“I promise. And, Vicky… thank you.”
Madison watched her cousin wave toward the camera as if to say she had nothing to be thanked for, and then Vicky turned on her heel and disappeared off the edge of the screen.
Haley frowned at the camera in an “explanation time” way, and said, “Since you’re there, why don’t you buzz me in?”
Madison took a deep breath, then pushed the button. This was not a conversation she was looking forward to.
Three
Madison
Madison positioned herself on a stool at the kitchen bar with a direct view of the entrance to wait for her roommate’s arrival. The few minutes Haley took to ride up in the elevator and reach the apartment seemed to last forever. When she finally got in, Madison’s heart was in her throat. Talking about the wedding fiasco would force her to admit what had happened, even to herself.
“So,” Haley said instead of “Hello.” “Who do I have to beat?”
“Me, unfortunately,” Madison replied, getting up from the stool. “I’m the villain in this one.”
“You?” Haley hung her jacket on the rack behind the door and dropped her backpack on the carpet. “What did you do?”
Before confessing, Madison sought the comfort of a hug, clinging to Haley and collapsing on her shoulder in a fit of sobs. Haley caressed her hair and murmured soft, soothing words.
After Madison had calmed down enough, Haley said, “Get in bed, I’m making tea.”
Madison followed the order and waited under the covers for Haley. She came in a few minutes later with two steaming mugs and settled next to her, sipping the tea and waiting for when Madison would be ready to talk.
Between muffled sobs, Madison managed to spill out everything. “At the wedding, I kissed the groom,” she confessed. “Georgiana’s husband. Ethan and Rose walked in on us making out in one of the guest rooms. Ethan and Tyler began to fight and Rose was trying to stop Ethan from smashing Tyler’s face when Vicky came into the room and took charge of everything. She gave Tyler a pep talk and tried to calm Ethan down, then she sent me home,” Madison concluded, keeping her sad tale as short as she could. At the end, she turned toward Haley, prepared to find judgment and disappointment written all over her best friend’s face and finding neither.
“Okay,” Haley said. “Now I can see why Vicky was so worried about someone outside the family knowing.”
“Because I’m a horrible person, the worst.”
“You only made a mistake. Okay, a big one, but that doesn’t make you a horrible person for life. What I don’t understand is…” Haley frowned. “Were you aware the dude was the groom? I mean, were you out-of-your-mind-drunk or something?”
Madison wished she had at least plausible deniability. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to say she was so drunk she hadn’t realized who Tyler was? But she couldn’t. “I knew,” she confessed. “And I was tipsy, but definitely not drunk.”
“So what made you do it? I know your other cousin is a total bitch, but you’re not mean or vindictive. Did Georgiana do something bad today? Was kissing the groom a crazy revenge play?”
“Yes and no.” Madison covered her face with her hands and shook her head. “Georgiana was her usual nasty self, but nothing out of the ordinary. She didn’t say or do anything I haven’t heard before… It’s just that lately, with everything that’s been going on, I haven’t been myself.”
“Why? What’s been going on? What are you talking about?”
“The fight with Alice about Jack… Haley, she says she’s forgiven me for sleeping with Jack, but she hasn’t, not completely, at least, and I miss our friendship so much…”
“Alice!” Haley seemed to have just remembered they had another roommate. “Where is she?”
“Still at the wedding, or getting here. Ethan is giving her a ride; his girlfriend lives near campus.”
Haley low-whistled. “Awkward.”
“Another thing she can hate me for.”
“Come on, Maddie, Alice doesn’t hate you.”
“I’ll agree with you if she doesn’t come home tonight.” Madison mustered a small smile. “Jack was waiting for her downstairs when I got here, seemed like he’d been there all day…”
“Ah, I didn’t see him, think he got her?”
“One can hope.”
“Anyway, about today… I know you, Maddie. The fight with Alice wasn’t enough to drive you to a make out session with your cousin’s groom on their wedding day.”
