"Madison, are you okay?" Sarah asked, grabbing my arm.

"Uh, sure," I stuttered out, not sure how long I had been standing in front of the restaurant, staring at it like a goon. "I just felt a little dizzy. I guess I'm hungrier than I thought," I lied.

"How many?" the bored looking hostess asked.

"Two," Sarah answered, still holding on to my arm lightly. I could have pulled it free easily enough, but I didn't. The memories from long ago had left me feeling shaky and alone. Her touch felt oddly comforting.

"What's good here?" I asked, aiming for normalcy.

"I'm a fan of the cheddar bacon potato soup and the burger sliders."

"Sounds good," I said, closing my menu. The idea of perusing the menu to find something I would like seemed too daunting. I figured burgers and soup were a safe bet.

"Hi, I'm Katie, and I'll be your waitress today," a chipper voice said.

Looking up, I nearly groaned out loud when I saw Katie Nelson standing at the end of our table. I watched with some satisfaction as her jaw dropped when she recognized me. Katie Nelson fell into the Populars group with her bubbly personality, designer clothes and don't-screw-with-me attitude. We'd been friends years ago when we were paired as partners in the youth group mission we took to Mexico the week after Christmas when we were twelve. We were two peas in a pod during that mission trip as we broke as many rules as we could. Together, we'd snuck out to hook up with two boys we'd met from the nearby village. We both experienced second base that night with those boys, and probably would have slid into third if Marcie, our youth leader, hadn't dragged us back to the camp, threatening to call our parents if we ever did that again. Later, we'd giggled together, not caring about her reprimands as we both discovered we had our very first hickeys. Once we got home, our friendship continued to blossom as we moved from one risky adventure to the next. We smoked our first joint together, holed up in my room while our parents were at church one evening. We had giggled uncontrollably as we dipped our fingers into the jar of peanut butter I had snagged from the kitchen. We polished off the entire jar as we gossiped about the kids we went to school with. Katie was my best friend, my only friend. Because of her, I got to sit at the Populars’ table and attend all the parties she was invited to. The five months following our mission trip were the happiest months of my life. If only I could have been happy with things the way they were. If only I could have lived with being ignored by my parents. Maybe everything would have been different. Hindsight is a mocking bitch for sure. Katie and I were no longer friends after I turned thirteen. She became the ringleader of my torment as she led the brigade of hate notes tossed at me all through seventh grade. I didn't care though. Really I didn't. It meant nothing that more than half the notes I saved were in her writing.

Chapter Fourteen

"What can I get you?" Katie finally asked, looking away from me.

"I'll take the lunch special with the burger sliders and soup," Sarah said, handing over her menu. "Oh, and I'd like a Diet Coke.

"I'll have the same," I said, meeting Katie's eyes. "Except with a Coke," I added, pretty convinced she'd most likely spit in it.

"I'll put your order in and be back in a sec with your drinks," Katie said, obviously in a hurry to be done with us.

"Can we get some chips and salsa too?" Sarah asked before Katie could escape.

"Sure, I'll bring them out with your sodas."

"She looks familiar," Sarah mused after Katie walked away. She looked at me questioningly, waiting for me to fill in the missing puzzle piece.

"She's a Popular," I finally answered, expecting that to clear everything up.

"Popular?"

"Yeah, you know, jocks, cheerleaders, class presidents, class clown, etc."

"Ah, I see. You mean The Goldens," she said.

"The Goldens? Why Golden?" I asked intrigued.

"We called them that because everything they touched seemed to be golden."

"Were you a Golden?" I asked.

She laughed. "Hell no. I was too much of a troublemaker. I was always getting into something that would set my parents’ perfectly straight teeth on edge," she said, still laughing.

Katie returned with our drinks and chips before I could say anything. I waited until she was gone before asking my question. "Do you get along with your parents now?" I asked, fiddling with my silverware and wishing I could retract the question before she could read too much into it.

"We have a love-hate relationship," she said, smiling at me knowingly. "It's a relationship that we have to continue to work on. We'll never have the easy camaraderie that Tim has with his family, but we've learned to at least coexist. So, there's hope," she added.

"I'm pretty sure that doesn't apply to my family," I admitted. "We don't have any kind of relationship, and really never have."

"Madison, Dean has filled me in on your home life, and I hope you don't mind when I say that sometimes parents are just assholes," she said, shocking me.

I choked back a rare laugh. I couldn't ever imagine Donna swearing, let alone ridiculing another adult. Growing up, it had always been shoved down my throat that adults are always right. Having Sarah on my side kind of empowered me. Of course, she has no idea what I had done to make Donna the way she is. She'd be looking at me a whole lot different if she had all the facts. Matter of fact, I was quite certain she would bolt from the table quicker than you could say “scandal” if she knew.

Tags: Tiffany King Romance
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