Stealing Emma

Chapter 10 - Standstill

"It simple. Forget her. Look around. There plenty of other girl here. I hook you up."

He shook his head and clasped him on the shoulder, not believing this guy was his only friend in school at the moment. "I'll catch you later, Tony."

Max went home that day and immediately changed and headed towards the gym. He needed to let out all his frustration somehow. After two hours of letting his lungs burn and the sweat drip down his body, he didn't feel any better. So he did the only other thing he could think of and called his brother once he got home. If anyone had any advice on this subject, it would be him.

"Leo, I need help. Pronto."

"Shit. What happened this time? Did you get your ass kicked again? Did you at least try the left hook I showed you?"

"No, nothing like that. At least, not yet," he said sighing into the phone. Why did everyone think he was a freaking time bomb? "It's Emma. She won't talk to me, bro. I don't know what to do."

"How long has it been?"

Thirty-nine excruciating days, he thought. "About a month, I think."

"Okay, that's not entirely bad. Listen, if I ever learned anything from Mia is that chicks need time. I know it blows, but you gotta wait it out. You know the guy is gonna fuck something up sooner or later. That's when she'll come running to you and this time you seal the deal."

"Bro, she won't even glance in my direction. It's like I'm a ghost or a fucking leper around her. Even if she does feel something like you say she does, what the fuck do you know? How does she hide it so damn well? Like she doesn't give a shit. I'm drowning over here. I can't even think about banging some chick because I don't want anyone. Just her. Man, I sound as pathetic as you were."

"Uhm, first, that's offensive and two, now you know how it fucking feels. Yeah, it's tough. Girls are just better at that stuff for some reason, I don't know why. Trust me, if she does care about you, and I think she does, she probably acts all smooth in front of you, but goes home miserable. How do you know she's not crying herself to sleep every night?"

"How could I possibly know that? She gives me zero indication of anything. What gives her any right to treat me like this? I hit on her, like anyone else probably would, but she let me in. Fuck. Would've just been easier to be rejected in the beginning or if she had left that fucking horse tranquilizer boyfriend of hers and just stay with me. But no, now I get the fucking cheese grater treatment."

"Max, if you're done feeling sorry for yourself...you have to act 'as if'. As if that shit don't affect you and you got your shit together. Even if you don't. You're my big brother. If it were the other way around you would have bitch slapped me by now. So, I don't know what to say. Tough love. If it doesn't work out...just fuck it. Let her have Satan's babies with that fucking meathead. Listen, I gotta run. I'm supposed to meet up with Mia like 5 minutes ago. She signed us up for some sushi class."

"Okay, that does sound like you. Alright. I'll use the weekend to regroup. I'll read some 'don't kill myself' books," he said humorously.

"I thought you said those weren't yours," Leo joked at the Wedding Crashers reference.

"They're not, they're from a friend of mine...but I glanced at it."

"Okay, Owen Wilson. Let me know how it goes. I'm out."

"Later."

Max hung up the phone feeling slightly better, but still needed something to calm down. He thought of what Leo had said about Emma possibly putting on an act. Could she really be feeling differently inside? People never really knew what happened behind closed doors. Sometimes he wished he could be a fly on the wall to know what was really going on with her. Then again, he most likely wouldn't want to see certain things. It made him sick to his stomach just imagining her with Roy naked together and then just rolling around in the bed, laughing about him, ridiculing him...and had to slap himself to get the awful pictures out of his mind.