Max had looked over to where the glass had shattered was to see some guy on the other side of the diner harassing a waitress. The waitress was none other than Roxanne. Max felt his blood boil seeing this goon with his mitts all over her, when she clearly didn't want any of it. Without saying a word Max got up from the booth and went over to where They were. No way he was gonna stand for this he thought.
Mona went to grab his arm to stop him. Worried that he might get hurt.
"Max? Max where are you going?" She asked concerned trying to pull him back, but unable to stop him.
"Max? Wait man!" PJ got up to follow him. Bobby followed suit.
Max marched up behind the guy with the slicked brown hair with a fierce look of determination. His friends trying to catch him, but he moved with conviction and he was absolutely determined. Once he got close enough, he noticed as he was about to walk away dragging Roxanne with him. Max reared back his right hand and just as the guys had turned around, he met him with a fist to the face and knocked him back as he stumbled to the ground clearly groggy from the blow. That was more than enough to get him to release Roxanne.
Roxanne to say the least was clearly surprised that of all people to come to her rescue, it was Max Goof. She had never seen him like that before. It was rather shocking to see him react in such a way. He put his hands on her shoulders to steady her and look her in the eyes.
'Oh those beautiful chocolate brown eyes', he thought. He shook that thought from his head.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
Roxanne still rather stunned by the turn of events, but was able to reply a subtle, "Yeah…yeah I'm fine. Thanks."
He rubbed her shoulders reassuringly and gave her a smile. Ohh how she loved that smile of his. It caused her to smile back at him.
"Max!" Someone cried out. Their attention turned to his friends and the source of the voice. It was Mona.
Max had almost reluctantly released Roxanne and went over to Mona as she nearly tackled him with a bone crunching hug.
"Are you crazy? Do you have any idea how dangerous that was!?" She said worryingly. "You big goof", she sighed her fear giving way to relief.
Max smiled at her and returned her embrace. "I'm sorry Mona, I didn't mean to scare you but I'm fine."
The manager along with some of the patrons in the diner lifted up the limp carcass of Jake out of the establishment. His vision obviously still blurred. The others in the restaurant began to applaud Max for his heroism. He looked around with sheepish look on his face. He wasn't comfortable for the praise heaped upon him from the people in the diner. As he continued to embrace Mona his eyes fell on Roxanne who stood there perfectly still and watched as him and Mona embraced. She had an unreadable expression on her face he noticed. He couldn't quite place it but she looked as if she was sad.
Roxanne looked into his eyes and she was met with warmth and comfort. She couldn't quite describe the feeling she was feeling, having him this close to her.
'Just like old times', she thought. She shook her head dispelling those thoughts from her mind. 'What am I saying?'
"Are you okay?" He asked.
She stood there, obviously still shocked by what had happened. She quickly regained her composure and replied, "Yeah…yeah I'm fine. Thanks."
He gave her shoulders a bit of a squeeze and smiled at her, which she returned with one of her own.
"Max!"
Both turned to see PJ, Bobby and Ava running over. But a girl with short brown hair who ran over and embraced Max is who caught Roxanne's attention. She was very pretty and seemed to have a very close connection to Max. Roxanne figured that this girl must have been his girlfriend seeing how they embraced each other. And she began to feel something. As she watched this girl with her arms wrapped around Max. Her Max.
'Wait why am I thinking this?' She thought. Was she jealous?
She looked on rather sad, wishing that could be her in his embrace.
'No! No! Stop it's over. You have to move on from this. He clearly has', she thought.
"Ohh man Max! That was so cool!" PJ exclaimed.
"Totally Maximus! You were like WAAAAAAHHH!" Bobby bellowed doing a karate pose.
This caused the three girls to chuckle. Mona and Roxanne made eye contact with one another. Roxanne felt a little uneasy being this close to Max's girlfriend.
"Are you okay? I hope that creep didn't hurt you", Mona said.
"I swear some dudes have zero class", Ava replied.
Roxanne sighed, "I'm fine. Thanks to Max that is."
She approached Max and looked at him before saying, "Thank you, Max. If it wasn't for you no telling what he might of done."
Max smiled, "No problem Roxanne. I couldn't let that guy do that to you."
'Wow. He actually cares about me still', she thought happily.
Mona then walked up standing in between them.
"Ohh you must be the Roxanne Max mentioned", she said.
Roxanne shifted around nervously, "Uhh yeah I guess that's me."
"Well it's nice to meet you. I just wish it was under different circumstances", Mona replied.
Ava stepped forward and extended her hand toward Roxanne.
"I'm Ava. I'm PJ's girlfriend."
Roxanne accepted her hand, "Pleasure to meet you, Ava. You too Mona."
She then looked at Max for the umpteenth time, "Good to see Max."
"Good to see you too Roxanne", he replied.
PJ and Bobby cleared their throats. Which caused Roxanne to chuckle.
"It's good seeing you too PJ and Bobby", she said.
"Same to you too, Roxanne", PJ replied.
"Good seein' ya Roxy", Bobby said.
After a few moments of silence Max speaks up ask asks, "Are you okay? Do you need anything?"
Roxanne smiled. She always loved his kind hearted nature.
"Yeah I'm sure I'll be fine. I should be getting home my shift ended five minutes ago. But hopefully I'll see you guys around real soon", as she waves goodbye.
"Bye Roxanne", as they departed.
