Soooo...it's safe to say that I completely misread Madelyn's intentions when she invited me into her room.

"What do ya think?" she asked, pointing to the desk that sat against the wall. There were two computer monitors, a mouse and keyboard, a musical keyboard with only two octaves on it, an alarm clock, and an old-fashioned looking microphone to the side.

"Um...it looks...nice? To be honest, I don't really know what I'm supposed to say," I admitted, still standing in the middle of her room.

She facepalmed. Like, Madelyn literally took her hand, raised it, and palmed her face. It was adorable, because I knew it wasn't me she was cringing at.

"Right, of course," she shook her head, laughing softly at herself. "I totally just skipped a step. This whole thing ran smoothly in my head when I thought of it just a minute ago, and I already screwed it up."

Chuckling, I shared, "That's okay. It was cute. Just try again, but maybe explain what it is I'm looking at first?"

"Right," she agreed, turning to me with a closed lip smile. "Well, Riley, this-" she said, gesturing to the same area as before, "-is my podcast setup."

"Woah, really? You have a podcast?" I questioned even though she literally just said that.

Nodding her head, she stated proudly, "Yup. I broadcast every Wednesday and Sunday night. Sometimes I go live randomly throughout the week. It just depends on my mood and if I have time."

"And how many people tune in?" I asked, walking closer to check it out. Everything looked pretty legit.

"At first, it was just a couple hundred from this campus. That was a year ago. But now, people from Nevada State and U of N listen in. So, it's well over a thousand people now, which may not seem like much to some, but to me-"

"No, that's crazy impressive, Madelyn," I interjected, honestly. "Seriously."

When I looked over my shoulder and saw the grin on her face, I felt like I was flying.

"Thanks. I don't show many people this, but...I don't know. I feel like you and I could be great friends, so I wanted to show you."

And then I felt like I was dying.

Oh hellllll no. I cannot survive being friendzoned again. Nope, nuh uh, I learned my lesson last time.

Being friendzoned by Natalie was one of the more painful experiences of my life. Realizing that I let myself be friendzoned was even worse. Now, I had to live with that regret, always wondering what could have been if I had let my intentions and feelings be known sooner. But, all of that happened almost two years ago. I've grown since then, learned from it, and I was not going to make the same mistake twice.

I knew the moment I first met Natalie, when she bumped into me on her way out of Mr. Hatchel's class, that I wouldn't want to be just her friend. Well, I got that same feeling with Madelyn, the day she walked up to me in the park.

Turning until I faced her head on, I looked her dead in her eyes and shook my head in disagreement.

"You and I could be so much more than just friends, Madelyn."

There were a few seconds after that that felt like hours as she just stared at me, those eyes of hers wide and almost dazed. I was starting to get nervous, and really wished she would say something, although I didn't regret saying what I did. It's just...I liked it better when she responded to my lines. Whether it was with a laugh, or with a blush, or just a simple shrug. Anything was better than this!

"Oh wow, sorry," she apologized, looking just as nervous as me. "It's just, that was so smooth it left me speechless."

I stand corrected. Nothing was better than this.

"You, little lady, had me sweating," I admitted, dramatically wiping at my brow which earned a giggle from her.

"I tend to have that affect on people who aren't my friends. Sure you don't want to be one, now?" she teased, but once again I was serious.

"No way."

"Daaaaaaang."

"Hey, it's not that I don't think we'd be great as friends. I just don't want to get trapped in that box. I have been before and it sucked. Plus, I don't know, I just feel like we click. Or...is it just me?"

I was really putting myself out there at this moment, but, then again, the only reason Madelyn even aproached me was because she was dared to. I could be the only one interested here, and as bummed out as I would be, considering how stunning and fun to be around this girl was already, I would respect that.

"It's not just you."

But, man am I glad I don't have to!

"Cool," I grinned.

Nodding her head, she playfully shoved me from the spot in front of her desk. "Move it. I wanna show you how this works."

Raising my hands in surrender, I backed up while she pulled out her desk chair. It was white, leather, and looked extremely comfortable. It went nice with what I just now noticed was her half of the room. Purples, cremes, and white summed up her color scheme, where as,  her roomate was just black, grey, and white.

All the walls were white. That helped the two styles blend better.

"You can pull Lou's chair over if you want," Madelyn said, pointing to the fairly bare desk at the other end of the room. Rolling it over, I got as close as possible to her before sitting down. "Comfy?" she laughed.

"Like you wouldn't believe," I cheesed.

"Good, 'cause we may be here for a while. That is, if you're up for one of those spontaneous broadcasts I talked about earlier."

Raising her brows as a way to challenge me, I easily met it. I'm one of those guys that'd try anything once, so long as it wasn't deadly or illegal. Well...that's not true, actually, now that I think about it. I played hockey in an illegal league for a few years back in Langston Heights. I had quite a few deadly memories at the Ice Box, sooooo maybe I was willing to try more than I thought.

