A Little Story About Love

Part 4

Chance

Over the next couple of weeks, Max and I spent much of our time together. We spent hours every day dancing. It was incredible to see how agile Max was, doing graceful back flips from a standstill, and dozens of aerials in a row without moving from where he landed each time. Max was born to fly, and I knew he would go far. At one point Max decided to teach me how to do a handstand, giggling profusely as I failed time after time. The first time he broke into giggles, a smile that lit up the room spread across his face. His eyes crinkled, his cheeks turned pink, and deep dimples appeared in the exact spot where dimples should be. His smile changed his entire face, his mood, and his appearance. He had one of those smiles that was so pure and true that you could see it in his eyes. I remember thinking that he should smile more often, not realizing that it was the first time I had seen him smile.

Max and I grew close, teaching each other dance, singing and playing music together, every day learning new things about each other. Max introduced me to his best mate, Elle, who welcomed me with open arms into her group of friends. Max and I both settled into a rhythm of dancing and hanging out with our mates. Most days at lunch a big group of us would crowd some local restaurant and laugh and devour endless amounts of food. For the most part Max and I hung out together, and I found that he quickly became my best mate. We developed patterns, meeting each other between classes, always ready to tell new stories. Max was surprisingly spunky and sassy under his hard shell of shyness. He had the attention of a squirrel, constantly jumping to new subjects. I found that when we were together I always had a stupid grin plastered on my face.

I had never met someone with more talent than Max. As soon as I thought there was nothing else he could possibly be good at, he would show me something new. He had the most passion and motivation of any 13-year-old I have ever known. He pushed me to push myself, and I found myself excelling greatly in all my classes. I pushed my limits, bulking up more than I thought possible. Max was half my size, but almost as strong as I was. He held an unimaginable amount of power in his tiny body.

Within the first week of being at school I had girls falling at my feet. Sometimes literally, I had caught two girls tripping because they were staring at me. It was incredibly amusing that these girls thought they were even remotely subtle about watching me. I was used to being a pretty popular bloke, but being the new kid just made that even more pronounced. Several girls thoroughly embarrassed themselves asking me on dates. I took girls to dinners and movies, but never more than that. In all honesty, I was just being nice, none of the girls drooling at my feet appealed to me in any way.

On several occasions I saw girls flirt with Max, only to stop after a few minutes as if they realized they had no chance. It was no secret that Max was an extremely attractive bloke, and it surprised me that girls didn't show much interest in him. I had always heard girls saying how much they care about a guy's eyes, and Max had those unnaturally ice blue eyes that I know so many girls would die for. I figured that the only reason girls weren't so interested in him was because most of them were taller than him. Max never talked about girls, and when I brought it up Max would merely shrug nonchalantly and talk about something else. He seemed to have absolutely no interest in dating, but that was perfectly fine, he was still young.

I could tell that Max was hiding a dark past, and some very important secrets, but I didn't push him. The guarded look in his eyes rarely disappeared, but with time, began to fade. I started to notice that the more Max seemed to trust me, the more he seemed to push me away. He slowly began to fade back into the bloke I met on the roof. He grew quiet around me, and even quieter around anyone else. Little spirit ever showed in his sleep-deprived eyes. He gave very vague, non-committal answers to most questions, especially anything personal. In classes, he would fall asleep on his desk, so exhausted that he seemed incapable of staying awake. The circles under his eyes darkened with every passing day.