Chapter 15

Saturday comes sooner than I expected. I've been informed that we'll be going out to dinner and playing mini-golf on this date. I'm not exactly a fan of mini-golf but then again, this isn't my date. It's Abel's and his prospective partner, whose name I have yet to learn. Hopefully, she's a nice girl. The last thing Abel needs is another Hailey.

And this girl, whoever she is, needs to think that Maddox and I are dating. According to Abel, if she finds out that Maddox and I aren't dating, then she'll think that Abel just wants to be friends. Or worse, she'll think that we're only there because Abel doesn't want to be alone with her. I don't know if Abel told Maddox this fact. I have a feeling he didn't because I'm sure I'd have received several texts from his younger brother telling me that the 'group meeting', which is what he's been referring to it as, is off.

I'm waiting outside practically freezing to death. I hate the winters here. Back home, it's probably a nice, cool temperature. Here, it's so cold that I can see my breath and my body is literally shaking. Eventually, my aunt arrives at Burger King and immediately notices the nervous look on my face. "What's wrong?" she wonders as she turns up the heat for me.

I shrug as I take off my name tag and hat and shove them in my bag. I sigh comfortably at the warmth of the car. "I have a date, if you want to call it that, tonight," I explain.

"A date?" she asks with a grin. "With who?"

"Uh, you don't know him," I tell her nervously. If I even whisper the name Maddox, my father will grow wings and fly here to beat the teenage boy up. "Besides, it not a real date."

"Not a real date?" my aunt continues to question in a slightly confused state.

"Yeah, we're just doing our friend a favor," I explain with a wave of a hand. "It's a double date, but the original couple cancelled so we're just filling in."

"What's this boy's name?" she asks me. Think, think, think.

"Uh, Kai-Leo-Parker," I blurt like an idiot. Kai-Leo-Parker? What's wrong with me?

"Kyle Parker?" my aunt repeats with furrowed brows.

"Yeah, he's in my math class," I lie smoothly. "We're just friends."

"Speaking of friends, when am I going to meet yours?" my aunt prompts me and I want to sigh. I guess I can't dodge her anymore. By the looks of things, I'm going to be here until the summer.

"I don't know. I can always have them over for a study group," I suggest as I stare out the window. "Midterms are coming up and they're freaking out."

"Good to know they care about their grades," she interprets. I keep my eyes locked out the window as I hold back a laugh. They're totally not freaking out about the fact that they haven't picked up their textbooks since the day they received them.

"Yeah, so is next Saturday good?" I decide. I can have them over after I work.

"Yeah, that's great," she confirms. "I have the day off. I'll make a nice dinner. How many friends are coming over?"

Deciding only to invite the people I attend school with, I count them up in my head. I also include Abel, because why not? "Seven."

"How's pizza?" my aunt decides with a grin. I laugh in response.

"Pizza's great."

+ + +

I'm ready at six thirty, dressed in a simple shirt, jean, cardigan, and boot ensemble. Maddox tells me he'll be picking me up shortly so I hurry to gather the contents of my purse. When he arrives at the house, he lets his presence be known with his usual honk so I glance out the window. I cringe when I see my aunt approaching his car. I let out a quiet squeal as I grab my purse and practically throw myself down the steps. Somehow, I manage to reach her before she can get to his car and say anything to him.

"Hey, Aunt Gen," I call to her her, breathing heavily. "What's my curfew?"

"When's the date over?" she asks me with a smirk on her lips. She glances behind me at the familiar car and I shift awkwardly, trying to think of a lie as to why Maddox's car is idling in front of the house.

"I don't know, honestly. I'm only tagging along," I reiterate the point again and she seems amused.

"I trust you to get home safely. Text me when you're on your way," she insists and I bob my head up and down, waiting for her to turn and walk back tot he house. She points delicately over my shoulder before lightly touching her chin. "Isn't that Maddox's car?"

"What?" I blurt at the mention of the boy waiting in the vehicle a few feet away. "Who?"

"Maddox," she reminds me with another swift point at the car. I swore in my head before giving a slow nod. How can I deny it?

"Uh, yeah, Maddox and Kyle are brothers," I lie horribly.

"You never told me that Maddox had another brother," she announces with a tilted head. I can tell she's starting to add it all up so I decide to subtract myself.

"Well, now you know! Anyway, I have to go! I love you and I'll see you later!" I distract her with a hug and a quick kiss to her cheek. She waves as I get into the car, feeling a rush of gratitude for tinted windows. I demand that Maddox step on the gas and sigh in relief when he does.

"Where's your coat?" he wonders when we we're a good ten minutes from the house. I glance down to see that I only have on my cardigan. I swear and his eyes widen slightly.

