Something New

Maxine is absolutely flustered as she makes her way back down the stairs after walking in on Liam in all his glory. A vision that would most definitely be burned in her brain for years to come. Instead of going back to the dining room she heads for the kitchen. Her face is still burning with blush, and she’s one hundred percent certain she doesn’t want to face the other boys until she gets a chance to cool down. She figures she might run into Harry, but Harry is her best mate and she can handle him. Luckily when she turns the corner to the kitchen she finds it empty.
She steps up to the sink basin and steadies her hands against it, taking in a deep breath. How the hell did that just happen? Why? Dear god, why? As if she didn’t act weird enough around Liam already. She just had to walk in on him naked.
“Maxine! Liam!” She hears Harry bellow a moment later, and she knows she can’t hide away much longer.
She takes a deep breath, letting it all out a moment later and pushes open the kitchen door leading to the dining room. Four pair of eyes are on her immediately.
“Where’s Liam?” Louis asks a second later.
“He’s… he’s c-coming,” she stammers, making it so fucking obvious that she’s flustered.
“You alright?” Harry asks her as she takes her seat next to him.
“My uh, my head still feels weird,” she says. She knows it a cop-out, and really not fair to Harry to make him worry about her more than he already is, but she doesn’t know what else to say.
“I’m so sorry, love,” Harry says, sending her a worried look.
“Liam. Finally,” Zayn says, causing Maxine’s heart to race.
Her eyes tentatively look up just to make sure Liam is clothed this time, and she is met with his eyes staring back at her. She can’t tell if he’s mad or what, and it makes everything more awkward in her world. Liam sits down at the table across from her and she can’t help but look up at him again. And there he was looking at her again.
“Ahem. Max,” Harry says, clearing his throat.
“Huh?” Max asks, looking over at her best friend who was giving her an odd look.
“Earth to Max,” Harry laughs, nudging her with his elbow.
“What did you say?” She asks, feeling a bit out of it.
“I asked you if you could pass the biscuits,” Harry laughs and she notices that all the boys are now staring at her, including Liam.
“Oh, sorry. Sorry,” she says, grabbing the basket they are in and passes it to him.
Max stays quiet throughout dinner, trying to focus on anything other than the images of Liam’s naked body that float through her mind, but it’s of no use. She is certain her cheeks are in a constant state of blush. But for some reason Liam seems un-phased by what happened, keeping up cheery conversations with all the other lads.
Max offers to clean up after dinner and Harry happily tells her he’ll help, even though he’s the one who made dinner. All the other guys make up excuses of things they need to be doing other than the dishes and scoot off to do them.
“Are you okay, Maxine?” Harry asks as they begin to clear the table.
“Uh, sure,” Max says, giving him an odd look.
“You’ve been acting a bit odd since I hit you with that ball,” Harry points out.
“No. Not since then,” Max says under her breath.
“What do you mean ‘not since then’?” Harry asks, his head quirking to the side as he looks at her. Max lets out a sigh and looks back at him with a look of admission.
“What’s going on?” Harry asks.
“Will you promise not to tell anyone? And I mean anyone. You can’t even tell Louis,” Max tells him.
“I tell Louis everything,” Harry says simply.
“Fine. You can’t tell anyone who isn’t Louis Tomlinson,” Max huffs, rolling her eyes in the process.
“I promise,” Harry says finally.
“I saw Liam’s penis,” Maxine blurts out, causing Harry to choke on the saliva in his mouth.
“Christ, Max. You could have warned me,” Harry laughs as he coughs, trying to expel the moisture from his wind pipe.
“I’m sorry. I just feel really weird about it,” Max tells him.
“Start from the beginning. And what!?” Harry says, widening his eyes at her.
“I accidentally walked in on him after he got out of the shower tonight,” she says sheepishly.
“Tonight? Like right before dinner?” Harry asks.
“Yes. Literally right before dinner,” Max says as her cheeks heat up.
“Was it big?” Harry asks immediately.
“Harry! Jesus,” Max laughs, giving him a swat on the arm.
“It’s an honest question,” he laughs.
“And one only you would ask!” She too laughs.
“Have you talked to him about it?” Harry asks.
“Have you lost your mind?” Max nearly yells at him.
“What? It’s an honest question,” Harry points out.
“When exactly have we had time to talk about it anyway? As we sat across the dinner table from one another?” She asks him incredulously.
“Maybe you won’t feel so weird if you have a chat about it,” Harry offers.
