#18
Madelyn's POV
"Hazel, tell everyone what you told me"
"Which one is Chris?" She asks everyone. They all turn to look at Chris. "I am your sister", she starts. "Well, half sister technically. Our dad had been taken prisoner by people in Iran. Almost right after the people told your mom that he had died, he was found and returned to America. Him and my mom started dating shortly after and had me. Very recently, he told me that he had a wife and kids before he met my mom. So I looked you guys up, and here I am."
"How do you know this is legit?" Cara asks.
Hazel takes off her backpack and pulls out a folder with her birth certificate and handed it to me. Our father's name was under the 'father' spot, as well as his birthday underneath. I pass the birth certificate around, allowing everyone to look at it. She reaches back into her back pack and pulls out picture of her family and hands it me. My breath catches in my throat, that's him.
That's my father. He looks grayer than the last time I saw him 14 years ago.
I hand the photo directly to Chris.
"So... he's alive?" Chris asks.
"Except for the fact that he needs a kidney, which is why I'm here. I can't give him one because I'm not old enough. Madelyn, you're the only one that can do it. That is, if you're a match" She drops on me.
"Okay. Let's go" I say without thinking.
***
I start grabbing things and throwing them into my suitcase.
"You can't be seriously considering this" Chris says to me.
"And why the hell not?" I ask.
"He abandoned us. He knew we existed and he did nothing. He didn't check to see how we were doing. I know for a fact he didn't because if he had, he would've seen what she did to you daily. Either that, or he saw what she was doing to you and didn't care. He could have saved you from so much."
"But he's our father."
"He lost that title when he left us."
"We don't know the whole story" I retort.
"Either way, he was dead to me the second he left." Chris storms out of my bedroom door.
Cole comes into the room next.
"Are you guys taking turns trying to talk me out of this?" I ask.
"No, I just wanted to come and talk to you." He pauses and watches me go to my sock drawer and just grab a handful of socks, "Madelyn"
"What?" I toss the socks in my suitcase.
"Can you just stop for five seconds?"
He grabs onto my shoulders and stops me.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" He asks me.
"I have to at least try, right? He's my dad." I say, more questioning that stating.
"You have to do what you think is right"
"If your dad was in the same position, would you give him a kidney?"
"I would've given him anything he needed"
"Okay" I say to him, "Okay" I say again, but this time to myself.
"What do you need me to do before everyone else and I go to pack our bags?"
"Pack your bags?" I ask.
"Yeah. You're going to see your dad after 14 years of thinking he was dead. Everyone but Adam is able to go. We'll be your support group." He pauses for a couple seconds while I think, "If you want one?".
I pull his body to mine, "Yeah, that'd be great. Thank you." I pull away and go to my dresser, grabbing some pants. "Can you send Chris back in here?" I ask Cole.
"Of course."
He leaves the room and shortly after Chris comes back in. I walk towards him and stop directly in front of him.
"I know you don't remember, but he was the best dad ever" I move to sit on the edge of my bed and Chris follows suit. "We don't know the whole story yet. So will you please come with? Hear what happened directly from him." I plea.
"If it's that important to you, I will. But I'm not promising to be nice to him."
"Okay." I turn and hug Chris the best I can while sitting next to him, "Now go pack your bag."
***
"So where exactly are we going?" I ask Hazel as everyone stand in Cara and I's living room, all bags packed. Adam left to go home and took Cara's brothers home on the way.
"Phoenix, Arizona"
I sigh, not at all knowing how far away that is from here, "Okay". The coldness of my phone screen against my stomach, from my phone being in my waistband, suddenly become prominent. "I'm going to go to my room real quick, I'll be back soon" I announce to the group, "Can you get my ticket?" I ask Chris. He nods his head in response.
I walk off to my room and shut the door behind me, the reality of what I'm debating doing hitting me hard.
Can I really be considering this?
I mean, should I be giving him an organ?
I do agree with what Chris said. But I also think that I should do everything in my power to save his life, not only so that him and I can have a relationship. I also want to give him and Hazel a future, she deserves to have him there, regardless of if I did or not.
I take a deep breath and collect myself, grabbing my phone from my waistband and dialing a number.
"Hello" the other person asks.
"Hey mom, can we talk?"
I explain the whole situation to her and my thought about what I'm feeling.
"So what do I do?" I ask her.
"Do whatever your heart is telling you to do."
"But I don't know what it's telling me to do"
"Honey, I promise when the time comes, you will know"
"Are you sure?" I question, not entirely sure.
"Of course"
"Thank you so much. I love you." I tell her.
"I love you too. Make sure you and your brother stay safe."
"We will. Bye"
"Bye"
I remove the phone from my ear and press the end call button.
I compose myself and leave my room.
"You ready to go?" Cole asks me.
I nod my head and force a smile, "As ready as I'll ever be"
***
We've all settled into our trains seats and have slept into the night.
I wake up after a couple of hours, my mind consumed with racing thoughts. I stare out the window at the passing trees. I shift around in my seat and end up making more noise than I intended to. Across from me Cara stirs before her eyes pop open.
"Sorry" I whisper to her, trying not to wake up Cole and Chris, "I didn't mean to wake you"
"It's fine, I'm a really like sleeper" She responds.
We both stay silent for a while until she starts talking again, "Got a lot on your mind?" She asks.
I nod my head.
"Wanna talk about it?" She asks, nodding towards the seats across from ours.
