How Long Will This Last? (Maxley)

Dance Dance Revolution

The days leading up to the dance went by quickly. Almost too quickly. Max would be lying if he said Bradley wasn't constantly on his mind. And even though he accepted that Bradley had moved on and found himself someone else, he wasn't really ready to actually see him with another person. Especially that person being Tank. Max knew there was more to their relationship that Bradley was hiding. Starting with the fact that there was no way Bradley actually liked him. They were using each other for something.

But Bradley wasn't Max's problem anymore. Max just needed to push Bradley out of his head, or at least to the back of it. If he wanted his newfound relationship with Cara to work he needed to put all his effort into it. But did he want it to work? Of course he did; she seemed kind, and she was pretty, and maybe she had a good sense of humor. But she wasn't Bradley. Whenever Max tried to think of anything or anyone he would always come full circle back to Bradley. It was something he couldn't stand, but he hoped it'd never go away.

Unlike Max, Bradley was having a carefree time shopping for a new suit with his parent's money. It wasn't like he needed new clothes, he had about a million other suits due to his family's nature, but shopping was a nice break from the rest of his life. Of course, the calm quiet of it all would always leave whenever Tank rounded the corner to find Bradley again.
Long after Bradley had found and bought a suit for himself, Tank was still trying options on.
He came out adjusting the collar. "How's this one?" He asked.

Bradley was bored to say the least. He sat leaned back in one of the chairs, one leg lazily draped over the other, picking at his nails.
"You look fine, Tank," he said extremely dully. Only after he answered did he actually look up. "I don't even know why you care so much, it's just a dance."

"Well I wanna look good," Tank said, straightening the jacket and looking in the mirror. Bradley only rolled his eyes. "Does this suit make me look gay?"

"You could suck off a dude in front of the whole school and you wouldn't look gay," Bradley answered. He then raised a brow, skeptical. "Why do you ask? I didn't think you were that ashamed."

"I just don't want people to know yet, that's all," Tank excused.

Bradley put his chin in his hand and looked out the large window to his left. "Ditto," he mumbled. As he watched all the people pass by the shop, two terribly familiar faces came into view. He noticed Bobby first, as he was closer to the window. But once Bradley recognized him, his eyes immediately darted over to the kid walking beside him, who happened to be too busy talking his head off to notice.
Bradley jerked his gaze away from the direction of the window and blocked his face with his hand. He'd avoided Max all week, and no way was he going to be caught shopping with Tank.
Little did Bradley know, Max wasn't as oblivious as he looked, and he had in fact noticed him through the glass. For Bradley's sake, Max pretended not to notice.

"Maybe I shouldn't go Friday," Max said. He and Bobby sat in one of the diners downtown. He sucked on the straw of his strawberry milkshake while Bobby filled his face with fries.

"What? What about Cara?" Bobby asked, dipping a fry in Max's milkshake.

"I mean she's great and everything, but I don't know, man. Just with all the Bradley stuff that's been going on, I don't think I could handle it. Hell, I couldn't even handle seeing him through a window," Max explained.

"Listen, man. You've got to show him you're better than this. You can't sit around pining for him anymore," he reached across the table and jabbed a finger into Max's chest. "You don't care that he's got a new, smelly boyfriend. It's his loss."

Max managed a smile. "Thanks man," he said.

"Besides, I need the dorm empty so I can take a fat nap. I don't need the noise of you crying keeping me up," Bobby said.