Title: Run to Him, Little Girl
Author: Nate
Pairing: Brad/Madeline
Inspired by: Alternate take on Run Away, Little Boy.
Rating: PG-13 (Maybe a little swearing, and a hot make-out section, but everyone can read it.)
Disclaimer: Brad and Madeline come from the brilliant mind of Amy Sherman-Palladino, and then she puts her thoughts about them to paper. The fine folks from Hofflund-Polone and Warner Bros. Television then hired Shelly Cole and Adam Wylie to play them. I don't have that luxury, so thus I claim no ownership except for using them to write this story.
Archiving: Over on the Improv group created by Trix, and Fanfiction.net, and on my personal webpage. Others must ask to archive this story.
Summary: Madeline and Brad fall in love. Simple as that.
Improv No.: #10 (forbidden, hourglass, plush, arouse, vicious)
Author's Note: Yes, I've finally decided to join in on this new Improv craze, and although it took me two late nights and a day to finish writing this little fluff piece, I had a blast writing this story. Challenge words are bolded because of the length of this story. The temptation to up this piece to an R was there, but knowing Madeline and Brad, they're too cute to hop in the sack right away. Here's hoping for some season three Bradeline romance, because I love the idea of those two together, just being all cute-like and adorable. Without further adieu then, here is my story of a Madeline/Brad romance : )!
And feedback please, I'd love to hear what you thought of this.
She didn't know why she did it in the first place.
When she first came upon the timid boy during a school project they did together, her first thought was to not even think about him in any way besides a guy she'd spend two weeks making wisecracks about as Louise eviscerated the poor fellow in front of their group. She heard Grant make many cracks about him as the days wore on, calling him a nerd, geek, dork, names she was sure he was used to already from the other students that made it their duty to make him feel as uncomfortable as possible in Chilton.
She saw Paris become vicious as a rabid dog when it came to him, and she didn't even blink twice when she found out he was the only boy in their group. If they had to do a reverse role-reversal with the scene they were assigned, and two of the group girls had to play Romeo and Juliet, so be it. As long as Paris wrung an A out of it, she'd pair a frog and a gorilla and be just as happy with the results of their acting.
But not Brad Langford. Not if he was the last man on earth. Paris was determined to keep him as out of the way as possible, along with Madeline Lynn. There was no way in Paris Gellar's big mind that she was going to let a ditzy raven-haired transplant who came from Washington State five years ago because of her father's dotcom windfall, and a red-haired freak with a taxidermist mother upstage her in anything. Not a chance those two would fall in love, even if they were playing fictional characters from 400 years ago. They would drag the grade down, and Paris would have to prepare for life at another college besides Harvard. She shuddered at the thought of settling for Yale or Columbia. Or worse, Penn.
Madeline didn't give a damn about the project. At least that was what Louise told her she should do. She wanted to be Juliet, read ten pages of dialogue, memorize it to the letter, have a guy hover over her and give her a kiss of death. She wanted the glory, the bows in front of the curtain, the applause and roses thrown at her feet.
She had to keep up appearances though. And she couldn't do that if she acted smart in any way. Louise was the Fred Flintstone to her Barney Rubble. The Laurel to Madeline's Hardy. Louise played the role of Penn, while Madeline kept her mouth shut as the ever patient Teller.
But Teller never got the acclaim, the voice jobs for major commercials and cable networks, the credit for creating all those awesome magic tricks, because Penn was a friggin' gloryhog. All Teller ever did was count the money and hope he got a little credit for being Penn's shadow.
Madeline was sick of being Teller. She wanted to become a Rhoda, who left Minneapolis and Mary Richards for the glitz and glamour of New York City, and ended up with acclaim all her own.
Besides, Rhoda's handkerchiefs on her head were much more fashion forward to Madeline than that damn hat Mary threw into the winter air of the Nicolet Mall in the opening credits. That, and Lou Grant creeped her out a little. Louise has the same name, and she doesn't look like an old guy played by Ed Asner, she thought one day at school as she stared at her best friend. TV Land marathons could be dangerous to her health; she swore one day she was going to greet her friend by calling her Edward and tell her to buy some Rogaine for that bald head of hers.
She just needed to figure out how to assert herself in the first place. Everything she had done since the moment she walked through the front doors of Chilton in sixth grade, was on the whim of Louise. Sure, Madeline had done her best to break away from her blonde friend. But when Louise gave her the patented death glare that had been tinkered with little over the years, that was it, Madeline was to follow her around like a lemming, pride and grades be damned.
Her love life was just a figment; there was never any love between Madeline and any of her dates. Louise would set her up as much as she possibly could with every BMOC, and Madeline would comply, no matter what, dare she have her thin lines cut on the top of the Chilton dating food chain. She never had sex with any of the guys though, her allowance came in handy for paying off them off and keeping the rumor around campus that Madeline Lynn would put out at a moment's notice on the true side. Every guy learned the hard way that they really had to work hard to become Madeline's first guy.
The pattern went on for three years, like a vicious circle. Madeline stayed popular, remained Teller, not saying a word unless asked to by Louise or Paris, Gellar unaware of how much power Louise held over her best friend.
The Chilton three started to strain when Madeline attempted to befriend Rory Gilmore. She was going to start a friendship on the side, so that when Louise and Paris turned against her, she still had someone she could count on. She loved Rory, because she could finally be herself around the girl. She cringed when Louise made her put on the 'I can't touch you or else I'll get a disease' act during the PJ Harvey controversy. Still, she went along with it, like a good little girl should do.
The first few months back at Chilton for junior year were pretty easy. Paris and Rory fell into an uneasy truce, so Madeline could talk to Rory without being afraid of becoming the star of a Mary Queen of Scots reenactment, head-chopping and all. She found she had more in common with Rory than she ever did with Louise. Both lived in single-parent homes, Rory with her mother, while Mr. Lynn found plenty of time to love his 'little Lynn-Lynn', as he would affectionately call her. And they shared a love for great music, Madeline was good at hiding all of her finds from Louise. In reality, she would love a world without Justin and Britney, along with their petty problems in the world. Give Maddy a nice album from the 80s, and she'd give you that 100-watt smile, befriending you for life.
Now if she could just break away from Louise, she could be happy for the rest of her Chilton career, and maybe her life...
Being the daughter of one of the founders of a major computer software company had its perks. Never did Madeline have to worry about her computer becoming outdated, for she found a new one every six months in her bedroom. She had her own Aibo robot dog named Sparky 1.0, who she loved just as much as a regular pet. She had also saved many a Paris Gellar manifesto from falling into the cyberspace ether, Madeline proved to know inside and out computers and could fix them quite thoroughly, although she didn't show it in public. And she always had the newest gadgets and cell phones, she would have fun trying out all the new features on a mobile phone whenever she got one.
And when it came to guys, she knew how to find a caring heart inside of someone who looked like they weren't with the popular crowd. She had moved to Hartford with her father because he opened an East Coast office to supplement the one in Seattle. Every summer, she would have a fling with at least one of the young teen workers who pondered code all day, while she worked as a secretary. They never went beyond a kiss, just a quick cup of coffee, and every one of the guys remained good friends with her. She found out through those summers that those guys could love just as well as a hunky Chilton guy, they treasured women as a respite from their stressing jobs, and would do anything to keep them. Since those three summers, she had always had a soft spot for the geeks of the world, and hoped she found one she could love for herself.
And Madeline Lynn found that boy in Brad Langford.
She had to look uninterested on the outside to her friends as she sat down at the table and looked at him for the first time. Louise immediately sniped at him as Madeline paged through the pages of her teen magazine idly. Whenever Louise would look away, that was her signal to take a nice long look at Brad.
The first thing she noticed about him was how nervous he was around her and Louise. Most guys she knew showed they weren't afraid of her beauty. But Brad was honest-to-God scared of how he was coming off at the two. She loved this trait in Brad, it showed that she would have to work at winning his trust.
As Paris continued to scare the poor guy, and Tristan wandered in and out of the project, Madeline found Louise to be more distracted than usual from any kind of activity that involved their friendship. These small respites would be spent comforting Brad, telling him that he shouldn't be so darned scared of Paris and Louise, and that he was going to get through this little hell of a project eventually. Brad would smile shakily at the dark-haired girl, and thank her for such comforting words. And although she did say aloud that Tristan would make a better Romeo than Brad, she wished Paris would at least give the boy one shot at the job. Just because the DuGrey boy could seduce anything with a pulse didn't give him the talent to pull it off with Juliet, was her secret thought.
The project stretched from hours, into days. The great Paris Gellar interpretation of Romeo & Juliet moved into downtown Stars Hollow and the dance studio of a former queen of the Miami dance halls, Miss Patty, for rehearsals before Sunday night. Brad only had four lines as a minor character, Madeline two. The better to get them off the stage quickly was the intelligent blonde's thought as she set up the scene, with Rory playing Juliet to Tristan's Romeo, while Dean played the jealous boyfriend, making sure the stage romance didn't move into the theatre of real life.
The rhetorical hourglass ticked on and on through the night, Madeline playing the newest game she had downloaded on her snappy new cell phone, while Louise filed her nails and did nothing productive. Brad, sitting between the two, showed his silent allegiance for Madeline by sitting closer to her than he did Louise. He could almost feel the smooth fabric of Madeline's jeans rub against his, and paid close attention to her hand as the three other group members and Dean tried their best to keep their sanity, while Louise acted all diva-like, even with her three pages of dialogue and slutty dress being made by her tailor, imported from Milan.
