No One Knows You Like I Do

Madison had managed to get Mackenzie’s mind off her ‘mystery guy’ and onto something else. She was safe for now, but things were just getting harder and harder everyday. She so badly wanted someone to share her cute little Nick moments with. However, without being able to tell Mackenzie, she had to confide in her journal. Other wise she wouldn’t be able to talk about the moments at all.

Nick informed Madison that Halvo and Loren would be joining him at his apartment for the next weekend. Their weekend. He told her she could still stay over, but she had to know what she would be dealing with. Their band also had a show that Friday night and she had to attend, not that she’d miss it for anything anyway. That night approached rather quickly and Madison found herself pulling up to the venue with Nick, Halvo, Justin, and Loren. She had packed herself a bag for her weekend at Nick’s and left it in the van as she got out to watch Nick unload.
“You know, you could help, if you wanted to.” Halvo whined.
“Nope.” She chuckled. “I thoroughly enjoy watching you struggle to carry a few boxes of merch.”
“Plus, she’s my girlfriend. If I say she can just sit there and look cute, then that’s what she’s going to do.” Nick said as he was walking out of the venue. He walked over to Madison and gave her a quick peck on the lips. “Don’t listen to anything he says, okay?” He chuckled before returning to the back of the van to grab the remaining items.
Madison made her way into the venue and went over to the merch table. She pulled a few shirts out of one of the boxes and started hanging them up for display. Halvo was clearly having trouble, as it took him at least five minutes to put one shirt up, only to have to fall to the floor. Madison laughed at him. “Here, I’ll do it.” She picked up the shirt and hung it up.
“Thanks.” He blushed out of embarrassment. She finished hanging up the shirts, and then put out a bracelet and their EP.
“I’ll man the merch, if you want.”
“Please?” Halvo practically begged. At most shows, the guys just took turns dealing with merch and when they played, just had a friend watch out for it. With Madison there, offering to take care of it, the guys wouldn’t have to do it.

******

Madison wanted to take a quick break from sitting at the table and took a walk outside. She had Justin hold down the fort. Another reason she wanted to go outside was to find Nick. They had just played and she had seen him go directly outside instead of going to the table. She looked outside and only saw Loren. She went up to him.
“Have you seen Nick?”
“I think he went into the van. For what, I couldn’t tell ya, but I’m pretty sure he’s in there.”
“Alright, thanks.” She chuckled. She hadn’t seen Halvo come back inside either, so she assumed he was with him. On her way to the van, she heard her name behind her. She turned to face the voice.
“Ma…Mackenzie, what are you doing here?” She laughed nervously.
“I got dragged here by Tracy. I figured since you were off with your new mystery beau, it’d be better than nothing. But, uh, what are you doing here?” She looked at her curiously. She saw Halvo approaching and began thinking of a way to use him.
“I’m here with my ‘mystery beau’ and here he comes now!” Halvo was too far to hear was she was saying.
“Isn’t he in Nick’s band? Don’t you think that’s kind of harsh?”
“Psssh, what!” She laughed nervously again.
“Hey, Madison. Nick’s looking for you.” He was by her side now and she was giving him a look that was saying ‘shut up, Halvo!’ He obviously didn’t get the hint.
“What?” Madison asked as if she had no idea who Nick was.
“You know, your boyfriend? He just went inside looking for you.” Madison’s stomach felt like it fell to her feet. Mackenzie’s jaw dropped.
“Your what? Madison….”
“I’m sorry, MC. It’s recent…”
“How recent? Recent as in, like, two seconds ago or is he who you’ve been going around secretly dating?”
“The second one….” Madison hung her head in shame. She turned to Halvo. “Thanks.”
“Hey, I’m sorry! I didn’t know!”
“No, really. Thank you, Halvo. Wait, what kind of name is Halvo?” Mackenzie asked.
“It’s my last--” Halvo started.
“Never mind, I don’t care.” She turned back to Madison. “How could you do this to me? I thought we were best friends. We’re supposed to tell each other everything!”
“I know, but you hate Nick. You wouldn’t have understood.”
“I think I’m just gonna go.” Halvo started backing away.
“No. She might kill me. I need there to be a witness.” Madison pulled him back.
“I would have come around to it, Madison. But you didn’t even give me the chance.” She turned to walk away.
“MC, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t call me that anymore. That’s a name a best friend would use.” She turned away again and went up to Tracy, one of the girls who had been flirting with Nick that one day. How she had found out about the show, Madison would never know. Even more so, how Tracy and Mackenzie had become friends was even more unknown. Mackenzie hugged Tracy and headed to her car to leave. Madison turned to Halvo.
“God, I’ve ruined everything.”
“Hey, I’m sure she’ll get over it.”
“You don’t understand, do you? She’s my best friend. She’s practically my sister. She’s all I have besides Nick.” Tears were welling in her eyes now.
“You’ve got me, Loren, and Justin, too. We’ll always be here.”
“But she was there for me before all of this. She was there when I really needed someone. And now I’ve ruined our friendship because of some guy.”
“Hey, that ‘guy’ is my friend and he really cares about you.” He seemed offended now.
“No, that’s not what I meant.” She sighed. “I really care about him, too. He’s important to me. I’m just….upset. I’ve got to go talk to Nick.” She walked past him into the venue. She was looking at her feet as Nick was walking toward her, looking at his feet as well. They bummed into each other.
“I’m sor- oh! There you are!” Nick chuckled. “I’ve been looking all over for you.” He wrapped his arms around her and noticed the tears in her eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“Mackenzie was here….”
“Wha-what happened?”
“Halvo told her, well, not her directly, but she was there. She knows and now she hates my guts.” She started full on crying now as Nick pulled her into his chest.
“I’m sorry.” He rubbed soothing circles into her back. “We can fix this. I know we can.”
“I just want to go to home. I want to sleep this horrible day away.”
“When you say home, do you mean….your house?” He frowned. He didn’t want their time together spoiled again. She was about to say yes when she looked up and met his eyes. She could see the sadness in them, expecting her to ask him to take her to her house.
“No. I…still want to go to your apartment this weekend.” She saw him lips curve into a smile. She wanted at least one of them to happy for the weekend.
“I’ll get everything and the guys gathered up. You can go wait in the van and we can get out of here in a few, alright?” Madison nodded then pecked Nick on the lips before turning and going outside to the van. She opened the side door and crawled onto the backseat to lie down while she waited.