Oscar (bxb)

23.

One by one they all returned to the house, home from their breaks with their family. Unfortunately upon reunions of friendships, tensions were not resolves and the forced politeness of the greetings set everything in place as to how the coming weeks would be.

Apparently they'd all decided to order in food for the first night that they were all back together and Maxie had been invited too, although he feared that it was more out of obligation than wanting him to actually be there.

He allowed everyone to talk among themselves, rarely making any comments himself. He didn't feel as though it was his place to talk right now. He just ate and used the food as an excuse for keeping his mouth shut.

Emmett's eyes were glued to him. He didn't have to allow his own to meet the other boy's to know that.

He tried to ignore it all but he eventually gave into temptation and met the other male's eyes. They were cold and they narrowed once engaged with his. It was a challenge.

"How was your holiday?" He asked, trying to keep his expression neutral. "It looked really nice."

"It was," Olivia answered for him. Amusement lingered in her eyes for a reason that Maxie couldn't place and the unknowing was awful. "How was your Christmas?"

"Good," he replied, trying to remain calm and upbeat, "it was really nice."

"What did you do?"

"Just hung out here, really. I went to Daisy's for a night too."

"So you've just been on your own while you were here?"

This was starting to feel pointed. Maxie put his cutlery down and leaned back on his chair. "No. I saw a couple friends here and there."

"Right," Olivia replied, a slow emphasis on the word. "Oscar mentioned you saw him."

His body stiffened but he tried not to let any of his inner panic be conveyed on his expression. "Yeah. We hung out a bit."

"Just you and him?" Emmett chimed in.

Maxie's eyes became colder when they landed on him. He was intimidated by Olivia but he only had dislike for this boy. He was disapointed because he thought they'd bond over being the only two boys in the house and he wanted to make friends with everyone here, but their last encounter had established that he was not someone worth making the effort for.

"Yeah. We went for a drink and we went for some food. Like I said, I saw a couple people."

Olivia's eyes were on him and though her expression was neutral, the wheels were turning in her head. That much was obvious.

The conversation digressed onto other things but he was fixated on that one moment. They sounded almost as if they were investigating rather than acting out of mere curiosity. This feeling that they were working against him unknowingly, however ridiculous that assumption probably was, tightened his chest.

His head felt lighter too.

His own head started processing certain thoughts and connecting dots. He knew that by over-analyzing everything he was only going to make himself feel worse but he couldn't turn off the thoughts once they started running in his head.

Should he have felt bad about whatever he was doing with Oscar? They'd gotten close and they'd had that one night where things got taken too far but they were just friends now, right?

Guilt swelled in his body. He no longer felt hungry. His breathing picked up its pace.

He drank his water, small sips. Not even that helped make him feel better. He wanted to feel grounded but instead he felt dizzy and when realization hit him, things only got worse.