A girl named Max, a misc. books fanfic

A Girl Named Max

blurred beginnings (prologue)

CYANIDE REVENGE

I don't want to seem like some psychotic bitch who just hates everyone. But the truth is I do hate

everyone. I go to school having to deal with the same old shit every day. People pushing, yelling,

acting like idiots. I've had enough. Today I'm thinking about things that are deadly. I ask myself, "Why

do people care so much? It's not like they're gonna miss me anyway?" Oh, I'm sorry I forgot to

introduce myself. My name is Max. Max Caulfield. I moved from Alaska to Arcadia three months ago.

I used to be your average bitch who loved everything about life, but that all changed last year. My

parents divorced on my sixteenth birthday. Way to celebrate your birthday, am I right? Anyways, I go

to Blackwell Academy.

Apparently, Blackwell is one of the best schools in the state. Yeah, the programs are great but the

people are shitty, except Warren. He's the only one who understands me. I met Warren in one of my

art classes. The assignment was to make a self-portrait. I was seated next to Warren. I watched

Warren work on his portrait and he made it really dark. Like REALLY dark. Every so often he would

glance over to see what I was doing, he finally asked me, "Hey, um what's your name?" I smiled and

said, "My name is Maxwell, but you can call me Max". We locked eyes for a second and he smiled.

Ever since then we've been inseparable. Warren is the only one who keeps me from going insane and

ending it all. Everyone else can go to hell.

I'm so sick of people asking me if I'm okay, well fuck you no I'm not O-fucking-Kay! To be bluntly

honest with you things aren't as they seem anymore-. My best friend Chloe has changed a lot. One

day she's super sweet and the next she's always high or trying to find something to make her high. I

mean I kinda understand why. She hates life as much as I do. In some ways, we are all looking for

that one thing that can bring us to that place of escape. That one thing that numbs the pain. But we

also want to be able to experience the world around us and make memories.

https//Brendonuriesforehead

Chapter One The bell rings as Warren and I collect our backpacks from the back of the art classroom.

"Hey Max, I was wondering if you wanted to catch a movie with me on Friday night?" Warren

grabbed my arm as we walked out of the classroom.

"Sure", I shrug as we walk to our next class.

"You seem upset, is everything ok?" Warren put his hands on my face and he looked slightly

worried.

"I'm fine" I looked away slightly as he removed his hands from my face. I walk to my desk

and pull out my psych textbook. Warren sits at the desk next to me.

"You know that I can tell when you're upset right?" He looks at me.

"Yeah I know, but I'm fine". I look down at my textbook and I try to hide my face.

Warren started to say something as the teacher walked in. The class went on, and in the

middle of class, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turn to see Warren holding a note. He passes

the note to me. The note reads:

"Hey is everything ok?" I fold up the note and shoot Warren a look. He turns back to doing

his work.

I roll my eyes and go back to my own work. I started to run my finger along the edge of the

page. I suddenly yelped in pain when I moved my finger away from the paper. I looked at my

finger as blood dripped from it. My head started to spin. A sudden wave of nausea hit me.

As I watched it drip from my finger to my page. I tried to act like it didn't bother me but every

time I looked at it I got sick. I tried to stand up but the moment I tried, I blacked out.

I woke up to Warren holding my hand and slightly shaking me awake. I once again blacked

out. An hour later I woke up in the infirmary. I look around the infirmary, I see several

cabinets full of different types of gauze and dressings. I breathe in and the room smells

sterile, it's almost gross. I continue to look around the room and I see the skeleton that

hangs just behind the door, I chuckle a little seeing the little black sunglasses on the

skeleton's head. I turn my head to see Warren smiling at me with a half-dead flower.

"Why the hell do you have a half-dead flower?" He shrugged.

"Well hello to you too". Warren chuckled as he handed me the flower.

"Awww, you're so sweet". He smiled at me for a moment and looked away. I sat up on the

cot and chuckled at how dumb I probably looked when I fell. I thought to myself, "Damn, why

the fuck did I faint like that? I usually am used to looking at the blood with all the fights I've

been in."

I turn to Warren and smile, "How stupid did I look when I fainted?" Warren chuckled.

"You looked hella stupid when you fainted. It's almost like you hated the sight of a little

blood". I growled at him and swatted his shoulder. "Hey!" he yells. "That hurts ya know."

I chuckle at him. "I know." I climb off the cot and grab hold of Warren's hand.

"You ok?" Warren looked at me worried.

"I'm fine,'' I growled at him. I walk over to the door and pick up my stuff from the floor. I

turned to Warren.

"You coming?" I ask him and he nods and follows me out the door.

"You gonna be ok?" he places his hand on my shoulder. I chuckle a little at him. "Yeah I'm

fine." We continue to walk down the hall and reach the front doors.

"Wanna come over?" Warren asks as he pulls on his black studded leather jacket.

I chuckle at him as he puts on his sunglasses. "What?" He looks at me weirdly.

"Nothing, it's just that you look like an emo kid like me". He chuckles at the comment.

"Maybe I am just like you, that's probably why I'm the only one who understands you

because I'm also misunderstood". I start to think about what he just said and it starts to hit

me, I think he likes me. I shake my head and chuckle at the thought. He couldn't possibly like

me, I mean yeah he's my friend but I don't think it's even possible.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked as he checked his phone. "Yeah, let's go", I said with a slight

smile. We started walking towards Warren's house. "How was the rest of the class?"I asked

him curiously.

He shrugs a little, "It was fine I guess. You know, you really scared the shit out of me when

you fainted."He said with a frown.

I chuckle a little as we continue walking, "Yeah I know I'm sorry for that." I look down as he

puts his arm around my shoulder. As we were continuing to walk I heard someone catcall

me. I made it seem like I didn't hear it but Warren, on the other hand, heard it.

He turns around to get a good look at the guy, "Hey man you wanna do that again?" The guy

catcalls again but this time with the intention to get Warren mad.

"Hey, man, do you want me to come over there and kick your ass?" The guy stands up and

Warren walks over. Turns out Warren was twice the size of the dude. The dude walked away.

He turns back to me and chuckles, "Come on let's go",he says as places his arm around my

shoulder once again. We continued walking down the road to his place. As we were walking

down the road it kept reminding me of the music video from Green days, Boulevard of

Broken dreams. It felt so empty and depressing. Even though this neighborhood is very

prestigious and known as the "Beverly Hills" of Arcadia. As you know the saying 'Money

Can't Buy Happiness', looking around this place it definitely looks like that. Don't get me

wrong, the houses are beautiful but it's the people inside that are unhappy.

TEN MINUTES LATER...

We arrived at his place and inside we put our stuff down. "Wow, you have a nice place". I

look around and I see a spiral staircase with a beautiful crystal chandelier hanging from the

ceiling. I continue to walk into the house and walk into the living room. I sat down on the

beautiful Italian leather couch in front of the red stone fireplace. Warren walks over and sits

down next to me.

"Well, what do you wanna do?" He wraps his arm around me and smiles.

"Wanna watch a movie?" I nod over to the massive bookshelf full of movies. He gets up and

walks over to the shelf and pulls out 'Die Hard' with Bruce Willis. I nod and Warren opens the

cover and takes out the disc. As his back is turned I think to myself, Damn he's hot.

I shake the thought out of my head. Warren turns around and walks back towards me and

puts his arm around me as he sits down. As the movie starts I snuggle into Warren and

relax. Warren pulls me closer and chuckles at how small I am compared to himself. I start to

feel my phone vibrating and I take it out of my pocket. I look to see who's calling and I notice

it's Peter, my older brother. That's weird, he never calls me unless it's for an emergency. I

picked up the phone to hear his frantic voice. He seems like someone just put a gun to his

head and he's desperate to get help. I turn to Warren and start to cry. I stand up and run over

to where my bag and shoes are. I put on my shoes as fast as I could and I ran out the door.

Chapter Two I think to myself,'This is not happening'. As I am running down the street I can hear Warren

shouting after me telling me to come back. I just keep running as fast as my legs can carry

me. 'Of all things, why does it have to be this!' I try not to cry as I reach the bus stop. A few

minutes later the 62 to Bridgeport ave, pulls up to the stop, and opens the doors. I look at

the bus driver with tears in my eyes and I quickly look down and flash my student bus pass.

I walk to the back of the bus and sit down on a seat next to the window. Suddenly the tears

start to flow down my cheeks, I try to wipe them away but they just come down as fast as I

am wiping them away. I look up as I hear 'Frost Ave' over the speaker system of the bus. I

get up and grab my bag, walk towards the back doors of the bus and signal the driver that I

need to get off the bus.

The bus stops and the driver opens the back doors. Just as I step out of the bus it starts to

rain down. The driver closes the doors and drives off down River street. I cross the road and

start to run home as it is pouring rain. I continue to run, splashing through puddles along the

way. I stop running and reach my house, 143 Frost Ave. I walk up the stairs to see Peter

slightly crying while talking on the phone, he gives the person on the phone our address and

hangs up. Peter runs over and goes to hug me, then he notices that I'm drenched from head

to toe. "Why are you all wet?" He asks, slightly confused.

"It's pouring outside." I kick-off my soaked shoes and walk towards Mom's room. I open the

door slowly to see her lying on the floor, a tourniquet tied around her arm, and an empty

syringe grasped in her cold lifeless right hand. I close the door quickly and turn to Peter. "Did

you call the police?" I ask him, slightly scared.

He looks at me with tears in his eyes, "Yeah." Suddenly I hear the sound of sirens outside,

then a loud knock at the front door. I run to the door and open it. Two police officers are

standing at the front door. The first police officer is tall and slim. He has grayish blue eyes

and light brown hair. The second officer is shorter than the first. He has brown eyes and

black hair.

The first officer introduces himself, "Hello, I'm Constable Dickson and this is my partner,

Constable Curtis. We received a call about a dead body?" He says gently. I look down sadly,

"I will take you to her", I said, upset. I walk to Mom's room with Constable Dickson,

Constable Curtis, and Peter behind me. I open the door and step back to let the officers into

the room.

"What is your relation to this woman?" Constable Curtis asks.

"Our mother, her name is Skyler Caufield," Peter says quickly. Constable Dickson looks at

me and bows his head.

"What are your names, may I ask?" Constable Dickson asks. I start to shiver, then I grab

hold of Peter with my arms around him tightly.

"My name is Peter Caufield and this is my younger sister Maxwell'', Peter says to Constable

Dickson. Then Constable Dickson takes out his phone and calls for the coroner's office to

send a bus. Then he hangs up the phone and turns back to us.

"I've called the coroner's office to come and pick up your...um...Mother", he says gently.

"We are gonna stay here until they get here", Constable Curtis says.

"In the meantime, I'm gonna need to talk to both of you", Constable Curtis says strongly.

Peter nods his head and pulls me off of him and walks over to the kitchen with Constable

Curtis. I stand there thinking to myself, 'Why does my life always have to fall apart?" I look

over to Constable Dickson and look down. Then Constable Dickson walks over to the front

door and lets two people wearing white coveralls in before they knock on the door. They

walk in with a black body bag. Constable walks past me with the two people following

behind him. The two people begin to carefully remove the tourniquet from her arm and they

carefully remove the syringe from her hand. Then they lift her up and place her into the body

bag.

A little while later.

Peter and Constable Curtis emerge from the kitchen slowly. I look up to see Constable

Curtis calling me over to talk to him. I reluctantly followed him to the kitchen and sat down

at the table. He sits on the chair next to me. "Now you're not in trouble I just wanna know

where you were throughout the day up until you got home." He said sympathetically.

"I got up at 7:00 am like I always have, got ready for school, left the house at 8:00 am to

catch the bus, arrived at school at 8:15, went to both my morning classes, had lunch with

my best friend Warren Cunningham at 11:00 till 12:00, went to the rest of my classes, got

taken to the nurse's office after school, went to Warren's house to chill, got the call from

Peter at around 5:00 pm and caught the 62 Bridgeport bus home, ran in the pouring rain and

walked in the door at 5:10 pm", I say to him slightly shaky.

"Ok, thank you Ms.Caulfield". Then I got up and ran to my room and closed my door. I

jumped into bed and buried my face into my pillow and cried until I fell asleep.

Chapter Three

The next morning...

I woke up to Peter knocking on the door. "Max?" He said through the door. "Max, you gotta

get ready for school." He said as he opened the door.

"I don't want to", I say to him with a growl.

"I made waffles, and put chocolate chips in every single hole", Peter said hopefully. I roll out

of bed and push him out of the room and close the door. Peter starts banging on the door,

"Hey, get out here!" he shouts. I open the door wearing all black.

"Fine I'll go to school, also thank you for the waffles, Pete," I say as I walk to the kitchen. As I

am shoving the waffles in my mouth.

Peter asks, "Are you gonna be alright?"

"Yeah I'll be fine", I incoherently say. I look over at the wall clock above the door to the living

room, it reads; 8:05 am. I get up from the table and place the plate into the kitchen sink. I

turn around to see Peter holding my backpack in his right hand.

"Do you have everything?" He asks as he hands me the bag.

"Yeah, thanks," I said as I grabbed the bag. I walk toward the front door but stop as I reach

the door. I turn around and run back and hug Peter tightly.

"You better get going or you're gonna miss the bus", he says as he walks me to the door. I

walk out the door and run to the bus stop just as it is pulling up towards it.

The bus driver opens the doors and nods as I flash the student card at him. I walk towards

the back of the bus and sit down. I then open my bag and pull out my compact mirror and

my black eyeliner. I put on my eyeliner quickly, then pull out my black lipstick. I look up to

see where I am, I see that we are pulling up to the stop outside my school.

I put my compact mirror, black eyeliner, and black lipstick back into my bag and closed it. I

get up from my seat and walk towards the front doors of the bus and nod to the bus driver

as a thank you for the ride as I get off the bus. I walk across the street and walk towards the

front doors. I go through the doors and pass a few people on my way to my locker. A few

moments later I reach my locker and grab hold of my lock and open it. I open the locker

door and take off my backpack and open it, I take out my compact mirror and black lipstick

and put the lipstick on quickly. I then took out the heavy textbooks from my backpack and

placed them in my locker.

A few minutes later...

As I am rummaging through my locker I am unaware that Warren has walked up to my

locker and is standing behind it. I finish going through my locker and close the door, I

instantly jump out of my skin to see Warren standing there behind the locker door.

"WARREN!" I exclaim as I try to catch my breath. He chuckles and pulls me into a bear hug.

"Don't scare me like that", I say as I am trying to pull away from the bear hug.

He lets go of me and chuckles, "Sorry I thought you knew that I was there", he said with a

smile. I turn around back to my locker and replace the lock on the door, then I pick up my

backpack from the ground. Warren looks at me and starts to frown slightly.

"Hey, um is everything ok?"he asks gently.

I look at him and smile fakely, "Yeah I'm fine, why do you ask?" I ask as I look ahead down

the hall.

"You left so quickly last night without saying anything", he said as he put his hand on my

shoulder.

I stop and turn to look at him, "You really wanna know?" I ask, a little shaky.

"You don't have to", Warren said gently.

"I'm just gonna tell you anyway...I got a call from my brother, Peter, saying to come home

because my Mother died from an overdose". I said, slightly angry. Warren's jaw drops and

instantly pulls me into a bear hug. I push him away and walk to my English class early and

sit at the back of the class and pull out my English notebook. A few minutes later the bell

rings and people start walking into class and taking their seats.

The professor stands up from his desk, he is pretty tall and slim with salt and pepper hair.

He walks to the board and writes down our assignments for today's class. The assignment

is a creative writing piece on the topic of our choice. Then he puts down the chalk and walks

back to his desk. He then starts reading out the names for attendance. I hear my name

called and I quickly state that I am here. I go back to thinking about what I am going to

write. As I am thinking about what I am going to write, the thought of my mother pops into

my head. I put my pencil to the page and this is what I wrote:

In memorial of Skyler Caufield

She was a woman of many strengths. She had a way of making people feel wanted even

when she never felt that way. She was a Mother, a daughter, and a friend. I will always

remember her kind and gentle smile and how she always knew what to say to make you feel

just a little bit better. May your spirit find peace forever.

As I wrote those words I could feel a lump in my throat starting to form as I tried to hold

back the tears. I stop writing and get up from the desk and walk towards the professor's

desk and hand in the assignment. I walk back to my desk and sit down. A few minutes later

the bell rings and I get up and grab my backpack. I walk out of the classroom quickly and off

to my science class. I walk into the room and sit at the assigned station and take out my

science textbook and notebook. A few minutes later the prof stood at the front of the room

and explained that she is going to go around the room with a glass bowl full of names and

that we have to pull out one name from the bowl, the name that we pull out will be our lab

partner for the rest of the year. I watch as she goes around the room with the bowl and

people getting up to find their lab partner. A couple of minutes later she stops in front of me

and tells me to pull out a name.

Chapter Four

I read the name out loud, "Hunter?" I said as I looked around the room to see who I had

picked from the bowl. Suddenly a man stood up and walked toward me. He is tall and

slightly built. He has short light brown hair and hazel eyes. He's wearing a black misfits

muscle tee underneath a studded leather jacket, he also has black ripped jeans and combat

boots. I look at him and smile.

"And you are?" He asks as he sits down next to me.

"Oh, yeah sorry. My name is Maxwell Caufield, but my friends call me Max", I say as I put my

hand out.

He takes my hand and shakes it, "The names Hunter, Hunter Cunningham". I smile and turn

to look up at the prof. She starts to talk about the chemical properties of chlorine iodide. I

start to think to myself, 'Wait, isn't Warren's last name Cunningham?' I turn and look at Hunter

and shake my head in confusion.

Hunter then turns and looks at me and smiles, "Do you not remember me?" he asks quietly. I

take a good look at Hunter and it clicks in.

"You're Warren's older brother aren't you?" I ask him curiously.

"Yup, in the flesh", he says with a smile. My jaw drops at learning that Warren has a brother

and didn't tell me. I look up to see the professor glaring at me. I look ahead and listen to the

lesson. As the class goes on I keep thinking to myself, 'I wonder why Warren didn't tell me

that he has a brother? Maybe Warren wanted to keep me for himself?' I snap out of the

thought as the professor writes the assignment on the board. I open the science textbook to

the page assigned on the board and begin to read:

"To find the properties of a chemical you need to know the Absolute Zero theory."

I begin taking notes when I feel Hunter tap my shoulder.

"Hey, uh Max?" He says quietly. I turn to look at him.

"What?" I ask him.

"I was wondering if you wanna hang out during lunch?" Hunter asks with a hopeful smile.

"Sure", I said as I started to smile a little.

"Hey, Hunter, can I ask you something?" I ask as I poke his arm.

"Sure", he said as he swatted my hand away to keep me from poking him again.

"Why hasn't Warren ever told me about you?" I ask curiously.

"He and I don't get along much so whenever he meets someone new he doesn't introduce

me to them", he says with a frown. I frowned slightly at what he said. A few seconds later

the bell rings and I stand up to grab my backpack.

"Are you ready?" Hunter asks as he stands up.

"Yeah, I guess", I said slightly nervously. I feel really small compared to Hunter who looks

like he's 6'3 and I'm a whopping 5'5. Hunter then grabs my shoulder and walks with me out

of the classroom.

We both walk towards the stairwell and walk down the stairs to the basement of the school.

I start to tense up and become extremely nervous. We walk down the hall towards a man

standing alone up against the wall.

"Hey Hunter," the guy said. He's tall, very muscular. He has long jet black hair, blue eyes, and

a spiked nose ring. He's wearing a studded leather jacket with a Dead Kennedys shirt

underneath. He is also wearing red plaid skinny jeans and black vans.

"Hey Vincent", Hunter said with a slightly playful growl.

"Who's the chick?" The guy asks.

"Names Maxwell, you can call me Max'', I say quietly. I look up at Hunter, slightly nervous.

"Sup Max, I'm Vincent." He said with a smile.

"Nice nose ring", I say, nodding at him. Hunter looks at me and smiles.

Vincent takes out his hand and I grab it. He grabs my hand and kisses it leaving a wet mark

on it. I smile awkwardly and take off my backpack. Suddenly my phone goes off. It's Warren,

the text reads: 'Where are you?' I reply: 'I'm at home' I then turn off my phone and look up at

Hunter. He then wraps his arm around my shoulder and smiles.

"Hunter, what are you doing?" I asked confused.

"What, I can't put my arm around my new friend?" He said as he pulled me in tightly. I look

down at the ground and start to blush. Vincent looks at me and smiles.

"Ohhhhh, she's blushing!" He said, slightly teasing. I look up at Vincent and snarl at him. He

takes a step back with his hands up.

"Whoa, I'm sorry I was just playing". He said nervously.

"Wow, for a guy who looks like he could rip someone to shreds is actually a big old wimp", I

said teasingly. Vincent rolls his eyes and steps back to his original position. I take my phone

out of my pocket and turn it on.

As it turns on I look at my lock screen wallpaper, which is a picture of my mother and I

during the summer the year before. I instantly start tearing up. I try to hide it but Vincent

points it out quietly. I look up at Hunter and put my backpack on.

"I-I gotta go", I said as I turned to leave.

"Where are you going?" Hunter asks. I look up at Hunter as a few tears start to fall.

"I'm going home", I said as I started to run down the hall. I run to the doors leading to the

staircase that goes up to the main floor of the school. I run up the stairs as fast as possible

and run down the hall towards the front doors of the school. I walk to the bus stop and wait

for the bus.

The bus arrives a minute later. The bus driver opens the door and I walk onto the bus. I flash

my student card at the bus driver and he nods. I walk to the back of the bus as usual and sit

down. I pull out my earbuds from my backpack and turn my phone on, I unlock it and go to

my music. I scroll through my music and find a song. I lean back in my seat and start to

slightly tear up again. I wipe my eyes causing my eyeliner to smear around my eyes. I look

out the window with the tears still flowing down my face. I see that the bus is pulling up to

my stop so I get up from my seat, grab my bag and walk towards the front of the bus. The

bus stops and the door opens.

I get off the bus and start to walk home. A few minutes later I reach my front door, I take

off my backpack and take out my keys. I unlock the front door and walk inside. I shut the

door behind me and I dropped my bag to the side. I kick off my shoes and walk to my room.

I open my bedroom door and walk inside. I shut the door loudly and I jumped on my bed

with my face buried in my pillow. I sigh in exhaustion and then those sighs turn into

full-blown sobs.

Chapter Five

I finally stop crying long enough to hear a knock on my bedroom door.

"Who is it?" I ask while sniffling.

"It's me", Peter says as he opens the door slowly. I roll over off the bed and sit on the edge.

"Hey Max I'm sorry I made you go to school", he said as he walked over and sat next to me

on my bed. I sniffle as I look Peter in the eye.

"Have you told Dad yet?" I ask him as I wipe my eyes.

"Yeah, I did. But there's something you should know first", Peter said as he took hold of my

hand.

"What?" I asked, slightly concerned.

"When Mom and Dad divorced, Dad signed over all parental rights to Mom", Peter said,

studying my face.

"What do you mean he signed off all parental rights?"I asked him, extremely confused. Peter

stood from the bed and faced me.

"It means that now I'm your legal guardian", he said, slightly annoyed.

"Well that's fine with me", I snapped at Peter. He turns around and walks out of the room. I

sigh and get up from the bed and walk out of the room and walk towards the front door to

where I put my backpack. I kneel and open the small front pocket and pull out my phone. I

unlock my phone and go to my messages. I hit Warren's name and texted him: 'Hey Warren

can I come over?' He instantly replies: 'Yeah, do you remember how to get here?' I try to

remember but I can't so I text back: 'Not really, can you come over and we will walk there

together?' He replies: 'I'm on my way'.

Ten minutes later...

I hear a knock at the front door. I get up and walk to the front door and open it. Warren

waves as he steps in through the front door.

"Are you ready to go?" He asks excitedly.

"Yeah let me just let Peter know that I'm leaving and I gotta grab my shoes", I said as I

walked towards Peter's room.

"Hey I'm going over to Warren's place", I said as I opened the door.

Peter looks up and nods. "Just be careful and don't be home late", he says as he looks back

at his computer screen. I roll my eyes and walk back over to the front door. I slip on my

black boots and grab my keys from my bag. I then walk out the front door with Warren. We

both start to walk down the street.

"So you never told me that you had a brother", I said as I poked Warren hard in the shoulder.

He winces and then looks down slightly.

"Ow! and yes I have a brother, how'd you find out?"He asks as he rubs the now sore spot on

his shoulder.

"Well lucky me, I pulled his name from the bowl from science class". Warren looks at me

confused.

"He's now my lab partner for the rest of the semester", I say as I bump into Warren playfully.

Warren wraps his arm around my shoulder as we walk. Warren looks at me and notices the

streaks of eyeliner under and around my eyes.

"Hehe, you look like a raccoon", he says as he pulls out a tissue from his pocket and hands

it to me. I take the tissue and try to wipe away the eyeliner from under my eyes.

"Hehe, Thanks", I said thankfully. We turn a corner and walk down the street and a few

minutes later we arrive at his house.

"Is Hunter home?" I ask nervously.

"Yeah but he's probably in his room", Warren said as he started walking up the front steps to

the front door.

"Why?" Warren asks curiously.

"I was with him during lunch before I went home", I said as I started walking up the stairs.

Warren opens the door to see Hunter walking in the kitchen in his boxer shorts.

"HUNTER GET SOME PANTS ON FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!" Warren said as he covered my

eyes. I hear Hunter chuckle.

"Oops", he said as he quickly ran into a room and shut the door. I nip at Warren's pinky finger

to get him to take his hands off my face.

"Hey!" He yelps as he pulls his hands off my face and looks at his pinky finger to see if there

is a mark.

"Oh don't be a baby", I said as I kicked off my boots. Warren chuckles and pulls me into a

tight bear hug. I try to get out of the hug but struggle miserably.

"Warren let me go!" I chuckle. He lets me go and smiles. I walk over to the large living room

and sit on the couch. Warren walks close behind me and sits on the couch next to me.

"Hey, can we watch Die Hard now?" I ask curiously.

"Yes, we can!" Warren exclaimed. Warren got up from the couch and pulled the Blu-ray disc

out of its cover and placed it into the Blu-ray player and started the movie. He walked back

to the couch and sat down next to me with his arm wrapped around my shoulder.

Fifteen minutes later...

Hunter walks into the living room wearing a pair of basketball shorts and a Denver Broncos

jersey. I shiver slightly as he walks past Warren and me. He walks over to the loveseat and

sits down. Warren chuckles and gets up from the couch and walks over to his bedroom.

"Where are you going?" I ask him curiously. Warren walks into the room and turns on the

light. I turn to Hunter and see him smiling.

"What?" I ask Hunter as he starts to chuckle. Just then Warren walks back into the room

holding a black sweater and tosses it to me.

"Thanks", I said as I got up to pull it on over my head. Warren laughs as he sees that it's so

big on me that I'm practically swimming in it.

"You look like a little kid wearing your Dad's favorite sweater", Warren said as he sat down

on the couch.

"I think she looks cute with that sweater on", Hunter said as he winked at me.

Warren glared at Hunter and rolled his eyes.

"Why do you think that?" I ask Hunter as I sit down on the couch snuggled against Warren.

"Because you're wearing my sweater", Hunter chuckled.

"You gave it to me", Warren said as a quick reminder to Hunter.

"Yeah because I bought another one thinking that I lost that one", Hunter said as he rolled

his eyes.

"Ok you two quit it", I snapped at both of them.

"Ok", Hunter says as he raises his hands in surrender. I turned to Warren with my eyebrows

raised.

"Ok fine", Warren said, clearly annoyed. I snuggle into Warren and we all go back to

watching the movie.

Half an hour later...

I start to drift in and out of sleep while snuggled up against Warren. Hunter quietly points

out that I've fallen asleep. Warren looks down at me and smiles.

"I understand why she's so tired. She's been through a lot", Warren said as he wrapped his

arm around me. Hunter looks at Warren confused.

"How so?" He asks curiously.

"Look it's not my place to say but I'll tell you anyway...Her family is a mess right now",

Warren said quietly. Hunter raises his eyebrows in shock.

"Hey, can you pass me her phone?"Warren asks as he nods to the phone on the coffee table

in front of him. Hunter gets up and picks up the phone and hands it to Warren. Warren takes

the phone and unlocks it. He then goes into my messages and hits Peter's name. He texts:

'Hey, Peter, this is Warren. Just letting you know that Max fell asleep at my place.' Peter

replies: 'That's fine, do you need me to come to pick her up?' Warren quickly replies: 'No, but if

it's ok with you she's more than welcome to stay here tonight. I just don't wanna wake her up,

also I'm sorry for your loss by the way'. Peter replies: 'Thanks, and yeah she can stay there'.

Warren smiles and turns off the phone and places it down beside him.

"Hunter, can you help me carry her into the spare guest room?" Warren whispered.

"Yeah", Hunter said as he got up and walked over to the couch. He carefully scooped me up

and lifted me up off of Warren. Warren got up from the couch and walked over to the spare

guest room and opened the door. Hunter carries me into the room and gently lays me down

on the bed. Warren walks out of the room and down the hall to a small closet full of quilts

and towels. He pulls out the thickest quilt and brings it into the room. Hunter and Warren

both open the blanket and lay it on me gently. Then they both walk out of the room and

close the door.

Chapter Six

Saturday...

I wake up wrapped in a giant blanket in a room I don't recognize. I quickly kick off the

blanket and walk towards the door. I open the door to see Hunter stand there holding a cup

of coffee. I look at him extremely confused.

"Morning sunshine", Hunter said, chuckling as he took a sip of coffee.

"Did I sleepover last night?" I ask tiredly.

"Yup", Hunter said as he finished his coffee.

"Where's Warren?" I ask, rubbing my eyes.

"He's still asleep", Hunter said with a smile. I look up at him and smile. Hunter starts to walk

closer to me and stands in the doorway. I try to walk out of the room but Hunter continues

to block me. I poke him sharply in the stomach and he winces and I walk out of the room. I

walk towards the front door and stop in front of the mirror beside the door and look at

myself in the mirror. I see that my hair is a complete mess and I try to fix it when I see two

people staring at me through the reflection of the mirror.

I turn around to see Vincent and another man I have never seen before.

"Oh jeez you scared me!" I exclaim as I walk towards the living room where they were

sitting.

"Morning Max", Vincent said to me with a smile. I turn to the other man sitting next to

Vincent on the couch. The guy is wearing an All-Time Low muscle tee with a pair of blue

jeans, he also has tattoo sleeves on his arms. He has long skater boy styled blonde hair. He

has green eyes, a nose ring, and several more piercings in both his ears. Then Hunter walks

into the room and stands behind me with his hands on my shoulders.

"Max, this is Andy", He said excitedly. Andy stands up and looks to be 6'5" with the muscles

to look like he could be a male model. I smile and stick out my hand nervously. Andy takes

my hand and shakes it.

"It's nice to meet you Max", he said with a slightly low voice.

"We were gonna go out to the mall. You wanna come?" Vincent asks me with a hopeful

smile.

"Sure, but I gotta go home first", I said looking down at the extremely oversized sweater.

"Why do you have to go home?" Hunter asks. I turn around to look up at him.

"You don't expect me to walk around in public looking like a hot mess, do you?" I say with

my eyebrows raised. Hunter shakes his head.

"I guess not", he says with a laugh. Vincent gets up and takes out his keys from his pocket.

