Patience

Prologue

Madison Jones sat hugging her knees to her chest with her chin resting atop as she stared into the darkness. She hummed the tune of one of her favorite songs as she slowly rocked back and forth. She was so tired, physically and emotionally.

She heard the creak of the floorboards of the old tree house before she turned her head to find her best friend, Cale Roberts, staring down at her. He didn't look surprised to see her, even though it was in the early morning hours, but his concern was evident.

He set his guitar down before lowering himself next to her. "What are you doing out here?"

In response, Madison nodded her head in the direction of her house. Cale followed her lead, and it was then she assumed he heard the muffled sounds of her parents' yells drifting through the night.

Her parents were still going strong; they had been arguing for over an hour. Madison wasn't sure what had started it this time and honestly didn't care. The sad truth was that she couldn't recall a time during her sixteen years when her parents couldn't find something to fuss about.

Her father worked all the time, he didn't work enough, her mother spent too much money, she should have dressed nicer for a dinner party—the list could go on and on.

"What is it this time?" Cale asked.

Madison shrugged. "I don't know. I just woke up to them going at it."

"You didn't go in there?"

"Nope. I didn't want to get into a screaming match with them." She turned to look at him again. "I don't want to be like that. Like them, well, the fussing anyway. I always feel guilty and it never changes anything."

Cale gently brushed her dark hair away from her face. "Maddie, you are nothing like them. The fussing and screaming part anyway."

Madison offered him a half smile before moving to lay her head on his shoulder. Cale was her best friend and had been since he'd moved into the house next door when they were in the first grade. She was making plans to marry him until they got in trouble for talking in class and had to stand out at recess; it was then she decided a romance that led to trouble was not worth it.

Both being only children and the same age had made it easy for them to become fast friends at home too. She could still remember the summer between the third and fourth grades when their dads decided to build the tree house in the big oak centering their property line. It had been a great summer.

The tree house had started out as a clubhouse and over the years had turned into a place of refuge when she needed to get out of the house or he wanted to play music.

Madison ran her fingers over the strings of his instrument. "Did you come up here to play?"

Cale nodded. "Yeah, I didn't want to wake up my mom and dad, but I couldn't sleep."

Cale pulled off his sweatshirt, then folded it into a makeshift pillow while encouraging her to lie back without saying the words. Madison obliged, rolling onto her side so she could watch him through heavy, sleepy lids.

Cale strummed his guitar a few times before playing the first chords of the melody she was humming earlier. Madison dozed off listening to her friend sing the lyrics to Patience by Guns N' Roses.