Since Forever Ago (12 page)

Jeremy’s eyes lit up at the ditzy girl’s arrival, excited by the prospect of someone having come along to drag Max away. “Yea, April, go away. And you know what? Take Max with you!”

“Oh my
God
, Jeremy, shut
up
,” April scoffed in response, flipping her long hair over her shoulder in annoyance. “This is an A and B conversation, so you can C your way out.”

“What is she? Twelve?” Riley muttered under her breath.

“April, I’m not in the mood,” Max groaned out, shaking her hands off of his shoulder.

“You’re never in the mood,” April said in a tiny voice, playfully pouting at him. “But I bet I can—”

“Wait,” Max suddenly blurted out, ignoring April’s flirting as he stared intently at Riley. “We totally forgot to do... that thing.”

“What thing?” Riley asked, scrunching her nose in confusion.

“You know... that thing!” Max cried out in exasperation, unable to come up with even a hint of a story.
Slick, Fletcher
, he groaned with a mental shake of his head.
Really slick.

“Huh?”

“That... thing, remember? Uh, we need to hurry up and... come on,” he eventually choked out, grabbing Riley’s wrist and leading her away before he even realized what he was doing.

“Max, what the fuck?” he heard Jeremy’s voice call out from behind him as he pulled Riley up the stairs. “Dude, did you see that? Fletcher’s fucking drunk off his ass.”

“What are you doing?” Riley demanded in a hushed whisper, prying her wrist away from Max’s grip. “What ‘thing’ are you even talking about, anyway?”

“Shhh!” Max drunkenly hushed her, glancing behind them to see if they had been followed.

“You don’t get along very well with tequila, do you?” Riley asked, a bored look on her face as she watched him play secret agent.

“And you do?” he whispered back, smirking at her in amusement.

“Max?” April’s high-pitched voice rang out from around the corner, just as he had been expecting. “Maxie?”

“Fuck!”

A pained look on his face, Max brought his finger to his lips and motioned for Riley to follow him. Frantically looking around for an escape, he pushed past a loitering couple in the hallway and lunged for the door to his room, pulling Riley inside with him before quietly clicking it shut.

“Maaaaax,” April’s voice drawled out as she stopped in front of their hiding spot. “Where aaaare you?”

Riley held back a snort of laughter as April proceeded to jiggle the doorknob, causing Max to hold his breath in horror. “Max?” her voice called out from the other side of the door. “Are you in there? Let me in. I promise it’ll be worth it.”

At this, Riley could hardly contain herself, and Max nervously placed his hand over her mouth to silence her giggles.
Fuck!
he cried to himself as April continued to whine from her post in the hallway.
What was I thinking? Evan was right
—
never put your dick in crazy!

After a few minutes, April eventually gave up and began making her way back to the party, her footsteps echoing throughout the hallway until they could no longer be heard. Once it became apparent that his stalker was no longer in the vicinity, Max let out a relieved sigh and glanced over to find Riley grinning brightly at him.

“Maaax,” Riley teased in a whisper, prompting him to shoot her a peeved glare.

“Fuck, she’s seriously crazy,” Max muttered under his breath. “How do I get myself into these situations?”

“She must want the D,” Riley replied in a low voice before laughing hysterically at her own response.

“You don’t have to talk like that with
me
, you know,” Max grumbled, an unamused look on his face. “You should save the charm for your dates.”

“You mean my imminent date with Jeremy?” Riley gushed, dramatically clasping her hands to her chest as Max snarled in response.

“Trust me, you
don’t
want to go on a date with Jeremy,” Max informed her. “His idea of a date is Snapchatting you a picture of his dick before asking you to come over in the middle of the night.”

“A true romantic,” Riley said with a sigh. “What do you have against him, anyway?”

“What do
you
see in him?” Max snapped back, hoping that she couldn’t see his reddening cheeks through the darkness.

“I don’t know!” Riley blurted out, her shoulders slumping in defeat. “I just... I liked how he was giving me attention, I guess.”

