[Madeline/Closed] We Are Family

[Joel Carter Foster]

Joel twirled the ring around his left hand finger that he’d been wearing since he and Tori had gotten ‘married’. When he jumped out of the back of the Escalade he held on tightly to the snack he had stopped to get for Madeline on his way here. He was running inside the building, considering he was late, but stopped as he saw that a few fans had gathered in the back. “ Yo, J hold this,” he said to Justin, handing over the snack before he jogged over to the fans. He smiled as he took the sharpie out of his back pocket and started signing the memorabilia they had bought and did cheesy smiles to take pictures with them. After a few minutes he could tell that the rest of his group was getting anxious so he said his farewells, reluctantly heading into the building. ‘ Here man’ Justin said as he offered over the snack to Joel. “ Thanks man,” he said as he finally stepped inside. “ Where is she?” he said in a sing song voice. He’d seen her last night, but they had both been in such work mode, and then he’d gone to see Tori after the performance, and she’d spent the evening with Ryan. After the runway he was sure they were both amped up for some alone time. He turned a corner and stopped, seeing Madeline who was sitting in a make-up chair. But as soon as she saw him she lit up in a smile that he knew was reserved for him. It was child like and protective at the same time, like they had some inside joke that no one could ever be a part of. “I thought I was late,” he said as he came over to her and wrapped his arms around her from behind in a hug before placing a kiss on her cheek. “ I got you that disgusting snack you like,” he said, setting the cottage cheese and cantaloupe down on the make up counter. “ Ah you’re amazing,” Madeline said while clapping her hands together a few times quietly. ‘Pucker’ someone instructed her and Madeline looked up at them, pouting her lips up for them to finish the lip stuff that Joel didn’t understand.

“ Here I got it,” he said as he slid in front of Madeline and picked up one of the brushes. Joel narrowed his eyebrows as he unscrewed something that looked like a powder. What was this? “ Alright, look up,” he instructed to her, laughing at the pained face she gave as he mashed the brush down roughly into the powder. “ No you have to close your eyes,” he said as he held the brush up to her face. “ Oh goodie,” she said, before complying and laying her hands in her lap. Joel narrowed his eyebrows, bringing the brush to Madeline’s face before he tried to pat the powder into the skin over the entirety of her face. “ Umm..” he said, looking down at what looked like a chapstick container before he opened it and saw that it was a bright red. Joel concentrated as he leaned down and dabbed it on her lips, before scrunching his nose and just tracing it over her mouth. “ ….Perfect,” he said, stepping to the side so Madeline could open her eyes. “ I look like Snooki!” she yelled out before reaching over to grab a kleenex. “ What?! You look great,” he said as he stood behind her in the mirror. Madeline reached her arm out to swing at him jokingly before he skipped to the side to get away from her. “ Love you!” he screamed out before going to get himself all set up for the interview. Joel walked onto the set where the interview would be, seeing a couch for them to sit on. He adjusted his pants over his hips before he sat down, smiling up at Madeline as he pat his hand against the couch cushion a few times.

Outfit

[Madeline Lea O'Neil]

