Just A Memory

Chapter Four

Madison laughed as her daughter told her a joke, it wasn’t a real joke but the six year old thought she was the best joke teller. It was times where it was just the two of them that Madison loved, even if she had a horrible hang over from the night before. She could barely remember coming into her apartment with the help of Jayne. She didn’t want to get that drunk again.

“Mommy, are the cookies done?” Amanda’s eyes got wide hearing the buzzer go off in the kitchen.

“Go wash your hands, and you can have one.” Madison smiled at Amanda as she turned and walked into the kitchen to retrieve the chocolate chip cookies out of the stove.

Madison cursed under her breath when she almost dropped the cookie pan when the loud ringing noise of the door bell went off in the kitchen. Her headache was still there, even though she took a billion pills of Excedrin. She could hear Amanda running out of the bathroom to answer the door.

“Manda, who is at the door baby?” Madison hollered putting the second batch of cookies in the stove. “Amanda?” Only this time slight panic in her voice when she didn’t hear her daughter answer, but heard the door open.

Madison walked into the front room and stopped dead in her tracks. There he was, standing there a beanie on his shaved head, sunglasses over his eyes standing in the door way staring at Amanda like he just saw a ghost. Amanda was doing the same thing, staring at him like she knew it was her father, like she could sense that he helped make her. Madison took a deep breath and stooped down eye level with her daughter.

“Go play in your room.” She said sternly her daughter just nodding her head and running out of sight. Madison stood up and gave him a dirty look. “Who the hell do you think you are? Coming to my house?” She snapped him out of his thoughts.

“I…uh… I’m… I… you see…” He stumbled over words, “You left this at the club, I…uh…I didn’t go through it…. JC had Jayne’s number… so… I” He shook his head slightly and took a deep breath. “I came to apologize; I was very drunk last night. I shouldn’t have kissed you. I know I called you someone else, that just goes to show you how drunk I was. You left this at the club, I called Jayne she gave me your address. Don’t you worry I didn’t go through it, as much as I wanted to, I didn’t.” He finely got out shoving her purse towards her.

Justin removed his sunglasses and stuck him in the pocket of his coat. His eyes were scanning Madison, she looked lost at the fact that he of all people would be standing in her door way. She looked away from him and towards the direction her daughter ran off. She started to close the door on him, but he moved his foot in the way stopping it from shutting.

“You are right, she is beautiful. You are very lucky.” Justin got out, he wanted to say something else but he couldn’t.

“I know, but you can’t be here. You need to go.” Madison sighed not looking at him.

“Please let me stay. As a friend of mine you won’t make me leave. My mom is driving me in sane. She saw your purse on my kitchen table and I had to listen to her rant about how I shouldn’t have meaningless sex with girls I just meet at clubs. Please, I promise to play good with Amanda.” Justin gave his million dollar smile.

Madison sighed and looked back seeing Amanda standing there with a slight smile on her face. She was going to get the wrong idea; she was going to believe this was her father. It is her father, but Madison didn’t want him to be there. She had six years to think about it, he isn’t the Randall she left at home; this guy in front of her was someone else. Someone who had meaningless sex with a different woman a night, who drank every night who didn’t care about what his mother had to say to him; this wasn’t the guy she loved back then, this was someone completely different.

“I guess.” She let out causing Amanda to jump up and down and giggle.

Justin winked at Madison and walked passed her and over to Amanda. He picked her up and they went to play Barbie’s in the bedroom. Madison felt her heart ache as a few tears fell out of her eyes. She didn’t know what to do, she wanted to then she didn’t want to tell him. If she told him, he’d hate that she left and waited this long to tell him. If she didn’t tell him, Amanda would think her father just abandoned her. Madison sighed and grabbed the phone; she didn’t know what to do.

“Jayne Jones.” Jayne’s usually perky voice sounded dead over the phone.

“Jay.” Madison sighed into the phone causing her friend to stop whatever she was doing, and leave who ever she was talking to in a different room.

“What’s wrong Mad, is everything okay, is it Amanda?” Jayne asked

“I’m going to tell you something that only I know. Please don’t get mad at me.” Madison held a cry.

“Of course Mad, you know I wouldn’t get mad at you.” Jayne sighed into the phone.

“Amanda’s father is here.” Madison let her breath out, it felt good to say those words.

“I’m glad you told him, are you okay honey? Do you want me to come over or something?” Jayne asked already making plans to come over and be there for her.

Madison sighed, “I didn’t tell him. He just…showed up at the door holding my purse.” She breathed out causing Jayne to almost drop the phone she was on.

“What are you saying?” She asked, “Justin’s the father?” She whispered

Damn Jayne and trying to hook her up all the time, she sent him over he could have given the purse to JC to give to Jayne to give to her, but she just gave Justin the address. But Madison knew she couldn’t be mad at Jayne, she knew Jayne was just trying to hook her up with a decent guy, who always asked about her daughter.

“Yes…” Madison breathed out roughly pushing tears off her face.

