Annie was very wary as she climbed into bed and watched Maddie get ready for bed as well.
She was worried that Maddie would take her attempt to get back at her to another level. She almost felt too scared to sleep.
Even though technically due to the rules of their feud it was supposed to be her turn to get back at Maddie, but since she broke the rules first by getting back at Maddie yesterday when it wasn't her turn then who was to say that Maddie wouldn't break the rules as well?
Technically it would be fair if she did, after all she was the one to break the rules first? What was she even saying? This stupid feud wasn't even supposed to have any rules in the first place? Could there every be civility in a war?
Annie and Maddie hadn't spoke to each other ever since Wednesday. They shared the same room and a room was supposed to be a safe place which it was.
Which was why there was some sort of unspoken rule that when it was time to go to sleep, neither of them played any tricks or cheated the feud rules.
Even though they were not talking to each other and they still kept the peace of sleeping since they were roommates, there was still very much so a silent war going on.
Neither of them was willing to bend for the other and after days of constant harassment that they were both guilty off. All Annie wanted to do was rest well and have a good night's sleep for a change.
Tomorrow was the day of the admissions test and she was more than nervous, now imagine adding her paranoia and worry to that nervousness, she was internally unable to cope, she was just tired, both physically and mentally.
To be honest, she missed her best friend. They hadn't talked in days, only expressing unsaid words in their trivial pranks; which by the way were words of stubbornness and annoyance.
She wanted to tell Maddie how nervous she felt, how worried she was for the test tomorrow and yet she didn't want to be the one to break first. Maddie looked unfazed in fact she looked as if she could continue this little feud for months, and that was why Annie didn't want to feel weak and succumb to the emotions of missing her best friend because she doubted Maddie felt the same.
Maddie was aware of the fact that Annie was watching her every move. She could literally smell the paranoia and worry and nervousness that Annie was emitting right now.
It was clear that she was scared that she would try to strike at any time, but in all truth, Maddie had no intention of doing so tonight, she was tired.
She had to give to to Annie though, she was able to hold her own for so long. Maddie thought that sooner or later common sense would hit Annie and she would put an end to this stupid feud, but she didn't.
Maddie would be lying if she said that she didn't miss her best friend. She missed her so much, she missed the way they used to talk, she missed hearing Annie's nice soft voice telling her to stop throwing her clothes out of her closet looking for something to wear.
She missed all those little moments they used to have together; but would she be the bigger person and stop this nonsense? Of course not. Saying that she was wrong was not something she liked doing at all. She hated being wrong, and as much as she missed her friend, the thought of being the first to crack made her even more stubborn.
As both Annie and Maddie were busy in their separate thoughts a sudden knock on the door broke both of their dazes as they both turned to look at the door.
Maddie was about to ask who it was when the answer already came.
"Annie, Maddie, are you both in there? We need to talk." said Matt as he knocked again,, excuse him for being so impatient, but this was urgent, very urgent.
"Come in Matt." replied Annie as Maddie looked at Annie, asking her with her eyes if she had asked Matt to come here and she answered with her eyes, 'no, I thought you did.'
Matt opened the door as he walked into the room and looked at both Maddie and Annie.
"What's up Matt?" asked Maddie as she smiled and stood up and put her hairbrush down and went to go and sit on her bed.
Matt took on look at the both of them and he was certain for sure that they had still not spoken to each other. This was just insanity? How could something so small escalate into something this serious?
"Okay, I'm here because we need to talk, the three of us need to have a serious talk." said Matt as he was fed up with this entire thing.
For the past few days he had been torn between Maddie and Annie, he didn't want to be forced to take any sides, he had tried to make them both see reason but they refused to. He ended up having breakfast with Maddie and lunch with Annie and vice versa.
Ever since this stupid feud broke out they had not all hung out together like they used to. Matt was the most annoyed person with this nonsense going on, and to make matters worse Ollie was too busy to even come and try to help him resolve this matter.
He had to deal with all of it himself. That was why he decided that tonight they had to resolve everything. Tomorrow was the test day, there was no way he would allow these two continue to be on bad terms on such an important day.
"About what?" asked Maddie as she feigned ignorance and Matt sent an extremely dirty glare.
"Don't test me Maddie, I'm already at my wits end." he replied sharply as he took one of the chairs of the dressing table and he positioned it in the middle of Annie and Maddie's beds.
"Now there is a serious problem that needs to be addressed." said Matt with a serious expression on his face.
"Oh come on Matt, I don't think that it's that serious for you to be looking like that." said Maddie as Annie nodded and agreed with her.
"Oh but it is very serious, we need to settle this right here and right now." said Matt as the look on his face and tone of his voice left no room for refusal at all.