He loved the black nail polish on each of her little nails, she was serious about beauty, but not so much it was her whole life. She had a little ring with a heart on it that was given to her by Mr. Lynn for a 14th birthday gift, which she treasured like a sacred stone. How I'd love to touch her, know how she feels about me, Brad thought as he pondered making a move.
Madeline was hoping for the same thing, as she found her game getting less and less attention from her. She wanted to run her fingers through Brad's spiky red hair, and wondered if the lovable geek was hiding something under that sweater of his, it looked like he was filling it out quite nicely.
Madeline and Brad decided to go for holding each other's hand at the same time, each not knowing they both showed a slight interest for one another. Carefully, Madeline took her hand out of her lap, and moved it down her thigh, making the movement as natural as possible. She kept her eyes glued to the scene in front of her, hoping and praying her platinum blonde friend wouldn't notice her flirtations with Brad. She moved the hand lower and lower, until the heel of it felt the stained wood of the bench the three players sat on. She planted it down, and awaited Brad's move, tapping her fingers against the bench.
Brad started his hand down the exact moment Madeline did, and it wandered over his lap. Just the slight bit of interest in him by Madeline had aroused him since the day she tried to calm him, and he tried thinking of one of his mother's most graphic projects at the museum to try to take his heart's focus away from pumping blood into that portion of his anatomy for that moment. His fingers trailed down the left leg of his jeans, and he could sense the heat from Madeline's hand overtake his, he felt it getting hotter. His palms sweating, silently as he looked on towards the rehearsals, he set his palm down atop of Madeline's hand, and his fingers clasped the inside of it with care.
He expected Madeline to pull away and slap him, because his hand was wet from nervous perspiration. Instead, the girl had him clasp her hand tighter, she was in heaven at that moment as Brad showed he had an interest, however small, in her. With a quick glance, they stared at each other as the other five people in the room were distracted by something outside.
'It's OK Brad, I like this,' she mouthed silently, her eyes looking straight into his. Brad found himself lost in those hazel eyes, and wished this moment could last forever, mouthing 'I like it too Mads' back at her. Madeline could find nothing wrong with Brad at all as she looked at his cute freckled face. I am such a lucky girl, she thought, not believing that she could find a boy so awesome, so handsome, and she couldn't wait to ask him out.
They held hands a little bit longer, hiding the evidence with Madeline's jacket, covering the handhold up to everyone else. She hoped that this would become more than what they did tonight, more than a hand hold. She wanted to get a hold of his heart, and figure out why Bradley Langford felt he wasn't worthy to be with a girl, especially one as caring as Madeline.
The next two nights would be spent at the dance hall, silent flirting going on between the two as Louise had to practice her lines and scenes onstage with the rest of the players. Just being spectators, and with Louise more concerned about her looks and cleavage than her best friend's conduct, they felt a little more free to take their silent flirting to the next step. This time, they not only held hands, but rubbed their thighs against each other. Madeline would get a little smirk on her face when Brad would show his...approval of the act, and Brad found his anxiety with the whole play fading away. He could handle saying his lines just fine now, for he knew that Madeline was always going to be in his corner, through thick and thin.
But that sense of security quickly disappeared when Paris confronted the two about their lack of participation in the whole endeavor later in the evening. For the first time, Madeline had the guts to disagree with her friend, telling her that the reason she wasn't participating that much was her lack of lines. Paris just about bit her head off, and then started giving the third degree to poor Brad. With their 'relationship' all but a silent one, Madeline could only look on in horror as one of her best friends brought the boy she hoped to love someday to tears, telling him he was a horrible actor and she was personally going to make sure he received a low mark for what was supposed to be a group project. Madeline thought of stepping in just before Paris used choice words on Brad, but Louise joined in the fun of yelling at the boy, and with that, she ran to her car, waiting for Brad to be able to make an escape before she drove him home.
Once he got into her Escalade, Brad couldn't believe that Madeline chickened out from defending him. As she pulled away from the curb and back onto the main road for Hartford, Madeline tried to make conversation with the boy.
"Brad, my lord, I am so sorry about my friends, I didn't know they'd--"
He cut her off. "Just don't worry about it Mads, I'm fine. My mother told me if I had a problem at Chilton, there was an open space at Hillside I could take, she feels that school is less stressful."
Madeline paled as Brad told her of his backup plan for escaping the hell of Chilton. "Brad, don't quit on me, you have a lot of potential, and I'm sure that you can get through this. It's one damned project, it'll be over Sunday night and you won't see hide or hair of Louise and Paris ever again."
He pounded on the dashboard, startling the girl as she pulled onto I-84. "It isn't that simple Maddy! For years, I've been teased mercilessly by everyone here at this school, I seem to be just that perfect size for Duncan and Bowman to stuff me into a locker almost every damned day, I'm just surprised DuGrey didn't notice me. And did you see the glares Louise was giving us before we started flirting, like we shouldn't do it because it's forbidden by the so-called Chilton dating book? Seriously, I thought she was going to rip my hand off if I made that first move!"
Just then, a fall rainshower started to fall, and the windshield became soaked with water. Madeline turned on her wipers, and decided that she wasn't going back to Hartford without resolving her situation with Brad, this was something she wasn't going to leave lingering into the play the next day.
She took the exit ramp into Southington, and pulled into an A&P parking lot, Brad sulking all the way through, and waringly looking at the girl. Madeline was biting her lip in worry, and didn't know how to go about trying to convince Brad to stay with her at Chilton. Inside, she wanted to tears to start falling down her face, she didn't want to lose true love just as she found it. The handhold she shared with Brad has sent a shock up her spine and all over her body, something that no other boy she dated had ever caused. She sensed something different about Brad from the moment she saw him. She cared about this kid, and would do anything to make sure that they could continue to pursue what they were doing secretly those first three days.
Gathering up enough courage to speak, for the first time, Madeline folded the usual ditz mask she wore. Her face was serious with resolve, and she was going to get through this, no matter how much damage it would cause in the next few days.
She brought her hand to Brad's, and took it into hers, rubbing at the masculine wrinkles contained on the surface. The nervous sweating was back, but she didn't care about that at the moment, all she wanted to do was make sure Brad knew he was wanted.
"Brad, don't give up on Chilton, please. I want you to think about Rory Gilmore for a moment. What have all of us done to her over the last year and a half to her? Well, if you're those other three jerks in our group, you've called her almost every name in the book, treated her like shit, and done everything they could to tell her that she wasn't good enough for our school."
"Now I'll admit at first I loathed her just as much as Paris, Tristan and Louise did, because I thought it was the cool thing to do. But then when I invited her to a party I held last March when my mother decided to make her once a year appearance in Hartford, I found that she was an awesome girl to hang with, and as I got to know her more, my heart was telling me that she only meant to go to school and graduate atop the class, not become competition with any of us. Once I got past that, it was very easy to get past any other animosity I might've held for the girl."
"So why did you ignore her in May?" he asked back, remembering back to the incident in the front courtyard with the tickets fiasco.
"All a front Brad, I did it because I didn't know any better then. I look back on that and wonder why the fuck I even told Rory all that bullshit about not wanting to be her friend, it was all just to stay friends with Louise. Summer came, I tried to forget about it and befriend her during the activities stuff, but they both stayed in my way, not allowing me to have anything to do with her. And there's still Lorelai and the Bangles concert, I didn't even want to be in that grungy apartment with those creeps, I wanted to be enjoying the concert with Gilmore."
"Why do you continue to hang out with Louise if she's nothing but a pain in your ass Mads?"
Madeline tried to answer Brad's question as calmly as possible, but then found herself blubbering and falling victim to the tears accumulating. A very abbreviated answer came out, but it still had the impact on Brad a well-phrased sentence would.
"I...don't wanna...be...alone, Brad--"
And there it was, laid out on the table for the boy to see. The only reason Madeline Lynn was still associating with Louise Grant was because of habit. Madeline couldn't live in Hartford without the first ever girl to sit by her, who got to know her, and then let her become her best friend. But then two years in, she became just a lackey to Louise and Paris, and whenever she thought about it, she wanted to let them know she didn't want to be bullied by them anymore. But finding out what would happen if she broke off her friendship with them scared Madeline. Popularity was a drug to her, and without the friends to back it up, she would fade into the background, becoming another face in the crowd. It was like that when she was young back in Seattle, and she didn't know how to deal with being an average student anymore. She had to be the gossip-monger, or else she'd feel left out and alone in Chilton.
It was then that Brad made a very important point. "So how do you think me and Rory Gilmore feel?" he said to her, calmly.
Sniffing back tears, she thought about it for a moment, and then answered in kind. "Well, I know Rory doesn't care that she isn't popular, although having a small friendship with Paris would help her just get through school. Popularity isn't her bag, and she doesn't give a damn about it one way or another. As for you, well from the moment you got here you knew that unless you pulled off an extreme act, popularity is way out of reach right?"
He nodded, and spoke again. "I don't care Madeline, being popular has too many responsibilities to go with it. Really, I'm one who would rather be around one person who likes me than a group of people who depend on my every word before they acted on anything."
"I don't like that at all, in reality, I hate being popular," she admitted to him as she sat back in her bucket seat watching the patterns on the windshield as the rain fell upon it, the wipers turned off a minute ago. The glare of the bright orange and yellow sign on the building and the lot lights radiated through the window, and Madeline listened to herself and Brad breathe for what seemed to be hours. She decided to end the conversation there, and edged her hand towards Brad, beckoning him to take it into his. He did this, and they sat in the car, taking in the silence as the boy played with the girl's heart ring, soothing the anger out of Madeline that she felt at Paris and Louise.
