Linger

T W E N T Y - S E V E N

"Madison," he greeted, not taking his eyes off of me.

My heart began to race. I didn't know what to do or what to say.

Mr. Hayden was Brandon's brother . . .

. . . Brandon was my sister's coach . . .

. . . and was also married to Jade . . . 

. . . who was helping me shop for gowns . . .

. . . and had two children . . . 

. . . whose Uncle was Mr. Hayden.

My head spun. 

All of the pieces of the puzzle slowly started to come together. The parallels were overwhelming. 

Out of all the different shops in this city or soccer teams in this town, the ones in my life were all connected back to Mr. Hayden. 

It felt as if life was just playing all these games with me - waving the fact in my face that Mr. Hayden couldn't be mine, yet placing him in every aspect of my life.

My mind was telling me to just run out of here as soon as possible, but I was glued to the leather cushion of this couch. So I just stayed there, my eyes locked on his, praying silently for some kind of relief to this tension.

"Hey Maddie!!!" Brandon spoke up eagerly. "You're sister was on fi-yah out there today!" he exclaimed with exaggerated hand gestures & a giant smile on his face. "All thanks to her coach of course." He smirked, mockingly dusting off his shoulders.

"Of course," Jade repeated next to me with a roll of her eyes yet a playful smile tugged on her lips. 

"Oh! Where are my manners?" Brandon exclaimed suddenly turning to Daniel. 

I held my breath, silently hoping he would do anything but introduce us. As if things weren't already awkward enough already . . .

"Want anything to drink, bro? Could I offer you a juice box or . . ." he paused, thinking for a moment. "A juice box?" Brandon asked with a wide grin.

"Juice!!" Jenny exclaimed excitedly. 

Bennie giggled, reaching for his father's hands. 

"Yeah! Let's go find those juice boxes, superstars!" Brandon said eagerly as he took Jenny into his arms and held onto Bennie's hand, leading them down the hallway. 

Daniel followed them.

"Dress shopping, eh?" Brandon turned to him. "I didn't hear about this! When's the big day, bro?"

My eyes widened at his words. They soon disappeared down the hall while I did my best to straighten up, clearing my throat and attempted to focus back on the pages filled with gowns in front of me.

"How do you know Bran and Dan?" Jade turned to me.

"Huh?" I asked dumbly, looking up at her. 

She gave me a warm smile. "Daniel and Brandon. How do you know them? I mean, Bran's the coach and it seems like there isn't anyone that doesn't know him . . . but Daniel? He's only popular amongst the middle schoolers because of his baking skills." She laughed.

I froze in my seat. I couldn't tell her the truth. Both Jade & Brandon knew Daniel was a teacher. They had to. But to Brandon, I was Daniel's "lucky lady". Yet Jade knew I was in high school . . . just those pieces of information alone sounded wrong.

"Um . . ." I chuckled nervously. "At . . . the . . . games!" I forced a small smile, knowing full well it didn't sound convincing in the slightest but what else could I do? "Yeah," I nodded, going along as every part of me cringed inside. "He's always at my sister's games and she can't shut up about his baking so . . ." I finished with a shrug, giving her what I hoped to be a convincing smile to drop this subject and go back to the dresses.