Me & Mine

9. The Lost Weekday

After Max paid for the coffee and Travis proclaimed that there was no way that he was missing out on Monday afternoon drinking games, we set out to drive to Max' house. His parents are out of town and his dad is supposed to have a fairly elaborate collection of fine liquors. From the backseat of Max' car I text Amory that I probably won't be home for dinner. I smirk and let myself fall back against the brown leather of the seats. I glance at the boys in the rearview mirror. "So, you guys are on the football team?" I ask to break the silence. I remember Travis wearing a letterman jacket the first day I saw him. Travis turns around in his seat and faces me. "Yeah, all three of us used to play," he says, "but Kane and Max got kicked off."

I nod and cock my head to the side. "What do you play?"

"Wide receiver," Travis says, "Max here used to be our quarterback."

Max combs through his red hair and shrugs. "The team went to shit after Kane and I left," he smirks. Travis sighs. "That's true. Parker is the quarterback now."

"Ah," I sniff, "please don't tell me that Cammie is captain of the cheerleading squad."

Max bites his lip and I admire his profile. That boy got some bone structure going on. Travis chuckles. "Actually she is," he says, "but just like Parker she isn't that good at her job."

I chuckle and shake my head. "Perfect. So we have the queen bee as head cheerleader, her boytoy as the quarterback, mysterious bad boys and the new girl challenging the status quo. Are we about to break out in some elaborate musical number?"

Max laughs and drapes his wrists over the steering wheel. "Mysterious bad boys, huh?"

I catch his eyes in the rearview mirror and bite the inside of my cheek. "How exactly did you get kicked off the team?" I ask, ignoring those piercing eyes of him.

"They got into one too many a fight with the competition," Travis says, "it ended pretty badly and the coach had enough." As we move further away from the town's center the houses get bigger and the spaces between them wider. From the car he drove I expected Max to live in a mansion, and it turns that I was right. He pulls into the driveway of a grand white bricked estate and I let out a sigh of relief. Finally, some luxury. If there's one thing I miss from our old life, it's the privileges of being born into a wealthy family.

Max turns of the engine, jumps out of the car and opens the door for me. "Was it worth it, though?" I ask, wondering if fighting the challenging teams gave him more satisfaction than beating them in the game. He smiles that devious smile of his and I don't even need to hear what he says next. "Absolutely."

I smirk and let him close the car door behind me. I follow the boys up to the front door. The mansion is pretty traditional, as far as anything American can be called traditional, of course. The front door is enclosed by pillars that reach to the roof of the two-story high estate. Big windows adorned the facade and the driveway was circled by wellkept bushes. It looked a lot like my grandparents' place in the Hamptons, only their mansion had grey bricks and a fountain in the middle of the driveway. It had been a long time since Amory and I had visisted them.

Max opens the door and echoes a loud "hello" through the house. I expected housekeeping to be present, but nobody answers his call. Max takes us to a large sitting room with comfortable sofas and big windows that look out over the gardens. I walk over to the windows and let the warm sunlight kiss my skin. It is such a lovely day, and the pool in Max' garden looks very inviting. I turn to face Max, who is only a few steps away from me. I smile and he smiles back at me.

"You have a pool," I say softly, "you should've mentioned it. We could have gone swimming today, it's such a lovely day."

He takes a step closer and opens the doors leading to the porch. "It is quite a lovely day," he says softly, not letting go of my gaze, "but I don't think you would've gone for the 'hey, I know we've never talked before but come to my house and strip down so we can go swimming' bit..."