As the figure came out of the shadows, I was hit by a déjà vu so strong it had me taking a step back. The wide shoulders, the unrecognizable face. My mind immediately jumped to the guy from Compulsion.
But this wasn’t a stranger.
Maxx’s swagger was as confident as ever, his smirk firmly in place. He wore an old gray hoodie splattered with paint. His movements were sluggish, and I wondered if he was on something. I hoped not, for his sake. That would land him in the violating-his-probation kind of trouble.
“Did you take a dip in a bucket of paint?” I asked sharply, unable to alter the nasty tone in my voice.
Maxx looked down at his hoodie and shrugged. “Community-service stuff,” he explained, and I felt like a bit of an asshole.
“Why so angry, Aubrey? You look ready to kill someone,” Maxx observed, leaning against the lamppost, hands in his pockets, looking blasé.
“If you’re just going to vomit up more crappy come-ons, please find another girl who’s more receptive to your witty personality. I’m honestly not in the mood to fend off your pickup lines,” I responded peevishly.
Maxx looked taken aback. He blinked a few times, opening and closing his mouth as though he were trying to think of something to say. I tried to suppress the grin that threatened to give me away.
“What? Nothing to say?” I asked, lobbing my own sarcastic teasing.
Maxx chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. His smirk transformed into a genuine smile. It lit up his face and took my breath away.
“You wanna hang out?” he asked. It was obvious he hadn’t planned on asking me that, and somehow the spontaneity of the offer made it extremely appealing.
“I don’t know if that would be appropriate,” I stated, trying to regain some common sense, something I was sorely lacking when it came to Maxx Demelo.
Maxx snorted. “What’s inappropriate about it? We’re not in group right now. You’re a student. I’m a student. We’re just two students wanting to hang out. What’s the harm?” he asked innocently.
Innocent, my ass.
I cocked my eyebrow at him and leveled him with my best who-the-hell-are-you-kidding look. Maxx bit on his bottom lip to keep from laughing. His blue eyes, while red-rimmed and tired, sparkled with excitement.
I couldn’t deny that I wanted to spend time with him, that I was intrigued by him. And for some crazy reason, my internal warning bells weren’t screaming as loudly as they normally did.
“Come on.” Maxx inclined his head in the direction of the sidewalk, lighting up a cigarette as he went.
Fresh out of arguments and more than a little tired of creating them, I fell into step beside him, waving smoke out of my face.
“Do you have to smoke? Some of us have a good relationship with our lungs,” I snipped.
Maxx took a last drag and dropped it on the ground. “No smoking. Got it,” he said, surprisingly seriously.
“So you’re not going to tell me why you’re in such a shitty mood?” Maxx asked as we walked.
“Roommate drama,” I said.
“Did she steal your Crimson Splash nail polish again?” he joked, and I snorted.
“Do I look like the sort of girl to wage war over makeup?” I scoffed, though I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what sort of girl he considered me to be.
“You look like the kind of girl who doesn’t take a whole lot of bullshit,” Maxx said, bestowing an unexpected compliment. I arched my eyebrow.
“You see right through me, huh?” I replied blandly. Maxx chuckled.
“Never an inch,” he said under his breath, though just loud enough for me to hear him. I couldn’t help but smile. There was something about being with him that was both comfortable and unexpected. He kept me on my toes, but there were times when our conversation was as easy and natural as breathing.
The dynamic we fell into seemed to pit anger and distrust against lust and longing. Frustration warred with contentment. Irritation and wariness were at odds with vulnerability and sincerity.
It made being around him exhausting, yet exhilarating at the same time. It was easy to see why people were drawn to him.
When he laughed or spoke, people watched. They hung on. They coveted every tiny bit of him.
He had the potential to decimate everything around him.
Me included.
Maxx pulled me to a stop outside the local movie theater, a building built in the 1940s. I had been inside only a handful of times and had been obsessed about possible mold spores in the bathroom. It had a dank, musty smell that no amount of popcorn and air freshener could get rid of.
Looking up at the marquee, I was both delighted and surprised. They were advertising their Cult Hit Saturday. They were playing a series of lesser-known movies for a fraction of the usual admission price, and one particular movie that was listed had me especially excited.
“You want to go see this?” I asked, jerking my thumb toward the poster of one of my all-time favorite movies, The Doom Generation.
“I’ve been waiting to get you in the dark,” Maxx teased, purposefully closing the distance between us. I took an involuntary step back, creating some necessary space.
“If bullshit were music, you’d be a big brass band,” I quoted. Maxx let out a deep laugh.
“I should have known you’d be a fan,” he stated, looking at me with appreciation.
“I love obscure movies. My sister and I went through a phase where we watched Doom Generation every weekend,” I answered, smiling at the memory of us sitting around quoting dialogue and laughing until we couldn’t breathe.
Maxx grinned down at me, and I found myself smiling back at him. And then he did the most peculiar thing. As though without thinking, he lifted his hand and cupped my cheek. His thumb swept up the curve of my face, his blue eyes intense and serious.
“You’re beautiful, Aubrey. But when you smile, you’re breathtaking,” he said softly.
Well, damn. His words were designed to make me melt, and they did, even as I fought hard to resist them. Who was I kidding? What girl wouldn’t dissolve into a puddle of girlie drool after a comment like that?
Cleanup on aisle twelve!
He was looking at me with the sort of tender expression that men generally reserve for proms and marriage proposals. It made my insides flutter.
And then he dropped his hand and moved away from me. I stood there, bewildered, my body and heart still buzzing.
Maxx’s personality changed so quickly it was hard to keep up. But there were flashes of sincerity, like just now, that made it easy to overlook the times when it was obvious he was trying to be someone else.
Maxx held his hand out for me to take, but I just stared at it dumbly.
“We need to head inside if we don’t want to miss the start of the movie,” he said, waggling his fingers.
“Okay,” I agreed finally, tentatively putting my hand into his outstretched palm. Our fingers laced together, and he gave my hand a small squeeze.
He bought our tickets and popcorn, ignoring my pleas to let me pay my own way. This was beginning to feel too much like a date.
And deep down in the farthest recesses of my heart, I hoped it was. Stupid, stupid Aubrey!
When we were seated in the theater, we still had ten minutes to spare before the movie began. We sat in an easy silence, and I was amazed at how I was able to sit beside him and not feel awkward.
It was actually kind of . . . nice.
Maxx ate his gummy bears, shooting a smile my way every so often. I watched him out of the corner of my eye as he bit the head off a red gummy bear before popping it in his mouth. He repeated this act of decapitation over and over again as he polished off the box of candy.