"Alright, first we need to start with why this whole thing started in the first place." said Matt.
"Annie, you should not have tried to force Maddie to study, it's her choice and no one else's." said Matt as Annie frowned and Maddie nodded triumphantly.
"Maddie, what you did in return was wrong, you shouldn't have gone as far as doing something that would physically hurt Annie, and it was even more wrong for you to refuse to apologize, what you did to her hurt a lot." said Matt as Annie smiled and Maddie frowned.
"Well at least you admit that Annie started it." said Maddie smugly.
"Oh no way! I didn't start it, you did, it's clear that you did!" replied Annie as they broke into another series of arguments about who started what and it was literally driving Matt crazy, he had not had to deal with such childishness ever since he stopped living at home with his siblings,
Right now, it felt like he was reliving his very irritating big brother days when he had to break out petty fights between the girls and small arguments between the boys.
"Stop it! You both started it, by being selfish at the same time!" said Matt in a loud voice that startled both Annie and Maddie as they both remained silent.
"Look, this has been going on for far too long..." said Matt as he sighed.
"I miss my friends... I miss the two of you being friends... I miss hanging out with my friends." said Matt as his soft words were causing Annie and Maddie to feel guilty.
"I know in the moment it seems that the first the back down and apologize is weak, but for the sake of our peace as friends, and more as family, I think we should let this stupid feud go." said Matt.
"It's not doing anyone any good, if anything it's doing more harm than good." said Matt as Annie and Maddie both looked at him and then at each other.
"Deep down I know that you both know that this isn't good at all, come on, be honest, how does not talking to your best friend for days feel?" asked Matt as Annie and Maddie looked at him.
"Come on, go on now, tell me how it feels to be in this stupid fight for days?" asked Matt as the both of them refused to say anything, but Matt was not going to budge at all until he got he answers he wanted.
"Annie, be honest, give me one word that explains how it feels for you and Maddie to be fighting for this long." said Matt as Annie looked at him, with a very sad expression on her face.
"Sad." replied Annie simply as Maddie turned to look at her and she looked at Maddie gloomily.
Maddie tried so hard to avoid Annie's gaze, but she was unable to. As she sat there, looking at Annie, she felt nothing but pure sadness and pain on the inside. All the emotions of loneliness and despair she was keeping bottled up inside started to resurface.
"Exactly!" said Matt.
"And I don't need to ask how you feel Maddie, because I know you feel the same." said Matt as he looked at Maddie who was silent.
"Fighting with your best friend is one of the most silly, petty, things you can ever do because, they are your best friend, if anything, you are only fighting because you both care about each other, but you're both on different pages." said Matt.
"I don't know if these past few days stuck between this stupid feud has taught you anything, but is surely has taught me something." said Matt.
"I miss my friends, I miss us hanging out together and laughing... you don't know how boring and lonely the days are when we're separated not because of distance but because of one stupid argument." said Matt.
"I don't know about you two, but I believe that true friendship is worth more than any stupid argument, or disagreement, or feud." said Matt.
"If we can't be there for each other when we really don't want to be, then how can we be there when we need to be?" asked Matt.
"Okay I know that sounded funny, but you know what I mean, we should all learn to be mature enough put our differences aside for the greater good of everyone else." said Matt.
"Now, this is not a matter of being weak, but a matter of making sure that peace reigns, trust me, that's all that matters." said Matt as Maddie groaned, hating that Matt had so much truth in his words.
She hated that she was starting to feel worse than she already felt about this whole thing.
"At this point in time, I am sure that I have spoken enough words for the two of you to make a decision, and mind you, not just any decision, but a good, well thought out decision of how you are going to end this stupid feud." said Matt, Annie could tell that he was sick and tired of this feud more than she and Maddie were.
He looked visibly tired, and even more so mentally. He looked as if once they decided to end this feud his life would have been fulfilled.
"Okay, so the floor is all yours, don't mind me, just carry on as if I am not here." said Matt as he smiled painfully, wishing with all his might that they would choose to finally end this nonsense.
Maddie and Annie looked at each other. At this point it wasn't even a matter of being weak, but a matter of finding the right words to say to break the ice and extremely frosty atmosphere that their several days of feuding had caused.
Matt on the other hand was silently praying that one of them would please say something nice. He didn't want to have to force them to make up, but the silence was killing him on the inside.
Annie sighed internally, she already knew what she had to do.
"Maddie, I'm sorry..." said Annie as Maddie looked rather surprised for a second before the expression on her face turned to a neutral one.
"I shouldn't have started this whole thing, I know that you didn't want to be a part of this in the first place and yet you still went along with it because of me... I'm sorry that I tried to get you to study by force." said Annie.
