Rise Like The Sun

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

MADISON

She's on the rooftop of the hotel she and Nick had been on, drinking heavily from the bottle.

Madison leans on the ground, uncaring if her dress gets dirty, and wonders why she cannot cry.

She stares up at the cloudless sky, watching as the soft red of the sunset spills across the blue, drops of lilac and pale pink filtering across the canvas. Her phone lies, switched off, on the ground a little way away from her. The anger had spilled out of her, long ago, but now, all that is left is just hollowing emptiness. As though she is just a cage of flesh and blood, but there is nothing within.

Maybe she really is as heartless as they say.

She even lifts a hand to press against her chest, but she can't hear anything.

Madison shakes the bottle and sighs when she realises it is empty. Her gaze falls briefly on the phone and she thinks of Kyle's message, closing her eyes. Maybe she should just let Kyle attack her. It would be what she deserved. Madison thinks of Audrey sadly.

The sound of the rooftop door creaks, but Madison doesn't move.

"If it's your boss, I'll pay him to stay here," she says, but the words are slurred and mush together in her mouth. She clears her throat and repeats herself, her enunciation cast out properly. "You won't get in trouble. I'm good at paying people."

"That's not all you're good at," comes Nick's deep voice, and Madison inhales sharply.

She surges upwards so fast that she makes herself dizzy and before she knows it, Nick has moved swiftly to steady her. Madison sits up properly, very conscious of Nick's fingers at her waist, of his face close to hers.

God, she thinks, her heart aching, she really, really likes him.

"I'm fine," Madison insists, instead.

Nick frowns at her.

"Are you drunk?"

Madison shakes her head quickly, but the motion makes her wince.

"No," she lies, her words slurred.

He reaches for the empty bottle pointedly.

"I thought you didn't like to lose control," Nick says.

She wonders if he's mocking her.

It doesn't sound like it, she decides.

Madison arranges her skirts artfully, graceful as ever, and reaches for his cold, broad hands to cup against her face. Nick is looking at her with concern, but he willingly presses his cool fingers against her feverish cheeks. Madison lets out a breath, closing her eyes.

"I've screwed up, Nick," she whispers into his palm. "Badly."

"I thought I was the idiot out of the two of us," Nick says, but Madison doesn't even smile.

"I'm sorry I said all those terrible things to you."

"I forgive you."

She huffs at him and Nick chuckles.

"I'm sorry, too," he murmurs, looking at her.

"Nobody likes me," she says. "I don't even like me."

Nick stills.

"I like you," he confesses after a moment, and then Madison lifts her head, startled.

She searches his face, to see if he's lying, but he's not. When Nick lies, his eyes brighten slightly, but now he looks utterly serious. Madison feels as though she might cry.