“Jesus! I absolutely hate them!” Max exclaimed as we drove off.

I let out a sigh, really not in the mood to listen to her complain about those guys.

“Pretty aware of that,” I simply replied.

“They are such egotistical bastards, especially Cole! Acting like he had a say in whatever the fuck goes on with you?!” She ranted, throwing her arms up and about. “Next time I see them, I’m going to sock them one.”

“Alright, Max.”

“Why aren’t you mad?” She raised her voice. “You should be mad!”

“Why?” I replied, keeping my eye on the road. “Why should I be when I was mad for months. We broke up, we’re over. I couldn’t give a single damn about that guy’s opinion anymore.”

“You and I both know what BS that is, Ollie,” she huffed and crossed her arms. “You say months, but it hasn’t even been three—three!” 

I glanced over to see her hold up three fingers, as if her statement wasn’t enough. I rolled my eyes, slightly shaking my head as I focused back on the road.

“Whatever,” I scoffed. “It doesn’t matter. I’m done thinking about that guy.”

“Oh, yeah?” She questioned. “Deleted his number from your cell then?”

“Seriously?” I replied through gritted teeth.

“Delete the photos of him yet?” Max continued. “What about the presents he got you, got rid of them?”

“Enough! Okay, just shut up!” I snapped, ignoring the death stare she shot at me. “I’m taking you home.”

“Whatever, Ollie, do what you want.” She crossed her arms and motioned her body towards the window, away from me.

Great, now I’m the asshole.

I dropped her off at her place and neither one of us said anything. She just slammed the car door shut and flipped me the bird as I drove off. I thought about blowing off some steam by going to see my best bud, Oscar, but I knew he’d be seriously pissed since I skipped again. He’d lecture on and on and quite frankly, I wasn’t in the mood for that either.

What I was in the mood for was putting my face into the fluffiness of my fat cat.

I lived right around the corner from Max, in a two-storey house with my dad, brother, and Chirps - the world’s best cat. I left the jeep in the driveway and walked inside to the smell of freshly brewed coffee.

“God, that smells good,” I said to myself as I hung my keys up on the rack beside the door.

I heard a squeaky chirp as my fluffy white and grey ragdoll came skipping towards me. I fell to my knees instantly, accepting her love as she rubbed her fluffy head against my hands and arms.

“Hiii beautiful!” I said to her in a high tone. “Who’s the most prettiest girl?!”

She chirped back at me and then continued to purr as I scratched behind her ears.

“That’s right! You’re the most prettiest!”

She chirped again, licking my fingers and purring even louder. I scooped her up, holding her like a baby.

“Are you hungry? Is my baby girl hungry?”

This is what I’m talking about. Just unconditional love, all for the price of feeding her whenever she wants! She never gets mad as long as she is fed. Why couldn’t Max be this easy?

I walked into the kitchen, softly rocking her back and forth.

“She was fed before.”

I looked up, finding my dad in the kitchen with an unamused expression.

He was still in his work gear, wearing a crimson long sleeve button up with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, along with a black vest and slacks.

“Heyyy,” I said awkwardly, carefully putting Chirps on the countertop.

He was leaning against the island, facing us while holding his favourite mug with the cartoon grumpy cat on it saying ‘are you kitten me?’. I saw it in his eyes, he knew I was ditching. I wondered if Mr Palmer called him; if he did, I was going to be in the shit.

“Max and you fight again?” He asked, walking over to the coffee pot. He grabbed a mug off the holder and quickly made another coffee.

“Not really,” I shrug, taking a seat at the counter, still patting Chirps. She rolled onto her side, continuing with her loud purrs as I started to rub her chubby belly.

“Really?” Dad questioned, returning back. He placed our coffees down on the counter and pulled out his phone from his pocket. “She doesn’t usually rat you out unless you piss her off.”

He held his phone out for me to read, displaying a text from Max.

Mad Max: Just so you know, Oliver and I ditched today. Love you xoxo

I groaned in response.

“First of, what happened with her?” He asked, crossing his arms.

“We just got into a small disagreement. She pissed me off, I pissed her off. I wouldn’t call it a fight,” I roughly explained, taking my coffee and sipping at it.

“Okay, so it’ll be fine by tomorrow,” he said. “Next, what were you thinking with ditching school?”

“I went!” I quickly defended myself. “Just by first break, I had enough of the first day drama, you know.”

“First day drama, huh?” Dad said with the infamous judgy dad look.

“The whole bullshit stories about everyone’s break.” I frowned. “Also everyone was annoying me with their opinions on my hair. Teachers were a pain as well.”

“I told you it may not be accepted,” Dad reminded me, sighing as he scratched his greying chestnut hair.

“I still don’t care,” I rolled my eyes at him.

“You obviously do if people annoyed you about it,” Dad argued.

“No,” I firmly said. “I was annoyed because they all constantly keep voicing their opinions - as if it matters.”

“Alright, fine,” Dad settled with a sigh, rubbing his temples. “Just promise me you won’t ditch again?”

“I’m not making promises,” I crossed my arms over my chest, looking away from him as he chuckled.

“You’re so much like your mother,” He commented as he ruffled my hair and then petted Chirps with a small smile.

“Hardly, she was a much better person,” I muttered back.

“Sure thing, Mr Angst,” He said, heading off out of the kitchen with his mug. “Your punishment is cooking dinner tonight, by the way!”

He was already gone before I had a chance to protest.

I let out a heavy sigh, feeling relieved that he didn’t get too upset this time. I leaned back into the bar stool, looking down at Chirps as she stared at me with her big blue eyes.

“He’s much better now, isn’t he?” I scratched her neck. “Better than how Uncle Oscar would’ve been.”