We Won't Back Down

Chapter Eleven

Sheila Elwell

We all sat there in complete and utter silence and watched Athena rise with the look of terror on her face. My poor sister. She started up the stairs and Craig followed up behind her. We sat there staring at each other for a moment, each of us wondering what would transpire between them. But we shrugged it off and Max broke the ice with a question.
“Sooo… Sheila, wanna accompany me on a smoke break?” He asked, standing up and throwing on his monster hoodie in one swift motion. I stood up and sighed.
“Yeah, sure.” I replied walking over to the sliding glass door in the basement and making our way outside. We went out about ten feet away from the house and Max took out a Marlboro from his cig case and stuck in between his perfect lips.
“Light?” He asked.
“Wha?” I questioned. “Oh!” I said digging in his hoodie pocket to grab his zippo. I flipped it on and lit his cancer stick. My phone started up the ringtone I had set for Jacky. Yay! My boyfriend was calling. Now I could apologize for my behavior in the library. I felt like I didn’t really have to because I was kinda in the right. He should have told me. But I didn’t want to lose Jacky over such a little thing.

“Hey Jacky!” I answered my phone cutting off the lyrics to “Warmness on the Soul” by my all-time favorite band Avenged sevenfold.
“Heya Sheilaa… How’s it going?” He made small talk. That was weird.
“Um… Fine. Look Jacky, I just wanted to apologize for earlier.” I said with sincerity.
“No. No apologies. Listen, Sheila I can’t do it.” His words began to concern me.
“Wha-what? What do you mean?” I asked.
“Please don’t make this harder than it needs to be she. I just… I can’t do this. Look, this tour is going to take up the rest of senior year. I won’t even be there for graduation. And a year is… well it’s a long time. I just… don’t want to end up doing something I’m going to regret. I hope you understand.” He explained the situation to me and I finally understood what was happening.
“So… you’re breaking up with me….so you don’t have to feel guilty if you cheat of me?” My voice rose with anger and sorrow. I felt like I was about to throw up.
“It’s not… well, I mean… I guess kinda… I’m sorry Sheila. But I got to go. And for the record, you can do better. I know I’m doing you wrong. But hey, I never said I was a good guy. You just assumed. Consider this your official heart break from a rocker star. Builds character. See ya around She.” He finished up and then there was a click, verifying that he had hung up on me.

