chapter five
you're my best friend

Madelyn got approximately thirty minutes of sleep before she shot awake from the nightmare she was having. She took a few deeps breaths, sitting up and looking around the empty room. A knock sounded at the knock, making her turn her head to see Nick stood there was a small smile on his face.

"Hey." Madelyn greeted.

"How you feeling?" Nick asked.

"Fine, they gave me drugs so—" She shrugged.

"Have you spoken to Mindy or anyone?" Nick wondered.

"No, I don't know where I left my phone and I don't think they even know." Madelyn explained.

Nick nodded as he slowly walked into the room, sitting down on the chair next to Madelyn's bed. He put his laptop that he had in his hand on his lap. "I have something to show you."

He opened his laptop to show her a powerpoint he had created with the title 'reason why Nicholas St James cannot possibly and is not Ghostface'. Madelyn let out a soft laugh.

"You made a powerpoint." She observed.

"You weren't believing just my word so I brought evidence." Nick told her.

"Go on then, show me your worst." Madelyn gestured to the laptop.

"Okay, so the first attack on Tara was on Saturday night, right. Well, I spoke to Tara and the Deputy and they said that Tara opened the door and was attacked at 7:30 right, well I left you with Alex at 7:20 right, which meant I would have to run 3 miles in ten minutes." The screen then showed Nick's running times from school. "Which shown here, I cannot do as I run on average a mile in about six minutes so it would take me eighteen minutes to get to Tara's and I would be very out of breath."

"Ghostface's work in teams, one makes the calls." Madelyn stated.

"I know. But according to Tara and phone records the first phone call where Ghostface pretended to a friend of her mums was made at 7:20, which means I would have to be on the phone calling her when you left." Nick noticed her raised eyebrows. "I know you seem suspicious, okay? But if you look here, you'll see security footage from the side walk that I got—don't ask how, showing me on the road not on the phone."

"Okay."

"All right, well then we've got the second killing. Vincent. Well I was with you, we know that. I couldn't have killed him. But then we come to Wes and Sheriff Hicks which is when you became suspicious because I saw the look." Nick explained. "Okay so you left Chad and Mindy's at 10 am, and I left at 10:15 which once again according to phone records is three minutes after Sheriff Hicks was called by Ghostface and this a statement from Chad saying I was not on the phone at their house."

Madelyn watched the video statement that Nick had forced Chad to send him with both Mindy and Liv agreeing in the background as Nick continued to defend himself. "And after I left, I did walk home but I stopped at the corner shop to buy chocolate where I saw the ambulances and followed them. I managed to find a video Terrance, the cashier, took because I was doing something stupid."

Madelyn once again watched the video of Nick trying to balance as much food on his head as possible before they all fell off. She watched as ambulances shot passed them outside the shop doors. She heard one of them mention it was the street that the Sheriff lived on and then Nick said something that made a small smile grow on Madelyn's face.

"Shit Wes. Mads—" And then the boy was off, running down the street before the video cut off.

"What did you say at the end of that video?" Madelyn asked.

"It doesn't matter." Nick shrugged off, but she noticed the slight pink on his cheeks. "Anyways, this brings us to here right now. Well first of all for me to get from Wes' house to the hospital before Sam answered the phone to Ghostface, which she told me was five minutes after you left, it would mean that I would have to either run or drive to the hospital in three minutes, which I couldn't do. Plus I was with your mum and I got her earlier because there was traffic getting into the hospital due to the police, coroners and news agents so I jumped out up the street and raced here to find you."

"He did." A voice piped up, the two looking over to see Gale stood at the door nodding. "He was very worried about you."

The woman then sent Madelyn a look before leaving the room. Madelyn turned back to Nick. "Wait, you finished this just now, after I kicked you out."

"Yeah." Nick nodded. "Mads, the look that had on your face when you told me to leave, the fear in your eyes because of me... I never want to see that look on your face again, for you to sit as far away from me as you currently are. I have never, since the day we met, wanted you to feel sad or scared, especially not because of me, because it kills me."

Madelyn sniffled slightly, her eyes watering. "This is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me."

"You need to date better people." Nick commented making Madelyn laugh. The girl patted next to her, signalling for the boy to sit on the bed with her, to which he happily did.

"You're incredible." She told him as she leant on his shoulder. The two sat in silence for a moment. "Nick, what are we doing?"

"What do you mean?"

She sat up to look at him, their faces only a few inches apart, so much so they only had to whisper to be heard by the other. Madelyn looked over his face, glancing at his lips for a split second.

"What are we doing?" She repeated.

