Facing Reality

Chapter 2

           “Shut up, will you Sean?”

            “Not if I don’t make you shut up first!”

            I was suddenly bombarded with tickling from Sean. He can be so annoying sometimes. Austin is driving us home from the movies following some crappy horror film we all decided to go see. Sean is in the passenger’s seat, turned around to face me in order to mess with me, like he always does. Brielle is to my right, sitting quietly like she always does. She’s still pretty young; I hope the shitty effects in the movie didn’t traumatize the poor girl. I chuckled to myself at my marvelous sarcastic abilities.

            “What’s so funny, Madeleine?” I still don’t understand why he calls me by my full name. No one else does.

            “Oh, nothing, nothing. Just thinking about how obnoxious you are.” I retorted.

            “Gasp! You take that back right now, young lady!” He joked.

         “Make me!” This is how all conversations between Sean and I pan out. We’ve always been close, so it’s not surprising that, even as teenagers, we still pick on each other and act immaturely. I swear, Bri is eleven and she is more mature than the both of us combined.

            “Can you guys knock it off, I’m trying to drive here. You can mess around all you want when we get back to the house.”

            “Whatever, Austin. You’re such a party pooper.” For whatever reason, Bri burst out laughing at my comment and laughed for about thirty seconds straight.

            Things suddenly got quiet. Eerily quiet. I had a sudden sensation of déjà vu, like I had been here before, as if I had already experienced this. I couldn’t shake the feeling.

            The next few seconds passed in slow motion, or at least that’s how it appeared. I looked over my left shoulder as we drove through the intersection of Cambridge Street and Washington Avenue to see a bright light. Immediately, I knew that they were headlights from an oncoming vehicle. But before I could say anything…

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               Maddie? Maddie? MADDIE!! I could hear a voice calling to me.

            “Maddie! Maddie, wake up! School is over for the day!” I heard Kadienne calling out to me, then suddenly felt her hands on my shoulders as she began to shake me in an attempt to jolt me awake.

              “Hm? What? Kadie…? Is that you?” I mumbled out the words intelligibly.

             “No, Maddie, it’s the Tooth Fairy. Yes, it’s me! Now wake up before I drag you home by your hair!” Damn, Kadie sure is feisty today. I wonder what bug crawled up her ass.

             “Jesus Christ, Kadie, will you give me a break? You know I haven’t had a lot of time for sleep lately. Are you happy now, I’m up.”

             “I’m thrilled. Maddie, I hope you didn’t forget about that party tonight. Of course, I’m not going, but Chevy will be there, and Cody, and of course, Dom…” Shit. It’s Friday, isn’t it? The captain of the football team and his cheerleader girlfriend are throwing some huge party tonight. I promised everyone that I would go, but I’m just so tired… Oh well, a promise is a promise.

             “Ugh. All right, all right. I’ll go. Jeez, the things I do for you people…” Kadie chuckled at my terrible sense of humor because she is a good friend.