Second Chance

Second Chance Part 6

"So Miss Kennedy I feel like I don't know anything about you, lets change that." Max says. I lean back. "I'm an open book; shoot." I say. I realize in my head how ironic it is. "Okay we will start simple, what's your favorite color?" I look over at him. "Easy, purple. Yours?" I ask. "Orange duh." He says. I roll my eyes. "My turn, favorite singer?" He starts stroking his chin as if in deep thought. "Now that is a multi-layered question. My favorite female singer is Billie Eilish, my favorite male singer is Hozier, my favorite rapper is Drake, and my favorite group is Mumford and Sons. Yours?" I stroke my chin making fun of him. "That was a very well thought out answer, I suppose my favorite female singer would also have to be Billie Eilish, my favorite male singer is Justin Bieber, my favorite rapper is G-Easy, and my favorite group is the Lumineers." He acts like he has been hit in the chest and falls back. "Oh no, and just when I thought we really had something going you just had to say you are a Justin Bieber fan. I look at you completely different now." He says dramatically. I lean over and playfully smack him. "Oh come on he is my youth, who didn't have Bieber Fever in their tween years." I say laughing. "I don't know, you're lucky you are an indie folk fan or we may be having a very different conversation right now." He smirks. "I have genuinely never met someone else who likes indie folk music, The lumineers were playing at a local college last summer and I couldn't find a single person to go with me."I say. "That's crazy, I actually went to that concert with my ex girlfriend, it was a disaster." He says laughing. This is the first time he has ever mentioned an ex. "Alright my turn, top five favorite TV shows, go" I start thinking. "No thinking just answer!" He says noticing my concentration. "Well I feel like this is a question which requires some thought, however if I had to answer right off the top of my head I would have to say, Jane the Virgin, Gossip Girl. Lucifer, The Vampire Diaries, and Parks and Recreation." He falls back again dramatically. "You are killing me." He says with a grin. "What?" I ask playfully slapping his chest. "Parks and Recreation? Seriously, you have seen the office correct?" I roll my eyes. "I have seen The Office and while I admire the show and quite enjoyed it, it doesn't even begin to compare to Parks and Recreation and you will never change my mind." I say smiling. He shakes his head. "Now you answer, top five." I say turning on my side to look at him. "Easy, Hawaii 5-0, The Office, One Tree Hill, Criminal Minds, and Friday Night Lights." He turns on his side to mirror me. "Now if those aren't the most basic shows I've ever heard of." He opens his mouth shocked. "Me? Lets talk about your answer Gossip Girl? Jane the Virgin? Seriously." He says grinning. "You're turn, what question do you have for me." I say scooting just a hair closer to Max. He takes notice and scoots closer in. "How am I doing?" He asks. He pushes my hair behind my ear. "What do you mean?" I ask. Max smirks. "You know what I mean." I smile. I know exactly what he means. He wants to know if he's winning me over, if he's breaking down my walls. I'd like to lie to myself and say he isn't doing anything to me, but I can't. I want to learn as much about Max as possible. Everything I know so far I love. I don't want to, but I do. "You are doing really well, at making a friend." I answer. Max's face falls, he quickly plasters a grin. "Your turn." He says. I can tell in his eyes he feels defeated. "Why did you come up to me at the tennis courts?" Max bites his lip nervously. I don't consider myself a hot commodity. He could've talked to any girl in the entire school, why me? "Because I think you're beautiful. I don't know if you've ever had this happen or not, but as soon as I saw you, I knew you were someone I had to get to know. When we locked eyes before practice the feeling got even stronger. Then when I saw you all alone by the tennis courts, it felt like fate. It was my perfect opportunity to talk to you." My heart begins to flutter. I know exactly the feeling Max is talking about. It's the same one I had when I saw Max before practice. I can't tell him this, it would give him way too much false hope. We really do feel fated. It's just the right guy at the wrong time. "That's really sweet." I say grabbing his hand. A smile spreads across his face.  "How is a girl as great as you single?" He asks changing his tone. I turn my head and look at the lake. "Well that is a more complex question." I say trying to buy some time. "You can talk to me." he says. He extends his arm to caress my shoulder. "Well to give you the cliff notes version, I went through a pretty dramatic break up last spring and guys have just been the last thing on my mind ever since." I say keeping my eyes glued on the lake. I don't mean to shift my demeanor, but now all I can think about is Brady. "You don't have to talk about it." He says picking up on my change of mood. I close my eyes trying to decide what the best thing to do is here. If I don't tell him about Brady it's going to look like I'm still not over the breakup, but if I do talk to him about Brady things could get weird. "No its okay" I say setting up criss cross. "Um Brady goes to the other school in town, and when we met our freshman year we totally hit it off, well we had a pretty solid relationship, or at least I thought we did. He's a year older than me so last year we went to his junior prom. Um, I walked in on him and another girl having sex in the bathroom." I say trying to keep eye contact throughout. Max's face falls. "Oh Ken, I'm really sorry, I shouldn't have asked." He says grabbing my hand. My first instinct is to jerk my hand away, but for whatever reason I don't. "No, it's totally fine. Honestly I'm surprised you didn't already know, I was kind of the talk of the school after. It was... rough to put it lightly." I say giving his hand a squeeze. "I can't believe that's something other people were talking about, I'm sure they were against him though right?" He asks setting up too. "You would think. My friends were obviously on my side, but a lot of his friends went to my school and they didn't make it easy on me. I had never had sex with him so they used it as fuel to their fire. I guess to an extent I can understand, he wasn't getting any from me so." I say trailing off. I turn my head away from him. I start to feel that familiar nervous flutter in my chest. I start sweating ever so much and feel dizzy. I lay back flat and cover my face. "Kennedy." Max says leaning over me. "I'm sorry that was all way too much information." I say. I'm trying to talk myself out of a panic attack. I've never had to do this in front of anyone that wasn't a counselor. "The fact your douche bag ex cheated on you wasn't your fault. Guys who act like they physically can't keep their dick in their pants are disgusting. You do know that right." Calm down Kennedy, start going through the alphabet, start thinking about anything, think about the waves hitting the dock. "Kennedy." Max says grabbing my shoulders jerking me out of my concentration. "I mean of course I do, but I don't know." I say trying to avoid looking at him. He leans over me and puts his hand on my cheek. "You didn't deserve that." He says leaning down, his lips less than an inch away from mine. "I don't know, maybe I did. I'm not perfect, he put up with a lot..." I start say. I feel tears welling up in my eyes. "Kennedy, you are perfect." He leans down. Every single fiber of my existence wants to grab his face and kiss him. My body is aching to embrace him. I know mentally this is the last thing I should be doing, but sometimes you have to listen to your heart. I run my fingers through Max's hair and kiss him. He pulls away a little confused grinning. "Are you sure about all this?" He asks biting his lip. "No." I say pulling him down again feeling his lips on mine.