MAX's POV
I didn't know what I was thinking when I kissed Elyse that night on her balcony. It didn't help that she was purposefully avoiding me ever since then.
The bigger surprise was the day Kelly showed me a picture she snapped of the two of us that night. I brushed her off telling her, "It's all part of the plan, she's got nothing on you." With a kiss, silencing her.
Though, considering how my body reacts whenever I recalled the details of that kiss, all the signs begged to differ.
The day after I was hanging out with her mom, she kept telling me stories of Elyse during her childhood. Many of which Carlos was in, which made me feel a twinge of jealousy— though I pushed it away, knowing they were no more than friends. It was stupid to even feel jealous.
I had a loving girlfriend who was willing to put up with my bullshit. But I had to admit, for some reason, everything in Kelly and I's relationship was starting to feel rather suffocating than loving. Our relationship had started to strain ever since the whole thing with Elyse started. That was why we were staying in separate rooms when we first got here, but after we supposedly made up, we decided to stay in the same room.
However, with Elyse, she was like the tide of the ocean pulling me towards her no matter how hard I tried to get away. But with Kelly, she was the seaweed that wrapped around my legs with a strangling grip, dragging me underneath the surface of the water making it harder for me to catch my breath.
The whole time Elyse has been ignoring me for was rather unpleasant. I wanted nothing more than making up with her, even if it meant doing the things she enjoyed, then so be it.
With all that in mind, I preferred to enjoy the moments as they are and face my problems as the summer joy faded and we were back to reality.
ELYSE's POV
The whole house was getting ready for an outing to celebrate my mother's birthday. Our birthdays were just a week apart. And despite her continuous pleads of not making her a crazy birthday, we settled on going out and making her enjoy her 40th birthday.
As I was adding some finishing touches to my makeup, two knocks on my door interrupted my getting ready and begrudgingly got up to answer.
I was ready to immediately shut the door once I found Max at the door with a small box in his hands. The only thing that stopped me from closing the door was the unusual pleading look on his face.
"Max. What are you doing here?" I asked him, politely.
"I wanted to give you this," he handed me the box, "an apology gift."
I held the box in my hands, unsure if I should open it.
"Why do you think you need to apologize?" I asked him.
"Because I kissed you?" he replied, in a questioning tone. "You've been avoiding me ever since."
"Oh— I've just been busy preparing for my mom's birthday, that's all." I lied, playing with the strings of the ribbon on the box.
"Yeah, but you still made time for Carlos and Lewis and like, everyone other than me." He pointed out and that's when I knew I was busted.
I sighed, opening the door wider as an invitation for him to get inside. I really didn't want to have anyone eavesdropping on us. I put the box on my vanity.
"Fine, I was avoiding you." I admitted, "But you kissed me when you have a girlfriend!"
"I know it sounds bad—"
"It is bad, Max. I can barely sleep every night because of the guilt." I told him, dying for him to understand, "I don't know how you can continue acting like everything's okay with her."
"We're having some problems right now—"
"So you go and cheat on her?! What kind of boyfriend does that, Max?!" I was fuming, how could he act like this isn't a big deal? "I know I'm not an expert at these types of things but I don't have to be in order to be able to know when someone is cheating. If you think I'm gullible enough for you to kiss me and pretend like cheating on your girlfriend with me would be no big deal, then you're mistaken. I won't be taken advantage of again."
"Again?" He queried, confused.
"Shit," I put my face in the palm of my hands. "I didn't mean to say that."
He got up from his seat on my bed, "What do you mean again?"
"Nothing, Max. I mean nothing."
"You said you trusted me, why can't you trust me with this?" he spoke with a tenderness I've never seen before.
"It's not like it's an easy thing to talk about." I didn't realize I was caving in.
"Take your time, I'm listening." He took my hands and intertwined them with his.
"Remember the time I asked you for a ride?" he nodded, "The person I was running away from... he—"
"Breathe, Elyse." His free hand started caressing my back.
I sharply inhaled, "He— he was the same guy who raped me when I was 18."
The grip Max had loosened, his face going pale with surprise. I couldn't read exactly how he felt. I was starting to regret ever telling him anything and was nearly 100% positive he was judging me.
But, his grip tightened once again, "I would never do that to you. I'd never do such a terrible thing to anyone, especially someone like you." His face had a determined expression, as if he was desperately trying to prove his point, "I'm so sorry that happened to you, you should've never went through that. Come here." He opened his arms wide and I couldn't help but fall into them.
"I don't want your pity." I wasn't mad, though. "It makes me feel weak and that's not true."
