Accidental Squip

Chapter Thirteen

The next few days didn't go great for Madison. He did the best he could hiding from Brooke, though she seemed to be able to find him wherever he tried to escape to. Madison ended up pulling the ten year old girl trick of hiding in the bathroom.
    "You can't hide in here forever. Lunch ends in 8 minutes."
    Madison looked up from the dirty sink and into the mirror. The Squip wasn't in the reflection, but his voice was there. Madison turned.
    "I told you to just walk away," the Squip said. "You let her words get to your head."
    Madison looked at the Squip leaning on the bathroom wall, his glow almost unfamiliar to Madison's eyes.
    "I know..." Madison replied quietly. "I don't know why I take it so personally, but my brain just...I don't know..."
    He ran both hands through his blond hair, ruffling it. Looking back in the mirror, Madison noticed his roots were getting more noticable. He didn't feel like putting anything in his hair, making it look flat and uncared for. His outfit complimented his hair, an oversized sweatshirt and jeans stained with oil paint and turpentine from art class.
Suddenly the bell rang. Madison's flinched noticeably, hating the anxiety inducing ring filling the bathroom.
"Madison, usually I would suggest you get to class, but I know you aren't feeling well. I can place an excuse in the school's system if you wish to leave."
Shaking his head, Madison pushed the door open. "No, I'll go to class."
The Squip appeared in front of Madison, placing a glowing hand on his shoulder. "Are you sure, Madison?"
Madison shrugged off the Squip's hand. "I'm fine."
The Squip frowned. Before he could say anything else, Madison interrupted.
"Shut down."

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"Really, Madison? Hiding in the boys bathroom? That's a low move, even for someone like you."
"Go away, Brooke," Madison mumbled.
Brooke strided next to the taller boy, her pace obviously quicker as to keep up with Madison's long legs.
"What was that? Speak up!" she snapped.
Madison didn't repeat his words. He scanned the parking lot for his mother's car. The red sports car was nowhere to be seen.
"Hey! Did you hear me? Don't fucking ignore me." Brooke's voice was raising.
The growl of an engine filled Madison's ears. He turned. There it was. A red Mercedes swooping in to save Madison from this evil troll. He quickly turned to the car. Brooke stopped and called after him.
"You can't run from all of your problems, Madison!"
Madison turned and yelled back;
"You basically just called yourself a problem!"
Brooke's face mottled red, but before she could shout anything back, Madison jumped into the passenger's seat, placing a smile on his face. "Hey mom!"
Mrs. Harper grinned back. "Hey honey. How was your day?"
Madison's smile faltered. "Fine. School's school."
"You know, you've been saying that for the past few days. Is there something going on?" his mother asked, pulling the car out of the parking lot.
Madison huffed. "Well, you can't really say anything new about school when you've gone for twelve years."
He hoped his excuse would go through his mother's head. He was right.
"Well, that's true."
"Tell her about earlier."
Madison resisted the urge to glare at nothing. No. I'll get over it. And I thought I shut   you down.
"I return after two hours."
Madison let his mind fall silent. At home, he went straight up to his room and sat at his desk. He sped through his homework (not caring enough to check his work or edit anything) and shoved everything back in his bag. With that, he flopped on his bed, pulling out his book and reading silently for the rest of the day, stopping only for dinner. The Squip made no physical appearances, not wanting to disturb his host.

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The rest of Madison's week when by quick, quiet, and uneventful. The same thing happened everyday. The Squip would coax Madison out of bed, clothes already laid out for him. He'd go to school, Brooke bugging him any moment she could. The Squip would offer to help, Madison denying every time.
"It's okay," he'd say.
Classes passed by, lunch with Michael and Jeremy, more classes, Brooke snapping at Madison's heels and then he went home. That was every single day of that week, and the Squip had enough of Madison doing nothing about it.