Raise The Bar

chapter fourteen

I'M BACK AND I'M SORRY! Enjoy<3

Chapter Fourteen:

The night ends slowly, wind in our hair as the windows are left open and everything steers into the right path when Adrian looks at me. It feels content.

Something I haven't felt in a while. He walks me to my door, staring over at me while my smile is hard to contain when he leans over and plants the sweetest, most perfect kiss on my pink lips.

The cigarette and mint taste eluding from his mouth wraps in sync around my minty tinted mouth from the altoid pack I downed every second I could.

Nothing is worse than bad breath.

A light kiss to the cheek and a whisper in my ear is our goodbye, "Sweet dreams beautiful. I'm calling you tomorrow, come by after practice?"

"I'll see if I can, but I'll try. Goodnight." I say unlocking my door.

I walk inside and see Madison laying on the couch, vogue magazine in hand, and a plate of pasta resting on her upper body while she eats it leaning her chin to the plate.

"What's up," I greet her and her head looks up while she sputters pasta out.

"Don't do this to me, it isn't even midnight and you're back yet?"

"It's dark outside Mads," I defend.

She scoffs, "Wow, you're a real rebel. I can't believe he thought I was serious when I set the curfew," and I glance over at the clock that reads 11:26pm. "Besides that, tell me everything."

So I do. Well, mostly everything. Some stuff is just for us, and I know she'll respect that.

She yawns slightly when I'm nearing the end, "And then we decided to end the night there. He walked me to the door and kissed me goodnight."

Her internal squeal brightens her face up. "All in all it was a successful date?"

"Wildly." But now I am burned out. I need some major sleep and tomorrow requires some tlc and recovery.

"Goodnight, I have a therapy session tomorrow online at the crack."

"I'll always be grateful my therapist hates mornings," I say walking into my room. "Let me know if you need anything."

"Will do, thanks," she smiles at me.

For the past couple years, Madison has been in therapy and recovery for anorexia in her early teenage years. Her relationship with food hasn't always been healthy but she's learned to be more open and honest about it.

I've mostly known her since she's been in recovery but I've seen some of her worst breakdowns and been with her since then. And I'll always stick with her.

____________

I wake up to my phone buzzing obsessively on my bedside table.

I turn over and see names from my family show up.

We're in town at the end of the month. Family dinner? - Benedict

Benedict Philip Laurence, 'Ben,' is my oldest brother at twenty-three years old. He's also the most successful one in the family. He studied political science at Northwestern, then law, at UPENN. Perfect story already. Not to mention his gorgeous wife, Adriana, born in Spain, moved to New York as a child. First in her class at Columbia and rivals since high school where they met six years ago when her mom got a job in Chicago. They dated for four years and got married two years and had a baby girl they named Laura who's now 10 months old.

For sure, I will be in town too. - Caleb

Caleb Alexander Laurence, simply Caleb, is finishing his senior year at MIT. He's the smartest one out of all of us. He's studying quantum physics while I barely finished Chemistry sophomore year. Twenty two years old and the only bad thing he's ever done is get shit faced in Vegas on his birthday with the encouragement of his friends and Ben off of vodka.

yayyyy, im making chocolate chip cookies for you guys - Cassidy

Then there's Cassidy Dakota Laurence, sweet Cass, the cute, young, totally mature for her age, teenager. Vibrant and headstrong, she's also somewhat shy and quiet around people she doesn't know. The most incredible singer, although she rarely sings in front of even me, and cello player I know.

I'll start fixing up your rooms! - Mom

Sounds good kiddos, can't wait to see you. Can you get away for the weekend Gigi? - Dad

Melinda, "Mel," and Colin Laurence. Mom is in family medicine and Dad is a stockbroker. They met when they were both in their freshman year of college at Harvard. Dad got a job in New York and Mom stayed in Boston for Residency until they both decided to move to Chicago where my Dad was originally from.

They kept in touch the entire time and got married not long after coming here. Benedict came a year later, then the rest of us, and now they're the poster type for true love. Honest and open with one another, communicative with their children about their wants and needs. So perfect it makes me wanna die.

I'll be there. Love you guys - Me

I get multiple I love you's back.

___________

The rest of the day is spent doing work for my classes and then heading to work for a few hours. I picked up an extra shift since one of my colleagues left for their semester abroad leaving us kind of high and dry. I text Adrian to let him know I won't be coming by and he sends back the hottest text ever.

I need to get used to this or else my face will look flushed every time it happens.

I get home not too late and decide to watch movies with Emma who came over while Mads is at a class. They have a huge runway show to prepare for in a few days and she's having trouble securing the eight models she needs.

My classes are pretty much all in the afternoon, which I love for Monday's and since the morning ones were canceled.

"JJ just asked if we wanna come to a bar, they're all there," Emma asks me.

"Sure, but can we be back by 11 pm, I don't wanna stay out too late." She completely agrees since she has a class in the morning.

We head out to Treebar, a smaller bar near Northwestern University after I change out of my sweats which were pretty dirty otherwise I wouldn't have bothered.

Walking in, it's absolutely packed and I can even see people from our rival schools here too.

This should be interesting.