"So, what do you say?" Madelyn asked.

"I'm in."

"Sweet," she grinned, and quickly got to work. "Just a heads up, I like to stay anonymous in this, so no real names. You can call me M, if you want, and I'll leave your name out as well."

"Got it."

I found myself watching her moreso than what she was actually doing. Computers weren't something I was ever any good with, so I didn't even bother trying to undstand how she set everything up. Instead, I studied her.

I always knew she was pretty, but I had no idea how hot she actually was until now, as I watched how focused her face was as she typed stuff into the computer. She was a total tech geek, but man if that wasn't a turn on.

"Okay," she sighed, looking relieved. "I forgot Severus messed with my setup yesterday, so I had to kinda fix things. That's why it took so long, buuuut now we're good to go."

"Severus?" I questioned, confused. There was only one person with that name, that I knew of, and he was a fictional character. Granted, one of my favorites, but still fictional all the same

"Lou's cat," she explained.

"She named her cat after Snape?"

When she nodded in affirmation, I felt a new sense of respect form in my heart for Miss Lousia Day. Any fan of Harry Potter was a friend of mine.

"Here we go," Madelyn said, letting me know we were about to go live, and then she started the podcast. I was surprised when she played a short jingle on the miniature keyboard to the left of her before greeting, "What's up guys, gals, and everything inbetween. Welcome back to another episode of 'Mad Talks'. This was not a scheduled broadcast, but I see some of you have already responded to the alert and tuned in. Thanks for that."

I just sat back and listened as Madelyn finished her introduction, and tried to get a vibe on what kind of podcast this was. It was called, Mad Talks, which I thought was pretty cool. I know she stays anonymous, but when you know it's her behind the mic, the cleverness of the name couldn't be missed. Especially when she explained this next part to me.

"So, tonight I have a special treat for you guys. I have a very, very handsome man sitting next to me, and he's agreed to be my guest. Now, he has no idea what I do during these, but he's about to find out. First, why don't I let the man say hello?" she prompted before sliding the mic over to me.

"Hello, everyone," I said, thankful my throat was clear beforehand. "I'm no one special, just..." I was about to say something basic and generic, like 'just glad to be here', when I looked over at Madelyn and a thought came to me, so I went with it. "...the guy that's going to win M's heart."

Her big eyes looked completely blue as she snapped her head in my direction, a gasp leaving those plump pink lips. With a wink, I chuckled, "I'm sure I'm not the only one interested in hearing her response to that," and placed the mic back in front of her.

With a fierce blush, she looked away and smoothly glossed over what I said, making me laugh at her flustered state. One second, this woman was bold and flirtatious, and the next she was almost shy. It was endearing, and I actually looked forward to seeing which version of her I would get. Either way, I didn't need years to know I liked both sides.

I quickly learned the reason for the podcast being called 'Mad Talks' was because Madelyn would allow viewers to suggest topics for her to rant on. Apparently, her scheduled airings consisted of topics she or her guests were passionate about, and her random ones were mostly of her interacting with her listeners.

"You've got a pretty great idea going with this show," I shared genuinely, once we were done. "I'll have to tune in from now on, so I can hear what goes on in that pretty little head of yours."

"Mmhm, you sure it's not just so you can make me nervous, knowing your listening?" she countered.

Raising my brow slightly, intrigued, I had to ask, "Is that something I do? Make you nervous?"

We were still sitting in front of the desk, but were facing each other now, my knee lightly hitting hers as I swayed in the chair.

"Yes and no. I'm actually extremely comfortable around you for some reason, but then you also make me nervous when you...say certain things."

I knew exactly what things she was referring to, but I was unapologetic about saying them. My intentions needed to be known now, before I had a repeat of the disaster that was my past crush on Natalie Drake. However, I still cared about how my advances made her feel.

"Is that a good or bad thing?"

"We'll just have to wait and see, now, won't we," she shrugged with a coy smirk.

Not long after that, I shared with her that I promised my friend I wouldn't be out too late, and that I had to get back to his dorm.

"Well, thanks for stopping by," she said from her doorway as I stood in the hall.

"I'd love to do it again sometime, maybe after I text you I'm on my way?" I replied, trying to subtly hint that I wanted her phone number.

With a knowing smile, she walked back over to her desk and quickly wrote something down on a sticky note before coming back and handing it to me.

Madelyn Stone
(702)***-5683

"Thank you, Miss Stone," I said with a corny british accent.

Shaking her head in amusement, she slowly started to close her door, only pausing to say, "Goodnight, Riley."

It took everything in me not to fist pump the moment she was out of sight. This had gone better than I ever imagined. Pulling my cellphone out, I made sure I transferred her info into a contact, so I wouldn't have to worry about losing it, and then sent Nat a text to let her know I was about to leave.

Thankfully, her roommate was the type to decorate the door to their room, including putting they're names on it, so I easily found it.

