Author's Note: Wow.. I so did not expect so many reviews! Thank you so so so so much! Wow, I'm still shocked.. Hope anyone still reading likes this chapter too! Remember to review!

CLASH

Chapter Two: Friends With Not So Hidden Agendas

"Shut her up!" Someone hollers in my ear. Ow. It is then that I realise that Madison's head is right in front of my eyes and she is still talking-yelling-at me. I can't make out what the hell she is rambling on about but behind her severe tones, I can hear Abbey crying.

I drag myself out of bed, leaving Madison behind and go to Abbey, who appears to be very hungry.

I go down the corridor, down the stairs and into the kitchen where my Mom is already awake, even though I'm pretty sure the sun isn't up yet.

"Water's already boiled," she says to me while I look for a spoon. I nod and make a bottle of weird smelling, milky looking liquid that is apparently good for babies. I shake a couple of srops onto my wrist like I was told to, confirm to myself that it isn't too hot and rush back upstairs.

Abbey sucks on her bottle while I do what I always do when she wakes me up. I turn on my computer and spend an hour or so doing online quizzes (in which I find out that my brain is 40 male and that I am the equivalent of Tinkerbell from Peter Pan).

When the sun is sufficiently higher in the sky, I change out of my pyjamas and dress Abbey. Downstairs, I offload Abbey onto my Mom who feeds Abbey some mush, while I have breakfast. For the somethingth time in a row, all the choclate chip muffins are gone so I settle (again) for an apple muffin.

Madison comes downstairs, complaining that she has lost one of her earrings. Madison would lose her head if it weren't attatched to her. She'd lose her mind, if she actually had one.

I ignore her, athough Mom says hello to her. I do notice, however, that Madison looks uncomfortable, like she always does, whenever she is near Abbey. Abbey takes after Madison and not the random who is her father. According to both Madison and Mom, he is a "personal and private experience that doesn't have to be shared" but this only reinforces the fact that Madison was knocked up by a complete stranger. The point is, Abbey looks enough like Madison to look like me, so really, it's quite plausible that Abbey be my daughter.

Minutes later, Madison flies out the door to meet her bus, which I think is hilarious. Mom sold her car to pay for Abbey's things. I think that was her own way of punishing her because really, there has been nothing verbal of the sort.

"What are you doing today?" Mom asks.

"Go see Cate."

Mom nods. She likes Cate. After a moment of two of silence, I lean over to pick up Abbey and take her upstairs with me, returning a minute later with me shoes on and my keys, bag and jacket in hand. I don't say anthing as I leave the house.

I stick Abbey into her car seat and then load her stroller into the back of my car. Yes, Mom did keep her promise. I didn't get a new car but I didn't want one. I like my Caddilac so I just got it touched up. Still the same old pink cadillac but it runs faster and looks a little better. She's named Rosie because she's pink and long ago, I loved pink.

I'm meeting Cate at DeRange which is our favourite café for the sole reason that the owner, Mike, sometimes knocks a couple of dollars off our bill. That, and they have the best coffee here in the world. She's standing outside when I arrive and she hands me a cup.

"Mocha, three sugars," she says by way of greeting. "Plaza?"

I nod twice. "Thanks and yeah. I got to get a new book and Madison's present."

"I need to get a new shirt," Cate says. I want to ask why and she wants me to ask why but I don't. She'll tell me eventually. The plaza is down the road, a two minute walk at most..

"Trent said I could have a drawer at his place!" She squeals.

"Really?" I ask. Trent is the nicest guy in the world and he and Cate have been going out since we were all friends in high school. She nods exuberantly and shoots a million details at me about how he offered, what he was wearing at the time, the tone of voice he said it in, what she was wearing, what she said, what he was doing at the time, what she was doing at the time…and so on and so forth.

"What do you think of this?" I ask her, holding up a polka-dotted bag that Madison would hate.

"It's cute!" She agrees and I fork over twenty bucks for it. We go into Blitz where we both try on clothes that we would never wear. The loud music makes Abbey stir in her sleep so I take her outside to a newsagent where I browse some cards.

I find one that I like and pay for it then write a message for Madison in it.

"Dear Madison, hope your life is pleasant. Have a quiet one this year, from Stella?" Cate reads over my shoulder, presenting a pretty decent red shirt that I immediately want.

I shrug and give the forementioned shirt a thumbs up, wondering if they have another one. At this point though, Abbey starts to cry again so me and Cate go back outside where Abbey has another bottle.

"Remember when you didn't want her?" Cate asks me, as she always does, whenever I am with Abbey and her.

I smile, although that time was't that long ago. Cate asks me something else today though.

"You don't regret taking her do you?" Cate is curious because I've paused, suddenly feeling more and more like a mommy.

And as clichéd as it sounds, I don't regret it.

"Not a bit."

TBC.. RR!

ineedcoffee: hey mary thanks for the review.. god this chapter is so goddamn long considering it's me.. see ya..

xXShattered ButterflyXx: Thank you! Love your name.. thinking of shattered butterflies make me laugh for some reason..

xoxxKatexoxx: I am updating pretty soon considering how slow I normally am.. Thanks for reading and reviewing!

birdytamel: Yeah, the family's a bit.. disfunctional? They're fun to write though! Thanks for the review!!

Irish Fairy: You'd probably guess right. Thanks for reviewing this and I Remember! Hmm, I should be writing more for that too..

Need-To-Breathe: I love your name! It reminds me of a song or something.. Thanks for your review!

Black Butterfli: Madison is a bit of a.. I don't know what word to put there.. It's kind hard to describer which is weird, because she's such a.. stereotype? I'd like to think there's more to her but shrug..

kat6528: Yeah, life does suck sometimes.. I so shouldn't be writing now, I have a science project to do but this is more fun )

Maroon: I'm glad you liked the summary.. Would you believe this is the second time I've posted this story? The first time, it was really weird and the summary was different and I don't think anyone read it so I took it down, rewrote some of it and uploaded it again.. Thanks for reviewing, hope you like this chapter too!

Stevshals: Thank you! I hope it IS interesting for you!

yollam: It's a bit of weird situation isn't it? fun to write though..

dark88poet: Thanks so much.. Hope this chapter is up to standard too..