Elli giggles beside me. Max occupies the space on the other side of him. They are playing an intense game of Mario Kart. I've lost track of time since we came into the gaming truck to play. I'm not complaining. Elli is content and I don't feel as anxious anymore. As for Max — I don't know how I'll ever thank him. He's my knight in mucky grease, like when he rescued Alexa and I on the side of the road.
There's no one else in the truck. The party is winding down and most of the kids have already gone home. Elli cries out in victory as he reaches the finish line, leaving Max behind.
"You got me good, little buddy."
Max pouts as if he was affected by this loss. Elli doesn't take notice as he's already gearing up for another round. Someone clears their throat. Max and I startle. Standing at the entrance of the gaming van is Dad and Walker. I leave my spot beside Elli and walk over to them.
"I'm so sorry, we got a bit caught up in something," Dad says.
I was prepared to be angry at Dad for leaving me in charge, but instead I step into his arms. His touch is comforting, but the tighter he holds me the harder it is not to cry. A knot sits in my throat, but as I pull away, I somehow manage to keep the tears at bay.
"It's okay." I nod in Max's direction. "I had a little help."
Dad's eyes follow my gaze, to Max and Elli. I stare up to gauge his reaction to Max. Dad didn't have to deal with the start of the boy-craze phase, but now — he's stuck with it. He lingers for a moment, eyes narrowed on Max, then walks over to them. Dad squares his shoulders and with a very serious voice introduces himself to Max. Right away Max stands, puts the remote down, and shakes Dad's hand.
Walker nudges me. "So, who's the boy? He's cute."
I smack his arm playfully. "That's Max. He's one of Patty's friends."
Walker wiggles his eyebrow in a way that makes me laugh. "You better snatch him up, girl. Before someone else does."
"Oh-my-god, Dad," I whisper.
He chuckles lightly. I'm sure my face is tomato red at this point. I can feel the burn.
"He's just my —uh — friend."
"Sure, he is," Walker teases.
He walks over to Dad and Max. My gaze is stuck on them. All three men have smiles on their faces. I can't see Elli's, his is buried in Dad's leg. I'm not sure what they are saying, the loud video game music is drowning out most of the sound, minus their laughter.
Dad, Walker and Elli, head in my direction.
"We'll take Elli home," Dad says.
He places a hand on my shoulder. I can tell by the pensive look in his eye that he has something to say.
"Dad?" I prompt him.
"I have some news, but we'll talk about it when you get home."
He gives me a reassuring smile, but it still doesn't ease the tension building inside me.
Frowning, I ask, "you can't tell me now?"
"It will be better to tell you at home." He squeezes my shoulder, then let's go.
A million thoughts race through my head. My main concern is Mom. The only thing I can think is that she's up to something and now I'm going to have to fly back and do what she wants. Dread hits me and I don't know how to recover.
"Fine," I say. "I'll be home soon."
"Thank you again, Lennox. You did an amazing job today."
He looks proud of me and I'm unfamiliar with the feeling. Living with mom, even when I did something right, she never smiled or complimented me. My heart swells and I wish I could take all the credit, but Max was the main reason that I didn't crumble.
"It's okay to ask for help, you know?"
The tears try to surface again. They sting my eyes, making it hard to fight. An overwhelming wall of emotions has burrowed down on me. The love I've felt from Dad and Walker the last few weeks has kept me grounded. I wipe at the moist spot at the edge of my eye. I don't trust my voice so all I can do is nod.
"Invite him for dinner," Walker teases, nudging me slightly.
"Shh, you're embarrassing me," I giggle.
Walker chuckles and nudges me again before walking out of the trailer with Dad.
"Bye Ex, bye Axe," Elli calls as they leave.
When Max smiles at Elli I almost have to hold onto something to keep from falling over. He's only seventeen but he acts like he's much older. That's one of his qualities that I feel drawn to.
"They seem like a lot of fun."
Max's voice startles me. I didn't realize how close he was.
"Try having to live with them, they're a ball," I say, half with sarcasm.
Dad and Walker are awesome to live with, much better than mom, but sometimes they tend to embarrass me in that way parents typically have. They don't do it to be mean, it's more like doing it out of love.
Max closes in on me a bit more. We catch each other's eyes, but it only lasts seconds and then we're searching for other places to look. A soft hum leaves my lips as I try to form words.
Max clears his throat. "I should finish cleaning up."
"Right," I say, biting my lip. "Bye, Max."
I start for the exit, when I realize the one thing I wanted to say is on the tip of my tongue. I wish I'd said it first, instead of just saying goodbye.
Max has already started for the back of the truck to clean up. He leans down to grab one of the remotes. I can't leave like this knowing that he jumped in to help me, and I didn't say thank you.
"Max," I say, a little louder than intended.
He stops mid-way and turns to me. His brows knit in confusion.
"Thank you for helping with Elli," I say, a little quieter.
The tiny vein in my neck pulses with an intensity I've never felt before. This is a new development and I'm not sure if it's from saying thank you, or if this is going to be a new thing when I'm around Max.
