Made of Ice

Chapter 2 - You can't outrun your secrets

"Goddamn!" Madison mutters under her breath as she climbs into her ex's car. A decision she was going to regret for a long time to come.

Logan races through town and suddenly slams the brakes down furiously. It's lucky they were both wearing seatbelts, if not their bodies would be slammed straight through the windscreen right now.

Madison observes her surroundings. They're sat in a car park overlooking a children's playground where Madison, Grace and Lexi used to come as kids to play on the swings and the roundabout.

The playground looks deserted and old now. The memory of her playing there as a kid with her now dead friend brings a lump to Madison's throat but she quickly swallows it back down, along with her grief.

There's an eerie and uncomfortable silence in the car between them. Madison looks out the window, her mind wandering elsewhere. But she is swiftly brought back to reality when Logan awkwardly clears his throat, breaking the silence.

"Cut to the chase Logan! What do you want?" She snaps at him, sounding tired.

"We need to talk about what happened that night." He says, firmly.

Madison's hands clench and fold into fists. Before she loses her grip on sanity, she answers him.

"Drive, then we'll talk." She says bluntly, still staring out the window.

He obeys her command and drives through town.

"You do know why we need to talk about that night, we can't just shut it all out." Logan says, glancing at the once love of his life.

"And how exactly is that conversation meant to start?" She asks him, sending a cold glare his way.

Logan's grip on the steering wheel tightens as he fights with his anger. "I know you find it easy to shut people out, but we need each other! Especially now!"

Madison notices that he's stopped by her parked car but her eyes stay fixed on his.

"Don't you dare use Lexi's death as a way to get back with me! You heartless bastard!" She abruptly leaves the car and slams the passenger door.

She knew he made mistakes, plenty of them, but as she storms over to her car she realises something.

She has shit taste in guys.

🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪

The school morning goes by in a blur until lunch.

As Madison enters the cafeteria, picking up her usual salad along the way. The noise around her suddenly stops all at once. She looks around the cafeteria and realises that it's the minute silence for Lexi that the school announced this morning.

The music of noise and chatter that normally flowed amongst the students at lunchtime was replaced by utter sweet silence.

As soon as the the minute is up, the noise resumes. It's as if the world was resuming as normal without Lexi. It's as if she was never really there.

Madison hears a distinct sound of yelling in the corridor behind the cafeteria.

The noise from the corridor is like an alarm clock to her ears, waking her to reality. She shuts her eyes tight and opens them again, letting her fury take over her.

She slams the tray down on the empty table in front of her. Every single student stops what they're doing and stares at her, including her group of friends who are seated in the middle of the cafeteria.

No one has ever seen the Queen Bee lose control before.

She swiftly turns around, her long brown hair gliding over her shoulders, her hips swaying with every step and her strappy black heels stomping on the cold wooden floor as she struts out of the cafeteria, following the noise.