There's a Playground

“Wednesday! Can you come here for a second!?” Great. Too late to escape my mother’s notice now. I sighed, rolling my eyes as I climbed out of Max’s grasp. He pouted at me and I just rolled my eyes. I could deny that pout every once and a while…

Woah…that just made me sound like we were…ha! Me, dating Max? That was…okay, yeah… So maybe I wouldn’t mind that so much. But that’s beside the point and I should stop thinking about that. He may be jealous of Craig liking me, but he has a girlfriend and there is absolutely no way in hell that he could like me…

I sighed, running a hand through my long hair and going out of my room to see my mother standing at the front of the hall, arms crossed and a not-too-happy facial expression overshadowing everything else.

“Wednesday, come here,” she stated in her “scolding mother” voice. Great… Way to go, Maxwell. Get me in trouble why don’t you…

“Who are you talking to? Is there a boy I don’t know about in there?” I sighed, not really wanting to deal with this right now.

“Max. Sorry, he decided to use my window instead of the door…” I said. Wow…that just made it sound like we were doing things that my mother would kill me for. We weren’t, I swear. “We were just talking, Mom. Promise,” I said, trying my best to reassure her and get that “you are so effing dead” look off of her face.

“Max?” She repeated and I nodded. To which she rolled her eyes and glared at my closed bedroom door.

“He has a girlfriend, Mom. We’re just friends,” I added, trying to come up with something that would make it okay in my mother’s eyes.

“So did your father.”

Ouch…

“Mom…God. Max doesn’t like me like that, I swear to you.” She rolled her eyes at me and shoved her way past me and off to my room. I followed her, sighing heavily and shoving my hands into the pockets of my pants. Why did she have to go all “paranoid and protective” mother on me right now? Did I look like I had just been messing around with a boy? Incredibly doubtful.

“Oh! Hey, Kat!” Max said and I popped my head into my room. He was looking at my posters again, hands in his pockets as he wandered aimlessly around my room. He grinned at her and I watched as her face turned from a frown into a slight smile. She sniffed the air and seemed pleased to not find any sex or pot smells. Or anything else like that. She turned back to me, still glaring slightly.

“You could have just knocked if you wanted to see Wendy, Max.” My mother scolded and I would have slapped my forehead had she not been staring at me. I sighed, reaching a hand to, instead, pinch the bridge of my nose. This was so embarrassing…

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t know if you were asleep or not, though. Sorry. I also didn’t know if Derek was still over or not, so I figured that once Wednesday was back, she’d…”

“Whatever. Just please don’t let it happen again, Max,” Mom said, glaring over at the boy before turning her glare back on me. I sighed, dropping my hand and smiling reassuringly at her.

“Oh, don’t worry, Kat. It won’t, I promise. I really am incredibly sorry.” Max, apparently, had this thing where he could make anyone believe anything. I didn’t quite believe him myself, but my mother seemed to. I smirked and rolled my eyes at him when she left my room, still glaring at me.

“Maxwell needs to leave in thirty minutes, Wednesday!” she called once she was in the living room. I sighed. Well, looked like I wasn’t going to be showering tonight, then… Whatever, I’d do it in the morning.

“’Kay, Mom!” I replied, stepping back into my room and glaring at him.

“What?”

“Nothing…”

“No, seriously. What?” He, once again, abandoned staring at my walls to come over to me, smiling nervously down at me. I shrugged, shaking my head and moving around him to go sit on my bed. He followed me and sat down on the edge next to me. I lay back, staring up at my ceiling quietly and drawing patterns in the textured surface. “Everything okay, Wendy?” Max asked me and I nodded quietly. Max smirked and rolled his eyes, laying down next to me. Though he was looking at me instead of the ceiling.

“Yup.”

“Liar.”

“So? You lie,” I countered, turning my head to look over at him.

“Yeah, well… I’m a guy. I’m allowed to lie.” I rolled my eyes at that, smirking as I turned back to stare at the ceiling again. “What’s wrong? Seriously.”

“Nothing is wrong, Max. I promise you,” I said, yawning and then sighing. My friend smirked and poked my cheek, causing me to turn towards him.

“Tired?” he asked, and I simply nodded, frowning as he smirked at me.

What was up with him and smirking all the damn time?

“Why does Ronnie hate me?” I asked. And then blushed considering that it was so random. I sat up, looking down at Max as he sighed and shrugged. “Seriously…I’d like to know…” I said, running a hand through my hair roughly before pulling my legs into my chest and resting my chin on my knees.

Max shrugged again and I sighed, rolling my eyes. “What? I don’t really know! Ask Ronnie, not me!”

“What’s up with Ronnie, anyway?” I asked, watching my friend carefully as he seemed to avoid my gaze. I yawned again and tried to ignore how tired I was suddenly feeling.

“Nothing. He just…I don’t know. Ronnie’s weird. Don’t ask me why, but he just is.”

“Whatever…I don’t even know why I bothered asking, you’re not going to give me a straight answer. He is your best friend, after all…” I said, sighing and frowning slightly as I saw him continue to avoid my gaze.

“Sorry, Wednesday. Ronnie’s…I don’t know. Protective, I guess? I don’t really know. If you want, I can talk to him for you…” He frowned at me, looking up at me with pretty jade green eyes. “I don’t want my best friend thinking that my other best friend hates her…”

“We’re still best friends?” I asked, titling my head to the side. He scoffed, rolling his eyes and nodding as he sat up.

“Duh! Don’t you remember!? We covered this yesterday! We made a promise, didn’t we!?”

That boy was so random sometimes, I swear to god. I smirked at him, feeling myself blush and my heart race again. I was glad that he still considered us best friends. As for me? Max was…well, okay. So I might consider him my best friend still, too. I mean…I don’t know.

Kid is confusing…

“Look, I’ll talk to him about it, okay? I should really get going. You look really tired…” I sighed as he began standing, looking down at me and smiling softly. He opened his arms for me a little tentatively, a hopeful look on his face. One that I couldn’t really resist at this point. Smiling, I stood and wrapped my arms around him, taking in his scent of cigarettes and Axe.

“You smell like man, Max,” I commented as I pulled away from him, dropping my arms to my side. He faked hurt once more, making me chuckle.

“Well, you smell like chick.” He hugged me again, quickly, before walking back over to my window.

“Door, Max. And thank you, I try.” Rolling his eyes at my comment, Max made a detour to head back towards my bedroom door. I smirked, watching as he walked out. I heard him bid my mother good bye and then the front door opening and closing. I sighed, walking over to my window and sticking my head out of it. “Max! Can you fix my screen?” I called after him when he appeared on the sidewalk.

He turned towards me and then shrugged. I’m pretty sure that I saw him nod his head as he walked up towards my window, bending down to grab my screen from it’s position on my sandy yard. He grinned at me setting it in place and pressing it in.

“Thanks, Max,” I said, grinning at him. He grinned back and nodded, giving me a thumbs up.

“Night, Wendy.”

“Night, Max.”