First thought when I wake up

Is my god he's beautiful

Chapter 02 ~ I'd Lie

      Max Caldwell

"You should've seen him!" I cried out in desperation as I flipped onto my bed and stared up at the green colored ceiling of my room. A smile quickly grew onto my face when I recalled the image of the hottest specimen to ever walk the earth. Everything about him was intriguing: the way those specs of green seemed to trickle into the pale blue pools he called eyes, the way his jaw seemed to be cut to perfection with the perfect cheekbones to match, the way those damn freckles dotted his nose, and the way he played so hard to get.

"He was so beautiful," I said in a breathless whisper. "He was literally life."

The bed dipped when Trey took a seat at the edge of it. He gazed down at me with a curious look growing in his deep brown eyes. "I bet," he said with a teasing smile. His words were followed by a quick tug of the baseball cap he always seemed to wear no matter how ridiculous and unfashionable it was.

I sat up abruptly, my eyes growing wide. "Ohmigod," I said so quickly that it came out as one word. "He can be number twenty nine."

I already knew Trey's response would be an eye roll, like all of Trey's responses. "Twenty nine? Seriously? Do you even know him? Is he even gay?"

Waving a hand to dismiss his questions, I plopped back down on the mattress. "That's irrelevant, Trey. The real question is 'is he single?'"

He let out another pessimistic sigh and inched off the bed. Every time I had my eyes set on another boy, Trey would be there to rationalize the situation for me. I appreciated the gesture, but he was only being a boring stick-in-the-mud because the love of his life happened to be in love with the love of my life, which was what brought us together. We had sworn an oath never to get involved with beautiful men ever again.

But that was, of course, until I screwed around with everyone on my long list of heartbreaks.

"He was truly amazing, Trey. I'm telling you. No one can compare to him, aside from Jamie. Like, he came real close to topping him and you know how hard it is to knock Jamie from my number one."

Trey adjusted his baseball cap again. "I know how hard it is, because you say it every single time you find someone new."

Maybe that was true, but it was different this time. "I think he's gonna be a keeper."

He let out an dry laugh as he shuffled towards the nearest window and peered out of it. "That'll last for a week or so before he dumps you after you've given him your virginity ... again."

I truly despised negative people and lately, that was all Trey seemed to be. He was the first real gay friend of mine who hadn't tried to get into my pants. Although, I would be lying if I said I haven't dreamed of getting into Trey's pants once or twice.

If you looked past his ugly baseball hats, you'd see that Trey had the most beautiful, soulful, brown eyes. His skin resembled caramel in its color and its smoothness, and he had the most brilliant pair of white teeth I've ever seen.

Had he ditched the ugly clothes, did something different with his hair and became a blockbuster actor, he would look exactly like Taylor Lautner - more or less. His brown skin wasn't deep enough or light enough to classify him as a single race, which could be attributed to his white mother and black father. In fact, the only thing that gave away Trey's race was the way he spoke. He'd always use lingo that I couldn't understand and words that I wasn't supposed to say.

His negativity, though, was rooted in the fact that he was desperately in love with his best friend who didn't reciprocate the feelings. Sound familiar? Yeah, Jamie and I used to be best friends before that meathead Scar took him from me.

But I'm trying to stay positive.

And everything about mystery boy from the coffee shop was positive.

"Stop being such a downer," I whined. "When you see him, you'll know what I'm talking about. The boy looks like a model, and a professional one at that. He didn't have to try. He was just ... Wow." I shook my head to dismiss all the thoughts plaguing my mind, even though I really didn't want to stop thinking about coffee boy.

Trey strolled around my bedroom, eyeing the numerous sketches of Jamie on the walls. He was a little taken aback by the thought of me obsessively drawing Jamie to fulfill an unexplainable need inside of me, but he learned to accept it. "Have you talked to him lately?" He asked me with his eyes glued to the sketch of Jamie's shirtless body.

"We talked a few days ago when he called to cancel on our ice cream plans," I told him as my lips down turned into a frown. "He cancels on every single plan we make."

For some reason, Trey thought that was funny. "And yet, you continue to make plans with him."

