Chapter 5: Chapter Five

Pain shot up from the bottom of Madison’s feet with each step she took. She’d worked all morning and afternoon at the bookstore, which was insanely busy for a Saturday morning—seriously, didn’t college kids party too much on Friday and then spend all day Saturday sleeping? As if that hadn’t been torturous enough, she’d then spent almost two hours trying to find a flight home that she could afford and that would work around her class schedule. That had been a complete waste of time. She was going to have to look at other options—like a train or bus, perhaps.

Her body slumped with exhaustion. She only lived a quarter of a mile from campus, but after an especially long day, the walk felt like it was twelve miles. Lugging around an extra heavy backpack didn’t help, either. The two-story, tan house came into view. The location was prime, but the actual living conditions were less than stellar. Comprised of two apartments—one upstairs and one downstairs—the landlord charged way more than the place was worth, but for students like her who didn’t have a car and despised public transportation, it was perfect.

A gentle breeze picked up, causing the piece of black plastic haphazardly nailed to the side of the house to flap annoyingly. The top floor window had been broken when she moved in, and the landlord, instead of just fixing the window, boarded it up. The previous residents had left a going away present in the form of a large, crudely drawn penis with the words: Cocksuckers live here.

Lilian hated it. Madison thought it was kind of funny. Sadly, it was the largest male organ she’d ever seen. Hell, if this semester went like all the others, it would probably be the only dick she saw for a very long time.

Hefting her overstuffed bag higher on her shoulder, she dug in the side pocket for her key. Madison walked up the drive and noticed Lilian sitting on the porch steps, arms folded on her knees, head resting atop them. “Lil?”

She looked up, her eyes red and puffy and wet. A piece of bright yellow paper was clutched in her hand. “Have you seen this?” She waved the paper in the air. “I cannot believe Roger would do this. I always knew he was a fucking dick wipe, but this…this is going too far.”

Madison took the paper and uncrumpled it. Written across the top in big, bold letters was: Notice of Sale & Intent to Vacate. Her eyes widened as she scanned the letter, the words blurring together she read them so fast. But she got the low down dirty truth—Roger had sold the property and now they had thirty days to move out.

Letting her bag slide off her shoulder and onto the ground, she took a seat beside Lil. “Well, this is a great way to end a shit-tastic day.”

“That bad, huh?” A faint smile pulled at the corner of Lil’s mouth.

“Just long.” She rubbed her hands over her face, praying she wouldn’t get a headache.

“Did your stalker show up?” Lil nudged her shoulder and chuckled.

A stab of regret hit Madison for telling Lil about Ryder. Not that she would ever keep something like that from her best friend, but she could do without the teasing. “No, he’s at the beach with friends today.”

Lil’s eyes widened. “You know where he is? Oh, my God.” She laughed. “Who’s the stalker now?”

“Shut up.” Her lips twitched with a smile. She was not in the mood to deal with this right now. Besides, they had more important things to worry about. Madison blew out a breath and glanced around. “Maybe if we go to the housing office and explain our situation, they can—”

“I already called them. There’s nothing they can do.” Lil shook her head.

“Then I guess we start looking for a new place to live.”

“How can he do this? I mean, it has to be illegal, doesn’t it?” She twisted her body so she was facing Madison. “We should take this notice to the campus legal center, see if there’s anything we can do.”

Madison sighed. That was the one thing she both hated and loved about Lil—she was a right fighter, always wanting justice for everything and everyone. “We could… But, is it really worth it? Let’s be honest. This place is a dump.” She laughed. “And you hate the man-scape on the side of the house.” She nudged Lil’s shoulder.

Lil cracked a smile. “God, I really do hate that dick.” She sighed. “All right, so I guess we start apartment hunting.” She stood. “C’mon, let’s go check out the classifieds.”

Not exactly something Madison was looking forward to doing, but it’s not like she had much of a choice. Standing, she scooped her bag off the ground.

Lil led the way inside. “It will be nice to live in an apartment that has better wiring. It’s such a pain to have to unplug the microwave every time we want to use the toaster.”

Madison nodded in agreement. Roger was the poster boy for slumlords, and what made it even worse was that he preyed on desperate college students. She tossed her bag on the couch and then flopped down, groaning with satisfaction as the pain left her feet. She closed her eyes and put her head back.

“I’ll grab my laptop. Want something to drink?” Lil called from the kitchen, which was only feet from the living room. Their couch the only thing separating the two rooms.

“No, thanks.”

Lil returned to the living room and sat in the moon chair, legs folded under her. She had her laptop in one hand and a diet soda in the other. “Hey, did you talk to Brenda about taking time off for your cousin’s wedding?”

“Yeah, she was really cool about it.” She sat up and slipped the hair tie from her wrist, pulling her unruly locks into a ponytail. She pointed at the still closed laptop. “Get cracking on those classifieds. I’ll make food.”

“Good, I’m starving. What’re you making?”

