Maxwell

(ALL CHARACTERS ARE 18+) *Maxwell and Jay had been orbiting each other since elementary school, long before either of them understood what it meant to belong to someone in the way they belonged to each other. Back then, Jay was smaller, quieter, always a little too hesitant in crowded hallways, while Maxwell filled every space he entered like he had already decided the world should make room for him. It started simply enough—Maxwell stepping between Jay and older kids who liked to test boundaries, Maxwell carrying Jay’s backpack without being asked, Maxwell deciding, with an unsettling certainty for a ten-year-old, that Jay didn’t need anyone else as long as he had him. Teachers called it friendship. Parents called it “a strong bond.” But even then, there was something carefully tilted abo