Madison
Being back home in her East Village apartment was fun for exactly five minutes—about the time it took for Madison to realize that Darling had company of the male persuasion and was probably best left undisturbed. Darling and the singer from Zombie Punch had gotten awfully cozy over the last few weeks. It was shocking. Madison had missed most of it, being busy with her own life drama, but through various text messages she finally caught up with stuff and was able to piece together the events. Darling and the singer had been having a series of sweet coffee-house dates. The dates had since moved into the girls’ apartment since Zack shared a place with five other guys and had the dirty dishes and laundry clutter to prove it. The two lovebirds sat curled up on the couch laughing uproariously as they watched an old movie and took turns tossing popcorn into each other's mouths. In Madison's current mood, it was so cute it was disgusting.
She gave them a quick hello and headed straight for her room to put away her stuff.
She’d dropped her mother's car off at Thomas and Izzy’s parking bay and even popped by their apartment to assure them both she was alive and well. Okay, that and to do a load of laundry from her trip. Link had gone to his own apartment, probably to do much the same, although she couldn't picture him doing laundry.
Isabel had been pretty gentle with the questions and let her get away with some very vague answers. It was appreciated since she really didn't know what was going on between the two of them anyway. Link acted like he wanted more, and she knew in her heart she wanted more, but she just didn't trust either one of them to be able to do “more”. It was like trying to figure out the meaning behind a Kandinsky abstract. All kinds of color and shape but no clear picture. Maybe it would make sense Friday night when she watched Becket play the Agora Ballroom for the children’s charity. She’d see Link back in his natural environment and be able to put it all in perspective.
Madison spent the remainder of the evening coming up with her employment game plan. There really was no way she could go flying off to the Caribbean with Link when she didn't have enough money saved up to even cover another month's rent. She needed a full-time job and fast. She was listing the names of tattoo shops that were a reasonable commute from her apartment when a gentle knock sounded on her door. "Come on in!" she called.
Darling entered her room looking a bit too flushed for having been laughing at a comedy. "Hey Maddie, I’m really glad about the news."
"What news? Don't tell me it's about me," Maddie asked tightly, already prepping her temples in anticipation of another headache.
"It's good news. Canterbury Records came out explaining that that scene was part of a to-be-released music video. They had some stills set between some concert footage of Becket, and if I didn't know better I'd believe it." Darling smiled.
Madison flipped open her laptop and started typing away looking for news stories to verify what Darling was telling her. Instantly she had a story summary through Bing. It all looked pretty solid and believable, although the original broadcasters, Hollywood Wire, had put out a statement standing by their previous story. It looked like Link and Thomas had gotten some pretty good legal work done over the last few days and put the screws to some of the news outlets. Not everyone would believe the new spin, but it might make enough people doubt the truth of the story to salvage her reputation.
"This is a relief. Now I might even have a shot at getting a job." She beamed at her roommate and shut the laptop’s cover.
"I know you'll get a job soon; you are too talented not to. And don't worry about the rent, I've already called my dad and sorted it out with him. You've got yourself a little break," Darling offered, turning to leave her room.
"I don't want to owe anybody. I’ll get the money on time. I'm sure someplace will hire me," Madison said with more confidence that she felt.
Darling shrugged, leaving the room quietly.