It was a rare moment where Madeline didn't have to fall to the whims of anybody she met. Louise and Paris were no where to be found, and she felt at peace with herself. Here she was in a strange parking lot she had never seen before, alone with a boy she had fallen hard for, in her own car. How could she top this night? Not only had she told off her own friends and defended the honor of her crush, she felt a funny feeling coming over her.
She turned to face Brad, and smiled at him in a way she had never done towards any boy she ever knew before.
"Brad...do you want to...kiss me? You know, try it out, see if it works for the both of us?" She waved her hands nervously as her timid voice mouthed out the words. "I mean if you don't want to, that's fine, but...I just have an inkling that me..and you might work. I mean, we've held hands, maybe we should take this next step to see if we're compatible...and stuff." She laughed nervously, and shifted back in her seat, facing the red-haired boy, her jean-clad legs bouncing up and down.
He turned white for a moment, and language left him speechless. She can't, she really wants to kiss me, Brad thought as his mouth turned dry. Not one girl since he came to Chilton as a freshman had even given him the time of day, much less asked him to kiss her. And now, here she was, a black-haired Germanic goddess, asking him to try to start a relationship with him. He could only think of one thing to say as he took in Madeline's words.
"Um...pinch me please Madeline."
He said it, and as soon as he did, Madeline laughed at his request with happy laughter, her snaggletooth smile becoming bright on her face. She beckoned him into the first bench seat in the SUV, so that they wouldn't have some kind of accidental wacky mishap where one of them lost their balance on their seat and ended up on their butt when they tried to kiss.
"Alright Brad, I'll pinch you," she answered seriously. "But I can promise you if I'm your girlfriend, that's the last pain you'll ever feel." She took his right wrist into her hands, and set it down on her lap. Then taking her thumb and forefinger, she took the skin on his wrist in-between her stubby little fingernails, and pinched at it softly, trying not to hurt the boy.
"A pinch to grow an inch," she whispered softly towards him, a small smile playing on her lips. She heard Brad gasp a little as the pain of her pinch went up his body, and his eyes widened as he realized that this was no dream.
He smiled at her, and looked into her eyes, which spoke volumes about her intentions. Madeline did love him, and was about to prove it by giving him his first kiss.
"I'm going to kiss you now Brad," Madeline whispered once again. "If I get too forward, just tell me stop, and I'll comply. I mean I'm sure this is your first time, so I'm sure you'll be sloppy at first and stuff but--"
"Madeline?"
"Yes?"
"Just shut up and let me kiss you." He smiled at her, and his bluntness with her made Madeline giggle.
"Fair enough Brad." They closed the small distance between then, and with the sound of rain pattering on the roof of the Cadillac, their lips touched for the first time, as Brad wrapped his arms around Madeline's neck, and the soft pillowy hair that covered it. He found a hint of banana and tropical fruits in Madeline's lip gloss as he sucked in a breath and their mouths crashed together in passion, while Madeline found she loved the taste of Brad. His mouth had the tang of the doublemint gum he had chewed during the practices in order to control his nervous tics.
Madeline released Brad, in shock of how good the kiss was, but the boy's carnal instincts happened to make their appearance at that exact moment. She hardly inhaled a breath before she found Brad was kissing her long and hard once again, his lips mashing into hers perfectly in an O formed by both of their mouths. She scooted back in the seat as she returned the kiss in kind, and was braced against the window of the vehicle. She moaned as Brad's tongue surveyed her mouth and rubbed up against her sensitive palate, and gaped at the boy kissing her with so much passion. This was the kiss Madeline prayed having with a boy someday, and it was happening at that moment.
She brought the boy even closer to her, wrapping her arms around the small of his back and scooping him up like she had all the strength in the world. Brad kissed all over her face then, and ruined what little makeup remained on her face from the day, pretty soon the gloss on her lips was all from their saliva instead of the product she put on with a tube. Now horizontal, she heard herself and Brad heavily breathing as he gripped her even closer to his medium frame. He felt her small breasts press up against his chest despite the two layers and bra Madeline wore, as she felt his stiff arousal against her thigh.
"Looks like that pinch did you right Braddy," she joked in between another kiss with Brad, and she ran her fingers through the mane of hair she dreamed to feel. The sweat dripped off onto her face as she ran them through, and she felt the cold perspiration chill her to the core. Brad returned the favor within seconds, nesting his hands inside of the girl's thick tresses. He had never been a fan of girls who straightened their hair out to fall down around their face, to him, Madeline's hair was so beautiful. He could get lost forever in those curly locks, and he soothing rubbed her scalp as she eased more into the kiss.
"Ohhh, Brad..." Madeline was like putty in Brad's hands, she never even gave one thought that the boy in front of her could drive her wild with just his kiss, being alone apparently had given Brad Langford plenty of time to ponder his first move with his first lover. She felt like melting into the leather of the car seat as they continued to make out hot and heavy in the backseat. Who would have ever thought a girl like Madeline and a guy like Brad could create such heat and sparks with each other? Certainly not anyone in Chilton, that's for sure.
His hands feeling they had done enough playing with Madeline's hair, Brad moved his minstrations down her body, the beauty was sweating like crazy and was so hot from the boy's touch, and it was vice versa with Brad. Despite the cool November air, the windows in the expensive SUV were starting to heat up, so Madeline took off the sweater she wore over her t-shirt, being careful not to expose much skin to her new lover.
But her shirt had other ideas, as the black tee rode up her body a little as she took off the sweater, exposing Madeline's flat midriff and her cute little bellybutton to Brad. What had started as just a little innocent 'try-out' kiss, was quickly becoming something more to the two teenagers making out in the Southington parking lot.
"Wow," he exclaimed, still in shock that he had initiated such a heated kiss. "Mads, your tummy, it's...it's...cute, small, beautiful. Um, do you work out to keep in shape?"
Madeline blushed at the redhead's compliment, as she tried to put her t-shirt back in order. "Thanks Braddy, and yes, I run around the block, which is about a half mile, once before school, and once after, then I do about 30 sit-ups at sunrise and sunset, eat healthy, that kind of thing. Why, you like it?"
He smiled back at her, and gave her another small kiss. "I really do Maddy, I mean I thought your face was beautiful, but the rest of you...whoa!"
She took his hand into hers once again, and lifted up her shirt to expose her stomach to Brad, this time on purpose. "You want to touch it Brad? Don't be afraid, I'm giving you permission to. I've never had someone not only love me for my body, but my personality, and you seem to love that about me."
"I do, I love how happy, bubbly and outgoing you are with everybody you come into contact with, and that's why I loved sitting next to you in the rehearsals Madeline. You might act like you may not know anything when it comes to school, but that's what makes you special. You get the good average grades, but you don't live your life for the guys, nor do you try to drive yourself to an early grave with your studies. You're an amazing girl Madeline Lynn, and I'm amazed I've gotten to know you closer tonight." He sighed, and rested his hand against her side, causing Madeline's body temperature to immediately rise.
But that wasn't what was on the top of her mind. What Brad had just said to her about the way she carried herself in life put a smile on her face. He had fully complimented her, no boy she went out with had ever done that. She teared up a little, thanked Brad for his flattering remark, and proceeded to kiss him again, Brad's hand making lazy circles around her belly button, she cooed as his hand massaged her midriff. They continued with their innocent kissing in the back seat for a little while, until a police officer tapped on the door of the car with his nightstick. The two separated, and Madeline rolled down the driver's window to talk to the officer.
"Hello young lady, young man, do you realize it's about 10:40? There's only 20 minutes until curfew, and unless you two want to continue this downtown, I'd get back to where you live right away."
Madeline blushed at the officer, she couldn't believe she had lost track of time while making out with Brad. "Sorry sir, we pulled off 84 when the storm came through on our way back to Hartford. We talked for awhile, and well...we stopped talking." She laughed nervously.
"Well, I'll let you off with a warning tonight then 'cause you really had a good reason to pull off the road. Got off just in time too, 84's closed from Plainville to 691, the whole road's fogged out and there's several wrecks off to the side or in traffic. I'd take 364 east to 5 north and head into Hartford that way, you two may have saved your own hides tonight by deciding your hormones needed to be taken care of. I wish you a good night ma'am, and drive safely." He tipped his hat at Madeline.
"Thank you officer, take care."
She looked back at her lover in the backseat, who was trying to fix up his disheveled shirt and not look like had rolled around in the hay when his mother gave him the inevitable lecture about being out all night without calling her and letting her know he was going to be late. Madeline pulled onto the road that led to 364, and made small talk with Brad the rest of the way home.
"So...are we a couple Brad?"
He smiled back at her. "I like the sound of that Madeline, it's so like us. Brad and Madeline. Madeline and Brad. Yup, seems like a natural coupling to me. And well, we seem so perfect for each other, don't we?"
The girl need not look further than her wrinkled t-shirt for the answer to that question. "Yup Brad, perfect, like peas in a pod. I think we'll both be just fine."
"What about Paris and Louise though? You know they aren't going to love the fact we're going out with each other."
"Let them deal Langford. If they can't accept the fact that we love each other, maybe I need to get myself a new set of friends. I'm sure Gilmore would love to have me as her Chilton buddy."
"I'd love to be hers too, she's the only one besides you in the group who has been nice to me at all."
"It's in her nature Brad, which is why I've wanted to be her buddy. I'm sure if the two cold hearts don't want my friendship anymore, a new Chilton Three can be formed by me, you and Rory without much difficulty."
