Clinging To Him (BoyxBoy) #1.1

Clinging To Him {Twenty-Five}

"You're asking me out on a date?" I asked into the cell phone pressed against my ear while I hung upside down from the side of my bed, completely shell-shocked. Listen, I understood that Dylan and I were officially dating, strings attached, and we'd obviously go out and do things that normal couples did but the timing just felt off considering I had my parents looking for me and Gregory pissed off at me. Going out on a date with Dylan in the middle of the mess I created made me question Dylan entirely.

"Why not?" Dylan asked causally as if I had not raised hell with Gregory and Rachel the day before.

"The timing, for one, and the fact that I have a big target painted on my back, two."

"Screw the timing." Dylan said, throwing me off guard. "Are you planning on staying inside untill all this blows over? You did poke the bear, if you recall. None of this is going to go away anytime soon so we might as well go out and enjoy our time together."

I scoffed softly and slid off the bed gently to make sure I didn't fall hard on my head. I laid down on the ground for a few seconds because of the blood in my head and I didn't want to make it worse by standing up suddenly. "You're actually serious?"

"Yeah."

I sighed and shook my head as I sat up "Okay, fine. Let's go out on a date like those sappy couples I see all the time." I couldn't stop the smile from breaking out on my face and was only glad that Dylan couldn't see me because I was sure he'd poke fun at me.

"Yes!" Dylan shouted out and I heard things being knocked down on the ground from his side. "Oops." He said and without missing a beat added "I'll come and pick you up in an hour or so. Aaron has me doing a bit of extra stuff today."

I no longer felt any jealousy towards Aaron but that didn't mean that I liked him either. I knew that Aaron wouldn't flirt or try to take Dylan away if he swung for the same team but there was something about his smile that reminded me of a double-edged sword. "That's fine. I have to get ready anyways."

"I'll try to hurry- hey! I know! Stop hitting me- gotta go, Max. See you in a bit." Dylan said and hung up without giving me time to respond.

I chuckled softly and tossed my phone on the bed and stayed on the floor for a few seconds with a ridiculous smile on my face before getting up and heading to the shower. I didn't even spare a glance at myself in the mirror before jumping in the shower because I hadn't magically learned how to love my appearance since Dylan and I had started dating, that's not how it worked. It was something that I had to work through with myself but just didn't know how to get to that point.

There was no point in wasting time looking at myself in the mirror because I already had all the scars from the past memorized. For example, the recent scarring I got from when Elisha went bat shit crazy and the long gash from when my own dad took a knife down my thigh in irritation. The obvious cigarette burns on my collar bones were hard to miss every time I looked down from when the women who was supposed to love and treasure me more than anybody in the world burned me every time I didn't bring her a beer fast enough. On my back were long scars from a whip that Gregory used in hopes that it would be enough incentive to get him back his money from up my ass.

I chuckled softly to myself while I worked on shampooing my hair at the memory from when the hospital saw all the scars and the lie I had made about them. I told them that I was a troubled kid when I was younger and had gotten into a lot of fights with the wrong crowd. Although it wasn't a complete lie the scars weren't from any fights I had previously gotten into. The scars  were all the times I was weak and let myself get tossed around like a puppet to others. They were reminders of the time I felt like dirt under someone's shoes and wasn't able to stand up for myself but I had to remind myself that that was the past Max. I no longer would allow someone to step all over me and would actually stand up for myself.