Of course it then started bucketing down. I'd love to say that it didn't make a difference and that we were too into the moment to notice, but it was nearly freaking hailing. 

I squealed, jumping away from Max then laughed. "Come on!" I yelled at him, getting a hold of his hand and running into the backyard to stand under the shelter on the porch, where the rest of the group was standing. 

"Oh my God you're soaked!" Leah exclaimed when she saw us run onto the deck, both Max and I were laughing. 

She was right though. My hair was dripping down my back and my dress was clinging to me, while I was fairly sure my heels were wrecked. 

"It was so worth it," Max smiled down at me, the dorky smile that made my heart melt. 

"Wait, what?" Tessa shrieked, cuddling into Seth for warmth probably. "Did something happen?"

An idea popped into my head then. "Oh my God! How many times do we have to tell you that nothing is going on between us?"

The group laughed and walked inside, leaving Max and I standing under the cover on the porch. 

"Before you say anything," I looked up at Max with a real smile lighting my face. "Everyone's saying I'm unobservant so I want to see exactly how observant they are!"

Max let out a chuckle, shaking the water out of his hair. "You are so strange," he pinched my nose then turned to walk inside. 

I was going to get my bag from the living room but Max took my hand and led me to his room. He silently went to his wadrobe and pulled out a pair of black sweats and the same, blue t-shirt he was wearing on Wednesday when he told me all about his father. 

The one with a pun about homonyms. 

He threw them to me. "Here. And there's a towel in the bathroom."

"What? You don't want me to get changed in here?" I teased, a smirk twisting my lips up at the corners. 

 Max's face was seriously adorable as he blushed. "Yeah. I mean, I uh... No. Uh."

"Awh you're so cute!" I tried to pinch his cheeks but he batted my hand away. 

"Just go get into something warm or you'll get a cold."

I smiled involuntarily and walked into Max's bathroom, sliding out of my dress and putting on the over sized t-shirt and sweats, that I had to roll up at the hips ten times. 

I dried my hair as best I could with the towel but it was still damp. 

Looking in the mirror I frowned. I looked an absolute mess. My hair was in damp tangles down my back and the massive clothes floated on me. 

Sighing, I walked back out to Max's bedroom to see Max standing with his back to me. His shirtless back, I might add. 

I saw a spiral of black on his shoulder blade that I now recognized as a tattoo. It was a japanese kanji character that I couldn't quite recognize. 

He was getting a shirt out of his drawer and when he turned to me, he smirked. 

Yeah, okay.

Just.

Wow. 

"Will you put a shirt on?" I asked, biting my lip while trying not to look at his chest. 

"Unbelieveably distracted by my body?" He asked me, his smirk getting wider as he gestured to his abs. 

Yes...

"No."

"Don't worry. You can tell me. We're on the same page anyway."

"Unbelieveably distracted by your body too?" I asked, frowning in confusion. 

"Nope, by yours."

Blushing, I rolled my eyes. "What does your tattoo mean?" I changed the subject as he put on a black t-shirt. 

"It means strength," he informed me, then took my hand and led me downstairs to where everyone was sitting in the lounge room, everyone now in dry, comfortable clothes. 

"Ooh we should play truth or dare!" Seth exclaimed, sitting on the floor beside Tessa. Olly and Isaac were sitting beside them, then Leah and Nate. Max and I closed the cirlce while everyone agreed. 

I didn't actually realise how quickly it had taken for everyone to get together.

"Can I start?" Isaac asked and I nodded. No one else argued so Isaac started off the game. 

"Okay, Max. Truth or dare?" Isaac asked, turning to face Max who was twirling his fingers with my own. 

"Truth," Max said. 

"Uh," Isaac thought about it for a moment before Olly wrote something down and passed it to him. "Okay. Have you ever made an ass of yourself in front of the girl you like?"

Max nodded. "Every day."

The group looked at me expectantly but I pretended not to notice. 

"Leah. Truth or dare?" Max asked with a mischevious smile on his face. 

As always, Leah chose dare. 

"I dare you to eat a teaspoon of salt," he said, getting up and dissapearing for a moment, only to reappear with a teaspoon and the salt shaker. 

"Ew," Tessa scrunched up her face but she looked glad that it wasn't her dare. 

Max poured salt into the teaspoon and gave it to Leah with a smirk. 

Leah simply smiled and put the spoon in her mouth, trying hard not to scrunch up her face. After a few seconds she had obviously swallowed it, so she put the spoon on the ground.

