What Happens in High School

Bob’s POV

Ray and I dropped off Max at home after school on Monday. I was walking out to go find them when I saw Jack cornering her behind the library. I heard him saying how he wanted her but it was obvious that he didn’t want her in the way she deserved to be treated. It made me so angry, I would have kicked the shit out of him right then and there if Max wasn’t around. I stepped up behind him and put my hand on his shoulder to turn him around. I saw the pathetic look of fear in his eyes as he saw me and how he quickly tried to cover it up. He thought he was some tough hot-shot just because he was on the football team, and even the other players weren’t these big of dicks. He let go of Max and I got to see how scared she really was which made me even madder. I did my best to control my anger as not to beat the crap out of him in front of Max. I meant every word when I said that if he came near Max again he’d be sorry and pay for it.

Jack was smart to step off, but an idiot for what he said before he left. I don’t even want to repeat the awful words he said to Max. How could he even say those things to any girl let alone her? She was the smartest, prettiest, and most respectable girl I’d ever met and all it took Jack was two minutes to destroy her self-confidence. I really wished she was doing okay and she didn’t let it get to her too much. She must have understood how wrong he was.

There was one thing though. He said that Max should go back to the razors. I didn’t want to think that what he meant was true. I didn’t want to believe that Max hurt herself, she was too good for that. She didn’t deserve to have a reason to even consider something like that. It upset me thinking that what he said might have been true but for now I refused to believe it. After all, Jack was an ass and was probably making things up.

When we found Ray she hugged him and cried, letting him know what had happened. I was a little surprised that when she let go of Ray she came over and grabbed onto me. She thanked me for telling off Jack but she didn’t need to. I wanted her to know how special and beautiful she was, but with Ray standing there, I had to turn it more in the direction of a pep-talk rather than a proclamation of love. I meant every bit of it and I just hoped she believed me.
…

Max didn’t come into school the next day, and with good reason. Ray told me that he’d told Max’s mom everything that happened with Jack. He’d been suspended and wouldn’t be in school for three weeks. Still Max just wanted the day off. I didn’t blame her, why would she want to come in to school?

I thought about her all day. We didn’t really talk a great deal in class considering we weren’t supposed to be talking in the first place, but her absence was still noticeable. It was worse during lunch. “Where’s Maxie?” Frank questioned as he walked over and noticed her nonattendance. Ray answered, “She’s just not feeling great today, and so she stayed home.”

I could tell he didn’t want to give away the whole story, something Max wouldn’t have liked if he did. It had become evident that Max was the type of person who liked to deliver news on her own if it pertained to her. Frank just nodded with a slightly worried look on his face. He probably just thought that she was sick or something.

The other guys reacted in similar ways asking, “Where’s Max?” and either Ray or I saying that she just wasn’t up to coming to school today. I respected Max’s decision to take a personal day, it’s not like she missed school often, and so one day wouldn’t hurt. I was a good idea for her to take some time to herself, especially after what Jack had said to her. The rest of the day dragged out longer than usual, after all I didn’t have Max there to talk to.

I found Ray by his car when the last bell finally rang. “Hey Ray.” I greeted him as he waited for me leaning against his car. “Hey Bob, ready?” I nodded and got into the passengers’ side and shut the door. It was weird not having Max in the car. I’d been in Ray’s car with him without Max before but it was just different this time. I hated the reason why. So did Ray. “I’m still pissed at Jack. What a douche. Why did he have to take it out on poor Max? Or anyone for that matter?” I shook my head and replied, “I don’t know, he’s the biggest dick I’ve ever had the misfortune of meeting. If I were Max, I’d never forgive him.”

“I hope she knows how wrong he was though. She didn’t deserved to hear that. And hey, what you said to her yesterday, that was really nice. I’m sure she appreciated hearing that.” I accepted Ray’s compliment as I thought back to what I’d told her. I was serious about all of it. It wasn’t fair for her to hear that, especially since it was so untrue. She really was special and wonderful and sweet, and Jack really was throwing something great away. Not that I cared, that just meant Max would never end up with him. Hopefully she’d end up with me instead.

“Well it was all true, she’s too good for him and he’s just too stupid to realize that he blew off the best girl he’d find.” I quickly regretted saying what I did out loud.

