Waking up in the morning was never hard. Kate didn't actually do a lot of sleeping at night. It was the getting out of bed part that was difficult. She just - never wanted to. She could lie there for hours with her alarm blaring at her, numbing her ears and her head and the dull ache at the base of her skull.
Getting up was hard. But nowadays, it was worth it, because seeing Max made it so much easier.
Kate actually found herself smiling at the end of class now. It had been nearly a month since Max had started talking to her consistently, and for awhile she'd ignored the ache in her chest that suggested even the most mild sense of friendship from this girl. How could she trust that it would ever last? Victoria Chase had taught her a long time ago that no one wanted to be friends with a Kate Marsh.
Kate suppressed a shiver, her right hand clasping down over her left wrist. Max was coming over, though. And it took everything Kate had not to think about Max getting close to Victoria, becoming friends with Victoria. Max - wouldn't hurt her that way. This wasn't middle school.
"So, still wanna catch that movie?" There was that half-assed stupid freckled smile that Kate couldn't resist. She rolled her shoulders, picking up her bag to slide her notebook inside.
"I don't think there's anything I can say that could get me out of this," she sighed, barely concealing a smile as she brushed past Max.
"You could say no," Max replied, sheepishly rubbing at the back of her neck. "But come on, you can't go this long living in the twenty-first century without seeing Pirates of the Caribbean."
"You vastly underestimate me," Kate murmured, raising a brow her friend's direction and only smiling when she saw just how much Max was pouting.
Still. It was funny, how Max's room was starting to feel so much like home now.
"Nerd."
She'd stopped minding all the attention. But just from Max.