“Ahhh, what are you doing!” Leo snapped in surprise as Max gently brushed something no one else in his life outside himself had touched. Leo felt his skin growing hot. It was so embarrassing, so many people were staring and he was being felt up in public.

Max pulled his hand out and reached into the other one and checked Leo’s other pocket.

‘His hands are really gentle for someone that is angry... I have never had any guy so close before... This is so awkward... But he smells nice, I guess... His hair is kinda long....’

“Stop... Not there!” Leo said, shocked, and just a smidge too loud. Then turned bright red as curious eyes that had fallen back to their work and eating, stopped what they were doing to look at the spectacle.

The spectacle that just happened to be Max pinning Leo against the wall, Max's hands in his pockets.

Because the bright red that flushed to his face and the look of shock pretty much said it all.

He had talked too loud... and startled not only the surrounding people but also Max.

Who, when Leo had accidentally cried out pulled his hand free.

Max blinked, and Leo could almost see his mind turning as he tried to figure out a way to leave without people watching.

Leo gulped, he wasn’t exactly sure how Max could. Because as time pressed on and people stared, snickering or chuckling at them. He realized just how close he was to him.

He willed himself to stop thinking about how close Max was in his space. ‘It felt good though when Max had brushed his theigh. He had never had someone brush his theigh, but the effect was rather decent.’ Leo realized his mind was only making matters worse, not better as he realized his train of thinking was leading him into a very precarious situation as he began feeling a rush of endorphins in the situation’s stress.

‘Now is definitely not the time for this Leo!, everyone is watching! Everyone!!! You know how bad you are with outside attention...’ Leo looked around, his anxiety rising a little.

‘I need to die!’ Leo thought.

‘God, what is wrong with you, Leo! What is wrong with you. You are more stressed about the people staring than the fact that you are being held by your... And it’s your fault because you ordered him to do it!’

Leo looked up into Max’s eyes, panic and anxiety coursing through his veins. His brain alerting him he would die of a heart attack from embarrassment if the seconds didn’t start passing faster again.

Max, who seemed to have calmed down after the single moment of panic, looked to have decided to just glare dangerously at anyone. Anyone who dared to be watching or laughing at them instead of eating and working.

While most people were normally afraid of him and his friends, he would hang out with Sam, Myles, Jae, and River. Since they were seniors and normally not very approachable, unless in some sort of activity. The atmosphere seemed relaxed, probably since his three friends who had come with him were currently laughing in the background, thoroughly enjoying themselves at the expense of the other two.

Leo watched Max’s glaring and tried not to seem so amused by his discomfort.

‘Am I a bad person for feeling a bit relieved he seems uncomfortable now too? Maybe...’

Max’s anger and no-nonsense attitude seemed to do the trick, and the onlookers calmed down and went back to whatever they were doing or eating without another noticeable glance at the two boys.

Leo realized that with all the staring and attention Max had been giving to quiet down the room, that Max still hadn’t even tried to let go of the wall or walk away. He blinked before turning his head a little to look at Max's hand on the wall. A light heat stirred in the pit of his stomach burning lower inside him the more he stared. He looked back up at Max’s face.

Max’s face was fully flushed, and he knew his own face echoed that very sentiment. He could feel the heat his body emitted all the way into his ears and knew they had turned bright red too.

✥✥✥

Max gulped, finally realizing this moment had gone from normal to two guys about to fight tension. To something much more bizarre. Something very different.

‘It’s weird…’ He blinked. 

‘No, it’s intriguing... Interesting, fascinating.’ Max cleared his throat gently.

The bright red on Leo deepened at the sound of his voice. It showed off his big golden brown doe-like eyes that blinked out from under his long downward turned lashes.

Max coughed lightly and thought he really needed to let go now as he was feeling... Well...  flustered too.

Max slowly sighed.

Leo took a large gulp of air and his lungs heaved up and down, causing a large black curl to fall into his eyes.

Max tried to ignore the deeply shaken feeling that seemed to have permeated his body, and he cleared his throat gently.

“Is it in your bag?” Max asked, staring at that one curl with an intense interest that he was using to mask his desire to look down.

Or at least that is what he hoped it looked like to everyone else.

“No, I really don’t have it,” Leo said shakily. His voice was slightly euphoric.

Max gulped, he didn’t think Leo was aware of it, but his eyes had changed slightly.

Leo blinked a few times and seemed as if he were trying very much to hide his feelings he was clearly experiencing.

Leo’s face tightened and finally settled on one clear emotion. ‘What was that? Anger, annoyance… Shame at being caught red-handed?’

“Why would I want to take your keys, Max? We haven’t even interacted outside the first round of freshman games today and there were so many people in the Gym.” He said, exasperated.

“I dunno...” Max said, thinking about it honestly for the first time as he stared at Leo. 

Leo rolled his eyes. Max felt this nasty desire to tease him overcome his entire brain and before his mouth could filter. He blurted.

“Maybe you took them so you can come over to my house... It’s enormous, most people want to come over to my house, but maybe you took it because you heard about my house from someone first hand, heard what kinda stuff is in…” He paused, realizing what he was about to say was very rude, and stopping before he had put his foot in it.

Leo’s eyes thinned in repressed anger. He could tell Leo knew what he had been about to say. 

‘Your brother is a thief and not above stealing money from pregnant women and old retirees. Why would you be any better?’ Max paused, feeling ashamed he had even had such a dirty thought. 

