Archive of Our Own ^beta

Beginnings aren’t easy, and this year wasn’t to be an exception to that, or at least that’s what Bradley thought. Going back to State University after what happened in the X-games the year before was going to be bittersweet: he would have to endure the glares and the whispers around him, sure, but at least he was far from home. The summer was tense enough and whatever awaited him from his classmates would be nothing in comparison.

A knock at the door brought him out of his thoughts. He opened the door and found himself in front of the largest Gamma.

“Are you ready, sweetheart?” Tank asked.

Bradley looked away as he stepped aside to let Tank in. Honestly, he could barely look his best friend in the eye since the X-games and still didn’t understand why Tank would have forgave him.

Tank’s eyes roamed the room, messier that he would have expected from Bradley. “I’d take this as a ‘no’” he said chuckling.

“I haven’t arrived that much ago” Bradley explained, heading towards the open suitcase in his bed. If I keep myself busy with unpacking, I won’t have to look at him.

“Don’t sweat it, I just arrived. In fact, I hadn’t start unpacking yet” replied the big guy cheerfuly. “I came here straight, I was wondering if I'd see you at the party tonight.”

Bradley winced: he really didn’t had the energy to hang out with anyone that day. “I’m sorry, Tank,... baby” started saying, trying to sound natural, “but I have so much to do today. I don’t think I can.”

Tank frowned, but didn’t try to ask why: he already knew that Bradley would avoid a direct answer. “Okay, text me if you can come” replied, and headed to the door, but stopped before exiting. “I know I’ve already told you, but... I care for you, even if you don’t understand it.”

Bradley simply stood there, hearing the door close after his friend. Are we really still friends? He dropped down onto the bed and rubbed his face with both hands. They had talked things over during the summer, but somehow it felt strange, considering what he did at the X-games. He’s right: I don’t understand, why would he care for me? He almost died because of me. It was only fair what happened to him after the X-games: he was kicked out of the Gammas and had to pay for the damages; and after all summer suffering his father belittling him, he was ready to focus solely on his final year of college. He felt a little bit exposed living in the dorms now, surrounded by inquisitive glances, but it was only fair.

Suddenly, Bradley started hearing loud music coming from the dorm next door. He groaned. Exactly what I need: noisy neighbors. But then he recognised the song that was playing: Numb Little Bug, by Em Beihold. Even though his father disapproved that kind of music or anything that wasn’t classical or symphonic music really, Bradley secretly enjoy it. And right now he was feeling so related with that song. So he simply stayed lying in bed, listening to whatever songs came over next at the other room: he knew some of them, like Forever by Lewis Capaldi, but others were new to his ears. He closed his eyes, focusing on the music and forgetting about finishing unpacking.

“Dude, you shouldn’t be leaving your stuff there all over the floor” PJ said annoyed. “Anyone could trip over”.

Max rolled his eyes: it wasn’t ‘all over the place’ like his friend was saying. He kept throwing his clothes onto his drawer while singing Victorious by Sam Tinnesz and burnboy. Well, singing was an understatement: he was doing a full performance, jumping and dancing around as he unpacked carelessly his stuff. When he turned around after closing the drawer, he stepped on his skateboard and fell to the ground with a loud crash. PJ looked at him with that ‘I told you so’ look while Bobby simply burst out laughing.

“That was sick! Do it again!” Bobby cheered.

Max stood up quickly and gave Bobby a glare. “Shut up” the boy mumbled, with his face turning red. He was going to protest, but then Diamond eyes by Shinedown started playing and his face changed. “Oh, yeah, this is a good one!”

PJ and Bobby looked at each other, trying not to laugh at Max’s antics. He was so easily distracted that one song was enough for him to change his mood and start dancing around again. Without saying another word, PJ grab Max’s skateboard and leaned it against the wall. Meanwhile, Bobby had joined Max’s little concert, drumming with a pencil against the table.

“Okay, guys, are you done? Nika just texted me: she’s already waiting for us at the Bean Scene” PJ said.

“Yeah, let’s go!” Bobby howled.

They immediately dropped everything wherever and headed to the café, laughing and horsing around. That was going to be a blast of a year, Max could feel it.

“There they are” Nika greeted them with a soft smile. “How did summer treated you?” she asked before giving PJ a sweet short kiss on the cheek.

“Awesome! I didn’t wanna come back” Bobby complained.

Max sighed. “You were at my house all day, everyday! It started to feel like you were my dad’s son”. Bobby just shrugged with a smile. “Aaand that was my summer” he said, pointing at his friend.

“Still sounds more fun than mine” PJ whined. “I’ve had to put up with working for my father. I swear, he was going to end me.”

Max smiled knowingly. Pete wasn’t the easiest to be around and he had always put a lot of pressure on his son; fortunately, college had given PJ more freedom and confidence now that he didn’t have to please his father constantly.

The gang sat down in a booth after grabbing some coffees, listening to some jazz that was softly playing at the café. They were chatting brightly, sharing summer stories, when a big guy approched them.

“Hey, fellas, how you’ve been?” Tank smiled.

“Heeeey, Tank-man, always nice to see ya!” Bobby shouted. “Wanna sit with us?”

Tank left out a belly laugh. “I appreciate the invitation, thanks, but I’m just going to grab a quick coffee and head my way out. But I saw you and thought of inviting you to tonight’s party at the Gamma’s.”

“Really? I’m in!” Bobby replied excited. Max rolled his eyes amused at his friend’s enthusiasm.

“Thanks, man, but Nika and I already have plans. Maybe some other time?” said PJ politely with his girl cling onto his arm.

“Of course, dude, no problem!” Tank winked at them. “How about you, Max?”

Everyone turned to look at him. Max appreciated the invitation, of course, but he had just arrived to campus again and wanted to rest. “I... I’m not sure if I can come” he finally caved in. “Is it okay if I text you later or something?” he asked, hoping to have just a bit more of time to think about it.

“Of course, baby” Tank said, writing him down his phone number. “No pressure, though.”

Max smiled relieved while Tank waved his goodbyes.

“What do you mean you are not coming?” Bobby whined. “PJ already bailed, dude. Come with me” he kept pouting.

Max was lying in his bed, looking at his friend wearly. “Bobby, no offense, but I was with you every single second of the summer” he chuckled softly. “It’s not that I don’t like being with you, but I’m exhausted.”

“Are you tired of me?” Bobby asked pretending being hurt.

“You know I am not” Max laughed once more. “But the whole driving here and the unpacking...”

“Dude, I am the one who drove us here” Bobby looked at him from above his sunglasses. “And honestly we just stuffed our things here and there without much thinking. I don’t think that counts as unpacking.”

Max groaned. “You know what I mean.”

“Is it because you don’t want to bump into Uppercrust?” Bobby smirked.

“Not every decision I make has to do with him” Max defended himself. “I just don’t feel like going tonight” Bobby raised an eyebrow. “That’s it, I swear! And besides, since when do you need any company to just go partying?”

“I’m not the one who needs the company, you are.”

“Make it make sense” Max asked in a bored tone.

“You need to get laid” Bobby explained. Max quickly stood a bit, leaning on his elbows to give his friend a horrified stare. “You didn’t had any action all summer” Bobby continued shrugging his shoulders.

“And who’s fault is it?” Max said between gritted teeth. “You were with me every hour of the day, I bet half the people assumed we were together or something.”

Bobby laughed realy loud. “As if, dude. You couldn’t handle me.”

Max threw a pillow at him, which only cause Bobby to laugh harder. “Just go already” Max replied, clearly annoyed.

Still laughing, Bobby raised his hands in surrender before finally leaving. Max sighed, relieved to be alone at last. He had already texted Tank to let him know that he was not going to go. Like he just said to Bobby, he wasn’t feeling like it. He connected his phone to the speaker and started playing his playlist on full volume. He sang to I wanna be your slave by Måneskin, Adrenaline by Shinedown, Dumb Enough by Feni, among other songs, while playing videogames in the computer. There was not a better plan for him at that moment.

Finally done, Bradley thought to himself. He had unpacked everything, had placed everything meticulously and was already on his pijamas. He threw himself on his bed and felt his eyes starting to close. But the peace didn’t last so much: the music started blasting from next dorm again. Oh my God, again? At least whoever is putting this has good taste. Otherwise, I’d go next door to kill them. Unlike that morning, there was more variety in the music genres, so Bradley recognised less songs than then.

Suddenly, his phone vibrated and Bradley saw a text from Tank. If he keeps insisting that I should go to the party, I will scream. He sighed as he opened the chat.

T: r u still busy unpacking??

Br: yeah, y?

T: liar

T: y u dont wanna come? *eyes emoji*

Br: bc the only 1 who stands me is u *eyeroll emoji*

T: and??

T: im ur best friend, isnt that enough?

Br: 2 tired 2 bear w people staring

Br: besides, it seems i have a private party next door

T: wdym??

Br: dorm next to me playing music

Br: full volume, im hearing it perfectly

T: good music @ lest?

Bradley sighed trying to ignore that Tank was starting to write weirdly, which probably meant he was already tipsy.

Br: yeah

Br: honestly there a few i had never listen to

Br: but b4 the 1st one they playd *fire emoji*

T: hahaha, wich 1??

Br: that 1 by the italian group

Br: wait idr whats called

Br: dis 1! i wanna be ur slave, by maneskin

Br: *link sent*

“First day was boooooring” Bobby whined as he entered the dorm dragging his feet.

Max turned around to look at his friends, who had just arrived from their last class for the day. On the other hand, Max had finished with classes early and had been skating around campus for awhile before heading back to the dorm one hour ago.

“Bobby, we’ve only looked at the syllabus” PJ pointed out.

“That made everything even more boring!” Bobby dropped down to sit on the bed next to Max. “I hope your day was better.”

Max shrugged. “Professors introducing themselfs, syllabuses... Same as always, I guess.”

“Dude, whoever is our next door neighbor might want to kill you already” said PJ, turning the music down a little bit. “Do you have to always play this so loud? You know I don’t care, but it could get us into trouble.”

Max rolled his eyes: he knew very well PJ liked to play it safe. “Bro, don’t disrespect my playlist” Max replied, trying to turn it up again, but refrained himself to do so because of the way PJ glared at him. “Come on, man, it’s Mod Sun with Avril Lavigne, there’s no way anyone could hate me for this masterpiece.”

“If you get killed for this, I’m gonna unbury you just for telling you that I told you so.”

“If I get killed, you would be crying so much that you couldn’t tell me nothing” Max teased.

“Good to see ya, baby” Tank greeted Bradley when he arrived to the Gamma house.

Bradley sat in Tank’s bed, feeling already exhausted for having to be around people and enduring with the fact that everyone hated him. Well, apparently not everyone, because Tank had texted him to tell him to come to the Gamma house, after all. Why on earth would he want to hang out with me, the guy that almost got him killed?

“Sooooo...” Tank dragged out the word.

“So what?” Bradley raised an eyebrow.

“Do you know anything about this next door neighbor of yours that plays that loud but good music almost every waking hour?” There was something in Tank’s tone that made Bradley frowned.

What does he know? “Not much” he answered cautiously. “They sometimes play some songs that I recognize, but I don’t know most of the other ones. I’ve already told you” Bradley squinted his eyes, trying to figure out what was this all about.

“I happen to know who lives next to you” Tank revealed all of a sudden.

The silence filled the room as Bradley looked at him curiously. “So?” he finally caved in when Tank remained silent.

Tank smirked mischievously. “It’s the 99.”

“What do you mean? I’ve already told you it’s room 203. I’m nowhere near room 99”. Bradley blinked confused. But then all the pieces of the puzzle clicked together. “Wait, do you mean...? Them?” he asked with gritted teeth.

This is just great: My room is next to the room of the guys that I tried to ruin last year. If they figure this out, I’m dead for sure. Tank sat beside him and place a hand in Bradley’s shoulder. He turned to look to the big guy in the eye, visibily horrified by the idea, but Tank smiled sweetly at him. Is he not realizing they’re going to kill me? Or maybe he enjoys the idea of they killing me. Which would be fair, to be honest, Bradley thought with his head going a hundred miles per hour.

“You know, they aren’t so bad” Tank finally said, like he knew what Bradley was exactly thinking.

Bradley couldn’t help but let a huff out. “Maybe with you, but I ruined everything. And all because I was being petty!”

“Talk to them. Like you talked to me” Tank suggested with a supportive squish on the shoulder.

“Tank, baby, to this day I still don’t understand that you have forgive me. Just because I had apologize?” Bradley rolled his eyes, feeling frustrated at Tank and at himself.

“Because you explained yourself and because I’ve known you for so long” Tank remarked.

“Well, they don’t know me. They only know the Bradley they saw last year, you know, the maniac that almost killed everybody.”

Now Tank was the one who rolled his eyes. “Baby, you are too hard with yourself.” Or you are not hard enough with me, Bradley was tempted to say, but decided against it. “You had... too much on your plate.”

“Like that changes anything” Bradley left his body collapse onto the bed as he said it, starting to feel his head spining. “What I’ve done is unforgivable.”

“I can think of worse” Tank mumbled and Bradley groaned in protest. “I’m just saying, you have nothing to lose, right?”

It was almost the beginning of September, which meant they had survived the first week and a half of classes. While PJ and Bobby had most classes in the morning, Max had scheduled most of his in the afternoon. His dad pronounced his disapproval but since this year he was no longer going to be there, Max reassured him that he would still be responsible with his studies.

That morning, Max was practicing at the skatepark, trying to improve some tricks and just enjoying himself. He was so focused that he almost crashed with a giant figure that approach him without him noticing.

“Whoa, sorry, dude” he breathed out as he stopped dead in his tracks. “I was so in my own head that I didn’t see you there, Tank” he laughed softly.

“No worries, baby” Tank replied with a smile. “Despite my complexion, sometimes I can be too stealthy.”

“Are you here to skate too?” Max asked still catching his breath.

“Actually, I’ve been meaning to talk to you” Tank smiled brightly but with a hint of mischief.

Max tilted his head. “Talk about what?” he asked with a curious smile.

“You know there is no classes next Monday” Max nodded slowly, “so we the Gammas are going to throw a party at the frat this Saturday. You know, that way everyone has two full days to recover” he laughed loudly.

“Cool. So I’ll let the guys know and we’ll be there” Max replied enthusiastically. Despite the first day back at campus he didn’t felt like going to the party the Gammas threw, now he was looking forward to have some fun with his friends.

“Awesome. Also, I wanted to ask you a favor” Tank continued.

“Me? Well, yeah, I mean, if I can help you with anything, I will.”

“So I’ve heard that you have an interesting playlist” Max raised his eyebrows, kinda surprised about that turn in the conversation. “We were gonna to bring some DJ, but he bailed on us” Tank sighed in an exaggerated manner.

“Uh, I...Well, if you want I can show it you” Max babbled, “but it won’t probably be ‘Gamma style’” he warned, biting his lips nervously and fiddling with the hoops in his lower lip.

Tank let out a belly laugh. “Oh, sweetheart, you’d be surprise what fits in the ‘Gamma style’. I don’t need you to show it to me, just play it at the party. I’m sure it’ll be hit.”

Tank winked playfully and said goodbye to Max. Okay, there is nothing to worry about... It’s just a Gamma party that most probably everyone will attend. And they are going to know my music taste, which was one of the reasons why I was bullied in high school. Totally nothing to worry about, Max anxiously kept telling himself.

“Chillaaaaax, Max-man” Bobby said putting his arm around Max’s shoulders. “Everyone will be so wasted that no one is going to be paying attention to the music.”

“Thanks?” Max raised an eyebrow, not knowing if that should be a relief.

“Bobby, is that your idea to cheer him up?” PJ said with an amused tone.

Certainly, Bobby’s antics weren’t being that helpful. Yeah, he was trying to make Max feel better about the whole party situation, but he didn’t usually think about what he was saying before just saying it. Max had been freaking out for two days because he didn’t want to be ‘the weird guy’ again like he was in high school, although the high school bullying wasn’t just for his music taste it didn’t helped his case. He knew that Bobby was just trying to downplay the matter, but it still wasn’t easy. He didn’t want people to think he was some kind of freak, but also didn’t want people just not to care at all. Gosh, I wish I was making any sense, Max thought.

“Okay, okay, it’s not that everyone is going not to care about it. We will care!” Bobby exclaimed.

“Bobby, I wager that you are going to be the most wasted one at the party” Max replied, slipping from Bobby’s arm around his shoulders.

“Aww, Maxie, you know me soooooo well” Bobby cooed batting his eyelashes like a high schooler.

“Dude, stop being such a creep!” Max laughed as he slighly pushed Bobby to the side.

“I still don’t get it. Why do I have to go?” Bradley asked uninterested.

“Baby, believe me: you don’t want to miss it” replied Tank on the other end of the phone.

“I beg to differ” he mumbled rolling his eyes.

“C’mon, baby, it’ll be fun.”

“If your idea of fun is that everyone around you hate your guts and don’t even try to hide it, sure, super fun” Bradley remarked exuding sarcasm in his tone.

Tank left out a sigh. “You’re coming. Either on your own or dragged in, but one way or another I’ll make it happen” he said then, with a harsher tone. Bradley gulped, he knew Tank was capable of showing at his dorm and literally drag him into the party if he thought it was necessary. “Okay, see you around 8 p.m.!” Tank beamed before hanging up.

Ugh, you gotta be kidding me. Why is this so important, anyway? We only had classes for like two weeks, so what’s the big deal for this party? Bradley stood up from his bed and went to his closet to start pulling out something to wear. If I do have to go, I should start getting ready, he said to himself, already feeling distressed.