"I left it in my room," I mutter with a quiet sigh. Outdoor mini-golf is going to be fun. He gives me a curious look. "I was trying to stop my aunt from realizing that it was you in the car and not Kai-Leo-Parker."

"Who's Kai-Leo-Parker?" Maddox asks in a state of pure confusion.

"The boy I'm going on a date with," I grumble as I crank up the heat. Maddox gives me another lost look and I sigh. "I lied to my aunt about who I was going on a date with because she would've told my father that I was with you, and you know how my father is. She recognized your car and I said that Kyle, which is what she heard when I clearly said Kai-Leo-Parker, was your brother."

"Parker? My last name is Finnegan," he absorbs from my quick rant.

"Different fathers, Maddox," I roll my eyes. "Anyway, soon she's going to realize that this Kyle person doesn't exist and I'm going to get in trouble either way."

"Hopefully you get grounded," he grumbles as he turns the car.

"Oh, by the way, are you busy next Saturday?" I ask, completely ignoring his rude remark.

"Do you want my planner? You want to hang out so much, you might as well track my every move," he retorts with a wave of his hand. I stare at him and allow my head to fall on a tilt.

"You have a planner?" I question in slight surprise.

"That's beside the point!" he groans, which gets a laugh from me. 

"Oh, yeah, about Saturday- my aunt wants to meet my friends," I elaborate as I hover my hands in front of the heater.

"Why would I be going?" he presses with a raised brow. I stare at him for a few seconds, knowing good and well he didn't just ask that. I literally met his parents, who were under the impression that I was his girlfriend.

"I'll repeat myself in case you didn't hear me: my aunt wants to meet my friends," I reiterate slowly.

He roll his eyes but doesn't complain more. "Whatever."

"So you'll go?" I ask as I take out my phone. I may as well ask everyone right now.

"Sure," he confirms.

"Okay, good, one down, six more to go," I nod as I send out messages to my friends.

+ + +

When we arrive at the restaurant, which isn't anything too fancy but it definitely isn't a McDonald's, I enter with Maddox. He speaks to a man at the front while I respond to my friend's messages, who are all confirming our plans for Saturday. Maddox clears his throat and I realize that we're going to join Abel, who is probably in the back of the restaurant.

I follow Maddox through the dim lit place and we approach a table with two empty seats. Abel's date is sitting across from him with a large grin on her face. Her dark hazelnut eyes are glinting as she laughs at something Abel says and I can't help but smile. Her beam is contagious. Her smooth brown skin contrasts with the pretty white blouse she's dressed in and I notice that Abel too is wearing white. I wonder if it was planned.

"Maddox! Olivia!" Abel greets us with a smile. "This is Caroline."

After the brief introduction, I sit down beside Caroline and across from Maddox, who stands his menu up so he won't have to look at me. I notice that Abel, however, is giving Caroline his undivided attention. I sigh and match Maddox's actions, burying myself behind the menu.

Once we place our orders, Abel decides to start up a conversation, which leads to Caroline turning to me and asking me a question that changes the entire aura of the room. "So how long have you and Maddox been dating?" she asks casually.

Almost immediately, Maddox's crouched figure becomes stiff as if preparing to say something when I pipe up. "Two months," I answer simply. Maddox's head snaps to me and I smile at him, lift my leg, and give him a small kick under the table. He immediately jumps back as my foot makes contact.

"Really?" she asks with a happy smile. She brushes a twist from her face and tucks it behind her ear.

I glare at Maddox and he nods his head from his cramped position. "Yes," he confirms, sounding slightly high pitched. Abel snorts and tried to cover it up with a cough when Caroline looks at him.

"You guys are so cute together," Caroline grins as she looks between Maddox and I with a smile.

"Can I talk to you for a second, Olive?" Maddox questions with his voice slowly returning to normal. "In private?"

"Okay," I agree as I slowly stand up. I smile at Caroline and Abel, who give us a slow nod. "We'll be back in a moment."

Maddox takes me to the side hallway where the bathrooms are. "What was that about?" he asks as he points back there

"What?" I play dumb.

"Two months," he utters in a feminine tone.

"Just go with it. I'll explain it later," I respond with a wave of my hand. I notice a pained look on his face and I look at him with furrowed brows. "What's wrong with you?"

"You kicked me," he reminds me as he leans against the wall. His hand lightly holds his stomach.

"Calm down, it was only a tap on the leg," I say with a roll of my eyes.

He shakes his head with a small frown on his face. "It wasn't my leg."

"Well...this is awkward," I mutter.

+ + +

"So, how about these bread sticks?" Abel asks after a few moments of silence. I'm still red in the face about the fact that my foot made contact with Maddox's private parts. I want to apologize but he doesn't seem to be in pain any longer and he appears to be over it. I don't want to bring back the tension.

