What Happens in High School

Max’s POV

Ray and I finally talked everything out. It was hard at first to just let everything out into the open but once we’d both gotten everything off our chests it felt so good. As corny as it sounds, it actually felt like a weight had physically been lifted off of me. The burdensome feelings I’d had were gone and I could finally live a normal life with my best friend again. Now all that was left to deal with was my boyfriend.

I was still afraid to tell Bob about Ray kissing me. It’s not like I particularly enjoyed it, or asked for it, but something was still on my mind. I hadn’t pushed Ray away when he kissed me; I didn’t stop him when he put his hand on my leg, and I kissed him back. I don’t know why I did it, I didn’t want to. Something just came over me. Lust perhaps? Bob and I hadn’t traded virginities yet so maybe…I don’t know. I felt like at this point I was just making up any excuse to condone the whole thing, but it was going to take more than some lame defense.

On the other hand I felt like I had nothing to worry about. Bob loved me and I loved him. He was understanding and calm and something told me, even though maybe not right away, things would be okay. I wasn’t so much worried about me and him, it was Ray that concerned me. There was no denying or getting around the fact that Ray was the one to kiss me first and even though I complied, nothing would have happened if he hadn’t made the move. Although, if he hadn’t have gotten drunk absolutely none of this would have happened at all, but that’s teenage drama for you. Always the worst things at the worst times.

I left Ray’s house with him in search of Bob. I knew he’d be home because the boys hand band practice in an hour. We walked in silence to Bob’s house not at all looking forward to what was about to happen. Things would be different, uncomfortable. Even if Bob were to say that he understood and everything was okay, I’d still feel like I betrayed him. And poor Ray, how would he and Bob be after all this? Would they even stay friends?

It all came crashing down when Ray and I finally got to Bob’s house. “Hey,” I said standing in front of Bob’s open garage door. I didn’t know how he managed to play drums with the door open and the temperate so low. “Hey guys, what’s up? We don’t have practice for, like an hour.” Ray and I exchanged uneasy looks. One of us would have to spit it out and neither of us wanted to be that person.

I thought back to what my dad said. It would be best for Bob to hear it from me. “Bob, we got to tell you something,” I started. “I just want to start out by saying that I’m sorry I kept it from you for so long, I just didn’t know how to tell you.” A look of dismay and worry flushed over Bob’s face; I was breaking his heart and I hadn’t even gotten to the bad part yet.

“Well, what is it?” Ray and I exchanged looks before mentally deciding who would be the one to break the news. Ray manned up and spoke for the both of us. This was probably best because he had been the instigator of the kiss and if it weren’t for him and his stupid drunkenness, we wouldn’t even be doing this. “I kissed Max.”

He said it so fast, so nonchalantly, like it wasn’t a big deal, but I knew he was just hiding the fact that it was. Bob just sat there looking at us, not yet having registered Ray’s words.

“You . . . you kissed Max? When?” he asked, the situation finally starting to hit him.


“Christmas Eve, I was drunk and stupid and I never meant-” Bob cut Ray off. He turned to me and asked, “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t know how. Ray’s apologized to me for it, I thought it was over but it just kept eating at me, and I had to tell you.” Bob looked dismayed at this, though not angry or upset. I felt terrible that I’d kept this from him, not even having the guts to tell him myself. The words had to come from Ray, and I felt horrible that I couldn’t admit it to Bob without him there.

Bob sighed, taking in the news. I didn’t really expect him to take it lightly, so his lack of reaction was a little worrying. “What are you thinking?” I asked, desperate to know what was going on inside his head.

"Well, I don’t know," he started. "I don’t really know if I'm mad or upset, but I do know that I'm disappointed." I hated that word. I hated when someone was 'disappointed in me; it was the ultimate way of saying 'you fucked up.' "I mean, I can't stay mad at you, but I don’t think I can just forget about this."

I nodded my head, and Bob continued, "You’re my girlfriend, Max. I want you to know that you can tell me anything, and Ray, dude, I get it; you guys are best friends, but we're dating now. I'm sorry things didn’t work out like you wanted them to, but Max is with me. That wasn't cool to kiss her like that, but I understand that you were drunk, so I forgive you."

