20. One Hour Later

"It was nice to see you again."

I'm sure it was nice for you to see your daughter for just over an hour. Any bad conscience must have been completely wiped away with this shit-hole of a weekend. Thanks dad, Maisie thought.

"Good to see you too," Maisie said.

Her dad didn't move towards her with any haste for a goodbye hug but he did squeeze her shoulder as he walked past with his suitcase. Maisie was positive this was where things were supposed to be patched up and her relationship with her dad was supposed to improve by one-hundred percent.

Instead her dad slowed and turned around to look at Rachel who hadn't moved yet. Her step-dad's glare must have got Rachel's muscles to finally move as she wandered off after him, stopping beside Maisie and giving her a fleeting smile.

Maisie gave one back and watched her dad walk five paces ahead of his step-daughter while throwing a flippant wave back at his biological one. Maisie took in a deep breath under her nose to calm herself down. It was way too early in the morning to begin to mourn over the potential loss of any future civilized conversation with her dad. She's just let Rachel deal with him. But a part of her didn't really want anything to go to shit for Rachel either.

After all, they had the same dad to deal with.

Maisie pushed her hair out of her face and walked over to the escalator, taking the steep electronic steps down a tall flight and stepped out into a large waiting area. She walked through the long departures and arrival sections before coming out at the stores and coffee shops. Maisie made a bee-line for the Starbucks hidden away in the corner. It had two tables stood beside it and Maisie went for the one occupied by a blonde boy and a little kid.

She sat down and picked up the tall drink left on the table and began to chug the black coffee down in large swigs.

"Mais!" Logan practically barked. "You can't chug coffee, you'll burn yourself, dumbass!"

"Chug, chug, chug!" Juno chanted as he sipped his bright pink frappucino.

Logan slapped his arm. "Not helping."

Maisie slammed the takeout cup back down onto the table and sighed, wiping the side of her mouth. Logan grimaced and sipped his drink.

"You're a pig," he said.

"I'm aware," Maisie said.

"Can I have a cake pop?" Juno asked, swinging his legs back and forth.

"No," Logan said. "That drink has enough sugar to make you go hyper for hours, you don't need more."

"Screw that," Maisie scoffed and rummaged through her bag until she grasped her wallet. "I want a cake pop too, come on."

"I have to deal with him for the rest of the day, you don't!" Logan called out as they walked to the ordering area. Juno ran off to pick a flavour and Maisie turned around, slowly walking back to Logan.

"Is that you inviting me to stay with you for the rest of the day?" Maisie asked.

"Not really," Logan frowned then smiled. "But I guess that could work."

Maisie rolled her eyes and turned back around. "What a charmer."

"My grandma says I'm a keeper," Logan said and Maisie snorted, shaking her head as she came to stop beside Juno who pointed aggressively at the chocolate covered pop.

"Okay," Maisie mumbled. "One heartache in a ball coming up."

The bakery was shut that day so with the departure of Maisie's dad and none of the stress from the bakery taking up the day, everyone finally felt like they had a moment to breathe for once. Keith was heading to his shift at the local BurritoBazinga which surprised the hell out of Maisie. When looking at him; tattoos and the meanest glare on the planet - she never would have thought he could be stood for hours wrapping up burritos.

When Maisie walked back to Logan, half a cake pop hanging out of her mouth, she had an idea.

"Why don't we all hang out together?" Maisie asked.

Logan frowned. "Aren't we already doing that?"

"No, I mean everyone. Like, I could get Charity and Ocean and you could get the other guys!" Maisie said.

"You want to willingly get everyone together for a harmless day of fun and bonding?" Logan raised his eyebrows.

"Okay, so maybe I just want to go to BurritoBazinga so I can make fun of Keith but come on, where's the harm in that!?"

Logan chuckled lightly before slowly nodding his head. He took his phone out and typed out something on the screen for a bit. "Keith will hate you and probably make sure you get buried alive but the place does do good burritos, I'll give them that."

