Our Rusted Pieces || Everwell
Everett resisted every urge to roll his eyes. Instead, he kept his arms crossed firmly on his chest, and quirked an eyebrow at Max. âYouâre kidding,â Everett huffed. Do. Not. Start. A. Fight. âI tried, you know I tried, but sometimes, you just get too tired to do that anymore. You know that.â He uncrossed his arms and felt a lump at the base of his throat that was impossible to swallow. When theyâd fallen out, after Everett gave Max everything his possibly could have like an idiot, he still found himself missing him so much that it kept him up late at night when no one should be allowed to be alone. More than anything, he decided, he missed his friend, the one who came crashing into his shell at light speed like no one else, breaking it at full force. Max scared the hell out of Everett. But that was never a bad thing.Â
At the mention of his boyfriend, Everett couldnât help but let out a tiny laugh. Max was always very quick to call any boy who spoke to Everett for more than two minutes his boyfriend. Heâd always found this oddly charming in a wayâlike he cared to know. âNo, I broke up with him two days ago,â he said simply, then looked down at his shoes, feeling guilty. If someone told fifteen year old Everett that he would break it off with three boys by the time he was twenty-one he would have laughed in their face. âThe big bad wolf. You are very cute,â Everett said, smiling. He leaned his shoulder against the wall that they stood at and let himself become familiar again with how Max looked in real life, not just in his head, or in messy drawings that came to him when he sat down to de-stress. âHow have you been?â Everett asked lamely.Â
âActually, I donât,â Max countered. âIâve never felt so inclined to,â He added. The truth of the matter was that Max had only ever kept company that filtered away as easily as they came. There was one person that Max knew that, no matter how hard he tried, heâd never be able to get rid of--that was Melanie. Though, chance encounters with Everett like this had left him to believe that there might actually be two people heâd never be able to get away from. Somehow, there was something comforting in that.
âAh,â Max said with a nod. He thought he was trying to hide the smirk on his face, but feeling the gentle tug on the corner of his mouth said otherwise. âWhat?â He began. âThese guys all too boring now that youâve had me?â He chuckled smugly. âItâs not like itâs not true. I doubt your last boyfriend wouldâve been caught dead here,â Max inferred, stubbing out his cigarette butt and already reaching for a new one. When he was feigning like he was at the present, it was either the drugs or the cigarettes. And, being out in public, heâd have to choose the later. âBeen fine,â He shrugged. Uninspired, drug-sick and exhausted were more accurate, but Max felt those things so regularly as of late that it was hardly even a blip on his radar. âWhat about you?â