Madison stood up and paced her bedroom, she didn’t want to be upset at the fact that he was in her home. She had always thought they would be together, then they had sex he left she found out she was pregnant and she freaked out leaving everything behind. She knew he had asked her mom a few times about her, but her mom promised she wouldn’t tell anyone anything. After a few months he stopped calling, he stopped trying.

“Tell him Mad, he needs to know, I bet you he won’t hate you.” Jayne sighed into the phone picking at the bottom of her t-shirt.

“Jayne, I know I should have told you this a long time ago, but I couldn’t. And I can’t tell him, he has so much going for him. Telling him he has a six year old daughter will just add stress to his life.” She noted plopping down on her bed with a loud sigh.

Madison could hear voices in the background wherever Jayne was, she heard the phone being tugged at heard a voice she thought she heard before then Jayne was back.

“If we are coming clean with these, ‘I should’ve told ya’ shits, I got to tell you something big in my life then, been keeping it from you for about three years.” Jayne stated in the phone, “I’ve been dating JC Chasez for three years. We keep it to our selves no one besides the rest of the guys, my self and our families know about it. We want to keep it that way.” Jayne added quickly

Madison’s eyes bulged out and she took a deep breath. It was no wonder the two of them seemed so comfortable together; she thought it was just the alcohol they drank. Madison was thankful that Jayne at least kept a promise that out side of work, she wasn’t Madison Anderson, she was Madison Simpson. She didn’t want the wrong or right people to know her name.

“Well that…” Madison’s words ended with a shrill sound coming from all over the apartment, her fire alarm.

She ended the call with Jayne and ran out of her room to see the apartment filled with smoke. She forgot about the cookies in the kitchen. As she was going towards the kitchen she saw Justin holding Amanda in his arms as he pulled the fire alarm off the wall and took the batteries out. It seemed to perfect the way they were with each other, Amanda took to him in just the half hour he had been there, and it seemed as if he took to her the moment he laid eyes on her. Madison pulled her eyes away from them and opened up all the windows and her door.

Justin turned around Amanda still in his arms and gave Madison a weird look. He was smile as was Amanda, but he was still giving her a weird look.

“Mommy les go out to eats!” Amanda’s eyes got big with excitement thinking about McDonalds.

She almost started to protest going out but shrugged her shoulders and started towards the bathroom. “I guess I need to shower first.” She bit her bottom lip, “please don’t let him mess the house up Amanda.” She added as she disappeared into the bathroom

Madison took the fastest shower she could take; she didn’t want Amanda to be any trouble to Justin. She also didn’t want him going through anything, but little did she know Amanda lead him up to her published long short story from school. Her teacher liked it so much he got it published at the school; of course she went by her mothers’ name. But now he was reading the story, of the two of them, or Amanda. Madison changed certain things, like Amanda’s name his job, her job. Just little things to give away that it was Justin Timberlake, she never mentioned last names in the book. It wasn’t just her story in the book, it was the best stories that were turned in, and in the book hers just happen to be the first one.

She did have a few die hard NSYNC fans at college ask he if it was him, because she did mention how she missed the Christmases in Memphis. She didn’t name the small town she was from, just the major town, yet they seemed to piece it together. She just laughed at them and said she doesn’t even know who NSYNC was.

She was only in the shower for half an hour when she got out, she found her daughter and Justin sitting in a chair crashed with the book closed sitting next to them. She was afraid to wake them up, afraid that he figured out she was the one that wrote it. Of course he was going to remember the events that happened; he was in over half of it. But now he was going to know how she was a virgin when she slept with him, and only lied to him because he had already had sex with Britney. How she thought about giving the baby up so many times in the first six months of pregnancy. He now knew that she regretted not telling him every once in a while, when ever her daughter would cry in the middle of the night asking for her daddy.

She was hopping he hadn’t pieced it together and knew she was the mother of his child who he was holding in his hands. She just wanted him to leave, and never come back so that things could get back to normal, or at least some what normal.

Madison sighed and pulled the bathrobe around her a little tighter as she walked over to the two of them. She pushed at his shoulder; he instantly opened his eyes and gave her a half ass smile before closing them again and reopening them.

“I… uh… I’ve changed my mind… I’ve… um… got a lot… um… of work. I got to … do that interview with uh Britney…. Um… so yeah, you can leave now.” She stated turning on her heal and walking to her bedroom to get dressed.

“I don’t wan to go; I’m having fun with Amanda. Let me take her off your hands for a few hours, I’ll take her out to McDonalds and to the mall.” Justin barged in on her getting dressed; he seemed unfazed as she pushed at him to leave with one hand holding her untied bathrobe. “Just say yes and I’ll leave and be back in three hours with Amanda. I’m good with kids, I have two younger brothers, one is about her age and the other is about three years older. Just say yes.” He smiled

She said no, she said no more than ten times, more than a hundred times, she would have said no again but Amanda started begging along with him.

“God, you two beg worse than dogs! Go… GO!” She snapped rolling her eyes as Amanda jumped up and down with glee.