Textbook Romance

There wasn't an end to the story of Max and I. We weren't the typical couple, falling in love one at a time. Instead, we disliked each other but bonded together when he needed my help. Although he ended up not really needing me for anything more than moral support.

I was caught between him and the reason that I met him in the first place. But as the days passed, Max and I moved closer together while I stepped farther and farther away from Neil, metaphorically and physically.

The tours split three months after I first joined it, and the day we left was the day Max asked me to be his girl friend. We spend the night in his bunk, hiding from the guys so we wouldn't have to tell them about what we'd done. Making love was better when it was a secret between the two involved.

Although I wasn't sure that I loved him completely, I knew that it just wasn't sex. It was more than that and even before I knew it, my subconscious was telling me that there was, and would be, something deeper between the two of us.

It was about a month after the tour split off from A Day To Remember that I told Max that I thought I was falling in love with him. We were sitting on a bench outside the large venue looking at a pond that was filled with geese. My head was on his shoulder and we were silent as we let our thoughts run rampant.

I nudged his side with my elbow which caused his mossy gaze to turn to me.

"What is it?" he asked softly, licking over his pierced lips.

That was when I said it, the words spilling out of me with out the filter between my mouth and brain to stop them. "I'm in love with you," I said quickly, my eyes hardening as I realized that there could be rejection right around the corner.

Max just chuckled and asked, "Really?"

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "No," I said sarcastically, "I'm lying."

"Oh," Max said, hiding the playful smile that was trying to make it's way to his lips. "That makes more sense."

I scoffed and smacked his arm. "I fucking love you, Max Green," I said loudly, "So stop playing games and tell me what you think of that!"

Max laughed obnoxiously and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. "Come here, Nev," he demanded.

"Why?" I asked.

Max rolled his eyes and yanked me to him. "So I can be all romantic and shit when I tell you that I love you, too."

"What-," I stopped talking quickly and looked up to him with wide eyes.

Max laughed at my response and leaned down to press his lips against mine. When we pulled apart he murmured, "I love you, okay?"

I nodded and smiled automatically. "I'm sorry it took so long for me to figure out it."

Max shrugged his shoulders. "I knew you'd realize it someday."

I kissed him again.

It didn't matter that we only had a month left on the tour. It didn't matter that I wanted to go to college afterwards or that he'd be heading back to Vegas while I shipped myself back to Phili to make up with my parents and move on with my life.

I knew that Max and I could work out any problems that we'd come across in the future. We had an unorthodox journey to the moment that really mattered, but once we got there, I knew nothing could ruin it and nothing could break Max and I apart.

We didn't really have a romance and it definitely wasn't ordinary, but it worked for us and that, I was thankful for. I'd never felt this way with anyone else. Even with Neil. It didn't matter that Max was older than me or that he was famous and successful. All that mattered was the way I felt when he wrapped his arms around me at night and the way he'd let his finger tips linger on my skin.

We didn't have a textbook romance, we didn't automatically fall in love at first sight, and we didn't even like each other for the first two weeks of knowing one another. But in the end, Max was right. I ended up with him instead of with Neil.

Fate was a strange thing that I'd never understand no matter how hard I'd try. But one thing that I learned along the way was to believe in it, because as Jeremy McKinnon said, it was my fate for Neil to bring me to Max. So I didn't feel so bad that I hadn't talked to him since the day Escape the Fate merged into a different tour.

Neil was now my past and I was living in the moment. I didn't know what the future was going to bring, all I knew was that Max was going to be in it.