Chapter 29

The next two days went by in a blur and all of a sudden I was sitting in sixth period politics on Friday, listening to a lecture about the role of each individual party in the system. Labour. Liberal. The Greens. The Independents. All have their own role. Problem was, on a Friday, no one gave a shit.

I was over the moon when the bell rang and I rushed to my locker so that there was a chance I'd see Rylie on the way out. I knew I didn't have much of a shot; my politics room was on the opposing side of the school to my locker, and then the car park was another two or three minute walk. I didn't think I had a hope in hell.

The odds were on my side though, as the familiar dark haired girl was walking out of the doors just before me.

I decided to scare her, creeping up behind her and grabbing her waists while exclaiming something incoherent. She squealed and stepped away from me, her eyes disapproving but her smile on the contrary. I smirked down at her and she hit me in the stomach.

Fair enough.

"How was History?" I asked, basking in the sunshine. It had been so nice these past few days, but the clouds in the sky made me think it would turn very shortly.

"It was boring. How'd you know that's what I had?" She had a smirk of her own playing on her lips and I almost groaned. I'd been rubbing off on her. I should have known my actions had consequences, which apparently was Rylie's newfound cheeky side. Then again, Rylie was never an angel. That's what I liked about her. It's what had be start liking her, to be more specific.

"I have my resources."

"Or maybe you're just a stalker."

"Maybe," I allowed. "And maybe I just saw you walk into the History classroom." It was bullshit. I hadn't seen her since lunch. There was truth in what I said though, I did have my resources. Olly had mentioned that he had History with her and I seemed to remember.

It was two weeks ago he'd told me that.

Maybe I am a stalker.

"Sure," she drawled, rolling her eyes and heading towards her car. I was tempted to say something else to get her to keep talking to me but I didn't. I had stuff to do today; a party to organize.

I jumped on my bike and rode home, enjoying being able to go as fast as I wanted (within the speed limit). I didn't have to worry about Hazel because she wasn't there. She was going to her boyfriend's house.

Hayley had already clipped Dustin and I over the ear for showing our disapproval. Even thinking it made me fear another flick which were surprisingly painful, so I pushed it out of my head and began to make a list of things I'd need for the party instead.

The twins were waiting for me when I got home, sitting side by side on the door step, standing when I arrived. I kicked the stand down and hopped off, getting straight into Hayley's car to head to the shopping centre.

"Have you made a list?" Hayley asked, turning the radio up a little.

"I'm working on it," I told her, pulling out my phone. I made a list in Notes as to what would be required and because it was a BYO alcohol, the list was relatively short and relatively cheap. Some food, some cups and plates, streamers and balloons. We already had everything else for the set up at home, which made our life a lot easier.

"I'm thinking of getting another tattoo," Dustin said when we were in the supermarket.

Hayley shot him a dubious look. "Don't you already have enough?" She eyed his full tattoo sleeve running up his left arm.

"You can never have enough tatts," he grinned. "Max? What do you think, bro?"

"What and where?" Were the first two of many questions to follow. He wanted a Japanese phrase running down the side of his ribs. He wouldn't say what he wanted though, which was a first. It made me curious.

"What are you hiding?"

His eyes widened before he cursed under his breath. And then not under his breath. "Fuck off." And then he walked away.

I looked at Hayley and she sighed, shaking her head. "I'm fairly certain there's a girl."

I roll my eyes. "There's always a girl."

"No. She's different."

"How can you tell?"

"I overheard him talking to Mum about her. Whoever she is. He seemed really on edge and anxious about something."

I frowned. "You think that's got anything to do with his tatt?"

Hayley laughed. We were walking pointlessly now. "It'd be just like Dustin to get something stupid tattooed on him, like her name or picture or some shit. God, I hope he doesn't do that. What if he do-"

"Hayley." I cut her off before she can get too far into her overthinking. She was always the one to care for all of us, but that also meant she thought way too far into all of our problems and personal issues. "Chill. I'll make sure he won't. Plus, he's not that much of a dumbass."

"He can be," Hayley sighs.

"He can be." I agree.

"Oh well. It's his life and I guess-"

She cut herself off and I didn't realize why until a few seconds later, where someone jumped on my back and screamed, "HEY!" into my ear.

Rylie.

Her arms were around my neck and her legs were around my hips, laughter echoing through my head from both her and my sister.

