Swept Under: Chapter 7: (looking for feedback) 27/04/26

 

Maxis arrived at English class late. He took an earful from the teacher and sat down between the classroom wall and an empty seat. A couple of moments later Karina sat down next to him. He glanced over to where she’d been sitting before. She’d left her bag behind, but she still held her notebook and pen.

  “It went well didn’t it,” she whispered. She was leaning over her book with her head down though her eyes were glancing over to Maxis.

  “I don’t know yet,” said Maxis. People had stopped talking so much about what Cameron had done at the beach, but he still had Trevor in his grasp. Maxis needed everyone to hate Cameron. Then Trevor would surely end up following the crowd. 

  Maxis turned in his seat and unzipped his bag which hung on the back of his chair. As he did so, he checked behind him to make sure nobody was listening in on them. Karina yapped in his ear as he pulled out his book.

  “I heard it was great. I heard Musa got really angry, like he wanted to kill Cameron. He kept asking everyone ‘Where’s Cameron! Have you seen Cameron!’."

  “I need you to write more,” he whispered. He put his book on the desk and opened it. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a pen and clicked it open. “I’ll give you anything I can come up with.”

  “Aww, thank you! Can you give me something juicy about Trevor?”

  Karina almost fell out of her seat when Maxis shot her a death stare.

  “Not so much as a vowel about Trevor!”

 

***

Maxis walked home alone. The summer sun was still well above the neighborhood rooftops, drawing sweat from his underarms and brow, and creating a pocket of blazing heat between his back and backpack. 

  By the time he got to his house, his lips were parched. He rushed up the steps of the front porch, dying to pour icy water down his throat. Maxis tried the door handle but it was locked. 

  His impatience took rule over his body and before he could even think to control himself, he was repeatedly pressing the door bell.

  His mother groaned as she opened the door. “Sorry Jena, it’s just my son.” She mouthed the words “get inside” to Maxis.

  Maxis knew not to talk when his mother was on the phone so he silently walked in, letting her shut the door behind him. 

  It was freezing cold inside the house. A rancid smell came into the hall from the kitchen. Maxis could only expect it to be another one of his mothers failed kitchen experiments.

  She liked to try and create her own recipes so that she could show them off when people came over. She loved it when someone complimented her cooking and she could say “It's my own recipe.” If only the visitors could taste the hundreds of horrible dinners that those recipes came from.

  As he was taking off his shoes, Maxis’ mother barged past him. Chatting on the phone, she made her way to the living room couch where she spent most of her time.

  The first thing Maxis did, after finally drinking some water, was make himself something to eat. He dumped his bag beside the kitchen bench. The once hot pocket of air on his back dissipated, leaving a big patch of sweat on his shirt. The sweat instantly amplified the chill of the kitchen’s atmosphere. 

  He was caught as he was about to throw out his mothers failed dish.

  “Stop!” she shouted. “That’s tonight's dinner. What on earth are you doing?”

  “I thought something had gone off. What is it?”

  His mother looked shocked. “How dare you? Who do you think you are, to insult your mother’s cooking?”

  Maxis put the abomination back onto the stove and began cooking his own meal. He held his breath as he cooked, but he couldn’t avoid the smell. 

  Maxis had inherited his bad cooking skills from his mother. Luckily, being half his father meant that his cooking wasn’t as bad as most of her dishes, so making something simple like a fried egg meant that he could turn out something edible, though it still wasn’t enjoyable. 

  When Maxis was done, he dumped his dish in the sink and went to his room. Home was a quiet place for Maxis. His mother tended to ignore him unless he was in her way, and his father was always at work or sleeping. The quiet was good though. It brought him a little bit of peace. 

  Maxis started digging through the drawers of his wardrobe. Only recently had he remembered the existence of something that was once very important to him. Under a couple of folded bed sheets,  he found an old polaroid camera and a photo album.

  He sat on his bed and opened the photo album, each page had a different date messily written on the top corner. The writing got gradually neater as he flicked through, stopping on a page dated 26/04/2016.

  The first photo was of a white blur. Something whizzed past just as Maxis tried to snap a shot of a massive huntsman spider. Startled, the spider ran up the fence and over, out of sight. From the camera came a black film that Maxis took in his hand. Shaking it through the air, he waited for the photo to develop.

  “Sorry about that,” said a boy from the direction that the blur came from. “I almost hit you.” He ran for his ball which was rolling away. 

  “You ruined the photo,” said Maxis, looking at the picture as it slowly revealed itself. 

  He could already tell that the massive blur has streaked right through, obstructing the majority of the spider. Only a couple of legs were visible above it.

  Maxis felt a calming warmth fall over him as the boy approached, now holding the ball under his arm. He peeked over Maxis’ shoulder at the photo.

  “My bad. What were you trying to capture?” the boy asked.

  “A spider. It’s run away now.” Maxis pocketed the photo.

  “You’re crazy!” the boy said in astonishment. “I’d never go near the things. They’re disgusting. Want to come play football with us? I need a daring, mad man like you to salvage the game for me.”

  Maxis looked over to the field where a group of boys were waiting patiently for the boy to bring the ball back. There were too many people.

  “N-no,” Maxis said, timidly. 

  The boy dropkicked the ball back over to the waiting players. “Finish without me!” he shouted.

  “Come on,” Maxis could hear one of the players say. “We need you.” 

  The boy ignored his complaining teammate.

  “We were losing anyway.” Said the boy. “Hey, can you take a photo of me?”

  “Sure,” said Maxis, raising his camera to his eye. 

  The boy smiled and posed, flexing his arms, and Maxis pressed the button.

  That photo was the only one on the page with a label under it. It read, “Trevor Scalo.”

  Next to that was a photo of four people sitting around a circular dinner table. This one, however, wasn’t taken by Maxis. Trevor’s mother stood up in her seat and moments later the camera clicked. 

  “Hold on,” she said. “Don’t move yet.” 

  She waited for the film to come out then got a second shot. 

  “You don’t mind if I keep one, Maxis?” she asked.

  “Go ahead,” he replied.

  “Have you told your mother you’re having dinner with us tonight?” asked Trevor’s father, finally moving to eat.

  “She’d rather I not bother her,” said Maxis with a full mouth. He didn’t spare time devouring the delicious plate Trevor’s mother had put him. The food was warm to a perfect degree. He could eat as quickly as he wanted but still feel the food radiating inside him.

  “Our house is open to you anytime,” said Trevor’s mother. As she sat down. 

  After school that day, Maxis had walked home with Trevor. When Trevor had offered him to come inside, Maxis was shy, but he ultimately accepted the offer. 

  Maxis was surprised to see that Trevor’s father was home when they got there. 

  “He works early mornings, so that he has time at home with us,” Trevor had said.

  What really shocked him to the core, however, was when Trevor’s mother had asked Maxis and Trevor to decide what they wanted for dinner. And the fact that Maxis was now eating the very thing he asked for made him feel like he hadn’t woken from last night's sleep and was still dreaming.

  A tear dropped on the photo of the dinner table. It was the only photo Maxis had of his first dinner with what felt like his first family. The family that had been stolen from him. 

  Maxis shut the photo album and launched it across the room. It opened again in the air and landed paper side down on the floor, creasing some of its pages