrating on his

laptop.

“I don’t like how she’s up your ass all the

time,” Bridgette says with her back to me.

Warren looks at me and laughs. Apparently,

Bridgette still assumes I can’t hear her, but I’m

not finding much humor in the fact that she’s

talking shit about me.

She spins around and eyes Warren. “You think

that’s funny?” she says to him. “The girl obvi-

ously has it bad for you, and you can’t even re-

spect me enough to distance yourself from her

until I’m out of the house?” She turns her back to

us again. “First she gives Ridge some sob story

so he’ll let her move in, and now she’s taking ad-

vantage of the fact that you know sign language

so she can flirt with you.”

“Bridgette, stop.” Warren isn’t laughing any-

more, because he can see how white my knuckles

are, clasped around my book. I think he’s afraid

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Bridgette’s about to get hit upside the head with a

hardback. He’s right to be afraid.

“You stop, Warren,” she says, turning back

around to face him. “Either stop crawling into

bed with me at night or stop shacking up on the

couch with her during the day.”

I drop my book onto my lap with a loud slap,

then kick my feet up and down against the floor

out of frustration, anger, and flat-out annoyance.

I can’t put up with this girl for another second.

“Bridgette, please!” I yell. “Shut up! Shut up,

shut up, shut up! Christ! I don’t know why you think I’m deaf, and I’m definitely not a whore, and I’m not using sign language to flirt with

Warren. I don’t even know sign language. And from now on, please stop yelling when you speak

to me!”

Bridgette cocks her pretty little head, and her

mouth hangs open in shock. She silently stares at

me for several seconds. No one in the room

makes a move. She turns her attention to Warren,

and the anger in her eyes is replaced with hurt.

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She immediately looks away once the hurt takes

over, and she heads straight back to her room.

I glance over to see Ridge staring at me, more

than likely wondering what the hell just

happened. I lean my head back against the couch

and sigh.

I was hoping that would feel good, but it didn’t

feel good at all.

“Well,” Warren says, “there goes my chance to

act out all the role-playing scenes I’ve been ima-

gining. Thanks a lot, Sydney.”

“Screw you, Warren,” I say, understanding a

little bit where Bridgette’s attitude comes from.

I slide my book off my lap and stand up, then

walk to Bridgette’s door. I knock, but she doesn’t

open it. I knock again, turn the knob, and push

the door slightly open to peek inside.

“Bridgette?”

A pillow meets the back of the door with a

thud. “Get the hell out of my room!”

I ignore her and open the door a little further

until I can see her. She’s sitting on her bed, with

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her knees pulled up to her chest. When she sees

me coming into her room, she quickly wipes her

eyes, then turns the other way.

She’s crying, and now I really feel shitty. I

walk to her bed and sit on the edge of it, as far

out of her reach as possible. I may feel bad, but

I’m still scared to death of her.

“I’m sorry,” I say.

She rolls her eyes and falls back onto the bed

in a huff. “You are not,” she says. “I don’t blame

you. I deserved it.”

I tilt my head. Did she really just admit that

she deserved it? “I’m not gonna lie, Bridgette.

You are kind of a bitch.”

She laughs softly, then folds her arm over her

eyes. “God, I know. I just get so annoyed with

people, but I can’t help it. It’s not like it’s my

goal in life to be a bitch.”

I lie back on the bed with her. “So don’t be

one, then. It takes way more effort to be a bitch

than it does to not be one.”

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She shakes her head. “You can say that be-

cause you’re not a bitch.”

I sigh. She may not think I’m a bitch, but I

sure have been feeling like one lately. “For what

it’s worth, I’m more evil than you might think. I

may not express my feelings in quite the same

fashion as you, but I definitely have evil

thoughts. And lately, evil intentions. I’m begin-

ning to think I’m not as nice as I always thought I

was.”

Bridgette doesn’t respond to my admission for

a few quiet moments. She finally sighs heavily

and sits up on the bed. “Can I ask you

something? Now that I know you can actually an-

swer me?”

I sit up, too, and nod.

