CHAPTER ELEVEN
Thursday, March 30
Emmy
Emmy spent the evening burritoed in her duvet, devouring Grey’s Anatomy reruns. When she heard Kathryn come home just after ten, she decided to brush her teeth and go to bed, or risk being a zombie at school the following day. She finished in the bathroom, and tiptoed toward the sliver of light that fell from her bedroom door.
Max crept from his room and pressed a finger to his lips. “Wanna go outside?”
Emmy glanced toward Kathryn’s bedroom door just as Max slipped his palm into hers, and warmth spread from her fingertips at his touch. He tugged her toward the staircase and moved through the dark house with stealth. Emmy was certain he’d sneaked in and out of the house undetected countless times before. The patio door glided open, and they stepped onto the pool deck, the trees above illuminated in a flickering turquoise glow. They crossed the grass and pushed the netting on the trampoline aside so he could help her onto the smooth surface, the old springs stretching beneath them.
Emmy wanted to pull at the fabric of her tank top where it hugged her breasts, but Max’s face tipped upward toward the sky. He reached into his pocket to retrieve a rolled joint and a lighter. A glow flicked on in Kathryn’s bathroom window, startling Emmy.
“She’s not coming out,” Max said before the tip of the lighter sparked to life, and he took a long drag. “She knows I’m home, so we’re good. As long as you tell her where you are, she’ll stay off your ass.”
“She’s concerned with safety,” Emmy said before she inhaled, the smoke burning her lungs. She stifled a cough; she’d gotten high only twice before, but she didn’t want Max to know she was an amateur.
Max grunted in response.
“Thanks for inviting me to Javi’s house the other day. It was fun.” Her voice was raspy, and their fingers brushed as she pinched the tissue-thin paper and handed it back to Max, white smoke curling into the night air.
Max’s smile lifted. “I’m glad you had a good time.” The ember at the tip of the joint flared orange when he inhaled.
Emmy’s next drag was smoother, and the adrenaline rush of sneaking out with Max slid away, replaced by something gentler, soothing, like sinking into a warm bath. “Why aren’t you guys away at college?”
“Javi wanted to take a year off to work, save some money.”
“And you?”
“I don’t need to save money,” Max said, like it was obvious.
“What does that mean?”
There was a slight narrowing of Max’s eyebrows, and he considered her. “Nothing.” He coughed, then shrugged. “Anyway, I left school last April.”
“April? What, were you expelled?”
“Not exactly.” Max’s voice was hard, and Emmy recalled the argument she’d heard between Max and Kathryn, the tension that hovered between the two of them. “It was the end of my final semester my senior year, and I had all the credits to graduate, so I was given my diploma, but I wasn’t allowed to walk at graduation, which sucked, because I was supposed to give a speech.”
“What kind of speech?”
“I was valedictorian.”
Emmy reeled. Valedictorians didn’t get expelled unless the situation was severe. She took Max in in the white light of the moon, noting the shadow that crossed his expression. He seemed calm, in control of his emotions. Emmy considered the way the people closest to him handled him, the way he got under Kathryn’s skin, the playful warmth emanating from Javi’s eyes when they’d arrived at his house, then the whispered argument between them. Max seemed socially confident, but so far Javi was the only person she’d met in Max’s inner circle. He spent his time zooming around behind the anonymity of his tinted windshield. There was so much to this boy she didn’t know, and suddenly she wanted to, wanted to peel away the layers and find who he was.
“Was,” Max repeated. “The title went to that dipshit Lance Bromley after I got the boot.”
“What’d you do to get in that kind of trouble?”
Max’s stare drifted to the starless sky, a haunted expression lingering on his face. “My mom was always in my business. Always . But at the end of junior year, I realized she couldn’t stop me from going out, so I did. A lot. At first, I was partying with my friends on the weekend. Then it turned into weekdays, then every day. Then alcohol turned to pills. And other stuff.” His eyes darkened. Emmy saw a tiny crack in the wall Max had built, and she remained silent, let him give as much of himself as he was willing to give. “I guess I just wanted to lose control. To let myself fall, and I didn’t care where I landed. Then, it all”—he paused, as if searching for the right word—“ culminated when the school decided my conduct was unbecoming.” He swallowed. “Without school, I had the time to do what I wanted all day. So I mostly surfed and drank and partied. Until a little over a month ago, when I wrecked my car.”
Emmy thought of the time she’d spent with Max so far, how gentle he was with her, and how alive he’d seemed on that sunny afternoon, diving for the volleyball with Javi. But there it was again, that sadness in his eyes. “So that’s what Kathryn meant when she warned me about you.”
“She did?” Max scowled. “Kathryn doesn’t know anything about me or my life.” His words held a sharper edge than they had before. “And she has her own mess of shit going on. She’s been going out with this dick of a cop.”
“She has a boyfriend?”
