Away With Him

07 - A Way With Words

"When did you know?" Max asked.

"The very first time I saw you, I knew that I needed to get to know you," I replied.

"Oh! So it's only about my looks," he laughed, "It's fine. I don't blame you."

"No no," I begged, "Once I started spending more time with you, I fell in love with your personality."

"So you don't like how I look?"

"Oh don't get me wrong, I loooove how you look." I slid closer to Max and looked up at his face. He was smiling right back at me. Ever since the moment when he kissed me he hasn't stopped smiling. We were lying on his bed together, his arms wrapped around my chest. It felt so perfect.

"Well I love your personality and how you look too," Max piped as he craned his neck down and kissed my forehead. I reached down and grabbed his forearm, pulled it to me and placed several kisses on the back of his hand.

"I still can't quite believe it. That we're here, doing this." I rolled out of Max's hold so that I could look at his face. His black fringe was covering his eyes so I brushed it out of the way. "And to think I'd still just be drooling over you if Ellie hadn't told me to go for it."

"Wait wait! You told your friend about us?" Max suddenly stood up from the bed and was running his finger through his hairline.

"Oh no," I stood up too and tried to console Max, "Ellie is much more than a friend. She's my best friend. I would trust her with my life and I know that she'll keep any secret for me. Ok?" Max nodded but still wore a concerned look on his face. "Just like you and Victor, I'm sure." Max flopped back down onto the edge of the bed.

"Nah Victor isn't like that. I mean he's fun to be around most of the time but I'm sure he would sell my soul for a bottle of wine," Max explained.

"That's terrible," I gaped, "I would never do that to you." Max smiled and his eyes sparkled as sun flashed across his face.

"It's whatever," Max shrugged, "If you really trust Ellie like you say you do, what about calling her now?" I sat up straight on the bed and couldn't help but giggle a little bit. "She is the one who made this happen, after all," Max continued.

Soon enough I was eagerly waiting for Ellie to answer the FaceTime call. I didn't even know what time it was back home but I knew that Ellie would answer my call whatever time of day it was.

"What's up?" Ellie piped as soon as the call connected. Max was standing on the other side of the phone so Ellie couldn't see him yet. I had decided to play with her a bit before I revealed Max.

"Ellie! I don't know what to do," I sniffled putting on my best panicked sounding voice. "I tried talking to Max but... but. Oh it just happened so fast."

"Oh my God Riley!" Ellie exclaimed, "What's wrong? What happened?"

"Well you said I should talk to him, and I did." My face was almost buried in my chest at this point. I was turning bright red as I tried to suppress the laughter.

"I'm so sorry. This is all my fault," Ellie croaked. By that point I knew that I had to stop. And I looked straight at her.

"Why on earth are you sorry?" I asked, switching to a sarcastic tone. I whipped around finally showing her Max. He wrapped his arms around me and smiled widely at Ellie. What followed was a solid minute of Ellie squealing in excitement and trying to say something but only a handful of syllables would come out.

"I can't believe it. It makes me so happy seeing you two together," Ellie said.

"I have to thank you Ellie," Max nodded, "Riley says it was you who encouraged him to talk to me." Ellie blushed a little and waved away the praise.

"Ugh, I have to go. I've probably already woken my parents. Eek! I'm not going to be able to get back to sleep but I'm so happy!"

"Oh and please don't tell anyone about us yet. We're kind of taking that slowly," I added.

"Of course," Ellie replied just before hanging up.

Even though we hadn't talked about it, Max and I both had an understanding not to let anyone else know about our relationship. Ellie was now the only person, apart from ourselves, that knew. And because it had only been a few days since we first kissed, we didn't want anything to ruin our chances. The time for telling parents and friends was a long way away. For now we just wanted to enjoy being together.

I cupped Max's chin in my hand. Despite his smooth looking skin, short stubble could be felt under his chin. I lowered his head so that I could make eye contact with those astonishing bluish grey eyes of his. I tilted my head slightly as I laughed. Our faces drifted towards each other, slowly at first but then once we realised what was going to happen we got faster.

Up until now we had only kissed on the cheek, head and hands. We didn't want to go too far too quickly. We had never discussed waiting to kiss on the lips. Personally I wanted it to be something special. And this moment definitely felt special. I let my eyes close but I could feel that his lips were only millimeters away from mine.

I waited. And waited. Suddenly the sound of a door slamming just outside the room made me twist my head around. Max recoiled and lunged onto the bed trying to act natural just in time before Violette opened the door. I was left standing awkwardly in the middle of the room with my neck weirdly outstretched.

"What are you doing?" Violette inquired, raising her eyebrow at me. Before I had time to come up with an answer Max started yelling at her in French, telling her to get out of the room.

"I've told you a million times to knock before you come in!" Max berated.

"Sorry," she remarked, "I need Riley's help with English homework." Violette basically stared into my soul with her big brown eyes. How on earth was I supposed to say no to a little girl.

"Sure, it's not like we were doing anything important," I remarked sarcastically while I shrugged my shoulders at Max. He rolled his eyes at me and mouthed the word "later" to me before I followed Violette out.

Violette's room was just what you would expect from an 11 year old girl. Pink painted walls. Pink curtains. Dolls and stuffed unicorns scattered across pink bedsheets.

"What's your problem?" I asked when she pulled a worksheet from her backpack.

"I have to translate these French words into English," Violette explained as she pointed to the sheet, "But I don't know some of them."

"Let's see," I stated as my eyes started scanning the page, "That one means 'odd', and that is the verb 'to hide'." I continued down the page telling her the words that she hadn't yet filled in. Honestly I was relieved that I actually knew them because it could have been embarrassing saying I don't know.

"Riley when are you leaving?" Violette blurted out when we had finished her worksheet. It was definitely out of the blue.

"In a few weeks, a few days before Christmas." I responded, "Why? Do you not like having me here?"

"No. I love having you here. I don't want you to go," she beamed with a toothy grin.

"Oh thanks! How about we swap phone numbers so you can call me whenever you want."

With numbers exchanged, Violette was her usual smiley self once again. I exited her room and paused outside Max's door. Heavy metal music could be heard escaping under the door. Nah, I'll leave him alone for a while. I returned to my own bedroom for a rest.