Madison looked away, blushing. “No, but it got me to mull over that period of my life… Freshman year?”
“What about it?”
“Nothing special. I just met a lot of assholes that year who weren’t exactly nice to me, and neither was Jack.” Madison threw her mug-free hand up before Haley could say anything. “I’m sure he’s going to make Alice happy, it’s clear he’s in love with her, but back then…”
“No prince charming, I get it.”
Madison scoffed. “Nowhere near.”
“Maddie, you’re circling around what’s really upset you.”
“I’m only saying I was already in a fragile state of mind when David rocked the boat for good.”
Madison felt Haley stiffen at the mention of David—her boyfriend Scott’s brother.
“How?”
“Our breakup wasn’t pretty.”
Haley sighed. “Tell me everything.”
Madison stared at the wall, gaze unfocused, as a memory of that day danced before her eyes.
***
“I’ve told you a thousand times I don’t want to meet here,” David said as he opened his apartment door to find Madison standing on the other side. “Hello” and “come in” apparently forgotten.
“Yeah, but Scott is at my place with Haley, so I thought it’d be okay to hang here for a change,” Madison said. “Plus, I didn’t want to be there right now.”
David finally moved aside to let her in. “Why not?”
“Alice and I had this huge fight. It’s all solved in theory, but I’d still rather not be at home.”
“You and Alice? Not Haley?”
“No, why would I fight with Haley?”
“No reason, apparently.” David sounded annoyed—no, more like disappointed. Madison came closer to hug him, but he shuffled away. “I don’t have time for this.”
“Why? School’s over. You only have to wait for Commencement Day. Are you nervous?”
“No.”
Madison fished in her bag for a gift-wrapped book. “This is for you: my graduation present.”
David arched an eyebrow as he took the gift. “What is it?”
“A collection of my favorite poems.”
David chuckled at first. “Priceless, that’s priceless.” Then he laughed bitterly. “Can you really be that stupid?”
Madison flushed in mortification. “You don’t have to read it if you don’t want to.”
David threw the book across the room, the wrapping paper tearing as it hit the wall. “I’m not my brother!” he shouted. “I don’t care about the words of other tormented souls who’ve been dead for centuries.”
“It’s only a present, no need to be such a dick about it.”
David pinched his nose. “This isn’t working out.”
“What isn’t?”
“You, us, this.”
Tears Madison had fought hard not to shed started to roll down her cheeks. “Why?”
“I can’t stand you. All you do is talk, talk, talk”—David mimicked the action with his hand—“all the time. I can stand you only when you’re asleep.”
“What are you talking about? We’ve been dating for two months and you never said a thing.”
“A mistake, clearly.”
“If you hate me so much, why go out with me at all?”
“You had your purpose. Seems it’s run out.”
“What purpose?”
�
��Madison, I need you to leave.” David pushed past her and reopened the door.
“But—”
“GET OUT!”
***
“I had no idea what to say, Haley, I basically fled the place… It was so humiliating,” Madison said, concluding her tale. “It made me feel… I don’t know, worthless.”
“You’re not worthless,” Haley hissed, pulling her into a tighter hug.
There was a fury in her friend’s words that made Madison lift her head to look Haley in the eye. “What’s up with you? You seem angrier than I am.”
“It’s David. I hate him.”
“Yeah, well… You tried to warn me about him. My bad I didn’t listen.”
“No, you did nothing wrong. He’s a jerk.”
“Yeah, but I’m not such an angel, remember? Anyway, between him, the Alice/Jack drama, and my family… I lost it today.”
“Tell me how it started, precisely.”
“With a ketchup spill.” Madison chuckled bitterly. “So ridiculous! During the buffet, I had ketchup on my fingers after eating a slider burger… I was looking for a napkin when I almost bumped into the bride. Georgiana was a mean bitch as always. She said something about me being a pig and how I was fatter than her even if she was three months pregnant.” Madison closed her eyes. “At that moment I hated her, Haley. I’d never felt a loathing so strong. She made me sick. I wanted to grab her by the hair and smash her face into the mayonnaise dip.”
