There's Only So Much I Can Take

“Yeah of course you guys are always welcome at my place, it will be like one fucking long sleepover party!” Max exclaimed.
“Alright, do you want to start driving now?” I asked him.
“Let’s do this!” Max screamed.
Oh dear God. Max started driving at around one hundred miles per house as he drove through the streets. Now I know how he got here so fast. Max turned to the left as fast and recklessly as he could.
“I’m gonna die!” I screamed closing my eyes.
“No, I’m a licensed driver, no worries.”
“Even worse!” I screamed as Max drove across some random person’s front lawn as a “shortcut”. “We’re both gonna die.”
“Shut up, Katie!” Max drove over a lawn gnome on his rush and ran into a mailbox. “Aw shit, now again.” Max got out of his van and laid like three hundred dollars on the ground.
“Again?” I whimpered once Max was settled in the driver’s seat.
“Yeah, I’m losing all my money like this.” Max replied as he started the engine again and backed up to the actual street before he started driving recklessly again.
“Here cash the check!” Max exclaimed pointing at the bank.
I opened my eyes in fear but it really was the bank.

“There’s a cat!” I screamed pointing at the little cat. “You’re going to kill the cat!”
“I got this.” Max said turned the entire car out of the way onto the sidewalk getting two inches away from an oak tree before he turned again just barely making it.
“I’m going to freaking die, Maxwell!” I yelled. “I’m going to fucking die and it will be your fucking fault! Fuck!” I moaned.
“Oh shut up, we’re here.” Max said pulling the key out.
“I can’t believe we made it.” I mumbled. “My God, remind me never ever to be in a car where you drive Maxwell Green. Never ever again! Oh my God.”
Max and I walked to up the stairs of the apartment building. I was still in complete shook that I was still alive. There was defiantly no way I was ever getting in a car where Max was driving.
And oh my God, he was the one that drove Escape The Fate around when they didn’t use the bus. Shit, shit, shit! How were the four boys still alive when they were getting driven around by Maxwell Green?! Oh my God, I’m not gonna survive a tour with Escape The Fate.
I took out my key and opened the door. “Hey baby.”
“I’m packed.” Ronnie said coming from the bedroom with four suitcases.
Max’s stared at his friend with a half smile on his face and raise black brows. “How are you so sure that I said you guys could stay with me?”
“Because you never miss a chance for a sleepover party!” Ronnie exclaimed giving Max and I a suitcase before taking his suitcases. “They can keep this ugly furniture. I got all the necessities though, Katherine.”
What a guy!
I followed behind Max as we walked to the front desk. “Ready for rent, motherfucker.” I said giving her the money.
“Thank you.” the lady asked.
“Peace.”
Max, Ronnie, and I walked out the door. Max went to his ugly van and I went to my Mustang.
“I’m not driving with Max.” I stated as I got into my car.
“She thought I was going to kill her.” Max explained.
“You get used to it.” Ronnie shrugged as he hopped in the van with Max.
“Oh my God, I would never get used to that. He hit a mailbox and almost hit a cat and tree. It was fucking scary.”
“Follow behind me.” Max grinned.
“No fucking way, you are a fucking maniac. If I follow behind you like you aren’t a fucking maniac I will get fucking arrested.”
“Just wear a bandana.” Max passed me black and white bandana before he hopped in his car.
Just for Max, I put on the bandana. What was this supposed to do for me? Whatever Max wants, Max gets. I was wearing the bandana. I wasn’t exactly sure why but I was.
Sure the bandana made it a bit easier to follow Max’s lunatic driving but I still felt he should get a ticket or something. Jesus Christ, Max was a freaking mental man. Whoever gave him his driving license was a fucking idiot.
But of course, I followed Max through lawns, on sidewalks, and making sharp turns that put me in front of cars. This kid needs to get another driving test because oh my God he ran into three fucking mailboxes.
Max laid out some money and continued to another house down the street which was, thank God, his house.
