Melissa’s Reviews > In Your Dreams > Status Update

Chapter 7 - Madison - 72 days until I fail

Chapter 3 - Madison - 73 days until I fail

Chapter 1 - Madison - 101 days until I fail

What I feel toward Madison is more than want. Want implies lust. Implies something fleeting & satiable. What I feel for Madison might dull with some work, but it’s never going away. It’s a need I have to learn to live with. It’s complicated & covered in bickering nuances. It’s annoying & always there, & most of the time I think she might be the answer to my search for happiness. But I’ll never find out.

I still regularly forget that she is a famous pop star, until these moments when I see pictures of her onstage surrounded by a sold-out stadium….But it’s easy to forget all of that with her because to us she’s Amelia…the Audrey Hepburn–obsessed woman who stole our brother’s heart with her truly awful pancakes and has loved us like real sisters from day one.

Madison about Amelia
The not-by-birth sister

Amelia, Emily & Madison all think Annie is pregnant
Annie hasn’t said anything

Madison- I am terrified I’m going to fail—making it the worst failure of my life, because it won’t just affect me, I’ll bring James down with me.
And equally terrifying: What if I never get my refuge back?

Her fear of failure is so consuming

The kitchen used to be my refuge, the one place where everything quieted down and I felt most like myself. Cooking was my escape, my therapy, my joy. It was something that was wholly mine. But lately? It’s felt hollow. Like stepping into a room I used to love, only to find it’s cold, the lights are off, and there’s plastic over the furniture.
I want that warmth back.
Madison

But no matter how famous Jack is now, he continues to treat my sister with the love and affection of a man who knows he doesn’t deserve her.

Madison about Jack and Emily

I lean in a little closer and drop my voice. “I heard from the new barista at the coffee shop that Annie has been ordering…” I look over my shoulder and then back. “Decaf.”
Madison sits back, a shocked expression smashing her in the face. “Decaf?”

Not decaf coffee! ☕️