Head over Feet-Euphoria AU Book 1

Chapter Five

"sometimes we refuse to see how bad something is until it completely destroys us"

For as long as Maddy could remember, everybody loved her. She never knew exactly what it was. She just knew she had something special. Something intangible. Something immeasurable...and it gave her confidence. That's why she loved pageantry. Because you didn't have to be the prettiest, or the tallest, or the blondest, or the whitest. You just had to have fucking confidence. And she probably would have gone on to win Miss Universe. If it weren't for that creepy pervert. Her dreams were dashed by some random 50 year old creep who didn't molest her, let alone ever meet her. 

A young Lizzie comforted a young crying Maddy as the TV played the arrest of the pageant pervert.

She refused to eat for a week out of protest. But then she realised how much she liked not doing anything. Maddy would never say it out loud, especially not today because everybody's so political, but she never really had a desire to have a career or job. She was just interested in doing what she did...just without school and the other bullshit.

Her mother was an esthetician, which is a fancy way of saying she gave pedicures to rich people. And her dad was a drunk who was always pretending to hold jobs longer than he did. She quickly realised that there are two kinds of people in the world. The people who sit in the chairs, with their feet in the foot bath. And the people who kneel in front of the foot bath. She would sit and study the women who came in. She'd pay attention to what they'd talk about, and what they wore, and who they were married to. And what she realised was that none of them actually did anything. I mean, they may have had children to raise or like, homes to decorate, but at the end of the day? They. Literally. Did. Nothing. And strangely, none of them had confidence.

She had a thing for Nate for a while before he finally asked her out. I would know, it was all she ever talked about.

Lizzie was on the phone to Maddy. "And he's super hot and super tall", Maddy rambled on as Lizzie read a book, pretending to listen.

At first he was a gentleman. Like, flowers every day kind of gentleman.

And he was smarter than most guys. Plus Nate like, really loved her. Or least that's what she said.

And she did love Nate. That much I knew about their relationship. She loved her relationship with Nate and she always tried her hardest to be a really good girlfriend.

Granted, she didn't always tell the truth. Like, about her virginity. Because the truth-truth is that when she was 14 and on vacation in Panama City Beach... She met a guy who was like, 40. Which, I reprimanded her for when she came back but she said she had it under control. And I believed her. Just like I believed her when she said she had her relationship with Nate under control.

She could tell by looking in Nate's eyes how much her virginity meant to him.

That she was 100% his... Gross.

But that's the thing about guys like Nate. They don't actually want a person. They want something they can own and possess. Like Sharon Stone in Casino.

But the cool thing about Sharon Stone in Casino is that she ran the fuck over De Niro.

And she did the same to Nate.

Seriously, Sharon Stone in Casino was like, Maddy's spirit animal.

She also watched a lot of porn.

Not because it turned her on or anything, it didn't. But if you analysed it really closely there were a ton of good secrets. Even I tried from time to time, and kudos to Maddy, it works.