Bruises- Shane Madej

1. Airplane Rides and Drunken Nights

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Maddie grabbed her suitcase and slipped on her shoes, meeting Shane and Ryan outside of their hotel room. 

They had just finished filming at the Winchester house in San Jose. Now they were off to Mexico City to visit the Island of the Dolls. 

Last night, they didn't get to their hotel until 4 in the morning, so they were all a little tired. 

They got their luggage into the back of their Uber and were off to the airport. 

Once past security, Madalyn went to order coffee for the three of them. 

Most of the time, their filming team included just the two ghosty boys and their cameraman. Sometimes, a video called for more production team, but that was pretty rare.

Maddie Dybdahl was best friends with Ryan Bergara. They'd met in poetry class in their sophomore year of high school, and were inseparable ever since. 

Her relationship with Shane Madej was quite different. Even though they were both skeptics, that was about where their similarities ended. She didn't like him much, and he seemed to reciprocate the feeling. 

The only thing that making them be civil to each other was Maddie's morals and the fact that Ryan wouldn't be able to stand his two best friends arguing all the time. 

However, Maddie didn't know Shane that well yet. They'd only shot one season. She hoped that they might be able to connect and start becoming friends sometime soon. 

But, for now, she was just going to continue to resent his cocky smartass attitude. 

As they boarded the plane, Ryan insisted that Maddie sit next to Shane, probably hoping that they'd talk and hash it out a little. 

Maddie sighed and lifted her luggage up onto the rack. She gasped in pain when her thumb rubbed against the suitcase roughly. 

"Damn," she muttered, taking her seat in the middle, next to Shane. Ryan wasn't there yet; he wanted to use the bathroom before they left. 

She looked at her already bandaged thumb and, to no surprise, saw that blood was beginning to soak through the bandaid. 

"How on earth did you make yourself bleed already?" asked Shane. 

Maddie unwrapped her bandaid and reached in her backpack, grabbing a new one. "Well, I poked myself with a needle a few days ago, and rubbing my thumb against the suitcase must have re-opened the wound." 

"What? What kind of needle? Needles don't make you bleed," Shane pointed out. 

She tried hard not to roll her eyes. "A sewing needle. I was embroidering. And I have hemophilia." 

Shane frowned. "Hm." He watched her try to stem the bleeding with a bandaid. "Are you going to bleed out, right here, in the airplane?" he asked sarcastically. 

"I don't have it very severely; I'll probably just keep pressure on it and drink lots of water."

Ryan took his seat. "What happened?" he asked, eyeing her newly bandaged thumb. 

"I just re-opened a wound from a few days ago. It should stop soon," she said. Ryan nodded. 

"How did you injure yourself a few days ago?"

"I may or may not have been embroidering again." 

Ryan frowned. "Maddie! How many times do I have to tell you! You can't keep stabbing yourself with needles! Wear a thumbtack or something, god damnit." 

She laughed. "It's fine, Ryan." She raised the sleeve of her sweater to him, showing him lots of little embroidered flowers and leaves. "How else am I gonna spice up my clothes? It turned out great!" 

Ryan rolled his eyes. "You've gotta stop doing that," he mumbled. Maddie had a hard time concealing her laugh. 

The flight ahead of them was a little over 4 hours. Maddie got settled in and tried not to touch Shane too much. 

The problem was that Shane was a giant, with legs that could rival the Nile River. He wasn't keeping in his space much. 

Maddie understood, he had a lot of leg and nowhere to put it. However, it was still annoying when he invaded her space. 

But, what could she do? Force him to cram his legs within the confines of the tiny airplane seat? 

No, she would simply have to endure 4 annoying hours of touching knees with Shane Madej. 

For most of the flight, the trio slept. They needed to get some energy; they were going to see the city that night when they landed. Or, at least, they were going to see the bars of the city. 

Maddie wasn't planning on drinking too much; she was a lightweight drinker and once she'd had more than 5 shots of Vodka, she was absolutely wasted. 

Once they landed, they checked into their hotel and dropped off their luggage. She went into the bathroom and freshened up a little before their outing. 

A little while later, everyone was ready to go. Maddie used her phone camera to film little tidbits, but most of it went undocumented. 

She sat at a table outside with Shane and Ryan and clinked her martini glass against theirs. For the most part, Shane and Maddie were able to forget their differences and just have a good time. 

A couple hours into the night, Maddie was feeling pretty drunk so she decided not to have any more. However, Ryan and Shane were still sipping on their beers. They seemed less intoxicated than she was. 

Once it got past midnight, they were all feeling pretty wasted. They decided to go back to their hotel room for the night. When Maddie went into the room, she frowned. 

"I don't remember there being only two beds." 

"I'll share with you, Maddie," said Ryan. "We don't want Shane to strangle anyone with his eerily long legs." 

Shane mumbled incoherently as he stalked into the bathroom, ducking his head on the way in. He seemed really tired. Now that she'd come to think of it, Maddie was exhausted, too. 

She walked over to the bathroom and knocked on the door. "Come back later," Shane shouted. 

Maddie sighed and sunk to the floor by the bathroom, wanting to take off her makeup and contacts.

Her eyes were feeling dry, so she just picked out her contacts while sitting on the floor. Then, she realized that wasn't the smartest thing. 

She walked over to her suitcase and set it on the bed, squinting and rummaging through it for her toiletry bag. She was doing this all one-handed; the other one was holding her contacts. 

Eventually, she found the bag with her contacts case. She put the contacts away and slipped her glasses on. Her vision came back. 

Shane came out of the bathroom in baggy pajama pants and a tshirt that made him look even lankier than normal. Maddie got her pajamas and went into the bathroom to wash her face and change. 

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