Survive

Chapter Seven

Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

August 8, 2022.

Madison Stone's Point Of View.

I leave the bathroom after taking a refreshing shower and go to my closet to get an outfit and get dressed.

I take a T-shirt and shorts, both very comfortable, and put them on after putting on my underwear and rubbing a moisturizing lotion on my body.

I put on some perfume and decide to let my hair dry naturally, so I leave the closet, grab Ashley's clothes that I left on top of my armchair and my cell phone that I left on the bed and leave the room, heading for the stairs.

As I am reaching the final steps of the stairs, I hear the door being opened, so I finish going downstairs and go to the entrance of the house, seeing that it is my father who has come home.

"Hi dad, what happened that you came in early today?" I ask as soon as he sets his eyes on me, but he just quickly passes by my side.

"Hi Madison," he speaks quickly and heads toward his office, totally ignoring my question, which doesn't surprise me, since it's customary for him to do that.

My father is a successful lawyer and his schedule is always full, but I really don't think that this is the main factor for our almost non-existent relationship.

My father is a serious, cold man and I think only my mother or some conquest can wipe a smile off his face.

I have the impression that he thinks that to be a good father, he only needs to give me clothes, shoes, food and other things that money can buy and this shocks me because he as a lawyer should know that this is only his obligation as a father.

I am grateful that he provides me with an extremely good life in terms of education, clothing, food, leisure, but he does not provide me with love and affection. I know that in life we can't have everything, but I would really like to receive this from him.

I go to the laundry room of my house, put the clothes into the washing machine, turn it on, and then leave the room, going to the kitchen to make a snack, because I am starving.

"Good afternoon Miss Stone. Would you like something to eat?" Marilyn, the chef in my house, asks as soon as I enter the kitchen.

"I would be very happy if you would make those delicious twinkies of yours for me to eat," I say half slyly as I sit down in the countertop chair and she gives a small laugh.

"Okay, then I will make my delicious twinkies for you," and she already starts to get the ingredients to make the soft little cakes that I love to eat.

"Thank you!"

"It will take about forty-five minutes for them to be ready, because I'm still going to make the dough and the filling. And a few more minutes for them to get to a temperature that you can eat them without burning your mouth, so if you want to go do something else in the meantime, you can go. When it's done I'll send for you, or I'll bring it to you in your room."

"Then I'll go to my room to pack up some things. When the twinkies are ready, you don't have to take them to my room, just call me and I'll come pick them up, okay?" I get up from my chair and pick up my cell phone that was on the countertop, putting it in my pocket.

"Okay," she says as she starts to put the flour in the bowl and I walk out of the kitchen, past the living room and the entrance to the house and then up the stairs to my room.

I go into my room and close the door, take my cell phone out of my pocket, lie down on the bed and start fiddling with it. I enter Instagram and stay for a few minutes watching the stories of the people I follow, but then I decide to try to find Andrey's account, so I go to the search tab of the app and type in his first and last name, seeing his account appear soon after.

I enter his profile, the same one that has 1,863 followers and follows 526 accounts, and I see that he has only two photos posted, has only one highlight, the same one that when I enter I see that it is totally dedicated to soccer, and that the only thing in his bio is an emoji of an American soccer ball. In other words, apparently the only thing you can find out about him on his Instagram is that he is passionate about soccer.

I think and rethink about following him, because I really don't want him to think I wasted my time looking for his Instagram.. yeah, I really did that, but I don't think he needs to know.

I think a little more and decide to look for Ashley's, David's and Ryan's accounts. So I do that, starting with Ashley's, which took me a little while to find, then David's and lastly Ryan's. I follow them and then log into Andrey's account, hitting the "follow" button this time. Now he won't be able to say that I was necessarily looking for his account since I also followed his friends that I met today.

I log out of his account and clear my search history, as I have agony about leaving the accounts I have searched exposed, I log out of the search tab and go back to viewing the stories of the accounts I follow.

After a while I get tired of watching other people's lives and turn off my cell phone screen, get out of bed and go to my bookshelf, picking up the book "The Fault In Our Stars" by John Green to start rereading it for the seventh time. I know that every time I read it, I let a few tears fall because of the way it ends, but I love it so much that after a while, I pick it up again and reread it, because I think it passes a very beautiful message "live each moment as if it were your last". I lie down on the bed again and open the book, starting to read it right away.

I like the book so much that I don't realize it's been a while since I picked it up until I see I'm already on the 29th page and Angelina knocks and opens my bedroom door saying my snack is ready, making me agree, close my book, grab my cell phone and go downstairs.

"Your snack is served in the dining room," Angelina says as she realizes I'm heading for the kitchen, so I agree, turning down the hall and heading for the dining room.

I go in and sit down on one of the chairs at the table. I take the empty glass that is on the table and put some of the juice that appears to be orange juice in it, take one of the small cakes and take a bite, feeling how soft and delicious it is. Marilyn is really great at what she does.

I open my book again and read it as I eat until a notification arrives on my cell phone, causing me to pick it up to see what it is.

I see that everyone has followed me back and that Ashley and Andrey have liked all three of the posts I have on my profile. I also see that there is a new message on my direct, so I press on it to check who it is from, seeing right after that it is from Andrey.

I press on the conversation and read the message, the same one that says "Did you go around looking for my profile, my cheerleader?" accompanied by an emoji giving a bold smile. Yeah... I guess my plan didn't work out the way I wanted it to.