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Max left his bedroom to get some water. Another nightmare staring his mom and some weird fuckin things that he couldn’t name the origins of.
It helped to get something to drink. Get out of his room. Get out of his head.
When he got downstairs, the living room light was already on. That was weird. Even when his dad stayed up to these hours, it was just the TV that’d stay on.
He detoured a bit to turn the light off. That was until he saw a figure.
“Intruder!” Max yelled, lurching for an attack, but the ‘intruder’ showed his face. “Mark Chasity? What are you doing here?”
“I am certainly not robbing you, I promise,” He said. His voice was shaky. “And you won’t have to worry about seeing me ever again, s o -” He stopped speaking, his voice cracking. “M-My apologies.”
“Whoa, dude,” Max said, guiding him to the couch he was already standing near. “Are you good?”
“No,” He said. “But that, that’s none of your concern.”
“Uh, there’s a crying middle-age man in my house. I think it is my concern. What are you doing here anyway?”
“I…” Mark looked down at his knees. “I don’t think you want to know much about your father’s personal life.” Max huffed a small, sad laugh.
“Are you kidding?” He said, “Not that I would prefer he overshared , but it’d be nice to know some shit! I don’t even know where he works.” He looked down too. “It’s like living with a stranger.” He said that last part quietly.
“Sadly, that doesn’t surprise me,” Mark remarked. “I… doubt you know anything about his love life either then.” Max shrugged.
“Just that he’ll kick me out during the day if he’s having a woman over.” Mark paled. “Why? He sleep with your wife or something?”
“Or something, I suppose,” Mark muttered. “You see, uh. Your father and I have been… meeting up for quite some time. To uh. Treat me like one of those women, I suppose.” He sounded so ashamed, probably glad he couldn’t see the look on Max’s face.
Not that it was shameful or disgusted, no. It was anger.
“Excuse me?” Max exclaimed before putting his voice back down. “That asshold has called me a fucking fag and a queer, meanwhile he’s out sucking salami?”
“Oh, your father would never do that,” Mark gritted. “No, your father, um. I’m not sure how to phrase this to you. He’s not a very giving person,” He said, cringing. “In that way. Serviceable.” Max scoffed.
“Downright disrespectful,” He said, crossing his arms. “It’s a two way street, dude!”
“You… are reacting quite oddly to hearing about your father having gay… relations with a married man.” Max shrugged and sighed.
“It’s like I said. Basically a stranger.”
“I see,” Mark said. “I will still refrain from being crass,” He declared. Max bit back his snicker into just a huff of laughter from his nose. “He and I have been doing this for months now. And it took me far too long that he is an awful man, and I… I may deserve better. Which is saying something considering I’m betraying my faith for all of this.”
“Augh, fuck that shit anyway,” Max said. “Dude, giving up faith to be happy is the best thing you can do for yourself.”
“I suppose,” Mark muttered, not quite agreeing. “Either way, tonight he said some rather rude things, about me and my family, and women as a whole, which as a father of four daughters, I find quite appalling!” He told passionately. He froze. “And then he hurt me. Well, not exactly then. Throughout the night, he was just disrespecting my body and my wishes, but. This is the worst it’s been.”
“Yeah,” Max said. He huffed another laugh, from his mouth this time. He lifted his t-shirt, showing the dark bruising on his ribs. “Got yourself one of these, huh?” He asked, as if it was funny. As if it were so normal that it was just something that everyone would go through, that everyone went through, that everyone knew the feeling of.
Mark stared with wide eyes.
“Max, did your… did your father do that to you?” He asked. Max put his shirt down.
“Uh. Yeah.”
“Why?” Max shrugged.
“Y’know, I don’t remember for this one. Probably was walking around the house with my shoes on again,” He laughed. He stopped when he saw Mark’s pained expression.
“Max, you. You need to leave this house. Your father is dangerous,” He said. “You deserve better than this.” Max laughed again, weak and disbelieving.
“Nah, man,” He said. “I’m a fuckin asshole. I don’t deserve shit. I mean this—” He motioned to his torso, where the bruise was “—sure, I deserve that, but. Not much else. I’m right were I deserve.”
