Sweaters & Cigarettes (41 page)

"How long were you
outside?" he says, surprised at the concern in his voice, and Max cocks
his head.

"About an hour," he says.
"Give or take."

Theo blinks, suddenly very aware of
the way Max is actually shivering a bit.

"What?" he says.
"Why?"

"Well, I didn't call you right
away," Max says, shrugging. "I figured it was a weird request,
anyway."

Theo sighs and kisses him on the
mouth, that piercing cold against his lips.

"I don't care," he says,
tugging on Max's coat, so that he'll take it off. "You can always call me.
Anytime."

Max looks at him fondly.

"Yeah, I'm trying to wrap my
head around that," he says, and Theo gives him a small smile.

"Good," he says, before
brushing some more snow out of that messy hair. "Now, come on. You're just
in time for dinner."

Theo's not sure if it's due to the
absence of his father, or simply due to the fact that Max has been over at his
house enough for Amy to get used to him, but dinner goes very well. They set
another place for Max, and as they eat, Theo can't help but feel pretty happy
about how easy it all is. His mother is smiling, talking to Max in a very
relaxed manner, and Max seems more relaxed, too, compared to the first time he
was here. He still tries to censor himself a bit, but he's definitely not as
tense, if at all. He makes sure to thank Theo's mom for letting him stay over,
though, and she politely refrains from asking the reason behind the request, in
the first place.

Riley is glad to see Max, but seems
to regret this, when Max starts asking him about Ellie. Amy ends up chiming in,
suspicious from what Theo said earlier, and eventually, Riley admits that yes,
he and Ellie are sort of a thing, now. Which causes both Max and Theo to
aww
at him and ruffle his hair, to Riley's great chagrin, and to Amy's
amusement.

After dinner, Max and Theo start
making their way upstairs.

"Thanks for dinner," Max
says, a bit awkwardly, and Amy gives him a small smile.

"You're welcome," she says.
Then she looks at Theo. "Do we need to get out some extra sheets?"

She seems to realize the weirdness
of her question, as soon as Theo does, and he glances briefly at Max, before
shifting slightly, on the spot.

"Uh, no," he says, so
blatantly awkward. "I think we're good."

It takes Amy another second,
though, before really catching on, and she nods, glancing away. Theo swears he
can see her blushing a little bit. She seems to have forgotten that Theo and
Max most likely sleep in the same bed.

"Oh," she says, clearing
her throat unnecessarily. "Right."

She keeps nodding, and Theo nods
back, while Max just stands there, eyebrows raised and looking way more amused
than he should at the whole, awkward exchange.

"Okay," Amy says, making
a vague shooing gesture. "Off to bed, then."

Theo lets out a small sigh of
relief, and he and Max make their way up the stairs.

"That was adorable," Max
says smugly, as they enter Theo's room and Theo closes the door behind them.
Theo just glares at him.

"Well, I haven't exactly had a
boyfriend sleep over, before," he says, a bit snippily. "Shut
up."

Max just chuckles, and Theo pulls
him into his arms, groaning as he plants a deliberate kiss on his mouth.

"I am really glad to see you,
though," he says, slightly muffled against Max's lips, and Max hums in
approval, putting his arms around Theo and pulling him closer.

"Ditto," he says, and
Theo just kisses him for a few more moments, before pulling away a bit.

"So," he says. "You
wanna tell me what happened, exactly?"

Max looks a little apprehensive,
and then sighs.

"How about I tell you
tomorrow?" he suggests, and Theo nods.

"Okay," he says. "Tomorrow, it
is."

Chapter 27

Snow day

It's the feeling of black hair tickling his face that
wakes Theo up, the next morning.

It honestly kind of surprises him a
little, that he usually ends up being the big spoon, when Max sleeps next to
him, like this. Somehow, it makes him feel like Max is something vulnerable
that needs to be protected, and that Theo does this, simply by keeping his arms
around him. He wonders if Max sees it that way, too. Maybe it's just a
coincidence that they tend to end up like this.

Regardless, Theo finds himself
being not the least bit bothered by that black, messy hair, as it tickles his
face. Instead, he nuzzles closer against it, breathing in, and tightens his
arms around Max's form, that tattooed back pressed against his bare chest. He
can hardly think of anything better than this, right here, and he's not about
to complain.

For reasons that should be obvious,
they didn't really do anything, last night, besides sleep; Theo wasn't really
comfortable doing anything more
advanced
, knowing that his entire family
was home, at the time.

His father came home late, and
although Max and Theo had withdrawn to Theo's room, by then, Amy is bound to
have told him about Theo's late-night visitor. And although Theo is
half-certain that Eric wouldn't have let Max spend the night, just like that,
he's pretty sure that even Eric wouldn't just throw him out. And if nothing
else, Amy can be very persuasive, when it comes to her husband. Theo just hopes
that his dad won't be pissed about it all, today.

