We worked mostly in silence.
I was in my room, packing everything but the furniture to take to my new home when Max suddenly appeared in the doorway. There was something in his eyes that I didn’t like. He was holding onto a small stack of paper that I assumed contained some sort of bad news. The kind of news we didn’t need.
Wordlessly, he walked over to my bed and sat down. I took a seat next to him, taking the paper from his hand. They were debt collection notices. For everything.
My mom maxed out every credit card she owned, every loan the bank gave her, and she never paid them back. There was even a foreclosure notice on the house, asking that all the residents move out within the month.
The letter was dated three weeks ago. Anger surged in my veins, the paper crumbling beneath my fist. “I can’t believe she did this. She didn’t even tell me she stopped making payments. What did she think was going to happen a week from now, had I still been living here while she went off to God knows where, doing God knows what?”
I tried to keep my voice calm, but even I saw the careful control I held onto was slipping.
Max wrapped his arms around me. I shook my head, trying to pull away. I didn’t need him to comfort me. I needed him to be as angry as I was and not be the adult in this situation. He was only fifteen years older than me. Still too damn young to be taking on the responsibility of someone else’s kid.
But Max was different. He was good.
He wouldn’t throw me out on the street just because I would be turning eighteen in a few months. He would take care of me for as long as I needed him to. He would be supporting me financially, physically and emotionally… and it wasn’t even his damn responsibility.
I wasn’t his damn responsibility.
“Shh, Olive. It’s okay. I’m here.”
A sob burst free from my throat then, and Max tightened his arms around me. “That’s the thing. You don’t have to be here. No one would blame you if you washed your hands free of my mom and me. This isn’t your mess to clean up.”
He pulled away far enough to catch my gaze. I looked away, refusing to meet his eyes.
“Look at me.” I shook my head. He cupped my cheek in his large hand and tilted my head up until I looked at him. “You’re my family.”
“I’m not, really.”
“Are you joking? Who drove you to your first day of kindergarten?”
When I didn’t answer, he shook my gently. “You,” I whispered.
“Who taught you how to read? Held your hand at the dentist? And who taught you how to drive?” Max’s eyes turned misty, and my lips trembled.
“You,” I said, louder.
“Didn’t I promise you I would always be here? We’re not related my blood, but I watched you grow up into this amazing young lady. I am proud of the person you’ve become and of everything you’ve accomplished. And had your mom felt differently about me, I would have married her and brought you into my family. I would’ve continued to take care of you as if you were my own.”
I let out a shuddering laugh then, the tears clogging up my throat a bit. “You’re too young to be a parent to a seventeen-year-old.” Even though my mom was only a year older than Max, he still shouldn’t be burdened with the responsibility. I wasn’t his mistake.
He shot me a small smile, wiping his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt. “You’re my family. That’s all there is to it. Who says we need to label what this relationship is?”
“Thank you,” I said. “For always being here for me.” And that was true. I couldn’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t have him with me.
“Of course, kiddo. Now why don’t we clean up all of this mess and let bank do what they want with the house. You don’t need to worry about it anymore. Your home is with me now.”
I nodded. He patted my shoulder on his way out and I watched him leave, before letting out a long exhale.
My home was with Max now.
Max lived in a nice, suburban neighborhood.
I couldn’t help but notice the disparity between his life and my mom’s life every time I came to visit. It was so glaringly obvious that his three-bedroom house felt more like a castle compared to my mom’s modest ranch house.
And now I got to live in this castle. Although I couldn’t help but feel out of place.
Max had been in love with my mom since forever. Her family and his family had been friends since way before either one of them were born. But then my mom got pregnant with me at sixteen, and her parents kicked her out.