His End Game (MMG #1) (5 page)

She shook her head. “Nope.”

“At all?” I squeaked.

“At all,” she confirmed.

I narrowed my eyes at her. “Who told you this?”

“Kurt.”

“Greenfield?”

“No, Cobain,” she deadpanned.

“Wait, isn’t he dead?” I whispered, thinking that she knew something I didn’t about one of the best Grunge Band lead singers of all time.

She rolled her eyes at me. “Jeez, Ellie, could you be anymore gullible? Yes, Kurt Greenfield.”

Ignoring her insult, I asked, “Since when do you hang out with Kurt Greenfield?”

“Since I ran into him last weekend and he told me that Max had dumped Jennifer’s ass like a bad habit the night of the party
and wasn’t going back,
ever
, no matter how much she begged him. Look, it’s not like Max was exclusive with her or… well… really any girl for that matter.”

I had no idea that this had happened.

Where the hell had I been for the past three weeks
?

“What do you mean they weren’t exclusive?” I asked. “They looked pretty exclusive to me.”

“Max McLellan is the type of guy who won’t do exclusive. Trust me on this.”

This was too much. It was then that it hit me. He didn’t want to kiss me that night. He was just being sweet. It was all in my head.

He wasn’t with Jennifer anymore. This was good. However, he certainly wasn’t making his move on me. This was not good. In fact, this was downright depressing
.

Needing to process all of this, I cut school before last period, drove home and called Piper.

It had been weeks since my enlightening talk with Joss and I somewhat effectively had managed to avoid Max. This, of course, was easier said than done. He was ridiculously hard not to look at. Since the night of Matt’s party, he had kept his distance. Though, strangely enough, he kept popping up everywhere. Every flipping time he caught my eye, which was a lot, he would give me a look.
Whatever
. I figured that if I kept my head down things would blow over and, eventually, everything would go back to normal. My normal, that is, where I would watch Max from afar as he prowled up and down the halls while fending off his bevy of beautiful bubbly bitches.

Just shoot me
.

A week later, my well thought out plan blew up in my face. I was coming out of the gym as he was leaving the wrestling room when he spotted me across the hallway.

“Sorry,” I mumbled to the poor person I almost fell over while trying to get away. I made it two steps further when I felt a hand grab my arm.

“Ellison,” he said in that deep crotch tingling voice.

Crap!

Closing my eyes, I told myself to keep walking. Did I do this? Noooo. Instead, I stood there frozen in his clutches while waiting for everyone to pass by. When the coast was clear, I opened my mouth to say something, but before I could get the words out, was being dragged down the hall and into the equipment closet.

“Max,” I said, as he shut the door.

“Why are you ignoring me?” he asked.

I could tell by his tone that he was not happy, but was instantly distracted by his beautiful eyes and the yummy minty smell of his breath.

“What?” I asked, pretending not to understand his question.

“You’re avoiding me and I want to know why?”

“Seriously?” I wondered if I had heard him correctly.

“I can always tell what you are feeling by your facial expressions.”

I gave him a skeptical look and he quickly explained. “When you are having a bad day, you hide your head in a book. When it’s a good day, you walk around with a cute little smile on your face. When you are frustrated, you purse your lips and your eyes get all squinty. When you won’t even look at me, like you’ve been doing for the past three weeks, I know that something is wrong. Tell me what it is.”

I was shocked at how perceptive he was. Not to mention that he had been watching me, possibly more than I watched him.

I will have to think about this later
.

“I’m okay, Max.” I told him.

“You’re okay.” he repeated.

“Yes. I’m good now. You rescued me and Carter hasn’t said a word to me since that night, so you don’t have to look out for me anymore. You’re off the hook.”

He dropped his forehead to mine and I tried not to gasp when I heard him say, “But what if I don’t want to be?”

Not knowing how to respond, I just stood there breathing him in.

Mint mixed with leather and spices. I wish he’d just kiss me
.

As if reading my mind, he slowly slid his hand up the back of my neck. Right as I thought he was going in for the plunge, he grabbed my ponytail and, in a non-threatening but crazy hot move, he pulled my head back, using just enough pressure to get my attention and my eyes, “Answer me Ellie,” he commanded.

Oh my
.

“Look,” I told him, trying to sound logical. “After what happened with Carter, it’s normal to feel responsible. I’m just letting you know that I’m really okay.”

“No you’re not,” he replied.

“Yes…I…am,” I enunciated each word, hoping it would sink in.

“Nope,” he said, shaking his head.

This made me mad. I
was
okay. I didn’t want him to feel obligated because of what Carter did or didn’t do. I wanted him to want me because of….
me
. So, in true Ellie fashion, I blasted him. “You have done nothing but watch me in the halls for months now, Max. Then, you come to my rescue, where I know…I know that we connected and what do you do? You ignore me and act like it never happened. When I find out weeks later that you are
no longer with your big nasty leech of a girlfriend, I don’t know what to think, except that you obviously don’t want me.” I took a deep breath because I was completely out of air.