Madeline brought her hand up to her hair and held it away from her face as she looked down at the steps as she walked onto the set. After the make up artist had fixed the catastrophe that Joel had done to her face, it didn’t take that long to finish getting ready. And she had been able to sneak in eating her cottage cheese and cantaloupe. Delicious. She smiled again when she saw what Joel was wearing. “You look adorable,” she said as she sat down carefully, crossing her legs over one another as she leaned over to kiss his cheek. She thanked the set assistant as they set water glasses down and then leaned her left arm against the arm rest. Joel was wiping lipstick off of his cheek as the interviewer started. “ Hey this is Ty Douglas with MTV. We’re sitting here today with two very famous South African imports, Joel and Madeline Foster. Not everyone might be aware that they are siblings, but after last night’s Victoria Secret Runway show there’s no denying that they are a sibling pair that can’t be rivaled with. Guys, welcome to the show, we’re so glad to have you here. I’ve gotta tell you.. good genes must run in your family. I’ve never felt so unattractive in my life,” he said as he gave a small laugh. “ Aw,” Madeline said, instantly giving a quiet laugh of her own, “ No, I’m sure your family genes are just fine,” she said as she licked her lips. “ We’re going to start things off with a really quick game just to sort of loosen things up. If you look at the table here there’s three paddles in front of each of you. Each of them has either a picture of Joel, Madeline or Ryan O’Neil. Here’s how it works. I’m going to ask a question, and you both answer by holding up the sign for who you think best answers the question and then you can look at one anothers. Are you ready?” he asked and before Madeline could reach forward to pick up the paddles for herself, Joel was handing her hers already.
“ Ryan Fucking O’Neil,” Joel said under his breath, causing Madeline to out of instinct reach her hand over and smack him on the knee with the back side of her hand. She shot him a look, shaking her head in faux disapproval that he had cursed on air. At least if they didn’t edit it out, her mom would see her trying to discipline her little brother for trying to curse on live television. “ Oh that’s a good picture of you Madeline,” Joel said, causing her to look down at them. “ Oh lord..” she said, thinking she looked horrible before she decided to see what Joel and Ryan’s pictures looked like. “ Alright are we ready?” he asked and Madeline looked over at Joel who gave a nod, “ Ready,” he said, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. “ Alright first off, this one should be easy for you two.. who has the worst African accent?” he asked and both of them looked at each other before holding up their paddles. “ You both can’t say Ryan, he doesn’t have an African accent!” he said with a laugh. “ Ohh… I guess we misunderstood it. Well.. I don’t know, I’d still say Ryan. When he tries to mock it it’s dreadful. It sounds more .. Ukrainian than anything,” Madeline said before Joel was laughing in agreement. “ Yeah it’s pretty bad. But if you’re asking between Madeline and I whose accent is the strongest I’d say Madeline. But I travel the world so often, and she does too, but people are constantly asking me to say things in their language or their accent. So I can tell mine is starting to slip just a LITTLE bit where hers is still going strong,” Joel said while flipping the paddles in his hands.

[Joel Carter Foster]

Joel leaned back against the couch, resting his arm against the back of it. He shook his head at Madeline’s attire. Even if it was a tame dress, there wasn’t a chance any of the male viewers were going to give a shit what he looked like or what he was wearing. Though.. if the guys cared about what he was wearing, he doubted they were the type of guy that would be checking out Madeline anyways. “ Alright, next question.. Who will be the most emotional at the O’Neil-Foster wedding?” the interviewer asked and again they matched paddles, both offering up Joel’s picture. Madeline laughed when she saw Joel had chosen himself as well and leaned into his chest as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and gave her a quick hug. “ Joel ? Really?” he questioned and Joel nodded. “ Yeah it’s uh… I mean, I’m getting a brother. How often does someone come into your life? And especially as something as meaningful as a sibling. Ryan’s great.. He’s not just marrying Madeline. He’s already a member of our family. The rest is paperwork,” he said, tapping the paddle against the edge of his knee. “ Fair enough,.. fair enough.. This one should be interesting, who is the prettiest?” he asked. Joel made a face as Madeline held up her paddle instantly but debated between two of the three paddles before finally lifting his own. “ You guys matched AGAIN. Ryan O’Neil.. he is pretty beautiful,” the interviewer said while he adjusted in his seat. “ I’m pretty sure when you look in the dictionary under ‘beautiful’ Ryan’s picture is there,” Madeline said as she switched the way her legs were crossed. “ It’s distracting really, how breathtaking he is. I mean… to this day, and we’re engaged, he’ll talk and I don’t even know what he says sometimes because I’m just so enchanted by how jaw-dropping he is,.. and his beauty is only that much more prominent when you get to know how kind and amazing he is on the inside,” Madeline said and Joel nodded in agreement, “ I would.. unfortunately, agree to that,” he said as he ran his hands together.

