Curbside Confrontation

You run out the door to follow Maddy.

You hear someone running down the stairs and assume it was her. You run down to try and catch her. You see her red hair rushing down the stairwell, so you chase after her.

“Maddy!” You shout out to her to grab her attention, but she descends the stairs even faster now.

“Go away, Mr. Craig!” Maddy shouts back as she rushes towards the exit.

“Maddy! Stop!” You tell her as you start skipping steps to catch up to her.

“I just need to be alone! Go away!” Maddy shouts at you before she opens the door to exit the apartment building, giving you precious seconds to be able to close the gap.

Both of you are outside the street now, and she’s only a few more feet away so you outstretch your hand to grab her arm to prevent her from going further away from you.

“Maddy—” You tried talking to her in a calm tone, but she cut you off.

“Let me go!” Maddy shouts at you.

“Hey! Let the girl go, creep! I have pepper spray!” You hear a familiar voice shout from behind you.

“Wait, wait, wait! Relax! It’s me!” You inform the good samaritan, before turning around to reveal yourself to them.

“Jay!?” the good samaritan reacts in surprise.

“Hey~ Brooke. Weird seeing you here.” You say with a chuckle, and Maddy has an obvious look of surprise at the coincidence of Brooke being here.

“Unless you were hiding a secret red headed daughter from me, you have some explaining to do with that arm grab, Jay.” Brooke tells you, making you release your grasp on Maddy.

“I’m sorry for grabbing you, Maddy; but I can’t have you run off when your grandparents entrusted me with looking after you.” You tell her, and simultaneously inform Brooke what was going on.

“That’s it!? That’s the only reason why you chased after me!? Because you’re my babysitter!?” Maddy reacts in frustration and annoyance.

“What reason do you want me to give, Maddy?” You ask her calmly, feigning innocence, and trying to not escalate the situation.

“That you were… I mean… Because I thought…” Maddy stumbles trying to say what she wants to say.

“I’m definitely missing something here.” Brooke reacts.

“Maddy, this is Brooke.” You formally introduce Brooke to Maddy, trying to divert her focus into a non-panic-inducing topic.

“Uh~... It’s nice to meet you Ms. Brooke.” Maddy formally greets her, albeit awkwardly, before raising her hand to say hi. She’s obviously still processing her current emotions as she sways in place standing next to you.

“It’s nice to meet you too, Maddy. I’ve heard so much about you from Tanya and Viv already.” Brooke greets back. Maddy just smiles shyly back at Brooke.

“Let’s go back up, Maddy. You didn’t finish your lunch.” You try to persuade her.

“No! I’m not going back up there! I’m too embarrassed!” Maddy admits in panicked honesty. “Also, can you please stop acting so normal about this!? I understand you’re used to women confessing their love for you, but can you at least empathize with how embarrassing this is for me!?” Maddy adds.

Love?

“Love?” Brooke reacts in surprise as well.

“I mean…” Maddy says, incredibly red from embarrassment.

“Maddy, are you sure that that’s what you feel for me?” You ask her

...

'Because I’m pretty sure what you’re feeling for me is Lust.' You think to yourself.

SHUT UP BRAIN!

“I think what you’re feeling for me is just a crush, Maddy. Something that’s understandable for your age, and something I try not to make a big deal out of, since people grow out of those eventually.” You explain to her, not breaking your calm demeanor.

“Like with your cousin, Celeste?” Brooke asks you, disproving your point.

“That’s different! I mean… I meant to say ‘most’ people grow out of them eventually.” You tell Brooke, who you can see is smiling amused at your qualification of your earlier statement. “In any case—” You say in order to get back to the topic at hand. “There’s nothing for you to be embarrassed about, Maddy. If you do have a crush on me and you want to explore if it’s more than that, I’m open to it as long as my girlfriends are open to it too.” You tell her, and her eyes light up at the idea.

“On that note…” You preface ominously to Maddy. “They’re not the only ones you need approval from. Your grandfather has expressly warned me not to even dare think about it.” You inform her, and Maddy’s eyes flash a look of betrayal that she didn’t expect coming from her grandfather. “You're his granddaughter. The fact that he let a man with four girlfriends babysit you is more leeway than even I would possibly allow Stella.” You explain to her.

