Lie Tonight – Chapter 18

By MyNameIsCAL

I sat on the floor with Max, Ari crawling around. He was almost a year old now, saying actual words too. Time had gone by so fast. It only seemed like yesterday that he was a baby. I had a video camera out, recording him as he moved around.

"You know, Ari, when you're a grown up, I'm gonna play this to your girlfriend and embarrass you," I joked.

"You know you're going to record yourself saying that," Max pointed out.

I rolled my eyes.

Ari got onto his knees, holding onto the table. We had just moved into our new house. It had this huge backyard, one Max and I could easily land and take off from. Since Ari had woken up from his nap, we took a break from moving furniture.

Max put one of his toys on the middle of the table.

"So now you're gonna be mean to him?" I questioned.

She gave me this grin. "No, let's see if we can get him to stand."

Ari was a smart kid. He'd find a way to things, even if we didn't want him to.

And it worked. Ari stood, looking a little shocked at first, and then he swiped the toy off the table, turning and sitting back down on the floor.

"Hey, Ari, come here," I said, motioning him over.

He looked up at me, pointing his finger out. "Daddy!"

I smiled at him and then he stuck out his tongue in response before laughing. That annoyed Max, and when she rolled her eyes, I would stick out my tongue too.

"C'mon, Ari, lemme see your toy," I said.

He used the table to stand again, holding out the toy to me. I held the camera with one hand, reaching towards him. That was when he took his first steps, towards me. Max blinked a few times as Ari continued, a little wobbly. Finally, he fell, bursting into tears. I put the camera down.

"Aw, Ari, I'm sorry," I said, scooping him up into my arms.

Max let out a sigh and stood. "C'mon, why don't we get something to eat?"

Ari stopped crying a few minutes later and I put him in his highchair, feeding him as Max tried to find something for us to eat.

After lunch, we sat on the couch, watching Ari entertain himself with a little toy piano Iggy had gotten him.

"You know, Ig only got that for Ari because he can hear it," Max said, putting her arm around mine. "We gotta finish unpacking. Everyone's coming over for dinner tomorrow."

"Iggy lives down the street, why don't we just go to his place? He owns a freaking restaurant. Besides, he just comes here and cooks anyway." I shook my head, laughing. "You know, I'm kidding right, Max?"

"Well, I hope you weren't planning moving the rest of the furniture by yourself," Max remarked, getting up.

I watched her go across the room and disappear. It took a while for her to come back.

"I'm sorry, Max," I said as she sat down next to me.

She kept her eyes on Ari.

"Max…"

Smiling, she leaned against me. "You think you're the only one having fun now?"

I let out a sigh and she leaned over and kissed me.

It was late now. The furniture was in place, our bed was finally bed, and the last thing Max was unpacking a box full of things from back when we were still on the run. It was a picture of us when we were younger. She sat on the bed next to me, holding it. I looked at it, feeling myself smile a little. Gazzy had an arm around his sister, Iggy next to him pretending to lean on Nudge. I stood next to Max, between us our hands together.

"I gotta frame this," Max said after a while.

I leaned over to my bedside table, opening the drawer. Inside was my wallet and from it I produced another, faded, folded, and worn photograph.

"You should frame this too."

Max took the picture from me. "Oh my gosh…I thought I lost this."

"No, I just…sorta took it when I helped you move your stuff around that one time," I admitted.

We looked at the picture for a while. It was taken around the same time of that old picture of the flock. Back when we were young, where the weight of the world wasn't on our shoulders. Max still had those beautiful brown eyes, the ones that seemed to smile when she smiled, glowed when she was laughing, and the same ones that tensed up during moments of calculation when we had to fight, the same ones that I could gaze into and find understanding.

Max took the photo from me and placed it with the other one on the table. I reached for the light and turned it off, pulling the covers over us.

Thanks for reading! This'll be my last update before my school kicks off, well, it's after midnight, so today. I've obviously not gotten enough sleep, but I never do, and I'd like to wish you all good luck, for those of you at school and those of you starting soon. Although, I do have a three day weekend because Monday is labor day, so I'll be sure to update some of my other stories. I've been a little slow updating this one, but hopefully there'll be one in the next week. Stay tuned!