“ Stealing a phrase that you’ve helped rocket, Joel.. Who has the most swagger?” the interviewer asked. Joel narrowed his eyebrows up before holding up a paddle with Madeline’s picture, where she held up Ryan’s. “ Are you ridiculous? I don’t have swagger, I’m a girl,” Madeline said as she rolled her eyes. “ No, she’s got swagger. Show of hands..” Joel said, looking away from the interviewer and to the men in the crew behind the cameras, “ How many of you would like to hit on my sister?..As disturbing as that sentence is. Yeah. See. I mean.. I’m telling you right now. People say my fans have fever but uh.. if Madeline wanted to be a singer, and Logan took her under his wing, with her looks, and natural… appeal? This is awkward. She has swagger. Why who did you pick?” he asked, before Madeline held up her Ryan picture. “ Of course,” he said without any surprise.Joel rolled his eyes before he held up Madeline’s picture over her face to cover her and gave her a gentle nudge on the shoulder. “ Who visits home the most?” the interviewer asked. Joel laughed as Madeline pushed his hand away from her face so that she could hold her picture up and he did the same as well. “ Madeline is a huge daddy’s girl, “ he offered, before laughing, “ But my dad is a huge O’Neil fan, so they might be tied. He visits just as often with her,” he offered. But instantly his phone started going off in his pocket and he scrunched his nose up, making an apologetic face as he reached into his pocket and looked down at his phone, seeing Bentley’s name across the screen. “ Sorry about that,” he said, putting the phone on silent before he slid it back in his pocket and looked back over at the interviewer.

[Madeline Lea O'Neil]

“ So you’re both from South Africa and Ryan is from Arizona.. who is the most ‘New York’ out of everyone?” he asked and this one actually stumped Madeline, and judging by the way Joel was hesitating too he was stumped. But they both reluctantly held up Ryan’s picture before Madeline decided to best explain it, “ I think Ryan is more California, Arizona than he is New York but.. I guess he looks the most New York. He’s sort of grungy looking, like he might need a shower..” she said before Joel laughed, giving a nod. “ That’s why I picked him too” Madeline ran her hand over the front of her leg as Joel popped his knuckles and looked over at the interviewer waiting for his next question. “ Who has the most passionate fans?”. Easy . They both held up Joels’ picture for that one – if by passionate you meant ‘crazy’. ‘Most known for their body?”, Which Madeline thought was too obvious, and apparently Joel did too, so they both jokingly held up Ryan’s picture. Madeline couldn’t help but laugh at the fact that Joel seemed to be on the same wave length as her. “ Oh wow,” she said out of amusement before she ran her hand through her hair and adjusted the way she was sitting. “ Who is the most talented?” he asked and Madeline winced, ‘ I don’t want to answer that. If I say Joel then I’m not supporting Ryan, if I say Ryan I’m not supporting Joel… I don’t like it. Can I decline?” she asked and the interviewer laughed as he shook his head, “ Um.. God, alright they’re both really talented but…” she said, quietly, finally holding up Ryan’s picture, “ I think he just might have talent in more areas.” Madeline said, trying to seem nice about it. “ No, I mean no offense, I pick Ryan, too. Madeline, you’re crazy talented and very smart. Ryan acts like a teenager, but he’s got the soul of some old man. He’s insanely talented. He puts his heart into his work, this new album he’s working on is.. life changing. I uh.. The only other record I would compare to it would be some of Shane’s work with Therapy. I think people misconstrue what talent is a lot. And I think Ryan has more ability to truly impact people. He’s profound, deep, thoughtful, gifted… Not that you aren’t all of those things either Madeline,” Joel said, giving her a loose hug. “ This is like a huge Ryan love fest. Is it always like this?”the interviewer asked and Madeline laughed, “ Usually we wear ‘ I heart Ryan O’Neil shirts and sing his songs in a circle while we talk about how amazing he is,” she said jokingly.

