Haunted

After You

Maddox felt like life after his birthday was mostly a blur. He was in the studio almost all the time or doing schoolwork or therapy and when he wasn't he was trying to talk to Brent. As much as he'd thought the whole thing was crazy at first, the more time he spent talking to Brent the more he realized he really, really liked him.

And though he kept telling himself not to get excited and not to fall for Brent it was just so hard not to. Brent always seemed so sure about everything. He could get Maddox to calm down with just a few words and was such a good listener it was easy to just tell him anything that was on his mind. Maddox often found himself telling Brent things he'd never told anyone before.

It wasn't just that Brent was a good friend though. He was also ridiculously good at flirting - even sexting. Maddox hadn't realized that was something anyone could be good at but Brent was. Brent even managed to flirt over Twitter and Instagram in a way that made Maddox crazy because no one else ever caught on.

"Pack a bag," Scooter said when Maddox came down to get himself breakfast one morning. "Tim's taking you to Chicago."

"Seriously?"

"I've got a meeting set up. Go pack, you're leaving this afternoon."

"Okay," Maddox sighed but grabbed a bagel before he went back to his room.

He didn't bother asking about the meeting because he knew Scooter and Tim were busy working on promo for the album and it made sense they would have set up some kind of meeting related to that. In fact it wasn't until their plane landed that Maddox thought to check his calendar and discovered that Complexx was also in Chicago.

"Surprise?" Tim said when Maddox confronted him about it.

"Are we going to the show?" Maddox asked. "Can we go? Oh my god, does Brent know?"

"No one knows anything, but yes, we're going," Tim smiled. "This is the happiest I've seen you in a long time, Dax. You weren't even this happy on your birthday."

"This is perfect," Maddox insisted. He tried to think of the best way to surprise Brent. "Are we going backstage?"

"Not before the show," Tim sighed. "Their management is pretty strict, they don't want any distractions."

"So can I even be there?"

"They have a box reserved for us," Tim looked over at Steve. "But we've talked it over."

"I've never had a hard time keeping up with you before," Steve smiled. "But I might tonight."

"Oh," Maddox realized what they were saying.

"I obviously couldn't drag you out of the arena with the show going on or it might cause a big scene."

"This is amazing," Maddox was already nervous but he couldn't wait to see Brent.

By the time Complexx hit the stage that night Maddox was pretty sure he would pass out before he even saw Brent. He could barely move for the security guards who were standing around him and Tim to protect him from the fans but it was all worth it when he locked eyes with Brent.

"Oh my god, he looked right at you," Tim shouted in Maddox's ear. Maddox shoved him but Tim just laughed.

The thing Maddox hadn't thought about until a few songs in was that Complexx was actually really good. He felt a little guilty thinking it and wondered exactly what he would have done if they had turned out to be awful. Of course he wouldn't be there at all if they were so bad because Scooter wanted them on Maddox's album but he still felt bad asking himself.