Jailbreak •Maxian•

.08

That first night that Max slept in my bed was the first of many. For the next few weeks, he would ask to stay in my bed, before finally just ceasing to ask and doing it automatically. I loved it. Being able to hold him and keep him safe was all I wanted. He has become the reason I get up in the morning, the reason I continue breathing, the reason I deal with this place. Max has become my world, my stars, and my whole universe in just a few short weeks.

It had been exactly 6 months since he had been here now. He's one-fourth of the way through his sentence.

I don't know what I'll do with myself once he leaves. I'll just be here, hopelessly living out the days until I die. It's amazing how one bad thing can screw you over for life. You'd never think your life can change so quickly but it really can. It's cliche and overused but your life really can change in the blink of an eye. But usually, there's one blink and everything is changed drastically forever. I've had two blinks: one a life sentence, the other Max.

I'm becoming obsessive with the thought of him and I know it isn't good to latch onto one person so hard but I can't help but want to hang onto him and never let go.

Before Max, I trudged through here sad and lonely. I talked to one other person, Ryan, but never got a connection like this.

But that reminds me. Ryan quit shortly after the incident. I never got to apologize or even explain myself. He was just gone. I asked and asked for weeks when he would be back and no one would tell me until one guard got tired of brushing me off and told me that he had quit. I was devastated. I wouldn't talk for two days, just feeling sorry for myself. It worried Max but I came around and told him at the end of the second day.

Now as he lays here in my arms and I find myself lying awake as the early morning light just begins to touch the small window that resides in our cell, I still can only think of him.

Max shifts in my arms and digs his head into my chest. I lean down slightly and plant a light kiss on the top of his head, feeling that it was the right thing to do at the moment. I close my eyes and hope to drift off until we have to actually be up, and I do.

<m>

When I wake up, Max isn't in my arms. I jump up in panic and look around frantically for him.

"Christ, are you alright, Ian?" Max asks, alerting me that he's sitting on the floor, next to the bed.

"Yeah, I'm good," I breathe out a big sigh of relief.

"Are you sure?" he pushes. "You seem so freaked out."

"I just didn't know where you went, is all," I tell him.

"Couldn't have gone that far," he smirks at me, getting up and walking over to the bed. "Just wanted to get up is all."

"I know, I was just expecting you to still be here," I explain. "God, I'll be a mess when you leave."

"I'll just have to visit you and you'll have to call me as often as possible," he suggests. "Sure I won't be in here with you but I won't just forget you."

I shake my head and look down at my hands. "Listen, Max, I never want to forget you ever in a million years and I'd love to be with you forever, I really would. But when you get out of here, you'll never want to look back, and you shouldn't. You should leave and forget this place and forget me. If you try to hold onto it, it'll just hold you back and that's the last thing I want. I want you to have a great life outside of here and away from someone like me. I just want you to be happy."

"But you make me happy," he says, sounding to be on the verge of tears. "Happier than I was living an average life. What did I really have before you? Sure there was my family but I spent my whole life running around to please them but now they won't visit me or answer my calls. I think you're the only person that actually cares for me, Ian. I could never walk away from this."

I reach over and grab his hand in mine, squeezing it tightly. "What are we going to do?"

He shrugs before leaning on me, "I don't know. I don't want to think about it."

I push some of his hair back behind his ear and kiss his forehead. It brings a smile to his face, which brings one to mine.

An alarm starts going off, startling us both. The secondary locks in cell doors click loudly in each cell and the lights in the hall cut.

"What the fuck is going on?" Max asks, clearly startled.

"Jailbreak," I whisper. "We're on lockdown."

"What's going to happen?" He questions.

"They're going to try and find whoever is trying to run and catch them," I explain. "No one's ever successfully escaped and only a few are dumb enough to try."

"How often does this happen?"

"Not often," I tell him. "The last one was shortly after I got here."

"What happened then?" He shifts to look at me as I speak, even though it's hard to see with the scarce lighting that we have.

"It was back when I was still cellmates with Greg. We were trapped in our cell for 6 hours until they found the guy hiding out in a supply truck," I explain.

"That's a long time," he states.

"Yeah, it was," I agree.

"At least we can keep each other company while we're here," he smiles.

"Yeah I'm glad about that," I smile back.