Touring with 5SOS

Sixty-Three: Trust

*TWO WEEKS LATER*

THIRD PERSON POV

The boys slowly entered Madison's room after knocking and hearing no response, just to find her sat at the desk typing something out on her laptop.

"Mads?" Michael hummed, not receiving a response. She hadn't even acknowledged their presence. "Hello? Earth to Maddie?"

Again, no response. Calum stood on the side of her and noticed she isn't even blinking, just mindlessly typing, stopping for a second to think, and typing again. So, he shuts her laptop.

"No no no no no," she mumbles, opening it and making sure what she was typing was okay. "Thank god, it's saved. What's up?" A small sigh escaped her lips s she turned around, blinking her tired eyes and applying lip balm to her dry lips. She looked like she didn't sleep the night before. In fact, she hadn't.

The five of them haven't fought since the day after the bonfire incident, which made things easier. Madison still kind of kept to herself but made more of an effort to talk to them and not be rude.

"Uh, what were you typing?" Ashton chuckled. "You didn't even notice us,"

"I was working on a college essay. I started a few hours ago, at 11 I think." Maddie shrugged, rubbing her tired eyes.

"It's nine in the morning..." Luke trailed off, watching as she checked the time and her eyes widened. "Why are you working on college essays? It's still summer,"

"School starts in a few weeks. This is my last year and I need to be ready for early applications. And a lot of the colleges I'm applying to have different entry essays that I need to do and I already started working on this stuff late and-"

"Calm down, Mads. You'll get it done, entries are open for a while. You really don't need to worry about college now. You could even take a year or two off of school if you wanted." Calum suggest, mostly for their sake. It would mean they got more time to spend with her.

"No, I'm applying this year." She smiles tiredly. "What's up?"

"Well we're leaving tomorrow evening for the weekend," Michael reminds. She nods slowly, waiting for them to tell her she has to go and that they really don't trust her. "And we've been thinking about it for two weeks..."

"We really don't want to do this, but you can stay." Madison's eyes widen as she looks at Ashton. They're really going to let her stay home alone for once.

"Thank you," she breathes out in relief. Another weekend locked away in a hotel room or in their dressing room at an interview was not something she could handle. She'd done enough of that to last a lifetime.

"But we're going to call you and if you don't answer you're never staying home alone again." Calum warns. That's a bit preposterous but she can deal with it. "You're also allowed to have friends over, but you need to tell us they're there when we call. No boys here unless Brianna's here as well. And we'd prefer if they weren't over for the night without us home."

"Got it. I can do that. One thing- what if I'm asleep when you call?" Maddie raises her brows. "I sleep pretty late sometimes."

"If you're asleep when we call, call us when you wake up and let us know you were asleep." Luke smiles. They're actually going to let her do this.

"Alright. Now can I get back to my essay?"

•••

It was almost 4pm the next day and the boys were getting ready to head out. Madison was extremely excited to be left alone, even if it was just until Sunday afternoon. Two days to herself.