nine in the afternoon + max stanley

1.

"sam?" max questioned as the petite brunette entered the room.

ignoring everyone, sam slumped down on the couch in between joji and ian. joji and ian simultaneously observed the now frazzled girl.

"sam, what happened?" max questioned hesitantly, intently watching her pick at her nails.

"he's cheating on me." sam replied, scrunching her face up out of pure anger.

derek was definitely a douche, there was no doubt about that, but no one thought he was that low.

"i'm gonna beat the piss out of him." max spoke quietly, after a few seconds of processing what his hurting best friend said.

"don't. i think i just need to have a very long talk with," sam paused, looking around.

"hennessy." she smiled picking up the large glass bottle, unscrewing the top, taking a long swig.

"fellas, it's a party!" max yelled a little too loudly, moving the party to the kitchen.

sam followed into the kitchen, hopping up on the counter along with her bottle.

ian stood next to sam, probably conversing about memes and such. judging by the way sam laughed and continued drinking, they were definitely talking about dead memes.

max sat by the table, his head resting on his hand. observed the way sam smiled, the way her eyes would crinkle at the corners. as well as how she would take a drink every time after laughing.

staring at the hennessy bottle, a certain favorite memory sparked in his head.

*flashback*

"are you sure we should do this?" sam whispered grabbing a small bottle from under the cabinet.

max nodded, quietly snickering, slowly shutting the cabinet making sure no one would know.

"let's go." max whispered pulling sam along out of the sliding door.

the two teenagers made their way up the creeky ladder leading up to the wooden treehouse.

the warm summer air blew threw the open windows, causing both sam and max's hair to flow.

with the only lighting coming from the bright moon, max peeled the wrapper off of the top of the bottle.

"are you really, really sure we should do this?" sam questioned hesitantly.

"just drink some." max chuckled passing her the bottle.

sam reluctantly grabbed the bottle, taking a long sip letting the warm liquor burn down her throat, finishing with a loud hiccup, earning a cheeky smile from max.

sitting closer to max, sam played with his long curly hair as the two talked about life and stale memes, passing the bottle back and forth.

"we're drunk." max giggled obnoxiously.

"i think i," sam paused for another hiccup.

are these the words max has been yearning to hear since freshman year?

"i love-" max's memory faded as he was snapped back to reality.

"i love you, max." sam slurred, taking a seat on max's lap, playing with max's curls just as she did when they were teens.

"you what?" max was taken aback and slightly disappointed that those weren't sober words.

"i never noticed how pretty you are." sam smiled, putting her hands around his face, pulling him close so that their noses were touching.

max's breath and heart immediately jumped, considering he's been waiting for this moment for years.

"are you gonna kiss me?" sam asked, putting her lips even closer to max's.

max immediately closed the small space, placing his lips on hers. he knew it was wrong, but damn did it feel right.