chapter 1

Madison walked on the streets of New York inhaling the butt of her cigarette. She looked at every woman lined up on the sidewalk as she passed them. The ladies of the night, as she called them, were waiting on the lonely men of Brooklyn. Each of them a different story, Rachel for example, her favorite one, became one of them at age 20 to help pay her mom's bills. "Hello miss Rachel". Madison greeted. "Hello to you too Madison". She replied. "How's business"? She asked as she passed by. "Dry,"  Rachel laughed as she answered Madison's question.

She was on her way to the night house. The night house was her favorite place, it was her hideout from everyone, her secret place. She found it the night her mother's boyfriend and her mom were arguing. She couldn't handle the yelling so she ran out of the house and didn't return until the next morning. It was lonely, abandoned, and in need of attention. The next night she returned and cleaned it up. It was good for thinking and escaping. Each night, she goes back to make sure it's well kept.

Madison stared at the night sky as she kept walking. Suddenly someone bumped into her. "Can you watch where you're going dumbass" she stated annoyed at the fact that the stranger crashed into her. "Shit I'm sorry" the deep voice apologized. She quickly looked up to see not a stranger but no other than Noah Andrews. She rolled her eyes and walked away making sure she bumped into him. Noah Andrews is your typical high school jock- i'm sorry high school athlete as he prefers to be called. Calling him a jock annoys him because it's too cliche. Typical.  

She could hear Noah's friends ooh-ing at the action done.  A small grin formed on her face. She liked returning the favors done, especially to the jock. Suddenly she heard it, "You should get a boyfriend, maybe if you had one you wouldn't be this mean ". Noah always told her if she got a boyfriend, she'd be in better moods and easy to talk to. She chuckled and continued her trip to the night house.  

As soon as she arrived she began to sweep and continued working on her door. She'd taken woodshop her freshman year and figured that she might as well make one to keep stray animals out. When finished she began to paint the walls ivory. Although she had found the house 3 weeks ago, she never had the chance to fully explore it. She enjoyed going there to clean it up. Soon her alarm went off notifying her that it was time to go home. She had school tomorrow after all.

The next morning Madison woke up to her mom yelling "Madison wake up it's time for school, you're gonna be late dammit"!  She groaned and removed the blankets from her body. She quickly changed into her white ripped skinny jeans, her cropped grey Nike sweatshirt, and her white Nike air forces. Sighing, she combed her hair and sprinted downstairs into her matte black audi r8.

She sped to her best friend, Riley's, house. "Riles" she said in her playful questioning tone as she stopped in front of him.  "Hey babe," Riley said in his deep voice as he got in her car. "You wanna get breakfast?". "You know damn well I do babygirl" he responded with a chuckle. I know what you're thinking he has a crush on her or oh my God I ship it or..or they're friends with benefits… well you're wrong. The truth is that Riley is and has always been GAY. "Okok just making sure you know" Madison says as she rolls her eyes playfully. "Candid" Riley says as he snaps a picture of her driving. She looked perfect, she always did. Madison is major eye candy, that's something everybody knew. "Lemme guess, I look so perfect and gorgeous as everyone says I do" Madison asked Riley. "You know we can't all look good as you do with no effort, but I can tell you you're unattractive if you want. You do know you're not my type" He said to Madison knowing she didn't like to be told she was perfect.  She grabbed his large hand and kissed it with her right hand as she drove. "I love you riles" she said sounding genuine.  He distracted her from everything: from home, from high school bullshit, everything, everything.

It wasn't a long drive to school, but as always Madison arrived 10 minutes late. "Madison what's your excuse this time," Mrs. Miller questioned. "I don't have one other than your class bores the living shit out of me and so less time in class equals happy maddy", she responded with her usual smart ass comment. That was something to always expect from Madison, she never answered back without a smartass comment or an attitude. That's how it has always been. "I'm sure you know where to go Miss Monroy" the teacher stated clearly sending her to the dean's office. "obviously" Madison replied as she rolled her eyes.

 She walked out of the classroom and down the empty hall towards the principal's office ready to speak to him. She opened the door and sat down. "Why can't you go just one week without saying anything you usually say" Principal Williams asked her without looking up. He knew she was gonna show up to his office considering the fact that Madison always had to say something to get her sent to him. "She asked for it I mean come on I only answered her question, she should have seen it coming the minute I entered the door" Madison defended herself. Williams just laughed, he never bothered to do anything about her attitude and the way she spoke to the staff. She was always polite to the janitors and the lunch staff. As for teachers, well she did have some attitude problems here and there, and that was the thing every situation was funny to everyone but that certain teacher that dealt with her. "You're right, but at least give me a break and stop with the replies and attitude for a week" he replied. "Fine" she agreed.