Despite how awesome it feels, Theo
doesn't have very long to savor the feeling of lying here, with Max; seemingly
minutes after he wakes up, his alarm goes off.

Max groans, shifting in his arms,
and Theo can't help but smile a little.

"'Morning," he says,
planting a kiss against Max's neck, and Max groans again.

"What time is it?" he slurs,
that rough voice cracked from sleep.

"Seven-thirty," Theo
replies, and Max lets out yet another groan, more annoyed than before.

"God, why?" he says,
while Theo reaches over to his nightstand and presses the snooze-button. The beeping
immediately stops, and Max relaxes in his arms, letting out a sigh, this time.

"We have to get up," Theo
points out, nuzzling closer again. "School, remember?"

Max makes an annoyed, whining
sound.

"I don't wanna," he says,
sounding like a ten-year-old, and Theo smiles.

"Me neither," he replies.
"But we have to."

Max seems to consider that, for a
moment, before twisting around in Theo's arms, so that they face each other. He
gives Theo a kiss, and neither of them seem to care about the morning-breath,
too soft and sleepy and happy to bother.

"Fine," Max says
petulantly. "You and your stupid responsibilities."

"Hey, I don't make the
rules," Theo points out, smoothing over Max's hair with his hand. Those
dark blue eyes are squinting sleepily, at the moment not framed by black
eyeliner, since Max washed it off, last night.

"I know," Max says,
giving Theo a light kiss. "Still pisses me off, though."

Theo can't help but agree with him,
but still, to their great annoyance, they do have to get up, and five minutes
later, Theo is in the middle of getting dressed.

He hears Riley making his way down
the hallway, outside his room, and he hears the distinct sounds of his parents
moving around in the kitchen, downstairs. If he's not mistaken, they're leaving
for work early today, and he's half-hoping that at least his father will be
gone, by the time he and Max get around to having breakfast.

Theo is tidying up the bed a
little, when he notices that Max is over by his mirror, a full-length one, that
hangs on the wall. He's already dressed, and seems to be in the process of
putting on eyeliner. Theo frowns.

"Wait," he says,
referring to the eyeliner, "you had that with you?"

Max half-shrugs, keeping his
attention focused on getting the lines right.

"In my pocket," he admits.
"For emergencies."

Theo raises his eyebrows.

"Emergencies?" he says, a
bit pointedly, and Max looks at him, in the mirror.

"Well, this doesn't exactly
happen by accident," he says, gesturing to his face, more specifically,
his eyes. "I tend to carry one around, just in case I end up in this
situation."

Theo quirks a small smile.

"So, you carry makeup around,
just in case you need to apply it?"

Max holds something up, and Theo
can see that it's what looks like a small, black-tipped stump of a pencil.

"Just a tiny one," Max
says innocently. "Like I said, for emergencies."

Theo scoffs lightly, with a smile.

"You're such a girl," he
says, as Max goes back to applying his makeup.

"Said the bottom," Max
retorts softly, and it takes a moment for Theo to get what he just said, making
him glare into the mirror, actually blushing slightly. Max catches the look,
but only gives him an amused, oddly fond smirk, in return.

"And besides," Max
continues, smudging the eyeliner ever so slightly, while Theo straightens the
covers of the bed. "It's important to me. I feel naked, without it."

He looks over his shoulder, at
Theo.

"Imagine going out without a
shirt on," he says. "It's kinda like that."

"Yeah, I get it," Theo
says, realizing that he actually does. To him, who thinks Max looks amazing and
gorgeous and hot, pretty much whenever, it doesn't really matter whether he
wears makeup, or not. But at the same time, Max's look, all of it, including
the eyeliner, is what makes him
Max
, and Theo would never change a
single thing about it.

"And, by the way," he
says, making his way over to where Max is standing, a bit surprised at his
comfortable way of talking about this. "I've only been the bottom,
twice."

"Out of all the two times,
we've actually had sex," Max says, but there's not an ounce of accusation
in his voice. There's only slight amusement, and he glances at Theo in the
mirror, with a small smile. "Not that I'm complaining."

Theo sighs, and wraps his arms
around Max's waist, from behind.

"I'm almost complaining,"
he mutters, planting a kiss against Max's neck. "Not about the
bottom-thing, but the twice-thing."

He sighs again, leaning his chin
against Max's shoulder, and Max gives him a fond, sympathetic look, in the
mirror. Then, he gives him a small, wicked smile.

"Well, glad to see I'm not
alone in that," he says. Then he tilts his head a little, putting the
small cap back on his pencil, makeup now applied and ready. "And if it's
any consolation, I'd be happy to blow you right now, if you want."

Theo is only briefly shocked at the
way Max says that like he's talking about making a sandwich, before he
remembers that that's nothing new; Max even tends to exaggerate it, simply
because he knows what kind of effect it has on Theo. But Theo still reacts, and
for a moment, he just tenses up, swallowing hard, his face heating up, as he
feels the blood flow rapidly move downward. Max notices all of this, without a
doubt, but all Theo can muster is: "Uh..."

