The Story of Madeleine, Part 1.

The story of a young woman spinning out of control ends exactly as the experienced reader would expect.

Madeleine had an affliction that took a long while to set it. Until the alopecia began to affect her, she was as average as one might expect any pubescent girl to be. She was giddy and sociable, with flighty dreams that not even she took seriously. She was really quite pretty, and even though she found as many faults with her appearance as any awkward teen, she didn’t loathe her body. That was better than some could say.

Before even the condition, though, her issues began with a young man.

She was very young, and he, not quite as much. It had been the idea of one of her close friends, to doll themselves up and pass for college-age; one of them had a brother, who had a friend, who knew the band. There would be too many people around for anyone to take notice a group of fifteen year olds out of place. Maddie borrowed a low-cut shirt from her friend, ‘borrowed’ a skirt from her mother’s closet, and caught the attention of a college freshman.

He told her that he was part of the band, ‘technically’. He helped move their equipment, sometimes. They flirted all night, Maddie drank two beers, and at four in the morning the pair of them slipped out of the house owner’s bathroom with hickeys and huge smiles. They started dating, and laughed off the more derogatory comments aimed their way.

Alopecia is a condition in which the body attacks the hair follicles, preventing it from growing anymore. In some cases, it leaves bald patches…in more extreme cases, the hair loss can spread to the face, arms, legs. Anywhere, really.

Madeleine lost it all. There were treatments she tried, but every single one failed.

People most often asked if she had cancer. There were some less-than-pleasant remarks about her appearance, but even if no one had said a word, the blow to her ego was devastating.

For dating a girl four years his junior and struggling with a much-changed workload, her boyfriend wasn’t a source of much support. He’d started to fit into the wilder side of his ‘experimental college years’, and had more to prove to those around him than to himself. He was the subject of taunts, and he was eager to prove them wrong. He was eager to have Maddie prove them wrong.

There was pressure from people she didn’t even know, and wouldn’t see for more than a single night. There was grief and panic, for her future – idle as the dreams of being an actress or a singer were, who wouldn’t laugh at her outright, if she said those things now? Who would ever want a freak?

She felt as though she belonged in a circus. She felt ugly, unlovable, and wild.

So, while some teenagers were susceptible to peer pressure…Maddie’s will wasn’t just easy to crack. It crumbled, and took her down with it.