“Wait, Bob, you do have a thing for Max!” he said a little excited to hear my response. “I won’t say anything if you do, not to her or the guys.” Ray was serious, he wanted me to spill and I think at this point he’d know if I lied to him. “Well, I guess a little thing, but I don’t know.”

I never really talked about girls with other guys before and I wasn’t even sure if it was in the code to do so. I considered lying but figured Ray was honest and cool enough that he’d keep to his word if I did tell him. “Okay, so maybe it’s more than a little thing.” I reluctantly admitted. “I’m not sure, but I think she might like me too and I just don’t want to blow it.” Ray smiled, satisfied that he’d gotten me to spill then said, “Don’t worry Bob, I know Max. I’d say you should go for it.” I was a little shocked to hear him say this. It was his best friend we were talking about. I looked at Ray to assess his seriousness, and he seemed legit. He was honestly saying that I should go for his best friend. I didn’t really know what to say to that so I didn’t say anything at all.

Ray dropped me off at my house then headed back home himself to get some homework done before band practice. As I was about to walk in my front door I had a thought. I went inside and threw my bag into my room, changed out of my uniform, and went back downstairs. I walked down the street to the house with the orange shutters. I hadn’t been to Max’s house since I walked with her to Ray’s house a few weeks ago. I knocked on the door and waited for her.

A little brunette boy probably around seven years old wearing a dinosaur tee shirt answered the door. Maybe this was the wrong house. He looked up about three feet to my face. I smiled at him trying not to be creepy and greeted him. “Hi there. Does Max live here?” He nodded and turned around to scream across the house.

“MAXIE! SOMEONE’S HERE FOR YOU!” He stepped to the side but held the door open for me to step in. Max soon came down the stairs to greet me. She looked at the little boy and crouched down to his level then said to him, “Andrew, we talked about this. You don’t need to scream.” She straightened back up to my level.

“Sorry about my brother,” she apologized. “Don’t worry about it.” I replied then got down to Andrew’s height and held out my hand for him to take.

“Hi Andrew, I’m Bob.” He put his hand into mine and shook it. He smiled back at me as we made acquaintances. I got back up and as I did Max told her brother, “Can you go into the other room to play, Andy? I want to talk to Bob alone.” Andrew waved goodbye to me and ran down the hall into the other room.

Max looked back up to me and smiled. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail with a red bandana wrapped around like a headband and tied in a knot. She was wearing what used to be plain black leggings and an oversized blue button down shirt, which were now covered in paint splatters as was part of her face. I took a look at her attire and she blushed a little knowing what I was thinking.

“I know, I know. I look really weird right now, but painting helps me relax, it’s what I’ve been doing all day.” She said as she looked at her paint covered hands. She laughed a little at her own appearance but I thought it was charming. It showed her personality and her character.

“No, it’s cute. I just wanted to come and say hi, and see how you were doing.” She put her hands down and looked up at me with a smile. “Much better, thank you.”

“That’s good. Painting keeping your mind off of it?”

“Yeah, Gerard got me into it a few years ago and now it’s kind of my ‘go to’ for keeping my mind off of things.” She explained as looked upstairs as if to show where her work was. “Do you want to see?”

“Sure, yeah. I’d love to.” She smiled then led me up to her room. It didn’t look like how I’d expect it to look. The walls were plain white but almost completely covered with paintings and drawings, posters and pictures. Her bedding was solid black along with her lamp and carpet. She had short red curtains that let in just enough light. I had expected a much more girly room, but once I was inside I realized that it fit Max’s personality fairly well.

She had an easel set up with drop cloths underneath it on the floor. On the easel she had a half-finished painting of what looked like some kind of abstract sky. It was dark blue and deep purple with pink and light blue galaxies sprawled across the top. She had started to add large stars to it and it was taking shape nicely. “It’s not done yet. I still need to put the small stars on and then I was thinking of putting some silhouettes of trees at the bottom.” I envisioned what she had in mind and liked what she was planning.

“How are you going to put on the stars?” I asked thinking of how hard it would be to add each individual tiny star. She turned around and picked up a small container of white paint with a toothbrush inside. She picked up the toothbrush and started to run her finger over the bristles causing paint to randomly splatter onto the painting. I could see the stars start to fill the sky and it looked really cool.

