His Sister ➣ s.m

o n e

Maddie's POV

"Maddie, hurry up, we have to go!" Cameron yells from down stairs, his heavy footsteps audibly pacing back and forth on the linoleum.

I pack one more pair of shorts in my suitcase, stuffing everything else down with difficulty so that I can zip my suitcase up. Finally, after basically sitting on the clothes, the suitcase agrees to zip all the way. I let out an exhausted sigh.

I grab my white earbuds and my charger off my desk and stuff them in my purse, double checking I have everything.

"Come on, Madeleine! Your flight is in a couple hours and we still have to drive to the airport!" My mom yells after me. I roll my eyes. My mom and brother always get super nervous we'll miss our flight, but we always arrive too early.

"Stop yelling at me! I'm almost done!" I yell angrily after her. Her ascending footsteps on the staircase become louder as she approaches my room. I grab all my bags and my phone quickly before she has the chance to yell at me any more.

I pad down the staircase to meet an anxiously waiting Cameron, passing my mom on the stairs. He sits on the small bench in the entryway, texting with fast-paced fingers. His eyes light up when he catches me out of the corner of his eye.

"Finally. Come on, let's go." Cameron says calmly, grabbing his single, black suitcase and his charger from the wall outlet, following me out the door.

We pile our bags in the back of my mom's SUV as she comes out of the house, locking the front door behind her and turning off the porch light as well. She hides the key under the fake rock in the planter by the door.

My mom gets in the driver's seat, and Cameron beats me to shotgun, so I'm stuck in the back with the rest of the luggage that we couldn't manage to fit in the trunk.

I take one last glance at my house as we pull out of our driveway, since I won't see it again for months. We pull away from our small neighborhood and onto the highway, not giving a second glance back.

Cameron flicks on the radio, turning it to his favorite music station and begins lip-syncing the lyrics to himself. My mind wanders to the exciting events coming in the next couple of months, excited and nervous to be traveling all over the country with my brother and his friends.

I close my eyes, leaning my head against the cold, dewy glass, drifting off into a peaceful nap.

• • • •

It's several hours before the vehicle stops. I'm only half awake, too exhausted from the eternal car ride to even open my eyes. Cameron gets out and closes his door, his footsteps coming around to my side. Abruptly, he opens my door, causing me to fall out of the car and onto the hard pavement.

Talk about a rude awakening.

"Cameron!" I exclaim, examining my scraped palm and knee. Other bystanders at the airport drop off stop to stare at us.

"Damn it, Maddie. How many times have I told you to wear your seatbelt?" he scolds, kneeling down and scooping me up in his arms. He closes the door with his foot.

"I couldn't buckle my seatbelt because your stuff was blocking the buckle." I point out. He ignores me as he carries me around to the other side of the car to get our luggage.

My mom gets out, taking a glance at us. Without saying anything, she grabs our luggage, rolling them into the airport after us.

I think she's used to us always having conflicts to the point that she's just given up trying to straighten them out.

We hug and kiss our mom goodbye and watch her as she walks back out to the car. As she pulls away, I see her swipe the back of her hand across her eyes quickly to wipe away her tears.

Cameron sets me back down so that we can roll our own suitcases in, my knee stinging under my weight.

We go through the line to get our plane tickets and go through security, eventually reaching the almost-empty waiting lobby. All of Cameron's friends are there, waiting quietly on the benches. I roll my eyes, not wanting to go talk to any of them, especially since getting dumped out on the curb has put me into a very salty mood.

I walk over to the little gift shop and purchase a small, travel-size box of bandages for my knee. I thank the cashier, sitting down in a chair along the wall to wipe the blood off my little scrapes. I throw away the bandage packaging and walk back to the lobby.

Cameron is hugging his friends and sitting down between Nash and Shawn. I trudge over slowly, sitting down next to Matthew and pulling out my tablet.

He doesn't seem to notice, continuing to type away on his phone.

I open my mouth to say something, but Carter stands up, grabbing his miniature suitcase from the scattered pile of bags and miscellaneous carry-ons in front of us that the boys had dumped on the ground.

"Okay, so since everyone's finally here we should probably get on the plane, it's boarding in a couple minutes." He says, walking towards the security gate.

We all gather our leftover luggage and wait in line to board.

When we get on the plane, we find our seats and settle down. I get the window seat, fortunately. I always love sitting by the window.

Shawn plops down next to me, giving me a small smile.

"Hey, Maddie. I haven't seen you in forever." He says.

"I know. It's been way too long. Cameron's just been so busy, and now that it's finally Spring I feel like he's relaxed a little and he can finally hang out with you guys more often." I say, leaning back into the cushioned seat.

"Yeah. We've miss you guys so much." He says, grinning. He takes out his white earbuds and puts them in, leaning back in his seat and closing his eyes.

The final passengers eventually trickle in, chatting quietly amongst themselves as we get ready for the long flight ahead of us.

I check the time; 7:34 am.

I groan, laying my throbbing head back down and close my eyes.

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hey, guys, welcome to my first book. It's going to be a little bit slow these first two or three chapters, but it gets better, I promise. The next chapter is going to mostly be a flashback so you can understand the plot more, so stick with me haha.

Don't forget to vote on my chapters and comment throughout my story, I really appreciate reading through everyone's thoughts!

Also, all of my chapters are going to be about 1,000-2,000 words, so I'll try to stay consistent with chapter length.

Thanks for reading! Enjoy!

(word count: 1193) edited April 2nd, 2017
re-edited August 7th, 2017