Backslide

"You want something?" she asked. He shook his head, merely watching.

"Well, ok, but I'm going to get something to eat-I'm starving! Let's see what we got here…" she said to herself, bending down to check out the food inventory. She pulled out a jar of jelly. "Definitely got to go shopping. No bread. And no peanut butter, but I'm still eating it, considering the rest of the stuff in this 'fridge sucks."

"You're going to eat it plain?" he asked in disbelief.

"Sure, why not? I'm hungry and this is all there is to eat besides crap," Max reasoned, setting the jar down on the counter and pulling out a white plastic spoon. "You sure you don't want some?"

"Just a spoonful, I guess." Max pulled out another spoon and dipped it into the strawberry jelly and handed it to Zack. He looked at curiously. "Looks like the swamp thing," he commented.

"Oh, c'mon, it doesn't look that bad," she laughed, swallowing a spoonful.

Tentatively, he put the spoon in his mouth and swallowed.

"Well?" she asked, grinning.

"It's ok."

"Well, it's certainly not caviar and brandy, but it's not bad," she joked, retrieving more from the jar.

"Ok," he admitted, "it's pretty good." He reached over from opposite her, and dipped the spoon back in the jar between them.

"Ah, so you do like it!"

"Never said that, it's just pretty good."

"Oh, that's right," she laughed. There were a couple silent minutes as they stood, eating out of the jelly jar. Zack actually seemed to be enjoying himself, but he still was so serious. He always wore such a serious mask that it disturbed Max slightly.

As she was raising her spoon to her mouth, a blob of jelly accidentally fell off her spoon and onto his sleeve.

"Hey!" he cried, surprised.

"Oops," she said, "sorry, 'bout that."

"Sure…" he replied, but not angrily. The next thing Max knew a clump of jelly had landed on her shirt. Zack was looking away, pretending not to be guilty.

"Ah!" she cried. "So? You want to play?" She dipped the spoon in and flung a chunk at Zack. Smack! A blob of jelly oozed down Zack's chin. He slapped it away and Max ducked just another chunk went flying over her head. She scuttled around the bottom of the counter and peeked out. Suddenly, red stickiness formed on Max's thigh.

She heard Zack laughing, but couldn't see him. Reaching up to get more jelly, she loaded the spoon and jumped around a corner, hitting Zack square in the chest. "Gotcha!" she cried impishly. He was armed and sent another blob flying at her.

Soon, blobs of jelly were flying rapidly across the room, filled with laughter. Max screamed jokingly as another gooey glob hit her. They darted around the countertop, trying to avoid each other, yet not get hit. She dashed out of the way as another clump came at her, and slipped on a seemingly innocent blob. Rubbing her sticky hair out of her eyes, she hurried back over to the almost empty jar. Suddenly, Zack jumped up on the opposite side, his blond hair pink from the jelly. "Aha!" he yelled, victorious

"Wait, wait!" she cried jokingly. "Truce?"

He laughed, a true laugh that Max didn't remember ever hearing in him before. Walking around to the edge of the counter, she followed so that they stood, facing each other. "Truce," he agreed.

Tenderly, he wiped Max's sticky hair off her face and brought it back behind her neck. He had a glob of jelly hanging from his earlobe and his face was smeared pink. They looked awful, and Max knew it, but refused to care about that.

Zack was staring at her. "Thanks," he said.

"For what?"

"For everything, Max." He bent down suddenly and their sticky noses touched. Their hot breath poured out upon each other, melting the jelly and the eyes met, questioning almost. Zack moved in suddenly. He kissed her zealously, like it was what he had spent every night dreaming about. She stiffened under the gesture, but found herself giving in to him. His sticky hand found its way around the back of her neck and she draped her arm over his shoulder. Max secretly prayed it would never end-wasn't this what she always wanted? It didn't matter anyhow, she couldn't have gone back if she wanted to. For she was already drowning in the ocean of that sweet flavor.