#natandmax

Max's stomach twisted itself into knots as the car slowed down and eventually came to a halt in front of the place he was supposed to live for the next year and a half, if not longer. He ground his teeth together, struggling to keep his breathing under control as the thought of introducing himself to these complete strangers contorted and blew itself out of proportion. Staring out of the car window, he had to admit it was a nice place. At least, it was compared to the apartment in the city he'd originally called "home". He didn't really think of himself as a suburbs kind of person, he'd probably find it hard to sleep without the constant hum of city life in the background. Not that he'd slept that much in his old house anyway.

His social worker was sat in the drivers seat, her bag on her lap and mobile in hand. She looked fairly ready to go, but it seemed she was waiting on him to make the first move.  Max swallowed, he wasn't ready for this. How could he ever be ready for this? His heart banged against his chest as the time on the car radio changed from 09:57 to 09:58. Technically, they were supposed to be there at ten. So that gave him, what, two minutes to calm down? He decided to chew on his lip instead, biting down hard to give himself a distraction. After a few more moments, his social worker, Ann, turned around to face him. "You ready to go?" she asked him, her voice soft and her smile softer. He didn't trust himself to speak as if he wasn't falling apart on the inside, so he just nodded and gave her a thin lipped smile that was probably the furthest thing from genuine. She gave him a sympathetic look- one that made his eyebrows draw together, he wasn't to be pitied- before opening the door. The silence shattered by the sounds of the outside world.

He urged his body to stay upright as he got out of the car, leaning slightly on the door frame as Ann got his suitcase out of the trunk. He could've easily kept it with him in the back, but she had insisted. It wasn't like it was huge. It was more of an overnight bag than anything else. Just a few pairs of clothes and a picture of his sister. He didn't really get sentimental about much, so it was pretty easy to throw out most of his stuff when he had been taken away. She handed him the bag, slamming down the trunk door and locking the car with a press of a button on her keys.

"C'mon," she said, gesturing the the house. "I'm sure they're lovely people." And so they made their way up the driveway, the gravel crunching underneath their feet. He had no idea what to do with himself as she rang the doorbell, the realization that this was his new home hitting him harder now. What if they didn't like him? Fuck, what if he didn't like them? How was this even possible? How could they just throw him in with some random family and expect them all to be like peas in a pod. That wasn't how the world worked. Max had a general distaste for the majority of the human population, how on earth could they guarantee these people were going to be different?