Sorry, this chapter was not an easy one to write but I'm satisfied with it so here it is. With that being said, we're almost done with this story! Feel free to comment your theories on how you think things will end
The Girl with the Black Converse
Chapter 10- Indignation
Conner laid in bed wide awake as Madison was fast asleep next to him. He absent mindedly watched the ceiling fan blades rotate above them. He thought about the conversation he had with Madison before they went to sleep.
“You can’t be serious Maddie?” Conner protested, “Whatever her intentions are with this meeting, you know it won’t be in good faith!”
“Yes I know but something has to be done,” she replied.
“And you shouldn’t be the one to do it-,” Conner said.
“I shouldn’t but we both know you can’t Conner,” she interrupted, “and that's the problem, you can’t bring yourself to stand up to her. I don’t know why and it's ok. We all need help from other people sometimes. I couldn’t get rid of Ryan and I needed your help. You can’t get rid of Crystal on your own and her constantly injecting herself into our lives is not healthy.” Conner had no response, her words stung him more than she likely intended them to. “I’ll meet her for this little lunch, and make sure this ends tomorrow, I promise. Conner I love you, and I want us to be happy together, let me do this.”
“Alright Madison,” Conner replied, “I love you too.”
Her words kept repeating in his mind “that's the problem, you can’t stand up to her” rang through his mind over and over. She was right, and it was painful to admit. Conner loved Madison, she was perfect and everything he wanted, however all through their short relationship, Conner always had Crystal in the back of his mind. Until he met Maddie, he would check her social media pages every day, a part of him yearned for her to take him back. Conner got out of bed and grabbed his laptop to go to the living room. Conner sat on the living room couch with his laptop on his lap and looked at the cracked open door where Madison was still sleeping.
The more Crystal remained a part of his life, the more suffocating her grip would be. Conner thought to himself, “What if this meeting isn’t the end of this? What happens when Crystal shows up again and interrupts this relationship more? Just how long will Madison take this before she realizes that this isn’t worth the drama and leaves? What kind of a man am I that I can’t shed this tumor named Crystal? Do I want her back? Maybe on some level I do, but do I really miss the pain and the misery? Am I that week that I really need those beatings and the mental cruelty? Why did I crave that so much?! I can’t let this continue, I must do something…but what?” He then opened the laptop and booted up an application.
Madison woke the next day seeing Conner asleep next to her. She kissed him on the cheek and decided to let him sleep in as she made herself coffee in the kitchen. She sipped her coffee and felt bad about the conversation last night, maybe she had said the wrong thing. However she did feel that her words may have been what Conner had needed to hear, remembering her freshman year psychology professor telling her class that sometimes people need to be brought to a harsh truth to accept their issues and move on. Madison didn’t ever want to hurt Conner. Despite his flaws, she genuinely loved him and she wasn’t the type of girl that enjoyed just sleeping around. Maybe it was her upbringing but Madison always craved a stable relationship, she just always picked horrible men. Conner was the first man she had been romantically with that was a genuinely good person and had stability. He needed her help, and Madison always was told she had a big heart, so she was glad to stand up for him against Crystal.
She walked back into the bedroom and noticed Conner was still asleep. Sleeping in wasn’t too much like Conner but she decided to let him sleep in today and meet up with him later. She opened up her overnight bag and got dressed in a floral white dress, a pair of black ankle socks, and her new pink converse. Conner woke up and noticed her getting ready for her lunch meeting.
“Morning sleepyhead!” Madison cheered, putting her hair into a ponytail, “stay up too late?”
“Yeah,” Conner replied while yawning, “Maddie you can take my car, I’ll chill here until you get back.”
“You sure?” she asked.
“Yeah, I got some work to do here,” Conner replied, getting up and grabbing some coffee, “just be careful and call me when you’re done. Love you.” Madison hugged him from behind, embracing into his back. Conner placed his hand over hers and smiled.
“Love you too, I’ll call you when I’m done!” Madison replied. The two kissed and Madison left in his car for the meeting. Conner took a long sip of coffee and watched her drive off in his car. Once she was gone, Conner grabbed his cell phone and made a call.
“Good morning,” Conner said, “I know we haven’t spoken in a while but I need your help with something…Yes I’m at my house, can you meet me here? Ok, ok…yes I’ll wait. Thank you, I’ll see you shortly.”
