<Chapter 10>
(Summer’s Point of View)
When I awoke the next morning, I found that I couldn’t move. I wasn’t sure why until I looked around and found that the pillow wall I made last night had been demolished, and Max had his arms wrapped around me.
“Max!” I screeched. “GET OFF ME!”
I heard a deep intake of breath as his smooth voice rolled over me, “Good morning to you too.” His words tickled the back of my neck.
“You said you wouldn’t do anything.” I exclaimed, squirmed in his grasp, and even with my back to him I could hear the grin in his voice as he spoke.
“This? You think this is something? This is the fact that you were warm and I was cold last night and nothing more.” He told me and his head nuzzled into my back.
I shivered, but not from the cold of which he spoke. “Then,” I said tersely, “Why haven’t you let go of me yet?”
Max let out a sigh of exasperation, “I told you. You’re warm, and I’m cold.” I seriously wanted to kick him in the face. Then by chance, to make matters worse, I glanced at the clock. “MAX!” I cried out again, even louder this time.
“What?” Max groaned back, “I thought we were done with all the yelling.”
“Max it is eleven o’clock Tuesday morning, we have school today! Did none of this occur to you?” I demeaned.
He sighed, released me, and sat up and sleepily rubbed his eyes. “Didn’t we already discuss this?” He asked groggily, and my eyes narrowed.
“If we did, I don’t recall. Please refresh my memory.” I snapped.
He sighed once more and I rubbed my temples while he explained, “I called your parents, they agreed to this. I also called the principle and he said ok…”
“My PARENTS said ok to this?” I demanded, and Max rolled his eyes.
“Summer, we’ve been dating 5 years, your parents are ok with us doing anything, since I’m sure they’re sure that we are gonna get married one day.”
I gagged and he looked at me, eyebrow raised, “What?”
“Um, yeah, I think I just threw up in my mouth is all,” I waved my hands, “By all means continue.”
“Your friend Deanna is taking notes for you-“
“She is?” I demanded, “You didn’t bribe my teachers? For real?”
Max shrugged, “You said you wanted me to be cheap, so I asked her to take notes and told your teachers you’d catch up. If you want me to bribe them still then...” He said reaching for his phone.
“No!” I said hastily throwing my hands up, “No, no, no that’s fine!
“Why do act so surprised? You told me to be cheap.”
“But I didn’t think you’d listen.” I stated.
Max raised eyebrow, “I always listen.”
I scoffed, “Yeah right.”
“I do.”
“Then why don’t you let me date other people when you do?”
“This again?” Max asked, and I narrowed my eyes.
“Answer the question.”
“Just because I listen to you doesn’t mean I’m going to act upon it. For instance you said you want me to be cheap,” he said with a sigh, as he flopped back down on the bed from the sitting position he had worked himself into, “I heard you so now I don’t bribe your teachers, or get you expensive dresses but…”
He rolled over on his side and looked at me, “I got us this super expensive hotel room and will buy us expensive room service. I listened, but am not going to act upon some things. I heard you all of the 21.5 times you’ve complained-“
“21.5?”
He pointed a finger at me, “At one point, you opened your mouth to complain, then shut your mouth, got all huffy, and walked away, which counts as half… which I guess means I listen to what you don’t say too.”
“Sometimes,” I mumbled under my breath, and Max looked up.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that?”
“Nothing.”
“Summer…” Max bit his lip, and under the light of the gleaming golden sun I couldn’t, his hair messy from sleep I couldn’t help but feel he looked sort of… cute.
You know, in a little kid way.
“You’re my girlfriend, I’ll always listen to you. It’s my job as your other half.” He joked, tracing a heart in the air.
I punched him on the arm.
“Ow…” He mumbled rubbing his arm and I rolled my eyes.
Then he looked at me all joking aside, “I’m serious Summer. You may think I’m not, that I’m just saying things, but the truth is; you are my girlfriend, and I do listen to what you have to say. You may just think that your one in a thousand girls but what those girls say… goes in one ear and out the other. You’re the only girl who says anything that I file away, I remember what you have to say, and I listen to it. There’s only one other woman who I do that for and that’s my mom.”
“So I’m on the same level as your mom? Great.”
