MAX
However this was unlike the other times when he had simply taken the decision to stumble back to his car and spend the night tucked in underneath his blanket on the rear seats.
And that left one seriously big question…
Who on earth could that boy be?
What the hell am I doing here?
Why can’t I remember anything?
I need to move. I need to move fast…
Max reached for the car key and unsurprisingly it was still firmly lodged in the ignition. As he turned the key to start the engine, Max let out a yelp of anguished pain. He was definitely going to need to find somewhere to crash and lie down for a hot moment.
Worse than the jolting pain in his shoulder though was the fact that his trusty muscle car wouldn’t start up.
‘Come on, don’t let me down baby,’ Max said, a rising frustration in his voice as he attempted a second, then third, time to get the powerful gas guzzling engine up and running. ‘Come on! Come on! I need you to work for me!’
Max’s biceps were tense with sheer frustration as he let his anger bubble over. This wasn’t good. And what made it worse was that the angrier Max got, the more painful the sensation in his shoulder felt.
As another cop car passed in the distance, Max began to feel like it was only a matter of time before his car was spotted. And Max knew that if he was still inside it, then there would be way too many questions for him to answer.
‘I have to bounce,’ Max said, an increasing sense of urgency in his voice.
Max still felt a little woozy, but he knew that now wasn’t the time to wonder exactly what had gone down to lead him into this situation. Max could work all that out later. As far as Max was concerned, he needed to get himself the hell out of there.
Max’s police record wasn’t entirely blemish free, and he knew that a DUI or some kind of dangerous driving charge could even lead to a custodial sentence. There was no way Max was going to allow himself to lose his freedom, not over an offence he could not even remember committing.
There was no other way. Max would have to exit the scene of the crime, whatever that crime actually was, and make a run for it.
And if that meant leaving his beloved car behind, then that was just the price Max had to pay.
As Max gingerly opened the car door and stepped outside onto the clean Los Frisco road, he shot a glance over at the large black bag in the passenger seat…
‘Holy hell. I… won the drag race,’ Max muttered. ‘My winnings. That bag has my winnings in it!’
For a brief moment, Max smiled his cocky, charming, utterly brilliant smile. His mind suddenly filled with memories of winning a tough, highly intense drag race the previous night.
I’m faster.
I take more chances.
No one beats Max Manchester…
But Max’s smile soon disappeared as he picked up the black bag and it felt suspiciously light. Max opened the bag in double-quick time and was dismayed to see that there was the grand total of zero dollars inside it.
‘What the fuck?’ Max said, shaking his head in disbelief. ‘Some sonofabitch must have swiped my prize money. But who?’
The sound of a fire truck in the distance brought Max back into the present moment. He may have been down ten thousand dollars in prize money, but that didn’t change the fact that he may well have been at the scene of a crime that he committed.
It was time to make a run for it.
* * *
After managing to run for several blocks, Max knew that it was time to find somewhere nice and secluded to rest. Looking around him, he realized that it wouldn’t be an overly difficult task.
The neighborhood looked relatively upscale. With smart apartment buildings and nice detached houses, this was very much a Los Frisco kind of place.
‘Pfft. Too many electric cars for my taste, but whatever,’ Max grumbled, noticing the plethora of shiny Teslas on the streets and in the driveways.
Putting his distaste for electric cars to one side, Max found a quiet side street and took a moment to sit down and take things in.
Max knew he was in Los Frisco and had a rough idea of where he was in relation to his car – well, if it hadn’t been spotted and removed by the police yet.
Going home wasn’t exactly an option for Max though.
In fact, home was something of a touchy subject.
Max had recently split up with his kinda casual on-off-on again boyfriend and was pretty sure that his face wasn’t exactly welcome at their old apartment any longer.
It wasn’t that Max had cheated or done anything terrible, it was more that Max simply hadn’t been able to give his ex, Adam, the commitment that he wanted.
Adam was nice. Real nice.
But Adam could never be what Max truly wanted.
Adam simply wasn’t a Little.
Effectively, Max had been homeless and living out of his car for the past few weeks. The winnings from the drag race were going to be spent on securing the rent on a new place.
But with the money gone and his beloved car looking worse for wear, Max was beginning to feel a little bit lost. For a guy who lived on the edge, Max was used to being in sticky situations. However even by his own standards, this was shaping up to be something else altogether for Max.
After spending a while resting, Max spent the rest of the day wandering around the pretty suburb. It all seemed very familiar to him. The cafes, the florist, even down to the multiple wholefoods stores that seemed to be on every corner.
