Madison's POV

Luke and I walk hand in hand into school today, to be met with Violet, Ashton, Michael, and Calum.
"Hey lovebirds." Ashton gushes.

"Oh shut up." Luke spats, sharply turning the corner.

"Luke what are you-" He cuts me off, by smashing his lips onto mine.

I shove him off of me with shock. "Luke what was that for?"

"I'm sexually frustrated?" He shrugs as if asking me the question.

"Seriously." I giggle, shoving him playfully this time.

"I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for letting me cry on you last night, no mater how girly it sounds, I just wanted to say thanks." He shrugs again, and looks around to make sure that no one else heard him.

"With all my heart, your welcome." I whisper, returning the kiss to him. "Can we go back to the group now?"

He nods. "Sure."

We walk up to them again and we hear shushes and silence washes over the group. "Okay, you can talk about what you were talking about. You know I don't like secrets." Luke warns them.

"What was that all about?" Calum asks him, ignoring what Luke had just said.

"I needed to tell Madison something." He truthfully says.

"We had to tell the group something." Cal then nods.

"So we're not part of the group anymore?" Luke presses becoming angry.

"Don't worry about." Ashton tells him. "I'll let you know later. Anyways, we better get to class." I stand there quietly letting Luke catch up with Ashton about whatever it is that they need to talk about.

"Hey there friend. Long time no see, aye?" Violet migrates towards the back.

"Your telling me." I chuckle. "So what were you guys talking about?"

"Nothing." She shyly smiles, which is how I know she's lying.

I sigh. "Whatever I guess. I've got a question."

"I might supply you with an answer." She retorts.

"Do you know Parker?"

"What?" Violet chokes. "Parker? Like your brother?"

"That's the only Parker I know."

"No." She shakes her head as if to convince herself as well. "W-why?"

"Because when we went out over the weekend, I was talking about you guys, and he talked like he knew you." I shrug. "It just seemed kind of odd to me."

"Oh. Well you know, people mistake me for a lot of people. Nothing new." She nervously laughs.

I mentally roll my eyes at her but follow her into class where she departs with Michael. I turn to sit with Luke who now looks awfully pissed. "You okay, sweetheart?" I ask, tracing his tattooed arm-a motion that has become a habit.

"I'll talk to you about it later." He sighs and puts his head down for the rest of the class period.
~~~*~~~

"Wait up!" I hear Ashton's voice from behind me.

"Oh so now you want to include me?" I sarcastically remark.

Ashton cocks his head to the side, looking confused but then remembers. "Oh, that." He says.

"Yeah, that." I mock him. "Whatever it doesn't matter, I'm used to people keeping things from me." I sigh, thinking about my brother.

"I'm not keeping things from you, Maddy. And why would you be used to it?"

I shrug, "That's for me to know."

Ashton follows me through the lunch line, still pressing me with questions. "Why? Don't you trust me?"

"Of course..." I drag out, not really sure if I'm telling the truth about it or not.

"You don't do you?" Ashton fires, becoming angry. Suddenly his tattoos look more and more intimidating.

"I-I-" I swallow hard.

"What's going on?" Luke's voice booms over everyone at our table, as he slings his tray down. Surprisingly, he didn't make a mess.

"She doesn't trust us, Luke." Ashton rolls up his sleeves, clenching his jaw.

Luke looks at me with concern in his eyes, "Do you?"

I hesitate for a moment. "I trust you..."

"Why don't you trust us?" Michael asks sadly. "Yeah, Madison, why not us?" Calum then ponders.

"I-I-" I feel my breath hitching in my throat, my hands sweating under my thighs, my face becoming red-all the signs of a panic attack.

"Madison?" Violet calls for me. "Madison?"

I could hear her but I couldn't fine my voice to answer. Everyone's eyes burn into me and suddenly I find the strength to stand up and run away. I leave the screams behind and run into the girls' restroom, just staring at myself in the mirror.

I haven't had a panic attack since the last time I moved away. My dad was telling me about a new company buying his business and that he would be making better money, so it was a win, win situation for us all. That was when my brother moved out. I had made so many friends and I didn't want to leave them behind. I didn't want to be without my brother either.

As my vision starts to clear up, I see Luke in the background of the mirror. How long was he standing there? "Wh-what are you doing?" I ask, turning around.

"Checking on you." He says, coming closer to me.

On instinct and no reason in particular, I back up. Luke looks hurt, but accepts it. "I'm sorry." He says, his voice hardly above a whisper.

I don't say anything. I stand still looking at the tile on the floor. "You can't be in here. This is the girl's bathroom." I mumble.

"That doesn't faze me. I'll go anywhere you go."

I raise my head up and look at him. A smile creeps upon my face. "You promise?"

"I promise." He nods. I step closer to him to connect my lips to his. "Why'd you walk away like that?" He mumbles against my lips.

"I had a panic attack." I softly say.

"Because they were pressing question?" I nod. "Why don't you trust them?"

"I'm not having this conversation. I just want to go home." I sigh, and exit the bathroom. I walk up to the main office and grab a gate pass, that lets you go home early and I wait for my brother to come pick me up.

