~13~

It's eleven eleven at night.

Do you know how many teens across America are making a wish right now? Approximately twenty-nine million.

At least I think I read that in an article somewhere.

How do all of those people even have enough brain power for wish making at this hour?

I have been staring at the ceiling above my bed for the last two hours— so much for getting a early night's sleep. I can't decide why I'm having so much trouble dozing off. I've gotten more exercise tossing and turning tonight then I have in the last month, I'm sure. It could all be because of nerves, or maybe even  relief there of.

Or both.

Plus, Rylie's snoring doesn't really help either.

I survived my first day at MACC, somewhat so at least. Good news is, I only lost a few things along the way: my phone, my pride, and my patience. I think I'm going to take that as a win.

Baby steps.

B-
You up?
Delivered 11:13 PM

M-
Are you kidding me? I live the dorm life now! Parties every night, I'm raging
Today 11:14 PM

B-
Oh please, you've only ever 'raged' that one time you got high on brownies
Delivered 11:16 PM

M-
How was I supposed to know they were special? 🤔
Today 11:17 PM

B-
Maybe just don't accept free samples from gas stations in the future?!
Delivered 11:19 PM

M-
Lol lesson learned.
Today 11:21
Look can we just talk on snapchat?
Today 11:24 PM

B-
Why
Delivered 11:24 PM

M-
Pictures, B. I'm an artist.
Today 11:26 PM

B-
You just want to use snap cuz you're too lazy to type.
Delivered 11:27 PM

M-
True, but ok now I have an honest question. Can boredom induce an early midlife crisis?
Today 11:29 PM

B-
? Shut up haha
Delivered 11:31 PM

M-
No seriously I have a sudden urge to buy a jet ski and dye my hair
Today 11:33 PM
Omg we should get matching tattoos!
Today 11:34 PM

B-
I mean sure, embrace this time in your life.
Delivered 11:35 PM

M-
Heck yeah! It's like puberty round two, with just as much soul searching but hair growing in different places!
Today 11:36 PM

B-
Omg!!! Subject change PLEASE 🤢
Delivered 11:36 PM
Call me
Delivered 11:36 PM

M-
Won't that bug the Ryls though?
Today 11:39 PM

B-
I'll be quiet?
Delivered 11:41 PM

M-
Nah let her sleep
Today 11:41 PM
M-
Besides I am pretty busy snapping the three girls who gave me their users today
😏
Today 11:41 PM

B-
Seriously? Three of them? Dang
Delivered 11:41 PM

M-
I lied. Five.
Today 11:42 PM

B-
Max Josiah Witherson, you little magnet you
Delivered 11:42 PM

M-
Aw you just called me attractive, my day is made ☺️
Today 11:43 PM

B-
For the sake of the pun I'll agree
Delivered 11:44 PM
So why are you really still up then?
Delivered 11:44 PM

M-
I was thinking about you
Today 11:47 PM

B-
...me? What about?
Delivered 11:48 PM

M-
Everything. Today being the first day at MACC wasn't solely emotional for you ya know. My little girl is growing up. She doesn't need me anymore.
Today 11:50 PM

B-
Oh. Well, of course I need you.
Delivered 11:51 PM

M-
I mean I kinda wanted to know about your day. I was prepared for an annoyingly detailed story time, but you lowkey blew me off for a date.
Today 11:54 PM

B-
It wasn't a date.
Delivered 11:55 PM

M-
Will you at least tell me your new man's name? I gotta know so I can come up with the ship.
Today 11:57 PM

B-
I don't have a boyfriend!
Delivered 11:58 PM

M-
And I'm not the hottest guy in school
Today 11:58 PM

B-
Debatable.
Delivered 11:58 PM

M-
Exactly.
Today 11:59 PM

B-
I don't know what just happened
Delivered 11:59 PM

M-
I know. Happy tomorrow beautiful 🙃
Today 12:00 AM

B-
Wouldn't it just be today? Never mind. Are you actually upset, M? I'll tell you everything right now. Annoying details and all.
Delivered 12:02 AM

M-
I just called you beautiful lol I'm not mad. And you need your sleep, you can tell me everything later. Don't worry about it
Today 12:03 AM
Goodnight ❤️
Today 12:04 AM

B-
Ok...Goodnight M ❤️
Delivered 12:05 AM

Read 12:07 AM

•••

Max, Acalia and I eventually assemble in the quad for lunch the next day, with Rylee to be arriving any moment now. Today's schedule seems overly simplified compared to yesterday's, though that might be because of the fact that I had chemistry instead of pre-cal this morning. I really hate math. Still, I am ecstatic to be allotted the chance to just sit down with my friends and shove some quality food into my face.

"I swear! The whole thing!" Acalia enthusiastically explains.

"So, you're saying that your bio teacher's guinea pig ate an entire rat all in on blow?" I raise an eyebrow.

"Yes!"

Max bites his lip, "Isn't that technically cannibalism? Rodent versus rodent?"

