Status: New
I Knew the Moment I Met You
7.
John and Eddison had seemed to have really hit it off. After the music chat where Eddison chewed John's ear off about all his favourite musicians and whether or not the young boy had heard them, everyone had gotten ready to go on a family walk. Another family tradition, though not one of Maddison's favourites - she preferred all the tasks they did after.
It was a short walk from her parent's house to the woods, 5 minutes and they were there, trekking through the wildness as Faith shrieked and giggled chasing Chester, their next door neighbours Golden Labrador she was adamant that needed to come with them.
"Faith, honey, slow down!" Jace called, sighing as he rubbed a hand over his face, groaning under his breath about how the girl was going to be the death of him. Maddison's parents were laughing as they followed the young girl with her sister and her fiance not too far behind them deep in discussion of wedding plans.
"So" John breathed, grabbing Maddison's hand as they rounded off the end of the group, ambling along slowly after the group, keeping a small distance away. "I think that went well"
Maddison looked down at their hands, swinging between them before looking up at John, her eyebrows crinkling in thought as she shrugged. The physical contact was something that she wasn't used to, and while it might come naturally to John, it didn't to her.
"I think it went okay, especially since you had to wing half of the bullshit you came up with" she answered with an eye roll, causing John to laugh, playfully knocking his shoulder against her own.
"Thanks, though I just played a bit on the truth, it's a good thing I have such a good memory" he replied cheekily, as his phone buzzed in his pocket. Letting go of her hand, he pulled out to see his Mom's name flashing on the screen causing him to hesitate for a minute "I just have to take this, I will catch up with you in a minute" John mumbled, his thought elsewhere as Maddison nodded turning on her heel and continued to follow the group, her mind already coming up with different thoughts of who could be at the other end of the phone.
“Hey Ma” he answered, holding the phone to his ear as he lent against a tree, “How have you been?”
“Oh Johnny, honey, I’ve missed you” his mother’s voice rang down the phone, her voice chirpy as always and he could hear laughter and mumbled conversation in the background. “Are you doing okay? I can’t believe you aren’t able to make it home for Christmas!”
Hearing his Mom’s voice washed him with guilt, he had always hated lying to his Mom and had always trying to do everything he could for her and lying about being in New York when he was really just under an hour away made him feel shitty. Even though he would have felt shitty being at home and at least being here he wasn’t bringing their mood down, and fingers crossed this is just what he needed to get over his funk.
“I’m doing great Ma, I am so sorry I can’t get home but you know me I’m fine” John responded, scuffing his shoes against the root of the tree, in the distance he could faintly hear Faith giggling, turning to the sound he could see Maddison swinging her around before giving her a piggy back, the small blonde girl, messily playing with her aunts dark hair.
“I’m glad you are doing okay, Sweet. We just miss you is all, when Garrett said you couldn’t make it I just couldn’t believe it” His Ma chirped down the phone, John could picture her making her way around the kitchen as she put together a tasty meal for the whole family, turning down help from different family member when she really needed the extra hands.
“I know, me either Ma, the weather down here is just so bad that the flights have been delayed, don’t worry about me too much. I have a friend and their family are looking after me for the holidays" John knew that this wouldn’t be the equivalent to him spending the holidays with her but he knew she would fine comfort in the fact that someone would be looking after him.
“Well I’m glad that you have people looking after you” John could practically hear the smile in his Ma’s voice “Just come visit me as soon as you can. Christmas isn’t the same without you, Johnny”
“I’m going to tell the other’s you said that” John laughed, causing his Ma to curse him down the phone before hanging up on him, John smiling to himself as he shoved his phone in his pocket and jogged towards the group, catching up to them as Faith jumped from Maddison’s back into her fathers’ arm before he placed the little girl on his shoulders.
“Good phone call?” Maddison asked as John swung his arm around her shoulder, pulling her into his side, as she hesitantly wrapped her own arm around her waist, this faker relationship may be easy for John to fall into but Maddison was still hesitant with her actions, not fully knowing what she should and shouldn’t do and didn't want to give her family any reason to question anything.
In a usual relationship, and her last one was a long time ago, she was never one for public displays of affection, especially around her family, whilst John seemed comfortable to grab her hand or slinging one around her shoulder or waist as he pulled her in close to give her a small peck to her forehead.
