**Max and Megan might be a story you remember. You may be wondering why it's showing back up as a new story. I was not fond of the first version. I wrote for what people wanted, not what I wanted. One night, I decided to take it down and polish it up to what I could be proud of. It is a bit different than the original, but in my opinion much, much better...Enjoy! **
It was late in the afternoon when Megan decided to look over her college report. It was due the next week, but she wasn't going to get a good grade by procrastinating. She was glancing through the stack of papers she had printed out earlier, when her door creaked open.
"Don't you know to lock the door?" A man's voice asked her.
For a split second she was afraid some man had broken into the house. She whipped her head around quickly. Her fear turned into joy when she saw who it was. She squealed and launched herself off the bed. "Max!"
He laughed at her, catching her in his arms. He hugged her tightly in his arms. "I'm on leave for the next week, I thought I'd come see you while I had the chance."
Megan pulled back and looked up at him, beaming ear to ear. "I missed you so much."
"I missed you, too." He smiled warmly at her. He hadn't realized just how much he would miss her when he had left home for the Army. He had missed her more than he had missed being at home. The thought was a bit scary and odd to him. She was, after all, just his best friend.
He chuckled at the memory of how they had met. She was in second grade, he in fourth. Max had been out in his backyard playing a game of baseball when he hit a grand slam to beat all grand slams. It flew over the fence, soaring through the sky until it crashed through the neighbor's upstairs window. All Max's friends swiftly left in horror, afraid they would be in trouble.
It took two minutes for a knock to sound on the front door. Max's mother forced him to open it, knowing it was going to be Mr. Peterson, the neighbor. When he opened the door, it was not a man at all. It was a girl, and she was red as a beet.
"You broke my horse!" She screamed at him, her face red and puffy from crying.
Before Max could answer, she punched him square in the nose and left him bleeding on the doorstep.
Max hugged Megan one last time before letting her go. He stared at her. Had she tanned? Did she have more freckles? Her strawberry red hair was longer than he remembered. Her green eyes seemed brighter than before. She still smelled faintly like vanilla, a scent that even then was secretly driving him crazy. She wore a faded t-shirt and a pair of jeans.
"Are you going to stand there staring at me all day, Romeo?" She lightly punched him in the arm.
He snapped out of his trance. "No, I want to know what you've been up to lately."
***
Long after midnight the two ran out of things to talk about. Megan had told him all about college, and Max talked about some of the things he'd seen and done while away.
"I wish I could just stay here. I don't feel like going home. It's just an empty apartment with a bed and a TV."
"So stay here. We're both adults, it isn't like you're going to jump my bones or anything." She giggled at the preposterous thought. He was nothing short of a gentleman.
"You never know." He winked. "Are you sure your dad wouldn't mind? I know you said he is on his fishing 'man-cation', but I don't know how he'd feel about it."
"Max, Dad loves you like a son. He wouldn't mind if you stayed."
He knew she was right. Hal had always treated him as if he were an extended son.
"Do you have clothes with you?" Megan asked, crawling off the bed and walking over to her closet.
"No, I took a shower and came right over." He replied as he watched her pull a pair of red plaid pajama pants and a grey t-shirt out of the closet. "I get lonely sometimes."
Megan knew the feeling. She had thrown herself into her schoolwork to keep her mind off the fact that her best friend was in a dangerous part of the world, while she was all alone. She smiled at him as she left the room. "I'm glad you came to see me."
***
Freshly changed, Megan walked back into her bedroom. Max was on her bed, resting against her pillows. He glanced at her for a moment before speaking.
"Hey, isn't that my shirt?"
"It was. Now it's mine." She stuck her tongue out at him.
"Oh, really?" He jeered as he sat up. He leaned and with a long muscled arm yanked her forward by the shirt. Caught off guard, she fell against his torso. He stopped pulling for a second. They just looked at each other for what seemed like minutes but was merely a second or two. "It looks better on you." He said simply and let her go.
"Damn right it does." She stood back up and smoothed the wrinkles out of the shirt.
"Can I sleep with you?" Max asked quietly looking up at her. He figured she would say no, but he wasn't ready to leave.
To his surprise, she nodded a simple yes.
Megan had crawled under the covers by the time Max flipped the light switch off. He undid his leather belt, unzipped his jeans and let them drop to the floor. He shrugged off his shirt. The bed dipped under his weight and the sheets rustled as he got in the tiny twin sized bed.
"Max?"
"What?"
"You are going to fall out if you sleep on the edge, silly." She giggled in the dark. God, he'd missed that laugh. He moved an inch closer to her. They lay face to face.
"I've missed you." Her voice had a sad tone to it. "I wish you could stay longer."
