like confetti

When Madison assured her that it was fine, Lola stopped her frantic efforts to pack everything away again. “We are! The venue had a couple of cancellations in February and one of them happened to fall on the anniversary of the day that we first met, which kind of felt like a sign”, Lola explained. “I’m so excited about marrying him but I’m definitely a little stressed about making sure that everything is planned in time”.

“It seems like fate to me.” Madison said with a smile. She secretly loved weddings, and was actually very excited to see two friends tying the knot, especially when Ollie had grown to be one of her closest friends here. “I’m sure everything will fall into place on time, and it seems like you have so much done already. Do you need help with anything?”

“Thanks, gorgeous. That means a lot.” Juliana smiled. She loved when women complimented other women, to her it represented this sense of empowerment. “Nice enough?” The girl questioned, her thoughts unfortunately leading to something else. “You don’t…?”

“Oh god...no! I would never.” Madison immediately stated, quickly laughing at just the thought of the suggestion. “A lot of students here tend to power trip because they come from big money, and unfortunately treat janitors like crap and belittle them. I always had the mindset to give the janitors and custodians the same amount of respect you would give a CEO.” She went on the further explain. “A lot of them are actually pretty cool guys. One’s name is Mitch and he’s this cute little seventy year old man that loves talking about his days backpacking around Europe. I’m pretty sure he’s only working here so he can have something to do, but he’s probably my favorite.”

“What’s so complicated about it?” Caleb asked, genuinely curious as to what the others thought process was on this. Before he could question it, let alone say no to the girl, Madison had been asking him two questions he really didn’t want to answer. “Because I couldn’t possibly care less what people think of me. Everyone’s going to have their opinions, everyone’s always going to have something to say, and quite frankly - not everyone’s going to be your friend or like what you do.” He began, simply shrugging his shoulders at the other. “I don’t have a problem showing people that side of me, I’m just very selective as to who gets to see that side. It’s a cold and cruel world out there, and people eat hungrily whenever vulnerability or any sort of timidness is suspected. Not everyone’s wishing the best for you, even if they say they are - which is why I keep my cards close to my chest.” He paused for a moment, trying to gauge the others reaction to his words. “People say I’m cold, and maybe they’re right. But at the end of the day, I know who I am, and I don’t need to prove anything to anyone. I know what I’ve done to and for people - both good and bad.”

“I don’t really know how to explain it...but with me, for example, I allowed myself to be completely manipulated by someone. I was so caught up with trying to hold on to all the good times that we had in the beginning, that I didn’t really see how much he had brainwashed me until it was little too late. You know...you’re with someone for so long and you give it your all, that if they say that something happened because of this, or that, or you even - you start to believe them because why wouldn’t you? You value their opinion and you think that you’re blinded and that maybe they have a point.” She rambled on, her voice tinted with sadness as she basically reminisced on her own past relationship. “And you know, once you doubt yourself once, and once you’ve made your insecurities known, that’s enough for some people to take that and run with it.” She added quickly. The girl simply just nodded as they other spoke. She could see where Caleb was coming from; in fact, she actually found it quite admirable how he truly didn’t care what other people had to say about him - but it all made sense now. “Okay, I can respect it. Next question...Rebekah. Like I said, I’ve heard a lot of things, especially about her and Arden, but there’s always two sides to a story.”

Mina breathed out. “You know what? Last year I probably would have said no to that because of some commitment but I’m trying to say yes to more things that are fun so… why not?” She agreed. “I’ve got some Christmas money so I could afford a slightly expensive restaurant with drinks.”

“I absolutely love that for you! Talk about personal growth.” She said with a smile. “It’ll be on me. I’m the one dragging you out, it’s only fair that I treat you to something to make it all worth it.”

“No but that sounds amazing!” Violet answered. “Well, next time you’re missing a girls night, you know I’ll always try to be free for it as long as neither of us are working… though we could probably go after shift I suppose.”

“You’re telling me that you don’t get completely exhausted after working?” Madison asked in mock surprise. “Because I swear, pretending to be nice to a bunch of rich men that don’t know how to keep their hands to themselves is very tiring.”

“I think you two have a lot more in common than you realize.” Rebekah stated with a shrug. She spent enough time with both of them to notice just how similar their personalities are. “Hey! Eyes up here, Fynn.” She laughed. The last thing she needed right now was for her best friends little sister trying to seduce her. Grabbing the others hand, she began walking the both of them towards and down to the basement. “The guys who own this house are sort of in love with me, so they always let me come down here and pick out whatever I want. So, grab whatever you want.”

“Oh, we probably do. Pretty sure we both inherited my father’s attitude.” Maddie joked, a smile teasing her lips. “Oh come on, like you weren’t thinking it! I’m surprised you’re not up for a little rebound shenanigans, especially after everything with the girl that shall not be named. How are you doing, anyways?” She asked, genuinely worried about how the other had been doing. It was officially New Years, which only could’ve meant that Rebekah’s ex was probably out doing a few things with god knows why. Before she knew it, she was being dragged down to the basement, her eyes going wide at just how much liquor there was. “Wow. I think I’m in heaven right now.” She joked, her words quickly followed by a soft laugh. “I’ll just have whatever you’re having. I need to sit down.” With that, she took a seat on the ground, her back leaning against a wall.

“I bet this does wonders for those stressful days. It seems like a good way to really level you out, and bring you back down to earth. If you haven’t noticed, I’m feeling quite zen right now.” Julie smiled. Hearing the brunette talk about the student center caused her to shift her body so she was now staring at it. “You mean the rooftop of that?” She asked as she pointed. “How do you even get up there? I can’t imagine they would allow a bunch of crazy 20 year olds up there with no restrictions.” She laughed.

“It’s a good look on you.” Madison complimented with a smile. “Yup, that’s the one.” She laughed, looking up to where the other had been pointing. “If you’re nice enough to the janitors, they’d be willing to let a few things slide.” 

“So why do you? You have control over that, you know.” Caleb stated simply. Although he understood that feeling from when he was younger, he still couldn’t ever imagine allowing anyone to walk all over him. That just wasn’t in his nature anymore. “I would have to say my biggest ‘goal’ for this year…is to just get my sister better.” He admitted in a rare moment of vulnerability. Madison had already met Ellie when they had their first encounter, which is why he felt comfortable talking about it.

“It’s more complicated than you probably like to think it is.” Madison shrugged. She couldn’t help her sympathetic smile at his confession. Her lips turning up into a small smile. She had almost forgotten what the other had been going through, as he was always so good at hiding it. “Can I ask you something?” She asked, glancing up at him and continuing to speak before he had the chance to say no. “I’ve heard so many things about you, a lot of them not so great...and yet you say shit like that. I’ve seen how you are with your sister, and you obviously aren’t as cold as people make you out to be. Why don’t you show that side of you to people? How are you so okay with being the villain?”

“Have you even done anything yet?” Ollie asked as he peered over to look at her notebook. “Guac is fucking disgusting. Avocados are the most useless fruit.”

“Uh, yeah actually, I have! I scored so many deals and sales on different shopping sites...you should be proud.” Madison stated jokingly, quickly closing her notebook before the other could see that she really hadn’t done much. “I don’t need your judgment, Oliver. Let me live my life.” She quickly added, playfully rolling her eyes. “How do you not like guac, but you dare to put salsa on your eggs?”

“Don’t start off 2021 by being a brat, Little Fynn. If you force me to climb over you to get to the blinds, I will be taking the blankets and the pillows with me”.

“Don’t start off 2021 by being an asshole. I’ll just go to Mike’s room. I’m sure he wouldn’t be treating me like this.”