It was glaringly obvious at times, though this may have been only obvious to her, that they had only known each other for around 24 hours, and even though John was a lovely guy and nothing but a gentleman, Maddison still felt guarded around him, she would start to relax and then remember that John was a stranger that would be going back to his own life in two days and all this would be forgotten.
"Yeah, it was my -" John started before getting cut off by a loud cheer from the rest of the group causing his eyes to snap away from the girl tucked under his arm and back in front of him where he could see that they had reached the end of the clearing and in front of these was what looked like a giant parking lot filled with different vans.
"Come on you two, I'm dying for a beer" Jace called, Grace's hand firmly held within her own but she was trying her hardest to breakaway and run into the crowd, the excitement on her face was contagious. Maddison just laughed with an eyeroll before John gripped her hand and dragged her behind him as he jogged across to the rest of the group as they waited at the entrance.
"Where are we?" John asked, surveying the different stalls some containing food and drinks others selling different merchandise from local companies. There was a small stage set up in the corner where a woman was currently sat on a stool with an acoustic guitar, her voice was soothing in the background as a man accompanied her on a small keyboard.
"It this little market that pop's up every couple of months but it is always here on Christmas Eve, there's different food vendors, a bit of music, a couple of beers. Just good fun really" Maddison shrugged, pulling her wallet out of her pocket as she ordered them two beers from one of the bar but before she could pay for them John had already beaten her to it.
"Thanks for the drink" She murmered, taking a large gulp as the two of them headed over to some benches in the corner and claimed it as their own. From their vantage point they could see Faith was already dragging Jace around the different stalls oohing and aahing over different fingers whilst Maria and Eddison were watching the singer play, a drink in their hands and their arms tightly wrapped around eachother. Laura and Doug were nowhere to be seen, which Maddison wasn't too upset about.
"You are very welcome, girlfriend" John smirked as he took a sip before placing it on the wooden top, his fingers tapping away on the table to a beat that Maddison didn't recognise as he surveyed their surroundings. "This is a really cool place, how long have you been coming?" John asked, as Maddison tried to wrack her brains.
"Maybe about 8 years?" Maddison guessed as she tried to do the bath in her head "It was just before Jace had Fay because this was the place where he decided to bring Mom and Dad to tell that they they were going to be grandparents" she chuckled as she recalled their shocked faces and how she had chosen the moment to be the one to go to the bar and to get the drinks.
"Really, that the long?" John was shocked as Maddison nodded.
"Yeah, we loved it so much after the first song that we came time and time again. We will come different times throughout the year with either our friends or as a family but Christmas is always a must" Maddison shrugged draining her beer of the last dregs and placing it on the table before standing up from her bench "Same again?" She asked, her hand gathering up her hair and pulling it back from her face into a high ponytail as John nodded.
Whilst she went to the bar John sat pondering his thoughts, kind of surprised that him and his friends hadn't heard of it before. It was definitely something that they would enjoy doing, he could picture it in his head: all of the crammed around the tables laughing away as they drank beer and ate the delicious smelling food, Max and Pat being the first to be up and dancing in front of whoever was playing, loudly cheering their appreciation at the end of every song. A small smile crept onto his face at the thought, he would have to bring them all along next time it was on, who knows he might even bump into Maddison.
"How you doing, John?" Laura asked as she sat in the seat that was recently vacated by her older sister. Seeing her from this distance John could see the similarities more than he did earlier, but whilst Maddison had a playful smirk on her face a she left the look on Laura's face was sly, even John could tell she was up to something. "So it's really interesting that Maddie invited you for Christmas" Laura mused as John just shrugged.
"Why's that?" John asked warily, not wanting to dig a hole and make things worse for Mads, after all the main reason he was here was to try and make her life earlier and get her family, well certain members, off her back not to pile them on even higher.
"She's never brought a guy home, not since she broke up with Elijah" Laura shrugged acting nonchalant but her eyes never left John's face as though she was testing him "Though of course you know all about Eli, right?" she asked, leaning closer across the table as her hands splayed across the table, John merely shook his head, taking the last swig of his beer before stacking his cup into Maddison's empty one.
"She hasn't told you about Eli?" Laura gasped, leaning even closer as though she was letting him into a secret but her eyes had lit up "They were together for years, high school sweethearts! They got together at 16 and were inseparable, he proposed at 21 but Maddison turned him down. No one know why and ever since shes been single. Well until you of course. Which makes me wonder why we hadn't heard about you before" Laura mused, leaning back across the table as he saw Maddison from the corner of his eye heading back across to him with the drinks in her hand, her eyes narrowing when she saw her sister.