"You sure she can deal with you leaving your old friends and going with us Mads, I mean she's sure to be teased even worse by those two after you break it up."
She laughed. "Brad, baby, you don't know Rory Gilmore as much as I do. She's like Teflon to their glue, nothing sticks to her long at all, especially their insults. Their barbs only make her stronger, and with her advice, all three of us should be able to take the heat just fine. You'll see, we're going to be just fine and hunky dory Bradley Langford."
"I have a feeling you're going to be right about that, just pray that when we tell them after the play tomorrow night, Paris doesn't use that sword as more than a prop on us!"
"I've seen her fence before, swordplay is just not her forte," Madeline said faking a British accent. The two laughed, and continued idly chattering on as they made their way back into the state capital of Connecticut. Fate was smiling upon these two tonight, and it was going to for many nights more.
Langford residence, northwest Hartford, 11:15pm
Madeline pulled up to the front door of the average looking house Brad lived in. Yup, a taxidermist definitely lives here, she thought as she looked over the nice house. Picket fences, big backyard, this was Madeline's dream house, not a big mansion like she lived in now.
"So, I'll see you tomorrow night Brad, that is unless your mother grounds you for staying out too late."
Brad laughed. "She won't Madeline, don't worry. She knew the rehearsals would possibly run overtime, so I have nothing to worry about."
Madeline kissed him for a little bit on the lips after that comment. "Well if your mother saw that, she may have something she'll need to talk to you about young man," she said with a fake nag, waving her finger in Brad's face.
"Just don't forget if you do something wrong, my mother will stuff you and display you doing the hokey-pokey in the natural history museum," Brad joked to her.
She wrinkled her nose at that thought. "Eww, Brad-leeee! I am so putting in my will that your mother is not to stuff me and preserve my body when I pass on, I'm not spending the afterlife creepily smiling at everybody and looking like Lenin does!"
Brad kissed Madeline one last time, then climbed out of the car. "Don't worry, I'll tell her about it after we tell the kids at school, she was just about ready to place a personal ad for me, she wants me to have a girl in my life."
"I'm not going to find your mother creepy, don't worry. I've put together robots before, so whenever you give me that tour of your mom's work, it'll be like seeing robots being put together, only they lived in the past."
"Cool. I bet you'd want to check out the robot I've been working on up in my room, I'm trying to make one that can walk from the door back to my desk, kind of a chore robot thing."
She smiled brightly at Brad. "Awesome, you're into robots too! I've only made one from one of those Lego kits from the stores, but I'd love to create one from scratch with you someday."
"Yeah, well, being around animals all the time with my mother kind of got me stuck on the and creating new life, so I got into robotics, it's never boring."
"Is that what you tell all the girls hon?" Madeline said with a wink.
"Only those that are special to me, like you." He blew a kiss at her, and she made a movement as to receive it from Brad. "Goodnight Lynn-Lynn, I had a blast tonight, and I can't wait to go out with you."
Once again, the girl blushed. "Awww, you called me Lynn-Lynn, I love that name, cute Brad! My pet name for you then will be...Langy, well, because I can't find a good one for you yet."
Brad laughed back at her. "Don't worry, you will. See you at the play tomorrow then Madeline, until then, take care!" He waved back at his love one last time, and ran into the house.
She waved back. "Night Langy, sleep well!" she said, doing her best Mae West impression. And with that, Madeline pulled out of the Langford driveway and towards her own home.
After she got home, she found Brad had forgotten his jacket in the backseat when he got out of the car. Instead of calling him back though and going back to his house to give it to him, Madeline decided she wanted to have a piece of her boyfriend when she went to bed.
45 minutes later, after reading a couple YM articles and a piece in the Courant's society section, Madeline crawled into bed, and cuddled the windbreaker Brad wore up to her face like it was a plush toy. She slept well that night, and with the essence of her new love wafting from the jacket and into her nose, she had quite a few beautiful dreams about the nervous and cute boy she got to know closer that night, and the future she was going to spend with him.
Brad did get a small lecture from Miss Langford about being late, but he used the rough storm that passed through Hartford as an excuse for his tardy arrival back home. His mother decided it was a good enough excuse, and hugged him and told him to call if he was ever going to be late again. With that out of the way, Brad climbed the stairs up to his room, changed into his pajamas, and climbed into bed, but not before taking the sweater Madeline had given him as a remembrance of the night from his backpack. He too cuddled the purple shirt like a teddy bear, and crawled into bed, his lips still numbed from kissing Madeline, and the fragrance of her light and flowery perfume permeating the air around his bed from her sweater.
"Goodnight Lynn-Lynn, I love you," he said groggily, closing his eyes, and his dreams filled with images of the charcoal-haired beauty being his true love.
The next night, Madeline drove Brad to the play once again, and the boy told her that he had told his mother about the relationship. Brad had feared the worst, but Miss Langford completely approved of the relationship, and couldn't wait to meet Madeline. He told his mother that the fear he would want to transfer to Hillside Academy had subsided, and with that, Madeline and Brad were free to pursue their relationship after she told Paris and Louise about it. Mr. Lynn was relieved to hear he wouldn't have to play 'meet the parent' every night anymore with Louise's latest boy find for his daughter, and welcomed the fact she was finally settling down into a monogamous relationship with a boy she was truly crazy about.
With Tristan's trouble with his parents and law enforcement, he had to stop by the school and tell Paris she'd have to find a new Romeo. After saying goodbye to Rory, who was clearly distraught over him leaving for military school in North Carolina, Brad expected his worst fears that he would have to step into the role to come true. He breathed a sigh a relief, then with Madeline giggled uncontrollably as Paris came out wearing tights and a male wig, ready to take Tristan's place.
"She so wants Rory, doesn't she?" he joked to his new girlfriend.
"Brad!" Madeline punched him lightly in the arm, laughing. "I'm sure she's more concerned about her grade than her love life."
"$10 she kisses Rory on the lips," she whispered secretly to Brad.
"You're on Mads, and I get $10 if it's on the cheek or she fakes it." They shook hands, solidifying the bet. Sadly, the male population of Chilton didn't get anything beyond Paris fainting, so the 'sexual tension' theory they had for the Paris/Rory competition thing remained just that, a theory. And Brad was $10 richer for calling it right. They said their lines, the group had a good scene, and everyone managed an A out of the project, despite the hidden tension between the members.
As for Madeline and Louise's friendship, they did end up staying friends. Louise could sense the sexual tension Madeline and Brad were having from the moment they met, and wasn't shocked when Madeline described the steamy makeout session in the Escalade. After Madeline aired out her feelings in a small argument they had after the play, Louise decided to stop pressuring the girl so much to be just like her. Louise told Madeline she was free to live her life the way she wanted, and she wouldn't snipe at Brad anymore, he didn't deserve her teasing. The two hugged, and Madeline came out of the conversation happy she hadn't severed ties to her first Hartford friend like she planned the night before.
It also went well with Paris too, who admitted she might have been a little too hard on Brad and Rory, and it was just an extreme case of academic pressure and PMS combining to make Paris more irritated with things than usual. She decided c'est la vie with her academics from now on, and if she wasn't top of the class, one of her friends would be, and she could live vicariously through them. Paris accepted Rory as a friend as much as she was with Madeline and Louise, and the school year went a lot easier for the both of them.
Brad found Chilton to be much more tolerable after falling for Madeline, and with Duncan and Bowman out of the way, he was no longer teased by the bullies that much. Knowing they might lose a date with Louise Grant for teasing one of her friends, they relented, and the rest of sophomore year went off without a hitch for the boy.
Six months later...
Brad and Madeline sat in her car in the same A&P parking lot in Southington where they had admitted they wanted each other, sipping on McDonald's milkshakes. Brad had never been one for the fancy restaurant, black-tie-and-jacket thing, so Madeline was relieved she never had to put on anything besides casual clothes when she went out on dates with him. The last six months had been the happiest in her life. Her school life was great, her social life awesome, and her relationship with her father was getting better now that she didn't have to play the ditz card anymore outside of her home, Brad had brought out her 'inner geek' at school quite a few times that year.
"Six months Langy, who would've thought it?" she said as she smiled back at him.
"So much for the nickname being temporary Lynn-Lynn, you've used it every day since that first night."
"Hey, I got used to it, and Braddy, well you're not a darn infant, so I feel uncomfortable using that name."
"You have some shake on your cheek right there Mads, you might want to do something about that," Brad said, pointing out a patch of white on her face.
Flirty Madeline came out full force towards Brad. "My tongue can't reach that high Brad, well, not yet." She raised her eyebrows up at him and giggled as the redhead moved closer towards her.
"I'll have to do something about then." He did the same eyebrow raise, and started licking the shake patch on her cheek.
"I love you Brad, happy anniversary, and thanks for the stuffed racoon, I think." They then started kissing heavily, and they moved to the back seat, hoping they wouldn't makeout so long they'd have a run in with the police officer who interrupted their first meeting.
"I love you too Madeline, and my mom made me gave that to you as a joke gift. You actually have a pair of diamond earrings and a bracelet back at the house, I'll give them to you later--"
"Brad?"
"Yes?"
"In your famous words paraphrased from some movie I don't know right now off-hand, shut up and kiss me."
"Oh, sure Mads." And they resumed their liplock anew.
In the end, Madeline Lynn was going to make it after all. This time, the handkerchief was thrown in the air instead though. Rhoda would've wanted it that way.
And Teller finally got a word in edgewise.
