We Are All Okay

Ever had one of those weeks where you feel like you could fly? Everything feels so great, sort of like you're having a mini montage matched to an epic song. Possibly, you feel like you have never lived like this before? That's called bliss, and this is my week of bliss.

I feel like before this I was drowning in the water, and now I'm flying sky-high over it. To be free is such a weight lifted off of my shoulders. Max makes me feel so free. I can laugh at stupid jokes, I can be myself without being afraid, and I can feel like everything is going right... and no I didn't get this out of a romance novel. I actually feel okay.

Despite the fact that my bones are still healing from being in that car wreck, that my best friend hates me, and that I pissed off a very nice boy (probably a boy that was a little too nice), he does a great job at making everything okay. No, better than okay. Happy.

"I'm actually finished with the drawing I did for the project." Max beamed at me. He was wicked proud of his drawing, I could tell by the way he had it smashed up to his chest.

"I'm finished with yours too." I smiled. "Can I see yours?"

"No! Not until the project's due. I want to make you wait. That way you'll love it even more." He laughed, sticking his tongue out at me. I leaned in and kissed him. Granted, that wasn't a very smart decision to make considering we were in art class at the moment. The teacher shouted our names and I blushed, pulling away from a smirking Max.

"Tallia and Max, D-" She was going to finish her sentence, but I decided I would cut her off. It made me a bit mad that almost every day Max and I got detention. I was getting really tired of it.

"Detention? Yeah, Kay. Got it." I rolled my eyes at her. Max laughed from right next to me, but when I glared at him, he returned to working on the mini project we were supposed to turn in at the end of the week. There were about six months left of school or some shit like that. I don't know, It's October and we get out in May. I can't possibly wait all that time to see Max's drawing.

“I never knew you were such a bad ass, Till.” Max laughed. Just then the bell rang signaling everyone to go to their next class. That’s when I realized all the confidence I had built up from spending time with Max would be needed, because unfortunately Brian Monte Money now goes to Mojave High and is in my fourth hour. I’m just going to keep my head down low.

“Bye, Max!” I reluctantly shoved things into my bag. I was going as slow as possible. Max seemed to take notice to that, and he stuck around.

“Are you trying to get double detention by being late?” He questioned me not only with words, but also with a knowing look.

“No, Brian’s in my next class. I don’t really want to go.” I explained.

“Did you want to skip class?” He asked me as I finished packing my bag. We walked out the door before I had an answer. School had been the least of my worries lately, but my grades were slipping. I’m sure that everything would be okay, though. I always end up getting my grades back to A’s and B’s before the final quarter.

“Yeah.” I nodded. He locked arms with me and we walked out to the parking lot where the car was. Every time I looked at the car, I remembered how banged up it was after the accident. I remember how pissed my dad, well Russell, was that I crashed it.

Wow. I’ve been calling him dad for three years now. It’s crazy to be calling him Russell. But he’s not technically my dad, so why am I still living with him? Does he not know I’m not his kid?

Max and I found the car in record time and chilled in the driver and passenger seats. I don’t want to talk right now, and I’m glad Max isn’t saying anything. I looked over at him and he asked me what was wrong. I shook my head, saying nothing was wrong.

“We are all okay, don’t worry about it.” I said, looking back out the window. I was only know aware of the dean of students walking towards our car. “Max.” I whispered.

“Get down.” He whispered back. I shut the radio off and pulled the keys out of the ignition and got underneath the steering wheel. This position was extremely uncomfortable, but getting suspended from school would also suck ass. I looked at Max and he frowned at me. The dean was knocking on the windows and peering in, but apparently he didn’t see us because he shrugged and walked away. Five minutes passed and Max and I sat up. Little did we know that the dean had only traveled a few feet away from the car. He wasn’t facing us, though.

“Very quietly, get out of the car.” Max whispered. I nodded and opened the door. He climbed over the seat and got out of the door as well. Luckily the dean hadn’t turned around just yet. But when Max shut the door, he made a loud slamming sound. The dean turned around and saw us and yelled at us to get over to him.

“Fuck!” Max groaned, turning around to face the dean. I pulled him and ran in the opposite direction.

“No, run. Don’t go back to him. We’ll get suspended.”

“But if he catches us, he will expel us.” Max complained as we ran off the property. The dean was still twenty feet behind us.

“If I get suspended, I die. If I get expelled, I die.” I reasoned with him. “There’s only a small chance that he will catch us and expel us, but it’s a sure shot that he’ll suspend us if we walk over to him. And if you turn around, god dammit, Max… You are NOT invited to my funeral.” I gritted my teeth. I looked behind me to see the dean was hunched over and out of breath. Max wanted to stop but I kept us running for a few blocks.

“We’re good now.” Max said, pulling me to a stop. I was out of breath but my adrenaline was still going.

“Wow! I can’t believe we just did that!” I beamed.

“Me either.” He said, looking at me with wide eyes. “Tallia, what the hell happened to you?”

“I’m the honors student gone wrong.” I shrugged. “So what did you want to do today?” I was finally breathing normal. That’s a relief.

“I’ll tell you what I didn’t want to do today; get murdered by my mother.” He said angrily.

“Hush, we’ll be okay as long as nobody finds out that was us.” I rested the side of my head on his shoulder. He was a lot taller than me. He slung an arm around my shoulder and we continued walking. I’ll take this as he’s forgiven me.

