Chapter Text
“Jesus, Cheer Squad! Is it a Christian tradition to sharpen your teeth before communion or something?” He pouted, rubbing at his inflamed lip. His hand tracing careful circles in the crook of your knee told a different story, though.
At some point you had switched positions, letting Max rest his head on your stack of pillows and you carefully straddling him. You rested your head deep into his neck, forearms holding your weight to either side of him. “No,” you murmur halfheartedly, voice muffled against his throat. “So just you then?” His other hand came to pet the nape of your neck and trail down your spine. “Maybe you just can’t keep your mouth off of me,” Max teased, a grin spreading so wide on his face that you could hear it in his voice.
You nibbled on his throat, making him yelp. Satisfied, you pulled away. Max Jägerman’s brow furrowed at you, “that wasn’t funny,” he stuck a finger into the center of your chest. You smiled, “I thought it was very funny, actually,” you said, leaning back onto your knees to grab his hand, fingers brushing against his knuckles.
You look at him, really look at him, for the first time since he kissed you. His lips are red and he looks smug, despite how bothered he tries to act.
It’s not out of the ordinary for him to date —or have one night stands— like it is for you. Sure, it’s a little strange for him to go for a nerd, but Max can do whatever he wants, he isn’t confined to the same clique dating pools that the rest of Hatchetfield High is. The fact that he wanted to go out with you, though… It’s still a bit of a shock.
“Do you really like me and not Grace?” You ask. Of course, one could correctly claim that he went out of his way to mess with both of you, but you were so sure that he had liked Grace. You’d been too caught up in the attention-demanding tornado that was Max Jägerman to even spare her a thought until now.
“Uhm, duh. Was that not obvious?” Max squeezed your hand.
You gave him a Look, “Well, now it is. But, before- it seemed like you were into her, is all.” You trace the folds off his shirt on his chest, feeling a bit dumb for bringing her up at all. It was obvious now, but until a few hours ago… you wrinkled your brow as you went through every memory of yours with Max Jägerman in it over the past few years. In his defense, you were never watching him under the lens that he might like boys.
“Grace?” Max repeated, looking into the distance with a considering face- like he had never thought about her that way. “You were leering at her yesterday.” You deadpan, catching his deflection easily.
Max frowned, “well I wouldn’t say leering-”
“Ehhhhh, looked pretty leer-y to me. And I should know, since I was watching it happen when I wasn’t face first in someone’s locker door.” There was a little contempt in your voice, but you soothed it with the rhythmic motions of your fingers. Max huffed and rolled his eyes. “She’s fun to mess with, like all the other nerds —no offence— but, I’ve never really thought of her romantically.” He chuckled as he brought up the nerds, but at the end of his comment he looked almost… retrospective.
“To be fair, I don’t try to make a habit of dating dweebs.” He laughed again, but his hand squeezed your own as he did it. You raised both of your eyebrows, “Did you just use the word ‘dweeb’ affectionately? Is Max Jägerman going soft?”
“Auh!” an offended noise burst out of him, face twisting. “No way! Nuh-uh!” In his vehement refusal he jolts upwards into a sitting position, bringing both of your faces closer. He suddenly looked like he forgot what he was going to say.
Your hands made their own way to the sides of Max’s face before you even realized. You watched a small smile paint his face slowly, a matching one already on your own. “Can’t believe the Jägerman is going soft. What will this mean for the football team?” The words are said with a deadpan intonation, and Max’s smile only grew.
His own hands wrapped around your sides to pull you both chest-to-chest like he was octopus, or one of those weird wiggly dolls at the mall. He tilted his head to the side, “Maybe I am going soft, just don’t let it get back to my dad,” he joked, slowly leaning towards you.
“I would never let that happen,” You reply easily, having seen enough interactions between Max and his father on the field to know how much truth lies in his words. You could live with hiding this. Maybe it would be fun, like a prank on the whole school- and the rest of Hatchetfield for that matter.
You lean back into him, immediately entangling your tongue with his and trying not to let your goofy grin interfere with the kiss.