Haley scoffed. “She sounds precious enough.”
“But of course I didn’t do anything; I just stood there and let her walk all over me. I smiled, cleaned my hands on a napkin, and got back to my table, which, being a bridesmaid, was the same as the bride and groom. For the entire lunch, I had to stomach Georgiana ranting on about how perfect her life was… Tyler was seated right in front of me and seemed equally rattled by Georgiana’s ramblings. I caught him looking at me more than once and I was happy about it. It was like my little secret revenge against Georgiana. I was thinking, ‘You might’ve forced him to marry you by getting pregnant accidentally-on-purpose, but he doesn’t love you.’”
“So you wanted to sleep with the groom?”
“Not really, I was happy with him eye-flirting with me, but then things got out of control. By the end of the meal I just needed to get out. I couldn’t stand Georgiana a second longer, so I walked away to get some air. I was hiding in the garden behind a hedge when Tyler found me. He was being all nice and cute and charming, and I thought, ‘Screw Georgiana.’ I wanted to hurt her. I wanted to hurt myself and all my family… It’s hard to explain. I knew I was doing something wrong and self-destructive, but I wanted to do it anyway.”
“And all of this because of David?”
“David, Georgiana, Alice, Jack, my life in general…” The fact that I’m in love with your boyfriend, Madison added inside her head. “Your pick.”
“But in the end, nothing unrepairable happened,” Haley said. “I mean, it could’ve been horrible, but it wasn’t. Vicky seemed more worried than mad.”
“You didn’t see the glare in Ethan’s eyes. He’s never talking to me again.”
“I’m sure that’s not true. He’ll come around if you leave him time to process.” Haley squeezed her hand supportively. “He probably has no idea what a bitch his sister can be. Vicky will give him a reality check.”
“Mmm, I wouldn’t be so sure. Ethan has such a blind spot when it comes to Georgiana.”
“But not Vicky?”
“No, she loves her sister, but can still see Georgiana’s many flaws. Vicky is the only person in my family I feel close to.”
Haley grimaced. “I’m sorry I gave her such a hard time.”
“Thanks for being my champion, by the way.” Madison smiled at her friend. “I’m sure your protective attitude let Vicky know her nut-job of a cousin was in good hands.”
“You’re not a nut job.”
“Wish I could believe you.”
“But you had a hell of a day. Why don’t you try to sleep it off?”
“Will you stay with me?”
“Sure, let me just get changed.”
Haley went to her room and came back wearing a pastel rainbow unicorn onesie covered in little multicolor stars. She snuggled under the covers next to Madison and comforted her until she fell into a dreamless sleep.
Four
Alice
Alice woke up smiling. Even if her brain was still half-unconscious, the joy was too strong not to seep through all the layers of her mind. She was so used to waking up being the hard part, the moment when she’d have to remember it had all been a dream. That she wasn’t Jack’s girlfriend, that they hadn’t made love all night, and that he’d never see her that way.
Not today.
Today reality surpassed all fantasies. Her toes curled under the sheets as memories of how they’d spent the night IRL flashed before her eyes. Yeah, definitely better than every dream could ever hope to be. For a brief moment she doubted herself; could that really all have happened? Slowly, Alice lifted her lids, eyes focusing at once on the very naked proof that, yes, it had been real.
Jack was lying on the bed next to her. Head tilted to the side on the pillow, dark hair ruffled in all directions, and not a sock on his body. She ran her fingertips down the length of his collarbone and arm, all the way to his wrist and back up. She needed to touch as well as see before she could let herself believe Jack was in love with her after they’d been just friends for three years.
