Chapter 22: Chapter Twenty-One

“You guys are hilarious,” Madison said and turned on her back as she started to laugh. I almost groaned out loud at the thought of her having heard that whole conversation.

“Uh, how much of that did you hear?” Castiel asked her.

“Enough to know you guys are actually normal brothers,” she said and sat up straight, combing her hair with her fingers. I didn’t know a lot about girls, but I did know they were all obsessed with their looks, but Madison didn’t seem to care that her hair was sticking up in all directions or that she’d drooled on the pillow.

“Oh yeah this takes me back to our first day,” Castiel said.

“Delinquents and what not,” Sloan said.

“I never said that you guys were,” Madison said.

“No, but you did think Kage was too stupid for History,” Sloan laughed.

“I said I was sorry,” she said.

“Now you two can kiss and make up,” Miles said as I threw my pillow at his head and Madison laughed.

Madison had left on Saturday night after dinner which consisted of pizza. We had all walked her to her car and the guys seemed to really like her. We locked the house up and Madison had gotten my number from Castiel which I found out when she texted me.

Madison – Thanks for today, I really enjoyed hanging out with you guys. Madison xxx

Kage – Are you home safe?

Madison – Safe and sound in bed.

Kage – Goodnight Madison.

Madison – Goodnight pudgy.

I laughed and put my phone down on the bedside table. Even I had to admit that today was fun, maybe not the cleaning up part as popcorn flew over the whole living room when Madison started hurling them against my head which started a full on popcorn fight.

Sunday lunch was my turn to cook and clean and Alexander had this amused look on his face as we sat down to eat. He always seemed more relaxed on a Sunday and there were no quizzes or philosophy quotes.

“Madison seems nice,” Alexander said.

“She wasn’t what I thought she’d be,” I said.

“What did you think she’d be?” Alexander asked.

“Snobbish, better than the rest,” Castiel answered.

“I like her, she was down to earth, and she’s got a great sense of humor,” Miles said.

“Yeah, at first I thought it’d be uncomfortable having a girl in the house, but it wasn’t,” Endri said.

“And you Kage?” Alexander asked.

“I’ll admit we had fun,” I said.

“He likes her,” Sloan said.

“It’s good making new friends,” Alexander said.

“We’ll see,” I said.

Monday arrived all too soon and it was clear that the whole school had somehow gotten wind of the fight on Friday. The general consensus was half divided by one half claiming I sucker punched Josh and the other half saying it should’ve happened a long time ago.

Madison seemed almost awkward, and I ignored her for most of our classes and by the time the lunch bell rang I’d changed my mind and decided that she was just as shallow and flaky as I had thought on my first day here as she sat with her friends at her regular table.

“Hey guys!” she said as we walked past her table.

“Hey,” we all said as her friends gave her a look.

“Sit with us,” she said.

“No thanks,” I said as I took in the looks her friends gave her at that invitation.

“Popularity isn’t really high on our list of priorities,” Sloan said.

“Kage,” she said.

We kept walking to our table and sat down with our trays. We had just started to eat when Madison sat down next to me and started eating my fries. I gave her a look as she leaned forward and opened my can of soda.

“Where’s your lunch?” I asked her.

“I wasn’t hungry until I saw yours,” she said and smiled as she kept eating my food.

Josh and his friends walked into the cafeteria and the chatter died down to whispers as he looked at Madison sitting at our table. I wiped my hands on the napkin, I was ready for him and this time I wouldn’t take it easy on him.

“Maddie, what the hell,” Josh said.

Madison ignored him as she continued eating and I could see Sloan clench his fists. Nobody at school had spoken to us about that fight and I wasn’t planning on getting into trouble. We hadn’t been wrong on Friday, but Sloan was irritated, and I knew he’d hit first this time.

“Do you really want to dump me for this delinquent?” Josh asked her.

“You don’t know anything about him,” she said with a glare.

“I made you, Maddie, remember that the next time you sit at this table, I can take it all away,” he said.

“Now that’s the way to win a girl’s heart,” Castiel said with a laugh.

“Shut up, you juvie bastard,” another boy said.

“Didn’t you have enough on Friday?” I asked him as I stood up from the table.

“You sucker punched me,” Josh said as I began to laugh.

“Yeah right,” Sloan said, and my brothers all started to chuckle.

“Come on, Maddie,” Josh said.

“I already told you what to do,” she said and turned back towards the table.

“Whatever,” he said and stalked away to his table.

“Why are you sitting here, Madison?” I asked her. My eyes searched hers, but I didn’t see any deceit. She almost seemed … lost.

“Are we really having this conversation again? I really thought we were friends after Saturday,” she said.

“Can you handle being friends with us in public?” Sloan asked her. He wasn’t trying to be a hard-ass, Sloan was straight-forward, he said it like he saw it and I knew his question was valid.

“I’m here aren’t I,” she said and pulled his tray closer to her once she had eaten all my fries.

“Yeah, go ahead I didn’t want my fries anyway,” Sloan said as she laughed at him.

“Don’t mind if I do,” she said and kept eating.