Chase and Madelyn: A love story

Chapter 1

TW: Mentions of eating disorders

Madelyn's POV:

Chase is my first real boyfriend. Of course I've had boyfriends in the past, but high school ones. It was more of a social pressure and status thing. Toby was technically my first boyfriend. He was on the football team in high school and he asked me to prom sophomore year. We were close but there were no sparks. We broke up before we headed to college and never spoke again. I was never in love with him. 

Chase on the other hand, it's been 5 months but it feels like I've known him forever. This relationship makes me feel like an actual adult. He's five years older than me and treats me like a human rather than arm candy as my high school boyfriends would. 

Season 1 has been out for half a year and we've been in Charleston filming season 2 for about 3 weeks now. Chase and I have never been closer but the relationship is still new.

I woke up at 4 AM. It was Saturday, meaning we could sleep in but I heard something buzzing. I looked over at Chase. He was asleep. My phone had been blowing up and as soon as I picked it up, my heart sank. My name was trending on Twitter. Users were commenting on a picture of me and Madison (Bailey) from behind the scenes in OBX season 1.

They were fat shaming me. There were comments that said "I don't remember Sarah Cameron having thunder thighs" , "Damn, she needs to work out" and "Wow, Madelyn has gained a ton of weight".

My eyes watered and I started to sniffle. Chase, who is known to be a light sleeper turned to me with his eyes still closed.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he said.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't want to wake you." I said quickly wiping away the stray tears.

"I'm just gonna go to my parents' house." My parents lived about 30 minutes away in my childhood home.

"What? Why, what happened? Maddie, it's 4 AM." Chase said, slowly waking up.

"My name is trending on Twitter."

"Isn't that a good thing though?" he replied "We're getting our names out there!"

I didn't respond. I was embarrassed to discuss this with him. He loved me and I loved him but I still struggled to talk about the difficult stuff.

"Maddie, talk to me." Chase said

"Chase it's fine, I'm just going to talk to my mom."

He grabbed my hand before I could get out of bed. It surprised me. He's never usually that persistent.

"Why don't you trust me?" he said now sitting up in bed.

"I do!" I replied

"But you don't! It's 4 AM, you're obviously upset about something and you're going to your mom's house!"

I knew I would cry again if I looked at him so I played with my fingers and avoided his gaze.

"Maddie, I'm right here. I need you to talk to me. I love that you trust your mom and I admire your relationship with her but I need you to trust me too. If I'm going to be your person we have to talk about the dark and dirty stuff. I want to know. What is it? Is there a nude that was leaked or something?" he asked.

I gasped. "What?! No!"

"Then what is it?" he asked.

"People are body shaming me on Twitter. Thousands of them." I finally spit out. Tears welled up in my eyes. I broke down.

"Oh..." Chase said. "I'm so sorry Maddie." He let me fall into his arms, pressing my body against his.

"Why did you want to drive all the way to your mom's house to talk to her?" he asked.

I paused, contemplating whether I should actually say it.

"I had an eating disorder in high school. She's the only one who helped me through it. She's the only one who knows. This kinda stuff brings up those old emotions. I'm sorry, I didn't know how to talk to you about it." I said.

"Don't apologize!" he said while stroking my hair. "Thank you for telling me and trusting me with this. For what it's worth, I think you're beautiful inside and out. Don't listen to the haters, they don't know the real you."

I let out a small chuckle and then a smile. "I love you." I said.

"I love you too." Chase replied. I wiped my face again and fell asleep in his arms.