The Contest

by Dawn L. Chiletz

  Jake took Murphy out for a needed walk and Madi slipped off her shoes. She was glad Jake had her put on tennis shoes before they left. He promised her she would not regret it and he was right. Before they had come home, Jake stopped at a hill that overlooked the city. He and Madi sat quietly, taking in the sunset. He told Madi that whenever he had something big to think about, he came to this place. He found it when he was fifteen, after he had needed some space and took off on his bike. Madi sat there with him and listened to him tell her how looking down at the huge city always reminded him of how small he was. He found it peaceful and it helped him think.

  “I’ve never taken anyone here before,” he said.

  “Why me?” she asked.

  “Because you’re you.” He said it so sweetly, Madi almost leaned in to kiss him herself. Then in typical Jake fashion, he added, “Also because I know you have no idea where we are and that you’ll never be able to tell anyone.”

  It had been a wonderful day. Jake was a great host. He made her laugh and answered all her questions. Madi was sitting on the couch taking it all in when her phone began to play “Loser” by Beck, her new song for Kendra.

  “Hey, Ken.”

  “Where you been, beyotch? I called you three times today.”

  “Jake took me on a tour of LA. It was amazing. He is amazing.”

  “Did you sleep with him?” Kendra asked excitedly.

  “No! He doesn’t feel that way about me. He was just being a good friend.” She twirled a strand of hair around her finger as she glanced toward the door.

  “Uh huh. I’ll believe it when I see it.”

  “Are you coming to see me?” Madi asked excitedly.

  “Soon. I’m trying to work it out. My dad has a business trip to Scotland next week and has insisted we all come along for fun. The only thing I’m looking forward to is finding out first-hand if the men are really naked under their kilts.”

  “Wow, that sounds amazing.

  “Looking under kilts?”

  Jake walked in with Murphy .

  “Going to Scotland,” Madi laughed. “I miss you.”

  “Miss you too. I’m in need of an update.”

  “Jake… Kendra says hi.”

  “He’s there, huh? Guess I’ll get one later.”

  “Tell her I said hi, too,” Jake said with a yawn.

  “All right, talk to you later. I want to know how he kisses next.”

  “I can’t believe tomorrow is Monday already. What time is my fitting?” Jake asked as Madi put down her phone.

  “Three.”

  “Will you be there?”

  “Do you want me there?” Madi asked.

  “I’d like your opinion. You have good taste,” Jake stretched his arms above his head.

  “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome. I’m taking a hot shower and then going to bed. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  Jake started off toward his room. “Jake… thank you again for today. I can’t tell you what it meant to me.”

  “Me too. I’m glad I could share it with you.” He smiled as he walked away.

  Madi ran her hands through her hair and stopped herself, laughing. He was rubbing off on her in more ways than one.

  Jake

  He had slept until eleven. Madi had nervously called him and woken him up to remind him of his fitting. Jake and Murphy arrived at 12:30. Jake was never late for anything. It was the controlling part of his personality. When it came to business and the people he cared about, he was in complete control. At 2:50, Jake was still on the phone with the construction company for Ang’s house. They were tiling the roof and hanging new drywall. The owner had told him that it should be ready for Ang to come back in a week or so. Jake wondered if Madi would move into Ang’s place once it was ready, or stay with him. In his mind there were pros and cons to both options.

  Madi had walked up to him while he was on the phone. She began scribbling on a piece of paper. As he continued to talk to Alex, she held up a note that said, “Fitting - 8 minutes!”

  Jake nodded to her and gave her a thumbs up as she strolled away. He finished up his call and went backstage to the dressing room where the fitting was to take place. Stacey Moore, his stylist, was standing with Madi as they looked through two racks of clothes.

  “Your mannequin has arrived. Clothe me.” Jake put his arms out wide and stood there with his eyes closed.

  “Do you want me to undress and redress you or do you prefer to do that yourself?” Stacey asked sarcastically.

  “Decisions… I could use a good undressing. What do you have for me?”

  Jake noted that Madi’s face darted to the floor.

  “Okay, so I was thinking of tour clothes first. I know you like to be comfortable and I have a good mix between dressy jeans and casual pants. I also have button-down shirts, nice t-shirts, and a few classy pieces.”

  “Sounds good, let’s get started.” To Jake, this was just another part of his job.

  He took some clothes and shortly after, came from the back dressed in black jeans with a white and black striped shirt. “What do you think, Mads?”

  “You look good. I like it.”

  “Next.” Jake attempted to walk away, but Stacey stopped him and started pinning things and straightening out his clothes, stepping back occasionally to take another look.

  The next hour was more of the same, trying on shoes as well. Madi pretty much liked everything except a yellow shirt. Jake had to agree.

