Rest of the break was spent in silence between the boys. Kyle could see that he was not getting anything out of Max further than that, and he soon approached the other smokers to talk to, deciding that he had gotten the point across to the blond boy. And Kyle had, since Max had fallen pensive, mulling what his friend had said in his mind between the bitter drafts of tobacco.
First was complete denial. He was not interested in the girl (Cassia, was it?) like that. He was just briefly intrigued by her sass, and soon put off by her overreactive side, simply because he did not know how he was supposed to answer to it. Who cut off their hair for something like that anyway? Was hair not a big deal for girls? Would she doze herself in gasoline and set herself on fire if he touched her skin with a bare hand? The further Max thought about it, the worse his mood was getting. The whole thing actually had gotten to him more than he was ready to admit.
Secondly was guilt. Had he gone too far? He had just been messing around, it was not like he really had meant anything bad, it had been harmless. Maybe she had been actually more scared of him than she had let on. Maybe she thought he was one of those guys who tried to force themselves on the girls. Did he give off those kind of vibes? Dear God, please do not let him give off those kind of vibes. Max was ready to admit that he was bit of a jerk, but at least he was aiming to be a jerk who had some class. A classy jerk. So if she was ready to cut off her hair to get away from him, then so be it. Max would take that as a sign to back the fuck off.
Thirdly was the conclusion. He would deal with this like he always did with everything. Bottle it up and not think about it any further. Act like it does not matter, because it does not matter. Shake it off like water off duck's back. There is no point letting things get to you. Man up and get it behind you. It is no big deal, life goes on and all that shit. Hakuna matata!
When the first bell rang, Max stumped his cigarette bud and picked up his backpack. He, Kyle and the others made their way out of the smoking pit through the shrubbery and the trees, and then parted their ways. Kyle and Max had the same class again, so they started making their way towards English together. Kyle was retelling what happened to him during the weekend at a party, something hilarious about beer bongs that Max just nodded along and pretended to be interested in, even though he was anything but. Kyle knew Max did not drink, but still dragged the blond boy to parties nevertheless with him. Max did not mind, but despite being one of the kids with bad attitudes and habits, drinking was not one of his. Kyle had never questioned why, he did not need to. Guys did not talk about things like these, and the baseball capped guy had been able to put together one plus one eventually himself after seeing Max wear a black eyes couple of times and hearing the yelling from the porch of the house when he picked Max up for school sometimes. It was not like Max tried to keep it a secret, he did not just talk about it, and Kyle respected that. Every family was sad in their own way.
"Dude, you don't have to take me home today, I'll walk." Max said as they entered the school building again.
"Mom asked me to pick something up on the way home."
"'Tis fine, I can drive ya to the store at least, aight? No biggie."
"Thanks, mate. I'd appreciate that."
"Aw, don't go falling for me, now."
"What? And here I thought our bromance was deeper than that already!"
Max and Kyle entered the classroom together, and the baseball capped boy barked a laugh at the blond's retort, who continued dramatically.
"Have you been leading me on? All this time? Bro, I thought we had something!"
Kyle pushed him a bit with a snicker, and Max pushed him back, which continued on until they were seated in the very back of the class. Max threw his backpack on the ground, taking a seat next to Kyle. Automatically the tawny eyes seemed to spot the brunette, but forced their attention away from her, indulging himself into a conversation with Kyle about some game, waiting for the second bell.
