What Happens in High School

Chapter Seven

Well, If You Wanted Honesty

Bob’s POV

I was really glad about how the day turned out. When I was on my way to meet Ray to go home I noticed some guy being a dick to Max. I told him to step off and if he ever talked to her again, it would be his last time talking at all. I walked with her to find Ray but when he was nowhere to be found we decided to walk home instead. I’m not sure how but somewhere in between us leaving school and us getting to my house I grew a pair. We made small talk while we were walking but nothing spectacular. When we were in front of my house I asked if she wanted to come in and hang out for a while and by god’s almighty grace she said yes.

We hung out in my room for a little before going downstairs into the garage. We messed around on the drums for a while and just continued to enjoy each other’s company; well, I don’t know about Max but I was definitely enjoying her company. Eventually though she had to go watch her brother so I walked her out. As we stood on my front porch I had the almost uncontrollable urge to kiss her; almost uncontrollable. I waved as she left knowing it was way too soon to pull anything like that.

I went back up into my room and pulled out my homework. I sat at my desk to see if it was worth the bother of trying to get anything done. I was having some trouble concentrating; I just couldn’t get Max off my mind. It was almost no use. I spent 20 minutes on the first question of my math homework alone and probably didn’t even get it right. I bull-shitted some answers to fill up the rest of the page. Mr. Weaver, my math teacher, only ever checked to see if the homework was done and it’s not like he didn’t already know I sucked at math. I put it away and finished the rest of my homework which was just an English vocab sheet and some reading in my chemistry textbook. After a painfully distraction filled two hours later, I was finally done. I was exhausted by the time I finished. I headed upstairs and took a shower before heading to sleep.

I lay in bed still thinking of Max. I’d only known her for two weeks and already I couldn’t get her off my mind. By now she had me hooked, thinking about her nonstop. What was I going to do? I was glad that we’d finally become comfortable around each other but how would I take it further? I wanted to be more than just her friend, but is that what she wanted?

…

In school things still seemed alright with Max, if not better than they had been. We talked in between classes and during lunch with little to no awkwardness between us. I was really liking our new relationship, now if it could only be the kind I was looking for. We all made plans for practice at my house when school ended. Max would come like she always did but this time I wasn’t so nervous.

After school we all met by Gerard and Ray’s cars and headed over to my house. Frank and Mikey went with Gerard and Max came along with me and Ray. We got to my house, we jammed, Max listened. After we played a song Max would tell us what she thought about it. Usually her comments were all positive except for every once in a while when she would say something like, “Gerard would sound a lot better if he didn’t smoke.” or “You know Frank, Aunt Laura is going to be really upset when she finds out you’ve broken your arm or something going crazy on stage like that.” They’d shrug off her half joked comments and move on to another song. Ten songs and one hour later we decided to call it a day.

I asked if the guys and Max wanted to stay and hang out for a bit. All of the guys agreed but Max had to watch her brother again. We said goodbye to her and packed up the rest of the equipment. We all stayed in the garage and just chilled for a while, talking about dude stuff.

I learned that Gerard was dating some girl named Barbara and Frank was hooked on Jamia from his history class. Ray claimed that if he had a girlfriend he would suck at guitar and henceforth refrained from dating and Mikey, being the almost painfully shy kid he was, just never asked anyone out. The conversation eventually came down to me and my relationship past. “You got someone, Bob?” Gerard asked. I didn’t have anyone but I definitely wanted a certain someone, but I wasn’t going to tell the guys that. She was one of their best friends, not mention Frank’s cousin, and I didn’t want them going and telling her anything.