"They're very good," I continue on the conversation.

"They're very good," Maddox mocks me quietly.

"Shut up," I snap back with squinted eyes.

"Shut up," Maddox mocks me again as he waves around the bread like a wand.

"I'm stupid," I attempt to trick him.

"That you are," he responds, sitting up when he sees the food arriving. Caroline lets out an amused chuckle and I glance at Abel, who's also staring at the food like a maniac.

Once the food is put on the table and everyone starts digging in, Caroline turns to me and asks another question. "You're new to Harrington, right?"

I nod. "Yeah, I've been here since October,"

Conversation slowly dies down and Abel decides to lift it back up with an interesting fact. "Did you know that Maddox played the flute in the fifth grade?" the older brother blurts.

Maddox, who is stuffing his face with ribs, looks up. I let out a laugh as I imagine the boy across from me playing an instrument as delicate as the flute. "Are you serious?" I ask.

Abel bobs his head quickly. "Yes!"

"I was forced to!" Maddox tries to defend but Abel scoffs and gives me and Carolina a dubious look.

"That's not true at all!" Abel retorts. "There was another trumpet position open but you didn't want to play that."

"Shut up, Abel," Maddox hisses but this just eggs Abel on.

"Maddox also used to have a pet hamster named Queenie," Abel confesses and now Maddox just sits back in his seat with crossed arms. Caroline chuckles politely, trying not to make it seem like she's laughing at Maddox. I, on the other hand, am in tears at the idea of Maddox with a pet hamster and a flute. He probably played Queenie to sleep.

"Well, Abel used to dance to Beyoncé in his room when he thought he was home alone," Maddox bites back. "And this was only a year ago."

Caroline is now hunched over laughing, and so am I. The dinner continues with the brothers sharing embarrassing tidbits about each other and us girls laughing.

+ + +

We finish dinner and, despite my offers as a working woman, Maddox pays. As we walk to the car, Maddox admits to me that he doesn't want to play mini-golf, and assuming I have his confidentiality, I confess that I'm also not in the mood for mini-golf. But because Maddox is Maddox, he phones his brother, even though he's only about twenty yards away, and tells him that we were going to ditch the last activity of the night. By the lack of protesting coming from the other side of the phone, I could tell that Abel was okay with it. He seemed comfortable enough around Caroline and she definitely was enjoying his presence.

It's only eight thirty and I'm already heading home. For some reason, I didn't want the night to end. I had a lot of fun at dinner and the idea of heading home to a house with Vivica and her friends doesn't seem very appealing. I considering suggesting that we hang out some more but don't want Maddox to think that I like him or something.

Thirty minutes of driving later, I turn to Maddox curiously. "Where are we going?" I ask him when I fail to recognize the area we're in.

"We're taking a detour; I hope you don't mind. Actually, I don't care if you do because I'm driving," he responds and I offer up a slow nod. I turn my attention back out the window, wondering whether or not I should be happy with the change in plans.

About twenty minutes later, we arrive at a cliff like area, surrounded by trees. There's a clearing a few ways out and I watch as Maddox unbuckles his seatbelt. Slowly, I get out of the car and follow behind him. We enter the clearing and come upon upon a grassy, gated off cliff. I looking down and notice a particularly large body of water. I'm too busy staring at the water below to notice that Maddox has disappeared. I turn around and realize that he's nowhere in sight.

"If that idiot left me here alone," I grumble under my breath. As I walk along the gate, I hear a grunt and I look down to see Maddox sitting on the grass and gazing up at the stars.

"What are you doing?" I ask him as I look at the area he's seated in. The grass is probably wet with melted snow and rain and there's probably mud everywhere. He surprises me by yanking my hand and pulling me down beside him. I drop to my knees and slowly extend my legs out in front of me. I'm surprised that the grass is only slightly damp. I rest my arms back and peer up at the sky.

It's quiet for a while before I decide to speak up and break the silence. "Did you play the flute here?"

Maddox chuckles quietly before it turns to full-fledged laughter. I stare, mostly because I'm shocked at the fact that Maddox is laughing. I'm even more started because he's laughing at something that I said. I stare at him for a moment in the glow of the moon. 

His green eyes seems to glow like the large circle in the sky. The big smile on his face is complimented by his light pink lips and his straight, white teeth. His hand messes up his dark waves, which fall nicely on his head. Of course I realized how good looking he is but it doesn't really register with me until he's smiling and relaxing. My eyes flit back down to his mouth and I remember the time he kissed me at the party. He was drunk, and the kiss only lasted for a second but I remember what his lips felt like. They were soft. The memory is seared into my mind. I mean, it was my first kiss. I wonder what my second one will be like, and I wonder if it will be with the boy beside me.

