B008GMVYA4 EBOK (13 page)

She stared at Madison for a long moment, staring through the
thick black of her sunglasses to the layered foundation which covered the
purple bruising.

Madison doubted in London it was an unusual to see someone
wearing sunglasses indoors, but it seemed in this instance her efforts had been
futile.

“Take off your sunglasses!” she demanded.

“My sunglasses? What? Why?” Madison asked, shocked.

“Please take them off… ” she insisted, more politely this time.

Madison felt intimidated by this strong, vibrant, woman and
didn’t want to anger her further by not doing as she asked. She slipped the
sunglasses off and popped them on the table. She didn’t know where to look; her
eyes flickered around the room before slyly looking up to the middle aged
woman. She sighed, not from shock or anger but from sympathy. She knew what was
behind the sunglasses, but the sight of Madison’s damaged eye made her heart
strings pull.  She stared into Madison’s eyes looking past the bruising
and the swelling, searching for the person behind her pain stricken, hazel
eyes.

“How did you know?” Madison asked curiously.

 She shook her head and straighten up her gazed lowered
to the bruising underneath Madison‘s eye.

“Honey, I‘ve seen it many times before - You weren’t hiding
it very convincingly” she said, smiling sympathetically.

“Oh…” Madison replied, looking down towards the sunglasses
on the table in front of her.

“I like you though. I hope you dumped the bastard that did
that to you!” she said firmly.

“Umm… Yeah. He is
so
behind me” Madison lied again.

“I better not regret this” she said wearily.

“You won’t” Madison said, hopeful.

She eyed her for a long moment and then smiled, revealing a
large set of crocked white teeth.

“Great. I’m Faye, your manager and this is my club,
Luxuriance
”

“Madison. Nice to meet you” she smiled.

“I’ll need you here tomorrow night at eight. You will be
trained on the tills, so we can get you up to scratch for the weekend” Faye
said.

“Ok. That’s fine”

“And get some decent foundation. I don’t want to see
anything like that on your face again, you hear? If I do, you’re fired. Ok?”
Faye said, pointing to the bruising.

Madison nodded furiously and popped the sunglasses back on,
hiding behind the black lenses once again.

“Great. I‘ll get your burger for you.”   

Madison stood in front of her new home, her stomach flipped
at the sight of peeling paint, rotten wood and overgrown front garden. She
couldn’t help but feel hopeless and sick with disgusted at the thought of
living in this property. The house looked more decrepit and worn than it had
yesterday; it seemed to have aged another hundred years in a few short hours.
More paint appeared to be missing from the outside of the house revealing a
mixture of dark and light rotten wood. A pair of crows had begun to nest in the
large hole underneath the window ledge in the attic; they had filled the gap
with leaves and dead grass creating a large nest for them both to perch in. Somehow
overnight, more roof tiles had become loose – leaving a gaping hole into the
attic on the right side of the house.  The house looked like it would
crumble and collapse at any moment. She had little faith that the house would
still be standing in a month, let alone the six months she had signed the
tenancy agreement for.

Madison grabbed the handle of her large blue suitcase; a
shiver erupting down her spin causing her whole body to shudder violently. Her
phone vibrated in her handbag. She slipped the bag from her shoulder and
rummaged for the small black phone. She glanced at the small screen on the
front of her mobile phone – it was her old employer in Thatcham ringing her.
They had tried calling Madison several times already this morning; they had left
a message on her voicemail wondering whether she was alright and when she would
be back at work. Madison ignored their phone calls. She wasn’t ready to talk to
them yet, maybe in a few days when things had settled down and she could deal
with the Managers questions into her personal life. At present, Madison had to
sort herself and her new bedsit out before she started her new job tonight.