“Maxwell, you’re taking another driving test before the tour.” I announced taking out the one suitcase I had in my car.
“You know what, you followed me.” Max retorted crossing his arms.
“It was the bandana!” I complained taking the suitcase into his house just to get away from him.
Max and Ronnie pulled out the other suitcases before following behind into his house.
Ronnie stared at the contents of Max’s small house. Since me, he’d never lived in such an empty house. “Maybe we should’ve taken the furniture.”
“Hey, it’s not much but it’s nice and cozy. It’s a house I’ll always want to come home to.” Max said putting the suitcases next to the staircase.
“It is.” I nodded in agreement but I was lying through my teeth. I’d never lived in a house this small except the town house with Ronnie. My parents had always been rich meaning large houses and lots of furniture to fill ever centimeter of the house. This was nothing. Sure it was cozy but more of my log-cabin-in-winter-with-the-fire-burning cozy and still even that was bigger.
Ronnie knew I was lying but said nothing. “You’re lying.” Max accused.
Honestly, there wasn’t much I could say to that. I wasn’t going to lie even more to the point where he believed me because that could take months. It’s not like I was going to tell him the truth only to have Max get insanely pissed at me.
“What room are we staying in?” Ronnie asked avoiding the subject for me.
It wouldn’t seem like this should be a big deal but it was. Max was highly particular about what you thought about his house. If you didn’t like the green paint you were out on your ass. If you insult his house your dead, never to come back again. There was no way I was getting into that mess when I had nowhere else to go to. Ronnie wasn’t going to let me get into that mess.
“Come this way, unless the princess wants to stay at MGM.”
“I resent that!” I exclaimed.
“Come now, wouldn’t you rather be there than in my small house?” Max inquired angrily.
Uh yes. “Maxwell, I was the one who asked if we could stay here!” I exclaimed avoiding the question but in his eyes I was answering it.
“Oh yeah, sorry about that.” Max continued his way up the creaky, wooden stair case.
Ronnie looked down at me with a look that said “you better get used to this place” only to follow up with a glare. So obviously I hadn’t been as smooth as I imagined I was. Oh well. As long as Max didn’t know he was right it was all good.
“I imagine you guys will sleep in the same bed so here’s your room.” Max opened a white door to a red based room.
There were white walls with a red base at the top. The bed had red sheets with a white design all over, white pillows, and light red sheets. It was a gorgeous room. I imagine this is where his parents sleep when they visit.
Max grinned at us. “Isn’t it a nice room?”
“Do your parents stay in here when they visit?” Ronnie asked staring at the artwork.
“My grandmother decorated the room.” Max explained flashing us a smile.
“That’s beautiful.” I pointed at a dark orange based painting with a red heart monitor line going across it. There was a black heart at the end of the line with a white x over it.
“My grandmother made it.” Max sighed shaking his head. “I’ve gotta go get some dinner.”
Ronnie turned to me after Max was out the door. “We made it to today. We paid rent and everything.”
“With seventeen days in tow.” I added.
Ronnie put his arms around my waist and pulled me to his chest. We snuggled there for a couple minutes not thinking about anything. Just the fact that Ronnie was alright and holding me made me happy. There was no way anything could change this. It was all too perfect and grand.
I was one hundred percent happy for the first time in a long while. Ronnie wasn’t on drugs so there was nothing to get in the way of anything. All there was to get in the way was Max and Max was a good sport about everything. Just about everything.
“Ronnie, I’m sorry I left.”
“Just promise you’ll never leave, ever again.”
“I promise.” I whispered.
Ronnie turned me around and held me tighter. I squeezed back completely consumed by the wonderful man holding me. He smelled of trees and clean shirts, the scent that had come to comfort me when Ronnie didn’t put on Axe. His strong arms held me closer as he kissed my head.
Everything was perfect at this very moment. Nothing could be ruined at this moment. Absolutely nothing. When Ronnie let go of me we looked at each other with shining brown eyes as if looking into everything we’d accomplished together. It had all been perfect; everything was perfect.