I let out a quiet sigh and he looks at me and furrows his eyebrows. "Why are you looking at me like that?" he blurts, which immediately dissipates the desire building in my chest.

"What?" I ask him as I slowly shake my head to pull myself from the trance I was in. He moves away from me and mutters something about me trying to kiss him. "I'm not going to kiss you, you idiot!" I think I was going to. Oh my gosh. I think I was going to kiss him.

"I'm not a rebound, Olive," he jokes as he stretches out onto his back. "Just because you're jealous of Caroline doesn't mean you can try to kiss me."

"I'm not jealous and I was not going to try to kiss you!" I retort as my face burns red. What was that? Why was I thinking about him in that way? This is Maddox we're talking about! I don't want to kiss him!

"Sure you weren't," he drawls with a roll of his eyes. "You were just staring at me with that weird look in your eyes."

"That was shock," I attempt to cover up as I ignore the blush that travels to my cheeks. "Because you laughed at something I said, and because you were smiling."

"But you're blushing," he acknowledges with a weak point at my face.

"Because you're talking about kissing," I try to justify.

"You were staring at my mouth," he responds casually, as if we're talking about the weather.

"Do you have to point out everything?" I snap once I run out of excuses.

"Yes," he answers simply.

"I can point things out too, you know?" I retort as I cross my arms over my chest. He simply scoffs as if he doesn't believe me.

"What is there to point out?" he wonders with a raised brow.

"You blushed when I hugged you. Whether you want to admit it or not, you're sentimental. You notice the small things. You do care even when you say you don't. You're nicer than you lead people to believe," I list and a scowl falls onto his face.

"Shut up," he murmurs.

"Exactly," I reply before we fall into silence. We continue to stare at the stars and I'm grateful he let the conversation drop. At least he's quiet now. I can't say the same for me; my teeth chatter noisily as I shiver. 

"Are you cold or something?" he blurts. I nod, which gets a scoff and shake of a head from him. "You should've brought a sweater. That's what you get for trying to look cute."

"I forgot my coat. I didn't worry about looking cute," I retort with a matching pout.

"Good because you failed," he concurs with a quick look at my outfit. I elbow him in the side and he turns to look at me. With a sigh, he pulls himself up. "Stay here. Don't fall off the cliff, or something."

I remain there with my gaze locked on the grass as I lose myself in thought. Why did I want to kiss Maddox? I mean, it has to be because this is a romantic situation, right? I mean, we're sitting under the sky, staring at the moon and the stars. That's the only reasonable explanation, right? I mean, he hates me! And I'm definitely not his biggest fan! That has to be it. I mean, I can't possibly like Maddox, right? I can't. It's not possible.

I feel something hit my back and Maddox plops down beside me again. I shoves my thoughts to the back of my mind as I reach behind me. I pull the soft item onto my lap and look at it. I realize that it's a sweater. As I go to put it on, I sniff it and enjoy the scent. "Thanks," I mutter in a muffled voice as I tug my head through. "It smells good."

I get the sweater onto my torso and he lifts my arm and sniffs the red hoodie. "I don't smell anything," he concludes after a few seconds.

"It smells like you," I explain with a shrug. His eyes search mine for a second and I hate myself for the way my heart races.

"And this is why you're weird," he mutters.

"What? I'm just saying," I shrug as I pull the sleeves up a bit. They fall back over my hands.

We lay side by side in silence, both completely absorbed by our own thoughts. Our feet lightly knock against each other in a pattern. My foot hits his and then his food hits mine and repeat. Eventually, Maddox announces the time. "We should start heading back. It's almost eleven," he mumbles as he sits up.

"Wait," I stop him as I reach out my hand and grab his forearm.

"What?" he asks, yanking me up. I'm surprised that he didn't shake off my hand.

"Why do you hate me so much?" I ask him curiously. He stares down at me and purses his lips. I watch as the wheels turn in his head as he searches for a good enough answer.

"I don't hate you. You're just...weird," he mutters in response. He glances at me out of the corner of his eyes as he tucks his hands in his pockets. I smile widely at him and attempt to wrap my arm around his shoulder, which is a struggle because he's much taller than me.

"So you don't mind my hugs?" I teasingly ask and he shrugs my arm off of him and shoots me a threatening look.

"You make everything so weird," he grunts in a hushed voice as we walk back to the car.

I simply grin at him as I swing my arms around. The excess sleeves slap around in the slight breeze and I get a kick out of watching them. "Good weird, right?"

"I'm not quite sure, to be honest," he responds quietly.