TANGLED PLANS

45

Max's arms are still around me after a few moments. It seemed that he needed this hug and as it feels so good, it also hurt. I'm hurting by letting him seek comfort from me because he was the reason I was hurt earlier. I should push him away. I should tell him that this hug is too much for me.

But as much as it hurts, I need it as much as he does. That didn't sound good but it was how I felt right now. I'm feeling myself want to tug him even closer when I hear footsteps behind us.

"What's going on here?", I hear the voice I recognize as my older brother and pull away from Max. Max retreats his hand from my waist and looks past me and toward Brayden. I turn around as well and am met with an angry expression on my brother's face.

"Um, just uh, a hug", I stutter at an answer and feel Max slip a hand across my shoulder. I'm about to turn to him and ask him to stop when he does it on his own.

"Aw shit", Max whispers and right as I turn to him, he is folded in half. His hand is on his stomach when his head leans forward and contents slip out of his mouth. Max was throwing up and continues to do so for a minute longer.

Maria and Kielly and I both just stare at each other as we have no experience in this department. Brayden sighs and moves past me to get toward his best friend. Once Max dry heaves one last time, he stands up straighter just to trip backwards due to not being able to balance his body wieght. I remembered that from the fact that his head was very heavy on my shoudler earlier.

Brayden hooks a hand under Max's to keep him up. "Come on, we have to get you home," Brayden mutters as he moves Max toward the car. He skips the passenger side door and instead to the backseat. Once he shoves Max instead the car, he turns to me and says, "Go on. One of your friends can come to the front seat."

Maria raises her hand at that so Kielly follows me into the backseat. Max is leaning agaisnt the window, his hand under his chin as he tried to stay up staight. He also looked close to following sleep. I open my purse to get out a pack of tissues I keep with me at all times.

I put a few in front of Max's face and he glances at it. Grabbing at it from my hand he says, "Thanks Daise." I take his gratitude with a nod and watch as he wipes at his mouth with a little bit of disgust on his face. For some reason it makes me let out a tiny giggle.

"What are you laughing at?", Max says and when he does, he sounds so little. When I only start to laugh a little louder, he shakes his head and asks the question again. Once I can't get myself to stop, Max moves a hand to my arm and says, "That's mean, Daise."

I let my laughter subside as the others in the car had started to throw wierd glances at me as well. Max smiles at that and then pulls on my arm. I keep my body straight though which prompts for him to drop his head into my lap. Oh. His head is warm and when his hand wraps around my back, I'm warm all over.

Kielly glances at me and I give her a helpless shrug. There was no way I could kick him off my lap considering the state he is in. His hand loosens around my back after a while but his head stays on my lap. I've never had a guy lay his head on my lap, it made me want to put my hand in his hair. Which I don't. It would be wierd if I did that.

Also, it would hurt. It would hurt to all of a sudden to pretend that I was fine with Max touching me. I wasn't. There was a part of me that was still so very angry at Max for leaving the country without explaining the reason for his harshness to me. I was still angry at him for not talking to me about what had happned between us after he came back.

So I let him keep his head in my lap all while I look out the window in pretense that Max's hair didn't look fluffy enough for me to touch.

"Bye!", I shout at the girls once Brayden pulls up in front of Maria's house. Kielly will be staying over for the night because her mom had gone out for the night as well. They had asked if I wanted to sleep over as well but I hadn't had the time to ask my dad about it. I've never gone over at a sleepover and with my dad only being in charge of me, I didn't want to put more on his plate.