"But just know that I didn't do it like that because I was being mean or selfish, but I did it because I care about you, and I just don't want to have to miss my best friend because she's far away and I'm far away." said Annie as she looked down at her sheets.
"But I know now that that wasn't my decision to make at all, so I'm sorry Maddie, could you ever forgive me?" asked Annie as she looked at Maddie who looked as if she was on the verge of tears.
"Oh Matt you are so annoying!" said Maddie as she turned to look at Matt in annoyance as he only chuckled, feeling instantly relieved that his stern talking had worked.
"I'm sorry too Annie, I should have never hurt you by dropping my book on your head, it wasn't fair, and you're right, I did choose the worse type of violence, I'm sorry, could you ever forgive me?" asked Maddie as she turned to look at Annie, internally cursing that Matt had met them at such a delicate time.
"Of course I forgive you Maddie, I did start it first." said Annie as she chuckled and they all laughed, but no one's laugh was as joyous as Matt's who had finally accomplished his mission here successfully.
"How wonderful, now the two of you seal the deal with a hug." said Matt happily as Annie looked at Maddie who stretched out her arms as Annie happily got down from her bed and gave Maddie a warm hug that she had wanted to give her ever since two days ago.
"I'm sorry." whispered Maddie into Annie's ear as Annie only smiled.
"Awww, don't you see how nice it is to finally reconcile?" asked Matt happily as Maddie brother their hug and she and Annie chuckled.
Matt definitely seemed more happy that they were done with this stupid feud than they were.
"I agree with you Matt, I'm so happy we ended this silly feud, I was starting to feel very tense in my neck." said Annie as she rubbed her neck and sat back down on her bed.
"Same here... gosh the top of my head is still aching." said Maddie as Matt looked at the both of them and shook his head.
"The two of you need to find other better ways to solve your differences, please never resort to physical harm again." said Matt.
"You don't have to tell me twice. Curtis was starting to get worried that I would be wearing a neck brace soon." said Annie as they all laughed.
"Well then, my work here is done, I need to go and catch up on some well deserved sleep." said Matt as he stood up. Ever since this nonsense feud started not only had his days been spent in suffering loneliness but his nights had been affected negatively as well.
"This whole thing has made me lose some very valuable hours of sleep." said Matt as Maddie scoffed and rolled her eyes.
"Oh please, you don't even really need to sleep vampire boy." replied Maddie in annoyance as Annie chuckled.
"I'm only half vampire, besides, I still need my rest regardless of if I may be partly nocturnal or not." replied Matt as Maddie scoffed.
"Yeah right, just admit that you're a sleepy head, you like to sleep too much." said Maddie.
"Says the girl who if she doesn't get a good night's rest she's instantly grumpy for the entire day." replied Matt as he decided that it probably wasn't a good idea for him to remain here any longer.
After all, he did not want to end up starting a fight between he and Maddie, they had only just settled the first one.
"Anyway, I'm out of here, see you tomorrow, and goodnight." said Matt as he yawned.
"Goodnight Matt." said Annie as she smiled at him.
"And thank you." she added as he looked at her and smiled.
"What are friends for?" he replied.
"Goodnight to you too Maddie." said Matt as he quickly left their room before Maddie responded with something he would have to stay to reply her.
"That boy is nothing but a coward!" said Maddie as Annie laughed and shook her head.
"It's late Maddie, we better go to sleep." she replied as she laid down on her pillow.
"I guess we should..." replied Maddie as she scoffed and laid her head on her pillow as well.
After a few minutes Annie and Maddie both realized that for some odd reason they could not seem to go to sleep.
Annie sighed internally as she turned to the right.
"Maddie, are you awake?" she called as Maddie turned to the left.
"Mhmm." replied Maddie.
"Can't sleep?" asked Maddie as Annie nodded.
"What about you?" asked Annie.
"Same." replied Maddie.
"So what should we do?" asked Annie as Maddie chuckled.
"Stay in our beds and wait until we finally fall asleep." replied Maddie as Annie chuckled.
"I guess that should work." replied Annie as she shook her head as there was silence for a while.
"You know... I am actually really nervous about tomorrow." said Annie as she looked at Maddie who looked at her.
"Yes, I can tell, you looked so nervous before Matt came in here." replied Maddie as she laughed.
"Well I can't help that I show all my feelings on my face now can I?" asked Annie as she laughed.
"No you can't." replied Maddie as she laughed.
"But don't be nervous." replied Maddie.
"You studied really hard, and I know that all your good efforts won't go to waste." said Maddie confidently as Annie looked at her, completely stunned by her words.