closed starter for @betterthangrief /
since her return, madison had kept their relationship superficial. it was almost like a dream, sort of, having melissa back - but like most dreams, the reality was distorted, not quite as joyous as she’d once envisioned. the melissa that returned was different than what she’d always envisioned - a little harder, a little more rough. they hadn’t discussed the decade they’d lost, but melissa had stayed as close as madison - and by proxy, logan - would allow her.
there wasn’t a time madison couldn’t remember having walls up. maybe when she was young, but even then, she’d been quiet, observant. it was easier that way, to know who people were behind their masks, to know what she was letting in. but melissa had always been behind those walls before, and keeping her out left madison feeling unmoored. and it wasn’t going to help logan forge a relationship with her either - logan, who was tentative but open, eager to know about melissa while coming to madison’s room at night to let madison see the anger, the grief, the chaos behind her happy smiles and open eyes. the distrust at a stranger who claimed she was related to them, because logan had been 4 when melissa left. logan knew only edges of what their parents were capable of.
as far as logan knew, melissa had disappeared without a word of her own volition. she had abandoned them, and while madison had steered her closer to the truth in recent years, she was still too young to know the whole story.
but logan was off, the small group of teens doing god only knew what around town, and madison had pulled out a box she’d been keeping under her bed for years. letters, all unsent, outlining the pain and strife madison went through.
the first time she’d wrote the words down - i’m gay - had been in a letter to her sister that had been buried and locked away for almost seven years. but melissa deserved to see them now, and while quiet, shy, madison had always been brave, too. she would deliver them to her face.
she was grateful to find her in the living room - going into her parents room ( their parents room ) was still something she wasn’t entirely comfortable with - and she cleared her throat, announcing her presence. “i figured it was time we actually talk,” she said, holding the shoebox decorated in ripped up magazines that blake had helped her create in the months that followed melissa’s initial absence. “about what happened. about you coming back.”