Chapter 3: Serious as a Heart Attack

To my annoyance, Madison dragged her feet over the next few days following through on her promise to end things with Braden. I don’t think it was entirely her fault - Braden knew what was coming and was dodging meeting with Madison in person in some sort of lame attempt to prolong things. Madison, despite her previous indiscretions, was determined to do Braden the courtesy of an in-person breakup. I admired her honor, even if she had been more than happy to cheat on him the previous weekend. Rose colored glasses are like that.

It also gave me the chance to end things properly with Kim. She was a little disappointed not to have a sure thing to hook up with the weekend of graduation, but she understood. Our relationship had always been purely physical, and we had no intention of seeing each other after we graduated anyways.

Madison finally roped Braden into meeting for lunch on Wednesday and did what had to be done. She excitedly texted me, but we both had exams Thursday morning so could not meet up. I thought that was for the best, despite Madison’s positivity over text, I knew breaking up with Braden had taken an emotional toll. It was better she spend the evening commiserating with Janelle before she picked up with me. We spent about 20 minutes on the phone Wednesday night chatting and deciding what to do over the next few days.

Ashley, Madison and I had all finished our exams Thursday and hatched a plan to go out to some of the local bars after dinner. We recruited our friend Alexa as well as Janelle to serve as our designated driver. Despite Janelle’s dislike of me, she readily agreed. Maybe she was just feeling generous - or maybe she just wanted Madison to be happy. I should have sent her a gift basket or something.

Ashley, wonderful influence that she was, had become an evangelist for Red Bull and vodkas, claiming you could keep going all night without getting tired. Madison and I knew that was not exactly a sustainable strategy, but we thought one wouldn’t hurt. I’m not sure if Madison had talked to Ashley and Alexa or whether they just realized it naturally, but once we had our drinks they faded away pretty quickly, leaving Madison and I alone to talk in our seats at the bar.

Our conversation was surprisingly stilted. The easy conversational flow we’d had as friends was absent now that there was the tension of there being a possibility of more than just friends. I was more nervous than I had ever felt around Madison, which bothered me because I had always felt like she was so easy to talk to. I think she was feeling the nerves too, and perhaps even a little put off that I was not the confident guy I had always been around her.