Madison doesn't look back at her mum when she gets out of the car. She's nineteen now, and an adult. She doesn't need her stupid prostitute mum to look after her. Since Dad moved out when she was sixteen, prompted by his finding out of his wife's 'lifestyle' Madison had drifted apart from her mother. As much as she wanted to like the new things her mum could buy for her, she refused most of them. Sitting in her bedroom knowing her new phone had been paid for by a dirty man looking for 'great sex without commitment' made her feel sick.
When she hears a familiar voice upon reaching her new room in the university dorms, her heart stops. It's Corey. She could have sworn that he moved out of town shortly after the prostitute incident, because she hadn't seen him again since. That was five years ago. He was twenty, and still a lot taller than her. And actually quite attractive, not that she liked him, obviously.
"Mads! The hell? What're you doing here? How are you?"
Madison still hates that name- Corey was the only one who used it. She looked up, preparing to sneer, but sees that the boy is actually smiling as he carries bags into the room next to hers. She smiles back, not wanting to overdo it, before turning into her new bedroom, which she is to share with a complete stranger who doesn't seem to have turned up yet.
"I'm okay. I'm here for my first year of uni. How about you?"
He tells her that he too is about to take his first year of university, having spent a gap year hanging out with his mates and smoking weed. Madison decided from a young age that a gap year wasn't her thing- she aims to get her education over and done with as quickly as she can, then get a job and move far from her mum.
His room has only one single bed in it- the lucky rich kid doesn't have to share seeing as his mum can pay for it. Madison's mum could probably have stretched her 'night shifts' to give her a little more money for a single room, but she refused. She'd rather have student loans than an education paid for by her mum's sex.
"Anyway, see you around Mads!"
YOU ARE READING
Corey Mulligan, The Heart Thief - A Short Story
RomanceMadison Hayford grows up learning to love a world which left her living in poverty until she was well into her teens. And for the most part, she succeeds in spreading love and joy in every place she can reach. But Corey Mulligan, from the moment she...