"I can't completely leave him alone just because he's in a relationship," I said as though it was obvious. "When he gets out of his relationship, he'll need someone to lean on. Someone to, you know, comfort."

"So, in other words, someone to fuck senselessly?"

I narrowed my gaze at him. "Among other things."

Trey shook his head in disbelief as he finally tore his gaze away from the sketches and looked at me. "I should probably get going. Since most of the seniors will be leaving next year, Coach wants us to pass on our years of knowledge to the freshmen."

I gave him a thumbs-up. "Make a basket for me."

"It's a touchdown," he reminded me.

"Whatever."

He flashed one last smile my way and saw himself out of my bedroom, leaving me to be completely alone with the thoughts of Jamie and coffee boy permeating my mind.

The door propped open just a tad, allowing my miniature schnauzer, Lola, to waddle into my room. She made a slight barking nose before hopping into my bed and snuggling up next to me.

"You'll never guess what, Lola," I cooed. "Looks like I got myself a new boyfriend."

Lola whimpered and gazed back at me with glassy, black eyes.

"Don't give me that look," I spat at her. "I know he's going to be the one. I can just feel it."

She curled herself into a ball, settling in for sleep.

I let out a slow breath when my phone vibrated against the bed. As soon as I saw Jamie's face illuminating the screen, I snatched the phone and held it up to my ear. Lola, becoming irritated with all the moment, jumped off the bed and scurried out of the room. "Hello?"

"Max?" Jamie's voice sounded from the other end.

Hearing his voice caused my throat to thicken with emotion. "Yeah," I squealed unconsciously, "yeah, I'm here. What's up?"

"Do you want to hang out?"

I felt my lips crack into a smile. "Like, now?"

"At the park, in ten minutes."

It didn't take me long to decide. "Of course, sure. Is something wrong?"

There was a slight pause on the other end. "No, not really. I just wanted to hang out. Scar is doing his piano lessons right now and I'm kinda lonely."

I gritted my teeth together. "So, if he wasn't doing his piano lessons ... You wouldn't want to hang out?"

Another pause. "Park," he stated. "Ten minutes." The line went dead in the matter of seconds.

I frowned and tossed my phone to the side, desperately hoping Jamie wasn't upset with me or anything. I pretty much knew that he only wanted to hang out with me when his boyfriend wasn't available, but that was okay with me. I didn't want to imagine what life without him would be like, so I was willing to take it in any way I could.

By the time I got dressed and jogged downstairs, my parents were seated on our Plumebanche diamond-encrusted sofa. If you asked them, they would say they spent great amounts of money on that sofa, when they really got it from an auction for nearly one-twentieth of the actual price - along with every other expensive item in this house.

"Max," my father's voice bellowed as he crossed his legs on the ottoman and folded his newspaper onto his lap. "Your mother and I want to talk to you."

I flashed them a quick smile. "Not now, okay? I have to go somewhere real quick."

"We want to talk to you, now." He glared back at me with his dark, unfriendly, brown eyes. He was dressed in his gray suit, accompanied by his infamous black tie. He just came back from a case, or he was planning to meet a client. Either way, he was a force to be reckoned with every time he was in that suit.

"Okay." I turned to face them. "What is it?"

My mom, who was much more gentle than my father, spoke up. "We love you, Maxxie. You know that, right?"

My gaze narrowed as my patience grew more thin. "What is it?"

"We really hate to see you mope around because of a boy," she mused in her light, feathery voice, "and we're tired of watching so many boys go through your room and-" She didn't finish because tears formed in her eyes.

My dad placed a comforting hand on hers and cleared his throat. "You're going to see a therapist."

I folded my arms against my chest and stared back at my parents incredulously. "A therapist?" I repeated, not believing my ears. "For what? Being too damn irresistible?"

I had thought the joke was absolutely hilarious, but my parents weren't having any of it. My mother burst into heavy sobs and my father jumped to his feet.

"Listen to us, god dammit!" He bellowed. The veins in his forehead began to throb as his eyes grew wide in anger. "You are out of control. We've tried to remain calm in hopes that you'll get the memo, but it's only getting worse. Every morning I wake up to a stranger tip-toeing through our house! Your mother has to wash your sheets every single day! It's already enough that my son is a faggot. I don't need-"

"Carl!" My mother screeched through her sobs.