And then, just as Theo's libido
vaguely thinks that
yes, we probably have time for that
, there's a knock
on the door, and he actually jerks.

"Yeah?" he says, a bit
more discomposed than a moment ago, and he hears his mother's voice from the
other side of the door.

"Just making sure you're up,"
she says. "Dad and I are leaving for work."

"Okay," Theo says, and as
Amy seems to hesitate for a second, he gets the impression that she wants to
say something else, but feels too awkward to, like she's reminding herself that
her son isn't actually alone, in there.

"Alright," she says
instead. "Bye."

"Bye."

Theo hears her footsteps disappear
down the hall, and he exhales slowly, turning back to his reflection. And Max
is wearing the meanest little smirk.

"What?" Theo says, but Max
just shakes his head, pocketing his eyeliner.

"Nothing," he says,
stepping away from the mirror, so that Theo's arms drop from his waist. He
turns to Theo, then, blue eyes amused. "I just like getting you all
flustered."

Theo vaguely remembers Max saying
that before, ages ago, when they sat on his roof, long before they actually
fell in love. Then again, he's pretty sure he was in love with Max from the
start, and just didn't want to admit it. And for all he knows, Max was already
half in love with him then, too.

"You're a bad person,"
Theo says softly, but Max just chuckles, and kisses him slowly on the mouth.

"And you love me,
anyway," he says, and Theo smiles a little.

"Yeah," he admits.
"I do."

Max leaves for the bathroom, and
while he's gone, Theo is surprised to hear his cell phone
ding
with a
text message alert. He frowns, but picks up his phone. It's a text from Cassie,
and he opens it.

I've got two words for you,
it says.
Snow day.

Theo just stares at his phone for a
moment, before reanimating and moving over to the window, where he pulls up the
blinds. It's only after a couple of seconds of squinting at the white light
outside, that he actually notices the weather, and he widens his eyes a bit;
it's snowing. And not just snowing, but everything seems to be covered in the
stuff, maybe a few feet deep, by the looks of it. Huge, white flakes are
rapidly falling to the ground, and Theo notices the snow plow driving around in
a seemingly futile attempt to keep the roads clear, as new snow just keeps piling
on. This weather is bound to cause some mayhem later, he thinks, at least on
the roads, and he feels a bit sorry for his parents, who have already left.

But still, Theo can't help but
smile.

Really?
he texts Cassie back, and her reply is immediate.

Really
, she confirms.
It's on the school website.

Theo double-checks this
information, and is unreasonably happy to find that Cassie is indeed right. The
smile on his face widens into a grin, and he makes his way into the hallway
outside his room.

"Hey, Riley!" he calls,
and his brother pops his head out of the kitchen.

"What?" he responds, and
Theo leans against the railing of the staircase.

"Snow day, dude," he
says, and Riley quirks a smile.

"I know," he says.
"Ellie just told me."

Theo's eyebrows go up.

"Oh, she did, did she?"
He can't keep the teasing tone out of his voice, and he can see Riley blushing,
even from where he's standing.

"Yeah, she did," Riley
confirms petulantly. "I'm going over there, actually."

Theo's eyebrows go, if possible, even
further up.

"Really?" he says, and
Riley fidgets.

"Well, her parents are at
work," he says, clearly awkward about saying it. "So―"

"Say no more, little
brother," Theo says, a smug look on his face. "I'll hold down the
fort, here."

Riley frowns at him, but when Theo
cocks his eyebrows suggestively, he instead makes a disgusted face.

"Ew," he says.
"Gross, Theo."

"I didn't say anything,"
Theo says in mock offense, throwing his hands up, but Riley just shakes his
head.

"Didn't have to," he
replies. And with that, he goes back into the kitchen, and Theo smiles to
himself, fiddling with the phone in his hands, before going back to his room.

The moment Max returns from the
bathroom, Theo snatches him up into his arms, earning a look of surprise, to
say the least.

"Whoa," Max says, as Theo
kisses him. "Why are you so cheery, all of a sudden?"

Theo hums against his mouth.

"Rumor has it," he says,
"that school's cancelled, today."

Max pulls back and looks at him.

"What do you mean?" he
says.

"Snow day," Theo explains,
and Max looks at him suspiciously.

"
Confirmed
rumor?"
he asks, and Theo nods.

"Yes," he assures him.
"Confirmed."

Max seems to think about this for a
moment, eyeing Theo up and down, before he makes up his mind.

"Well, in that case," he says,
immediately tugging on the hem of Theo's shirt, while giving him a deliberate
kiss. "No need to get up, is there?"

Theo can't help but laugh, and he
lets Max pull his beige Henley off, before reclaiming his mouth. Then he hears
Riley's voice from downstairs.

"Theo!" he calls.
"I'm going, now!"

"Alright," Theo yells
toward the stairs, frozen in his position of cupping Max's face and trying not
to think too hard about Max's hands against his waist. "You behave, you
hear me?"