“Welcome in, guys!” Tank greeted them as he opened the front door to the frat house. “Again, Max, thank you so much for doing this” continued with a knowing smile.

“Yeah, no problem, man” Max replied, shrugging his shoulder to look nonchalant instead of as nervous as he was really feeling.

“Duuuuuuude! This place is so much bigger on the inside!” Bobby shouted out of pure excitement.

“I don’t think so, Bobby” PJ said rolling his eyes while laughing.

Tank laughed laudly as he moved to let them in. “Come, Max, I’ll show you where we have the sound system for you to connect your phone.”

Max bit his lip, feeling the anxiety beating strongly on his chest. He turned to look to his friends. Bobby was just bouncing around and in an awe with the house, while PJ was giving Max a thumbs up to encourage him. He continued to follow Tank into the game room, where the pool table were right at the middle. On the mantelpiece, there was a pretty decent sound system connected with neatly organized wires to speakers spread throughout the house. I feel like I’m going to throw up. This is serious party bussines, why am I the one putting the music? Why did I agree to this?

“Seriously, dude, you’re a life-saver” Tank patted him hard on the back. “Ah, also there’s plenty of food and drinks in the kitchen. Make yourselves at home, fellas!”

“Weeell, if you insist” Bobby laughed from the hallway, already heading to the kitchen.

This is going to be a loooong night, isn’t it?, Max thought as he left out a sigh.

When Bradley arrived to the Gamma house, there was already to much people for his liking. I swear to God if I survive tonight, I’mma kill Tank for forcing me to do this. He sneaked between the numerous bodies that were floding the house and went straight to the kitchen. This will be more bearable with a couple of beers, he tried to convience himself as he grabbed a bottle, but then he heard a shrill, annoying voice that froze him in place for one minute before he was able to turn around. Why on earth is that buzz-head obnoxious baboon doing here? For God’s sake, this has to be a joke, right? Is Tank trying to prank me or something? Out of every single person on campus, do I really have to deal with whats-his-name and his loud antics? This is going to be a very long night. At least the music was good, which Bradley thought it was refreshing. Usually the Gammas played more electronic music, even though there was variety of genres; instead, that night the playlist that was blasting through the speakers had a lot of rock music. In fact, at that moment the song that was playing was How you remind me by Nickelback. Although the music made him feel a little bit relaxed about being there at the party, Bradley was starting to feel overwhelmed surrounded by that many people, so he decided to go to the back porch. It’ll be less crowded and some fresh air will be nice.

“Peej! Maxi-million!” Bobby cheered as he rejoined his friends.

PJ and Max hadn’t moved too much since they’ve arrived, unlike Bobby who had been wandering around all the time. Even though it had gotten better over the last few years, PJ wasn’t exactly comfortable with being thrown into crowds all of a sudden, so he preferred take it step by step before fully integrating himself at the party. Max had use that as an excuse to not blend himself with the rest of the party-goers, but the truth was that he felt too anxious to talk to anyone.

“Why are you two not dancing?” Bobby asked, handing them each a beer.

“You may like to immediatly dive in, but I prefer to test the waters first” PJ replied before taking a sip of his bottle.

“I haven’t seen much water around here” Bobby laughed. He had already been drinking for sure. “What about you, Max, my man? You are not a wallflower” he remarked, pushing up his sunglasses and revealing his already red eyes.

Before Max had the chance to say anything, Tank approched them. “How are you enjoying the party?” he asked, dragging a little his own words.

“I’m having the time of my life! These two are too busy holding the wall or something” Bobby joked pointing at his friends.

“No, but we are having fun” Max defended themselves as he felt his face turning red. “It’s just... there’s more people than I thought there would be” he shrugged.

“Well, if you need some fresh air, feel free to go out. The back porch is especially quiet” Tank suggested with a hint of mischief in his smile.

“Yeah, I... I think I’m gonna take your advice and go out for a bit” Max silently thanked him for the offer and headed out with his bottle on his hand.

What I was thinking coming here? I feel like everyone is watching me... I thought that that feeling couldn’t stop me no more, but seems like it can. Max was lost in his thoughts and for a brief moment didn’t realize that the back porch was almost empty. There were a few people on the yard lying on the grass and smoking, but sitting at the stairs of the wooden porch there was only one person. Still in his own head, Max took a seat next to him. Why can’t I let it go? It really doesn’t matter what others thinks about me,... right? He took a sip from his beer and it was only then that he looked out of the corner of his eye and saw who he was sitting nex to. Bradley was already looking at him with a mix of confusion and horror when they locked eyes.

Oh, no... Out of all people here...

If I’m honest, I shouldn’t be surprised that Tank would pulled out something like this, Bradley said to himself as he finally looked away from Max after what felt like an eternity. Now this definitely has to be some kind of prank.

“I, uhh, I’m sorry” Max began to say, stumbling with his own words. “I didn’t realize it was you who was, well, right here.”

Bradley turned again to look at the younger boy. “Whoa, am I that forgettable?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Nonono” Max rushed waving both his hand way too near Bradley, splashing a little foam from the beer he had just begun to drink, “I just, well, I...” he sighed dropping his hands. “I was a little bit lost in my own head, that’s all” he finally confessed looking away.

Bradley saw the way Max was trying to hide his red face and his anxiety, but also how he was failing to do so by biting the inside of his lower lip and moving the spike piercing that was coming out of it. Bradley felt bad for the other boy; after all, it wasn’t Max’s fault that he was so grumpy. Am I went insane? Am I really feeling bad for him? He hates me for sure.

Bradley sighed as he shook himself mentally. “It’s okay, I was lost in my own thoughts too, so...” he shrugged before resting his chin on his hand.

The silence between them was weird and a little tense, but still neither of them got up. The only thing that could be heard was Bring me back to life, and Max found himself relaxing and even humming along the song. Bradley looked cautiously at the other boy, as he was swaying to the rhythm of the song with his eyes closed. Then his eyes wandered to Max’s hand which was still holding the beer, clearly almost full.

“Not enjoying the party or just the drinking part?” Bradley asked before he could stop his own words.

Max turned to look at him, surprised that Bradley was just chatting with him. “I, uh, no, it’s not that. It’s just... I don’t know, I guess I want to stay focused” Max said in a whisper tone. I don’t know why, but this feels nice. Like if for some reason he, out of all people, could understand it. “I’m freaking out about being in charge of the music and knowing that everyone here is listening to it.”

“Wait, what? You are in charge of the music?” Bradley felt his whole body tensing up. What are you up to, Tank?

It wasn’t like Bradley hadn’t recognise some of the songs, but he didn’t thought that it was actually Max’s playlist. Damn, a minute ago he didn’t even thought Max was at the party!

“Yeah... I mean, I know it probably isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. It sure doesn’t seem to be yours” Max mumbled trying to downplay the conversation. Bradley let out a laugh and Max turned to look at the brunette as if he had grown a second head. “What’s so funny?”

Bradley took a sip from his own beer, which it had been on the porch step next to Bradley’s foot. He then shook his head while Max still looked at him in disbelief.

“Not my cup of tea? Funny you said that, freshman” Bradley breathed out trying to calm his laughter. “It is indeed my cup of tea” he simply explained before taking another sip.

Now it was Max’s turn to laugh and Bradley’s to look at him like the shorter boy had gotten insane. “Yeah, that’s a good one, Brad” Max laughed.

“Don’t call me Brad. And I’m not joking” Bradley shrugged, “but don’t believe me if you don’t want to.”

“Are you drunk or something? I mean, no offense, but you reaaaally don’t look like someone who listens to this kind of music” Max teased him before mimicking Bradley’s gesture and drink from his beer.

“Well, honestly, it does seem like I’ve drunk more than you” Bradley pointed at Max’s bottle. “You don’t look like you’ve been drinking much than that.”

“You’re right, this is my first one actually. And I’m only drinking it because Bobby handed it to me, and if I didn’t take it I would had never heard the end of it.”

“Like your friend shuts his mouth at some point.”

“Hey!” Max put his bottle down on the step before crossing his arms across his chest. “... Well, being honest, you are right” he laughed softly.

“I have to say that I was surprise when I saw him here. I mean I’d just arrived and not even two minutes later I’m already listening to him yapping around” Bradley made a face of pretend disgust.

“Oh, yeah, that’s right, I didn’t see you here when we arrived” Max suddenly thought out loud. “Were you too busy to help your Gamma brothers with the party?” he teased.

Bradley’s face changed all of a sudden and Max felt guilty instantly. Did I just say something wrong? Well fucking done, Max, now that we were getting along, he reprimended himself internally. Max rubbed the back of his neck, unsure of what to do or say next, while Bradley fidget with his bottle.

“I... I am not a Gamma anymore” Bradley confessed in a hushed tone, as if he was ashamed of that statement.

Max’s eyes widened. “Wait, really? I’m sorry, I didn’t know” he softly said. “I didn’t mean to upset you...”

Bradley shrugged one shoulder trying put on a facade of indifference, but the gesture was too tense to be perceived genuine at all. “It’s fine, really. It doesn’t matter.”

And they were met with silence again. Max had the feeling that anything he would say could make things worse and Bradley just didn’t like been seen vulnerable, so they didn’t say a word for a couple of minutes.

“So... are you not living in the frat neither?” the question slipped Max’s mouth before he could stop it.

He was looking at Bradley, holding his breath as he waited for an answer, but the older one didn’t meet his eye. After a short pause, the brunette simply shook his head. Then, Bradley’s phone vibrated in his pocket. He took it and encountered a text from Tank.

T: Glad 2 c ur enjoyng d party ;)

T *photo sent*

He opened the photo, it was taken from the kitchen door and he and Max were both seen from behind, sitting on the porch. Bradley looked over his shoulder to meet his eye with Tank waving from there. Was this his plan all along? For me to talk to Max? But why?

“So where do you live now then?” Max’s voice brought him back to the conversation.

Oh, shit, this is why, for me to reveal I’m staying next door, right? Bradley’s eyes widened as he was trying to search for a way out. “I, uh...” Come on, please, let something happen, please! His eyes traveled through their surroundings expecting something to change subjects, but of course nothing made Max disconnect his eyes from Bradley while waiting for him to talk. “I am at the west dorms” he finally caved in.

“West dorms? No way... You’re joking, right?” Max’s voice was indecipherable, not a hint of what he thought about that new information.

I wish I was, honestly, then this conversation would be less awkward. “No, I’m not joking...” he mumbled hoping that Max lost interest in this topic.

“Which room?”

Well, so much for losing interest, Bradley thought feeling doomed. “...204” he whispered looking away from Max.

Silence. Maybe he didn’t hear me and doesn’t want to be rude to ask again... I hope so, at least . But when he turned and looked at the other guy, he was met with a face of complete disbelief. Soon, disbelief turned to laughter.

“Oh God, good one, I’ve gotta say you almost got me there!” Max spoke while still laughing. “You have to be pulling me leg now” the younger continued more calmed seeing Bradley’s uncomfortable face. “Because you are, right?”

Bradley shook his head stiffly.

“Wait, so... you really are in the west dorms, in room 204?” Max asked for confirmation. Bradley sighed heavily as he nodded. “So you are in the room next to mine...”

I know. In fact, I’ve known this for almost two weeks. Yeah, I bet he would be thrilled with that. Max seemed so far in his thoughts that Bradley considered getting up and leaving without saying anything else.

“Duuuuuude, I’m so, so, so sorry!” Max suddenly exclaimed. “Fuck, PJ already warned me that our neighbor might hate me already because I’m always blasting my music through the speaker. Ohmygod, I’m sorry, like reaaaaally sorry! Please don’t kill me! I’ll stop playing it so loud!” Max kept blabbling.

Bradley put a hand over the younger boy’s mouth to stop him from talking. “Please, calm down. I never said that I wanted to kill you!” Bradley sighed exhausted. He has too much energy for me right now. Then he slowly removed his hand from the other’s mouth. “I don’t mind it, really. It’s better than the Gammas’ noise, at least” he shrugged looking away. “And I’ve already told you I like this music.”

“Well, that’s a relief” Max ran a hand through his hair, “the ‘not wanting to kill me’ part. Although I’m happy to hear that you like the music too. But really, if anything ever bothers you, please do tell me.”

Is he being serious? Why would he be so nice to me?, Bradley thought with a huff. He wanted to question the freshman’s sanity, but decided against and instead he just said: “yeah, no problem.”

Shortly after, Max had to go back inside because his friends were looking for him, but there was one thing that got stuck in Bradley’s mind: the genuine smile that the shorter boy had offered him as he waved his goodbyes. They had been talking for awhile and even at some point they even exchanged their phone numbers. “You know, just in case we need tell something to one another” Max had said. Now, alone again at the porch, Bradley looked at the screen like he was trying to unravel some kind of mystery in the freshman’s phone number. Well, I mean, he isn’t a freshman anymore, Bradley corrected himself, smiling softly without realizing. He still didn’t fully understand why Max had been so kind, but it felt nice to be able to not worry for a few minutes. Maybe this is why Tank insisted so much that I come.

“Maximum! Where have you been?” Bobby asked as he practically jumped on his friend. Max laughed and dodged Bobby, who almost fell face first on the ground. “Naaah, seriously, dude, we couldn’t find you nowhere. You missed it! PJ and I hitted the dance floor and I think we crushed it!” he continued blabbing with a proudful smile.

“They were completely off-sync” Tank ratted them out.

“Well? Seriously, where were you?” PJ insisted, completely ignoring the two red-heads.

“Well, actually, I was chatting with our next door neighbor” Max confessed. “And, for your information, he said he wasn’t going to kill me, Peej, so you won’t have to worry anymore about it” he added jokingly.

“Wait, have you met the guy?” Bobby shouted too loudly.

“Kinda” Max rubbed his arm, smiling sheepisly.

“And what do you think?” Tank asked with a knowingly smile.

Max squinted his eyes suspiciously. “You knew it, didn’t you?” PJ and Bobby exchanged confused glances as Tank laughed loudly and nodded. “Since when? And why you didn’t say anything?”

“I didn’t say because it was funnier this way” Tank confessed shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly. “And I knew since Bobby told me about your playlist.”

“Me?” Bobby asked confused looking from one to the other.

“Yeah, you told me about Max always playing his music full volume and that his playlist consisted in so many artists and songs. Even gave me some examples, and when you mentioned I wanna be your slave by Måneskin, everything fell into place.”

“What do you mean?” Max asked.

“I had been texting him before that conversation, and he had mentioned that specific song.”

“Wait, and that’s why you asked me which room was ours?” Bobby intervened trying to puzzle everything together. When Tank nodded, Bobby blinked a few times. “Wait, wait, wait, you just said that you were texting him. So you do know that dude?”

“Of course” Tank laughed, “Bradley and I go way back.”

“Did you just say Bradley?” now it was PJ who intervened. “As in ‘Bradley Uppercrust III’?”

“The one and only” Tank declared.

PJ and Bobby turned their heads to look at Max with disbelief in their faces.

“So are you telling us that you were god-knows-where chatting with Bradley?” PJ questioned astonished.

“I-” Max opened his mouth to explain himself, but Bobby cut him off.

“The guy who almost made you give up on the X-games and tranfer to another college? And the one who launched PJ into the space? The one that cause that giant red X to collapse? That specific guy?”

“Come on, guys, I...” Max tried to defend himself for talking to Bradley, but he was lost for words at that moment. I mean, even I don’t understand why we were talking just a moment ago.

Bobby then turned around again, now facing Tank. “And you launched him into that blimp. I thought you weren’t friends with the guy anymore!”

“Yeah, I did that” Tank replied with a slight shrug. “But I had all summer to sort things out with him. Look, it’s not my place to explain his side, but I know him enough to understand why he did what he did. And he isn’t proud of what happened. He didn’t even want me to forgive him.”

“But you did it anyways” Max clarified, more as a thought out loud for himself than for the others.

Tank nodded proudly. “Trust me, guys. You should give him a chance. You’ll be surprised.”

A knock on the door made Bradley jolt. He stood up letting a sigh out and opened the door, but he didn’t expected to see him right there at his door.

“What are you doing here? Did something happened?” Bradley asked, with more curiosity than annoyance.

Max greeted the older boy with a big, bright smile. Bradley’s thoughts were racing. What could he possibly want? I know that last night at the party we said that we can talk to each other if necessary, but I thought he meant it more like I could let him know if his music bothered me.

“Hey, can I come in?” Max asked kindly.

“Eh... Sure” Bradley doubted but moved to let the shorter boy come in anyways. “Okay, I’ll ask again” he continued after a few seconds of silence, “did something happened?”

“No, why?” Max replied distractedly while his eyes roamed around Bradley’s room.

The brunette blinked with a loss for words. “What do you mean?” Max turned to him with a bewildered look. “If nothing happened, then what do you need?” he rephrased his question.

“Nothing” Max answered tilting his head, as if he still didn’t understand Bradley’s question.

“Then why are you here?”

“To hang out, of course” the shorter boy beamed.

Okay, he definitely lost his mind, Bradley stated to himself. “Just to hang out?” Max nodded enthusiastically. “With me?” Bradley insisted mockingly.

“Yeah. What’s so hard to understand?” Max laughed as he dropped down to sit on the bed.

“You wanting to hang out with me at all, for starters” Bradley huffed. “Don’t you have anything better than this? And I mean anything. I don’t know, even homework.”

“Dude, it’s Sunday, why would I be doing any study-related stuff?” Max groaned. “Especially considering that we have no classes tomorrow.”

