Just another girl

Chapter 9

It was mid Sunday morning as Madison was walking up the steps to her house. Scott and Madeline dropped her off on their way out on a date. Madison slowly walked through the front yard, not paying any particular attention to the cars out the front of her house.

She walked up her front steps and as she entered the house she could hear music and chatter coming from the back half of her house. Closing the door behind her she walked towards the noise to investigate. When she entered the dining room there was a group of women- Madison's mum was one of them sitting around the table, with what appeared to be glasses of wine and chatting casually. There was also a number of people standing outside, with a few gathered around the BBQ.

Madison's mum looked up with a smile on her face, "Madi, welcome home. How was your sleepover sweetheart?"

Madison gave her mum a slightly surprised look. It was rare that she was on the receiving end of mother's good mood. However Madison wouldn't complain although she was suspecting that it might have something to do with the glass of wine she was having. "It was fun." She smiled.
"That's good."
Some of her mums friends smiled at her before she turned and headed upstairs to put her stuff in her room and to change her clothes.

Coming back down the stairs a few minutes later in her white 'love never fails' top and a pair of denim shorts. She noticed her brother standing outside so she decided to go see him. As soon as she walked out the door, her brother and her dog both came running towards her.

"Madsi! I missed you!" he yelled as he run towards her, flinging his arms around her when she bent down.
"You saw me two days ago though."
He pulled away from their hug, "I don't care! I still missed you," Madison stood up smiling and finally gave her dog some attention.

"Can I get a hug like that?"
Madison jumped at the sound of another voice behind her and quickly spun around, not expecting to be quite so close with the person behind her- so close that she almost head butted him.

Taking an instinctive step backwards she looked at him. He wore a cheeky and slightly teasing smile on his face. However Madi wasn't impressed. "Excuse me?"
"I'm pretty sure you heard me, princess."
Madison groaned, rolled her eyes, trying to stay calm, "I wish I hadn't, and to answer your question absolutely not. I don't hug assholes."

Daniel put his hand to his heart in mock hurt, "I'm offended."
She clenched her jaw, "Don't patronise me."
"What's got you in such a bad mood?"
"You're kidding me right?"
"No, I'm not. Did I do something?"
"You're a dick, you know that?"
"I'll take it I did do something then?"
"Yes. Look, just leave me alone, ok?"
"Just tell me what I did, Madi, maybe I could fix it."
"If you don't know what you did then you're more stupid then you look." With that she turned on her heel and headed back inside to get a drink.

Around half an hour later Madison was getting off of the couch once it was announced that lunch was served. She headed into the kitchen getting herself a plate and waiting for some of the people to clear so that she could get her food. She looked over to Daniel and he was also waiting for food. He reached up, running his hand through his hair. Madison noticed something on his upper arm that hadn't been there before. On his bicep there was a tattoo, there was name and a date in roman numerals but she wasn't familiar with roman numerals so she didn't know what date it was and from where she was standing she couldn't read the nam. She wondered what the date meant to him but wouldn't ask as she was still annoyed at him for ignoring her for a week and then accusing her of having a boyfriend and hooking up with Felicite. She was probably overreacting- she knew this- but it was the type of person she was. She was too emotional for her own good.

Daniels eyes diverted to hers and she quickly looked away and went and got herself some food. Everyone was sitting outside at the table there but Madison didn't want to interact with her parents friends so she went outside to the very back of their backyard and sat down on the swinging chair they had up there. Moments after she had sat down, she looked up to see Daniel walking towards her.