HEY GUYS! I'm back with another chappy for all y'all, so I hope you like it!
Disclaimer: …YEET
14 DAYS UNTIL DEATH
A lot can happen over the course of a week. Children can become adults overnight, nightmares can come to life, plans can change. Unfortunately for me, all of that happened in the course of three days.
"MAXIMUM RIDE!" I jumped out of my skin when I heard Jeb call me. Ari and I had just gotten home from Fang's, and I hadn't been expecting Jeb to be home until later. As you can see, I was obviously wrong.
"Coming!" I tried to sound chipper to mask my growing panic and turned to Ari. "Stay behind the stairs. If anything happens, make a run for it and don't you dare look back." I whispered and practically shoved Ari into his designated hiding spot.
"You called me, Jeb?" Upon looking at him, I wanted to cry; upon smelling him, I wanted to barf. The man was a wreck: his curly hair was tousled in a careless manner, he had haphazardly shaved off his beard causing there to be speckles of hair here and there, and his eyes were bloodshot. He smelled as if he hadn't taken a shower in weeks and his breath smelled of, oh about six thousand cans of beer, plus a few tequila shots to spice things up.
"How many times do I have to tell you? You call me DAD not JEB." I said nothing. "Where have you been, young lady?"
Sensing that this wouldn't end well for me, I replied in the least helpful way possible. "Out."
"No fucking duh, you little shit." Spittle sprayed from Jeb's chapped lips as he spit out the words. This was the first time Jeb had sworn at me since his vow of soberness. "If you won't tell me, then I'll have to guess." Tapping his mottled chin, he hmmed as if he were thinking. "If I had to take a wild guess, I'd say that you were out…with that boyfriend of yours. What was his name again? Fred? Frank?"
"Fang." I don't know why I was encouraging him, but all I knew was that I had to stop this before it got out of hand. "Look, Dad, I'm tired because I've had a long day, so could I go…" I was moving past him before he could respond, but he jutted a hand out and grabbed my elbow. Too late, that damned Voice in my head whispered.
"How dare you say that you're tired? I'm tired. I've been busting my ass all day looking for a job to support you kids. I've been struggling to help this family together. I have a right to say that I'm tired. So where's your excuse for being tired? Have you been looking for a job instead of sitting on your ass, complaining about how you're so "tired"? No! All you do is judge me and say how I'm unworthy of your forgiveness, how I'm the mistake. News flash, Maximum, YOU'RE WRONG. You are the mistake. You are unworthy of my forgiveness. You are the problem. Get off your goddamn high horse and help around here instead of being such a slut, dammit!"
"Excuse me?" I knew I shouldn't have said it. I knew that I would get my ass kicked for saying it. But what did I do? I said it. I'm officially insane.
"Did I mispronounce my words, slut? Was I talking too fast for you, slut? Well, in that case, let me spell it out for you: if it walks like a slut, acts like a slut, and sucks like a slut, then it's a slut!" He gripped my arm like a vise, and me aggravating him wasn't improving his mood either. "You don't think I know what you do when you leave this house? You don't think I know who you "hang out with" when I'm not around? Well, let me tell you, I know. I know that you're nothing but a little whore who pities herself to get attention from men who don't care about her except as a hoe bag. You're useless, a disgrace, and you'd be better off dead! I know it, Ari knows it, and you can damn well be certain that "Fang" knows it as well!"
"SAYS THE MAN WHO CAN'T EVEN HOLD DOWN A JOB BECAUSE HE'S TOO DRUNK HALF OF THE TIME!" The words ripped out of me violently, too violently for me to stop them, and not violent enough for me to regret them. Already, my throat felt raspy from yelling those words but I knew that by the end of the night, my throat wouldn't be the only thing that was sore. After all, the night was still young and I had a feeling that Jeb was about to hit the town.
"MAXIMUM RIDE, YOU ARE TO NOT TALK TO ME THAT WAY IN MY OWN HOUSE, DAMMIT." Jeb's grip on my arm tightened even more. I gasped and tried to detach myself, which only made him angrier. SLAP. My head cracked back as Jeb's hand molded into a fist. In the next instant, the air whooshed out of me as Jeb slammed his meaty fist into my stomach. Doubling over, I fell to my knees on the floor. "THAT'S FOR BEING A USELESS BITCH!" I felt a swift kick to my ribs and nearly fainted. "THAT'S FOR BEING AN UNGRATEFUL BRAT!" Grabbing a fistful of my hair, he slammed my head down onto the floor three times. "THAT'S FOR BEING RUDE. THAT'S FOR BEING A WHORE. THAT'S FOR BEING BORN."
