Zoe still wasn't quite used to the academy. Everything was so stark white and super clean, but there only appeared to be one person on the 'cleaning' staff. Spalding seemed a little older and slow. How could he clean this entire place without having to never take breaks? Maybe Cordelia cast a spell on him to makes sure he could work without ever needing to rest. It seemed a little preposterous to assume so, but there was also so little she knew about her own magic and magic in general. She had little to no idea what these other girls and women were truly capable of. She had only caught a glimpse of it when Madison had flipped that bus the other night. It was so frightening and powerful, but all Madison had to do was stare a little and flick her wrist (Zoe sometimes thought she did that because she was an 'actress' and wanted to add emphasis). Supposedly small/normal occurrences like Queenie suddenly stabbing her arm with a fork at the dinner table while the small, four-holed wound appeared on Madison's wrist startled her. Even the Supreme casually flung the girls about in the air when she disapproved of something they did. Nan seemed to be the only girl who didn't use her power to harm others. Cordelia, even with her own assumptions, was by most means a 'good' witch.
Zoe could tell she tried to put a subtle emphasis on nature and not-so-subtle emphasis on the color white. There were occasional black items throughout most of the rooms. Zoe got the whole good/bad, white/black magic symbolism, but what she didn't get was if Cordelia was trying to warn against or encourage it. Even if she was, the amount seemed small. Sometimes she thought about asking her about it, but figured she'd just sound foolish or naive.
Since Madison considered Zoe her new best friend, she had basically forced her to move into her room. She didn't mind it that much. She enjoyed having company in a new, unfamiliar place and the room wasn't too small. It was bigger than her bedroom back home. And Madison had only 'decorated' with a few cliche movie posters. Rebel Without A Cause, Breakfast At Tiffany's, The Breakfast Club, and etc.
Even though they had only known each other for a few days, Zoe felt sort-of protective over Madison. She knew Madison was perfectly capable of defending herself, but the site of her only eight hours ago, drugged on a frat guy's bed while they so effortlessly had their way with her, had stirred something up in her and changed her attitude towards Madison. She had caught a glimpse through the harsh/snobby mask Madison constantly had. A broken, fragile human being in a state of utter despair and shock. She couldn't blame Madison for what she had done to that bus full of frat guys, even if it did kill Kyle. She would had done the same (though she couldn't exactly get into the same situation, given her 'condition'). Hell, she had killed one of the surviving guys with said condition not too long ago. She felt she somehow owed it for letting Madison end up alone with a piece of shit who drugged her beer. Cordelia had told them to look out for each other, and even her mother had given her advice 'Don't let your girlfriends end up alone with a boy you're not sure about at a party with alcohol', but both tips had left her brain when she laid eyes on Kyle's perfect hair, smile, and butt. But that distraction is what ended up getting him killed.
The hours after the incident (she felt like that word wasn't even strong enough word to use) had been somewhat chaotic. Zoe followed Madison around while she walked around downtown New Orleans at two in the morning. She would stop about every fifteen minutes to light a cigarette and turn away from Zoe to half-heartedly hide and wipe at her face. Zoe was very cautious about comforting her, in terms of physicality. She knew Madison probably couldn't remember anything, but she was convinced a hand on the shoulder might remind her of it, so she simply kept asking if she could do anything to help Madison. She would just shake her head and turn away to stare up at the sky. Like maybe she was asking a greater force why this had happened.
At around five, the snuck in through the window to their bedroom and tried to get some amount of sleep. She was pretty sure it happened for neither of them, since they both instantly rose when the alarm clock went off. Madison looked out the window for a few minutes and then turned to Zoe.
"I know this is a pretty fucked up favor to ask, and I'm not sure what it will even do, but I'm willing to try anything to not feel…" she paused touched at the center of her chest a little "-this. And you've got my back, right?"
Zoe slightly nodded, not sure what Madison was about to ask. Madison brushed her hair over her shoulder and sighed, getting out of bed and nonchalantly stripping off her dress. Zoe turned away for a second, but looked back up less than a second later. "Come take a shower with me." Madison said. Zoe instantly felt a blush rise to her cheeks "W-what?!" she managed to choke out in response. She brought her blanket over her chest like she was already naked. "You said you had my back, didn't you?" Madison turned away from her and unhooked her bra. Madison grabbed a towel from the closet in the room and, after wrapping it around her, slid her panties off.
"I do have your back, but I'm just not sure how this is supposed to help you." Zoe clenched her hands into fists, nervous. Madison turned her way and started walking. "You're one of those girls that'd say you're a good person, right?" she sat down on Zoe's bed and looked her in the eye. Zoe felt like breaking the eye contact, but was afraid she'd somehow hurt Madison's feelings if she did. "I-I guess so. I mean…" Zoe stared over at the tissue box on her nightstand, trying to become interested in the repetitive pattern on it. "I'm not so sure anymore." she clenched her hands tighter.