“I give you attention,” Max petulantly replied.

“Not
that
kind of attention, though,” Riley whined, tucking her hair behind her ears as she prepared to explain what she meant. “Like
guy
attention.”

“I’m a guy too, Riley,” Max whispered, his throat choking up as he did. “In case you haven’t noticed.”

Fletcher, what the fuck are you doing?
he screamed at himself.
No, no, no, no, no! Stop fucking talking. Why the hell did you drink that tequila? Did you think that it would somehow be magically different this time? Tequila is
not
your friend, motherfucker.

“Well, I mean, of
course
you’re a guy,” Riley said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “I’m just
saying
that it’s just nice to have a guy... I don’t know...
want
me.”

“I...”

“Ugh, that sounds so pathetic,” Riley continued, shaking her head in embarrassment. “But you’re right, I guess. I don’t know what I was thinking. I just thought that maybe he could teach me some stuff... like stuff that
you
can’t help me with.”

“What kind of... stuff?” Max quietly asked despite knowing very well what she meant.

“Don’t make me say it,” Riley groaned loudly, a pained smile on her face. “God, I’m so lame.”

“I... I could teach you.”

What. The. Fuck. Are. You. Doing.

“What?”

Are you really doing this right now?
he demanded of himself as Riley looked up at him with a bewildered expression.
Oh God, you’re really doing this right now.

Fuck, why is she staring at me like that? Is she scared? Am I scaring her? Oh my God, I’m scaring her. No, wait, her face is softening. Hold up, does she actually want me to make a move? Is that a look of invitation? I’m
pretty
sure that her biting her lip means that you’re being given the green light...

Or am I reading this all wrong?

Okay, just go for it, Fletcher. But don’t fuck this up. For the love of all that is good and mighty,
please
do not fuck this up. I REPEAT, DO NOT FUCK THIS UP.

Okay, man, you got this,
he heard his inner voice soothingly continue.
Riley’s not the first girl you’ve ever been with, so stop acting like such a pussy. She’s just a girl. She’s just like every other girl.

...Except that she’s not. She’s perfect and special and she’s better than every other girl you’ve ever been with. Oh God, you’re going to fuck this up. You’re going to fuck this up, I just know it.

“Max...?” Riley asked, a tinge of uncertainty in her voice.

Why is he looking at me like that?
she wondered, staring up at him with widened eyes.
What is happening right now? Oh my God, this is, like, really confusing. Wait, is Max hitting on me?

No, there’s no way. Dammit, Riley, I told you not to drink fucking tequila. Now look what you’ve gone and done. You’re hallucinating! You are literally a crazy person.

No, wait a minute. He’s reaching over. Why’s he reaching over? Holy shit, you’re not hallucinating. You’re not the crazy person here
—
he is!

“Guys like it,” Max began in an almost inaudible whisper, his voice trembling as he pushed a strand of her blonde locks behind her ear. “They like it when a girl’s face isn’t covered by her hair.”

“Oh?”

This is real? Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, what is he doing? What’s going on? I’m so confused
, she whimpered to herself as she lifted her eyes to look into his.
Why is this
—

Have his eyes always been that blue?
she couldn’t help but notice as he held her gaze in the deafening silence.
Like, I know they’re blue, but were they always so...
blue
? And why
—

Oh God, he’s going to touch me again.
Why
is Max touching me? Does he
want
to touch me? Where is this even coming from?

“And they... they like it when her skin is as soft as a baby’s,” he continued, running his fingertips ever so lightly along her shoulder. As the pads of his fingertips grazed her skin, it felt as if tiny jolts of electricity were left in the wake of each touch. When he gently pushed the strap of her dress off of her shoulder, Riley could feel her stomach flutter in anticipation, her pulse quickening at the prospect of what was to happen next.

What the hell?
she frantically wondered as she continued to stare into Max’s slightly shaking eyes.
Is this really happening? Me? With
Max
? What would our parents think?

