Right after Terry says it he looks kind of embarrassed. He probably didn't mean to put it that way. Max is surprised that he said it at all in front of his boss, but she remembers that Wayne referred to Dana by name, so he's obviously familiar with the dynamics of her relationship with Terry. Not the way Max is (after all, she's been covering for Terry to his girlfriend for the past several months), but he's obviously in the know. Mr. Wayne looks sort of apologetic, but he doesn't say anything.
Terry lowers his eyes, sighs again, and waves a hand as if brushing his words out of the air. "Never mind. I'll work it out with her later." Max will probably have to help with that, but she's used to it. And it's not really a problem – Dana and Terry were about due for a falling-out anyway, and they always manage to patch things up.
Mr. Wayne follows Terry's lead and acts as if the past ten seconds didn't happen at all. "Congratulations, Terry." He smiles. "Do you feel any different now that you've got a diploma?"
Max watches Terry carefully. He doesn't smile, exactly, but he looks more cheerful than he did just a moment ago. "I don't know. Do I look any different?"
Wayne looks him up and down carefully. "Except for the outfit, no," he says with a perfectly straight face. Max chuckles.
This actually gets Terry to smile. "Thanks for coming to see me."
"Wouldn't miss it," Mr. Wayne says. Simple words, but Max can tell that he's glad to know how much Terry appreciates the gesture.
Terry turns to Max. "Hey, congrats on making valedictorian."
She nods. "Thanks." It's really not much more than a decoration to her. For Max, getting good grades is so easy that it doesn't feel like an achievement.
"Oh, Mr. Wayne!" someone calls. It's Terry's mom, who pushes her way through the crowd to reach them. She's got Terry's little brother Matt in tow, and he looks kind of cranky. "I didn't see you in the auditorium," she says. "Thank you so much for coming to Terry's graduation. It means a lot to him."
"That's why I'm here," Mr. Wayne replies.
"And Maxine!" she exclaims with a smile. "Congratulations on your award." She holds out a hand for Max to shake.
Max does not have a fit, as she had earlier determined to do if she had to go through this whole song and dance again. Instead she shakes Mrs. McGinnis's hand and mumbles some words of thanks.
Then Mrs. McGinnis turns to her son. "Ter, I know I told you already, but I'm so proud of you!" She throws her arms around him and gives him a big hug.
"Mom!" Terry protests, because like all adolescent males he is embarrassed to be the object of so much maternal affection in public.
Matt tugs on his mother's dress as she releases her older son. "Mom, it's too hot in here. I wanna go home!"
"We can't go home yet, dear," Mrs. McGinnis says gently. "I have to say hello to Dana."
Max can sense Terry stiffening a bit at the mention of Dana's name, but neither of them say anything. Dana will probably do the same, since it would be unforgivably rude of her to break the news to Mrs. McGinnis before Terry himself does. Mr. Wayne, of course, does not comment.
"I'll take him outside, if that's okay." Terry offers. "The heat's getting to me too."
Mrs. McGinnis and Mr. Wayne nod their agreement. Matt, looking relieved, takes his brother's hand so he won't get lost in the crowd. Max decides to follow Terry out, leaving the two adults to converse with each other.
Once they get outside, Matt runs to join a group of kids – like him, younger siblings of the graduates – who are playing at the bottom of the school steps. Terry and Max sit down together on one side of the stairway, far away from the doors, the playing children and other people. It's hot out here, but a lot more comfortable than the gym. Max takes off her mortarboard hat and puts it aside with her diploma and her plaque.
Terry takes off his own hat and puts it on his lap. Max knows that he needs to talk to her but isn't going to start the conversation, so she does. "So, are you going to talk to Dana when she calms down? Anything you want me to tell her?" That's the standard questionnaire for these situations.
"I don't know," Terry says quietly as he hunches forward, resting his arms on his knees. "We didn't exactly have a fight this time. She'd been thinking about breaking up for a while."
Now Max is starting to get worried. This whole thing is deviating from the usual script. "A while as in, how long?"
Terry shrugs. "She said about two weeks. She was planning to tell me before, but couldn't make herself do it until today. I mean, she knew it was a bad time, but she thought that if she didn't do it she wouldn't be able to." He leans back, looks up at the sky. "She's right. It wasn't working out – I can't really compromise between her and…you know."
Max sighs with exasperation. "You should tell her about it," she suggests for the umpteenth time. "It would make things easier." She always makes this suggestion, but Terry never even considers it. He's probably going to reject it outright, as he always does.
He turns to look at Max, in a way that makes her feel a little scared. "I came this close," – he holds up his right hand, the thumb and forefinger almost touching – "This close to telling her. She was saying that I had trouble deciding what was most important in my life. I wanted to tell her that I do know what's important, because people could die if I don't do my job. Someone died last night."
Suddenly the early summer afternoon goes from warm to ice-cold. Max gasps and puts a hand to her mouth. "Oh my God. I'm so sorry." She remembers the conversation he had with Mr. Wayne a few minutes ago, how they both acted perfectly normal, and she feels – strangely enough – impressed by how well they concealed the feelings that this caused them. Then again, they've both had a lot of practice at hiding things.
Terry sits up again, puts his hands over his face, takes in a deep breath and lets it out, slowly. "But I realized that I couldn't tell her. It wouldn't help. She wouldn't be able to deal with me taking that kind of risk. Dana would want me to give it up, and I can't." He just sits there silently for a couple of seconds. "And then I thought, I can't really be in love with someone who isn't able to take Batman along with me. So it's over," he concludes miserably. He drags his hands down his face, crosses his arms and looks down at his feet.
Max puts a comforting hand on his shoulder. She doesn't say anything. What can you say to something like this?
They sit like that for about a minute before Max hears the sound of someone running up the steps toward them. She turns to look for the source of the noise, and removes her hand from Terry's shoulder as he sits up to do the same.
It's Terry's little brother Matt, who is trying to catch his breath after his dash up the stairs. "Hey Terry, can I try on the hat?" He points to the mortarboard hat which Terry has placed on the step beside him.
Terry's already erased all traces of sadness from his expression, put on the act that will convince his kid brother that nothing's wrong. "Sure, Matt. Here you go…no, you twip, you're supposed to wear it with the corner facing forward like this…"
Sometimes Max has trouble living with the knowledge of her friend's secret. Not because her association with his other self puts her in physical danger, although it has a couple of times. Mostly because it's made Batman a big thing in her life, something that she's extremely involved with, and yet she has to cover it up. At first it was just a game, but now she takes it as seriously as she can take anything else. There are times when the secret feels like a solid thing, a pressure that might crush her or cause her to burst. She's never said that to Terry, though, because to anyone other than herself it would be ridiculous.
But until now she's never known, really known, how much of a burden it is for Terry. Not just because of lost sleep, fun activities cut short, unexplained absences, that kind of thing. It's because keeping his secret is not as simple as keeping Batman separate from the rest of his life. To do that he has to deceive the people closest to him every day, by making excuses, masking emotions and injuries, hurting their feelings because it would be dangerous for him to let them know the truth.
Max watches Terry joke with his little brother, watches him laugh and smile like nothing's wrong. Matt blows a raspberry in his brother's face, so Terry retaliates by tickling him. How does he pull it off? she wonders to herself. For the first time, she really thinks about what he might be like in the distant future, and she tries to imagine him keeping the secret the secret this way, like Mr. Wayne did, for the rest of his life.