Tuesday & Max

8

I'M JUST NOT SURE MY HEART IS WORKING

AND YOURS IS BEATING DOUBLETIME

DEEP DOWN YOU KNOW I AIN'T EVEN WORTH IT

IT'S NOT ENOUGH, BABE

The key jams in the door when she gets home after two long classes, and Tuesday's surprised to find that it's unlocked. When she yanks down on the handle and opens it, she finds herself almost face-to-face with Jack's bum.

He's bending over, removing his shoes, and she closes her eyes for a moment and grits her teeth.

Shit. She'd forgotten. He's eating dinner here tonight with her and Julia.

"Hi!" she squeaks, pushing the door shut behind her.

Jack laughs, the sound muffled, then finishes kicking off his trainers, straightens up and comes toward her. His kiss is fleeting, lips warm. "How was your day?"

"It was good." She kicks off her own shoes and leads him into the sitting room, waving at Julia. "Lessons weren't too boring."

"Did you eat at The Bean again?" Julia asks. Her red hair is sticking up in all directions and her apron is stained with sauce. Tuesday guesses she's cooking a chili. Julia has a self-professed "famous chili", which tastes like nothing but meat and tomatoes, but nobody likes to tell her.

Tuesday clears her throat. "No, actually."

"No?"

Tuesday glances at Jack. He's flopped onto the sofa, sitting on one of Julia's millions of blankets, and whatever gameshow has been playing in the background has sucked him in.

"I went to a new bunch place with a friend."

"A friend!" Julia gleefully claps her hands together. "A friend."

Tuesday rolls her eyes. "Yes, a friend."

"Who?"

Tuesday takes a deep breath. Somehow, this feels like an illicit admission. "His name is Max."

Julia's eyebrows are raised and she pauses in her stirring at the stove. If Jack were not here, Tuesday knows the next thing she'd hear would be: he's a he?

A quick frown her way with Tuesday's eyes darting towards Jack, results in Julia dutifully straightening out her face. Jack is still engrossed in the TV and hasn't noticed their silent exchange, of course.

"He actually went to the same highschool as me," Tuesday continues nonchalantly. "And he plays Lost World and stuff. He's in my Media class."

"That game," Julia chides. "Like we need more of a reason for you to spend ninety-nine percent of your free time on the computer. Do you still play it, Jack?"

"Hm?" He glances up, flicks his light brown hair out of his eyes. "Oh, no. I gave up on it ages ago."

"You probably don't have enough time for it, now, with uni, do you?" Julia asks, as if Tuesday doesn't know that university mostly seems to comprise of drinking, sleeping and potentially doing some combination of both in class, if you bother to even attend.

"Not really."

"And all your nights out."

Of course she couldn't stop dropping that in there, just to remind everyone she hasn't quite forgotten about the disastrous night out on Tuesday's first day of college.