The drive back from the diner was a silent one for Max and Mona. Mona could tell Max clearly had something on his mind. Max had his eyes strictly on the road, but his mind was wondering back to seeing Roxanne. Seeing her again after all this time sent warm feelings coursing throughout his body. He was very happy to see her after all this time. He couldn't help but think of how amazing she looked, but he shook the thoughts away remembering that his current girlfriend was right next to him in the passenger seat.
Mona stopped fidgetting and decided to finally ask him what was on his mind.
"Max are you okay?"
Max was so distracted in his thoughts that he didn't even hear Mona speak to him.
"Max?"
She still got no response.
"Max!?" She raised her voice a little.
Snapping out of his thoughts Max looked at Mona for the first time since they left the diner.
"Huh? Sorry I was distracted."
"I noticed. Care to talk about what's on your mind?"
Max shifted in his seat. He wasn't sure if he should tell her the truth about Roxanne. But didn't feel right about lying to her. He never told Mona about his past relationship with Roxanne. At the time they started dating he was still getting over the heartbreak of losing her.
"Well it's just seeing Roxanne again…"
"Oh I know seeing an old friend must be a very surreal thing. I bet you are probably surprised to run into her after all this time."
Max sighed, "Yeah you got that right."
Mona noticed the subtle change of tone in his voice.
"Max what's really wrong? You've been acting strange since we left the diner."
Max hesitated wanting to tell her about Roxanne. But then Mona began to put it together.
"Roxanne…she's more than…just a friend. Isn't she?"
Max sighed heavily. The jig was up now he had to come clean.
"Roxanne and I used to date back in high school", he said in a low voice.
Mona was taken aback by this. That would explain a lot though. Max's actions, the uncomfortable silence and everything in between.
'But why did he feel the need to not be honest with me?' She thought.
"She and I broke toward the end of our senior year", he continued. "I saw her once last summer…before I met you. I didn't think I'd see her again. Last I heard she had left to go study abroad."
Mona could tell that the split between the two was possibly not a good one. She didn't want to dig up old memories and open old wounds for him.
She put a comforting hand on his shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
"It's okay. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."
Max smiled at her. He knows how fortunate he was to have a girl like her.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier about her. I didn't want you get upset."
"Aww Max. I'm not upset. I mean yes I wish you had told me, but I'm not mad that you used to date her. That's part of your life and I don't want you to feel as if I'll overact to something that happened in your past."
Max smiled in relief that Mona wasn't the jealous type.
Max pulled up to her dorm. They kissed and waved goodbye as she departed. Max drove away on his way back to his fraternity house he, PJ and Bobby were now a part of. PJ and Bobby were probably already asleep upstairs. As Max got out of his car he noticed someone pull up in a silver sports car. And he took notice of a familiar redhead that emerged from it. Max's jaw almost hit the floor when he saw Roxanne…again.
'What is she doing here?' He asked himself.
He was completely flabbergasted.
As Roxanne exited the vehicle. Visibly tired from what had happened from tonight she looked forward to a nice relaxing shower, slipping into her pajamas and having a nice cup of tea before going to bed. She happened to glance across the street to the fraternity house across from the one she was at and standing there was none other than Max Goof. She was stunned to see him yet again.
'Does he live here?' She asked herself.
Roxanne decided instead of standing there she smiled and waved at him. Max returned the gesture with a smile of his own. He then made his way across the street to say hello. It's almost like this force was pulling him to her.
"Hey Roxanne", he said. "What are you doing here?"
"I um…this is where I'm staying. I just transferred here."
She was unaware she was twirling her hair around her finger. A nervous trait she had that would rear its head when she was nervous or flustered.
'What the hell is he doing to me!?' She then realized her actions and immediately stopped and blushed.
Max couldn't believe it. Not only was she back, but now she was attending the same college as him, living just across the street from him!
"Ohh…uhh umm…b-but I thought you were st-studying abroad?" He asked rubbing the back of his neck.
"Well I was…but I kinda missed being home so I transferred to be a lot closer to my family. Yeah it's a ways away from Spoonerville, but it was the closest place. I…I had no idea you went here," she shifted nervously.
"Uhh yeah…this is where I am..ha..ha", he chuckled nervously.
Roxanne smiled. She always found his shy, flustered and quirky nature really cute. It was one of the many things that had attracted him to her. She saw he wasn't like all the macho, pig headed guys in high school. He was genuine and that's what she liked most about him.
After a few moments of awkward silence Roxanne spoke.
"Well it's late and I work an early shift tomorrow. But it was really nice seeing you Max…again. I…uh I'll see you around?"
Saying it almost as a question. Almost…hopeful.
"Y-yeah…I'll be seeing you around", he replied.
Roxanne smiled. Secretly gitty on the inside at the prospect of seeing him again. And Max shared the same sentiment as he smiled. He watched as she retreated watching her intently, once again entranced by her figure. He shook his head trying to remind himself of his girlfriend. But after all these years Roxanne still had this effect on him.
He heavily sighed to himself, "This is gonna be one loooong semester".
So there you have chapter 3! Pretty long one. You see why I had to split it up. Roxanne is in the picture for good now. How will Max and her handle seeing each other everyday now? And how is Mona gonna feel? Read! Review! All that good stuff. Thank you to those who have supported the story so far. Hopefully more people join and enjoy it to to. Thanks and take care! J