As always she walked out and went back to class."Your partner for the rest of the semester is Noah" Miller stated as she heard Madison walk back in. Madison sighed, ran her hand through her hair and sat next to the blue eyed jock. "So we meet again but this time as lab partners" Noah said with a smirk. "Shut it Andrews" she responded clearly annoyed. It's not that she hated him, she just didn't see the big deal about him. He was full of himself around her, and she knew it was to impress her, but that only made her not be interested in him or his accomplishments. She grabbed her pencil and started taking her biology notes. She noticed Noah constantly glancing at her. "Take a picture it'll last longer" she remarked. "Okay", he said as he quickly took out his phone. "I'm not serious about that" She quickly said. Why'd he want a picture of her anyways he had his girlfriend the cheerleader? Miller passed out an assignment on DNA. 'DNA this should be easy' Madison thought as she scanned through it. She glanced at Noah and quickly finished her work.

The bell rang and Madison sprinted out of there wanting to get out of school. She pushed to door open of the nearest exit, walked to her car, and drove off. She didn't know where she was driving to, all she knew is she wanted to leave and' go somewhere. She hated school, she didn't know why, but she did. She hated every person in there except for Riley. She was great at everything, straight A student, great at sports but too cool for the student athlete thing, she was everything the people called "losers" wanted to be. She simply just didn't like being there in the presence of everyone that attended. She found herself walking on the sand of Brighton Beach.

She loved the way the hot sand felt under her feet. She loved how grainy it felt. She sat down and stared into the ocean. She enjoyed its blueness, how the waves came crashing in, how much life it contained. She pondered about the undiscovered things that were there, how deep is it really. Madison began playing with the sand. She picked it up and watched it slip through her fingers. She loved everything about the beach just as much as she disliked it. She disliked that it was so unsanitary in every way. You never knew what is it that people did or threw in the ocean, for all she knew some girl on her period got in there or a thousand dead bodies laid there. She thought about all these things.

She got up from the sand and walked to the car. She looked to the ocean from her car, turned the car on, and drove away. She drove around the city for a while listening to random music. She laughed to herself as "Chocolate" by the 1975 came on, she thought about the day Riley and her sang the song and got higher than a satellite. They yelled/sang the song at the top of their lungs to each other.  She adored Riley more than anything and anyone. She would never trade him for anything.

She drove to Starbucks for a light brunch. She ordered a croissant and an ultra caramel frappuccino. She liked this, she liked being in a quiet place where people just let her be. Nobody bothered her asking her on dates or anything close to it. Truth be told Madison is afraid of commitment, she can't handle the thought of being with someone for a month let alone be with someone for the rest of her life. She's too much to handle anyways, so that must be easy to drive people away. Riley knew this about her, he knew that she hated relationships and commitment.

Suddenly her phone chimed notifying her that she received a text. She rolled her eyes as his name popped up on her screen. 'What should we do for our project'? It was no other than Noah Andrews. She decided to call him not wanting to waste more time on a conversation. He answered immediately. "Damn Andrews, you couldn't let it ring a second time" she asked him teasingly. "Whatever, answer my question" he said embarrassed by the fact she was taunting him for his action. "Yeah about that project we don't have one" she stated. "Yes we do, Miller stopped everyone before they left and told us to do a project based on genetics and a child's phenotype" he said matter of factly. Hearing no response from Madison, Noah quickly hung up after saying they could finally have a child together. Madison was left dumbfounded after his statement. She didn't expect that from the guy. He was always so caught up on, Jenny, the pretty cheerleader, who just so happened to be the dude's girlfriend. Well shit, she thought. Why the hell would anybody want to have a kid with her.

She rushed to school to pick Riley up. She needed him right now through all her confusion and on her adventure in the mall and other places. She jumped out of her car and sprinted to English. She knocked on the door, opened it, and apologized for the intrusion. She lied to Ms. Johnson about Williams needing to speak to Riley and dragged him to the car. "What happened" he asked knowing she had something to tell him. "Get in the damn car first" she demanded him. "Oooh something happened" he said excited about the information he'd  soon receive. She once again turned the car on and drove away. "Okay so what happened" the curious boy on her side asked. "Andrews and I were talking about a project we have in bio and out of nowhere he says thanks to the project we could finally have a kid together, like doesn't he have a girl already" "what did you say" Riley questioned. "Nothing he hung up on me as soon as he said that" "well that's something but why are you thinking about it though" he asked another question. "Stop asking stupid, irrelevant questions Riley" Madison said defensively. She honestly didn't know why she kept thinking about it. It wasn't really a big deal. She was just confused, he's a teenage boy wanting to have a kid with her, that didn't make any sense to her.

They finally arrived and entered the mall.  Madison and Riley went straight to the food court for a pretzel and water. Knowing Madison he decided to let her be. She wasn't talking and that meant she needed to think and be on her own for a while. She walked to the shoe store and bought new jordans and nikes. Next she went to a random hat store and bought seven new snapbacks. She walked into a random clothing store and bought a 1975 band t shirt, three ripped jeans, two flannels, and a white t-shirt. She met up with Riley back at the car. She still hadn't said a word until she dropped him off at his house. "Pick you up tomorrow" "yeah, call me if you need anything" Riley responded.

Madison drove back to her house and as she entered, she was happy to hear silence. She layed on her bed and fell into a deep sleep for the day that would consist of never ending nightmares of Dylan.