Linger

S I X T Y - F I V E

"Alright, who's hungry?" Brandon clapped his hands with a wide grin as he walked up to us after practice.

"Starving!" Katie exclaimed next to me, swinging her bag over her shoulder. 

"We can get something on the way home." I turned to her. 

"Aw, where's the fun in that?!" Brandon furrowed his eyebrows. "Let's all have dinner together!" He extended his arms, smiling at me, Katie and Daniel. 

"Bran, it's a school night." Daniel pointed out.

"Okay, Mr. Teacher." He rolled his eyes playfully at him. "You're off the job right now, you know." 

Daniel chuckled lowly, shaking his head at him. 

Brandon suddenly gasped, turning to us with wide eyes. "We can take the magic car!!" 

Daniel give him a confused look. "What--"

"It'll be so much fun, bro!" Brandon bounced on his toes with excitement. "We'll fly there!"

"Does your car even seat all of us?"

Brandon furrowed his eyebrows for a moment before his eyes lit up. "It's magic!" He lifted up a finger before looking toward the field.  "Action Jackson!" he called. 

Jackson, who was still gathering the rest of the cones on the field, looked up before jogging over. "Just gotta take the nets down then we're all set." 

"Always taking care of business, Action Jackson!" Brandon gave him a high-five before swinging his arm over his shoulder. "Wanna grab dinner after?"

"Sure!" Jackson's eyes lit up as he slid his sunglasses on top of his blond hair. 

"Yay!!" Katie cheered. 

"It's a party!!" Brandon clapped Daniel on the back, wrapping his other arm around him. "We got Dan the man here! And Action Jackson! Kate the great!" He nodded to my sister then turned to me. "Hm. I gotta think of a cool name for you . . . Maddie Daddy?" 

Daniel let out a laugh in disbelief. "What?!" 

"Please don't ever say that again," Jackson groaned, running his hands over his face. 

Brandon let out a loud laugh. "I'll work on it! One day I'll get a cool name for you." 

"Maddie is just fine too, you know . . ." I smiled. 

"Nah! If we have cool names, you gotta have a cool name too. Speaking of cool, I better call Jade and the kids to join us for dinner."

I gasped with excitement. "Really?!"

"Yeah! They'll be happy to see you! All of you!!"

Daniel watched him jog off before turning to me. "We don't have to go." 

"And miss out on seeing your adorable niece and nephew?" I raised an eyebrow at him. 

"We could always see them another time."

I looked at him puzzled.

"Aren't you tired from, you know, everything?" His gaze flickered up to my forehead, eyeing the bandages there. 

I nodded. "Yeah, and this will help take my mind off of it."

Uneasiness flickered in Daniel's eyes and I couldn't pretend I missed it. I just knew that if it was only the two of us right now we would have to talk about everything . . . which meant facing everything. 

Facing what this meant for us. 

Facing what could happen to us. 

Facing our future . . . if we even had one.