Giving Thanks

Lexa POV:

Thanksgiving was approaching quickly. I never did anything to celebrate the holiday but Madi wanted to have dinner together. It was her first Thanksgiving after leaving the foster home and she wanted to go all out.

It was the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Madi had school the first three days of the week.

"Ugh, I can't believe I have school this week." Madi groaned, sitting on my couch. She paced the room for about thirty minutes talking about food for Thursday.

"It's only three days. It'll go by quickly." I told her.

"What do you do all day while I'm at school?" Madi asked.

"Sleep. Eat. Shop. Deal...repeat." I smiled a bit.

"Don't you wish you could go to school again?" Madi took a sip of her lemonade.

"No. I hated that place." I replied.

"How could you hate school? You learn, meet new people, gain experience." It looks like I offended her.

"I don't like learning, I hate people and I have plenty of experience." I answered.

"You don't hate me." Madi smiled.

"Yeah...but I hate everyone else." I nodded.

"Well, I guess I'm honored to not be on that list." Madi stood again. "Okay, food for Thursday."

And she began her rant again. Of course I listened to the entire thing because she clearly needed someone to listen to her.

I was that someone.

I was her someone.

As the months continued I kept asking myself when I should tell her I'm Lexi from Maryland. I try to think of how she'll react.

Happy that it's me?

No, she'll probably be really pissed I didn't tell her.

Maybe I can act like I didn't know?

Yeah, that won't work. I stared directly at a picture of us nineteen days ago and said nothing.

Like I told Madi earlier, the days would fly by and they did. It was noon on Wednesday and I waited at the bus stop for Madi. She had a half day today. I watched as the bus approached and Madi jumped off.

She wore a pair of leggings and her white shoes. Her jacket covered whatever bright happy shirt she was wearing.

"Lexa!" Madi smiled, hugging me.

"Hey." I smiled, hugging her back. My eyes caught the bus behind her as it drove off. Of course Protective/Creepy Stalker Jack was staring at me through the window. I lifted my middle finger until the bus was gone.

Madi pulled back and smiled at me. "I'm so excited for tomorrow. We'll eat mashed potatoes and stuffing and mac n cheese and turkey and-"

"All the above. Do you work tonight?" I asked. A week before Halloween, Madi accepted Hazel's offer to work at the Richmond Café. Hazel, being the sweet lady she is, doesn't give Madi a lot of days to work. Hazel understands Madi goes to school and has homework but still lets Madi come in whenever she wants.

"Nope. Hazel gave me off until next week. She does want me to stop by today though. I was gonna text you if you wanted to get lunch there." Madi explained as we walked in the café's direction.

"Good thing I was gonna ask if you wanna have lunch with me." I bumped her shoulder with mine. I reached forward and pulled her yellow backpack off her shoulders.

"Lexa." She gave me a look.

"You've been carrying it around all day." I waved her off. "Did you bring every book home?" I questioned at the bag's weight.

"Not all of them." She muttered.

We approached the café and I held the door as she walked in. There were two older couples inside.

"Madi! And is that Lexa I see? My two favorite girls." Hazel smiled from behind the counter.

"Afternoon, Hazel." I walked up to the counter with Madi at my side.

"Hello." Madi smiled.

"I'm glad you dropped by. I made this for you." Hazel moved into the kitchen before coming back with a pie. "It's pumpkin pie." She handed the pie to Madi.

"Aw, thank you, Hazel. How much?" Madi questioned.

"Oh, it's on the house, sweetheart." Hazel waved her hand. She looked at me next. "Lexa, I can make you one too."

"No need. I'm spending my Thanksgiving with this one." I pointed at Madi.

"How sweet." Hazel smiled. "My husband and I are going to our daughter's house. Did you two want to join?"

"Thanks for the offer, but we'll hang back." I answered. I know Madi would feel bad and agree, even if she wanted to spend Thanksgiving here.

"If you say so." Hazel smiled. "Did you two want to order anything?"

I looked at Madi, letting her order first. "Uh...can I just have a ham and cheese sandwich?"

"Make that two." I cut in.

"Two ham and cheese sandwiches. Anything else?" Hazel asked.

"Two iced coffees." Madi said, already knowing my order.

"That'll be $9.50." Hazel said.

I already pulled out $10.

"Lexa." Madi whispered angrily, seeing I already paid.

Hazel handed me the change and I put it in the tip jar. "I'll bring it out in a moment."

Madi and I sat at the same booth we always do.

"How come every time we come here, you pay? Why can't you let me pay for us?" Madi asked.

"Because I'm being nice." I shrugged.

"Why can't you let me be nice?" Madi whined.

"You're nice to everyone. Let me be nice to you." I whispered.

We stared at each other for a moment too long.

"Madi!" A voice caused our gazes to break. Madi looked to the side as she saw a boy in an apron.

"Ethan, hi!" Madi smiled.

"I thought you weren't working until next week?" Ethan asked, refilling another couple's coffees.

"Actually I'm here for lunch. This is Lexa. Lexa, this is Ethan. My working buddy." Madi introduced.

"You're Lexa? Madi always talks about you." Ethan smiled at me.

I wanted to reply with 'she doesn't talk about you' but that would only result in Madi being upset.

"Nice to meet you." I replied.

"So, uh, Madi, what are you doing for Thanksgiving?" Ethan asked her.

"Lexa and I are eating at my place." Madi glanced over at me.

"Are you two sisters?" Ethan furrowed his eyebrows.

"No." Madi and I replied quickly.

"What are you doing?" Madi asked.

"Just eating with the fam." Ethan continued.

Hazel joined us, placing our food on the table. "Enjoy."

"Thanks." Madi and I replied in unison.

"Madi, this may be a weird time to ask but, maybe we can go shopping for Black Friday?" Ethan asked.

Madi looked shocked. "Oh, I would but Lexa and I are going out."

We are?

"Right...we can reschedule." Ethan said awkwardly.

"Yeah, it was good seeing you." Madi ended the conversation.

"You too." Ethan said before walking back to the kitchen.

"He has a crush on you." I sipped my coffee.

"What? No. He's just being nice." Madi denied.

"Also, I didn't know we were going out Friday." I smirked, taking a bite of my sandwich.

"I didn't really want to go shopping." Madi shook her head, biting her sandwich too.

"Didn't want to go shopping...or didn't want to go shopping with him?" I questioned.

Madi looked at me with a guilty face. "I feel bad."

"You're not attracted to him?" I asked.

"Not really." Madi took a sip of her drink.

Well that's good.

I tried to hide my smile as I took a sip of coffee.

Thanksgiving was one hectic holiday. This is technically also my first Thanksgiving since I left the foster home.

We didn't cook anything from scratch. The food was pre-bought from the store and dessert was made by Hazel so we were good. We sat at the table with our portions and I was about to dig in.

"Wait!" Madi yelled.

My scoop of mashed potatoes froze in mid-air.

"We have to say what we're thankful for." Madi said.

Mary Ann made everyone say one thing we were grateful for each year. My answer was always Madi. Her answer was always me.

"That's stupid." I replied, putting my spoon down.

"Come on, I'll go first. I'm thankful to live in such a wonderful town and I'm thankful to have such an amazing person sitting with me for our first Thanksgiving together." Madi smiled at me.

Do I tell her this isn't our first Thanksgiving together?

"I'm thankful..." I tried to think of something. "...I'm thankful you didn't memorize your address the first day we met."

A huge smile came across her face. "Great answer. Now you may eat."

"Yes, ma'am." I did a fake salute before we both dug in.