“‘Boyfriend’ is a stretch. Don’t expect him to come over for dinner or anything like that. He fudged the police report about my accident so I wouldn’t get in trouble.”
“Why would he do that?” Emmy gasped. “Why risk getting fired—or worse?”
Max grunted. “He’s shady. I heard he got suspended once for excessive force during an arrest. Apparently he beat the shit out of some guy during a routine traffic stop. He claimed the dude resisted, but the guy was hospitalized for a week and the family sued.” Max’s eyes were round. “Anyway, he wasn’t doing me any favors. He wanted to screw my mom.” The warm breeze rustled the palm fronds in the moonlight. “After my accident, Kathryn snapped. She tried to force me to go to rehab, drove me to some sketchy clinic for tweakers. I refused to get out of the car.”
Emmy caught the way his eyes dulled, even in the darkness of the backyard.
He shook his head. “There’s no fucking way. She made me agree to a bunch of ridiculous rules: no drinking, no smoking, no driving over the speed limit. Sent me to therapy. She’s been on my ass, texting all day long.”
“But I’ve been here for a week,” Emmy said. “And all we’ve been doing is drinking and smoking.”
“I’m just living my life. Flying under her radar. And this?” Max held up the joint. “Helps me sleep. I like to come out here at night and smoke and watch the stars. I just need to keep it away from Kathryn until she settles down.” He passed Emmy the joint one more time. “I figured you already knew most of this from spying in the hallway the other day.”
Emmy’s mind flashed back to Max’s eyes holding hers when he’d caught her at the top of the stairs, and her cheeks burned. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”
Max’s smile broke through, crooked and amused. “I’m fucking with you.”
Emmy slapped her hands over her face and dropped onto her back. “So embarrassing,” she mumbled through her fingers.
“Stop it.” Max tried to pry her hands from her face, but Emmy held them tight. “More embarrassing than everything I just told you?”
Emmy dropped her hands to her chest and met Max’s eyes. “I don’t think any of it’s embarrassing.”
“No?” Relief flushed his face.
“Everyone has their shit, Max.”
“Well, I have extra shit.”
“Maybe, maybe not.” She looked at him a few inches above her. “Is that why you don’t want her knowing you pick me up from school?”
“I don’t want her involved in my life. And if you don’t want her sending you back to live with your family, it’s probably best if she doesn’t know you’re hanging out with me. Since I’m a bad influence and all.”
“I agree,” Emmy said, and his shoulders relaxed. “So what’s next for you?”
“Culinary school,” Max said without a beat.
Emmy sat up. “You cook?”
“Among my many talents.” His secretive smile returned when he looked at her again, and her heart skipped. And it was as if the pieces of her life slotted into place for the first time. The sting of her mother’s absence dulled until she could no longer feel it. Everything in her life had led up to that moment beneath the stars. She didn’t want to go home, didn’t care about Harper. The weed settled in her brain like a cloud, and she took Max in, suddenly taken by the absolute cliché of his beauty, of his perfect teeth and the way the breeze rustled his hair.
“What?” Max’s smile bloomed, like he was in on her joke. His head cocked to one side, his eyes glazed, and the corners of his mouth tugged upward.
“This weed is ... good .” A tiny laugh slipped from her lips before she could stop it, and a grin cracked across Max’s face. Emmy shook her head, but it was useless. When the giggles got her, they didn’t let go, and she melted, leaning back onto the smooth surface, and slapped a hand over her mouth, and Max joined her as they melted together.
The trip indoors was decidedly less graceful. The kitchen and staircase filled with their stifled giggles and mismatched footsteps. “Good night,” Max whispered when they reached the hallway.
“Good night.” The giddiness of their time together faded, leaving a vague cloud of disappointment with each step toward her bedroom; a realization that the whole encounter had been anticlimactic.
Emmy reached for her doorknob, determined to open it without a sound. She felt his hand on her lower back and a deeper breath fell from her. She turned. Max’s face was serious, his body close to hers, in her space. She could feel him, the tingle between them, again. Max brushed her hair from behind her ear, sending a shock down her body at his touch. He ran the knuckle of his index finger down her arm, from her bare shoulder to her wrist, then took her hand, his palm flat against hers, and wove their fingers together. Emmy’s heart thudded and her palms tickled. Max moved swiftly, taking her face in his hand, and pressed his lips to hers. His kisses came soft and gentle, three times, their lips parted slightly, before he drew back for a moment to regard her, then moved in again. When his tongue met hers, her body awoke—the hint of electricity buzzing between them had finally caught a spark. Fire blazed through her as she leaned into him, and he pushed back, pressing her against the wall with his hips. She gripped the fabric of his T-shirt and drew him in, closer, hungry for something she’d never known existed inside her.
Finally, Max stepped back and loosened his grip. He smiled before leaning in one last time, meeting her lips again, with a whisper. “Good night.”
He retreated to his room. With her back still pressed against the wall, Emmy closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, dizzy, aroused.