Ray seemed relieved to hear this. He knew I didn’t like his back and he knew I was off limits since I was dating Bob. Ray knew that we would never be, and he'd grown to accept it, even if Drunk-Ray didn’t. "Thanks, man."

Bob smiled to Ray, the first time I'd seen him lighten up at all since we'd come to talk to him. With things as cool as they were going to get for a while between Bob and Ray, I was the only one left to deal with.

"Max?" he said to me. I picked up my gaze, which I hadn't even notice had dropped to look down at my shoes. My eyes met Bob's, blue and clear, the same sight I'd first fallen in love with. "Max," he repeated. "I'm not mad at you, you know that right?"

I inhaled deeply and shakily as I nodded my head, not yet being able to speak. "I still love you."

I felt them. The first pin-pricks of tears brimming my eyes. How did I ever end up with such and amazing guy? Did I even deserve him? I mean, I'd screwed up. I was the one who was too scared to tell him what had happened and now that I had, he was being so understanding about it. I felt stupid for being so unwilling to say anything.

I felt a tear roll down my cheek and almost automatically, Bob reached his hand up to wipe it away. "Hey," he said in a soft, gentle, almost whispered tone. "Don’t cry. Max, you have to give yourself more credit. You came and told me, didn’t you?."

"But I should have told you sooner," I stuttered out in between stifled sobs. I tried to calm my breathing on my own, but I was unsuccessful until Bob pulled me in close to him. My head rested on his chest and my arms wrapped around him immediately, as if my body was on auto-pilot. I felt myself relax into him and my breathing finally start to steady. "I'm not going to lie," he said, stroking my hair. "You probably should have, but I'm happy that you told me at all, and really, Max; it was just a stupid kiss. Don’t beat yourself up over this."

He pulled away just slightly to look into my eyes again. He leaned down without a word and touched his lips to mine. In that moment, I didn’t care that Ray was still in the room. The only thing on my mind was the boy touching my lips with his. I held my hand up to his cheek and kissed him back, pulling away before things got too intense. "I'm sorry."

"Stop saying that," he said smiling to me. "It's cool, everything's fine. Just know that you can tell me anything, I love you, Max. I mean that."

"I love you, too. More than anything, I love you." I smiled and wiped away my final tear. I was finally convinced: I had the best boyfriend in the world, the best best friend in the world and I couldn’t have asked for a better ending. I'd definitely learned my lesson; from now on, I told Bob everything.

He never let the 'Ray-Incident,' as we called it, drag on. He'd forgiven and forgotten; moved on from our little mistake. He was arguably the best boyfriend I'd ever had; I knew from the first day I met him that he was different.

Looking back on our entire journey, all the little screw ups, all the tears and all the pain, I wouldn’t change a thing. Everything that had happened did so for a reason. Every step led us to where we were now; the happiest girl in the world dating the most awesome guy in the universe.

If I had a chance to go back and do it all over again, I would. I would fall in love with Bob Bryar all over again, I'd go through the sleepless nights thinking about him, the days spent crying over how much I liked him when I thought he didn’t even see me. I'd relive the moments I'd consider giving up on him, the moment that I realized I'd fallen for him.

I'd go back to the first time I'd ever met him, the first time we'd hung out, the first class we had together. The first time we'd danced, the first time we'd kissed, the first time we gave each other our 'most precious gifts.'

I'd go through it all again, keeping every detail intact, because looking back on all of it now, every heart-wrenching and heart-warming moment was totally worth it.

Notes

Well there you have it, the finale!! I really hope you've all enjoyed this story, and I want to thank everyone for reading it! It means a lot to know that I can contribute something to make someone smile, and everyone who's read this has made me smile; every comment and every vote and every subscription have made me feel truly important and I want to once again say thank you so much!!!

If you want to check out my new story, it's called In That Summertime, I'll love you forever if you go give it a read!! :)

Also if you've been following my story Completely (Un)expected, I'd like to apologize for not updating lately. I lost all of the work I'd done on it (what would have been the next four chapters) and since I now have to rewrite them, I've been reconsidering how some stuff is gonna go down, so thanks for your patience on that :)