Songs from my Bewilderment

Chapter Six

Max pulls up into the driveway at Olivia's house. She lives in the Richmond District in a house with 3 other girls. It's only a 10-minute walk from campus. He calls her, and just as one ring goes through, she's walking down the stairs.

"Hey, dude!" Olivia says as she opens the car door.

"Hey, Liv!" Max says as he gives her a fist bump.

They've always been casual with each other. They even have a secret handshake. Keeping in touch in college despite going to different schools kept their mothers happy. And also... each other happy.

"Where are we going," Max says, as he pulls up the map on his phone.

"I was thinking we could go for Mexican?" Olivia says. A favorite past time of the both of them.

As they drive across the city and hit the Mission District, they share a casual dinner at a taqueria and catch up on classes and life at their separate colleges. Olivia tries to avoid the subject of Maddy going to Alex's wedding as Max's date. But the wedding comes up as a subject. They both avoid talking about Maddy.

"Are you bringing a plus one to Alex's wedding?" Max asks Olivia out of the blue.

"I was thinking about it," Olivia lies. She actually hadn't thought about going with anyone, since her parents are going to be there and everyone she knew from Max's family. The truth is, she could go without a date and be fine, but going with a familiar face and someone she could dance with wouldn't be so bad. "I did put plus one on the invite months ago." She realizes. She DID have to bring someone. It would be rude to Sage since planning a wedding is difficult, to begin with.

"So, uh..." Max says nervously, "Are you bringing June then?" He knew he didn't want to bring it up, but he wanted to see if they were still hanging out. Now that Olivia's internship was over, he wondered whether or not they were going to actually date and be in a relationship.

"Uh... yeah," Olivia says with an unsure voice. She thinks back to the last time she saw him and their trip to LA together. She hadn't even asked him to go yet. Yet, she's lying to Max? Why is she lying to him about bringing a plus one? Thinking about Max and Maddy going together gets her really jealous.

"Cool, cool," Max says, but it's almost sarcastic. He had nothing in common with June. He wasn't looking forward to conversing with him. Max also knew that if June was going with Olivia, they probably wouldn't hang out at the wedding.

Olivia and Max walk around the Mission and then decide to spend the night at Little Baobab, a small dance club nestled in between two restaurants. There, they run into Dee and Cole. On Friday nights when Dee wasn't traveling for soccer, she was always seen there with Cole. They both LOVED that place. The four of them dance the night away. It's dark and loud, and Latin music is playing, as others surrounding them dance along. Max buys them a round of drinks, but he designates himself as the driver for the night. He also knew he had to really focus on his game the next two weeks with the season coming up.

As Olivia gets a little buzzed and dances with Dee, Max looks at how Olivia dances and how cute she looks, and is noticing her little black dress. How it's tight against her skin but flowy at the same time. It's accentuating her whole small figure. Whoa, he thinks to himself. He realizes that he's staring at Olivia a little too creepily. But he can't take her eyes off of her. When Olivia dances, she's like a different person. She's not exactly the Olivia he knew from childhood.

They are all dancing in the background while Max looks at Dee, who is giving him a wide-eyed look. He suddenly realizes that he's being too obvious and looks away.

"I'm going to get us all another round!" Olivia yells loudly at all three of them, as she walks away.

"Wait, wait. Let me come to help you," Cole says as he follows her.

"Um, I saw the way you stared at her," Dee says, in a judgmental voice. She's been sharing her drinks with Cole since she's also conditioning for soccer. So Dee was also somewhat sober along with Max.

"No, you're so wrong!" Max laughs nervously.

"Oh, please. Both of you are so cute together. You'd have the cutest babies!" Dee says, with a high pitched squeal. Dee pictures their babies. With Max's olive skin, brown eyes and unknown background and Olivia's almond-shaped dark brown eyes, brown skin and Asian heritage, they would both have interracial babies. Dee smiles as she continues to think about it.

"Um, no. Stop talking about it. They'll hear you." Max says as he pushes Dee's shoulder.

"Oh please, they are both so drunk. I've been giving Cole all my drinks. We are going to have to drag them both home together." Dee yells as the music gets louder.

The night continues on and Max can't believe Dee would bring that up for the second time tonight. Even though Max thought Olivia was beautiful tonight. He knew they couldn't be together. It would just get so complicated. They've known each other for over 12 years. If didn't work out, it would do so much damage to their families, their parents, and the memory of their childhood. He realizes that this is the first time he's actually considered being with Olivia and gets confused. Then, the thought of her being in a relationship with June gets him angry. Was he jealous of June? Was the way he looked at Olivia tonight a result of him being jealous of June?