He knew he was trying to distract himself from the built-up tension. 

A tension he wasn’t sure he could even wrap his brain around and any excuse for what he was doing and accusing Leo of seemed pointless and rude.  

He wanted to backtrack. To apologize. 

But the whole world felt like a heavy set of eyes on him and he felt he had to say something, anything to justify his actions.

To backpedal.

The guilt was a knot inside him.

When he heard who was sitting beside his stuff earlier, he had just gone out and lost it. Lost all reason. After what Caspian had done to Jae’s grandpa. 

After what Caspian had done to Jae and River. 

He had just reacted like a lit firecracker thrown in a barrel of bombs. 

But this wasn’t Caspian. 

Sure, it felt like he was staring at the same person, or at least from far away there was nothing to distinguish them. 

To set the brothers apart. But holding his body tightly to him. Staring into Leo’s brilliant eyes. 

All he felt was shame for the thought he had just dared to think. For the words, he had almost dared to say.

“I mean, I just heard your family isn’t…. My friend Jae is friends with your brother… and knows your situation…” He breathed awkwardly, then looked down with embarrassment. 

‘God, what am I doing? I am not an asshole? Yet, this is such a shitty move, even I hate me right now.’

His breath tickled against Leo’s face, and Leo shivered. 

‘He is so nervous right now. So scared of me... No, not scared, uncomfortable? Something else… Do I bother him, because of what I almost said? Or because I know Jae?’

‘His reactions are pretty, though. The way his lips pout and plump together when he is uncertain.’

Max smirked sardonically, glancing up at Leo’s lips and then clamped down on it.

‘Ah, why do I suddenly desire to torture him… Just a little?’

✥✥✥

Leo flushed, trying to clamp down and repress his anger and shame, but it just overwhelmed him. This intense feeling of his heart pounding in his ears. His body aching immensely. It had to be anger; he wasn’t normally the type to get so angry. But he couldn’t think of anything else it would be when Max was standing this close to him. Inches away. It had to be what he was feeling.

He had never wanted to shove one so badly before. He was a peaceful person. If Max had known him at all, he never would think that he would take a key, anyone’s key, let alone Max’s.

‘He had never cared how popular Max was with the ladies... Or what economic class he fell into compared to his own. He didn’t care that he was in the same circle of friends as Caspian and his pack of idiots, Max had always seemed like a gentleman. Or so he had thought, but now, here he was accusing him of wanting to stop by his house and what? Steal? Break in to stalk him? Pretend to be buddy, buddy with him, and hang out? On what premise? Because your friend is a friend of my brothers… That’s weak. Was Max really an idiot? Or just so self-absorbed he thought people who barely knew him were just going to his house and waiting for him outside. Or worse, taking his stuff to break in and steal whatever crappy stuff he had inside.’

‘Although...’

‘He suddenly thought it wasn’t such a bad idea.’ His heart was beating fast, and he was tantalizingly excited at the thought of waiting for Max outside his house, waiting for him so he could say hi. But that was wrong, he kinda wished he could say hello. That he could see him again.

He sighed lightly.

Max’s thick lashes brushed his cheek as he blinked, waiting for Leo to say something, or to move. He had never been this close to anyone’s face that wasn’t family before. Well, family or Evan. And being this close was magical. It was better than any movie he had watched, any tv show or book he read. He had always read those steamy romance novels people said were for girls and wondered how someone’s sweat could be non-repulsive. Or how you could become intrigued and mesmerized by the way someone’s lips moved when they talked. Yet, here he was, thinking those same thoughts.

Leo blinked, realizing the thought he had just now. This overwhelming desire to scrub it from his brain before Max somehow magically could read the thoughts he was having.

He snapped down on that imaginative thought, telling his brain to behave itself. ‘Now that he had seen Max face to face, gahh, can’t you be mature.. think of anything else. Cute Labradoodles running in a park… anything Leo.’

Leo gulped nervously. ‘What the hell is wrong with me today?’ But he couldn’t get past how his body agreed with it, and he really wanted to go there and meet Max in the dark just to see how Max would treat him.

‘A fatal encounter, where anything could happen. Maybe a kiss?'

He realized his mind was going to something much dirtier than he thought Max might have meant, not that a kiss was dirty, but just that it probably wasn't what Max was thinking about in that situation. He looked down at the floor and hoped that looking away was distracting enough that his thoughts would not go down that path anymore.

But instead, he just realized he was now staring directly at Max’s package and really had nowhere else to look. Any lower and his head would smack into Max’s face any higher and his eyes would be directly boring into Max’s.

‘He was stuck!’

He didn’t know how to get free, but he was pretty sure he would die of a heart attack before it happened. The seconds and moments that were passing were almost being dragged out. As he panicked internally unsure of what to do.

Leo felt so embarrassed, part of him just begged that Max would realize he would not have enough time to order food and eat so he needed to let him go. And the other half said. ‘Yup, just go with it, wherever it leads, yes this weird, random situation is taking you someplace unexpected but, go with it.’

Max’s sigh escaped and the surrounding air almost heaved audibly with relief as Max cleared his throat, then moved his arm and finally released Leo.

Leo looked up quickly at the release of pressure from his back. But Max hadn’t stepped back yet, so two shocked sets of brown eyes stared into one another, as their lips pressed tightly to each other because of the tight space.