Mad Love

Chapter 1

I shifted from foot to foot in indecision, the light evening breeze cutting through the thin fabric of my new dress. Beside me, Helen and Alex rubbed their hands over their arms, shivering, no doubt regretting their ensembles, too – regretting the outfits which we’d all spent the better part of this afternoon agonising over at the mall, strutting around Nordstrom’s huge dressing rooms like models on a catwalk, four friends heady with excitement for the upcoming evening we’d spent the week planning.

But now Saturday was almost over and after hyping up our illicit night out so much it all felt pretty anticlimactic as we stood here waiting to be picked up by a sensible and indulgent older brother.

True, we’d managed to get into two of the three clubs we’d mapped out and Maddie had scored some drinks out of some gullible frat guys; we’d danced the evening away, totally out of our depths, giggling like the school kids we were when thirty-something men moved too close and grinded against us. Well, all of us except Maddie, that is. She hadn’t giggled so much as smirked, hadn’t shrieked away from the hard, jutting evidence of their desire and their clutching hands like Alex, Helen and I so much as moved with them for a long beat or two, moving her ass into their crotches before throwing a catlike smile over her shoulder and re-joining us. I guess that was what had made it anti-climatic; we hadn't been brave like Maddie. We’d just watched her, living vicariously through her.

And now here we stood, outside club number two waiting for Helen’s brother to swing by and pick us up at almost eleven pm. In bed by twelve, no doubt. Sensible. Just a couple of high-school freshmen testing the limits of their independence while their parents were away before conceding laughing defeat and heading home to watch trashy movies and fall asleep around dawn. Sensible.

All of us except Maddie, that was.

I glanced across at her again, torn. She was standing under a streetlight a few feet away, bright light spilling over her white-blonde hair, over her smooth pale legs in her impossibly short skirt. Her head rested close to a boy who’d joined us in the club around an hour ago. I’d never seen him before but Maddie had greeted him warmly. It had confused me – we told one another everything, after all. If she was dating, she would have told me…or so I’d thought.

“Is she really going back with him?” Helen whispered in my ear now even though the music from the club would more than drown out an evenly toned voice.

“No – no way…” I trailed off, not convincing myself. I looked away from our two concerned friends to eye Maddie once more.

“I think she is – I really think she is. I mean…but we can’t just leave her, can we?” Alex piped up then, her frowning brows disappearing beneath her bangs.

“Sam’s here - we have to go,” Helen said then, sounding relieved as a sleek, white Audi pulled up beside us.

“Just a minute, I’ll talk to her. You’re right, we can’t just leave her.” With him.

Helen nodded once. “Ok, but hurry – Sam’s already gonna kick my ass over this.”

I returned her nod and took a deep breath before hurrying over to Maddie and her scary acquaintance.

“Um – so Sam’s here,” I said awkwardly behind her, and she looked over her shoulder, smiling distractedly.

“‘K – text me when you get home.”

I blinked at that – at her concern over my safety, but that was Maddie all over. Always the one taking charge, the leader.

“Maddie, I can’t go without you,” I eyed her watchful partner warily. “Besides, your car-”