“Are you and Warren . . .” She pauses. “You

guys seem to get along really well, and I was

curious if . . .”

I smile, because I know where she’s going

with this, and I interrupt her string of thought.

“Warren and I are friends, and we could never be

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more than friends. He’s sort of oddly infatuated

with this bitchy Hooters waitress he knows.”

Bridgette smiles, but then she quickly stops

smiling and looks straight at me. “How long has

Warren known that I thought you were deaf?”

I think back on the past few weeks. “Since the

morning after I moved in?” I wince, knowing

Warren’s about to experience the side of Brid-

gette we all know too well. “But please go easy

on him, Bridgette. As strangely as you two show

it, he really does like you. He might even love

you, but he was drunk when he said that, so I

don’t know for sure.”

If it’s possible to hear a heart stop, I just heard

hers come to a screeching halt. “He said that?”

I nod. “A couple of weeks ago. We were leav-

ing the club, and he was wasted, but he said

something about how he’s pretty sure he might

love you. I probably shouldn’t be telling you this,

though.”

She drops her eyes to the floor and is quiet for

several seconds, then looks back up at me. “You

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know, most things people say when they’re drunk

are more accurate and honest than the things they

say when they’re sober.”

I nod, unsure if that’s a true fact or just a Brid-

gette fact. She stands up and walks swiftly to the

door, then swings it open.

Oh, no.

She’s about to kill Warren, and it’s partly my

fault. I stand up and rush to the door, prepared to

catch the blame for telling her what Warren said.

However, once I reach the living room, she’s

swinging her leg over his, sliding onto his lap.

Warren’s eyes are wide, and he’s looking at her

in fear, which tells me this isn’t one of her usual

moves.

Bridgette takes Warren’s face in her hands,

and he hesitantly brings his hands to her lower

back. She sighs, staring him hard in the eyes. “I

can’t believe I’m falling in love with such a stu-

pid, stupid a*shole,” she says to him.

He stares at her for several seconds while her

comment registers, and then his hands fly up to

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the back of her head and he crashes their lips to-

gether. He scoots forward and stands with Brid-

gette wrapped around him. Then, without break-

ing for air, he takes her directly to his bedroom,

where the door shuts behind them.

I’m smiling, because Bridgette is more than

likely the only girl in existence who could pull

off calling someone an a*shole and in the same

breath confess her love. And oddly enough, War-

ren is probably one of the few guys who would

find that appealing.

They’re perfect for each other.

Ridge: How in the hell did you pull that

one off? I was waiting for her to come out

here and strangle him. You spend two

minutes with her, and she’s all over him.

Me: She’s actually not as bad as she

seems.

Ridge: Really?

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Me: Well, maybe she is. But I guess I ad-

mire that about her. She’s true to herself.

Ridge smiles, sets his phone down, and drops

his eyes back to his laptop. There’s something

different about him now. I can’t pinpoint exactly

what it is, but I can see it in his eyes. He looks

distraught. Or sad. Or maybe just tired?

He actually looks like a little bit of all three,

and it makes me hurt for him. When I first met

him, he seemed to have everything together. Now

that I’ve gotten to know him better, I’m begin-

ning to think that’s not the case. The guy stand-

ing in front of me right now looks as if his life is

a mess, and I haven’t even begun to scratch the

surface.

Ridge: I’m still a little behind on work, but

I should be caught up by tonight. If you

feel like running through a new song, you

know where to find me.

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Me: Sounds good. I have an afternoon

study group, but I’ll be back by seven.

He smiles halfheartedly and heads to his room.

I know I’m beginning to understand most of his

expressions. The one he just shot me was defin-

itely a look of nervousness.

Ridge

I assumed she didn’t feel like writing tonight

when she didn’t show, and I told myself I was

okay with that.

However, it’s a few minutes past eight, and my

light just flickered. I can’t ignore the rush of ad-

renaline pumping through me. I tell myself my

body is having the reaction it’s having because

I’m passionate about writing music, but if that

were the case, why don’t I get this excited when I

write alone? Or with Brennan?