“ Whose performance did yo look most forward to last night?” he asked and Madeline held up Ryan’s sign again without hesitation, whereas Joel offered Madeline’s. “ I love getting to hang out with Madeline when she is working. I love it more when she is wearing a robe, but.. she gets to come out to our shows so often, and really her entire year centers around this one night. I was excited for her, and I was glad Ryan and I got to be a part of it. It’s fun going to those things, it’s fun being on set with her when she is doing a commercial or photo shoot with the girls,” he said before looking over at Madeline holding up Ryan’s picture. “ She’s going to pick Ryan EVERY time..for everything!” Joel said while shaking his head.Madeline blinked like she was confused as she looked over at the interviewer, offering simply, “ I really like Ryan..” she said, gesturing her hand up as if that made complete and perfect sense to everyone. “ I think we’ve established that,” the interviewer said with a laugh before he rested in his seat, “ Alright you can put the paddles down I think we’ve gotten far enough with that game, we can get to the actual questions now,” he said before gesturing for them to go ahead and set the paddles down.

[Joel Carter Foster]

“ So both of you are in the limelight, both of you are used to seeing each others names in the press. Joel what’s it like knowing that your sister is half naked on the internet, on tv, in ads?” he asked and Joel lowered the glass of water from his lips and gave a cough as he thought it over. “ I don’t know if you guys know this but there is her entire naked body on the internet from some.. artistic shots she did or something. Sorry mom… Sorry Madeline. But I uh.. I tend to not google my sister. I just get told about it. My favorite pictures of her are one that Ryan takes, that she shows me. I’m sure he takes others that he doesn’t show me,” he said uncomfortably as he rolled his shoulder and rested his arm back behind Madeline again. “I’m sure plenty of people are pulling up their google search engines right now. And Madeline what’s it like having every girl in the world in love with your brother?” he asked and Madeline pursed her lips together. “ I guess it hasn’t really.. changed. I mean the scale of it is much larger. But girls have loved Joel since as long as I can remember. He has a personality that’s really engaging and it pulls you in. Many girls had fallen victim to it, and I guess the more famous he becomes, the more it makes sense that more people would love him,” she said before Joel smiled, “ Aw,” he said, shaking the back of Madeline’s hair gently, enough to annoy her but not enough to actually mess it up.

“ What was it like growing up with each other?” the interviewer asked and Joel looked over at Madeline offering a smile. “ I think.. a lot of people might get the idea that growing up with Madeline was difficult, or that she might have been high maintenance. But really, it was just.. we went on safari’s every weekend. I went to her track meets as a kid. We fought, we were there for each other when times were tough. She used to talk about wanting to go to school to be a teacher, and.. that surely changed, literally overnight. I was always in talent shows, or trying to perform, and she found her passion before I was able to break out in mine because someone saw her walking down a street,” he said while laughing, “ But uh it was great. She wears a lot more tight clothing and heels now than she did, but she’s the same girl. When she steps foot in Africa, takes off the heels, gets back in the Jeep it’s like she’s never left,” he said before looking over at her with a smile. “ I would say Joel is the same too. We are the same, we just have a little extra spending money. We’ve both had opportunities to reach out to people and I think that’s what makes me most proud of Joel, when he reaches out to help those in need. Which he does often. And I did used to want to be a science teacher, and now that I’ve sort of put that on the back burner I know that when I graduate college and I’m finished modeling my main focus will be philanthropy work. I’d love to head a charity organization,” she said before looking over at Joel who was grinning from ear to ear, “ I’m crazy proud of her, too,” he said with a single nod before he licked his lips.