Bradley glared his own desk for an instance: his notebook open as he had stopped halfway through cleaning up his notes. “Leaving everything for last minute, huh? Not so clever, if you ask me” Bradley replied, turning his attention to Max again. He had a grimace of annoyance. “Okay, forget I said anything about homework. But still, why would you want to hang out here with me?”

“Why not?” Max challenged him, changing his grimace to a amused gesture.

“Are you really asking me that?” Bradley raised an eyebrow. “I was mean to you througout last year, I cheated on the X-games without measuring the consequences, I almost got you killed... Just to name a few reasons.”

Max put a finger under his chin pretending to be thinking really hard about the answer. “Yeah, I don’t buy it” he finally said with a proud but kind smile.

“You don’t have to ‘buy it’, I stated the facts!” Bradley declared through gritted teeth.

“I think that’s just your version of the story” Max shrugged, “but I also think you are punishing yourself more than you should.”

“Yeah? What are you? A mind expert?” he joked rolling his eyes out of pure annoyance.

“Not yet” Max continued smiling, “but I’ve already declared my major and it’s not that far from what you just said.”

Should I care?, Bradley thought but instead found himself asking: “What major?”

“Psychology” Max puffed out his chest.

Bradley rubbed his face with both hands. “Good for you, freshman. Now, that doesn’t-”

“Sophomore, actually” Max cut him off midsentence.

Bradley sighed. “Whatever. None of the things you are saying answers my question. Why you want to hang out with me?”

“Honestly, I had fun last night chatting with you” Max began to open up about Bradley’s concern. “And when I went back with my friends, well, we were with Tank and he told us some interesting things.”

Bradley felt cold sweat down his spine. “What kind of things did he say?”

“That you both worked things up during the summer. I’ve gotta say, he didn’t gave us too many details, but he said that he understands why you acted the way you did” Bradley couldn’t help to roll his eyes yet again. “Also that we should give it a chance to understand it too.”

Hearing that made Bradley froze in place. It was not only that Tank didn’t hate him, but also he was advocating for him. But I don’t deserve it. With every thought spinning around his head, he took a seat at the desk chair as he felt like his body was going to crumble.

“So I decided to take his advice” Max continued cautiosly. “That’s why I’m really here right now, to be honest. Look, if I’m bothering you, I’ll just go” he said as he stood up.

“No, I...” Bradley suddenly spoke in a hushed tone. “You can stay.”

Max sat down on the bed again but they both remained in silence. Neither of them knew how to really start a conversation with each other, let alone a deep and honest one. Max shifted nervously sitting there and Bradley wasn’t able to hold his gaze but overall the silence wasn’t uncomfortable.

“Look”, Max decided to speak first, “we don’t have to talk about the X-games or anything like that right now if you don’t want. I would like to try and understand it, yeah, but I don’t want you to feel pressured to tell.”

Bradley sighed deeply. “It’s just... complicated, I guess. I don’t know if you’ll understand.” I don’t even understand any of what happened, if I’m being honest with myself.

“You can try me”, the younger encouraged with a soft smile. “Well, if you want to, of course” he then reassured him.

Bradley didn’t know how to begin with his explanation: everything he thought of saying just seemed so fake and unreal. I’m just making excuses for what I’ve done, when there’s in fact no excuses for that, he reprimanded himself. Even though he wasn’t looking at the other boy, Bradley felt his brown eyes piercing him, waiting for anything, just any words, whether or not they had anything to do with that topic.

“I had to win” Bradley exhaled as he decided it was best to rip the band-aid off.

“Tank was ahead of me” Max remarked, “so you would still have won.”

“No, no” Bradley continued as he pinched the bridge of his nose, “I needed to be the one that crossed the finish line. In fact, I wasn’t even aware who was there ahead of me.”

Max’s eyebrows furrowed. “I think I’m not following. Tank is like... so distinguishable.”

“My vision was kinda blurred” Bradley confessed, “all I could see was... shades of red and shadows moving around.”

Max blinked confused tilting his head. “... Did you get hit or something?”

“No!” Bradley exclaimed but he then realized it felt more of an automatic answer. “Yes? Ugh, I don’t really know” he looked down at his hand trying to remember the X-games. “I wasn’t... there.”

“There... at the X-games?” Bradley nodded. “But... you were there, competing with the Gammas” Max continued with a tone that showed that he wasn’t judging Bradley but he was trying to make sense to the conversation.

“Maybe physically” Bradley concluded still looking down.

“Oh, so... you disassociated” Max’s response made Bradley raise his head to look at the other boy. Max could see the confusion in Bradley’s eyes, so he continued: “You know, disassociation includes many experiences and is characterized by a separation from reality. In your case, it sounds like quite a disconnection between the physical experience itself and your own emotional experience” he explained as he fidgeted with his hands. “I mean, I’m no expert on the matter” he defended himself, “but maybe it’s something like that.”

Bradley was still pondering about the words the freshman, well, the sophomore had just said. I mean, that explanation kinda sounds like how it felt, Bradley thought, but it was somehow bitter. Even if that’s the explanation, it’s not excuse for what I did.

“Were you under the influence of drugs?” Max asked, interrupting the brunette’s train of thought.

“What? Are you out of your mind?” he shouted offended. “I might be no saint, but I wouldn’t dare to compete like that!”

“Whoa, dude, I’m sorry!” Max raised his hands in surrender. “I didn’t mean to accuse you of anything or offend you, I just intended to rule out some possible triggers.”

The shock of the statemente made Bradley to drop his anger a bit. “Triggers?”

“Yeah, I... I just started with that because... I thought it’ll be the less problematic.”

“The drugs are the less problematic possibility?” Bradley mocked.

“I mean, considering that it might be related to neurobiological mechanisms, trauma and anxiety... Oh, well, and I think that there are investigations that have also related it to suggestibility and hypnosis.”

“So now it turns out that I’ve been hypnotized, haven’t I?” Bradley joked trying to discourage Max to continue this conversation.

“Maybe? I don’t know” he chuckled. “But whatever the answer, all the options are somewhat worrisome, don’t you think?”

Max offered a soft understanding smile that took Bradley completely by surprise. It was like the shorter guy was telling him that he didn’t have anything to worry about, that he could count on him. Like if that smile was telling him that Max trusted him and understood him. How could he feel that way? I was the worst to him last year and now he is... offering me support. Why? Bradley could feel the burn in his eyes, so he turned his gaze away to avoid Max from seeing that he had tears in them.

“You said that you should have been the one to cross the finish line.” Max pondered with a soft tone, like he was trying not to scare Bradley away. “Why?”

Bradley hesitated for a brief moment before simply responding: “My father.”

Those words impacted on Max’s head. So it is trauma, isn’t it?, he tought gloomily. Just by hearing that, he immediately knew that Bradley’s father was not so great. Without having met the man himself and not knowing any details, Bradley’s body language was enough to get a hint of what kind of pressure he was constantly under. The sophomore was between a rock and a hard place: he wanted to know more to understand better, but it looked like Bradley was about to crumble. Well, baby steps. We’ve made enough progress today, right?

“On another note” Max began cheerfully, regaining Bradley’s attention, “you’ve said that you didn’t know some songs that you liked on my playlist, didn’t you? Want me to show them to you?”

“I can’t believe our stuff has already arrived!” Bobby cheered as he ran inside the little warehouse. “My babies!” he joyly cried throwing himself at the drum set.

Max rolled his eyes holding back his laughter. “Dude, would you relax a bit? I told you not to make a big deal out of this.”

Since that year the X-games got cancelled for the sake of students’ safety and to promote less dangerous activities, Max finally caved in his friends’ request. He caressed his guitar with a sad nostalgia tingling through his body, a lot had happened since they had stopped playing.

“When does PJ going to be here?” Bobby asked without having relaxed a bit.

“When his class is over” Max replied looking at Bobby like it was the stupidiest question he had ever made. In fact, it wasn’t, because Bobby was the king of stupid questions and inappropiate remarks. “Come on, let’s get things ready for when he arrives.”

Bobby whimpered at the thought of having to work on setting things up but he didn’t try to fight it when he saw the earnest look in Max’s eyes. The boy sighed already exhausted. And we didn’t even start yet. He turned to the guitar again and smiled with a crazy idea. He took his phone out and took a photo of the black guitar with red accents. Aaaaand sent, he proudly thought to himself.

M: if u like my playlist, u should c dis

“You’ve got to be kidding” PJ repetead but he already knew that Max was in fact not kidding. “You really invited Bradley over to see our rehearsal?”

“And without consulting us” Bobby pouted.

“Guuuys, it’s okay” he defended with a bright smile. “You’ve already heard Tank, Bradley is not what we thought he was last year. The other day we talked in his room and he is a pretty decent guy, you know?”

“In his room?” Bobby asked wiggling his eyebrows, changing his mood completely.

Max rolled his eyes because he knew that his friend was only trying to get under his skin. “He even listens some of this music.”

“The music we are about to play?” PJ mocked. As Max nodded enthusiastically, the larger boy sighed before adding: “So you are going to tell us that he likes, I don’t know” he took the paper on which they had written today’s tracklist, “Fall Out Boy?”

“Actually, yes” Max answered with a smirk.

“Okay, can we please just start?” Bobby begged, already bored of that quarrel.

“Fine” PJ sighed. “I mean, he probably won’t even show up, right?”

At that precise moment, the warehouse door opened and Nika entered followed by Bradley, as if PJ had summoned him. Max gave his friend a mocking look as the newcomers approched.

“Look who I found wandering around” Nika announced with fun and surprise equally in her voice.

“Yeah, apparently Max invited him” PJ remarked with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

PJ joined Bobby in the stage platform while Nika went to sit on the second-hand sofa. For a brief moment, Max and Bradley stood there awkwardly.

“I’m glad you could come” Max finally said with a kind smile.

“Well, I was just around the area when I ran into little miss mochaccino” Bradley mumbled.

The warehouse was outside campus, about a fifteen-minute walk, so Max knew that Bradley wasn’t there just by mere coincidence, but decided to not say anything about it. Instead his smile grew bigger and he patted the brunette lightly on the arm.

“Anyways, I’m glad you’re here now” Max reassured.

Bradley looked over the shorter boy’s shoulder, towards the stage where his friends were standing. “They don’t seem thrilled with the idea of me being here, though” he claimed.

Max shrugged. “Yeah, well, they weren’t expecting any further audience” Max tried to downplay his friends’ mood. “They’ll behave, I promise” he then added.

“Duuuuude, are you coming or what?” Bobby shouted already impatient behind the drum set.

“Relax, Bobby, for fuck’s sake!” Max yelled. He turned again to look at Bradley with an apologetic look before saying: “Sorry about him, he is like a little kid. Anyways, I have to go with them, but you can take a seat if you want.”

Max jogged to the stage and Bradley stood there for a solid minute. Am I really going to stay here? He then looked over at the sofa where PJ’s girlfriend was examinating him amused. She gestured the spot next to her at the sofa, as if she was inviting him to join. It was awkward standing in the middle of the place so Bradley headed to the sofa reluctantly. Gosh, why did I came? I barely know these guys beyond when I tried to ruin their lives. I mean, yeah, I didn’t feel like staying alone in the dorm and hanging out with Tank would have mean hanging out with the rest of the Gammas and probably partying, which I feel even less like it. But this? Sure, Max said they were going to play music similar to the one on his playlist, but come on, they sure aren’t rockstars.

Bradley didn’t realize that the boys were ready until the three of them suddenly started playing together in time. Just a few chords were enough for Bradley to recognize they were playing Novocaine by Fall Out Boy. Okay, at least they are not terrible. But then Max started singing and Bradley felt completely astonished. The young boy was playing the guitar while singing in a slightly husky voice without going out of tune. Bradley felt hypnotised looking how the sophomore was goofing around without missing a beat.

“I bet you didn’t expect that” the girl next to him whispered jokingly.

“Whatever, little miss mochaccino” he spat out in a low voice, still unable to take his eyes off the stage.

“It’s Veronika, actually” she corrected him. “But everyone calls me Nika.” Bradley remained silent, thinking that this would end the conversation. “You are more pleasant to be around when you don’t put on that arrogant mask of yours” she pointed out.

Bradley tried to remain focused on the boys’ performance but Nika’s words stucked in his head.

After five or six songs, the boys decided to take a five-minute break. PJ and Bobby approached the couch to talk with Nika, and Bradley, feeling awkward and uncomfortable, stood up and went straight to the stage, where Max was lying on the floor.

“What are you doing?” Bradley asked with genuine curiosity.

“It’s floor time for me” he said almost breathlessly like it was obvious.

“Yeah, don’t worry about him, Max does that aaaaaaall the time” Bobby remarked from the couch armrest.

Bradley blinked incredulousness and Max closed his eyes and let out a soft tired laugh at the brunette’s reaction.

“It’s a senseless nonsense” Max continued nonchalantly. “So... what are your thoughts?” he then asked opening a bit his eyes to look at the older boy.

“I...” Bradley hesitated as Max smiled weakly but tenderly at him. “It was... not bad at all.”

“What do you mean ‘not bad’? Dude, we were on fire!” Bobby proclaimed.

“Bob-boy, mind your own bussines” Max sighed amused but exhausted. “Forgive him, he is a meddler.”

“Hey!” Bobby protested.

“Dude, you are, don’t try to deny it” PJ mocked.

The conversation on the couch returned to a tease-fight from the two other boys while Max chuckled on his friends’ behavior. Bradley’s attention returned to Max, still lying sprawled on the ground.

“I’m still not getting... this” Bradley concluded gesturing Max.

“It regulates my system” the other simply replied.

“Max gets overstimulated pretty easily” PJ began to explain. “A while ago he found out that this ‘floor thing’ helps him when he is too full of get-up-and-go, so now he just does that. Otherwise, he would be bouncing all over the place non-stop.”

“I mean, it can’t be any worse than he normally is” Bradley chuckled.

“Oooooh, believe us, it is” Bobby stated overly amused.

Bradley blinked, unable to imagine a scene of that magnitude. “So when did you guys start all this band thing?” he then dared to ask, mostly wanting to change to a more credible subject.

“Uh... It was sophomore year of high school” Max answered with a more steady voice. Bradley was tempted to ask why they decided to form a band in the first place, but before he could do so, Max jumped to his feet. “Okay, guys, let’s hit it!”

Bobby and PJ shared a look of amused annoyance. “I think that wasn’t enough floor for you” Bobby joked.

“Shut it. Drums, now” the boy on stage commanded strictly.

“Okay, okay, coming. Geeez, you’re so bosy” Bobby complained heading to the stage.

The boys started to getting ready on stage bickering as Bradley headed back to the couch to seat beside Nika. I’m already exhausted by their energy, he tought before turning his gaze towards the girl, who was looking at the boys with spirited interest.

“Are they always like this?” he sighed.

She turned to him with a knowing look as she replied: “Most of the time.”

Maybe ‘bouncing’ was one way to put it but it didn’t feel quite enough to describe what just happened in front of Bradley’s eyes. The sophomore’s burst of energy on stage was certainly more than the older boy had ever witnessed before. There were moments when it seemed like Max had trouble staying in front of his mic.

“Okay, let’s leave it here for today” Max panted as he leaned forward holding onto his knees.

Bradley stood up, ready to leave without a fuss, when all of a sudden an unexpected weight knocked him slightly off balance as someone put an arm around his shoulders.

“Soooooo, Uppercrust, my man” Bobby speaked over-friendly, “what do you think?”

Bradley turned to look at the obnoxious brain-less guy. “Didn’t you already asked me that?”

“He wants you to be on-board with this whole band shenanigan” Max explained as he jumped off the stage, “so it’d be three against one” he pointed first at his friends and then at himself.

Bradley’s eyes wandered between Max and the other two boys, slowly putting together what that meant. “Wait, you’re against this?” he finally asked raising an eyebrow in Max’s direction.

The shorter boy waved his hand dismissively. “Whatever. I’m doing this anyways, right? Don’t act like it’s a big deal.”

“The one who invited me to come here? You, the one who was jumping around all the time?” Bradley chuckled. “I find it really hard to believe” he then shrugged when he saw Max frowning at him.

“Yeah, right? You get it!” Bobby shouted shaking Bradley with the naturalness of those who have been friends all their lives.

Max was about to protest but was cut off by PJ. “Dude, you know it’s true. It’s weird that you don’t want to do this.”

“C’mon, I don’t owe you guys any explanation!” he snarled.

“What do you mean? Dude, this was your idea, to begin with” Bobby stated, finally letting go off Bradley’s shoulders.

Max slumped onto the sofa with a grumble, avoiding any eye contact with his friends. His usual cheerfulness had now been replaced by grumpiness and the general mood was oddly off, giving Bradley the feeling that he shouldn’t be witnessing any of that.

“Max, you can’t blame us for being worried” PJ exhaled. “And you do owe us an explanation.”

“Yeah, Max-man” Bobby continued, “we tell each other everything. We’ve been patient, but in all these years you’ve never told us why all of a sudden you wanted the band to stop playing. You were the one who suggested we formed it in the first place” he reminded him once again.

“Well, ‘suggested’ is an undestatment” PJ intervened, “you basically begged us to do this.”

“Okay, so now no one can change their mind or what?” Max snapped at them. “This” he continued gesturing the entire room, “is not that big a deal.”

“For you, it was” PJ said increasingly annoyed. “Weren’t you the one who always talked about seeking the thrill of the stage?”

“I’ve already been on a stage” Max mumbled as he slunk further in his seat.

“You’re saying it like it was after forming the band when the fact that you were on that stage in front of thousands was the reason you wanted to form the band” PJ kept pushing and, judging by his face, Max wasn’t liking this whole conversation.