“More than that, your own father doesn’t want you around boys while you’re at your age. He wants you to become a doctor, which is a long and difficult road that you should be focused on as much as possible, so I understand him in that regard.” You point out.

“What I’m saying is, as much as I would want to date you, there are still a lot of things that need to happen first before I can even think about it.” You tell Maddy sincerely.

This time, Maddy’s expression was one of calm too, maybe finally understanding where you were coming from and why you were being calm about this whole situation. She realized there were just too many hurdles…

At least you thought that was what was going on.

Maddy’s calm demeanor quickly turns into anger and frustration once more and she immediately walks by you, even hitting you in the arm, before aggressively walking back into the apartment.

“At least she didn’t run off deeper into the city.” You sigh in confusion, not knowing why Maddy suddenly got angry again.

“You know, for a man with… what was the number you just said? Four girlfriends? Two of them being teenagers... You really have no clue about handling teenage crushes, do you?” Brooke asks while laughing.

“What?” You ask her, surprised at her comment.

“I only know bits and pieces of what just happened, but if I’m understanding things right, you’re going to hear the exact same thing from your girlfriends anyway. So I’d rather let them tell you, so I don’t have to assume.” Brooke answers you, effectively telling you your caveman brain totally missed the obvious reason why Maddy would be furious with you.

“Fair enough.” You tell her, just accepting the inevitability that the girls will tell you how you fucked that up anyway. “What brings you here, by the way?” You ask her, now noticing that she’s carrying a paper bag with her.

“Tanya messaged me what happened this morning. Thought I’d drop by to help you guys comfort Viv.” Brooke explains before raising the bag she was carrying. “Bought ice cream.” Brooke says with a chuckle. “From the increased number of girlfriends you have though, it doesn't seem like this is necessary.” Brooke jokes.

“Well, you can have a celebratory lunch with us then. We can have ice cream for dessert.” You tell her, not denying her assumption. She tells you to lead the way and make your way up the stairwell. You can even hear Maddy’s stomping echo from above, and you can’t help but sigh.

What the fuck is up with this week? It’s only Wednesday!

“I guess Viv couldn’t wait for Sunday, huh?” Brooke jokes, trying to get your attention away from worrying about Maddy. You have to thank her for that, since you couldn’t help but chuckle. “So~, did you do it normally, or did Viv get freaky?” Brooke teasingly asks you.

“We didn’t actually do it yet.” You answer Brooke, withholding the part that her question actually touched on why Viv was hesitant to sleep with you. Brooke slaps you on the side of your arm hard. “Ow!” You flinch, making Brooke immediately apologize.

“Viv didn’t sleep with you!? No way! You’re pulling my leg.” Brooke reacts in disbelief, and all you could do was shrug, and tell her that’s what happened as the sensitive issue doesn’t seem to be appropriate for a stairwell conversation.

The two of you go back to your apartment, where the girls immediately greet Brooke enthusiastically. Although, they are confused why you came back with Brooke, but not Maddy.

“Where’s Maddy?” Cassie asks you, concerned.

“She’s not here?” You ask them.

“No! We thought you ran after her!?” Stella asks with a raised voice in confusion.

“She stomped back up here!” You answer her defensively.

“Oof. She probably went back to their place then.” Cassie points out, and you immediately realize what’s about to come if Maddy went back to their apartment in the mood you last saw her in.

“What happened downstairs? She doesn’t want to hang out anymore?” Viv asks.

“I’m not surprised she didn’t come back here. What happened downstairs was the farthest thing from romantic, I can tell you that much.” Brooke tells them with a chuckle, as she makes her way to sit at the dining table, while you stay put near the door, knowing what’s to come.

Cassie hands Brooke a plate so she can join all of you for lunch. All the while, the girls just look at you silently, waiting for an explanation of what Brooke just said; unaware of the shitstorm coming.

*KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!*

There it is.

“You’ll break your hand, Mary! Use the doorbell!” You hear Mr. O’Brien shouting from the other side of your apartment door.