“Let’s go somewhere fun.” He said. “But not exciting fun, just calm fun.”

“Max, that made no sense.” I laughed at him.

“Like, let’s go somewhere nobody knows about and chill. I don’t want to get in anymore trouble today.” He said cautiously. I know what he means. I’ve been nothing but trouble today. But I feel so alive, it’s hard to walk within the lines.

“When I lived out here with my mom, we used to live in this apartment.” I said, finally relaxed. “We would always go to the roof of the apartment, and there used to be this old piano up there. I’d try to play it, but she’d tell me to stop because I sounded terrible. I was about seven.”

“Your mom sounds like a bitch.” Max said. “But I thought you said she left you guys when you were little.”

“She left Ronnie.” I said sadly. “A few years later she had me and kept me, but she was never really a good parent. She was always on drugs. And when I was twelve she brought me to live with my biological father, Ronnie’s dad. As it turns out, though, Ronnie’s dad isn’t my real dad. I’m not sure who my dad is.”

“I’m sorry.” Max kissed my cheek. I shrugged. What can I say? That’s my story. There’s nothing I can do to rewrite it. “Where are we going?”

“To the apartment.” I said.

“Wait, the one your mom and you lived in when you were seven?”

“Yeah.”

“Does she still live there?”

“No, we moved around a lot. We went to Ohio a month after I turned eight, and then moved back here with one of her boyfriend’s when I was twelve. That’s when she had me go live with Ronnie.” I explained. Where did my mom live now? I’m not quite sure of it, but she didn’t live here. That’s for sure. I just can’t believe that Russell isn’t even my dad and she ditched me on him, telling me he was my biological father. But it’s whatever, because moving in with Ronnie was the best thing that ever happened to me. He’s the one person in this world that I will always be able to count on.

“Your mom… wow. Never mind. Even though my mom is overbearing sometimes, I love her a lot. She’s always been there.” Max smiled. “And she’s always supported me.”

“Your mom is amazing.” I smiled. She was adorable and was a very nice lady. How could anybody not like her? Then again I did meet her for a millisecond. She could be the dragon witch from hell. If one of those existed.

We approached the apartment building now, and instead of taking the elevator we took the stairs. “The elevator didn’t go to the roof.” I explained as Max trudged up the stairs behind me. I don’t know why he complained, though. We only had to take ten minutes to walk up the stairs. It wasn’t that hard.

“And we’re here!” I grinned. Max panted beside me. “Fatty.” I muttered.

“I’m not a fatty, that was a lot of stairs!” He exclaimed.

“Max, I was only joking.” I laughed. He scowled at me, but smiled when I gave him a kiss. I pulled back from the kiss and my heart stopped. “It’s gone.” I whispered as I looked around the roof top.

“What’s gone? The piano?” Max asked me with concern coating his features. I looked at him with tears in my eyes and just let out all of the tears I had kept inside regarding my mother abandoning me. I never did let myself cry over that, mainly because I didn’t want Ronnie or Russell to think I was more of a freak than I already was. But what does that matter now? Russell hardly is around, and Ronnie already knows how bad I can be. Max grabbed my shoulders and shook me.

“Tallia, you drama queen.” He laughed lightly. “It’s right there.” I followed his gaze across the rooftop to a large object covered with a black sheet. It was in the shape of a piano. Maybe Max was right and it is still here.

I laughed a little, nearly choking as I did so. “Oh my god, I am so stupid.” I shook my head at myself.

“No you’re not. That thing’s just really important to you.” Max laughed. I made my way across the roof top and pulled off the dirty black sheet from the piano. My heart did a flip and I squealed in delight when I realized it was still here. Keys were missing, and it was yellow where it should have been white, but it was still here and that’s what counts.

“Are you going to play me something?” Max said, smiling at me.

“What do you want to hear?” I asked him, pressing my fingers to the piano.

“Whatever you want to play.” He grinned. I nodded and began to play One by Metallica on it. Max raised an eyebrow and laughed at me. “How about something original, as much as I love Metallica.” He laughed lightly again. I rolled my eyes at him.

“I don’t think I have ever written something.” I lied. I had written something, but it was highly personal and I had no intention of sharing it with him. I didn’t share it with anyone. I mean, it was personal just because I had never really showed anyone anything I had written. It’s one thing to play a cover of a song and another to play your own song. The words of the song didn’t hold much meaning to me anymore. I had written them long ago about someone long gone.

“Sure you’ve got something you’ve made up in your head. You don’t even have to sing the words to me. Just let me hear you play.” He pressed on the thought. I shook my head and retracted my fingers from the piano. “You can’t lie to me.” Max smiled cutely. I smiled at him but shook my head. “I’ll buy you a puppy.” He grinned.

“Max, if you buy me a puppy, I will sing you the song too.” I grinned. I loved puppies. In general, animals could always make me smile. If this boy bought me a puppy I’d probably have sex with him again too. Just kidding. But it’s possible I might get all emotional and… yeah. I stood up and shook his hand in a ‘deal closed’ sort of manner.

“This is a deal. We’re coming back here tomorrow.” He smirked at me, taking my hand. “And with a puppy.” I doubted Max would buy me a puppy, so I didn’t worry too much about playing and singing in front of him.