Suddenly Warren walks into the room tiredly.

"Morning Warren", I said cheerfully.

"Morning", Warren said with a mumble.

"Hey, um, I'm gonna go home and check-in with Peter", I said to Warren with a smile.

"Ok, will I see you later?" Warren asked hopefully. I give him a thumbs up.

"Hey, do you need a ride, Max?" Vincent asked me while playing with his keys.

"Yeah, that would be great", I said as I looked up at him. Vincent walks with me to the front

door and I quickly slip on my boots and open the door.

"Meet y'all there", Vincent said as he walked out the door. I look around to see where his car

is. Vincent taps my shoulder and points to the motorcycle in the driveway. I look up at

Vincent and smile. He walks over to the back of the motorcycle and grabs the two helmets

sitting on the back. I walk over to Vincent and grab a helmet and place it on. Vincent gets on

the bike first, then I get on the bike and wrap my arms around his chest.

He turns on the bike and revs the engine.

"Hey, where do you live?" He asks loudly to be heard over the engine.

"143 Frost avenue", I said loudly so he could hear me. He reverses the bike and turns it

around. Then we tear off down the road.

Five minutes later...

We reach the house and I get up off the bike, I take off the helmet and hand it to Vincent. I

pull out my keys from my pocket and walk up the stairs to the front door. I unlock the door

to be hit with the heavy smell of liquor and cigarette smoke. I look into the living room to see

Peter asleep on the couch with a bottle of liquor in hand. I close the front door and walk into

my bedroom. I open my closet and pull out my fishnet stockings, black mini skirt, and my

white misfits halter top. I pulled off all of my clothes from yesterday and threw them to the

side. I pull on the fishnet stockings and mini skirt quickly, then pull on the halter top. I then

walk over to my desk and grab my black dangle cross earrings and put them on. I grab my

faux black spiked nose ring and slide it on. I grab my eyeliner and put it on quickly. I plug in

my hair straightener and I brush my hair quickly before straightening my hair. I then unplug

the straightener and grab my studded mini backpack and I open it to see if my wallet is still

in there. I see that it is so I walk out of the room and find a piece of paper and sharpie

marker, I write a note on the page:

"Peter, I'm at the mall. When I get back I don't wanna see any liquor bottles lying around"

I closed the marker and walked to the front door and pulled on my black boots, grabbed my

keys, and walked out the door. As I walked down the stairs I saw Vincent hold out the

helmet to me. I put the helmet on and sat on the back of the bike. He revs up the bike and

we tear off down the road once again.

Ten minutes later...

We pull into the mall parking lot and park beside a black 1995 Honda Accord. The driver's

side door opens and Andy steps out of the car, then Hunter steps out of the passenger's

side. I pull off the helmet and see that all four of them are staring at me.

"What?" I ask as I see Hunter with his jaw hanging open. I finally realized why they were

staring and I laughed. I walk up to Hunter and close his mouth and smile.

"So we're ready to go?" I ask as I start to walk towards the mall. The three of them start to

follow behind me.

"She has the tiniest ass!" I hear Vincent whisper to Andy. Hunter jogs up beside me and

puts his arm around me. I stop walking for a minute and turn around to look Vincent in the

eye.

"Stop talking about my ass or else I might have to lay yours out flat", I said to him with a

snarl. Andy chuckles at the guilty expression beginning to play out across his face. Hunter

looks down at me and frowns.

"Why you gotta be so damn feisty?" He says disapprovingly. I look up at him.

"Hey, for an example if I was your girlfriend, wouldn't you say something to him?" I ask him.

"Let's just go in, Ok?" I said as I began to walk towards the entrance to the mall. The three

guys follow behind closely and walk through the doors with me.

Chapter Seven

We stopped in front of a tattoo and piercings shop. Vincent smiles at me.

"I think it's time for a real nose ring", he says, poking me in the shoulder. I look up at Hunter

worriedly.

"You should do it", Hunter said with a devilish smile. I look over at Andy who then gives me

a thumbs up.

"I'm gonna do it!" I said excitedly, nervous. Hunter and Vincent both chuckle at how nervous

I am.

"Will at least one of you wait out here for me?" I ask shyly.

"I will", Hunter said with a smile. I give them a quick thumbs up and walk into the shop.

I walk up to the man behind the front desk. He has black spiked hair and brown eyes. He's

wearing a black t-shirt and a blue denim vest.

"So, what are you looking to get? Tattoo? Piercing?" He says with a growl.

"Um, I'm gonna get both", I said shyly. The guy smiles and takes out a case of piercings. I

select a thick black septum. He looks up at me and nods.

"Do you know what tattoo you're getting?" He asks.

"I'm gonna get a skull with roses and lilies around it", I say excitedly. He nods and leads me

to the back of the shop into a room with a chair and a table full of tattoo ink and a tattoo

gun.

"Sit there, and take off the fake nose ring", he said as he walked out of the room.

I take off the fake nose ring and put it in my front pocket in my skirt. He comes back with a

piercing gun and a box of tissues.

"Ok, lean your head back", he said as he stood in front of me. I leaned my head back and he

instantly pierced my nose and handed me the tissue box. Then he put the septum in the new

piercing. I kept my head back to keep the blood from dripping on my shirt. I wiped the blood

off my face and closed my eyes.

"Ok, so are you ready for your tattoo?" He asks excitedly.

"Yeah", I said nervously. I hear him pull up a chair and sit down close to my right arm. Then I

hear the tattoo gun turning on. Then suddenly I feel sharp vibrations on my arm.

An Hour Later...

The guy turns off the tattoo gun and stands up. I get up slowly and straighten my head up

again.

"Hey, can I pay for it all here?" I ask him.

"Debit or credit?" He asks with a smile.

"Debit", I said happily. A few minutes later he comes back with the machine and I pull out

my wallet, take out my card, and tap the machine and pay for the piercing and tattoo. He

hands me the receipt and walks out of the room with me following behind him. I look at the

tattoo on my arm and instantly fall in love with it. I walk out of the shop towards Hunter, who

is sitting on a bench with his back turned towards me.

"Hey Hunter, I have a surprise for you! Close your eyes." I said to him excitedly. I walk directly

in front of him and turn to the side where the tattoo is.

"Can I look now?" He asks impatiently.

"Ok, open your eyes", I said nervously. Hunter opens his eyes and sees the tattoo, his jaw

instantly drops. I grab his hand and help him get up.

"YOU GOT A TATTOO?!" Hunter says excitedly.

"Yeah, do you like it?" I ask nervously. Hunter laughs.

"Like it? No, I LOVE it!" He says happily. We both start walking through the mall and stop at

the food court. Hunter pulls out his phone and calls Vincent. "Hey Vincent we're at the food

court", Hunter says as he looks around.

"Ok we're coming", Vincent said quickly. Hunter hangs up the phone and grabs my hands.

"I can't wait to see their reactions to your tattoo", Hunter says with a smile. Just then I see

both Andy and Vincent walking towards our table. Andy catches a glimpse of the tattoo and

a wide smile breaks out across his face. They stop, pull up chairs to the table, and sit down.

Vincent sees the tattoo and smiles like a child at Christmas.

"Amazing artwork, and nice septum", Andy says calmly. I look over at Hunter and smile.

Suddenly my nose starts to bleed again.

"Oh jeez, Vincent, can you find some tissues?" Hunter says as he points out that I've started

to bleed again. Vincent gets up and runs over to Mcdonald's and grabs several handfuls of

napkins. He runs back with the napkins and hands them to Hunter. I chuckle childishly as

Hunter tries to stop the bleeding.

"Quit laughing, you're only making it worse", Vincent said as he got up to stand up, he then

walked behind me and gently forced my head back.

Five minutes later...

Several blood-soaked napkins later, the bleeding finally stops.

"So, should we eat?" Andy asks, looking around at the different places.

"I'm ok,'' I said, shaking my head.

"Ok, what about you Hunter?" Andy asks.

"I'm ok,'' Hunter said quickly. Andy gets up and pushes in the chair, then Vincent gets up and

follows behind Andy to the small sushi bar all the way across the food court. As Andy and

Vincent leave, Hunter gently turns my face up towards his and he kisses me. I am caught off

by it and pull away from him.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I ask him, slightly frightened.

"I'm sorry but when I first saw you in science class I instantly fell in love with you", Hunter

said with a guilty smile.

"But what would Warren say?" I said nervously.

"I don't care what Warren says", Hunter said as he pulled me back into a kiss. I grab hold of

his shoulders and push him back.

"I-I can't do this, I'm sorry", I said as I got up from the table. Just then Vincent and Andy

start walking back to the table with their food. I look up at Vincent, slightly upset.

"Hey is everything ok Max?" He asks as he pulls out the chair and sits down at the table. I

nod and sit back down and try to hold back my emotions.

Andy pulls out a chair and sits down at the table, then opens a large box of sushi. I chuckle

when I see him struggling to pick up a piece of sushi with his chopsticks. He gets really

frustrated and stabs the sushi and tries to pick it up that way but it falls off.

"Here, let me help you before you end up throwing them at Hunter", I say as I snatch the

chopsticks from his hands. I easily pick up a piece of sushi with the chopsticks and put it

back down.

"How the hell can you do that without dropping it?" Andy said, annoyed.

"It's all about how you hold them", I said with a smile. Andy's jaw drops, then I quickly pick

up a piece of sushi and shove it into his mouth. Hunter chuckles as Andy slightly chokes on

it.

"Oops", I said as I looked at Andy as he swallowed it.

Chapter Eight

I give Hunter a dirty look as he laughs at Andy. I stand up from the table and furiously grab

my mini backpack from the ground.

"Hey, Max, where are you going?" Hunter asks, confused. I looked over at Andy and Vincent,

"Excuse me boys, but I have to go plan a funeral", I said with a nod.

"Do you need a ride?" Vincent asked as he got up from the table.

"Sure, thanks", I said as I looked over at Hunter who was starting to look really concerned.

"Wait, Max. What do you mean by funeral?" A few tears start to form in his eyes. Andy starts

to get a panicked look across his face.

"You'll see", I said as I started to walk out of the food court.

I looked up at Vincent.

"Hey I changed my mind, I'm just gonna walk home", I said as I averted my gaze to the floor.

Just then Andy runs up behind me and wraps me in a tight embrace.

"You're not going anywhere!" He said with a shaky voice.

"Andy, Let go!" I yell.

"No!" He yells back. I try to wiggle out but he holds me even tighter.

"Andy, you're restricting my ability to breathe!" I yell. Andy lets go, grabs my hand, and drags

me back to the food court to where Hunter is sitting with his head in his hands. Vincent

follows close behind.

"Max you're coming home with me", Hunter says as he looks up with tears streaming down

his face.

"No I'm not", I said as I tried to pull away from Andy's firm grip on my wrist. I place my

thumb and index finger in between his and squeeze his palm. He squeals and lets me go. I

ran out of the food court, and towards the front doors of the mall. I can hear several sets of

heavy footsteps behind me so I run even faster. I spot a taxi cab and climb in. I duck down

as I see Vincent and Andy run by.

"Hey where do you wanna go?" The taxi driver asks.

"143 Frost ave and quickly," I whisper. The taxi starts to move so I pop my head up, put my

seat belt on, and look around. Andy spots me and starts to run after the taxi, Vincent soon

follows behind. The taxi speeds up and turns the corner, ultimately outrunning them. I start

to shiver and cry as the taxi turns another corner.

"Hey is everything ok?" The driver asks.

"Yeah, I'm fine", I say as I wipe the tears from my eyes.

"Just going through shit". The taxi driver sighs and keeps driving.

Five minutes later...

We reached the house and I paid the driver. I ran into the house and straight to my room. I

slam the door, pull on the super oversized sweater, and go to sleep. A couple of minutes

later, I feel someone sitting right next to me on the bed. I open my eyes slightly to see Peter

looking down at me.

"Peter?" I asked as I rolled over to look at him. Peter smiles at me.

"Hey Max". He said as he moved a piece of stray hair out of my face.

"Why are you here?" I ask as I try to sit upon the bed but become too lazy. Peter slightly

starts to cry.

"We need to start planning for Mom's funeral". He said as he got up from the bed.

"Have you ever heard back from the morgue?" I asked him as I got up from the bed.

"Yeah, they said they need the info of which funeral home to send her body to", Peter said

sadly.

"Fine, tell them to send her body to Assman's funeral home", I said annoyed.

"Is that the one down the street from here?" Peter asked.

"Yes!" I said as I started to pull off the oversized sweater. Peter catches a glimpse of my

tattoo and starts to cry.

"When did you get this?" He asked as he grabbed my arm to look at it closer.

He suddenly starts to smile.

"What?" I said, a little concerned.

"You chose both roses and lilies", he said as a few tears rolled down his face. I looked up at

him.

"I know. I chose them because they were Mom's favorite flowers", I said nodding. Just then

there was a loud banging noise at the front door. I looked up at Peter confused as he walked

out of my room to answer the door. I then hear five sets of footsteps walking towards my

room. Warren, Hunter, Vincent, Andy, and Peter come walking in.

Hunter, Warren, and Andy all run over to the bed and tackle me, and wrap me in a tight

embrace.

"I'm gonna go to my room", Peter said as he walked out of the room and closed the door.

"Why are y'all here?" I ask as I poke Andy and Hunter roughly in the stomach.

"We thought you were dead", Hunter said, wheezing.

"Why would you think that I was dead?" I asked him, confused.

"When you said; "I have to go plan a funeral". We thought you were planning to kill yourself!"

Andy said shakily.

"Why would you think that?" I ask curiously.

"You've been acting weird lately", Hunter said as he put his hand on my shoulder. I shot him

a dirty look.

"Of course I'm gonna act weird when my best friend's brother kisses me out of nowhere". I

said angrily. Warren suddenly jumps up from the bed.

"HUNTER DID WHAT?!" Warren yelled. I grab Warren's hand and pull him back down on the

bed to sit next to me.

"How am I not supposed to kiss you when you're always running through my mind?" Hunter

said with a frown.

"Look what I meant by "planning a funeral", I didn't mean that I was going to plan my OWN

funeral. I'm planning it for my mother", I said angrily as tears started to form in my eyes.

Andy and Vincent both look at each other shocked.

"We're so sorry Max, if there's anything that we can do?" Vincent asked quietly. I got up from

the bed and opened my door,

"Just..." I started to speak but then the tears came out like a flood. "I-I can't do this", I said as

I started to shake nervously and as the tears continued to pour. I ran out of the bedroom and

down the hall to the bathroom. I slam the door and lock it. I walk to the back right corner of

the bathroom, I sit down and hug my knees close to my chest. I just start to sob and shake.

Five minutes later...

I hear a loud knock at the door. I lay down on the cold floor and tried to fall asleep. Suddenly

the knocking turns into banging.

"Max, open the door!" I hear the person on the other side yell.

"PETER!" I hear the voice yell. A few seconds later, Hunter and Peter come bursting through

the door. Hunter runs over and starts to shake me. I tense up and go completely still.

Chapter Nine

Hunter picks me up and holds me tightly against his chest.

"Max?" Peter asked quietly. I wrap my arms around Hunter tightly. I notice that Hunter

smells like expensive coffee and maple bacon. Hunter sighs with relief and stands up, and

lifts me up in his arms.

"Peter, can I take Max home with me so I can keep an eye on her while you get everything

ready for the funeral?" Hunter asks as starts to walk out of the bathroom.

"Only if you promise to protect her and keep her from doing something stupid", Peter said

with his eyebrows raised.

"Fine, I promise", Hunter said as he bowed his head.

Hunter reaches the bedroom and lays me down on the bed. Then Andy, Warren, and Vincent

walk into the room quietly.

"Is she ok?" Andy asks in a whisper.

"Yeah, she just broke under pressure", Hunter said to him sadly.

"Warren, can you go get Peter and ask him where her suitcase is?" Hunter asked as he

turned to Warren.

"I'm already here", Peter said as he walked over to my closet. He opened my closet and

pulled out my black duffle bag and opened it. He then turns to the clean basket of laundry

and stuffs it all into the bag. He then walks over to my desk and picks up my jewelry box,

makeup bag, and straightener. He walks back over and puts my purse and makeup bag into

the duffle bag. He hands Warren the jewelry box and then Peter puts his hands around his

own neck and takes off his dog tags.

"Warren, can you put the box carefully in the bag?" Peter asks him. Warren puts the box in

the duffle bag next to the makeup bag. Hunter scoops me up in his arms. Then Peter places

his dog tags around my neck and kisses my forehead.

"Hey, Hunter I'll meet you at the house", Vincent said quietly.

"Ok, see you there!" Hunter whispered. Vincent leaves the room and out of the house.

"Warren, can you grab her bag?" Hunter asked as he walked out of the room. Andy follows

behind with Warren in behind him as well. Hunter walks out the front door and waits for

Andy to open the car door. Andy opens the door and helps Hunter carefully lay me down on

the backseat. Hunter turns and waves to Peter who is standing at the front door. Hunter

then lifts my head up carefully and slides into the backseat, placing my head on his lap.

Andy closes the door and opens the trunk. He puts my duffle bag in and slams it shut.

Warren hops into the passenger seat and puts on his seat belt, and Andy hops in and closes

the door. He starts up the car and pulls out of the driveway.

"I don't see why you had to be the one to kiss her before I do", Warren said disappointedly.

"Wait, you like her?" Hunter asks curiously.

"Yes, I do and you stole her from me!" Warren said angrily. I move around slightly, almost

falling off the backseat but Hunter catches me. I open my eyes to see Hunter staring down

at me smiling.

"Well look who's awake", Hunter said with a chuckle. I roll my eyes and fall back asleep.

"And, she's out again", Hunter said quietly.

Ten minutes later...

Andy pulls up to Warren's house and parks the car. Warren steps out of the car and opens

the trunk. He pulls out my duffle bag and walks into the house. Andy steps out of the car

and opens the door. Hunter carefully scoops me up and slides out of the car. He carries me

inside the house and follows Andy to the guest bedroom and lays me down on the bed.

Andy grabs the blankets out from under me and places it over top.

"She's so cute when she's asleep", Hunter said as he turned to Andy. All three men walk out

of the room quietly and sit in the living room.

"So what's going to happen now?" Warren asks curiously.

"I don't know, I thought maybe she would be better off here, '' Hunter said contemplatively.

"Why? So you can be the one who turns into her "Knight in shining armor"?" Warren asked

sarcastically.

"Hey, Warren, seriously what is the deal with you?" Hunter asked, annoyed.

"You know what? Just forget it". Warren said defeatedly. "Hunter, let's start helping Peter

plan the funeral, '' Andy said as he stepped in between Warren and Hunter before they

started to get physical.

"Good idea", Hunter said as he got up from the couch.

Chapter Ten

"It's all your fault, Max!" Dad yelled.

"How is it my fault? You're the one who always told Mom that she was never good enough for

you!" I yelled back.

"You and your mother will never be good enough!" Dad yelled back.

Those words kept playing over and over in my head, "You will never be good enough", It's like

being hit in the head with a sledgehammer, "You will never be good enough". I start to toss

and turn at that thought. "You will never be good enough", I end up being woken up by Hunter

running in and sitting on the bed and holding me tightly and my screams.

"Shhhh, Max, It's me. You're ok", Hunter said, rocking back and forth with me in his arms. I

realize that I'm shaking, so I slowly stop shaking and allow myself to lay against him.

"Are you ok?" Hunter asked as he stopped rocking back and forth.

"Yeah, just a nightmare", I said nervously. I look down and see that he's only in his boxer

shorts.

"Did I wake you up?" I ask guiltily.

"No, I was already awake", Hunter said with a smile. I chuckle a little and hug Hunter tightly.

"You sure, you're ok?" Hunter asks curiously. I look up at him and smile fakely.

"Yeah, I'm fine", I said as I let him go.

"I don't think you're ok", Hunter said with a frown. I get up from the bed and walk out of the

room.

"I'm fine, ok?" I snapped at him. I walk over to the living room to see Warren asleep on the

couch. I turn around to see Hunter behind me smiling.

"Did you know that Warren is in love with you?" Hunter asked curiously. I walk up to Hunter

and frown. Then I walk over to the bedroom and close the door. I go into the duffle bag and

grab my black tank top, black skinny jeans, and black spiked leather jacket, I take off all of

my clothes and put on the outfit I pulled out from the duffle bag. I then grab my makeup bag

and jewelry box. I take out my crimson lipstick and foundation and my brushes. I put my

foundation in the mirror, then I put on my lipstick quickly. I look over to see the clock, it's

2:05 am. I look back into the mirror and smile. I open my jewelry box and take out my black

spiked bracelets and put them on. I look down to see that I'm wearing my brother's dog

tags. I grab hold of them and smile.

I walk to the duffle bag and grab my black combat boots and put them on. I plug in my

straightener and wait for it to heat up. Once it was hot, I straightened my hair quickly, then

unplugged the straightener. I walk out of the room and blush to see Hunter wearing only his

shirt and beginning to pull up his boxers and jeans. I quietly walk over to stand outside his

door and wait till he comes out. A few minutes later he walks out and jumps out of his skin

when he sees me standing next to his door.

"Jeez, Max! You scared me!", he said with a nervous smile.

"Oops, my bad", I said with a mischievous grin.

"Why do you look like a vampire?" Hunter asks, confused.

"I plan to stand over Warren before he wakes up and scares the living crap out of him", I said

with a smile. Hunter starts to walk towards me slowly.

"What are you doing?" I ask him, confused. He stops right in front of me and smiles. He

bends over and kisses me softly. He pulls away slowly and puts his hands on my shoulders.

I look down and blush.

"What was that for?" I ask him shyly. I hug him tightly before he goes back for another.

"What are you doing, Max?" Hunter asks as he slightly winces at how tight the embrace is.

"Max?" Hunter says again as my grip gets tighter. I try not to move so I bury my face into his

chest to hide the fact that I'm blushing from head to toe. I managed to compose myself

again, then I let him go.

"I'm sorry about that", I said to him as I walked over to the kitchen.

I stopped in front of the cabinets and opened the door, I grabbed a mug and walked over to

the coffee maker. I grab a coffee pod and put it in the machine. I push a button and the

machine starts gurgling and finally brews the coffee. As I am waiting for the coffee, I hear

Hunter walking up behind me. He places his hands around my waist and pulls me close to

him.

"Hunter, why are you so fascinated by me?" I ask him, slightly annoyed.

"Because you are the only one who is willing to put up with my bullshit", He said as he

started to move his hands down into my back pockets. I grab hold of his hands and put

them against his chest roughly.

"Woah someone's feisty", Hunter said with a devilish grin.

I turn around and grab the coffee from the machine and down it as fast as possible. Just

then Hunter grabs hold of the coffee and places it on the counter, and grabs hold, and wraps

his arms around my waist.

"Max, I want you to be mine", Hunter says with a gentle smile. I look up at him confused,

suddenly I can feel my heart beating faster and faster. I wrap my arms around him tightly

and try to slow down my heart. My heart begins to beat even faster, causing me to

hyperventilate.

"Why?" I ask him, confused.

Chapter Eleven

"You make it seem like a bad thing", Hunter said with a frown. I lean against the counter and

grip the edge for dear life, I can feel my heart skipping.

"I-I don't mean it to be a bad thing", I say as I try to keep myself from becoming nauseous. I

let go of the counter and slightly pushed Hunter out of my way. I walk over to the bathroom

and close the door behind me, and make sure I lock it quietly. I walk over to the medicine

cabinet and open it. I see several bottles of pills all lined up in alphabetical order. I spot a

bottle that is empty, so I grab it and open it. I take a whiff of the bottle and start to cough

from the potent smell of the bottle. I close the bottle and place it back into the cabinet. I

close the cabinet and stare at myself in the mirror. I look at the scar that runs along the

bottom of my neck close to my right shoulder.

I start to cry slightly, as I walk to the bathroom door. I unlock and open the door. I look over

to see Hunter in the kitchen with his back turned. I quietly walk out of the bathroom towards

the front door. "Hunter has been acting like an ass lately, Like why does he want me all of the

sudden?" I think to myself. My head starts to spin as I reach for the door handle. I turn the

handle and open the door quietly and run out the door. The fresh air fills my lungs as I am

running down the street.

I continue to run down the street faster, without looking back. I reach the bus stop and wait

for the bus. The bus pulls up and opens the doors, as the doors open the bus driver stares

at me as I walk on the bus. I wave at the driver and smile sweetly.

"Good morning", the driver said as I walked towards the back of the bus. The bus starts

moving and I relax in my seat. "I want you to be mine". Those words start spiraling in my

head, "Why would he want me? Is he only saying that to get into my head? Does he actually

like me? Things just don't seem to make sense anymore". I think to myself.

I look over to see that the bus is about to pull up to my stop so I get up and signal the driver

to stop the bus. The bus stops and I wave to the driver to say thank you. I get off the bus

and wait for the bus to leave. Once it leaves, I run across the road to the other side and walk

along the sidewalk. I turn the corner and keep walking to my house. A few seconds later I

reach my front door and open it. I walk in and close the door quietly behind me, and I make

a straight beeline to the bathroom. I open the bathroom door and turn on the light. I chuckle

when I hear Peter snoring loudly in the next room over. I close the door and take off all my

clothes and hop into the shower.

I turn on the water and shiver as it hits my skin, I turn the dial to warm water and instantly

feel warmer. I grab my favorite luffa and my soap. I scrubbed myself clean. I then wash my

hair quickly and turn off the water. I step out of the shower and grab a towel hanging on the

door. I wrap myself up and pick up the clothes from the floor. I open the bathroom door and

walk over to my room. I open my bedroom door and walk in over to the dresser. I look over

to see the time, 6:15 am, I quietly open my drawers and pull out my sweatpants, my Mikey

F*ing way shirt, and Warren's oversized sweater. I walk over to my bedroom door, close it,

and lock the door. I quickly put on my clothes and sat on my bed. I begin to debate whether

or not I want to go outside. I get up from the bed and put on my shoes. I walked over to my

bedroom door and unlocked it. I quietly walk out of my bedroom over to the kitchen table, I

spot a few sheets of paper on the table. They read:

Plans for Mom's Funeral and to-do list:

1. Order flowers

2. Design memorandum cards

3. find someone to do the funeral

4. Send out invites

I put down the paper and walked towards the front door. I open the front door to see Andy

and Vincent standing there.

"What the hell are you two doing here?" I ask them, confused.

"We're helping Peter plan the funeral", Vincent said with a frown.

"You look like hell", Andy said.

"Thanks", I said, evidently hurt by the comment.

"Aren't you supposed to be at Hunter's?" Vincent asked as he put his hand on my shoulder.

"Why do you care?" I snapped at him.

"Hey, are you ok? What's going on?" Andy asks curiously.

"Look, all I can say is that I can't handle this anymore", I said as I pushed past them. Just

then Peter walks over towards the front door to see what was happening. I look back at

Peter and try not to cry. I then start walking down the street. I turn the corner and spot a

park up ahead. So I start walking towards the park, I can feel a lump in my throat starting to

form as I walk. I try to push it down but the tears just start to flow. "Why does it always have

to happen to me?" I think to myself. I look both ways before crossing the road, then quickly

run across and into the park. I find a park bench and sit down. I suddenly get a phone call,

it's Dad. I instantly picked up the phone.

"Dad?" I ask as I answer the phone.

"Why the hell didn't someone tell me that Mom was dead?!" He yelled.

"I thought Peter told you", I said quickly.

"Nope, I would have expected him to at least text me, but No", He said angrily. I start to cry

as he continues to yell.

"You and your brother will never be good enough for me so why did I even call you again?!"

He yelled.

"I DON'T FUCKING KNOW, OKAY DAD?! MAYBE YOU WOULD KNOW IF YOUR HEAD WASN'T

SO FAR UP YOUR ASS!" I yell at him and quickly hang up the phone. I give up on fighting

back the tears and just let them pour. I look at my wrists and start to dig my nails into them,

trying to break the skin. I wince in pain as I finally break the skin. "I'll never be good enough

for anyone!" I think to myself as I dig my nails in harder. I get up from the bench and start

walking further into the park, walking past a few people. I pull out my phone and text Warren

two words. Help me.

Chapter Twelve

I wake up to someone trying to go through my pockets. I scream as loud as I can, which

causes him to stumble backward in fright. I try getting up but as I push myself up with my

hands I feel an intense pain shooting up from my wrist. I looked up to the person who was

going through my pockets.

"Who are you?" I ask him. The man smiles.

"You don't remember me?" He asks, confused.

"No I don't", I said to him fearfully.

"I'm Constable Dickson", he said as he pulled out his badge from his pocket.

"Then why were you going through my pockets?" I ask him, confused.

"I wasn't sure who you were because you had your eyes closed, it wasn't until you opened

your eyes when I realized it was you. No one can forget your eyes", he said with a smile.

"Thanks, I guess", I said, nodding my head nervously.

"How'd you find me?" I am concerned.

"I left my card with your brother, and he called me panicking", Constable Dickson said as he

crouched down to help me get up. I wince as he pulls my hand, he notices the cut on my

wrist and frowns.

I try to pull the sleeve of my sweater down to hide it.

"Why did my brother call you?" I ask him, still trying to hide the cut.

"He called me because he got a call from your friend Warren", Constable Dickson said as he

grabbed my hand and pulled up the sleeve to get a better look at the cut.

"How'd this happen?" He asks. I look down at the ground guiltily.

"Did you do this?" He asks gently. I nod and try not to cry.

"Look, let me take you home", he said as he led me back through the park to his cruiser.

He opens the passenger side door and nods for me to get in. I reluctantly get into the car

and close the door. I place my fingers on the cut and scratch at it nervously. Constable

Dickson climbs into the driver's side, closes the door, and starts the car. He looks over at

me, then looks at my wrist and sees me picking at it. He notices that my wrist is starting to

bleed as I pick at it, so he takes hold of my hand and starts to drive. He places his hand

around my wrist and squeezes it to try to stop the bleeding. I look down at my wrist and see

the blood and instantly become sick to my stomach.

I stare out the window and try to keep myself from throwing up. Constable Dickson pulls up

to the house and turns off the car.

"Hey, Max. I'm gonna let go of your wrist, but I'm gonna need you to hold onto it to keep the

pressure on it. Can you do that?" He asks gently.

"Sure", I said, still trying not to throw up. He lets go of my wrist and gets out of the car. I

open the door and get out of the car, not holding my wrist. I get really dizzy and my vision

gets blurry. Constable Dickson runs to the trunk of the cruiser and opens it, he pulls out a

first aid kit and runs over to me. I place my hand on his shoulder and try to stabilize myself,

"Max, I need you to give me your wrist", Constable Dickson said as he opened the kit. I shake

my head no and let go of his shoulder. The front door of the house opens and Andy runs out

frantically towards me as I suddenly collapse to the ground.

"MAX!" Andy and Constable Dickson both yell as they run over. Constable Dickson pulls

gauze out from the first aid kit and wraps my wrist tightly. I yelp in pain as Andy picks me up

from the ground.

"Doughnut tells Hunter this but, I think he's a player", I say slurred.

"Oh, jeez. I think we should get her to emerge", Constable Dickson advised. I suddenly start

laughing uncontrollably.

"I'm a duck!" I exclaim childishly. Andy looks over at Constable Dickson in fear.

"Maybe you should call a bus?" Andy said quickly.

"How'd you know that we call them buses?" Constable Dickson asked, surprised.