But there was a part that caught Bradley’s attention. “Max on a stage in front of thousands?” he asked remarking the last word mockingly.

“Oh, yeah, dude” Bobby replied, “in a Powerline concert about four years ago.”

“As if” the brunette laughed turning to look at Max. However, the way the sophomore looked at him made him realize that it wasn’t a lie. “Hold on, so... The kid who made the news for sneaking into that concert was you?”

Max rolled with eyes, already tired of having to explaining himself. Right now, the last thing he wanted was to be the center of attention, not because of that matter at least. As if she had heard his silent prayers, Nika stepped forward from her position next to the door and put his hand in PJ’s shoulder.

“Honey, maybe this isn’t the time for this” she softly said. “It seems like Max is closing in on himself the more you insist, so why don’t we let this topic breathe?” PJ didn’t look willing to let the subject drop. “And besides, I have to be at the Bean Scene in about twenty minutes” she stated to divert his boyfriend’s attention.

PJ sighed. “Yeah, okay, I’ll walk you there” they turned around heading the door but PJ stopped for a moment. “I can understand that you don’t like to feel pressured, but you know our deal” the larger boy concluded without turning to look at his friend.

Max put his head between his hands grasping his hair. PJ was right, he knew perfectly their deal, but was it really that necessary to bring it up? Why do they worry so much about me wanting to drop the band when I’ve already given in to their desire of getting it back together? He was so absorbed by his own feelings and thoughts that he didn’t realize that Bradley approached him until the older boy sat down beside him. He raised his head to look at him as soon as he noticed the brunette’s weight land on the sofa.

“... Are you okay?” Bradley softly asked, unsure what to do.

“Oh, yeah... thanks, though” Max gave him a smile that hidden a bit of sadness behind it. “Okay, Bobby, let’s get this all toget- Fuck, he already bailed” he dropped his shoulders. “I’mma kill that asshole! He left me hanging with all the undone work!” he blurted out in exasperation as he stood up.

“Well... if you want, I can help you put things away” Bradley offered without even knowing why.

Max turned around abruptly with bright eyes. “Really? I mean, you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to, but I really could use some help, thanks.”

Bradley nodded politely and Max beamed. It was quite difficult to ignore his heart skipping a beat. It’s probably just because I don’t understand any of this, like why I ended up picking everything up with him, or why he seems so happy about it, Bradley tried to convince himself while following Max’s instructions on what to do and where to put things. After awhile, they were done and Max left out a happy sigh as he dropped down on the couch.

“I can’t believe that everything is already done. Thanks again, man, I couldn’t have done it so quickly without you” he looked up to the older boy with a smile. “Now I’m soooooo tired” he complained, “I don’t want to walk all the way there!”

Bradley shook his head amused. Says the boy who had the energy of a hundred toddlers about an hour ago. “Come on, we can go together” he offered.

“Are you going to give me a piggyback ride to the dorms?” Max joked as he stood up and walked out the door with the brunette.

Bradley couldn’t help but to rolling his eyes at the way the sophomore was teasing him while closing the door behind them. The street where the warehouse was located was a secondary road that led to a once industrial area, although the companies in there had moved elsewhere long ago and there was really little to none activity in the surrounding warehouses. The only thing that could be seen in the vicinity was a black luxury sedan.

“Hey, look” Max pointed out, “that is some sick car right here” he then let out a long whistle. “Whoever owns that has to be loaded.”

Bradley didn’t take his eyes off Max as he took out the key and pressed the button that opened the car. Max’s eyes wandered between the key in Bradley’s hand and the car itself. The shorter boy blinked a few times to process all that.

“Wait, is it yours?” he yelled. “Dude, are we really driving there?”

“Well” the older boy shrugged approching the car, “I’ve never said we were going to walk.”

“Don’t you ever get tired of the music? Or get a headache?” Bradley mocked as they went upstairs.

“Never” Max stated proudly.

The car ride was more peaceful than Bradley expected, although Max insisted on choosing the music on the radio for a three-minute ride, which resulted in just Chalk Outline by Three Days Grace playing on the car. Max was pleasantly surprise seeing Bradley singing along withouth realizing, which meant that the brunette already knew that song.

Now they had arrived in front of the doors of their rooms, so Max took out his key while he kept babbling out. He was the one who had been conducting most of their conversation, but Bradley was content with just listening. It’s not like I know what to say anyway.

“Wanna come in?” Max’s question brought Bradley out of his thoughts.

“Eh... what?”

“Do you want to come in?” Max repeated slowly mockingly.

“I heard you” Bradley rolled his eyes. “But why?”

“Why not?” Max tilted his head as he smiled.

The younger boy opened his door and made Bradley a gesture inviting him to come in. The brunette stood there weighing for a moment what he should do. When Max saw Bradley’s hesitation, he grabbed him by the arm and led him inside. A shiver ran down Bradley’s spine as he thought about the possibility of the sophomore’s roommates were there at that moment. Max let go of Bradley to close the door and then he seated down on his bed, while Bradley stood there awkwardly scanning the room.

“What is this pigsty?” Bradley muttered.

“C’mon, it’s not that messy!” Max complained. Bradley put his hands on his hips with a raised eyebrow, even though he was surprised the younger boy had heard him. “Dude, we’re young, we’re boys, we’re in college... It’s perfectly normal!” Max kept trying to defend himself.

“I’m also a young boy in college, and my room is not near as messy” Bradley pointed out.

“But you’re only one person, we’re three” Max stated with excessive pride on his reasoning.

“My mess isn’t even equivalent to the mess of just one of you.”

Max flipped him off which caused Bradley to laugh, feeling more relaxed than before. Not thinking about what he was doing there anymore, the older boy took a seat next to Max like it was second-nature already.

“So...” curiosity was tingling in Bradley’s head, “what was all that argument about? With your friend,... PJ?”

Max looked at him as if he just slapped him. “It’s really nothing” he breathed out eventually.

“Didn’t look like ‘nothing’” Max looked away, pouting like a child being scolded. “It’s not like I care, you know? But there was a weird vibe. And you guys kept saying something about a deal and so. I don’t know, I guess I’m just curious because you looked so upset the whole time. Not the kind of upset I saw from you before, like when your father was here or...” Or when I bullied you relentlessly.

“It’s... not easy to talk about it” Max admited. “And the more pressured I feel, the less I want to talk. It’s irritating that PJ doesn’t get it, we’ve been friends since we were eleven.”

Bradley examined Max, who was still glanzing away. It was not hard to picture him as a middle schooler, probably having a similar appearance and style to the one he had now, but surely more energetic, if that was possible. Or maybe not and he is just like when he was a kid.

“If it’s so complicated, why did you agree to bring the band together again without further ado, instead of try and talk things out with them?” Bradley rested his cheek on his fist, trying to read better Max’s expression. “Wouldn’t that made things easier?”

Max groaned, flopping on the bed with his eyes closed and annoyed gesture. “I don’t want to be pitied anymore. They know what they have to know, it’s not my fault if they don’t connect the dots.”

Bradley decided it was better to not insist and just change the subject. “What made you decide to start playing together again now?”

Still lying with his eyes closed, Max couldn’t help but to smile a little. “Well, although most of the summer, Bobby has been at my house, there are... things we can’t do there, or else my dad will freak out” he chuckled a little, picturing his dad losing his mind and most probably arrainging a camp trip for patch things up. “So there were times we went to Bobby’s basement instead. And one of the days we were down there, we were talking about what to do this year since the cancellation of the X-games” Bradley winced when he mentioned it, “because we’re not friends of too much free time. Well, PJ is the one who handles it better, but Bobby and I... not good. The things is that I stood up I don’t even remember why and tripped-”

“So you are just as clumsy as your father, aren’t you?” Bradley teased him.

Max opened slightly one eye to menacing look at him and flipped him off as he continued. “I tripped and fell over Bobby’s drum set. It had been under a blanket for who knows how long, so we weren’t fully aware of it still being there until I crashed onto it. A lightbulb lighted on their heads, they started insisting on this... Aaaaand the rest is history.”

“That easy?” Bradley raised an eyebrow.

“Well, yeah... and no, I guess. We had to find a place to rehearse because doing that here in the dorm would have been ask for more troubles than me just playing my playlist full volume” Max leaned his weight on his elbows to sit up a little. “Believe me, you would have really hated us if that were the case. And I tried to take advantage of not having a place to discourage them a little. I know it wasn’t a cool move on my part, but... Like I said, it’s complicated.”

Bradley may not understood why Max seemed so against the band when his attitude on stage said otherwise, but he definitely could understand the younger boy making decisions he would later regret just to get his way. Beyond doubt, Bradley had done that all the time too.

“But Bobby and PJ had to mention that in front of my dad, and he was instantly on board! He started helping us and he even talked with PJ’s mom, who is a real estate agent, so she pulled a few strings and, boom, she found a place we could use.”

“So your parents... helped you?” Bradley felt a sting of jealousy at that thought but tried to hide it.

“Yeah” Max sighed. “Even PJ’s dad chipped in with the couch. I mean, yeah, he only did it because he was going to buy a newer one and throw the other anyways, but still... Do you know how difficult is for that man to contribute on something that is not for himself?”

“Well... I personally think it’s nice that they care about you that much” Bradley replied as he looked away.

It was only then that Max realized that he was complaining about having people around him that cared and loved him, without taking into account that Bradley’s background was probably not the same, as far as he knew. He opened the mouth to say something and try to apologize for being insensitive, but he was interrupted when the door bursted open.

“Hey, Maxieeeee! You’re here!” Bobby exclaimed, loud as always.

“Not thanks to you” the younger boy glared at his friend, suddenly forgetting about the previous conversation. “I was only able to finish quickly thanks to him” he reprimanded, pointing out Bradley.

Bobby turned his attention to Bradley and blinked a few times. “Dude, since when are you here?” asked idiotically.

“Since before you, because you bailed on me” Max replied without giving Bradley the chance to speak.

“What is he doing in our room?” Bobby insisted, ignoring Max’s scolding.

“You’re saying it like I can’t invite people over” Max crossed his arms.

Bobby seated down at his own bed as he seemed to ponder about what his friend had just said. “Well, if you put it that way” he shrugged and smiled.

Max rolled his eyes. “Of course I put it that way” he huffed amused. Bobby pulled out a cigarette case and Max jolted sitting straight up. “Bobby! What are you doing? Stop!” he hissed as he glanced quickly in Bradley’s direction.

“Oh, is he a snitch?” Bobby asked nonchalantly before putting a hand-rolled cigarrete in his mouth and reached out for a lighter.

Bradley looked up to the ceiling. “Are you going to smoke here? What about the smoke detector?”

“I shut it off the moment we arrived here, duh” Bobby laughed like it was the most normal thing to do.

Bradley frowned but didn’t say anything. Usually he wouldn’t mind to speak up and just spat him that that was dangerous, but that day a lot had happened and he didn’t know how to react with these people anymore. Bobby lighted up his cigarrete while Max hid his face with both hands, visibilly ashamed of his friend’s carelessness. Soon the smell hit Bradley on the nose.

“Wait, is that a joint?”

Max groaned leaning forward, looking like he was praying for the earth to swallow him up. However, Bobby chuckled and looked at Bradley over his sunglasses. “Wasn’t it obvious?”

“Dude, this isn’t your mom’s basement” Max complained taking his hands off his face. His cheecks were red, but Bradley assumed it was because he was getting pissed off by his own friend. “You’re going to be the death of me.”

“Well...” Bobby started talking after taking a hit, “it would be a sweet death then” he joked reaching out his hand to Max.

Max hesitated for a moment after letting out a sigh and grabbing the joint Bobby was offering. “At least grab the can” he protested.

Bobby laughed as he reached for a bruised soda can that was on the desk. So I’m assuming that isn’t garbage, but their ashtray, Bradley noted mentally. Max let the smoke out of his mouth as he threw his head back and he stretched his arm towards Bradley. The older boy blinked at the joint in Max’s hand.

“Oh, sorry” Max said tilting slightly his head to face him, “force of a habit. Do you not smoke?”

Bradley took a moment to think about if he should accept the offered joint. It wasn’t like he didn’t try it before, but he usually just smoked when he was with Tank at parties. Okay, what the hell, it’s not like I have anything else to do later, he told himself internally while taking the joint to take a puff.

That afternoon on Max’s room was actually comfortable for Bradley, even being there with Bobby. Max had told him that they had planned to do band rehearsals on Fridays and Saturdays, and that he could drop by whenever he wanted. Bobby even said that it would be nice having an outsider’s point of view, so Bradley felt reassured that both guys were genuine. He would have never imagined himself spending an afternoon smoking pot with the guys he had screwed up the last year, but there he was. And it certainly wasn’t that terrible.

On Monday, with all his classes finished, Bradley was about to go back to the dorms. He kept a fast pace and he was looking nowhere as he was absorbed in his thoughts about the lecture he just had, when suddenly he heard his name being called behind him. He turned around instantly like he was unable to control his own body to look at the sophomore who was now running towards him.

“Hey, dude, how’ve you been?” Max smiled brightly when he got by his side.

“Umm... Good” Bradley replied looking around.

“Are you heading back to the dorms? I was on my way there too.”

“What are you doing?” Bradley asked.

“Going to my room to rest a little bit before my afternoon class?” Max raised his eyebrow, amused but confused at the brunette’s question.

“No, I mean, why are you talking to me?”

“What?” Max forrowed tilting his head. “I thought we were over that. I told you already that I like hanging out with you.”

Bradley took one more look around before looking directly at the other boy. “But we are in public.” Max’s confused frown grew, so the older boy sighed. “You shouldn’t want to be seen in public with me.”

“Oh, come on, why? Because of what people may say? Like I care about that!” Max pouted. “I’ve already worried too much in the past about what people think about me, I don’t want to worry about it anymore.”

The confidence with which Max had said that froze Bradley in place. I mean, I can’t be surprised that people gave him a hard time, because I was one of those people, but the composure he seems to have in this regard is admirable. Max began to walk towards the dorms and Bradley followed automaticaly.

“Even so, you should avoid me in public” he insisted.

“Okay, I’m gonna bite the hook” Max shrugged as he turned to face Bradley and started to walk backwards, “why should I avoid being with you in public?”

“Because I’m a social outcast. Look where you’re walking” he interrupted himself to turn the other boy to walk looking forward when he nearly hit a lamppost. “So if you’re seen hanging out with me, you will be an outcast too” he concluded.

“I’ve been an outcast myself most of my life” Max rolled his eyes. “So even if that happens, I think I’ll survive.”

“Too stubborn” Bradley replied.

“You have no idea” Max smiled proudly crossing his arms behind his head.

It was almost night when the boys decided to head back to their room. When their afternoon classes were over, the boys had hit the skatepark and goofed around for a few hours. Even though it was already early September, the weather was still warm, and Max felt his clothes sticking to his body.

“Hey there, sweethearts” Tank greeted when they encountered with him. “I see you have been on the skatepark, hope you had fun. More than me at least” he laughed.

“Are you finishing your classes for today just now?” Bobby asked horrified. “Dude, what a nightmare.”

“Everything study-related is a nightmare to you, man” PJ teased him.

“I heard you are getting along with Bradley” Tank said, looking directly at Max. “That’s nice, I told ya you’d be surprised.”

“Yeah, he is fun to be around” Max replied, earning a glare from Bobby and PJ. “What?”

“Nothing, I just... never thought I’d hear ‘fun’ and ‘Bradley’ in the same sentence” Bobby mentioned.

“You had fun with him the other day, didn’t you?”

“Well, I would never have thought I would be smoking weed with him either” he shrugged.

“Really? He did?” Tank asked surprised. “Usually he only smokes at parties, and only when he is comfortable enough with someone. And by someone I mean me.”

“Well, he can be comfortable with us, right? We’re friends now” Max replied.

“Oh, yeah? Did he get that memo?” Tank joked. “No, but seriously, Bradley has a hard time letting people in his life, let alone considering them ‘friends’.”

Suddenly, Bobby changed the subject but Max zoned out while the other three talked to each other. Even when they said goodbye and parted each their way, Max was still lost in his own thoughts. What if Tank is right? Could it be that Bradley doesn’t consider us his friends after all? When he realized it, they had already returned to the dorm. PJ was faster than him and went into the bathroom to take a shower, while Bobby lied down on his bed without intention to shower himself.

“I’m exhausted, duuude. I don’t think I’ll ever get out of bed again” Bobby complained.

“You’re gross” Max replied automatically.

He was so distracted by what Tank had said that he wasn’t even present in his own conversation. The feeling of mild disappointment grew until Max could almost feel it physically. Fuck it, he cursed internally before grabbing his phone and type.

M: u awake?

He tossed the phone beside him in the bed. He probably won’t read it now, so... But his thought was interrupted by the vibration of his own phone.

Br: yeah, y?

M: r we friends?

Br: ??

Br: wdym?

Br: whats dis about?

M: r we or not? *eyes emoji*

Br: *eyeroll emoji*

Br: idk

M: wdym?? u have 2 know!

Br: if u insist

Br: probably no

M: y?? *sad emoji*

Br: cause we h8d each others guts last year

M: but we don’t h8 each other anymore *sad emoji*

Br: whats gotten in2 u??

Br: friendship is not something that happens overnight

Br: we r not in preschool anymore

M: k, so preschool friendship is easier

M: but who says it can not b that way now 2??

M: y cant we b friends?

M: i mean, we r getting along, right?

M: u even smoked w/ us *annoyed emoji*

Br: y is so important 2 u dat i say we r not friends? *eyeroll emoji*

M: bc i do consider u my friend now *sad emoji*

Br: srsly??