"No? Wait— is it?" Acalia waves her plastic fork in the air, quickly sprouting a panicked look.

I laugh.

"Did I forget to mention that Guinea Pig is a snake?"

"Minor details, Acee." I shake my head, more than entertained.

"I almost swallowed a guinea pig once." Max mumbles over a mouthful of Italian salad.

Both of our judgmental gazes instantly fall onto him.

"What? I was six years old!"

"And you tried to eat it?"

"No! Philbert was my best friend. It was a little drafty inside one morning and I swear I had seen him sneeze. I wasn't about to let the poor soul freeze to death so I put him in the warmest spot I could think of, which just so happened to be my mouth. It was either that or my underwear."

I laugh even harder after his apparently emotional confession, "These are honestly the conversations I will forever cherish."

That's right about when our group is greeted with the impact of a food tray being aggressively slammed against the navy blue table.

"Hi." Rylee breathes out as she throws her angrily limp self onto the bench opposite of mine and Max's.

"Don't worry, you didn't miss much, just Acalia leaving out crucial facts that cause us to question the realm of possibility and Max abnormally abusing his childhood pets." I smile, "Pretty typical."

"Excuse me for being a responsible and understandably concerned pet owner." Max mutters before taking a huge gulp from my water bottle.

"Responsible pet owners don't shove their pets into random bodily holes, M."

Rylee eyes each of us with a sour expression, "One, gross. And two, ugh! I'm so done with everyone and everything." She groans before starting at her lunch. I've never seen grapes so violently chomped before now watching Rylie taking her frustrations out on the plump fruit.

"You're going to have to elaborate, sweetheart. Or I'm just going to have to assume it's that time of the month again," Max tells her.

"Call me sweetheart again and I'll shove something new up one of your bodily holes."

Max's hands shoot up in surrender and Acalia turns to Rylie with only a half-serious demeanor, "What's up Ryls? You are snappier than usual."

"What's up? What's up! They postponed Elite tryouts for two weeks, that's what's up."

"What are, er, elite tryouts exactly?" I ask, wincing as the words roll off my food stained tongue. I'm almost completely sure that question is going to come back to bite me in the butt.

"Only my ultimate goal for the year, the making or breaking of my happiness and the deciding factor on whether or not I go to jail for strangling someone."

Well, that's comforting.

"I wish she was kidding." Acalia looks to me, tightening her lips into a thin, matte pink line. "The Elites are basically the top, most hardcore group for dancers at this school. Murder to get into, almost impossible to survive for the whole year, but still every one of our dancers' dream. I'm surprise they postponed, they never give way for any reason.

"So why did they?"

"Some stupid hot shot's tour doesn't end until next week and they're interested in choosing him! How stupid is that?"

"Oh, someone famous is coming to our school?" Acalia squeals.

"Who's this hot shot?" Max asks.

"I don't know." Rylie shoves three more grapes behind her teeth.

"Yeah she does."

"Fine!" She speedily finishes chewing and swallows, "Some retarded hip-hop-pretty-boy by the name of Zachary Jacobs. But if he wants to join the Elites, he should have to abide by their snotty rules like everybody else."

"Zachary is coming here?" Acalia claps her hands together like a little girl at Christmas. "He's freaking beautiful!"

"So were you in the Elites last year?" I press, letting curiosity get the best of me. I've really got to stop doing that, before I become the strangle victim.

Rylie only responds with a pronounced grunt and, plot twist, more grapes.

I'm going to take that as a no.

Acalia raises a brow, "If you think this is bad, you guys should have seen her when she actually got the rejection last year—"

Rylie and her problematic mouthful of stress-dealing grapes glare daggers towards Acalia.

"You know, maybe I should tell you guys about this later." Acalia whispers, offering her best friend a fearful giggle, "So, anyone else have news?"

"Brooklynn still hasn't told us where she ran off to at orientation yesterday," Rylie says, cooling back down to her usual monotone way of speaking.

"Or the boy she was in such a hurry to go work with," Max adds.

Suddenly all eyes are on me, and as much as I don't want to relive all that happened yesterday, I know that I owe my friends an explanation.

"Buckle up for this one." I sigh.

"Well that's given," Rylie smirks, "We saw you talking to Oliver McCally."

"You did? I was hoping no one was paying attention."

"I doubt anyone was, people are pretty unobservant. But from the little bit that I saw, it seemed pretty heated."

"Which either means you two were mad at each other, or he was asking you out," Acalia intellectually pipes in.

I cock my head.

"What? There are only so many types of heated conversations people can have!"

I bite my lip, "Anyway, it's not a big deal. He's just been bothering me a bit in class."

"Bothering you how?" Max protectively questions.

"Just being annoying sometimes, that's all." I quickly reply. I decide to make Oliver sound better than he is, not for him but for my own sake. I hate drama, and all I want to do is try and avoid it as much as possible from now on. If Max knew how much of a jerk Oliver has been already, he would most definitely try to do something about it. Besides, I don't need him to fight all of my battles for me.

