Catch a Rising Star

Reconciliation and Feelings

Catch a Rising Star

A/N: Finally! I've finished this chapter after a long while! I hope I didn't keep you guys waiting for too long. So let's just get on with Chapter 12. Roll it!

Chapter 12

Reconciliation and Feelings

It had been a few minutes of them walking in an awkward and tense silence. Poppy was almost playing with her fingers as the silence ate at her brain, while Branch was walking a few paces ahead of her, a deep frown etched on his face, his hand holding the strap of his duffel bag tightly, his knuckles almost turning white from how tight his grip was.

Finally, Poppy just couldn't take the awkward silence anymore. She picked up her own pace to walk alongside Branch.

"Hey." She said, getting his attention. "You okay?"

Branch's scowl only deepened. "Now you're concerned?" He asked her accusingly.

"I've always been concerned." Poppy answered him, a little confused about why he was still angry at her.

The black-haired man just scoffed. "Well, maybe you should stop." He said.

The pink-haired superstar groaned in annoyance. "Okay, why are you so grumpy?" She demanded, having no more patience left with her grouchy companion.

"I'm not grumpy or cranky or crabby." Branch said with a little bite in his tone. "I just want to get home to my family, explaining to them why I disappeared, and then suffer the consequences."

Poppy bit back another groan of annoyance. Just when she thought that she had finally figured this guy out, he then threw her another curveball. Well, she was not going to have any more confusion for the first time in the span of two days.

"Do you know what I want?" She asked him. "I want to have fun, okay? For the first time in years, there's no reporters, there's no interviewers, there's no crowds. I'm having a great time! I want you to stop complaining so I can enjoy it."

Branch stopped walking, and that got Poppy to think that she got her point across as she continued to walk ahead of him. But then she heard him speaking snarkily from behind her.

"Oh, so that's what it's like for you?" He demanded. "You don't get what you want, so you throw a tantrum like a little kid and then just walk away?"

He then scoffed with disdain. "You know, I bet your friends chase after you when you do that. Brat!"

Poppy spun back around and faced him with an indignant look. "What, I'm a brat? I'm a brat?" She asked him. "What about you, huh?"

"Me?" Branch questioned in disbelief, pointing to himself.

"Yeah!" Poppy exclaimed, as if it was really obvious. "In the last two days, I have done nothing but thinking about you."

Normally, if she had been thinking straight, she would've been mortified by what she had just said, but honestly, she was too angry to even care.

"Really?" Branch challenged, crossing his arms. "So when you hit me with a door twice, hid me in your house, wrecked my grandma's car, and dropped me in mud, you were just being thoughtful?"

He narrowed his eyes at her. "Oh, I pity your friends."

Poppy just rolled her own eyes. "You wish you were one." She muttered.

Branch took one step closer to her, his sky blue eyes practically slits, his hot breath slightly fanning across her mud-streaked face.

"I'd rather go down with Dahlia." He said snipely, before continuing to walk away from her, trying to keep his distance.