That night there was the school play and Rose was walking down the main hall of the school with her friends. As Max saw her he tried to catch up with her.

"Hey Rose, wait up!" she turned around and raised a hand to greet his friend.

"Max, you here too?"

"Yeah, I didn't want to miss the chance to see you" he said with a smirk. Her cheeks turned into a bright red as she gave him a shy smile.

"I was thinking that maybe I could walk you home after the show?"

"Sure, see you later?"

"Okay, bye!"

As soon as Max was out of sight, Rose turned to her friends jumping with joy.

The game went on and Rose couldn't stop thinking about what happened. Did Max really want to spend time with her?

"Nice to see you again" she joked as they met after the show was over.

"Yeah... uh, shall we go?"

As they walked alongside one another an embarrassing silence fell upon them, until Max broke it.

"Do you have to be home soon? We could stay out for a bit longer if you want"

"Sure! No problem, I'm not in a hurry" she smiled.

After talking about school and sports and what else Max stopped and pointed at something in the horizon.

"See that bright dot? I think it's Mars, it's red"

Rose, who was next to him, observed the sky but she couldn't make out any red dot

"I don't see anything" he turned his head to look at her.

"Oh, that's because there's a tree that blocks your view" he slightly pulled back "here, come a little closer" she did as she was told.

They stood there, the girl trying to make out Mars, but still nothing. "Just a bit closer" Max told her, placing an arm behind her back "yeah, like that" he said, grinning.

They were really close now, his hand still pointed at the sky in front of them, Rose's hair caressing the boy's worked out chest. They were so close she could feel his heartbeat.

"Just a bit closer" as she turned to face him and saw a grin spreading on his lips, she understood.

"There's no Mars, it there?" she accused him, faking an angry face.

"Well, I wasn't lying, there really is a bright red dot... I just don't think it's Mars. Not that I care that much" his face was really close to hers now.

She opened her mouth to say something but then changed her mind.

"You know, I really shouldn't be doing any of this. I'm kind of seeing somebody. It's actually Magnolia" he confessed.

"I know" she smiled, trying to cover up the pain she felt as she heard the name of the boy's girlfriend. She had had a crush on him for almost 5 months.

"I should probably walk you home for real now, your parents will be waiting for you" Max told her, a hint of sadness in his voice.

"I don't think my parents will notice my absence, they're in the middle of a dinner with some friends. Anyway it's up to you" she looked at him smiling. She was really enjoying his company and didn't want him to go, not yet. They decided to head to where she lived.

"This is my house" she said as they arrived, even if she knew he knew perfectly that it was, since Bluebell was so small a city that everybody knew each other's house.
"So... we could... you know, you could show me around" Rose laughed at his nervousness. It really seemed like he didn't want to leave her and that was a great thing, because she wanted him to stay some more time, too.
They walked around the perimeter of the house and Max asked her to show him the window of her bedroom.

"Wow, it's on the ground floor! That means if I want to see you I can come here, maybe during the night, and knock at your window"

"Or you could use the main door like everyone else" she laughed still thinking about how cool it would be if in the middle of the night he showed up at her window to talk to her.

"I just don't want your father to answer at the door with an axe to throw at me"

"Yeah, that's a possibility" she realized that if someone knocked at the door at midnight her father's reaction would probably be something like that, "maybe you're right, the window's a definitely better choice, I wouldn't want to see you with and axe planted between your eyes!"

After a while they sat on a bench and talked about everything that came up in their minds and soon the cold of the night fell upon them.

"God, I'm cold!".

"Yeah, my hands are freezing" Max said as he put his hand a little under her shirt, touching her belly "see?" she startled at the cold touch and pushed his hand away.

"Jeez! My hands are a lot colder, anyway." she blurted out and extended her right hand for him to touch it. Max held it in his and she shivered, not because of the cold.

"My teeth chatter" He let go of her hand and brought his face closer to hers, showing his teeth with a beautiful smile.

"That's not true!" she laughed.

"It is!" he froze and stared at her. The girl felt a bit self-conscious as his hand rested on her thigh. He closed his eyes and moved closer.

Their lips touched, her hand rested on his cheek, they both shivered.

As they kissed Rose waited for the fireworks to explode, for the butterflies to upset her belly but she felt nothing like that. Every book she had read, every film she had watched, every friend mentioned them. Why was it that it didn't happen to her? All kinds of thoughts hit her: maybe he wasn't the right one; maybe she didn't like him as much as she thought; maybe she wasn't a good kisser; maybe...
Maybe it was the fact that Max was seeing somebody else at the moment.
She thought about it for a moment too long and the image of a very pissed Magnolia Breeland worked on her as a cold shower.

Max withdrew a bit, noticing something wasn't quite right. Didn't she like the kiss?

"I have to go now" Rose got up from the bench and run away, leaving the boy looking at her, puzzled.