"Can I come?" Juno asked, chocolate all over one of his cheeks.

Logan grabbed a tissue and wiped it away. "Where the fuck else would you go?"

"Language," Maisie hissed and Logan threw the tissue in the garbage without much care.

"Okay, we should probably go then," Logan said. "The bus will take a little while to get us back."

Maisie nodded and threw her stuff in the garbage as well. "Okay, come on Juno, lets go!"

Juno grabbed one of Maisie and Logan's hands and pulled his weight down on their arms until they agreed to swing him.

Logan groaned. "You're too fat."

"Don't body shame!" Juno screeched.

"This kid is the physical embodiment of Tumblr," Logan sighed.

The three of them finally got onto the city bus and Maisie took out her phone and sent a text to Charity and Ocean. She closed her apps until she ended up on the internet app and stopped. She clicked on it and scrolled through the tabs that were open.

All places she had wanted to show her dad.

Maisie quickly closed all the tabs and locked her phone, sitting it on her knee as she looked out the window, seeing a random plane fly off from the ground. Maisie always knew her relationship with her dad wasn't a good one. But a visit had never ended badly before. They had at least always been able to quickly patch things up and then fly away from each other. This was different.

Maisie tried not to dwell on it. She slid her phone away and focused on the kid that was talking a million miles an hour. And his hot brother.

***

Everyone met up together outside of BurritoBazinga. Ocean was a few minutes late which he put down to making sure he looked as good as possible. Walking into the building, they were hit with a relieving wall of ice cold AC. Charity and Maisie breathed it in heavily and their bodies sagged in response.

There was no one inside the eatery but that's the problem when you go to a burrito place at ten-thirty in the morning on a not very busy street.

Why everyone was getting burritos at that time was a mystery to them all but the most plausible answer was that they honestly just wanted to make fun of Keith.

And a few moments later then came the man of the hour. He was dressed in a white uniform with vertical orange stripes. His hat had BurritoBazinga written in huge letters with an evil burrito beside it.

Keith looked up, realized who his next customers were and prayed that his shift would end in the next five seconds. Nick walked over, stared for a moment, then burst out laughing.

"Oh my god," he said. "No wonder you never change for work at your place. No one would want to be seen in public wearing that."

"It's not that bad," Keith sighed.

"But it is," Andrew came over and gripped Nick's arm as he laughed. "You look like you should run an ice cream truck."

Juno walked over and looked at Keith before pointing at the containers of food behind the glass separating them. Juno turned his head to Logan.

"I want chicken."

"Nope," Logan said. "You just had cake, you'll live."

Juno frowned and turned to Maisie who hadn't been paying attention. He walked over and tugged on her shirt. Maisie looked down.

"I want chicken."

"Oh of course!" Maisie gasped and grabbed her wallet.

Logan rushed over and put his hand over her wallet while glaring at Juno.

"He doesn't need a burrito," Logan said. "He's fine. He just ate."

Maisie seemed unsure but nodded and put her wallet away. Juno looked up at his brother and stuck his tongue out.

"I hate you," he said.

"I'll buy you a churro," Logan said.

Juno's eyes practically sparkled. "I love you."

Nick and Andrew finally calmed down and forced Keith to go through them ordering an entire burrito. He was made to ask if they wanted peppers, salsa or lettuce - if they wanted any sauces. And then they watched intently as he tried to wrap the burrito up, each making horrifying sound effects if he slipped up a bit. Keith was just waiting for it to all be over so he could get out of his uniform and slap them all silly.

Juno chewed aggressively on his churro and walked over to Ocean, with Maisie, who was sitting at a table, brightly dressed. Maisie introduced them both and was swept off into a conversation with Logan and Charity.

"Why are you multicoloured?" Juno asked.

Ocean glanced down at him before placing his hands on the table, taking a deep breath.

"When I was a little boy, someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. And do you know what I said?" Ocean asked.

"You wanted to be a homosexual?" Juno asked.

"I said I wanted to be a rainbow," Ocean continued. "And so that's what I did."