"All I did was tell him to back off, then he offered to help me with an assignment that was due right when I got back to class. I needed to use the recording booth and didn't know how, so he took care of that. I actually ended up getting an A, though I'm not sure how harsh the grading was on the first day."

Max returns to the last of his vinegary lettuce, though he continues to glance up at me from the corner of his eye, as though he's not fully content with my answer.

"Well I wouldn't get too cozy with McCally if I were you," Rylie says, "He got kicked out from wherever his old school was. I'm surprised he even got in here, regarding all the nasty rumors going around as to why he was expelled."

Though I want to ask further about what exactly these rumors entail, I know it would only be useless gossip and frankly, I don't care all that much. "I'm not getting cozy with anyone. And don't worry, I plan on having absolutely nothing to do with this guy from here on out."

"I guess this school doesn't have as high acceptance standards as we thought though, because this doofus got in too." Rylie jokes, pointing to Max.

"You're not wrong." He takes the comment nonchalantly, "Or I could just as easily be the next Picasso."

"Maybe that would be believable if it weren't for the whole grant thing."

I almost choke on my water, "What do you mean?"

"You know, the school was promised a super generous financial grant if they could recruit enough artists this year, since numbers in that field have been low in the past. They would probably accept just about anyone who can properly hold a paintbrush," she explains.

"Oh," is all Max has to say.

"I don't understand, are you sure?" I ask.

"It's common knowledge on campus." Rylie frowns, "I'm so sorry, I really thought you guys knew about this."

I sympathetically look towards my best friend. He just kind of stares down at his empty tray, probably knee deep in a million and one thoughts. "Max?"

"What? Yeah, I'm fine." He tells us, sounding as though he's trying to convince himself more than anyone else, "It's all good. I really have to go back home after this week anyway. I couldn't stay even if I actually did want to."

My stomach flip-flops within itself and my heart sinks at his words. I thought that his spontaneous acceptance was a miracle, one that would be just powerful enough to push him into staying with me. I guess not. There's no chance he'll even think about enrolling at MACC now. I know exactly what it's like to be just merely used for someone else's benefit, and I wouldn't want anything to do with it either.

"Hey uh, I have to go call my mom, again." Max abruptly stands, "I'll see you guys later. And seriously, don't feel bad." He directs his instruction towards Rylie, before sauntering inside and mindlessly leaving the remains of his lunch scattered on the table top.

"I still feel terrible," Acalia pouts, and Rylie agrees.

"I know you guys didn't mean any harm, you thought we knew. We should have known." I pause, feeling guilty even though the situation was never within my reach to begin with, "Maybe I should go check up on him though."

"Wait," Acalia interjects, "Before you go, would you and Max want to go camp out on the beach with us this weekend? It's kind of illegal-ish, but we know a spot where no one ever gets caught. I think we'll all need a little fun after surviving our first week."

"I don't think so, Max said his flight leaves Saturday morning and—" I instantly start to protest, but stop as the idea sinks in a little.

As much as a shenanigan such as this is out of my comfort-zone, Max would love it, and all I want to do right now is make him happy. Besides, anything that will keep him here with me just that much longer sounds like a pretty fantastic plan, if I do say so myself.

"Actually, Yes. We'll be there." I triumphantly conclude.

"Yay!" Acalia claps, "We'll figure out plans later. Now go make sure your friend's back to his normal smiling cuteness."

Brushing her giddy remark off my shoulder for the time being, I awkwardly shuffle inside to find Max slumped against a school wall, his head cradled within his hands.

I slide down to his level, the floor cold against the backs of my legs. Handfuls of students busily walk past us from both directions, chatting amongst themselves. Max looks up at me with defeated eyes, and combs through his messily perfect hair with his right set of fingers.

"I guess I'm not really all that fine," he says.

"I'm just glad you're not crying." I gently tease, though I know he would never dare. I'm not even sure tearing up is physically possible for him.

"No, you're the one who cries, and snots all over me."

I offer a weak chuckle.

"I just thought, I really thought that I had gotten in on my own account. I thought that someone had seen my art and been in such awe that they knew I was meant to go here. I thought that for once, it didn't matter what rules had to be bent, or hoops jumped, my talent wasn't something that could passed up on. I guess I really am just full of myself, huh?"

"You are, but not when it comes to your art. Max, Principal Hawklins was in awe of your work. Don't you remember the look on her face? You earned her respect immediately, whereas she just looked at me like any other ordinary piece of dirt. You're amazing, and the money situation is simply a coincidence." I desperately try to convince his mopey self.

"I try so hard to always be confident, hoping that it will eventually rub off on you. I guess I can't quite always be though."

"And you don't have to." I insist, squeezing his warm hand and reassuringly laying against his shoulder.

"I kind of get it now, what you've been telling me for years. Money sucks, and it screws with everything it gets involved in." He heavily sighs, touching my head with his own.

"It really does."

"And Brooklynn?"

"Yes?"

"I didn't actually need to call my mom."

"Yeah, I know."