The seats are set up in groups of four. Chris and Hazel are sitting in the section behind Cara. Two chairs face two other chairs with a table in the center. There are only about five people on this train beside us on the train, leaving almost all the seats open.
I nod once again and climb overtop of Cole and into the aisle. Cara slides off of her seat and into the aisle, having to do less because she has an aisle seat.
We walk the couple steps it takes to the grouping of chairs across from our, doing our best to be quiet.
"What's up?" She asks, once we are both comfortable and situated across from each other.
"What's not?" I rebuttal, laughing humorlessly, "I mean if it's not my fucked up family it's my fucked up perception of love and relationships. There's school and swim, and then theirs this, and then there's Cole..." I trail off, "How am I supposed to handle all of it?"
"I don't have any experience in any of this, so take my advice with a grain of salt. You do your best" She states.
"I don't know how to. I feel like I'm juggling everything, and I am really bad at juggling."
"I think that you are doing an amazing job" She compliments me, but the sound barely makes it past my thoughts.
"Maybe I should just stop whatever I'm doing with Cole. It's like the only thing I can control in this whole situation."
"Do you think that's going to make all of this easier?" She asks, although I know that she completely disagrees with what I'm saying.
"Probably not" I say in a lower voice, fidgeting with the hair tie on my wrist.
"I can't imagine being in your place, but you have this amazing support group behind you. Not only that, but you are such a strong person. I think that you can do all of this."
"You think?" I ask.
She nods as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.
"Thank you" I say to her. I honestly think that's what I needed. I needed to be affirmed that I can do this. "Do you want to play some cards?" I ask.
***
I turn my head to avoid the bright sun shining in my eyes, already mostly awake from the couple hours of sleep I finally got. I guess I just needed to get some things off my chest before I could sleep. I hear everyone talking around me, being quiet for my sake.
I open my eyes, deciding that I'd rather just wake up.
"Good morning" Hazel says to me, her and Chris squeezed into the seat by Cara.
I try to look at her but immediately have to squint from the brightness coming in through the window. I opt for rubbing my eyes instead. "Good morning" I respond, my voice coming out hoarser than usual.
"So who exactly are you?" Chris asks Cole.
Cole looks to me for an answer, I slightly shrug before answering, "Cara and I's neighbor."
"And Madelyn's boyfriend" Hazel tells Chris.
His eyes go wide.
"We're not dating" Cole and I say at the same time.
"Yuh huh, you guys were making out earlier." She states.
Chris's eyes go wide once more. There's nothing like some awkward family conversations to help pass the time.
"Oka- Bu-" Cole tries but stutters, but ultimately gives up, "Your turn" He tells me.
"We're friends that kiss sometimes..." I say, more of a question than a statement.
Cole's POV
"Yeah" I add, "That might date someday" I semi-question.
"Maybe" Maddie replies, looking to me.
Hopefully.
But at the same time, I don't want to fuck it up.
I kinda have a reputation, one that I'm not exactly proud of. Yet, one that I can't change.
She's been through so much in her life, I don't want to be someone that causes her to have to go through something else. I thought that by not dating her, I'd be less invested. Which isn't at all how it is going. I'm so invested at this point that I couldn't stay away if I wanted to.
This whole situation that we are in only makes me like her more.
She's so selfless, and nice, and beautiful. She's hard to not like.
"Didn't you tell me he was a douche?" Chris asks Madelyn.
She nods.
I mean she's not wrong. Things were a lot different when we first met, I was a douche.
"What's a douche?" Hazel asks.
"It's a- a type of dog" Madelyn stutters.
I suck my bottom lip into my mouth, smothering my smile.
"You told me that you weren't" Chris starts, but covers Hazel's ears mid-sentence, "sleeping with him." He whispers the last part before taking his hands off of Hazel's ears.
"I'm not-" She starts, her cheeks flushing pink.
I rest my elbow on the table in front of us and placed my chin atop of my hand. Watching Maddie intrigued with what she was going to say.
Her eyes meet mine and I give her an encouraging smile.
"We're not" She states more confidently now.
I take my head off of my hand and look to Chris now, "We're really not. I would never."
"You would never?" Maddie questions, her eyebrows raised.
Cara covers her mouth with her hand. She's been listening to the whole conversation just not adding anything.
"That's not what I meant. I mean- it's just-" I sigh, "obviously I would, have you seen yourself?" I motion to her as I feel the heat rising to my cheeks.
She places her elbow on the table and her head on top, mimicking my actions from before.
"I would never want to do it unless you're ready. Well I do want to now. I'm going to stop talking"
Maddie nods her head and looks towards Chris, "So, as you can see, we're not dating" She says as if all of our stuttering was supposed to give that impression.
"We will be arriving at our destination in 15 minutes" someone says over the intercom.
Madelyn's POV
I let out a shaky breath as my heart starts to race.
I guess it's time to do this.
Well in 15 minutes it will be...
***
A/N
Hey everyone, sorry that this chapter is a little later than usual. I actually graduated today so I've had a lot to do this week.
Do you guys think that waiting a week for a new chapter makes you lose some interest in the story?
Would you want two chapters a week?
There wouldn't be two chapters every week because I will be a college student very soon.
But would you guys want two chapters a week, every other week? (If that even makes sense)
Thank you to everyone that has read any amount of this story, I truly appreciate every one of you. <3