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"I messed up" I stared at them and then the note "She attached a note with the invitation It makes sense now Oh my God, what did I do? She wrote a note" I paused and read froreed to come to my party and meet my friends and parents It , and she thinks that we should wait to tell my dad about us the day after the party at lunch She thinks he will take it better in aI hope you understand and will come to the lunch as well I’et to know each other I knoill come to love you as I do See you soon Ever yours, Maddie" I stopped reading and stared at ht I knew I didn’t know I didn’t know I thought she was ashamed" I stood there frozen, with my stomach in knots "I have to call her, I have to explain"

"I don’t knohat you’re talking about, Logan" Jared looked aton?"

"I have to go and call her" I walked out of the kitchen quickly

"But we need to talk about tonight," Vincent called out after me

"I have to call Maddie!" I shouted down the stairs "I have to fix this" I ran into rabbedI cussed as the phone went to voiceain and I left a an Please call ive ht you were ashahtup and called her nu to voicemail What had I done? Had I just cost myself the love of my life because I was so down on myself? Why had I listened to my heart? I kneho Maddie was I had been so hurt and quick to juIf I had just listened to hts, I would have known that Maddie would never use me, would never be e for ain I had screwed it up I had fked it up royally and I wasn’t sure if she would ever forgive me I knew that no matter how much someone loved you, there was a point of no return There was a point where the love didn’t matter anymore That was a point my mother had reached with my father His behavior had been so destructive that all she wanted to do was leave him The love she had felt for him had faded, and she hadn’t wanted to be with him anymore She had wanted to leave, only fate hadn’t been kind to her I had letto Maddie I had to go to her I had to explain She had to understand I ran back down the stairs with ," I charged up to Vinny "Where are the keys?"

"You can’t borrow it right now" Vinny shook his head

"I have to go to Maddie!" I yelled at hiet the tools at Lowe’s," Jared interrupted me in a hard tone "You knoe have to drive two hours away to get this stuff We don’t have tio to Maddie"

"You don’t understand" I frowned at hio to her now She is all that rabbed ahold of my shoulders "She isn’t all that ht now We need to do this for us This is our chance"

"I need to go to Maddie" I pushed past hian, listen to rabbed ainst the wall His blue eyes bore into mine seriously "This is not the time, you hearJared stared at us both with histhe shock in my mind We had never seen Vincent be the dominant one in our relationship

"I don’t want to lose her," I mumbled and pushed him off of me "I really fked up"

"I’m sorry" His eyes looked sad forroom who is a feeeks from the point of no return I have tuition due in a feeeks, and we have rent Right noe have to do this for us If it’s meant to be, it ork out with Maddie"

"What if she never talks to ain?" My eyes blazed but ain" Vincent nodded at me in assurance "You’ll see"

I stared at him and at Jared and realized that no matter what I wanted to do, no matter how badly I needed to speak to Maddie, I couldn’t just walk out now I had a responsibility to my brothers and to o" I nodded at Jared "You have the details?"

"We’re going to go to Sawyerville to get the rental car, a white Honda Accord Then we’ll go to Lowe’s and get the tools Then tonight we’ll go eat at an Olive Garden and talk about hoe’re going to play pool Instead of going to play pool, ill drive to the address in this envelope Vincent will get out of the car and pretend to go to ring the doorbell You will also slip out of the car and go work on the garage door If anyone is looking, they will see Vincent at the front door and won’t be paying attention to the garage After five o back to the car and ill pull away We will stop around the corner and park the car By that tie Vincent and I will run back to the house, and Vincent will stand watch at the garage door You will break open the car door and work on getting the ignition started I will use the special paint we get fro, and I’ll change the license plate as well We should be able to leave the garage within thirty minutes max Once we are out, Vincent will run back to the white Honda and drive it hoo home We’ll call Joey, and he will call the buyer and set up the sale" Jared grinned "Easy-peasy"

"I just hope it will all go according to plan" I sighed There were soI didn’t want to voice any of thes, and noas a loose cannon as even htened

"It’ll be fine This tiave hi to be too easy Nothing in life was ever this easy, nothing But what could I say? We had coo wrong But I hadn’t foreseen last night happening, either

"We need to ht for ahappens, like if the cops cohbor shows up, I want you both to run I will stay in the garage and take the heat" I putthis, I will call this whole thing off if you don’t agree You got it?"

"Logan, you can’t go down by yourself" Vincent shook his head "That’s not right"

"We’re not all going down if it goes wrong" I was euys will roll your eyes and groan but I’e Mouys to be involved with this, but I know I need your help I will never forgivehappens to either of you"

"Fine," Jared sighed "But only because nothing is going to go wrong We got this, bro, and once we arrive houys can make up"

"Yeah, like you care" I turned away from him with my face red I was sure he was happy at how this had turned out