Sweaters & Cigarettes (27 page)

He doesn't have to think about it
any longer than that. Max takes the choice away from him, by grabbing his hair
properly and gently pulling him away, and Theo can't help but look up,
confused. Max tugs on his hair again, then, making Theo stand up, and before he
knows it, Max is kissing him, deeply and hungrily. And Theo is stunned for
about a split second, before eagerly reciprocating. He sure as hell doesn't
mind this.

Max groans into his mouth, while he
moves his hand downward and starts stroking Theo, slowly at first, then faster,
and Theo groans in surprise. Again, not that he minds. He really doesn't, and as
though by its own accord, his hand moves down and wraps its fingers around Max,
who's so hard and so close, and who practically starts thrusting into Theo's
hand.

Theo doesn't want to move his mouth
away from Max's, not for a moment, but those sounds Max is making... It's
enough to make him change his mind, and he pulls back a little bit, just far
enough to be able to properly look at Max's face. Those dark blue eyes are
lidded and dazed, mouth half-open and panting, and seeing it somehow makes
something hot coil tightly in Theo's stomach. He has never watched Max like
this, before, never properly
watched
him, as he comes undone, and he
finds that it might be the best thing he has ever seen.

Max looks like he wants to close
his eyes, squeeze them shut and just let go, but as though he gets that Theo
doesn't want him to, he doesn't. Instead, he keeps his eyes fixed on Theo's
green ones, watching him watch Max, and Theo feels that heat coil tighter, as
their hands move in some kind of uneven unison, bringing them both closer and
closer to the edge.

"Come on, baby," Theo
finds himself saying, breathing heavily, almost panting. It almost feels like
someone else is talking, because that's just not something he would ever really
say. "Come on."

He's not sure why he says it,
absently realizes how weird and unfamiliar it feels, but he soon finds that he
doesn't really care, in the heat of the moment. He doesn't care, because as he
says it, Max emits something like a whimper, something Theo has never heard
from him, before. And it makes it worth it. It makes it worth it, and he
watches intently as the next few seconds unfold, watches as Max teeters on the
edge, before falling over it completely, parting his lips and letting out a
low, stuttering groan, as he tenses up, and comes over Theo's fingers.

For a moment, everything is
suspended, and Theo just watches the expression on Max's face, watches him
close his eyes for a second, while his body nearly shakes with the force of his
orgasm, and it's enough. It's enough to make that coiled heat build so fast,
until it reaches the breaking point, and suddenly, Theo is coming as well,
black spots dancing in front of his eyes, and he leans against the wall with
his hand, to keep himself from practically collapsing.

It's the most intense, beautiful
thing, and it takes several seconds of stuttering, heavy breathing, before Theo
comes back to his senses.

"So amazing," he hears
Max breathe, and he opens his eyes. He was barely aware that he had closed
them. "Gorgeous."

Max looks up at him through heavily
lidded eyes, and Theo swallows hard. His arm is keeping him standing, leaning
against the wall behind Max, but it's shaking.

"Fuck, I love you," Max
says, sounding exhausted, and he pulls Theo in for a slow, languid kiss.
"It's retarded."

Theo huffs a tired laugh.

"Well, that's nice," he
breathes, and Max smiles.

"Yes, it is," he says,
kissing him again. When they pull apart, Theo is too tired to move any further,
and so just leans their foreheads together. "The way I feel about you, the
way you make me act... It really is retarded."

Theo groans softly.

"Your pillow-talk needs some
work," he says, trying to even out his breathing. "But I guess that's
part of why I love you."

Max chuckles.

"Well, we're in the shower,
so..." He shrugs. "And good thing, too."

Theo smiles at him, absently
wondering if Max can tell by the way Theo looks at him, just how happy and
blissful he feels, right now. Not that he hasn't told him that, or shown him.
He's certain that Max knows.

Theo moves his hand away from the
wall, his legs finally steady enough to keep him standing, and he takes a step
back, so that he ends up right underneath the showerhead. And Max scoffs,
smiling lazily, as he moves away from the wall and into Theo's arms, where Theo
feels like he would want him to stay, forever.

Chapter 19

Resolve

"You sure you're okay?"

It's way past noon, by now, and Max
and Theo have finally managed to make their way outside, leaving the motel.
It's Saturday, and surprisingly, the snow that fell last night did stick
around, which means that there are several children outside, playing. Theo
barely notices them, though. He's too focused on the fact that he will have to
go back home.

"I think so," he says. They've
walked all the way from the motel, and now, they're standing at the edge of
Theo's street. He can see his house in the distance, not too far off. He
swallows.

"Do I have to?" he
practically whines, and Max gives him a small, sympathetic smile. "Can't
we just go somewhere else?"

"Well," Max says,
"you know I'm all for breaking the rules and fucking shit up."

He sighs, moving one hand up to
tidy Theo's scarf.

"But believe it, or not,"
he says, "I don't like getting
you
into trouble."

He looks up at Theo, blue eyes
sincere in a way that Theo still somehow isn't used to seeing them. Theo sighs.

"I know," he says.
"And I appreciate it. Not that it stops it from happening, but
still."

