"You wish lesbo," Madison quipped.

Over the summer, the girls had developed a strange relationship. To outsiders, it could almost appear emotionally abusive. Constant insults were thrown back and forth. But, they always bounced off the other girl’s skin, sliding away. They loved each other, as much as they knew how to love anything after prom, and they both knew it. They just didn’t say it. Spencer let her hand drop as she moved and kissed Madison on the cheek before grabbing her backpack and slipping past her in the door.

Madison grinned as she hobbled out to follow, her heart filling up for the other girl. Spencer was… her best friend. It was more then that though. After the funeral, they’d laid in her bed together for two weeks before even moving. They had been shrouded in silence and darkness, but Madison never left. Her reasons for coming in the first place had been selfish. She had wanted Glen. She wanted to be close to him; she wanted to see his eyes one last time. Spencer was the closest thing to him. She wasn’t sure why she stuck around the Carlin house after they got out of bed. But, she did. And suddenly, it wasn’t for Glen anymore. She needed Spencer. And she knew that the dying girl needed her too. They had bonded over grief, and somehow that had cemented them together.

–+–+–+–+–+–+–+–+–+–

Madison crossed her one leg over the other as she sat on a table in the quad, her hands smoothing over her tight blue jeans. A basketball player was whispering into her ear, his breath hot against her skin. She was doing her best to not tell him that he smelled like Doritos and that he didn’t have a snowballs chance in hell with her. She wanted him to think he could bed her, even if that wasn’t the case. She was skilled in the art of seduction. It was who she was, even after prom. The constant emptiness inside of her was always briefly filled back up with some guy’s low voice telling her she was beautiful. Like this guy was doing now. She let her fingers snake to his shoulder, a smile on her face. His voice wasn’t Glen’s and she wished that she could stop wishing it was. Glen was gone… and she didn’t have the right to hurt as badly as she did about it. They weren’t even together. But… if she could just go back…