  “Okay, you’re almost done. I have three suits and two tuxes for you to try on and then we should be set.”

  Jake tried on the double-breasted black tuxedo first. He sauntered back into the room, running his fingers through his hair. Madi’s expression puzzled him. Her already large brown eyes grew wider as she stared at him with her mouth frozen open. “Good or bad, Mads?”

  “Um, g...good. I think I should probably go back to help Ang.” She stood with her eyes cast downward.

  Jake’s lips curled upward as he adjusted his tie and walked over to her. “If I were wearing this tux and I asked you to donate money to ‘Hopes for Tomorrow,’ what would you say?”

  Madi glanced up at him, then down again. “I think I might say yes to pretty much anything.” She smiled shyly before leaving the room.

  “Did she say anything?” Jake asked Stacey.

  “I’d say that one’s a keeper.”

  “The girl?”

  “The tux, Jake, but something tells me you could probably have the girl too.”

  Jake smiled, then frowned as he ran his hands through his hair and looked toward the door.

  Chapter 29

  Madi

  As Madi lumbered from backstage toward Ang, her mind started racing with thoughts. She was really letting herself get out of control. Jake was so fun to be around. He was kind and he made her feel like she was important. How could her life have changed so much in the last month? She was almost unrecognizable to herself. Not only had she not had her hair in a clip in over a week, but she was starting to get used to dressing up. How could she start to feel normal in a skirt? That was not who she was. This fast paced life of work and parties and music was so different for her. Back in school she had pictured working at Titans all summer. Maybe she would go to the pool to work on a tan, here or there. Maybe she’d do some summer reading, have some dinners and see some movies with Kendra.

  Now she was watching Jake try on clothes and mailing front row concert tickets and back stage passes to various radio stations. Tickets that, three months ago, she would have died to have in her hands. In a little over a month, she was going to Paris to watch Jake from backstage. She lived in his house and fell asleep on his shoulder. How could she have changed so much? More importantly, how could she have ever allowed herself to hope so much? The Madison Ryan she knew would never gush over any man. She would never parade around half naked to get a man to notice her and she would never allow herself to get emotionally tied to a man who didn’t
want anything but friendship from her.

  When Jake had asked her if he looked good enough for people to donate money to his charity, Madi had said she’d do just about anything for him. She was surprised at how true that statement was on so many levels. It wasn’t just his incredible, smoldering looks; it was the way he looked when he didn’t think anyone was watching. It was how he stared off in the distance on the hill. It was how he ran his hand through his hair as if he were releasing some kind of weight with one stroke. She hadn’t analyzed anything more than whether or not Jake had feelings for her. She found no faults with him even though she was sure she was so enamored with him that it didn’t matter what he did. She hadn’t had a chicken salad in forever. Was she starting to forget how good normal could be?

  She felt a pain of homesickness kick in. She suddenly wanted to be sitting at the kitchen table eating pizza with her parents. It hit her that she would never be the same after this summer. Not only was she changing, but her needs were changing too. Would any other man be able to compete with Jake Morgan? How could any normal guy from school ever be enough for her now? Madi sat down mid way back to her desk in a theater seat and rested her head on her hand.

  After the summer, Jake would continue on his tour and she would go back to school. She would be changed forever. She would probably miss him, Ang, Trey and Dave terribly, but their lives would go on. She would have been a headlight passing in the night to them while to her, they were shooting stars upon which she had made life-altering wishes. They dazzled her sky and lit up her existence.

  She needed to put her feet back down on Earth.

  It was only her second week in LA and she could feel herself starting to think she belonged here. That she belonged with Jake. She was falling for him, falling hard, and she needed to stop herself now before it was too late. Before she felt something for him he would never feel in return. Before she allowed her heart to be his and before he returned it like an unwanted Christmas present. He only thought of her as a friend. She was taking his kindness and friendship and twisting it in her mind into more than it was. She could feel that she was standing on the threshold of a cliff with her toes over the edge. One more nudge and she would fall and hit the ground hard. She needed to take a step back away from the cliff. She needed to think with her head at all times. She needed to stop allowing herself to feel things that were so one-sided. She needed to stop feeling more. More was bad. More could and probably would be the end of her. How could she not see what was right in front of her face? Where was the Madi that could read people? How could she be so wrong about Jake? How could she allow herself to believe that she might have a chance to be with him? She was a fool.

  “Madi? Is everything okay?”

  Madi inclined her head and saw Ang standing over her with a concerned expression. Madi felt like Ang was in a dream sequence. She seemed almost blurry. Madi didn’t even realize she was crying until Ang handed her a box of tissues.

  “Sweetheart, what happened?” Ang bent down to eye level and put her hand on Madi’s shoulder.

