Madison (Maddy) Briggs is from Manhattan, New York. She was in 3rd grade, just 8 years old, when the World Trade Centers fell on September 11th, 2001. Her dad was a firefighter, and his station was one of the first on scene that day.
Her dad, Larry...
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"Hey Timmy. It's me. Fuck, I miss you. And I wish you were still here, very much.."
Maddy made sure to clean off the stone, and pluck the pesky weeds from around the base, before taking her leave to home.
———————————————————————— When Maddy did arrive home, she decided that she was going to call her mom and ask if she could fly out Thursday, instead of Friday, like originally discussed. She missed her mom and wanted to spend extra time with her, especially now.
'Hi momma!'
'Hello my peach! Everything all right?'
'Yeah, for sure! Uhm.. but I was just calling to see if you'd maybe be able to get a flight out early Thursday, instead of Friday morning? I would just like to spend that extra time with you. I know that's soon, but figured I'd ask anyway..'
'Maddy Jean, of course I can do that! I'll take an early morning flight, hopefully get there before lunch!'
Maddy could tell her mom was smiling on the phone, 'yay! Great! See you then, and let me know if you have any issues changing the flight or anything! And also.. uh.. I have to do my nebulizer treatments daily now. Right now, I'm on a 10-day steroid kicker, then after that.. albuterol. Doing yearly checkins..." Maddy cleared her throat.
'Oh.. goodness how come?! Is it from that night at the boys' place?'
'Yes.. but I'm fine, and it's not their fault.'
'No of course not! TK called me frantically, a few days later actually, apologizing. I'm just glad you all are okay! And I'm glad you're actually taking care of everything. Good. I'll see you in a few days, peach. We can talk more. Love you!'
'Love you momma!'
As Maddy hung up the phone, she walked over to her kitchen and started herself some lunch.
She also knew that she needed to tell Tk and Carlos that she's using her nebulizer daily now. ———————————————————————— 'Hi guys! What're you doing?' Maddy asked of TK and Carlos when she called them after her shower. She put them on speaker as she fluffed her pixie cut into shape.
'Nothing Mads, just sitting here at dads. What's up?'
'Want some company? I gotta tell you guys something..'
'What's wrong?!' TK said with a sense of panic.
'Nothing bad y'all! Just wanna tell y'all about some medical updates regarding your favorite lady..' Maddy managed to chuckle. 'I'll be over over in like 30?'
'Yeah, that's fine! See ya soon!' ———————————————————————— Maddy pulled up to Owen's house, and beeped before getting out, alerting Carlos and TK to her arrival.
She was met at the door by TK, whom she embraced in a hug. "Alright, alright.. let me in!" She laughed as she playfully pushed passed him.
"Hi C!"
"Hey Mads! What's up?"
"Okay, sooo.. uhm, I went to the doctor the other day," Maddy started to say as she sat on the chair across from the guys, who had taken seats on the couch. "The pulmonologist.. and we just caught up, talked about my lung issue... they did kinda sound like shit." Maddy cleared her throat and looked at her guys, with a smile on her face. "I'm fine."
"Okay...? What's going on?" Carlos became slightly more restless now. Maddy chuckled, "guys... I'm not dying. But y'all are still gonna worry. So here goes, I just have to do daily nebulizer treatments now.. from the smoke inhalation. I'm currently doing a 10-day steroid treatment, then it's once a day with albuterol.. indefinitely. BUT doc did say we're gonna go a year follow-up, so maybe not indefinitely after all.." Maddy chuckled again.
TK and Carlos looked at her bewildered, "okay.. the medicine you were supposed to be taking like weekly, you now have to take daily? That nebulizer?"
"Yeah! And my rescue inhaler becomes just that, super as-needed during the day or whenever! No big deal.. just trying to be more open with y'all about my issues and shit, as you like me to be." Maddy shrugged, before getting up and walking over to the couch— kissing both boys on the forehead, before squeezing in between them.
"Well we do appreciate that dear! Glad it's nothing too serious!"
"Nah! Nothing bad.. as of late."
"Well thank God! You've had enough excitement for like 5 lifetimes..."
"Oh you're telling me!" Maddy chuckled carefully, but that feeling faded as she suddenly remembered something. "Speaking of, is Billy... uh.?
"Yes, he's still being held. His arraignment is schedule for next week, or the week after though I think.."
"Okay, we'll I'll worry about that then, not now! What're we doing tonight boys?" Maddy winked. "Unless y'all want alone time, in which I will promptly leave." She chuckled.
"Nah, you can stay.. we already had alone time." TK winked. Maddy looked at him with wide, disappointed eyes. "Oh come on!" She laughed. ———————————————————————— As the boys cuddled on the couch, and drifted off to sleep, Maddy dug into her bag and got out a newly-added item— a journal. She used to keep a diary when she was way younger; full of dumb stories about dumb boys, secrets she thought she was 'cool' for keeping, her crush on a cute boy named Tyler Kennedy; little girl stuff. Keeping this diary, while menial, actually helped Maddy to process her feelings after her dad died.
She stopped it when she got to high school, since she had TK to talk to. High school was also when she first started seeing a therapist— her high school era therapist actually told her to start journaling (again) as well, but Maddy only did it before sessions.
With everything that's happened to her over the past few months, Maddy knew she needed to start journaling again; it brought her comfort, and allowed to her to get any negative or intrusive thoughts out of her head in-between therapy sessions.
Her pen seemed to move on its own as she swiftly wrote down all of the heartache and trauma that was still present, even the smallest bit, in her head. ————————————————————————
*and all the girlies say I'm pretty fly for a white guy ...*
