Over the next few hours or so, Max hunkered down on the living room couch. His eyes were glued to his laptop as he became utterly engrossed in revising his old notes for his prospective video podcast. The same one that he had been hoping to launch with the Wilder brothers.

Max originally set up the premise of the podcast like a talk show. Every episode was supposed to be centered around the guest of the day, where he, as the host, would interview and play games with the guest to highlight his or her personality along with whatever products, causes, or sponsorships they wished to promote at the time.

The only downside to this model, however, was that the success of the podcast relied less on Max's role as the host and heavily on securing high-profile influencers who already wielded an established legion of fans. Max had been counting on Axel's business savvy and Avon's widespread network to draw in the most popular comedy skit phenoms, beauty, fashion, and lifestyle gurus, gamers, and techies to the show.

As Max scrambled to find a solution to this problem, Nina's words flitted across his mind.

You're not seventeen anymore and neither is your audience. Give them a chance to grow with you.

Maybe she was onto something. Maybe it was time for him to step up. Unfortunately, Max also realized that—in order for the podcast to work without the Wilders—he would likely need to revamp the whole setup to make himself the main draw for the audience. This felt unnerving as hell because Max had never let his guard down long enough for anyone to catch a glimpse of who he really was: A depressed high school dropout who had been bullied as a teen and didn't really have anything to offer the world except a few skateboarding tricks.

Max felt like a fraud.

When he started his IG account in high school, every pose and every caption on his feed had been painstakingly cropped and curated to give off the illusion of perfection. Later, as a YouTuber, he hid behind a grossly exaggerated and not at all authentic version of his personality on the Wilder Ones channel because that was what everyone else around him was doing.

Now that the internet had turned on Max for "breaking Lexi's heart," he figured coasting on his good looks and hiding behind outrageous internet pranks probably wasn't going to cut it anymore. He needed to somehow reinvent his image from the quintessential "LA fuckboy," as Nina's friend Carson had so eloquently called him, to a more evolved version of himself. And reintroduce that guy to the public, not only to save his career but also because Max simply desired to be better—for himself.

And maybe for Nina, too.

When Max really stopped to think about it, he genuinely wanted the two of them to move forward from their troubled pasts. Together. Not necessarily in a romantic sense, either. He wanted to do it in a way that might become something truly transformative. Their individual journeys were probably going to be awkward and uncomfortable and maybe even, at times, painful, but, for the first time in his life, he didn't want to run away from the friction.

Max wanted to run towards it.

He spent the rest of the afternoon brainstorming ideas, expanding on the good ones, reworking the bad ones, filming, editing, deleting, and then re-editing until he finally came up with a whole new concept for his podcast that seemed surprisingly... badass. By this time, his hands were itching to grab his camera and hit the streets to start filming right away.

The idea was so simple that Max wondered if people would even click to watch, but, essentially, the premise focused on him picking up a new skill to learn every two weeks or so—by signing up for lessons or classes or doing his own research on the chosen task—and document his progress for viewers to see. At the end of each cycle, Max planned to invite other enthusiasts and experts of the activity onto his podcast to share their knowledge and rate his performance with some kind of makeshift test or report card. He wanted the tone of the channel to be funny, informative, and inspiring.

Max figured he would kick off his first episode with something easy—like, say, baking a cake—and then slowly work his way up to harder tasks, such as learning to play a song on a guitar or signing up for a parkour event. The title of his new channel was going to be Max Tries It.

Again, Max had Nina to thank for pointing him in the right direction. He found her dream to learn how to surf and skateboard—even though she was far from being a natural athlete—to be very inspiring and so goddamn wholesome. Nina's determination to continue practicing on her own was what prompted him to step outside his comfort zone. Max sensed he was probably going to make a fool of himself on camera by trying things that would make him look like a complete noob, but he no longer felt as concerned as he used to be about "looking good" or "looking cool" in front of his viewers. He just wanted to do stuff that interested him and maybe have some fun along the way.

Max's mouth spread into a happy grin. He couldn't wait to tell Nina all about his new ideas once she got home from work.