#tailortoheroes

Brown eyes blink open lazily as Madge wakes slowly, swathed in unfamiliar sheets and cradled in someone’s arms. These are the moments that she lives for, when she feels safe, warm, and, at least momentarily, loved.

“The smile upon my lips, it will surely never die as I'm waiting here for you until you're by my side.” Adam whispers into her hair, and the blissful sigh she was about to release sticks in her throat.

“It is too early for poetry,” Madge huffs, already feeling reality rearing its ugly head.

“Oh come on, Phee,” he goads, using the nickname that he still thinks belongs to him. “You love it.”

“You mean I pretended to love it for four months,” she replies haughtily. That’s all it takes for his arms to stiffen, and the moment is officially over, just like that. Madge almost regrets it, but she’s too busy untangling herself from his grip and the sheets to give it that much thought. As she collects her clothes from the floor, he finally speaks up.

“What happened to you, Phoebe?” her third boyfriend asks, hazel eyes now cold. “I thought you were different.”

And she had been, at least when she was with him. Frayed shorts and wavy hair were just his style so she made them hers, too. Phee was a hippie-wannabe and theatre geek, but Madge wasn’t. “Life, I guess,” she answers, trying to be at least a little polite while making her way to the door just like she always does.  Her answer isn’t what Adam wants to hear, though, as it rarely is, and she can feel his eyes boring into her back.