Following Brent

Chapter 6

"So..." Tyler replied, waving a hand over my face to get my attention.

Forced to pause the game, I sighed in annoyance. "Ty," I deadpanned. "Why is this a big deal?"

He rolled his eyes. "Are you going to say yes?"

I thought about it for a second. When I was 13, people started telling me about how obvious Madison Vaughn's crush on me was. At that time, I had no idea who she was, but because people kept mentioning her name around me, I started noticing her. I hated the attention I was getting because of her. People were constantly teasing me about her and it pushed me off edge. I guess that in between it all, I somehow just decided to avoid the unwanted attention by deliberately ignoring her altogether.

"Nah," I concluded. "I don't even wanna go, really."

The next day, when I saw Madison waiting outside the school, I knew what she was going to do. Tiptoeing, she stretched her neck and squinted her eyes, scanning the crowd of students scrambling out the school doors. I wasn't entirely sure why I did it, but I crouched down and hid my way to the bus.

Right then, watching her look around the airport for someone, she looked exactly like she did two years ago; excited and nervous at the same time. Remembering that moment, I immediately felt guilty. I was an ass.

I forced myself out of the flashback and was about to call out her name when someone else beat me to it.

"Maddy!" Some tall guy with a British accent called out. He looked more excited than she did.

"Dyl-Dyl!" She squealed and I watched as she dropped her bags and ran to hug him. She wrapped her legs around him and I caught myself rolling my eyes. He spun her in a circle as they laughed.

My stomach churned. I quickly turned away, feeling like I wasn't supposed to be watching them. I looked down at the notebook and I knew I had to go give it to her, but I couldn't bring myself to look back for some reason. And that annoyed me. Madison Vaughn was confusing. One moment, she's following you around, and the next, she's wrapped around some other guy in the middle of an airport. Why were they even hugging that way in public? Did they not know they were attracting attention? Could they not see that they were blocking the way? What kind of name was 'Dyl-Dyl' anyway?

I shook my head, forcing the thoughts away with an irritated grunt. It wasn't like I cared what they did. It wasn't any of my business. With that, I stormed out the airport in search of my Aunt Anna. She was probably already waiting for me.

I took my phone out of my pocket but before I could dial her number, I heard an all-too-familiar voice call out from behind me, "Well, aren't you a handsome lad! It must be in your genes to be good looking!"

The scowl on my face immediately turned into a smile as I turned around and exclaimed, "There you are! I was just about to call."

Aunt Anna pulled me in an extremely tight bear hug, practically squishing the air out of me. "You've grown so much since the last time I saw you!"

"Can't say the same about you," I teased, pointing out our height difference. The last time we were in England, I was about as tall as Aunt Anna. Now, I had to have been at least five inches taller.

She laughed, pulled away from me and pinched my cheeks extra hard. "Glad to see you're just as cheeky! Now, lets not mention my height. Ever."

"I missed you, Aunt Anna," I said genuinely, hugging her again.

She rubbed my back and replied, "Oh, I know, dear. I've missed you too. It gets lonely out here." After a few seconds, she pulled away and held my face in her hands. "Now, what do you say we head on home so you could get settled, yeah?"