The annoying charisma of Max Brown (Now published so sample size only)

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

The couch that Ry had stolen now sat in the small truck that Max hired, and followed behind us as we drove away. Ry had protested the removal of the couch, but he couldn't stop a determined Max.

I'd had to stifle a laugh when Max insisted that Edith take over Ry's luxurious rooms. Max used the removal guys to move the furniture around, and shuffled Ry off to live in the mouldy conditions where he'd left his mother. I wasn't sure how long it would take Ry to shove his mother back to the mould, but Edith seemed strong enough to keep him away.

Everything had happened so fast that it had the most surreal feeling. As Max and I drove away, I wasn't sure what to talk about first.

"I've got to say your family is the craziest I've ever seen." I told him.

"Didn't I warn you about that when I first moved in?" he tried to make a joke but it fell flat with his serious expression.

"Edith knew you were faking nearly everything you said to her." I admitted.

"What?" Max glanced my way.

"This might be a bit of a revelation for you but Edith doesn't like her son. She thinks Ry's a wuss and she wishes you were her son instead. Edith told me all of that. Oh, and don't forget that she found your little story to her quite amusing, but she didn't believe you." I told him what Edith had said.

"Fucking hell, did she really say all of that?"

"Yes. I don't know where you guys got the idea that she dotes on Ry. She loved watching you ruffle him around. It made her day."

"There you go." Max sounded amazed.

"She wanted you to go in there and change everything, which you did. I mean Ry's now stuck in mould city and you've set Edith up in his clean rooms." I told him.

"That's a bit of surprise, but I don't want to talk about Edith anymore."

"What's bothering you?"

I'd noticed his concern furrowing his brow ever since we'd left. He was quieter than I'd ever known him to be. Now I'd started worrying that I'd done something wrong.

"I'm worried for you and Carly. Ry's done something dodgy to be able to fix up his side of the house. He had no money, so how could he make thousands of dollars worth of improvement? The sooner Carly ditches him the better, so she's not dragged into whatever he's attempted." Max admitted and I winced.

"I couldn't make her break up with him, then she'd blame me."

"Yeah, I know, and I don't expect you to mention it to her. Just be extra careful around him." Max warned and I nodded.

We went quiet after that. I watched Max skilfully manoeuvre through traffic and realised I had a ton of questions I still wanted to ask him. Now that I got to the point of needing an answer, I dragged in a huge breath.

"You always seem to want to throttle Ry whenever you've seen him recently. Every time it's almost resulted in violence. What's with you two?" I asked and Max sighed but I saw his fingers grip tighter to the steering wheel.

"Are you ready for the truth? You're not going to like it at all." Max winced.

"Probably not, but try me anyway."

"Ry's been cheating on Carly with this other girl, who's a gamer like him. I found out about it soon after I had a go at him about stealing my life." Max admitted.

I puffed out a breath and tried to consider what to say. Ry was a sleaze and the worst type of human being, so I hadn't held hopes out for him to be boyfriend of the year. Still, Carly didn't deserve to have someone so disloyal to her when she was always loyal to him.