Maxen clears his throat as his eyes nervously flick towards me, making me wonder if he’s having second thoughts. I wave him forward like I said, it’s his funeral. “Hey, Brooke,” he murmurs, cautiously.
Brooke spins around with her mouth hanging open. She looks between me and Max for a slight moment before focusing on him, making me wonder what the hell is going through her mind. She doesn’t say anything, but her bottom lip pouts out ever so slightly as her eyes fill with tears.
A determination sets itself behind her eyes and I watch with an intense curiosity. She puffs out her chest and stands taller.
Oh no. This isn’t good.
I should warn him to run… or maybe I shouldn’t.
I wish she was done with the popcorn already, I could really use it right now.
Just when I think she’s about to let him have it, she breaks. The tears spring free and the determination is ripped away, replaced with nothing but pain. Max watches for a second before rushing in. He wraps her in his arms and I expect Brooke to push him away, only she doesn’t, she curls into him as though his touch is giving her life.
What the fuck is happening right now?
“Come on,” Max murmurs. He scoops her up and walks down to her room before I hear the familiar sound of them crashing down onto her bed..
All I can do is stare after them as I try to work out what’s going on.
I mean, the way she looked at him and the way she talks about him doesn’t match up. She’s always telling me what a rat bastard he is and how he tore her to shreds, but just now, she looked at him as though he was the sun in the sky. Not to mention, the whole sleeping with each other thing over summer.
I shake my head to myself. Brooke and I are going to have to talk about this.
I turn back to the living room and look at the TV with a cringe before sighing. If I’m not spending the night watching people trying to kill each other, and Nate’s not home, I might as well work on a little extra credit for my stupid history professor.
I lock up the house, not knowing if anyone will be emerging from any bedrooms for the rest of the night and make my way down to my room. As I pass Brooke’s bedroom, I can’t help but take a quick glance. I know I shouldn’t, but what can I say? I’m human and to be curious is only natural.
For the quick second that I’m walking past, I take in Brooke and Max, wrapped in each other’s arms. Brooke silently cries into his chest as he runs his fingers through her hair.
I do a double take.
Then a third.
This is not the Maxen from high school. The guy I used to know would be taking advantage of her vulnerability and trying to get between her legs, but this, what I’m seeing is pure. It’s one person trying to help another through pain and torment.
I don’t know what to make of it. I want to hate it, knowing it couldn’t be good for her heart, but on the other hand, I want to let it happen as she clearly needs this moment to heal. Hell, maybe this is what she needs to help her finally move on.
I try my best to ignore it and make my way down to my room. I leave the door open in case she comes to her senses and needs me to shoo him away and I get back into my work, but the murmurs of voices through the wall steals my attention.
Crap. I do not need to be hearing this conversation. It’s clearly private between the two.
I do what I can not to listen in. I focus on my work and shove my head right into the book but their voices are literally the only sound in the whole house with paper thin walls and no closed doors between us. I have no choice but to hear it.
“I could fucking kill him,” Maxen’s low voice travels through the house.
“Don’t,” she replies. “I… just, why? Why are you even here?”
“How could I not?” he questions. “I was at Nate’s shop and I kind of overheard what happened. I don’t know what possessed me to get in the car and come to you, but before I even knew what was happening, I was at the front door about to bowl Tora out of the fucking way.”
“She’s a bitch for letting you pass.”
“Yeah, well, take that up with her.”
There’s silence for a moment and I wonder if I should start searching all my drawers and cupboards for my iPod and headphones which I haven’t used in forever. Actually, they could very well still be in my old bedroom at home.