Madison grabbed the frying pan from the cabinet next to the refrigerator and set it on the stove. “Nachos.”

Lil let out a squeal of excitement and clapped her hands. “Your nachos are epic.”

“I know.” Grinning, she set about frying hamburger and mixing it with taco seasoning.

The familiar task helped keep her mind off the fact that in less than a month, she’d be face-to-face with her parents. She hadn’t seen either of them in three years, and she hadn’t spoken to her father in just as long. About a year ago, her stepmother had sent a credit card with a hastily scrawled note telling Madison to “stop living like a broke college kid” and to “live up to the life she’d been given” because she was “an embarrassment to the Montgomery name” and her choices were “destroying her father.” Yeah. Right.

Madison had safely tucked the credit card away and hadn’t used it once. Although, knowing she now had to move and would need to split the cost of a security deposit along with first and last month’s rent, she wasn’t going to have a choice. She’d have to use the credit card. Hot anger burned in her chest.

When she’d left her parents’ house, she’d vowed never to take another penny of their money, and she’d been doing good, too. Working multiple jobs, receiving financial aid, applying for loans. For a struggling college student, she lived relatively comfortably. And she was happy. That was the most important thing. Turning her back on her parents’ money meant freedom from the conditions and expectations that came with it.

And that’s the reason she refused to fall victim to Ryder’s charms—because he was wealthy, and she was not going to be sucked back into a relationship where it was all about the Benjamins and manipulation. But damn if it wasn’t a hard decision. That boy was drop-dead, make-you-lose-your-sanity sexy. And when he’d smiled at her… Whoa. It was a serious come to Jesus moment.

“Oh, this sounds promising,” Lil said. “Two bedrooms, one bath, utilities included. Seven hundred and seventy-five dollars a month.”

“Holy shit.” Right now, they were only paying five-fifty a month, and their utilities were barely a hundred dollars. “Where is it?”

“About two miles from here, heading away from campus.” Lil frowned. “Okay, moving on.”

“Sorry.” Madison took two plates from the cabinet and set them on the counter. She needed to get a car so poor Lil didn’t have to restrict her living opportunities to walking distance. Or get over her fear of public transportation.

She filled each plate with a generous helping of chips, then piled hamburger on top of them. Dumping half a bag of cheese on each, she unplugged the toaster and plugged in the microwave. Popping one plate in, she set the timer for one minute, just enough for the cheese to melt.

“What about those new free-standing suites on the edge of campus? Those are technically off-campus housing, right?”

Lil nodded and sipped her drink. “They’re all full. I already checked.”

The microwave dinged. Madison took the plate out and put the next one in. She topped the nachos with sour cream, lettuce, diced tomatoes, and a small dollop of guacamole. Then she carried it to Lil, setting it on the coffee table in front of her.

“You’re such a good waitress.” Lil stuck her tongue out and laughed.

“I expect a large tip then.” She returned to the kitchen to fix her plate.

“Oh. My. Gawd, Madison.” Lil moaned with pleasure, her eyes closing as she chewed on a chip. “Seriously, your nachos are ah-mazing! It’s like multiple orgasms in my mouth.”

Madison laughed. “I think you’re exaggerating.” Grabbing a soda from the fridge, she carried the can and her plate back to the living room. She sat on the couch and sighed with contentment.

“Oh, here’s another one.” Lil licked sour cream from her thumb, then wiped her fingertips on her pant leg. “Two bedrooms, one bath, communal laundry room in the basement, spacious backyard.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “Six-fifty a month, includes water, sewage and trash pick-up. And it’s only two blocks from here!”

“No way.” It couldn’t be that easy, could it? “Is there a phone number? Call it right now.” Madison polished off her nachos, apparently much hungrier than she realized.

Lil reached for her cell phone, giving Madison a pointed look. “I got this. Go call your cousin and let her know you’re coming.”

“Really?” Madison set her plate on the coffee table and stood. “I serve you orgasm inducing nachos, and this is how I get treated.” She shook her head with fake annoyance. She trudged into her room and flopped down on her bed. This should be an easy call to make, but she couldn’t get her fingers to dial the number. She blew out a breath, hoping everything she just ate didn’t attempt to make a reappearance.

Before she was able to make the call, Lil came into the room. “Okay, we have an appointment to go see the place tomorrow.”

“That’s great, Lil.”

“I’m going to keep looking, just in case we end up losing out on this place.”

Madison scrunched up her face. “Is there a wait list?”

“No, she said we were the first to call on the ad, but still.” Lil gave a half shrug.

“Look, it’s in our price range and close to campus. Unless it’s crappier than this place, I don’t think we’re going to have any issues.” She laughed.

“No, probably not, but with our luck, she’ll end up renting it tonight or something stupid.” She leaned against the doorframe and crossed her arms. “Did you call your cousin?”

“Nope. I’m about to do that right now.” She forced a smile.

“Okay, I’ll give you some privacy, then.” Lil backed out of the room and closed the door.