𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐬. ༄ s. harrington

vii.

HENDERSON came back from the bathroom, looking around, expecting her friend to still be there. but she wasn't. a small frown placed itself on her lips, she wanted to talk to barb a little bit more. she sighed, sitting on the edge of the pool, but this time she didn't dip her feet in. madeline just brought her knees up to her stomach, staring up at the sky. the bright, pale moon peeked through the misty clouds and many stars were visible, dazzling in the pitch black sky. she always knew that she had a thing for astronomy, it deeply interested her. she was curious to know what else was out there.

but what she didn't know was that her best friend was behind the bushes just across the pool, clicking pictures of her.

madeline then turned her head to see steve's bedroom window. the curtains were made from a sheer material so it was kind of see through. there, she saw steve and nancy both kissing, it seemed like nancy's shirt was off too.

her heart dropped, only a little bit. madeline felt even more sad for some odd reason. mad was very aware of what the couple were both gonna do, so why is she so sad about it all of a sudden? but it was sort of difficult to describe how the girl was feeling at that moment. madeline exhaled, burrying her face in her knees, staying there for a couple of minutes.

the silence was comforting and peaceful. she felt somewhat relaxed but deep down madeline just knew something was wrong. and it wasn't only cause will was missing, or that she didn't see see barb anymore that night, or that she saw steve kissing nancy. it was something more to that.

-

the next day at school, madeline was getting her books out of her locker as nancy was passing by giving a soft 'hey' to her. she noticed people staring at nancy too, was it cause of last night? but then she figured it wasn't her buisness and she shouldn't worry anyway so she shrugged it off. but what did worry her most was barb. she hadn't showed up at school yet. maybe she was skipping or she was sick? she wasn't sure beacause barb had perfect attendance at school.

later at lunch, in the cafeteria, madeline saw tommy, carol, steve and nancy at one table but still no sight of barb. tommy, carol both looked over at mad who was sitting on a table across them, alone with a book in her hands. steve also looked over at her, but didn't bother to say hello. instead he just stared at her for a bit then carried on talking to the others. thanks alot for that  madeline thought to herself rolling her eyes and continued to read off the page of her book. steve and her had plans to go to the acrade later today, but steve hasn't spoken about that since last night. she hoped he didn't forget though.

getting up from her table, madeline was just exiting the cafeteria when she spotted jonathan. "jonathan, hey." she said hugging him."hi" he loosely hugged back.
"what's up? you look tense."
"i have stuff to show you." jonathan said leading her to the darkroom.

-

madeline watched as jonathan developed the photos he wanted to show her.
"did you?..." madeline asked looking at a picture of barb and her sitting on the edge of steve's pool.
"yeah...i wanted to find clues for will. sorry it sounds creepy to you."
"oh. so you were hiding behind the bushes, i'm assuming?"
he nods his head as he hung all the pictures up on the photo dryer with pegs.