It was a short walk from her parent's house to the woods, 5 minutes and they were there, trekking through the wildness as Faith shrieked and giggled chasing Chester, their next door neighbours Golden Labrador she was adamant that needed to come with them.
"Faith, honey, slow down!" Jace called, sighing as he rubbed a hand over his face, groaning under his breath about how the girl was going to be the death of him. Maddison's parents were laughing as they followed the young girl with her sister and her fiance not too far behind them deep in discussion of wedding plans.
"So" John breathed, grabbing Maddison's hand as they rounded off the end of the group, ambling along slowly after the group, keeping a small distance away. "I think that went well"
Maddison looked down at their hands, swinging between them before looking up at John, her eyebrows crinkling in thought as she shrugged. The physical contact was something that she wasn't used to, and while it might come naturally to John, it didn't to her.
"I think it went okay, especially since you had to wing half of the bullshit you came up with" she answered with an eye roll, causing John to laugh, playfully knocking his shoulder against her own.
"Thanks, though I just played a bit on the truth, it's a good thing I have such a good memory" he replied cheekily, as his phone buzzed in his pocket. Letting go of her hand, he pulled out to see his Mom's name flashing on the screen causing him to hesitate for a minute "I just have to take this, I will catch up with you in a minute" John mumbled, his thought elsewhere as Maddison nodded turning on her heel and continued to follow the group, her mind already coming up with different thoughts of who could be at the other end of the phone.
“Hey Ma” he answered, holding the phone to his ear as he lent against a tree, “How have you been?”
“Oh Johnny, honey, I’ve missed you” his mother’s voice rang down the phone, her voice chirpy as always and he could hear laughter and mumbled conversation in the background. “Are you doing okay? I can’t believe you aren’t able to make it home for Christmas!”
Hearing his Mom’s voice washed him with guilt, he had always hated lying to his Mom and had always trying to do everything he could for her and lying about being in New York when he was really just under an hour away made him feel shitty. Even though he would have felt shitty being at home and at least being here he wasn’t bringing their mood down, and fingers crossed this is just what he needed to get over his funk.
“I’m doing great Ma, I am so sorry I can’t get home but you know me I’m fine” John responded, scuffing his shoes against the root of the tree, in the distance he could faintly hear Faith giggling, turning to the sound he could see Maddison swinging her around before giving her a piggy back, the small blonde girl, messily playing with her aunts dark hair.
“I’m glad you are doing okay, Sweet. We just miss you is all, when Garrett said you couldn’t make it I just couldn’t believe it” His Ma chirped down the phone, John could picture her making her way around the kitchen as she put together a tasty meal for the whole family, turning down help from different family member when she really needed the extra hands.
“I know, me either Ma, the weather down here is just so bad that the flights have been delayed, don’t worry about me too much. I have a friend and their family are looking after me for the holidays" John knew that this wouldn’t be the equivalent to him spending the holidays with her but he knew she would fine comfort in the fact that someone would be looking after him.
“Well I’m glad that you have people looking after you” John could practically hear the smile in his Ma’s voice “Just come visit me as soon as you can. Christmas isn’t the same without you, Johnny”
“I’m going to tell the other’s you said that” John laughed, causing his Ma to curse him down the phone before hanging up on him, John smiling to himself as he shoved his phone in his pocket and jogged towards the group, catching up to them as Faith jumped from Maddison’s back into her fathers’ arm before he placed the little girl on his shoulders.
“Good phone call?” Maddison asked as John swung his arm around her shoulder, pulling her into his side, as she hesitantly wrapped her own arm around her waist, this faker relationship may be easy for John to fall into but Maddison was still hesitant with her actions, not fully knowing what she should and shouldn’t do and didn't want to give her family any reason to question anything.
In a usual relationship, and her last one was a long time ago, she was never one for public displays of affection, especially around her family, whilst John seemed comfortable to grab her hand or slinging one around her shoulder or waist as he pulled her in close to give her a small peck to her forehead.
It was glaringly obvious at times, though this may have been only obvious to her, that they had only known each other for around 24 hours, and even though John was a lovely guy and nothing but a gentleman, Maddison still felt guarded around him, she would start to relax and then remember that John was a stranger that would be going back to his own life in two days and all this would be forgotten.
