Blue Funk (boyxboy)

II

The next day before science Max was standing outside of the classroom before school like always. He was wearing sweats and looked tired. I walked over to him. "You never texted me back." I commented.

"I was really tired yesterday, I probably just feel asleep." He said. I couldn't tell if he was lying or not.

"I'm worried about you." I said softly. "Let's hang out after school."

"Only if we can go to your house." He said. "Maggie is to annoying to be around." He said walking into the classroom as the bell range. Maggie was his younger sister, she was sixteen and crazy about boys. Every time I would go over there she would try to make a move on me, I'd always awkwardly find a way out of it. Everyone Max's family names started with an M. There was Michael, his older brother that passed away, Max, Maggie, Mark and Morgan. Apparently he wanted to keep the tradition going with Macy.

After school I went to go find Max. He was outside next to his car. I walked over, "Are you okay?" I asked him.

"I'll tell you when we get to your house." He said getting in his car. I walked around to the other side of the car. It was a silent drive back to my house, when we got there we walked inside.

"What's wrong?" I asked him as soon as he shut the door.

"Tomorrow is November thirtieth." He said softly. "Tomorrow is Michael's death date, two years ago..." He started crying. "I'm just an emotional wreck right now. Oh my god I'm so sorry." He said.

"I still don't know what you're apologizing for." I said softly. I wondered what would happen if I just kissed him.

"I need to buy some flowers for Michael." He said sighing. He sat down on the couch and I sat down beside him. "Are you coming to my dads work party with me?"

"I haven't missed it got five years. I think I'll come." I said laughing softly. Max's dad was a CEO of a big company. Every year around Christmas he rented out a casino on the strip and let me and Max come. Max always invited me even though I was Jewish so I didn't celebrate Christmas. I guess that party was still fun.

"It's on the twenty third." He said smiling at me. He reached up and dried his tears with his sleeves. Thinking about it I couldn't remember when Christmas was. Was it on the twenty third? I was raised with my extremely Jewish grandparents so I didn't know much about these other holidays.

My grandparents lived near us in Vegas until I was fifteen. They were always trying to get my mom too be as Jewish as them, but it never worked. Since I was young they taught me instead. Hanukkah, Seder, Hebrew Calendar's the whole nine yards. When my grandparents moved away I didn't have anyone to celebrate holidays with so sometimes I would ride a bus up to Oregon to celebrate with them. I hadn't seen them in awhile.

I looked at Max and smiled at him. God, his face was so beautiful. His bright blue eyes we're still watery from his recent crying session. I had to say something because soon I realized I was staring. "Are you really okay?" I asked him.

"I really am fine. I'm just tired and I need to get flowers for my brother." He sighed softly. "Come with me to the cemetery tomorrow okay?"

"Okay, I will." I said smiling at him. This time I made sure not to stare at him.

＊＊＊

"I brought you roses, I knew they were your favorite." Said Max as he set down the flowers on Michael's grave. "I miss you a lot." He said. Max liked talking to his brothers grave, I always thought it was slightly weird. For some reason it just didn't feel right to talk to a person's grave. "Wynter do you have anything to say to him?" He asked me.

I walked over by him. "I miss you Michael, you always made the best cinnamon rolls." I said looking down at the headstone. We stood in silence for a couple minutes.

"I miss him so much." Said Max softly. I hugged him softly. "We should go." He said. I nodded and we went back to his car. While he was driving me home we were quiet. "What do you think Michael would think of me now?" He asked, cutting through the silence.

"I think he wouldn't want you to be sad." I said smiling softly at him.

He smiled, "I know he wouldn't want me to be sad. Not being sad is hard to do though." He sighed. "Wynter, do you ever just feel like nothing's going right? Sometimes I just want to end it all."

"You shouldn't talk like that." I said looking out the window. I wished I could just tell him how I felt, but it didn't feel like the right time.

"I know I shouldn't, but I can't help it." He said sighing. When we got my house, I looked over at him and he seemed to be off in another world.

"I'm sorry." I said as I studied his face. "Do you want to come inside?" I asked.

He looked over at me his bright blue eyes meeting mine. He shook his head, "No... I'd better get going." He said. He then hugged me and I got out of the car and went inside. Once I got inside I found a note from my mom. It said she'd be back on Christmas, I just disregarded it. I didn't even know which day Christmas was. She probably wouldn't be back until next year.

The thing about my mom was she liked to go on unplanned vacations a lot. Every time she was gone my uncle would come and check up on me, but he wasn't much better than her. I wanted Stella my older half sister to come visit me but she never did. She left when I was seven and she hasn't came back since. I talked to her awhile ago and said she wanted to see me, I wanted to see her too but I knew it would never work out.

I walked upstairs to my room and pulled my homework out of my backpack looking it over. I didn't want to do my homework though so instead I took off my glasses and stared at the ceiling. I then figured I needed to tell Max about everything but I wasn't sure how. His birthday was on New Year's Eve. The only way I remembered when New Years was was because of Max's birthday. He always though it was cool because he was born at 11:59 on New Year's Eve.

Maybe I should just tell him on his birthday. I thought for awhile and then closed my eyes. I wondered what he would say and do. I guess I would have to wait to find out.