“You’ve definitely lost your mind. I can’t do that, Harry,” Max says shaking her head as the two of them head off into the kitchen with the dirty dishes.
“So you’re just going to have an elephant in the room from now on?” Harry asks.
“What would you have me say? ‘Eh, Liam. Sorry for walking in on you naked. Nice penis, by the way.’ Not bloody likely,” Max huffs.
“So it was a nice penis?” Harry smirks at her and Max lets out an exasperated sigh.
“You’re absolutely no help,” she says as she begins to clear the uneaten food off the plates.
“Just tell him you’d like to see it again sometime,” Harry says as he begins to fill the sink with dish water.
“Shut it!” Max screeches as she flings a dirty napkin at him.
“You do have a thing for Liam, don’t you?” Harry asks, eyeing her knowingly.
“Could you say it any louder? Jesus, Harry,” Max says, looking around the room, hoping none of the boys are standing on the other side of the door eavesdropping.
“I didn’t hear a denial,” he says, smirking at her.
“Because there isn’t one,” she admits under her breath.
“I knew it!” Harry says with a big smile on his face.
“Please, just keep it to yourself. I don’t need things to become weird around here,” Max pleads, hoping Harry will.
“Yeah, fine. But I don’t know why you think you need to be a good little girl all the time. You’re in your twenties. It’s time for experimenting. Stop being such a prude,” Harry says, swatting her lightly with a towel.
“I just don’t want to mess up the dynamic of the house, okay. I don’t want anything to get weird,” Max tells him.
“Live a little,” Harry says as he begins to wash the dishes, leaving Max with a mess of things to think about.
What could go wrong if she and Liam were to hook-up? It could be good, right? It could be something that makes her truly happy. And she hasn’t felt that way in a long time. In the end Max decides that if, and only if, Liam for some miraculous reason comes on to her, then she wasn’t going to say no. But of course, it was a long shot…

Nearly a week passes and the incident is not brought up again. Max doesn’t mention it and neither does Liam. Life goes on as if it never even happened. And Max is eternally grateful things didn’t get awkward between them. But another small part of her was truly hoping that Liam might use that moment as an opening to start something new. But he didn’t, and Max finds herself home alone on a Saturday night with a sink full of dirty dishes and a stupid English Lit paper to write while everyone else is out living their exciting lives. At least she has a full bottle of wine all to herself.
As she turns up the iPod dock, she begins the tedious task of washing the dishes. The dancing and the singing comes next. She quickly learns that dancing around the kitchen with a full glass of wine isn’t the best choice when it spills down the front of her pajama bottoms.
“Ugh, alcohol abuse,” she groans, feeling the sticky wetness against her thigh.
She stands there for a moment, contemplating what she’s going to do, until she decides to just take her bottoms off. She’s home alone after all. She’ll have the dishes cleaned up by the time any of the guys get home anyway.
She peels off the wet pajamas and throws them over the back of one of the stools at the breakfast table before she walks back to the sink to begin washing the dishes again. It doesn’t take long for her to get into a rhythm with the dishes and they fly by one by one as she sings along to the songs on her iPod, dancing in place in her pale pink undies.
“’And we’ll never be royals… royals. It don’t run in our blood. That kind of lux just ain’t for us. We crave a different kind of buzz. Let me be your ruler… ruler. You can call me queen bee. And baby I’ll rule… I’ll rule, I’ll rule. Lemme live that fantasy,’” Max sings as she sways her hips with the song by Lorde.
“Fantastic.”
Max spins on her heels toward the voice, her heart in her throat as she wobbles slightly on her feet. She finds Liam leaning against the kitchen door frame with a smug smirk on his face. She quickly fumbles her hand back to silence the music and manages to in one try.
“Absolutely brilliant, Max,” Liam says, bouncing his eyebrows at her as he pushes away from the door frame, walking toward her.
Maxine is frozen in place watching Liam as he advances toward her. She’s unable to breathe – not with him looking at her with bedroom eyes. But instead of wrapping his arms around her and sweeping her off her feet, Liam bypasses her altogether, grabbing a glass from the cupboard to pour himself some water from the sink.
Liam turns, resting up against the sink basin and eyes Max again as he takes a drink from the glass. Maxine notices then that Liam is obviously drunk; his eyes glassy, his stance wobbly. It causes her to relax slightly, taking a sip of the wine glass that’s still in her hand.
“I guess it’s only fair for me to see you like this since you’ve seen me completely naked.”
