Songs from my Bewilderment

Chapter Nineteen

A few moments later, they are walking back to Olivia's house and don't talk about the kiss. Instead, they decide to talk about memories from their past.

"No way!" Olivia laughs. "Yeah, Alex was so crazy," Max says as he tells her a story about how his brother sneaking out to see Sage in the middle of the night. "I had no idea! Mrs. Ames killed his ass, I bet!" They both laugh, and Max says, "Oh yeah... she'd take his car away for a week, and then I'd end up being the one sneaking Sage into our house!"

They continue to laugh together and finally get to Olivia's house. Everyone is in the living room, including Emma, Chloe, and Olivia's other roommate. Ben, the guy that Chloe was dancing with at the club, was there as well. It looked like everyone had continued to get drunk since a handle of Jameson was open on the coffee table with a few shot glasses. Emma, who was the outgoing one in the house, decides to make the "kick-back" a little more interesting.

"Okay... okay... everyone needs to go around the room and say who their first kiss was!" Emma yells as she pours a mixed drink for herself.

Olivia and Max look at each other and remember that in 8th grade, they were each other's first kiss at their first boy-girl party when they were dared to kiss each other.

"Chloe?" Emma says, "You're first!" Chloe looks at Ben and the rest of the crowd. She gets super embarrassed but says, "Freshman year of high school, my boyfriend, Jake. Who ended up being gay..." They all laughed and Dee says, "Oh! But it wasn't because of you!" They all continue to laugh.

"Okay, Dee?" Emma says as she hands Dee a glass of whiskey and ginger beer. "Well..." Dee says, taking a sip, "High school prom? My date was this guy I had a crazy crush on who played soccer."

"Oh, of course, it was!" Olivia says, remembering that the guy was Paul. Someone she had the biggest crush on in high school. She never forgot about him, even after graduating. Until she met Cole, she had feelings for Paul and always hung out with him when she was back home in Sacramento. 

"Liv," Emma says, "It's your turn." Max looks at Olivia and is wondering if she was going to lie or tell the truth. Olivia smiles and says, "Well... My first kiss was actually from – this guy right here," pointing to Max.

The whole living room is in shock, and you can hear various mumbles of "What?" "Oh my gosh!" "You two?!"

"Yeah," Max says, looking at everyone, "It was a dare in 8th grade, it wasn't that big of a deal." Olivia adds on and says, "Yeah, our first boy-girl party, it was nothing!"

Dee looks at Olivia and says, "Oh my god!" To her and Olivia says, "I know... I know..."

Everyone says how their first kiss went, which then eventually led to answering questions on how everyone lost their virginity. Luckily, they never get to Olivia, who is still a virgin, so there were no embarrassing moments there. The night continues, and eventually, everyone ends up falling asleep on the couch at around 3 am, including Dee, Cole, and Emma. Olivia wakes up, and it looks like Chloe and Ben headed back to her room. Max was on the floor sleeping on a pillow.

As Olivia tiptoes to the hallway, she heads to the bathroom and gets ready for bed. Her ten-step skincare routine was one she never missed. From her mother's orders, it was to be done every night in the Tan household. After washing her face and brushing her teeth, she heads back to her room and Max is sitting on her bed looking at one of the many vinyl records she owns. "Love this album," Max says holding up "Let's Put it All Together" by The Stylistics.

"Oh, yeah, this is a great one. My dad gave that to me," Olivia says, taking the album from him. "Of course Mr. Tan would own that," Max says, laughing. Olivia's dad had hundreds of vinyl records in his office. He was an architect and always played vinyl whenever he was on his drafting table.

Olivia puts the record in her player and smiles at Max. He gives her a look to lay down with him, and she lays down right next to him. The two aren't touching each other, though they are both staring at the ceiling as the record plays. Max is thinking about how special this moment is and then grazes his hand next to Olivia's, and they start holding hands. Since it was really late, the two ended up falling asleep right next to each other.

The next morning, Max's alarm goes off, and Olivia wakes up next to him. "Morning," Max says as he grabs his phone. "Morning," Olivia responds, smiling at him.

"I guess The Stylistics put us to sleep," Max says, running his fingers through his hair. He looks over at Olivia who's still laying down, and he smiles. Olivia gets up, looks through her pile of records and finds one, and puts it on her player. When the song comes on, he smiles at her.

She smiles back at him, and they suddenly have an intimate moment. Olivia sits next to him on her bed and starts to kiss him, and he kisses her back without retaliating. Caught in a deep kiss, Max starts touching Olivia's body. She doesn't feel weirded out by it at all and starts grabbing his hair. He starts getting a feeling below his waist. And he looks back at her, and she starts nodding her head. "Liv, are you sure?" Max asks. Olivia nods her head and says, "Yes, I'm sure." At this particular second, she wasn't sure if he knew she was a virgin, they always talked about how he hooked up with people, but she never opened up about that with him. She gets up and goes into her bedside drawer, grabs a condom, and hands it to him. As he slips it on and goes inside of her, she gasps, and her virginity is lost, by her best friend.