Cleave

“Babe?” Max’s voice came from behind me. I was sitting at his kitchen table with the tip of my pen resting on my bottom lip as I concentrated on my English homework.
“Mm?” I replied, distracted. I was trying to figure out Hamlet’s famous soliloquy and what the hell it actually meant in real English. God I hate school. But I need to at least graduate, otherwise I’d have no chance of finding even a minimum wage job. It’s not like I’m particularly good at anything, so a high school diploma is my best bet. I’d applied to a few places, clothing stores, fast food places and stuff like that, since Mom kicked me out on my birthday a month and a half ago, but so far I hadn’t heard anything back. Drew was kind enough to let me stay at his place even though I couldn’t pay rent, as long as I did some cooking and cleaning while he worked.

Having a father willing to pull some strings to get you a job definitely has some perks. Drew’s been working in his dad’s law office full time as a runner after he decided school wasn’t for him and left at the end of junior year. I wish I was that lucky.

Max kissed me on my neck just below my ear, which I’d recently stretched to one inch. “It’s getting kind of late, are you going to stay the night?” he asked, kissing the same spot again. He wrapped his arms around my shoulders from behind me and pried my pen out of my fingers. I knew what he was trying to do and normally I would have been down for sex, but…

“I really need to finish this,” I told him, gesturing to my half-finished homework. “It’s due tomorrow and then I have a test on it.”
“Such a nerd,” he teased, making me frown slightly. He’s the one that convinced me to stay at school in the first place. If it was up to me, I’d be out of there. Besides, he’s one to talk; Mr I’m Studying To Be A Doctor. I don’t call him a nerd when he spends 22 hours a day studying. Well… Actually, I do, so ignore that.
“I can just drop out of school now if you like?” I said, hopefully, even though I knew he would completely shut down the idea. Max spun my chair around so I was facing him. I looked up at him, grinning.
“Nice try. But, I wish you didn’t have school work to do right now,” he said.
“Yeah, same. I fucking hate Shakespeare. Why couldn’t he just write in normal English?” I complained, making Max frown in confusion.
“Angel, how can you hate Shakespeare? He’s a genius.”
“No, he’s annoying. And, in case you’ve forgotten, he’s cockblocking you right now. So he’s an asshole too.”
Max chuckled. “Really?” he said, laughing. I scowled. “You’re silly. Now, is there something I can help with so you can get this done faster?”
“Yeah, you can tell me what the fuck Hamlet is raving on about.”
He hesitated. “Isn’t that the entire point of the homework? To learn what he’s saying?”
“Yes.”
“Well –”
I cut him off with a sigh. I knew he was going to tell me that it would be ‘cheating’ if he helped me and it wouldn’t help me learn. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. I’ll head home so you can go to bed.” I started gathering my stuff together while Max watched.

“I didn’t mean you had to leave,” he said when I was finished packing up and stood up. I smiled at him as I moved closer, wrapping my arms around his waist.
“It’s okay. I get it, it won’t help me learn if you tell me what he’s saying, blah blah,” I said with a grin. “And I know you have an early lecture tomorrow.” I unwound my arms from Max’s waist and moved them to around his neck as I kissed him. His hands held my hips lightly as he pulled me closer to him.

We stood there kissing for a little while before I started to pull away.

“You sure you don’t want to stay over?” Max asked, trying to tug me back to him. I stepped away from him.
“Yeah, I should go,” I sighed, turning back to the kitchen table and collecting my things. I leaned up to kiss him one more time before I headed to the front door. “Talk to you tomorrow.”
“Okay, babe. Tomorrow then. Have a good day at school,” Max said, showing me one of his incredible smiles. I returned his smile and left, walking out of his first floor apartment and heading to Drew’s beat up four-wheel drive. He lets me borrow it because he got himself a small car to take to work, seeing as the parking lot at his dad’s office is pretty cramped. Drew taught me to drive last year so I no longer had to rely on him for lifts to school, which is good, especially since he doesn’t even go there anymore.

The drive back to Drew’s was uneventful. I had some music playing in the background but it was nowhere near as loud as Drew’s used to be when he drove this car. I think Braden and Rochelle prefer it when I drive, even though I’m nowhere near as good of a driver as Drew, because then they don’t get deafened.

I pulled up outside Drew’s small two-bedroom house and gathered my school things to take them inside. I really didn’t want to be doing any more homework but I knew I had to if I had any chance of finishing senior year and graduating. I trudged up the driveway, jingling my keys as I made my way to the front door. I tested the door handle first because sometimes Drew leaves it unlocked, and it was open so I pushed my way through.

“Angel?” I heard Drew call from what I figured was his bedroom.
“Yeah man, it’s me,” I called back and dumped my stuff on the kitchen table, before I slumped down in one of the chairs and pulled my notebook towards me. I opened it, sighing, as Drew came out of his room.
“What’s that?” Drew asked as he went past me into the kitchen, opening the fridge and pulling out a carton of orange juice.
“Shakespeare translation,” I muttered, preparing to begin where I left off.
“Translation? Dude, he wrote in English,” Drew said, taking a swig from the carton.
“Shut up,” I replied grumpily. I saw from the corner of my eye that Drew had pulled his phone out of his pocket, but I didn’t really pay much attention to it.
“What’s the passage?” Drew asked after a few moments of silence.
“Um, Hamlet; Act 3 Scene 1. It’s the…”
“The ‘To be or not to be’ scene, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Here,” Drew said, handing me his phone. There on the screen was a website called SparkNotes, which had the Shakespearean passage and the same passage in modern English next to it. I glanced up at him.
“We’re not meant to use the internet,” I said. Drew snorted.
“Fuck that. Just change a few words around. C’mon Angel, what happened to my rebel best friend? Max has turned you into a good little boy who does what he’s told. I like the dude, but you gotta admit; you’ve changed a fair bit.”
“He’s just trying to help me get to the top of my potential,” I said. “That’s what Max always says, anyway.”
“Is it making you happy? Doing whatever he says? You and I both know you don’t want to be at school anymore.”
“No. But I need to graduate for a decent job. I’ll never get anywhere if I don’t at least have my diploma. I need to help you pay rent and shit.”
“Who said you won’t get anywhere without a diploma? I haven’t got one,” Drew pointed out.
“You’ve got a father who vouched for you,” I muttered, frowning down at Drew’s phone screen that had since gone dark. I clicked a button and it flashed back on again. I began to read the modern English translation of the passage, deciding that I didn’t want to continue having the conversation with Drew if he was going to make me question my life. Drew watched me silently as I worked for a minute or two before he spoke up again.
“Alright, dude. Just… you don’t need to change, okay?”

With that, he left me to my work. I worked quietly for a while, only half paying attention to what I was meant to be doing. The other half was thinking about my conversation with Drew. I knew I had changed since Micah left. It was like he took half of my personality with him. Max is great but sometimes I feel like he wants me to be something different and if what Drew said was anything to go by, I was definitely different to how I was when I met Max at the hospital. Maybe that was Max’s influence, maybe it was just me. I don’t know.

I was translating the line ‘Who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life’ when I finally decided to give up and go to bed. My head wasn’t in it and I wanted to bring back some of the rebellious nature that apparently I had lost recently. Ms Jones can suck my dick.

I packed up my stuff and brought it into my room, where I threw it unceremoniously on my floor. I stripped down to my boxers and slid into bed, where I spent a little while longer thinking about my conversation with Drew until I fell asleep. I hoped that, when I woke up, I would be feeling like the old Angel that had been missing for so long.