Matters of the Heart

Chapter 0.10

|| Madison ||

I woke up the next morning nursing an emotional hangover.

After getting home last night, the night's events caught up with me and I ended up having two consecutive panic attacks. After that, I had fallen asleep only to have a dream about my mother which had me balling like a baby when I woke up. That, coupled with the overall crying because I felt so shitty, led to me having a choppy sleep pattern last night and waking up with a huge headache, a wet pillow, and red puffy eyes.

With the little strength I had, I grabbed my phone off my nightstand and saw that it had just gone eleven meaning that I had slept through all five of my alarms. I also had multiple missed calls from Kayli, my aunt, and uncle, Kane, and Calum. In addition, Kayli had also blown up my WhatsApp.

Mads, Kane told me he saw you and you didn't look ok. What's up, babe? You good?
21:43

Mads, what's up?
08:20

You're not taking anyone's calls. I'm really worried, Madison. Please get back to me when you read my messages.
09:15

I'm sorry if I'm being overbearing but I'm just concerned. Kane was really worried about you last night and in turn, its got me and Cal freaking out. Please just let me know that you're fine.
09:31

I know we haven't known each other long but I'm here if you need anything, mads. Please know that. Me, Cal and Kane, ok. If you're not coming in today, I'll take notes for you. Please call me when you can. Love you xx
10:03

The sincerity in Kayli's messages managed to bring me to tears and small but ugly cries left my mouth.

No ones ever cared like this before whenever these episodes happened.

Clicking on the call button next to Kayli's name, the phone rang twice before being answered.

"Madison, thank fuck! Are you okay? Kane told me you weren't fine last night and he very rarely is overdramatic about things. Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine," I croaked out, not realising that my voice would be so horse. "You don't have to worry about me."

"You're my friend, Mads. Of course I'm gonna worry, babe."

She said it and I knew that she meant it. And that made me cry.

"Thanks, Kay," I managed to choke out. "I really appreciate it."

"Oh, Mads. Please don't cry. Tell you what, I'll skip my classes today and come over and we can chat? Or we can watch movies or whatever you want, yeah? I just don't want you feeling this way."

I didn't have the heart to tell her that I couldn't help it.

"I'll be okay, Kay. I just need some time on my own. But thank you, I appreciate it."

"Okay, babe. Kane finishes classes at twelve today so he'll be free all day if you need anything. I'll be done just after three and knowing Cal, he'll damn well skip class if you need him to okay. We're here for you, babe. Don't forget that."

"I won't," I said weakly.

"Love you, Mads."

"Love you too."

When the call ended, I let deep sobs rack my body and I thanked the heavens for my new friends.

My "friends" back in Cape Town that knew all the issues I had never understood when I got like this. They never understood how my body could be so physically drained that I couldn't even get out of bed.