"Yeah, it was my -" John started before getting cut off by a loud cheer from the rest of the group causing his eyes to snap away from the girl tucked under his arm and back in front of him where he could see that they had reached the end of the clearing and in front of these was what looked like a giant parking lot filled with different vans.
"Come on you two, I'm dying for a beer" Jace called, Grace's hand firmly held within her own but she was trying her hardest to breakaway and run into the crowd, the excitement on her face was contagious. Maddison just laughed with an eyeroll before John gripped her hand and dragged her behind him as he jogged across to the rest of the group as they waited at the entrance.
"Where are we?" John asked, surveying the different stalls some containing food and drinks others selling different merchandise from local companies. There was a small stage set up in the corner where a woman was currently sat on a stool with an acoustic guitar, her voice was soothing in the background as a man accompanied her on a small keyboard.
"It this little market that pop's up every couple of months but it is always here on Christmas Eve, there's different food vendors, a bit of music, a couple of beers. Just good fun really" Maddison shrugged, pulling her wallet out of her pocket as she ordered them two beers from one of the bar but before she could pay for them John had already beaten her to it.
"Thanks for the drink" She murmered, taking a large gulp as the two of them headed over to some benches in the corner and claimed it as their own. From their vantage point they could see Faith was already dragging Jace around the different stalls oohing and aahing over different fingers whilst Maria and Eddison were watching the singer play, a drink in their hands and their arms tightly wrapped around eachother. Laura and Doug were nowhere to be seen, which Maddison wasn't too upset about.
"You are very welcome, girlfriend" John smirked as he took a sip before placing it on the wooden top, his fingers tapping away on the table to a beat that Maddison didn't recognise as he surveyed their surroundings. "This is a really cool place, how long have you been coming?" John asked, as Maddison tried to wrack her brains.
"Maybe about 8 years?" Maddison guessed as she tried to do the bath in her head "It was just before Jace had Fay because this was the place where he decided to bring Mom and Dad to tell that they they were going to be grandparents" she chuckled as she recalled their shocked faces and how she had chosen the moment to be the one to go to the bar and to get the drinks.
"Really, that the long?" John was shocked as Maddison nodded.
"Yeah, we loved it so much after the first song that we came time and time again. We will come different times throughout the year with either our friends or as a family but Christmas is always a must" Maddison shrugged draining her beer of the last dregs and placing it on the table before standing up from her bench "Same again?" She asked, her hand gathering up her hair and pulling it back from her face into a high ponytail as John nodded.
Whilst she went to the bar John sat pondering his thoughts, kind of surprised that him and his friends hadn't heard of it before. It was definitely something that they would enjoy doing, he could picture it in his head: all of the crammed around the tables laughing away as they drank beer and ate the delicious smelling food, Max and Pat being the first to be up and dancing in front of whoever was playing, loudly cheering their appreciation at the end of every song. A small smile crept onto his face at the thought, he would have to bring them all along next time it was on, who knows he might even bump into Maddison.
"How you doing, John?" Laura asked as she sat in the seat that was recently vacated by her older sister. Seeing her from this distance John could see the similarities more than he did earlier, but whilst Maddison had a playful smirk on her face a she left the look on Laura's face was sly, even John could tell she was up to something. "So it's really interesting that Maddie invited you for Christmas" Laura mused as John just shrugged.
"Why's that?" John asked warily, not wanting to dig a hole and make things worse for Mads, after all the main reason he was here was to try and make her life earlier and get her family, well certain members, off her back not to pile them on even higher.
"She's never brought a guy home, not since she broke up with Elijah" Laura shrugged acting nonchalant but her eyes never left John's face as though she was testing him "Though of course you know all about Eli, right?" she asked, leaning closer across the table as her hands splayed across the table, John merely shook his head, taking the last swig of his beer before stacking his cup into Maddison's empty one.
"She hasn't told you about Eli?" Laura gasped, leaning even closer as though she was letting him into a secret but her eyes had lit up "They were together for years, high school sweethearts! They got together at 16 and were inseparable, he proposed at 21 but Maddison turned him down. No one know why and ever since shes been single. Well until you of course. Which makes me wonder why we hadn't heard about you before" Laura mused, leaning back across the table as he saw Maddison from the corner of his eye heading back across to him with the drinks in her hand, her eyes narrowing when she saw her sister.