At the house warming party I tried my hardest not to take notice of Max, this in turn made him sad inside and the more he drank the more he became depressed. As I sat between Tracey and Ricky, talking and making plans for our shopping trip the next day, Max sat 2 meters in front of me and was watching me under his cap. Tracey and Ricky notice this. After a while, Max sat up and took off for a walk which later turned into an ordeal of shakes and tears on his behalf. I told Ricky to go after him but after a few minutes I followed suite to see what they were up to. I met up with Ricky on his way back; He said that Max just needed some fresh air and that we shouldn’t follow him. I didn’t listen but took off right after him just in time to see him stumble to his knees and shook uncontrollably and wept. Ricky got jealous and told me to let go of Max as I tried to help him up, but I refused and we both helped him back to Betty’s house. After bringing Max back, we took him into Betty’s room to rest. Ricky at this stage did not allow me or anyone to go in to see him. We finally went in using Tracey’s excuse to use to bathroom. Max’s condition became worst and I became anxious and argued with Ricky. At that point I knew that I felt more for Max than I had thought. I wanted to hold him but at the same time scared that it will spark gossip amongst the friends. I kept my distance and felt helpless watching Tracey look after him. After Max felt better, he sat up and waved Betty over, who at this time was standing beside me feeling scared and not sure what to do to help him. He told her to slap him; she refused and gave me the honors. He later tells me in an email (when I went back to my hometown), that the reason he became emotional on this night was because he felt torn between Betty and me. Betty, because he felt that it was unfair for her that he is with her but is thinking of me; and me, because he is next to me but have to hold in his feelings and is afraid to watch me be with someone else.

The time came for me to go back to my hometown. On the day before I left, Ricky Laney and I went shopping and dined out with Tracey and her husband [She invited herself], on this day Max messaged me and said jokily that I don’t even invite him to go and that he feels that after I leave back to my hometown, we will not speak anymore. But he will be there for me if ever I need. I felt upset and strange inside, I felt hurt that he doesn’t want to have me in his life anymore - he later explains in the email that he couldn't bare being in my life without being with me.

Max said he wanted to send me off at the airport if Ricky is not going to be there. I told him to come because I’d want to see him for the last time before I leave. The morning that I was due to go to the airport, Ricky called me and said he was coming to take me to the airport. I freaked out and told him off, I also told him that Max was coming and that if he wanted he can see me off at the airport because my brother wanted to take me. At the airport I was approached by Ricky and as I looked on Max was standing meters away. I was glad that he came. Ricky had picked him up in a bid to show him that he himself might have more of a chance. He’d even asked Max for advice. My last moments in my old hometown were ended with a hug to Max and Ricky. Max told me that he had something to tell me and that he will send it in an email. That night I received that email and a part of me was happy and saddened at the fact that it had turned out this way. I was happy that I wasn’t going crazy when I thought I can sense that he still liked me and saddened at the fact that will be never be together and that I am now friends with his new girlfriend. In the email he told me that ever since he saw me he couldn’t stop thinking about me and explained many other incidents on where he wanted to get closer to me but couldn’t. He explained the reason why he said that we won’t talk anymore is because he won’t be able to bare the fact that I will be in the arms of another guy and not his.

I came out and told him my feelings towards him. Two days later Max broke up with Betty. His reason was that they jumped into the relationship far too soon before they even gotten to know each other and two weeks into the relationship he had fallen out of love with her. I, along as Tracey had known this but had only brushed it off as cold feet and had advised him to work on it.

Max and I slowly gotten to know each other more and more and slowly I’d truly fallen in love with him even though he had fallen in love with me since we first started talking, when I was broken.

A week or two later, Ricky surprised me by flying up to my hometown and spent a whole week in bid to make me fall for him but it backfired because his true colours started to show. He was a cunning and conniving person that was trying to compete with Max to get to me by playing the victim to the girls. He even called Max and let him speak to me in a bid to show Max that he himself is by my side. Tracey became nasty and on one occasion called and accused me of “leading him on”, which she later denied. I am so glad that Ricky came because that was the only reason how I’d gotten to know him better and what kind of person that he truly is.

The more that Max and I became closer, the more drama started to surround us in the form of friends backstabbing and gossiping about our relation. Tracey at this point called me and told me that the only reason that Max wanted to be with me was because he wanted to compete with Ricky and that he did not really like me. Ricky and Betty also started to give me their two cents and tried to push me off the pedestal. The guard that I had put up to keep these people out started to chip and it really played an issue in out relation but Max reassured me and we became stronger yet again. This however did now faze us in the slightest and as days went by the stronger we became.

We became officially unofficial over time and I couldn’t be happier to stick to our agreement of being single until the end of the year.

Our time spent talking over the phone became a thing of fun and games where we’d make bets and whoever loses will have to grant the winner a wish or a favour. The first bet was for him to find my address. He was so confident that he would win so he amped up the bid and put our relationship on the line by saying ‘if I find your address then we’ll be together’, I agreed. Max finally got my address and his first favour was for me to come back to my old hometown for his 25th birthday. I agreed. I arrived to my old home town at midnight, which is also Max's birthay. I was so nervous and couldn't look at him in the face because I knew what I was going to give him for his birthday. After putting my luggage in the car we sat there and I turned to him and told him to close his eyes so I can give him his gift. I told him to put both his hands out, palms facing up. I hesitated for a while because I was so nervous. I finally placed a birthday card in his left hand, my hand in his left and kissed him. That night we drove around and finally parked at the lake in front of his new house. He asked me to be his girlfriend which I agreed later that same day.

The next day was his birthday celebration at Tracey's house. We had to keep our distance due to mu bidding, but he would mime 'i love you' and would make excuses to be close to me. He drank so much that night with Laney, and was out of it by the end of the party. Before everyone went home, Betty and I held each other and I cried in her arms because I felt her pain and was afraid of how to break the news to her that Max and I are together. I really wanted to stay to look after him but was so afraid what the others might say so I slept over at Laney's house instead. All night long I couldn't sleep because I was so scared that Max would wake up in a shock that I wasn't there to look after him. It was the biggest mistake to leave him there because I feel so much regret till this very day, knowing that he woke up and was so sick and wept on the phone to me knowing that I wasn't there. I missed my flight that day to look after him.

The next day or so, I emailed Betty to tell her the news.

To be continued…