"It's no problem. After what you did for my friends last night." He shrugs. "Friends help friends, right?"
"So, we're friends then?"
Max's lips pull into a smile, one that reaches his eyes. I've seen him laugh with Maya, joke with Dan, but he's never looked at me with that expression before. I believe him.
"Yeah," he says. "We are."
"Okay — um – so I'll see you around then?"
Because surely that's what friends do. It's not like I'm specifically asking him out or anything.
"See you around, Lennox," he says.
***
The whole drive home I can't get Max's smile out of my mind. Today it felt like he and I pushed our misconceptions about each other out the door. Friends. For some reason the thought makes me smile.
I walk into the kitchen. Elli isn't around so I assume he fell asleep, something I'd very much like to do after such a long day. I give major props to Dad, Walker, and anyone else who has a young child, especially one with special needs. I did learn how I can help him a little today and I'm glad I did, because I'm starting to love Elli just as much as my dads do.
Dad and Walker look up from the kitchen table, both are sipping on some coffee. Papers are scattered all over the table.
"Come sit," Dad says.
I'm weary about this, but I plop myself down next to Walker. Why does it feel like I'm in trouble? I fidget in my seat, trying to make myself comfortable.
"I was contacted by your friend — er— co-star?"
"By Chase Dawson." Walker helps him finish.
It's like my heart doesn't know how to handle the news. It flutters in a quick erratic beat, then slows back to normal, before picking up the pace again. Hearing them say his name out loud does things to me and I wish it wouldn't.
"Chase Dawson contacted you?"
Now I'm even more confused than I was before I walked in here. I hope Chase didn't call them to try and win Dad over, just to weasel his way back to me. They sneak a glance between each other as if talking through telepathy.
"Apparently, you are very missed out there in L.A. Chase ran something by the TV studio and everyone involved with Starlien. They want to do an advanced screening of your last episode at The Orbit."
My eyes feel like they are going to pop out of their sockets. I'm not sure how to respond to this news. They basically want to do an advance screening of me dying. That's lovely.
"I told them only if you were okay with it, we would go through with the deal. I've got a contract right here," he says, sliding the paper over in my direction.
My mouth goes dry. I'm not ready yet to look at it. "What's in it for you?"
"Exposure for the theater, but we'll only do it if you say it's okay," Dad says.
I look up at dad, thankful for his hesitation.
I have a thousand questions before I can say yes to this. And if Chase is involved it feels like a scam. Something is off and I can't quite put my finger on it.
As if sensing this dad continues explaining. "It would be run like a premier, with a red carpet and cast appearances. We'll sell tickets to about three hundred fans—"
"Cast members will come here?"
The thought of Chase coming here to Long Island does not sit well with me. Also, the media coming to destroy the only privacy I have left doesn't sound like a very good deal to me.
"Chase, Rachael, I forgot the other girl's name, but yeah."
My thoughts drift to Mom. What about her? Does she know about this? Will she be coming? Will she make money off this event too?
"Lennox," Walker puts a hand on my shoulder.
I shake my head coming out of my thoughts. "And Mom?"
"We can't seem to touch base with her, but I have every right to sign for you to do it as she does," Dad says.
I raise my brow. I know she's traveling with her new beau but I'm in shock that she wouldn't want to cash in on such an event.
"I don't want to put the weight of this on your shoulders, but we can't move forward without your permission to do so. I would never do something like this without letting you know first. I know what happened between you and Chase was not pretty, and how much it hurt when they cut you from the show. But also look at the positives, it could help the theater and in turn we could profit very much from having this kind of event."
Normally I wouldn't hesitate to say no, but the one person who will benefit from this would be Dad and he deserves all of it. He worked so hard to build that theater and make it a staple name. Even in tough times, that theater still got him through many mortgage payments, it bought him this beautiful house we live in.
The question is simple, do I continue to be a selfish person and only think about myself in this situation? Or do I think about Dad and how this opportunity could really help him?
I take a deep breath and remind myself that I wanted to change. If I don't start somewhere I'll still be the same girl Max met at the airport. I don't want to be her anymore.
"Okay," I say.
Their eyes convey that they want me to be sure and my answer was not convincing enough.
"I think it's a great idea. I love the Orbit almost as much as you do and I want you to have everything you dreamed of," I say, grabbing his hand in mine. "I got my dream, now it's time for you to get yours."
After half an hour of talking about it, I finally decide it's time to relax and possibly take a nap while Dad and Walker make dinner. I'm drained from the day I had and the new news that my L.A life will be coming here to New York. It's all a bit overwhelming but I need Dad to know that I'm here for him too and I believe in the theater just as much as he does.
Before I take a nap, I decide to post another question to dad's Instagram. Secretly I kind of hope VGMaster will reply. I'm also thinking about DMing them back.
Orbit_TheaterLI: If you could pick another cast for the Transformer movie, who would your dream cast be?
After I send a message to our followers, I send a quick DM to VGMaster before I can chicken out. The minute I hit send my phone starts ringing and Alexa's name pops up on my screen. All I can think is it's only been one day since I've seen her, and I have so much to tell her.