"I've been trying to get into the police academy but they keep rejecting me saying that I

need to remove my tattoos first", Andy said to him nervously.

"Duckies!" I yell out excitedly.

"Constable Dickson is it?" Andy asks.

"That's right", Constable Dickson said.

"Call that bus now and fast!" Andy yelled as he felt my body tense and go still.

"Sandy?" I ask as I grab hold of his shoulder.

"I'm fine now", I said as I tried to get out of Andy's arms. He gently put me down on my feet

and I became a little wobbly.

"I wanna pull a prank on Hunter to get back at him", I said with a devilish smile.

"Max, are you ok?" Constable Dickson asks as comes closer.

"Nope! But I refuse to go to the damn hospital!" I snapped at him. Just then I get a phone

call from Warren, I instantly pick.

"Hey, Warren what's up?" I ask him cheerfully.

"Where are you?" He asks, panicked.

"I'm at home", I said annoyed.

"I'm coming over, stay there and don't move!" Warren yelled.

"I can't exactly run anywhere at the moment because I'm surrounded by Andy and Constable

Dickson, I mean I would run", I said looking up at Andy smiling. Andy looks at me with a

'Don't you dare' expression. I hang up the phone and attempt to put it back into my pocket. I

start walking past Andy and turn around and smile mischievously.

"Where are you going?" Andy asks with his arms out ready to catch me if I try to run. I giggle

childishly and make it look like I'm about to take off running, suddenly Andy lunges forward

and wraps his arms around me tightly. Just then Vincent pulls up on his bike and hops off. I

poke Andy roughly in the stomach to try to break free. He winces but holds me tighter.

"Andy let me go!" I yell. I elbow him in the stomach and try to pull out my phone. I manage

to pull out my phone and dial Warren's number.

"Warren, Can you tell Andy to let me go?" I ask him childishly.

"Pass Andy the phone", Warren said. Andy grabs the phone and smiles.

"Don't worry she won't go anywhere until you get here", Andy chuckles and looks down at

me.

"Wow, Andy is pretty strong," I think to myself. I look up to him and smile. I suddenly elbow

below the belt right square in the crotch. He instantly lets me go and drops to his knees in

pain.

"Oops", I said as I realized that the front door of the house was still open. I ran straight into

the house and into my bedroom. I slam the door and lock it. I look around my room

searching for something heavy enough to put in front of the door. I give up searching and

run into my closet and close the door, and I crawl into the back of the closet. I can hear

voices outside my bedroom door as I try to make myself as small as possible in my closet.

I hear someone playing with the doorknob and the bedroom door opening.

"Max?" I hear someone walking around the room.

"Max I know you're in here", I recognized the voice. It's Warren's. I slowly stand up in the

closet and open the door slowly. Warren rushes over and wraps his arms around me.

"Max, you scared the crap out of me!" Warren said as he tried not to cry but failed miserably.

"Warren, what are you doing here?" I ask him, confused.

"You texted me two words, Help me. I thought you were in trouble". He said while crying.

"Yeah I was, Hunter is a pain in the ass, my Dad is a dick who hates me, I hate the world and

just need someone to love me", I said annoyed.

Chapter Thirteen

A week later...

The day of the funeral.

I wake up feeling extremely depressed. I start to remember that I have to get ready for the

funeral. I threw the blanket off my body and rolled out of bed. I shuffle tiredly towards my

bedroom door and open it. I look to see Peter walk out of his bedroom wearing a black suit

and trying to fix his tie. He looks up to see that I have just woken up.

"Max! Andy is going to be here in like ten minutes and you're not dressed yet?!" He yells. I

roll my eyes and walk back into the bedroom and close the door. I walk over to the closet

and pull out a black pair of jeans, a black t-shirt, my long black trench coat, and my boots. I

take off my skeleton onesie and quickly put on the clothes I pulled out from my closet.

I walk over to my desk and pick up my foundation and reddish black gel eyeshadow. I put on

the foundation, then quickly smear the eyeshadow on, I take my index finger and smudge

the eyeshadow around my eyes. I walk over to the mirror and mess up my hair and try to

bring it down to slightly cover my eyes. I then walk out of the room with my head down and

stand outside with Peter, waiting for Andy to arrive. A few minutes later Andy arrives and we

walk over to his car. Hunter gets out of the car and lets me get into the middle, in between

himself and Warren. I look over at Warren and see that he's wearing a pair of black vans,

black jeans, and a white button-up dress shirt.

I then look over at Hunter and see that he's wearing a black suit, red tie, and black dress

shoes.

"Hey, Max", Hunter said as he placed his hand on my thigh gently.

"Hey, Warren", I said as I looked over at him, ignoring Hunter. "Hey, Max", Warren said with a

gentle smile.

"Hey, Pete, who's the pallbearers?" I ask curiously.

"Well, Andy, Warren, Me, and Vincent", Peter said quickly.

"Ok, that works for me", I said quietly.

"Wow", Hunter says, annoyed.

"What?" I ask him, confused.

"You say hello to Warren and you completely ignore me?" Hunter says with a pout.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know you wanted to talk to me", I said annoyed.

"Look, I was hoping to talk to you about that kiss", Hunter says quietly.

"What's there to talk about?" I snap. I feel Warren slowly put his hand over mine and hold it

gently, I realize that I've been balling my hand up into a tight fist, and so I release it. I look

down at the ground and start to tear up.

"Max, is everything ok?" Peter asks gently.

"No, nothing is ok", I said as I held Warren's hand a little tighter, almost as if I were holding

on to it for dear life.

Ten minutes later...

Andy pulls into Assman's Funeral Home parking lot and parks the car. Hunter opens the

door and gets out of the car. He puts his hand out for me to hold as I climb out of the car. I

grab his hand and climb out of the car slowly. As I climb out I become a little clumsy and fall

into Hunter's arms. I blush slightly and try to get my balance back. As I finally get my

balance, it suddenly starts to rain heavily. I look up to the sky and let the rain trickle down

my face. I suddenly get pulled inside by Hunter.

"Max, You're gonna get sick!" He yells as we get inside. I chuckle at his worried expression,

"I'm fine, and plus, Why do you care if I get sick or not?" I ask him.

"Because I love you", Hunter said sadly. I run into the room where they are holding the

service. I slowly walk over to my mother's open casket and grab hold of her cold lifeless

hand. I can't bear the thought that she is actually gone, I hold back my tears and slowly walk

over to my seat with my head bowed.

I look up to see the minister standing at the front to the left of her casket. I lock eyes with

him for a minute and become extremely uncomfortable and look away.

"Welcome, friends and family", the minister says loudly. I look up ahead and try to listen to

what the minister was saying but I become so overwhelmed that I just block out the sound

of his voice. I look around the room to see where Warren is sitting, suddenly he gets up and

walks towards the front of the room with Hunter, Peter, Andy, and Vincent slowly. He stands

on the left side of the coffin and places his hand on top. They slowly start walking out of the

room alongside the coffin. I get up from my seat and run after it crying. "Please don't leave

me", I say in my head. I watch as they pick up the coffin and slide it into the back of the

hearse. They close the door and turn around to see me standing there. I look around and

feel like I'm floating and the world around me is spinning. I take a few steps forward and

immediately collapse on the ground.

Chapter Fourteen

I wake up in the emergency room connected to so many wires I feel like I'm caught in the

weeds.

"Peter!" I yell out in fear. He runs over and calls a doctor in. I start to panic and end up

pulling out almost all of the wires.

"Max!" Peter yells as he tries to calm me down.

"Get me out of here! You know how I feel about hospitals!" I yell at him angrily. I try getting

out of the bed but the doctor pushes me back down. I look up at the doctor, who looks to be

in his late twenties. He's tall, with dark short hair, His upper body is pretty built.

"Max, my name is Doctor Tarr, I'm about to bring you to radiology to get a scan, "I need you

to calm down, can you do that for me?" He asks gently. I shake my head no and begin to rip

out the rest of the wires that are connected to me. Doctor Tarr rushes over and tries to stop

me from ripping the wires out and reconnects the wires. He yells for help as I begin to tense

up and shiver violently. Suddenly three more doctors and nurses come running in and try to

hold me down as Doctor Tarr grabs a sedative to calm me down. He turns to Peter.

"Has she ever done this before?" he asks.

"She's had her ups and downs but never to this extent", Peter says nervously. Doctor Tarr

nods.

"I'm gonna rush her up to radiology now before she wakes up so we can run the tests", he

says to Peter gently. Doctor Tarr then turns to the bed and pulls up the rails and locks them

into place.

"Let's get her up there now", he says to another doctor in the room. Then they quickly start

rolling me out of the room.

An Hour Later...

I wake up to Doctor Tarr standing on the right side of the bed reading a chart.

"Who are you?" I ask him tiredly.

"I'm Doctor Tarr, Do you know why you're here?" He asks.

"Nope, but I get the feeling it has something to do with the restraints", I said as I looked

down at my wrists.

"Wait, you said your name was Doctor Tarr? As in Edgar Allen Poe?" I ask with a smile. He

chuckles childishly.

"Yeah, sort of", He says with a smile. "Don't worry, I'm not psychotic like the other Doctor

Tarr", he says as he pulls up a stool so he could sit down.

"So why am I here?" I asked him.

"Well you had an accident", he says gently.

"Ok so?" I said, annoyed.

"Well I was hoping to talk to you about it", Doctor Tarr says with a frown. I turn my face over

on my left side and look away from him.

"What's there to talk about?" I said to him, slightly upset. Doctor Tarr gets up from the stool.

"I'm gonna come back in a little bit to check in on you", he says with a sigh. I close my eyes

and start to cry quietly. A few minutes later, Peter comes into the room quietly.

"Peter?" I ask as I hear him walk in.

"Yeah?" he asks.

"What's wrong with me?" I ask him as I turn to face him.

"I don't know", Peter said as he sighed with a twang of sadness. Just then Hunter, Warren,

Andy, and Vincent quietly walk into the room. I can feel a lump in my throat starting to form,

so I quickly close my eyes and begin to pray that they would leave.

"Hey, Max", Warren said gently. I open my eyes and I see that Warren is holding a stuffed

frog in his hands.

"Hey", I whisper and sigh. I look around the room and see Hunter holding a rose, I instantly

frown at him.

"Why are you here?" I ask him angrily.

"I'm here because I care about you", Hunter said with a sad smile.

"But that doesn't justify why you want me to be yours", I say to him annoyed.

"But Max, I do care about you, why are you being like this?" Hunter said a little upset.

"Hunter, I can't handle this shit right now so just...Get out", I snapped at him.

"What do you mean?" Hunter asks.

"Just GO!" I yell at him. Hunter nods sadly, looks up at Andy, and then walks out of the

room. Then doctor Tarr walks into the room with a clipboard in his hand.

"Hey, guys I was wondering if I could talk to Max alone now?" He asks gently. Warren, Andy,

Vincent, and Peter all leave the room at the same time.

"Hey, Doctor Tarr can you undo these stupid restraints?" I ask him really annoyedly.

"Sure, but only if you promise not to do anything stupid", he said as he started to carefully

untie the restraints. I instantly carefully rub the sore spots on my wrists.

"Why do you have to make 'em so damn tight?" I ask him.

"I don't know", he says with a frown.

Chapter Fifteen

Doctor Tarr stands up and walks over to the large blue rolling cart and opens a drawer. He

takes out an ice pack, pops it, and gently places it on my sore wrist. I wrinkle my nose as he

wraps the ice pack around my wrist.

"Are you alright?"Doctor Tarr asks as he sits back down on the stool beside me.

"Yeah, I'm fine", I said as I carefully propped myself up on the hospital bed.

"So, Max, do you wanna talk about what happened?" Doctor Tarr asked gently.

"I guess", I sigh.

"Ok, I want you to start at the beginning", he said. I sigh and look down at my wrists.

"It all started when my Dad and my Mom split up on my sixteenth birthday. Ever since he left

her, she started to go into a downward spiral..." I said as I tried to keep myself from crying.

"How did that make you feel?" he asked curiously, I looked up at him with a frown.

"How do you think it made me feel? I felt like my family was slowly falling apart and there

was nothing I could do about it", I said a little upset.

"I understand that", Doctor Tarr said with a sympathetic smile.

"Then, I was at my best friend Warren's house, when all of the sudden I got the call from

Peter that Mom had just died of an overdose, then things just started to spiral out of control

for me and it leads me to be here at this very moment", I said slightly angry.

"Well it seems like you have a lot on your plate at the moment", Doctor Tarr said with an

empathetic smile. I looked at him slightly upset and tried to hold back tears.

"Of course I have a lot on my plate! I try to look like everything is ok when really I'm falling

apart and struggling to keep my head above water", I said as the tears started to pour.

Doctor Tarr stood up from the stool and took a step closer towards the bed and gently took

hold of my left hand.

"I just want you to know that you are stronger than you think". Then he let go of my hand

and walked out of the room. Those words started to swirl through my mind, "You are

stronger than you think", I started to become confused about what he meant by "You are

stronger than you think". I tried to shake the thought out of my mind. Then Peter came into

the room holding a cup. As he walked in, he smiled shyly and sat down on the stool beside

the bed. Peter then put the cup down on the floor beside him and gently grabbed both of my

hands.

"Hey, Max", he said with tears in his eyes.

"Hey, Pete", I said with a shy smile.

"So what did the Doctor say?" He asked, a little concerned.

"Um, Pete, the Doctor is a Psychologist", I said looking down a little embarrassed.

"Wait, what do you mean?" Peter asked, extremely confused.

"The Doctor is a shrink", I said annoyed.

"So, what did he say?", Peter asked. I rolled my eyes.

"He just asked about what happened and that's literally it", I said. Peter sighs and stands up,

"Where are you going?" I ask Peter as he starts to walk out of the room.

"I'm going to go find Warren", Peter says with a sad smile. I sigh slightly and close my eyes.

Then Warren came bursting through the door like a mad man on the loose,

"Max?! Is everything ok?" Warren asks frantically. I then became a little overwhelmed from

the energy in which he had entered the room.

"Warren, I'm fine!" I said as he paced back and forth a little.

"Are you sure?" Warren asked. I nodded.

"Yes, I'm fine, now will you please calm down?" I asked him. Warren nods and sits down on

the bed beside me.

"I'm sorry Max", Warren said with slight tears in his eyes.

"Why are you saying sorry?" I asked him, confused. He looked away from me trying to hide

the tears in his eyes.

"I'm sorry that I wasn't really there for you", Warren said with a sigh.

"What do you mean? You were there for me", I said, a little confused.

"Look I was there for you physically, but I wasn't really there for you mentally", Warren said

guiltily. I shot him a look of confusion.

"Have you ever wondered why my parents are never home?" Warren asked.

"Kind of", I said, a little curious.

"Well, they aren't really home at the moment", Warren started to say.

"What do you mean?" I asked him about it.

"Well they're in the military", Warren said looking away.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked him.

"I wasn't sure you even cared", Warren said.

"Why would you think that I wouldn't care?" I said to Warren a little hurt by the comment.

"Max, I'm sorry", Warren said as he looked away a little ashamed.

"Do you know when they're coming back?" I ask him blankly.

"No, and the only reason they let Hunter and I stay home alone was that our Uncle lives

nearby and he agreed to check in from time to time and when he does the check-in with us,

he would send the updates to our parents", Warren said, a little annoyed. I started thinking

about all that he is telling me. I look away from him for a moment while I process all this

and when I look back at him I notice that he has started to cry. I reach over to give him a hug

but he brushes me off.

"I-I gotta go", Warren said as he quickly got up from where he sat next to me on the hospital

bed. He quickly hugged me, picked up the coffee cup from the floor then walked out of the

room. Five minutes go by, I gather enough courage to disconnect my intravenous line, put on

my shorts, and try to run out of the room after Warren who was already in the elevator going

down to the main floor. I run past the nurse's desk, past a few nurses in the hall as I reach

the stairwell. I look back to see a few nurses walking towards me, a little worried. I open the

doors to the stairwell and run as fast as I can down the stairs.

"Hey, you shouldn't be out of bed!", the nurse yelled behind me. I ignored her as I continued

to run down the stairs. I reach the main floor of the hospital and try to find where Warren is. I

realized that he must have taken a cab home. I look back to see two orderly's running

towards me. I run towards the entrance and through the doors towards the street. I look

both ways and take off running down the road towards the park where Constable Dickson

found me. I continue running through the park and try to go towards the back entrance of

the park where I see Warren get out of the cab.

"WARREN!" I yell out as I run towards him, frantically with tears streaming down my face.

"Max?" Warren says as he sees me come out of the park running towards him at full speed. I

reach out to him and stop right in front of him and hug him tightly.

"Warren, I'm so sorry", I said, trying to stop the tears from flowing but failing miserably.

"Why are you sorry?" Warren said as he wrapped me in a tight embrace.

"I'm sorry for being so blind and not seeing that you're going through a hard time", I said to

him crying into his shoulder.

Off in the distance, I can hear sirens, getting louder and louder.

"Max, did you escape from the hospital?" Warren asked, a little worried.

"I just had to tell you", I said as I looked up at him.

"Tell me what?" Warren asked, confused.

"That I was sorry", I said as I pulled him back into the hug. I look to the side and I can see a

police cruiser and an ambulance pulling up towards the both of us.

"Max, It's ok", Warren said as he nodded towards the EMTs.

"How is it ok?" I was clearly upset.

"It will be, I promise", Warren said as he smiled.

"But Warren, How can you say that? How do you know that things will be ok? I mean

seriously, look around you. Everything is a mess", I said angrily. I then walk over towards the

EMTs and climb into the back of the Ambulance. "I escaped from the hospital to say sorry to

him and this is what I get?" I thought to myself angrily. I look over at one of the EMTs, who

almost looks like Andy, and frowns at him. He looks back at me with a very concerned look,

"Hey is everything alright?" I grit my teeth and shake my head no.

"No, I'm not alright, my life is falling apart". He looks at me with a raised eyebrow,

"How?" He asks.

"Well for starters, my dad hates me, I just recently had to have a funeral for my mother who

commited suicide by overdosing, and I just feel like I'm trying to hold all the pieces that are

left together but every time I try to hold it all together the more it falls apart". He looks at me,

smiles and sticks out his hand towards me.

"My name's Frank, Frank Blair. What's your name?" I take him by the hand gently and shake

it.

"My name is Maxwell, Maxwell Caufield, but my friends just call me Max'', I said with a sad

smile.

"Well Max, stemming from my experience, I've seen many people like you who think that

their life was in pieces but it wasn't until they realized that the only pieces that they were

able to save were the good parts of their lives. They realize what they have and start to

actually see the light at the end of the tunnel." Frank said with a sympathetic smile. I look

into his eyes and smile.

"Thank you, I mean I do hear that everything is going to be okay from the same old people

everyday and it's actually nice to hear it from someone who actually means it", I said with a

sad yet hopeful smile.

"Well, they aren't wrong", Frank said contemplatively.

"Yeah, I guess", I said, looking down at the ground.

"Well, sad to say but we are here now", Frank said as he nodded to Doctor Tarr, who had

just opened the door.

"Well there you are!" Doctor Tarr said with a sigh of relief. I roll my eyes and climb out of

the ambulance, I turn around and look back at Frank, who is smiling at me.

"I hope to see you soon!" I said with a smile.

"On better terms I hope!" Frank said with a chuckle.

Chapter Sixteen

As I walk into the hospital room, I see Hunter, Andy, Vince, and Pete standing around talking

to each other. Then Andy looks directly at me and his face goes completely pale, almost as

if he had seen a ghost. Then Hunter, Vince, and Pete turn around to look at me and they all

go pale as well.

"What's wrong?" I ask them.

"Y-your nose is bleeding", Andy says as he hands me a tissue box.

"What are you all afraid of?" I ask as I try to clean up my nose.

"We aren't afraid of you, we are afraid of the man behind you", Vince said shakily. I slowly

turn around and I chuckle quietly.

"You're afraid of this cinnamon roll?" I ask as I push the man standing behind me in

front.He's short, with long, straight black hair.

He has quite a few tattoos.He is wearing a white button up dress shirt underneath a black

suit vest, he is wearing black dress pants and a pair of black italian loafers.

"This is Frank, Frank Iero", I said with a smile.

"How do you not remember uncle Frank?" I ask Pete with a frown.

"I remember him", Pete said with a shiver. Pete pulls me out into the hallway.

"MAX HOW COULD YOU BRING THAT MAN HERE?!" Pete shouted.

"What do you mean? Uncle Frank is a nice person", I said with a smile. I chuckle and walk

back into the room and sit on the bed. Pete walks into the room, clearly upset. He pulls

Frank out of the room by the arm roughly. Just as Pete and Frank walk out of the room, a

nurse walks in holding a vial and a needle. I chuckle as the nurse comes close.

"Hello Max", the nurse says with a smile. I look towards Hunter, Vince, and Andy as the

nurse begins to prep the needle.

I get up from the bed and start walking towards the door.

"I am not staying here", I said as I started to get agitated.

"Max, Doctor Tarr ordered this", the nurse said.

"If I can get two of you to step out of the room, except the tall blonde one, that would be

great", the nurse said calmly.

"Alright", Hunter and Vincent said at the same time. They both walk out of the room quickly.

"Ok I'm going to page Doctor Tarr, Once I walk out that door I need you to stand in front of it

so she doesn't try to leave, You got that Blondie?" the nurse says cautiously.

"Yeah I got it, and the name is Andy", he says with a smile.

The nurse walks out of the room and Andy stands in front of the door. I smile and try to get

out of the room but Andy pulls me into a big, tight, comforting bear hug. I try moving but I

actually feel comfortable in his arms. I sigh and slightly start to blush. Suddenly I can hear

Doctor Tarr chuckling behind Andy.

"Well,well, well. Looks like she's easier to control when you're around", Doctor Tarr said as

he walked into the room. I try wriggling free of Andy's grip but he's gotten stronger.

"Andy! Let me go!" I yell. Doctor Tarr pulls up my sleeve and cleans a small spot on my

shoulder.

"Andy, Bring her over to the bed so I can use the soft restraints", Doctor Tarr frowned. Andy

picks me up and carries me over to the bed, all while still hugging me. Doctor Tarr pulls on

the soft restraints on me and then stabs my arm with the needle.

"What did you inject her with?" Andy asks.

"A sedative", Doctor Tarr said. I begin to try to take off my restraints. I take off one restraint

and grab hold of Doctor Tarr's arm.

"Gerard, you know I can't stay here", I mumbled as I began to fall asleep.

Just then Frank walks into the room with a frightened look on his face.

"What did she just say?" Frank asks, frightened. Doctor Tarr looks up and smiles.

"Frank? Is that really you?" Doctor Tarr smiles. Frank narrows his eyes and looks Doctor Tarr

up and down, he slowly clicks in.

"Ray?" Frank asks awkwardly.Doctor Tarr chuckles.

"Yeah, how long has it been since I last saw you? Like 5 years?" Doctor Tarr asks.

"Yeah", Frank says as he looks away rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. Just then Pete

walks into the room with his arms crossed.

"Do you know each other?" Pete asks, a little confused.

"Yeah he used to run with the crew a few years back", Frank said with a chuckle.

"It's almost weird now because most of the crew are now like 20 year olds who are gangster

wannabe's", Frank said with a chuckle.

"Why are you here?" Pete asked Frank with a frown.

"Honestly, I have no clue", Frank said, shrugging.

"Well have you heard anything from dad?" Pete asked. Frank looks down a little

disappointed.

"Do you remember Uncle Jake?" Pete nods awkwardly, "Well, he's been trying to get a hold

of him for me", Frank said with an odd smile.

"I think it's time for you to leave", Pete says with a frown.

Frank chuckles, "You know I'm technically not your uncle right?" Pete looks at him confused,

"What do you mean?" he asks.

"Pete, there are things your mother never told you", Frank said, shaking his head.

"Like what?" Pete asked. Frank looked Pete square in the eyes.

"Pete, Max is only your half sister", Frank said gently.

"How?" Pete asked in shock.

"It's a long story but, Pete, I'm your dad", Frank said with a gentle smile.

Chapter Seventeen

A few months later…

I sit alone in my room with my door closed, at my desk, writing in my journal. I think to

myself, "I wish mom was here", then I get the idea to write a letter to mom. I start to write:

"Dear Mom,

You have no idea how much life is spiraling out of control right now. Ever since you

left, things have just been falling apart. Apparently, dad gave up custody of Pete and I.

I've been in and out of the hospital and now I'm graduating high school. So much is

happening and I really wish that you were here to experience it with us."

As I was writing, a few tears dripped onto the page which made the ink from my pen run and

smudge on the page. I sigh and go back to writing when there is a soft knock on my door. I

turned towards the door.

"Come in", I said loudly as I brought my knees up and I hugged them towards my chest. The

door opens and Warren walks in holding a large bouquet of roses.

"Hey", he said as he stood awkwardly at the door. He fixed his long black feathered hair, and

he's wearing his nice black jean jacket with a black t-shirt, black jeans, and his black leather

boots.

"You can come in", I said, turning back towards my desk. Warren walks over to my desk and

lays the roses on top of my journal. I looked up at Warren, who had slight tears in his eyes.

"Max, I just wanted to say I'm sorry", Warren said with tears in his eyes. I stand up and

slightly smile at him.

"Come here you big teddy bear", I said as I pulled him into a tight hug.

"Warren, why are you all dressed up?" I ask him with a chuckle. Warren gives a slight smile,

"Max, um I was...I was…" I looked at him confused.

"Come on, spit it out", I said, trying to edge him on. Warren closed his eyes and took a deep

breath.

"Max, Will you be my prom date?" He finally asks. I look Warren in the eyes and smile.

"Warren what do you think the answer is?" I smile at him, "Warren, the answer is yes".Warren

jumps up happily.

"Sweet!" Warren said excitedly.

"I'll see you at school tomorrow", he said with an excited smile.

"Yup definately", I said chuckling.

The next morning…

I woke up to my alarm clock going off at 6am. I roll out of bed and turn off my alarm. I walk

to the bathroom and hop into the shower. I turn off the water a few minutes later and quickly

run into my room. I then walk over to my closet and pick out my clothes for school. I picked

out my vintage black 'Warped tour' T-shirt, black ripped skinny jeans and my brand new

leather jacket with a scarlet cross on the lapel. I then walk over to my desk and grab my

makeup mirror and my red eyeshadow and crimson eyeliner. I make my left eye all red with

a red realistic scar running down my face and I put on my dusty rose lipstick. I plug in my

straighter and I quickly fix my hair, then I unplug it. I put on my black leather fingerless

gloves and ran out of the room. I ran to the front door and put on my black combat boots

and grabbed my school bag, "Pete, I'm heading out!" I yelled as I walked out the door.

I walk towards the bus stop and wait for the bus. A few minutes later the bus pulls up and I

step onto the bus and look directly into the bus driver's eyes and show him my bus pass. I

give a slight chuckle when I see the bus driver shiver a little. I sit down next to a little old

lady and I smile at her. She looks at me and she looks at me a little frightened. I stick my

hand out for her to shake.

"Hi there, my name is Max '', I smile. She takes my hand and shakes it hesitently.

"Oh by the way, it's not a real scar", I said with a little chuckle. The little old lady smiles with

relief. I look over to see that my stop is coming up so I get up and signal the driver I need to

get off. A moment later I get off the bus and walk into the school. I get a few frightened

glances as I walk past people in the hall. I get to my locker and I open it, I start rummaging

through and grabbing the books I need for the first two periods. I finish rummaging through

my locker and close it. I am startled by Hunter, who was standing there the whole time.

When I closed my locker door and Hunter saw the scar, he became a little startled.

"Woah, Max, You scared me!" Hunter said, taking a closer look at the scar. I roll my eyes and

start walking towards my science class. Hunter follows close behind me.

"What do you want, Hunter?" I said, a little annoyed.

"You know we have that presentation today right?" Hunter said as he walked faster and

stopped right in front of me.

"Yes, I know we have the presentation today", I said, rolling my eyes. The bell rings and I

walk into the back of the classroom with my head down and I sit at the back of the class.

Hunter sits next to me and starts pulling out his books. I keep my head down and pull out

my books waiting for the next class to start. A few minutes later the professor walks into

the classroom and starts taking attendance.

"Max?" he calls my name, I raise my hand and growl a low hello. Then the professor moves

on to the next name. He comes up to Hunter's name, and he says a loud hello. A few

minutes later, he finishes the attendance and asks for any volunteers who want to go first

for the presentations. I slightly looked over at Hunter who had just raised his hand.

"We'll go", he said excitedly. I roll my eyes and Hunter gets up from his seat and pulls up the

presentation on the computer. I get up from my chair and keep my head down while walking

towards the front of the class. The minute I get up to the front of the class, I lift my head up

and look at a few of the students. Some of them looked shocked to see the scar.

I clear my throat and ask Hunter to put up the first slide of the presentation. I gave a slight

chuckle and started rapping each point of the slides and by the end I could see a few

students were speechless. The professor smiles and tells us to sit down. I let Hunter get to

his seat first, and as I was sitting down he placed a note on my book. I sit down and open

the note, it reads:

"Hey Max, Will you go to Prom with me?"

I look over at Hunter and he has a huge stupid smile across his face. I smiled.

"I'll think about it", I said as I put the note in my pocket. As class goes on I feel Hunter place

his hand on my thigh.

"What are you doing?" I whisper to Hunter. Hunter smiles at me and turns back to the

professor. Hunter chuckles.

"What? I'm not allowed to put my hand on my future girlfriend?" Hunter chuckles. I shoot

him an angry look.

"Oops, did I say that out loud?" Hunter says awkwardly.I look up towards the clock and I

begin gathering my books and putting them in my bag .A few minutes later the bell finally

rings. I quickly stand up, grab my bag, and walk out of the class before Hunter even has time

to get up from his seat. I rush down the hall and through the stairs down to my next class. I

walk into my new psychology classroom and I sit down at an empty desk. I put my head

down carefully, so I don't smudge the scar, and close my eyes for a second while everyone

is coming into the classroom. A moment later, I feel a tap on my shoulder and I look up to

see Andy sitting at the desk beside me. I straighten up and look towards the teacher.

"Well we have a transfer student here with us today, would you please stand up and

introduce yourself?" I stand up and look around at the other students, a few of them smile

while others look away when they catch a glimpse of the scar.

"Name's Maxwell Caufield, You can call me Max, but only if we're friends, I transferred out

of Gym and into this class, and I like playing with special fx makeup, in case some of you

were wondering if the scar was real or not", I chuckle slightly to see the relief on Andy's

face.

"Well, it's nice to meet you Maxwell", the professor said with a smile. "My name is Mr.Ledger

and on behalf of the whole class, I would like to welcome you", he said with a gentle smile. I

sit down all while still looking Mr.Ledger up and down. He's a tall man, with short curly

brown hair, Smokey blue eyes, and a charming smile. He is wearing black combat boots,

slightly baggy black jeans, and a loose fitted grey dress shirt. He catches me looking at him

and he gives a slight shiver. I smile at him and then look down at my textbook.

"Alright class, I need you to open your textbooks to page 100 and read the chapter on

Prosocial Behavior", Mr.Ledger said loudly, Then he went to the board and started writing

out the question:

"IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE TOTAL CONTROL OF YOUR OWN LIFE?"

Once I was finished reading the chapter on Prosocial Behaviour, I turned to the board and

read the question.