Knocking a few times before opening her door, I stuck my head in to say goodbye. She was already in her pajamas, hair pulled back, and glasses on while watching something on her laptop.

"Hey. Just wanted to check in. What are you up to?" I asked walking in.

"Netflix," she mumbled through a mouthful of Thin Mints. I also noticed she had the giant stuffed Mario that Drew gave her behind her, wiyh all her pillows, and the bouquet of plastic lillies in an actual vase was on her bedside table.

"Huh. Guess his gifts weren't as bad as I thought," I mumbled, suprised.

"What? Oh, no, they were terrible," Natalie said, with a small laugh. "But his gifts always are. You know what he got me for my birthday last year?"

"No, what?" I asked, already struggling to hold my laughter in. This is going to be good.

"A giant version of Lifeguard Barbie," she deadpanned. That's when I cracked, my laughs booming in the room. "I'm not even kidding. It's bigger than Nate. I keep that thing locked away in the back of my closet."

"Oh man, that is terrible. No wonder he was so nervous about giving them to you."

"Yeah," she sighed, looking at the cookies in her lap. "But I keep everything he gives me because...they came from him, y'know? That's what makes them special."

Nodding my head, I smiled softly at her words. There's hope for them, yet.

"Well, on that note, I'm gonna head on back to our guy. Make sure he's not missing me too much," I winked before heading to leave.

"Alright. See ya' later, Baker," she said.

"Goodnight, Nat. Make sure you lock your door after me," I instructed, able to hear and feel the party still raging on downstairs.

"I will. Oh! And Riley!"

"Yeah?"

"I expect to hear all about Madelyn tomorrow," she teased.

"You got it," I winked and then closed the door behind me, leaving the packed sorority house with my phone having one number more than when I came.

"Honey, I'm home!" I sang obnoxiously loud as I barged into Drew's dorm room not long after.

I vaguely heard someone yell for me to, not so nicely, 'shut my trap'. Ignoring them, I closed the door and ran to leap onto Drew, who was laying on his bed with his phone in his hands, but, alas, he sensed what I was about to do and moved out of the way. All I had was a pile of blankets and a mattress to greet me, instead of my best friend.

Pouting, I rolled over and looked at him. "You're no fun."

"And you're freakishly large and just tried to turn me into Flat Stanley. I think your concept of fun is a bit one-sided," he countered.

"Okay, one, I'm tall, not large. There's a difference. One makes me sound desirable, and the other makes me sound hulkish." He rolled his eyes. "And two, you know you low-key have always wondered what it was like to be Flat Stanley, so don't even."

Blinking at me for a moment, like he was having a hard time deciding what to make of what I just said,  Drew shook his head and turned away from me, murmuring, "Good Lord, give me strength."

"Shut up," I chuckled, throwing a pillow at the back of his head.

His whole body tensed up when it hit him, and I just laid there, frozen, waiting to see how he'd respond. When he slowly picked the pillow off the ground and turned to face me, I knew it was on. I won't lie, flash backs of all the times we'd gotten into harmless fights played through my mind, and I smiled at the memories I had with my best friend.

"You've just started a war, brother," Drew grinned dangerously, flipping the pillow over in his hands a few times before suddenly pouncing at me. I barely had a chance to grab my own fluffy form of defense as he started pummeling me with his.

It'd been a couple of years since our last pillow fight, but it was exciting to think we hadn't outgrown that phase of our friendship. And, I know what you're thinking, but pillow fights could be manly. You just had to avoid squealing.

"Aaaaaaah!" I squealed, falling off the bed as I narrowly dodged the throw Drew just beamed at me. "Dude, that could've hit my beautiful face."

Ignore what I was saying before. Pillow fights could be manly, with or without squeals.

"Okay, I'm done," Drew laughed, exhaling a heavy breath as he fell back onto his bed. "That tired me out."

"What were you doing before I got back?" I asked, plopping down on the other one.

"Oh yeah! I came up with a way to get my girl back!" he said with such genuine excitement that I frowned sadly.

"But...Drew, Nat said she wanted space." As much as I wanted the two back together again, I didn't think disregarding what she wanted was going to help him in any way.

"And she'll get it. As much as she needs," he assured me.

"Then why are you-"

"But, when she's got it, I'm doing everything I can to win her back. To earn her trust. I have a plan, Riley, and this is only step one."

When he pulled out a notebook, flipping through several pages full of notes, and handed it to me, my eyes widened.

My God.

He really did have a plan...and it wasn't terrible.

Boom! I think it's only been a week since the last update. Mmhm, I know some of y'all probably doubted me, but look at me now. 😌

Of course,  I had to put a Harry Potter reference in the story somehow. 😉 Expect to meet Severus soon.

Lastly, How many of you remember Flat Stanley? It's a book I read when I was in elementary school.  Oh the memories. 😍😂