Max looked at me conspiratorially. “You know,” he asked waggling his eyebrows, “most guys prefer women who resemble their mothers for their spouses.”
I couldn’t help it, I laughed. Well, giggled really.
Max grinned at me, “Anyways, I was saying earlier before we got into this intense discussion, of my listening issues, which I mind you I listened too and have filed away…” He took a breath, “My jet will take us back home on Thursday morning, since there is a 3 hour time difference if we take off early enough we should get back to school on time, and you can get your little notes from Deanna and go back to school or whatever… that ok?”
I blinked, ‘Ok?’ That sounded… great.
“Wow,” I said slowly, “you really thought of everything.”
He shrugged, “I try. Maybe you should try giving me a little more credit.”
Maybe I should.
Of course then he had to go and ruin the moment by throwing his arm back around me, and yelling, “NOW TIME FOR MORE SLEEP!” Did I mention it was right in my ear?
And that he had morning breath?
An hour and a half and two well-placed kicks later, Max and I were eating room service around the table downstairs and Max was asking me, “So what do you want to do today?”
I knew he’d ask me this question at one point but I still wasn’t sure how to respond. I had never thought that once in my teen-aged life I’d get to see New York so I wasn’t sure what to do.
“Umm…” I said, picking at my strawberry waffles with my fork.
“Um?” Max asked, shoveling food in his mouth like instead of a stomach there was a black hole.
I wrinkled my nose, “Ew.”
“What?” He asked, “I’m hungry. Besides, you could tell me my manners won’t get me a girlfriend but… I have you. And I’ll always have you. So I don’t need to worry do I?”
I glared at him, thinking that if Will worked his magic that statement was no longer valid, and Max just grinned at my glare. “You’re so cute when you’re mad at me, I don’t know why I didn’t think of this whole truth agreement earlier.” He said with a pleased, genuine smile, and I felt my heart hit my rib cage.
Now it’s not like Max hadn’t ever called me cute before, or smiled at me like he was now, but it was usually only when parents were around or something. Not when it was just us.
Hell, never when it was just us.
“Um…” I said this time, though it was more because I was dazed, my fork slipping out from between my fingers.
Max grinned at me even more, “Can’t think of anything? Well I have a few ideas.”
I thought about it for a moment then shrugged.
“Why not? You brought me here, which proves that you’re not as big of an idiot as I originally thought you were, because so far… I like the city.”
Max grinned at me, “And you’re going to love the rest of it.”
And I did. From the art museums, to walking through central park, to eating hot dogs from stands of the side of the road and seeing musicals. Tuesday flew by and suddenly before I was even aware of it, we were at the feet of the Statue of Liberty on Wednesday evening watching the sunset.
“So?” Max asked, eyeing me with a faint grin.
“This was really fun.” I said with a grin back. And it was. It had been one of the best few days I had in awhile which I found surprising. I’d never thought there would have been a time with Max that could have been classified as…
Enjoyable.
Magical even.
“Good. So…”
“So?” I asked, pushing a lock of hair behind my ear as we watched the setting sun.
“Does this mean were good?”
I looked at him and blinked, “Good?”
Max winced, “I mean… I know I’ve been a jerk to you and all-”
“You’ve been an @$$hole to me Max.”
He whipped his head around, “No cussin’ in my house.”
I blinked, “What?”
“No. Cussin’. In. My. House.”
Well this conversation just took a turn for the weird. “Um… ok? You were a butthead to me?”
Max visibly relaxed on the use of my word ‘butthead’ and I just felt really confused. He treated me like dirt, and I tried to express that to him, and the only reaction I got was not to cuss in his ‘house’.
“I know that.” He said, and unlike usually, where he would have said it with a tone that would have made me bristle he sounded… genuine. “I know that a simple sorry can’t really fix anything I’ve done to you but…”
He stuck out a tan hand, “Can we be friends? Please? I liked this weekend. It was fun. And I don’t want it to have to all go down the drain just because we leave. I don’t want us to stop being friendly with each other just ‘cause we’re back home.”
I looked at his out stretched hand and thought about it. This was what I had wanted, and he was offering it to me on a golden platter. But Max being Max… was there some sort of catch? Some snag lying in wait beneath the surface for me to fall into?
I looked into his eyes, and they seemed genuine enough…
I took his hand in mine, and shook it, “Friends.”
