The Sensible One (boyxboy) ✓

Chapter Twenty Eight

[Max's POV]

Was I moving too fast?

I'd quietly moved his things out of the way and found no good place for them, so I took them upstairs, and between my own room and the guest bedroom I'd stood and panicked because I wanted to put them in my room, after all he'd only slept in my bed, but the prospect of explaining this to him made me realise that it seemed as though I was moving him in with me.

I knew so little about him, my half questions not gaining much backstory. Yet despite this, with Lowell, I had this strangely comfortable feeling around him. So warm and safe and... charismatic I suppose, I gravitated toward him, the idea that others must feel the same around him bothered me deeply.

It seemed that innately I was ready to drag him into my world with or without his say so, knowing full well that he was younger than me and would be about ready to start travelling, fly off to university and sleep around with...

Even the thought niggled at my mind like an invasive creator.

And so here I was introducing him to my friends and I was nervous, not because Lowell had tried to tell me he was a werewolf, or something equally ridiculous, or that Lowell had a way of dominating an atmosphere and commanding all the eyes of the room to turn to him, but because I really hoped they might think he was sweet.

I'd spent the day burning up and was still hot, at some point I'd decided to go to a doctor but something was stopping me. Every time I looked at Lowell I felt the itch to touch him somehow with my hands or my leg, but I kept wanting more and in such a bizarre way.

First I wanted to be near him, then be touching, then have his hands on me, then... 

My skin prickled. I felt his gaze on me as I nervously played with my fingers. He ran his hand over my back, along my jacket, and cocked his head until I looked up at him.

"Go on, pick out something, I'm paying..." I hurriedly handed him the menu.

He narrowed an eye and I saw him open his mouth to argue and I stopped him. "Lowell if you fight me on this I'll pay for the entire group when the bill is presented. Don't cause trouble."

His lips grew thin as he accepted the menu. "Why do you insist on that?" He growled.

"What? Buying my- Paying for a fr- a..." I frowned for a moment, struggling to think of how to word it.

"Trying to take care of me..." He murmured with a confused expression. "That's not how this is suppose to work..."

I replied with a similar confusion on my face but his eyes were directed toward the menu and so the conversation sank back into the room noise of chatting and the familiar distant music from the bar speakers.

I wondered in what sort of world he was raised in that he felt so possessed to take care of me despite being nearly ten years younger than me. I wasn't stupid, I knew I looked younger than my age, and yes he was taller than me, but it was almost as though he thought of me as woman. Where regardless of family, job or house there might be an expectation for him to spend money on her.

I wondered if he had much experience with men. I assumed he had to have, given the... the naturalness of... of things that happened. It made me nervous.

[Lowell's POV]

Max wouldn't stop fidgeting at the table, the closer it got to fifteen past when his friends were due to arrive the more nervous he became, eternally adjusting his watch and fiddling with the cuff of his jacket