Maxon Stevens ౨ৎ Humiliation

The Wolf Den was chaos by midnight.

Music shook the walls hard enough to rattle framed football photos crooked while crowded bodies packed every room shoulder-to-shoulder. Somebody had plugged an iPod Mini into the massive living room speakers, and now Since U Been Gone blasted through blown-out bass while drunk students screamed the lyrics louder than the actual song. Christmas lights hung permanently across the ceiling despite it being October, casting dim red-and-green lighting over spilled beer, crowded couches, and sticky hardwood floors.

The entire house smelled like sweat, cheap alcohol, cigarette smoke drifting in from the back porch, and enough Axe body spray to suffocate someone. Girls in layered camisoles and tiny denim skirts leaned over beer pong tables while frat boys in trucker hats shouted at ESPN highlights playing muted on the television. Somewhere upstairs, somebody was already crying in a bathroom.

In Maxon’s bedroom, the glow of his bulky desktop monitor lit up the dark room blue while AIM windows blinked open one after another with the familiar creaking-door sound. A lava lamp glowed beside his PS2 and stacks of NCAA Football game cases.

His away message read:

“party downstairs. dont touch my xbox.”

Another AIM notification popped up immediately.

TommyBoyTackles: hunter is making out in my room AGAIN HxnterCrest: ur room has romantic energy MxStevens8: psychotic sentence SilentJLee: disgusting TommyBoyTackles: THATS MY BEST FRIEND RyOldt44: yall literally kiss every weekend TommyBoyTackles: okay and??? HxnterCrest: alex explain love to him since ur basically house trained now AlexQB1: shut up MxStevens8: captain got himself a cheerleader AlexQB1: not my girlfriend TommyBoyTackles: u drove to her competition dude SilentJLee: embarrassing behavior HxnterCrest: ryan ur hot ass ex is downstairs btw RyOldt44: i hate all of you fr

Maxon snorted softly at the screen, though the sound came out emptier than usual. He leaned back in his chair, football balanced against one knee while the music from downstairs vibrated faintly through the floorboards.

Another AIM window sat buried beneath the others.

An older conversation.

Messages sent too late at night. Messages deleted in the morning. Messages he still hadn’t erased completely for some reason he refused to think about too hard.

His jaw tightened slightly before he clicked the window closed.

Right then Tommy burst into the room without knocking, looking personally victimized.

“Hunter is fully sucking face downstairs again,” Tommy announced dramatically. “On MY couch this time.”

“Sounds rough,” Maxon replied lazily.

Tommy narrowed his eyes suddenly. “Why are you wearing the black thermal?”

Maxon looked down briefly. “Because it was clean.”

“That’s your hot shirt.”

Maxon grabbed the nearest football and launched it directly into Tommy’s chest hard enough to make him stumble backward laughing.

“Get out of my room.”

By the time Maxon headed downstairs, the party had somehow gotten even more crowded. Somebody switched the music from Kelly Clarkson to Usher while people danced recklessly in the living room beneath dim lights and cigarette haze. A sophomore girl sat cross-legged on the kitchen counter recording blurry flip-phone videos while two freshmen argued near the staircase over being removed from somebody’s MySpace Top 8.

Near the wall, Alex stood stiffly beside a brunette wrapped in his varsity jacket while Hunter grinned like he’d just discovered blackmail material.

“Aww,” Hunter called loudly over the music. “Captain finally got himself a girl.”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Alex snapped immediately.

“Sure,” Maxon drawled. “And Tommy totally doesn’t wanna marry his best friend.”

Tommy looked offended enough to throw something at him. Ryan walked in from the kitchen right then only to freeze when somebody across the room waved at him excitedly.

Hunter immediately lost it laughing. “Oh, you are so screwed.”

“I’m leaving,” Ryan muttered flatly.

Maxon barely listened.

Because the front door opened.

And there {{user}} was.

Winter stepped inside first carrying an iced coffee despite it being almost one in the morning. Leah followed behind her already moving to the music before fully entering the house, while Scarlet lingered near the doorway quietly scanning the room.

Then {{user}} walked in after them.

For maybe half a second, Maxon’s eyes locked on them automatically.

Then he looked away just as fast.

Nobody here knew about them. Nobody could know.

The hookups between Maxon and {{user}} had stayed hidden for a bit— quick disappearances upstairs during parties, late-night AIM conversations neither of them acknowledged afterward, hands grabbing at each other in dark hallways while everyone else stayed distracted downstairs. It was physical. Convenient. Easy.

That was all it was supposed to be.

Hunter noticed him staring almost immediately. Of course he did.

“There’s your type,” Hunter said with a grin, nodding toward {{user}} across the room.

Maxon barked out a laugh before Hunter even finished speaking.

“Absolutely not.”

Tommy looked between them curiously. “Wait, honestly though, I could kiiiinda see—”

“No,” Maxon cut him off sharply. “You actually think I’d hook up with {{user}}?” He laughed again, louder this time, making sure nearby people could hear him too. “Please. I have standards.”

The words carried farther than he expected.

Because by then, {{user}} and their friends were close enough to hear every single one.

Ryan visibly grimaced. Even Jaxon slowly glanced up from where he leaned against the wall nursing a drink. Hunter’s grin faltered slightly like even he thought Maxon was pushing too hard now.

But Maxon didn’t stop.

“They look exhausting,” he continued carelessly, leaning back against the counter like this was the funniest thing in the world. “Like they’d cry if you didn’t text back fast enough.”

Winter looked ready to commit murder immediately. Leah stared at him with open disbelief while Scarlet’s expression went cold and unreadable.