"I'm impressed," Nate said from beside her, hugging her to his side. 

"Tessa, truth or dare?" Leah asked, smiling from Nate's comment. 

"Truth," she said automatically. I don't think Tessa had ever done a dare. 

"Most annoying thing right now?" Leah asked. 

Tess didn't even have to think about the answer. "Rylie being unobservant."

"Hey!" I protested with a pout. "I am too observant!"

Both of the girls rolled their eyes simultaneously while Nate just looked at Max questioningly. "Can I tell her?"

I looked to Max who nodded, trying to keep from smiling as Nate opened his mouth. "You are so unobservant that you don't even know that Max likes you!" 

"Actually, I'm in love with her. But whatever," Max corrected while a few people looked at him as though he was on crack. 

"No, I knew that!" I exclaimed proudly, trying to ignore the feeling I got when he said that.

Seth was the first one to speak up. "Really?"

"I don't believe you," Nate added. 

"Yeah me neither," Isaac shook his head. 

Groaning, I leaned my head against Max's shoulder and felt his arm loop around my waist. "You don't believe us when we say we're not together. You don't believe us when we say we are!" Max exclaimed.

"Prove it then," Leah said, raising her eyebrows in doubt. 

"How?" I asked, not seeing how we were supposed to prove it to them. I was sure it would involve us kissing, but that didn't prove anything. 

Max and I had kissed a lot before today, so I didn't see how her plan was going to work. 

Olly got out his notepad and scribbled something down, giving it to Isaac to read for him. "Why do you like each other?"

I was kind of stumped honestly. I didn't know how to explain why I liked him, but I had to so that they'd believe me. 

"Fine. He knows me better than anyone else and I can trust him more than anyone else. He can make me laugh when laughing is the last thing I want to do and he doesn't ask questions that I don't want to answer. And I mean, have you seen him?" That earned a few laughs, but I think I had convinced them. 

"Max?" Tessa asked, looking at him expectantly. 

"Uh, I-I just," Max stumbled, looking down at me nervously. i smiled at him reassuringly and he continued, averting his gaze from me. "I honestly liked her from the first day. I was so used to all these girls chasing after me but she shot me down. And continued to shoot me down. It was refreshing that she didn't put up with my shit so I started to fall for her. Then I actually got to know her and she is the best person I have ever met. She's so generous and so beautiful, and she doesn't even know it. Everything she tries, she is amazing at. You give her a pencil and she gives you a picture. Give her a piano and she'll give you a song. Give her your heart," he looked down at me and smiled lovingly at me. "And she'll give you love."

I was about to cry, it was so beautiful. I couldn't believe he actually thought all of that, but the way he was looking at me I couldn't not believe it. 

"Awhhhhhh!" Leah and Tessa started cheering and I blushed, snuggling into Max even more to hide my embarassment.

"Do you believe us now?" Max asked, rubbing my back. 

"Pretty hard not to," Nate smiled, then yawned. 

"Alright, I think it's time for bed," Leah said, standing up. 

Everyone followed her lead. It was half past two in the morning after all. 

Max told everyone where they could sleep then we went up to the attic, pulling up the stairs behind us and putting the board over the top. 

"Did you really mean all that?" Max asked as he led me towards the bed in the corner of the room, pulling me down beside him. 

"Of course I did," I said, running my hand up his arm to curl around his neck. Max wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me to him, gently kissing me. 

"Hey, I have a question," he pulled away, his hands under my shirt and running along my stomach, along a familiar line ."How did you get it?"

He, of course, was talking about my scar, that ran from my hip to my ribs. The one he had discovered when I slept here for the first time. 

"Well, I got it a couple of years ago. I blacked out from a sleep headache and I was driving. There was a huge shard of glass that pierced my skin and they had to remove it and stich it up. Thankfully it just cut the skin and not my stomach or lungs or anything. But, yeah," I explained, flopping down onto the pillow. 

Max's mouth popped open in surprise and he immediately took his hands off my stomach. 

"Max, it's okay," I reassured him, putting a hand on his arm. 

"But you still have sleep headaches."

"Yeah but I'm not stupid enough to drive with them."

"Rylie-"

"Max," I cut him off. "I am fine, okay?"

"Promise?" He asked, raising his eyebrow. 

"I promise."

***************

A/N: Hey it's me! Just letting you know that Max's tattoo is on the side here if you want to see it :)