Finding Home
Kate had only left for a few minutes when the door opened, letting the owner of the office back inside. Max had been in her thoughts, pondering about her next move, preparing for a discussion she knew she would have to face. Damned! I'd hope to have more time before this!
"Kate says you're going to be okay?" Victoria opened up as she walked toward the table.
Max shrugged the question off. "Not like anyone really cares."
"I DO!" The blonde immediately responded, almost barked. "I care about you, Max!"
She felt a surge of anger warming up in her gut. "You… care about me?" The words were whispered, as if they surprised her. "YOU CARE ABOUT ME?! THE HELL YOU FUCKING DO!" The small pinkette finally shouted.
"Max-" Victoria began, but Max did not give her time to continue.
"Did you really care about me when my dad dragged me out of your car and sequestered me? Did you really care about me when I was sent away to a fucking 'reformation school'?" Max actually used her fingers to make quotation marks. "Did you really fucking care about me these past years while I was living in hell, wandering alone, homeless, getting beat up, having to beg and steal or even sell my-fucking-self for food?!"
With each of her accusations, Max could see the blonde crumbling, as if her body was literally shrinking, and part of her felt sweetness at seeing the girl suffering. "If you fucking cared about me, Victoria, you'd have been there to save me!"
"Max-" The blonde began, trying to find words as her voice died in her throat.
"Where were you, Victoria?"
"I…"
"Where were you, when my family shoved me in a car and drove me away? Where were you when these psychopaths at the 'school' did their best to break my body and mind? Where were you while I was starving on the side of the roads? Where were you when I got raped by bums, truckers and other psychos? Tell me, Victoria! Where the fuck were you when I had to let all the perverts of the fucking world have a go at me, just so I could have fucking roof over my head and food in my stomach?!"
"I didn't know!" Victoria finally cried out, tears in her eyes. "I swear, Max! I swear! I searched for you! Ask Dana!"
"Yeah, sure…" Max scoffed crossing her arms.
"I swear, Max! When your dad had your family drag you away, he threatened me, said he would kill the both of us if I even showed myself in your neighborhood! And still, the next day I was waiting for you! I waited for you all day, all week, at school, in your street. I hid in my car, hopping to see you! I tried to call you! And I never saw or heard from you!" The girl cried and sobbed. "I swear, Max. The only news we had was that your parents had pulled you out and transferred you in another school. And I searched for you! Every day I went to every other school around Seattle, hoping to see you! I did that for months!"
"And then what? Decided you had enough? You moved on as if nothing had happened and got yourself a nice life?" Max charged back, not wanting to accept the girl had been searching for her all this time.
"And then, rumors came that… that your father had killed you! That you were dead!" Victoria uttered with a broken voice. "I didn't believe the rumors at first… But… I still couldn't find you. After months, I began to doubt… I began to think I actually got you killed… That you were lying somewhere at the bottom of the Sound and that it was my fault!"
"Yeah, as if my own dad would kill me… Try something else."
"Like it would have been the first time!" Victoria defended. "Max, do you even know who your dad is?"
"Some asshole bigoted businessman." She simply responded.
"You really have no idea?"
At the blonde's question, Max simply shook her head with a hint of annoyance.
"Max, your father, Ryan Caulfield, is the head of the Seattle Irish mob! How was I supposed to believe a man, who had countless people killed over a few dollars, would not have his own daughter killed because, in his bigoted view, she was shaming him by being gay?"
"What? No! No way! My dad may be a jerk, but -"
"For fucks sake, Max! Why do you think a shy girl like you wasn't bullied all the time like all the other nerds?"
"I was bullied! I clearly remember Thomas Jordan enjoying himself as he and his buddies put their fucking shaving cream bomb in my locker!" Max argued.
"Yeah, and he never walked straight ever again, Max! Do you remember what happened to him? The 'accident'?" This time, Victoria actually flexed her fingers in a quotation mark sign.
"What? So, the jerk broke his knees falling from some stairs… I don't see how that makes my dad a mobster."
"Thomas Jordan never fell down any stairs, Max! Or if he did, he fucking managed to fall repeatedly on the same spot over and over again! His knees did not just break, they got shattered into tiny fucking pieces!" Victoria argued, pausing at the shock on Max' face as the girl began to see her childhood in a different way.
"I…" The pink-haired girl frowned as she stuttered. Is this true? Is my dad really some… mobster king? It would explain a few incidents, but… Max began to ponder, her brain trying to review every weird moment of her childhood.
Victoria pressed her hands on her eyes, wiping her tears. "Max… I'm sorry I believed these rumors! You don't know how sorry I am. There are so many things I'd do differently if I could! I've spent years thinking about what I should have done!"
