Speak Now

Chapter Eleven

“One room please,” Madeline stood in front of the counter. The man behind the counter smiled, put in some numbers, and then handed the blonde girl a room card. Thankful, Maddie picked up her duffel bag from off the floor, then weaved her way through the crowd to the elevator. When she got to her room, she flopped forward onto the bed, not caring about taking off her shoes or glasses first. The past few days had become so stressful, so quickly. From finishing her transcript, to the wedding, Maddie had had enough; she just wanted to go home. It had been three days since she’d gone to the church, and not only was she still feeling empty from it, she also had gotten news back from her publicist. Her transcript was good but was lacking something, however the company was going to go ahead and publish the final copy anyway; Maddie just had to hand it in. And then when she went to book her flight back home, the only flights available from Paris to New York were booked two weeks out. So instead, she had to catch a flight to London, spend two days there, then catch the red eye flight from London to New York, where her publicist would be picking her up. The whole thing was much more stressful than the amount of energy Maddie had to cope with.

She took a deep, shaky breath; her eyes began to water. Sitting up, she blinked away the tears that were forming. Francis… Madeline couldn’t figure out why, even though she had decided it was over, she still couldn’t bring herself to get over him. Her chest hurt, yet she felt drained. It was as though someone had flipped a switch on her emotions, leaving her numb and empty. She just couldn’t seem to care about anything. Her phone buzzed to life; 27 missed calls from Julchen. Madeline knew the albino meant well, since they did part on unspoken terms, but she just couldn’t bring herself to answer. As she went to turn the phone off, Alfred’s name began to flash on the screen. Maddie was surprised, she hadn’t expected him to call her. “He-hello?” she spoke timidly.

“Yo, sis, why didn’t you tell me you were flying to New York?” Alfred's loud voice made Maddie’s head hurt.

“I didn’t realize I had to check in, désolé,” Madeline’s voice had a sharp bite to it. Her eyes widened; she hadn’t meant to snap at her brother, after all he was only concerned.

“Um, Maddie? Everything ok?” Alfred asked after a few moments of silence. Hearing that dreaded question brought new life to her dead emotions. Everything she had subconsciously been holding back, came out in tears. She began to sob horribly, “Non, non, Alfred, tout n'est pas d'accord*!”

“Whoa, man, Maddie you seriously need to calm down. You know I don’t understand French. I want to help but if I don’t know what happened I can’t, you know?” Alfred panicked.

Madeline sniffled, Stop thinking about him, you need to move on! “No,” she calmed down almost instantly, the emotionless void taking her once again.

“Everything’s fine. I just figured it was time for me to go home,” speaking barely above a whisper, she smiled faintly - though she knew no one was able to see.

“Um, hey Alfred, I’d love to chat but I’m just too tired, eh. I just want to get some sleep,” with that she hung up, not giving her twin a chance to even say his farewell. Madeline wasn’t entirely lying when she said she was tired; she hadn’t exactly gotten the best of sleep the previous month. She looked at the clock; her flight was at two o’clock, and it was an hour and a half flight - plus the twenty minutes it took her cab driver to get from the airport to a decent hotel. All Maddie wanted to do was sleep, but it was only 4 o’clock. Sighing, she gave in and decided it wouldn’t hurt to go to bed early. Madeline didn’t even bother changing out of her street clothes, she just flopped on the bed, dust floating up around her. She was too exhausted to even bother fanning the dirt and debris away. As she lay staring at the ceiling, her mind bubbled over: What am I going to do now? Closing her eyes, she quietly slipped into a long and much needed slumber.