A/N: Hey there! I'm glad so many of you liked the last chapter. So from your lovely comments I thought I'd give you another one. Enjoy my lovelies!

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I lay in bed trying to finish off my book, but Rylie's face kept preventing me from doing so. The vision of her was permanently ingrained in my mind and I couldn't shake it away.

Fuck it, I thought, picking up my phone and going to my contacts. I pressed the number Nate had given me a week ago and held the phone to my ear. The phone only rang out once, before she picked up.

"Hello?"

An immediate smile lit my face when I heard her voice. "Hi!" I responded, sounding a bit too cheerful, perhaps.

"Max," she recognised, making my grin stretch to that of the Cheshire cat. "What the hell are you doing?" She was frustrated.

"Lying in bed. What about you?" I asked as casually as I could, trying to keep the enthusiasm out of my voice.

"Max. Why did you call?" She asked. I could picture her scowling face at the other end of the phone and had to struggle not to laugh. Laughing would probably result in her hanging up on me. I wouldn't let that happen this soon.

"I don't know. I'm bored," I said with a shrug, not that she could see that. "What's up?" I repeated.

"Lying in bed," she said, saying the same words as I had.

I couldn't help myself. "Wait, shouldn't you be lying in my bed?" I asked with an involuntary smirk.

She paused for a second before saying, "No. Goodnight." She started laughing before she hung up on me, leaving me frowning in confusion at the phone. Why did she start laughing? I didn't understand...

Shaking her out of my head, I picked my book back up, trying to get lost in the words again. Before long, I heard footsteps up the stairs and a moment later, my door swung open.

"I think it's time for your first drink, Maxy boy!"

I groaned, wanting to throw a pillow at the twins who had crept into my room. It was just after midnight, and I was set to read the last twenty pages of my book before hitting the hay. I was tired.

"Can't I just go to bed and you can be bad influences another night?" I asked, my voice sounding super whiny. I sunk deeper into the couch as they stood in front of it; arms crossed, evil grins on.

"Nope. You've been trying to get out of this since you turned sixteen and we've let you, but not tonight," Hayley said, her eyes glinting with mischief.

"What did Mum say?" I asked, hoping it would throw them off course. Mum had never encouraged their attempts to make me drink.

It was Dustin's turn to answer this time. "She thinks that you're nearly eighteen and that your first experience with alcohol should be at home, in a 'safe environment'." He used his fingers as quotation marks around 'safe environment'. I rolled my eyes.

"Fine," I relented, rolling my eyes. The twins' reaction was immediate; they looked like two five year olds on Christmas morning. Each of them took an arm and dragged me downstairs. We ended up in the kitchen, where Hayley got out some awful looking liquid. I didn't want to know.

"This is for starters," she said, as if she had it all planned out meticulously. Knowing her though, she probably did.

She poured the drink with skill before putting the cup down in front of me, half full of a clear liquid, tinged with red. I figured there was no point resisting, so I picked up the shot glass and turned it upside down, allowing the liquid burn my throat.

I tried to keep from showing them my pain but by the way they were grinning, they already knew.

As the twins poured, I drank, and after only a short period of time - it seemed - I could feel the affects of the alcohol on my brain.

A few more drinks down and the twins were in hysterics, laughing like hyenas at my drunken state. That's when the questions came.

"What's going on between you and Rylie?" My sister asked, taking a break from her laughter.

I pouted, my eyebrows scrunched. "I really really really like her but she doesn't really really really like me and it really really really sucks."

"Awh, poor baby," my sister said, trying to not laugh again.

"You never know though, she always could," Hayley continued as she poured another drink.

"I say you stop being a pussy and ask her out. What's the worse that could happen?" Dustin asked, leaning his built frame on the bench.

"YOU SAY THAT AS IF IT'S NO BIG DEAL!" I cry out, before both the twins shush me. "You say that as if it's-"

"Yeah we heard you the first time," Hayley said, giggling. "But it's not a big deal. Again, what's the worst that could happen?"

"She could reject me and then it would get awkward and she would stop talking to me and I would lose her and I really don't want that to happen. I can't lose her," I frowned, my whole being sagging with sadness. I didn't even want to think about that.

"She could. OR she could say yes and you'd be a happy drunk instead of a miserable, teary drunk," Hayley told me, not handing me another drink like she had every other minute.

"You're right, Hails. We need to cheer him up," my big brother said, pulling out a stool for him to sit on. "Bro, what's something that would cheer you up?"

"Talking to Rylieee," I groaned, putting my head on the table. I didn't get the point of stupid alcohol if it was only going to make me sad and miss Rylie. I saw her today, I shouldn't be missing her. This is stupid. Stuuuuuuuupid.

"Ugh this is never going to work. I declare this experiment over! Max is a terrible drunk. We'll just have to wait for Hazel," Hayley ranted, making me pout even more. She left with that, strutting off to the stairs and up to her room I thought.

"I have to agree. Sorry, bro," Dustin said, ruffling my hair. "But at least I'll be the good twin and help you upstairs."

Which he did. But the stairs were funny. They were moving and they looked like the water. There were sharks in the water. There were sharks on the stairs.

"We have to watch out for the sharks," I shout-whispered, going diagonally across the stairs.

Dusting just laughed, used to drunks obviously, and nodded. "Okay, we'll watch out."

Somehow we managed to get to my room. When I sat on my bed, I was sad again. Rylie was in bed. I wanted to see her. Or talk to her. I missed her.

"Where's Rylieee?" I asked, emotions overtaking my voice.

"Oh shit, not this again," Dustin said from my door. "Look. I don't know where Rylie is, mate. But if you really want to talk to her that badly just ring her."

He closed the door, muttering something to himself as he walked off.