Max narrows his eyes at Theo's
attempt at humor, but doesn't reply.

"I just," Theo says,
looking down the street, toward his house. "I've got a bad feeling."

Max follows his line of sight.

"Yeah," he agrees
quietly. "But what's the worst that could happen, right?"

Theo raises his eyebrows at him
pointedly, and Max cocks his head.

"Fair enough," he
relents, remembering how bad it has gotten, so far. Theo is pretty sure he
wouldn't be able deal with that for much longer, and especially not if it gets
worse.

Theo looks at his house for a few seconds,
in silence, before taking a deep, steadying breath.

"Okay," he says, nodding.
"I'm going."

Max squeezes his hand, entwined
with his own, before reaching up to cradle Theo's face with the other. He
kisses him softly.

"Good luck," he says, a
hint of his usual cockiness, that Theo knows is there simply to ease the
tension. But he appreciates it, nonetheless.

"Thanks."

And with that, they part ways, Max
staying put while Theo makes his way along the street. He looks over his
shoulder once, twice, and a third time, before reaching his house, and every
time, Max is still there. Theo wishes he could have stayed, but somehow, he
feels like that would have made the impending confrontation with his parents
worse, and he throws Max one last glance, before walking up to his front door.
And just like that, Max is out of sight.

Theo lingers for a moment,
hesitates, before he takes a deep breath, and opens the door.

It's unlocked, and Theo steps
inside and closes it behind him. He can't help but feel like he wants to keep
quiet, like he can somehow avoid this whole thing, if he doesn't make too much
noise. Which is a stupid, completely ridiculous idea, of course. And if nothing
else, he's not as quiet as he thinks; within seconds of closing the front door
behind him, he hears footsteps coming from the kitchen. And he takes another
deep, steadying breath.

His father is upon him in seconds,
looking positively livid.

"Where the hell have you
been?" he practically shouts, right in his face, and Theo makes a point of
not flinching. He hasn't even taken off his jacket, yet. His schoolbag is still
slung over his shoulder. He grabs the strap a bit tighter.

"Out," he says, unable to
help but glance away for a second. His father isn't physically much bigger than
Theo, nowadays, but he's still his father. And he can be very intimidating when
he wants to be.

"Out?" Eric repeats
incredulously. "You better have a more decent explanation than that,
boy."

"What's going on, here?"
Theo looks up at the sound of his mother's voice, as she steps out of the
living room. He catches her eye and forces a small, tentative smile.

"Hi, mom," he says,
subdued, and he can see the very obvious relief on her face. It only lasts for
a second, though, before she presses her lips together, her brow furrowing into
a somewhat anxious frown.

"Nice to see you're
back," she says, her voice unusually on edge. "Why don't you come
inside. We need to talk."

Theo nods, looking down, as his mother
makes her way into the kitchen. He glances up at his father, who seems to think
better of standing in the hall, yelling at his son. He opts for following after
his wife, no doubt planning to stand and yell at his son in the kitchen,
instead.

It's after another minute or so
that Theo makes his way into the kitchen. It's still early afternoon, but his
mother seems to be in the process of cooking something, and Theo isn't really
that surprised. She loves cooking, loves baking and making tasty things. She
tends to joke that Eric is the housewife, though, since he does most of the
cleaning, and can't really cook to save his life, which makes him dependent on
her, rather than the other way around.

Theo isn't sure why he's thinking
about that, right now. Probably just a defense mechanism, anything to avoid
what's to come.

"Well?" Amy says, folding
her arms as she stands by the counter, in a true mom-fashion, Theo thinks.
"What do you have to say for yourself?"

Screw that
, Theo adds, revising.
That
was in a true
mom-fashion, almost hilariously so.

Theo takes a deep breath, putting
his hands in his pockets.

"I, uh..." he starts,
suddenly realizing that he doesn't actually have any kind of contingency plan,
here. "I don't know."

His father frowns incredulously.

"You don't
know
?"
he says, an obvious, angry edge to his voice. "You deliberately disobeyed,
and disappeared for an entire night! And for what? To run off with some
delinquent?"

Theo frowns then, but not really in
anger. Instead, he finds himself oddly amused and baffled, in a dry, distant
kind of way.

"You sure you know the
definition of 'delinquent'?" he says, before he can stop himself.
"'Cause Max doesn't fit it."

He immediately regrets saying that.

"Don't get smart with me,
boy," Eric says, voice low and angry, and he actually points at Theo,
warningly. He's closer now, standing right in front of him. "You know what
I think about that."

"Yeah, I do," Theo says
dryly, unflinching, unable to stop himself. Again. "You keep telling
me."

Eric grits his teeth, then, jaw
working. He lowers his finger, eyes still trained on Theo's, angry and
determined.

"I don't know what the hell's
going on with you," he says, voice still low with controlled anger.
"But if you're hooking up with this guy, just to prove some kind of
point―"

"To you?" Theo says,
usually knowing better than to interrupt his father, but at the same time
accepting that he seems to be taking a different approach this time, anyway.
His eyebrows are slightly raised in disbelief. "You think this is because
of
you
?"

