Beyond Eighteen by Gretchen de la O

her do it. Where’s Cal?” Max asked.
    “He’s upstairs in Dad’s office,” Camille
said dryly.
    “What’s Calvin doing in Dad’s office?” Max’s
voice deepened.
    “Looking for some papers the lawyers need,”
she said, irritated.
    “Right now? Couldn’t it wait?”
    “It’s Calvin, who knows,” Camille answered
flippantly.
    When I heard them mention their brother’s
name it made every muscle in my body constrict. Suddenly chunks of
resentment for Calvin curdled in my gut. It was his fault we’d
gotten into this mess in the first place. Max noticed the change in
my body language. Okay, well, yeah, how could he not? Let’s
just say my body was screaming.
    “You know what, Camille? It doesn’t matter,
really. Why don’t you go on in? Wilson and I will be right behind
you.” Max opened the door to the kitchen and pushed on his sister’s
shoulder. She resisted for a moment before it clicked for her that
Max wanted to be alone with me.
    Camille caught my gaze right before the door
shut between us. I tried to smile, but I just couldn’t. Seconds
later I felt Max wrap his arms around my body, his warmth consuming
me as he pressed his chest against mine. It was like he was trying
to reassure me that he wasn’t going to let me go ever again. Max’s
breath tickled across my hair as he took a couple of deep breaths.
His hands, firmly planted on the small of my back, loosened as he
pressed and rubbed his palms up either side of my spine.
    “You okay?” Max whispered. I tried to answer
him but couldn’t find the words. All I could do was press my face
deeper into the bend of his neck. He leaned in so his chin draped
and rested softly against my head.
    “Hmmm?” he purred. I could feel his voice
rumble in his chest and through his throat.
    I shook my head up and down.
    “Wilson, listen,” he said as he pulled me
away and looked me in the eyes. “We don’t have to lie to my family
any more. We don’t have to live in the fear of being discovered,
ever again. As hard as it was to lose you, I’m glad my family knows
now.” His eyes dampened just enough to cause them to glow in the
fluorescent light of the garage.
    “So you and Calvin made peace?” His
brother’s name sliced my esophagus as I spoke it.
    “I was…oh, man, I was pissed. But , we
had to deal with the death of our father and the pain in our
mother’s face every time she looked at us. So we talked, and
yelled, and talked some more before we both found a way to forgive
each other. No, I can’t be mad at him; besides, he felt like shit
afterwards.” Max pressed his lips to my forehead.
    I closed my eyes and felt the warm tears
track down the surface of my glacial cheeks. “God, I know how that
feels,” I choked.
    Max pulled away from my forehead. His
natural green eyes narrowed, the muscles in his jaw tightened, and
his lips were pulled across his perfect white teeth. His ears
crested red around the edges. I could tell I struck a chord deep
within him.
    “What does that mean?” he growled.
    The blood in my face flushed down into my
neck and every last drop of saliva dissolved in the back of my
throat.
    “I know how it feels to make a huge mistake.
How incredibly stupid choices tend to hurt the people we love the
most.” I lowered my head. I couldn’t look at him.
    “Well, sometimes stupid choices are the only
things that make us realize where we truly belong,” Max said as his
fingers pushed under my chin, bringing my eyes to meet his.
    “Yeah, but you had to resign because of me.
How is that going to make you feel when you go back and see that
you gave up your career for me?” My voice quivered.
    Max tilted his head, his eyes wide with
surprise and glowing with shock. His lips curved, loaded with every
word he was ready to fire back at me. We faced each other for a
silent moment before he bit his bottom lip and unloaded every
thought he must have played over and over in his mind.
    “I didn’t quit my job because of