What Happens in High School

Chapter Eight

And You Can Cry All You Want To

Max’s POV

I couldn’t stay for band practice today, I had to go to the dentist. I hated the dentist. I never had any cavities or really any problems at all for that matter and for that I was thankful, but it was just the fact that he always used what seemed to be the sharpest tools he could find and never failed to make me bleed. I was sick of tasting my own blood at the dentist. No matter how much I protested, my mother the dental hygienist always noted the importance of these twice yearly visits and dragged me there anyway. At least he let me listen to music in the chair.

When I met my mom at home she told me to brush my teeth even though the dentist was likely to make me do it at the office and we left. In the car I was planning on listening to music but I guess she figured we hadn’t talked enough recently because she pulled one of those, “So how’s everything been? I feel like I haven’t even been seeing you lately.” It was true, now that school was back in session I was a lot busier.

During the summer I would normally hang out with Ray at either his or my house, or Frank would come over, but that was about it so I normally got to see more of my family then. During the school year though I was all over the place. In addition to the normal school day I had ensemble rehearsal, cross country practice, debate team meetings, and not to mention, hanging out with my boys. And by the looks of it, I might soon be adding a boyfriend to the mix.

“Everything’s been fine. You know, the usual.” I tried to slip in my headphones before the conversation progressed. I loved my mom but our conversations had the tendency to become a little…uncomfortable at times. “Well how’s Ray? And the band?” My mom, along with my dad and Ray’s parents, were their biggest fans. Besides of course me.

“He’s doing alright, they’re all good. They just found a drummer.” I told her without getting too in to detail.

“Oh, is it that blonde boy? The handsome one with the piercings?” I swear sometimes I thought my mom was either an undercover agent or a covert government spy. How did she know about Bob? “I saw him when he came over before you went to Ray’s last week.” she explained. While we’re at it, let’s add mind reader to my mom’s list of secret façades. “Yeah, that’s him. His name’s Bob.” Might as well just go with the conversation, I’m not going to get out of this one.

“Well he seems nice.” My mom said as she gave me one of those creepy ‘he-likes-you’ mom looks. Ugh, I hated having ‘boy talks’ with my mom. When was she going to face the fact that these would never be comfortable conversations? I just sat there and nodded my head trying to avoid the conversation, and my mom didn’t push it.

We got to the dentist’s office and my mom filled out forms in the waiting room while I was in the back brushing my teeth. Called it. When I was finished and my mom had handed in the forms I was called into the side room. I greeted the dentist who then let me listen to my music while he looked at my teeth. I put in my ear-buds and surprisingly the first song to come on was the song from earlier. ‘I’ll Be Seeing You’ by Billie Holiday. I had the song too and when it came on shuffle I was a little shocked, like the universe knew.

This made me think of Bob. The song came on in his room and we listened to it. I started to sing along and remembered the scene from The Notebook. I always thought it was one of the cutest scenes in any movie even though I wasn’t normally one for chick-flicks. I thought about how Noah and Allie danced in the street and how I wanted that with Bob. I stood and held out my hand which surprisingly he took. I’d never slow danced but I knew that the girls were supposed to hold the boys shoulders. I wrapped my arms lightly around his neck as I felt him put his hands on my hips. I could feel the electricity between us and it gave me the chills.