It was officially August, and the tour was progressing as normal without any interruptions. Though one morning, I was awoken by my cell phone ringing, one of my college buddies’ names appearing on the caller ID. I sadly hadn’t talked to him much, just sending a few text messages and a handful of emails back and forth throughout the tour.
“Hey, Kyle,” I answered. “What’s up?”
“You should get on a computer, and quick. Online class registration begins in 10 minutes,” he replied.
“Hold your horses,” I laughed, climbing out of my bunk. I quickly asked to borrow Matt’s laptop before logging on to the school’s website. “Okay, I’m in. Are you?”
“I have been for the past hour,” he mentioned. “You are coming back once school starts, right?”
I didn’t even give it a second thought. “Of course! Besides, I can finally start taking classes that focus on my majors.”
“Yes! Just imagine it, in a few years, you’ll be Ms. Caldwell, famous English professor.” he said, his smile apparent in his voice.
“And then there’s you, Mr. Jefferson, who will be a fantastic Science teacher,” I grinned. “Who knows? Maybe we’ll even work at the same school.”
“I’m putting you on speaker while I sign up for classes, Maxine,” he mentioned. “T minus 5 minutes.”
I did the same for him and set my phone beside me on the table. “You’re such a nerd.”
“Takes one to know one,” he replied in a sing song voice.
We continued with a little bit of friendly chatter while we waited for the sign up to begin, but once it did, we were both on a mission and were silent. “Done!” I shouted triumphantly.
“Shut up, I’m almost done,” he laughed. “And.....DONE! It’s going to be a great semester!”
“Oh you know it! Did you sign up for everything we agreed on?” I questioned.
“You know it,” he commented. “Hey, I gotta go get ready for work, but I’ll see you soon, okay? Remember, school begins September 1st. Don’t be late.”
“Okay, Mom,” I joked. “See you later.”
I hung up the phone and sat back in the chair, content. Alex emerged from the hallway with a yawn, looking at me confused. “Geez, you were being loud. Who was that anyway?”
“It was my friend Kyle, from school. We were signing up for classes for the semester,” I explained.
“School? I didn’t know you were still going,” he replied.
“Of course I am. I can’t get a degree if I don’t,” I mentioned.
“When do you go back?” he asked.
“In about 30 days,” I said.
He paused. “Max, the tour won’t be over by then.”
“I know,” I responded. “That’s why I’ll have to get home somehow before them.”
“What the hell happened to staying?” He questioned.
“Alex, being on tour with you guys was just a plan for the summer. I never said I’d be staying forever,” I stated.
“So what, all of this was just something to do during summer?” He wondered, gesturing between us.
“What? No, not all of it. But the plan from the beginning was just summer, what made you think otherwise?” I asked.
“Oh, you know, the fact that you said you were going to be Max and live your life a little?” he retorted, a pang of anger in his voice.
“Yeah, but Max still cares about her education. In order for to have a life, I need to go to school to get a job, you know,” I commented.
“You could be one of our crew! That’s a job,” he answered.
“That’s not what I want to do! Sure, this is fun and all, but I want to do something more important with my life. Is that really so awful?” I questioned, anger bubbling up inside me.
“I like having you here with me, Max. I can’t and won’t do long distance relationships because they fucking suck, okay? You should just stay and make it easier on everybody,” he explained.
“It’ll be hard for me to leave because I’m going to miss all the amazing people I met here, but I’m not going to stay just because it’s easier. I need to do this, why can’t you understand that?” I asked.
“I love you, Max. I just want you to stay with me, okay?” he shouted back.
“If you really loved me, you’d let me go without throwing such a hissy fit,” I yelled.
“Don’t you dare pull that card on me,” he said.
“Too late. I already did, asshole,” I retorted.
“You’re ridiculous, you know that?” he replied.
“Fuck off. You’re the one being a diva because you aren’t getting what you want for once,” I pointed out.
“You know what, since you’ll be gone in a month anyway, why don’t we just end this right here? Save us both the trouble of saying goodbye,” he mentioned.
“Fine with me,” I cried back. He stormed off back down the hallway, and I sat down down on the couch, hiding my face in my hands and letting tears flow. I could hear concerned voices, but I elected to ignore them.
“Maxine?” Matt asked in a soft voice.
“Go away,” I sniffed.
He sighed, sitting down on the couch next to me and putting an arm around my shoulders to hug me. “What happened?”
My voice came out shaky and cracked. “I told Alex I was going back to school in a month and he freaked out on me. Then, he broke up with me. I just...I’m not sure if I’m doing the right thing, Matt.”
“If you’re doing what’s going to make you the happiest, then you are doing the best thing you can do, okay? If Alex can’t accept that, then he isn’t worthy. And I want you to know, that whatever you do, I support you 110%,” he explained.
I wrapped my arms around my uncle, hugging him back tightly. “I love you, Matt. You’re the best.”
He chuckled. “I don’t know about being the best, but I love you too, Maxine. How about you go hang out with Jack and the other boys while I book you a plane ticket just in time to get home for school?”
I nodded. “Okay. Thanks.” I stood up from the couch and went to where Jack, Zack, and Rian all were hanging out. I was pulled into a large, group embrace, which made me happy. I told them about school and they were fine with it, and agreed they’d call me all the time. It was nice to have some support, but I couldn’t help but wish Alex was on my side too. After all, how could I possibly avoid him for the next month?

Notes

DO YOU HATE ME YET? BECAUSE THIS SUCKED TO WRITE. But you know, what's a good story without a shit storm of conflict?