Br: look i dont trust easily

Br: it even took me awhile 2 consider Tank my friend

M: even w/ d Gammas?

Br: *eyeroll emoji*

Br: Tank is my friend

Br: Gammas were acquaintances

M: ur only friend is Tank?

Br: i only need that

Br: y more people?

Br: people disappoints u

M: dude, every1 needs more than 1 person in their life

M: we r humans after all

M: it takes a village

There was no reply after that. Max looked to the screen more time than he was aware of, but ended giving up on waiting and went to shower. Little did he know that Bradley didn’t reply not because he wanted to end their conversation, but because that had struck a chord with him.

Friday seemed to arrive rather quickly but it was most likely because Max was in his own mind all the time. He barely slept that week and he definitely didn’t pay attention to any of his classes, because all he could think of was the conversation he had with Bradley on Monday. It didn’t help that it looked like Bradley was avoiding him. The few times he saw him at passing, Bradley didn’t acknowledge his existence and just turned around to walk in a different direction.

Bobby and he were setting everything off, knowing that PJ would be there at any moment. If everything is prepared when he arrives, we can start right way. The sooner we start, the sooner I can go back to the dorm, Max kept repeating to himself. He didn’t feel like playing today, or even being around anyone. Is that I annoy him that much? It wouldn’t be the first time someone tells me I’m too much, but... He couldn’t help his mind wander around to that thoughts over and over again.

“Hey, guys, I’m here” PJ greeted as the other two boys were already putting the last few things in their place. “Nika can’t come today, she had to take an extra shift on the Bean Scene. Is everything ready?”

“Peeeeeej! I missed you!” Bobby threw himself to hug his friend. “Max is being sooooo lame today. He is so awfully quiet!”

“Max?” PJ turned to his friend, who was already on stage absentmindedly picking up his guitar. “Max” he repeated to get his attention.

“Uh? Ah, hi, PJ” Max only looked at him briefly before turning his attention back to tuning his instrument.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah, why?” his eyes never left the guitar on his hands.

“Bobby just said you were quiet. In fact, you’ve been pretty quiet this whole week” PJ pointed out. “You didn’t even realize I was already here.”

“Ah, that. Yeah, no, I just didn’t sleep well” he shrugged.

“Max...”

“What?” he finally turned to look at his friends. “I’m fine, I promise” he defended when he saw the look on PJ’s eyes.

“Max, you know that-”

“Can we just start?” Max cut PJ off. “I know what you’re going to say and yes, we have a deal, but can we not do this right now? It’s just... something I don’t know how to put into words, okay?” he sighed.

“Is it because of Tank?” Bobby asked.

“Tank? Why would you say that?” Max tilted his head, not following what Bobby meant.

“On Monday, we were talking with Tank and that’s when you started acting weird” he explained.

Now he is observant, Max thought with a groan. “Well, no. I mean it’s not because of Tank. But he did say something that... I don’t know, it made me overthink.”

“Oh, so it’s about Bradley” Bobby stated.

“What?” Max blinked. Am I that transparent to these guys?

“Well, Tank did mention him and you seemed pretty much yourself until that point. But then you were not, like you weren’t even there” PJ said, and then turned to look at Bobby. “You may be right, it totally could be about Bradley.”

“Dudes, shut up! Pleaaaaaaase... Let’s start with this and drop this subject for now, yeah?” Max begged.

PJ left out a sigh, but he didn’t pushed it further. Once the three of them were on stage and took a look to the tracklist for the day, they quickly took their places. PJ didn’t dare to point out that it seemed like Max was purposely choosing a shorter tracklist for the day. There was definitely something going on with Max, because he wasn’t moving around as much as usual.

After a few songs, as they were playing the first chords of Riot by Three Days Grace, the door opened. Bobby and PJ noticed Bradley walking in but Max was so focused on his guitar that he didn’t saw the senior student until he lift his head a bit to the mic. Their eyes locked but Max didn’t let that distract him as he started singing but his mood had changed noticeably. PJ cast a quick glance back to Bobby, who had a puzzled look behind his drum set. As if he didn’t want to be noticed or to interrupt the rehearsal, Bradley just stood there next to the door with an unreadable face.

As soon as the song ended, Max quickly turned to his friends and told them to take a five-minute break. Before they could open their mouths to say something, Max rushed to jump off the stage and ran towards Bradley.

“You’re here!” he exclaimed as he hugged the older boy, catching him by surprise. “I thought you wouldn’t.”

“Eh... what is he doing?” Bradley asked while he looked petrified at PJ and Bobby.

“Dude, don’t you know what a hug is?” Bobby mocked, earning an nudge from PJ.

“I do know what a hug is” Bradley hissed with gritted teeth. “But why is he doing it?”

Max finally broke off the hug with a sheepisly smile. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable by being cuddly. I’m just glad you’re here after all” he shrugged.

“After what?” Bobby asked insinuatingly.

Max blinked as if he just remembered that his friends were there, watching the whole scene that just happened, right when not too long ago they had ask him if he was acting weird because of Bradley. “Uh,... I mean...”

“Max was upset over me saying that we are not friends” Bradley stated when he saw Max’s hesitation.

Bobby laughed out so loud that he almost fell out of his seat behind the drum set. “That was why you were pouting all week?” he managed to ask between laughs.

“Bobby, shut up!” Max turned to face his friends, with his face red in a mix of embarrassment and anger.

“It has affected you that much, huh?” Bradley replied amused.

“I thought I said something wrong, okay?” he mumbled without facing Bradley. “I was worried that I had upset you, happy now?”

“You’re such a softie, maaaaan” Bobby kept laughing.

Max flipped him off but then noticed his face reddening more at the sound of Bradley’s laugh. Are both of them going to mock me? For real? These fuckers...

“I’m sorry for making you worried” Bradley said.

Max turned to look back at him and he was met with a soft and comforting smile in Bradley’s face. The brunette seemed genuine but also a bit embarrassed.

“How about you talk things through when we finish the rehearsal?” PJ suggested, noticing that they would rather have this conversation in private. “We shouldn’t take too long today either, the tracklist is pretty light.”

Max rolled his eyes at his friend’s observation but didn’t protest, he just turned around and headed back to the stage. Bradley, feeling more relaxed now, even took a seat at the couch while the guys got ready for the next part of the rehearsal.

“Would you look at that, time does fly” PJ said when they finished the last song. “Come on, Bobby, we got to go.”

“What? Why? I want to stay” Bobby protested as PJ dragged him out.

“Hey! Guys!” Max shouted looking his friends get away as if they were running for their lives. “Seriously? Are you going to leave me hanging with picking all up again? Bastards...”

Bradley stood up. “I’ll help you” Max looked at him with wide eyes. “What? I helped you already last Friday, didn’t I? It’s not that big of a deal.”

“Thanks” Max mumbled as he turned around and started unplugging things.

Bradley approached him to start helping but something caught his eye, something that was almost hidden in a corner. “Do you share this space with someone else?”

“No, why?” Max replied distractedly.

“So is that keyboard yours?”

Max turned quickly to look at the corner with a horrified look. “Uh, that... Well, yeah, kinda ours.”

“So does any of you plays it? ‘Cause it’s hard to picture, I don’t know, Bobby for example playing piano or anything like that.”

“No, we... None of us plays it” Max said trying to avoid Bradley’s glaze. Bradley frowned confused, but Max changed the subject before the other boy could say anything. “Thanks again for helping me. I don’t know what’s gotten into these two.”

“It looked like they wanted to let us talk alone” Bradley propounded. “So is it true? The thing your friend Bobby said about you pouting all week.”

Max froze in place in a loss for words. He didn’t expect Bradley being that forward about the subject that had been floating around the warehouse since his appearance.

“Well, I wouldn’t say ‘pouting’, you know?” Max mumbled after what felt like an eternity. “More like... pensive.”

“Just because I said we are not friends?” Bradley’s question still stung, so Max turned his gaze away. “I didn’t mean to offend you when I said that, I was just being honest” he shrugged nonchalantly, as he didn’t know those words hurt the sophomore’s feelings.

“Being honest” Max repeated in a whisper, “I see. So you just hang out with us but don’t consider us friends, right?”

“Max, it’s not personal” the older boy reassured him.

“It feels like it” Max whined. “And I don’t get it. Why hang out with someone that isn’t your friend?”

“It’s pretty common in my environment” Bradley stated. “There’s a ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’ type of mentality.”

“So you think of us as still enemies?” Max turned around quickly to glare at him. “Me and my friends are over that, why can’t you?”

“I don’t mean it like that” Bradley threw his hands in the air like surrender. “I don’t consider you or your friends, for that matter, as enemies anymore. But I don’t trust people easily, I’ve already told you that.”

“Why can’t you trust us? What are you so afraid of?” Max hollered angrily, but his eyes showed sadness and disappointment.

“I don’t know, okay?” Bradley shouted in response. “None of you had given me any reason to distrust you, but I do! I can’t help it! I’ve been beating up for hanging out with people I shouldn’t have! I trusted people who then made my life hell! I relied on people who then abandoned me!”

Max stood there in silence, feeling guilty for being too harsh with the other boy. He had his suspicions about Bradley and his life, but hearing him snap out made the younger feel like he pushed the wrong buttons at that moment.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have yelled at you” Bradley murmured after a few minutes.

“No, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be that much of a dick with you about all of this” Max replied taking a step closer to the brunette. “Even if it’s hard for me to understand it, you have the right to feel that way” Bradley looked away from Max, biting the inside of his cheek. “We are not like that, but it is valid for you not trusting my word if your experience told you otherwise all these years.”

“I... I am trying, I really am” Bradley sighed.

“I know.”

After a few moments of silence, Bradley finally met Max’s gaze again and offered him a soft smile. Max smiled back, trying to ignore his heart clenching in his chest due to the feeling that he had pushed Bradley too much for selfish reasons. Without the need to say another word, the boys resumed their pick up tasks.

Just like the last Friday, Bradley drove them to the dorms but he declined Max’s offer to hang out in his room and insisted he wanted to be by himself in his own room instead. “It’s been a long day and I just want to rest a bit” Bradley had assured him with a tired smile.

Max entered his room feeling his head spinning around but, unfortunately for him, his friends were there and started pestering him with their questions without a second thought.

“So how it went?” Bobby began, sitting in his bed with a mischievous smile.

“Have you guys been able to talk things through?” PJ continued from his seat in the desk.

“Did he punch you?” Bobby teased.

“Bobby, not helping” PJ reprimanded.

“None of you are helping” Max stated, dropping onto his bed. “Yes, we’ve talked. I... I still don’t understand exactly why he doesn’t consider us friends, but I think I comprehend it better now at least.”

“So we’re still not friends with Uppercrust?” Bobby interrupted with a faked pout.

“I don’t think so, no” Max sighed, not really in the mood for Bobby’s foolishness. “But at least he doesn’t hate us.”

“So where we stand at now?” PJ asked, which made Max tilt his head to look at him confused. “We are not rivals anymore, but still not friends, is that it?”

“Basically, yes... I guess he’s been through a lot. He said...” Max doubted about if he should say it or not. “Well, he has let it slip that people have hurt him in the past and because of that he finds it hard to trust anyone.”

“That sucks, dude” Bobby affirmed.

“But is he still comfortable with us?” PJ inquired.

“Yeah, yeah, he... he does seem comfortable” Max replied. “I just feel like a shitty friend, or well ‘not-friend’, for pushing him so much. He... he looked sad, you know?”

“Yeah, you can be too forward for some things, dude” Bobby agreed without hesitation, nor even he tried to sugar-coat it.

“Bobby, not helping” Max groaned, repeating the same words PJ had just used a moment ago.

“I wasn’t trying to” Bobby laughed. “But seriously now, he is still going to hang out with us from time to time, right? Or will he start to avoid us?”

Max thought about it for a second. “To be honest, I didn’t think of asking him that, but... I hope he still hangs out with us. Did you knew his only friend is Tank? He said it to me the other day over a text message, and I... I felt sad for him. He should be able to have more people to rely on.”

“You’re too good of a person” Bobby stated as he laid down on his bed.

“Yeah, Max, it’s like you have a shelter” PJ said.

“What do you mean with that?” Max sat up a little in bed to get a better look at his friend.

“I mean that it looks like you are constantly picking up broken people, as we were stray puppies or something” PJ said with a hint of a smile. “I know you have a lot of love and affection to give to people, and I don’t say it’s a bad thing, but it does makes you suffer too much from time to time.”

Max didn’t know how to reply and PJ knew it was better to leave it like that, because insisting would upset Max or made him overthink. But little did PJ know that that statement was enough for making Max overthink. In fact, Max barely slept that night either, but instead of being because of Bradley, it was because of his friend’s words.

“Say what now?” Bradley looked completely shocked.

Bobby laughed so hard that PJ had to cover his friend’s mouth with his hand. Max rolled his eyes, already wanting to finish the rehearsal to get Bobby out of his sight. Stupid dickhead, he is really getting on my nerves, Max thought still lying on the floor.

“What did you expect?” PJ said, still trying to shut Bobby up. “We were fifteen years old, man.”

“And we only shared one brain cell” Bobby managed to uncover his mouth for a second.

“I can imagine that” Bradley concluded. “But is that really the band name? Couldn’t you come up with anything better?”

“Hey!” Max exclaimed offended, but he didn’t move from his position. “It’s not that bad.”

“Aren’t you the one who was so ashamed of his father last year?” Bradley questioned with an amused tone. “Why use your last name? Which is also your father’s last name, if you didn’t realized” he teased Max.

“It sounded cool, okay?” Max defended, still not looking at their direction.

Bradley, Nika and Bobby were sitting on the couch with PJ beside them while Max was on his usual spot on the stage ground. Everything had been pretty much calm until Bradley asked if they even had a band name and then everything went nuts. Well, mostly Bobby went nuts, because he enjoyed too much embarrassing Max with that kind of stuff.

“Well, to be fair, Max’s basically always been the mastermind behind this” PJ said, struggling to have Bobby under control. “Dude, did you just lick my hand? So fucking gross!”

Bobby laughed dodging PJ’s gesture of trying to clean his hand up on Bobby’s shirt. “C’mooooooon, it’s a sick name, Uppercrust” he insisted as he ran away from his friend.

“Can you stop playing around? You two are worse than preschoolers, man” Max complained without needing to look at them to know they were chasing each other and making a fuss.

“How many bands do you know called ‘Goof Troop’?” Bobby continued, ignoring his friend on the floor.

“Okay, enough” Max stood up. “Both of you, stage. Maybe that way you can behave a little.”

“See? He is the ringleader” Bobby mocked as he jogged to the stage.

“Don’t make it sound like we are some kind of gang members” Max groaned. “Now stop with your nonsense and seat behind the drum set before I throw a drumstick at your head.”

“Okay, okay, I’m coming” Bobby rushed there holding a laugh.

“I’m sooooooo tired” Bobby complained as they exited the warehouse some hours later. “I could already go to bed.”

“Weren’t you saying you wanted to go to the Gammas’ party tonight?” PJ reminded him.

“Oh, yeah, let’s party!” all the tiredness Bobby said he was feeling became non-existent.

“I can’t, I have an essay I have to work on” PJ excused himself.

“Boooooo, no fun! Maxi-million, you coming, right?”

“I mean, I shouldn’t, I also have some homework to do” Max replied.

“Ow, man, are you bailing on me because of studying? I’m hurt, man” Bobby took a hand to his chest.

“Don’t be that dramatic” Max laughed. “It’s not the end of the world.”

“It’s the end of my world” Bobby whined. “At least I have you, Uppercrust” he said putting his arm around Bradley’s shoulders.

“Don’t count me in” Bradley shook off the other boy’s arm.

“Do you also have overdue homework?” Bobby asked with a raised eyebrow.

“No, I never leave this kind of things for last minute. I just don’t want to be around people today.”

“Aren’t we people?” Bobby patted down his own body as if he was trying to verify if he indeed was.

“You? Barely” Max teased him. “Oh, shotgun!” he called it when they all were beside Bradley’s car.

“What? No fair!” Bobby protested.

“Completely fair” Bradley replied. “I don’t want you as my shotgun.”

“Ouch.”

Max stuck his tongue out at Bobby as he climbed into the passenger seat, leaving Bobby with no choice but to take the back seats with PJ and Nika.

About an hour after Bradley had arrived to his room, he heard his phone vibrating in his desk. When he look at the screen, he couldn’t help but to roll his eyes.

M: wyd?

Br: reading

Br: werent u going 2 do homework?

M: but im bored *crying emoji*

M: lets go for a walk or smth

M: we could even hit the sk8 park *smile emoji*

Br: srsly? its already dark outside

M: and?

M: there will be less people

M: u said u didnt want 2 be around people *smile emoji*

Br: do ur homowork, dude

Br: homework

Br: dammit

M: lol

M: im dying *laugh emoji*

Br: shut up *facepalm emoji*

M: y??

M: it was hilarious lol

Br: go f urself

M: k

M: i will

M: but first come w/ me to the sk8 park

M: pls

Br: u r not going 2 give up, r u?

M: nope *smile emoji*

M: meet u @ ur door in 5

Bradley sighed. He is so stubborn... How can he convince me that easily? Bradley put a bookmark and left his book in his desk before standing up to grab his jacket and skateboard.

“Don’t tell me you are not glad we did this” Max chuckled lying on top of the half pipe.

“I guess it was... nice” Bradley conceded, seated beside him. “It’s quieter at this time of the day... No people around.”

“You know, last year you seemed such a social butterfly, I wouldn’t have imagined you were such a loner.”

