Free Only the Lonely by Laura Dower Page A

the other side. Of course, Madison wasn’t really sure what to say. She could tell Aimee about Brazil and the frogs. But instead, she gently said, “Well, I missed you. It was lonely here without you.”
    Aimee looked like she was about to bawl. She threw her arms around Madison. “oh-em-gee, I missed you too! You are so much like a real sister and I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have you here. Thank you so much for listening to me. Thank you so much for being SUCH a good friend.”
    Madison hugged her and squeezed. When Aimee said that, it made all the “camp” talk and all the pirouettes around the living room worth it.
    They spent the rest of the day together, talking. Madison eventually did get a chance to fill Aimee in on the different kinds of South American poisonous frogs and how not to approach a snake in the rain forest. Aimee kept telling Madison how sorry she was for monopolizing the conversation and sorry she was for being a little overly consumed by camp, but somehow, Aimee never left that subject far behind.
    While they were eating wafer cookies Aimee said, “We used to have these in the barn when it rained at camp.”
    They painted their toenails with Madison’s special brand-new orange glitter polish and all Aimee could say was, “My feet are so callused from dancing at camp.”
    They watched Madison’s favorite love story on cable TV and Aimee said, “Did I tell you that the guy Willem was the best dancer in the entire camp?”
    Madison wanted to shout back, “CAMP—SHMAMP!” But she didn’t.
    There was one good part about Aimee doing all the talking. The subject of Fiona never came up.
    Until the phone rang—and Aimee picked it up.
    “Hello, Finn residence,” Aimee answered, laughing as she put on a fake butler voice. “Hello? You want Miss Madison? And WHOOOO may I ask is calling?”
    Madison held her breath. She got all tense about Aimee answering the phone, as if Fiona meeting Aimee were Godzilla Meets the Smog Monster.
    Madison had a feeling they wouldn’t get along.
    “It’s Fiona. For you,” Aimee handed the phone to Madison. “So who’s Fiona, Maddie? Huh?”
    Madison’s stomach went flip-flop as it always did under pressure.
    “Fiona, hey!” she grabbed the phone. Unfortunately for Madison, Fiona was in a talkative mood too. She couldn’t hang up right away.
    Aimee just stared and listened.
    “What? Oh, you wanna hang out? … Well I can’t … Well, my friend Aimee … Yeah, she was the one who answered … Well, she’s back from dance camp and I … Well, we’re kind of hanging out together alone right now and … Fiona? Look, I’ll call you later.”
    No sooner had Madison hung up the phone than Aimee asked her for a third time, “So are you gonna tell me who Fiona is?”
    Madison couldn’t understand why she felt so guilty about Fiona vs. Aimee, but she did. She didn’t understand why she always felt she had to take sides with everyone: with Mom and Dad, with friends, with everyone. It was always about picking sides and picking the people you liked more than other people.
    Like now.
    “Well, Fiona’s my new friend,” Madison admitted. “I met her when you were at camp.”
    Aimee brushed it off. “Oh, okay. Well, is she nice?”
    “Yes. Very nice.”
    “Oh, that’s cool. I can’t wait to meet her.” Aimee twirled around. “Anyway, you know, Maddie, I think I should probably go home now. Do you wanna get Egg and hang out tomorrow like we always do the night before school starts?”
    “Yeah, I guess.”
    Madison was dumbfounded. Aimee wasn’t asking any more Fiona questions?
    “So, later, ’gator!” Aimee squeezed. Madison good-bye as she made her way to the front door. She yelled out, “GOOD-BYE, MRS. FINN!” and skipped away. She really skipped too, which annoyed Madison a little. Aimee was a dancer.
    Madison smiled and shouted out, “I’ll see you tomorrow, then!”
    Of course, she realized five minutes too late that she had