~~~*~~~

"Here you go." Parker smirks, handing me a glass of hot tea. "You wanna talk?"

"They just kept asking me why I didn't trust them, and I couldn't handle it. It felt just like it did when you were moving out. It felt like everything was crashing down on me and I couldn't hold not a single thing up." I explain, sipping my tea, carefully not burning my tongue.
"Well you know I was only a phone call away, bug."

"But you were in a whole different state than I was. It was easier to just pretend that you were here, than to call you and imagine the distance between us."

"Well I'm here now. Don't worry about it." Parker pats my arm, making me smile at his attempt of 'comfort'.

I sigh. "What happens if this place doesn't work out? What if we have to move to whole other country again?"

"Well if that happens, I'll be right with you. But seeing as how it wont happen, we're staying right here okay?"

"Okay." I nod.

Suddenly I hear a knock on the door. I look up at the clock on the wall that read 6:30pm. "You expecting anyone?" Parker asks.

"No. You?" I question him, getting up towards the door.

"Nuh uh." He response.

Another pound on the door sounds as I'm trying to sit my tea mug down on the table. "I'm coming, I'm coming." I grumble. I open the door to five faces I really don't want to see. "What is it?" I say.

"Can we come in?" Violet asks.

"Nope." I say stepping out on the porch. "Whatever you have to say, you can tell me out here."

"Madison just let us come in. Stop being such a baby." Surprisingly, these words left Calum's mouth.

"You don't see me coming to your house being rude to you and expecting you to let me in, do you?"

"You don't know where we live." Luke coughs, trying to cover it up.

I scoff and turn back around to go back inside. "Maddy wait." Michael stops me. "Just let us in. We want to talk to you."

"I'm right here. Why can't you talk to me out here?" I gesture my hands in a big motion.
"We wont leave until you let us in." Ashton pipes up.

I was ready to take that challenge until I realized they were serious. "Fine." I groan, opening the door for them.

"Who was it-oh look it's your tattooed friends. And Violet." Parker's face goes pale just like he did when he met her the first time. "Well that's my cue." He mumbles and heads to his room.

I lead them up to my room and sit on my bed. "What is it?"

"We want to know why you don't trust us. Because we're trustworthy, I promise." Ashton says.

"Why is this bothering you so much? Maybe I have trust issues, and it's hard for me to trust people."

"Trust issues. We live in a foster home, Madison." Michael blurts out, his face red with anger. "Trust issues." He scoffs.

Calum and Ashton's face go white as if Michael had let the cat out of the bag. "You guys live in a foster home?" I blink a few times.

Calum sighs and glares at Michael. "Yeah. We've had a tougher time than you out there in the real world, and you should be lucky that we even want to associate with you."

"Lucky? I should be lucky that you want to be my friend? You should be lucky I even glanced in your direction." I raise my voice at them. Luke stands in the back with his arms crossed.
"I knew that Luke lived in a home, but not you guys. You actually seemed like real nice people. I guess I was wrong."

"Luke told you?" Ashton questions, scolding Luke. Luke looks back at him and sighs, not saying a word. But his look towards me said everything.

"Look guys, lets not fight." Violet starts. "Let's just be friends and call it a night yeah?"

"Whatever" Michael scoffs. "Your just a goody-two shoed stuck up bitch that only looked our way because you felt pity. To think we wanted your trust."

"Why should I trust you?!" I shout. "You never tell me anything! Everything you do is in secret, or without me! Even you!" I point to Violet. "Even you leave me out of everything! You're the one who told me not to get caught up with them in the first place! No look who's eating there words."

"You told her not to get caught up with us?" Michael questions her.

"That was before-"

"Before you knew my sad story." He finishes her sentence. "I'm done." He throws his arms up in the air and walks out, moments later we hear the door slam.

"Great going, Madison. I should've never trusted an American foreigner." Violet spats, and chases after Michael. Ashton and Calum give me looks of disgust, and exit after throwing the same looks Luke's direction.

Silence washes over the room as Luke and I aimlessly stare at each other. He looks around the room for a moment, and starts walking away. "Where are you going?" I call.

Luke stands still for a moment, turns around to face me, then says. "Family over partners." And he walks out.

My heart falls to the pit of my stomach and I don't even know why it hurts so bad. It's not like I knew him for very long. We never had any type of emotional intimacy. Why is it that him walking out, breaks me down so much?

The glass that held back my tears breaks and I'm left drowning in a hot puddle of salt water. I then feel hands snake around my shoulders and I smell my brother's scent and I break even further. I've cried like this over losing friends before, but this time it's different.

Notes

This is kind of a long chapter I think, so let me know what you think. Feel free to vote, subscribe and comment if you want :) My Lovelies,
UnknownRocker