THE END.
Author: Nate
Pairing: Brad/Madeline
Inspired by: Alternate take on Run Away, Little Boy.
Rating: PG-13 (Maybe a little swearing, and a hot make-out section, but everyone can read it.)
Disclaimer: Brad and Madeline come from the brilliant mind of Amy Sherman-Palladino, and then she puts her thoughts about them to paper. The fine folks from Hofflund-Polone and Warner Bros. Television then hired Shelly Cole and Adam Wylie to play them. I don't have that luxury, so thus I claim no ownership except for using them to write this story.
Archiving: Over on the Improv group created by Trix, and Fanfiction.net, and on my personal webpage. Others must ask to archive this story.
Summary: Madeline and Brad fall in love. Simple as that.
Improv No.: #10 (forbidden, hourglass, plush, arouse, vicious)
Author's Note: Yes, I've finally decided to join in on this new Improv craze, and although it took me two late nights and a day to finish writing this little fluff piece, I had a blast writing this story. Challenge words are bolded because of the length of this story. The temptation to up this piece to an R was there, but knowing Madeline and Brad, they're too cute to hop in the sack right away. Here's hoping for some season three Bradeline romance, because I love the idea of those two together, just being all cute-like and adorable. Without further adieu then, here is my story of a Madeline/Brad romance : )!
And feedback please, I'd love to hear what you thought of this.
She didn't know why she did it in the first place.
When she first came upon the timid boy during a school project they did together, her first thought was to not even think about him in any way besides a guy she'd spend two weeks making wisecracks about as Louise eviscerated the poor fellow in front of their group. She heard Grant make many cracks about him as the days wore on, calling him a nerd, geek, dork, names she was sure he was used to already from the other students that made it their duty to make him feel as uncomfortable as possible in Chilton.
She saw Paris become vicious as a rabid dog when it came to him, and she didn't even blink twice when she found out he was the only boy in their group. If they had to do a reverse role-reversal with the scene they were assigned, and two of the group girls had to play Romeo and Juliet, so be it. As long as Paris wrung an A out of it, she'd pair a frog and a gorilla and be just as happy with the results of their acting.
But not Brad Langford. Not if he was the last man on earth. Paris was determined to keep him as out of the way as possible, along with Madeline Lynn. There was no way in Paris Gellar's big mind that she was going to let a ditzy raven-haired transplant who came from Washington State five years ago because of her father's dotcom windfall, and a red-haired freak with a taxidermist mother upstage her in anything. Not a chance those two would fall in love, even if they were playing fictional characters from 400 years ago. They would drag the grade down, and Paris would have to prepare for life at another college besides Harvard. She shuddered at the thought of settling for Yale or Columbia. Or worse, Penn.
Madeline didn't give a damn about the project. At least that was what Louise told her she should do. She wanted to be Juliet, read ten pages of dialogue, memorize it to the letter, have a guy hover over her and give her a kiss of death. She wanted the glory, the bows in front of the curtain, the applause and roses thrown at her feet.
She had to keep up appearances though. And she couldn't do that if she acted smart in any way. Louise was the Fred Flintstone to her Barney Rubble. The Laurel to Madeline's Hardy. Louise played the role of Penn, while Madeline kept her mouth shut as the ever patient Teller.
But Teller never got the acclaim, the voice jobs for major commercials and cable networks, the credit for creating all those awesome magic tricks, because Penn was a friggin' gloryhog. All Teller ever did was count the money and hope he got a little credit for being Penn's shadow.
Madeline was sick of being Teller. She wanted to become a Rhoda, who left Minneapolis and Mary Richards for the glitz and glamour of New York City, and ended up with acclaim all her own.
Besides, Rhoda's handkerchiefs on her head were much more fashion forward to Madeline than that damn hat Mary threw into the winter air of the Nicolet Mall in the opening credits. That, and Lou Grant creeped her out a little. Louise has the same name, and she doesn't look like an old guy played by Ed Asner, she thought one day at school as she stared at her best friend. TV Land marathons could be dangerous to her health; she swore one day she was going to greet her friend by calling her Edward and tell her to buy some Rogaine for that bald head of hers.
She just needed to figure out how to assert herself in the first place. Everything she had done since the moment she walked through the front doors of Chilton in sixth grade, was on the whim of Louise. Sure, Madeline had done her best to break away from her blonde friend. But when Louise gave her the patented death glare that had been tinkered with little over the years, that was it, Madeline was to follow her around like a lemming, pride and grades be damned.
Her love life was just a figment; there was never any love between Madeline and any of her dates. Louise would set her up as much as she possibly could with every BMOC, and Madeline would comply, no matter what, dare she have her thin lines cut on the top of the Chilton dating food chain. She never had sex with any of the guys though, her allowance came in handy for paying off them off and keeping the rumor around campus that Madeline Lynn would put out at a moment's notice on the true side. Every guy learned the hard way that they really had to work hard to become Madeline's first guy.
The pattern went on for three years, like a vicious circle. Madeline stayed popular, remained Teller, not saying a word unless asked to by Louise or Paris, Gellar unaware of how much power Louise held over her best friend.
The Chilton three started to strain when Madeline attempted to befriend Rory Gilmore. She was going to start a friendship on the side, so that when Louise and Paris turned against her, she still had someone she could count on. She loved Rory, because she could finally be herself around the girl. She cringed when Louise made her put on the 'I can't touch you or else I'll get a disease' act during the PJ Harvey controversy. Still, she went along with it, like a good little girl should do.
The first few months back at Chilton for junior year were pretty easy. Paris and Rory fell into an uneasy truce, so Madeline could talk to Rory without being afraid of becoming the star of a Mary Queen of Scots reenactment, head-chopping and all. She found she had more in common with Rory than she ever did with Louise. Both lived in single-parent homes, Rory with her mother, while Mr. Lynn found plenty of time to love his 'little Lynn-Lynn', as he would affectionately call her. And they shared a love for great music, Madeline was good at hiding all of her finds from Louise. In reality, she would love a world without Justin and Britney, along with their petty problems in the world. Give Maddy a nice album from the 80s, and she'd give you that 100-watt smile, befriending you for life.
Now if she could just break away from Louise, she could be happy for the rest of her Chilton career, and maybe her life...
Being the daughter of one of the founders of a major computer software company had its perks. Never did Madeline have to worry about her computer becoming outdated, for she found a new one every six months in her bedroom. She had her own Aibo robot dog named Sparky 1.0, who she loved just as much as a regular pet. She had also saved many a Paris Gellar manifesto from falling into the cyberspace ether, Madeline proved to know inside and out computers and could fix them quite thoroughly, although she didn't show it in public. And she always had the newest gadgets and cell phones, she would have fun trying out all the new features on a mobile phone whenever she got one.
And when it came to guys, she knew how to find a caring heart inside of someone who looked like they weren't with the popular crowd. She had moved to Hartford with her father because he opened an East Coast office to supplement the one in Seattle. Every summer, she would have a fling with at least one of the young teen workers who pondered code all day, while she worked as a secretary. They never went beyond a kiss, just a quick cup of coffee, and every one of the guys remained good friends with her. She found out through those summers that those guys could love just as well as a hunky Chilton guy, they treasured women as a respite from their stressing jobs, and would do anything to keep them. Since those three summers, she had always had a soft spot for the geeks of the world, and hoped she found one she could love for herself.
And Madeline Lynn found that boy in Brad Langford.
She had to look uninterested on the outside to her friends as she sat down at the table and looked at him for the first time. Louise immediately sniped at him as Madeline paged through the pages of her teen magazine idly. Whenever Louise would look away, that was her signal to take a nice long look at Brad.
The first thing she noticed about him was how nervous he was around her and Louise. Most guys she knew showed they weren't afraid of her beauty. But Brad was honest-to-God scared of how he was coming off at the two. She loved this trait in Brad, it showed that she would have to work at winning his trust.
As Paris continued to scare the poor guy, and Tristan wandered in and out of the project, Madeline found Louise to be more distracted than usual from any kind of activity that involved their friendship. These small respites would be spent comforting Brad, telling him that he shouldn't be so darned scared of Paris and Louise, and that he was going to get through this little hell of a project eventually. Brad would smile shakily at the dark-haired girl, and thank her for such comforting words. And although she did say aloud that Tristan would make a better Romeo than Brad, she wished Paris would at least give the boy one shot at the job. Just because the DuGrey boy could seduce anything with a pulse didn't give him the talent to pull it off with Juliet, was her secret thought.
The project stretched from hours, into days. The great Paris Gellar interpretation of Romeo & Juliet moved into downtown Stars Hollow and the dance studio of a former queen of the Miami dance halls, Miss Patty, for rehearsals before Sunday night. Brad only had four lines as a minor character, Madeline two. The better to get them off the stage quickly was the intelligent blonde's thought as she set up the scene, with Rory playing Juliet to Tristan's Romeo, while Dean played the jealous boyfriend, making sure the stage romance didn't move into the theatre of real life.
The rhetorical hourglass ticked on and on through the night, Madeline playing the newest game she had downloaded on her snappy new cell phone, while Louise filed her nails and did nothing productive. Brad, sitting between the two, showed his silent allegiance for Madeline by sitting closer to her than he did Louise. He could almost feel the smooth fabric of Madeline's jeans rub against his, and paid close attention to her hand as the three other group members and Dean tried their best to keep their sanity, while Louise acted all diva-like, even with her three pages of dialogue and slutty dress being made by her tailor, imported from Milan.