“I don’t do well with people, I just pretend. It’s just the image I must give” Bradley confessed. “But the reality is that being around people just drains my battery rather quickly.”

“So you have to put on an act?” Max finally sat up, supporting himself with his arms slightly behind him.

“Yeah, basically.”

“Why?”

Bradley stopped for a moment to think about it. Or rather, to think about how to say it without revealing too much. Even though Max never showed even a hint of judgment when they talked, Bradley still had a hard time trusting his own life story with anyone.

“I have to meet up my father’s standards.”

Max blinked. “Why?”

“Because I’m his heir” Bradley looked at him as if he just asked the most stupid question ever.

“But you’re your own person, you should be able to live your own life as you wanted” Max stated, and that optimism made Bradley smile a little.

“It doesn’t work like that in my world” the brunette simply replied.

“Your world seems a little bit shitty” Max frowned. “No offense” he quickly added.

“None taken. But even so, I can’t escape it. Once I graduate, I will start working on my father’s consulting firm so that I can learn the trade. After all, when my father retires, I will inherit all of it.”

“Okay, so your job life is already sorted, but still. You should have a choice in the matters that concern you.”

“When someone doesn’t follow my father’s commands, he will throw them away. He doesn’t even care if it’s his own blood.”

“Your father sounds like a massive dick. Again, no offense.”

Bradley just shrugged. He didn’t know how to reply to that. There was no doubt his father wasn’t the best father, but he didn’t choose him. And he couldn’t escape him either.

“I find it... interesting” Max began to say, which made Bradley tilt his head. “The word you had just chosen... You said you can’t ‘escape’ your world” Bradley’s heart raced. “Do you feel trapped, then?”

Bradley hesitated for a moment there, unsure about if he should be honest on that matter. “Kinda... Yeah.”

“So the rich life ain’t that rich, huh?” but there was no mockery in Max’s voice. Rather understanding.

“No, I guess not. It’s... I don’t know how would I describe it.”

“A golden cage? You know, luxurious and fancy-looking, but still a cage” Max said.

“Yeah, I guess that sums it up” Bradley sighed. “Anyways, it’s getting late, how about we go back to the dorm?”

“Yeah, let’s go” Max stood up and strecht out like he could almost touch the night sky. “I have the feeling that tonight I will have a proper night sleep” he proudly stated. “I, uh... Wait” suddenly the pride turned into panic. “Fuuuuuuck” he started patting his pockets. “Nononono, c’mon, noooooo!” he slumped his shoulders. “I forgot my key.”

Bradley glared at him. “You’re kidding me, right?” But Max obviously wasn’t. “I can not believe you. Did you really left your key at your room? Can’t you call your friends to open the door for you?”

“PJ always turns his phone off at night for a better rest and Bobby... He is the heaviest sleeper on earth. So... They won’t even notice if I call them” Max pouted.

Bradley sighed, knowing he would probably regret what he was about to say. “Okay, let’s go. You can stay in my room tonight.”

“Really? Dude, you’re a life-saver” Max beamed throwing himself to try to hug the older boy.

Bradley dodged him before he could. “Don’t get use to it.”

Bradley’s room seemed bigger than Max’s, but it was because it was tidier. In fact, the room was a little bit smaller because was a single room, meanwhile the boys’ room was a triple one. The space was limited to a Full Size bed on one side of the room, a two-seater couch on the other side, a desk below the window and a bookshelf next to it.

Max noticed that Bradley had took a seat on the couch after having taken out a sheet and an extra pillow. The younger boy stood there in the middle of the room confused.

“What?” Bradley asked when he realized the other boy looking at him.

“What are you doing?”

“Getting ready to go to sleep” Bradley raised an eyebrow. “What did you expect me to do? To start juggling?”

“No, yeah, I can see that, but... Are you going to sleep there?” Max pointed towards the couch.

Bradley blinked as he looked the sophomore as if he was indeed juggling. “Yes? Again, what did you expect?”

“For me to take the couch?”

“No, I wouldn’t allow that. It’s a question of hospitality” Bradley replied as he began fluffing his pillow.

“But you’re going to be uncomfortable” Max protested. “I’m already being a bother by having to stay here because of my poor memory, I don’t want you to-”

“You’re sleeping on the bed” Bradley cut him off. “End of discussion.”

Max weighed his next words. “Why are you being this nice? I mean, you invite me over and even offer me your bed for a mess I’ve really gotten myself into. You don’t have to do this.”

“Maybe I don’t, but this is how I was raised. To always acommodate guests” Bradley looked back at Max. Or acommodate anyone, really.

“But I-”

“If you are going to complain about me being nice” Bradley interruped with a tired glare, “or if you are going to insist that you are a bother, which you are not, by the way, could you at least save it for tomorrow? I just want to sleep” he stated as he began to lean into the sofa.

“Sleep in the bed with me then” Max suggested, which made Bradley froze mid-movement. “That way I won’t feel that bad for making you take the couch.”

“What? I’m not sleeping with you” Bradley thanked the darkness of his room for hidding his blush caused by the shorter boy’s audacity.

“Dude, I’m not contagious” Max joked. “Or would it be too low for his highness to sleep in the same bed as a commoner?”

Bradley flipped him off, making Max chuckle. “Just go to sleep already.”

When Max opened his eyes, it took him a few seconds to remember where he was at. He sat up in the bed, rubbing the back of his head and messing his hair a little and trying to keep his eyes open.

“Good, you’re still alive” Bradley’s voice starled Max a little.

Max turned his head and Bradley’s gaze met his. Bradley was sitting on the desk with a book open and a mocking smile.

“What time is it?” Max asked with hoarse voice.

“It’s almost noon” Bradley replied, looking back at his book. “Oh, and by the way, you talk even in your sleep.”

Max groaned. “What did I say?”

“A lot of things... and nothing really. You were rambling about different kind of nonsense” Bradley shrugged. “I think you said something about being in a crash” Bradley glared Max amused, “but it was a submarine accident. How do you have a submarine crash with an octopus, Max?”

“Okay, I get it, ha ha, so funny” Max mumbled. “I always have weird dreams, it’s not something I can control, you know?”

“I know, but still it was... interesting, to say the least” Bradley closed his book, putting a bookmark, and stood up. “Okay, shall we?”

Max blinked, with his mind still so fogged by the fatigue that thinking was an odyssey. “Shall we what?”

“Go eat something, of course” Bradley replied after grabbing his jacket. “I did had breakfast, but it’s almost time for lunch and you haven’t eaten anything yet, so... let’s go.”

Once they entered the cafeteria, it was easy to spot Max’s friends, especially because Bobby was being as loud as always. When they had their food trays, they approached the table where the boys were at and Bradley cleared his throat.

“Duuuuuuuude!” Bobby yelled as they took a seat in front of them. “Where you’ve been, Max-Attack?”

“Does he ever runs out of ideas for those nicknames?” Bradley huffed.

“No, they’re too cool” Bobby stated proudly. “But you didn’t answer my question” he looked back at Max. “Did you get up early? I didn’t see you at the room this morning.”

Bradley chortled, earning a glare from Max. “No, I... I just woke up, in fact” he confessed to his friend.

“And where did you sleep?” Bobby insisted.

But PJ was looking at Bradley, already figuring it out. “You were at Bradley’s room, weren’t you?”

Max blinked surprised by how naturally PJ told that. “Uh, yeah, I forgot my key at the dorm when I went out to the skatepark with Bradley last night.”

“If this doesn’t prove that you have the patience of a saint, I don’t know what will” PJ chuckled staring at Bradley, earning a kick from Max under the table. “Ouch! What? It’s true! It’s a nightmare sleeping in the same room as you. You talk in your sleep!”

“And you do that chewing thing” Bobby added.

“I don’t do that!” Max tried to defend himself.

“You do, it’s like you are chewing air” Bradley replied, without looking away from his plate as he was eating. “At least you don’t snore” Bradley pointed at Max with his fork, glaring amused at him.

“Oh, c’mon, have you guys plotted to make fun of me today?” Max groaned after biting a french fry and slumping in his chair.

“Don’t complain so much” Bradley laughed. “You have slept peacefully. All turned and twisted, but peacefully” his body shook a little as he tried to hold his laughter but then he winced and rubbed his neck.

“I told you that you shouldn’t have left the bed to me, I could have slept in the couch” Max reprimanded when he saw Bradley’s sore gesture.

“Well, at least you didn’t slept together” Bobby intervened as he was still chewing some of his food.

“Why would we?” Bradley tensed up.

“Oh, no, in fact you should never sleep in the same bed as Max” PJ warned smiling. “It’s like sleeping with a fucking ninja throwing punches at every turn.”

“Or like being a cuddle bear” Bobby jumped a bit in his chair. “He will hug you as if he was hanging for dear life.”

“Yeah, it really depends on what he is dreaming about.”

“Uuuuuh, and don’t get me started on what if he has a dirty dream” Bobby wiggled his eyebrows.

Max throwed a fry to his friend. “Bobby, what are you talking about? Shut up!” he hissed.

“Max, we’ve made sleep-overs at your house, we know what we are talking about” PJ chuckled.

“Yeah. Dude, remember when Max shared bed with me and tried to give me a hickey?” Bobby turned to PJ, happy as a kid as if he didn’t spit that out.

“Guys! Shut up!” Max felt his face completely red. “You’re making it sound like I’m some kind of perv.”

Bradley gave Max a side look, because he knew that he couldn’t hold his laughter if he directly looked at the sophomore. “Well, it seems like a dodge a bullet there.”

“I just felt bad for making you sleep on the couch!” Max defended himself once again.

“Wait, did you offer him to sleep with you?” PJ asked.

“Dude, I thought you wanted him to like us” Bobby reprimanded.

“Like he having to babysit me because I forgot my key is making that easier” Max huffed.

“Max, I told you last night already. I wasn’t bothered, in fact I was the one who offered you to stay there, and I was the one who decided to sleep on the couch. You didn’t make me do anything, so relax” Bradley reassured him.

“Oh, by the way, that action movie is premiering this week. You know, the one with the hot Batman” Bobby changed the subject suddenly.

Max rolled his eyes, but he really felt relieved because the conversation was now revolving around which actor was ‘the hot Batman’ as Bobby couldn’t remember his name. At least, they’re done teasing me for last night. He casted a quick look to Bradley beside him and smiled, thanking him internally for not leaving him stranded at the skatepark.

Everything was dark and Bradley was unable to see past himself. The only thing to be heard was a mild laugh echoing all around without a clear origin. Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder turning him around to then push him. He fell onto something soft, probably a bed, with his arms sprawled above his head. It felt like he couldn’t move even though there was nothing holding him. Before he could figure out what was happening or even where he was lying, he noticed someone standing between his legs and leaning towards him. The first thing he recognized was the shimmer of metal below the smiling lips above him.

Max? The sophomore was smirking and Bradley would have sworn his brown eyes sparkled when their gazes met. Max opened the mouth to say something, and then...

Bradley fell off his bed, now fully awake. What the hell was that? His heart was racing so much that he thought it could fly out of his chest. He took one hand to his heart as he ran the other one through his hair. He then scanned his room as if he was searching for a hidden camera or someone spying on him.

“Fuck” he left out in a groan.

Bradley climbed back onto his bed, trying to fall asleep again. And failing miserably.

That morning he had texted Tank to meet up, which meant that Bradley now had to wait for him to finish his last afternoon class. At least, he doesn’t end up his classes at 9 p.m. today, he sighed loudly. He was scrolling through his phone waiting outside the building when Tank finally walked towards him.

“Hey there, sweetheart” the big guy greeted with a grin. “Didn’t expect you to reach out on a class day. Something happened?”

“Yeah, kinda... I don’t really know how to explain it” Bradley mumbled as they started walking. “I... I had the weirdest dream last night.”

Tank gave him a side look trying to read his friend’s expression. “... About what?”

“Well, something... or someone... pushed me and...” he gulped. “And then Max was on top of me.”

Tank stopped right on spot. “Oh?” he raised his eyebrows as he tried to hide his amused smile. “What do you think that means?”

“I don’t know!” he hissed through gritted teeth.

“And what vibe did you get from him?” Bradley raised an eyebrow at Tank’s question. “You know, it was like a ‘I’mma beat you up’ or... ‘I’mma eat you up’?”

Bradley’s face reddened at an instant, which made Tank left out a belly laugh. He flipped him off before resuming his walk and Tank began to follow him without stopping laughing.

“Okay, for your reaction, I’m assuming it was the second one” Tank said as he caught up his friend.

“Oh, forget it! I shouldn’t have said anything to you.”

“So the feelings are back, huh?”

“Which feelings?” Bradley glared Tank as if he wanted to strangle him right there.

“C’mon, baby” Tank was serious all of a sudden. “You’ve been eyestruck by him since the first day.”

“That’s not true!” Bradley’s eyes wandered all around griping tightly his shoulder bag strap. “Can you not say those kind of things out loud? Gosh!”

“Baby, it’s me, you can tell me honestly-”

“It’s never just you and me!” Bradley cut him off. “And anyway it was just a dream. It doesn’t have to mean anything.”

Tank sighed. He knew it was useless to try and argue Bradley right now. “Okay, and what do you think could have triggered it? Did something unusual happened between you and him? Or maybe something you did with the team 99 that you usually don’t do.”

“Well, I... Two days ago I had lunch with them, I guess that pretty unusual. Considering it was after letting Max sleep in my room, also unusual. Also I’ve been going to their rehearsals-”

“Rehearsals?” Tank interrupted. “What do you mean? Are they in some kind of theatre play or something?”

“Oh, didn’t I mention it to you?” Bradley smiled a little. “Turns out they have a band. They formed it in the sophomore year of high school, then they stopped for awhile who knows why, and now they’re back at it again.”

“That’s... interesting.” Tank scratched his chin, already plotting something, but Bradley was too mentally exhausted to ask about it. “Anyhow, returning to the topic at hand, I think that the dream probably was just a sign that you are getting close to them, especially to Max.”

“Yeah, probably just that. I mean... He has been quite obstinate about the whole being friends thing. And out of the three of them, he is the one who sticks to me the most. Like... Bobby and PJ have showed me that they don’t hate me, which is a lot to say, honestly, but Max...” Bradley thought for a moment about the past weeks. “Max is always looking for some excuse to integrate me into his group, or to just hang out with me, you know? I don’t really get it, though.”

“It looks like he has seen what I saw at the time, the person underneath the facade.”

“He barely knows me” And yet he seems to see right through me, he added for himself, knowing that if he said that out loud Tank would never let him live down those words.

“Well, do you know he is majoring in Psychology?” Tank brought him out of his own thoughts. “Maybe that’s why he understands you without you telling him anything. Because, let’s face it, you probably said little to nothing to him about-”

“There’s nothing for me to say” Bradley cut him off once more.

“If you say so” Tank smiled but it didn’t meet his eyes. “On another note, there’s this new Mexican restaurant, we should go sometime.”

Bradley knew that his friend was only changing the subject so Bradley wouldn’t snap out at him, especially since they were now in a busy area, getting closer and closer to the dorms.

The next day, Max was going to his next class when he saw Tank on the hallway. Since he was in a bit of a rush, he just waved at him, but then he saw the big guy quickly approaching him.

“Hi, baby” Tank greeted when he was near him. “Are you busy?”

“Hey, Tank, yeah, well, I have to get to my next class as soon as possible. How is everything going?” Max continued walking, now with Tank beside him.

“Oh, everything’s great. So...” Tank smiled knowingly. “A little bird told me you and the guys have a band.”

“Huh? I- I, well, yeah” Max stuttered. “Why do you ask?”

“Why did you not say anything?”

“Well, it’s just us doing- just... being stupids, I guess” Max shrugged. “We are not good at all.”

“That’s not what I’ve heard” Tank’s smile grew bigger. “Maybe I could stop by sometime and judge by myself, if you guys don’t mind.”

“Oh, well... I, um, yeah, I don’t see why not.”

Tank said his goodbyes rushing to his class and Max kept walking to his as he felt his face blushing, frustration creeping his mind for him being unable to say ‘no’ to Tank. Then he quickly took his phone out of his pocket.

M: guys, have u talk 2 tank about the band?

P: no, y?

B: i didnt

B: maybe Uppercrust?

M: shit

He switched to the chat with Bradley and started typing as fast as his trembling fingers could.

M: did u told tank about our band?

Br: ?

Br: yeah, i mentioned it yday

Br: y?

M: duuuuuude *sad face*

Br: what?

M: now he wants 2 come 2 a rehearsal *sad face*

Br: ...

Br: and?

M: bobby and pj won’t back me up w this

M: but i thought @ least u could do it *sad face*

Br: what r u talking about?

M: i don’t like 2 perform in front of people *sad face*

Br:y should i have known?

M: me not wanting to bring back the band tgt did not give u a hint? *eyes emoji*

Br: k, srry

M: g2g

M: but now im sad *sad face*

Br: k, i get it *eyeroll emoji*

Max put his phone back on his pocket as he entered the classroom, but he already knew he wouldn’t be able to focus on anything at that moment.

“And so these are our headquarters” Bobby anounced too formal as they all entered in the warehouse.

“Bobby, stop it” Max mumbled. “It’s just an old warehouse” he tried to downplay all the expectations that seemed to be floating around.

That Friday they had gone there in Bobby’s van, since Bradley told Max that he was going to arrive later that day. Also because Tank was a big guy, and because none of them had a vehicule expect for his demented friend. Max already felt dizzy, but he couldn’t tell if it was because of Bobby’s driving or because of his own nervousness.

