Roommates (Maxley)

Chapter 15

Call him, what else can he do? One, two, three, each ring makes his hopes dissolve into anxiety as Brad's voicemail greets his ears. A quiet buzz is coming from the bathroom, one he can only assume is from Brad's phone but the door refuses to budge. He throws his phone aside, a slew of curses spilling from his lips. Brad isn't in there, he peeked under the door and there wasn't a single shadow. Where is he? How is he? Max eyes the blood trail but it wraps around in circles until it disappears altogether. Brad was scared, Max can still feel his presence, practically seeing him but not enough to understand the scene around him. He jumps up when a knock vibrates the door, anticipation gnawing at his mind as he races over to it.

"Brad-" His eyes narrow as the door opens to reveal the culprit herself. "-You."

"Max, I-"

"Leave." His voice is low, weighed down by rage he's forcing himself to hold back. Seriously, the nerve of her to even show her face was enough to make him want to explode into a thousand little sparks.

"Max, please." Roxanne's face is tear-streaked already, but she shouldn't be the one crying. "Let me explain."

"Explain what? You fucking outed him!" He can't keep his voice down now, boiling over. "And now he's hurt!"

"I didn't mean to hurt him, I didn't mean to post it!" She holds her hands over her face to hide her tears, tears she knows she doesn't deserve to spill. "It wasn't on purpose!"

"How do you accidently post a picture you shouldn't have even had?" Max stops her from stepping inside, "What the hell are you doing?!"

"If he's in here let me talk to him!" The least she can do is apologize, in fact she has to. "Max, please, I need to tell him that it was an accident!"

"Hell no! Are you insane?!" He closes the door to the dorm behind him with a soft slam, "He's not even here. Y'know why? Because everyone is talking about us!"

It's now her eyes notice the graffiti on the door, FAGGOT written in the center with a bright red marker. Other words are illegible but she can tell they're all on the same...topic. All her fault, if only she had paid better attention. If only she had just turned her phone off completely. She was careless, and Max was now paying the price for it. He has every right to hate her, she knows this yet it still stings when he curses her name under his breath. She looks up at Max but he refuses to meet her gaze, his shoulders tense when she touches his arm. The audacity would be impressive if he wasn't so pissed, his hand twitching to strike but his dad raised him better than that. So many feelings and not enough time to process them. Here she is, a reminder of the past and present all at once. He used to brush those red strands but now he wanted nothing more than to pull them from her scalp. Those lips, he used to kiss them but now they were toxic from the lies she spilled. Care for him? Love him? How could she? If she loved him she wouldn't have done this.

"I need to go find him and you-" Max doesn't even look at her, eyes narrow and straight ahead as if she isn't right in front of him. "-You need to stay the hell away from me, from us."

"I'm going to fix this." Her voice cracks, sentences broken by sniffles that make Max want to slap the tears from her cheeks.

"How?!" He spins around with a hand in his hair, the only thing stopping him from swinging honestly.

"I don't know but I will!" Her eyes stare straight into his as she speaks, "I'll show you that I...I never meant for this to happen!"

Bullshit- but Max doesn't have time to think about that right now. He has to find him, quickly, he needs to know he's...alive. There was so much blood on the floor, more than he's seen in horror movies and school fights. No one had seen an ambulance on campus or heard one nearby, and he couldn't have called anyway when Max found his dead phone on the floor. Would he call him? Would he trust him enough to? Too long, he should've found him by now. He checked everywhere Brad would be, from the library where he read his non-fiction works to the boutique he liked to get his button-ups from. No one had seen him that day even when Max pulled up a picture in an attempt to refresh their memory. What if Brad thought Max was the cause of the photos- No, don't be ridiculous. He's never been religious but he finds himself praying as he runs around town. He has to think but his thoughts are rapid like his heartbeat, mind fogged from the mix of anxiety and anticipation. It was no longer a question of would he find Brad, now when. Hours pass and he's had no luck, pausing his search at a Café for a break he feels undeserving of.