I close my eyes and gently lay my guitar next

to me while inhaling a steady breath. It’s been

weeks since we’ve done this. Since the night she

let me hear her sing and it completely changed

the dynamic of our working relationship.

That’s not her fault, though. I’m not even sure

if it’s my fault. It’s nature’s fault, because

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attraction is an ugly beast, and I’ll be damned if I

don’t conquer it.

I can do this.

I open the door to my bedroom and step aside

while she comes in with her notebook and her

laptop. She walks confidently toward the bed and

drops down onto it, then opens her laptop. I sit

back down and open mine.

Sydney: I couldn’t pay attention in class

today, because all I wanted to do was

write lyrics. I wouldn’t let myself write

any, though, because it comes so much

better when you play. I’ve missed this. I

didn’t think I would like it at first, and it

made me nervous, but I love writing lyr-

ics. Love, love, love it. Let’s go, I’m ready.

She’s smiling at me and giddily patting her

palms against the mattress.

I smile back as I lean against the headboard

and begin playing the opening to a new song I’ve

been working on. I haven’t finished it yet, but

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I’m hoping that with her help, we’ll make some

headway tonight.

I play the song several times, and she watches

me some of the time, then writes some of the

time. She uses her hands to tell me to pause or

back up or move on to the next chorus or to re-

start the song altogether. I keep a close eye on

her while I play, and we continue this dance for

more than an hour. She does a lot of scratching

out and makes a heck of a lot of faces that I’m

not sure convey that she’s having any fun.

She eventually sits up and tears the paper out

of the notebook, then wads it up and tosses it into

the trash can. She slaps her notebook shut and

shakes her head.

Sydney: I’m sorry, Ridge. Maybe I’m just

exhausted, but it’s not clicking right now.

Can we try this again tomorrow night?

I nod, doing my best to hide my disappoint-

ment. I don’t like seeing her frustrated. She takes

her laptop and notebook and starts to walk back

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toward her bedroom. She turns back around and

mouths, “Good night.”

As soon as she disappears, I’m off the bed and

digging through the trash can. I pull out her

wadded-up sheet of paper and take it back to my

bed and unfold it.

Watching him from here

So far away

Want him closer than my heart can take

I want him here I want

Maybe one of these days Someday

There are random sentences, some marked out,

some not. I read all of them, attempting to work

my way around them.

I’d run for him you, if I could stand

But I can’t make that demand

I can’t be his right now

Why can’t he take me away

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Reading her words feels like an invasion of her

privacy. But is it? Technically, we’re in this to-

gether, so I should be able to read what she’s

writing as she writes it.

But there’s something different about this

song. It’s different because this song doesn’t

sound like it’s about Hunter.

This song sounds a little like it could be about

me.

I shouldn’t be doing this. I should not be pick-

ing up my phone right now, and I should defin-

itely not be contemplating how to persuade her to

help me finish this song tonight.

Me: Don’t be mad, but I’m reading your

lyrics. I think I know where your frustra-

tion is coming from.

Sydney: Could it be coming from the fact

that I suck at writing lyrics and a few

songs is all I had in me?

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I pick up my guitar and head to her bedroom. I

knock and open her door, assuming she’s still de-

cent since she just left my room two minutes ago.

I walk to her bed and sit, then grab her notebook

and pen and place her lyrics on top of the note-

book. I write a note and hand it to her.

You have to remember the band you’re writing

lyrics for is all guys. I know it’s hard to write from a male point of view, since you’re obviously not male. If you stop writing this song from your own point of view and try to feel it from a different point of view, the lyrics might come. Maybe

it’s been hard because you know a guy will be

singing it, but the feelings are coming from you.

Just flip it around and see what happens.

She reads my note, then picks up the pen and

shifts back on her bed. She looks at me and nods

her head toward my guitar, indicating that she’ll

give it a try. I scoot off the bed and onto the

floor, then stand my guitar upright and pull it

against my chest. When I’m working out chords

to a new song, it helps to play this way

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sometimes so I can feel the vibrations more

clearly.

I close my eyes, lean my head against the gui-

tar, and begin playing.

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