Chapter Text
"Nerd!"
Max jolts. She lifts her head to see who's decided to interrupt her reading in the middle of a peaceful Saturday afternoon out in the courtyard. Nathan plops down to her left and snatches the notebook from her fingers. She scowls at him and reaches out for it in an attempt to resume her intensive memorizing. Exams are coming up and it took her hours before her brain finally decides to cooperate. Nathan's sudden intrusion has broken that concentration and it meant that she'll have to start from square one. When he lifts his arm teasingly, she faces the other way and crosses her arms. She feels an arm wrap around shoulder. Nathan chuckles and apologizes.
"Here you go," he says as he releases her notebook and places his lips on her shoulder. The brunette is taken aback by the gesture. Despite the whole school being painfully aware of their odd relationship, the boy was always careful to keep any show of affection down to the minimum. The only time that Nathan did anything remotely affectionate in front of other people was when he held her hand for a second before leaving for his next class. It was actually the reason the school found out. That month had turned into the most challenging month for the two teenagers in their somewhat new relationship. Eyes followed Max wherever she went. The gazes increased in intensity when they so much as waved at each other, people eager- ravenous rather- for something to keep the rumor mill alive. To say that it made her uncomfortable was an understatement.
Nathan tried to remedy this by pretending they weren't a thing for a while. He refused to use the words break-up or cool-off. Nope, he was hearing none of it. But after a week of ignoring each other in the hallways and resorting to instant messaging as the only means of communication, he broke into her room in the middle of the night (Max almost died from panic) and dissolved in front of her. He tried so hard to restrain the water building up in his eyes as he held her tight. Max giggled at his determination to talk her out of their stupid plan despite the fact that he it was his suggestion. Their night ended up with the conclusion of their pretend and Max's discovery of Nathan's soft side. She guesses that even rich, spoiled miscreants are nice towards the people they love. She scolds herself for calling her boyfriend a miscreant.
The Blackwell king notices her expression. "What?"
"There are people," The flustered girl replies.
"Uh-" Nathan rubs the back of his neck- "too much?"
Was it too much? Max doesn't know. What she does know is that it made her heart skip a beat and it felt nice. Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to be lovey-dovey a bit every now and then. It has been weeks since the incident and the gossiping has begin to wane. People seemed to be starting to accept their relationship as a normal thing now, not something that look liked it belonged to a freak show.
The young girl bites her lip and takes a gamble. She takes his hand in hers and leans on his shoulder, mentally preparing herself for the boy to flinch and shove her away. A couple seconds tick by before Max concludes that it wasn't going to happen. She feels a weight pressed against her head and a hand cupped against her cheek, prodding her to lean into him more. Her pulse increases and she feels the blood rush into her cheeks. This is going to be one unproductive afternoon.
Two women peer at the couple from across the yard as they make their way to the school parking lot. The blonde one chuckles and comments at how cute they are.
"They look like two tiny cuddling tomatoes," the blue-haired one remarks.