Some sort of consolation

Madison put on a good face at the homecoming dance, trying to pretend like it didn't bother her at all that Noah hadn't shown up, or even replied to her messages. She danced with Eric, and Drew, both of whom had asked her and been turned down - but she hadn't really enjoyed it, as much as she tried to act like everything was fine. Actually it just made her feel worse, especially when she overheard some of the other girls on the cheerleading squad whispering stupid rumours about Noah, and how he had dumped her before they were even really going out.

She made her escape to the bathroom, making sure she was alone before her tears fell. She was upset with Noah, but also with herself for letting him make her upset, not that that made any sense.

Homecoming was mostly not as terrible as she's expected to be. Hanging out with Addie was fun, and kind of a relief. She hadn't slept well the night before, though, and her patience for dealing with the swarms of other idiots was fraying.

Talking her cue when a slow dance started playing and David and Addie both seemed to be preoccupied for a little while, she made her retreat to the bathroom for a bit so that she could avoid punching Angie Cormac in her stupid bitchy face.

She took out some of her frustration on the door, pushing it in probably harder than strictly necessary, and was surprised to see Madison looking up startled, tears streaking her face, eyes red and puffy.

The two girls stared at each other for a few tense moment, but Seeing maddy upset had broken Lil's rage, at least for the moment.

"...Are you okay?" she asked the other girl, knowing it was a stupid question, but wanting to give her an out.

Madison dabbed hastily at her eyes, hoping her mascara wasn't running too badly. If it had been any of her regular friends, she would have told them everything was fine, because how could she possibly explain all of this to them? But Lil at least knew what was actually going on, even if she would probably think it was stupid for Madison to be crying over Noah when there were so many other things wrong. "No, not really," she muttered, sniffling.

Well, okay, out not taken. Lil closed the door behind her, leaning against it to prevent further barge-ins for the moment. She vaguely knew this script, though she'd rarely been party to it herself. people who'd ever walked in on her crying in the bathroom had never been nice about it, much to their usual later regret.

"...You wanna talk about it?"

"You'll think it's stupid of me," Madison warned her, going to grab some more paper towels from the dispenser.

Lil frowned. Well... that was probably true. She knew her priorities were different than most people's, at least, and certainly different than most other girls her age. She could also guess this was about Noah, since he was conspicuously not here, and that was bound to me more complicated that most stupid high school stuff. She shrugged.

"Maybe... But I can probably listen without being a total jerk, at lest, if it will help. I also have this." She slipped the flask, silver coloured with a purple jeweled skull, out of her pocket, and offered it to the other girl.

Madison looked uncertainly at the flask, but took it and tried a little sip, not wanting to seem uncool (well, more uncool than she already was for crying in the bathroom.) She coughed but managed to swallow the sweet drink, and then handed it back. "Noah... he asked me to go with him, and I thought he meant it... but he never showed up, and never answered when I tried to call, and now everyone's saying that he dumped me because I wouldn't have sex with him, or because I did, so either I'm an uptight bitch, or a slut, or both... I mean, I didn't, obviously! And he didn't ask either, it's not like we even had time for that, even if he did expect it, but I don't know what I did wrong either..." She dissolved into sniffling again, knowing that she hadn't explained things at all well, but not sure how to go on.

Lil took a deep breath, followed by big drink herself. "Okay so. Look. Like... most of the people at this school are giant dicks, and who cares what they think , right? Its none of their fucking business. If they're your friends, they'll believe you, and if they aren't you don't need them. Even if you did have sex with Noah, or with half the school, it doesn't mean anything important." She frowned again - she had said she wasn't going to be a jerk, but she knew how cruel some of their classmates could be, and Maddy didn't have as thick a skin. She'd probably never really had to. "I believe you though. just... people will say what they want no matter what, you just have to learn to ignore them."

She paused.

"As for Noah.... I don't think you did anything wrong. I think he's probably just freaked out and being a dumbass about it, after yesterday."

Madison gave her a dubious look. Of course it mattered what other people thought - only someone who didn't have anything to lose could think things like that didn't matter. "If he was freaked out, he could have at least said something to me... if he didn't feel like going anymore, or whatever, that would have been okay, as long as he told me! Now I look like a loser who couldn't even get a date..." She trailed off, realizing that might be insulting to Lil. "I mean, uh... not that there's anything wrong with going alone..."

Lil stared hard at her for a moment. Of course, Madison really was one of them, wasn't she? She didn't see how they chewed up and spat out their own all the time. She'd probably done it herself, maybe even without meaning to, just to be cool and stay in with the right crowd. There was a spiteful part of herself who could think of a million really cutting things to say, but instead she took a long drink from her flask. She had said she wasn't going to be a total jerk, and she figured that she should probably hold to it, even if she wanted to shake her a little bit.

"Noone thinks you couldn't get a date. No one who isn't completely stupid. Like, if they had half a brain they'd be more wondering why he isn't here at all. What did you tell people? I mean, like - of all you really care about is what people think, just tell them he was sick or something. David would back you on it."

That was the part that was a little boggling to Lil - was that really *all* she cared about? She couldn't hold back, though, even though she'd meant to. "But like - aren't you at all worried?"

Madison looked hurt, and more than a little angry. "Of course I'm worried about him! I called him a bunch of times telling him that, but if he doesn't want to answer me, what am I supposed to do about it? It's okay for him to not be worried about me right now, but I guess I should go running after him to make sure he's okay after he stands me up?"

She sighed. "I wish I had thought to tell people he was sick, that would have been smarter... except that on Monday they'd find out it wasn't true, and then I just look more pathetic."

Lil sighed.  "You're not pathetic, Madison.  You're pretty badass, sometimes, and your not just, like 'one of the cool people', you are actually kinda cool.  I know what I says probably doesn't matter, but I don't get why what people who are haters says matters either.  If you have real friends here, then go have fun with them.  Hopefully Noah's okay, or he just traded all his cope in for some dumbass after the shit that went down yesterday.  If he's dicking you around, I'll like.. I dunno. sit on him so you can give him a rightly deserved cockpunch.  But I thought he really liked you."

Madison gave Lil a curious look through her still-teary eyes. No one had ever called her badass before. But right now she was more interested in the last thing Lil had said. "why did you think that? Did he say something?"

Lil made a face at that. "No, he's a boy. But like, he was super worried when we couldn't find you, and even after on the drive home from your grandmother's place, he was like all quiet and jumpy." She made another face, this one more scowly. "And making stupid boy deals with David so he could ask you out in the first place." She didn't add the part about him being a jerk about it, at least for now.

"He was?" Madison was conflicted - it made it a little harder to stay really mad at Noah, knowing he had been that worried about her. But still, he could have at least called, or said something... "And... what's this about making deals with David?"

Lil just shook her head.  "Stupid boy shit.  Stupid *David* shit." Also stupid Addie shit, but that didn't bear mentioning at this juncture.  "The point is, he went along with stupid David shit so he could ask you out with out having him get all on your guys' case."

Well, she could find out more about what exactly the stupid shit had been from David, later. Pry it out of him, if necessary. "...okay," she said slowly. "Is it wrong to say that I almost wish he was kidnapped by gnomes, instead of just missing tonight because of... whatever, the dumb?"

Well, they didn't really know nothing had happened, but she wasn't going to mention that, or the fact that if something *had* happened, there was probably very little they could do about it. Noah was the only one any good at tracking people down. "Ehhh?" Lil shrugged. "You can't light the dumb on fire with a can of bugspray."