He held my face in his hands, "You're the strongest person I know."
The sudden urge to kiss him made me create some space between us. We certainly didn't need a part two of my birthday night.
"Thank you, Max." I sincerely smiled, "You have no idea how much that means to me—"
Before I could even finish my sentence, Charlotte was knocking on my door, telling me to hurry up since they were all heading to the restaurant.
A panicked, "Okay," sufficed as I warned Max to not follow me out of the room and leave only when I text him to. I didn't need someone connecting the dots and speculating anything.
I quickly grabbed the camera my mom had gotten me for my birthday and stuffed it in my purse along with my wallet and car keys then rushed out of the room, and as fast as my legs could carry me, I was out of my room.
Once I checked the floor was empty I texted Max saying that the coast was clear and he could leave the room.
MAX's POV
After receiving Elyse's text, I twisted the doorknob open and started leaving her room when a smug Daniel spotted me.
"Am I witnessing the behind the scenes of a scandal right now?" His eyebrows perked up.
"Shut up, Daniel. There's nothing going on." I rolled my eyes at him as we took the elevator.
"Then explain your suspicions behavior." He pretended to hold a mic.
I pushed his hand away, "I'm not in an interrogation room, quit it, Daniel. Seriously."
He raised his hands in surrender, "Fine, your secret is safe with me, Maxie Waxie."
The elevator doors opened and as we separated, going into different cars I heard him say, "For now."
ELYSE's POV
We all successfully arrived to the restaurant I picked for my mom's birthday. It wasn't just any restaurant, I remember her telling me about this place and how my grandparents took her here for her birthday for as long as she could remember. It might not be the same without my grandparents here but I hoped I could at least reunite her with them through memories.
We booked the whole place to avoid any interruptions this evening and as soon as I took off the blindfold I had wrapped over her eyes, her eyes were immediately full to the brim with tears as she took in the place around her. Some of the old workers even recognized her and greeted her happily.
We were escorted to our table and soon enough, the table was stacked with food. But my favorite part was the cake I chose to be made. It was a large velvet shortcake with an outer layer made of frosting which had edible snaps of photos I found in the memory card that belonged to my mom. I precisely asked for the words, "la vida cambia." (life changes.) to be written in cursive.
My mom wouldn't let go of me the whole time. I didn't want her to. As soon as everyone started singing happy birthday, I got out the camera and started recording. The reaction on her face was priceless, I knew I was going to be watching this video over and over again.
I could see the nostalgia and yearning for more time flash through her eyes. It was the first time I felt pity for my mom— she loved life so much, no matter how difficult it got. She didn't give up when it hard, she managed to put a smile on everyone's faces even when she didn't feel like it. She was the hero, the angel, that saved my life.
After the celebrations and most of finished our meals, we were on our way to the second destination which was a club. Knowing my mom, she loved to party and what better day was it for her to party than today? As soon as we arrived, she was swiftly pulled onto the dance-floor with her friends and I decided to take a moment for myself and headed to the bathroom.
I locked myself in one of the stalls, catching my breaths. I had no idea why everything felt so heavy all of a sudden. Was it because the reality of everything was about to come crashing down at me soon enough? Or was it because —
My thoughts were interrupted by the squeak of the bathroom door opening.
"So what are you going to do?" An unfamiliar voice asked.
"Nothing." I instantly recognized Kelly's voice.
"What do you mean nothing? He literally cheated on you, Kels." The unknown voice tried to speak some sense into her.
"He told me it's all part of the plan, Olivia, if it'll help him win the championship by making her fall for him then so be it." The water started running. "I won't stand in the way of that. She's got nothing on me anyways."
My heart sank, yet I couldn't bring myself to stop listening.
The Olivia girl, apparently one of Kelly's friends, scoffed, "Yeah, I bet that's what he told you."
"Yeah he told me that. So what, Liv? Now can you stop making a fuss about all this, I'm starting to regret telling you about this." Kelly snapped at her friend and before I knew it, they were out of the bathroom.
However, I was still stuck in place. I couldn't move. I felt paralyzed. Was all he said earlier bullshit? Who am I kidding — of course it was. I was the stupid one for even letting him near me and allowing myself to like him and trust him. How fucking dumb could I have been?
I've always considered Max as my enemy up till recently— but never a villain. Though, right now, he was the bane of my existence and I wanted nothing more than to see him suffer, to feel every inch of fiery heartache I was feeling right now.
If I was going to be the ball in his game, I'll make him my fucking court.