Silver Lining

6. False accusations

41 days before

I stared at the tweet in disbelief. This was a new low, even for the paparazzi. I had realised there might be something in the media about the car accident but...

@celebnews - Youtuber Madison Shaw crashed straight into another car out of spite! Get the full story here: cel.eb.madisonaccident/3DTXhu

My phone started buzzing in my pocket, and I pushed my laptop off my lap, and pulled my phone out of my pocket. "Hey, Laurel," I said, sighing.

"Madison! Have you seen Twitter?"

"You mean what celeb news posted? Yup."

"Look, I'm really sorry, Madison."

"It's not your fault."

There was silence for a bit. "Everyone knows you wouldn't do anything out of spite," Laurel said after a moment.

I nodded, even though she couldn't see me through the phone. "Thanks, Laurel. I'm going to go, and see if I can do anything. See you!"

"See ya!" We hung up, and I poked the mousepad on my macbook air to get the screen to turn back on. I glared at the tweet, and clicked on the link. Might as well know what they were saying about me.

I quickly scanned through the article. Most of it was utter rubbish, and had clearly been made up for an interesting story. It made out that the other driver was a new driver, and I got annoyed at him because he was having trouble pulling out of the parking space, so I just drove straight into him! I couldn't believe that anyone would make up such a horrible lie.

I decided just a quick tweet might be in order, and after about twenty minutes of 'not being able to decide what to say', I think I had it right.

@SiverLining - It's really sad that people will make up so many lies that will hurt someone, just to get a good story or article.

I proofread it, and was about to press tweet, when I stopped myself. I wonder if that's too sassy? Sometimes when I was annoyed, I got really sassy, and I never noticed if I was being sassy or not until I calmed down. Maybe I should send it to Laurel, just to make sure...

My phone buzzed a moment later. 'You're sass-free,' Laurel had texted me. 'It's sounds good! :)' I texted back a quick thank you, and then pressed tweet before I could change my mind.

***

I decided some lunch might be good, so I wandered into the kitchen. I was alone; Theo had gone to talk to a new client of his. Theo was a painter, although he didn't sell most of his work. We didn't need to; I made enough money from being a youtuber, and all the interviews and related things. He sold the odd piece every now and then.

I opened the fridge and stared at the contents. I was considering a jar of olives when I spotted three large tomatoes at the back, behind some yogurt. "Yay! We can have tomatoes," I told Asher, who was standing beside me. He looked up and wagged his tail happily. "Oh, do you want tomatoes too?" He smiled at me, and I wondered how to break it to him that dogs shouldn't eat tomatoes. "Uh... Well you could have some dog food if you prefer?" I suggested. Asher did not look impressed. "Well, mister, you can't just go around eating tomatoes all the time." He licked my leg twice, and went to lie down on the carpet. He didn't like sitting on the tiles, they were too cold. I rolled my eyes. Princess dog.

I sliced the tomatoes and arranged them on one of those plates that is also kind of a bowl, but it's not a full on bowl. I took the fresh mozzarella out of the fridge, and sliced a couple of bits of that, and added them. "Do you think there's any basil, bub?" I asked Asher, who's only response was to move his head onto his paws. "Not very helpful." I went into the walk-in pantry and looked around. I was pretty sure there was some basil from Theo's mum, who loved gardening and was always giving us different herbs and vegetables. Ah! Found them. I shredded some basil leaves and put them over the tomatoes and mozzarella, and drizzled a tiny bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. "It looks pretty artsy." I told Asher, and it did, considering Theo was the better cook out of the two of us. Asher looked at me and wagged his tail. It almost looked like he was grinning. "Shall we instagram it?" I asked, poking him in the tummy, and he gave an excited little bark. "Shhh, doggy. Okay, you be in the photo too. Sit here, and I'll sit beside you. And the food can go here, between us." I took my phone out of the pocket of my skinny jeans, and held it up to take a selfie of us. "Smile, Asher!" I took the photo, then looked at it to see if it was good.

After I finished typing lunch with this doggy<3 as the caption for Instagram, I leaned down from my chair and showed the phone to Asher. He tried to lick it, so I put the phone back on the table. "No kisses for the phone," I told him as I read through the caption, making sure there was no spelling mistakes, and then pressing post. I scrolled through instagram as I ate lunch, and then took Asher on a walk in the park across the road. As we were coming back, we ran into Luke, our neighbour and his dog, Pip. Most people living in our apartment building have dogs, as it's one of the only apartment buildings in the outskirts of Melbourne that will allow dogs.

Something automatically felt wrong, when Asher and I got to the top of the stairs. I had the keys in my hand, but they were useless because the door was ajar. I tried to think back to when we left. Was it possible I had accidentally left the door open and forgot to lock the door? No, I specifically remembered shutting the door, because I my handbag was hanging on the door handle and it kept getting jammed in the door. It took me like three tries, but I definitely shut it.

I cautiously pushed the door open a bit more. Asher was straining at his lead and wanting to go in, so I bent down to pick him up. "Hello?" I called out, standing in the doorway, then instantly scoffed at myself. If there was someone in here, they weren't going to answer. Unless it was Theo. "Theo? You home?" I called, but only silence answered.

I crept in and looked around, but nothing seemed to be out of place. I went into the dining room/kitchen, and then the living room, followed by our bedroom and the guest bedroom, checking for anything out of the ordinary or suspicious. I found nothing, and telling myself I was just being paranoid, I put Asher back on the ground, and made a cup of coffee.

It wasn't till later, when I went into the bathroom that I found it.

The mirror had been smashed, and 'I believe in you, that you'll make the right choice' had been written on top of the cracked shards of glass in red lipstick.

Michael. He'd been here.

I sat on the couch, hugging Asher and trying not to lose it until Theo got home.

"Mad, are you okay?" Theo asked as soon as he saw me.

"I was walking Asher, and while I was gone Michael was in here," I said, my voice panicky.

"WHAT?!"

I know he was just concerned for me, but hearing Theo sound so worried only made me panick more.

"He left a message in the bathroom." I said, resting my head in my hands.

Theo went to look at the bathroom. I stayed on the sofa, hugging Asher. "Mad, we have to go to the police," Theo told me, and I nodded, knowing he was right. I squeezed Asher, and kissed his fluffy head before letting him go.

I quickly grabbed a jumper because it had cooled down quite a lot, and I find jumpers comforting.

Even though we could of easily walked from our apartment to the police station, Theo insisted we take his car. Which I was okay with, I didn't paticuary want to be walking around on the streets when Michael had been around sometime today, and the sun was starting to sink lower in the sky, the darkness setting in.