[Madeline Lea O'Neil]

“ Did you both think that you would end up in this field?” he asked and Madeline widened her eyes instantly and shook her head, “ No, I knew in my heart that Joel would. It was everything he dreamt of. But for me this all sort of happened by accident,” she said , turning to let Joel talk but the interviewer quickly added, “ And how exactly did you get discovered?” he asked and Madeline brought her hand up to the side of her arm where she traced it lazily. “ I was at the market with my mum, and this lady came up to us and asked if I had ever taken a headshot. I had no idea what that was. And then she started telling me I reminded her of a flamingo. Which I thought was pretty insulting, but apparently it was a compliment. Two years later I was in the states. I started being a fit model for Victoria Secret and for some reason they decided to throw me in a show. The rest is history. But I’m beyond thankful. If I hadn’t agreed to go with my mum that day, if I hadn’t begged to stop and look at those earrings, if that woman hadn’t come up to me and my mother,.. there’s so many things that had they changed, I wouldn’t have the most amazing man I’ve ever met in my entire life in my arms, and agreeing to marry me. All of this would mean nothing without him and all of this is because of him. God surely doesn’t care about whether or not my life’s mission of modeling underwear was accomplished, but he knew exactly what he was doing when he set me on the path to meet my future husband,” she said before Joel scoffed, “ Jesus,” he said, running his hand over his hair. “ I put up with this from both of them, all the time. It’s great though, honestly” he said with a smirk. “ You guys seem pretty close, how often do you get a chance to talk? the interviewer asked and Joel struck up immediately. “ Every day.. Every day, skype usually,” he said while nodding.

“ And Ryan, you talk to him every day too? How do you feel about Ryan and Madeline getting married? How do you think their relationship impacted yours with him?” Madeline turned against the armrest to look at Joel as he answered, pushing her hair behind her ear as she focused on him. Joel puffed out his cheeks and tilted his head from side to side, “ Yeah it impacted it. I don’t know if Ryan and I would be as close as we are today if we hadn’t spent that time together at first because of Madeline. I think we would have been friends, but this close? I can’t imagine.. I have no idea. But I think the relationship with her definitely sort of lit a match to the fire of the relationship that Ryan and I have. But that being said, even when they were apart after that, Ryan and I remained close,” he offered with a slight look of annoyance. Madeline looked away from him momentarily. She knew to fully answer that question he would need to talk about David. Joel may be more willing to talk about David in private with others, mainly Ryan, Shane, Logan, Jake,Tyler, but aside from that he kept to himself about it .

[Joel Carter Foster]

“ So he comes to your shows, do you listen to your brothers music?” the interviewer asked and Madeline nodded quickly. “ I do, he has a lot of fun songs. My favorite to just dance and shake my bum to currently is Beauty and a Beat. Otherwise he has some other pieces that I think are really beautiful. Like Pray, and he does U Smile beautifully acoustically, also As Long As You Love Me,” she said before snapping her fingers, “ He has some new songs that I really like too. Love Me Like You Do,” she offered before smiling over in his direction. “ Yeah I’m pretty fortunate that she likes it so much. She tells me what she loves, what she can see her and her friends dancing to at the clubs, or at home like girls do,” he said with a slight chuckle before he shook his head. “ Now, you both seem to be really good at getting what you want. Joel you proposed in front of an entire stadium, that’s pretty ballsy. You don’t go for those things unless you’re absolutely certain they are already yours. Madeline, what was it like dating Ryan O’Neil before and after your marriage to Patrick O’Callaghan? How did you snag the desirable rockstar?” he asked and Madeline bit the inside of her cheek, tapping her fingers against the armrest a few times, “ I was always honest . um.. Well. When I met Ryan he had a girlfriend. And I told her, look I’m really sorry that you’ve been caught in this position. But I’m going to have to take what is mine. And it wasn’t even in a lust sort of,. I want his body way. I genuinely saw him and thought, okay. This is it. What do I have to do to get him? And it all just sort of fell naturally. Eventually he wasn’t with her anymore and one day he played a song at a concert. I stripped down in his private room and showed him just exactly how much I appreciated him. And he’s just been the person I’ve been in love with since the first time I laid my eyes on him. People make mistakes, Patrick was one of them. But even then Ryan stood by my side.” she said simply while offering a shrug of her shoulder. “ This is all a lot of fun to hear about,” Joel added dryly while trying to hold back a look of disgust.

