Preventive • Paul Lahote •

Chapter Two

Maddison laughed as she closed the dull blue locker, spinning the dial to lock away her books, before turning to her three best friends. The troublesome trio had wide smiles on their faces as they mocked Paul Lahote in the hallway. Maddison found herself giggling uncontrollably as the boys narrated what appeared to be a failed attempt at Paul picking up an underclassman.

"Come on, babe. You know you want a piece of the legend." Embry cackled out as Paul moved his mouth and placed his arm on the locker above the russet skinned girl.

"I'd rather have a piece of Casen, Lahote," Jacob sarcastically said in a high pitched voice as the girl's hand flicked at Paul to back up.

"Okay, too far, Black." Maddison laughed as the thought of her brother with the native girl who was known for going around brought a feeling of disgust to her. The three boys burst into another fit of laughter at Maddison's comment and the fact that the girl had simply patted Paul on the chest before walking off.

The boisterous laughter from the group caused Paul to turn his head towards the four best friends with a slight smile on his lips as he saw the way Maddison's eyes gleamed even from across the hall.

Once the groups laughter had died down enough for them to compose themselves, they all looked back at Paul to see him staring right back at them. With a quick movement, Paul winked at Maddison, before walking away.

"Uh, oh." Quill began with a mischievous smirk on his face, and teasing tone in his voice as he turned his attention to the slightly red Maddison, "looks like Lahote found his next victim."

"That or he finally caught onto your little crush."

Embry laughed as Maddison shoved him into the lockers for his comment, before wrapping his arm around her shoulders as the group began to their houses.

"You're really violent, you know that Mads?" Embry teased as Jacob and Quill continued to play a stupid little game behind them.

The quartet all paused, however, once they reached Maddison's house and saw Casen loading up his little red Chevy truck as their mother wept on the front porch. Maddison turned to the worried looking boys with a small, forced, smile on her plump pink lips.

"I'll... I'll, um, see you guys tomorrow."

"Yeah." Embry nodded his head as he brought her into a quick hug and whispered softly into her ear. "Call me if you need something." He said with a stern voice as he pulled back to look into her eyes with a soft yet serious expression.

With a quick nod of her head, and a glance back at the scene in front of her house, Maddison turned and hugged Jacob and Quill goodbye; each boy taking the time to reassure her that they were there for her if she needed someone to talk to later.

As she stood in her dirt driveway, Maddison watched her boys walk away. She was afraid to turn around and find out what was happening at her house to cause her mother to weep in a way that she had never seen; not since her dad died, at least. Maddison was never one to deal with emotions well. Always the blunt girl, she did not process pain due to secrets well. She would become bitter before she became sorrowful in a situation where she was betrayed. Unbeknownst to her, she was about to face one of the biggest betrayals' of her life from more than one person that she cared about.

With a deep sigh, Maddison turned and walked up the dirt path. She kept her eyes glued to the little puffs of brown that would kick up every time she took a step, and focused on the sound of the ground crunching against her feet instead of her mother's sobbing.