Neighbors

Coffee Shop Afairs

Madison groaned at the sound of garden pebbles bouncing off of her second story bedroom window. She wrapped the yellow blanket tighter around her small frame and pushed her face deeper into her pillow in an attempt to ignore the intruding neighbor boy that she instantly knew was responsible for waking her at an ungodly hour. For a few moments, there was absolute silence and she smiled as she slowly began to drift back to a dream state before it started all over again.

Clink. Clink. Clink Clink. Clink.

"Ugh, fuck" she groaned while angrily throwing the yellow blanket to the floor. She stomped over to her window and peered out, just as she suspected, Alex was standing in her backyard with a handful of white pebbles in his right hand. Madison pulled the window open, all the while glaring at Alex.

"What could you possibly want at three in the morning, Alex?" Alex stared up at Madison, her reddish brown curly hair stuck up at every angle and her too big batman shirt hung crookedly off of her frame displaying her bare collarbone. Alex felt his cheeks heat up at the realization that she wasn't wearing a bra.

"I couldn't sleep" he admittedly cheekily to his annoyed neighbor. Madison raked her hands through her unruly hair and pulled into a messy bun.

"You couldn't annoy your other friends, because...?" She trailed off with a cocked eyebrow; she looked down at Alex waiting for a response.

Alex smiled "Other friends? So me and you...we're friends then?" He asked with a playful smile.

Madison rolled her green eyes to hide that his question had left her flustered. She chose to ignore his question and instead walked away from the window only to hear Alex "whisper-shout" up towards her "Hey, wait. Where are you going?"

She pulled on a purple Ravens hoodie that she had stolen from her older brother and shoved her feet into her beat up converse before slinging her brown cross-body purse over her shoulder. She mentally made sure she had everything she needed before she began expertly climbing out of her window.

Alex watched as Madison shimmied down the ledge from her window, landing on her feet without a problem as if she had done this very thing a million times before. He wouldn't admit it out loud but he was quite impressed with her.

"Look whose inner bad ass is making an appearance" He chuckled as Madison walked towards him. She ignored his petty jab that she knew was aimed at her "goody" reputation that she had somehow acquired at their high school.

"If you woke me up without an actual plan I swear I will castrate you, Gaskarth" Madison shot at him with a raised eyebrow. Alex gulped in hesitation. Madison may have been a foot shorter than him and skinny as a rail but the girl was intimidating as hell.

"uh..." She narrowed her eyes at him, daring him to not have a plan.

"There's this twenty-four-hour bakery thing in the art district?" he suggested, unsure if this would save his ass and he was left surprised when a bright toothy smile
replaced the once angry expression on Madison's face.

"I love the art district!" she exclaimed giddily and she unconsciously grabbed Alex's hand dragging him towards her car. Alex smiled at the warmth that holding Madison's hand had lit inside of him. Alex had been crushing on his peculiar neighbor ever since she had moved into the house next to his nearly five years ago. Though, before this instance every interaction they had shared had ended with Madison throwing a contempt insult towards Alex. He wasn't sure what he had ever done to make her dislike him so much but Alex was determined to change her mind about him.

"Ya know" Alex broke the comfortable silence that settled in the car as Madison began driving in the direction of the art district. She knew exactly what bakery Alex had suggested, and she was surprised that Alex even knew of its existence. The art district wasn't exactly the place that people from their school ventured too, especially not people like Alex and his group of friends.

Madison averted her eyes from the road to acknowledge Alex. "Hmm?" she beckoned him to continue his train of thought.

"The art district is in a pretty sketch area...maybe we should just go somewhere else..." He trailed off

"Why? You scared?" Madison asked, a playful smirk taking over her face.

"I—no, I..." Alex blushed in an embarrassment of Madison seeing through his tough guy act and to be honest, he was afraid that she was going to do what she does best and throw this in his face with a hefty insult, but boy was he mistaken.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you" Madison laughed and patted Alex's left knee with her free hand while keeping the other hand on the steering wheel. She hesitantly withdrew her hand from his knee and placed it on the steering wheel when she realized what she had just said.

"Promise?" Alex asked his voice gentle and soft. He half hoped that she hadn't heard his silly request but when her eyes met his he knew that she had.

"I promise" she delicately replied, her voice full of sincerity. She smiled at Alex to show that she meant it and with that the silence once again settled in.

Alex coyly watched Madison from his spot in the passenger sear. He was perplexed to say the least, he had seen Madison angry and sarcastic but never had he saw this side of her. He had never seen her joking and sincere. He couldn't for the life of him understand why she was hiding behind such a hard, cold façade all the time. He didn't understand why she couldn't be this Madison, the Madison that she dared to be in front of Alex at this very moment.