But She's So Nice // Joji

4. Remember

Will your tongue
still remember
the taste of my lips?

I waited in the kitchen until Max calmed down a little bit. When I felt I gave him enough time, I walked into the lounge to check on him. He was sat in the couch watching something on the T.V.
"Hey." I spoke.
Max didn't reply. I hated the feeling of knowing I'd hurt Max. Though I didn't blame him. I shouldn't have acted like that toward George, even if he was making me mad. I walked over to the couch and sat next to Max. His eyes didn't leave the screen, he didn't acknowledge me at all. I rested my head on his shoulder to try to get his attention.
"Please stop being angry with me." I continued.
Max sighed loudly.
"The first thing I asked you before George got here was for you to be nice to him and for him to be nice to you. You both can't even pretend to be nice. Ian and George are just gonna fly home and we'll rent a place in L.A. so we can film. And you're not coming with." Max explained.
I never intended George and I's disagreements to go this far, or even get physical. I didn't want him or Ian to leave and create more trouble for Max. He didn't deserve that.
"Max I don't want them to leave."
"You clearly want George to leave and he clearly wants to leave so I don't know why you're even talking to me." Max nudged me off of his shoulder.
"Max please-"
"No, you got what you wanted. He's leaving." Max spoke.
George stepped into the lounge, his face had worry written all over it.
"Max, I don't want to leave. I'm not mad at her she said sorry." George added.
I knew he was just saying this to make Max happy, and it wasn't for me at all. I knew that this wouldn't be our last fight like this, but it would be the last one to happen in front of Max.
"This is fucking stupid." Max huffed.
I laid my head on Max's shoulder again. His response was much warmer this time, he draped his arm around me.
I looked at George and shook my head as a sort of way to tell him to leave so I could help Max calm down more. George rolled his eyes at me and went back to the kitchen.
"I won't let it happen again." I told Max.
Max sighed again.
"Are you sure?" He asked.
"Yes."
"Okay, but if you guys ever pull shit like that again, they're going the fuck home." Max said, standing up off the couch and heading back to his room.
I took a deep breath in an attempt to distinguish my stress at this whole situation. I'm just happy I could fix it a little. I went back to the kitchen to clear some more things up with George.
"I think he's a bit better now." I told George.
"Good, I hate when Max is pissed off." He replied.
There was a short yet needed silence, like a pause for us to take a breath of relief of sorts.
"Look, I can't say that we're never gonna fight like that again, because I can't promise that, but we can't pull shit like that in front of Max anymore." George said, staring past me.
"I know. It was my fault." I admitted.
George looked up from the floor and shook his head at me.
"No, it was both of us. I was saying stuff just to make you mad. I knew it was coming. Like I said, that's probably not the last time we're going to have a disagreement, but we gotta fake it in front of him."
"I get that George." I folded my arms.
Talking about it just made me feel bad. I just didn't think George could make me so angry that I'd hit him that hard in front of Max. Seeing how disappointed he was had to be one of the worst feelings. Max had done so much for me, I have no excuse to treat him like that.
"Can you quit blaming yourself? It's annoying." George said, waking away from me and heading into the lounge.

We all went off on our own in differnt parts of the house until we all felt that the thick fog of tension between us was finally cleared up. Later in the evening the four of us met up in the lounge to start drinking like we had planned to do earlier in the day, not mentioning the fight between George and I. The tension slowly lifted as the three of the boys started drinking. I decided to stay mostly sober, only having a drink or two to get a bit tipsy because I planned to edit videos for Max later that night as I had been putting them off for too long. The drunker the three of them got, the more the fight was forgotten about.
"Rain, you could be taking shots with us if you finished those videos you know?" Max said, pouring himself yet another drink.
I sighed.
"I know, I just have to finish up a couple videos. I'll get wasted tomorrow." I assured him.
"Take the night off." George suggested.
"I can't, then I'll never get them done." I replied.
George shrugged and then downed another shot.