Bruises in Miniature Form

The days of camping went by fast and soon we were packing up our campsite to head home, Max and I still had one day without my mother and Rick so we were planning on letting everyone else pack instead.
This plan of course, was shot to hell when Ronnie decided he was weak and preferred to drink on the job.
Robert and Omar quickly followed his example and that left Bryan who figured out doing all the work by himself wasn’t going to work, who then fell onto a chair and faked sleep.
This in turn forced Max and I to pack up everything. Actually, remove Max from that sentence and you’ve got the packing committee.
Lofting tent poles back into the van I sweated out my problems silently, chewing on my bottom lip as the boys began commenting me like it was a sport.

“And here we see Nettie lift the heavy tent poles. That’ll earn her some points, don’t you think Monte?”
“Well Radke, we would, except here we see the slight struggle she’s... Awe, now look at that sportsmanship! Fellow player Robert Ortiz has bustled in to help his struggling teammate!”
“Now that’s what we love about this sport” Ronnie grinned cheekily, sipping at the bottle he had used as a microphone.
Pouting at Bryan and Ronnie I slugged their bags into the back seat with little care to their safety, watching their faces scrunch up in distaste.
“Oh, that’s going to cost her some points” Ronnie bobbed his head.
“Looks like she’ll have to catch up or be disqualified” Bryan added, his voice deepening towards the end.
“I wanna be an announcer too” Omar whined almost silently beside his friends.
Dropping Omar’s bag onto the ground I gave it a hard kick and glared at the offending boys, “You start helping or I go all PMS on your asses”
Max jerked up almost immediately at my threat, collecting his things and helping to fold up the chairs and stack them.
Ronnie however remained seated and began making what he thought was a mimicking whip noise at Max, using hand motions to better to realism.

“Screw you” Max huffed lightly.
“Get up and help you three” Robert ordered to the still lazy boys.
“Nah, I’m enjoying it here” Omar joked even though he got up to his feet.

We worked quietly after that and finished loading only twenty minutes later (Would’ve been sooner but Ronnie conned Bryan into their spokesman acts once more).
Eventually my skin was sticking to the seats as we drove, my fingers drumming quietly on the windows.
The radio quietly sung in the background, tempting a few of the boys into singing.
It wasn’t much longer until we were parked and settled back into Rick’s driveway, unloading our thing before the van sped away with our friends.
Max was rather silent during all this, unlocking the door politely for me and closing it in my face as I made a move to enter.

“Thought you were going to be nice?” I called as I kicked the door shut a second time and dropped my things on my floor.
“That was nice” He hollered back from upstairs.
Following after his voice I found him sprawled out on my bed with eyes closed, chest breathing slowly as his muscles relaxed.
I waited until his breathing was level then before I took a run and leaped onto his body, screaming ‘Boo!’ as I fell onto his lap.
Letting out a quiet ‘Oomph’ his blue eyes glared back at me, “Why’d you have to do that?”
“Why’d you have to slam the door in my face?” I countered.
Groaning Max let his head fall back into my pillow, closing his eyes slowly and levelling his breathing once more.
“Don’t fall asleep on me” I insisted, jerking his shoulder when he refused to respond.
“You know this isn’t your bed”
“What’s yours is mine --“ He started, allowing me to finish his common phrase by myself.
“Well right now it isn’t yours, so get up”
“Nah. I’m rather comfy, you can move if you like though”

Staring down at him I eyed his peaceful features, the way the corner of his lips perked up in a smirk when he was amused, and his eyelashes fluttering against his cheeks.
“I like when your quiet” I thought aloud, resting my head into the corner of his neck as I bent over in a strange position.
“Why?”
“It means you’re nicer”
“I can be nice...”
“Prove it then. Go a week with being nice to me”
“No. There’s nothing in it for me” He stubbornly refused, wiggling underneath me until I fell to the side and curled into him.
“Why does there always have to be something in it for you?” I sighed.
Max shrugged against me and rested a hand gently over my face, “Shut up now. I wanna sleep”
Licking his hand I let out a shrieking giggle as he whipped it onto my cheek forcefully, grinning at me.
“I want to go back to camping” I whined immaturely once we were finished forcing drool on each other.
“Then go back camping. Nobodies stopping you”
“You’re missing the point, Maxwell”
“Sure I am, Newt”

“Could you do me a favour?” I suddenly asked him, watching him shrink into himself as he begged me to shut up.
“Will you shut up after?”
“Yes. I promise”
“Fine, what do you want?” He stared down at me, looking humoured and annoyed all at once.
“Kiss me?” I timidly asked.

I knew I shouldn’t have been asking this, because our friendship was weird enough but there was something in me that had to know if I could deal with it.
If those kisses meant anything than maybe our friendship couldn’t... last?
Max was silent after my question before swooping his head down to press our foreheads together, his breath ghosting over my lips that tingled.

“No”

And with that he pulled away and rested his head back onto my pillow, shutting his eyes for sleep that came quickly.
“Jerk” I muttered but smiled at him nonetheless.