I know, I know! It's been FOREVER! I have been falling behind on all of my stories but when COVID very first hit my life got so hectic, and ever since I have been able to come back to writing I have had the worst case of writers block with EVERYTHING. But, I am back.

This is a short chapter. It's nothing big or special just a small interaction between Lily & Madison, that I'm sure will raise a lot of questions by the time you're done with the five hundred words.

Small disclaimer: I, of course, own nothing but the storylines.

The sound startled Lily, it took her all of five seconds to rush to the door, before—whoever, knocked again. She looked over her shoulder and thankfully saw her son, still sleeping soundly in his bouncing seat. She breathed a quick sigh of relief before pulling the door open.

"Mad—Maddie"? Lily asked, unable to tell if her lazy vision from the nap she was disturbed from was affecting her eyesight—which it was, the squinting she was doing from the sudden burst of bright sunlight was proof enough—but not that much.

"Hey," Madison said, with a small smile, leaning against the door frame. "Long time, no see".

Lily looked at Madison, shocked and confused, and still adjusting her mind from the sleep she had become deprived of—or maybe it was her long-lost best friend staring her in the face.

Lily folded her arms. "And whose fault is that"? She asked, simply smirking—as if she hadn't just been jolted awake.

"I'm gonna take that as a 'yeah, I'm still bitchy about the whole thing" Madison assumed leaning against the door frame.

"Well, yeah," Lily told her. "You left—".

"I didn't just leave" Madison defended herself.

"When you literally leave the country—that counts as leaving" Lily snapped at her.

"It's not like I picked up in the middle of the night and ran away, I told you and Jamie and—".

"Oh, you mean your husband that you just left high and dry"? Lily asked.

Now, that one hurt Madison, but only because it was true.

"Lil, I had an opportunity to go see my family, my dad took me to meet my mom's side, and then he took me to meet his side, I couldn't pass that up".

"Hey, we got that," Lily said pointing her finger at Madison. "We supported that, but at some point, you were supposed to come home—but you never did. You stayed gone, you vanished from our lives without a trace, you haven't even been active on social media in eight months, call it whatever you want—but you abandon us—You wanted more time with your family I would have understood that Jamie would have even understood that—but instead of just coming out and saying that you cut us out—".

"That's not what I meant to do—you know me, I would never—".

"No, I thought I knew you," Lily said. "Now, I'm not so sure".

The two looked at one another, and no matter how pissed Lily was or how angry she had become at the woman across from her, she couldn't help it, she wrapped her arms around her best friend, and Madison breathed a sigh of relief.

"I missed you," Lily said, as she stepped back.

"So—why don't you catch me up on what I have missed while I have been gone".

Lily bit down on her lip and half-smiled. "How much time do you have"?

Madison smiled because she wasn't aware of the heartache that waited for her ahead.

Author's note: I had planned to separate the teen story's with the adults because it was getting to be to much. But, the first time I sat down and began to write that it became way to confusing, jumping back and forth between this chapter and this one, because all the stories are interlaced in one way or another. Then months and months past, so instead of jumping back in at the same spot, I did a relatively large time jump.

I'm doing this with a lot of my stories, it is helping my writers block tremendously. I'm not going to put a specific time on the time jump all I will reveal is it will be longer than eight months, as Lily revealed in this chapter.

There is still a lot of unanswered questions, and unresolved storylines, all of those will be answered in verbal content between the characters, possibly some flashbacks here and there, & some will still be open as we move forward, but what I want to know, what do you want to see...read about first? What storyline are you most dire to know first.

But, to answer a big question, yes Madison left & all of that will be more explained as soon as the next chapter comes out. It changed, a lot.

I promise, promise, promise not to make you wait as long for the next chapter. Hopefully, it will be up in the next week.

Xoxo! Stay healthy, and stay safe!