But as amusing as it was for Max to play games like ‘spot the hipster’, he knew that soon it would be nighttime. Max hadn’t dared to go back to his car for fear of being spotted near it, and in truth he feared that it had been towed or even stolen.
Facing up to problems had never been a strong suit for Max, and today was proving to be a prime example of exactly that. But no matter how much he wanted to bury his head in the sand, Max knew that he needed to do something, and soon…
What are my options?
Who can I call?
What’s my best play here?
Max crouched down and sat his butt down on the curb. He took his cracked, barely working cellphone out of the back pocket of his blue jeans and scrolled down his contacts list…
‘Jeez. Not sure how many favors I have left to call in,’ Max sighed. ‘Unless…’
Max quickly tapped out the message. He kept it short and sweet. The message was to his old college friend, Channing.
Max hadn’t seen Channing for quite some time but they had history together.
And come to think of it, Channing lived pretty damn close to where Max was in that moment.
Max had only been to Channing’s place once, the last time he saw him in fact.
Channing had only just moved in at the time.
And given that Channing was a steady guy who loved routine and consistency, Max was willing to bet that Channing would still be living there now.
So with all of this in mind, rather than wait for a reply to his message, Max decided to seize the initiative and head on over to Channing’s.
But if Max was convinced that Channing was still living at the same address, he was far less sure about what kind of reception he would receive upon his arrival…
* * *
Max rocked up at the building he believed to be Channing’s apartment block. It still had the recognizably super-smart entrance lobby with the abstract prints on the smooth, whitewashed walls.
Max shook his head and laughed at the sight of a yoga instructor walking past him while carrying what must have been the world’s smallest dog.
But rather than focus too much on the painfully hip surroundings, Max made his way down the corridor that he was certain led to Channing’s apartment.
‘Okay, here goes,’ Max said, surprising himself as he realized that his heart was beating a little quicker than he might have expected. ‘Am I… nervous?’
Max quickly shook himself down as he knocked on the door and waited. Each second felt like an eternity. Max thought back to his time with Channing at college. They certainly had fun together.
But Max had always known that while it was good fooling around, Channing was always going to want more.
Not only that, but Channing was fully committed to being a Little. And exploring that side of himself.
Max knew that he liked the idea of it, but he still wasn’t sure at that time whether he wanted to be a Daddy or not. Again, it was the commitment that being a good, reliable Daddy to a boy required that put Max off.
That’s why Max had taken the decision to make a clean break when he chose to drop out before graduating. Max thought back to his trusted motto:
No commitment, no pain.
With this in mind, Max felt himself calm down. No matter what Channing said or did, if Max wasn’t emotionally attached to the situation, he couldn’t feel any pain.
‘Oh wow, you sure as hell ain’t changed!’ Max said, a huge smile on his face as Channing opened the door. ‘No, that ain’t true. You’re even cuter than ever.’
Channing rolled his eyes.
For a moment, Max thought that he might be about to experience that familiar feeling of a door slamming in his face. But Channing couldn’t keep it up for long.
‘You’ll never change either,’ Channing said, breaking into a smile and stepping to the side to allow Max inside. ‘Come on in. You look like you’ve got a story to tell.’
As Max stepped into the apartment and took a quick look around, he could see that Channing was doing very well for himself. While the apartment wasn’t full of gadgets or elaborate furnishings, everything had an air of premium quality about it.
Max winced as he attempted to stretch his arm above his head, and this didn’t go unnoticed by Channing.
‘You okay, Max?’ Channing said. ‘Actually, tell me later. Something tells me that what you’d love more than anything is a cold beer?’
Max smiled in appreciation. Channing had always had good intuition for other people’s needs, and it didn’t seem like the time that had passed since he last saw Channing had dimmed that one bit.
‘You know it bro,’ Max said, gladly taking a bottle of perfectly chilled beer from Channing and noticing Billy, Channing’s stuffie leaning up on the kitchen worktop. ‘You know what else might also help?’
‘Go on…’ Channing replied, a hint of suspicion in his voice.
‘We could grab a shower together?’ Max said, keeping a mischievous level of eye contact going as he watched Channing blush. ‘You look… sweaty?’
‘You wish,’ Channing barked back, dismissively shaking his head and trying to act as cool as he possible could. ‘I have two bathrooms. You can use the guest bath. And let me guess… you want to stay the night?’
Max nodded.
Channing really was a king when it came to intuition. Max knew it might not be the same for Channing, but as far as Max was concerned the spark was still very much there between them.
If he was going to stay over, things might get complicated.
The boy’s so fucking sexy-cute-uptight and everything else too.
But life is for the living.
Sometimes the only option is to let go and see what happens…