A pang of fear made her chest contract. How would their relationship change now? How would they transition into being boyfriend and girlfriend? Would everything be different? Better? Worse? Would sex ruin everything?
Her mental rant was interrupted when Jack opened one eyelid to peek at her sideways. “Ice, I can hear you thinking too much.”
“I’m not.”
Jack turned sideways to stare at her properly, elbow bent on the pillow, head propped on his hand. “So you weren’t getting all inside your head worrying about how our friendship is ruined forever, and how we’re doomed, and wondering how long before we break up?”
“No?”
“Good.” He pushed a lock of hair away from her face. “Because we’re never breaking up.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I love you.”
Alice’s insides melted. It wasn’t the first time he’d told her, but the words were still so new on his lips. She reached up to touch his face, again wanting to make sure he was real and not just a dream. “I love you, too,” she whispered back.
Jack pulled her into his arms. “Now that you’re mine, I’m never letting you go, Ice. Deal?”
“Deal.” Alice giggled. “But at some point, you’ll have to let me go home.”
“Why?”
Alice pointed to the floor, where her cocktail dress from the wedding lay in a pool of blush chiffon. “As lovely as that dress is, I can’t go around all day wearing it.”
Jack’s mouth curled at the corners. “Fine by me. I prefer you naked anyway.”
“You have a roommate,” Alice chided. “And I need to check on Blue. Remember the little guy who introduced us?”
“Remind me to buy him some expensive bunny treats.” Jack smiled. “Can you have breakfast in a cocktail dress?”
Alice’s stomach grumbled in reply. “Starbucks’ patrons don’t judge, and I’m starving.”
She’d eaten plenty at the wedding, but they’d skipped dinner altogether last night. They’d been too busy doing… what Jack was starting to do now…
Alice’s body tingled under his touch, and with a playful smile, she said, “Now, now. Just because you got lucky once…”
“Oh, yeah?”
Alice squirmed under his gaze.
Jack’s grin was wicked. “So it was just a one-off?”
Whatever sassy reply Alice was trying to come up with was silenced by Jack�
��s lips. Oh, gosh, he was so going to get lucky any time he wanted.
***
Alice was fighting hard not to sing her joy to the world as she unlocked the door of her apartment. With a full belly, the phantom of Jack’s lips all over her body, the more visible trail of beard burns all over her face and neck, and the echo of those simple, life-changing words—I love you—ringing in her ears, Alice was walking on a cloud and sporting a smile so wide her cheeks ached.
The smile, however, was short-lived. It died on her lips as she spotted Haley’s anxious expression. Her roommate was standing in the living room holding her chin with one hand in a pensive pose. When she heard Alice come in, instead of saying “Hello” Haley pressed a finger to her lips and pointed at Madison’s door with her other hand.
“What’s going on?” Alice whispered. Haley closed the distance between them and made to push her back out the door, but Alice resisted. “Wait, I have to get changed and take a shower.”
“The shower can wait,” Haley whispered back. “We need to talk. Put something on and meet me on the roof. Please be quiet, I don’t want Madison to wake up.”
Begrudgingly, Alice shuffled into her room and changed into a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt. She checked Blue’s cage. It had already been cleaned and the bunny fed. Well, even if they didn’t let her shower, at least her roommates were good for something.
That’s when Alice remembered Madison had come home from the wedding in tears yesterday and she’d left Haley to deal with the mess, not sparing the matter a second thought until now. She hadn’t even texted Madison to ask her how she was. And from Haley’s urgency, the issue was far from solved.
I’m a horrible friend.
Now filled with worry, Alice hurried to the rooftop.
“What’s going on?” she asked as soon as she set foot outside.
Haley turned to face her, eyes positively murderous. “I’m going to kill David Williams. I hate him, Alice, I hate him so much.”
“Why? What happened? What did he do?”
Haley sighed. “I’ve been authorized to tell you everything, since Madison wants you to know, but she’s not in the right state of mind to repeat the whole story…”
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