1990 Something

By Pseudonymous Entity

Summary: Lies don't end relationships - the truth does. Max, struggling under the weight of his father's overwhelming presence, anxiety and secrets, discovers Bradley has his fair share of experience in both and might be the only one who can help. But can Max handle it when Bradley's secrets are far more sinister? These two may have gotten off on the wrong foot but as they keep running into one another they make some alarming realizations, about themselves and the people in their lives.

AN: Been a little while since I have taken a request. Let's see where this goes.

-Pseu

"I should be fine but its all too much

I get overwhelmed so easily, my anxiety creeps inside of me - makes it hard to breath, what's come over me

Feels like I'm somebody else..."

-Overwhelmed

Max Goof tapped his fingers against the tops of his knees anxiously.

Getting away to college was supposed to mark the beginning of genuine independence for most students. That was the plan for Max—a clean break from his old life, from the anxiety-ridden, clumsy kid he'd once been. A break from his father's entirely overwhelming, overprotective nature. And far away from the remnants of Roxanne.

A chance for Max to come into his own and—as cliché as it was—to find himself.

Max had been so looking forward to it. Sure, he may have had to fib a little to get his father's permission. To clear his conscience, Max really did sign up for a few business-related classes, but his major had nothing to do with going into the world of business in any form. Max was interested in costume design and FX. That whole fiasco at the end of his freshman year of high school when he had meticulously recreated a Powerline costume and designed the staging and lights...that outlet for creativity had felt so good.

After Roxanne broke up with him the summer before senior year, Max allowed himself to fully consider his more theatrical and creative side, getting involved backstage at his school drama club and really focusing on himself. It was a deep secret of Max's that no amount of soft kisses from Roxanne had ever compared to sneaking on stage during a Powerline concert, singing and dancing with his idol in the flashing lights. Now that had been something. Maybe the most alive Max had ever felt in his nineteen years of existence on the planet. While Max didn't think he would ever be "cured" of the social anxiety that plagued him all his life, walking into college he had felt far more mellow and go-with-the-flow than he ever had before.

He had been so ready to experience this time in his life and see where it led.

And here he was, a freshman once again. And Goof lord, if history wasn't intent on repeating itself. When you're a Goof, good luck is hard to come by. There was the disastrous first meeting with the Gammas and Bradley Uppercrust, which on its own may have been bearable. Max wasn't new to a little competitive teasing and taunting. It wasn't something he couldn't handle and it hadn't devolved into anything too personal yet. Maybe he could have convinced Bradley to give his friends a shot for a place on the Gammas' X-Team -they admittedly hadn't made the best first impression and he himself had been quite defensive of them at the time- maybe he and Bradley could have talked out their differences.

Then, his dad showed up, and any hope of recovering his social life dissolved. No, his father didn't just show up at Max's college unannounced; his dad enrolled. Max's dad was enrolled at the same college.

Which brought us back to the present, with Max Goof slumping in his seat, staring holes into the desk in front of him, bracing himself. While his dad hadn't managed to enroll himself in all the same classes as Max—how could he? Max lied about his major—he had certainly tried, and the lack of proper information hadn't prevented the older Goof from getting into one of them. This one.

Max slowly dragged his eyes toward the doors on the far side of the room, waiting for the inevitable. Sure enough, just before classes were due to start, the doors swung open and his father's tall unmistakable figure came through. His arms waving ecstatically at Max, voice loud.

"Maxie! I see you, son," his father declared, making his way toward Max.

He could feel the heat in his cheeks as the class stared at the scene unfolding. He could hear their whispers. The snickers. Max's fingers dug into his baggy jeans, needing something, anything to latch onto. It was the third time with his father as his classmate and the shock still had not worn off. Max sank lower in his seat, wishing he could melt straight into the floor and disappear.

"Dad," Max hissed through gritted teeth, "please."

Oblivious, or perhaps immune to Max's pleas, his father finished bounding up the stairs and slammed down on the seat beside Max, slapping Max's back. "Fancy meetin' you here!" his father said and then guffawed loudly at his own joke.

He had said the exact same thing twice already. Apparently, to his father, it got funnier each time.