"Does anyone have an answer to this question?" Mr.Ledger asked curiously. I looked down

to the floor and raised my hand slowly.

"Ms.Caufield, do you have an answer?" Mr.Ledger asked.

"Well to answer the question, I would have to say that we do and we don't have total control

over our lives", I said shyly. Mr.Ledger smiled a little.

"Would you care to elaborate on that?" He said edging me on.

I nod, "Well if you really think about it, we have control over our choices but with the other

things in life we have to follow the law and rules and regulations in order to keep the

balance in the world around us because if we actually had total control over our lives, and if

there were no laws and such, there would be total chaos. Therefore we cannot have TOTAL

control over our own lives but we can still be able to control some aspects of life", I said

with a smile.

I look over at Andy, and I see that his jaw is dropped.

"Anyone else wanna try to answer the question?" Mr.Ledger asked, looking around at the

different students. I look around to see all the other students shaking their heads no.

"Well there you have it", Mr.Ledger said, a little surprised. I look over at Andy who has a

smile across his face.

"What?" I ask him.

"Just check your phone", He said, looking down at his textbook. I pull out my phone and I

receive a text message from him.

"Hey wanna join me for lunch?" he asks.

I replied, "Sure". I turn off my phone and put it in my pocket.

Half an hour later…

The bell rings and I gather my books together and put them in my bag. I get up from the

desk and slowly start walking out of the classroom. Andy quickly shoves his books in his

bag and runs to catch up to me.

"Max, wait up!" Andy yells. I stop in the middle of the hallway and wait for Andy. A group of

girls walk past me and one of them shoves me hard enough for me to trip. The girl looks

back and laughs. Andy quickly runs over and helps me up.

"Hey are you ok?" he asks as he tries to help me dust off my knees. I roll my eyes and nod.

"Yeah, I'm fine", I said as I slapped his hand away.

"Are you sure?" he asks me worried. I looked Andy straight into his eyes.

"Andy, I'm fine", I said with a creepy smile.

"Alright", he said as he looked towards where the group of girls were.

"So where are we going?" I ask him. Andy smiles and links his arm with mine.

"You'll see", he said with a smile. He starts to lead me down the hall to the stairwell and we

go down the stairs, all the way to the basement. He then leads me to the spot where we first

met and I look up to see Hunter, Vincent, and Warren there.

"Andy what's going on?" I ask him, confused.

"Max this is an intervention", Hunter said concerned.

"For what?" I asked.

"Well for one, we haven't heard from you in over a month, and every time we tried to reach

out to you through Pete, we never heard anything from you", Vincent said. I shoot Vincent a

sad look, and look down.

"Look I just…" I started saying before I started tearing up. I look down and try to stop myself

from crying,

"I'm sorry but I just needed time…" I said quietly. I look back up at them and turn around and

I run to the bathroom. I lock myself in a stall and quietly try to stop myself from sobbing.

Just then, I hear several voices in the bathroom. It's the group of girls from earlier. I hear one

of them laughing.

"Hey Stephany, do you remember the ugly girl you pushed from earlier?" Another voice

chuckles.

"Yeah, the one with the scar? I would literally die if I looked like that", The voice said. Those

words started to swirl in my head. "I would die if I looked like that". I start to cry quietly, I then

unlock the door and step towards the mirror through the group of girls. I look at one of the

girls in the eyes and I quickly take out my makeup remover. I rip off the fake scar and

remove the rest of the makeup quickly. I take off my leather jacket and remove the makeup

that is over all of my scars on my arms and wrists. I open my bag and take out my extra

clothes. I go into the stall and change into my blue crop top and my black short shorts. I

shove my other clothes into my bag and I quickly take out my makeup bag and I do a more

natural look. I look towards the girl named Stephany and tear up. I look down and walk out

of the bathroom quietly. I walk past the guys silently and towards the stairwell. I slowly

make my way up the stairs when I hear heavy boots running up the steps behind me.

"Ms.Caufield is everything alright?" The person asks me. I turn around to see Mr.Ledger

behind me. I smile fakely at him.

"Oh, I'm fine". He looks at me and frowns.

"You know, the one advantage of Psych class is that I'm able to read emotions easily and I

can tell when someone is faking a smile", Mr.Ledger said.

"Hey what happened to your epic scar?" He asked, a little surprised.

"I took it off", I said with a slightly sad sigh.

"How come?" Mr.Ledger asked.

"It's a long story", I said looking down. Mr.Ledger sighed.

"I want you to go back into that bathroom and put the scar back on", he said with a smile.

He started walking back up the stairs, "And don't worry about what those girls tell you", he

said loudly. I smile and rush back down the stairs and walk back towards the group of guys

with a smile on my face. Hunter looks up and his jaw drops.

"What happened to you?" he asks. I shoot him and look and I quickly sit down and I pull out

my special fx makeup and my mirror. I start putting on the special fx makeup and form it

into a scar and I touch it up to make it look extremely realistic. I quickly ran into the

bathroom and changed into my black crop top shirt and put on my fishnets and put my

black short shorts back on. I put my leather jacket on and I pulled out all of my chain

necklaces and put them on. I quickly ran out of the bathroom and back to the guys.

Hunter chuckles. "What was all that about?" he asks.

"Don't worry about it", I said with an angry look. Hunter, Vincent, and Andy sit on the ground

against the wall. Warren sits down in the corner quietly, I smile at him and walk over. He

smiles back, I put my bag down and I sit on his lap gently. I rummage through my bag and I

find my coloured contact case. I open the case and put in my crimson coloured contacts.

Warren chuckles and hugs me tightly.

"You're hot,'' Vincent said out loud. I shoot him a look and smile, revealing my still growing

fangs. Hunter shoots Vincent an angry look.

"I mean she was hot before but now she's even hotter", Vincent said awkwardly. I smile and

turn towards Warren and look him dead in the eyes and blush. Andy looks over and frowns a

little at the look, then he nods at me.

"What?" I ask him.

"Your nose is bleeding", he said, a little concerned. I roll my eyes and stand up quickly.

Just as I am standing up the bell rings.

"Hey Warren, wanna walk to class together?" I ask him with a smile.

"Sure", he says as he picks up his bag. I wait for Warren to come close so I can secretly

grab his hand and hold on to it as we walk to class.

"What are you doing?" He asks, confused.

"N-nothing", I said as I quickly let go. We quickly ran to art class. I hide behind my easel and

wait for the teacher to start the class.

A few minutes later the teacher walks in and silently writes the assignment on the board.

She writes:

"FREE SELF EXPRESSION PIECE".

I smile when I read those words. She takes attendance and she calls my name.

"I'm here,'' I said loudly. A few moments later, she gets everyone to come up one at a time to

grab our art supplies. I wait for everyone else to grap their supplies and then I quietly make

my way up to the front to grab my supplies. I look up at the teacher and I stare straight into

her eyes as I grab my art supplies. I then make my way back to my easel. I catch a few

people whispering about me. I shoot those people a creepy look and smile. I reach my easel

and put my canvas up on it. I start by carefully drawing an image of a gothic man screaming

on the canvas, then I paint it on the canvas. I add more detail to it, and I add a dripping red

effect to the background. I chuckle to myself creepily and I add sharp fangs to the man's

mouth. Warren looks over at me concerned, then he looks at my canvas and gets really

concerned.

"It's called self expression Warren '', I said with a creepy smile. I then take off my jacket and

I take my paint brush and I flick reddish brown paint on the canvas, which also causes me to

become covered in the paint. I use my finger to smudge the red paint in certain spots on the

man's face to make it look like blood splatter.

A stray hair gets caught in my mouth and I use my hand to get it out of my mouth causing

the red paint to smear on my face. I chuckle to myself and look over to the teacher.

"I'm done", I said excitedly. The teacher slowly rises from her desk and asks me to bring up

my work. I carefully grab my canvas and bring it up to her. I turn it around and show her and

she gasps at the work.

"It's rather dark Ms.Caufield", she said a little concerned. I chuckle at her.

"It's dark for a reason", I said as I smiled at her. I turn around and walk back to my easel. I

clean my hands before I pick up my leather jacket and put it on. I clean my station before

the bell rings for the last class. I grab my bag and walk out of the class and I run to my

english class. I walk to the back of the class and sit down at a desk, I then pull out my books

and begin reading. Suddenly I feel a tap on my shoulder and I look up to see Warren smiling

at me. A few seconds later the professor walks into the class and quickly does attendance.

When he reaches my name, I growl a low hello. He nods and then finishes attendance.

A little while later…

The professor finally finishes talking about Macbeth and shakespeare. I grab my book and I

begin reading a few chapters, and as I am turning the page, I slice my finger open. I look

down to see a few drops of blood on the desk and I begin to feel nauseated. I go into my

bag and I grab my makeup remover. I quickly remove my scar, But I leave the coloured

contacts in. I look down at my finger to see that it's still dripping with blood. I look over at

Warren but my vision becomes a little blurry.

"You ok?" he asks. I nod and look back down at my book. I end up blacking out, resulting in a

trip to the nurse's office.

Chapter Eighteen

"You and the sight of blood definitely don't go hand in hand,'' Pete said, chuckling as he

walked into the office.

"Why are you here?" I ask him, slightly annoyed. Pete frowns.

"You have an appointment with Doctor Tarr, remember?" He said as he grabbed my bag.

"Do I have to go?" I whined. Pete looked at me a little annoyed.

"You missed the last four appointments that you were supposed to go to", Pete said, a little

disappointed. "And he keeps calling me concerned about where you are, so I'm here so you

actually go to your appointment", Pete said as he nodded to the door. I roll my eyes and get

up from the chair and we walk out of the office. We walk down the hall and out of the school

towards Pete's car. I hop into the front seat. Pete climbs in and starts the car. He looks

down at my wrists and sees that I've removed the makeup that covers all of my scars and

he starts to tear up.

"What?" I asked him a little concerned.

"Your scars…" Pete started saying. I pull down my sleeves to cover them awkwardly.

Five minutes later…

We reach the hospital and Pete parks the car. I open my door and step out of the car. I start

walking towards the building slowly and Pete follows close behind me. We walk into the

building and I walk to Doctor Tarr's office. I open the door and I look at the receptionist. She

gives me a smile and turns back to her computer. I turn around and I see Pete sit in a chair,

looking at his phone.

"You know you don't have to wait here", I said as I sat down next to him.

"He actually wants to see me after as well so", Pete said awkwardly. A few minutes later,

Doctor Tarr walks out and locks eyes with me.

"Well, Look who's here!" Doctor Tarr exclaims happily. I fakely smile at him and I stand up

and follow Doctor Tarr into his office. He closes the door and turns to me and smiles.

"Will you please take off your jacket?" Doctor Tarr asks gently. I take off my jacket quickly

and throw it to the side.

"So, Max. It's come to my attention that you keep ditching your appointments with me", he

said, really concerned. Doctor Tarr grabs my jacket and puts it behind his desk so I can't

grab it.

Doctor Tarr walks over and grabs my wrist and takes my heart rate.

"So how've you been?" Doctor Tarr asks gently.

"I'm fine", I said as he took a look at my still healing slits on my wrists.

"Have you been trying to reopen these?" he asks, concerned. I shake my head no.

"You barely talk anymore", Doctor Tarr said with a slight frown. I look towards his desk and

nod toward it.

"Jacket, now", I said annoyed. Doctor Tarr looks down sadly.

"No, I really need you to try to open up to me", he said disappointed. I look down to the floor

and I start to tear up.

"I-I'm being bullied at school", I said quietly. Just then, Uncle Frank burst through the door

and walked over to me. Doctor Tarr gently lifts my head so he can look me in the eye.

"Who is bullying you?" Uncle Frank asks angrily.

"Frankie, you shouldn't be here", Doctor Tarr said, a little annoyed. I get up from my seat and

try to grab my jacket from under Doctor Tarr's desk. Doctor Tarr pulls Uncle Frank aside.

"I know you promised her that you would try to protect Max, but you can't just barge in

unannounced", he whispered.

As they were talking, I put my jacket on and walked out of the office. I walked down the hall

of the hospital and I sat on a bench outside the office. A few minutes later, Pete came out of

the office looking for me.

"Max?" Pete said as he sat down on the bench next to me.

"Is everything ok?" He asked gently, I nodded while looking down at the ground.

"Don't you also have to meet with Doctor Tarr?" I said, quietly.

"Yeah, I'm supposed to go in now but I wanted to come out here and check if you're ok", he

said, gently putting his arm around my shoulder.

"Pete, just go and meet with Doctor Tarr so we can go home faster", I snapped. Pete takes

his arm off of me, stands up and walks into the office. Pete walks towards Doctor Tarr's

office, he knocks and waits outside the door awkwardly waiting. Doctor Tarr looks up and

smiles.

"Come in Pete, and close the door", Doctor Tarr said quietly.

Pete walks in and closes the door behind him.

"Have a seat", Doctor Tarr said, gently. Pete slowly walks over to one of the chairs in front of

Doctor Tarr's desk and sits down cautiously.

"The reason why I asked to meet with you as well is to try to get a little insight of how Max

is actually doing", Doctor Tarr said simply.

"What do you mean?" Pete asked, a little confused.

"Well, how is she at home? How is she doing in school? Are there any weird changes you've

noticed? Those kinds of things", Doctor Tarr said. Pete sighs heavily.

"Let me guess...You can barely get her to talk to you?" Pete asks. Doctor Tarr nods

awkwardly. Pete pinches the bridge of his nose, in a slightly annoyed manner, and sighs.

"I'm really concerned about her", Doctor Tarr said, in a slightly worried tone. "I mean, the only

thing Max told me is that she's being bullied at school, and that was the only thing she's said

to me ever since the last time I talked to her while she was admitted here", Doctor Tarr said

bluntly. Pete looked at Doctor Tarr, shocked.

"What do you mean she's being bullied?" Pete asked. Doctor Tarr shook his head and

looked down at the ground.

"That's the only thing she said, after that she wouldn't go into detail", Doctor Tarr said, a

little disappointed. "I'm also a little concerned about the constant changes in her

appearance", Doctor Tarr said gently. Pete sighed and stood up from the chair.

"I'll try to talk to her", Pete said gently. He then opened the door and walked out of the office

quietly.

As Pete is walking out of the office, I stand up from the bench and we both start walking

toward the entrance of the hospital building. As we are walking towards the car, Pete turns

to me.

"Max, are you being bullied at school?" he asks gently. I look away from him and begin to

slightly tear up.

"Max?" Pete said. I nodded, sadly.

"Who?" Pete tries to ask.

"I don't wanna talk about it", I said, quietly. We reach the car and Pete unlocks the door. I

quickly opened the door, sat down in the front passenger seat, and closed the door. I put on

my seatbelt and stared out the window.

"Max, who is bullying you?" Pete asked as he started the car.

"Some girls at school,'' I said quietly.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Pete said a little disappointed. I shrugged my shoulders and kept

quiet. A few minutes later, Pete pulls up into our driveway. I unbuckle my seatbelt, grab my

bag from the backseat and step out of the car quickly. I ran into the house and quickly

dropped my bag off at the front door. I ran into my room and grabbed my mini backpack,

wallet, and phone and ran out the door towards the bus stop. As I am waiting for the bus, I

get a text from Pete:

"Hey where are you?" Pete asks.

I replied, "I'm going to the mall". The bus pulls up and I walk on board the bus. I sat down in

an empty seat on the bus and I put on my headphones and scrolled through my music

playlist on my phone. I found a song called, "The World is Ugly" by My Chemical romance. I

sit back against the seat and begin listening to the words. A few moments later, the bus

pulls up to the stop for the mall. I ring the bell to get off the bus, and I thank the driver as I

step off. I start walking towards the entrance of the mall. I reach the front doors and I step

into the mall. I walk into the pharmacy and down the hair products aisle. I stop in front of

the hair dye section. I look through the different colours, I then grab a little piece of my dirty

blonde hair and I look at it. I let go of my hair and saw the last box of black hair dye. I grab

the box and walk to the cash.

I bought the hair dye and put it in my mini backpack. I walk out of the pharmacy and walk to

Hot Topic. I walk to the back of the store and grab a few chains, a black veil brides crop top,

black shorts, and a black and white studded belt. I walk up to the cash and purchuse all the

items. Once I've finished shopping, I walk out of the mall and run to catch the bus. I get on

the bus and ride it home. Once at my stop, I get off the bus and walk home. I step into the

house and kick off my boots at the front door, then I walk into the bathroom and lock the

door behind me. I quickly take out the box of black hair dye and rip it open. I pull out the

bottle of dye and I quickly cover my whole head with the dye and I wait for however long it

says to wait on the box. Once the time is up, I hop into the shower and wash out the dye. I

unlocked the door and ran into my bedroom. I lock my door and I walk over to my dresser

and plug in my blow dryer, and I quickly dry my hair.

A few minutes go by and there is a knock at my door.

"Who is it?" I ask, loudly.

"Max, dinner is ready", Pete said from behind the door.

"I'm not hungry!" I said to him, Pete sighed.

"You've said that over 3 days in a row!" he said, slightly angry. I rolled my eyes and sprawled

out on my bed. I start to fall asleep when there is another knock at the door.

"What now?" I yell. Pete sighs, sadly.

"I just wanted to say that I love you", Pete said quietly from behind the door.

"I-I love you too, Pete", I smiled as I slowly started to fall asleep again.

Chapter Nineteen

6am, in the morning three days later…

I am woken up by the sound of my alarm going off. I roll out of bed and turn off my alarm.

"Welp, I start at my new school today", I thought to myself. I stand up and stretch quickly. I

then walk over to my closet and pull out my fishnet stockings, and my black spiked leather

jacket. I pull on my stockings and walk over to my bag and grab my new black shorts, and

my new black veil brides crop top and put them on. I put on my new black and white

studded belt and my new pocket chains. I throw on my black spiked leather jacket quickly. I

walk over to my dresser and I plug in my straightner and I fix my hair. I then pull out my

makeup bag and I grab my foundation. I put it on quickly and then I grab my black eyeliner,

and black eyeshadow. I put both on quickly. I then grab my baby blue coloured contacts and

put them in. I look at myself in the mirror and I smile fakely. I grab my cross and chain and

put it around my neck, I also grab my brother's dog tags and put them on. I grab my phone

and turn it on. I open my messages and click on Andy's name. I go into his contact info and I

dial his number. Andy answers the phone on the first ring.

"Hey Max, what's up?" Andy asks. I sigh a little sadly.

"I was wondering if you could give me a ride to school?" I asked him, quietly.

"Sure! I'll be there in five minutes!" Andy said excitedly.

"Great, see you in a bit", I said happily. I sigh and unlock and open my door, I walk out of my

room quietly towards the front door and I pull on my black, knee high platform boots and I

grab my school bag. I stand up and look back towards Pete's room. I sigh and open my bag

and grab a piece of paper and I write:

"Pete, I just wanna say that I heard you last night, and I'm just gonna say that I love you

so much!"

I quickly grab a piece of tape and I walk over to his door. I sigh and I quickly tape the note to

his door. I then walked back to the front door, closed my bag, slung it over my shoulder and

walked out the door. I look over and I see Andy waiting for me. I quickly climbed onto the

back of his motorcycle before he could see me. I wrap my arms around his waist and hold

on to him as he peels out of the driveway and down the road. We reach the high school in

under two minutes. I let go of Andy and got off the bike. Andy got off the bike and took off

his helmet quickly and shoved it into his side bag on his bike, and he locked the bag. Andy

turns around and I hug him tightly, as I am hugging him, I smell his cologne. Which smells

like a bit of roses and fresh air. Andy smiles and hugs me back but for a little while, he

doesn't realize that I've started to cry. It wasn't until I started to sniffle, when he realized that

I was crying.

"Hey, is everything okay?" he asks gently. I let go and look up at him.

"Not really", I said sadly. "What do you mean?" he asks, a little worried. Suddenly I hear the

group of girls laughing behind me.

"Oh my gosh, Stephanie look, it's the ugly fat chick again", one of the girls laughed.

"Why is my Andy hanging out with her?" Stephanie said, narrowing her eyes at me.

Stephanie is wearing a pink halter top with turquoise shorts and white vans. She is around

5'8" with long straight blonde hair, and green eyes. Stephanie starts walking towards me,

then Andy stands in front of me and gives her the death stare. Stephanie locks eyes with

Andy and frowns.

"Come on, let's go", Stephanie said, angrily. They all walk to the cafe next door quickly. I

looked down at the ground.

"That's what's wrong", I said, a little depressed. Andy sighs.

"Hey, have you had anything to eat yet?" he asks. I smiled fakely.

"Yea, I did", I lied to him. Andy shrugs.

"Shall we?" he asks, as he sticks his arm out. I link my arm around his and we walk inside

the school.

"By the way...You look really hot", he whispered in my ear. I smile and look away.

As we are walking down the hall, I can see a few guys staring at me.

"Who is that chick with Andy?" A few of them whisper.

"Andy's like one of the most popular guys in school, so what is he doing, hanging out with

that chick?" I can hear someone say. I elbow Andy in the side.

"Why are they staring at me?" I whisper to him.

"It's because you're new,'' Andy said with a smile. Andy chuckles and leads me to the office. I

walked into the office shyly.

"Hello, um, I'm looking for Mr.Ocala?" I asked the receptionist.

"Hello! You must be Maxwell!" I hear a booming voice say. I look up and I see a tall skinny

man standing outside his office. He looks to be about 6'1", with greyish brown hair, and

brown eyes. "Come on in!" he says as he points to a chair next to his desk. "Maxwell, it's so

nice to finally meet you in person! I'm Principle Jamie Ocala, you can call me Mr.Ocala '', he

said as he stuck out his hand. I take hold of his hand firmly, and I shake it.

"It's nice to meet you Mr.Ocala, You can call me Max '', I said smiling shyly.

"Alright Max, I'm going to call the guidance councellor in if that's ok?" Mr.Ocala said with a

smile. I nodded and listened in while Mr.Ocala called the guidance councellor.

A few minutes later, an older, kinda short, man walked into the office.

"Max, I would like you to meet, Mr.Mallory", Mr.Ocala said excitedly. I stood up and waved at

Mr.Mallory.

"Max, it's nice to meet you", Mr.Mallory said with a gentle smile. He then pulled out a sheet

of paper from his pocket.

"Here is your schedule for this semester", he said as he handed it to me.

"I'm gonna bring you to your first class now", Mr.Mallory said excitedly. I looked up at the

clock in Mr.Ocala's office and smiled.

"Alright", I said. I grabbed my bag from the ground and slung it over my shoulder again.

"Max, Welcome to Blackcrest High!" Mr.Ocala said waving me out of his office. I follow

Mr.Mallory down the hall quietly.

"Your first class is english with Ms.Pendelbrooke", Mr.Mallory said with a smile. We stopped

in front of room number 102, and then Mr.Mallory knocked on the door. A short, middle-aged

woman with thick curly black hair opens the door.

"Well hello there! My name is Ms.Pendelbrooke", she said with a thick british accent.

"This is the new student", Mr.Mallory said with a smile.

"My name is Maxwell Caufield, but you can call me Max", I said with a shy smile.

"Well come on in and find a seat", Ms.Pendelbrooke said gently.

"Mr.Mallory, how am I supposed to find my next class?" I ask gently.

"Oh, don't worry. You'll find it", Mr.Mallory said with a smile. I wince and walk into the class.

I suddenly felt really awkward as all these eyes were on me as I walked to an empty desk in

the middle of the classroom. I look towards Ms.Pendelbrooke and she smiles at me.

"Why don't you stand up and tell us a little bit about yourself?" she said gently. I sigh and

stand up from the seat.

"Hello, my name is Maxwell Caufield, my friends call me Max.I'm 17. I used to go to

Blackwell Academy. My friends say I'm kind, artistic, and a little too aggressive sometimes. I

love heavy metal music and I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to band trivia, I have a brother

named Peter and I never want to have to introduce myself again", I said a little annoyed.

Ms.Pendelbrooke smiled. I sat back down in my seat, and pulled out my notebooks. I look

up at the clock and see that it's almost time for the next class. I put my notebook back into

my bag and I waited for the bell to ring.

Ten minutes later…

The bell rings and I stand up and I go to pick up my bag from the ground, when a guy picks it

up quickly.

"Hey! That's my bag!" I say as they try to walk off with it. The guy turns around chuckling, he

tries to toss it to one of his buddies but I catch it before his buddy does.

"Woah, calm down, I'm just playin", the guy said with a smile.

"The name's Ronnie", he said as he stuck his hand out. I take his hand and almost crush it

while shaking it. I look Ronnie up and down. He is around 6'1" with a medium muscle build.

He has brown eyes, long black hair and a few neck tattoos, and full sleeve tattoos covering

his arms. He is wearing black vans, black baggy pants, and a long white t-shirt.

"Maxwell, right?" he asks.

"You can call me Max", I said with a gentle smile.

"Hey, where is your next class?" Ronnie asks. I pull out my schedule and hand it to Ronnie.

"Oh you have music next, with Mr.Biersack", Ronnie said excitedly.

"Can you show me where that is?" I asked him shyly.

"Sure, I have that class next", Ronnie said excitedly.

"Oh cool!" I said excitedly. Ronnie smiles and he leads me to room number 20.

I walk into the class and sit at the back. A couple minutes later, a tall man who looks to be

about 6'4", walks into the classroom. He has short black hair, and perfect blue eyes. He is

wearing a white shortsleeve dress shirt, black dress pants, and black suspenders, his arms

are covered in batman tattoos. I lock eyes with him and I smile.

"Looks like we have a new student,'' he said with a low growl.

"My name is Andrew Biersack, but you can call me Mr.Biersack", he said with a smile. I look

down at the ground.

"Stand the fuck up and introduce yourself and tell us what experience you've had with

music and what kind of music you like", he said with a playful smile. I stand up shyly,

"Name's Maxwell, But you can call me Max. I'm 17. I love metal music, my dad was a

musician, um, and I guess I dabble a little with electric guitar", I said with a smile.

"What do you mean you dabble in electric guitar?" Mr.Biersack asked a little confused. I look

around the room and I spot an electric guitar in the corner.

"Can I just show you?" I ask as I point to the guitar.

"Sure, why not?" Mr.Biersack said a little curious. I cautiously walk over to the guitar and I

put the strap on over my shoulder, I then plug in the guitar to the amp.

"Well? What are you waiting for?" Mr.Biersack asked a little impatiently. I take a deep breath

and I start playing the solo part of a song called, 'The Outsider' by Black Veil Brides.

Once I finished, I realized that I had my eyes closed the whole time, I opened my eyes and I

saw the whole class had their jaws dropped. Mr.Biersack smiles and starts to clap.

"In my whole career, I have never had anyone actually be able to shock me like you did, and

finally someone who actually has a sense of style", Mr.Biersack said with a smile. I carefully

take off the guitar and put it back gently.

"There you go", I said, bowing a little. I then quietly walked back to my seat and sat down

next to Ronnie, who still had his jaw dropped. I chuckle a little and I gently close Ronnie's

mouth.

"Don't wanna catch any flies, now do we?" I said a little sarcastically. I start to giggle when I

see Ronnie blushing.

"Thank you for that", Mr.Biersack said as he pulled out a few sheets of paper from his desk

drawer.

"Max, welcome to Blackcrest High '', Mr.Biersack said with a smile.

"Thank you Mr.Biersack '', I said as I pulled out my old music binder that's already almost

bursting from the amount of laminated guitar sheet music I have. Mr.Biersack chuckled

when he saw me struggling with my heavy binder. I try opening the binder but because it's

so full, all of my pages fall out of my binder and onto the floor.

"Oh shit!" I yelled as I tried to gather all of my pages back. Mr.Biersack walked over and

tried to help me pick up all my pages when he noticed a vintage guitar piece.

"Woah, is this what I think it is?" Mr.Biersack said as he thumbs through the vintage piece. I

chuckled a little.

"Yup, it's the original tabs for 'Rebel yell' by Billy Idol '', I said with a smile.

"How did you find this?" Mr.Biersack asked awestruck.

"It was given to my dad", I said looking down a little sad.

"You have a piece of Rock History!" Mr.Biersack said excitedly. I smile and quickly collect all

of the sheet music back.

"You wouldn't happen to have a spare binder? Would you?" I asked hopefully.

"Sure", Mr.Biersack said, nodding.

He stands up, and quickly walks over to his desk and grabs an empty binder. He then walks

back over and hands it to me. I quickly sort through all of my sheets and put all of my

vintage sheets into my old binder, and then I put all my other stuff into the new binder.

Mr.Biersack goes back to his desk and starts to play a song called 'Unbroken' by Black veil

brides.

"Now can anyone tell me who this band is?" Mr.Biersack asked, curiously. I immediately put

my hand up excitedly. Mr.Biersack raised an eyebrow.

"Max?" he said as he tried to edge me on. I chuckled a little.

"That song is called 'Unbroken' by Black veil brides, or Bvb. The song was released on

October 24th 2013. And they released that song with a message against bullying", I said

with a smile. Mr.Biersack smiled,

"Wow, I'm surprised you knew all that", Mr.Biersack said, surprised.

Just before Mr.Biersack could say anything else, the bell rang. I gathered all my binders and

put them into my bag. Everyone started getting up from their seats and started leaving the

classroom. As I was leaving, Mr.Biersack stopped me.

"Max, Can I talk to you for a minute?" he said as he walked over to his desk.

"Sure", I said as I walked over to his desk.

"Hey Ronnie, wait for me!" I said just as Ronnie was walking out of the class.

Mr.Biersack pulled out a flyer from his desk and handed it to me.

"I'm putting together a student band and I'm looking for talented people like you, are you

interested?" Mr.Biersack asked, nervously. I looked at the flyer and smiled a little.

"How many people have you asked to join this so-called band?" I asked, curiously.

Mr.Biersack looked down at the ground awkwardly.

"So far I've asked all of my students", he said with a slight wince. I raised an eyebrow.

"I'm in, but how many students actually joined?" I asked him.

"Just you", Mr.Biersack sighed a little disappointed. I chuckled a little.

"Don't worry, people will join", I said confidently as I started to walk out of the classroom.

"It's nice to meet you Mr.Biersack!" I said as I walked out of the classroom. Suddenly my

phone starts to ring. It's Andy.

"Hey Andy, what's up?" I asked as I answered the phone.

"Max, where are you?" he asked a little frantically.

"I'm in front of room 20", I said a little confused.

"Stay right there", Andy said as he hung up the phone.

"What's up?" Ronnie asked with a nod.

"Oh my friend asked where I am,'' I said with a sigh.

"Who's your friend?" Ronnie asked, curiously.

"Andy", I said with a smile. I look at the time on my phone and start to become a little

impatient.

"Hey let's get out of here", Ronnie said with a smile. He takes me by the arm and leads me

down the hall towards the cafeteria. He led me towards a large table filled with people.

"Hey Ronnie!" One of the guys at the table said excitedly. He stood up from the table and

walked towards Ronnie and I. He looked to be about 5'11" and about 150 pounds with a

larger muscle build. He has long black hair, and brown eyes. He is wearing black army-style

boots, Grey skinny jeans, black plain t-shirt, and a black biker jacket.

"Hey Ronnie, who's the babe?" The guy asks with a smile. I rolled my eyes at the comment,

"My name is Max", I said a little annoyed. The guy smiled at me.

