You saved me Maddie

Family?

"Christwhat?" I asked Maddie as we sat across from each other at the dinner table.
Maddie looked like I had just told her I had three arms.
"You don't know what Christmas is?" She asked me, her voice filled with disbelief.
I shook my head as Maddie realised how isolated I had really been. Then she took time to explain what Christmas was and what Christmas presents were. I just sat there in disbelief, I had missed so much in life.
It had passed a week since I moved in with Maddie and by now it was mid December. I had noticed stores decorating their entrances and stuff with red and green decorations but hadn't though that much of it, maybe I should've.
"Earth to Ellie!" Maddie snapped her fingers to get my attention.
I flinched and looked up from my plate.
"Huh"
"I was asking what you wanted for Christmas" Maddie laughed.
"Maybe a pair of slippers" I said with a shrug as I rolled spaghetti up on my fork and put it in my mouth.
"Is that all?" Maddie asked surprised.
I nodded. Maddie raised her eyebrows but then she just changed the subject.

Life settled in and I found myself in a very new normal. Maddie had to start going back to work and some days I followed her, and some days I stayed home. Life was good, peaceful. Christmas just rolled closer and closer and Maddie seemed to get more tense for each day that went. On the 23rd of December she sat me down with a serious look in her face.
"My parents are in town" she started.
Me, who was expecting something much worse, raised my eyebrows in confusion.
"They wanna come here tomorrow" Maddie said.
"Okay, is that a problem?" I shifted in my seat a bit.
"I haven't told them about you" Maddie admitted.
I looked at her. Was that shame in her face?
"Oh" was the only thing I could say.
"It's not you or anything" she waved her hands in the air.
Somehow that felt hard to believe.
"I haven't even told them I left Doug" it was like she was shrinking under my gaze.
"Why not?" I asked.
"I was scared" Maddies voice shook "they are very judgemental"
I just nodded.
"I could like go to a cafe or something while you bring them here" I said "or I could hang out with May for a few hours"
Maddie looked up at me.
"What? No." she shook her head. "I want you to meet them"
"Oh"
"But I just want to prepare you that my mom can say some stupid stuff but that doesn't mean that she means it" Maddie out on her reassuring smile.
I slept shitty that night, tossing and turning. I woke by Maddie running around the apartment, I rolled over to my side and looked at the clock hanging on my wall. 10:30. Shit. I got dressed in a hurry and went out to eat some breakfast.
"Morning" Maddie said in a rush.
"Maddie chill out" I said "it's clean enough"
"Mom would kill me" she said as she folded a blanket.
She started saying something but was cut off by the doorbell.
"They are here" she whispered "how do I look?"
"Amazing" I answered her "relax it's gonna be fine"
Maddie took a breath before she went and opened the front door. An older woman and an older man stood outside, both had grey hair.
"Mom, dad" Maddie smiled and pulled them in to a hug.
"Maddie" her mom smiled as they walked inside.
She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw me.
"Maddie, who's this?" She asked as she turned to Maddie.
Maddie walked over to me.
"This is Ellie" she said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "She's my foster daughter"
They both looked at each other and Maddie squeezed my shoulder reassuringly.
"Uh well" her mom started "how did you convince Doug?"
I felt Maddies grip on my shoulder loosening a bit.
"Doug isn't part of this" she hissed.
"Where is he then?" Her mom asked.
"I left Doug mom" Maddie said, letting me go and taking a step towards her mom.
"What?"
"Yeah" Maddie clapped her hands, making me flinch. "I left Doug and moved here, close to Evan"
Her parents looked at each other again.
"So what you left your nursing job and husband to move here and pick up a stray from the streets" she glanced over at me.
That comment felt like a punch to the gut.
"Mom!" Maddies voice was filled with anger "you can't say that to her!"
"I'm sorry Maddie it's true"
Maddie glanced back at me as tears welled up in my eyes.
"Ellie has had a very hard life, and she's not from the streets and even if she was I wouldn't care!" Maddie hissed.
"Well I care" her mom yelled.
I flinched.
"I'm sorry" I said and snuck back to my room, I didn't want them to see me cry.
They yelled back and forth for a while before they said something that caught my attention. Her mom was yelling about dragging home "some random kid" and not her own blood and Maddie growled back with;
"Well that wouldn't be a problem if you didn't made me give her up"
I froze, and by the sounds of it, so did her parents.
"What did you say?" Her moms voice was shaking.
"You heard me"
"I didn't get pregnant and decided to have her in the middle of nursing school!" I heard her mom yell.
"Enough" her dad said.
Maddie then asked her parents to leave and they did as they were told. I heard the front door closing and then a sigh from Maddie as she locked it.
Shit.