For Rylie

Chapter 19

A/N: I know it's super dooper short, like, not even 1000 words but I had party and netball and umpiring and now I have another party tonight and I wanted to give you a quick chapter before I left. I also really like where this one ended so I hope you enjoy! I'll upload again when I get some sleep and beat my friend in pool! Read, vote, comment and enjoy! xx

*************************

Because the night was still young, we went back to our house so that we could have some dinner and perhaps a proper introduction to Charlie’s boyfriend.

Dad was sitting at the counter when the five of us strode in, laughing about the look on our mother’s face.

“You should have seen her face when she came around the corner! She was speechless!” Kye exclaimed, laughing.

“Uh, kids?” Dad asked as we took our seats at the counter. I took my seat in between Kye and Max while Charlie and Adam sat at the other end.

“Yeah Dad?” I asked, a smile lighting up my face.

For the first time in a while, I felt happy. Content. Complacent.

All because of closure.

“Why are you home so early?” He was eyeing off Adam as he said this, making laughter bubble in my chest.

“Well…” Charlie trailed, then proceeded to tell Dad everything that had happened at dinner, including the part involving my kissing Max. At that point my cheeks had been flaming and of course, everyone had pointed it out.

Honestly, I had not stopped thinking about that kiss since he let me go and we walked out of Benvolio’s. It just felt right, perfect, like coming home on a cold winter’s day to a hot chocolate and a good book.

And I really wanted to do it again.

“Wait,” Adam interrupted my mental rambling, raising an eyebrow and looking between me and Max. “You two aren’t dating?”

Max and I shook our heads in unison.

“Never would have guessed,” he said with a small smile on his face.

Dad proceeded to ask him what he did for a living and how he and Charlie met and all of the general details that generally ensued upon a first meeting.

It turns out he didn’t work at a tattoo parlour but at an acting school, teaching young kids the mechanics of acting.

So that’s why he was such a good actor at dinner.

After a while I decided to go play my piano, Max following close behind me.

Can I kiss him again???

No. I couldn’t. Not when there wasn’t anything I could blame it on.

If I kissed him again, he would know how I felt about him and it would suck that he doesn’t reciprocate the feeling.

“You seem distracted,” Max commented, holding open the door to my shed for me. I walked under his arm and immediately went to my piano, taking my heels off once I had been seated. “Thinking about that kiss?” He asked, smirking while sitting on the couch which was still near the piano.

Of course I was you big dummy!

“Of course I’m not,” I told him, adjusting the straps of my dress.

Max rolled his piercing green eyes and shot me a dubious look. “Oh please. You loved that.”

"Come on! You were the one that started before we needed to," I started playing around on my piano, not anything specific. 

"Oh please, you didn't know when she was going to come around the corner," he fought back, running his hands through the black mop of hair atop his head. 

I was distracted for a moment. 

Max, the most popular guy in school who also happened to be my best friend, was sitting on my couch in my shed, looking incredibly hot in his slacks, dress shoes and pale green shirt. He had loosened his thin, black tie and his hair was completely dishevelled. 

 Why is he so damn perfect??

I shook the thought away, not having Max in general distract me from winning this argument. 

"You didn't pull away when you heard her either," I told him matter-of-factly.

The goofy grin made an appearance and his eyes lit up with something that looked like excitement. "I was too distracted to notice her."

I shook my head and laughed, Max joining in. "Were you really that distracted by thinking how bad it was to kiss me?" I asked, letting my hair fall as a curtain between us while I focussed on my piano. 

"Nope!" He exclaimed happily, taking enjoyment in my embarassment. "I was actually distracted with-"

"Guys! Dad wants to know if you want to play cards!" Kye exclaimed, coming into the shed. 

Dammit Kye!!!! Why couldn't you wait for ten more seconds??

"Sure," I closed the lid to my piano and stood up, walking around the couch and avoiding making eye contact with Max. 

"Sorry, but I should get going," Max said from behind me. 

The three of us walked back into the house and said goodbye to Max. I awkwardly hugged him and then retreated to my room, suddenly exhausted.

I got changed into my pyjamas and wiped off my makeup, collapsing into bed.

The last thing I did before I fell asleep was check my phone, setting an alarm as I looked for messages.

I had two texts, one from August and the other from Chase, both asking if I was okay because I seemed distracted today, or some variation of that. 

I loved those two, but they really needed to stop asking the same questions. It was getting annoying. 

If I said I'm fine and they ask me again, I'm not going to give them a different answer. They really needed to get that through their heads. 

One thing about masks was that they could rarely be broken. It takes someone special to break the mask, someone you could trust with anything and everything, someone who knows what it's like to be so broken that you need a mask. 

Someone who was tall, lean and muscly. Someone with a stupid smirk and a goofy grin. Someone with a mop of black hair that was contantly dishevelled. Someone with green eyes that pierced through the mask and went straight to my heart.