School ended and before any of them knew it, Alvin and Max ended up back home. Lunch was spectacularly boring, Alvin had concluded as he ate his weird salad that Abby had wanted to make for him. It didn't look particularly appetizing but the taste wasn't so bad. However, Max had already gone into their room and grabbed his snowboard when he learned that there was some new snow for him to glide down. Alvin hadn't seen him during the whole entire afternoon.
Alvin found this peace of time a good opportunity for him to finish some of his latest projects. He couldn't really get to finish them whenever Max was around. He would somehow end up doing something weird that would distract Alvin or when he got too bored, the snowboarder would insist on touching Alvin's stuff until something exploded or was destroyed. Even though it amused Alvin sometimes, it really wasn't something that he wanted to become some normalcy in his life.
His things were better off not turning into some weird colorful failure or exploding into either his or Max's face.
By the time Max had come back home, it was almost nearing dinner time and Alvin had just finished with his invention, sighing happily when he looked at his new born baby. Taking off his goggles, he noticed Max had entered their room, carrying his snowboard with a happy smile on his face. Alvin raised an eyebrow at him before he shook his head slowly and went back to placing the goggles on the table and continued on stripping himself from the lab coat.
"Hi, Shred," Max greeted as Alvin looked at him with a smile before he adjusted his glasses on his face.
"Hey, Max," Alvin replied as Max took off his thick jacket and proceeded to lay them down on the bed. Silence ventured in before Alvin sighed again and walked to his bed before he plopped down, trying to decide what to do next. "Had fun?" Alvin asked after a while of silence, causing Max to look at him with a grin on his face.
Max placed his snowboard against the wall before he took off his helmet and placed them on his bed. He stretched a bit before he sat on his bed to look at Shred.
"Yeah, man," Max said, excitement clearly rolling off on every word. "The best snowboarding ever so far."
"That's nice," Alvin said, even though he was losing interest already. "I had managed to find some peace in your absence to finish up most of my projects."
"Cool, man," Max nodded, his grin still plastered on his face, a genuine interest, unlike Alvin's, lightening his face up. "What did you make this time?"
Alvin proudly looked back at his working desk and smiled widely. "I managed to finish up the X-ray glasses that I had been talking about. They're still a bit off here and there but the prototype is working quite well if I do say so myself."
Max beamed up at the invention. "Like you can see through people and stuff?" Max asked, suddenly piqued up with more than just curiosity. Alvin raised an eyebrow before chuckling.
"Not just through people, Max," Alvin said. "It can be adjusted to see through different layers such as through skin, through bones, through concrete and more." Alvin just let the words to hang out in air in the simplest way possible so Max could understand without getting confused.
"Can I try?" Max asked as Alvin sighed.
"Not now, Max," Alvin said. "I just finished them. I'm going to have to make sure they're really safe for human eyes tomorrow before letting you try them," Alvin continued as Max nodded, somehow looking real understanding. These quiet and subtle changes in Max's way of conversing with Alvin were not left unnoticed. The young scientist noticed them, how Max was showing true, genuine interest for Science that doesn't give him benefit in return and how Max didn't push him about wanting to try one of Alvin's inventions.
Something didn't settle right in here and Alvin didn't like this. He didn't like how Max was changing a bit into something more normal all of a sudden, especially now. Alvin shuddered at that thought, just imagining how Max would be if he was slightly more intelligent, less bubbly and more... boring.
That Max was someone that Alvin would've died to be friends with in the beginning but after knowing this Max, the young scientist was sure that he didn't want to be with any other versions of Max except for this one. "Max?" Alvin asked slowly as Max looked at him, eyes demanding the young Ackerman to continue on with his line of question. "Are you alright?"
Max raised an eyebrow before he chuckled. "Yes, of course I am, bro. Why?" he asked as Alvin narrowed his eyes at Max.
"You seem to be..." Alvin trailed, "...normal," he finally said, trying not to offend the snowboarder. Max couldn't help but to laugh at Alvin's way of phrasing his words before he shook his head and stood up.