“Max,” Mark said, clutching Max’s arms gently, in case he’d been hurt there too. “If you think I deserve better, a man who for all you know is cheating on his wife and having sex with another man, then you definitely deserve better.” He removed his hands from Max’s arms. “And I’m willing to bet the only reason you’re so awful is because of your father. He’s… He’s the worst man I’ve ever met. And I’ve met many, many bad men.” Max swallowed.
“I,” His voice cracked. “I gotta graduate first, dude,” He said. “Dad’d never let me leave without graduating.”
“Alright then,” Mark said. Max let out a sigh of relief, thinking he’d given up on this whole thing. “ After you graduate. You leave.”
“I have nowhere to go—”
“You do now, yes,” He said. “I have this little house on the other side of town. It’s just a simple two bedroom, one bath— it’s nothin special. But I own it, so there’s no rent or mortgage. It’s just utilities, and I can pay for that for the first couple months while you get on your feet.”
“I can’t possibly—”
“All of my kids did the same,” Mark said. “They moved there to gain their independence, get through college. Then they’d find their own place… somewhere else. I-I’m sure Gracey will be staying home for a few years. You can stay there. Max, I insist that you stay there. Please.”
“Mark,” Max said. “I’m not your kid.”
“Well,” Mark said. “You certainly deserve a better father than the one you have.” He swallowed. “I’ll get you a copy of the key. You can visit, see if you like the place, I suppose. You can go there to get away from here if you’d like. I’ll have Gracey deliver it to you. And if you decide you’re sure you don’t want to live there after you graduate, then fine. I’ll… I’ll stand down.”
Max stared at Mark for a moment, taking in how genuine and worried he looked.
“Okay,” He croaked.
There was a pause.
“Augh, wait, you and my dad have been boning?! Gross, I used to like your daughter!”
“Yes, imagine my surprise when I learned that as well,” Mark said with a shaky laugh. “I’ve really got to go though. And you should too. I’m sure you’ve got something going on tomorrow.” He did. Mark stood up. “Sleep well, Max,” He said before quietly leaving out the front door. Max locked it behind him.
He watched from the window Mark pulling out of their driveway and driving away until his car was out of sight. He swallowed and headed back to his bedroom.
Three days later, on Wednesday, Grace Chasity approached him, face flushed.
“My father for some reason wanted me to give this to you,” She said, holding out a green gift box. Max slowly took it.
“You didn’t look at it, did you?” He asked quiet enough that his friends couldn’t hear. Grace scoffed.
“Of course not!” She said, turning on her heel and stomping off.
His friends around him snickered.
“Yeah, her father, sure!”
“What a lame excuse!”
“C’mon, Max, what is it?” Brenda asked. Max shook his head.
“Prolly nothing,” He said, tucking it away in his pocket. “C’mon, let’s go to class.”
In class, he opened the box. At the top was a piece of paper with the address written on it, and underneath that was a new, black key. He tucked them away back into the box and into his pocket.
That evening he went to the house. The key worked.
The electricity was on, which was interesting to Max. He wondered when Mark’s last kid moved out. There was an old looking, but big tv against the wall— one that had a built-in speaker box that supported the whole thing so didn’t need a tv stand. Across from that was a dusty blue couch. On the folding table next to it sat a bible. He wondered if Mark put that there for him, or if it was just an installment of the house.
After walking around, he learned a few things. One, there were still ice cubes in the freezer, but nothing else. Two, one bedroom had a bed in it already, the other did not. The smaller one had the bed. It wasn’t that much smaller. Three, the bathroom had been cleaned recently. Four, there was a vase on the dining table that had flowers in it, which upon closer inspection, were fake. Five, there was a single bag of empty cat treats in the trash can in the kitchen.
Max didn’t go home until 7:30 pm that night.
“It just sucks, I have to drive like an hour to get to my classes,” Richie complained. Most people had left the grad party. Now it was just him, his friends, his immediate family… and his great uncle and his boyfriend.
“You’re not going to the community college?” Mark, his uncle’s boyfriend asked. Richie shook his head. “This is perfect!”
“What?”
“When my parents passed, they left me a house for me and Karen to start our family in. But it’s only got two bedrooms, so we grew out of it pretty quickly, but I still own that house. It’s only about a block away from your campus. You could live there, if you don’t mind a roommate.”
