The Bully, The Bullied, and The Bystander

Chapter 6: Scandal• Madison

Madison rushed downstairs and made a futile attempt to get the living room in order. Aunt Brooklyn was coming over, but it wasn't like she had never seen their batty old apartment before. She was the one that paid their rent, so Madison kept the cleaning to a minimum. She fluffed the pillows and swept the floor.

The doorbell rang as she finished sweeping and Madison rushed to open it. She didn't know when her mom was going to be back from her AA meeting, or when her brothers would come back from the mall. She needed this meeting with her aunt to be quick, effective, and kept under wraps. She didn't want the rest of her family to find out about it and start asking unwanted, and unnecessary, questions. She had enough going on as it was.

She opened the door and embraced her aunt in a tight hug. She led her in and offered her a half eaten cookie she had found in the fridge.

Aunt Brooklyn politely declined it, plopped down on a sofa near the door, and kicked a dirty sock out of her way. She wiped her hands on her jeans and took a good look at Madison. "How's it going, sweetie? How are the twins doing?"

Madison sat down on the couch to her aunt's right and let out a little chuckle, "Well, Jullian is trying to become a rapper on SoundCloud and Jake has like 3 middle school girlfriends." She and her aunt smiled at that. "But as usual they have mom wrapped around their mischievous little fingers. It's like she worships them."

Her aunt rubbed Madison's shoulder, "Enough about the twins. How are you doing? How's school?"

"School is going great, as expected. I can't say the same for when I come home though." said Madison. "Mom's been extra moody the past couple of days and she's been taking it out on me."

"How so?" said her aunt, leaning in.

Madison paused for a second and then pulled up her shirt hesitantly. Her aunt let out a faint gasp. A long red mark was wrapped around her waist.

"Did she do this to you?" she asked in disbelief.

Madison bit her lip and looked around the house even though she knew there was no one else around. "Well, technically it was an accident." Madison began. "She was really drunk last night and she told me to make dinner. I was finishing up some homework, so I didn't get to it as fast as she wanted me to. I came downstairs when I was done and she was struggling to plug in the toaster. I was trying to get her to stop and then- and then," Madison choked a little and pulled on her sleeves.

"And then next thing you know she's hitting me with the wire instead of plugging it in." Madison took a couple of deep breaths before continuing on.

"She apologized later, and by the next morning she didn't even remember what had happened." She finished her story and looked up at her aunt.

Her aunt went to the kitchen and brought back a box of tissues, "Take a deep breath sweetie. You're safe now. We're going to figure this out. One step at a time ok? First off, you're going to sleep at my house this weekend and I'll have another sit down with your mom. Ok? Breathe for me."

Madison took the tissues and kept taking short breaths. She was glad her aunt was here, it was getting hard dealing with this all by herself. It was nice having someone to talk to about all this.

Her aunt took a knee beside her and rubbed her arm. "Oh honey, has she ever done this before?"

Madison hesitated and then quickly shook her head, "no."

Her aunt nodded and sat back on the sofa, "Anything else you wanted to tell me?"

Madison blew her nose and nodded. She needed to pull herself together. This was the perfect time to execute her plan. "Yes actually, give me a second."