Madison sighed and chuckled "And I thought I could be melodramatic." Zoe looked up at her, glad to see her smiling again. Even if it was in a mocking way. "Well, I think you're pretty decent. So come on and stop being such a prude." "I-" Zoe shook her head at the comment, since she knew Madison knew why she had ended up here in the first place. "Okay, that was kind of mean. Look, I'll just get right down to it." Zoe nodded and waited for Madison to finish the statement.
"When I recover, I like to do it quick. I was only in rehab for two weeks and the one time I had an anxiety episode I stayed in the hospital for three days. So I don't have time to sit around and let the this," Madison paused to find the right word "Setback, eat at me from the inside out." "Madison…" Zoe said in a low voice, disapproving of Madison writing off the situation as nothing. "Don't." Madison lifted up her hand in protest.
"Like I said, I think you're a decent person. And in order for me to heal, I need to be able to trust people who are around me while I'm also vulnerable. And by the way you reacted, I assumed you see naked as being sort of vulnerable, just like I do." She smirked a little. Relieved to see another smile, Zoe shook her head and said "You're obviously much more comfortable with nudity than I am." Madison nodded her head "That might be true, but that doesn't mean it's any less vulnerable to me. Since you're such a decent person, I know you won't do anything simply because I'm naked and in the shower." she smirked again. "Well, yeah, but that's not necessarily the reason I wouldn't do anything, I mean-" Zoe paused and looked around the room as if anyone was near their door at this time in the morning "I'm not into girls, or anything like that." Zoe twiddled her thumbs. Madison laughed, maybe a little louder than necessary. "Neither am I, you weirdo. I mean, I've experimented before, but like, what child star hasn't, right?" Madison asked and looked at Zoe as if she'd have an answer. "Um, yeah…It's just-" Madison put her finger on Zoe's mouth to silence her. "This is purely a platonic shower. Like at summer camp. Or when you were in pre-school and took one with your boy friend." Zoe nodded a little in response. "So stop being so weird about it and let's get it over with, we've only got forty five minutes until we're supposed to be downstairs for breakfast." Zoe looked at her and could tell she was serious and not ready to give up anytime soon.
She huffed and stood up, quickly walking towards the closet, grabbing a towel, but then dropping it to take off her clothes. She turned away from Madison while doing so. She wrapped the towel around her and kicked her clothes to the corner. Madison smiled and nodded her head in slight admiration or recognition.
"Okay. Let's just go ahead and do this." Zoe grabbed Madison's hand and walked quickly to the bathroom. Madison went over to the tub and turned the knobs. Zoe caught her reflection in the mirror and couldn't believe what she was about to do. She'd gone to summer camps plenty of times as kid and younger teen, but bathing in front of others, or with very little seclusion, was normal and expected at camps. They were in the woods in the middle of nowhere (usually). Here they had their own shower schedule. Madison checked the temperature and then turned to Zoe "You ready?" she grinned. Zoe just nodded a little. Madison dropped her towel and Zoe turned away in reflex. "Come on." she laughed "They're just boobs. You see your's all the time anyway, it's not a big deal, I promise." Zoe slowly turned to look at Madison. She was right. They had similar body types, so it was kinda just like looking at her reflection. Except her reflection didn't flip over buses or star in movies. Zoe shut her eyes and took off her own towel. She stood and held her breath a while, expecting Madison to laugh or make fun of her boob size. She got the sound of the shower curtain shutting and Madison saying "Get in here, you freak."
She walked across the cold white tiles and moved the shower curtain aside to step in. Madison had her back to Zoe. "Uh…" Zoe trie to get used to being this close to another person that wasn't a boy. She felt frozen, afraid of any kind of skin-to-skin contact that could occur. "Wash my hair." Madison stated. Zoe grabbed the bottle of fancy shampoo Madison used. She squeezed some into her palm and worked it through Madison's wet hair. Madison had her eyes closed and just stood while Zoe continued to massage the shampoo into her hair. Zoe turned around and bent her head back to wash the shampoo out. Zoe looked away again, still not quite used to Madison's nakedness. Madison squeezed what was left out. "Do you mind if I have some alone time in here?" she asked Zoe. Zoe shook her head "No, of course not." She started to open the shower but quickly paused and looked over at Madison.
"Hey, you're not gonna try any funny business are you?" Zoe gripped at the shower curtain "What do you mean exactly?" Madison replied. "Like, I'm not gonna come here in ten minutes and find you like the weird stalker girl in Rules of Attraction, am I?" Madison furrowed her eyebrows a little, but Zoe could tell that after a few seconds of thinking she got the reference. "Yeah right, like a bunch of gross frat boys are gonna make me wanna off myself." She slicked her hair back. "Yeah, of course." Zoe got one leg out when Madison said "Hey." She looked over at her. "Thanks." Madison gave a small smile. "Uh…" Zoe scratched absently at her elbow "Yeah, of course. No problem." she smiled back and got her other leg out. She grabbed the towel and walked into the room, drying off.
She got dressed and laid lazily on her bed while she was sure Madison cried in the shower. Part of her felt like it was a cliche, but mostly she knew she would do the same thing if something like this is had happened to her. She sighed and brought her knees under her chin. This school was already so heavy.