Madison drove for just about 40 minutes until she arrived at a lakeside resort town. She pulled up to a fancy restaurant on the lake called Mesón Madrid. She walked inside and informed the hostess she was meeting a woman for lunch and was informed her party was waiting for her. She was escorted to a table outside on the restaurant’s lakeside patio where Crystal was waiting. She was in a purple & black dress, black heels, and had gotten her hair straightened since last they met.
“Good morning Madison, so glad you came!” Crystal welcomed her.
“Good morning to you too,” Madison replied as she took her seat, “I’m eager to get things over with.”
“Your dress is wonderful, though you should have worn some more stylish shoes,” Crystal said as a server poured both girls a glass of white wine, “I don’t understand why you always choose to wear those sneakers. Don’t you own some different footwear? A woman should always have a diverse catalog of footwear.”
“I like wearing my converse,” Madison replied, taking a sip of the wine, “as does Conner. He thinks I look great in them.”
“Interesting,” Crystal replied, “I always saw them as ghastly clown shoes.”
“Did I come here to have my choice of footwear insulted or was there a better reason why I drove out here?” Madison snarkily replied, “If you want to sling insults then we can get mean.” The girls settled down as they got down to business.
“Look Madison, it's no surprise we both want Conner in our lives but one of us will need to back off,” Crystal started.
“Yes you should,” Madison replied.
“Cute, I know you two have this little fling going on but let's get real here,” Crystal said, “You’re what, 21? You’re still studying in school, and you have nothing to offer him apart from a good time- and I don’t just mean sexually though we both know you two are fucking.”
“So what's your point?” Madison replied.
“My point is, you can’t give Conner what he wants, what he truly needs,” Crystal said, taking a drink of wine, “The man has very dark desires that I think you’re too kind-hearted to give him.”
“I give him exactly what he wants-” Madison replied.
“Do you really think so?!” Crystal interrupted, “What do you know of his desires? By now you know the man is submissive and craves a woman to be in control but that's just the very tip. Conner has a very dark taste and a lust for being tortured. The man needs to be controlled and dominated in every way, it's what gave him the most pleasure and ecstasy. He used to beg me to pound his ass all night long. Oh yes, we used exactly what you think we did.”
Madison was trying to process what Crystal was saying. The picture being painted of her boyfriend was very different from the man she had been dating these last couple of months. She knew Conner was submissive and had a fetish for feet and sneakers, but to be tortured, beaten, even be fucked with a strap-on? Madison wasn’t buying it.
“I don’t buy this,” Madison disputed, “Look I’m fully aware Conner likes to be dominated, I know he has a thing for women’s feet, and hell he even has a sneaker fetish which is new to me but none of that bothers me. He’s kind, he’s dependable, he’s loyal, and he’s the best guy I’ve ever been with. It sounds to me like you’re pissed and jealous that after you coldly dropped him, he found someone that treats him with respect and gives him what he wants.”
Crystal laughed, “Oh you don’t know how to give him what he wants, you’re so young and naive-”
“No I think I know better than you do on this,” Madison interrupted angrily, “In fact I think it's YOU who needs to hurt him, I think it's YOU who needs to degrade him, and I think it's YOU who gets off on all of it. YOU are the one with dark desires, YOU need to hurt, harm, degrade, belittle, and destroy men to feel big and powerful. You crave, and insatiable. You’re pissed that you let go of the one guy who took it and now you are livid that you can’t get him back. Am I right Crystal?”
The girls grew silent as the truth was laid out as the sounds of the sailboats on the lake in the distance filled the quiet void. Crystal finished her drink and cleared her throat, “You’re very clever for someone still in school, I’ll give you that,” Crystal said, “So I must know, what will it take? What is your price to leave him? You’re only 21 and you’re pretty so replacing him with someone closer to your age or maybe another older man if that's your thing, shouldn’t be difficult. Madison, listen to me, I am prepared to make you an offer if you leave Conner right now.”
Crystal broke out her checkbook, “I’m prepared to pay you $35,000 if you get on the phone right now, leave Conner, and leave town. You can transfer to another school, finish your studies, and have more money than your peers would right now. Do we have a deal?” The offer just made Madison laugh in Crystal’s face.
“Wow talk about desperate,” Madison laughed, “Keep your money cause I’m not leaving him. Get over it Crystal and go find some rich man to step on. Conner is happy with me and you’ve got to accept that. You’re rich, go see a therapist if it bothers you so much. Honestly Crystal, you need to grow up and get over yourself. I’m not leaving him and he’s happy with me. I know you don’t care about his happiness but if any part of you is a decent person, you’ll let it go. I wish you best of luck, goodbye.” Madison grabs her handbag and gets up to leave.
