Brave Enough

Five

**Aless will be pronounced like Alice.**

Maddie's phone rings out into the night. "Babe your phone. Turn it off. It's like three in the morning," Chimney says.

"Sorry Chim," Maddie says before answering the phone. "Hello?"

"I'm sorry but is this Maddie Buckley? The sister of Evan Buckley?" A voice on the other end says. She sits up.

"Yes this is Maddie Buckley. What's wrong with my brother?" She asks. Worry thick in her voice as she speaks.

"I'm sorry to inform you but your brother has been in an accident. He got on a bus approximately two hours ago. The bus was involved in a serious crash. He should be fine but we need you to get to the hospital as soon as you can," the person on the phone gives her the name and address of the hospital Buck was at and hangs up.

"Oh my god. Chimney Buck has been in a bus crash. I have to drive to the hospital. You can stay here I'm going to go," She says running around her room redressing herself. She looks for her keys that was tossed to the floor when they arrived home.

"No no. I'll go. Let me get dressed then I'm going to call Bobby. He will want to know. I have a feeling I know why he was on that bus," Chimney says pulling his pants over his hips. "He probably got on that bus while drunk and angry that he came home to no James and no Cleo. He is completely smitten with her and the sister. We've hidden her away from him. I know he has bad impulse control."

Maddie gasps. "This is our faults. We barely got Aless on board with the plan. She was worried about leaving Buck. But we convinced her it was for the best. We had every intention of letting him find her in a couple of weeks. I'm calling Athena," Maddie pulls her phone off the nightstand.

"Hey Bobby," Chimney says.

"Hey Athena," Maddie says into her phone.

"We've got a problem," they both say into their phones.

•••••

"Buck are you alright?" Maddie asks running up to him. "What were you thinking? A bus at one o'clock in the fucking morning?" She tries to calm down reminding her he's in more than one type of pain.

"She's gone Maddie. She left me a note that said I'm sorry. Two words. That's it. I would have kept her safe," he sobs.

"Oh Buck. It wasn't her idea. But you also have to remember you can't just be so pushy. She just escaped from an abusive relationship. You're going to make it worse and make her feel smothered," Maddie says holding her brother in her arms while they sit on the floor and he cried in her arms.

"Buck, we had to do this," Maddie's phone rings again. Athena's name pops up on the screen. "Hello Athena," she says.

"Give him the phone please," Athena says. Maddie passes Buck the phone. "Buck. Listen to me. Do not blame her for leaving. Do you hear me Evan Buckley? This girl has been through so much and right now is stressful for her. I convinced her to wait two weeks. Her new apartment location will be given to you in two weeks unless any we have a reason to bump it up or back. From now on she is known as Alessandra. Her preferred name is Aless," Athena informs Buck.

     "Is she okay? I just need to know if she's safe and okay," he begs for the information.

     "She's safe Buck. A little sad to not see you. But we're setting up Skype and just activated a new phone number," Buck hurries to write down the numbers before hanging the phone up.

     "You knew?" He asks. Maddie avoids his eyes. "Dinner the other night. You were distracting me weren't you? You knew I would have tried to stop her," he says accusingly.

"Yes Evan. Chim and I distracted you. You and I know you would have felt terrible if you had stopped her and something happened. You are too stubborn and you don't think things through. We did what was right for Aless and for Cleo. I did it and I would do it again in a heartbeat. It's only been a week or so and everyone already loves her. That should tell you something," Maddie scolds him. He's taken aback.

    "I'm sorry," he says ending the conversation.

So this is the cut and color she got. So imagine a Latina (NOT Kat Von D ever) with this hair cut and color.