Inconvenience

Chapter 11: Heritage

Sorry for the wait with this one, It's exam season and, allegedly, college requires effort. As well as that I've just had a string of events that that left me too tired to write for a while.

Also, the image you'll see above, of a dapper little Max, was drawn by psycotic-deer-lover, who has a presence on both AO3 and Tumblr. Check out her blog, she does really good art and is in general a good Camp Camp blog (she's also present under the title 'dadvid-scenarios'). She also does good commissions (as exampled below) for a really good price. I've also said this in chapter 10.

Max was confused. It was February 14th, Valentines Day, and those 2 were acting as if nothing was wrong. He knew for a fact that their debt was due on the 15th and that they more than likely didn't have the cash to pay it back. The man had been unusually short tempered for the last week, to the point that he'd snap at Max for walking into the room, or even breathing too loudly. But he hadn't been belted, oddly enough, even when he pushed his limits and asked him if he was finally getting insecure about his chode. Max heard him stomp in his direction, but he stopped a few steps short, and told Max to go to his room.

So yeah, he was confused.

His lessons with Walter were the same as always, he was just made to read braille at a faster pace. He'd been asked if he wanted to go to his and Damien's for dinner on Friday. He said yes of course, even before telling those 2 about it.

He was in the middle of listening to Eminem's "Cleaning out the closet" under his covers when there was a knock on his bedroom door. He turned the phone off immediately, shoved it under his pillow and threw the covers off.

"What?" He said to the door.

"Dinner, Max." The woman said. She didn't sound as raspy as before, nor did she reek of smoke as much as she used to, but Max could still smell the residual scent off her if she got too close.

"Bring it in here." Max ate most of, scratch that, all of his meals alone nowadays. He couldn't stand the silence that rung between him and those 2. In school he had Walter and his classmates to chat with, when he was alone he had music to listen to, but when he was with them there was nothing. No talk of how his day was, how he was coping with being blind, nothing at all. They weren't interested in his life, which was fine, he had zero interest in theirs too.

"I'd rather you eat with us today." She said.

"The fuck? When do 'they' ever want to eat with me? She can go eat my ass!"

"Fuck no!" He yelled.

She paused. He wondered if she was still there, contemplating whether or not to try again. He heard the door's hinges creak open, a gust of wind breezing into his room.

"Go away!" He growled, bristling at her just waltzing into his room like this.

"Please." She said, sounding tired. "Eat with us, just for today."

Max was taken aback. She never pleaded with him. Not a month ago she would've sooner dragged him by the ear to wherever she wanted him to go. Hell, she had done that countless times over the years. She dragged him to the bathroom to force a bar of soap in his mouth if he cursed at her or the man, she dragged him out of bed to get ready for school, and she dragged him pretty much anywhere he didn't want to go.

"Fine." Max grumbled, deciding to humour her this one time. Maybe she'd have something interesting to say.

The kitchen smelled of curry, and not take-out, actual home-made curry. Max took a long, deep sniff of the food, his mouth salivating at the scent.