"Name's Jake", he said as he stuck his hand out. I took his hand and gripped it firmly,

almost crushing it, and I shook his hand.

"Nice to meet you", I said with a smile. I let go of his hand, and he brings it up close to his

chest and begins to try to rub the pain away.

"Damn, you have a serious grip", he said with a wince as he rubbed an extremely painful

spot.

"Oops", I said sarcastically. I look down at my phone and I see that Andy is calling. I picked

up the phone.

"MAX WHERE ARE YOU?!" Andy asked, extremely worried.

"I'm at the cafeteria with a guy I met in my english class named Ronnie", I said a little

confused. Andy goes completely silent.

"Max, listen to me carefully. Are you with a large group of people at a table?" He asks

nervously. I start looking around at the other people at the table.

"Yeah, why?" I am a little concerned.

"Max, I need you to make up an excuse to leave the table. I am outside the cafeteria right

now", Andy said fearfully. I look towards the door slowly. "Can you see me?" Andy asks.

"Yes, I can,'' I said quietly. I look up at Ronnie, and he stares back at me. I hang up the phone

and I try to make up an excuse to leave the table.

"So, Max. How old are you?" Jake asks, curiously. I look up at him and smile.

"Oh, I'm 17", I said nervously.

"Oh cool, I'm 18", Jake said with a gentle smile.

"Is something bothering you?" Ronnie asked me as he noticed that I became nervous. I

chuckle nervously and start backing away from the group.

"Awww, where are you going?" Ronnie asked with a little pout.

"I, uh, I have to go to the little girls room", I said awkwardly.

"Oh ok", Ronnie said with a smile. I quickly turn around and begin walking out of the

cafeteria towards Andy quickly.

As soon as I am outside of the cafeteria, Andy pulls me by the arm down the hall towards a

quiet corridor. We stopped in a small alcove in the hall.

"What the hell is going on, Andy?" I quietly yelled at him.

"Max, You can't hang out with Ronnie", he said angrily. I shot him a dirty look.

"Why not?" I asked him.

"He's dangerous, and he uses people", Andy whispers in my ear. I giggle a little, Andy looks

at me weirdly.

"Why are you laughing?" Andy asks awkwardly.

"I don't know,'' I said with a smile.

"Well cut it out", Andy says with a smile. Suddenly Andy puts my back against the wall and

leans against me and whispers for me to be quiet for a minute, then a few of the guys that

were at the table from the cafeteria walk by all laughing and talking together.

"Yo, I wonder if Max, the new chick is single", one of them says. Another one of the guys

chuckled.

"I definitely wouldn't mind tapping a piece of that tail", he said smiling to one of his friends,

a few of the other guys started agreeing with the person who made that comment. While I

100

was listening to the guys, I locked eyes with Andy. As I stared into his green eyes, I started

to blush. Andy smiles and starts to lean in a little closer. I try to read his face a little, and I

slowly lean in closer to him. Andy gently takes his left hand and puts it under my chin to

bring my face even closer to his, then he gently kisses me. I pull away from the kiss gently,

and I go completely red from head to toe. Andy looks down shyly.

"Sorry, I've wanted to do that for a long while now," he said with an awkward smile. I look

down at the ground and blush.

"Can we do that again?" I ask awkwardly. Andy chuckles and kisses me again. I begin to fall

into the kiss, and I blush because I can feel his lip piercing slightly scraping against my

bottom lip. A few seconds go by and he pulls away gently and he smiles at me, but then that

smile starts to fade.

"Max, what about Warren?" He said awkwardly.

"What about him?" I asked him a little confused.

"I thought you liked him", Andy said nervously.

"He had his chance, and he never took it", I said annoyed. Andy smiles and chuckles. "And

besides, I actually had my eye on someone else the whole time", I said with a devilish smile.

Andy raises an eyebrow.

"And what about Hunter?" he asks, a little worried.

"I never liked him", I said with a frown. Andy smiles and stops leaning against me.

101

"Anyways, what's your next class?" he asks happily. I pull out my schedule from my shorts

pocket and open it.

"I think I have psychology," I said with a smile.

"Oh yeah, we have the same psych class", Andy said happily. Suddenly the bell rings.

"Well, I guess it's time for class", Andy said with a smile. He takes me by the hand and starts

to lead me down the hall towards the stairwell. We both walked up the stairs together

quickly. Once we reach the top of the stairs, Andy leads me to our psych class.

Chapter Twenty

I let go of Andy's hand before I stepped into the classroom. I walk toward an empty desk in

the middle of the classroom and sit down. Andy follows close behind and sits at the empty

desk beside mine. I go to pull out my notebook and pens when I see someone standing in

front of the desk on the other side of mine. I continue pulling out my notebook and pens and

I look up to see who that person is, and it's none other than Ronnie.

"Hey, Max, Why didn't you come back?" he asks, a little sad. Ronnie looks over at Andy and

frowns.

"Oh, um, I wasn't feeling well at all," I said, acting a little faint. Ronnie puts his hand against

my forehead.

"Oh jeez, do you need to go to the nurses office?" he asks, a little concerned.

102

"No, I'm fine now," I said with a nervous smile. Ronnie nods and sits down at the desk

beside me quietly.

Everyone else starts walking into the class and finds their seat. Then Mr.Ledger walks into

the classroom. I look at him awkwardly. Mr.Ledger catches me looking at him and he

smiles.

"It looks like our new transfer student is now a permanent student here", Mr.Ledger said

happily. I nodded awkwardly and looked down at my notebook. I suddenly become

lightheaded and blood starts to gush out of my nose. Mr.Ledger catches a glimpse of it and

he looks at me concerned.

"Does someone have any tissues?" he asks the class quickly.

"Mr.Ledger, I'll help her", Andy said quickly. Mr.Ledger nodded to him. Andy pulls out a few

tissues from his bag, gets up from his seat, and stands behind me.

"Alright Max, you know the drill", Andy said chuckling. I stubbornly refuse to tip my head

back. "Max, you're dripping all over the place", Andy said firmly.

"Mr.Ledger can you at least make everyone stop staring?" I was a little annoyed.

"Alright, you heard the lady", Mr.Ledger said as he tried to direct the attention of the class to

the front. I still stubbornly refuse to tip my head back, but Andy becomes annoyed and he

gently tips my head back and with one hand he pinches the tissue over my nose and with

the other he gently holds the back of my head so I don't strain my neck. I giggle a little,

which causes more blood to gush out.

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"Max, stop laughing!" Andy whispers angrily to me. I wince as Andy pinches my nose a little

harder.

"Ok, ok", I said with a painful smile.

A long while later…

My nose finally stops bleeding and Andy takes the tissue off my nose.

"You ok?" Ronnie asks curiously. I looked at Ronnie with bloodshot eyes.

"Yeah, I'm fine", I said, a little lightheaded. I rested my head on my desk for the rest of the

class. I was woken up by Andy poking me.

"Hey it's time for your next class", he said with a smile. I smile and stand up from my desk

and I watch Andy leave the classroom as I pack up my notebooks and put them in my bag. I

grab my bag and take out my schedule to see what class I have next and I see that I have art

next.

"What do you have next?" Ronnie asks.

"Art", I simply say. Ronnie smiles.

"Me too", he says as he grabs his bag from the ground.

"Cool", I said as I started walking out of the class. Ronnie follows close behind me, he then

walks up beside me.

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"Hey, Max, you know all the guys we were hanging out with during lunch at the cafeteria?

Well, they all agreed that you would look hot as my arm candy," Ronnie whispered in my ear

as we walked to the class. I smile awkwardly as we both walk into the class together. I

quickly walk over to an empty easel and wait for the teacher to start the class. A few

minutes later the teacher walks in and stops right in front of the chalkboard and writes:

"Welcome new student"

Then the teacher writes:

"Today's assignment is: Personal self expression"

I smile reading the assignment and I wait for the teacher to let us grab our supplies. The

teacher calls my name and I walk up to the front of the class and I grab a large canvas, a

dark paint palette, and several paintbrushes. I then walk back to my easel and set up. I begin

to draw a gothic man yelling. I then carefully start to paint the man on the canvas, adding

incredibly fine details as I paint. As I am painting, the teacher walks up behind me.

"You must be the new student", she says with a smile. I turn around and smile at her, "My

name is Ms.Simms", she said with a gentle smile. I take a quick look at her, she looks to be

about 5'3", with long red hair and green eyes.

"Hello, my name is Max", I said with an awkward smile.

"You are a beautiful painter", Ms.Simms said surprised. I chuckle a little.

"Thank you", I said as I turned back to my painting.

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"Don't you think it's a little dark?" Ms.Simms asks, a little concerned.

"It's all part of my personal expressionism", I say with a smile. Ms.Simms smiles and walks

towards the front of the class. I take a deep breath and start adding darker details, like

blood splatter. Suddenly, Ronnie walks up behind me and starts feeling me up behind the

easel. I blush as he runs his hands up my inner thigh.

"I want you so bad", Ronnie whispers in my ear.

"But you can't have me", I said to him as I grabbed his hands and pushed them off of me.

"Why not?" Ronnie asked disappointedly. I chuckled a little.

"Because I have Andy", I said with a smile.

I look up at the clock and I see that it's time to pack up, so I cover my painting gently and I

clean the rest of my easel. I then pick up my school bag and walk past Ronnie awkwardly as

the bell rings. I quickly take my phone out of my pocket and I call Andy. He instantly picks up

the phone.

"Hey", Andy says happily.

"Hey, are you ok to hang out with me after school?" I ask him hopefully.

"Sure! What class did you just have?" Andy asks.

"Art", I said quietly as Ronnie slowly walked past me in the hallway. Ronnie looks at me from

the corner of his eye.

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"Andy, please get here quickly", I said loudly. Suddenly I hear laughter behind me.

"I'm already here", Andy said as he hung up the phone and hugged me from behind. Ronnie

looks at Andy angrily and walks away quickly. Andy narrows his eyes angrily and watches

Ronnie walk away. Andy places his hands on my shoulders and turns me around to face

him.

"Did Ronnie say anything or do anything to you?" Andy asks, a little worried. I look down and

nod my head yes.

"What did he say?" Andy asks angrily. I look up into Andy's eyes, I pull his face close down to

mine and I whisper everything Ronnie did in his ear.

"HE DID WHAT?!" Andy yells. I became extremely nervous.

"Andy, I'm fine!" I yell at him to try to calm him down.

Suddenly an alarm goes off on my phone. I look down to see what it is and I roll my eyes

reading the reminder on my phone.

"What's wrong?" Andy asks.

"I forgot I have to go to therapy today", I said annoyed. Andy looks at me shocked.

"Wow, you've finally started going?" He says surprised. I nod shyly.

"Want me to go with you?" Andy asks with a gentle smile. I look up at him and smile.

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"You would do that?" I asked him nervously. Andy chuckles.

"Of course, anything for my girlfriend", Andy says as he brings my face up to meet him, then

he kisses me gently.

Chapter Twenty one

An Hour Later..

Andy gets off his bike and removes his helmet quickly. He then helps me get off the bike

and takes the helmet off me gently and smiles.

"Hey, you ready?" Andy asks with a gentle smile. I nodded and Andy grabbed my wrist a little

too hard, and I winced.

"Are you okay?" Andy asks, a little concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine", I said with a smile as I gently grabbed his hand. Andy smiles at me, and we

both walk into the building towards Dr.Tarr's office. We both reach the office in a few

minutes.

"Do you want me to go in with you?" Andy asks. I shake my head no.

"I should be fine", I said with a smile. Andy smiles, walks over to the bench beside the office

door and sits down. I grab the door handle and sigh, I then open the door and walk inside

the office. I got a little startled by Dr.Tarr who was just on the other side of the door.

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"Oh my goodness! Max! I was worried you wouldn't show up today", Dr.Tarr said, a little

excited.

"Well, I'm here", I said with a frown. Dr.Tarr pouted.

"Alright, come on in", he said as he walked into his office. I sigh heavily and look over to the

reception desk and I see Uncle Frank is the new receptionist.

"Hello Uncle Frank", I said as I walked by into Dr.Tarr's office and closed the door.

"Have a seat", Dr.Tarr said with a smile. I walk over to the seat and I sit on my hands

nervously.

"So how've you been?" Dr.Tarr asks with a smile. I bite my lip awkwardly.

"I've been better, I guess", I said quietly. Dr.Tarr tries not to show how excited he is by the

fact that I've talked to him.

"What's on your mind?" Dr.Tarr asks gently.

"Do you remember how I told you that I was being bullied?" I ask him.

Dr. Tarr nodded his head, "Yes, I remember", he said, trying to nudge me on.

"You see, there is this big group of people that I used to hang out with a really, really long

time ago and it seems that one of them found out that I've been struggling and they've all

decided to start making fun of me and pushing me down", I said looking down sadly.

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"Hey, Max, Look at me for a minute", Dr.Tarr said gently. I looked up at him shyly.

"I'm glad you told me all of this", Dr.Tarr said gently.

"That's not all", I said looking away in slight pain as I shifted my wrist against the chair.

"Ok, shoot", Dr.Tarr said as he leaned back against his chair. I nodded and sighed.

"You know how I have a lot of guy friends? Well, all of them are basically in love with me,

especially Warren, but now because I moved schools, I found out that Andy likes me and

well...He kissed me and I realized that I'm actually in love with Andy. But I'm too scared to

tell Warren and the rest of the guys ", I said awkwardly. Dr.Tarr raised an eyebrow at all of

this.

"Wow, Max. I really think you should tell Warren and the rest of the guys because it's not fair

to them for you to keep this from them", Dr.Tarr said gently. I nodded and shifted my wrist

against the seat again, but this time, Dr.Tarr saw the painful face of me shifting my hands

against the seat.

"Max, can I see your wrists please?" Dr.Tarr asked, really concerned. I stubbornly shake my

head no. Dr.Tarr frowns.

"Please Max, I need to take a look at your wrists", Dr.Tarr said sternly. I still shake my head

no and I try to sit on my hands again. Dr.Tarr sighs and walks out of the room, and comes

back into the room with Uncle Frank behind him.

"Max, I really need you to show Dr.Tarr your wrists please", Frank says with a disappointed

look. I take one hand out from under me and I go to reach for my phone, but Frank grabs

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hold of my hand quickly and gently pulls down my sleeves to reveal that the cut is slightly

infected. Dr.Tarr sighs.

"Now show me the other wrist", he said nervously. I shake my head no and I try to get out of

Frank's grip on me.

"Come on Max", Dr.Tarr said sternly. I pull my hand out of Frank's and I turn on my phone

and text Andy to come into the office.

"I want you to go down to emerge to get checked out", Dr.Tarr said sternly. Just then, Andy

walks into the office nervously.

"Max? Is everything okay?" he asks. Dr.Tarr sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose.

"She is refusing to let me check her wrists", Dr.Tarr says with an angry sigh. Andy looked at

me a little disappointed.

"If you show him your wrists, then we can get out of here faster", Andy said with a smile. I

close my eyes and remove my jacket, revealing both wrists are infected.

"Max! How long have they been like this?" Dr.Tarr said worriedly, as put on a pair of exam

gloves, then he took hold of my right wrist to look at it closer.

"I have no clue, but I think Ronnie has something to do with it", I said, wincing as he gently

pushed a spot underneath the cut.

"I want you to go down to emerge to get checked out please", Dr.Tarr said gently. I shake my

head no.

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"You know for a fact that I'm going to be admitted", I said angrily. Dr.Tarr shakes his head,

"You won't be admitted, I just want you to get checked out", he said with a frown. Andy

looked at me worried.

"Alright, you heard the man, Let's get you down to emerge", he said with a sigh.

"If I agree to go to the emergency, you're gonna have to carry me", I said to him with a

playful smile. I stand from the seat and Andy lifts me up and holds me like a child. Dr.Tarr

chuckles.

"Andy, you are officially my secret weapon", Dr.Tarr whispers in Andy's ear. Andy smiles,

"You just gotta be calm and have a lot of patience with her", Andy says with a smile. Dr.Tarr

nodded and chuckled.

"Now Max, because you are going down to emerge. I will have to call your brother", Dr.Tarr

said gently.

"Fine", I said looking into Andy's eyes, completely ignoring what Dr.Tarr just said.

"Alright, let's go", Andy said as he began to carry me out of the office. Dr.Tarr follows close

behind.

"I'm coming with you", Dr.Tarr says. I sigh and wrap my arms around Andy's neck, pulling his

face closer to mine. Andy smiles.

"That's fine, Dr.Tarr", he said as he pulled me closer.

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Ten minutes later…

"Maxwell Caufield?" A nurse calls out. Andy stands up with me still in his arms and walks

with the nurse towards an exam room. Andy walks into the room and sets me down on the

bed gently. He smiles at me, but I pull him in and I gently kiss him. Suddenly, We both hear

footsteps outside the door, so Andy gently pulls away from me quickly and stands up

straight. Then Pete and Dr.Tarr both walk into the room. Pete frowned at me.

"You were doing so well!" Pete says disappointedly.

"But I haven't been touching my wrists!" I shout angrily.

"Then how did your wrists get infected?" Pete asks. I bit my lip nervously, "Someone in my

class grabbed my wrists and it felt really wet and cold when he grabbed my wrists", I said

awkwardly.

"Who?" Pete asks, a little confused.

"There is this kid named Ronnie in all my classes and it was during lunch when he grabbed

my wrists", I said looking down nervously, wincing as my wrists suddenly started to burn.

Dr.Tarr looks down at my wrists and sees that they've started to bleed. Dr.Tarr quickly walks

over to a cabinet in the room, opens it and takes out a few rolls of gauze.

He quickly walks back to me and wraps both of my wrists tightly with the gauze.

"Andy, can you push the 'Call nurse' button over there?" Dr.Tarr asks as he quickly points to

a button at the head of the bed. Andy nodded and quickly pushed the button. A few seconds

later, two nurses walk into the room and see that Dr.Tarr is struggling to stop the bleeding

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on my wrists. One of the nurses pulls a pair of exam gloves out of the box near the door,

pulls them on, quickly walks over and helps put pressure on my left wrist as Dr.Tarr holds on

to my right wrist.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" The second nurse asks. Dr.Tarr shot him a look.

"I need you to do a blood test", Dr.Tarr said. The nurse nods and walks over to the cabinet

and grabs all the supplies needed for a blood test. I finally look down at my wrists and I see

that I'm bleeding, and I become really dizzy.

"Dr.Tarr, her pulse just shot up", The first nurse says.

"Dr.Tarr, I don't feel so good", I said quietly. I then become really clammy, pale, and

nauseated.

"I need that blood test faster!" Dr.Tarr snaps. The second nurse walked over quickly and

began the blood test quickly. The nurse fills several vials of blood and then pulls out the

needle.

"Put a rush on that", Dr.Tarr said, a little nervous. The nurse then runs out of the room

quickly. Dr.Tarr looks down at my wrist that he's holding and he notices that it's bleeding

even more now.

"Pete, go into the cabinet and grab another roll of gauze", Dr.Tarr says. Pete goes into the

cabinet and grabs the gauze and tosses it to Dr.Tarr. Dr.Tarr catches it and wraps my wrist

with it, over top of the first layer. I become so nauseated that I try to stop myself from

throwing up. I managed to hold it back long enough for the nurse to quickly grab the

garbage can and put it under me. I continue to try not to throw up, but this time I fail

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miserably. The sound of me throwing up, carries out into the hallway, and another Doctor

walks in concerned.

"Hey Ray, is everything alright?" The doctor asks. Dr.Tarr sighs.

"No, she came into my office for an appointment and usually I get her to show me her

wrists, cuz she has cuts on them that were still healing from a self-harming situation and for

the last few appointments and from yesterday's appointment, her wrists were starting to

look better", Dr.Tarr said as he tried to tighten his grip on my wrist.

"So what happened?" The doctor asks.

"Well, the weird thing is that her wrists got extremely infected", Dr.Tarr said nervously.

"Want me to take a look?" The doctor asks as he pulls on a pair of exam gloves and walks

over.

He taps on the nurse's shoulder and the nurse carefully lets go of my wrist. Then the doctor

unwraps my wrist carefully. Just then, the nurse from before runs into the room holding a

piece of paper in his hand.

"The results are back", the nurse says fearfully. Pete grabs the paper from the nurse's hand

and tries to read it. The first nurse grabs the page and reads it.

"Dr.Tarr, she's been drugged", the nurse says. Suddenly, I start throwing up again.

"Drugged?" Andy asks, confused.

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"What do you mean she's been drugged?" Pete asks fearfully.

"I need you to get me antibiotics with a saline drip and a small suture kit", The one doctor

says quickly.

"Ronnie", I whisper. Pete crouches down and tries to look at me.

"What did you say?" He asks.

"Ronnie", I said as I slowly closed my eyes.

"Max?" Pete said, trying to get me to open my eyes. Pete gently taps my face to get me to

wake up.

"She's out cold", Andy says awkwardly.

"Get me a narcan", the doctor says to one of the nurses.

One nurse grabs a vial of narcan and a syringe, then hands both to the doctor.

"Are you sure that's gonna work?" Dr.Tarr asks.

"Since we don't exactly know what she's been dosed with, it's best to at least try to see if

narcan will reverse it", the one doctor says as he preps the syringe. He then carefully jabs

me in the neck with the syringe and injects the solution.

"Hopefully, she should be waking up right about now", the doctor says. A minute goes by

and I still haven't woken up.

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"Try again", Dr.Tarr says.

"Alright", the other doctor says as he injects another dose. I slowly began to wake up.

"Max?" Andy says as he tries to tap me and wake me up faster.

"I'm going to admit her", Dr.Tarr says sternly. Pete sighs with relief as he sees me slowly

opening my eyes.

"Like hell you're gonna admit me", I said quietly. Dr.Tarr smiles.

"Welcome back", he says.

"Get her hooked up to the oxygen and transfer her to a room", the doctor says. I look over at

the other doctor awkwardly, he looks to be about 6'1" with reddish brown hair and hazel

eyes.

"Who are you?" I ask him.

"Max,I'm Dr.Owens", he said quietly.

"Can you tell this man that I will be going home now?" I said in a very slurred speech. Then

Dr.Tarr walks out of the room and calls Pete out of the room to talk and as Pete walks out, a

nurse walks in with a monitor and clamps it onto my index finger.

"I'm sorry, Max, but I cannot let you go home right now", he says gently. I pouted a little and

closed my eyes again.

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"Max?" Andy says as he tries to tap me awake, but this time the monitor shows that I've

started to crash.

"Shit, We need a crash cart here!" Dr.Owens says as he starts CPR.

"You need to step out sir", Dr.Owens said as he gently pushed Andy out of the room and

pulled Dr.Tarr in with the cart.

5 minutes later…

"She's back in sinus rhythm", Dr.Owens says with a sigh of relief. I suddenly begin breathing

heavily.

"Welcome back", Dr.Tarr says with a smile as he fixes the oxygen tube under my nose. I sigh,

"Fine, I guess I'll stay", I said slightly annoyed.

"Alright, let's get her up to a room", Dr.Owens says with a smile.

"But you're gonna have to change into a hospital gown", Dr.Tarr says with an awkward

smile.

"Like hell, I'm changing into one of those", I said angrily. I quickly roll out of the bed and I try

walking away from the room.

"Where do you think you're going?" Dr.Owens asks as he quickly stands in front of the door

to block my path. I then start struggling to catch my breath. I quickly turn back around and

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climb back into the bed annoyed. Dr.Owens tries to put the oxygen tube back under my

nose.

"D-don't touch me", I said nervously. Dr.Owens still tries to put the oxygen tube back in my

nose, but I try dodging him.

"Max, come on", Dr.Owens says frustratedly. I stubbornly continue to dodge him but I get

dizzy in the process. I end up falling over with my face buried into Dr.Owen's chest. He then

tries to gently lay me down on the bed, he gently puts the tube back under my nose and

does a few chest compressions to get me to start breathing again.

Much later that day…

Andy quietly walks into the room holding a single rose and places it on the nightstand, but

as he places the rose down he sees that there is another rose on the nightstand with a note

reading:

"To Max:

I hope you get well soon"

From: Your secret admirer"

Andy puts the note down and sits on the edge of the bed.

"Max?" Andy says quietly. I sigh and open my eyes a little.

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"Andy? What are you doing here? It's the middle of the night", I said quietly.

"I know, I wanted to be with you", Andy says with a smile. Just then, Pete walks into the

room quietly, almost as if he doesn't want to wake me up.

"Pete?" I say as I open my eyes a little more.

"Max, you should be asleep", Pete said quietly.

"You're still here?" I ask him. Pete looks at me a little hurt.

"What? I'm not allowed to stay with you while you're here?" He asks. I sigh.

"I just thought you left", I said sadly. Pete chuckles and brushes a piece of hair out of my

face.

"No, I didn't leave", he says with a gentle smile.

"I called Warren, he said he'll be here in the morning", Pete says with a gentle smile.

"Hey Pete, can I talk to you for a second?" Andy asks as he gets up from the bed.

"Sure", Pete says with a smile. Andy pulls Pete towards the far corner of the room and

whispers in his ear.

"Do you mind if I ask your sister to be my girlfriend?" Andy asks. Pete looks at him and gets

really excited.

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"Yes, do it. Do it now", Pete says as he pushes Andy towards me. Then Pete walks out of

the room quietly.

"Max, can I ask you something?" Andy says as he sits at the edge of the bed close to me. I

opened my eyes and smiled.

"Sure", I whispered tiredly. Andy sighs and looks down at the ground awkwardly. I slowly try

to sit up on the bed.

"Is everything okay?" I asked him a little worried.

"Shhhh, Max. Lay back down", Andy said as he gently pushed me back down on the bed. I

rolled my eyes at him.

"Just tell me", I said, a little annoyed. Andy sighs, leans close to my ear.

"Max, I want you to be my girlfriend" He whispers in my ear. He smiles and stares into my

eyes.

"Andy, I thought I already was", I said quietly.

Chapter Twenty two

Early the next morning…

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I am woken up by a knock at the door, I open my eyes to see who it is.

"Hey Max", Warren says with a smile.

"Hey Warren", I said tiredly. Warren cautiously walks into the room.

"Where have you been? You haven't been at school for a long time, Max. What's going on

with you?" Warren asks nervously. I sigh.

"I moved to a new school", I said quietly. Warren looks at me a little shocked.

"You moved schools but you didn't tell me?" He said a little upset. I sigh a little.

"I thought you already knew,'' I said quietly. Warren sighs.

"Why did you move schools?" He asks.

"Look, Warren. I was being bullied and well your brother was driving me crazy", I snapped.

Warren looks a little upset.

"I'm sorry", he says. I start tearing up a little.

"Look, I'm glad you came but you're gonna be late for class", I said looking at the time.

Warren sighs.

"Hunter wants to see you", he says, frowning.

"Just send him a picture", I said, rolling my eyes.

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"Alright", Warren says as he pulls his phone out.

"Wait, before you take the picture, let me fix my oxygen tube", I said as I quickly fixed the

tube under my nose.

Warren chuckles and snaps the picture and sends it to Hunter. A few seconds later, Hunter

replies.

"Jeez, why does it look like she's sick?" Hunter asks. Warren chuckles, then replies:

"She's at the hospital you asshole". Warren turns off his phone and puts it back in his

pocket.

"Anyways, I got to go now", he says with a smile.

"It was nice to see you Warren", I said with a smile. Warren waves goodbye and walks out of

the room.

Noon, that same day…

I remove the oxygen tube from under my nose and I try getting out of bed. I walk over to the

closet and pull out my clothes. I walk over to the bathroom and change out of the hospital

gown and into my own clothes. I look at myself in the mirror and try to fix my hair but it

doesn't cooperate, so I give up. I then grab my school bag and walk out of the room, down

the hall and towards the elevator. I press the button for the elevator and the doors open. I

walk into the elevator and press the button to go down to the main lobby. I ride the elevator

down, the doors open and I walk out of the elevator, down the hall towards the entrance. I

walk out of the hospital and towards the bus stop. I chuckle a little as I see Dr.Tarr walking

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towards the hospital. The bus pulls up and I board the bus. I dig through my bag and pull out

my bus pass and show it to the driver. The driver nods and lets me go sit down. Just as the

bus starts moving, I see two security guards run out of the building looking around

frantically. The bus keeps going down the road, and I keep watching the guards continue to

search until they get out of view. I sit back and relax in my seat, and wait for the bus to pull

up to the stop in front of my new school.

A few minutes later, the bus pulls up to the stop and I get up to get off the bus. The doors

open and I step off the bus and I quickly run into the school. I pull out my class schedule

and look to see what class I have. I see that I have music with Mr.Biersack, so I run to the

class as fast as I can. I managed to get to the class before it started.

"Oh hello Max'', Mr.Biersack says with a smile. I smile at him and I look to see that the only

empty seat that's left is next to Ronnie. I then walk over to the seat awkwardly and sit down.

Just then, the phone on Mr.Biersack's desk begins to ring. Mr.Biersack picks up the phone

and answers.

"Music room", he says loudly. I look down at the ground nervously. "Yes, she's here. Why?"

Mr.Biersack says as he looks at me awkwardly. He notices that my wrists are all bandaged

up and I'm wearing a hospital bracelet. "Why am I not surprised?" Mr.Biersack says as he

looks at me worried as he begins to see my lips turning blue. I look up at him and I see that

he's looking at me a little disappointed, "Alright", he says nervously, then he hangs up the

phone. I raise my hand up. "Yes Max?" He asks.

"Can I go to the bathroom?" I asked him nervously.

"I cannot let you go, Max", Mr.Biersack said, shaking his head. Mr.Biersack walks over to the

door, closes it and stands in front of it.

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He then calls over two large students to come over. I watch as they walk towards

Mr.Biersack.

"Whatever you do, don't let Max get out of the class", he whispers into each of the students'

ears. The students look over at me weirdly. Suddenly there is a knock at the door and

Mr.Biersack cautiously opens the door and steps out of the classroom. I see the door is

open and I slowly walk towards the door and I try listening to who Mr.Biersack is talking to,

and I instantly recognize the voice of Dr.Tarr. I quickly tried to run out of the class but the

two students that Mr.Biersack talked to, grabbed hold of me roughly.

"Let me go!" I yell as I try to get out of their grasp. Suddenly two large paramedics run into

the class and see me struggling to get free of the students' grasp.

"Hey we've got it from here", one of the paramedics says with a gentle smile. The students

let me go and the paramedic grabs hold of me gently yet strong, and guides me out of the

classroom. The second paramedic grabs hold of my legs and they both lift me up and place

me down on the stretcher. Dr.Tarr pulls out a syringe and injects me with a sedative to calm

my nerves and quiet me down enough for him to strap me down to the stretcher.

Then one of the paramedics quickly puts a brace around my neck, just before the rest of the

class walks out of the room to see what was going on. Just then my lips began to turn blue

and I struggled to catch my breath, then the paramedics started running down the hall,

pushing the stretcher, and slammed the stretcher into the doors to open them.

"What's happening?" Mr.Biersack asks worriedly. Dr.Tarr puts his hand on his shoulder to

reassure him.

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"She's going to be fine, she just can't breathe properly anymore", he says nervously.

Suddenly, Dr.Tarr's walkie-talkie turns on.

"We need to get her to the hospital NOW! She's crashing!" a voice says.

"On my way", Dr.Tarr replies. Then Dr.Tarr quickly pulls out his card and hands it to

Mr.Biersack.