He loved the black nail polish on each of her little nails, she was serious about beauty, but not so much it was her whole life. She had a little ring with a heart on it that was given to her by Mr. Lynn for a 14th birthday gift, which she treasured like a sacred stone. How I'd love to touch her, know how she feels about me, Brad thought as he pondered making a move.
Madeline was hoping for the same thing, as she found her game getting less and less attention from her. She wanted to run her fingers through Brad's spiky red hair, and wondered if the lovable geek was hiding something under that sweater of his, it looked like he was filling it out quite nicely.
Madeline and Brad decided to go for holding each other's hand at the same time, each not knowing they both showed a slight interest for one another. Carefully, Madeline took her hand out of her lap, and moved it down her thigh, making the movement as natural as possible. She kept her eyes glued to the scene in front of her, hoping and praying her platinum blonde friend wouldn't notice her flirtations with Brad. She moved the hand lower and lower, until the heel of it felt the stained wood of the bench the three players sat on. She planted it down, and awaited Brad's move, tapping her fingers against the bench.
Brad started his hand down the exact moment Madeline did, and it wandered over his lap. Just the slight bit of interest in him by Madeline had aroused him since the day she tried to calm him, and he tried thinking of one of his mother's most graphic projects at the museum to try to take his heart's focus away from pumping blood into that portion of his anatomy for that moment. His fingers trailed down the left leg of his jeans, and he could sense the heat from Madeline's hand overtake his, he felt it getting hotter. His palms sweating, silently as he looked on towards the rehearsals, he set his palm down atop of Madeline's hand, and his fingers clasped the inside of it with care.
He expected Madeline to pull away and slap him, because his hand was wet from nervous perspiration. Instead, the girl had him clasp her hand tighter, she was in heaven at that moment as Brad showed he had an interest, however small, in her. With a quick glance, they stared at each other as the other five people in the room were distracted by something outside.
'It's OK Brad, I like this,' she mouthed silently, her eyes looking straight into his. Brad found himself lost in those hazel eyes, and wished this moment could last forever, mouthing 'I like it too Mads' back at her. Madeline could find nothing wrong with Brad at all as she looked at his cute freckled face. I am such a lucky girl, she thought, not believing that she could find a boy so awesome, so handsome, and she couldn't wait to ask him out.
They held hands a little bit longer, hiding the evidence with Madeline's jacket, covering the handhold up to everyone else. She hoped that this would become more than what they did tonight, more than a hand hold. She wanted to get a hold of his heart, and figure out why Bradley Langford felt he wasn't worthy to be with a girl, especially one as caring as Madeline.
The next two nights would be spent at the dance hall, silent flirting going on between the two as Louise had to practice her lines and scenes onstage with the rest of the players. Just being spectators, and with Louise more concerned about her looks and cleavage than her best friend's conduct, they felt a little more free to take their silent flirting to the next step. This time, they not only held hands, but rubbed their thighs against each other. Madeline would get a little smirk on her face when Brad would show his...approval of the act, and Brad found his anxiety with the whole play fading away. He could handle saying his lines just fine now, for he knew that Madeline was always going to be in his corner, through thick and thin.
But that sense of security quickly disappeared when Paris confronted the two about their lack of participation in the whole endeavor later in the evening. For the first time, Madeline had the guts to disagree with her friend, telling her that the reason she wasn't participating that much was her lack of lines. Paris just about bit her head off, and then started giving the third degree to poor Brad. With their 'relationship' all but a silent one, Madeline could only look on in horror as one of her best friends brought the boy she hoped to love someday to tears, telling him he was a horrible actor and she was personally going to make sure he received a low mark for what was supposed to be a group project. Madeline thought of stepping in just before Paris used choice words on Brad, but Louise joined in the fun of yelling at the boy, and with that, she ran to her car, waiting for Brad to be able to make an escape before she drove him home.
Once he got into her Escalade, Brad couldn't believe that Madeline chickened out from defending him. As she pulled away from the curb and back onto the main road for Hartford, Madeline tried to make conversation with the boy.
"Brad, my lord, I am so sorry about my friends, I didn't know they'd--"
He cut her off. "Just don't worry about it Mads, I'm fine. My mother told me if I had a problem at Chilton, there was an open space at Hillside I could take, she feels that school is less stressful."
Madeline paled as Brad told her of his backup plan for escaping the hell of Chilton. "Brad, don't quit on me, you have a lot of potential, and I'm sure that you can get through this. It's one damned project, it'll be over Sunday night and you won't see hide or hair of Louise and Paris ever again."
He pounded on the dashboard, startling the girl as she pulled onto I-84. "It isn't that simple Maddy! For years, I've been teased mercilessly by everyone here at this school, I seem to be just that perfect size for Duncan and Bowman to stuff me into a locker almost every damned day, I'm just surprised DuGrey didn't notice me. And did you see the glares Louise was giving us before we started flirting, like we shouldn't do it because it's forbidden by the so-called Chilton dating book? Seriously, I thought she was going to rip my hand off if I made that first move!"
Just then, a fall rainshower started to fall, and the windshield became soaked with water. Madeline turned on her wipers, and decided that she wasn't going back to Hartford without resolving her situation with Brad, this was something she wasn't going to leave lingering into the play the next day.
She took the exit ramp into Southington, and pulled into an A&P parking lot, Brad sulking all the way through, and waringly looking at the girl. Madeline was biting her lip in worry, and didn't know how to go about trying to convince Brad to stay with her at Chilton. Inside, she wanted to tears to start falling down her face, she didn't want to lose true love just as she found it. The handhold she shared with Brad has sent a shock up her spine and all over her body, something that no other boy she dated had ever caused. She sensed something different about Brad from the moment she saw him. She cared about this kid, and would do anything to make sure that they could continue to pursue what they were doing secretly those first three days.
Gathering up enough courage to speak, for the first time, Madeline folded the usual ditz mask she wore. Her face was serious with resolve, and she was going to get through this, no matter how much damage it would cause in the next few days.
She brought her hand to Brad's, and took it into hers, rubbing at the masculine wrinkles contained on the surface. The nervous sweating was back, but she didn't care about that at the moment, all she wanted to do was make sure Brad knew he was wanted.
"Brad, don't give up on Chilton, please. I want you to think about Rory Gilmore for a moment. What have all of us done to her over the last year and a half to her? Well, if you're those other three jerks in our group, you've called her almost every name in the book, treated her like shit, and done everything they could to tell her that she wasn't good enough for our school."
"Now I'll admit at first I loathed her just as much as Paris, Tristan and Louise did, because I thought it was the cool thing to do. But then when I invited her to a party I held last March when my mother decided to make her once a year appearance in Hartford, I found that she was an awesome girl to hang with, and as I got to know her more, my heart was telling me that she only meant to go to school and graduate atop the class, not become competition with any of us. Once I got past that, it was very easy to get past any other animosity I might've held for the girl."
"So why did you ignore her in May?" he asked back, remembering back to the incident in the front courtyard with the tickets fiasco.
"All a front Brad, I did it because I didn't know any better then. I look back on that and wonder why the fuck I even told Rory all that bullshit about not wanting to be her friend, it was all just to stay friends with Louise. Summer came, I tried to forget about it and befriend her during the activities stuff, but they both stayed in my way, not allowing me to have anything to do with her. And there's still Lorelai and the Bangles concert, I didn't even want to be in that grungy apartment with those creeps, I wanted to be enjoying the concert with Gilmore."
"Why do you continue to hang out with Louise if she's nothing but a pain in your ass Mads?"
Madeline tried to answer Brad's question as calmly as possible, but then found herself blubbering and falling victim to the tears accumulating. A very abbreviated answer came out, but it still had the impact on Brad a well-phrased sentence would.
"I...don't wanna...be...alone, Brad--"
And there it was, laid out on the table for the boy to see. The only reason Madeline Lynn was still associating with Louise Grant was because of habit. Madeline couldn't live in Hartford without the first ever girl to sit by her, who got to know her, and then let her become her best friend. But then two years in, she became just a lackey to Louise and Paris, and whenever she thought about it, she wanted to let them know she didn't want to be bullied by them anymore. But finding out what would happen if she broke off her friendship with them scared Madeline. Popularity was a drug to her, and without the friends to back it up, she would fade into the background, becoming another face in the crowd. It was like that when she was young back in Seattle, and she didn't know how to deal with being an average student anymore. She had to be the gossip-monger, or else she'd feel left out and alone in Chilton.
It was then that Brad made a very important point. "So how do you think me and Rory Gilmore feel?" he said to her, calmly.
Sniffing back tears, she thought about it for a moment, and then answered in kind. "Well, I know Rory doesn't care that she isn't popular, although having a small friendship with Paris would help her just get through school. Popularity isn't her bag, and she doesn't give a damn about it one way or another. As for you, well from the moment you got here you knew that unless you pulled off an extreme act, popularity is way out of reach right?"
He nodded, and spoke again. "I don't care Madeline, being popular has too many responsibilities to go with it. Really, I'm one who would rather be around one person who likes me than a group of people who depend on my every word before they acted on anything."
"I don't like that at all, in reality, I hate being popular," she admitted to him as she sat back in her bucket seat watching the patterns on the windshield as the rain fell upon it, the wipers turned off a minute ago. The glare of the bright orange and yellow sign on the building and the lot lights radiated through the window, and Madeline listened to herself and Brad breathe for what seemed to be hours. She decided to end the conversation there, and edged her hand towards Brad, beckoning him to take it into his. He did this, and they sat in the car, taking in the silence as the boy played with the girl's heart ring, soothing the anger out of Madeline that she felt at Paris and Louise.