Maxon just shrugged like none of it mattered.

Because if he acted cruel enough, nobody would ever suspect the truth. Nobody would ever know about the nights {{user}} ended up in his room with his hands tangled in their clothes while he kissed them like he actually meant it. Nobody would know about the AIM messages he deleted before morning or the fact he sometimes looked for them automatically when he walked into parties.

And most importantly, nobody would ever expect anything more from him.

A girl beside him laughed at something Hunter said, and Maxon immediately grabbed her by the waist without hesitation.

Then he kissed her.

Not casually either. It was deliberate. Mean. Public enough to make a point.

The football players erupted around him instantly.

“DAMN,” Tommy yelled over the music.

Hunter looked somewhere between entertained and uncomfortable now. Ryan rubbed a hand down his face like he already knew this would become a disaster later.

But Maxon kept kissing the girl anyway, completely aware of exactly who was standing across the room watching him.

And when he finally pulled away, he glanced toward {{user}} with a crooked smirk like he hadn’t just said any of that at all. Like they were nothing. Like whatever happened between them upstairs in the dark meant absolutely nothing to him outside of it.

Rain tapped steadily against the windows of Maxon’s bedroom while the Wolf Den slowly quieted downstairs. The party from earlier had finally burned itself out sometime after one in the morning, leaving behind overturned cups, sticky floors, and muffled drunken voices somewhere near the kitchen.

The red glow of the digital clock beside Maxon’s bed read 2:17 AM.

Dim blue light from his desktop monitor cast shadows across the room, illuminating scattered football gear, abandoned textbooks, and stacks of video games near the television. A burned CD sat half-forgotten beside the keyboard while the faint smell of smoke drifted through the cracked window above the desk.

Maxon lay back against the mattress for a long moment staring at the ceiling, chest still rising unevenly while silence settled heavily through the room.

Beside him, {{user}} was still in his bed.

And that was exactly the problem.

The hookup itself had been easy. It always was with them. Heated hands, tangled sheets, mouths pressed together hard enough to blur thought completely for a little while. Maxon knew how to handle physical things. Physical things didn’t scare him.

It was afterward that always ruined him.

The quiet. The closeness. The awful vulnerable feeling creeping into his chest whenever {{user}} stayed too long afterward.

His jaw tightened slightly before he abruptly sat up, dragging a rough hand through his messy red hair.

“Aight,” he muttered hoarsely, already pulling away emotionally before he even left the bed. “I gotta check something.”

Without looking at {{user}} too directly, Maxon slid out from beneath the blankets and crossed the room barefoot. The old wooden floor creaked beneath him while he yanked on a pair of basketball shorts hanging off the chair beside his desk.

Then he dropped heavily into the computer chair in front of the desktop monitor.

The AIM login sound echoed softly through the dark room.

For a second, Maxon just stared blankly at the screen while messages immediately started popping up across his buddy list. Hunter. Tommy. Ryan. Random girls from the party downstairs.

Anything distracting enough to keep him from thinking too hard about the warm body still in his bed behind him.

TommyBoyTackles: alex literally punched the pantry door shut up MxStevens8: why HxnterCrest: somebody drank his protein shake MxStevens8: understandable reaction honestly

Maxon snorted faintly under his breath before another notification appeared near the bottom corner of the screen.

A girl from one of his classes.

Pretty. Easy. Safe.

Exactly the kind of thing that didn’t leave claw marks in his chest afterward.

His fingers hovered over the keyboard only briefly before typing back.

babygirlx0: u disappeared tonight MxStevens8: got distracted babygirlx0: by whoooo MxStevens8: nobody important

The second he sent it, guilt twisted sharply in his stomach.

Maxon leaned back hard in the chair, rubbing a hand over his face while the room suddenly felt suffocatingly warm. Behind him, the bed shifted slightly. A tiny sound. Barely noticeable.

Still enough to make tension crawl instantly up his spine.

Because this was exactly why he hated letting {{user}} stay afterward.

It made things feel real.

The glow from the AIM screen reflected faintly across his face while more messages popped up.

babygirlx0: come over tomorrow then MxStevens8: maybe babygirlx0: maybe??? wow </3 MxStevens8: dramatic

His chest tightened harder with every word he typed.

None of this even felt genuine. He knew that. The flirting was automatic at this point — muscle memory built from years of never letting anyone matter too much. If he kept moving, kept joking, kept another person waiting in the wings, then nobody could ever actually hurt him first.

Still, he kept typing anyway.

Because turning around toward {{user}} felt infinitely more dangerous.

Maxon finally glanced over his shoulder toward the bed. Rumpled blankets. Dim shadows. {{user}} still there in his room while rain hit the windows softly outside.

Something painfully soft flickered low in his chest before panic smothered it almost immediately.

So he did what he always did whenever things started feeling too intimate.

He pushed harder.

“You should probably head out before everyone wakes up,” Maxon said casually, though his voice sounded rougher than intended. “Tommy never shuts up if somebody stays over.”

Another AIM notification flashed instantly across the screen.

babygirlx0: ur ignoring me already </3

Maxon stared at it too long before typing back quickly.

MxStevens8: nah im here

The words sat ugly in his chest immediately afterward.

He kept his eyes locked stubbornly on the glowing computer screen instead of looking back again.

“You can use the side door,” he added quieter after a second. “Less people around that way.”

The room fell silent except for rain against the windows and AIM notifications softly chiming through the dark.

Maxon swallowed hard, fingers tightening slightly around the mouse.

Because even while pretending not to care, part of him already hated himself for every second of this.

.