"You are allowed to visit her, if you'd like", Dr.Tarr says with a smile.

"We're all going with you", Mr.Ocala quickly yells from down the hall. Mr.Biersack smiles,

"Everyone get your bags and head to the buses!" Mr.Biersack yells.

"We're gonna lose her if we don't go now!" The walkie-talkie yells. Dr.Tarr gasps and takes

off running down the hall.

Dr.Tarr bursts through the door and hops into the back of the ambulance, slamming the

door closed in the process. The ambulance then starts speeding down the road. I start to

take shallow breaths as the paramedic pulls an oxygen mask on me.

"Max, what the hell were you thinking?" Dr.Tarr yells. I slowly close my eyes, and Dr.Tarr calls

out my name. I can hear him calling out my name from a slight distance. "Max? Can you

hear me?" Dr.Tarr tries to wake me up.

"We're here!" The driver yells. He then opens the door and runs to open the back doors of

the ambulance. Dr.Tarr hops out of the ambulance and helps get me out of the ambulance.

Suddenly I can hear a familiar voice.

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"I can't believe I didn't see her walk out of the room!" Dr.Owens says as he gently prys open

my eyes and shines a flashlight into them. Suddenly a nurse runs over with a saline drip and

sticks it into my arm. They all roll me into an empty room, unstrap me from the stretcher.

"Ready to lift, in three, two, one", Dr.Owens says slowly. Then a few people lifted me from the

stretcher and laid me on a bed.

"Get me the soft restraints please", Dr.Owens says quietly. I began to slowly wake up and I

grabbed hold of Dr.Owens arm just before he walked away. As I grabbed hold of Dr.Owens

arm, he got a little startled.

"Max?" Dr.Owens says as he sees me wake up slowly. Just then, Dr.Tarr walks into the

room with a pair of restraints in his hand. He walks over to me and puts them on me gently.

"Sorry Max, Just wanna make sure you can't escape this time", Dr.Tarr says gently. I become

so tired that I pass out again.

"And...she's out again", Dr.Owens chuckles.

"I've never seen this before", Dr.Owens says, scratching his head.

"I have", Dr.Tarr says with a sigh.

"What do you mean?" Dr.Owens says confused. He looks at me and sees that I've gotten

really pale.

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"Get me some O negative blood", Dr.Tarr says with a sigh. Dr.Owens quickly runs out of the

room, and quickly runs back with a unit of O negative blood in his hands. Dr.Tarr quickly

starts the transfusion.

A few seconds later, I begin to get colour back into my face. Dr.Owens sighs with relief.

"Have you noticed that she's just skin and bones?" Dr.Tarr says as points out how skinny I

am.

"Yeah?" Dr.Owens doesn't really click in.

"She looks like she's malnourished", Dr.Owens says, finally clicking into what Dr.Tarr is

trying to say.

"She isn't malnourished, she's extremely anemic", Dr.Tarr says quietly. I suddenly began to

wake up nauseated.

"Dr.Tarr?" I said as I tried to move my wrists but felt the restraints.

"Max, how are you feeling?" Dr.Tarr says as he walks over and places the back of his hand

against my forehead.

"A bit nauseated, but better", I said with an awkward smile.

"Well, I can give you something for the nausea", Dr.Tarr says looking over to Dr.Owens.

Dr.Owens nodded and walked over to the cabinet and grabbed a bottle of anti nausea pills.

He opens the bottle and takes out a small pill and hands it to Dr.Tarr. Then Dr.Tarr quickly

takes one of my hands out of the restraints and hands me the pill.

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"Take this", he says with a gentle smile. I pop the pill into my mouth and swallow it.

A few minutes later, I begin to feel the nausea subside.

"How are you feeling now?" Dr.Tarr asks.

"Much better", I sigh. I try sitting up on the bed and I look over at the door and I see

Mr.Biersack standing there quietly.

"Mr.Biersack?" I ask, a little confused. Mr.Biersack smiles and walks out of the room and

says.

"She's ok!" He says excitedly. Suddenly I can hear a few cheers of happiness. Then

Mr.Biersack walks into the room with Ronnie and Jake.

"Hey Max!" Ronnie says with a smile.

"Hey Ronnie", I said with an awkward smile.

"Hey you", Jake says with a gentle smile. I look over at Mr.Biersack and I shoot him a look of

extreme fear.

"Max? Is everything ok?" He asks, a little concerned. I slowly begin to bring my knees close

to my chest, and I shake my head no.

"Are you scared?" Mr.Biersack asks. I nodded my head, and I began to tense up and shake

nervously. Dr.Tarr notices the look of panic on my face.

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"I think it's time for you two boys to leave", Dr.Owens says gently pushing Ronnie and Jake

out of the room. Mr.Biersack sits down on the edge of the bed and carefully puts his hand

on my shoulder.

"Max, it's ok to be scared. Is there anybody I can call for you?" Mr.Biersack asks. Suddenly,

there was a knock at the door and I began to tear up. Dr.Tarr sighs with relief.

"Andy, you're finally here", Dr.Tarr says quietly. Andy quickly walks over and sits on the bed

and pulls me in close to him.

"It's ok, Max, I'm here now", Andy whispers in my ear. I bury my face into his chest and begin

to cry.

"Who was in here earlier?" Andy asks.

"Two of my students named Ronnie and Jake, why?", Mr.Biersack said quietly. As he says

their names, I tense up and try to bury my face into Andy's chest further. Mr.Biersack sees

me tense up when he mentions their names. Andy sighs.

"You see her wrists?"Andy asks.

Mr.Biersack nodded. "Yeah, they're all bandaged up", he says, a little concerned.

"She's been battling depression for a long time now, but she was still healing from cuts on

her wrists and they were starting to heal as well, but unfortunately, she came into my office

for an appointment and I noticed that her wrists became infected in a matter of hours. She's

accused Ronnie of doing it", Dr.Tarr says with a frown. Mr.Biersack's jaw drops.

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"Max, is this true?" He asks. I nodded nervously.

"It was over the lunch break", I said into Andy's chest. Just then, Mr.Biersack pulled out his

phone and called Mr.Ocala.

"Mr.Ocala, Can you come into the room for a minute?" Mr.Biersack asks.

A few seconds later, Mr.Ocala knocks at the door.

"What's going on?" He asks. Dr.Tarr walked over to him and whispered everything that was

said into his ear. I watch as the smile on Mr.Ocala's face slowly fades.

"Surely that's not what actually happened", Mr.Ocala says fearfully. I stared into Mr.Ocala's

eyes and pouted.

"That's exactly what happened", I said as a stray tear rolled down my cheek.

"Can you all just get out now?" I said angrily as more tears began to flow down my cheeks. I

let go of Andy and I looked over at the intravenous to see if it was finished or not. I see that

it isn't so I get up from the bed and walk out of the room angrily.

"Where are you going Max?" Dr.Owens asks as he follows me out of the room. I stop and

turn around to look him in the eye.

"I need air before I take out my anger on someone who doesn't deserve it", I said with a

sigh. I look down at the ground, Then Dr.Owens tries to walk up to me and put his hand on

my shoulder. I look up at his hand and I dodge him quickly.

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"Just come back into the room and we can talk about this' ', Dr.Owens says with a frown.

I look up at Dr.Owens and snarl at him.

"Don't you get it?! I don't want to talk about it!" I snapped at him. I then quickly ran past my

classmates, down the hall with the intravenous trolley. I turn the corner to the right and I try

to find a dark, quiet spot to sit and be alone in.

I finally find a dark corner and I sit down and I bring my knees up close to my chest. I then

just close my eyes and start to cry quietly, and I think back to everything that's happened

over the past few months. My mother passed away, the several hospital visits, the several

attempts to end my own life. All of these memories swirl around my head like a tornado that

keeps throwing my painful memories around. I open my eyes and I look down at my arms

and wrists, which are now littered with scars and cut marks. I sigh heavily and bury my face

into my knees and just begin to cry a little harder.

As I am sitting there, I feel a warm presence beside me. Then I feel a gentle arm around my

shoulder.

"You know it's perfectly ok to cry and talk about things", Dr.Owens says quietly. I sigh, rest

my head on his shoulder and he pulls a tissue out of his pocket.

"Here, wipe your eyes because you are slowly turning into a raccoon", Dr.Owens says with a

playful smile. I chuckle a little and take the tissue from him.

"Do you think you're ready to come back to the room yet?" Dr.Owens asks as he gently. I

sigh and take my head off his shoulder and nod. "Good", Dr.Owens says as he slowly gets

up from the floor, then sticks out his hand. I sigh, grab his hand, and he helps me stand up.

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As I am standing up, I get a little dizzy and almost fall over again. "Whoop, are you alright?"

Dr.Owens asks as he catches me.

"I think I was sitting for too long", I said with a chuckle and I grabbed onto the trolley.

Dr.Owens smiles and walks with his arm around me down the hall, around the corner, past

my classmates and back into the room. I look down and walk back over the hospital bed

and I sit on the edge.

"Are you feeling better?" Dr.Tarr asks. I nodded and sighed.

"Can you remove this thing yet?" I ask as I gently pull at the intravenous in my arm. Andy

quickly grabs my hand before I pull it out completely.

"Not yet, you still have at least a third left to go", Dr.Tarr says as he fixes the needle in my

arm.

"I don't care, I just want it out", I said, pulling it out of my arm completely. I looked up at

everyone else in the room as they watched me rip the needle out of my arm.

"That's better", I said as I rubbed the sore spot on my arm and watched the liquid leak out

and seep into the sheets. "And plus I don't see the reason why I need this anyway", I said

annoyed as I stood up from the hospital bed. Dr.Owens sighs disappointedly.

"You need it because you're anemic", he said as he lightly pinched the bridge of his nose

with his index finger and thumb. I suddenly began to feel really dizzy, so I looked down at my

arm where the intravenous was, and I saw that I'd started bleeding slightly. I looked back up

at Dr.Owens and I quickly collapsed, hitting the floor hard, passing out completely.

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Chapter Twenty Three

Early Monday morning, one week later…

I get woken up by Pete loudly banging on my bedroom door.

"Max, Andy's here to pick you up! So you better get your lazy ass out of bed and get ready

for school!" He yells from behind the door. I sigh tiredly.

"I'll be out in like five minutes!" I yelled back as I rolled out of bed. I then walked over to my

closet and pulled out a pair of black shorts and a random t-shirt. I quickly pull both on and I

grab my huge black sweater from the ground and I pull it on. I then walked over to my desk

and I grabbed my phone. I looked at myself in the mirror one more time and I see that my

eyeliner and mascara from last night is now really smudged under my eyes, and I see that

my hair is a mess, so I quickly put my hair up in a really messy bun. I then open my bedroom

door and walk towards the front door.

"Good morning Max", Pete said as he handed me my backpack. I rolled my eyes.

"Morning", I grunted at him, taking my backpack from him. I put on my backpack and I

quickly pulled on my black combat boots.

"Have a good day both of you", Pete said as he waved to Andy and I as I walked out the

door. I kept my head down as I walked towards Andy.

"Morning", Andy said with a smile. I looked up at him blankly.

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"Morning", I said quietly. Andy then gently jams a helmet on my head. I quickly get on the

back of his bike while he puts his helmet back on and gets on the bike.

"Are you ready?" Andy asks. I wrap my arms around his waist and I rest my head gently

between his shoulder blades.

"I'm gonna take that as a yes", Andy says as he starts up his bike and rolls backward

towards the street. We then tear off down the road and turn the corner.

A few minutes later, Andy slows down, pulls into the school parking lot and parks his bike. I

unwrap my arms from around his waist and I slowly get up off the bike. Andy quickly gets

off his bike and takes off his helmet and puts it under his arm, he then quickly helps me take

off my helmet.

"So you remember you have to meet with Mr.Ocala and Mr.Mallory this morning right?"

Andy asks gently. I nod and look down at the ground.

"Hey look at me", Andy says as he gently lifts my chin so my eyes meet his.

"Want me to go with you?" Andy asks with a gentle smile. I shake my head no,.

"I'll be fine, but can you put the helmet in my locker?" I ask as I hand him my helmet quickly.

"Sure", Andy says with a smile as he takes the helmet and walks towards the front doors,

and walks in without me. I sigh a little and I walk towards the front door of the school. I stop

just in front of the doors, almost hesitantly.

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I finally mustered up enough courage and I opened the doors and walked through. I looked

around and I saw nobody in the halls, so I quickly walked over to the office as fast as I could.

I reach the office and I see that Mr.Ocala and Mr.Mallory are already waiting for me.

"Come on in Max", Mr.Ocala said with a genuine smile. I slowly shuffled into his office and I

sat down.

"Good morning Max", Mr.Mallory said with a smile.

"Good morning sir", I said quietly.

"Max, you aren't in trouble, we just want to check in with you to see how you're doing",

Mr.Ocala said gently. I nod slightly at his comment.

"Max, we were hoping that maybe you could tell us what happened between you and

Ronnie?" Mr.Mallory asked bluntly. Suddenly a look of sheer anger shoots across my face

and Mr.Ocala sees it.

"Max, we just want to know just a little bit about it", Mr.Ocala said gently. I look down at the

floor and I keep quiet.

"Firstly, how are you?" Mr.Ocala asks with a sigh.

"Fine", I mumbled.

"I'm glad that you aren't still in the hospital", Mr.Mallory says nervously.

"Yes that's a great thing", Mr.Ocala said with an excited smile.

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"I guess it's a good thing", I said quietly.

"I hate hospitals", Mr.Mallory said with a nervous laugh.

"Same here" I said slightly relaxing, not realizing that I was tensed up. Just then Mr.Ocala

looked up to see that I'm running a little late for class.

"Max, before you head to class, we still want to know what happened between you and

Ronnie", Mr.Mallory said again. I looked up at him.

"No", I said to him angrily.

"Can I go to my damn class now?" I ask angrily. Mr.Ocala sighs.

"Alright Max, I'll walk you down to your class", he said, a little sad.

"I have English with Mrs.Pendelbrooke," I said looking down at the ground.

"Alright let's go", Mr.Ocala said as he stood up from his desk. He walks out of his office and

I quickly follow behind him. As we are walking towards the class, I quickly put my hood up to

hide my emotions.

We reach the class a few minutes later and Mr.Ocala knocks on the door. Mrs.Pendelbrooke

opens the door. I hesitated for a moment.

"Max just head on in, I won't mark you late", Mrs.Pendlebrooke said with a smile. I sigh, take

off my hood and walk into the classroom with my head down. As I am walking towards my

desk, I pass Ronnie awkwardly. I stop and sit at my desk and I start pulling out all of my

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books, including my sketchbook. After a few minutes Mrs.Pendlebrooke stands up at the

front of the class holding a bright blue folder open in her left hand, and in her right hand she

is holding a small pencil.

"Alright, I'm going to take attendance and then we're going to get started", she says with a

smile.

She begins to take attendance, going down the list slowly, I wait as she is about to say my

name.

"Hello", I quickly said to her as she was about to say my name. Mrs.Pendlebrooke nods to

me as a hello, then she quickly finishes attendance.

"Does anyone want to volunteer to take the attendance down to the office?" She asks as she

looks around the room for anyone who puts up their hands, and I open my sketchbook and

start drawing so I can avoid eye contact with her. Just then I see Ronnie putting up his hand

to volunteer but Mrs.Pendlebrook over looks him.

"Max, will you take the attendance down to the office for me?" She asks. I look up and sigh

a little.

"Sure, I'll do it", I said as I put my pencil down on my sketchbook, leaving it open for people

to see. I get up from the desk and I walk up to the front and I gently take the folder from

Mrs.Pendlebrooke.

"Hurry back!" Mrs.Pendlebrook said as I walked out of the classroom. I start walking down

the hall, passing a few open classrooms, and I look into a few of them and just as I am

about to turn the corner, I look into an open classroom and I spot Andy and I wave at him.

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He smiles slightly, then he quickly raises his hand and asks his teacher to go to the

bathroom.

I start walking down the hall and a few moments later, Andy runs up behind me, wrapping

his arms around my waist and kissing my cheek.

"Hey Andy", I said with a slight chuckle.

"What are you up to?" Andy asks as he lets go of me. I turned around to face him.

"I'm taking the class attendance down to the office", I said with a smile. Andy smiles and

gently pulls my face up towards his, and kisses me. I blush a little and sort of move into the

kiss but after a few seconds I pull away. I look away awkwardly.

"You ok?" Andy asks as he tries to get me to look at him.

"Yeah I'm fine, I just have to drop off the attendance sheet and get back to class quickly", I

said as I started walking towards the office.

"Hey I'm coming with you", Andy says as he follows behind me.

"Fine", I said as I quickly reached the office door.

I open the door and walk inside the office up to the receptionist and I hand her the folder.

"Thank you Max!" The receptionist says with a smile. I nod to her and I quickly leave the

office. I then quickly start walking down the hall back towards my class. As I am turning to

the corner, Andy startles me by grabbing my wrist and pulling me into another kiss. I push

him off quickly.

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"Andy! We are literally in front of your classroom!" I whisper to him. I look over to see a few

people looking at us and slightly smiling. I chuckle a little and push Andy towards his class

and I quickly run back to my class. I notice that the door is closed so I quickly knock at the

door. Mrs.Pendlebrooke opens the door and lets me back into the classroom. I quickly walk

back into the classroom and I quickly sit down at my desk. As I am sitting down I see that

there is a folded note on my desk. I open the note and it reads:

"Hey Max,

I was wondering if we could maybe hang out at lunch?

Ronnie".

I look up towards Ronnie and nod my head cautiously and I see him get a little excited. "Shit,

how am I going to get out of this?" I think to myself. Then Mrs.Pendlebrook starts writing

something on the board, the board says:

"Today's assignment: Free writing on the topic of your choice"

I look up at Mrs.Pendlebrooke and I smile a little. Five minutes later the bell rings for the

next class. I quickly pack up my stuff and shove it all in my backpack. Then I quickly take off

my sweater, revealing my vintage warped tour t-shirt underneath. Then I shove my sweater

into my backpack and I run out of the classroom.

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Chapter Twenty four

As I am running out of the classroom I get stopped by Ronnie and his group of friends in the

hallway.

"Hey Max, how's it going?" Ronnie asks with a smile.

"I'm alright, I guess", I said as I looked down at the ground awkwardly.

"Well, are you ready to come hangout with us?" Jake asked. I look up at him then I look

around to see if there are any teachers nearby, then I see Mr.Biersack walking towards us.

"Is there a problem here?" Mr.Biersack asks while slightly looking me in the eye.

"No, sir", Jake said with a smirk.

"Max, were you able to contact anyone about joining the student band?" Mr.Biersack askes.

"Sir, that's exactly what I wanted to talk to you about", I said with a smile. Mr.Biersack nods,

"Well, I'm free right now if you want to talk", he said nodding to me. I then turn to Ronnie and

frown.

"Looks like I can't hang out with you today". Ronnie frowns.

"That's ok, we can hang out tomorrow", he said with a hopeful smile.

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"I'll have to see about that", I said, a little frightened.

I then start walking away from the group, following behind Mr.Biersack, and once we turn

the corner I release my breath, which I didn't know I was holding to begin with.

"Are you ok, Max?" Mr.Biersack asked, a little worried.

"I'm fine, and it looks like it's just gonna be me in the band for now", I said with a smile.

Mr.Biersack nods.

"You know what I was thinking?" Mr.Biersack says nonchalantly, I look at him a little

confused.

"What if we had mini concerts everyday at lunch as a way to advertise the band?"

Mr.Biersack asks.

"And how would we do that?" I asked him a little confused.

"Well, I was thinking that since you have soooo much sheet music and you play guitar, I was

maybe hoping that you could do the concerts?" Mr.Biersack said hopeful.

"And when will we be starting these concerts?" I asked. Mr.Biersack starts to rub the back of

his neck awkwardly.

"Tomorrow?" He says, I sigh awkwardly.

"Fine, but do you mind if I use the guitar in the music room and use a pocket amp so I can

walk the halls while I practice?" I asked him. Mr.Biersack smiles.

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"I'm sure that wouldn't be a problem, let me just call Mr.Ocala and ask him to see if it's

alright, but for now just wait for me outside the music room and I'll get you all set up with

everything and you can leave your stuff in here, because you have me next period anyway",

Mr.Biersack said quickly. I nodded and we quickly walked to the music room.

"I'll be right back Mr.Biersack, I just have to quickly change", I said as I ran to the bathroom.

I then quickly walk into a stall and I pull out my black fishnet stockings, my black shorts, and

my black misfits muscle tee. I quickly change out of my sweater and t-shirt and I quickly put

on my muscle tee and I pull on my fishnet stockings and my combat boots on. Then I

quickly get out of the stall and fix my hair in the mirror. Then I run out of the bathroom and I

drop my backpack off at the back of the classroom and I grab the pocket amp and guitar

and I hook the guitar up to the amp, then I put the guitar strap on the guitar, then I pull the

guitar strap behind my back and connect it to the guitar again.

"Mr.Ocala gave the all clear", Mr.Biersack said excitedly. I smile at his enthusiasm. "But,

Mr.Ocala wants you to stay in front of the office in the main corridor of the school",

Mr.Biersack said with a warning. I smirk at him.

"That's fine with me", I said happily.

"Alright, let's do this", Mr.Biersack said excitedly and he grabbed a music stand and my

binder full of sheet music. We both walked out of the classroom, down the hall towards the

main office. As we walked down the hall I could see a few people looking at me weirdly. A

few minutes later, Mr.Biersack and I stop in front of the main office and he quickly places

the music stand in front of me and opens the binder up to a random page, and the sheet

music is for the song 'Wretched and Divine'. I look up at Mr.Biersack with an odd look. "You'll

be fine", he said with a smile. I close my eyes and turn on the pocket amp. I sigh, then I

begin to play the song without thinking about the sheet music. I chuckle a little, then I open

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my eyes to see the hallway has almost filled up completely with people. I look at

Mr.Biersack worriedly. He mouths the words, "Keep going". I sigh and nod. I flip through my

binder for a song nervously, then I stop at the song 'Knives and pens'. Suddenly, my fingers

start flying through the chords like it's all from memory. I stop playing just as the solo is

coming up and I look up at someone in the crowd, he looks to be about 5"8, with short

blonde hair and gray eyes with an average muscle build, I look him in the eye and snarl at

him playfully. I then look around at the rest of the crowd, and I quickly fly through the solo

and end the song. I look over at Mr.Biersack.

"Which one should I do next?" I ask him. Mr.Biersack smiles.

"Freestyle it", he said. I shake my head no.

"You can do it, baby girl!" I heard a voice yell out from the crowd. I snarl at the comment

angrily. And out of anger, I begin to shred and rip as many solos as I can before my fingers

begin to bleed. Once I finish, my hands are shaking so badly and my fingers are covered in

blood. Mr.Biersack notices my fingers and smiles.

"Take a bow", he whispers. I nod at him, turn off the amp, take off and hand the guitar over

to Mr.Biersack, and I bow awkwardly. Suddenly there is a loud eruption of applause. I can

hear a few people whooping and hollering, "Max!"

I quickly walk into the office and Mr.Ocala is already standing there with the first aid kit

open.

"I never knew you could play", Mr.Ocala says surprised. I chuckle nervously.

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"Not a lot of people do". Mr.Ocala tosses a roll of bandages at me and I quickly catch it with

my good hand.

"Hopefully you'll be able to play again tomorrow", Mr.Ocala said with a thumbs up.

"I may not be able to play tomorrow but we will see", I said as I quickly wrapped my hand

tightly in bandages. I then quickly walk out of the office and I see Mr.Biersack is waiting for

me in the hall.

"Max, that was incredible! Do you think you'll be able to do that again tomorrow?"

Mr.Biersack asks energetically. I looked down at my bandaged hand.

"Maybe, but I might have something even better", I said with an odd smile.

Half an hour later…

Ronnie and Jake walk into the classroom and sit next to me all excited about something.

"Max, that was freaking amazing!" Ronnie said excitedly. I looked at him awkwardly.

"Thanks I guess", I said shyly.

"Where did you learn to play like that?" Jake asks. I shrug a little.

"I taught myself". Jake chuckles.

"There is no way you taught yourself how to play that well", he said doubtfully.

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"Well you better believe it", I semi snapped at him. I look up at Mr.Biersack and he looks at

Jake and Ronnie disappointed.

"Max, is everything alright?" Mr.Biersack asks. I nod.

"Yes, sir. Everything is ok", I said with a smile.

"Max, do you want to explain why you did that performance in the hallway to the rest of the

class?" Mr.Biersack asks. I shot him a look of nervousness.

"Sure, I guess", I said as I stood up from my chair. "I'm looking for people who are willing to

audition for the student band with me", I said with an awkward smile.

"Sign up sheets will be posted outside of the classroom tomorrow", Mr.Biersack said

happily. As soon as Mr.Biersack said that, the bell rang for the next class. I turned around

and I quickly grabbed my bag from the back of the classroom and I walked out. As I am

walking down the hall, I see a few smiling faces, and a lot of people come up to me saying,

"You were amazing! Where did you learn to play?" And a few of the guys came up to me and

asked, "Can I get your number?" I would smile at them, grab their phones and then I would

put my number in. I look at the time on one of their phones and I realize that I'm going to be

late for class, so I run as fast as I can through the halls, all the way to my psychology class.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Once I reach the classroom, I walk in and find my seat. I sit down and place my backpack on

the ground next to me.

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"Hey baby", Andy says as he walks past me and sits at the desk next to me on the right. I

shot him a look of disgust.

"What?" He asks, a little confused. I bend over and open my backpack and I take out my

psych textbooks and my notebook and pens, and I set them down on my desk.

"Max? What's wrong?" Andy asks as he places his hand on my shoulder.

"It's nothing", I said to him angrily. Just as Andy was about to say something else, Ronnie

saunters into the classroom. I look up and I watch him glide over towards me, then he stops

at the desk on the left side of me and sits down.

"Hey Max", Ronnie says with a smile. I grunt at him, then I look down and open my

notebook, and I begin to write.

"Why does everyone want something from me? Why can't they just see

that I need my space?"

Then I quickly close my notebook and stare blankly at the front of the classroom. Ronnie

and Andy both exchange confused glances with each other.

"What's with her?" Ronnie whispers to Andy. Andy shrugs, then the rest of the students start

walking into the class loudly. Mr.Ledger follows behind the last student walking into class

carrying his satchel. I sigh heavily and I slightly rub an extremely sore spot on the back of

my neck, just under my head.

"Good afternoon class", Mr.Ledger says happily. A few students nod to him and a few say

"Good afternoon" to him in return. Then Mr.Ledger pulls out a small stack of papers from his

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satchel and smiles. "Okay, it's Pop quiz time!" Mr.Ledger says excitedly. All of the students

in the class all groan in unison.

"It will be on the recent chapters we studied in the psych textbooks", Mr.Ledger said as he

began walking around the room passing out the pop quiz sheets to students. He walks up to

my desk and places the sheet face down and looks into my eyes. "Max, are you alright?"

Mr.Ledger asks. I smile and nod at him. Mr.Ledger smiles and moves on to handing out the

rest of the quizzes to students.

Mr.Ledger walks up to the front of the classroom and smiles, "You may begin".

I turn over my quiz and I write my name at the top of the page, then I begin trying to read the

questions but my vision is starting to blur a little and I start breaking out in a cold sweat. I

try rubbing my eyes to see if that would help but it causes my vision to blur even more. I

sigh heavily and I continue to struggle to read the questions. Mr.Ledger looks over and sees

that I'm struggling and that I've turned extremely pale.

"Max? Can you come up here for a minute?" Mr.Ledger asks, a little uneasy. Andy watches

me as I get up from my seat and I slowly make my way to Mr.Ledger's desk. Mr.Ledger

smiles brightly at me. "Is everything alright?" he asks. I look at him with a slightly dazed

expression, but I don't answer his question. I struggle to get my eyes to focus on Mr.Ledger

as he stands up from his chair to try to get a closer look at my face, but I start to lean

forward towards him. Andy quickly gets up from his seat and quickly runs over to

Mr.Ledger's desk and quietly stands behind me with his arms out to catch me if I faint and

Mr.Ledger nods and does the same. "Max? Is everything okay? You don't look so g-".

Mr.Ledger quickly puts his hands out in front of him and catches me by the shoulders just

as I faint.

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A few students look up and see what's going on. Andy quickly grabs hold of where

Mr.Ledger is holding my shoulders and gently lays me down on the ground, placing my head

on his lap and keeps checking to make sure I'm still breathing. Mr.Ledger rubs the back of

his neck worried. "I don't know what the hell is happening, is she still breathing?" Mr.Ledger

says, panicked. Andy tries to get everyone to quiet down. He leans over me and listens.

Suddenly his eyes went wide with a panicked expression.

"Mr.Ledger, I need you to call 911, I need someone to get me either a pen or a straw and I

need someone to go into my backpack and grab a pack of alcohol wipes from my small first

aid kit", Andy says quietly.

Mr.Ledger runs over to the phone and dials 911, while three students come forward, one

with a straw, one with a pen, and one holding Andy's backpack. Andy reaches up and grabs

his backpack and fishes through it and pulls out an alcohol wipe and his pocket knife. He

grabs the pen and the straw from the two students. He looks at both, and quickly decides to

take apart the pen. He quickly takes the alcohol wipe and cleans my neck, his pocket knife,

and the pen tube.

"Ronnie, I need your help", Andy says. Ronnie quickly runs over and kneels down.

"I need you to gently pick up her head and place it on the ground in front of me, then I need

you to hold her head extremely still", Andy says firmly.

Ronnie does exactly what Andy had just told him and looks up at Mr.Ledger who is still on

the phone.

"What are you gonna do?" Ronnie asks. Just then Andy gently runs his finger along my neck

and stops at a certain spot on my neck and pushes down. He sighs and quickly grabs his

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pocket knife. Mr.Ledger looks down to see what is happening and freaks out as he sees

Andy with the pocket knife.

"WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU DOING?" Mr.Ledger yells. Andy sighs and makes a small

incision on the spot where he pushed down with his finger, then he makes the incision

deeper and creates a small hole in my neck, then he quickly places the pen tube into the

hole.

Suddenly, Andy sighs with relief as he hears air entering the tube. Andy glances up towards

the door, then a large, single paramedic with short, straight dark brown hair and chocolate

brown eyes looks into the classroom and yells out.

"Quinn! In here!" Then another smaller paramedic with long black hair and gray eyes runs

into the classroom.

"Oh shit, there you are Sykes!" The smaller paramedic known as 'Quinn' says as he runs over

and gets on his knees in front of me.

"What's her name?" The paramedic known as 'Quinn' asks Mr.Ledger.

"Her name is Max", Mr.Ledger says nervously.

"Ok, my name is Kellin and my co-worker over there is Oliver, can you tell me what

happened?" Kellin asks as he opens his red bag and watches the other paramedic get down

to work, opening my eyes and shining his flashlight into each eye.

"Well, class had just started as I had just finished handing out pop quizzes to everyone and I

noticed that she looked pale but I thought nothing of it at first, not until I noticed her rubbing

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her eyes and the back of her neck", Mr.Ledger said anxiously. Oliver quickly puts on his

stethoscope and listens to my heart, he looks up at Andy and gives him a smile.

"What's your name?" Oliver asks.