“Big nasty leech?” he asked, lips twitching.

“Really nasty,” I said, trying not to smile.

His hand, still gripping my ponytail, slid down the back of my neck. “That’s the problem, Ellison. I do want you. I probably shouldn’t, but I do.” Oh so gently, he drew me in and touched his lips to mine. When he stroked his tongue across my bottom lip, I moaned, floored by how good it felt. Taking this as a green light, he slowly dipped his tongue inside my mouth and touched it to mine. I was so caught up in the moment that I didn’t even blink when I felt his hand steal under my shirt.

“You taste so sweet,” he whispered against my mouth. Pulling me in closer, he turned his head to deepen the kiss, when a door slammed down the hall. The sudden noise made me jump and jerked me back to reality.

Without thinking, I pulled away. “I’m so sorry,” I said, touching my mouth. Before he could stop me, I slid out the door.

“Ellison,” I heard him say, but I was already halfway down the hall.

What in the hell just happened
?

Max’s graduation ceremony was bitter sweet.

I screwed up the day that I ran out on him. What I didn’t know was how badly it would affect me. I still saw him in the halls but now, instead of watching me, he acted like I wasn’t there, like he didn’t know me and it was completely my fault. I knew this, but I didn’t know how to make it right. By the time graduation came around, I was a neurotic head case. I had zero appetite and was having trouble sleeping through the night. Piper assured me that what I was feeling was normal.

Nothing about this was normal
.

Piper was home from Virginia and she and Joss were standing on the grassy knoll with me – yes they named it the grassy knoll. I held in my tears as I watched my beautiful Max and his friends graduate.

“You okay?” Piper asked, sliding her hand into mine.

“No. I keep wondering where I would be right now if I had stayed in the closet with him.”

“You do know how that sounds?” she mused.

I threw her a small smile. “For some reason that song by Cinderella keeps running through my head.”

“Cinderella, as in the 80’s Hair Band?” Joss asked.

I couldn’t help but laugh at the look on her face, so I explained. “When we were in fifth grade, Piper’s brother Rex was going through a Hair Band phase.”

“He would blast his music through the house and drive us all crazy,” Piper added.

“He did this with Country and Rap too,” I pointed out.

“He did, didn’t he?” she laughed.

“Anyway, Abby Bartolo had just broken up with him and he was a mess about it.”

“You were spending the night and he played that Cinderella song,
Don’t Know What You Got
, like a million times,” she quietly added.

“Till it’s Gone,” I finished.

“Let’s get out of here,” Joss said and started down the embankment.

I stood there for a few more minutes watching. As soon as Max tossed his cap into the air, I turned away.

Goodbye Max
.

After the ceremony, we drove across town to Providence for lunch. While we were eating Joss invited us to her lake house for the weekend. Her parents, of course, were traveling. Assuming that this was a girl’s only weekend, there was no need to glam up. This meant that I was wearing my usual cut offs and tank top. The only reason I still had make-up on was because I had worn it to graduation that morning.

Piper picked me up in her mom’s beat up old Suburban that we dubbed ‘The Beast’ and, with the windows down and Fall Out Boy on the radio, we were off. Finally summer was here.

As we pulled into a driveway full of cars, Piper asked, “Are you sure this is the right place?”

“Yep,” I said, double checking the address. “I thought Joss said three people, four if her cousin showed up and please, tell me that is not a red Scout with a black stripe down the side?” I pointed my finger in the direction of the truck parked at the front of the house.

“Sure looks like one. Hey,” she turned her surprised eyes to me, “doesn’t Max drive one of those?”

“Crap,” I whispered.

“Okay…before you freak out, Negative Nelly, think about it. This could be a good thing. If he’s here with someone, we’ll make an excuse and leave. If he’s flying solo, you can finally get some closure or....not.” She waggled her eyebrows suggestively.

“Why is he here, Piper? I mean…seriously. I have been a ghost to him. Do you think that Joss forgot to tell him I was coming?”

“I say we go find out. It might not be what you think, so just go with it for now. Whatever you do, do not let him know that he still affects you.” Throwing both her hands in the air, she made devil horn signs with her fingers, screamed “Summertime baby!” and ran inside the house. Shaking my head, I waited for a few minutes to catch my breath and then followed behind her.

What a nut
.

Following the sound of voices through the house, I was afraid of what I was going to find. I spotted Joss first. She was standing across the kitchen with a strange look on her face. Next to her stood a guy I had never seen before. He had shoulder length frizzy blonde hair and, for some reason, seemed familiar to me but I couldn’t place where I had seen him. Tugging on his goatee, he bounced up and down on the tips of his toes. He kind of reminded me of a heavily caffeinated Garth from the movie Wayne’s World, except with a goatee.

Last summer, Piper and I had to stay with her brother RJ after he had his wisdom teeth taken out. He made us watch
Wayne’s World four times in a row. Needless to say, I was now a huge fan of Mike Myers and Dana Carvey.