The girl's words brought Max back to reality. "It… It doesn't matter… Nothing in all this matters! Whether my dad is a mobster or not. Whether you believed the rumors or not. Whether you regret acting as you did or not!" Max shook her head as she stood up, heading to the door. "You can't change the past, Victoria! You can't erase those five years! You can't give me my life back!"
Victoria quickly rushed between her and the room's exit. "I can try! I know I can't erase the past! I… I know it! But… I know you are alive, now! And I can help you! Or I can try to!" Tears and mascara were running down the blonde's cheeks as she spoke. "Please, Max! Let me help! I beg you!"
Max was shook by the way her former paramour seemed so insistent, the way she was frantic about helping her. But what could Victoria do? Give her money? No, Max did not want charity. Give her a place to sleep? No way will she live with Victoria. The times she wanted to be with the blonde were over.
She nervously reached with her right hand and gripped her left elbow. "You can't help me, Tori… It's too late…"
"I can! I can help you!" The blonde insisted again.
"And what will you do? Give me money? Invite me to live in your home? I don't want your pity or your charity! I may not have much, but I fucking earned what I have!"
"Then just tell me what it will take!" Victoria's voice sounded more and more frantic as she grew desperate. And Max found it harder and harder to ignore her pleas.
Fuck, Max! Stay tough! You told Merrick to go fuck himself! You even cut his balls off! Don't fucking show weakness!
Before she could respond, the blonde kept on offering. "Tell me, Max! Tell me what you need! Do you need a job? I can give you one!"
Max could not help the scoff that escaped her throat. "A job? And what will you have me do? I never graduated! I have no skill, no experience! So what job would you have for me? You want me to be the Moral Enhancing Assistant? You know, the girl that goes naked in the men's room to blow and be fucked by them so they stay happy? Well, fuck you Tori! I'll never do that again! Not for you! Not for anyone!"
"NO! I would never even think of having you do that!" Victoria whimpered.
"Then I don't see what job you would have for me!" Max retorted with her voice breaking slightly.
"I don't know either, Max… I don't know, but I still want to do it! Any job you want! And if you need training, I'll see that you get it!"
"I don't want your-"
"It's not pity, Max! I did it for most of the people working here! You would have to work for me for a few years to pay it back, like they did." Victoria interrupted before Max could deny her offer.
Despite all her words of protest, Max' resolve found itself seriously weakened by that. It was more than she ever was offered. More than she let herself even dream for, an offering for a job and the training to go with it. Better, Victoria was offering her any position too.
Fuck! I don't want to stay, but I'd be fucking crazy to pass on this opportunity!
Max bit her lip and turned to look away as she thought. It was like an internal battle between the different parts of her mind. The hurt, rough and broken part telling her not to trust anything coming from anyone; kicking and screaming at the mere thought of considering the offer. The sound and reasonable part of her, the one that had been asleep for so long, beaten into submission by so many disappointment and hurt; calling for her to be objective and to see how this could actually let her live without having to resort to the disgusting things she had to accept before.
Victoria was about to press further, her lips parting again when Max screamed in frustration. "FUUUUCCCKKK!"
The pinkette turned, pacing in the room before she stood in front of Victoria again. "Fine… You want to offer me a job, I'll think about it okay? That's all I'm promising. That I'll think about it! That I won't leave town tonight! I'll stay a few days! I'll think about it. And whatever decision I make, you better fucking accept it!"
The blonde's shoulder dropped with relief. "I will!" She sobbed, wiping her eyes. "I will… I promise."
"You better! I fucking started this trip by cutting the balls off my pimp when he refused to let me go! Don't think I will not fucking kill you if you push too far…" Max growled, although her voice lacked any real sign of threat or resolution. "Now, let me go before I change my mind."
Victoria's face showed she did not really believe that Max would hurt her. She still took a step aside, letting Max scurry out of the room.
As she climbed back into the passenger seat of the truck, Max was glad she had taken her time between exiting Victoria's office and leaving the building. She had made a slight detour through the girl's room – because one has to go when one has to go – and took a few minutes to gather herself back into shape.
It had not been that easy, and she still had a lot to think about. But that could wait. For now, she was secretly glad the punk driver had been waiting for her. She would not admit it, but she actually had decided she would accept the invitation, if the girl was still there to renew it, before leaving the company's building. Although, I really expected having to sleep under a bridge or in some alley again. Not that I was really looking forward to it…
She buckled her seatbelt silently as Chloe started the engine, giving birth again to the bass rumbles of the in-line six. The buzzer for the air tank came to live again, quickly silenced as the compressor built up the pressure again. The Punk flicked the lights on and pressed the parking break fob before setting her left foot heavily on the clutch and shifting into gear.