"Andrew but you can call me Andy,'' Andy says nervously. Oliver nods at him.

"It's nice to meet you Andy", Oliver says.

"Did you do this Andy?" Oliver asks, nodding to the tracheostomy and carefully wraps gauze

around it to keep it in place. Andy nods shyly. Oliver chuckles a little.

"Don't be shy kid, you did good. You actually saved her life ", Oliver says with a smile.

Andy looks shocked. Oliver quickly checks my heart rate again and notices that it's off. He

quickly pulls out a syringe and a vial from the red bag.

"Quinn, I need you to start the I.V, her heart rate is way too slow for my liking so I'm gonna

give her 5 cc's of amiodarone to see if that helps anything, Andy can you roll the

stretcher that is just outside the classroom over?" Oliver says as he injects the solution

into my arm quickly. Kellin quickly gets the I.V into my arm and Andy quickly runs out of

the room and brings the stretcher into the room.

"Ok let's lift her onto the stretcher on three. One, two, three", Oliver said as both Kellin

and Oliver both lift me up and gently place me on the stretcher. Just then Oliver and

Kellin start rolling me out of the classroom and running down the hallway towards the

front of the school. Just then Mr.Ocala comes running out of the office.

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"What happened?" Mr.Ocala asks worriedly.

"I'm not exactly sure", Kellin says as he quickly wheels the stretcher out of the front

doors of the school and into the ambulance.

"You're welcome to come along, but if you are, you better come aboard quickly" Kellin

says as he starts to strap me down to the stretcher. Mr.Ocala quickly climbs into the

back of the ambulance and sits down, then Oliver quickly slams the doors closed and

hops into the ambulance, turns on the siren and drives off as fast as he can.

While in the back of the ambulance...

Kellin gently pulls my shirt up and notices how skinny I am and how he can literally see

my ribs. Mr.Ocala looks away before Kellin pulls my shirt up any further. Kellin pulls my

shirt up a little more and starts to notice red scratch marks on my sides further up

towards my chest.

"OLIVER YOU BETTER STEP ON IT!" Kellin yells.

"We're literally here Kellin", Oliver says as he pulls up to the emergency department. He

opens the door, hops out and opens the back of the ambulance. Kellin quickly starts to

pull the stretcher out of the ambulance and rushes in quickly with Mr.Ocala running in

behind him. A nurse runs over and grabs hold of the stretcher with Dr.Owens beside her.

"What do we have here?" Dr.Owens asks Kellin.

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"Unconscious 17 year old female with tracheostomy done on the field due to an

obstructed airway", Oliver says.

"Let's get her to an exam room", Dr.Owens says as he helps push the stretcher into an

exam room. Then Dr.Owens quickly lifts me into the hospital bed and removes the

gauze around the pen tube sticking out of my throat. Then Dr.Owens gently opens my

jaw and sees that my tongue is swollen.

"Get me 5 cc's of epinephrine, quickly!" Dr.Owens yells. Suddenly a nurse pushes the

meds into the I.V quickly, and Dr.Owens stays and watches me closely.

10 minutes later…

Dr.Owens notices that my tongue is no longer swollen, and he sighs with relief. He then

slowly removes the pen tube from my throat and replaces it with proper tubing and

wraps gauze around it and connects the oxygen to the new tube. He also sees that I've

started waking up. Dr.Owens looks down at my hands and realizes that I'm having an

allergic reaction to the bandages on them. Dr.Owens quickly removes the bandages and

sees the cuts on my fingers.

"She got those from playing guitar a little too roughly", Mr.Ocala said with a smile. I open

my eyes slightly and I smile at Dr.Owens.

"Max, you never told me you play guitar", Dr.Owens says, a little surprised. I look down at

the ground shyly.

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"What's wrong?" Dr.Owens asks. I look down at my hands and I begin to scratch at them.

Dr.Owens quickly stops me from scratching them further. "Max, don't do that, you're just

gonna spread it further", Dr.Owens says firmly.

Mr.Ocala smiles and calls my brother about what's happening.

"Can I go home soon?" I whisper to Dr.Owens. Dr.Owens chuckles a little.

"Unfortunately I'm gonna have to keep you overnight due to the severity of your

symptoms", Dr.Owens says, a little concerned.

"I'm fine tho", I whisper to Dr.Owens.

"Max, quit being stubborn and listen to Dr.Owens", Frank says as he walks into the room

with Dr.Tarr. I get super excited as Frank walks into the room and sits on the end of the

bed.

"Woah, settle down there darlin", Dr.Tarr said with a smile. I shoot Dr.Tarr an angry look.

"Max, just sleep ok?" Frank says as he brushes a stray piece of hair out of my face.

A few seconds later, Pete walks into the room a little disappointed.

"Can't you go a week without being admitted into the hospital?" he says, a little

annoyed.

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"Hey this time it isn't her fault", Dr.Owens says pointing out the extremely red and

inflamed patches on my hands and wrists.

"Turns out she is anaphylactic to latex bandages", Dr.Owens says, a little stunned. I stick

my tongue out at Pete and he goes to swat me but Dr.Tarr stops him.

"Can I take her home?" Pete asks. Dr.Owens shakes his head.

"Due to someone giving her a tracheostomy, I have to make sure things didn't go wrong",

Dr.Owens says, shaking his head dumbfounded.

"Surprisingly, they did it perfectly", Dr.Tarr says as he takes a look at it closely.

"Thank you!" Andy says as he walks into the room happily. I try to say hello to Andy but

the tube makes it hard to speak.

"Max, don't speak, you're just gonna hurt yourself more", Frank says firmly. I roll my eyes

and I motion for Andy to come over.

Andy walks over nonchalantly, bends down over me and kisses me. I quickly push him

off and I grunt at him angrily.

"Hey! What's the matter with you?" Andy asks, a little hurt. I look around at all the people

staring at me and I start to become really overwhelmed, and I start hyperventilating and

I start to panic.

Chapter Twenty-Six

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Early the next morning…

Dr.Owens walks into the room with a few pieces of dressings and a small paper cup. He

stops just in front of the nightstand beside my hospital bed and sets down the dressings on

the table and he hands me the small paper cup. I look inside the cup and I see two small

white pills and one blue tablet.

"What are these for?" I ask Dr.Owens skeptically. Dr.Owens smiles at me.

"They're antibiotics", he says quietly. I look down at the pills then back up at Dr.Owens

distrustfully.

"I don't trust these", I said as I set the small paper cup down on the table. Dr.Owens sighs

slightly.

"Max, you gotta take em", He says as he puts his hand on my shoulder gently. I look down

at his hand and I begin to tear up a little.

"Max, please take them", Dr.Owens says gently.

"No", I said quietly as I looked down at my hands. Dr.Owens sits down beside me on the

hospital bed and gently tilts my chin up so he can look into my eyes.

"Do you trust me?" Dr.Owens asks. I looked into his eyes awkwardly.

"I do", I said with a sigh.

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"Then why won't you trust me on giving you the meds?" Dr.Owens asks gently as he takes

his hand off under my chin. I look away from him, grabbing the small paper cup and quickly

shooting the pills to the back of my throat and swallowing them quickly without saying

anything. Dr.Owens smiles at me.

"That wasn't so hard, now was it?" He says happily.

"You don't have to be so condescending about it", I snap at him. Dr.Owens gives a sort of

hurt look and gets up from the hospital bed, grabs the dressings from the table quickly.

"I'm going to remove the tube from your throat in a moment but I need you to stay still for

me", Dr.Owens says quietly as he removes the gauze that is wrapped around the tube to

keep it in place.

"Whatever you do, don't move and keep your neck relaxed", Dr.Owens says firmly. I swallow

hard with nerves.

Dr.Owens grabs hold of the tube gently but I start tensing up. Dr.Owens lets go of the tube,

"Max, I need you to relax", Dr.Owens says gently. I stare up at the ceiling blankly. Dr.Owens

sighs and gently removes the tube, then he covers the hole by wrapping the dressing around

my neck gently and tying a small knot to keep it in place.

"Does this mean I can go home today?" I ask him in slight pain. Dr.Owens nods.

"You're actually free to go right now", he said as he handed me my school bag and a couple

week's supply of dressings.

"Thank you!" I said happily. Dr.Owens smiles.

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"Just remember to change the dressings everyday at lunch", Dr.Owens said as he started to

walk out of the room.

I quickly get out of bed and I walk into the bathroom. I see that Pete left me a spare change

of clothes, and a note. The note reads:

"Max, Vincent will drive you to school. Meet him downstairs at the front of the hospital.

I had to go to work, otherwise I would have driven you" -Pete

I open the bag of spare clothes and I see that he packed my black shorts and Warren's

oversized sweater. I quickly get out of the hospital gown and I put on the spare change of

clothes without thinking and I run out of the bathroom, grab my backpack and I run out of

the room, down the hallway, passing a few nurses and through the front doors of the

hospital. I see the car outside the doors but it isn't Vincent who is leaning against the car.

It's Hunter.

Hunter looks up from his phone and sees me walking towards him and he smiles widely.

"Hey baby girl", Hunter says happily. I stop in my tracks and I start to tremble. "I thought we

could talk", Hunter said as he walked over to the passenger side and opened the door. I get

into the car and I slam the door shut. I watch Hunter as he walks around the front of the car

to the driver's side, opens the door and sits down, closing the door behind him. Hunter

gently leans over, gently pulling my head towards him and kisses me, holding my head there

for a long moment. He pulls away slowly and lets go of my head, and he smiles at my

stunned yet blank expression.

"Sorry, I've just been dying to do that", Hunter said as he started the car.

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"Hunter why the fuck are you even here?" I ask him angrily. Hunter looks at me a little hurt.

"What? Am I not allowed to see my girlfriend?" Hunter said as he started driving towards the

exit of the hospital parking lot.

"What makes you think I'm your girlfriend?" I snapped at him.

"Because you keep giving off these signals that you want me", Hunter says nonchalantly.

"Stop the car", I said quietly. Hunter looks at me weirdly.

"Why?" he asks. I grit my teeth in sheer anger.

"Because I want to get out", I shouted. Hunter stops the car but he locks the doors quickly.

"You're not leaving this car", he said with an evil smile.

"Hunter, let me out", I said angrily. Hunter then quickly tears off down the road, turning the

corner at Bishop road and going straight all the way to Morning glory drive. He starts to

slow down and finally pulls into a parking lot at an abandoned building. He parks the car,

gets out and walks all the way around to the passenger side and opens the door. He quickly

pushes my seat back so I'm laying down, then he climbs on top of me and starts to kiss me.

I try pushing him off but he pins my wrists down with one hand and wraps his other hand

around my neck and squeezes, and using his full weight to keep me from moving so much.

"Max, you know I've wanted you for so long", Hunter whispers in my ear as he slightly

nibbles on it. I continue to try to fight him off but he's started running his hand up my thigh

and up my sweater all while still choking me harder, cutting off my air supply. I can feel him

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pulling down my shorts slowly. Suddenly I jerk my knee up, hitting him in the crotch as hard

as I can, and get winces in pain, letting me go in the process.

I hit him again in the crotch again but even harder than before, then I unlocked the door,

wriggled out from under him, grabbed my backpack and ran as fast as my feet could carry

me, out of the parking lot screaming and crying for help. I quickly pull out my phone and I

call Pete. He picks up the phone right away.

"Max? What's up?" He asks.

"HELP!" I yelled into the phone, slightly out of breath.

"Max, what's going on?" Pete asks.

"It's Hunter! He… He…", I struggle with my words.

"Max, slow down", Pete said. I kept running down the street as fast as I could, suddenly I

heard Hunter shouting for me to get back into the car.

"No!" I shouted and I quickly turned a corner and ran down the alley. I hide behind a

dumpster and I wait for Hunter to pass by.

"Max? Are you still there?" Pete said worriedly.

"Yeah, I'm still here", I whisper into the phone.

"What happened?" Pete asks. I start to cry.

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"H-hunter tried to…", I stutter a little bit.

"Hunter tried to do what?" Pete asks.

"Assault me", I said quietly. Pete goes silent on the phone.

"Where exactly are you?" He asks carefully.

"I'm hiding behind a dumpster, in the alley off of Morning Glory Drive and Crimson avenue", I

whisper into the phone.

"Ok, whatever you do, stay there. Andy is on his way", Pete said quietly. "I'm staying on the

phone with you, ok?" Pete said reassuringly. Suddenly, I hear a heavy set of footsteps

coming towards me and I start to panic a little.

"Max? Where are you?" Hunter says as he keeps coming towards the dumpster. I go silent

and I curl into a small ball, and I start to tremble a little. I shut my eyes tightly and I

accidentally hung up the phone. Suddenly the footsteps fell silent.

"There you are!" Hunter says as he pushes the dumpster out of the way. Hunter crouches

down in front of me and tries to uncurl me from my little ball. "Max, let's go", Hunter says

gently. "Max, come on let's go!" Hunter says getting a little angry. Hunter continues to pull at

my arms, slightly dragging me along the ground. I start to scream as loud as I can to try to

scare him. "Max, don't make me hurt you", Hunter said angrily.

"You ain't gonna do shit to her", I heard a voice yell out. I move my arms from over my face

slightly, and I see that it's Ronnie standing at the other end of the alley with Jake beside him.

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"Let her go!" Jake yells out. Hunter scoffs at both of them. Ronnie and Jake start running

towards Hunter as fast as they can.

"Let her go, now", Ronnie shouts at Hunter. Suddenly Hunter begins to grip my arm tighter

and I hear a loud popping noise.

"What are you gonna do if I don't?" Hunter smirked. I quickly bite Hunter's hand as hard as I

could, and he lets go. I quickly stand up and I scratch Hunter in the face roughly. Then I

quickly run into Ronnie's arms and cling to him for dear life.

"Max, is everything okay?" Ronnie asks as he gently tries to stop my trembling.

"Ronnie, let's get her to Andy", Jake said gently.

"Yeah, let's go. He isn't even worth a good ole ass kickin", Ronnie said as he looked Hunter

up and down.

Ronnie starts to lead me down the alley with Jake walking behind us. We turn the corner

and I see Andy leaned up against the car looking at his phone. Andy looks up and he runs

over, taking me into his arms tightly.

"Are you ok?" Andy asks.

"No, Hunter just tried to rape me and almost killed me", I said shivering. Ronnie opens the

driver's side door and gets in. Jake quickly hops into the front passenger seat, then Andy

opens the back door.

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"Get in", he said gently shoving me inside the car. Andy then climbs in after me and slams

the door shut. "Let's get you home", Andy says as he gently pulls me down so I can rest my

head in his lap.

Ronnie starts the car and drives down the street. I close my eyes while Andy gently strokes

my hair.

"I never thought he could do something like that", I said quietly.

"Neither can I", Andy said, a little depressed.

"Andy, You're gonna have to give directions on where to go", Ronnie said quietly.

"143 Frost Ave", I said, a little nauseated.

"Ok sweet, you're actually up the road from me", Ronnie said with a smile.

"Cool", I said with a sigh.

Ten minutes later…

Ronnie pulls up to my driveway and stops the car. Pete is standing outside the front door

with his arms crossed in front of him. Ronnie gets out of the car and opens the back door

for Andy. Andy gets up out of the car, carrying me, passed out in his arms and walks up the

stairs past Pete. Andy walks into the house, and carries me into my bedroom, and lays me

down on my bed gently. Then he walks out of the room, closing the door behind him.

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"I called Warren to let him know what happened", Pete said quietly. Andy looks down at the

floor guiltily.

"What the hell happened?" Pete snapped. Andy shrugs awkwardly.

"I don't know, but wasn't Vincent supposed to pick her up? Not Hunter?" Andy asks, a little

confused.

"It was supposed to be Vincent, I don't know what happened", Pete said as he rubbed the

back of his neck anxiously. A few seconds later, both Pete and Andy jump at the abrupt, loud

knock at the front door. Pete walks over to the front door and opens it.

"Hey Pete", Warren says as he walks inside the house. He's wearing a gray All Time Low

sweater, blue jeans and a pair of vans. His hair is short, and white. Both Pete and Andy look

Warren up and down in shock.

"Wow, love the new look", Andy said with a smile. Warren smiles awkwardly.

"It was supposed to be for prom", Warren sighs. Pete looks away guiltily.

"Anyways, where is she?" Warren asks, looking down the hall towards my bedroom.

"In her room", Pete said quietly. "I hope you know that I was highly considering calling the

cops", Pete said firmly.

"Can I talk to her?" Warren asks.

"I don't know if she wants to see anyone right now", Andy sighs.

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Warren walks down the hall towards my bedroom door and knocks on it. I get up from the

bed, walk over to the door, lock it, then I slide down the door and sit leaning against it.

"Max?" Warren says from behind the door. "Max, it's me, Warren. Can you open the door?"

He asks quietly. I stay silent on my side of the door. "Well can you knock twice to confirm

that you're conscious?" Warren asks. I sigh and I knock on the door twice. Warren slides his

back down the door and sits leaning against it. "Will you please talk to me?" Warren asks,

slightly tearing up.

"Pete, can you come in here? And bring a bucket in here cause I think I'm gonna be sick", I

yelled out. I hear Pete sigh loudly.

A few minutes later, I hear a knock at my bedroom door. "Max, if you're gonna be sick, you

need to come out of your room", Pete said. Suddenly a wave of nausea hits me, so I get up

as fast as I can, unlock my door, and sprint to the bathroom. I fall to my knees, hunched over

the toilet, and I begin to throw up all of the contents of my stomach. Andy quickly walks into

the bathroom and tucks my hair back so it isn't in the way.

"Why did he do that?" I started to cry.

"I don't know", Andy whispered as he gently stroked my back.

"What happened?" Warren asks nervously. I look up at him with bloodshot eyes and

tear-stained cheeks.

"He tried to assault me", I said, wiping away a bit of slime from the corner of my mouth.

"What do you mean, "Assault you"?" Warren asked, confused. I shot him a dirty look.

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"How else do you think Warren? He tried forcing me to have sex with him", I said angrily.

Warren's jaw drops as a look of both terror and anger flows across his face.

"He did take you transferring out of the school pretty hard", Warren said as his expression

softened.

"I left because I was being bullied!" I yelled. Warren narrows his eyes at me.

"Bullied? That never bothered you before, so why let it bother you now?" Warren snaps.

"IT ALWAYS BOTHERED ME, I JUST NEVER COULD SAY ANYTHING!" I yelled at Warren.

I get up from the bathroom floor, I storm off to my room and slam the door. Once I slam the

door, I scream as loud as I can out of anger and stress. I can feel my face going red and

numb. I stop screaming and just flop onto my bed and bury my face into my pillow.

Meanwhile, outside my bedroom door…

"Is she gonna be ok?" Andy asks. Pete sighs heavily.

"I really don't know", Pete said nervously. Warren sighs heavily and takes out his phone from

his pocket. He opens his messages and clicks on Hunter's name. He starts to text him, it

reads: "Hunter you have some serious explaining to do before Peter calls the cops". Hunter

replies: "She was totally asking for it".

Back in my bedroom…

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I get up from my bed and I walk over to my closet. I grab a black t-shirt, and a pair of black

skinny jeans. I toss both on my bed, then I quickly strip down, tossing my sweater and

shorts in a careless pile on my floor. I pull on my black t-shirt, then I pull up my black skinny

jeans. I walk back over to my closet and I grab my silver studded belt and I put it on. I then

grab all of my chains and I put them on. I walk over to my dresser and I open my makeup

bag. I pull out my black eyeliner and my black eyeshadow. I smear both on thickly, then I

take out my black body paint. I open the bottle and I pour a little bit out on a paint palette. I

pick up one of my makeup brushes and I cover my arms and neck to make it look like I'm

wearing war paint. I keep my arms straight out for a few seconds while the paint is drying

and so that the paint doesn't crack or smudge. Once the paint is dry, I pick up my eyeliner

again, and I paint a small thin black stripe across my face. Then I quickly pick up my black

lipstick and I smear it across my lips nicely. I also grab my coloured contacts case and I put

in my white contacts.

I then plug in my straightener, and I quickly fix my hair. I unplug my straightener, get up from

my dresser, and walk over to my closet. I pull out my platform combat boots with large

buckles. I walk back over to my dresser and I grab my black mini backpack, I open it to

make sure my wallet is still inside of it. I close my bag, walk over to my bedroom door and

unlock it. I open my door and walk out.

"I'm going out", I said as I walked towards the front door. Andy and Peter both exchange

confused glances.

"Where are you going?" Pete asks nervously.

"Visiting mom", I said with a sigh.

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"Want me to come with you?" Andy asks. I snarl at him. He quickly puts his hands up and

takes a step back. I storm out of the house and I start walking down the street.

"Hey Max!" I hear a voice call out. I turn around and I see Ronnie walking up behind me.

"What're you doing today?" Ronnie asks.

"I'm gonna go visit my mom", I said sadly.

"Cool, do you mind if I tagalong?" Ronnie asks with a gentle smile. I look Ronnie up and

down and I see that he's wearing a pair of blue jeans that look greasy and stained, he's also

wearing a black t-shirt, and black boots.

"Sure", I said as I continued to walk down the street.

"Do you have your bus pass?" I asked him quietly.

"Yep", he said as he pulled it out of his pocket.

"Good, cuz we're taking the bus", I said to him. I look to see that the bus is just pulling up to

the bus stop, so I start to sprint as fast as I can to the bus. We both make it just before the

bus closes the doors. I flash my bus pass at the driver and Ronnie does the same. We both

quickly found a seat at the back of the bus. I got a few nervous stares and smiles from

people as I walked to my seat.

"I can't wait to meet her!" Ronnie says excitedly, not knowing that she's six feet under

ground.

Ten minutes later…

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The bus pulls up to the stop just outside the cemetery. I signal the driver that we're getting

off. I get up from my seat and we both get off the bus. I go to start walking towards the

cemetery gates, but Ronnie grabs hold of my shoulder firmly.

"Where ya going?" Ronnie asks awkwardly.

"I'm going to visit my mother", I said as I pulled away from his grip. Ronnie finally

understands that my mother is no longer alive.

"I'm sorry for your loss", Ronnie said awkwardly and let go of my arm.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

We start walking silently through the cemetery passing rows upon rows of headstones.

Some of the headstones are so faded that you can barely make out what the last name is

engraved on the stones, while some are still very fresh.

"What's on your mind?" Ronnie asks in a whispered tone.

I stop walking for a second and look up at him. "It's been almost a year since Mom passed

away and yet I still can't get over it", I said, slightly tearing up.

Ronnie sighs and wraps his arms around me. "I know it's hard to understand why and how

the way things are right now, but you just have to remember that there are people around

you who care for you", he says slightly, hugging me tighter. "Ronnie I don't mean to be rude,

but you're limiting my ability to breathe", I choked out. Ronnie lets go of me and chuckles

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awkwardly. "Sorry about that", Ronnie said with a sigh and awkwardly rubbed the back of his

neck.

"It's alright", I said with a sigh and continued walking down the path. Ronnie follows close

behind me. "Hey Max, tell me about your mom, what was she like?" Ronnie asks gently.

"What do you wanna know?" I ask him. Ronnie shrugs. "Ok, um, well my mom was a model

when she was a teenager and then she moved onto becoming a manager for a few bands", I

said flatly. "Well I see where you get your looks", Ronnie said with a wink. "Oh shut up", I said

pushing Ronnie lightly. Ronnie chuckles. We stop walking and sit in front of my mom's

headstone. I begin to feel a slight lump in my throat starting to form. "Hey mom", I said as

tears started to form in my eyes. "Things just aren't the same without you here", I sighed.

Ronnie puts his arm around me, pulls out his phone and checks his messages.

Suddenly we both hear the sound of a man clearing his throat behind us. I turn around to

see Mr.Biersack standing behind us wearing a crimson red fitted suit with a black cross on

the left lapel, a black button down shirt, black dress shoes, and a small silver chain. I look up

at his face and I see that he had a red stripe along his left cheek and red eyeshadow.

"Mr.Biersack, what are you doing here?" I ask him nervously. "I'm here on a music video

shoot with BVB, what are you two doing here?" he asks curiously. "I'm here talking to my

mom", I said sadly. "Oh really? I would love to meet her", Mr.Biersack says with a smile. I

stand up quickly and point to the headstone. "Here she is", I said flatly. Mr.Biersack goes

bright red as he realizes my mom is dead. "Oh, I'm sorry for your loss", Mr.Biersack says

with a sigh. "It's alright", I said wiping the tears from my eyes but in the process I smudged

my makeup. "Hey would you two like to meet the band?" Mr.Biersack asks curiously.

"That would be cool", I said with a shrug. "Jake is actually dying to meet you", Mr.Biersack

said with a smile. Mr.Biersack quickly pulls out his phone and calls the rest of the guys over.

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A few minutes later…

A group of five other men start walking towards us cautiously, while holding their

instruments. "Andy? Everything ok?" One of the men asks. Mr.Biersack turns around, "Hey

guys I'd like y'all to meet two of my students, this is Ronnie and Max", Mr.Biersack said with

a smile. One of the men steps forward and waves, "Hey, I'm CC", then the man next to him

waves and says, "Hey, I'm Jinxx". The man next to Jinxx nods and waves, "Sup, I'm Lonnie". I

look over to the last man and I see that he's smiling like a child. "So you must be Jake?" I

ask him. He nods and sticks out his hand. I grab his hand firmly and shake it. "It's nice to

finally meet you Max, Andy has told me so much about you", Jake said with a smile. I look

over at Mr.Biersack awkwardly. "He told me you have some wicked guitar skills", Jake said

with a smirk. I shrug a little. "I might have to see them for myself", he said as he hands me

his guitar.

"Are you sure about this?" I ask him nervously as I look over to Mr.Biersack who is urging me

on. I sigh slightly and start shredding a few licks on the guitar. Jake's jaw drops. "Where did

you learn to play like that?" Jake asks. "I taught myself", I said with a smile. "Hey keep

playing, I'll join in", Jinxx said with a smile. I nod and keep playing, and I start to merge into

playing 'The Outsider' and Jinxx joins in. Mr.Biersack starts nodding along to the music and

starts to smile as I start doing my own twist on 'The Outsider' bringing it up a few octaves

then merging into a self-written piece. I start slowing down and finally come to a stop. I look

up at Mr.Biersack and he's smiling like a proud father. "Hey we should have her play on

stage", CC says. I shook my head no, "I don't think that's a good idea", I said anxiously.

Mr.Biersack smiles reassuringly. "It'll be fun!" Mr.Biersack said excitedly, then he leaned

down and came close to my ear and whispered, "You'll get extra credit for my class" he said

with a wink. "Done, but I'll have to let my brother know". I said with a shy smile. "I'll do it for

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you", Mr.Biersack said with a nod. I take my phone out of my pocket, turn it on, dial Pete's

number, and hand it to Mr.Biersack.

Pete picks up the phone immediately. "Max? Is everything okay?" he asked in a panic.

Mr.Biersack chuckles, "She's fine", he says with an unintentional growl. "Who are you and

what have you done with my sister?!" Pete says in an extreme panic. "Hey, Pete is it? This is

Mr.Biersack, Max's music teacher", Mr.Biersack says in a brighter voice. "Oh jeez, hehe. Is

everything okay?" Pete asks, a little relieved. "Yes I am actually calling because I have a

great opportunity for Max to expand in her music career. She will be playing guitar and

singing on stage tonight with my band Black Veil Brides". Mr.Biersack said with a cheerful

smile. Pete goes silent on the other line for a few seconds, then says, "Wait are you THE

Andy Biersack of Black veil Brides?" Pete asks awkwardly. Mr.Biersack sighs, "Yup in the

real voice". Mr.Biersack slightly chuckles as he hears Pete get excited over the phone. "She

can do it", Pete said happily. Mr.Biersack smiles, "Meet us backstage at the Buddy Holly

Stadium downtown at 7:30".

A few seconds later, Mr.Biersack hangs up the phone and hands it back to me. "What makes

you think I'll be singing?" I ask Mr.Biersack with my arms crossed. "I may have sneaked a

recording of you busking at the train station and I sent it to Andy", Lonny said guiltily. "Oh, I

haven't sung since that day", I said with a nervous chuckle. "How come?" Mr.Biersack asked.

I look down nervously and go silent. I take a deep breath and look up at Mr.Biersack with

tears in my eyes. "It was the last thing my mother and I did together", I said quietly.

Mr.Biersack winces, "Oh I'm sorry", he says sadly.

"Hey if you're gonna do the show tonight, shouldn't you go home and change?" Ronnie asks

as he tries to change the subject. I look at the time on my phone and it reads: 4:30.

"Mr.Biersack, do you mind if I go home first and change before the show?" I ask him

awkwardly. "Sure, do you need a ride?" Mr.Biersack asks. I look over at Ronnie and he gives

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me a thumbs up. "I don't wanna be a bother", I said with a wince. "Come on I'll give you a

ride", Mr.Biersack said with a smile as he started walking towards the front entrance of the

cemetery. I follow behind him awkwardly. I look behind me to see that the rest of the band is

following behind. Mr.Biersack pulls out his keys and smiles at me, then he pushes a button

on his keys and I can hear the loud roar of an engine. I step out from behind Mr.Biersack and

I see a pitch black 2010 ferrari. "You drive THAT?!" I exclaim in shock. Mr.Biersack chuckles,

"Yes I do, now do you want a ride home?" he asks. I nod nervously. Ronnie smiles

awkwardly, "I don't think there's room for me so I'm just gonna take the bus", he says kinda

disappointed. CC walks up behind Ronnie and taps him on the shoulder, "Ronnie right?

You're riding with me", CC says as he points to the silver Lamborghini next to a toyota

corolla. Ronnie's jaw drops and walks over to the Lamborghini and hops into the passenger

seat. Mr.Biersack opened the passenger seat door and I slowly and carefully climbed in.

Mr.Biersack closes the door and walks over to the driver's side door and climbs into the car

and completely starts the car.

The jolt of the car starting startles me slightly. "Where to?" Mr.Biersack asks as he puts the

car in drive. "143 Frost Ave", I said as Mr.Biersack backed the car up slowly. "Cool",

Mr.Biersack sighs as he steps on the gas and tears off down the road.

Ten minutes later…

We arrive at the house and I open the car door and I close it carefully. I walk over to the front

door and I run straight into the bathroom. I quickly take off all my clothes and I hop into the

shower and turn it on. The warm water soothes my nerves as I watch the thick black paint

drip off my body, I quickly wash off my makeup and the rest of the black paint, then I turn off

the water and step out of the shower. I quickly grab my towel that is hanging up on the door

and wrap myself in it, then I quickly pick up my clothes off the floor. I then run into my room

and I go into my closet. I pull on my black mesh tank top, then my Black veil brides crop top.

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I look around my room and I see my black extremely ripped skinny jeans and I quickly pull

them on. I quickly walk over to my dresser and I grab my natural red lipstick and I put it on. I

then grab my coloured contacts case and I remove my unnaturally coloured contacts

carefully and I look at my naturally purplish green eyes in the mirror. I quickly grab my

mascara and I touch up my lashes, then I grab my eyeliner and do simple elegant wings. I

grab my towel and I dry my hair as much as possible and I let my hair air dry, bringing out

my natural waves. I then grab my brother's dog tags and I put them on. I run back over to my

closet and I take out my knee-high black combat platform boots and I buckle them up as

fast as possible.

