Falling Dumb Into Desire

"Kennedy, can you come and help me with this real fast?" My dad asked.

Sighing heavily, I hit the pause button on the remote, letting the DVR pause the show I was watching, and then got up to join my dad in the kitchen. When I entered, I took a couple of seconds to observe the countless flower arrangements my mom and aunt had made to serve as centerpieces at my grandparents reception, and then turned my attention to my dad.

"Help me pack these boxes out to your mom's car." He said while balancing three boxes that contained the flower arrangements in his arms. "And then when we're done, I want you to call Madison and tell her that you'll be at her house to pick her up at 6:25."

"Alright," I mumbled before I followed my dad's lead, and grabbed a couple of the boxes.

A few minutes later, after we had the flowers boxed and carefully arranged in my mom's car, I went back inside and grabbed my cell phone from the coffee table. I quickly texted John, asking him Madison's number since I didn't get it yesterday, and then resumed my show while I waited for him to reply. He wrote back within a matter of seconds - or so it seemed - and I saved Madison's number to my address book before I called her.

As I waited for her to answer, I nervously began to fiddle with the television remote.

"Hello?" Madison answered slowly, not knowing my number.

"Hey Madison." I greeted her, "its Kennedy."

"Oh hey Kennedy, what's up?"

"Um, my dad wanted me to call you and tell you that I'll pick you up at 6:25." I said.

"6:25?" She asked. "On the dot?"

I laughed quietly before I replied, "yeah, on the dot. My grandparents rented two limousines," I explained, "one to chauffer them and their kids around, and the other to chauffer their grandkids around."

"But ... I'm not one of their grandkids," Madison said slowly, "I don't have to ride in the limo; I mean, you have a lot of first cousins, don't you? It'll probably be crowded. If you give me the directions to the church I can just drive myself."

"Um ... I have seven other first cousins, but you're my date, Madison." I said. "I guess I should have said the second limo is for their grandkids and their dates. And even if it were just for their grandkids, I wouldn't make you drive yourself around." I said softly.

"No?"

"I would ditch the limo and come pick you up myself." I said truthfully. "I mean, I'm the one who asked you to be my date and all ... it'd be kind of a jerk thing to do to ask you to be my date and then expect you to drive yourself around."

"Aww, that's sweet, Kennedy." Madison said, the sound of a smile in her voice.

At her words, I felt myself blushing slightly and did my best to suppress a smile. "Yeah, well ... " I trailed off, mumbling some incoherent words under my breath. "Anyway, how was the game yesterday?"

"Hot." She replied. "I had to keep the books for my brothers team, and I didn't want to sit around with the moody moms by myself so I made John come over and sit with me."

"He must have been miserable." I grinned.

"He got a bloody nose from the heat." Madison laughed. "It was just when we were leaving, though, so he didn't cause too big of a scene."

"I bet he wasn't happy with you after that, huh?" I teased.

"Not at all." She admitted. "He even went so far as to threaten to make a few phone calls and tell some people some things I'd rather they didn't hear."

"John loves you to death, Madison," I smiled, "he'd never do anything to make you upset."

"Yeah," she giggled, "I know, but he gave me a good scare yesterday." She paused, laughing to herself once again before she asked, "so have you had to help with the reception and stuff?"

"Well ... no, not really." I said. "Since I'm a guy, my mom knew better than to make me help with the flower arrangements that she made last night. And since I have other cousins who were more ... 'willing' to help, they were asked to decorate and set things up for the reception, instead of me."

"Kennedy, you lazy kid." Madison laughed.

"Come on, Madison, you know decorating ain't my thing." I said defensively.

"Whatever," she teased. "Anyway ... what time is it?"

"Um," I paused momentarily, glancing at the clock above the television, "it's a quarter after five."

Madison let out a small gasp at my answer. "Quarter after five?" She asked. "I have to get ready. I didn't realize it was that late."

"You have over an hour to get ready, Madison." I said.

"Kennedy, I'm a girl though." She pointed out. "I have to take a shower, dry my hair, and then style it, and then do my makeup. That's a lot of things I have to do in only one hour and ten minutes."

"Fine." I laughed. "I'll let you go then."

"Okay, I'll see you in a few Kennedy." She said. "Bye."

"Bye Madison." I said softly before I hung up.

