“I don’t want things to be weird. This?” He motions a hand between us. “It isn’t anything more than being friends. I don’t want anything to change between us. Being around you and your friends is the first time that I have felt seen in years.”
“Clayton..” I trail off not knowing what to say.
“Don’t say anything, alright? Just forget it, alright? It doesn’t matter if I have feelings because I’m keeping them locked up.”
“Did I do something that made you fall for me?”
He laughs at me. “You did everything, Max. You were the first person I trusted to tell, outside of my old best friend, what happened to me. You listened and you changed your party rules. Even if I didn’t step foot into a party you threw, you still had closed bottles. You show up when I call. You pay for everything around me. You did everything right whether you meant to or not.”
“I… didn’t mean to make you fall for me.” I lie.
“Let it go, alright? All good here,” he says. His voice is calm, but I know him well enough to hear the shake in it.
The wheel stops and the operator opens the mini door, letting us off.
“I’m going to go to the bathroom,” Clayton says. “I’ll meet you back with Maverick and Dax.” I nod, saying nothing and heading over to where they wait across from the Ferris Wheel.
“You look tense, buddy, what’s up?” Mav says, noticing that I seem off.
“Clayton likes me.”
“That’s exactly what you wanted. It means that it’s time,” Dax says, voice deep as always.
They look at my face, seeing the expression across it and it’s as if the words are written right across my skin.
“You like him back.”
“I don’t know how it happened, but he’s so…”
“Kind?” Mav offers.
“Understanding?” Dax adds.
“Forgiving?”
“Funny?”
They volley back and forth offering words that I can’t seem to find or say.
“When you guys dared me to make Clayton fall in love with me, I thought you were crazy, but I did it because that’s what I do. When you dared me to break his heart,”
“Stop talking,” Mav says.
I ignore them, annoyed that they interrupted me.
“I thought that I was going to break his heart no problem because dares are easy.”
“Shut the fuck up.” Dax growls.
“It was a dare?”
My heart falls straight out of my ass and onto the pavement, melting into a puddle of nothing. Fuck that plug I had to pull, I want to push it so far back into the wall.
Turning around, Clayton and I stare at each other.
“Clayt-”
“Screw you, Maxwell.” His eyes are glistening with tears that threaten to fall and if I could feel my heart, I think it would shatter.