And just as suddenly as his anger arrived, it left. He abruptly changed into an unapologetic old man, cranky and crusty. He was as drunk as the ocean was wet and he didn't care who the hell saw anymore. With a grunt of disgust, he left me on the floor, dazed and rocked with pain.
Groaning, I rolled onto my knees and placed a hand on my forehead. It came away caked in blood. Holding back tears of frustration, I forced myself onto my feet and wobbled out of the kitchen towards the stairs. About three-fourths of the way there, I staggered, my dizziness nearly overwhelming me. But before I could fall, I felt little arms and a fragile shoulder brace against my body and try to hold me. Looking down through my bleary vision, I saw Ari pressed against and looking up at me with a look that screamed rage.
"Come on, Maxie. Let's go pack."
That incident was two days ago. For the past two days, I had avoided taking a trip to Fang's house, feeling like if he were to take one look at me he'd be able to crack the mirror of me I wanted him to see, leaving him to see the raw, broken image left.
I knew that it wasn't safe for me and Ari to be in the house, so while Ari was with Angel and Fang, I was alone at the park.
You might think that going to the park by myself was a pretty lame move, especially since I could have been hanging out with my fantastic boyfriend and his larger than life family. And after all, I only had a couple of noticeable scrapes and bruises, nothing that I hadn't covered up unnoticed before. So what's the problem, you may be asking.
I don't know how to say goodbye. For once my own thoughts and the Voice within were in complete sync. They both knew the problem and neither of them knew the solution. But then again, when have I ever known the solution to anything as important as this?
Resigning myself to sit on a swing, I kicked out my legs and leaned into the wind. Within a few moments, I was swinging higher and higher, a rapidly growing gust of wind blowing through my hair. For the slightest of moments, I closed my eyes and let the world go in a blur.
"Hey, Max!" And just like that I was hurtling back to Earth as a voice violently yanked my extension cord. Opening my eyes, I saw Iggy standing before smiling stupidly at me while I was in mid-swing. Iggy who always had a bright smile and a dumb joke to crack and make everyone feel better. Iggy who was about to get that "bright smile" of his broken into a million pieces if he didn't get out of the way. He realized this too late, of course, and I plowed right into his grinning ass, sending him flying. With a crunch, he landed in a heap, sending woodchips flying everywhere. Cringing myself, I jumped off the swing and took off running toward him.
"Iggy, are you okay?" I asked, crouching next to him. With an overexagerated moan, he sat up.
"Aside from my growing headache and definite concussion, I'd say that I'm dandy." If Iggy had been a color, then he would have been red with aggression and more than a little annoyance. "Dammit, Max! Why the hell would you hit me with a swing like that!"
"Um, there's this little thing called momentum, dumbass! And you have no room to talk. Why the hell didn't you move out of the way!?
"Um, there's little thing called laziness, dumbass! We've talked about this!"
"Whatever." Rolling my eyes, I held out my hand and Iggy took it. Hoisting him to eye level, I watched as he dusted himself off and picked little woodchips out of his messy hair.
"So…what's up buttercup?" Iggy gave me an impish grin.
"Besides running over the occasional redhead, nothing much. You?"
"Besides getting run over by the occasional dirty blonde, same here, man. Wanna swing?" Without waiting for me to respond, he walked over to an empty swing and sat. I followed and sat next to him. We didn't really swing. We didn't really talk. All we did was sit in silence and watch as the world continued around us.
After ten minutes, Iggy breathed out an exasperated sigh. "So…this is awkward." I shrugged causing him to frown. "Max, what's going on with you?"
The throbbing of my bruises synchronized with the beating of my heart. I absently felt sweat bead down my forehead, along my cheek, and down my neck. My skin felt hot, my eyes darted nervously around, and my stomach was at war with itself. You're panicking, the Voice whispered alluringly, almost as if it wanted me to. You should calm down. Breathe. This is nothing you haven't handled already. You tricked him before, and you can do it again. The Voice paused. Unless you can't. And with that, the seed of doubt was planted. Sweat was dribbling off of me in buckets now and I hastily wiped some out of my eyes. Glancing down at my hand, I saw that some of my concealer had whipped away along with my sweat.
Shit! Yanking my hood so that it covered my eyes, I stood up off of the swing. "I'm fine, Iggy. Really. I gotta go now, so…bye!" Twirling around, I raced down the pathway and made my way into the trees. (AUTHOR'S NOTE: I know that this wasn't the smoothest thing I could come up with, so sue me.)
"MAX, WAIT!" Behind me I could hear Iggy racing after me. Tucking my head down, I ran faster. The wind whipped my hoodie out of my face, but I didn't care. As long as I ran, as long as I got away, everything would be fine. Everything had to be fine.
