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He received a slap on the back of his hand, curtesy of her, and he rubbed that side of his hand.
"What?" Jhon asked as if he didn't believe it.
"I was just in the back seat" his wife tried to excuse her actions.
"That's a part of the car" Madeline said with her last potato going into her mouth.
"That's still a part of the car" Shaun repeated as if saying it a second time would make it truer.
"How have you never told me this story?" Jhon asked his wife.
"You know, before she was a lawyer, your girl was pretty wild" Katy said as she drank from her own glass.
"Oh! What happened?" Madeline asked the woman in front of them coolly.
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"I grew up" Soo concluded, shrugging her shoulders at her other two friends.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Katy shared a look with her friends and Madeline sent her an awkward smile as the conversation took a turn.
"Yeah, what's that supposed to mean?" Shaun echoed; narrowing is eyes at Soo.
"That maybe there's a point where you're supposed to stop going on joyrides and start thinking about living up to your potential"
"Please tell me you're kidding, Soo" Katy said.
"Look, we're now living in a world where at any moment half the population can just disappear" Soo tried to reason with them.
"Life's too short and too fragile. Katy, you're a valet driver with an honors degree from Berkeley, and Shaun can speak, like, four languages" Madeline's eyebrows quirked up momentarily "You've always been the most talented people I know. I just don't get why you're scared to actually use it for something serious"
"Wow" Shaun said as he leaned back on his chair and crossed his arms over each other on his chest.
"You sound like my mom. You also dress like her a little bit, too. Where's this from, Talbots?" Katy said making Soo chuckle as the tension was relieved.
Ф
They were walking after having paid for their own drinks and waving goodbye to the married couple. They were going to the karaoke bar that Madeline had requested they go to, with her in the middle and their arms intertwined with each other's.
"Were not running from adulthood. How is it running to have jobs that you actually like?" Katy scoffed.
"Yeah, that doesn't even make any sense" Shaun said as he pulled Madeline further along.
"Did you think valet parking is easy?" Katy said, Madeline shaking her head solemnly.
"It's like the most challenging job ever. You need people skills, driving skills" Shaun said.
"Soo can't even parallel park" Madeline told them making Shaun and Katy laugh.
"Well, it's almost midnight. We got the early shift. Should probably be responsible, go to sleep" she told them.
"Yeah, we can be responsible. We can do that. Or..." the three of them shared looks.
Ф
"♪ Over, sideways and under on a...♪" they sang the Alladin song into their respective microphones with the music blasting out in the background and clinking their vodka shots together.
"♪ Take my horse to the old town road I'm gonna...♪" they finished the evening jumping around the room and onto the sofa to the tune of Old Town Road.
Katy and Madeline ordered more shots and took their seats on the couch to take a break. Shaun and Katy sat on either side of Madeline and leaned their heads on her shoulders.
Madeline raised her hands to pat the tops of their heads until their drunk state and the exhaustion made them pass out on the spot.
Not too later after that she woke up and carried both their drunken bodies, Katy to her house, leaving her on the porch and calling her mom. She personally took Shaun to his apartment since he was the drunkest of them all and even tucked him in.
Too exhausted to move anymore, she let herself fall asleep on the sofa in his living room.
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Madeline awoke in a strangely familiar couch as she rubbed her eyes from the sleepiness and scratched her head, tousling her hair to try and straighten it out.
She recognised the house she was in and quickly found her way to the bathroom to fix herself as best as she could.
Remembering that she and Katy had left a few of their own clothes in Shaun's house she searched through his wardrobes until she found one of her older shirts and just wore it with the pants from the other night.
Reaching over for the TV remote, she entertained herself with some kid shows as she waited for her friend to wake up (the news weren't on yet and some kid shows are actually quite entertaining).
"Morning Mads" she heard Shaun come out of his room and into the bathroom.
"Hurry it up we have to pick Katy up at her house" she told him, leaning her head over the couch's back.
"I'm done" Shaun put his hand on her head making her tilt her head even further back to see him.
Madeline froze when she realised how close they actually were. She could see the different dark shades of brown in his eyes as he too looked into her own. Just as she was starting to feel a growing warmth in her chest he pushed her head back forward.
"Come on. Your car is back at your house so we'll have to take the bus" he told her.
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"Morning, Mrs Chen" the both of them chorused as they entered the Chen household.
"She's not ready yet" the older woman told them, kissing Madeline's cheek welcomely "Hello dear"
"Come have some joe while you wait" they hears Katy shout from her room.
"Katy, Shaun and Madeline are here" her mother shouted for her.
"Yeah, Mom, be there in a minute"
"Madeline, hi" Katy's young brother greeted her bashfully as she ruffled his dark hair and helped Mrs Chen pick up the plates from the table.
"Ruihua, you're supposed to be helping your dad stock the shop" the older woman told her son.
"Mom, I can't work on an empty stomach, my legs get crampy" he rubbed his legs to emphasise his point " Maybe Shaun can help him instead of just showing up every day to eat our food"
"I'm happy to help" the other man said, earning a nudge from Madeline when she passed him to greet Katy's grandmother.
"Hello Waipo" she whispered into the woman's greying hair.
"Mads" the older woman had only ever heard her granddaughter call the other girl by her nickname and it stuck.
"No, its Ruihua's job, let him do it" the mother threw her son a sharp glance.
"Waipo" Shaun also greeted the elder of the house and tried to seat himself on the chair besides her.
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YOU ARE READING
ℭ𝔯𝔬𝔰𝔰𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔉𝔞𝔱𝔢𝔰 || 𝔖𝔥𝔞𝔫𝔤 ℭ𝔥𝔦 𝔏𝔢𝔤𝔢𝔫𝔡 𝔬𝔣 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔗𝔢𝔫 ℜ𝔦𝔫𝔤𝔰
Fanfiction.҉ .҉ .҉ Madeline Liu moved with her mother to San Francisco at a very young age after her father died. When she was grown and after the death of her mother, which left her all alone, she got a job as a valet parking cars where she made friends with...