"I don't know about you, but I'm doing the same thing I've done since we meet." Nick admitted.

"We shouldn't." Madelyn whispered. Madelyn's eyebrows knit in confusion at the strange look that covered Nick's face. He paused before saying.

"You're my best friend, sunshine."

And Madelyn knew what he meant, she knew he was in love with her from those five words. She let a smile cross her face as she leant in. Their faces were centimetres apart and she was about to press her lips to his when—

"Hey kid." They shot apart, Nick clearing his throat as he stood up. Madelyn turned to the door to see her Aunt Sidney stood there with a small smile on her face.

"Aunt Sid!" Madelyn smiled, hugging the woman who had made her way over to the side of her bed.

"How you feeling?"

"I'm fine. They're letting me go home later... not that I know where home is anymore." Madelyn looked down before glancing over at Nick, who smiled softly at her. Her gaze softened as she sent him a small smile back.

"I asked how you were feeling, really? Don't lie to me, Madelyn." Sid raised her eyebrows at the teen.

"How do you do it? I mean, you've been through this so many times, you've lost so many people. I've lost three people in the last two days—I lost three people today." Madelyn let out a choked gasp at the revelation. "I lost three people and I wanna move to a countryside lodge and stay there for the rest of my life."

"Funnily enough I did do that." Sid admitted. "It didn't help. You can't run."

"Then how do I make the pain stop. And don't give me any of that time bullshit because time isn't going to help. I just want it to stop, I want everything to just stop." Madelyn placed her head in her hands for a moment before looking up at her aunt figure.

"I stayed with people who cared about me." Sidney answered. "That's how I coped."

"How is she doing?" Madelyn asked, referring to her mother who sat in the lobby.

"She's coping. Your father was her best friend." Sidney replied.

"Yeah. You know we watched her every morning. It was the only time I saw him smile for about ten months after their divorce." Madelyn explained.

"What happened after the ten months?" Sidney wondered.

"I started staying at home more." Madelyn shrugged. "I think to him I was a mix of everyone he loved. I reminded him of mum, of Tatum, of you, of him and I was me too. And he loved me. He was always happiest when I was with him, no matter what we were doing. I even got him to have a karaoke party with me once."

Sidney laughed along with Madelyn at the thought of Dewey Riley having a karaoke party. Madelyn let a few tears fall, "I'm gonna miss him."

"I know. We all are." Sidney stated. "But you've gotta focused on what you still have."

"I can't." Madelyn shook her head. "I have this friend, one of my closest, Mindy and she's movie obsessed just like her uncle Randy, right? And she likes to explain to me the rules of horror, specifically the stab franchise. They're making a requel, which is a movie with new characters but with legacy characters involved. And she said that the next person to be killed was someone connected to the original. And everyone looked at my dad, but then my best friend, Wes, he said about his mum, the Sheriff, who was like a second mum to me, she used to take care of me—"

Madelyn let out a breath. "Mindy told him he was fine. He died thinking he should've been safe. But then, Nick, asked if I was gonna live. And Mindy basically said I'm a dead girl walking because I'm the daughter of two legacy characters and the original star, you, are my aunt. Aunt Sid, for as long as she is my mother and you're my aunt, I'm going to live in constant fear and paranoia. You lost your mum but you still had your dad and he wasn't involved in any of it. I lost my dad and my mum is involved, okay? So I need you to tell me really, how do I make it stop because it's too much."

Madelyn put her head against Sidney's stomach, staining the woman's top with tears as Sidney held her head, running her hands through her hair.

"We're gonna figure it out, Mads." Sidney told her. "I promise. And then we can all get out of here. The kids miss you."

Madelyn laughed, sniffling. "I miss them too."

"I'm gonna go check on your mum, sort your discharge papers out, okay?" Sidney told her.

"Yeah." Madelyn nodded. Sidney walked out of the room, once again leaving Nick and Madelyn alone. Madelyn opened her mouth to speak when another person knocked at the door. Madelyn looked over once more to see the Deputy. "Deputy Farney."

"Madelyn." He greeted. "I have a few questions."

"I was wondering when you'd show up." Madelyn made an awkward face. Deputy Farney stood next to her bed, holding her phone out to her.

"We found this in the elevator, you must have dropped it." The police officer handed it to her. "It's no help to us, so you can have it back."

"Thanks." Madelyn took it from him. "I don't know who it was. Their mask was on the entire time and I don't have any of their blood. They even had gloves on so if you had their knife there wouldn't be any fingerprints. I'm no help."

Deputy Farney nodded. "I should've known you'd be prepared."

"I watched enough interrogations over the years." Madelyn shrugged.

