Living with the Swaylers

Chapter 6: Unfortunate news... or is it?

Carrying my new four books and new library card, Max and I walked to his car. I wanted to see the library and get some books this morning, so since Max wasn't busy, he agreed to take me there. Turns out, he loves books too. 

"Books, sports, animals, adventure, is there anything you don't like?" he asked me. 

"Hmm... rudeness. I cannot stand seeing someone being rude to someone else who didn't do anything wrong."

Max nodded. "Understandable. And yeah I hate that too."

"What about you Max? What things are you interested in?" I asked looking up at him. 

"Books mostly. I also like motorcycles. I don't have one now, but I'm hoping to get one one day soon."

"That's cool," I replied. I wouldn't have guessed that, but now I can totally see it. "That's it?"

"Well.... I'm also partially a theatre and star wars nerd," he admitted as if it were something most people don't know.

"No way me too!" I said. 

He looked at me surprised. "Really? Star wars and theatre?"

"Yeah! I was in theatre at my school and my castmates and I would listen to Broadway musical soundtracks a lot. And although I don't know every detail of every star wars movie, I'd still be so down to have a star wars marathon and binge watch Mandalorian."

"Seriously? That's awesome! We should totally do that sometime!" he said excitedly. I was excited now too. "And we can invite Jordan too. He's secretly a star wars nerd too, but don't tell him I told you."

I gasped. "No way!" He nodded and we laughed as we drove home from the library. One of my favorite songs Maniac by Conan Gray started to play on the radio and I started singing along and waving my arms everywhere. Max sang along a little bit too and we were jamming out at the stoplight, and all our windows were down. A convertible next to us full of teenage guys were looking at us, mostly me. 

"Yeah! Get it girl!" they cheered. I covered my mouth out of embarrassment and Max started laughing a little bit. I figured I probably would never see them again so I continued to jam out and dance even harder and sang louder. The guys were clapping and cheering for me, and Max and I were laughing as I danced like no one was watching even though like 5 teenage boys were staring at me. Even Max started clapping with the beat and cheering for me. 

The song ended and the guys were all applauding and cheering. I could feel my face turning bright red, but I was laughing too. "Hey can we get your number?" one of them called out. I guess they thought I was cute jamming out to one of my favorite songs even though people were looking at me.  

Right after one of them said that, I didn't even had a chance to reply when the light turned green and Max accelerated so fast that we left those boys in the dust. I started laughing at the perfect timing of it all. "Max, you didn't give me a chance to answer their question."

"You didn't need a chance. You were only going to hurt their feelings and I helped you let them down easy, right?" he asked and looked at me. I didn't answer him causing him to almost think I was actually going to give them my number. "Right?" he asked again more concerned this time. 

"Yes you're right. I was just kidding," I smiled. He then relaxed and smiled again while we drove home. 

"Good. There are so many weirdo boys in LA, and there some are more dangerous than others," he explained. 

"Oh trust me, I got off a plane to go to a mansion full of boys. I would know that by now. Especially moving in with dangerous ones...."

Max was confused. "Well okay, but we're not danger- oh. Well most of us aren't," he said as if a lightbulb turned on in his head. We were both thinking of the same tall blonde boy (Jordan), and we both laughed.