"Hey, mind if I joined you?" he asked as Alvin looked at him, confusion lingering a bit before he saw Max pointing at his bed. Quickly scooting over a bit, he patted an empty spot next to him. Max took that as an invitation and went over to Alvin's bed before sitting next to him, sighing in content. Silence lingered on before Max laid down on the bed on his back, wriggled a bit before he let the comfortable mattress relax him. Alvin turned his body slightly so he could face Max properly and looked at him even more confused.
What was Max doing?
Max noticed the look Alvin was giving before he looked at him in the eyes, smiling warmly. "I was trying to be more gentleman-like."
"Gentleman?" Alvin asked, as Max sighed a bit and placed one of his hands at the back of his head, enjoying the comfy mattress.
"Yeah, you know," Max said as he looked at his best friend's eyes. "Like listen to when someone is speaking, not being stubborn at another person's ideas. Things that people do when they're dating someone."
Alvin's mind had stopped working for a moment or two before his face lit up red. He was still not used to this conversation. Max seemed so serious at times like this that Alvin was starting to feel doubt at the easy decision he had made. He wasn't used to dating anyone and he wasn't used to feeling any emotions that resembled attachment except for his parents and his sister.
He didn't do love.
He couldn't even imagine himself ten years from now, being in love. That mere thought sounded so impossible in the young scientist's mind. Besides, the darker path inside his mind seemed to breach out to loneliness, as if it was something definite for him. Nobody liked him sincerely enough, nobody had tried to. When he first entered high school, people gave him sceptical looks and sneering laughter whenever he wasn't looking.
He rarely got bullied, mostly because they knew that he was Abby's brother. Abby had a reputation in Blizzards Spring High, as someone good natured and kind and they assumed that Alvin was something like that, if not a little bit dorky. Nobody had walked up to him and introduced himself and Alvin remembered feeling really alone for the first time in his life.
Suddenly, there came into the picture, Max. Him and his bubbly personality, shocking him from his daily grey routine and normalcy. It irked him in the beginning, wanting nothing more than his old life back but when he got used to the vibrant colors that blotched his life up in so many ways, he didn't want to go back to his dull grey life. He wanted those colors to stay.
So, when love didn't come to him, he decided to keep it like that.
If he wasn't worth much to anyone right now to be loved, then he wasn't going to waste his time to get someone to notice him. He didn't want to change into some Casanova just for the sake of getting someone's attention. He didn't want to love somebody knowing that he had to change his "dorky" ways. He liked being himself, even though occasionally he would start to doubt that persona named Alvin.
But Max, he seemed to take whatever Alvin threw in his way with a proud smile. The snowboarder claimed that he never had a brother before and he enjoyed taking care of Alvin somehow. But that was what Alvin gets scared of. He doesn't like to be taken care of, he doesn't like being dependant on someone. He knew that one day, someone's gotta grow up and leave. He would be alone all over again and Max, he wouldn't be with him forever, best friend or not.
"I..." Alvin tried to get some words out but at the end, his reddened face just gave Max the amusement he needed.
"Dude, your face is red," Max said as Alvin slowly looked at him, fear suddenly washing into his mind. This was the truth, it seemed.
He was really dating someone.
But eventually Max would get tired of him and leave him alone.
Max noticed the sudden change of emotions on the young scientist's face and slowly sat up, frowning a bit. "Shred?" he asked as Alvin went spiralling in panic with this new found information inside. "Shred," Max said softly as he touched Alvin's shoulder, jolting Alvin out from his daydream.
"We can't date, Max," Alvin blurt out all of a sudden, causing some shun silence in the room as Max furrowed his eyebrows at him. "This is... this is wrong."
"Shred, dude, what's wrong?" Max asked as he properly sat up and approached Alvin who looked panicked out for a moment. "Shred? Come on, man. Talk it out, what's up?"
"Didn't you hear me?" Alvin exclaimed, causing Max to flinch and dropped his hand which was touching the younger Ackerman's shoulder. "This is weird. I'm not the boy to experiment these things on, Max," Alvin said as he sighed loudly.
Silence lingered on before Max sighed too. "I just wanted to try this new gentleman thing, didn't think you would hate it," Max said softly as he rubbed the back of his neck slowly. Alvin looked at him before confusion lingered on. Seconds passed before Alvin realized that Max didn't get what he meant.
"No, Max, you don't understand."
"Let's go on a date then," Max suddenly said.