There was silence as Max drove away from the party. Nikki felt embarrassed, relieved, angry, happy, hurt, and confused, all at once. How did he know she was in trouble? Had he been at the party the whole time and only known she was there when the tent went down? She glanced up at him and still couldn't read his expression. Was he angry at her? No, he wasn't. He was angry at Sasha. He'd saved her, but she wasn't ready to forgive him yet.

"I'm sorry."

She stared at him after the words came out of his mouth.

"I am so, so, so sorry, Nikki. I can't even begin to apologize for what I did to you. I'll take you home and let Neil know what happened, then I'm going to go slap a bitch."

"You can't. Nobody's at my house."

"You're home alone?"

"Mom, Carl, and Neil went to the mountains. Mom said she thought I needed time alone after… after what happened." Max took a deep breath and made a U-turn.

"Fuck that plan, then. I'm not leaving you by yourself after what happened tonight."

"Where are we going, then?"

"The cabin. You can spend the night there and I'll take you home in the morning."

"I-I'm not sure that's a good idea…"

"I won't touch you. You get the bedroom and I'll sleep on the couch. You don't even have to talk to me. There's obviously nothing you have to say…" His voice trailed off and she shakily touched his hand.

"We need to talk, Max. I want to hear your side of this before we write everything off."

His breathing hitched at her touch, but he said nothing until they arrived at their destination. Nikki got out and looked at the cabin. It looked less cozy in the spring. Not to mention the bag of trash sitting on the porch.

"How long have you been here?"

"Since after you punched me. Went home, packed a bag, and came up here to clear my head."

She had no response to that, so she simply looked down at the hoodie she was wearing. Max's hoodie. It was warm and soft, with his scent clinging to it. Like an old friend. She felt… safe. Quietly, she followed him into the cabin and saw that he had been up there for a week. His clothes were put in a bag by the door and the kitchen sink was full of dirty coffee mugs. Glancing at him, she realized he had bags under his eyes.

"Have you been sleeping at all?"

"I haven't been able to. Coffee helps."

He sounded… broken. Like there was nothing good in his life anymore.

"You know where the bathroom is. Go ahead and put your clothes on."

Nikki nodded and went into the bathroom. As she took off Max's hoodie, she didn't feel quite so safe anymore. Was this why he wore it all the time? She dug in her bag and found a pair of sleep shorts she'd intended to wear to a sleepover at Tabii's after the party. That would do for now. She added one of her sleep shirts—a shirt, she realized with a pang, that had belonged to Max originally. Finally, she put the hoodie back on and headed into the living room.

Max was staring at the empty fireplace, his thoughts far away and the brightness in his eyes gone. She hadn't even considered the fact that maybe Max was hurting just as much as her. He seemed like the walking dead at the moment—lifeless and dull, a far cry from the boy she'd gone out with for five months. Taking a deep breath, Nikki sat down next to him on the couch, snapping him out of his daze.

"Oh, sorry," he sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I was just thinking. Is that my hoodie?"

"I like it," she replied stubbornly. "You never let me wear it when we were together and it's comfy."

He laughed humorlessly.

"And… now we have to talk."

"Sasha told you everything."

"But I want to hear it from you."

"Okay. So, after I met you and we started hanging out, Sasha proposed a little job to me. You already know I do favors for cash. She wanted me to find out stuff about you and tell it to her so she could crush you. To convince me, she told me the story about what she did to you—swapping it so that she was the victim and you were the one who did it."

"And that convinced you to take the five hundred dollars she offered you for the job?"

"That's how much she told you? Wow, Sasha. Way to make me sound like a cheap ho."

"How much did she offer?"

"The five hundred was up front. And… if I completed the job, she'd give me another thousand."

"She offered you fifteen hundred dollars to break my heart?!"

"Not to break your heart, no. To… to hurt you emotionally. Dating you wasn't part of the plan at first, then she was all for it because it meant you'd tell me more. It was about the time that we went on the camping trip that I started wanting to back out."

"Then what happened?"

"We were together a couple more months, and Sasha started getting pissed because I wasn't getting her the results she wanted. I… I told her that I didn't want to do it anymore, but she wasn't having it."

"What did she do?"

"She threatened me. She told me that if I backed out of our deal, she'd tell you everything. And report my business to the school board to get David fired. I was trapped in a corner and I was trying to find a way out that didn't involve me losing you or David losing his job."

"If you'd told me…"

"Would you have reacted any differently?" She was silent.

"No, I wouldn't have."

"So I stayed with you, and for the first time in my life, I felt happy. Like, actually happy. I could smile without forcing myself to, and I could laugh for real. Valentine's Day happened and we had sex, and…"

"I already know Sasha was your first."