The rest of the class was a bit of a blur. Max spent it nose-deep in his binder, scribbling down notes and keeping his eyes far from his father. Pretending, desperately, that nothing was happening. That he couldn't hear the things his classmates were whispering to one another whenever another of his father's dumb puns pierced the air in answer to the professor's question. For his father, however, it all seemed like a holiday.

Heat flared along Max's neck while something cold and oily sank in his stomach. He wrote furiously with one hand while digging his nails into the palm of the other. He must stay calm. He must fight the sparks of anxiety dancing along his spine, the way his throat threatened to close up on him. He must, or he'd break down in class, and then there really would be no coming back. His father would latch onto that as proof Max wasn't ready, and all the hard work he had put in over senior year and the summer leading to college would be for nothing. His father would drag him home, and it would be another year or so before he would be able to bring it up again.

Max quickly finished highlighting, slammed the cap on, and tossed the yellow marker into his small zip bag along with his pencil and an eraser. He closed his binder and put them both into his backpack and had it slung across his back, textbook in hand the minute the bell rang. Max was up and out of his seat, down the stairs, and through the doors before he could register his own feet moving. He darted through the halls, sliding down the rails of a staircase and jumping over the wall at the end to the floor below. He moved around and under the students around him with an agility borne from his skateboarding and all the years of evading bullies while in middle school. Losing his father in the crowd between each class was now his primary directive.

Still, with all his trying, his father's face seemed to be everywhere. Every time Max turned around, there was the sound of his father's loud laugh, of his heavy stomps, the sight of his long waving arms. He had to stay on the move, and Max could feel how close he was wobbling to the edge of his patience...and sanity.

Max loved his father. He did. He was his only family and each other had. They'd never been homeless. He'd always had something to eat for dinner, and even if his clothes were from secondhand stores, even if Max had to learn to sew to make them fit, it was a respectable life. There was nothing he should complain about. But, even as much as he appreciated everything his father did for him, as much as he knew he was lucky to have the father he did, Max had never needed to be further away from him.

Flashbacks of his father's disastrous attempts at a family vacation the end of freshman year in highschool swarmed his mind. Because while his father meant well, while his father definitely loved him, his father was not without his faults. Believing he knew what was best was certainly one of them.

Max pulled up one of a set of large double doors and ducked inside, stopping to glance around the first floor of the massive university library. He took off to the right and selected a table near the windows, settling into a chair. He sat there for a moment, doing nothing but focusing on the feel of the chair, the cool air of the library, the muted sounds of people shuffling back and forth around him, books sliding on and off carts and tall shelves. Max closed his eyes and held his breath until it hurt, then let it all out in a sigh.

He could do this.

He just had to come up with a strategy between classes. Once he knew the campus better, that should be easy. He could sign up for some clubs or something to keep him busy. He could do this. He just had to focus on getting through the year, on training for the X Games, on getting good grades, on hiding his major from his father. If he could just get through this, somehow, if he could just get his degree and graduate, maybe then he would be able to get some distance from his father. Four years had never seemed so long.

Feeling the unpleasant, oily slips of anxiety creeping in on him, Max grabbed his backpack viciously and brought out all of the textbooks in it, his fingers shaking only a little as he unzipped a pouch and poured out all of the pencils, highlighters, erasers and gum contained within. An all-nighter. Max would start doing all-nighters. Maybe, if his father thought he was focused on his grades, he would chill out and give Max a little space. He stuffed three sticks of gum into his mouth, rubbed his hands together, knees bouncing up and down, up and down underneath the table.

He was okay. He was.

If he was really lucky—and he never was—his father might even consider unenrolling himself from college and going about locating a life of his own. His dad was still in his late forties for another six months; surely he was more than young enough to find some sort of calling? Find a passion? A girlfriend?

Anything at all.

2024

AN: So...I was tagged in several TikToks and sent some long pleading requests- and now here we are! Takes place in the late 90s, and starts just after Goofy joins the school and before the x-games. (we got a Maxley fic before another chap of AIM? Fear not, the next chap of that is being edited as we speak.)