You Plus Me Equals - Chapter 36

It had, took every bit of gumption he had to walk all the way here. But he did it because he was determined to apologize for being so hasty a few days ago. He felt like he needed to get it off his chest so he and Max could start over again.

‘Maybe… As friends… Then tentatively something more?’

He would like that. Leo smiled shyly at the thought.

“You have been so busy lately. Max.” An unfamiliar voice said. Leo moved around the corner to step out of the way of the large group of about six boys that were near the doorway getting ready to leave, packing up their belongings into their bags and talking loudly amongst themselves at the back of the classroom.

He had been about to turn the corner walk in and ask for Max. But stopped when he heard Max’s name so suddenly.

Another voice slightly lower than the other one but just as amused piped in.

“I heard he was dating someone.”

“Someone hot and sexy, a junior guyyyy.” The voice teased.

Leo hid behind the corner, realizing they were talking about him.

“Nah, I am not dating anyone.” He heard Max’s voice say slightly deflated.

“No way! One of the campus princes rejected in love!” Another piped in.

“If the Aloof Prince from another world gets rejected, what chances do we have?” Came the first voice again.

“Shut it, River,” Max snapped unhappily.

“Ooo he did!” River taunted.

“He got rejected!” the other voice piped up again, sneering happily at his friend’s misfortune.

“We both wanted different things. So we decided to go our separate ways” Max said angrily.

The others made teasing sounds.

“Sure, sure staying by the sidelines guarding the prize against the friend circle and playing the waiting game for them. Then, once their guard is down, you will crawl back in there and you will be set free from the friend circle, ready to ravage and enjoy the freedom.” River said cheekily, Jae laughed and oo’d giving Max a teasing knowing look.

“No, I can’t even do that.” Max said, defeated.

“Sure, sure, my friend, we have all been in there. If you are a little patient, I am sure you can end up getting back into their good graces and de-friend-zoned, and back into the benefits zone.” River said laughing hard now and wiggling his eyebrows deviously. Chuckling at his own clever references.

Leo tried not to be annoyed. But it was hard, guys like River were awful. ‘Why was Max even…’ His thought was interrupted by Max’s voice and the words that followed.

The words that shattered his hopes into a thousand pieces. A hope he had foolishly been clinging to until this moment. Because he thought things could just be fixed because he had thought he hadn’t damaged their relationship too badly. Then he heard those words and he just froze.

“We are not even friends. There is no friend circle to be stuck in. And I have no desire to be friends with him, anyway.” Max said quickly.

“That’s all there is to it okay.”

“Nothing else…”

“Now leave me alone,” Max stated and Leo watched as they all left, Max slightly annoyed and the other two boys who he assumed must be River and Jae chuckling, knowingly behind him. None of them saw him hiding around the corner, watching or listening. And if he had been a braver soul, he would have stopped them. Confronted them. And said a bunch of stuff he honestly didn’t mean or feel. But he wasn’t, so he just watched Max go with a sinking broken heart.

Once they were gone and he couldn’t even see their backs anymore. Leo finally stepped out from around the corner and adjusted his bag. ‘They weren’t even friends? Then what were they?’

‘If Max hadn’t asked him for forgiveness or asked him out yet… And they were not even friends, then what were they now?…’

‘The reason Max hadn’t stopped by at all was Max had just given up on him without even saying a word. Without even trying?…’

Leo wondered if he had understood that right.

‘They were nothing?’

Leo swallowed the lump in his throat and walked off, trying very much to hide the tears leaking from his eyes and silently down his cheeks. He couldn’t even fault anyone, let alone Max.

Max had picked in the end, he just hadn’t picked him and he couldn’t even fault him. He really had left nothing for them to pick up from, anyway. Leo let that sink in, let his fallen expectations go and owned up to his mistake after all he had said earlier that Max should go back to Sam was a no brainer.

Leo was just slightly shocked because without meaning to he had left a small window of hope in Max. He sighed, realizing, movies rarely become real life for a reason, they are a fantasy. He had gone back to Sam and the meet, and then Max had erased Leo out of his life…. ‘And now they were not even friends.’

‘Maybe, he had been right after all.’

‘Maybe Max was better off with someone like Sam.’

‘They were already closer than friends, and fantasy should stay where it belonged.’

‘Out of his life.’