Bruises in Miniature Form

He was acting like a stubborn drama queen who couldn’t find the perfect dress for prom!
Throwing things around my room as he searched every inch of it for his long lost CD’s that still were waiting to be unburied.
The smile on my face wasn’t fading even when he landed beside me on my neatly made bed and stared me down, eyes making sure to penetrate mine.

“I want my CD’s back”
“I’ll make you a trade,” I began simply, “I’ll give you your CD’s if you answer five of my questions, truthfully”
“Why the hell should I answer any of your questions?” He quipped but looked interested nonetheless.
“Will you agree?”
Cautiously Max got up from my bed and moved around my room once more before making his decision, “Fine, five questions only but I want my CD’s first”
“Nope, CD’s after, questions first. And I want answers to all of them or no CD”

Growling Max sank to my floor and sat cross legged, staring up at me through his mass of black hair and thick eyelashes.
I had decided that previous night that I would learn more about Max, not to necessarily use it against him (although that was the main idea) but to figure out just why Ronnie gave me these looks when we argued, or why he was living with Rick and not his own family.
There were things about Max Green that I think I finally deserved to know, after all the playing field had to be levelled somehow.

“Hurry it up woman, I have somewhere to be” He hissed after my period of silence.
“Why do you live with Rick so much and not your parents?”
“My parents are out of town, you already knew that” He scoffed and quickly his face lost all traces of interest.
“Why can’t you go with them?”
“I don’t know, school?” He suggested angrily, grounding his teeth together as I kept my passive face.
I didn’t want to let him know anything got under my skin, he had taken advantage of that many times and I was learning better how to hide my emotions because of him.
“What do they do?”
“Work”
“Describe it, define it”

He suddenly shot up from the floor looking like an enraged bull, flinging his arms in the air as he stomped towards me, “What the hell is with these questions about my parents! It’s none of your business”
“Do you want your CD’s back?”
“It’s none of your business,” He continued, ignoring me as his voice grew louder and louder, “I don’t fucking butt into your family life do I? Never once asked what your dad is doing with that Daryl guy, although it’s pretty obvious you’ve got a fag for a father!”
“Take that back!” I screamed suddenly feeling insulted.
“Why should I, you want to butt into my family life, why can’t I butt into yours! Is that why you’re living here with Rick and mommy? Cause your dad is off with guys? Bet that’s why they divorced huh? Probably cheated”
“You know nothing of my parents! What about yours!? Maybe they don’t care enough about you they just toss you aside to Rick, huh? Is that why you’re so bitchy about me here, don’t want him to toss you aside!?” I screamed back.

It was then at that moment silence filled the room and our heavily breathing breaths mixed together.
My face was flushed I was sure as I stared him down but he continued to look like someone who had been forced into a fight and was now prepared to swing a punch.
He didn’t however raise a single hand to me, but nor did he move, instead we stood facing each other off as the silence ticked away.
When he finally spoke it was soft and angry:

“Ask your last question”
“I have two more” I reminded him until he snorted and reached out to brush a strand of hair from my face, a tender moment I had never seen him achieve.
“You asked four questions, why I lived with rick, where my parents worked, why I couldn’t go with them and if I wanted my CD’s back. Ask your last question”
“The CD part wasn’t part of my questions”
Shaking his head out Max took a step forward and grabbed my shoulders, pushing me until I was sitting on my bed again and staring up at him, “I need those CD’s”
“What for?” I whispered.
“My band has an audition, if I don’t bring our CD in then we won’t get a chance to be signed. It’s a great record deal if we can get it”

I had never heard him talk so smoothly to me before and for some reason I couldn’t understand I had wrapped my arms around his waist and hugged him.
My body was explaining to me I felt guilty by shooting sharp stabbing motions into my gut but they seemed to lessen as I tightened my hold on the stiff boy.
I believe I had finally figured out without really hearing it from him that he hated me because he didn’t want to be abandoned, not like before.
Rick surely wouldn’t abandon him though, not when he had already taken Max’s side beforehand.

“Why don’t you like me?”
“You already asked your last question” He replied and grabbed my hands that had somehow wrapped together to keep him in place.
I allowed him to pull them apart and step back from me, eyeing me with a strange look before turning on his heel and leaving my room all together.
He owed me a question.
Getting up off my bed I moved over to the window to retrieve the buried items, rubbing them gently to clean off the dirt before leaving the room and going to the living room where Max had taken residence.
I handed him the CD’s without much commentary and headed back up to my room.
I had somehow made an awkward situation without even trying and now my room felt like a box of evil memories that chose to replay our childish antics.