Why the hell are you thinking of your parents right now, dumbass?
Riley groaned inwardly as she tried her best to steady her breathing. Her skin tingled as he trailed his fingers along the length of her arm, and she could feel goosebumps popping up as a shiver ran down her spine. As Max nudged the strap off of her other shoulder and the fabric of her dress slowly slinked off of her body, she could hear him sharply intake his breath before pulling her closer.

Hooooly shit
, she thought to herself as his body was soon pressed up against her own. She could feel every cool gust of air leaving his nose on the side of her neck, and she could barely stop her knees from buckling as he gently traced the edge of her underwear with his finger. In fact, she was so caught up in the moment that she hadn’t noticed that she had been holding her breath the entire time.

“They like it when the girl wants it as badly as they do,” he whispered, his hot breath tickling the tiny hairs inside her ear. Riley could feel her entire body tense up when Max brought his lips to the sensitive skin of her neck, letting out a tiny whimper as a wave of excitement flooded her body. Moving at an almost excruciatingly slow pace, he planted a trail of light kisses down to her collarbone before pulling away, and Riley could feel her body involuntarily shudder as he looked into her eyes once again.

A tiny smirk formed on Max’s lips as he cupped the side of her face in one of his hands. “And I,” he quietly began as his face leaned in towards her own. “I like you.”

Oh fuck
, Riley panicked silently as his face inched closer and closer.
Is this really fucking happening right now? He likes me? Since when has he liked me? He can’t possibly
like
like me, right? What is this? I mean, come on! Max? Is he even a guy? Does he even—

Just as the soft skin of Max’s lips pressed against hers, however, all of the thoughts swirling through Riley’s brain vanished without a trace. Oh, he was
definitely
a guy.

Am I really kissing Max right now?
her inner voice shrieked, ruining what would have been a perfectly nice moment had she not been such an inebriated mess.
His tongue is
literally
in my mouth. Oh my God, Max Fletcher’s tongue is in my mouth. Should I put my tongue in
his
mouth? Ugh, he tastes like tequila. Or is that me?

Just as their breathing grew a tad heavier and their kisses became a bit more probing, Max pulled away from her mouth.
Wait, what are you doing, motherfucker?
Riley couldn’t help but think as she opened her eyes in confusion.
Hurry the hell up and come back.

Shooting her a shy smile, Max gently traced her cheekbone with his thumb. “Is this... okay?” he cautiously asked, biting his lip like a nervous little boy.

Unable to come up with any intelligible response, Riley merely nodded her head, her gaze drifting in the direction of his lips. Taking a deep breath, she slowly reached for the hem of Max’s tee shirt, helping him rip it off before working on the buckle of his belt.

“I don’t want to force you to do anything if you’re uncomfortable,” he blurted out once his pants had fallen to the ground. “You can tell me to
—
”

“Does it look like I’m uncomfortable?” Riley breathed out, reaching up to loop her arms around his neck and pull his face closer.

What the hell are you doing? Oh my God, what are you doing? Did you really just do that? You did
not
just do that. Except that you did. Oh my—

Once Max’s lips hit her own again, Riley felt as though her brain had shut off. Even though she was still aware that it was Max she was kissing, she couldn’t help but notice that everything just felt
right
. It had
never
felt like this with Noah, not even when the two of them were deep in the throes of their puberty-induced passionate romance.

This must be the feeling that movies are based on
, Riley mused to herself, thinking back on that scene with the couple making out in the backseat of a car. She hadn’t understood it then, but she could
definitely
understand it now. In fact, someone could probably shove the two of them into a cardboard box and she wouldn’t have noticed. All she knew was that she couldn’t get enough of Max, even when he was closer to her than he’d ever been before.

Max’s kisses were gentle but firm, slow but urgent, passionate but loving. Riley felt her head buzz with delight as they began clumsily making their way towards his bed, neither of them moving their lips away from the other’s. His hands were all over her, running up and down her back and through her hair as his arms held her close to his body. As the backs of her calves hit his mattress, the two tumbled onto his unmade bed together, their hands groping for the other’s body before Max rolled over and hovered over her.