Hmm, that was a good idea. I could call her!! I could hear her voice!!

Yaaaaaaay!!!

I fumbled around for my phone as quick as I could, picking up the cool, black device when I felt it. I clicked the button and the screen turned on. It told me to slide to unlock, so I slid. Then a bunch of numbers came up, going from 0 to 9. Where was 10??

I looked for ten but it wasn't there. I frowned. This was hard.

I'm never going to talk to Rylie now, I thought.

I had a brainwave and pressed four numbers that rang a bell, and I was in. I felt like a bank robber, trying to do the code of the big vault at the end of the movie. Just a couple of numbers and boom!!! Money!! Although I must have felt so much better than the bank robbers, because all they get is money. What's money compared to Rylie? Nothing.

I laughed to myself as I figured out how to call her. I saw her face and pressed it. Nothing happened. Oh wait, that was my screensaver. I pressed the button with the message bubble on it and saw Rylie's name there. BINGO!! I did it!

I grinned as I clicked it and a blank space came up. I typed in a message.

Hey, you up?

I pressed send, not expecting the response to come so soon.

Who is this sorry?

She didn't remember who I was? I knew it, she didn't like me. But then I remembered that I hadn't given her my number.

Oh of course you wouldn't hae my number. This could be so much fun :D

I almost pressed send, but my brain started functioning and told me not to. I changed a few words and put a wink face at the end before sending it.

The response came almost immediately.

Can you please just tell me?

She was being so nice to me. It was so out of character. She was never this nice to me. I decided to tell her that.

I think this is the nicest I've ever heard you speak! I'm proud of you, my love

Once again, my brain kicked in and told me to change it to my usual teasing. She couldn't find out how I felt so I changed 'my love' to 'babe' with a winky face because I like winky faces.

What are you doing awake Max?

That one came almost faster than the others. I couldn't talk to her like this anymore. I had to hear her. I pressed the circle button and found the green button with the phone on it. Rylie's name was at the top - thankfully, otherwise I probably wouldn't have found it - so I clicked it. I held the phone to my ear.

It rang once. Twice. Three times. Then she picked up.

"How did you know it was me babe?" I asked, not letting her speak first. Although I should have. Maybe she'd still be nice to me.

She breathed deeply into the phone. "What do you want?" She sounded angry. That wasn't good.

"What h-happened to the nice person you were when you were texting?" I asked, laughing too hard at it.

"That's because I didn't know who I was texting," she told me. I raked my hand through my hair. Awh. She doesn't like me.

Oh well. I'll make her! I am a strong, independent woman who don't need no man!

"Whatcha doiiiiiing?" I drawled, grinning again. I could so get the part of Cheshire cat in Wizard of Oz. Wait, not Wizard of Oz. Although I did always want to be the tin man. Tin Max, I used to say.

"Max, are you drunk?" Not Max, Tin Max, I wanted to correct her. But women usually don't like being corrected on stuff.

"What? Nooo!!" I lied, giggling at my sneakiness.

"Max, it's Thursday. Why are you drunk?" Rylie's voice came through the phone, sounding almost like she cared about me.

I flopped back onto my bed. Mmmm, squishyyyy.

"Because m-my twin siblings wanted me t-to get drunk for the first time with them," I said, hating my stutter. Stutter, go away! You are not welcome here!

"Why are you stuttering?" Was the next thing through the phone. Could she read my mind?

Oh my God, I'm in love with a mind reader!!!! How cool is that??

"Because I s-stutter," I said, hating that word. Seriously, for people with stutters it was seriously the worst possible word to call it. I always struggled to get that word out. Stupid word.

Her beautiful laugh came through the phone. Even with the scratchiness of the phone, it was the most amazing sound. I smiled as she spoke. "So let me get this straight," she said. "Max Harris, most popular guy in school, who got that title in a week I might add, stutters?"

Was I the most popular guy in school? I didn't think so... I never really saw people looking at me like they did with normal popular people. Or maybe they did, I was never really looking at them.

"No," I shook my head, confused. "Max Harris, nerdy, normal guy who is t-talking to his-" I paused for a brief second, catching myself before I said something stupid, "-best friend, I m-might add, stutters."

"How can you choose when you stutter?" Rylie asked, sounding confused this time instead of me. Her confusion was adorable.

I didn't know how to explain it. It was silly but one of the super good reasons of my mask. Ultimate confidence!

"I d-don't stutter in front of many people b-because I act like a cocky asshole." I said. "Also, if y-you remember," I started, stopping only to hear her laugh without my voice interrupting it. "I sometimes stutter in f-front of you."

"You're still a cocky asshole around me though!" She exclaimed, making me sad. I was instantly happy again though when she said "And you need to sleep!" It made it sound like she cared. I was super smiley.

"No I have an excuse," I said, not wanting to stop talking to her. "I'm d-drunk!! You d-don't have an excuse."

"I have an excuse," she said, sounding very defensive. I doubt it was as good as my excuse. I don't think I could have gone to sleep if I tried.

"Oh yeah?" I asked, smirking while raising my eyebrows. "And what is your fantastic excuse?"

She said the sentence so quickly that I missed some of it. I only heard, "Sleep...is my...excuse... try to sleep... out from... headaches... so bye!" Then the phone disconected.

Huh. I looked at my phone for a minute, trying to piece together the sentence. It wasn't making any sense, so I wrote it down in my notes and figured I would ask her tomorrow. Well, today actually.

Then I realised I could just call her back, so I did. Lots of times. But she didn't answer. After a few minutes I stopped calling.

I should go to sleep, I thought. So I did.

I figured it out as I was falling asleep. Alcohol didn't make me miserable; nor did it make me happy or sad. It made me sappy and romantic.

Yuck.