 She had spoken to Stephanie last night before she fell
asleep. Stephanie was more calm and relaxed with the thought of Madison living
in London and she was pleased that she had found somewhere to live and a job so
quickly. Madison had left a lot of the details about the condition of her new
home in the conversation. If Stephanie knew the truth she would only worry and all
she needed to know at the moment was that Madison had a roof over her head.
During the conversation Stephanie had asked whether she had heard from Phil -
Of course the answer was
No
and after she had answered this question the
conversation quickly ended. Madison didn’t need to be reminded of how little
Phil cared about her nor did she want to be reminded of the incident that
occurred. She didn’t cry last night when she was alone in the room of the
Travel Lodge. She had promised herself the night she arrived in London that she
would never shed a single tear again for Phil or her old life, even though the
emptiness and pain still dug its bitter teeth into her heart - she wouldn’t
allow herself to fall apart ever again. Too many years she spent curled up in a
ball on her bed wishing things had turned out differently - wishing her Mother
was still alive. Now Madison could be whoever she wanted to be, she could do
whatever she wanted to do without having any ties or responsibilities. She
could lead her own life the way she wanted, and forget about all the pain she
had buried deep down inside her.

She popped the phone back in her handbag and looked back
towards the house. She took a deep breath and exhaled, beginning to cross the
distance of the road towards the house. She stood at the foot of the gate once
she had crossed the road and stared up at the house. The window of her new
bedsit looked cleaner than the rest of the property and a new set of white
netted curtains hung in the inside of the window. Alison had kept her promise
and brought the cleansers in this morning. One clean window in the whole house
looked strange - obviously the other tenants were not as particular as Madison.
She fiddled with the gate latch, forcing it down. The gate opened gently and with
ease, Alison had also fixed the gate as she promised. Madison felt slightly
more confident, and was eager to see what progress they had made with her
bedroom and the hideous odor in the bathroom. Madison wheeled the suitcase up
the overgrown garden path, pushing past the foliage that hung over from the
overgrown grass and bushes. She still wore her thick black sunglasses even
though the swelling had gone down and the bruising was beginning to fade, but
she still felt self-conscious of the injury. The weather today was warm and
sunny with clear blue skies, so Madison didn’t look too odd with her shades
on. 

She grabbed the handle of her suitcase when she reached the
stone steps of the front door and hulled it up the first two steps, perching
the suitcase on the third step to search for the door keys in her large leather
handbag. Madison’s fingers touched the cold hard metal of the door keys; she
pulled them out and inserted the large key into the door lock. She let go of
the suitcase supporting the weight of it with her leg and twisted the key. The
key turned with little force, but the door didn’t response. Madison forced her
weight into the door in the same way manner Alison had yesterday - nothing.
Beginning to get frustrated, she pushed on the door again – still nothing. She
jingled the key in the lock hoping it would coax the door open, but still the
door would not budge. Becoming increasingly more frustrated and annoyed,
Madison slammed her hip into the door using all her weight - the door remained frozen
it place.  In frustration and anger, Madison swung her leg back catching
the suitcase with the back of her heel, sending it tumbling down the stone
steps onto the garden path and kicked the door hard. The door vibrated with the
impact, but didn’t budge or cause any damage to the flaking door. Madison
sighed, turning to find her suitcase split open and all her belongings spread
out across the garden path.

“Great!” she mumbled angrily. 

One side of her suitcase had split open causing a mass
bundle clothes to escape and larger items to become lodged in the hole.
Assortments of successfully escaped clothes were spread out across the
overgrown garden.

Madison stepped reluctantly down the stone steps and started
to collect her clothes from the ground. She stuffed the clothes she had
collected back into the hole in the suitcase, forcing a shoe which she had
escaped back in the hole.

“Oh dear, what have we got here?” said a masculine voice.

Madison jumped and sat up straight from where she was knelt
over the suitcase on the garden path. She looked back towards the front door of
the house. A man in his late twenties stood in the open doorway, his dusty
blonde hair was matted into a mass of long dreadlock that’s hung down over his
shoulders. His features were soft but distinctive, his thin pink lips
surrounded by long light brown stubble and his blue eyes peered out behind a
set of bushy blonde eyebrows. He wore tan coloured combat trousers and a grey
t-shirt that had once had a logo or picture printed on it, but had washed out
leaving only a faded outline. He had a strong northern accent and his arm was
stretched out towards Madison with her blue bra dangling from his index finger.
Her face was a picture of horror; she jumped up and snatched the bra from his
finger - quickly screwed it up into a ball and stuffed it back into the hole in
the suitcase. Madison’s cheeks flushed pink as she stood up and turned to face
him. A wide smiled crept across his face - revealing a set of brown stained
teeth. 

