I'd Never Expected

Chapter 10

I arrived home with a huge frown on my forehead.

"What's up with you?" I heard my brother ask from the living room couch.

"Nothing," I replied sharply before realizing my parents were nowhere in sight. "Where are mom and dad?" I asked him.

He kept flipping through the channels. "Went to get groceries. Hey, what's wrong with you? Are you in a bad mood or something?" Mario questioned my behavior as I stomped to my room.

I ignored and passed by Ronnie's room.

Wonder if he noticed when I went missing. Eh, he most likely didn't even care, I thought then barged into my room.

I sat down on my desk chair and began to think about the whole conversation I had with Max before I left.

"So, how did he tell you guys?" I asked Max once I settled myself down.

"Well, he came up to us quietly and said under his breath, 'Alright, I'll be in your band again.' We couldn't believe if he really had said what we thought he said so Omar went, 'What was that?' and Ronnie, louder this time, repeated himself and after that it was just pure cheering," Max explained, still with the grin.

"Did he seem happy?" I wanted to know if this at least filled Ronnie with joy.

Max pondered. "Uh… Yeah, I think I remember seeing a smile there somewhere."

I smiled and gave a small laugh.

"You know," Max composed his face. "I'm not sure whether I was supposed to tell you this or not."

I scowled. "Why?"

"Well, Ronnie admitted to us that you talked to him and knocked on some sense into him, which we appreciate very much…"

I smiled again with a small feeling of accomplishment.

"… but when we asked him how you took the news about his decision, he told us that you didn't know and just turned away, like ended the conversation right there. That made us question whether he was ever going to tell you or not and judging by his reaction we concluded that most likely he wasn't." I nodded. "Yeah, he never gave me an answer and it didn't seem like he was even going to. Like today, he ignored me the whole day!" I began to feel a little hurt.

"Pfft," Max spat. "Whatever his decision was I decided to tell you anyways. Why not? Which is why I snuck here. You deserve to know."

I laughed. "Thanks. At least someone cares." Fucking Ronnie. So after doing him a favor of trying to make him feel less humble, he wasn't even planning on telling me? My hurt began to turn to anger.

"No problem. Oh!" Max began again. "Then when we asked him what is it that you said to make him change his mind, he wouldn't budge…" He then looked at me with an intense stare.

"What?" I shifted my eyes.

"Tell me, what did you do to make him change his mind?"

"Oh," I chuckled. "I don't know, I just talked to him. You know, told him to get over himself and whatnot. I just told him to go back to doing what he liked." I shrugged, still with that hint of anger swelled up in me.

Max laughed. "Like we haven't tried that one before!"

I shrugged again. "Maybe you guys needed a female touch," I joked.

"Oh, ha ha," Max responded sarcastically.

I was beginning to think very different of Max. He wasn't so bad. He's such a nice guy - unlike Ronnie - which made me wonder why Ronnie always reacted so negatively towards him. Hmm… well whatever the reason I was beginning to like Max.