The Secret Friendship

Chapter Ten

Maddie POV:

“Are you feeling better this morning, sweetheart?” Mom asked after my episode the night before. She’d let me sleep in until nine-thirty and made me French toast for breakfast. I yawned as I sat at the kitchen table in my pajamas, my hair a tangled mess.

“I’m fine.”

“What happened?” I didn’t know where to start. I didn’t know what all to tell her. I couldn’t flat out tell her I was getting burned out on dance. Mackenzie had already broken her heart enough.

“Miss Abby just wears me out sometimes…” I admitted. “She expects unrealistic things from me…”

“What do you mean?”

“She’s always mad whenever I’m not perfect. Not to mention, she keeps trashing Chloe all the time. She needs to get over that. She’s so annoying.”

“But Mads, you love Miss Abby.”

“She’s just getting to be too much.” Mom sighed, taking a sip of her glass of orange juice on the table.

“I don’t know what happened. You guys used to be so close. It’s partly my fault…and Mackenzie’s. I should’ve never allowed her to quit. It ruined everything.”

“Mom, this has nothing to do with Mackenzie!” I stammered, upset that she was casting the blame on my little sister when she wasn’t a part of this situation. “It’s not yours either. These things just happen.” She rolled her eyes.

“Whatever. Your special treatment suffered the minute I pulled your sister from dance. She was so talented…and she threw it all away. Abby was right.”

“Stop!” I wanted to cry again but I held it in. “Leave Kenzie out of this!”

“Maddie, stop yelling.” She scolded softly. “You’re almost an adult. Use your inside voice.”

“I’m sixteen. I’m not an adult. I’m still a kid. All of this time you and Abby have been expecting me to act like I’m thirty when still I’m just a little kid.” Mom sighed and took a minute to regain her composure.

“Well what do you want me to do about this?” She was the one who pressed me to speak about my problems, then acted like I was dumping everything on her. I took a deep breath and decided to propose my idea.

“What if I took a short break from dance?” From the petulant look on her face, I could tell she didn’t approve of it all.

“Maddie, no! Abby would freak!”

“This isn’t about Abby, Mom. This is about me. I need a break!” She looked exasperatedly up at the ceiling.

“I can’t let you leave. I already let it happen to Kenzie and I regret it every day. I can’t let you go through with it, Maddie. You’re going to have to push through it. I’m sorry.”

“I’m not going to leave. I just want to take maybe like a month off.”

“I’m sorry, Mads. I’m sorry.” She got up from the table and went upstairs without another word. She was probably going to lock herself in her room and cry again like she had when Mackenzie announced she wanted to quit. Of course it was okay for one child and not the other. My sister could do whatever she wanted but I never even had a choice.