Could It Be Us? | Maxley

➳ 14

Songs included:

- Gas pedal

CHAPTER 14

Bradley

Instead of letting the awkwardness stay, I gave Max the aux and let him play something. He smirked like a dumbass. "Can I play anything?" My mind was hazy so I just nodded at him. His stupid toothy smile showed. "Okay, thanks." He kissed my cheek. There was a burning sensation where his lips were.

Suddenly, an intro to a song started playing. "Do you only know dirty songs?"

"Maybe," he laughed slowly. "Holy shit, slow down, grab the wall, wiggle like you're trying to make your ass fall off. Hella thick, I wanna smash em all." He started doing an awkward dance to the song. God, he was so stupid.

"We're going to get pulled over for drinking and driving if you keep doing that."

"No one is going to think we're drunk," Max defended. "On my way to the cake, no bake-ery, oops, bakery, never been no fake in me," he started singing again.

"God, at least take lessons for that." He shook his head aggressively. "You're so embarrassing."

"Lead her to the bathroom, she askin' where you takin' me."

I was tempted to stop the song from playing but I didn't. Instead, I watched Max carefully as he threw his arms up and danced. He was as bad at dancing as he was at singing. Still, he was pretty cute doing it. The light turned green and I drove forward. We were pretty close to my parents home now. Max noticed my lips tighten. He put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "It'll be okay, darling. I'm right here with you."

"Thank you." He kissed my cheek again.

"I love you, Bradley. You put up with me."

My body went hot. "I love you, too, Max." I wasn't used to this still, not at all.

— — —

The gate doors opened and I drove the car in. Unfortunately, since we were late, we were parked in the far back of the driveway. I was sort of thankful for the extra minutes to think of what I'd say to my parents. Mom, dad, I brought my ... what was he to me? Why hadn't I asked him? "Max," I stopped us from moving forward. "Are we boyfriends?" Max's eyes widened. Thankfully, he wasn't disgusted, just surprised.

"Well, I was going to ask you under better circumstances but, would you like to be?" I'd like to mention, for future stories to tell, my favorite one will be becoming boyfriends in my homophobic parents driveway.

"Obviously, stupid," and I brought his face to mine. Shit! I forgot where I was. I tossed him back. "Sorry."

"It's okay," Max smiled. "I get it."

I frowned. "No, I'm really sorry. You deserve someone who isn't afraid to be seen with you."

Max tilted his head. "Maybe so, but I'm not dating you for your parents validation nor anyone else's. I'm dating you because I really fucking like you. If this is how things will be because they're not accepting, I'm willing to do everything to keep you, okay? So no more saying it's your fault, because, damn, Bradley, you're worth every second."

"I—

—let's go inside, Bradley."

He's never said anything more romantic in the entire time we'd been doing this, and he was brushing it off as nothing. My face was heating up just thinking about it. Damn this freshman.