Safe to say she had one of the worst night sleeps of her life since Zara dissapeared.
Madison woke up at 4 o'clock in the morning and was dressed by 5. It's clear to say that as soon as she could, she was leaving the house, but unfortunately for her she would have to wait another two or three hours before she could.
She started to pace her room, and then sat back down on her bed. Then got back up again and started walking around her room. Madison couldn't decide what she wanted to do. Nothing felt right. She could feel her body betraying her, her stomach felt like it was scrunching and squeeming into knots and she felt like she was going to throw up at any second. She kept fiddling with her hands, pulling at her finges as the nerves took over her body.
She picked up her phone and checked the time. 5:06am. She sighed and flopped onto her bed and rubbed her eyes. Only six minutes had passed and that felt like years right now. She thought about falling back asleep but she knew that wouldn't work as once she was up, there was no getting back to sleep.
She turned her telly on and put a DVD in, but she was too distracted by her thoughts to actually pay attention to it. She just thought about Zara and the time they spent together before all this happened. Madison smiled. She reached for a teddy that was lying just beside her bed and cuddled it.
She smelt it and remembered how Zara always smelt of lavender, just like the teddy does. Madison held it closer to her chest and felt tears start to brim in her eyes. She rolled over to her side and just held on to the teddy, smelling it again and wishing that Zara was here to tell her she should grow up and stop crying like she normally did, that's something Zara would say to make her smile again. She remembered how that always worked with her.
"I miss her," Madison sobbed quietly as she curled into herself and let the memory wash over her.
Madison knocked on the big dark door loudly. The door swung open furously to reveal that on the other side Zara was standing wearing a huge smile on her face.
"Madi-booo!" Zara cheered and embraced her friend in her arms. Her red hair was tied up into two ponytails on either side of her head and they were decorated with little beaded hairbands at both the bottom and the top. Her bright green eyes beaming as she stared into madisons dark grey ones. And her skin was a lovely pale colour.
They were total opposites in looks, Zara was the bright colourful girl with a bold attitude, and madison was the simple plain girl with the basic hair and personality. But together they complimented each other. Zaras balance and good fun nature matched perfectly with madisons quiet and timid one. When together they were a force to be reckoned with.
"Zara-mooo!" these were the nicknames they made for themselves when they were younger, and more innocent.
"me and Mad's are just going to my room she needs some much needed best friend time!" she called to her mum who was in the kitchen. The pair of them could hear someone calling back in repsonce but they were too busy laughing and giggling with one another.
Zara grabbed Madison's hands and tugged her through the house, up the stairs into her room and shut the door behind them. Madison was pulled to the bed and made to sit down on it while Zara walked around her room making sure everything was tidy. Finally, Zara sat down on the bed beside Madison and placed her feet on her lap as she lay down.
"Madi-boo, what happened?"
Madison laughed. Zara could read her like a book. Madison had come over because she needed cheering up because the group of girls that bully her had caught her outside her house and started picking on her bright pink top. Madison looked down at Zara's feet sadly and pouted. Zara scooted closer to her and gently patted her head in reassurance.
"Tell me madi," Zara whispered. Madison swallowed hard.
"...They called me a fat flamingo!" All her feelings were too much to handle, Madison fell onto Zara's lap and started sobbing. Zara held her close and kept patting her head in comfort. Madison could smell zara's clothes were soaked in lavender. She always loved how she smelt and wondered how she could always smell so nice all the time.
"shhhhhh mads. It's going to be okay. You have meeeeeeee." Zara said in her best funny voice making her giggle. Madison slowly stopped crying and let out a little squeek of laughter and zara started poking her face to make her laugh more and more.
"Mads, Come on, no more crying you pansy," zara joked. Madison managed a small smile. And sniffled wiping her nose with the back of her hand.
"do I see a smile?" zara said playfully, trying to move Madison's head to face zara. Madison moved off her lap and hid her face in the covers and laughed.
Zara started to shove Madison playfully with her feet. Madison laughed more and rolled on the bed, trying to get away from her, but in doing this she didn't realise she was getting closer and closer to the edge of the bed...
"Oh! Mads careful-"
With a loud thud Madison fell off the bed and into the welcoming arms of the floor. Madison clutched her stomach as she laughed her head off. "Are you alright, madi-boo?" Zara gasped out through her laughter. Zara fell to the floor and laid next to her. The two were in fits of laughter, both rolling around clutching their stomachs with the ache of their laughter.
"That was....epic, Mads!" Madison smiled at her and crawled her way back onto the bed and sat next to a still laughing Zara. The two were smiling at each other as they wiped their tears away.
