TANGLED PLANS

44

Before I'm able to follow after a Max that was no longer in my sight, there's a hand on mine. I turn around to find my brother looking at me with questioning eyes. "Where are you going, Daisy?"

"Um", I say and then come at a blank. I didn't know if I should tell Brayden that I was going to follow after the guy who was pushing everyone away. The same guy who had hurt me. Brayden reads the answer on my face before I even attempt to say it.

His brows pull together as he says, "You're going after him."

"Well", I stammer at my words. I didn't know what I could do to explain my sudden sense that Max wasn't okay. I mean, others could see it as well, but there was something in me that thought that it was bigger than he let on. Bigger than what others thought as well.

"Daisy, I want to tell you that you shouldn't", Brayden says and then I can see him reasoning this in his head. Then he sighs and says, "But your Daisy. You believe there's something there and you want to find it. Go on, find it in Max. But, Daisy?"

"Yeah, yeah", I answer my brother surprised that he was saying all this. Brayden gives my hand a squeeze and says, "Know when to not listen to him okay? Actually, just don't listen to anything he says."

"Okay, I'll have him ready for us to leave in fifteen minutes", I say to him and hold up my phone to indicate that I will text him the details. Brayden nods and moves away from me and toward Vanessa. I leave the rest of them and am fortunate to find that the people that were once staring at the scene with Max and Brayden just now have looked away.

I'm glad that I wasn't interesting enough for them to wiat around to hear from either. Exhaling a breath and then taking a sharp one, I head through the crowd and through where I assumed I saw Max head. At this point, I'm just going to seek him because I had no idea where he was. I head through the hallway and search every bedroom but come up short.

Checking the bathroom takes a long time and as I ask around people for where they may have seen Max, they stare at me dumbfounded. In the moment, I realzie why I never wanted to talk to anyone before. When people don't know you, they stare at you without answering even if the question you were asking was serious. They took stranger danger a little too seriously.

"Oh come on," I whisper to myself as I head out of the hallway and toward the front door. I think I heard a door slam right before Brayden had grabbed my hand. Once I'm standing ouside, I'm glad that the last warmth of the weather was still here; I didn't want to be cold. Being cold and irrated hurt me in a different way, it felt as if I could feel the cold through my stomach. It's weird and yet...it happens.

A silhouette draws my attention to the street across from the house. I zero my eyes in to realzie that the car Max was sitting on top of was my brother's car. Looking both ways, I cross the street and head over to the car. I have to get to the sidewalk before I can gather his attention.

Once I'm standing in front of him, I find Max staring out at the sky, his hands popping himself up. He is gazing intently at the sky while his leg was the only thing moving consistently. There's the alcholol working on him. "Max?", I call out and when he hears his name, he looks down to find me.

He places a hand in front of his eyes and blinks a few times. "Sweetheart?", he asks back and I can hear the excitment in his voice.

"Or Daisy works as well", I try to joke with him trying to see where his head was at now. I'm treading lightly, I don't want to be the reason he spins out of control again. Max's teeth flash in the dark as he says, "Okay, but I like calling you sweetheart."

"Okay," I say dismissing the subject even though I was going to think about it later to debrief it. I then look up at him and then down at the ground. "Care to join me down here?"