Maxine’s head spins as Liam mentions the unmentionable event between the two of them nearly a week before. It’s only then she notices how all the alcohol she’s consumed is effecting her. Her cheeks flush even hotter than before; her feet are unsteady underneath her; her mind is swimming.
“Oh, God,” she whispers, her fingers coming up to touch her lips.
Liam lets out a light laugh before downing the rest of the water in his glass, setting it down on the countertop next to the sink before he replies, “shit happens.”
“Shit happens?” Maxine chokes out as her eyebrows mar into a look of question.
“Yeah, why not?” Liam shrugs his shoulders.
“I’ve seen your penis and you say ‘shit happens’?” Maxine blurts out, causing her eyes to shoot open as wide as saucers, realizing what she’s said. She’s drawn more attention to the unmentionable event.
“You’ve seen my penis and now I’ve seen you in your knickers. I suppose we’re even.” Liam shrugs again and Maxine shakes her head, trying to comprehend how that would make them even in any universe. “Are we not even?”
Maxine’s mouth goes dry as her wide eyes meet Liam’s once again, “what?”
“Well, have at it. Get naked then.”
Maxine nearly chokes on air, “what?”
Liam lets out a howl of laughter as he watches her reaction. Maxine immediately relaxes and rolls her eyes. “Screw off, Payno.”
“I just might, having seen you in this light.”
Maxine goes rigid again at the thought of Liam thinking of her during his alone time. “My jammies got wet! I had to take them off,” she immediately defends herself.
“Even better.”
“FROM THE WINE, you cad!” Max reaches out to smack Liam’s arm, but misses almost completely, barely nicking the hard muscle of his bicep. Her wine sloshes in her glass and she lets out a huff as she retreats back. Liam chuckles as he pushes away from the sink, walking around her to head toward the doorway. Her eyes follow his backside until he turns to look at her.
“You’re beautiful, Maxine,” Liam says with a small smile, his eyes staring into hers from across the room. Her heart does flips in her chest as she stares back at him, at a loss for words. “’Night, Max.”
“’Night,” she whispers as Liam disappears from the room, leaving her alone.
She stands there for longer than completely necessary in the same spot, holding the wine glass close to her chest, thinking about what just happened. Did Liam, the object of her desire, just call her beautiful? Unable to shake the thought from her mind, she takes in a deep breath and lets it out slowly trying her best to rationalize it as an adult.
He was just being nice? Well, it wasn’t exactly necessary to call her beautiful if he was just being nice. He’s drunk? He certainly is, but doesn’t the truth come out when you’re drunk?
Maxine’s mind spirals. Liam Payne actually thinks she’s beautiful? Tipping the wine glass against her lips, she downs the rest of the contents before setting her glass on the countertop next to Liam’s. It’s been a weird night. She needs to get some sleep.
She walks slowly up the back hallway wanting nothing more than to just sink into her bed and fall into a peaceful slumber. She is hoping the wine will help her with that. She knows she hasn’t finished her English Lit paper, but there’s still time.
Just as she walks by the bathroom the door swings open. The light shines out into the dimly lit hallway, casting a glow all around Liam as he stands in the doorway wearing only a pair of navy blue pajama bottoms hanging dangerously low on his hips.
“Maxine,” he says, nearly sighing her name.
“Liam,” she says, her voice coming out breathy.
“We’ve got to stop meeting like this,” he smirks at her as his eyes wash up her bare legs.
“Yeah,” she whispers, her mouth going dry as her eyes focus on his bare chest.
He takes a step toward her and she feels every muscle in her body tense in anticipation. Maybe if she wasn’t sexually attracted to him from the beginning, then perhaps she could control herself. Perhaps she could resist him. But god damn it, where is the fun in that?
“Sleep tight, Max,” Liam breathes, and she swears to all that is mighty that he’s purposely speaking to her in a seductive tone.
“’Night, Liam,” she breathes back, unable to contain the lust in her voice.
Neither one of them make a move to go to bed. They just stand there staring at one another. And Max could swear she feels her heart beating out of her chest at just the thought of kissing him. And that might be the reason she takes a step toward him – the thought of kissing him. It also might be the reason she places her hand against his bare chest.
Liam slips his hands down to her waist and pulls her closer. And Max can no longer think straight. Her whole mind floods with images of Liam’s naked body. She wants him. She wants him badly. And she knows it’s the reason she leans up and plants her lips against his.

Notes