The Goal Is Your Heart » Max Meyer

16. ups and downs

The buzzing in my hand was what woke me that morning. I blinked sleepily as my tired eyes tried to adjust to the light. I lazily raised my phone to my ear. "Hello?"

"Hey Kyra, it's me."

I was still in a daze and it took me awhile to register Leon's voice. "Leon?"

"Yeah," he replied. If I had known better, I could hear a hint of nervousness in his voice. I sat up and took in my surroundings. I was still in the living room, where I had been waiting for Max the night before. I must have fallen asleep in the midst of it.

"Just wanted to tell you your boyfriend is safe with me, at his house," he said with a small chuckle. A frown began to form on my face, "is he okay?"

Leon cleared his throat, "he's fine. Just uh, really hungover."

The night before had been a roller coaster of emotions as I paced around the house nervously when Max never showed up. He hadn't answered any of my calls, and neither had Leon or Julian. I had sat on the couch, contemplating whether or not to head to the club.

Eventually, I decided that maybe he was just awfully late. So I ended up on the couch until two in the morning before finally succumbing to the exhaustion of worrying and waiting.

"Can I come over?" I asked, fully awake and perked up.

He hesitated for a second before answering, "uh yeah, sure."

I stood up, the phone still to my ear. Leon's odd behaviour was definitely not just my imagination. "Are you okay?" I asked as I sauntered to my room.

"I'm fine! I'll see you in a bit okay?" He said, switching to his jolly self almost instantaneously. He hung up and I wondered if I should be concerned. Ultimately I shrugged it off. Maybe it's just the aftereffect of spending a whole night celebrating.

~

"Look, you and Kyra are in the news."

I pushed open the door of Max's apartment to be greeted by Leon's comment. I paused at the door as two heads turned in unison to look at me.

"Kyra?" Max mumbled while squinting his eyes. He was sprawled across the couch looking rather beat up. I frowned, walking toward him. "You seem to have had a great time," I remarked, giving him a light shove.

He grunted, before trying to get up. But almost immediately he dropped back down onto the couch. "Kyra, I am so sorry," he said, resting his arm on his forehead.

I sighed as he went on to massage his temples. Initially, I had planned to be mad at him. But looking at him then, I found myself sympathizing him instead.

"He really did drink a lot," Leon said, walking over to stand beside me. I sat myself beside Max and rested my hand on his torso, gently stroking it. "You know what, all is forgiven," I said.

Leon faked a laugh before turning for the kitchen. "I shall leave you two alone."

I waved at him, letting out a small laugh. "I shouldn't have drank so much," Max shook his head beside me. I pursed my lips at him, "You've just won the Europa League! It's understandable."

He took my hand into his, "but I wanted to spend time with you."

"I'm here now," I smiled.

In turn, a small smile formed on his lips, "I'll make it up to you, okay?"

I gently pulled my hand back and patted his chest. "Sure."

~

Max folded onto a page and passed the papers to me. And there plastered across the page were pictures of us; hugging the day before and walking on the street three days ago. The headline read "Max Meyer's new flame?"

I laughed, "Is this really news-worthy?"

He looked up from his bowl of spaghetti, "in Germany, it is."

I chuckled as I read how "Max and the unknown woman seem to have an extremely close relationship" and how "they showed affection for each other the way lovers do."

"Unbelievable," I said as I pushed it aside. "So," I looked at him as I tried to change the subject, "what did you guys do yesterday?"

He chewed on his spaghetti and shrugged, "drank too much and forgot everything."

I raised an eyebrow, "how enlightening."

He chortled as he twirled his fork on the spaghetti. At that moment, Leon strolled toward the table cradling his own bowl of spaghetti. For a second, I could have sworn they exchanged particularly subtle glances. But I thought nothing of it then.

"You should have been there," Leon said.

"I told you, I don't drink!" I whined as he took a seat beside me. "You're missing out," Leon tilted his head, pouting really adorably.

Max waved his fork at him as I laughed at his expression. "Stop trying to act cute, you're an adult," he pointed out.

As we burst into laughter, my phone began ringing. The screen flashed Julian's name. I excused myself from the table and waltzed towards Max's couch.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Mom called," Julian said. I could tell from his tone that he was grinning widely. He either had amazing news or our mother had found embarrassing ancient pictures of me.

"And?" I asked anxiously.

"You've been accepted into the University of Liverpool!"

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WHAT IS HAPPENING?! *screams internally* 

*all will be revealed soon*

*yay*