“I don’t really have a job,” Richie said, tucking his hands beneath his arms. “I couldn’t pay rent or anything.”
“No worries! The nice young man who you’d be living with has a job, and he just has to pay utilities. Rent isn’t necessary; I own the house already.” Mark repositioned. “Richie, I’d love for you to live there. I like knowing it’s going to good use.”
“If you’re sure…” Richie muttered. Mark lit up.
“Alright,” He said. He pulled the envelope to the card he’d gotten Richie closer, and plucked a pen from his boyfriend’s pocket. “This is the address. If you want to check it out while no one is there, I know he always works on Fridays, noon to nine!” He pulls his keyring out of his pocket and pulls a black one off. “This is the key to the house. And don’t worry, I have another copy at home.” He put the key onto the envelope and slid it back over to Richie.
“Wow,” Richie said. “Thanks Mark.”
Richie got out of his car and excitedly walked to the door. He loved this house, he’d moved in, it was so great! All he had left to move in was his collectables, which he hadn’t moved with the U-Hall so that they’d stay safe.
He carefully balanced the box on his leg as he unlocked the door and pushed it open.
He shouldn’t have been surprised to see his roommate sitting there. Mark said he would be there.
But it was Max Jagerman.
“No! No, unfair! What are you doing here?” He asked, putting his box down carefully on the floor.
“I… live here?” Max said. There was a show on the tv, but it faded into the background.
“You’re my roommate then?” Max nodded. “Goddamnit! I knew this was too good to be true! I fucking knew it!”
“Mark told me he’s letting a college kid live here for commute reasons.”
“And you were just… okay with it? Without knowing who it was.” Max shrugged.
“I dunno. Figured whoever it was couldn’t be that bad if Mark invited them.”
“Well, you see, that doesn’t make much sense, since Mark apparently invited you to live here!” Max stayed silent for a moment.
“How do you know Mark?” He asked. Richie sighed.
“He’s dating my great uncle, he was at my grad party.”
“Gary Goldstein Attorney At Law is your great uncle?” Richie tried not to crack a smile at Max’s title use. He did it too.
“Yes,” He gritted.
“Okay, so, you know Mark is gay then.” Richie nodded. “Okay, well. When he left my dad, he found out about… stuff.” He knew Richie kind of knew. He still didn’t want to say it out loud. “He said I could stay here after I graduated.” Richie narrowed his eyes in confusion.
“I always just assumed your dad was homophobic.” Max nodded.
“Yeah, big time.”
“... But he-”
“Yep.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah.”
They stood in silence. The tv sounded a crash and Richie flinched. Max paused it.
“Sorry, spoilers,” He said, switching the tv off. He glanced back at Richie, who was still tense. “I’m not gonna hurt you, y’know? Even if I actually did hate you, I don’t want you to be afraid to live in your own house.” Richie took a deep breath to the best of his ability.
“Thanks,” He muttered, looking at the floor.
It was silent again.
“Actually, no! I-I don’t believe you, I can’t believe you! You tormented me all throughout high school! So, I appreciate it, I guess? But I don’t believe you. I’m not as desperate as Ruth, and Steph isn’t hooking up with me to sway me otherwise, I’m… I’m not gonna be tricked, Max.” Max swallowed, staring at Richie as he processed it.
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll just prove it to you then. By being a good roommate.
Richie was sure Ruth would make a joke about ‘oh my god, they were roommates,’ but it was whatever.
“Well,” He said. “Good luck I guess.”
“I can help you with your box if you want,” Max offered, lighting up.
“Uh, nope, I don’t trust you touching my stuff!” Richie said, half laughing. “Plus, it’s not that heavy,” He said with a shrug.
“You seemed to be struggling with it.”
“Yeah, putting it down, so I don’t break anything inside,” Richie said. “I’m not a weak person, Max,” He grumbled, picking the box back up. “See you around.”
“Right…”
Richie put the box down carefully next to his bed and began unpacking the busier boxes; the ones with numerous wigs and books. He unpacked those before arranging his collectibles around them.
He could live like this... It was close to his school, it was a great space... he could deal with Max Jagerman for the next couple years. And if he couldn't, well, Richie would worry about that later.