The Trouble with Faking It / Tyler Seguin

Chapter 11: Almost Home

CHAPTER 11: ALMOST HOME

"Home is not where you are from, it is where you belong. Some of us travel the whole world to find it. Others, find it in a person."

February 9th

Maddie: you seriously left without telling me???

Maddie: I had to find out from TYLER that you left

Maddie: tyler who keeps hurting you over and over again and YOU TOLD HIM AND NOT ME

Maddie: DAISY ROSE WINTERS ANSWER ME

I stare at the text messages and throw my phone to the side. I don't know what to tell her because aside from the necessary people, I didn't tell anyone.

Maybe at some point I would have considered Madilyn to be someone who I felt compelled to tell but I don't know anymore. I'm not even sure I would have told Tyler if I had not been at his house that day.

"Something wrong, dear?"

I look up to see my grandma standing in the doorway of my room, holding two mugs in her hand.

"Madilyn." I say quietly and she nods.

"You didn't tell her you left."She says, not as a question but a statement.

I shake my head, suddenly feeling ashamed. "No."

"But you told Tyler?"

"Yeah, I kind of had to."

Her expression is unimpressed at the vagueness of my answer, but she's never been one to push. But she is one of the few people I trust right now so I give her a short explanation of what happened. She's quiet for a few minutes before Settling down next to me.

"I understand why you did not tell her, but I also understand her side of things." She says softly."She has always been there for you and you for her. Perhaps she is upset that you felt you could not go to her when you needed help."

"Maddie hasn't always been there."I remind her but she shakes her head.

"Do you know why Madilyn moved to Dallas?"

"She got a job offer." I say but grandma shakes her head.

"She moved because of you."

I laugh because what she's insinuating is ridiculous. Maddie wouldn't move from California to Dallas just for me, but I stop laughing when I see her expression.

"She moved because of me?" I ask."Why?"

Grandma raises an eyebrow. "let me ask you this: why do you think Madilyn wasn't around when you were pregnant?"

"She was ashamed of me." I say,"which is understandable, I was ashamed of myself."

Grandma just shakes her head. "It was her parents, Daisy. Do you really think that she would just give up on you?"

I stare at her in confusion. I knew Maddie had problems with her family – she rarely contacts them and doesn't go home for holidays, but she never told me why and I've always been too self centred to think about my friends.

Grandma seems to notice the realization I have come to, so she pats my knee and smiles softly. "She's been your friend since you were children, and you're both still close? Those are friendships that last a lifetime, my darling."

She leaves it at that and walks out of my room. I consider her words but decide that I'm not in a good place to try mending our friendship when I have so much more going on.