I stared at my phone for a few moments trying to understand what had just happened. Jacky had just broken up with me and it felt like my heart had just slammed into a cement wall. I clenched my phone in my hand as anger welled up within me. I threw my phone with such force against the side of the house that it literally shattered into pieces, ricocheting off in every known direction. Max heard the explosion of plastic shards and he jogged over to where I had branched off.
“She-She, what the hell? What’s wrong?” He asked with concern in his voice. I turned around, holding back tears and looked him in his gentle green eyes. Had he seriously just brought back the childhood nickname he used for me whenever I was upset?
“I’m going to need one of those.” I just barely whispered, nodding at his cigarette case.
“I really shouldn’t be enforcing this, but you look like you are in need of one of these, so here.” He whispered, taking one out and I took it from him popping it in my mouth and he lit it for me. I inhaled the tobacco, fighting back tears and trying to play it off like I was going to be ok. “She-She…you’re trembling.”
Well, there he went again, calling me that childhood nickname…now he’s done it.
Tears began to flow from my eyes and I looked up at his concerned green eyes and felt his arms wrap around me. I hid my face in his chest and let the tears soak his shirt and then out of nowhere, rain started falling from the darkened skies. When had it gotten so dark and gloomy? Why was the weather always so fitting for shit like this?
“Shit, come on let’s get you out of the rain before you get sick!” Max said, grabbing my hand and we ran to his house, cigarettes still burning in our mouths. He opened the door and his mom was standing there, her arms over her chest.
“Maxwell Scott Green, you better not be coming into my house with a lit cigarette!” she exclaimed, then looked over at me, seeing a cigarette in my mouth. “And you’re being a bad influence to Shelia! Oh goodness…why are you crying sweetheart?” she asked me and Max snagged the cigarette out of my mouth as his mom brought me into her arms.
“Boys are so mean…” I mumble against her shoulder and started crying more. “I’m gonna become a nun and join a nunnery!”
“Hey, not all boys are mean!” Max whined, smoking both cigarettes at the same time. I stifled a laugh through tears and realized there was snot probably running down my face and my makeup was probably a mess.
This definitely was NOT attractive whatsoever!
“Now, will ya start from the beginning and tell me why you are so bent on giving up on boys in your young life, sweetheart?” his mom asked, putting a cup of hot cocoa in my hands that she obviously had been cooking on the stove top.
“Jacky just broke up with me over the phone, telling me that he’d rather get it over that way instead of cheating on me later on in the tour…they are gone…I can’t even begin to believe this. He seemed so different from the others and…and he does this!” I started blubbering again, more tears falling from my face. God, I really hated crying in front of people and making a spectacle of myself.
“What a dick! I swear I’m going to hunt that fucker down and kick his scrawny little ass for that. No one hurts She-She like that and gets away with it on my watch!” Max exclaimed putting out both his and my cigarettes. He was actually being… protective of me and my feelings? Wow. That was a concept I had gotten used to being absent over the last few years.
“Now, now, my darling, you know you don’t mean that. Someday the perfect boy will come along and whisk you away to a lifetime of happiness. You’ll see. Not all boys are despicable.” Mrs. Green was rubbing soothing circles on my back. It felt nice and motherly. I hadn’t had that feeling in a while. “I have a feeling that special someone is closer than you think.” She said, giving Max a look.
“Mom!” Max grunted, taking up a cup of hot cocoa of his own.
“Well, why don’t you stay the night sweetie. It’ll be fun! Like old times.” She gave such an excited smile that I just couldn’t say no.
“Alright. I can sleep on the couch I suppose.” I answered.
“Nonsense! Maxwell can share his bed with you. He won’t mind, will you Max?” She beamed at him. He choked on his hot cocoa and spilled a little bit of it on the floor. “Max! Look what you did; now go get something to clean that up. And hurry!” She raised her voice at him and he set his hot chocolate down on the pool table, running upstairs chanting “shit shit shit shit shit” over and over again. I giggled at him.
I turned to Mrs. Green with a gentle smile, “It isn’t a problem Mrs. I’ll just take the couch.”
“Oh well, its Friday and the boys are all sleeping over, so Monte gets the couch this time.” She elbowed Monte in ribs, causing him to jump and yelp.
“Oh… Well, that’s okay. I don’t mind sleeping on the floor.” I said, a little desperate to NOT sleep in the same bed as Max. Anything but that!
“Oh don’t be ridiculous! I won’t have it. Max is a good boy. He’ll behave himself… this time.” She whispered the last part. My eyes widened with the realization that I was going to be bunking with Green tonight. Damn it all to hell!
“Fine, I’ll sleep in the same bed as him.” I pouted, and heard footsteps coming down the stairs.
“Good, hehe, it’ll be just like old times!” she squealed, hearing her son coming down the stairs all slow like and she looked at the mess. “Do you remember when you guys were little and you would take baths together? Oh you guys were so darn precious!”
“Mom!” Max’s footsteps came down the stairs, having heard what his mom had just started talking about and I felt my face heating up. He went over and cleaned up the mess, probably hoping that no one said anything about what his mom had said.
“There was this one time when you guys were done taking a bath together, you fell asleep hugging each other, still butt naked.” She giggled seeing our horrified expressions, “I think I actually have a picture of it in one of my photo albums!”
“NOOOOOOO” Max exclaimed, jumping up faster than I have ever seen him jump. He really was fitter than I have seen him in a while…wait what was I doing? Was I ogling Max Green?!
“Oh we would love to see that Mrs. Green!” Robert snickered as he and the guys (other than Craig who was talking with Athena) had appeared in the kitchen to watch the spectacle.
“Oh I have pictures of you and the boys playing in the kiddy pool butt naked too, Monte you still have a cute little Peruvian butt!” she giggled and slapped his ass. His face went from something of a pure humor to pure horror in a matter of minutes and all of our faces dropped.
“MOM! No you’re not my mother, who are you and what have you done with my mother!?” Max yells, looking so red that you could lay him against a fire truck and he would blend in.
“Oh relax, goodness you boys are so sensitive to embarrassment.” She said laughing harder than before and she held up a photo album, “Who wants to see?”
“Nooo!” the guys and I said, Max grabbed my hand and dragged me up the stairs.
“It stopped raining, want to go on the roof?” he said softly in my ear and I nodded as he led me to the balcony window and up the ladder he had installed at some point and we sat up looking up at the stars.
Ignoring the harsh tones coming from Craig and Athena’s conversation, Max started pointing out the constellations. I didn’t know he was so into astronomy. Then a more familiar Max came out and he started making up his own constellations, pointing out a ballerina goose on a unicycle and a pinwheel with a mustache. A grin spread across my face.
“Hey… hey Max? I mustache you a question. But I’ll shave it for later.” I poked him in the side. He chuckled.
“You always were one for the puns… I can’t remember why we stopped hanging out.” He said, staring up at the sky in deeper thought. I just sat there and admired him for a minute. He really had grown up a lot. It came to my mind that I hadn’t been there for him when his mom and dad separated and he went through a period of grave depression. Then his mom got remarried and his dad left the state. It must’ve been so hard…And I realized that I wasn’t there for him. I was so caught up in myself and my own family sob story that I had forgotten he needed me.
“Max…” I said in a soft whisper. He looked at me when I reached out to grab his hand. “I’m sorry.” I said, more tears welling up in my eyes. “I’ll never abandon you again.” He pulled me close and held me until I cried myself out and leaned back held my face up so I had nowhere to hide.
“I’ve missed you She-She. Welcome back, my friend.” He smiled warmly and put his forehead against mine. He didn’t kiss me. Though part of me wanted him to, and I had no idea why. We laid there for several hours; me curled up against him and just talked about everything that had happened in the last 5 years. It felt amazing to catch up and finally I just drifted off into the land of slumber.
I woke up with Max’s arm around my waist; he cuddled up next to me in his oh so comfy bed. He was warm and I could feel his breath on my neck that made me tremble. I felt so right, and before I knew it, I had returned back to sandman’s land.
That night I made a promise that I intended to keep.