30. Max
Chapter thirty
I check my hair for the tenth time, making sure my bun looks purposefully messy enough to look like I didn’t spend half an hour perfecting it.
“Max, your hair looks good, stop fussing.”
“Are you sure?”
Jasper laughs, slapping me on the back. “Relax, she loves your hair, no matter how you wear it.”
“I just want everything to be perfect.”
“Stop thinking like that. You’re putting too much expectation on this date, and she’ll feel that energy. Just go with the mindset that we’re taking her out to have some fun. Perfection is not something to strive for when it comes to enjoying each other’s company. Just have a positive attitude, like you always do, and she’ll have fun.”
He’s right, of course. I’ve been putting too much pressure on this date, but after seeing how happy she was when she came home last night from her date with Tucker, I knew we had a big act to follow. A horseback ride and sunset picnic? That bastard knew he would be raising the bar for all of us .
I was happy that she let him spend the night in her room. She hadn’t let anyone stay with her since before… the incident. And we’ve all worried about her not being able to sleep well.
“Alright, you got your gift?”
“Yep, you?”
I hold up my special bouquet in answer. “You sure she’ll like our matching outfits?” I ask, looking at my blue polo shirt and Jasper’s green one, both of us pairing it with jeans.
We gifted her a dress to wear when we got home from school today. The left half is blue, matching my shirt, and the right half is green, matching Jasper. We thought it’d be cute, but now I’m second guessing it.
“Yes, come on, Max, she’ll be waiting.”
Jasper knocks on her door and I wait anxiously for her to answer. “Why am I so nervous?” I whisper. Before he can respond, the door opens and Mina stands there in her adorable dress, making me smile like a madman.
“Sweetheart, you look perfect. Here, these are for you,” I say, practically shoving the bouquet in her face, making Jasper stifle a laugh at my awkwardness.
“Oh, thanks, wait—is this…”
I nod my head. “It’s a cookie bouquet!” I say proudly, even though on the inside I’m terrified she’ll think it’s dumb.
“A bouquet made of cookies? It’s awesome! Thank you, Max!” She gives me a side hug, so she doesn’t crush the cookies.
“They’re from both of us, so is this,” Jasper says gently. He holds up a long jewelry box and she stares at it for a moment before her eyes flick to his.
“For me?” He nods. “Why?”
Jasper shrugs. “Because we saw it and thought you’d love it.”
She gingerly takes it and opens it like she expects a bomb inside. When she sees the gold bracelet, her eyes widen. “Oh, wow, guys, it’s beautiful.”
“It’s a charm bracelet, you can collect charms that have special meaning to you, and add them to it.”
“Wow, this is so cool. What’s this charm here?” she asks, pulling it out of the box. “A horse?”
“Yeah, that’s from Tucker, actually. When he heard what we were getting you, he wanted to give you a charm to represent your first date together.”
“That’s so sweet. There’s a second one here, is this popcorn?” she asks with a tilt of her head.
“Yep, that will make sense after our date tonight,” he tells her.
“Thank you both,” she says, clutching it to her chest. “This is so thoughtful.” She hugs us both, then Jasper helps her put it on.
We help her pick out a jacket, then all pile into our truck and head out.
“So, where are we going? The movies?” she asks, sitting between us as she plays with her new bracelet.
“We’re going to go see a movie later, but first, we’re going to have a little fun,” I say as I wrap my arm around her shoulder and start to pull her to my side. “Is it okay if I touch you like this?” I ask her, suddenly nervous I was pushing her boundaries.
“Well, you are my boyfriend, aren’t you?”
My wide eyes meet Jasper’s before I turn to look at her, grabbing her hands with mine. “Wait—I am? You’ve forgiven me?”
“Uhh… I don’t know, it’s just—Wait, does that mean we’ve been broken up over the past few days? Oh my god, I feel so stupid fo r not realizing that. I thought maybe we were just fighting or something!” She tries to pull her hands from mine but I just bring her whole body against me and hug her.
“No, don’t feel stupid. I feel stupid. I didn’t know if you still wanted us like that. I was afraid we’d wrecked everything.”
“Well, you kind of did,” she replies. “But I guess I’m hoping that it’s fixable.”
“It is, Angel. We’re going to fix it. The bracelet and cookies weren’t bribes to make you forgive us. They were just gifts we wanted you to have. We know we have a lot to make up for, maybe more than the others.”
“You do?” I can’t tell if that’s a question or a statement.
“We were the closest to you, especially at the beginning. We were with you pretty much every moment during school hours. And we were told to get close to you to see what your involvement in the case was.” I cringe just hearing those words again. What we did sounds even worse coming from Jasper.
“Yeah, that kinda sucked to find out you only befriended me because of the case.”
“That’s not entirely the truth,” I add, making her look back at me with a frown. “The day I met you, I was watching from one of the upstairs windows at the school. I saw you, this little beauty, walking quietly to the school, like you hoped no one would notice you. Then I saw Brad barrel into you and knock you down. I ran down to you as fast as I could. I had no idea who you were until a little later that day.”
“Is that true?” she asks, turning her head to Jasper. He nods sadly at her before turning his eyes back to the road .
“Yes. And when I saw you pass out, I didn’t know who you were. But I was terrified for you. It wasn’t until I carried you into the empty classroom that Gideon told me.”
Jasper pulls into the parking lot and finds an empty spot to park.
She stares at her bracelet deep in thought, and we stay silent, waiting for her to sift through her emotions.
“So the way you met me had nothing to do with the case. But you still lied to get closer to me.”
“We didn’t lie about anything, well, other than being high school kids,” I say with a shrug.
“What do you think we lied about?” Jasper asks gently.
“Wanting to be my friend. You only wanted to get close to me to see what I knew,” she says, refusing to look at us as she frowns down at her scarred ring finger. Just the sight of that reminds me how much we failed her.
“Not true,” I say, shaking my head.
“But you admitted it, you said it was your job to get close to me.”
“Angel, what you need to understand is we were going to get close to you, even if it wasn’t our job.”
“What do you mean?” she asks, her eyes lifting to Jasper in confusion.
He sighs, turning to face her properly. “Don’t you get it, Angel? We’ve both wanted you from the moment we met you, before we knew your connection to the case. The case was the excuse to get close, not the reason.”
She stares at him for a moment before reaching out and squeezing his hand. “Okay,” she says. I’m not sure what she means by that, but I don’t get to question it as she looks up and sees where we’re parked.
“Are we going to an arcade?”