Slowly, the truck moved out of its parking spot and headed toward the gates. Max remained silent for a while, looking at the buildings and streets as the truck slowly maneuvered through the town, following a large road along the coast, until it crossed through the town's market district.
"Anything happened with Bitchtoria?" The driver asked as a residential area began to appear in the windows.
Max snorted with humor at the nickname. She had never heard anyone call Victoria like that, but she could understand why the blue-haired girl did so. "Nothing particular. She tried to make me stay, of course…"
"I see." The woman at the wheel simply responded as she slew her truck down, flicking her turn light on. "Are you gonna do it? Staying?"
Max shrugged. "I don't really know. I guess I could think about it. Maybe… It's not like I enjoy running and all."
The driver nodded as she took her turn, leading the heavy vehicle through narrower streets surrounded by houses. "I can imagine. Are you… thinking about getting back together with her?"
"What?" The pink-haired girl's head jerked and her eyes narrowed as she looked at the driver. The bluenette kept her eyes purposefully on the road though, preventing her to really read her thoughts. "No! I'm not gonna get back with her! I'm not blind and I saw her ring! Sorry, but I won't be the mistress that hangs in the shadow while she enjoys her married life, and be on call when she gets bored. I gave up on streetwalking; I'm not about to become some kind of private escort girl!"
"Sorry I asked. Just pondering. And don't worry too much about the ring. It's not like she's spending time with her husband anyway. No love between them."
"HUSBAND?!" Max felt like she came from one surprise to another. "She's married to a man? But she's gay!"
Despite being all serious, the Punk snorted. "I hear yah! Most of the girls working for her are as well, by the way. And as far as I know, she did not get the husband by choice… Family crap or something." She shrugged. "Although, they deserve each other… Cheating assholes, the both of them."
Max winced at the acid tone. "Sorry… Did not want to bring this back."
"It's fine… I've known Rachel was cheating on me for a while. Just never thought Victoria would be the one she did it with."
The truck slew down again, Chloe driving it close to the curb as they approached a house with sidings in a poor state. She parked in front of the house, making sure she did not block the driveway in which a familiar State Patrol SUV and an old hatchback car were already parked.
She pulled on the yellow fob, the truck giving out another hissing sound of air being released as the parking brakes were engaged. She reached for the key, cutting off the engine as she spoke again. "So, what are you planning to do?"
Max unbuckled her belt and sat back, looking at the windshield. "I'm not sure… She offered me a job, if I want one… It's kinda appealing really, but I know I don't have the skills for any of them… The only thing I got experience with, I'm certainly not doing ever again… So…"
Chloe nodded. "Yeah well, no rush. You're welcome to stay here while you think it out. And don't worry about skills. Dicktoria is a bitch and all, but… she's actually good willed. If you want a job and you don't have the skills, she'll get you the training for it. A lot of the folks working for her got their job like that."
"Even you?" Max asked with a raised eyebrow.
Chloe reached on the dashboard for her cigarettes, taking one and lighting it up before offering one to her passenger. "No… I got my license before she even created her company. She gave me my first real job, though… Before that, I spent over a year struggling, applying to company after company… I got a few one-time gigs, but no real employment." She rolled her eyes at the pinkette as she added. "No trucker company around here was really eager to hire a punk girl with a history…"
Max took a drag of her cigarette. "I see…"
"And I don't let my boss pressure me into breaking the regs!" The Punk smirked. "Seriously, those dudes seem to think it's fine if we drive without sleep and all… I'd rather keep my ass in one piece, and my truck and cargo while I'm at it. Won't do the customer no good if I wreck his stuff because I fell asleep at the wheel! And those dudes would scream bloody hell for not following the regs and breaking their trucks, too! Assholes…" Chloe finished her cigarette, popping her door open. "Anyway, Vic actually understands that and she actually like that I keep repair costs to a minimum. She gets a good reputation as a dependable transporter with drivers who WILL deliver their cargo in one piece. I get to enjoy a job that lets me travel around the country. And both of us benefit from a bigger tolerance from the fuzz as far as stopping us for weight and logs controls is concerned. Trust me, even if we have to pay a few 'late' fees now and then, we're still getting much more in exchange."
"Good for you, I guess." Max said, finishing her cigarette.
"Yep! Anyway, this is the place. Home shit home… I know it's not really good looking on the outside, but well… Come on, they're probably waiting for us to eat, too."