🅢🅐🅕🅔 🅗🅐🅥🅔🅝| Madwheeler

chapter 2

Once Max got down into the basement she noticed Mike sitting on the couch playing Adventure. She cautiously approached him, not wanting to scare him. She soundlessly sat down on the couch as far away from him as possible, not wanting to burst some personal bubble he surely had, and her not wanting to be close to him anyways.

Apparently her sitting on the couch had caught his attention since when she looked over at him he was already looking at her, the Atari controller laying next to him. He gave her a curious look as if he was silently asking her why she had come down to join him.

"I couldn't sleep. I just decided to come down here and watch you play your games," She explained as she hugged herself, it was a habit of hers she had picked up recently.

He nodded slowly at her then asked, "would you like to talk?" Max quickly shook her head, "I came down here to watch, not to talk." She noticed Mike frown a little as he nodded, letting out a sigh. Did he want to talk to her or something? It almost seemed that way.

"Besides I don't even know what we would talk about if we did," She then added quietly. "I don't know, anything. Life, school, what we like, our dreams," he suggested back, to her it was quite clear he wanted to make conversation with her and she couldn't understand why.

"That wouldn't be much of a conversation for me," She said as if it were obvious. She didn't like talking to others except about skateboarding, bands or video games. "Why not?" He asked curiously as he set the controller on the floor and turned to face her, sitting criss cross on the couch.

"My life is boring and shitty, you happy?" She shot back, really not in the mood. She had hoped they wouldn't have to talk if she joined him but he of course wouldn't let that happen. It was Mike Wheeler, she should of expected it because a majority of the time he was predictable.

Mike made a concentrated face for a moment as if he was thinking, biting his lip and glancing down. Max couldn't help but to stare at him as he thought, finding his expression to be, in a way, cute. She shook her head though to clear her mind of those thoughts, thinking them to be stupid and wrong.

"Well, why do you think that?" He asked after a moment, looking back up at her. She threw her head back and let out a loud sigh. "I do not want to talk about my life, alright?" She said seriously as she looked back at him and gave him a warning but pleading look. Mike noticed the look she gave him and nodded slowly, feeling bad for having asked the question.

He bit his lip again as he tried to think of what to talk abour that would help him at least learn a little bit about her without getting too personal.

After a moment Max got off the couch and started heading towards the stairs, not wanting to stay if he was going to try and talk to her. Mike was quick to get up and follow after her, grabbing one of her wrists gently but strong enough to stop her. She stopped and looked back at him before glancing down to him holding her wrist.

"Look if you're going to try and have a conversation with me I'm going back upstairs. All I wanted was to come down and watch you play your stupid video games so I could be a little less bored," she said to him in a slightly harsh tone. "Okay, you can just watch me play," he said back as he let go of her wrist and nodded. She narrowed her eyes at him, not believing him at all.

She knew if she stayed and watched he would try to talk to her again. Despite that though she decided to stay and watch, all she really wanted was to be with someone because it made her feel safe. And oddly enough she didn't feel too uncomfortable in his presence at the time being. Maybe it was because he was now showing her kindness.