I shook my head. "Oh you are so going down Ry," I threatened, but I didn't really mean it. What would I do anyway?

"Yeah, I really doubt that," Hayley cut in, in between her laughter.

"Me too!" She exclaimed, hurting my ear. I could have sworn she was doing that on purpose.

Then I saw her two best girl friends walking over, smirking for some unknown reason.

"Oh. Hey Leah, hey Tess," I greeted them. "This is my si-"

"Hi! I'm Hayley, Max's older sister!" Of course she didn't need or want an introduction. "You must be his other friends!"

Leah smirked, first at me and then at my sister. "Yeah, but we're not friends with him like Rylie is." They all burst laughing, except for the spider-monkey on my back and myself.

"Do you know what they're talking about?" Rylie whispered in my ear. Surely she would be able to tell. Huh, she really was unobservant.

"No," I lied, purely because I couldn't be bothered the inevitable explanation if I had said yes. "But I think they're being mean."

"Oh trust me Max," Hayley said, patting my cheek in a condescending way. "You'd like to know what we're talking about."

I already did know!

They kept teasing me and at some stage Rylie even joined in, her opinion voiced from over my shoulder. She was still on my back and I don't know why I didn't just tell her to get off. Maybe because I didn't want her to.

And then we dismissed ourselves, saying we needed to get party supplies but really because we had to find Dustin. He was in the tattoo parlour, looking at different scripts. We had to drag him home.

He wouldn't talk to either of us. He was mad, but not at me or at Hayley or at anyone. I think he was mad at himself, honestly. That's what it seemed like. After dinner when Hazel and Mum had returned, I decided to head up to his room and see what was wrong.

I knocked twice before entering. He was sitting on his bed with his laptop up in front of him, looking the most exhausted I'd seen him.

"What's going on?" I asked, taking a step into the room and closing the door behind me. It was dark, with the blinds drawn shut, the only light emanating from the screen.

"I don't fucking know. That's the whole fucking problem." He sighed. "Fuck."

"Well why don't you tell me what you do know?"

"And have you take the piss? No thank you."

I rolled my eyes, taking a seat on his desk chair and rolling myself to beside his bed. "I wouldn't be here if I was just going to take the piss. I won't say shit."

He thought about that for a few minutes before relenting.

"So... there's this girl."

And so the story went.

One thing to understand about my big brother is that he was the biggest player I knew. He was a smart guy and was going to University to become a forensic scientist, but he was also the biggest player at his Uni. He had a new girl almost every week, and unlike me, he accepted the attention and the offers to go to bathroom stalls with girls. I never understood why, but he did.

That was that.

But now he said there was this girl who wouldn't give him the time of day. He described her as 'cranky, kind of a bitch and the nicest person you'd ever meet'. Apparently she had been giving him the cold shoulder but now they were friends. And he thought he was falling for her.

I was tempted to call him a pussy but a) I promised I'd not make fun and b) I had already fallen for a girl, so I was in no position to give him crap for it.

"What are you going to do?" I asked, picking at the black plastic on the swivel chair.

"I don't fucking know. Stay friends with her, I guess? I'm helping her with bio and chem right now so we're spending more time together. But I'm not sure that's a good thing."

"Why not?"

"I can't fucking think straight when I'm around her. She messes with my head. It's bad, brother, I swear."

"Yeah. You got it bad," I told him, not afraid of telling him the truth. "But don't do something stupid like tattoo her name to your skin or some shit like that. Just see what happens."

"The wise words of wisdom from the baby brother. Who would've thought?" He smirked, in better spirits. He shoved me and I would've pushed him back but I felt like being nice.

"You can go back to being the wise owl tomorrow when I fuck things up. Okay?"

He nodded and I stood up to leave, but paused when I was at the door.

"What tattoo were you thinking of anyway?"

"Something fucking stupid. Don't worry about it."

I shrugged and backed out of the room, heading across to mine. I closed the door when I was in my room, falling into bed. I was trashed, but then Rylie texted me so I forced my eyes to stay open.

She was complaining about Titanic and how much of a shit movie it was. I kind of liked that about her; that she wasn't scared of voicing her own opinions but also, because she didn't succumb to the typical female teenage stereotypes.

She was fucking awesome.

And I was definitely going to ask her out tomorrow night.

Decision made.