True to his word, just as Max said we got home on Thursday morning in time for school, feeling refreshed because of the beds on the plane I was able to sleep. I’ll admit though, it was a little weird having my own bed after sharing a bed with Max for three nights.
It was a little more… cold.
No matter. I thought that would be the end of the excitement but… When I arrived at school, there was sight I wasn’t expecting.
My brother, Jake, was sitting on the steps of the school. Wasn’t he supposed to be in school right now? Why was he here?
I stepped out of the limo and walked up to him, “Jake…?”
His eyes lit up when he saw me, and he ran up and hugged me, “Thank God you’re ok! I was so worried!”
I frowned, and rustled his hair, “Silly, you should’ve known I was with Max…”
“I know, that’s why I was worried.”
My frown grew deeper. My brother had always liked Max, looked up to him even. So why did his voice sound so… icy?
Just then I heard Max walk up behind me, “Jake! What’s up bro?” His voice was warm, he sounded happy to see Jake. Heck, Max liked Jake just as much as much as Jake had liked Max.
Which is why Max probably didn’t see the punch coming.
One minute, Jake was hugging me, the next he had his fist pressed into Max’s face with a sharp crack coming from the nose region.”
“That’s for my sister!” Jake yelled, as Max grabbed his nose to stop the blood that started flowing.
“Jake!” I yelled.
Jake ignored my cry and went for another punch, but Max saw it coming this time and stopped it with his free hand. Shoving Jake’s fist away he came back with a punch of his own that knocked Jake of his feet.
“Max!” I yelled at Max, then I hurried over to Jake. Jake grimaced at Max, “You lying, cheating-“ He spat out, and the blood froze in my veins.
“Jake what did you just say?”
Jake looked at me seriously, “It’s ok Summer, I know everything, Will told me. I’m your side… Max is going down.”
I tried to wrap my head around what my brother had said, “Will did… Oh my God.” I buried my head in my hands. Will had told one of the two people that I wanted to keep Max and I’s real relationship a secret from the most, the truth.
I was going to kill him.
But for now, “Jake can you walk?”
“Are you kidding me? I could go over and punc-“
“I didn’t ask if you could punch.” I snapped, “I asked, if you could walk.”
“Yeah.”
My voice and eyes were hard as I said, “Then walk home Jake.”
“But-“
“Now. I’ll be home soon. Now go.”
Jake gave a grunt, and got up. He looked resentfully at Max, and hissed, “This isn’t over you punk.” And then started on the path towards home. Oh yeah, Will was dead on so many levels.
I ran a hand through my hair as I watched Jake retreat home, and there was a moment of silence before Max broke it with one of his witty, but inappropriate for my situation a mood right now.
Yeah, one of those things that he was famous for. Saying stuff that pissed me off.
“And he was such a nice kid.” Max said, with humor, as he wiped blood away from his jaw, as it trailed down there from his nose.
I whirled on him furious, “Do think this is funny?”
“Considering I’m bleeding from my nose like a freaking faucet, no, I do not find this funny in the least.” There was still a little humor in his voice though, and I grew even angrier.
“Did it just occur to you that you just punched my kid brother?”
Max looked at me, a flicker of anger on his face at the rage in my voice, “He started it!”
“Still…” I looked for the right words to convey my own anger, “He’s in 8th grade Max!”
“Old enough then, to know enough to not pick fights with kids who are older then him.” Max said with no sympathy what-so-ever.
“You’re… you’re… you’re such an @$$! I hate you! You and Will! You both can go die! You idiot… players!” I yelled frustrated that Max had hit my brother, and that Will had indirectly (but probably knowingly) started this fight.
Will! I couldn’t believe he told Jake! That was way out of bounds, and way out of where he should stick his nose.
I grabbed my bag, and began walking away from the school. Max grabbed my hand, “Where are you going?”
I pulled my hand out of his, “Home, to take care of my brother, and to get away from you stupid insensitive players!” I yelled into his stunned face.
So here was the downside; boys were idiots, they had always been, and it seemed like even after the greatest few days ever, they always would be. Nothing had changed at all between Max and I, and I felt so stupid.
On the plus side I made it home before I started crying.
<End of Chapter 10>