Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Max & Collin
“Hello class. I’m assuming you all know why you’re here.” Mr. Gayford’s voice booms across the cold classroom. “I’ve given you assigned seats and each of you is to stay in your assigned seats.”
Max and Collin look at each other, and Collin takes a look at Max’s Affliction shirt. ‘Poser’ He thinks, giving him a stank look and turning his head to the chalkboard.
Max doesn’t turn away though, he takes a moment to admire Collin’s effortless edgy look, from his bright purple rat tail to his dark eyeshadow, down to his extreme metal shirt. Max can’t help but blush, smiling to himself at the emo boy next to him.
As Mr. Gayford lectures about school rules and the history of the Bad Boy Boarding School, Collin looks over his schedule. ‘English…’ He wonders… His favorite class. He can get lost in poetry, writing song lyrics is what he’s best at.
“You should get to know your table mates, as they’re gonna be there for the rest of the year.” Mr. Gayford informs, and sits back down behind his desk.
Max looks to his table mate, “So…” He says timidly, “What’s your name?”
Collin looks to him, at his affliction shirt, and then back to his chubby little face. “Collin.” He scoffs. “Whats your name? Is it Poser?” He smirks condescendingly at the boy beside him.
“No… My name is Max.” Max looks down at his unknown walmart shoes, feeling uncomfortable and insecure at collin’s comments. “And I’m not a poser!”
“And the grass is purple.” Collin snides, snickering at the short pudgy boy. “It’s okay to admit, ya know? Not everyone can effortlessly pull it off like me.”
Max sniffles, holding back tears. All he wants if to be a cool edgy little emo boy, but he can’t even do that right… He’s such a failure.
Collin’s heart picks up a bit at the sight of the crumpled boy next to him, maybe he wasn’t that bad… The blush on his cheeks was kinda cute… ‘hey… im sorry’ he wanted to say…
“Uh… So… What do you like to do?” Collin turns back to Max, whose eyes light up at Collin actually giving him attention.
“M-Me?” Max asks, fidgeting with his fingers, “Are you.. Talking to me?”
“Uh, is there anyone else I would be talking to, dork?” Collin scrunches up at his face, the feeling of affection for the chubby blonde boy quickly replaced by disgust.
The light quickly left Max’s eyes at the cruel comment, and felt that any hope of getting close to Collin was quickly lost. ‘Stupid. Stupid Max.’ He thought as tears pricked at his eyes, and his throat tightened once more.
“Uhm…” He begins to actually respond to Collin’s question, “I like to… wrestle and… w-watch anime…”
“Gosh, of course you do.” Collin rolls his eyes. “Why did I even bother asking.” He says as the bel rings, signaling time to move to your next class. Ignoring Max, Collin packs up his bag, which has patches from punk bands on it, as well as a faint scent of cat pee. He zips up notebook and places his bag on his shoulder. “Later, poser.” He says as he makes his way towards the door.
That’s when the tears begin to slip from max’s eyes. He really wanted collin to like hime, but he just ruins everything. As he packs up his sketchbook into his ugly sprayground backpack, he thinks about his old punk boyfriend, Dominic. He misses his curly black hair, and yellow teeth. He was so cool, but when Max decided he wanted to become alternative, Dominic dumped him because he was a poser. All max wants is a cool punk Boyfriend but he doesn’y know how to be punk himself… His tears only fall faster at the memories, but he quickly sucks it up and departs to his next class.
As he walks into hallway to find his math class, he stops as a poster catches his eye. “Join Bad Boy Boarding Wrestling today!” it says in bold red letters. As he looks up at the flyer, a boy in cowboy boots bumps into him.
“O-oh, sorry!” Max says, “Are you also interested in wrestling?” Max smiles, looking at the taller country-looking boy.
“Well yes I am.” He speaks, a smirk sprawling across his chisled face. “The name’s Steven, whats a handsome boy like you called?” He asks, his smooth country accent coming out.
Max smiles. “Max. My name is Max.”
“Max, I like that.” Steven returns the warm smile. “Mind if I walk you to class?”