His Little Flame

Chapter 9: Evie

☽ MAEVE ☾

"MAEVE!" Max shouts running into the diner. He pushes his way through with his friends trailing close behind.

"MAX!" I imitate his enthusiastic greeting.

"I did it, I finally graduated!" Max announces and I finally take notice of his gown and cap. "And I passed chem!" He says, waving his diploma in my face.

His friends start to chuckle from behind him, "yea, with a 64%," The shorter brunette boy, Aiden, mumbles.

"HEY, I STILL PASSED!" Max cries at his friend. "They just don't understand me like you do Maeve," Max throws an arm around my shoulder.

I reciprocate the hug and throw my arm around his waist, "don't listen to them Max, you did great. I'm proud of you," I tell Max, then I look at the other two boys, who are pouting, "I'm proud of you guys too, come here!" I hope my arms for them. Aiden and Darius are the quiet, shy type, Max's enthusiasm make up for it though.

Aiden and Darius pull away and sit at the counter, Max still stands with his arm around my shoulder.

"Why the fuck are you touching her?" Elias barks at Max.

Where'd he come from?

"Oh my god, he's fucking huge!" Max gawks at Elias's height, taking a step back and dropping his arm from my shoulders.

"Aren't you tall too?" I ask Max. Compared to me most people are tall, but Max is probably around 5'11" maybe even 6'.

"Yea but he's got like 8 inches on me!" Max shouts.

"Yea I bet he does, shrimp," Darius says and both he and Aiden laugh. Even Elias is fighting a smile.

Am I missing something?

I guess Max is right though, with Elias's boots he's a few inches taller than normal. "Plus Maeve, muscles!" He points a finger at Elias's form.

"Don't worry about that," I wave a dismissing hand, "he's on steroid-"

"NO!" Elias asserts with his hand over my mouth, "she's lying," Elias explains to the boys. They laugh then turn to their own conversation. Elias removes his hand from my mouth and I start to giggle. "What's so funny?" Elias asks, turning me to face his smirking face.

"Nothing," I shrug. "What's wrong?" I ask, noticing Elias glaring at the back of Max's head.

"Nothing," he copies me. I pout and he sighs, "I don't know, I just don't like him."

I glance at the three boys, who are laughing pretty loud at whatever joke was said. "He's not bad, none of them are. They're nice." I tell Elias.

"Ugh, kids these days, so loud and disrespectful!" An old lady says loud enough for us all to hear.

Elias rolls his eyes at the lady.

"Ugh, old people these days, they don't know when to shut the fuck up!" Max retorts, mocking her in the same tone.

The old lady looks absolutely baffled. She kinda deserves it, this whole time everyone in the dinner had to hear about her weird growths in places that should not be named.