Crashing through the now densely packed trees, I jumped over logs and ran around stumps trying to out race Iggy. I wouldn't say I was a top athlete, nor was I out of shape. Iggy, however was—a top athlete, I mean. He jumped over bushes and thorns as if they were hurdles, his form perfect and long. His fists pumped the air as he ran, giving him speed and momentum, narrowing the gap between us. All in all, that boy was fast.
In the next few seconds, two things happened. One, Iggy tackled me. Two, it began to rain.
I struggled against Iggy's strong grasp as the sky opened up and proverbially "pissed" all over us. I bucked like a bull and tried to slither out from under him, but he pinned me with his arms and legs.
"MAX, CHILL OUT! MAX!" I ignored his urgent pleas and kept on fighting.
"LET ME GO, ASSHOLE!" I screamed in his face.
I could see that he was about to yell back at me when he paused. "Max…what happened to your face?"
"My face…?" It was too late to do anything about Iggy's discovery of my bruises. The rain had completely washed away my concealer. With a whooping sigh, I flopped back down into the muddy soil, letting the rain course down my checks and splatter against my bruises. Absently, I thought to myself, Oh, that feels nice, and I tried to drown out my concerns with the temporary relief the rain gave my blistering, aching face.
"Max, what the hell is going on?! Who did this to you?!" Iggy was quickly becoming hysterical. Standing up, he began to pace across the forest floor, running his hands through his hair while muttering to himself. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that the poor guy was losing it.
Groaning with the effort, I stood up. "Iggy, I can explain—"
"OH LIKE HELL YOU'RE GONNA EXPLAIN. AND I DON'T WANT NO LIES AN' NO BULLSHIT—" I stopped his rant by giving him a "gentle" slap across the face. Staring off into the distance for a time, he eventually looked back at me and said, "Thank you. I needed that. Now, explain yourself."
"Ok. The person who did this to me was my dad, Jeb. And as for why…well, it's kind of a long story…"
One confession, a few heaving sobs, and a great many apologies later, and Iggy was up-to-date on my family drama.
"I'm going to kill that bastard." Iggy's fists were clenched into balls and his veins strained across his neck.
I rolled my eyes. "I know you will. And when you go to jail for murder, I'll come visit you in prison. After all, what are friends for?"
"Max, this is no time for jokes! This is serious. You can't just let him beat you and Ari up like that anymore. I don't see why you just won't call the cops already."
"We've been over this, Iggy. If I call the cops, then Jeb will go to jail and we won't have a legal guardian which would mean that we'd be forced into foster care. Ari would be adopted almost immediately and I'll never see him again. That is not happening."
"I guess that makes sense. But I still don't want you to leave." Pouting, Iggy crossed his arms and looked at me with puppy dog eyes. "Are you sure that you can't stay?"
"Yes, Iggy, I'm sure. Even puppy dogs won't change my mind. Leaving is the right thing to do and you know it. And because I know that you know it, you need to promise me that you won't tell anyone about this." Upon hearing this, Iggy hesitated. "PROMISE ME." I practically screamed into his ears.
"OKAY FINE I PROMISE! Sheesh, woman. You're killing me here." Iggy sighed as he rubbed his neck.
Practically tackling him in a hug, I breathed, "Thank you, thank you, thank you. Iggy, you sir are bombastic."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just do me a favor, Max."
"Anything," I said as we stood up.
"Just…don't die, okay?" He spoke with his back to me and without even glancing at me. He walked away.
Even though he was gone, his words lingered in his absence.
"Just…don't die, okay?"
They sounded both like a premonition and a death sentence. A shiver went down my spine just as goosebumps appeared.
Chill out, Max. There's no reason for you to freak out or anything. You're not gonna die. The Voice tried to console me as I walked out of the park. Jeb would never do something that drastic and no one else knows about what's going on besides you, Iggy, and Ari. It's you guys' secret. Yet somehow the word "secret" didn't sound so comforting anymore.
Besides if I had learned anything from the Pierces, it was that two can keep a secret if one of them is dead. Just imagine what would happen if there were three.
Yup, I thought. Happy birthday to me.
(AUTHOR'S NOTE: For all of you who don't know, the Pierces is a band, the same one who made the Pretty Little Liars theme song Secret. If you listen to the theme song lyrics they will seriously creep you out!)
Yup and with that I am DONE. I hope you guys all enjoyed this chappy and if you did, make sure to follow and favorite this story. Please review because I love hearing from you guys and OH MY GOD I JUST REALIZED THAT I SOUND LIKE A FUCKING YOUTUBER. WHAT THE SHIT. I AM OFFICIALLY MORTIFIED WITH MYSELF AND I THINK THAT I MIGHT JUST DIE IN A HOLE NOW.
Well…I'm off to go find an empty hole.
Watch the skies,
Doctor Bessy