Finding Ourselves

Max stopped humming and raised his eyebrows. There was obvious confusion in his ice-blue eyes as he looked around. Once he registered their setting, he mumbled a quiet, "oh..." His eyes flickered down to his lap, where their hands were comfortably tangled together. He caught his lip between his teeth and unwillingly pulled his hand free. "Uhmm, thanks for the ride, Blaze. I'll.. Uhmm... I'll see you tomorrow." He opened the passenger door and gathered his things up in his arms.

Max put in his passcode to get inside the gates. He then jogged up the stairs, refusing to look back at the boy to see if he was still sitting there. He made it to the fourth floor and turned to the left. At the end of the hallway, was a bright red door. Clumsily, he unlocked the door and tossed his keys in the tray by the door. He walked into his living room and put the vinyl on his record player and started it up. He was surprised they had found this particular record, as the singer wasn't popular by any means. The first song started, floating smoothly through his studio apartment. He went to the kitchen area and turned on a burner. He got a pan out and searched through the fridge for vegetables and the freezer for chicken.

(Shall we skip to the next day, or would you like to continue on. I'm fine with either!)

Max chopped bell peppers, onions, and mushrooms roughly on his cutting board, tossing them into the pan with a splash of olive oil. He put in a few spices and began to sauté the mix. Between pushing around the vegetables, he managed to dice up his chicken and toss it, along with some spices, into the pan. In a pot, he cooked some boxes macaroni and cheese. When it was all done, he dished himself up a decent sized plate and plopped onto the edge of his bed. He listened to the music and ate his food, trying to ignore the constant appearance of Blaze in his thoughts.

Max woke up and made himself a cup of tea, staggering around his apartment in his pajama pants half asleep. After he finished his cuppa, he managed to find a loose gray, scoop neck and a pair of undamaged jeans. He quickly dressed and, for once, managed to get his hair to lie flat. He pulled on a pair of weather beaten penny loafers and snagged a pullover hoodie from his coat rack. He jogged down and outside, opting to walk. He carried his messenger bag over his shoulder. He reached the school after an hour, his cheeks stained red from the brisk morning air. He skipped out on coffee, heading straight to his classroom. Once there, he hung up his coat, took out his laptop, and started writing on the chalkboard. His neat, fancy cursive read "Write an essay. Rules: Must be 2,000 words or more, needn't be school appropriate, no limit to your topic. Restrictions: cannot be about your favorite season unless its written in a way that would blow shakespear's mind, must be written in your own words." He put the chalk back in the tray and sat down just as the warning bell rang.

Max waited for the late bell to ring, and even a few minutes after that, before he started. He stood up from his desk, dog-earing the page in his book that he left off. His eyes swept over the class, taking note of who was here and who wasn't. Then, he started speaking, "Today I'm giving you your quarter assignment. It's fairly simple, so no worries. I just want you to write an essay. It can be about anything. I have a rule in my essays though, if you wouldn't say it in real life, don't write it in your paper. I wrote down a few guidelines and restrictions on the board. You guys will have twenty minutes every other day to work on this assignment, so don't sweat it. The only thing you have to do on your own, is type it up." He finished his short lecture easily by saying, "Any questions?"

When nobody said anything, Max started up again. "This is the course syllabus. Take it h-" he abruptly stopped speaking when his eyes landed on blaze who was all ready staring at him. His heart sped up. After a few seconds, he snapped himself out of it, "Uhmmm... Take this home and have your parent or guardian or dog or sibling sign it. Bring it back tomorrow, please."

Max bit his bottom lip absently, trying to keep his eyes on no one inparticular. Much to his dismay, his eyes constantly flickered back to Blaze. He noted the light pink warming the younger boys cheeks. Max decidedly thought that it was cute. He stopped himself with a hypothetical face palm, reminding himself for the tenth time that this was his student and he wasn't allowed to think that way about him.

The rest of class was spent with Max trying to convince himself that his feelings weren't terribly wrong. His next thought was that it wouldn't be awful of him to say something. If Blaze didn't like him, he would transfer out, and if he did feel the same, maybe something could happen. Maybe they could be together. Immediately after that thought he wanted to slap himself. That wasn't right.

Max could help the pang of jealousy that shot through him as he watched Blaze and Jane leave the classroom. He wanted to be able to hold the boy's hand like she did. Sighing, he sat, legs crossed, on the top of his desk. He fished out an apple and a thermos of lukewarm tea from his bag. He crunched on the apple while breezing through another chapter of his book. The novel was meant as a distraction, but Blaze was in the back of his mind the whole time.

Max looked up, his eyes lazing up. His heart nearly stopped when he saw Blaze. He quickly looked down, his cheeks heating up. He wanted to speak, say something, anything, but he couldn't form his words. He just stared at his book, the words all blending together on the pages. He couldn't even Make sense of his book because his nerves were getting the better of him.

Max looked up again, pleading with some unseen force. He was begging that Blaze would stop and say something, anything. He knew it was better if this crazy idea stopped before it started, but being around the younger boy just felt right. He knew he was staring, but he couldn't tear his eyes away. He couldn't bring himself to pull his eyes away. He gave up trying to reason with himself and just let his eyes stay on Blaze

Max was blushing furiously at what Blaze had said to him. So, maybe if he was going to like blaze he should be a little bit more careful, admire from afar, per say. He put down his book and laid down on the desk, staring up at the ceiling. He couldn't calm the riot of butterflies flapping around in the pit of his stomach. He grabbed his phone and turned on Sarah Minor by Keaton Hensen. Sighing as the song started, he resolved that it sounded much better on the new vinyl he'd gotten yesterday.