  Madi instantly felt embarrassed. She hadn’t meant to cry or allow herself to be so emotional. She needed to pull it together. “I was just… feeling a little homesick. I’m sorry”

  Ang scooted into a seat next to her. “You don’t need to be sorry. You are a long way from home for the first time. It’s normal for you to feel this way. I feel terrible. You seem so natural and comfortable here that sometimes I forget that you haven’t been with us for years.”

  “Don’t feel bad. I never meant to make you feel that way.”

  “It’s okay, honey.” Ang placed a warm hand on Madi’s back and rubbed gently.

  Madi glanced toward the area backstage. “Do you ever wonder what your life would be like if you woke up one day and you didn’t have this job anymore?”

  Ang got a knowing look. “Life is always changing, dear. It changes even when we don’t realize it. Sometimes it changes while we are desperately trying to hold on. You can hope and pray for things to stay the same or you can hope and pray for things to be different. The only thing that you can control while things are changing, is how you react.”

  Madi wiped her eyes and listened closely as Ang continued, “You can get caught up in the change and focus on it and it alone until you are blind to the rest of the wonders around you. You can try to ignore it; pretend that it will just go away. But change will happen with or without your approval. Sometimes those changes come in the form of a note from your husband of twenty years telling you he’s had enough, and sometimes those changes come in the form of a job that takes you thousands of miles from home.”

  Madi nodded as a tear rolled down her cheek. Ang grabbed another tissue and handed it to her. “All you can do is embrace the change. I read somewhere that you shouldn’t be afraid to change because even though you may have lost something that was good, you may have gained something even better. So, cheer up my dear. Live in the now. Enjoy every moment for what it is. I truly believe that everything happens for a reason, and there’s a reason that you’re here. Only time can tell what will happen. None of us knows what our future holds but I can tell you that I see nothing but sunshine and stars when I look at you.”

  Madi hugged Ang and sobbed into her shoulder just as Jake came out of the dressing room with Stacey laughing. Madi wiped her eyes and decided she felt much better.

  “Thank you, Ang. You have no idea how much I needed that.”

  “You are more than welcome. I’m from Maine originally, you know. California and Maine are as different as oranges and apples. Give yourself some time.”

  “Hey…” Jake bent down to eye level with Ang and Madi. “What happened?” He looked back and forth between them and locked his eyes on Madi’s tear laden face. “Are you okay?” The concern came off of him in waves of sincerity. He reached out and put his hand on Madi’s knee. She had to take a deep breath. Having Jake be Jake was so not what she needed at this moment.

  “We were just having a little girl talk,” Ang said with a smile. She stood as she said, “She’s fine. No worries. We’re girls and you’ll never understand us.”

  “I guess not.” Jake eyed Madi, looking unconvinced by Ang’s words and needing confirmation from Madi that she was okay.

  Madi smiled as much as she could as she stood up, leaving Jake on his knees on the floor. “Ang is right. I’m totally fine. Now, I think I have some calls to make.” Madi put her hand on Ang’s shoulder and mouthed “thank you” to her before attempting to confidently walk back to her desk. She picked up the phone and looked toward Jake as she dialed. He looked at Ang, not buying that everything was just fine.

  Madi told herself it had to be.

  Jake

  The week had flown by. It was Saturday and he had been running all over the place. He’d met with WJOL and done an on-air interview. He did two interviews with magazines about the tour with accompanying photo shoots. He had met with the manager of his fan website to discuss changes, had agreed to post daily on Twitter during the days leading up to the tour, and did a live chat on Facebook with his fans to answer questions. This was all in between running back to the arena to see if the changes had been made to the set construction as he had asked. Even though he was busy, he was thriving. Jake loved his job and took everything in stride. The one thing that was bothering him more than anything was that he had barely seen Madi all week.

  The night after he saw her so upset she had beaten him home and was sound asleep. He didn’t see her at all the next day as she and Ang had gone to the office to send off promo pics. She and Ang had attended the interview for the magazines but he really didn’t have time to talk to her and they left in separate cars. He knew she was busy, but she hadn’t even come up to tell him his schedule as she had done before. He was talking directly to Ang and Ang only as he had pre-Madi. Ang had assured him that Madi was just busy organizing the tour details, but Jake started to wonder if he had done something to upset her.

  At f
irst, he had told himself that the space was good. Not seeing her helped him not think about her. But when he did see her, he felt drawn to her. He couldn’t understand why she rarely even looked in his direction. Jake felt like a teenager again, trying to get the attention of a girl in school. He would approach Madi at her desk and she would immediately pick up her phone and make a call. Ang would ask him what he needed and the excuse he had thought long and hard to come up with was wasted on Ang.