"I'm sorry about your dad. I hope you feel better." Deputy Farney told her, turning and leaving the room.

It wasn't long after that that a nurse walked into Madelyn's room with a smile.

"Your mum signed all your papers, so you can get changed and go home whenever you're ready." The nurse informed the brunette.

"Thank you."

"No problem, feel better." The nurse smiled, leaving the room.

"Do you have any clothes that aren't soaked with your blood?" Nick asked.

"No but only my top and jumper has blood on it, my trousers are fine." Madelyn replied. "I just won't wear my jumper."

She then got out of the bed, picking her clothes up and making her way to the bathroom. She closed the door behind her, putting her jeans back on and her white cropped tee, that was now slightly pink, back on. Her ankle was better now meaning she could walk without it hurting as much as earlier considering she had ice on it for the last two hours.

The girl walked out of the bathroom, her blood soaked pink jumper in her hand. Nick smiled at her, holding his own hoodie out to her.

"Take this." He insisted. Madelyn smiled, taking it from him and putting it on. "What we doing now?"

"I don't know." Her phone then rang. Madelyn looked down at it. "It's Mindy."

She picked the phone up, Mindy's voice carrying through the phone instantly. "Mads, I heard what happened, are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Madelyn answered. She then furrowed her eyebrows at the noise in the background. "Where are you?"

"At Amber's, she hosting a party in Wes' honour, you and Nick should swing by." Mindy told her.

"You know what, that sounds like just what I need." Madelyn replied. "I'm just about to leave the hospital. We'll make our way around."

"See you soon." Mindy hung up the phone and Madelyn turned to Nick.

"Amber's hosting a party." She stated.

Nick nodded. "I went home and got my car earlier, thought you wouldn't want to travel in your mum's van."

"Let's go." Nick held his hand out. Madelyn took it, the two walking out of her room and towards the exit. The two noticed Sidney and Gale talking to Sam as she stood by her open car door.

"No, we're leaving." Sam snapped. "That's the only way I can protect Tara."

"You're leaving... again?" Madelyn piped up, making Sam look over at her. Madelyn and Nick walked over to the car, ignoring Sam as they looked through the open back window at Tara. "You were gonna leave without saying goodbye."

Nick held a hand over his heart, jokingly. "After everything we've been through Tara, I'm deeply hurt."

"Shut up." Tara rolled her eyes. "I'll come back eventually, and I'll call you as soon as I get to our destination. We'll meet again."

"I don't wanna miss you." Madelyn told her with a small pout.

Tara leant over, holding Madelyn's hand that rested on the window pane. "I'll see you soon."

"Love you."

"Love you more."

Sam then got in the car, Richie restarting the engine. Madelyn and Nick waved at Tara one last time before they turned to face Gale and Sidney. Madelyn smiled at them.

"We're gonna head to our friend Amber's house, all our other friends are there too." She explained.

"You're going to a party when there's a killer on the loose?" Gale asked her.

"Yeah." Madelyn nodded. "That's what I said."

"Weren't you the one who went to a party back in 2011 when there was a killer on the loose?" Nick questioned the woman.

"To find the killer, and I was attacked." Gale narrowed her eyes at them.

"Maybe we'll find the killer." Nick shrugged, grabbing Madelyn's hand and pulling her towards the car park.

"Bye." Madelyn called over her shoulder with a wave.

"That girl really is a mix of every person Dewey loved." Sidney shook her head with a fond smile.

Madelyn and Nick practically ran across the parking lot and Madelyn could tell it had rained while she was in the hospital because the street was glistening. There was something about it as Nick walked her to the car that made her want to ask him to dance, right there, in the middle of the parking lot. She refrained though, instead getting into the passenger seat of Nick's car. Nick got in the other side, starting the engine and driving out of the parking lot and towards Amber's house.

Madelyn turned to Nick, "Nicholas."

"Sunshine."

"You know, you give off Jess Mariano, Conrad Fisher, lover vibes." Madelyn stated.

"Thank you?" Nick answered with a tilt of his head. "You give off Madelyn Cline, Taylor Swift, Emma Watson, 1989, pink heart sunglasses vibes."

Madelyn smiled widely. "Thank you."

( 💌 ) isobel's notes
nick and maddie have my heart
sidney >>>>>>>
the taylor swift references are so
cute it's why i write
i also went on an editing spree yesterday
because i prefer to edit than write including :
jj and athena to state of grace and reckless driving
athena and dorota to a b99 jake and holt sound
dylan and ej to 10 things i hate about you
julietta perez and olivia rodrigo to dorothea