"ohhhh... That was so funny! Thanks mads," zara said patting her friend on the back. Madison pushed her away gently with a playful gleam in her eyes.
"What happened Mads? Who called you a fat flamingo? And why did they call you that?" zara asked.
Madison shook her head. "nah. Its nothing to worry about."
"Tell me mads. You crying like that isn't nothing. Now are you going to tell me or am I going to have to push you off this bed on purpose?" Zara said smirking at her.
Madison sighed heavily. "It's nothing, it's silly really,"
"Nothing is pathetic if it makes you cry like that," Zara said placing a supportive hand on her shoulder.
"It was just that those stupid girls told me that I would lose you and you are like my whole world, Zara. I can't make it through life without you and you telling me to get a grip whenever I cry, or your threats to push me off the bed when I don't wanna tell you how I'm really feeling about something. I can't get a boyfriend without having you at my first date with him to make sure he's perfect for me. You know better than I do that im hopeless without you, zara,"
Zara just smiled at Madison and sat closer to her. she placed her arm around Madisons shoulder and rested her head on her shoulder.
"Listen to me, mads. These kids don't know either of us. They don't know me and they don't know you. They are just looking to cause trouble. They don't know the power of words when someone or something means so much to you. Me and you have something special mads, there's no denying that fact because if we did it would be complete rubbish. Those stupid mean girls don't know the kind of friendship we have, you're practically my sister mads and I love you to pieces," she kissed her forehead. "But saying you can't live without me it seriously hurts me, mads, as much as it is mice to hear. You were living before you met me, before you said your first words, before you met me you were living your life, planning the rest of it with that special someone, who, I will be checking over for you, but if you didn't meet me you would have been the same girl you are now. Its only that we met that you feel that you can't live without me. You have been a huge person on my life mads, more than you will ever realise and if I lost you I know I wouldn't be able to cope...but I would still live because I know you would want me to do that-"
"damn right," madison said clutching a teddy on the side of the bed and hugging it tight.
"-And that's what I want you to do. To say you couldn't live without me suggests to me you're willing to do something I definitely wouldn't want you to do." Zara sighed "Madi-boo, if I ever leave I wont be too far away from you, I will always be here for you, around you, near you. Because your my sister and im never going to leave you alone."
Tears brimmed in madisons eyes. "that means so much to me, zara. I promise I will never leave you."
"I don't believe in promise mads you know this,"
Madison nodded. "yeah I know that. When I promised you to be friends with you forever you told me that."
Zara chuckled. "well its been this long."
"Believe it now?"
"Hasn't been forever yet,"
"It will be soon," Madison smiled at her. Zara s
Watched as she played with the ears of the teddy and smiled at her.
"Keep him."
Madison looked at her in shock. "But he's you're favourite."
"Yeah but he's helped me enough. He needs to help you now."
Madison hugged zara tightly and thanked her multiple times for giving her the little brown teddy with a tiny red bowtie under his head. She looked down at him again.
"What's his name?"
"Anything you want. His name changes with wach person who needs him. That's his way of keeping track of each person he helps."
"Terry teddy." Madison said after thinking long and hard about it.
Madison clutched onto the teddy and took another deep breath of the lavender scent.
"Im sorry teddy...I've failed you."
She sobbed into the teddy, the tears falling down her cheeks and finally landing on the teddies soft fur. She sat up when she heard her alarm ring telling her it was seven o'clock and that it was time to be heading off to the police station to see chief Robert.
Madison stood up and wiped the tears from her eyes. Today she was thankful she didn't wear any makeup.
"Get a grip mads, your best friends depending on you." She said to herself as she looked at her terrible puffy red face in the mirror. At the side of it sat a picture of her and zara smiling on madison's fourteenth birthday where they went out to dinner with both of their families. They were smiling happily and zara was kissing her cheek.
She recalled now how embarrassing that night was as she looked back at it. She wanted to go to a buffet restaurant and challenge zara to eat as much as they could but also dress nice, and anyone knows that those two things do not match together. She cringed as she remembered the bright pink and orange dress she wore that night. She remembered thinking that it was the best dress ever and how pretty it looked as the colours all blended in together.
Madison chuckled wondering what the earth she was thinking at that time. She put it down to her turning fourteen and not being self aware on how fashion works.
Madison could still feel Zara's arms wrapped around her once more as she stared at the picture and she felt her heart grow warm. She picked up the picture and kissed Zara's face and promised to find out what happened to her, no matter what the cost.
I don't believe in promises, mads. She could hear her voice whispering in her head once more.
"Believe in me, Zara," she put the picture back beside the mirror and grabbed her ready packed bag and set off to the police station after sending a quick text to Jack and Ella telling them where to meet her.