“You’ve got a nice place here” Tank complimented as he inspected the inside. “It looks so... punk.”

Max held a groan as he went directly to stage. This is going to be a disaster, he kept repeating to himself, no matter how hard he tried to push those thoughts away. Bobby rambled on and on as Nika and Tank sat down on the couch, but the only thing Max could hear was a buzz in his ears. A hand on his shoulder brought him back to reality as he turned around.

“Max?” PJ was in front of him, with a concerned look. “Did you heard what I just said?”

“Uh,... no, sorry” Max confessed. “I zoned out. You were saying?”

“I asked you if we should start now or we should wait for Bradley.”

“Oh, well, he didn’t told me when he was going to be here, so... We can start now, we just got to plug everything to place and then we’re ready.”

PJ took charge of make sure that Bobby was pulling his weight and not slacking off. Preparing everything between the three of them was faster than when Max and Bobby were the ones in charge to do it during the mornings while PJ was still in class. Max had been opposed to the idea of setting up on the afternoon, but now he certainly appreciated how quickly everything was ready.

“Well, I’ve gotta warn you” Max began to spoke, “I held back when it came to putting my playlist at that Gamma party, but-”

“We don’t held anything back here” Bobby cut him off, too much excited to let Max finish what he was saying.

Max glared at him, already feeling the headache that Bobby and his impatience were going to give to him. “Yeah, what he just said” he sighed.

They started playing In my bones by The Score, but Max refused to look away from his own guitar. I won’t be able to concentrate in any of this if I look away. I’m gonna screw something up if I don’t focus. It was already difficult having Nika as an audience, but-

The door opened, bringing Max back from his own head as he raised his gaze and locked eyes with Bradley for a moment. The older boy waved briefly before leaving his shoulder bag aside and taking a seat on the couch next to Tank, and Max could feel his chest untightening. Maybe it was the way Bradley always looked, as if he was feeling out of place, or maybe it was the fact of having discovered a different, softer side of him, but whatever the reason was, Max didn’t struggle that much with having Bradley as an audience.

As usual, Max laid down on the floor, also closing his eyes because he felt his head could explode at any given time. Obviously, Bobby’s voice filled the place as soon as they had ended the last song, and Max was trying his best to ignore him. Tank asked about the band and how they had started it, which gave Bobby more fuel to keep babbling.

Suddenly, Max felt something cold touching his arm and he bursted his eyes open. Bradley was tilting his head while looking at him with a tired expresion on his face and a bottle of water on his hand.

“You’re drinking less than usual” Bradley stated in a plain voice. “And your voice starts to sound a little sore.”

“Ah, thanks, man” Max sat up a little and took the bottle in Bradley’s hand to take a sip. “I really needed that.”

“You look a bit off today” Bradley remarked, taking a seat at the edge of the stage. “Everything alright?”

“I told you... I have a hard time performing in front of people.”

“Does that mean that Nika and I are not people?” the brunette teased him with a weak smile.

“No, but... I mean...” Max sighed frustrated. “The more people, the more nervous I get, that’s all.”

“So your limit is at two people, noted.”

Then Bradley looked down at his own hands, so Max took a moment to examine him. “And you?” Max’s question made Bradley raise his head, meeting the younger boy’s eyes. “You also look a bit off today.”

“Oh, I... I had to deal with something before coming here and I guess it just left me mentally drained.”

“Class-related?” Max inquired.

“I wish.”

“Are you done with your floor, Maximum?” Bobby interrupted, shouting from his usual spot at the armrest of the sofa.

Max rolled his eyes. “Bobby, you’re giving me a headache” he grumbled.

“Are you feeling alright, Max?” PJ intervened before Bobby could piss Max off more.

“Actually, no. As I said, headache.”

“We can call it a day and just resume with this tomorrow” PJ suggested.

“Really? We barely-” Bobby began to protest, but PJ silenced him.

“Come on, Max, we can pick everything up. Why don’t you go to the dorms and rest for a bit?”

“No, it’s fine” Max began to stood up but, as he did so, he became dizzier than before and almost fell back to the ground.

“Well, you’re clearly not fine” PJ sighed. “You haven’t slept well lately, haven’t you?”

“I’m fine, moooom” Max groaned. “I just-”

“Don’t say you’re fine” Bradley cut him off. “Let’s go, I’ll take you to the dorms” Max opened his mouth to protest, but Bradley quickly cut him off. “I’m not allowing any objections.”

In the end, Bradley escorted Max all the way to his room because it seemed that the shorter boy was more fatigued and weaker that he’d initially admitted. Once they were inside the room, Max dropped down on his bed, face up to the ceiling.

“Everything is spinning” he complained in a weak voice.

“Are you getting sick or something?” Bradley asked as he sat down in the desk chair.

“I don’t think so... I just had... ‘too much thought’ all week. Too many thoughts means too little sleep. And both combined...” he pointed out his whole self.

“Is it really just sleep deprivation?”

“Well... The whole package: I don’t sleep, nor eat, nor drink.”

“And what have you been holding onto these days? Sunlight?”

Max groaned again crossing his arms over his eyes. He didn’t like feeling like he was being scolded as if he was a little kid. It was true that he had neglected himself a little, but he just needed some peace and quiet to rest.

“Here” he heard Bradley’s voice softening.

He peaked through his arms and saw Bradley handing him a trail mix bag. He then uncovered his eyes and sat up on his bed, looking both surprised and touched at the older boy’s gesture.

“It’s not a full meal, but at least it can help you a little” Bradley explained, avoiding to look at Max. “I always wear one of this in my shoulder bag just in case I need a quick snack. Which is what you need right now, so...”

Max took the bag with a slow move. “Thanks, I-”

“Don’t thank me, just... Don’t neglect yourself like that or you’ll die young. I mean, I know it’s seems very ‘rocker-like’, but... don’t.” Max chewed, trying to hold the ‘thanks’ he wanted to say to Bradley in that moment. “Also, you should drink some water. Do you have any here, or do you want me to go get some?”

“I... Maybe there’s some left in the mini-fridge” he pointed to the fridge next to the bathroom door.

Bradley stood up before Max had the chance to and looked inside the mini-fridge. The brunette then took a deep breath before throwing Max a deathly glare.

“Dude, this is basically empty. There are only two soda cans left” he headed to the door. “Give me two minutes, I’ll bring back some” he turned before leaving. “But you have to open the door for me later, think you can manage to do that?”

“You can also take my key” Max made a gesture towards the key hanging in the wall next to Bradley.

The senior student took the key after hesitating just for a second. “I’ll be right back. Don’t die while I’m out.”

The light was starting to enter through the window and Max felt the sun hitting straight in his eyes. He burried his head a bit to avoid the sunlight but then his pillow moved. What? Pillows don’t move, he thought sleepily as he opened one eye. He found himself curled up with his face against the other person’s neck and he moved away a little bit to get a better look. Shit, Bradley? He pushed himself as far as he could, but it wasn’t much distance because he was already against the wall.

“Had a goodnight sleep?” PJ’s amused question startled him, looking at his friend on the top bunk bed as if he had just been caught doing somethig wrong. “It seems like you really needed that, considering you took Bradley hostage in the process.”

“What? I didn’t- I just-” Max babbled frozen on the spot. “I don’t even remember when I fell asleep.”

“And that just proves that you were absolutely exhausted” PJ glared at him with that ‘I told you so’ look that Max hated so much.

“Duuuuuuuudes, shut up” Bobby groaned half asleep.

PJ shrugged and turned around to continue sleeping in his own bed. Max didn’t dare to move, he hardly dared to even breathe. He took a quick look to the clock hanging on the wall: it was almost 5 a.m. What do I do? Bradley is going to kill me. He just admitted that we are friends and it’s obvious that physical contact makes him visibly uncomfortable, but of course stupid me had to fell asleep basically on top of him. He is definitely going to kill me when he wakes up. Max couldn’t look away from Bradley, panicking about if he had surpassed the boundaries with him.

But Bradley’s chest rose and fell with softly breathing and his face showed no trace of his usual tension. He looks peaceful, Max said to himself while he leaned closer to him again. Eventually he even returned to his previous position resting his head on the older boy’s shoulder as his eyes became heavier and heavier. It’s fine, we can sleep a little bit more. I mean, he will kill me anyways, so the least I can do is to rest while I can, right? It wasn’t hard for him to fall asleep next to Bradley, as he was used to sleep closely with other people, but usually it was PJ or Bobby, who were as cuddly as Max. He was already asleep before he could worry about that.

Noticing Max’s breathing against his neck send a shiver down Bradley’s spine, which woke him up immediately. He blinked a little as he sat up on the bed trying to get rid of his tiredness. Is this going to become a habit? Sleeping with Max every weekend or what? Bradley looked down at the younger boy and couldn’t hold a little smile. At least this was comfier than sleeping on the couch like last time. As if he had suddenly returned to his senses, he looked at the bunk beds to see if Max’s friends were there, but luckily for him they weren’t.

“Brad?” Max groaned.

“It’s Bradley” he corrected the boy automatically.

“Oh, yeah, sorry” Max mumbled as he also sat up rubbing his eyes. “Also I’m sorry for falling asleep and apparently forcing you to sleep with me.”

“It’s fine, I guess. I mean, it’s not like you did it on purpose” Bradley shrugged. “But your friends were right.”

“About what?” Max asked.

“You didn’t let go of me all night. You hugged me and I couldn’t leave your side since then. At least I appreciate that you didn’t try to give me a hickey” he joked.

“I’m glad my friends gave you something for you to mock me” Max’s voice was dripping with sarcasm.

“Come on, I’m just joking” Bradley laughed when he saw Max pouting. “Are you mad because you didn’t finish your rollercoaster?”

Max gave him a puzzled look. “Rollercoaster? What are you talking about?”

“I don’t know, you tell me. You talked in your sleep about how you were going to build a giant rollercoaster that crossed all the town.”

Max groaned as he dropped himself again in bed and covered his face with his pillow. Bradley laughed and Max whined muffledly. “You’re an asshole.”

“Are you discovering that now?” Bradley mocked. “Come on, you can get out from under the pillow, I’ll stop teasing. I promise.”

Max peaked from underneath with a look of suspicion. Bradley was smiling but not in a mocking way, so Max finally decided to uncover his face. The brunette shook his head amused as he stood up and streching up a little. On the other hand, Max just stood there lying in bed, unsure about if he should say something.

“Seriously, don’t worry about last night” Bradley reassured him, almost like he was reading the younger’s mind. “I know you needed to sleep. I have to confess that at first I tried to escape, yeah, but only because I thought it would be weird” Max looked away embarrased. “Me being here, I mean. Since we’ve been friends for so little time-”

“It’s been almost a month” Max cut him off in a whisper.

“For me, that’s little time” the older buy shrugged. “Maybe for you it’s not, and that’s fine by me, but we see these things differently. That’s all.”

Max decided to sat up again to look Bradley in the eye. “And why would it be weird that you were here? I’ve slept with Bobby and PJ too” Bradley raised an eyebrow mockingly that made Max realize how that sounded. “Not like that! Dude, gross! They’re like my brothers!” Max shuddered.

“I didn’t say anything” Bradley smirked.

“Jerk.”

Bradley found teasing Max too entretaining and now he could not deny he was comfortable enough with him or even with his friends to do it in a friendly way. He was going to apologize to Max for keep getting on his nerves even when he had promised not to, but Max’s stomach growled loud enough to interrupt.

“Okay, let’s go eat something” Bradley said. “I don’t want a repeat of yesterday.”

He always does this: he ends up stuck with me, having to take care of me because I’m an airhead, and instead of getting angry at me, he just laughs it off and then we end up going together to eat something. How long will it take for him to get tired of me? Max sighed as he followed the brunette.

After that argument outside the cafeteria, it was decided that the party would be held, even against Bradley’s wishes. Max also hadn’t got the chance to speak up his mind when they settled that not only the party will be happening, but also that the Goof Troop would perform in it. So Max now had four weeks to get used to the idea that he had to do it.

Since Max didn’t felt well the previous day, they decided to skip that Saturday’s rehearsal so he could rest better. Bradley sticked to him all day to make sure he took care of himself, which was a little bit annoying for Max, but he also thanked that it was Bradley and not PJ. The brunette was more like a body double, whereas PJ would have treated him like a child and it would have felt more as if his friend was babysitting him.

In fact, Bradley spent most of that week hanging out with Max, distracting him enough about his anxiety so he could be able to focus in eating well and tiring him so that his body could fell asleep more easily. They walked together to keep each other company on the way to their classes whenever it was possible, spent some spare time at the skatepark or simply stayed in one of their rooms. Mostly in Bradley’s room, not only because it gave Max a break from PJ’s smothering, but also because Bradley had gotten permission for putting a television in his room, which for Max served as an opportunity to show the senior student some movies.

When Friday arrived, Max felt much better pyshically and mentally, so the idea of the rehearsal wasn’t as difficult for him as on other days. In fact, he had decided to take the situation philosophically. Well, as long as his friends allowed him to do so. Bobby’s over-enthusiasm and PJ constant barrage of questions about how he felt were a bit too much to keep his spirits up.

But everything felt more at ease when Bradley arrived to the warehouse. Like the previous Friday, he had to took care of something before joining the guys there for the rehearsal, but at least he had managed to get there before they had started.

“I was thinking” Bobby began to say, which was not a good sign, because he usually didn’t think at all, “should Bradley really be here?”

Bradley frowned, mostly confused but he couldn’t deny he felt a little bit hurt.

“What? Why?” Max turned, defensive to his friend.

“Well, aren’t we supposed to be preparing everything for his party? It would spoil the surprise” Bobby explained raising his hands.

Max’s face softened. Shit, I guess he is right about that, he thought, noticing the irony of that. He turned to look at Bradley, whose expression had changed into an annoyed, uninterested one. He didn’t liked the idea of the party even though he was left with no choice, but being cut off of the rehearsal had not crossed his mind.

“I mean, he is already here” Max shrugged with a pleading look. “It would be rude to throw him out of here, right?”

“You are right about that” PJ agreed. “But Bobby is also right. Maybe from tomorrow until then it would be better to rehearse without an audience.”

“Or maybe you guys could talk Tank out of this insane idea” Bradley mumbled.

After rehearsal was done, they went back to campus on Bradley’s car, but Bobby and PJ went down to the Bean Scene to see a poetry slam with Nika. Meanwhile, Max and Bradley stayed on a bench in a quiet, secluded area. The sophomore hadn’t been much talkative that day, lost in his own mind, so Bradley didn’t spoke much either so as not to disturb him. He had realized that Max sometimes just wanted someone present with him, but it wasn’t always necessary to be talking.

“So...” Max began to say while he still looked at the distance, “are you upset about not coming to the rehearsals for almost a month?”

“I’m upset about the party itself” Bradley responded, “but I can’t escape that. As for the rehearsals, not really. I mean, yeah, it’s going to be weird not being there now that I got used to, but I understand the reasoning behind it, so...”

“‘Got used to’, huh? C’mon, you can admit it, you have fun being there” Max teased him with a side-look. He then laughed softly when Bradley nudge him. “Well, I am upset” Max confessed.

“About having to perform at the party? Yeah, you made it clear” Bradley smirked.

“No, I kinda made my peace with that” the shorter boy shrugged. “I’m talking about not having you at the rehearsals. I like having you there.”

Bradley raised an eyebrow. “Really? I mean, I don’t do much there, except for watching you guys do your thing.”

“I don’t know” Max smiled a little. “I guess it’s because you balance out the energy of Bobby and PJ. I know they care about me, but-” he leaned his head into Bradley’s shoulder.

Bradley then pushed Max a bit to the side. “Personal space” he reminded him, a little bit exasperated for having to repeat himself, but he couldn’t hold a soft smile. “Is it so hard to remember?”

“Sorry for being prone and unashamed of showing affection” Max mocked.

They both looked at each other from the corner of their eyes, like they were doing a stare contest, and Max stuck his tongue out at the older boy a little. Bradley chuckled and gave him a playful push.

“Now seriously, you don’t have to worry about me not being at the rehearsals” Bradley said. “That way I can take a break from you” he smiled teasingly.

“Ouch, my feelings” Max took his hand to his heart with a pretend hurt look on his face. “To think that I was going to prepare the best tracklist just for you.”

“You will still do it, your ego wouldn’t let you do otherwhise.”

“True” Max laughed. “I mean, since I have to do it, I better do it right, don’t you think?”

“Yeah. But I was rather thinking about how our friends have managed to make us have to do this” Bradley shook his head.

“Tough love?” Max suggested.

“Maybe. I had it tougher, though” Bradley mumbled.

“I don’t know if ‘tougher’ would still count as love” Max frowned.

Bradley didn’t answer that. In fact, he never answered when the conversation got too personal for his liking or whenever he had the feeling that the conversation was too revealing. Max had been open with him to talk about different topics that were sensitive for him, like his high school years, but for Bradley it was harder to do so.

Instead of giving a direct answer, Bradley stood up and turned at him. “Do you want to go back to the dorms? It’s not so late, so we could watch that David Bowie movie that you told me about.”

As Bradley expected, that made Max beamed instantly and forget about their previous conversation, as it was better to distract him before he asked questions about it. Maybe it’s not the most respectable move on my side, but I dodged a bullet, so I guess it works for me.

The next day was quite calm and the weather had been nice, so Bradley decided to walk to the library to do some study there. It was almost 10 p.m. when he headed back to the dorms. In the hallway, he saw Bobby leaned against the 203 door while scrolling on his phone.

“Bobby?”

Bobby jolted as he turned to face Bradley. “Hey, Brad” he greeted with a big smile.