It was a rare moment where Madeline didn't have to fall to the whims of anybody she met. Louise and Paris were no where to be found, and she felt at peace with herself. Here she was in a strange parking lot she had never seen before, alone with a boy she had fallen hard for, in her own car. How could she top this night? Not only had she told off her own friends and defended the honor of her crush, she felt a funny feeling coming over her.
She turned to face Brad, and smiled at him in a way she had never done towards any boy she ever knew before.
"Brad...do you want to...kiss me? You know, try it out, see if it works for the both of us?" She waved her hands nervously as her timid voice mouthed out the words. "I mean if you don't want to, that's fine, but...I just have an inkling that me..and you might work. I mean, we've held hands, maybe we should take this next step to see if we're compatible...and stuff." She laughed nervously, and shifted back in her seat, facing the red-haired boy, her jean-clad legs bouncing up and down.
He turned white for a moment, and language left him speechless. She can't, she really wants to kiss me, Brad thought as his mouth turned dry. Not one girl since he came to Chilton as a freshman had even given him the time of day, much less asked him to kiss her. And now, here she was, a black-haired Germanic goddess, asking him to try to start a relationship with him. He could only think of one thing to say as he took in Madeline's words.
"Um...pinch me please Madeline."
He said it, and as soon as he did, Madeline laughed at his request with happy laughter, her snaggletooth smile becoming bright on her face. She beckoned him into the first bench seat in the SUV, so that they wouldn't have some kind of accidental wacky mishap where one of them lost their balance on their seat and ended up on their butt when they tried to kiss.
"Alright Brad, I'll pinch you," she answered seriously. "But I can promise you if I'm your girlfriend, that's the last pain you'll ever feel." She took his right wrist into her hands, and set it down on her lap. Then taking her thumb and forefinger, she took the skin on his wrist in-between her stubby little fingernails, and pinched at it softly, trying not to hurt the boy.
"A pinch to grow an inch," she whispered softly towards him, a small smile playing on her lips. She heard Brad gasp a little as the pain of her pinch went up his body, and his eyes widened as he realized that this was no dream.
He smiled at her, and looked into her eyes, which spoke volumes about her intentions. Madeline did love him, and was about to prove it by giving him his first kiss.
"I'm going to kiss you now Brad," Madeline whispered once again. "If I get too forward, just tell me stop, and I'll comply. I mean I'm sure this is your first time, so I'm sure you'll be sloppy at first and stuff but--"
"Madeline?"
"Yes?"
"Just shut up and let me kiss you." He smiled at her, and his bluntness with her made Madeline giggle.
"Fair enough Brad." They closed the small distance between then, and with the sound of rain pattering on the roof of the Cadillac, their lips touched for the first time, as Brad wrapped his arms around Madeline's neck, and the soft pillowy hair that covered it. He found a hint of banana and tropical fruits in Madeline's lip gloss as he sucked in a breath and their mouths crashed together in passion, while Madeline found she loved the taste of Brad. His mouth had the tang of the doublemint gum he had chewed during the practices in order to control his nervous tics.
Madeline released Brad, in shock of how good the kiss was, but the boy's carnal instincts happened to make their appearance at that exact moment. She hardly inhaled a breath before she found Brad was kissing her long and hard once again, his lips mashing into hers perfectly in an O formed by both of their mouths. She scooted back in the seat as she returned the kiss in kind, and was braced against the window of the vehicle. She moaned as Brad's tongue surveyed her mouth and rubbed up against her sensitive palate, and gaped at the boy kissing her with so much passion. This was the kiss Madeline prayed having with a boy someday, and it was happening at that moment.
She brought the boy even closer to her, wrapping her arms around the small of his back and scooping him up like she had all the strength in the world. Brad kissed all over her face then, and ruined what little makeup remained on her face from the day, pretty soon the gloss on her lips was all from their saliva instead of the product she put on with a tube. Now horizontal, she heard herself and Brad heavily breathing as he gripped her even closer to his medium frame. He felt her small breasts press up against his chest despite the two layers and bra Madeline wore, as she felt his stiff arousal against her thigh.
"Looks like that pinch did you right Braddy," she joked in between another kiss with Brad, and she ran her fingers through the mane of hair she dreamed to feel. The sweat dripped off onto her face as she ran them through, and she felt the cold perspiration chill her to the core. Brad returned the favor within seconds, nesting his hands inside of the girl's thick tresses. He had never been a fan of girls who straightened their hair out to fall down around their face, to him, Madeline's hair was so beautiful. He could get lost forever in those curly locks, and he soothing rubbed her scalp as she eased more into the kiss.
"Ohhh, Brad..." Madeline was like putty in Brad's hands, she never even gave one thought that the boy in front of her could drive her wild with just his kiss, being alone apparently had given Brad Langford plenty of time to ponder his first move with his first lover. She felt like melting into the leather of the car seat as they continued to make out hot and heavy in the backseat. Who would have ever thought a girl like Madeline and a guy like Brad could create such heat and sparks with each other? Certainly not anyone in Chilton, that's for sure.
His hands feeling they had done enough playing with Madeline's hair, Brad moved his minstrations down her body, the beauty was sweating like crazy and was so hot from the boy's touch, and it was vice versa with Brad. Despite the cool November air, the windows in the expensive SUV were starting to heat up, so Madeline took off the sweater she wore over her t-shirt, being careful not to expose much skin to her new lover.
But her shirt had other ideas, as the black tee rode up her body a little as she took off the sweater, exposing Madeline's flat midriff and her cute little bellybutton to Brad. What had started as just a little innocent 'try-out' kiss, was quickly becoming something more to the two teenagers making out in the Southington parking lot.
"Wow," he exclaimed, still in shock that he had initiated such a heated kiss. "Mads, your tummy, it's...it's...cute, small, beautiful. Um, do you work out to keep in shape?"
Madeline blushed at the redhead's compliment, as she tried to put her t-shirt back in order. "Thanks Braddy, and yes, I run around the block, which is about a half mile, once before school, and once after, then I do about 30 sit-ups at sunrise and sunset, eat healthy, that kind of thing. Why, you like it?"
He smiled back at her, and gave her another small kiss. "I really do Maddy, I mean I thought your face was beautiful, but the rest of you...whoa!"
She took his hand into hers once again, and lifted up her shirt to expose her stomach to Brad, this time on purpose. "You want to touch it Brad? Don't be afraid, I'm giving you permission to. I've never had someone not only love me for my body, but my personality, and you seem to love that about me."
"I do, I love how happy, bubbly and outgoing you are with everybody you come into contact with, and that's why I loved sitting next to you in the rehearsals Madeline. You might act like you may not know anything when it comes to school, but that's what makes you special. You get the good average grades, but you don't live your life for the guys, nor do you try to drive yourself to an early grave with your studies. You're an amazing girl Madeline Lynn, and I'm amazed I've gotten to know you closer tonight." He sighed, and rested his hand against her side, causing Madeline's body temperature to immediately rise.
But that wasn't what was on the top of her mind. What Brad had just said to her about the way she carried herself in life put a smile on her face. He had fully complimented her, no boy she went out with had ever done that. She teared up a little, thanked Brad for his flattering remark, and proceeded to kiss him again, Brad's hand making lazy circles around her belly button, she cooed as his hand massaged her midriff. They continued with their innocent kissing in the back seat for a little while, until a police officer tapped on the door of the car with his nightstick. The two separated, and Madeline rolled down the driver's window to talk to the officer.
"Hello young lady, young man, do you realize it's about 10:40? There's only 20 minutes until curfew, and unless you two want to continue this downtown, I'd get back to where you live right away."
Madeline blushed at the officer, she couldn't believe she had lost track of time while making out with Brad. "Sorry sir, we pulled off 84 when the storm came through on our way back to Hartford. We talked for awhile, and well...we stopped talking." She laughed nervously.
"Well, I'll let you off with a warning tonight then 'cause you really had a good reason to pull off the road. Got off just in time too, 84's closed from Plainville to 691, the whole road's fogged out and there's several wrecks off to the side or in traffic. I'd take 364 east to 5 north and head into Hartford that way, you two may have saved your own hides tonight by deciding your hormones needed to be taken care of. I wish you a good night ma'am, and drive safely." He tipped his hat at Madeline.
"Thank you officer, take care."
She looked back at her lover in the backseat, who was trying to fix up his disheveled shirt and not look like had rolled around in the hay when his mother gave him the inevitable lecture about being out all night without calling her and letting her know he was going to be late. Madeline pulled onto the road that led to 364, and made small talk with Brad the rest of the way home.
"So...are we a couple Brad?"
He smiled back at her. "I like the sound of that Madeline, it's so like us. Brad and Madeline. Madeline and Brad. Yup, seems like a natural coupling to me. And well, we seem so perfect for each other, don't we?"
The girl need not look further than her wrinkled t-shirt for the answer to that question. "Yup Brad, perfect, like peas in a pod. I think we'll both be just fine."
"What about Paris and Louise though? You know they aren't going to love the fact we're going out with each other."
"Let them deal Langford. If they can't accept the fact that we love each other, maybe I need to get myself a new set of friends. I'm sure Gilmore would love to have me as her Chilton buddy."
"I'd love to be hers too, she's the only one besides you in the group who has been nice to me at all."
"It's in her nature Brad, which is why I've wanted to be her buddy. I'm sure if the two cold hearts don't want my friendship anymore, a new Chilton Three can be formed by me, you and Rory without much difficulty."
