No One Knows You Like I Do

Nick arrived at Madison’s house at around six-thirty, just like she had asked him to. Madison opened the front door and stepped aside to let him in.
“Are your parents ever here?” He chuckled as they went up the stairs to Madison’s room.
“Barely. And when they are, they might as well not be, because they’re hidden away in their room. They’re basically non-existent. But I like it that way.” They’d entered her room and Nick took a seat on her bed.
“Why?”
“Because it’s not like they really care about me or my brother anyway.”
“Don’t say that. I’m sure it’s not true.” Madison sat on the bed next him.
“If they cared, they would listen when I talk to them, when I have something important to tell them. They always say we’ll talk later, but later never comes.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry about.” She moved closer so she was sitting in Nick’s lap and she wrapped her arms around his neck. “So, tell me, what’s your middle name?” She looked into his eyes and smiled. She would rather talk about him instead of her family. The subject of her family drained her energy. She hated knowing that her parents didn’t care to listen to her when she needed them the most and talking about it made things worse for her. Nick chuckled as he wrapped his arms around her torso.
“Why do you want to know that?”
“Because you’re my boyfriend. I like saying that. But when you’re in a relationship with someone, you’re supposed to know things about them.”
He rolled his eyes playfully. “Bernard. Now, you have to tell me yours.”
“Rae. Spelled with an ‘e’ instead of a ‘y.’” She smiled. She really loved her middle name. It was short, simple, and cute. She knew a lot of people that hated their middle names, but she was quite fond of hers.
“Madison Rae McCoy. You have a beautiful name.” He smiled and pressed his lips to hers softly.
“Thanks.” She blushed after pulling away. Nick chuckled.
“You’re cute when you blush.” He kissed her cheek.
“Stop it.” She giggled.
“Stop what?” He kissed her cheek again, then her neck, and so on. “This?” He smirked before he laid her down on her back and continued. Madison closed her eyes. The only problem was, the memories she had once tried to forget, were now playing on her closed eyelids. She started picturing everything from the summer before sophomore year. The worst night of her life. She had had nightmares for weeks, for an entire year even, and she thought they were done. She hadn’t even thought about that night since she’d met Nick. He made her forget. But now, in this moment, he was making her remember everything.
“Stop.” She whispered.
“Huh?” Nick heard her speak, but not what she had actually said.
“Please, stop.” She pushed him off her and hopped off the bed. She ran toward the bathroom connected to her room. She went to the sink and splashed cold water on her face, in attempts to wash away the memories.
“Wait, what’s wrong? What did I do?” He followed her and stood behind her as she dried her face. He placed a hand on the small of her back.
“Nothing. It wasn’t you. It’s…..” She sighed. “It’s nothing.” She turned and walked back toward her bed. She lay down and faced the wall. Nick sat on the edge of the bed.
“What, uh, do you want to do now?”
“Can we just….watch a movie or something?” She turned to look at him.
“Of course, whatever you want.” He smiled wearily as she got up to grab the remote to her TV. She turned it to HBO and some random scary movie was on.
“I’m sorry.” She sat back and rested her head on Nick’s shoulder. He picked up her hand and laced their fingers together.
“Don’t worry about it.” He kissed the top of her head softly. Madison rested her head on Nick’s chest as she thought about telling him why she was freaked out. She decided against it. The timing wasn’t right. He would understand. She would tell him, just not yet.
Madison had dozed off on Nick’s chest and just as he was about to fall asleep himself, his phone vibrated on the nightstand. He reached over and picked it up. It was a text from Justin. He was staying at Nick’s, instead of being home in Chico, while they did some demoing for new songs.
Where are you? Nick looked at the time, it was almost eleven thirty. He had to get home, there was school in the morning for Madison and work for him.
“Madison?” He whispered. She was still asleep on his chest and even if she hadn’t been, he wasn’t going to just leave without saying anything anyway. “Madison.” He tried again, a little louder. She lifted her head and opened her sleepy eyes.
“Yeah?”
“It’s late. I better go.”
“No. Please don’t, Nick.”
“But school…”
“Please, Nick. I need you to stay with me.” Her eyes were filled with fear and it scared Nick.
“Okay. I’ll stay.” He typed a message back to Justin to tell him where he was and put the phone back on the nightstand. He turned over on his side to get comfortable and Madison cuddled up to his chest.
“Thank you.” She whispered.

Madison’s alarm went off at six-thirty in the morning. Nick rolled over to turn it off when he remembered he was at her place. Madison rubbed her eyes and sat up.
“Can you turn that off for me?” She asked. Nick turned it off and sat up himself.
“Morning.” He put a hand on her knee and rubbed it gently. “Are you…are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?” She shrugged, getting off the bed and going over to the cupboard in her room that had towels.
“Last night, you were starting to scare me.”
“Oh, that.” She chuckled nervously. “Don’t worry about that.”
“But I want to know what happened. I want to know if I did something.”
“I already told you that it wasn’t you.” She looked at the floor. “Look, there is something I want to tell you that explains what happened last night, but I’m not ready to tell you. Not yet. I’ll tell you when the time is right.”
“You’re really starting to confuse me.”
“I’m sorry. I’m not trying to. Just wait, okay? You’ll understand when I tell you.”
“Okay.” He nodded.