"Look, I get that you wanna
stir things up," Eric says, an almost patronizing tone in the midst of his
anger. He seems to decide on ignoring Theo's question. "And that being
with this kid is basically a giant middle finger to me and your mom―"

"Excuse me?" Theo can't
help but gape at his father incredulously.

"But I'm not about to let some
guy
mess you up," Eric continues, raising his voice to drown out
Theo's interruption. Theo still interrupts him, though.

"His name is Max," he
says, enunciating every syllable, his volume starting to match his father's.
"And that's not why I'm with him."

"Really?" Eric says
doubtfully. It's not even a question, but more of a resolute statement, almost
with an edge of sarcasm to it.

"No, dad," Theo says.
"Believe it or not, I'm not doing this, just to piss you off."

"No?"

"No! Did it ever occur to you,
that maybe I actually
like
him?"

"Well, that's the problem,
isn't it," Eric says. The two of them are basically shouting in each
other's faces, by now. "You can't even see straight!"

Theo lets out a loud, exasperated
sound, glancing away for a moment.

"For fuck's sake, dad,"
he says, looking back at his father. "Do you even hear yourself?"

It's only after another moment or so,
that Theo realizes how that's probably the worst word his parents have ever
heard come out of his mouth, and his father just stares at him for a second.

"Do
you
hear
yourself?" he says loudly, still sounding angry. "What the hell's
going on with you?"

"I don't know!" Theo
replies angrily, nearly shouting. "Maybe, if you stopped yelling at me for
a second, I could tell you!"

"This is what I'm talking
about," Eric says harshly, clearly unaccustomed to, and very frustrated
by, his son's new attitude. "Since you met this guy, you've turned into
this!"

Eric gestures at his son vaguely,
and Theo knows he shouldn't take offense at that, but somehow, he does. He
does, because he can hear the utter disapproval and almost something like
disdain
in his father's voice, and he swallows hard.

Amy hears it, too, though, and for
the first time since this started, she speaks up.

"Eric," she says, almost
warningly, her voice low but firm, probably in an attempt to calm things down.
Eric doesn't seem to hear her, though.

"You used to be a good
kid," he continues, and Theo is just too stunned―and oddly,
embarrassingly hurt―to say anything back. "Now, it's like you're
just turning into a punk with an attitude problem."

They're not very harsh words, not
really. But knowing that his father means them in the worst way is enough to
make Theo feel weirdly subdued, as a result. And he's not the only one who
notices Eric's sudden, unfair insult.

"Eric!" Amy exclaims
then, louder, this time, and Eric glances at her.

"Amy, don't―" he says,
but doesn't get further than that.

"No, that's enough!"
Amy's voice is raised, angry and determined, and it makes both Theo and his
father turn to her in stunned surprise. Amy never raises her voice like that.
Well, almost never. Her rage is more the cold kind, the kind that makes you
want to curl up and cower beneath it. Not that this kind doesn't have the same
effect. Theo is just shocked, and he glances at his father, whose mouth has
snapped shut, eyes on his wife.

"This has gone on long
enough," Amy says, voice slightly lower but still tense with anger.
"And it's getting ridiculous."

Eric just looks at her for a few
moments.

"Amy, sweetheart," he
begins, his voice suddenly very soft, but not the least bit patronizing. Amy
doesn't seem to care, though.

"Maybe you should go
outside," she says pointedly, and Eric sighs quietly.

"I just―" he says,
but is once again cut off.

"Now," Amy says, with a
tone that leaves no room for argument. "I'd like to speak with our son,
for a minute."

The silence that follows is tense
and charged, and it drags on for what feels like several seconds, before Eric
seems to give in. He sighs heavily and glances at Theo, before leaving the
kitchen and making his way out into the hall, where he leaves through the front
door. He's going to the garage, no doubt, where he tends to spend hours on end,
tinkering with his car, especially when he's upset.

Theo doesn't say anything, just
slowly turns back to his mother. She has never been an angry, mean person, not
by a long shot, but that somehow makes her anger all the more difficult and odd
to handle, when it actually happens.

Amy sighs and places her hand
against her forehead for a moment, as though collecting herself, before she
looks up at her son. Her eyes are back to their gentle kindness, and she lowers
her hand.

"Sorry about that," she
says, giving Theo a small, weary smile. Theo just shakes his head in a
reassuring gesture.

"I'm just getting very tired
of this whole thing," his mother continues. "I mean, it seemed like
the right thing to do, at first, keeping you away from that boy. 'Cause trust
me, I know what it can be like to fall for a bad boy."

Theo frowns in surprise.

"You do?" he says, and
his mother nods, huffing a small, silent laugh.

"I do," she says
pointedly. "I was teenager once too, you know."

Theo doesn't reply, instead just
presses his lips together in an effort to not smile. Amy sighs.

"It was before I met your
dad," she says. "There was this guy, and he was... just amazing.
Charming, handsome, funny, like you wouldn't believe. And he had quite the
attitude problem. It made him very likeable, but at the same time, it made him
a complete ass, that most people had a hard time dealing with."