“Bradley” he corrected. “What are you doing here in the hallway?”

“Waiting” Bobby shrugged without losing his smile.

“Okay... By the way, you won’t happen to know where’s Max, won’t you?” Bradley asked trying to sound nonchalant.

“Yeah” Bobby pointed at the door behind him, “he is in there.”

“Oh, okay. I was just wondering, because he didn’t answer my text and I thought maybe something happened” the older boy explained, as if he needed to justify his question to the other boy.

“Oh, yeah, he won’t text back for awhile” Bobby took a phone out of his pocket and held it with a smirk.

“Why do you have Max’s phone?”

“I locked those fuckers in there” Bobby shrugged once again as he put the phone back in his pocket. “And without phones, they can’t call for help.”

“What?” Bradley blinked.

“It’s been almost a week now since PJ and Max started fighting every time they come near each other, and I got sick of it” the buzz-head explained, sliding his back down the wall to sit on the floor. “So they are going to stay there and won’t come out until they sort things out. I told them not to make me use the ‘oldest card’, but here we are.”

Bradley sat down next to him. “Wait, what do you mean by that?”

Bobby turned his head to look at him with a proud smile. “I’m older than them, you know?”

“No, I didn’t know. I never really stopped to think about it.”

“I was born in February, and those two are summer babies” Bobby lowered his sunglasses a little. “I bet you thought Max was the oldest of us.”

“I mean, I... Yeah, I guess” Bradley mumbled.

“He is in fact the youngest” Bobby chuckled. “He just gives that ‘oldest vibe’ because PJ and I usually follow his lead, but it’s because of his energy. He is the thinking head of the three, but still the youngest” he then leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “They are like my brothers, but I just hate to have to act like a big brother. In fact, I’m no big brother, I don’t do well with the ‘siblings stuff’. PJ is the one who is actually a big brother, but am I the one who has to put some order? That’s bullshit, man.”

“Well, if it means anything to you, this” Bradley gestured vaguely at the guy next to him, “doesn’t suit you.”

“See?” Bobby turned again to face Bradley. “Thank God, you get it.”

Bradley remained silent for a few moments, but he could feel that Bobby needed to think about something else. “So... you and Max don’t have siblings?”

Bobby took a deep breath and smiled, but Bradley could saw that there was sadness in that smile. “Yeah. PJ has a little sister, but we don’t have siblings. And I barely know Pistol, because PJ’s parents divorced before I’ve met the guys, and PJ’s mom and his sister moved out to another town. They come to Spoonerville from time to time, but like I said I don’t do well with sibling stuff. She is funny, though, but I just don’t know how to interact with her.”

“I can understand it. I mean, I also don’t know how to interact with someone in a sibling-like level” Bradley replied in a soft tone. “I don’t even remember my own sister, so...”

“Wait, you have a sister?” Bobby raised an eyebrow. “No offense, but you gave me ‘rich-and-only-child kid’ kinda vibe.”

“Yeah, well, I guess you could say I am. It’s been years since last time I knew anything of her.”

“Bobby, open the door already! I’m so done with this jerk!” they heard Max shouting inside the room.

“No can do, you make amends or rot in there!” Bobby yelled happily in response.

“And... what is this all about exactly?” Bradley asked.

“Their fighting? Mostly because Max is freaking out and when he is like this he can be a little bitch. And PJ is a little bit paranoid and sees red flags everywhere when Max acts like this. I don’t really think the same way as PJ. Max went through a lot a few years ago and, even though he has been doing better, healing is not always lineal. But it’s like PJ doesn’t want to understand that, or the fact that Max will shut us off if he feels cornered.”

They began to hear the boys inside shouting at each other, but Bradley couldn’t grasp any words they said. Even so, the brunette thought he heard his name at some point.

“Do you think PJ is mad at me?” Bradley whispered.

“Why would he?” Bobby replied with a soft comforting smile. “Yeah, maybe you were a jerk last year, but you talked to Tank and to Max about that. And Max has trusted you, so we trust you too. Max has a good intuition when it comes to people... Most of the time, at least.”

“Most of the time, huh?” Bradley mumbled. This is probably one of the few time his intuition is not good.

“If it means anything to you” Bobby put his hand on Bradley’s knee, “you didn’t give me any reason to worry. Max’s gut was why we gave you that second chance, but now knowing you more, my personal opinion about you is that you are better that you might recognise to be. And it’s fun to have you around. Teasing you is easy” Bobby laughed patting his knee.

“Thanks, I guess” Bradley couldn’t help to chuckle a little.

It had been over an hour since Bobby had locked them in there, but they both were refusing to say a single word. Obviously, Bobby had took their phones and he also had disconnected the computer, so he left them without the option of ignoring each other, even though they were trying to. PJ was seating on Bobby’s bed staring Max, while Max was on his own bed avoiding eye contact.

“Are you seriously not going to say anything?” PJ finally caved in.

“I don’t know what do you really expect me to say, dude” Max mumbled.

“You are aware that Bobby is not going to let us out until we talk things through, aren’t you?” PJ raised an eyebrow, not trying to hide his annoyance.

“We tell him we made up and, boom, problem solved.”

“Yeah, ‘cause that will work” PJ rolled his eyes. “Face it, Max, you are the worst liar who has ever walked on earth. Bobby would never buy it.”

Max huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. The silence filled the space between them once again, the only sound being the tick of the clock. PJ knew Max was stubborn so he wouldn’t say the first word, but he also knew that choosing the wrong words could unleash a war inside the room. He took a deep breath before taking a leap.

“Max, you’re like a brother to me, you know that” he said softly. “And I feel there’s something bugging you that you aren’t sharing with us. I just want to help, dude.”

“But you are not helping” Max grunted. “I’ve already told you to give me space, but since the beginning of the year, you’ve been breathing down my neck all the fucking time.”

“I’m trying to give you space, but it’s hard to do so when I see you run to Bradley at every chance you have” PJ’s voice was harsher than before, knowing that would piss Max off, but there was no turning back.

“So that’s your fucking problem? Bradley?” Max snapped at his friend while turning to finally look at him. “He proved to us that he is not the person we thought he was, why you have to always complain about him being around?”

“I’m not always complaining about that.”

“You’re complaining now, and you sure complained when I invited him to come to the rehearsals.”

“I complain because you act weird around him since you talked to him at that Gamma party” PJ’s shoulders slumped. “I don’t want you to get hurt again, Max.”

“Why would I get hurt?”

“Because you keep trying to rescue every single ‘stray puppy’ you ever cross paths with” PJ stood up as if the anger didn’t allow him to stay seated.

“You didn’t fucking complain when you were the ‘stray puppy’” Max raised his voice as he also stood up.

PJ took a step back, looking hurt at his friend. “Whoa, fuck you, man” he whispered. “Are you comparing fucking eight years of having each other’s backs to the weird thing you have going on with that dude right now?”

“It’s not a ‘weird thing’, I happen to be able to see beyond people’s mistakes. You are the one who has to be weird about it, apparently” Max’s voice was also softer, but still sounded angry.

“You’re getting defensive with me for a guy that made your life hell last year. You are acting exactly like you did with-”

“This has nothing to do with that!” Max cut him off. “You know what? Fuck this” he then turned to the door and shouted: “Bobby, open the door already! I’m so done with this jerk!”

“No can do, you make amends or rot in there!” Bobby’s voice was blissful on the other side of the door.

Max sighed heavily and returned to his bed, avoiding to look at PJ again. The larger boy sat down again at the same spot as before, but unlike before he was also avoiding to look at Max.

“Not everything in my fucking life revolves around that fucked-up event” Max mumbled.

“This sure feels like it” PJ replied with a sad tone. “You’re getting all freaked out for a stupid tracklist.”

“Don’t fucking start with the tracklist again!” Max shouted.

“Then please do fucking explain to me why Bradley’s birthday is driving you crazy! Do it! Explain to me why the fuck you insist on seeing the good in that psychopath!”

“He is not!”

“He rocket-launched me to get us disqualified! And then the freaking horror show of the giant X! How does that not make him a psychopath?”

“He has unresolved trauma! Who hasn’t?”

“Stop! Stop defending him! Stop talking like that!” PJ yelled at him furious, but then his expression changed. “Last time you talked like that, you ended up in the fucking hospital...”

Max’s heart broke seeing his friend so hurt with that memory. “But he is not going to send me to the hospital” Max muttered.

“He almost did already!” PJ looked desperate to make Max understand him.

“Not on purpose...”

The silence felt heavier this time. None of them looked at the other, and Max felt like everything around him had started to spin too fast.

“I’ve learned my lesson” Max whispered. “I know I trust easily, but I’ve learned my lesson.”

“I want to believe that, Max, but it’s hard” PJ looked up to examine Max’s expression. “I just want you to be safe.”

“I am. I’m just... I’m still trying to heal” the younger boy sighed. “And as hard to believe as it may seem, Bradley has helped me a lot without even knowing. Even last year. He gave me a reason to forget, a purpose. I was so focused on the X-games and dethroning the Gammas that I didn’t had time to think about... that. I haven’t thought about all that shit until you began to act so overprotecting with me.”

“I’m sorry about that, I shouldn’t have pushed you that much” PJ moved to seat next to Max. “I’m trying to be open-minded with Bradley hanging out with us, I really am. But I felt so hopeless when... when I saw you beaten up. I don’t want that to happen again.”

“Could you at least try to get to know Bradley better? Maybe that way you would understand what I’m telling you” Max only dared to look at his friend from the corner of his eye. “I promise you he’s trying to be better, it’s not like... He is trying.”

PJ took a deep breath. “You know I don’t have anything against Bradley” but Max’s face made him rethink his words. “But sure, I will give him a chance. I’m sorry for letting my fears bring out the worst in me. I bet you’re right.”

“Thanks, man. And I’m sorry for being an asshole all the time when I’m stressed out. I forgot how nerve-racking was to balance out the band with the studies and the rest of my life.”

“You’re all good, no need to apologize. I also forgot how much of a jerk you can be” PJ joked.

With all the tension around them being gone, they felt able to laugh about their argument. Then they looked at each other and hugged it out, no needing more words.

“I’m already bored in the hallway” Bobby anounced as he entered the room again. “Glad to see that you didn’t kill each other.”

“You’re an asshole for locking us in” PJ reprimanded him without losing his smile.

“I told you that you wouldn’t like if I had to pull the ‘oldest card’” Bobby smirked.

“Come here, you stupid gremlin” Max opened his arms, inviting Bobby to join their hug.

“Gremlin coming!” Bobby didn’t hesitate for a second as he threw himself into that group hug.

“I’m sorry for everything, really. I love you guys” Max affirmed with his face smushed between his friends’ shoulders.

After explaining Bobby everything about their argument, the three of them were feeling like usual again. Certainly, the fact that Bobby stepped in hadn’t been fun, but they needed it. Now they were sharing a joint as Max’s thoughts revolved around his biggest frustration of the moment.

“But I can’t get to feel good about the tracklist” he mumbled, lying on his bed.

“Do you have anything written yet?” Bobby asked before taking a hit and passing the joint to PJ.

Max pointed to the desk drawer, where he kept his loose papers with hundreds of rewritten ideas. Bobby pulled the papers out and examined them with PJ. The larger boy seemed a little bit confused, which was not surprising since Max’s handwriting was frenzied. Bobby lifted his sunglasses and squinted to read better.

“Hey, what was this blur?” Bobby pointed at a smudged half-erased line.

“Oh, that one. I thought about putting Novocaine because it was the first one we played when we started rehearsing again, but... then I thought that it’s not the kind of vibe I’m looking for” Max explained as PJ passed him the joint.

“Maybe not that one, okay” Bobby pondered looking back at the paper he had in hand. “Oh, what about- Wait, I don’t remember the name of the one I’m thinking of right now. You know, the one that goes like this” and he beated the rythim with a pen on the desk.

Max blinked, recognising instantly what song was he talking about. “Hey, yeah, that one could work.”

“Okay, I’m writing it down.”

PJ looked at them as they went back and forth suggesting, removing and adding songs to the tracklist. Certainly, Bobby had been right all along, they were a team and they worked better together.

“Oh, wait, I know a good one. Trust me” Bobby wrote something down before giving Max the paper.

“Radiohead?” Max raised an eyebrow. “I’m not sure that fits with the others, dude.”

“Maximum, are you seeing which one is it? It’s powerful, but not too strong, so it won’t give ‘emo kid’ vibes. We are trying to avoid that, am I right?” Bobby stared at him directly, having left his sunglasses on the desk.

“I didn’t use those words” Max quickly said.

“But it’s obvious you’re trying to avoid the ‘emo music’, man” PJ laughed.

Max opened his mouth to try and defend himself but closed it immediately, knowing his friends were right.

“And believe me, Bradley will love it” Bobby continued. “I’ve been talking with him a moment ago in the hallway and he mentioned something about it.”

“What?” Max turned to his friend. “You were talking to Bradley while we were locked in here? Who knows what the hell you told him” he shook his head.

“Nothing” Bobby raised his hand in surrender. “Nothing too embarrassing at least” he laughed. “He asked me why you didn’t answer his text and- Oh, that reminds me! There you have, guys” then he finally handed them their phones.

PJ and Max glared at him. “Do you seriously forgot you had our phones?” the larger boy reprimanded him.

“To be fair, you also forgot them because you didn’t ask for your phones back” Bobby shrugged. “Okay, let’s continue with this before Max realizes that we have only week and a half to prepare the tracklist and rehearse it.”

“Is that supposed to be helpful?” Max sighed.

“Hey, how about that one you used to play all the time back in high school? The one from The Cab, if I recall” PJ suggested.

“Oh, yeah, you have to put that one!” Bobby seconded as he was already writing it down.

“Is not going to be too much?” Max rubbed his arm.

“See? Avoiding the ‘emo vibes’” Bobby laughed.

“I hate you guys” he pouted.

“You just said you love us” Bobby smirked, “so now you have to be lying.”

“Can we just focus?”

Bobby chuckled, overly amused for teasing his friend. Then he jolted when he got an idea. “Uh, I know another one! The babes would love this” he mumbled as he wrote down another one.

Max took a peek at the paper and exchanged a look with PJ. “This has to be a joke. Tell me he is kidding.”

“He never jokes when it comes to impress, and I quote, ‘the babes’” PJ rolled his eyes.

Max took a deep breath. “Yeah, you’re right. So I’m guessing that one is staying.”

“Your guess is correct!” Bobby smiled proudly. “And we can throw something more mainstream to start. That way you can loosen up a little bit” he said to Max. “You know, like a warm-up.”

Max rolled his eyes. “Would you stop messing with me for wanting to avoid the ‘emo vibes’?”

“So you admit it, huh?”

“So what were you thinking with the ‘mainstream’ idea?” Max asked to divert the mocking towards him.

“Maybe something that suits you well vocally but not too hard for you?” PJ pondered.

“Yeah, like that guy... The one with that song about having mercy?” Bobby rambled.

“You’re the worst for names, it’s like playing guessing games with you constantly” PJ complained.

“Oh, you mean Shawn Mendes?” Max conjectured.

“How do you keep guessing right what he means?”

“I think the question here is why you never get right anything I say at this point” Bobby teased PJ.

Going back and forth with the teasing, especially coming from Bobby, the three of them kept writing some songs down. Max took a quick look at his friends as they were arguing about another of Bobby’s jokes, and he smiled. They may drive me crazy sometimes, but man, I don’t know what would I do without them.

With that thought echoing in his mind, Max decided to add another song without even ask them for approval. That also made him thought about Bradley and how much he appreciated his friendship with him too, even if it started with an awkward conversation in a party a month ago. He shook his head as he wrote another one below the previous one.

“Oh, someone’s feeling inspired” Bobby chortled, leaning his weight on Max’s back. “Hey, I think you will need something more upbeat after that one” he pointed at the last Max wrote down. “How about this one?” he took Max’s pen to write it down, looking at him with a proud smile. “It’s genius, I know.”

“I... It is, actually” Max whispered. “Yeah, I like it.”

“It’s turning out pretty well” PJ said after taking a look of what they had done so far. “You know what? Maybe we could ask Tank if they both had a special connection with any specific song of the ones that he suggested. They’ve known each other for years after all, right?”

“Yeah, I bet there’s some song from his teenage years in here. Can you imagine his face if we play his high school guilty pleasure?” Bobby laughed while he was texting Tank.

“You don’t have to enjoy the idea that much, Bob” Max replied, but he couldn’t help but to chuckle too.

“Why not? Admit that it would be hilarious” Bobby continued. Then his eyes stumbled upon another paper, this one folded in half. “What did you wrote on this one?”

“Huh?” Max frowned, trying to remember the songs. When he did remember, his eyes widened and tried to snatch the paper out of Bobby’s hand. “Nothing, those ideas are awful.”

“Awful? This is sooooooo fire! Look, Peej” he gave the paper to the other boy as he stopped Max with his free hand.

“Boys, stop” Max groaned. “I hadn’t slept when I wrote those ones down.”

“But they could work out to do the closure” PJ pondered. “It could bring the mood nicely down to end up the gig.”

“Wait, are you guys serious?” Max tried to get away from Bobby who was still stopping him. “They’re too sappy.”

“Nah, dude” Bobby reassured him. “Yeah, they’re softer than other songs in the tracklist, but I wouldn’t say ‘sappy’.”

“Yeah, I really think those two should be the last ones” PJ smiled at him.

These guys have to be stoned, because I don’t see any other explanation, Max thought, knowing he couldn’t escape their idea of putting those songs at the end of the tracklist.