Searching for Sweetness

Chapter Eight - Seeing Double

"What are you doing?"

        "Just hold still!"

        "I can't hold still if I don't know what you're doing."

        "Goddamn it, Maddie! Just hold still!"

        "But you still haven't told me what you're doing!"

        "I will if you just hold still!"

        I sighed, blinking my eyes open. "This is ridiculous. We're only going to be at this dinner party in Boston for three hours. I don't need an elaborate hairstyle." I stared at my lap, which was covered in a flowing black skirt. Paige picked out my dress, as always. And, as always, she did a fantastic job.

        Paige pouted. "Fine. But this is important. This is the first time I'm meeting Adam as your boyfriend, and I'll be damned if I don't like fabulous."

        I snorted. "You've never not looked fabulous a day in your life," I pointed out. Paige perked up at that.

        "Oh, right. Regardless, if we're going into the city, I want to be totally unrecognizable." She tossed her blond curls over her shoulder. I gave her a strange look.

        "Why would you want that? You're beautiful just the way you are," I reminded her. She sighed.

        "Because, Maddie, if I'm ever going to be a master escape artist, then I need to know how to blend in while still kicking ass in heels. You understand, don't you?"

        "Sure." I rolled my eyes. Paige was so perplexing.

~~~

My eyes shot open. The journal was on my desk, where I'd left it the night prior. The dream from last night, which was more like a suppressed memory, left me feeling anxious. Paige was trying to tell me without endangering me. And I didn't listen to her.

        As I walked down the stairs, I noticed my dad was already gone. I released a breath I hadn't realized I was holding in. My dad made me nervous sometimes. One moment he was praising your latest accomplishment, the next he was criticizing your life choices. There was no in between.

        "Morning, Maddie," Anabelle mumbled, walking into the kitchen behind me. I stared at her curiously. Things hadn't really been the same between us. I supposed it was my fault, trying to be happy when my best friend was gone. But I had thought she would let it go. And now I knew she hadn't.

        "Hey, Belle," I said, watching her pour her cereal into a bowl. She didn't react to my voice. It was weird, I realized, to know people so well and then not know them at all.

        By the time Ana was finished in the kitchen, I was walking out the door, sighing in content at the unusually pleasant Massachusetts weather. In all my eighteen years, I'd only been out of the state once, and that was a trip to Disney World when I was fifteen. Paige's dad and my parents coordinated vacations that year, and needless to say it was the best two weeks of my life. Paige must've been to so many places by now. She had always said she'd travel across the country, capturing everything with her trusty camera. Now it didn't hold the same sweetness it once did.

        My lips tugged upward at the sight of Adam in his car, waiting in front of my house. Some of the tightness in my chest eased. I didn't realize I'd had a part of me afraid he wouldn't show up.

        "Good morning, Madison," he greeted upon my entering his car. I smiled in his direction.

        "Hi," I replied. He raised an eyebrow at me, causing me to register I was staring. I shook my head. "Sorry." I frowned at my lap, thinking. "Actually," I started, glancing back up, "do you remember that dinner party we went to for your dad with Paige? The one where she showed up and stole the show?"