When I set my phone aside, a small noise across the room caught my attention, and I looked up to see my older cousin Josh standing in the doorway, his arms crossed in front of his chest as he leaned against the frame.

"Madison?" He asked with a soft smirk and a raised eyebrow. "Is this the same Madison you had a crush on during your freshman year?"

"Yes," I blushed, "that's her. I'm not crushing on her anymore, though, if that's what you're trying to get at. We're just friends, and we're just going tonight as friends."

"If you don't still have a crush on her, then what was with the stupid smile you had on the face during you're guys' entire conversation?" He asked.

"I didn't have a smile on my face." I said defensively.

Josh rolled his eyes, but kept his smirk on his face. "Sure." Was all he said before he turned around and disappeared from my sight.

Even if I did have a smile on my face, who cares? Madison was just my friend.

* * * * * * * *

"You guy's, shut up and make room for Madison." I instructed as I made a move to get out of the limo. "And you," I added, pointing to Josh, "don't be running around telling her things that aren't true."

Josh held his hands up as if to show his innocence, and then laughed as they scooted down some to make a place for Madison to sit. Growling lowly in annoyance of him already, I got out and made my way up the sidewalk to the front door of Madison's house. I reached up, ringing the doorbell and then stood back, waiting for someone to answer.

A few seconds later, I hear the sound of high heels clicking on tiles, and then the front door opened wide. Madison stood before me, wearing a cute, little black dress that had a light pink trim, which defined a difference between a classy black dress, and a sleazy black dress. Her hair, free of its usual messy bun, hung in long, soft curls. She pushed one of these curls aside as she looked up at me, and flashed me a smile.

"Hey Kennedy." She grinned. "Would I, by any chance, need to bring my credit card, or ID?"

"Nope," I said, shaking my head, "you don't need to pay for anything. Dinner's on me ... or, on my grandparents anyway."

Madison laughed softly and then nodded her head before she stepped out and closed the door behind her. I eyed her momentarily and noticed that she didn't have any sort of purse with her, and I didn't see her carrying her house key or her cell phone.

"Are your parents going to leave the door unlocked for you?" I asked as we walked to the limo.

"My parents are out of town for the week." She explained. "Jesse is spending the night at his friend's house, and there's a spare key on top of the light fixture."

"What about your phone?" I asked.

Madison turned to look up at me, a sly smile on her face. "I have it with me." She replied.

"But - "

I stopped myself short when I saw her reached up and pull her Blackberry Pearl out from its hiding spot just inside her dress by her boob. Blushing slightly, I tore my gaze away from her chest and opened the limo door for her.

"Oh." Was my only response as I held her hand and helped her into the limo.

The ride to the church seemed short, and Josh didn't have a chance to throw any teasing remarks my way. While we waited in the church for the ceremony to begin, Madison and I exchanged some more small talk, nothing to too much interest. Before long, the ceremony started, and we fell silent. However, I wasn't the type who had patience with these types of ceremonies, and before long I began to strum my fingers restlessly on top of my leg.

Seeing me out of the corner of my eye, Madison reached over and placed her hand on top of mine, preventing my restless twitch from continuing any longer.

"It's almost over." She whispered softly, still not bothering to look full on at me. Instead, she kept her hazel eyes focused on my grandparents underneath the alter.

Sighing softly, I tried to ignore how soft her hand felt on top of mine, and instead focused on my grandparents as well. It was hard for me to understand what they were saying though, so my mind wandered back to Madison's hand that was still on top of mine. Before I realized what I was doing, I turned my hand over and slowly laced my fingers with hers, holding her hand tightly.

She must not have thought my finger strumming earlier was interesting enough to capture her full attention, but as soon as my hand tightened around hers she tore her eyes from my grandparents and looked down at the sight of our hands intertwined with one another's. She stared at our hands for a few seconds before she slowly moved her eyes up to mine. Locking her eyes with me momentarily, she gave me a soft smile and then released my hand so that she could clap along with everybody else.

Looking back to the front of the church, I saw my grandparents locked together in a kiss, signaling that the ceremony was now over.

It wasn't until then that I had been holding my breath, and glancing at Madison out of the corner of my eye, I let it out in shaky sigh.

Maybe Josh was right, maybe I still did have a crush on her.