Two
Nick
I showed up at his house precisely one week after Mr. and Mrs. Grey paid me a visit in school. I tried not to feel guilty for taking long to live up to the promise I’d made to them, but I couldn’t help it. Try as I would to convince myself that I’d been busy and there was no way I could have made it to the Grey residence, nothing worked. I knew the real reason I’d been pushing off this visit all too well, and it sure as hell wasn’t that I’d had a lot of work. I hadn’t been tired beyond belief, either.
I’d been nervous.
Borderline terrified of what the meeting would be like. What if Max didn’t want me there, and my being there somehow made things worse for him?
It was a ridiculous thought, but one I couldn’t completely eliminate.
Anyway, I made the visit.
I just told you I did.
*
I stood at the door waiting for someone to answer it for about four minutes before someone did. And, to my surprise, it wasn’t Max.
“Yes, who are you?” a little girl looked up at me through the little space she’d allowed for the door to open. Smart girl, I thought, she knew not to open the door completely.
“Uh, hey, my name is Nick. I’m here to see Max?”
Her response was to shut the door on my face (quite unceremonious, I must say) . I decided to stick around for a bit, in case Max asked her who it had been and she returned, but when there seemed to be nobody coming after another two minutes, I started to turn around.
I made it till the gate when I heard the door swing open.
Max looked...better, I think, but the change in him still shocked me. He was just as thin as he’d been at the hospital, and his face was haggard. His hair had grown longer and some of it fell on his face...and he looked nothing like himself. I couldn’t help but notice how he was dressed in full-length clothing, and although it didn’t look bad or out of place, it was weird.
I walked back to the house.
Max was studying my face, and he didn’t say anything.
“Uh, hey.”
He responded by moving aside, gesturing that I could enter.
“So, I just wanted to check on you, see how you’re doing.”
He nodded slightly, then beckoned for me to go upstairs, presumably to his room. “We’ll be upstairs,” he said to the little girl in a raspy whisper.
I tried not to flinch at how, I don’t know, weak he sounded, and walked up the stairs. He followed behind me.
“So, uh, who is she? Like, I get she’s your sister, but...wow.”
“Adopted.”
Well, that’s a start.
*
We were seated in his room, staring not at each other, but just into the air.
It had become a regular routine, so I wasn’t as uncomfortable as I had been when I’d visited for the first time. That time, we’d gone into his room and I’d looked around and stuff, then we’d settled down and I’d tried to make conversation.
Max had mainly replied with nods or shaking his head, occasionally answering with a word or two. It had seemed to exhaust him, so we’d then just settled into silence where he sat and just, I’m not sure, studied me? and I’d looked about his room and...I don’t know.
We progressed from there over the next week to simply sitting down and either being in silence, or perhaps playing some game on paper. We’d played dots and crosses quite a bit, chess, scrabble...the usual. Sometimes his sister, Lucy, as I came to learn, would join us and do whatever she felt like, or she’d watch. Or she’d get us to draw and color with her. The other alternative was that I would do my homework and Max would look over my shoulder, occasionally pointing out what I could do if I were stuck.
The day in question was one where we’d just been sitting in silence. I’m not sure what I’d been thinking about, but it had been something intense. Something that made me less than alert about my surroundings, which explains why I was so startled when I heard a voice.
“Sometimes I forget what life used to be like before this.”
I looked about wildly, completely bewildered as to what had happened; what I’d heard. It took me an embarrassing amount of time to realize that Max had said something.
“Oh.”
It was a pathetic response, but it was the best I could manage.
“I used to be happy. Things were great.” He continued, as if I hadn’t said anything, not that, I reminded myself, I had.
I’d found my footing by then, however. “And they will be, so don’t worry.”
He turned his head to look at me, a curious expression on his face. “I doubt that.”
“Don’t. You’re just having to go through crap right now, but that doesn’t mean it’s always going to be that way.”
I cursed myself when he turned away and lapsed into silence again. Why did I have to open my big mouth? He didn’t want to hear it would be okay, he’d probably thought that I didn’t want to hear him say anything so I’d tried to shut him up or something.
After another fifteen minutes or so, fifteen minutes of berating myself for giving him the impression I thought I had, I decided to leave.
“Okay, so Max, I’ll see you around, alright? I’m going now.”
He didn’t normally respond, nor did I expect him to, which is why his “Right, see you,” surprised me. In a good way.
*
And things continued that way. Over the next week, a fortnight after my initial visit, things started to pick up. Max started opening up to me, and I started learning other random things about him. I wasn't complaining, however, I liked hearing him talk. It made me feel good that I was helping - and even if that was a selfish notion, nobody can deny that I was doing good. And soon, the visits weren't because I'd promised the Greys, either.
Soon after, upon a suggestion from a very concered Mrs. Grey, I breached a subject Max had tried to eschew till then. "Hey, when do you plan on returning to school?"
He seemed startled, and I thought he'd try to change the subject, but I was wrong. "I don't think I want to."
"What? Why not?"
"I don't have anyone there, and I just don't want to deal with it."
It stung that he didn't consider me a friend. "You've got me," I replied softly.
"You'll get sick of me."
"I haven't till now, have I?" I retorted, the sting still burning me.
"Ryan and Rodney don't like me, and that will put you in a difficult position." He replied.
"If that isn't a problem?"
"I don't want to go back." Gosh, he was so stubborn! I'd forgotten what he was like...but before I could snap back at him, "You don't understand, Nick."
I shut my open mouth and nodded at him to continue. "You don't know what it's like when people stare. I try to go out, but there's always the weird looks I get. I can't deal with that, Nick. I can't."
I was shocked. I'd never thought about that. Never realized how insecure he'd been. "Max, you can't keep hiding forever, you know."
"Maybe I want to."
*
"Dude, are you sure about this?" Ryan looked at me with the same doubt he'd had three hours ago, the same doubt I thought I'd dispelled.
"Positive." I replied, trying to sound confident. I wasn't sure myself whether it was a good idea, but it was worth a shot. If Max had a few more friends he'd be less insecure...hypothetically, so that was what I was trying to achieve.
"I don't know, won't it be a little weird?" Rodney was doubtful too.
"Just do it!" I hissed, frustrated that we were having that conversation again. The entire afternoon I'd spent my energy trying to get them come over, and they'd given in just when I'd started to give up, so that we were doing all of it all over again was agitating me.
I pressed my finger against the doorbell.
The echo sounded through.
This was crap, you can say it. I know you're thinking it; I am too. I can't help it though. You gotta build a setting for something before any action happens, so think of this as that and forgive me. Basically:
1. Max is still messed up, but things are getting better.
2. He and Nick are becoming friends.
3. Nick is therefore trying to help fix Max
Yeah, you read all that just to get the three points above
But things will get better, so don't give up on me yet :)