Love, Sex, Diamonds (Madison/You)

twenty

I grabbed the lighter from the coffee table and stood up from the couch, stretching my arms above me. Bates was sitting next to me. He slowly unraveled from his little ball and snorted a few times before rubbing his head against my leg.

I had the house to myself right now. It was 9 am and Thanksgiving was around the corner. Luke and Sierra were at Sierra's parent's home for the rest of the week because of the holiday. Madison had spent the night at her friend Cindy's for some quality time before we left for New York. Our flight was at 5 pm and we thankfully packed our bags the day before. We also bought a 3rd ticket because Bates was joining us.

The little frenchie was coming because my mom was the one that rescued him and she referred to him as 'my brother.' Bates' mom was a stray and had wandered into the backyard of my childhood home. By the time my mom found her, she had unfortunately passed away after giving birth to little Beethoven and his sister, Abby, who now lived at the house with my mom.

When she called me and told me what happened, Camila and I bought tickets for the next flight to New York. When I first saw his beady little eyes, still closed because he was only a day old, I fell in love.

"You wanna come outside with me?" I asked the quiet Bates, petting his small head and smiling as he nuzzled into my hand.

I grabbed the joint I had been rolling and led the dog forward, passing my Monet painting that hung on the wall next to the TV. I opened the sliding glass door and stepped out, waiting for Bates to follow before closing it behind us. A contractor had came only yesterday to reinstall the door, and after we took down the Halloween decorations and replaced them with simple Thanksgiving ones, the house was finally back to normal.

Bates and I settled into the backyard. I plopped down on one of the seats at the table and picked Bates up to sit on the one next to me. I quickly lit the joint and indulged myself, looking up at the overcast sky and feeling the humidity cling to my skin.

"Do you want a hit?" I asked Bates but he just cocked his head, making me laugh. "I'm kidding. I'm not that messed up."

My phone buzzed in my pocket and I took it out. Smoke poured from the end of the joint and from between my lips as I read through my notifications. There were a few text messages, mostly from Luke begging me to come save him from Sierra's crazy sister, but a lot of my alerts were from social media.

It had been like this for the last few weeks, people going insane over the idea of Madison and I together. There was a lot of backlash, from the more homophobic side of the world, but that was nothing compared to the support we were getting. There was also a lot of attention on Camila, who still either refused or didn't care to say anything about us even though millions of people were asking her.

It had turned out a lot better than I thought it would. Not only because of how well everyone took it, but also because of the publicity Madison was getting. And to top it all off, Madison ended up telling me that she wanted to branch her own career into the music industry.

I knew Madison had a beautiful singing voice, but I had no idea how talented she was in writing music as well. I helped her find her feet, producing an EP for her that took no time at all, and hooking her up with Angela D'Leon. Angela was just the representative for the Strokes, but I had known her a long time and was completely aware of her work ethic. After only one meeting with her and a short viewing of the EP, Angela had offered to manage Madison's career.

At first, Madison was hesitant because she had asked me to be her manager before. I would've loved to, but I explained to her that my skills would be better used behind the soundboard, while Angela would do a much better job than I would. I trusted Angela, and Madison trusted me.