“Hello” he chuckled, open-inly staring Madison up and down.

She flinched and flashed him a disgusted look – not liking
the way he was looking at her.

“Hi” she said unwillingly, realising she was being rude.
Madison quickly continued to collect the remaining items of clothing on the
garden path before he could study anymore items of her clothing.

“So…Your moving in?” he asked.

“Uh…Yeah, I’m Madison” she said, jumping up to face him once
again.

He eyed Madison up and down again, tilting his head to
examine the curves of her body.

 He was rude and extremely blatant, that clearly found
Madison attractive and had no shame in letting her know this with his ogling
eyes.

The way he looked at her made her feel uncomfortable and
angry, she wanted to say something but she didn’t want to cause tension already
within the household.

“Bernie” he said, looking back up and making eye contact
with her.

“Nice to meet you” Madison lied.

She pulled her suitcase off the ground and sat it up on the
garden path. A few t-shirts hung out from the hole, but most of the clothes
remained secure inside the suitcase. 

“Let me help you with that?” he leapt towards Madison
grabbing the suitcase before she could respond. He picked the suitcase up as if
he weighed no more than a feather. Madison began to suspect that she was the
only one who struggled with the weight of her suitcase.

“Thanks” she said unsure, following him up the steps to the
front door.

 He stopped once he was inside the doorway and turned
sharply around towards Madison.

 “Where are you from, Madison?” Bernie asked.

Madison slammed the front door shut and turned to face him.

“Umm… Berkshire” she said, trying to be vague “What about
you?”

“Manchester. Born and raised there” he said a flicker of
pride in his voice.

“So, what brings you to London?” he continued.

Madison smiled weakly. She didn’t have an answer to that
question – not one she was willing to share anyway.

“Just needed a change” Madison replied innocently.

They both began to climb the large staircase side by side.
Bernie cradled the suitcase in his both his arms as he climbed the large steps,
eyeing Madison lustfully.

“Which room is yours?” Madison asked curiously - so she
could avoid it at all cost.

“The one next to yours” he replied, turning to throw her a
cheeky wink.

The knowledge that Bernie’s room was directly next to
Madison’s didn’t fill her with much hope, in fact it made her more anxious and
worried that he would be so close to her.

“You are welcome to stop by anytime, for a cup of sugar or
whatever you need” he said as the reach the top of the stairs. Bernie placed
her suitcase down next to her new bedroom door and turned to look at her
smiling brightly.

Madison was taken aback; she wasn’t quite sure how to take
that invitation or the secret meaning behind it. The thought of what he might
be insinuating made her stomach turn and feel physically sick.

“Umm…thanks” Madison said awkwardly.

Bernie seemed pleased with Madison‘s reply, the smile on his
face grew larger. Madison realised she had unintentionally given him a flicker
of hope that she might one day ‘stop by’ – she shifted uncomfortably on the
spot.  

“Remember… anything” Bernie said, backing away along the
corridor towards his room next door. Bernie lived in the room next to Madison’s
towards the back of the house and he was becoming a little too close to comfort
for her.

Madison watched until he had disappeared into his room, then
she inserted the key into the lock and opened the door. Luckily the door to her
room was much easier to open then the front door.

 Madison pulled her sunglasses up on the top of her
head so she could inspect her new home properly. The carpet had been cleaned
and almost looked like new – luckily it hadn’t been as bad as the other carpets
in the house to begin with. The walls were still a dirty yellow colour, but
they looked better than below. The room was a lot lighter since the window had
been cleaned and Madison could now make out the different aspects of the room.
She pulled her suitcase inside and closed the door, popping across the latch –
locking the door. The room smelt fresher and cleaner, with a strong smell of
bleach still lingering in the air. The kitchen had thoroughly been cleaned and
had come up nicely. The kitchen sides and cooker were very old fashioned, but they
were now clean enough to use.