Matters of the Heart

Chapter 0.5 [Part 1]

|| Madison ||

"Psst, Mads," Kayli whispered to me forty-five minutes into our media studies class in the Annenberg media center.

"Hmm?" I hummed, tearing my eyes away from the digital division I was looking at.

"Do you have any plans for tonight?" She asked me in a hushed voice.

"Um, nope," I told her. "Why?"

"So my brother-in-law is having the grand opening of his new club tonight and I've got four VIP tix. You game?" She asked me with an excited grin.

"A club?" I questioned. "Are we even old enough to get into one?"

"Well yeah," She nodded. "We're just not legally allowed to drink but that's not a problem for tonight. Perks of being the favourite, and only, sister-in-law of the boss. So? What do you say?"

"Um..." I thought about the proposition. I technically haven't been out since I moved here and it would be fun to dress up and have a good night out. "Yeah, okay. Why not."

"Oh yay!" She gave a quiet squeal. "I've already chatted to Cal and he said he'll come pick you up cause you guys live near each other and all."

"Oh um, okay ya, if he's cool with it," I agreed.

"Awesome!" She beamed. "Tonight is gonna be so much fun!"

I silently prayed she was right.

When our class ended at twelve thirty, I bid goodbye to Kayli before making my way across campus to where I had parked my car.

Today was one of the rare days where I only had three classes and was done for the day thirty minutes after noon and I didn't have to go to work today so I'd get to have a whole day to myself.

Before going home I quickly popped into the Walmart closest to my apartment to stock up on a few things and like every other time I had been there, it never ceased to amaze me. I used to think Walmart was like Pick 'n Pay or Checkers, major supermarkets we have back in Cape Town, but its so much better than both of those.

As I made my way down the sweets isle I grabbed a bag of gummy worms, my long-time guilty pleasure, to add to my purchases. My eyes feasted eagerly on a bag of taffy dark chocolates and for a second I was more than tempted to buy a bag.

"One of those will blow your entire week's calories limit, Mads," I muttered to myself and then shook my head at the inanimate bag of sugar-filled treats before continuing down the isle.

After paying for my purchases, I made my way home. While listening to the album Lover I mentally debated whether I wanted to watch a show on Netflix or whether YouTube would be the order of my day. Ultimately the idea of some good Cody Ko and Noel Miller comedy won YouTube the argument.

The next hour after getting home was spent changing into sweatpants and a loose t-shirt and then unpacking my groceries and then making a basic stir-fry for lunch while listening to the remainder of Taylor Swift's album.

While I was singing along to Getaway Car and packing the stir-fry that I wasn't going to eat into containers to be frozen and stored for another day, my phone started ringing. When I saw that I didn't recognise the number, my heart started beating fast. After taking a split second to calm myself down when I saw that it was an American number and not a South African one, my heart settled and I managed to answer the call before the phone could stop ringing.

"Hello, this is Madison," I said into the receiver while slipping my middle finger into the ring of the pop socket attached to the back of my phone for a better grip.