TANGLED PLANS

43

Max turns his head back to look at all of us. Maria and Keilly quickly shut their mouths, and I stared at Max dumbfounded. Max doesn't glance at the girls, as his eyes only look down my face and toward my outfit.

I watch as the corners of his lip pull up in a smile, and his eyes get brighter when he looks back at me. "Daisy, you look pretty. I like your top."

My cheeks flush with his words, but most of all, his eyes. They held a lot of mischief in them as he looked at me. "I think your body looks great in it." That one sends my cheeks flaming, and a hand comes across Max's head and hits him.

Brayden gives his best friend a look and says, "Hey, man, that's not cool."

Max rubs at his head and says, "Watch it, Bray. I need my head to survive the next few hours."

"Why are you planning on getting shitfaced at the party?" Brayden asks, and Max gives me a one-sided smile before turning back to the front of the car.

"Because I can and I want to," Max replies, and my brother stares at him in annoyance for a few moments. Max wasn't making much sense tonight, and it seemed that he planned on continuing to act this way.

"He definitely drank a little at home," Keilly whispers in my ear, and I turn to her with my eyebrows furrowed. Maria only nods alongside her and then reaches past Keilly and whispers, "He said you look pretty."

He did. But I didn't want him to compliment me when he was only under influence. I also didn't want him to mess with me when he knew exactly what had happened between us. I didn't want to restart anything between us when we had yet to talk about the past. When he had yet to talk about the past.

Last week, he made it obvious that he didn't want to talk about what happened between us that night. I didn't know how I felt about that. So, his teasing and compliments were not things I was looking for, whatsoever.

Shaking my head, I turn away from the girls and out the window. I think about the last time we went to a party and how sweet Max had been to me. He hadn't drunk at the party at all, and only when we were playing beer pong. He had drunk for me then. I knew that Max didn't drink then; why was he drinking now?

It seemed that there would never be a time where I wasn't wondering about how Max really was.

When the car stops in front of a house a few minutes later, the girls and I walk out of the car. Maria is excited, but Keilly holds an expression close to barfing. I rub a hand against her back and pull her close to me. She is so much taller than me, but I still try to hug her in a way to comfort her.

The girls and I walk ahead to the house, and when I glance behind me, I find Max talking to Brayden. He was sharing a story that was very positive, but as I looked close to his eyes, the smiles didn't reach them. I look away from him and shake off my worries about him. It wasn't my job to be worried about him if he didn't want to talk.

"So, what's the game plan?" Maria asks as we round the stairs to the house.

"Try not to barf."

I nod at Keilly's response and press my hand against her shoulder harder. "Good, and I have a plan."

"Go on," Maria says as she looks down at the ground so as not to trip over the staircase. I stop in my spot and say, "Pause here."

"Why?" Keilly didn't seem to be kidding about the barfing plan. I give her a small smile and say, "We are going to wait here to think about the plan."

Both of the girls look at me like I'm crazy, and I only shake my head at them. Just as I am about to tell them about my plan, Max and my brother walk past us. Brayden turns to me with a quizzical expression and asks, "What are you guys stopped here for?"