His eyes widened when he realized what he had said. "Max..."

I wanted to believe he was really sorry for what he said, so much so that I searched his eyes for traces of that regret, that self-hatred. There was none, and there will never be any. If he felt sorry at all, he definitely wasn't showing it.

"No," I spat, shaking my head. "If you want me to see a therapist to cure this disease I have, then fine. Maybe when I'm straight, you'll actually take me seriously."

I left the house after that. Even after I slammed the door dramatically behind me, I could still hear the start of an argument brewing between my parents. They argued more often than not, and most of the time it was about me.

"Could you have been any more late," were the first words that left Jamie's mouth when I saw him sitting on the swing set.

The wind brushed his long blond hair back and his crystal blue eyes seemed to take away all the beauty from the spring flowers around him. A small smile made its way onto his face as I approached him, making my heart pound ten times as fast. He looked amazing, to say the least.

I stuffed my hands into my pockets. "Sorry, I had family drama. You, uh, you look great."

He smiled. "Thanks."

I plopped down on the swing next to his. "So, uh, why'd you want to meet up?"

Jamie released a heavy sigh. "I've been thinking about how much of a shitty friend I am."

I shook my head. "You're not a shitty friend."

"Come on," he said with a smile. "I'm a shitty friend."

I bit my bottom lip. "Okay, just a little shitty, but it's okay. I know you're with him now and everything."

He looked at me like I've just told him what he wanted to hear. His smile grew more confident and his hands moved to his jean pocket where he pulled out a box wrapped in Christmas paper, even though it's nowhere near Christmas. "I got you something."

Jamie and I called ourselves friends. Nothing he ever did should have gave me a reason to believe we were friends. After all, the whole reason we were "friends" in the first place was because I didn't really have any.

Other than that, Jamie only talked to me when it was convenient for him or beneficial for him and I don't really think he ever realized it.

But this, this present, was a definite friendly gesture.

"Why?" I found myself asking, surprised at the fact that Jamie actually got me something.

He handed the present to me. "Stop asking questions and just open it."

I snatched the gift from his hands and tore the wrapping paper apart, letting it fall to the ground along with the other non degradable items. I was left with a box filled with three fine tip pens.

"I know how much you like to draw," he added.

My lips pulled into a grin as I threw my arms around his neck, pulling him into a hug. "Thank you, Jamie." He didn't return the hug, which led me to believe that I overstepped a boundary, so I retracted my hands. "Sorry."

He nodded curtly. "It's fine and you're welcome."

Silence filled the air. The only sound that could be heard was the slight squeak of the swing set every time it moved.

This had probably been the first real conversation we had in a while, because Jamie was always avoiding me or canceling on me.

"I bet it's not this awkward when you talk to Scar," I said to break the silence, but it was more directed at the disappointment aching in my heart.

Jamie gave me a weary look before sighing. "Look, Max. I know it's hard to-"

"Don't," I told him before he could say anything else. Before he could install any more ideas into my head. "My parents are already making me see a shrink because I'm still not over you. So you don't need to do that. Just please, don't."

He pressed his lips together and slouched down. "All right," he agreed and for a second, it almost sounded grateful. "I should probably get going."

I shrugged because I knew something I said would make him stay. Not when I looked the way I did and acted the way I did.

Jamie was already halfway gone when he called out, "I'll see you around!"

I smiled back at him for the sake of being friendly, but stopped myself when I realized Jamie wasn't really my friend. He wasn't really much of anything, actually. He was just a constant reminder of how I couldn't have him.

In that case, maybe my parents were right. Maybe I needed to get myself together. Maybe this will be good for me.

Maybe.

**

A/N: Hello, everyone! I am back with another chapter just for you guys.

How do you think the "therapist" thing will go?

For those of you who have already read Kissing Booth, then I know that many of you never really liked Max in the first place. And that's understandable.

My goal is to get you to love Max as much as you love Scar and Jamie by the end of this book. Deal?

If you liked this chapter, please leave a vote and comment telling me your thoughts.

Until next time,
Lara <3