"But isn't your name Ocean?" Juno frowned. "So you became an ocean, not a rainbow."

Ocean blinked at the kid before sighing and flicking his hair out of his eyes. "You'll destroy dreams when you're older kid."

"But I already destroy dreams now," Juno said and Ocean sucked in a horrified breath.

"Who raised you?" Ocean gasped. "Heathen."

Logan came over and slapped his hands over Juno's ears. "I did, and don't call him a heathen. He's too young to know big words like that."

"But I wanna be a heathen!" Juno screeched, shoving the hands off his ears and his brother sighed.

Logan looked around the room before his eyes landed on Andrew. He grabbed Juno by the hand and literally dragged him across the floor before flinging him at Andrew. Andrew caught the kid with surprise and looked at Logan who pointed aggressively at him.

"You," Logan said, "look after him for a bit or I will go insane. You're the only person he doesn't hate."

"I like Maisie," Juno mumbled.

"Only because she buys you candy," Logan retorted.

Andrew glanced down at Juno before opening his mouth in surprise. He turned back to Logan. "How long do I have to look after him?"

Logan shrugged. "Until I feel like coming back."

Andrew's look turned into a glare and he wrapped his arms around Juno's head. "Fine. Then I'm buying him as many chicken burritos and bags of candy as he wants."

Logan nearly growled at Juno who smirked at him.

The little shit is too much like me, Logan thought.

"Whatever, I don't care. Just don't lose him," Logan said and turned away, walking towards Maisie who was talking to Keith before a short man came out the back and interrupted them all.

"Ah hello," the man smiled, dressed in the BurritoBazinga uniform. "Are you friends of Keith?"

Maisie and Logan nodded slowly, not really wanting to be roped into a conversation with someone they had never met. The dark haired man with tan skin patted Keith on the arm and gave them both a mega-watt smile.

"Lovely to meet you," he said. "They call me the Mexican Hercules."

Maisie blinked. "I'm sorry?"

"The Mexican Hercules," he repeated. "I'm very famous in Germany."

Neither of them had an answer to that so luckily the conversation was cut off by the sound of music coming from the corner. Everyone looked over to see Ocean fiddling with a jukebox no one noticed before. An old song with a heavy beat blasted through the room and Ocean jumped back, holding his hands up high.

Charity listened for a moment before walking over to where Keith stood and held her hand out. He raised an eyebrow at it.

"Come on," she said with a grin. "Dance with me."

Keith sighed and looked to 'The Mexican Hercules' but he was bopping his head from side to side and clapping his hands at random intervals. He shook his head and threw his hat off, coming around the side of the counter and grabbing Charity's hand. Keith spun her around, making Charity laugh as they fell onto each other and danced to the music.

Nick shrugged and threw Juno up onto his shoulders, twirling around as the kid yelled happily.

Maisie grabbed Logan's hand and tugged him over. "Dance," she said. "Come on."

Logan begrudgingly let himself he dragged around until he was dancing with Maisie, twirling her around and keeping their bodies close. He wanted to leave and go off with her for a bit, have some time away from his infuriating friends and little brother. But that didn't seem to be happening anytime soon.

The song loudly played from the corner of the eatery and everyone was dancing at that point. Andrew spun Ocean in circles, pulling him close after. Charity and Keith laughed as they stumbled around the room and Juno clung to Nick's head.

Logan spun Maisie out then brought her close and quickly pulled her out of burrito place and into the thickly hot air outside. They went around the corner of the building until they were out of sight of any windows or people who could see them. They both breathed out a light laugh and leaned against the wall, chests heaving.

"This city is really weird," Maisie said breathlessly and Logan nodded.

"Sure is," he said and wiped a hand across his forehead.

He turned his head, the sun glaring into the corner of his eye. He looked at Maisie who stared at the view of Tucson in front of them, her skin heated by the hot weather. It was only then that Logan finally stopped second guessing himself and just thought; 'fuck it' and leaned over to kiss her.

- Ellie x