Bruises in Miniature Form

So my mother’s rehearsal ended up being saved after my outburst and apology session, of course, my pride wasn’t.
Max continued to pester me all night, offering to give me his seat then pulling it out just enough to make me fall.
I figured out what he was doing by the third round...
I tried sticking to Daryl’s side, who welcomed me with open arms and whispered ideas for my camping scheme into my ear.
The next day never seemed any better because Max was spending the night at Omar’s, my mother was with my father and Daryl while I had been left alone with Rick.
We didn’t talk much, I assumed he was still upset for the scene I caused but it didn’t matter too much because that gave me more time to myself.
Not to mention Max’s room.

Rick left awhile ago to pick up our dinner of fast food so I only had about fifteen minutes but I guessed that would be enough time to sneak into Max’s home.
The keys had been left behind along with everything else Max had stashed inside Rick’s home.
The front door gave me no trouble, except for the fried nerves when I thought about the possibility of there being an alarm.
After all, if Max’s parents worked so much they must have a nice home and nice things that they would want to protect.
Yet there was no screeching protest when I entered the room, nor when I crept the halls in search of the demons room.
The halls were rather bare, except for the few baby pictures that hung on the wooden panels.
The whole place was rather small thankfully s it didn’t me long to find the correct room and sneak inside its off white painted door.
Once open I found teenage boy clothes strung about on dressers, hangers, hampers and some even littering the floor.
There were cases upon cases of CD’s pressed beside a rather large player with its intricate sound system that had wires flowing up the walls by tape.
Pushed to the left of the door was an unmade bed and smelt something awful.
It was strange coming into Max’s room when the rest of his home was so elegantly simple and his looked like a toxic zone.

Pressing on I took extra precautions in my steps to avoid underwear and other gross things that were growing legs.
Is it like some sort of brain deficiency that causes boys to keep their rooms so horribly mistreated?
Something crunched under my foot making me leap in fright, chest heaving as I realised it was only a cracker and not the demon himself to come kill me.
Deciding to start with the first dresser I prepared myself to meet my horrible fate and began sliding it open to reveal only neatly folded clothes.
The next three drawers underneath were the same and so I moved on to the side table that contained trash and folded pieces of paper.
Rubbing the creases out with my thumbs I began scrawling over what seemed to be notes from Max’s parents to himself.

Dear Maxy,
We’re out of town again. Left Rick some money so stay there. I don’t want to hear you had any parties while we’re gone, we’ll know!
Be a good boy, we’re not sure when we’re back in town but we’ll send another fax soon.

Frowning I picked up the second crumpled one that seemed as if it had been looked at repeatedly before turned into a ball.

Won’t be home for another week. You’ll be fine I’m sure; your father sent more money.

Grabbing for the third I sat myself onto his bed and began letting my mind dive right into the photocopied letters.

Will be longer than I thought. Already told Rick, don’t worry about it.

The letters seemed to be getting shorter and shorter the farther I went along.

We’re sending money.

Sorry, going to be later.

Missed the plane. Don't wait up.

Decided to stay longer.

The last letter underneath everything was sent by mail, its date only a week ago and top slit open viciously.
A sense of dread spilled over me as I slid the paper from its confines and unfolded it to read;

Dear Max,
Your father and I have decided we’ll be staying longer than proposed.
Rick has agreed to keep you with him until the end of the camping trip, we’ll be home closely afterwards.
I do hope you’ll be available for dinner.
Now don’t go getting upset because we’re gone for too long again, I don’t want another argument, we’ll be just fine where we are.
I’ll bring you back something. Be a good boy for Rick now.

Thumbing at the creases I leaned back onto the bed until I was flat on my back, staring up at the ceiling covered with half naked models and more posters of mysterious bands.
My heart felt like it was swimming in an over full tub, making my throat constrict and my eyes sting.
Sitting back up shakily I wound my hands through my caramel hair and stood as steadily as possible to move around the room once more.
My thoughts felt bare and my legs felt wobbly like string.
Poking my head at the window I watched for Rick’s car, looking for an excuse to get out of this cluttered room.
When I couldn’t see him still I returned back to my searching, discarding the papers and letters back where I found them to sift through skateboards, amps and random children toys under the bed.
Sticking half under the bed I blinked the dust away to pull a suitcase towards me, wiggling back out so I could get a proper look.
Its fabric was smooth to the touch with a satin resemblance, buckles holding it closed and strap wrapped around its side protectively.
Undoing the metal pieces that held me from its contents I popped the top open and looked inside at the many documents.
Listing a few I scanned the files and eyed the ones that had been titled with adoption.
Sliding one out I took a quick glance to see Rick’s name printed out in the form and Max’s signature on the bottom.
Was Max trying to get Rick to adopt him?
Flipping to the next piece of paper my hands almost shook when I saw an emancipation form.
Shaking the hair out of my face I hunched closer to the other documents which revealed themselves as neglect reports and more information that led me to believe Max had a lot more issues going on in his family then he let on.
Loading everything back together I put the suitcase back where I found it and exited the house quickly, mind wandering only as far as I let it.
Slipping back into my home I entered the kitchen to wait for Rick, fingers drumming a tune out on the table.

“I’m home Newton!” Rick called only a moment later, slamming the door behind him.
I watched him silently for a moment as he moved around before asking the first thing to pop into my mind; “Are Max’s parents ever around?”
The room fell silent for a moment as Rick creased his brow, “No, no they aren’t”
“That’s why he’s always here then, right?”
“They love him Newton, they just... don’t show it much”
“I think I finally get it” I mumbled out, rubbing at my cheek.
Shaking his head Rick placed the pizza boxes on the table and sat across from me. “It’s hard to understand Max, because there’s a lot more going on than his home life. Don’t try to sum him up by one thing, Newton”
“Then help me sum him up. Every time I try to understand why he’s a jerk to me, he just shoots me down and makes things harder”

Opening the box and letting the smell of melted cheese fill the room, Rick busied himself with extracting a piece.
Nodding at the taste he smiled over at me as he nudged the box closer, urging me to take my own before he would start talking again.
Wanting the information quickly also had me following along, wincing at the heat against my fingertips as I held it loosely above my palm.

“So?”
Laughing at my impatience Rick leaned back in his seat and scratched his head, “I’ll talk to Max, but maybe you two just need some space right. Give each other time to work things out”
“Don’t make it sound like we’re dating or something, Max started all this, I didn’t”

Or at least, I didn’t mean to start it...?