{18+ COMPLETE} For the past three years, Bren Hadaway has been preparing to die.
When he was sixteen, he watched his dad murder his mom. And ever since, he's been counting down the days until it was his turn to be at the end of a gun. And Bren has...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I had two phone calls today—two really good phone calls.
The first one was from Madie. We typically only FaceTimed before bed, so when I saw her name pop up around one o'clock in the afternoon, my eyes widened in surprise. And fear.
I swiped my thumb across the screen within seconds of the first ring, whipping the phone up to my ear. "Baby, everything okay?"
But then I heard Madie's giggle. "Everything's fine, Bren."
There was a smile in her voice, and I knew she was telling the truth. With a sigh of relief, I left my forgotten lunch on Caroline's kitchen table and flung myself on the couch.
And then Madie and I talked. We talked about her classes that morning, about how she missed having an entire million-dollar ensuite bathroom to herself—shared dorm bathrooms were not on par—and how I suspected that Caroline had a secret boyfriend she wasn't telling me about.
Finally, I heard Nessa hiss, "Would you just ask him already?"
Madie didn't waste time hissing something back at Nessa. And then Nessa back to Madie. Madie to Nessa. It went on that way for at least a whole minute. I sat back, grinning to myself as I listened.
"Madie," I called eventually, interrupting them. "What is it?"
It went quiet. And then Madie cleared her voice. "Well," she said carefully, "I just thought—I thought maybe..."
"Baby, spit it out," I laughed.
She sighed. "You said you haven't heard from your dad at all, right?"
My smile fell a bit. "Right."
"It's been over two months without a word," she pressed.
A thin line. That was what my mouth had become. "Correct."
"He might not be around anymore," Madie hedged.
"He might not be," I agreed through gritted teeth. I really didn't want to talk about Luke fucking Hadaway. Where was she going with this?
"So..." she started before dropping off.
Nessa groaned Madie's name in the background, and this time, I was right there with her.
I love you, babe, but get to the point.
"Okay, okay!" Madie exclaimed, but I could tell that she was talking more to Nessa than me. That is until she said, "Bren?"
"Madeline?"
"Okay, so there's this gala thing," she spilled, suddenly stumbling quickly over her words. "And I wanted to go to it with Nessa. But she has a date, and so I—I also need, well, want a date. And I know what you said before. I know you said you wouldn't visit. But I was thinking, you know, that since things have been...quiet on your end that maybe you could come. As my date."