"Yeah. It was an impulse decision over a year ago that only happened once. I didn't feel anything afterwards, unlike people in the movies, so I assumed it was Hollywood bullshit until you. I felt like it was something I wanted to do again and again—just waking up with you next to me, holding you close."

"What changed? I mean, obviously, you called things off with Sasha, but what made you do it?"

"You told me the real version of what happened, the day of David and Gwen's wedding. You aren't the type of person to lie to get a person to do what you want, so I knew Sasha had lied. When I went off on my own at the reception, it was to call Sasha and tell her I quit."

"Max…"

"She told you her version of what happened, obviously, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I thought, after that, she'd leave you alone. I let myself enjoy that last night with you before it all went to shit the next day. You know what happened—I ignored you for almost a week, trying to forget, and you gave me a black eye. Nice punch, by the way."

"And then Neil heard about it."

"I gave him a message to give you. Did he?"

"That you didn't lie about how you felt and you wished you could take it all back? Yeah."

"Well, he didn't give you the whole message, then. The last part of it was that I still love you."

There. He'd laid it all out for her. His reasons for keeping up with Sasha's demented request, why he hadn't told her any of it before, and why he'd acted like a dick the week after. But… something didn't add up.

"How did you know I was at the party tonight?"

"I got a text from Pikeman. He told me that both you and Sasha were at the party and that Sasha was hunting for you. I had a bad feeling, so I grabbed my keys and drove up there just in time to see them topple the tent."

"Sasha was so mad at you."

"I still can't believe she pulled that bullshit. That was bad, even for Her Royal Bitchiness, Pain-In-The-Ass."

Something else about Max's story stuck out in Nikki's head.

"What about reporting you to the school board?" Max refused to look her in the eye. "Max, did she do it?"

"No."

"So, it was a bluff."

"No, it wasn't. I told her… I told her not to bother because I was turning myself in. My disciplinary hearing's on Monday, when we go back to school. I'm pleading guilty. Besides, it'll get me out of your life and give you the fresh start you need. You deserve a guy who won't sell you out like I did—someone who's not a piece of shit like me."

The gravity of Max's words hit Nikki like a freight train.

He was giving himself up to save David's job. He'd ended the arrangement with Sasha because he couldn't hurt her that way. He'd rushed in at the thought that she might be in trouble and rushed her out of a bad situation. He still loved her, after she punched him and dumped him. And now he was willing to let himself essentially go to jail because he wanted her to be happy.

"Like I said, I'll take you home in the morning, and then you never have to see me—"

WHAP!

Nikki slapped him across the face. He held his injured cheek and looked at her. Tears were once again streaming from her eyes, but this time, they were tears of anger.

"How do you know what I need?!" she snapped. "You said I need a fresh start and that I don't deserve a piece of shit like you?! Fuck that!"

"Nikki—"

"No! Shut up! It's my turn to talk!" She took a deep breath. "These past couple weeks have been awful. You know why?! Because you haven't been there. You haven't been talking to me or making me laugh or letting me vent about my frustration-of-the-week. Were you selfish to take the job from Sasha? Yes. But you continued with it for David's sake, which wasn't as selfish as you think. You and I were going to get hurt either way, but David… David was innocent in all this. You kept going to save his job." He stared at her. "But… I was being stupid about this. Instead of giving you a chance to explain what was going on, I took what Sasha said at face value and got angry. I broke up with you and gave you a black eye instead of trusting my instincts."

"What else… did she tell you?"

"She told me that you were planning to leave me for her, which now, thanks to Erin, I know was a load of bullshit. Erin told me you hate Sasha."

"I do." He balled his hand into a fist. "I want to hurt that bitch for what she did to you. Make her regret everything she's ever done."

Nikki could see he was shaking, his body leaning towards her subconsciously.

I won't touch you.

"Max… let's focus on that tomorrow. For now, let's just… make up." She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, giving him a hug at the same time. He held her to him.

"Please don't let this be a dream," he murmured. "That would be more fucked up than anything else that's happened these past couple weeks. I love you so much, Nik."

"I love you, too. And I'm sorry I punched you."

"The way I hurt you? I'd take a million more if it meant you'd smile."

They sat there for another minute, just holding each other on the couch. Then Max sighed.

"We'd better get some sleep."

"Yeah." She got up, but he stayed where he was. "Aren't you going to sleep?"

"I'm sleeping on the couch."

"Nope. We made up and we're back together."

"Wait, we are?"

"Unless you don't want to be."

"Hey, of course I do!"

"Then come on!" She pulled him along into the bedroom and they got into the bed, cuddling close again.

"I swear that if I wake up and you're gone, I'm going to take that as a sign of sleep-deprivation-induced hallucination."

"I'll still be here. Don't worry." She tapped him on the nose. "Boop!"

"God, you're adorable."

"And you're an asshole, but I love you anyway."