Save Me. (Matthew Espinosa)

Chapter 15 - Madelyn

A/N
The girl in the picture is how I picture Madelyn :)

Lacey's POV

I sit by Matt in the busy room, smiling and waving occasionally at the fans. The meet and greet isn't as nerve wracking as I had originally assumed. I simply have to sit and look friendly. I keep my speaking to a bare minimum so I don't make a fool of myself, as I often do.

"Uh, hi." My eyes flicker to the person the quiet voice was emitted from. Madelyn, from earlier, appears in my vision adorns a 5 Seconds of Summer t-shirt, dark jeans, and Converse. Her eyelashes are coated in black mascara and curled to perfection. Light brown, curled hair flows past her shoulders. A bandana is wrapped around her forehead, something many of the fans have been doing, most likely to resemble Taylor's common look. The last, but most important thing that I notice are the dozens of bracelets lining her lower arms. My face drops in realization.

She stands there staring at me in an awestruck daze as if she admires me so much; this confuses me because there's not anything special -or even remotely good- about me. "You remind me of.." I start, but can't even get the full sentence out, eyes wandering away from her timid figure.

"Of..?" She questions.

I lick my lips, finding her eyes again. "Of me," I finish.

Her eyebrows crinkle. "How so? You're so perfect and you probably have perfect grades. Plus, I'm sure you can have practically any boy you want."

"Oh, but that's where you're wrong." She raises an eyebrow. I smile sadly. "Actually, that's quite the opposite of my life." I stand from the table and Matt looks up at me in question. "Be right back," I inform to which he nods and then continues attending to his fans. I walk around the long table, grabbing Madelyn's arm and bringing her with me backstage. We're brought to a more quiet and private surrounding.

I decide to get straight to the point. "Take off your bracelets." I look her in the eyes and the intensity of my stare is enough to keep her vision solely on me. Her eyes widen and she shakes her head frantically, seeming panicked.

"No, I-I can't. I won't." Though the words are firm, the small and shaky voice they are delivered with is anything but authoritive.

"Take. Off. The bracelets." I see tears brimming in her eyes. It's not not my intention to scare her, but it seems that's exactly what I'm doing. Her defiance in the simple act is enough to confirm my assumption. I decide to give her some insight on the demands I'm sending out to her. I take a deep breath. One of the sleeves of Matt's hoodie is rolled up, exposing her to my scars.

"You're not alone."

She looks up at me astonished for a moment before falling into me. We hug for so long and I feel an occasional tremble come from her small frame. When she eventually pulls back, tear tracks stain her cheeks, as I had suspected they would. I reach down and wipe the liquid from her face with my thumbs, much like Matthew has done for me.

"It'll get better," I promise her sincerely and I let the sleeves of my hoody fall back down my arms, safely concealing the damage on my limbs. Her lips part to say something but she changes her mind, mouth closing again. I can guess the words she was going to expel, for I would say the same thing if I were in her situation.

"Your secret's safe with me." I smile at her and she returns a small one.

We emerge from backstage shortly after, our presence not capturing any attention. Excited fans continue to bustle about, not even acknowledging our leaving in the first place. Matt looks up at us with a friendly smile as we emerge from backstage. We both return one. "Do you want me to take a picture of you guys?" Matt asks, gesturing to Madelyn and me.

"Could you?" The light blush to her cheekbones is evident and she hands him her phone. Matthew stands from his seat and we both step back to pose. He snaps several pictures, Madelyn and I doing a variety of different faces and positions. Once satisfied, Matthew and I switch places so I can take their picture.

They come back over and I hand her phone back to her. She glances through the new pictures on her camera role, smiling to herself. "So.. do you have a phone?" Madelyn wonders, looking back up at me curiously.

"You know what? I don't actually," I say, a troubled look upon my features.

"Aw, I was hoping to keep in touch." She frowns.

"Well, do you have a Twitter?" Matt buds in.

"Who doesn't?" She laughs a little.

"True," he laughs. "So I'll follow you," Matthew starts, "and when we make Lacey a Twitter, I'll make sure you're the first person she follows."

"Promise?" Her pinky is held out as she beams. He grins and lifts up his pinky as well, their digits interlocking. He then pulls out his phone and allows her to type in her Twitter and follow herself. Before leaving, we make sure to take a few more selfies on her phone. I make a mental note to create a twitter soon so that I can continue speaking to Madelyn.

Matt and I talk with her as we walk her towards the exit before bidding her goodbye. By the time we walk back over to the designated area, we notice the meet up is over, the adrenalized teenage girls nowhere to be found.

Matt and I keep quiet on the way back to our room, not really having much to say; however, the silence is a comfortable one. I can't help but smile as we walk in, falling onto the bed. Today has been a good day. My life has made a complete turn around and I couldn't be more grateful for it. With that thought, I can't help but think of Madelyn again. It upsets me that she feels the same pain that I felt not long ago. Nobody deserves to feel that way- so worthless and sad. Especially to the point that they believe the only thing left to make them feel something is to inflict pain on themselves. Matthew takes off his shoes and sits at the end of the bed looking me over with curiosity flickering in his eyes. He's silent for a moment. I grin when he breaks me out of my thoughts.

"Whatcha thinking about?"

"Nothing."

His lips pout out, a young and innocent looking Matthew surfacing. "Tell me."

"No." I laugh, finding amusement in his keen interest. His eyes narrow slightly.

"Do you really wanna play that game?"

I smirk, simply shrugging my shoulders. His own face adapts a grin- but his is challenging. He swiftly approaches me, climbing atop me, arms being pinned above my head before I can even react.

"What about now?" The playful upturn of his lips is unmissable. I bite my lip, refusing to give in. With his knees on either side of my waist, he releases my wrists to move his digits along my sides, tickling me. Laughter bursts from my lips, hands struggling to stop the unceasing movement of his fingers. My legs kick around behind him, desperate to remove his body from mine and end the torchure. My attempts are useless, Matt unrelenting.

"Fine, fine! I'll tell you." I manage to get out in my breathless state. He stops, looking down at me with a grin, awaiting the words he wants to hear. I make and attempt to catch my breath before speaking. "I was thinking about Madelyn. She is me. Well, I mean, not literally- obviously. She's just so much like how I am- was," I stutter, having a hard time translating my thoughts to coherent sentences as I ramble.

"Oh, yeah. I was wondering.. why did you take her backstage? What were you guys talking about?"

"Um.." My eyebrows scrunch. "Nothing important," I reassure, smiling up at him.