Following Brent

Chapter 6

Brenton O'Keith

When Barbara, the flight attendant, woke me up and told me that we had 15 minutes left before landing, I went straight back to my original seat. I didn't want to be there when Madison woke up because that scene would have just trapped me in an inevitable air of awkwardness. Those were 15 minutes I did not want to experience. When it was time to leave the plane, I ran out of there like my life depended on it, which was uncalled for since, ever since high school, Madison seemed to always walk slow anyway. I guess I just really didn't want to risk it. How was I supposed to explain the whole thing to her? Even I didn't completely understand how I ended up in that particular seat beside that particular girl in that particular situation. It was crazy coincidental and now that I was out of the plane, I wasn't even sure if it really happened.

After retrieving my luggages, I planned on forgetting about it. But just when I almost completely forgot, this woman came up to me and said, "Hello! You were the one who sat beside that nice girl, right?"

Unbelievable. It was impossible to escape Madison Vaughn, whether she was there physically or not.

I looked at the woman and I was pretty sure I saw her in the row behind us when I moved to Economy class. "You mean Madison?" I asked, making sure she was talking to the right person.

"Yes, her!" The woman said. "That's her name. She dropped this," she continued, handing me a notebook that had the words 'Property of Madison Vaughn' written on the cover. "I found it under her seat and I couldn't find her. Can you give it back to her for me?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm not really—"

"It's the least I can do," she interrupted me. "The poor girl must've dropped it when she went to the bathroom to try and clean my baby's vomit off her hair."

So that's why she smelled so bad, I thought to myself.

"She's such a nice girl!" the woman gushed. "She was so understanding! She didn't complain one bit! Anyone else would have gotten mad for sure. Hold on to that one," she said with a wink before turning to leave.

I wanted to explain to her that I didn't know Madison Vaughn that well and that giving her the notebook back would mean having to explain how I sat beside her the whole time she was asleep (which wasn't a conversation I wanted to have), but the woman had already left. She seemed to be in a hurry. I lamely stood there, left alone with a notebook I had no idea what to do with. I decided to wing it and go look for Madison. She couldn't have gotten far, considering how slow she always walked. I could worry about what to tell her when I saw her.

It didn't take long for me to find her. She was by the main entrance of the airport and she appeared to be looking for someone. She was holding a phone to her ear and her face was crumpled in a frown. Tiptoeing, she stretched her neck and squinted her eyes, as if doing that would help her find whomever she was looking for. Watching her brought me back to a time in 11th grade.

"Dude! I heard Madison Vaughn's going to ask you to the Sadie Hawkins Dance!" 16 year old Tyler said, wiggling his eyebrows in an attempt to tease me. He didn't have to tell me. Madison left a note in my locker that said to meet her after school the next day. I'd already been asked by several other girls to be their date too, but I wasn't planning on going in the first place. I never really saw the point in spending all that money on a suit, a ticket, transportation, and a corsage, just to use it all for a night with a girl you don't really know. 

I was in the middle of an intense game of COD and I wasn't about to lose so, not taking my eyes off the TV, I replied with a straight face, "Yeah, so?"