“Does he know about your visit to Russellville Medical Center 4 years ago?” Crystal muttered as Madison stood up. Madison’s eyes widened at the mention of that place.
“What are you talking about?” Madison asked.
“You think someone like me wouldn’t find out your little secret didn’t you?” Crystal smiled evilly, “I know when you were 17 you had an abortion at that clinic didn’t you. Don’t lie, I have a copy of the medical records to prove it.”
Madison was caught, never had she expected anyone to find this out, her own parents didn’t even know about this. “How, how did you…?”
“Its amazing what you have find out with the right connections,” Crystal replied pulling out a folder full of the medical records verifying the abortion performed on Madison. “Now here’s the deal, in the next 24hrs you and Conner are going to be through. I don't care how, but you are to crush his heart and leave him in a pitiful state. Once you do, you’ll call me to confirm it, and these records will be burned and all my digital copies will be deleted. If I don’t get that call in 24hrs, then I send these records to the company that holds your scholarship. Being a christian scholarship fund, they’ll cut off your money and you’ll be unable to afford to attend school. What will your family say? You called me a whore when we first met, but who’s the whore now, Maddie?”
Madison had no response, this blackmail was out of left field and something she never expected. Conner tried to warn her, but Madison didn’t listen; Crystal really was that cruel.
“How do I know you’ll keep your word?” Madison hesitated to ask.
“You don’t,” Crystal snickered, “But you don't have much of a choice here do you? I look forward to your call Maddie. It was so nice to see you again, drive safe!” Without another word Madison left, tears flowing down her cheeks as Crystal had her trapped in a corner. The tears didn’t stop as she cried in Conner’s car, unsure of just how she was going to go about leaving the best man she’d ever dated up until then. However she had no choice here, and had to find the courage to do it. She wiped the tears from her eyes and started the drive back home.
Madison called Conner as she started driving, “Hey Maddie! On your way back?” Conner asked.
“Yeah,” Madison replied, “the lunch went well and we came to an understanding.”
“So no more Crystal?” Conner asked.
“Well I’ll tell you more about it later cause it was a lot,” she replied.
“You Know Maddie I was thinking about those amusement park tickets we have,” Conner said, “Well II figured we’d go closer to Halloween to see their horror nights attraction, but we can go tomorrow too if you want?”
“Either or sounds great,” she timidly replied.
He could sense something was wrong and when he pried, Madison wouldn’t talk about it. The two engaged in some small talk before Madison hung up the call and finished the drive back to Conner’s house.
Once she got inside the house the two embraced, Conner noticed Madison’s face was a little red and her eyes looked like she had been crying.
“Maddie what happened, you look like you’ve been crying?” Conner inquired.
“I can’t go through with it, I’m so sorry,” Madison said, starting to break down, “You were right, I didn’t listen to you but you were right! She’s evil, Crystal is a vile and evil woman!”
“What’s going on?” He asked, wiping her tears, “Come and sit down, talk to me.” The two sat down as Madison calmed down. She explained how Crystal was prepared to blackmail her. Madison tearfully explained her abortion.
“I was 17, still in high school,” she explained, “I was at a party and messed around with this older guy. We had sex that night as he didn’t use protection. When I told him I was pregnant he said he wasn’t going to help me and abandoned me. I come from a small town, everyone goes to church and we all know each other. My scholarship is with a christian company and if they knew I had an abortion, they’d drop me from the program. I couldn’t let my family down, I was the only child that was going to college, so I used my savings and drove 2hours away to a private clinic to have the procedure. No one but the doctor, and the 3 of us know I had this done. God my father wants to run for mayor back home. If word gets out his daughter had an abortion at 17, our whole family would be ruined!” Conner held her close and rubbed her back lovingly.
“I’m so sorry Conner, I can’t just let her ruin everything” she tearfully confessed, “I have to leave you by tomorrow or she’ll tell everyone! I’m so sorry-”
“She’s not going to say anything Maddie,” Conner replied. Madison looked up at Conner confused. He looked into her green eyes and smiled confidently.
“She’s not going to say anything, because I found out the perfect way to burn her down for good,” he said. He held her cellphone out to her. “I need you to call her, and tell her to meet you tomorrow at 5pm sharp. Tell her you’ll be in front of the summit roller coaster.”
Conner placed the phone in Madison’s hands then covered them with his own, “Maddie tomorrow, we’ll bring her down in front of everyone!”