𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬

41

It was nearing dark by the time Maddie made it home, setting the bike and helmet up against the wall of the house. Maddie quickly made her way inside and as soon as she did she was met by three different figures all with different reactions to her walking through the door. A squeal was heard through the pale lips of May as she ran forward to hug her older sister, Maddie froze for a second before wrapping her arms around May, something nobody in the room except Zach picked up on. "Hey, May, how was school?" She asked with a smile and she recieved a shrug from May with a conflicted smile, Maddie knew she had something to say but she guessed her mother had to do with why she wasn't talking. "Yes, thank you for the help, she's home now so it's fine." Mrs. Dempsey ended the call as she stared at her adpoted daughter, she walked forward but she stopped short taking in her appearance. "Madison, where are your shoes?" Everyone in the room had expected Maddie to quickly cut her off correcting her name, but to everyone's surprise, including her mother, she didn't. "And your jacket? Your bag?" Karen continued to prod as she took in her daughters state, she had no shoes her feet bruised and no doubt bleeding, she was missing the jacket and bag she had left home with, her arms were badly bruised, and then there was the matter of how exhausted Maddie looked, as if she'd just ran a marthon without one single ounce of water.

"Madison?" Karen asked carefully as she stepped forward and Zach quickly ushered the youngest in the room out. First it was a sniffle, then a tear, then her body was shaking uncontrollably and Maddie leaned back against the wall as her body and mind shut down. "I'm sorry." Maddie forced the words out and Karen could tell by the way they broke off and cracked. "Madison, you're scaring me, please, please tell me what happened." She'd never been more scared for her daughter, or for anyone. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I lied, I'm sorry I skipped school, I'm sorry I've hid Justin in my room, and I'm sorry that I'm not the daughter you chose." Maddie slid onto the floor her chest racing 100 miles per second. "Madison, you are the daughter I chose, and what you've done is fine, you're a teenager, you're allowed to make mistakes but please, tell me what this is about." Karen begged as she too found herself on the floor as she tried to comfort her daughter.
"Mom, I can't."

Mom.

It'd been so long since Maddie had called Karen that name. So long since she'd needed her or wanted her. And that was just another tell tell sign that this was bigger than anything Karen knew was going on. "Maddie, sweetheart, please. I can't protect you if you don't tell me what happened." Karen now had tears trailing down her cheeks as she spoke to her breaking daughter, and by this time Maddie could hardly breathe, lucky for the girl Zach had made his way into the teens room and found her second inhaler. He quickly walked in, he had expected to see Maddie standing there. Angry, screaming and crying from anger. But what he seen was much different. He seen the 10 year old girl who entered their family. The scared young girl who felt she couldn't keep herself safe, and that's when Zach realized what happened. And how much of a role he had played in
—

Maddie, you can stay home dear. I think it might be good for you." Karen said as she looked at the girl as she went to walk out of the door. "Mom, I'll be fine. I need to do this, do you think we could talk after school today?" Maddie questioned and Karen nodded eagerly, Karen had wanted to talk last night but it was quite obvious if she had pushed Maddie any further last night then she would have needed to be rushed to the hospital due to her hyperventilating, but Karen did take it upon herself to tell her son to talk to Maddie. Karen felt that Maddie may open up to either of them, Karen because she was older and because she too was a female but she could also open up to Zach because they had such a strong bond and because he was her age.

The conversation started as soon as they both entered the car. "I'm sorry." Zach blurted out and Maddie fiddled with her zipper attached to her jacket. "It's not you fault." Maddie knew Zach knew something, she supected that he thought what happened to Jessica happened to her so she knew she would need to correct that thought as quickly as possible. "Yes it is, I heard the tape, and I still allowed you to be with Bryce." Maddie tried to keep her hands still as she clenched them toegther. "You didn't know that would happen, and I heard the tape too, if it's anyone's fault it's mine for going with him." Zach stared at her with wide eyes filled with misbelief as he turned left towards the school. "Do not blame yourself for his despicable actions."

"Then don't do it either." Maddie said as she fumbled slightly with her zipper yet again before just fully dropping it. "I want to make it very clear I wasn't raped." Maddie said firmly and Zach nodded waiting for her to finish. "I-He-He touched me." She said hoping he understood and Zach nodded as he gripped the steering wheel tighter. "Do you want to talk about it?" Zach asked carefully and Maddie shook her head. "No, I'm going to talk to mom about it, I feel like that'd be easier." She said and Zach took no offense, honestly she was glad she would be tell their mom, their mom would go to the police quicker than Zach would.

As soon as they left the car Maddie frowned, it was like the school had gotten smaller or something because within an instant she quickly locked eyes with none other than Bryce. Zach sighed as Maddie walked forward to the group, he wanted to just grab her and run away down the hall, but he couldn't do that, she had to make her own choices, but he would make sure that Bryce didn't get her alone. "Hey look it's Maddie!" Alex pointed out and nobody was sure if he were genuinely happy to see her or if it was his secondhand language- sarcasm. Maddie nodded at him but kept her mouth glued shut and her arms interlocked in front of her. Justin watched from his seat and furrowed a brow at her silence, she was petty enough to ignore him and sit with other people sure, but she wasn't the kind of petty to ignore everyone just because they broke up- there was something majorly wrong, and he was most defenitly going to get to the bottom of it.

~~~Authors Note~~~
Hey! Sorry for the long wait and the boring chapter but I wanted to post something, what do you think should happen next? Will Maddie confide in her mother or will it be Justin?

Any suggestions/requests? Please comment or message me with them! I love to hear and use them!

Also on a side note, I think I've used like a lot of the Maddie gifs- and probably all the ones that could match the story, and I know I've ever reused a few so if anyone has any good Maddie gifs that they think would be useful help a girl out!😂

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