"You sure she can deal with you leaving your old friends and going with us Mads, I mean she's sure to be teased even worse by those two after you break it up."
She laughed. "Brad, baby, you don't know Rory Gilmore as much as I do. She's like Teflon to their glue, nothing sticks to her long at all, especially their insults. Their barbs only make her stronger, and with her advice, all three of us should be able to take the heat just fine. You'll see, we're going to be just fine and hunky dory Bradley Langford."
"I have a feeling you're going to be right about that, just pray that when we tell them after the play tomorrow night, Paris doesn't use that sword as more than a prop on us!"
"I've seen her fence before, swordplay is just not her forte," Madeline said faking a British accent. The two laughed, and continued idly chattering on as they made their way back into the state capital of Connecticut. Fate was smiling upon these two tonight, and it was going to for many nights more.
Langford residence, northwest Hartford, 11:15pm
Madeline pulled up to the front door of the average looking house Brad lived in. Yup, a taxidermist definitely lives here, she thought as she looked over the nice house. Picket fences, big backyard, this was Madeline's dream house, not a big mansion like she lived in now.
"So, I'll see you tomorrow night Brad, that is unless your mother grounds you for staying out too late."
Brad laughed. "She won't Madeline, don't worry. She knew the rehearsals would possibly run overtime, so I have nothing to worry about."
Madeline kissed him for a little bit on the lips after that comment. "Well if your mother saw that, she may have something she'll need to talk to you about young man," she said with a fake nag, waving her finger in Brad's face.
"Just don't forget if you do something wrong, my mother will stuff you and display you doing the hokey-pokey in the natural history museum," Brad joked to her.
She wrinkled her nose at that thought. "Eww, Brad-leeee! I am so putting in my will that your mother is not to stuff me and preserve my body when I pass on, I'm not spending the afterlife creepily smiling at everybody and looking like Lenin does!"
Brad kissed Madeline one last time, then climbed out of the car. "Don't worry, I'll tell her about it after we tell the kids at school, she was just about ready to place a personal ad for me, she wants me to have a girl in my life."
"I'm not going to find your mother creepy, don't worry. I've put together robots before, so whenever you give me that tour of your mom's work, it'll be like seeing robots being put together, only they lived in the past."
"Cool. I bet you'd want to check out the robot I've been working on up in my room, I'm trying to make one that can walk from the door back to my desk, kind of a chore robot thing."
She smiled brightly at Brad. "Awesome, you're into robots too! I've only made one from one of those Lego kits from the stores, but I'd love to create one from scratch with you someday."
"Yeah, well, being around animals all the time with my mother kind of got me stuck on the and creating new life, so I got into robotics, it's never boring."
"Is that what you tell all the girls hon?" Madeline said with a wink.
"Only those that are special to me, like you." He blew a kiss at her, and she made a movement as to receive it from Brad. "Goodnight Lynn-Lynn, I had a blast tonight, and I can't wait to go out with you."
Once again, the girl blushed. "Awww, you called me Lynn-Lynn, I love that name, cute Brad! My pet name for you then will be...Langy, well, because I can't find a good one for you yet."
Brad laughed back at her. "Don't worry, you will. See you at the play tomorrow then Madeline, until then, take care!" He waved back at his love one last time, and ran into the house.
She waved back. "Night Langy, sleep well!" she said, doing her best Mae West impression. And with that, Madeline pulled out of the Langford driveway and towards her own home.
After she got home, she found Brad had forgotten his jacket in the backseat when he got out of the car. Instead of calling him back though and going back to his house to give it to him, Madeline decided she wanted to have a piece of her boyfriend when she went to bed.
45 minutes later, after reading a couple YM articles and a piece in the Courant's society section, Madeline crawled into bed, and cuddled the windbreaker Brad wore up to her face like it was a plush toy. She slept well that night, and with the essence of her new love wafting from the jacket and into her nose, she had quite a few beautiful dreams about the nervous and cute boy she got to know closer that night, and the future she was going to spend with him.
Brad did get a small lecture from Miss Langford about being late, but he used the rough storm that passed through Hartford as an excuse for his tardy arrival back home. His mother decided it was a good enough excuse, and hugged him and told him to call if he was ever going to be late again. With that out of the way, Brad climbed the stairs up to his room, changed into his pajamas, and climbed into bed, but not before taking the sweater Madeline had given him as a remembrance of the night from his backpack. He too cuddled the purple shirt like a teddy bear, and crawled into bed, his lips still numbed from kissing Madeline, and the fragrance of her light and flowery perfume permeating the air around his bed from her sweater.
"Goodnight Lynn-Lynn, I love you," he said groggily, closing his eyes, and his dreams filled with images of the charcoal-haired beauty being his true love.
The next night, Madeline drove Brad to the play once again, and the boy told her that he had told his mother about the relationship. Brad had feared the worst, but Miss Langford completely approved of the relationship, and couldn't wait to meet Madeline. He told his mother that the fear he would want to transfer to Hillside Academy had subsided, and with that, Madeline and Brad were free to pursue their relationship after she told Paris and Louise about it. Mr. Lynn was relieved to hear he wouldn't have to play 'meet the parent' every night anymore with Louise's latest boy find for his daughter, and welcomed the fact she was finally settling down into a monogamous relationship with a boy she was truly crazy about.
With Tristan's trouble with his parents and law enforcement, he had to stop by the school and tell Paris she'd have to find a new Romeo. After saying goodbye to Rory, who was clearly distraught over him leaving for military school in North Carolina, Brad expected his worst fears that he would have to step into the role to come true. He breathed a sigh a relief, then with Madeline giggled uncontrollably as Paris came out wearing tights and a male wig, ready to take Tristan's place.
"She so wants Rory, doesn't she?" he joked to his new girlfriend.
"Brad!" Madeline punched him lightly in the arm, laughing. "I'm sure she's more concerned about her grade than her love life."
"$10 she kisses Rory on the lips," she whispered secretly to Brad.
"You're on Mads, and I get $10 if it's on the cheek or she fakes it." They shook hands, solidifying the bet. Sadly, the male population of Chilton didn't get anything beyond Paris fainting, so the 'sexual tension' theory they had for the Paris/Rory competition thing remained just that, a theory. And Brad was $10 richer for calling it right. They said their lines, the group had a good scene, and everyone managed an A out of the project, despite the hidden tension between the members.
As for Madeline and Louise's friendship, they did end up staying friends. Louise could sense the sexual tension Madeline and Brad were having from the moment they met, and wasn't shocked when Madeline described the steamy makeout session in the Escalade. After Madeline aired out her feelings in a small argument they had after the play, Louise decided to stop pressuring the girl so much to be just like her. Louise told Madeline she was free to live her life the way she wanted, and she wouldn't snipe at Brad anymore, he didn't deserve her teasing. The two hugged, and Madeline came out of the conversation happy she hadn't severed ties to her first Hartford friend like she planned the night before.
It also went well with Paris too, who admitted she might have been a little too hard on Brad and Rory, and it was just an extreme case of academic pressure and PMS combining to make Paris more irritated with things than usual. She decided c'est la vie with her academics from now on, and if she wasn't top of the class, one of her friends would be, and she could live vicariously through them. Paris accepted Rory as a friend as much as she was with Madeline and Louise, and the school year went a lot easier for the both of them.
Brad found Chilton to be much more tolerable after falling for Madeline, and with Duncan and Bowman out of the way, he was no longer teased by the bullies that much. Knowing they might lose a date with Louise Grant for teasing one of her friends, they relented, and the rest of sophomore year went off without a hitch for the boy.
Six months later...
Brad and Madeline sat in her car in the same A&P parking lot in Southington where they had admitted they wanted each other, sipping on McDonald's milkshakes. Brad had never been one for the fancy restaurant, black-tie-and-jacket thing, so Madeline was relieved she never had to put on anything besides casual clothes when she went out on dates with him. The last six months had been the happiest in her life. Her school life was great, her social life awesome, and her relationship with her father was getting better now that she didn't have to play the ditz card anymore outside of her home, Brad had brought out her 'inner geek' at school quite a few times that year.
"Six months Langy, who would've thought it?" she said as she smiled back at him.
"So much for the nickname being temporary Lynn-Lynn, you've used it every day since that first night."
"Hey, I got used to it, and Braddy, well you're not a darn infant, so I feel uncomfortable using that name."
"You have some shake on your cheek right there Mads, you might want to do something about that," Brad said, pointing out a patch of white on her face.
Flirty Madeline came out full force towards Brad. "My tongue can't reach that high Brad, well, not yet." She raised her eyebrows up at him and giggled as the redhead moved closer towards her.
"I'll have to do something about then." He did the same eyebrow raise, and started licking the shake patch on her cheek.
"I love you Brad, happy anniversary, and thanks for the stuffed racoon, I think." They then started kissing heavily, and they moved to the back seat, hoping they wouldn't makeout so long they'd have a run in with the police officer who interrupted their first meeting.
"I love you too Madeline, and my mom made me gave that to you as a joke gift. You actually have a pair of diamond earrings and a bracelet back at the house, I'll give them to you later--"
"Brad?"
"Yes?"
"In your famous words paraphrased from some movie I don't know right now off-hand, shut up and kiss me."
"Oh, sure Mads." And they resumed their liplock anew.
In the end, Madeline Lynn was going to make it after all. This time, the handkerchief was thrown in the air instead though. Rhoda would've wanted it that way.
And Teller finally got a word in edgewise.
THE END.