Chapter 29: Love is Love

Max let out a shaky breath trying to calm himself. He knew he was riled up, he knew he was scared. But it wasn't Sam's fault.

"I feel like such a bad, horrible person for saying this, for thinking it. But I need to know if I can feel this way with anyone else." Max snapped, appalled he had blurted out what he had been running in his head for days. He slumped forward, grabbed his knees and groaned in frustration before straightening back up again.

'There it was. The dilemma. Was it just a horny, hey you're there and not a wall and I like anything that moves, kinda thing?'

Sam looked at him as if he were shocked that was what Max was even thinking about.

Max gave him a look of annoyance. But felt like he had to explain.

"What if it's male hormones awakening just like you always said."

"What if I can feel this with anyone and not just Leo, simply because I am horny." Max blushed and rubbed his hands across his face then dragged his right hand behind his neck to massage it. His stupid nervous habit.

Sam became serious again immediately seeing how frustrated Max was about it.

"I wouldn't want to lead Leo on... And hurt him later." Max finished sadly.

Sam nodded. But then couldn't help but burst into a smile as his face lit up the way it did when he got one of his stupid harebrained ideas in it. Max scowled at Sam. 'He was doomed, this idiot was going to talk him into one of his idiotic ideas again.'

"Well, why didn't you say so a few days ago! If that's all it is that was bugging you all this time and making you so mopey, I could have helped..." Sun laughed at his idiot friend.

"In fact, I will help." He grabbed Max's hand confidentially and dragged him off shaking his head.

They walked across the field till they got into the same equipment shed Max had dragged Leo to just a week ago. And Sam ushered him inside, practically pushing him in.

Max gave in and let his friend cram him through the doorway into the building that smelled like the mats and equipment, and a slight musty sweat smell.

They stood across from each other much the same way as it had been when Max was here with Leo.

Max stared at Sam wondering what on earth he had dragged him here for. And how this was helping. Because now he was thinking about Leo again.

Max looked at him dumbfounded.

"What?" He said incredulously.

"Are you nuts?"

Sam smirked. "No." He said, humoring Max.

"Silly boy, you want to know if you can feel that same bolt of attraction for anyone right??? Any living being?" He said slowly as if to help Max figure it out.

"If it's just hormones and you are attracted to any good looking human being. You should feel that same way the moment you kiss me." Sam said bluntly.

Max's mouth dropped open in shock.

"You want me to kiss you?!"

"No, I am talking to the pile of gymnastic mats behind you because I'm bored." Sam rolled his eyes at him and Max tried his very best to not want to smack his friend in the face..

Yes, you kiss me." He gestured slowly like he was doing charades.

"I am a good looking, healthy single male, who has tons of experience in this. If you are gay you will like it. If you are not you will be grossed out. And we will have figured out it's you only attracted to Leo kinda thing."

"If you are super turned on like, "the lightning bolt hit you" turned on, we will know you are just a horny cat in heat and chalk it up to puberty hitting you at a bad time," Sam said nonchalantly with a big teasing grin plastered across his stupid face.

Max groaned, but thought about it for a second. "There are only two things I can point out that are definitive flaws in your theory."

"What?" Sam asked calking his head to the side curiously.

"One, the attractive person I am testing this on is you and you are well... You." He said, gesturing at Sam, unimpressed.

"And two, how can we prove I am Gay from this experiment and not Bi if have never kissed a girl before? Also, I went through puberty already you little shit, this is different!" He finished annoyed.

Sam rolled his eyes. "Yes, well, if you want to walk out there and ask any random person in the stands to make out with you be my guest. As for the second one.... Have you ever been attracted to any girl ever? Excited by the thought of touching their breasts or..." Sam gestured lower.

Max cringed and motioned for him to stop. "Okay, gross... Fair enough."

He sighed. "Okay, let's just get this over with." He said, wishing it to be over now. He felt unexcited by the prospect of kissing anyone outside of Leo.

But it really didn't help matters that his option was Sam, who was about as interesting as a partner for him as dating the mats over there was.

It really, really didn't help that Sam had just grossed him out with the idea of sleeping with a girl, because Sam had been right, that was clearly off the table.

But, frankly speaking, if he showed any lightening attraction in this situation to anything. Max decided was going to give up on economics and move to a secluded place where he could reflect on himself and his wayward ways.

Sam stepped forward, reached out and grabbed Max by the jersey. Max had about two seconds to wrap his mind around what was about to happen before Sam's whipcord muscles were pulling him against his body and their lips pressed against each other.

At first, Max had this sudden urge to punch Sam because this was Sam... 'Sam!' His mind screamed at him in anger and annoyance.

Max remembered that he was supposed to be trying for Leo. So instead of shoving him off, despite how much he was not into it. He closed his eyes and tried not to think of Sam as Sam. But instead, just as any warm male body pressing against his.

For a slight moment, a warmth spread through him at the feel of another man's body against his own. But his lips felt smashed and uncomfortable and none of that desire and feeling he had with Leo was there at all.

He felt like he could definitely be attracted to just males in general. But with Sam there was none of that special spark he had with Leo there at all. In fact the kiss was so uncomfortable he had zero desire to deepen it or change position. And their lips smushed together seemed like it was stretching out forever and his mind slowly started to wander. Part of it busily regurgitating all the ways he was uncomfortable at that moment back at him to make him feel even more stifled and annoyed he had somehow landed into another one of those messy hair brained ideas of Sam's. And so his mind yelled at him every little thing it could.

The way that the safety mats were pushing into his back, the fact that the room was hot and sweaty. There was a fly buzzing around inside the shed and it was driving him up the wall. All of it was more important than the kiss.

His brain compared it to the way he had felt during that kiss with Leo. It was a pitch black place. He was scared out of his mind, the air quality was bad from stirred up dust, they both had been running and were sweaty and the air had been colder. But none of it had bothered him. Because the moment his lips meet with Leo's...

The moment he thought of Leo, and that moment his body rushed with that sensation that was missing, and he felt his pants starting to tighten. He raised his hands slowly up the body, trailing them up past their closely pressed crotches and up to the chest in front of him before shoving it away from him, hard.

He sat there panting and wiped his mouth quickly as if he could wipe Sam away.

"So, was that as good for you as last time?" Sam asked, chuckling and wiping his mouth with a smile. Sam looked to the side and out the window,

His smile immediately disappeared.

"God your gross, man." Max said.

"Honestly, sometimes I don't even know how we even became..." His voice dropped off as he looked to see what had made Sam shut up.

His face turned stark white.

'Leo! What is he doing here?...'

He only had a split second for that thought to register before guilt flushed his whole system as he saw the tears streaming down Leo's cheeks.

'Oh, God, he had seen! And he doesn't know what happened!' Max turned and opened the door, then ran around the outside of the shed.