“It’s fine,” Blaise said. “I don’t need your pity.”
Max shook his head. “I never said I pitied you. I can still feel bad for you though.”
“Shut up. What do you know?! You’re always so happy-go-lucky. You can’t understand me.”
“It’s true, I don’t understand you. But that’s because you won’t let me try.”
Blaise glared at him. “I can deal with my shitty life myself, okay?!”
“I’m not trying to say you can’t, but you shouldn’t have to.”
“Huh?”
“You’re strong, sure, but it sucks that you had to get like this. It sucks that your parents are horrible. I know you can deal with it alone, but you don’t have to.”
Blaise didn’t understand Max. He liked him a lot, but he didn’t understand him. “You’re too nice for your own good.”
“Which is just nice enough for your own good.”
Blaise turned away from Max so he wouldn’t notice him blushing. “You really want to be my friend, huh?”
“Yep.”
“Can’t imagine why.”
Max laughed, not realizing that Blaise was dead serious.
Because Blaise had no idea what Max saw in him. He was a piece of shit, and the closest thing he had to a redeeming quality was that he didn’t mean to be like this. He didn’t like being a dick, but he didn’t know how to be anything else.
… Max really was too good for him. Blaise hated to admit it, even to himself, but the fact that Max was already dating someone was for the best.
“Anyway, I think having friends is important, so I want you to meet mine. You’ll love them, and they’ll like you too. Andre might take a while to trust you, but that’s how he is with anyone. Hell, it took a whole damn week for him to stop flinching when I talked too suddenly. He’s great though. Did I tell you he’s the one who planned the prison break?”
Blaise was impressed. “Really? I assumed it was all you, and maybe the purple guy helped.”
“Oh, Horys did help, but he sucks at planning. He had one good idea though, for the whole operation of taking down those scientists.”
“Which idea was that?”
Max grinned. “To ask you to help.”
Blaise stared at him, shocked that it hadn’t been Max’s idea.
“I didn’t think you’d be up for it,” Max admitted, “but Horys reminded me that they did lock you up and leave you to suffer your… uh…”
Blaise suddenly felt as though the pack of cigarettes in his pocket weighed a ton. “Withdrawal. I was… I still am an addict.”
Max nodded solemnly. “Yeah, I’ve noticed.”
“I was plenty angry at them, yeah,” Blaise agreed, even though that wasn’t why he’d helped.
“Yeah, I can’t even imagine how it feels to be locked up for who you are.”
“You mean locked up for what I am.”
“Let’s agree that it was both and move on, okay?”
Blaise considered what Max might’ve meant. He had no clue how much Max knew of the situation, but it wasn’t unreasonable that he’d have learned that Blaise was locked up specifically because he’d refused to cooperate with them. It had been purely out of spite rather than out of any sense of morality. Max could probably deduce that much.
“So what do you say? Are we friends?”
Blaise sighed. “If you’re sure you want that.”
“Dude, I’m the one asking! You think I’d be here if I wasn’t sure?”
Blaise laughed. The question was funny, in a way, because Blaise had no idea. He had no idea what went on in Max’s head.
“I don’t know what you’re laughing about, but it’s nice to see you smile,” Max said.
And Blaise could tell he meant it.