10

"What's your name?" I turned to find Maxwell directing his question at Ollie. Ollie looked up from his food, cocking his head to the side. He frowned, giving Maxwell a quick look over before answering.

"My name's Oliver, but people just call me Ollie. So, yeah, call me Ollie," he said with a shrug, making Maxwell smile before he nodded.

"Ah," he said before looking back up at Ollie. "Do you think you could excuse Xander and me for a bit? For just a few minutes?" Maxwell asked, making Ollie frown before he looked over at me. I gave him a pleading look, hoping he could see that I wanted him to stay on the table and not leave. He looked at Maxwell, and then at me again like he was trying his best to decide what was best for the situation.

"I don't know—"

"A few minutes, I promise," Maxwell said as his smile became wider.

Don't. I cried in my mind, watching as Ollie let out a sigh before he got up with his tray and walked towards the table with other students from our floor. I could feel the blood drain out of my face when I realized it was just me and Maxwell on the high table. We didn't say anything after Ollie left, making the background noise from the other students in the cafeteria fill the void instead. I looked down at my fingers, too shaky to even eat. What does he want to talk about? I thought to myself, feeling my face warm up in embarrassment when I remembered the incident from before.

I still hadn't lived it down.

"I'm sorry." His voice was small but clear. I felt my eyes watering at it, and I didn't even stop the tears from my eyes from running down my cheeks. I sobbed in silence for a bit, but after a while I sniffed, blinking back tears before a full-on water work could start. I tried to put myself back together, sighing as I hugged myself.

"I shouldn't have looked at it. I'm sorry," he said, making me turn to stare at him. His pale freckled face was currently red, and he was looking down at his food as he played with the fork on his plate. His ginger hair her was bobbed around his face in tighter curls today, like he hadn't bothered to style it.

"I..." I started, not knowing what to say, where to begin. "I'm just really embarrassed. I don't know..." I found myself saying as I covered my red face with the palms of my hands.

"Did you laugh? You laughed, didn't you? I'm sure you did. You were disgusted—"

"I didn't laugh. I wasn't disgusted, okay?" he said firmly, cutting me off. I looked at him with wide eyes before looking away as I sighed in disbelief. He was just trying to make me feel better.

"You write very well," he mentioned after a while of us just sitting in silence. I bit my bottom lip, not knowing what to say to that. I could get up at any minute and head back to my room upstairs, but I was here — sitting next to Maxwell and listening to him apologize as my cheeks burned with embarrassment. Maybe I should leave — just get up without another thought...

"I want to show you something," I heard his voice say, pulling me out of my thoughts before I turned to look at him. He smiled a bit before bending over to grab his backpack that had been resting on the high stool he was sitting on. I watched him put the green bag before he went through it and pulled out a book. He stretched it out to me, and after a while I took it.

My brow shot up at the sight of the cover. Well, it was interesting, to say the least. I didn't know that amount of nudity could get on book covers.

"I..." I trailed off, not knowing what to say. "What is this?" I asked, watching as he bit his bottom lip as he ran a hand through his hair. Is he trying to make fun of me? The thought was putting me in defense mode, and I wanted to get up before he could hurt my feelings by laughing or mocking me in some way. I'm not sure I'd be able to handle that — in public even.

"That's my favorite book," he finally said, looking up at me before chuckling a bit. "That's the kind of stuff I like to read."

"Oh," I said under my breath, and I wasn't even sure if Maxwell heard it.

"So, I'm not sure if that explains why I read so much from your journal, but yeah..." he trailed, rubbing the back of his neck. He'd adjusted the position on his stool now, so that he was facing me directly. "Your writing's great. I was just going to take a peek and I kind of got absorbed... I don't know." He shrugged. His face was becoming redder, and I could see the tint on his ears too. I looked down at the book again, and then at him. A question bubbling in my mind that I wanted to ask.

"About my journal," I started, making him look straight at me with his brown eyes.

"What about it?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest. He was wearing the school's green sweater with dark blue denim jeans.

"It was about you—"

"What? I knew. That made it even better," he said, cutting me off. My eyes widened before I looked away from him. I didn't know what to say to that, what did he even mean by better? In the midst of my confusion, Maxwell got up from his seat before picking up his bag.

"I better be going. I'm trying to get my textbooks and ID sorted out before lectures start on Monday," he said, making me look up at him. "I'll see you at the first writing group meeting I suppose." he smiled as he started to walk away.

"Your book!" I said on top of my voice a bit, hoping that he could hear me over the noise in the cafeteria. He turned, shaking his head at the sight of the book in my hand.

"Keep it," he said with a smile before hurrying off. I watched him leave, only looking back at my food that I suppose was now cold when he disappeared out of sight.

I didn't even notice when Ollie returned to the table with his tray until I heard his seat move. I turned, finding him settling down. I made to tuck the book into the pocket of my sweater before Ollie could spot it.

"What did you guys talk about? You looked tense," Ollie said.

I shook my head, picking up my fork as I tried to continue eating. "Nothing much," I said, making Ollie sigh, but he didn't say anything in response.

My face was beet red throughout our meal, and it only grew warmer when Ollie and I headed back upstairs, and I settled to read the book.

When I used to think of Maxwell I'd pictured him as shy and a bit oblivious. That guy people wanted to date, but was a bit too innocent to even comprehend it.

Well, that's out the window. I thought to myself as I laughed, flipping a page of the book in my hands. I had covered the book with wrapping paper, so the cover wasn't out in the open for Ollie to spot it. As I read through, my embarrassment from that day seemed to ease a bit. I couldn't really explain it, but I was.