After being invited to a small get together by Ethan, your best friend, he tells you who's going to be there. Whitt, Jacob, Eddie, Rogurt, and Max. You know all of them pretty decently. Young adults, loud gamers, and a bunch of screaming fucking children playing Mario kart world. That's pretty much it though, nothing personal, just friendly acquaintances. Although Ethan's best friend Max, is someone you strangely have feelings for despite not being close to him at all. You feel this very strange pull and alluringness in his energy and it's blinding. It confuses you and makes your brain hurt if you think about it too much. At this point it's being shoven onto the backburner as something mildly nerve wracking. Nobody knows this but you.
Setting your cracked phone down on the bed after talking to Ethan, you sigh and cover your eyes with the back of your hand, lightly rubbing the tiredness out of your eyes. There's a slight dread feeling knowing you're probably just going to be bored the whole time but wanting to go anyway since you don't get to see Ethan that much. The boys are obsessed with each other, and you often become a floater at functions like these; there's nothing better to do though.
Your phone dings and lights up a notification from Jacob, one of Ethan's really good friends. You opened it to him asking "Hey, Ethan mentioned having you over to hangout, you coming?" You reply with, "Yeah, I am, was it just a guy's night or something?" He starts typing as soon as you sent the reply, responding with "Oh no, not a guy's night, I was just wondering if you were coming, asking for a friend." Shutting off your phone you stare at the wall utterly confused. This is such a weird situation, those boys hardly ever talk to you let alone text, but alas, it's being shoved onto the backburner.
You lay down for a nap until it's time to leave for Ethan's Airbnb. It's close enough to walk so being late wouldn't be an issue. Rubbing your face awake, you throw on whatever clothes you have lying around, getting whatever the hell you need to survive the night with screaming 20-year-old guys. It took you so long to wake up that you completely forgot Max is gonna be there, and immediately the anxiety kicks in halfway on the road to Ethan's. Trailing the sidewalk, avoiding stepping on the cracks, it continues to confuse the hell out of you why this is bothering you so much. He isn't a bad guy, he's very sweet actually, so why are you nervous?
Maybe it's from the moments where he towered over you, glancing down at you with his dark eyes. It was intimidating, but that pit in your stomach was also a hope something like that would happen again. He's hypnotizing. And you can't help it. But the fear of scaring him off with your social clumsiness hits you like a train.
You take a deep breath walking up to Ethan's door, knocking on it confidently. It opens almost immediately to Whitt opening the door, he gives you a friendly smile and gestures you to come in. Setting your bag down onto the counter you hear Ethan and Jacob screaming at each other playing Mario party upstairs, along with Eddie's insane laugh. Whitt runs back upstairs to meet back up with the boys. You soon follow, wanting to sneak up on Ethan and scare him. You inch closer to the cracked door and peak through, trying to see where Ethan could be. But you find Max instead, manspreading on Ethan's bed watching everyone else play. He doesn't see you but seeing him first from the door startled you. He's effortlessly gorgeous.
You eventually spot Ethan with his back turned to the door, you open it slowly and everyone but Ethan notices, holding your finger up to your mouth to silently shush them. You lean beside Ethan's ear, "Howdy."
"JESUS CHRIST-" He jumps, almost dropping the controller.
"GODDAMIT Y/N." He curses as you clutch your stomach laughing with your mouth covered, getting everyone else to laugh along as well. Even Max.
You sit down next to Ethan smirking at him. "Hello to you too asshole." He says jokingly. You smile, but feeling Max's presence makes the air heavy and suffocating and you can't help but fake it. Max hasn't moved from his spot on Ethan's bed as he continues to watch Rogurt and Whitt play.
"Guys I am so bored can we play something else?" Eddie says while sighing. Everyone shoots to look at him before agreeing and wanting to do something else. "Like what, hide and seek tag? What are we, children?" Ethan says, mocking him playfully. "Yeah actually."
Ethan thinks about it for a brief second before agreeing and getting the other guys to say yes too. "Y/n, you playing?" Ethan asks you,
"What? You want me to play?" You say, giving him this playful passive aggressive tone.
"Yeah dude, get up." He says rolling his eyes before grabbing your hand and pulling you up from the couch as you all walk downstairs into the living room.
"Do you guys know how to play, or do you live under a rock?" Ethan says to everyone. Everyone looks at his stupid fucking face and Rogurt flips him off.
"Oh, fuck you, Rogurt, you're it. Count to 60, everyone hides, if you get caught run away and hide somewhere else, if you get tagged, you're out. Just be careful, some of the doors get jammed really easily for some reason."
Without missing a beat everyone goes to run somewhere and hide, Rogurt covers his eyes and counts to 60. You run into the hallway and hide in a closet, closing the door, and turning off the light from inside.