“ Joel, it’s no secret, you tweeted proudly about it.. you’re married. Why so suddenly?” the interviewer questioned and Joel smirked. “ Um. I mean it’s just paper work, we already promised that we were going to spend the rest of our lives together, so what was the sense in putting it off,” he said but the interviewer was pushing it further, “ And what does that life entail for you?”. Joel licked his lips, not wanting Libby to have to watch this interview and hear him drag on about how amazing Tori was, “ Next question,” he said dryly, letting the interviewer know it was time to move on. Joel looked over the shoulder of the interviewer, seeing Ryan stand near a few cameramen with his hands in his front pockets. He gave a small flicker of a smile, moving his knee to nudge Madeline against her leg so she would look up and see him too. ” We want to talk about something that neither of you have really touched on before. Joel, we know why you ran off the bus. We know how you feel about losing those months from your life. But for both of you.. how did it make you feel to see Ryan and his reactions in those pictures from that night, hovering over you, so protective, scared, upset. What was it like for you Madeline to see those photographs so far away, and Joel for you to see them months after the fact?”. Joel took in a deep breath and shook his head with his eyebrows lifted. “ That’s a position that Ryan should have never been in. He was holding someone in his arms that he for all intensive purposes thought was going to die. He held a brother in his arms that he was going to lose, and I can imagine that is the scariest most heart-wrenching feeling someone can have. As a brother, I know first hand how he feels about me. We feel like we should protect each other, that we should never have to face anything on our own. That look on his face if anything I think is failure, on his part. I don’t believe it at all, but I think he thinks he failed. Um.. that look is uh.. it’s seeing his world get rocked. I don’t even look at myself in those pictures. All I see is Ryan, and what he is going through,” he offered, to which Madeline nodded before adding, “ Yeah it’s um.. “ she started. But how did she explain it. How did she explain what it was like to see in photographic evidence that she was losing another brother? Not only that but how did she explain how it felt to see that realization on Ryan’s face in those pictures that he was losing one, to know what she felt when she had lost David? “ Hopeless..” she said before she cleared her throat, trying to think of more words to say. But instead she placed a polite smile, “ I’m sorry,” she said so quietly you almost couldn’t hear it. As she stood up she pulled the microphone from the inside of her dress and took off the pack, dropping it on the couch, before she made her way over to Ryan. Joel lifted his eyebrows as he looked back at the interviewer. Madeline was never the one to show emotion to other people about David, she’d only cried about it to Ryan once. And this interviewer had no idea what he had just stepped in.

Joel bit the inside of his cheek before he looked down at his hands that were held together for the time being. He took in a deep breath before he cleared his throat and smiled up at the interviewer. “ We’re going to be able to edit that somehow right?” he asked as he looked up at everyone. “ Let’s call this good, I’ll go get her,” he offered as he stood up. “ Just give me a minute,” he said, taking his own mic and pack off. Joel walked over to Ryan and Madeline, where Ryan seemed to be taking control of the Madeline situation. He approached them cautiously, looking into both of their eyes before he shook his head, leaning over to give Ryan a quick hug before he turned and looked at Madeline. “ Come here,” he said quietly, waving for her to come towards him as he wrapped his arms around her tightly in a hug and rested his cheek against the outside of her shoulder. “ Madeline why don’t you go do a sign off for the interview, it’ll take like thirty seconds. I’ll do my own. They’ll just show our exits separately, then you two can get out of here,” he said, pushing Ryan’s face to the side just for the sake of pushing him. Joel waited until Madeline finally walked away to do her exit before he looked over at Ryan and gave a small smile. “ Well at least my melt downs aren’t on camera,” he said, wishing he could laugh but at the same time just wanted for Madeline to be okay. Joel placed his hands in his front pockets, not even realizing how similarily him and Ryan were standing as they watched the girl that meant so much to both of them.