“Want to try?” she asked as she handed me the toothbrush and container of paint. I was nervous about messing up her artwork, especially since it looked like she’d already put a lot of effort into it. I looked at her to make sure she trusted me with this. She nodded, signaling me to add to her night sky. I imitated what she did by running my thumb against the bristles of the toothbrush. Instantly, dozens more stars were added to the sky, I hadn’t ruined it after all. I smiled, satisfied with my work but handed back the supplies before I actually messed it up somehow.

“That’s so cool. Gerard taught you that?” she nodded and said, “Yeah, he makes such great art and I wanted to as well, so a few years ago he taught me some painting stuff and I just started to play around with it.” Gerard really was very talented and so was Max, no surprise considering he had taught her. I watched as Max finished her splatter stars, filling the space with thousands of tiny speckles. She picked up a brush and some black paint and added the trees she wanted at the bottom. She left them without leaves saying it was winter in the picture, and it looked really good. She picked up a small brush dipped in white paint and signed her name at the bottom then handed it to me. “What’s this for?”

“For you to sign.” She said as I took hold of the brush.

“Why? You painted it.”

“Well I have to give you credit for the dozen or so stars you added. And I’d like to say that I have your signature when you and the guys become a famous band one day. At least put your initials.” I looked at her making sure she wanted me too then leaned down to write ‘BCB’ under her name.

“What’s the ‘C’ for?” she asked noticing my middle initial which I had just sort of gotten used to adding considering ‘BB’ looked a little weird. “Oh, it’s uh, Corey.”

“Corey?” she repeated listening to the sound of it. “I like it. My middle name’s Jennifer, kind of boring.”

“No, it’s nice.” She smiled and then there was an awkward pause. I wanted to pick up where we’d left off in my room but I wasn’t sure if it was too soon after what happened with Jack. Max didn’t seem to be making any moves so I handed her back her paintbrush and thanked her for sharing her work with me. “You’re really talented. First the French horn, then the singing, and now this, you’re going places Maxie.” I said a little jokingly to keep the mood light.

Suddenly I noticed her arm. She had her sleeves rolled up and there they were. About fifteen or so parallel scars running up her left arm. I knew that Jack had mentioned razors but I didn’t want to think that it was true. It made me sad thinking that someone had hurt Max enough to make her do something like that to herself. She noticed me looking at her arm and quickly pulled down her sleeve.

“Max,” I started. “Don’t worry, I won’t say anything.” I didn’t want to have an intervention considering I didn’t know why Max had ever done it in the first place. I wanted her to know that it didn’t matter to me. I just wanted her to be happy and safe.

“Thanks.” She quickly said. “Ray’s the only other person who knows. I don’t do it anymore. I just went through some stuff a while back and I…”

“Max,” I stopped her. “That doesn’t matter to me. As long as you’re okay now. I hate to think of you hurting yourself. You’re too nice and sweet, don’t let anyone else make you think otherwise.” She smiled shyly and looked down at her arm. The scars would always be there but I wanted Max never to have a reason to add to them. If she was mine, I’d make sure of that.

She walked me back downstairs after I told her that I needed to get to practice so the guys didn’t get mad at me again. I wanted to kiss her so bad but knew it would be best to just wait. Right before I was about to leave Max leaned in and draped her arms around my shoulders, pulling me into a goodbye hug. I pulled her back into me wrapping my arms around her waist. We stayed for a moment just taking each other in. Even though she was covered in paint she still smelled like her strawberry shampoo. Wait, she was covered in paint!

I broke the hug and looked down at my shirt as she smiled deviously. She’d gotten paint all over my black shirt. “You…” I started before we both broke into laughter. “You’re sneaky.” I smiled at her as she crinkled her nose into a guilty yet sly expression.

“I try," she chuckled out. We said goodbye one final time before I left for practice. Admittedly, my shirt looked pretty cool and it was now, like our song, a constant reminder of Max. I hoped the paint would never come off.

I got to my house and waited for the guys in my garage. They all came together except for Ray who just walked over. “What happened to you?” asked Mikey as he saw my now paint stained shirt. “Max happened to me.” I said as I shot Ray a look and an inconspicuous smile. He smiled back at me mouthing, told you. “Alright, well let’s get this bitch written.” Gerard said as he finished setting up his microphone. All throughout practice I played the drums absent mindedly; my brain was too busy thinking about something else. Max.

Notes

So basically a description of my own room. I've been super busy lately and posting always seems to come later and later every week, I want to make a resolve to post in a more timely fashion