As Rogurt reaches 50, you watch the closet door swing open and see someone quickly run in and close the door behind them. The closet is tight, and you could feel whoever it was brush against you, breathing heavily as if he'd been running. You could tell from the tone of his breathing that it was Max. You tense up as it sends nervous chills down your spine, thank God, he can't see you right now.
"Yeah." He says, out of breath. "I couldn't find anywhere else to hide, sorry." He adds.
The pantry is silent except for the faint sound of his breathing, too close, too steady. You shift an inch, but his shoulder brushes you anyway.
"You're standing really close," You whisper.
"It's a closet, not a mansion," Max mutters, but his voice cracks just enough to betray him.
From the other side of the door, you hear footsteps vibrating the tile. Rogurt's voice booms down the hall, "Ready or not- here I come!"
You freeze, holding your breath. Max leans closer, his mouth just by your ears.
"Don't move." He murmurs, barely audible.
But the problem is, you fucking can't. Not when every bone in your body is screaming at how close he is; but how easy it would be to close that last bit of space. The closet feels like it's getting smaller by the second, every creak of the house outside sounds like it's right next to you, but all you can hear is Max's breathing- too fast, like he's holding something back.
You shift your weight again, your knee bumping against his, but he doesn't move away this time. The contact lingers, deliberate in its stillness.
"You're... kind of terrible at hiding," You whisper, just to say something.
You hear him huff out a breath that might've been a laugh. "Yeah, well... you make it harder."
Your stomach twists as you wonder what the fuck that's supposed to mean. He shifts again, the wood behind you creaking, and you realize he's bracing a hand against the wall- so close that if you lifted yours, your fingers would graze his knuckles.
"Are you... okay? You whisper.
There's a pause. You think he's not going to answer, and then- "Yeah," Max says. His voice is strained. "Just... close quarters."
"You're the one pressed against me."
His breath shudders. "Not like I've got options." I could practically feel his eyes rolling.
Before you could respond, from somewhere distant, Rogurt yells, "Okay, fine, you win! I'm checking outside!" The slam of a door echos, and the whole house goes quiet again.
Your name leaves his mouth like it's an accident, hushed but aching with weight. You turn your head instinctively- and realize how close he is. His breath brushes your cheek. Inches. Less than inches.
"Max..." you whisper back, but you don't even know what you're asking. Then, footsteps. Heavy, rushing back towards the closet. Rogurt again. You both freeze. His lips hover so close you can feel the ghost of them, but he pulls back just enough to leave you aching. The doorknob rattles hard.
"Got you!" Rogurt yells. But the door doesn't budge- its jammed tight.
'YOU'RE FUCKING KIDDING RIGHT.' You think to yourself.
Max let's out a low, almost desperate laugh under his breath. "Guess we're not getting out."
Rogurt groans dramatically on the other side. "Seriously? Ugh, fine, I'll get Ethan. Don't suffocate in there, losers."
His footsteps stomp away once again. At this point, most of the guys have been found, you hear their voices, all but Ethan's. You're guessing that's what Rogurt meant by "going to get him."
This repetition is killing you. The quiet stretches, it's stuffocating, you're way too aware of him now- every breath, every shift, every ounce of heat radiating from his body onto yours. After a while Max finally whispers,
"You're awfully quiet." He pokes,
"So are you," you shoot back, but your voice is softer than you mean it to be. There's a pause. Then-
"Does it make you nervous?"
You freeze, pulse stuttering. "What?"
"This. Being stuck here. With me." His words came out low, deliberate, almost like a dare.
You swallow, throat dry. "Should I?"
"You tell me." The darkness makes it worse- you can't see his expression, only feel it. The shift of his weight closer, the almost-touch of his hand brush your again, lighter this time. Teasing.
"Stop doing that," you whisper.
"Doing what?" His tone is all feigned innocence, but there's a crack of amusement in it.
"I'm not," he says, though his fingers ghost against yours again, unmistakable now. "Unless... you want me to."
Your breath catches, and the silence that follows is absolutely fucking unbearable, but he leaves it like that, on purpose. You can't help but feel so nervous, nervous in a good way, part of you wants to tell him to really stop, because you're not used to this. But the feeling in your core yearns for it.
Then, softly- "You're bad at hiding things."
His words sting, but not in the way you would've expected it to. You can't tell if he's calling out your obvious nerves, or if he means something deeper, something you don't dare name. You turn your head toward him, even though you can't see.
"And what about you? You're acting like this isn't driving you insane." There's a long, waited pause, his voice quiet, frayed at the edges.
"Maybe it is." The honesty in it nearly undoes you. Your entire body hums, suspected on the edge of something dangerous.
The knob rattles faintly again in the distance- someone fiddling with it halfheartedly- but neither of you care anymore.
Because now, the game is obvious.
He's waiting to see how far you'll let this go.
And you're waiting to see if he'll finally break first.
Note: Thinking of making this a two-parter, let me know if ya'll want that :)