I then run as fast as I can out of my room and I dash out of the front door, closing it behind

me. I turn around to see the whole band standing behind me with their jaws dropped.

"Damn, you're a total BABE", Lonny finally says, breaking the awkward silence. "Ha ha very

funny", I said sarcastically. "What are we waiting for? Let's go", I said as I walked towards

Mr.Biersack's car. Mr.Biersack opens the car door and I climb in and Mr.Biersack closes the

door.

"Hey Max, I was wondering if you would be willing to sing a solo in the middle of the concert

on top of your guitar solo?" Mr.Biersack asks carefully. "Fine, I'll do it but the song will be a

surprise", I said quietly. Mr.Biersack smiles, turns on the car and tears off down the road

once again.

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Chapter Twenty-Eight

At the stadium…

We arrived at the stadium in under ten minutes because, surprisingly there wasn't much

traffic on the road. Mr.Biersack gets out of the car, walks around to my side of the car and

opens the door. I climb out of the car, nervously clutching my phone. Mr.Biersack starts

walking towards the back door of the stadium, and I followed close behind him.

We walk into the building and are led down several long and dimly lit hallways by two

security guards. We are finally led to our dressing rooms. Two large rooms side-by-side. The

first door on the left was labelled with a sign in big bold letters; "BLACK VEIL BRIDES", and

on the right it had my name in the same bold letters. Mr.Biersack opens the door labelled

"BLACK VEIL BRIDES" and goes inside, the rest of the guys follow behind.

I open my door nervously and I walk inside. There are two desks in front of two brightly lit

mirrors and large leather couches scattered around the room. I close my door and I sit down

on one of the leather couches. I turn on my phone and I pull up the instrumental track to the

song, 'Lost it all', and begin singing along to it. I also begin to warm up my voice. I'm startled

by a loud bang on the door. I walk over to the door and open it nervously. As I open the door,

Mr.Biersack almost falls over but catches himself in an awkward stumble.

"Mr.Biersack is everything alright?" I asked him, slightly nervous and still slightly shook from

the way Mr.Biersack stumbled into the room. "Yes everything is fine", Mr.Biersack said

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awkwardly. "Were you listening in on me?" I snap at him. Mr.Biersack looks away guiltily.

"I'm sorry, I was curious to hear where the singing was coming from", Mr.Biersack said with

a chuckle. I roll my eyes at him. "Well now you know what song I'm doing", I said with a

smile. "Beautiful choice", Mr.Biersack says with a nod. "Well I will leave you to practice, if

you need anything I am in the room next door, Also just letting you know that soundcheck is

in an hour", he says with a small bow and leaves the room and closes the door behind him. I

walk back over to the couch and I replay the instrumental track and I sing along to it again.

Once the song is over I just sit and listen to the voices coming from the other room. I can

hear the laughter and the excitement in the voices. I begin thinking about the concert and

how many people will be in the audience, suddenly I find myself overthinking and mumbling

things which slowly drift into a full blown panic attack and a blackout.

I woke up to CC crouching beside me, calling my name while shaking me worriedly and

yelling for help as I lay flat on my back. "Max are you alright?" CC asks anxiously. A few

seconds later, Mr.Biersack runs into the room to see what CC is yelling about and sees me

laying on the ground, dazed. "What happened?" Mr.Biersack asks a little uneasily. "I heard

slight shouting from this room and then a loud thud", CC said apprehensively. I slowly sat up

from laying on the floor while rubbing my temples. "Most likely it was a panic attack. Max

gets them from time to time", Mr.Biersack whispered. CC nods in understanding. I groan a

little. "Max, you feeling ok?" CC asks. I nod but stay silent. CC sighs with relief, "Good thing

you're alright, you definitely scared me", CC said with a slightly disappointed smile. "I'm

sorry for scaring you CC, like Mr.Biersack said I do suffer from depression and the odd time

I get panic attacks, just not as severe as the one I just had", I said a little groggy. I slowly get

up off the ground and dust myself off.

"Well, I believe it's sound check time", Mr.Biersack said with a smile. I nod a little. "Max, I will

be back in a little while to come get you, so you can practice on stage", Mr.Biersack said

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with an excited smile. "Can't I just come with you guys?" I asked curiously. Mr.Biersack

looks at CC who is nodding happily. Mr.Biersack agrees and walks out of the room. CC and I

follow close behind him. As I follow behind Mr.Biersack I quietly start humming the melody

to 'Lost it all'. He leads us down a long hallway, following the arrows that direct us towards

backstage. A few minutes later we reach backstage. Mr.Biersack climbs up the stairs to the

stage and sets up his mic. The rest of the band is already there setting up their instruments.

Half an hour later…

The band just finished doing their sound check. Mr.Biersack comes down from the stage

and takes me by the hand and leads me up onto the stage. "Max, what I want you to do right

now is just get comfortable standing up on the stage, I will be back in a few minutes",

Mr.Biersack said as he walked off the stage with the rest of the band behind him. I start

walking around the stage for a bit and after a while I pick up Jake's guitar and start playing a

small riff. I carefully put his guitar back on its stand as I hear Mr.Biersack coming back with

the rest of the band. I notice that Mr.Biersack is carrying a large black guitar case. I look at

him a little confused. "Max, I think it's time you owned your own guitar", Mr.Biersack said as

he handed me the case. I put the case down on the ground in front of me and I opened the

case. Inside is a Demon series 8 matte black with a Scarlet red brushed stroked cross

Schecter guitar and on the back of the guitar it has all the autographs of the band

embedded and engraved in silver. My jaw drops in shock. I start to tear up a little. "It's

yours", Jake said with a smile. "Thank you guys, You really don't know how much this means

to me", I choked out through my happy tears.

"It's time for you to do your own sound check", Lonny said with a smile. I nod and hook up

the guitar to the sound system and shred a self-written lick. I look over at the rest of the

band and smile. I stop playing the guitar for a second and I walk over to a mic. I take a deep

breath and I start to play the beginning of 'Lost it all'. I get extremely nervous and stop

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playing. "Max, whatever you're thinking about, I want you to tell yourself that you can do it",

Mr.Biersack said with a smile. I nod and continue playing the guitar and singing along to it.

Five minutes later…

I stop playing and I open my eyes, only just realizing that I've had them closed. I carefully

place my guitar back into its case and I turn to walk off stage. As I walk off the stage, I pass

by the rest of the band who now have their jaws dropped in astonishment. I quickly walk

past them and start running down the hall as fast as I can. I follow the arrows to my room

so I don't get lost. I finally reached my room, walked in and shut the door and locked it

behind me. I sink down to the floor, sitting down with my back leaned against the door. I

place my head in my hands and I begin to cry softly. I think to myself, "What the hell am I

doing here? What if they don't like me? What if I choke up?"

Those thoughts begin to bounce around my head violently. A few moments later, I hear a

soft knocking at the door. "Max, it's Jake. Is everything ok?" Jake asks from behind the door.

"Go away", I said in between choked tears. Jake sighs a little. "You know I can't do that",

Jake said softly. I hear slight scratching noises down the door. Jake had just slowly slid his

back down the door, leaning against it and finally sat on the floor. "Max, I know how you're

feeling", Jake said gently. "What do you mean?" I asked a little confused. "I was just like you

the first time I went up on a large stage", Jake said. From behind the door, Jake gets up from

the floor and dusts himself off. I hear slight whispering from behind the door, then a louder

knock at the door. "Max, it's CC. Can you please open the door for me so we can talk?" He

asks. I reach up to the door and I unlock it, then I scooch over so I'm sitting next to the

entrance with my knees up to my chest. "Max, I'm coming in", CC said gently as he slowly

opened the door. He walks into the room and sees me curled up in the corner.

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He walks over and crouches down in front of me. "Max, What's going through your head

right now?" CC asks. "What if they don't like me?" I ask him. CC sighs and tries pulling me

into an awkward hug. I lay my head on his shoulder and I sigh slightly. "Max, there will be a

time where people won't like you, and you're just gonna have to look them in the eye and say

"Fuck you" and love yourself for who you are", CC says with a smile. I chuckle a little at his

enthusiasm. CC smiles and looks me in the eye, "Max, you'll be great. I promise", CC said as

he pulled me back into a tight hug. I wipe my eyes a little trying desperately not to smudge

my makeup but failing. "Shit, my makeup is a total mess", I said as I look down at my hands

which are now covered in smudged eyeliner. CC chuckles a little. "Lucky, your talking to the

people who always have extra makeup supplies on hand", CC says as he slowly gets up.

He puts his hand out for me to grab and pulls me up onto my feet. He leads me by the hand

out of the room and into the band's room next door. CC walks over to the desk with a mirror

and opens a large black bag. He takes out a tube of mascara, eyeliner, and some makeup

wipes and hands them all to me. "Thank you", I said as I quickly took up a makeup wipe and

cleaned my streaky face. I walked over to the mirror and opened the eyeliner and quickly

re-did my eyeliner, then I opened the mascara and reapplied it.

As I was fixing my makeup, Mr.Biersack walked up behind me and placed a black leather

jacket around my shoulders. "Mr.Biersack what are you doing?" I asked. Mr.Biersack

chuckled awkwardly, "I'm proud of you for doing this, I also wanted to let you know that we

have to go meet the VIP's now", Mr.Biersack said. "Wait, you want me to go out there as

well?" I asked him. Mr.Biersack shook his head, "Only if you want to", he said with a

reassuring smile. I smiled at him. "Can I go with you guys but kinda go undercover?" I asked

him excitedly. "But first I want you to close your eyes, I have a surprise for you", Mr.Biersack

said happily.

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I closed my eyes reluctantly as Mr.Biersack led me by the hand out of the room and back

into my own room. "OK, now open your eyes", Mr.Biersack said happily. I open my eyes and I

see Warren and Hunter both wearing a black t-shirts, black jeans, black heavy boots, pocket

chains, a black jean vest and black war paint all down their arms, their necks and black line

streaked across their face. Warren is holding a large bouquet of roses awkwardly. "Warren?

Hunter? Why are you guys here?" I asked. "We bought VIP tickets to the show and on the

ticket it said, 'With special guest Cyanide Revenge'. Warren remembered that you used to go

by that name", Hunter said happily. "That and I asked them to come with me", A voice said

behind me. I quickly turn around to see Andy standing behind me.

I get super excited and jump into Andy's arms. I cling to him tightly. "I'm sorry baby girl",

Andy says through his tears. We both let go of each other for a second. "All is forgiven", I

said to him as I wiped the tears from his eyes. "I'm sorry too", I said quietly. "I'm sorry for

how much stress I put you guys through", I said with a sigh. Andy gently caresses my face

as he kisses me. I pull away from the kiss quickly. "I can't do this right now", I said turning to

both Hunter and Warren who were staring at the both of us. Warren places the flowers onto

the table. Mr.Biersack coughs a little. I turn around and I hug him tightly, "Thank you

Mr.Biersack '', I said with a delightful sigh. "Mr.Biersack do you mind taking my friends with

you to the meet and greet?" I asked him, slightly stressed out. Mr.Biersack nods to Warren

and Hunter and leads them both out of the room.

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Chapter Twenty-Nine

Once Warren and Hunter are gone and the door is closed and locked, Andy takes me by the

hand and pulls me towards the couch. He sits down on the couch and pulls me into his lap

with me facing towards him. He pulls the leather jacket off my shoulders and places it next

to him. He pulls me into a long kiss. I slowly begin to kiss him back. He gently runs his

tongue along my bottom lip, so I open my mouth for him in acceptance. He continues to

kiss me and gently starts to lay me on the couch with him slightly on top of me. He gently

places his left hand around my waist and his right hand above my head to steady himself.

He slowly kisses my neck a little and gently grinds his hips against me. He chuckles a little

and pulls down my jeans. I shove my hands down his pocket and I pull out a condom from

his right front pocket. "You're gonna need this", I said with a smile. He pulls down my jeans

all the way and pulls down my underwear as well. I pull down his jeans and his boxers. I

blush a little as I open the condom and I pull it ever so slowly on him. He sighs a little as I

put it on him. He lines himself up and slowly thrusts into me.

I dug my nails into his shoulders as he slowly began to grind his hips into me. "Ohhhh,

Andy", I sighed. He smiles and then starts to go a little faster, rocking the couch ever so

slightly. As he goes faster, I utter a small choked cry of pleasure. "Ohhh, Daddy", I whispered

into his ear. He chuckles and goes as fast and as hard as he can. Suddenly he reaches his

climax and cries out. He slows down, finally stopping and pulling out slowly.

He gets up off the couch and pulls off the condom, tying it, then throwing it out into the

wastebasket. He then quickly pulls up his boxers and jeans. I slowly get up from the couch,

slightly in pain. I pull up my underwear and my jeans awkwardly. "I'm sorry that was too

quick", Andy said as he unlocked the door. Suddenly two large men walk into the room

wearing security vests. One of them smiles and says, "It's time for you to come with us

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towards the stage". I smile nervously. "Can he come with me?" I ask the security guard. The

man smiles and nods, "He can stand right next to me at the front of the stage while you're

up there", he said with a smile. I grab Andy by the hand tightly and I pull him out of the room

with me as I follow the two security guards towards the stage.

A few minutes later we reached the stage. I can still hear the band playing 'In the end'. Andy

gently kisses my neck and whispers in my ear, "You'll do great". A few seconds later I hear

Mr.Biersack say, "I would like to welcome someone very special to the stage. If you all were

wondering what this lonely guitar is doing up here. I would like to introduce the newest

member of Black Veil Brides! Cyanide Revenge the stage is yours!" Mr.Biersack said as he

quickly pulled me up on stage. I quickly strap on my guitar and run over to the empty mic. I

look over to him and smile. "This next song is Perfect Weapon", I shyly said into the mic. CC

suddenly started playing the drums and I naturally began doing the intro scream almost

perfectly with Mr.Biersack. I look down to see that I'm just flying through the chords on my

brand new guitar.

A few minutes later…

We finish the song and the crowd roars. "For this next one, I need you all to stay quiet", Jinxx

says into his mic while turning to me. Suddenly a complete hush falls over the crowd. I

slowly begin playing 'Lost it all' on my guitar and I start to sing.

As I am singing, all of my emotions begin pouring out which then makes me give it my all. I

start pouring my heart and soul into the song slowly merging into 'Goodbye Agony' and then

'Saviour'. I slowly finished playing only to realize that the rest of the band were playing with

me. Mr.Biersack smiles. "We are Black Veil Brides, thank you and good night!" The whole

band yells out and the lights go out. I unhook my guitar from the wire and grab the case and

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I run off the stage with it all the way back to my room. I place my guitar back into its case

and I close it.

I start pacing back and forth in my room slightly panicking. I begin to feel this extreme rush

of adrenaline. I begin to laugh and cry at the same time. I grab the leather jacket from the

couch and I put it on. I chuckle because it's at least four sizes too big. I sit on the floor in the

middle of the room with my knees tucked in close to my chest and start rocking back and

forth. A few minutes later I hear a knock at the door, I look up and I see Mr.Biersack

standing in the doorway.

"I hope you're alright with what I said on stage earlier", Mr.Biersack said. I look up into his

crisp blue eyes. "Did you really mean it?" I asked a little dumbfounded. Mr.Biersack nods.

Suddenly, Pete and Ronnie both come running into the room in a rush of excitement and

pride. "Max, you were incredible up there!" Ronnie exclaims. I get up off the floor and I hug

both Ronnie and Pete. "You really were amazing, Mom would be so proud of you", Pete said

proudly.

"I did it for her", I said as I bowed my head and sighed. Pete pulls me into a tight hug and

slightly sways as hears me sniffle. He softly plays with my hair and rubs my back as I

continue to cry in his arms. After a few seconds I begin to feel suffocated only to then

realize that the entire band has now come around and joined in on the hug. "Pete, I can't

breathe", I said as I tried to lift my head up from his chest. I bite him just hard enough for it

not to hurt but for him to let go. "What was that for?" Pete asked as he rubbed the semi sore

spot on his chest. "I know you're a teddy bear and all, but you have to remember that you

aren't made of fluff, you're made of pure muscle", I said as I poked at his thick bicep. Pete

looks at me confused. "You were crushing me, slightly cutting off my oxygen supply you big

oaf", I said with a chuckle. Pete smiles and tussles my hair. "Sorry toothpick", he said

teasingly. I laugh a little and I look over at Mr.Biersack who is looking at the both of us a

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little confused. "Oh sorry Mr.Biersack, those are just childhood nicknames we had for each

other", Pete explained.

"Hey stringbean! You were amazing up there on that stage!" A voice said from the door. I

turn to see who it is, it's Uncle Frank and Doctor Tarr. "Uncle Frank!" I said excitedly as I ran

into his arms like a child. "Now I know why you've completely stopped coming to your

appointments", Doctor Tarr said with revelationary smile. Frank looks down at my wrists and

smiles. "Looks like you haven't opened up your scabs in a while", Frank said happily. I look

down at the floor guiltily. Doctor Tarr narrows his eyes at me trying to figure out what I'm

hiding. I pull my arms away from Frank and I zip up the leather jacket that Mr.Biersack gave

me and I grab my guitar. I smile at Doctor Tarr shyly.

"Max, I will see you Monday morning in class", Mr.Biersack smiles and leaves the room with

the rest of the band. I look over at Frank and I smile at him. "Can you give Pete and I a ride

home?" I ask him politely. "Of course stringbean! You don't mind if Doctor Tarr comes along

too?" He asks. "That's fine", Pete said looking me in the eye. I walk out of the room, down

the hall towards the exit. Pete, Frank, and Doctor Tarr follow behind.

Frank quickly walks over to where I am and wraps his arm around my side. I suck in a harsh

breath and wince. "Max, you ok?" Frank asks as he lets go of me. "I'm fine, just a little sore", I

said trying to give him the hint not to pry. "Max, Do you wanna tell me what's going on?"

Frank said as he stopped me in the hallway. I look behind me and I see that Pete and Doctor

Tarr are still a little bit behind. "Uncle Frank, it's nothing", I said as I tried walking away, but

Frank grabbed my arm and pulled me back. "It can't be nothing for you to wince like you did",

Frank said sternly. Pete and Doctor Tarr both stop behind us. "Frankie, is everything ok?"

Doctor Tarr asked. Frank narrows his eyes at me, "Max was just telling me about how she's

experiencing some pain on her side", he said manipulatively.

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"I'll take a look when we get back to their place", Doctor Tarr said as he started walking

away. I smile at Frank and I follow Doctor Tarr.

Half an hour later…

Frank pulls into the driveway and stops the car. I get out of the backseat and I run over to

the trunk. I pull out my guitar and I close the trunk. I then run inside, all the way to my room

and I close the door behind me. I can hear Frank, Pete and Doctor Tarr talking in the living

room. I unzip my jacket and I hang it on my chair at my desk. I get a little light-headed and I

feel an extremely sharp pain in my right side so I lay down on my bed. I grab onto my right

side, slightly rubbing it to dull the pain. I scream out in pain as my right side starts

throbbing. Frank comes bursting through the door and finds me curled up in a ball holding

onto my right side crying in pain. "RAY GET IN HERE!" Frank shouted as he sat on the bed

trying to keep me still. Doctor Tarr comes running into the room and sees the look of agony

on my face.

"Max, I need you to stretch your arms over your head for me", Doctor Tarr said calmly. I

slowly lifted my arms over my head. "Good", Doctor Tarr said with a smile. "Max, can you tell

me where it hurts?" Doctor Tarr asks. I quickly place both hands on my right side, pushing

down on it. Doctor Tarr notices how swollen my right side is and winces. "Pete, call 911",

Doctor Tarr shouts. Frank looks over at Doctor Tarr, confused. "Her appendix", Doctor Tarr

says quietly. Frank winces awkwardly. I start curling back up in a ball, clutching my side and

crying in pain.

Doctor Tarr places his hand on my right side and I immediately shriek in pain. Pete runs

back into the room, "They'll be here any minute now", he said as he winced from how high

pitched I yelped. "Please don't make me go", I cried. "You've got to baby", Frank said calmly. I

shake my head no.

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Chapter Thirty

Three days later…

8:40am…

I walk down the quiet, yet still bustling hall of the hospital. I walk out of the main entrance

wearing my leather jacket that Mr.Biersack gave me with my school bag slung over my left

shoulder and my guitar case in my right hand. I take a deep breath of the crisp morning air,

it's a welcomed sensation (better than breathing in stale hospital air). I start walking

towards the bus stop when I hear my name being called. I looked around to try to find out

which direction it was coming from. As I looked around I finally spot Frank calling my name

from the Doctor's parking lot. Frank walks up to me with a smile on his face. "Need a ride?"

Frank asks as he played with his keys. "Sure", I said with a smile. Frank puts his arm around

me and walks me to his car. "Where to?" He asks.

"The mall", I said with a smile. Frank looks at me weirdly. "Don't you have school?" He says

with an eyebrow raised. "I have a hair appointment, then I will be going to school after", I

said as I pulled my phone out of my pocket. "Alrighty", Frank said as he started the car.

He slowly pulls out of the parking lot and drives down the road. "How are you and your little

friend Andy doing?" Frank asks, accidentally making himself sound old. "Uncle Frankie, you

know for a fact he's not little and keeping this between you and I… He's my boyfriend", I said

as I poked Frank in the shoulder rather hard. "Ow!" Frank chuckled as he took the wheel in

one hand and with the other he rubbed the sore spot on his shoulder. "Does Peter know

about this?" Frank asked curiously. "Frankie, if he knew I wouldn't have said 'keeping this

between you and me'", I said sarcastically. "Ok Ok, I'm sorry", Frank said a little irritated at

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the sarcasm. "You know, you really sound like your dad, with that sarcasm of yours", Frank

said carefully. I purse my lips at his remark, "Never mention that name again", I said calmly.

Five silent minutes later…

Frank pulls up to the front entrance of the mall and unlocks the car. "Do you have a ride to

school after your appointment?" Frank asked curiously. "No I don't", I said. Frank smiles, "I'll

drive you to school after, just meet me at Hot Topic when you're done", he said with a nod. I

smile at him and I give him a thumbs up. I walk into the mall and it's bustling with old

people. I walk into the nearest barber shop in the mall and I check in at the front desk. "We

don't get many women in here", the receptionist says with a smile. I nod awkwardly. "I just

want a cut and a dye", I said as I pulled at my hair. The receptionist nods and leads me to an

empty chair and puts a cape around my neck. A tall man with long , dark brown hair stands

behind me. "What'll it be?" He says with a thick Irish accent. "Short, shaved pixie, platinum

white", I said as I adjusted myself in the chair. He smiles and immediately gets to work.

He starts cutting my hair shorter and shorter, and every so often he would stand back, look

at his work and grunt, then go back to fix places. "I'll be right back", he said in his thick

accent as he walked into a room in the back of the shop. A few minutes later he comes

back with a bottle of hair bleach. He opens the bottle and squirts different places on my

head and covers my entire head with the bleach. He then puts my hair in a bag and pulls a

giant dryer over my head. He turns on the dryer and walks away.

An hour and a half later…

He walks back over and turns off the dryer. He pulls off the bag on my head and leads me to

the sink. I sit in the chair and lay my head over the sink awkwardly. "So what was it like

being on stage with Black veil brides?" The man asks with a smile. I look at him a little

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confused. "Oh my goodness, I totally forgot to introduce myself, my name is Robin", he said

with an even bigger smile. "I was at the show a few days ago", Robin said as he washed out

the rest of the bleach. "You are Cyanide revenge aren't you?" Robin asked curiously. "I am,

what gave me away?", I said with a slight chuckle. "I recognized your guitar case from the

show", Robin said, nodding to my guitar near the chair. I smile. A few seconds later, Robin

turns off the water and leads me back to the chair. I sit back down in the barbers chair and

he starts to towel dry my hair. He reaches over to his trunk and pulls out another dryer and

quickly drys off my hair. He turns off the dryer and quickly flips my hair to the right side. He

runs to the back room and comes back with a giant can of hairspray. "Cover your face", he

says as he begins to spray my hair like crazy. Two minutes later he finally finishes spraying

my hair.

"It's finished", Robin says with a gleeful smile as he turns the chair towards the mirror. I

smile happily. "Thank you! This looks amazing!" I said gladly. "I'll tell you what, it's on the

house only if you let me have the first autograph from you", Robin said as he handed me his

ticket from the show and a permanent marker. I open the marker and I sign the ticket swiftly.

I look at Robin who is now grinning from ear to ear. I reach into my pocket and I pull out two

of my customized guitar picks and I hand them to Robin as a thank you. He takes off the

cape and throws it to the side. I get up from the chair and I sling my backpack over my

shoulder and I grab my guitar from the floor.

"Hey Robin, how would you like to become my personal hair-stylist when I go back on tour

with Black veil brides?" I said to him with a smile. Robin's face goes white, "I can talk to the

rest of the band to see if they're interested", I said. Robin nods his head happily. "Great!" I

also wrote my number on the back of your ticket as well in case you have any questions.

Robin blushes, "Thank you so much", he says as he walks with me out of the barber shop. I

walk over to Hot Topic and I see Uncle Frank being hounded by the staff. "Uncle Frank is

everything ok?" I ask him. He turns around and almost doesn't recognize me. "Jeez, Max,

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you scared me", Frank says with a chuckle. "Can we go now?" I ask him, slightly annoyed as

the Hot topic Staff are starting to slowly recognize me.

"OMG, You're the new member of Black Veil Brides!" One of them says excitedly. I sigh, "do

you want a photo?" I ask them. They smile and pull out their phone. I stand beside them, "Do

the roaring face, like the one you did on stage", they said happily. I look dead into the

camera and do my best metal roar face for them. I took a few photos with all of the staff.

"Frankie, Can we go now? I'm gonna be late for school". I said as I started walking out of the

store. Uncle Frank quickly follows behind, "Hey I bought this for you". He said he handed me

a black mask. "Thank you Uncle Frank but I don't think I'll need that", I said as I handed him

the mask back. "Well, you might want a bandaid, you got a nice cut on the bridge of your

nose", he said with a wince. "Stupid dry skin", I said as I grabbed the black mask from him

so I could cover my nose. I run out of the mall towards Uncle Frank's car and I open the

passenger door. Frank gets into the car and starts it. He slowly rolls out of the parking lot

and whizzes down the road.

Ten minutes later…

Uncle Frank pulls up to the front of the school. I get out of the car and grab my guitar from

the backseat. "Thanks Uncle Frank, I'll see you after school", I said as I walked towards the

entrance of the school. I quickly ran to my English class and sat down at my desk just

before it started. "Good morning everyone", Mrs.Pendlebrooke said with a delightful smile.

"How was everyone's weekend?" she asks, looking around the room hoping someone would

talk to her. Ronnie smiles at me, "My weekend was amazing because my best friend is now

the newest member of Black veil brides!" He exclaims. I hide my face in my hands and sigh

annoyed. "And who would that be?" Mrs.Pendlebrooke asks surprised. Ronnie pulls his

phone out of his pocket and opens youtube, then plays the video he posted on his page. "It's

gone viral Max!" he exclaims. I wince at his overexcitement.

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CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

The bell rings, I get up and grab my stuff when I'm suddenly pulled aside by Andy. "Max what's

with the new hair? Is everything ok?" He starts asking too many questions for me to handle so I

simply raise my hand up to his lip and sigh. "Andy, everything is fine", I said with a lying smile,

knowing full well that I can't hide my emotions well. I suddenly got a text from Hunter and

Warren at the same time, I quickly glanced at my phone. "Andy I got to walk to my next class", I

said as I started walking away. Andy starts following behind slowly, suspiciously. As we were

walking Andy quickly grabbed my arm and pulled up my sleeves, he sighs in relief. I look at him

with sad eyes.

"Did you really think I had started cutting again?" I asked him in disbelief. Andy shrugs slightly. "I

feel like there is something off about you and I got worried that you started hurting yourself

again so I just wanted to see for myself", Andy said as a matter-of-factly. I shake my head and

start walking to my psych class. Andy tries to keep up but he ends up losing me in the sea of

students that crowd the halls.

Five minutes later…

I arrive at my class and I walk over to the farthest desk to the right, all the way in the back of the

classroom. I gently place my bag down on the floor on the left side of my desk. I open it up and

take out my textbook, my notebook, my pen, my pencil and eraser. I set them all down on my

desk. A few minutes go by as the rest of the students start piling into the classroom and into

their seats. I can hear a few of them talking amongst themselves about the concert. I chuckled

to myself, "I don't think they realize it was me who was on stage at the concert", I thought to

myself. As the last student is sitting at their desk Mr.Ledger walks into the classroom. Like

always, carrying his brown leather briefcase and he sets it down on his desk.

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He opens his briefcase and pulls out a piece of paper. He then walks over to the board with the

paper in his hand, picks up a piece of chalk and writes a simple, yet utterly confusing question.

He wrote:

" Why do we dream?"

He then turned around and smiled. "Can anyone tell me why we have dreams?" A few students

raised their hands. A rather smart looking girl answered, "I think that dreams are just

unconscious wishes our minds make but we ourselves are too afraid to say it out loud".

Mr.Ledger smiles, "Perhaps that may be the case", he said as he paced around the front of the

classroom. "Can someone tell me how many types of dreams there are?" He asked. A tall skinny

guy with black short curly hair puts his hand up, Mr.Ledger points at him. "There are 5 different

types of dreams. Normal dreams, Daydreams, lucid dreams, False awakening dreams, and

nightmares", he says in a slight post-pubescent growl. "Very good Matthew", Mr.Ledger says

with a proud smile as he finishes writing all the different types of dreams on the board.

"Now we all know the main 4 types of dreams, but can anyone tell me what a 'false awakening'

dream is?" Mr.Ledger asks. I slowly raise my hand. Mr.Ledger nods at me. "A false awakening

dream is where someone is dreaming that they have woken up but they actually remain asleep

but they dream about doing their daily routines such as showering, cleaning, cooking, and

whatnot", I said with a straight face. Mr.Ledger nodded, "That's correct". I look down at my desk

shyly. I pull my phone out of my pocket and I open up the message from Hunter.

He wrote: "Hey, it's Warren's birthday on March 22nd, I was wondering if you could maybe help me

plan a surprise party for him? And I just want to apologize for my behavior towards you, it was

disrespectful and degrading. I hope I can make it up to you sometime?" I sigh uncomfortably.

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I reply: "I'll help you plan the party, on one condition… Andy or Vincent must be there at all times

when we are planning this party, because I don't want you to get any ideas that you could even

have a chance with me, and now that I'm part of an EXTREMELY successful band, I cannot have

any drama added to my life". Once I hit send I turn off my phone. I look up at the board and I see

that Mr.Ledger has put up this week's assignment on the board. The assignment is to take a

certain dream like scenario and to analyze it. I take as many notes on the assignment as

possible just before the bell rings. I open my bag and I put my notebook and textbook inside and

I close the bag. I get up from the desk and walk out of the classroom. I take the black mask that

Uncle Frank gave me and I put it on to hide my face as I hear people starting to whisper about

me as I pass them in the hall while walking to my next class. I walk over to my music class and

sit down on a chair at the back of the classroom. I then pull out and open my music notebook to

an empty page from my bag and I place it on a music stand and I grab a pencil from my bag.

I get up from my seat and grab my guitar case from behind Mr.Biersack's desk. I gently lay my

guitar case on the ground and I open it. I take out the guitar the band gave me and I plug it into a

small amp. I begin to softly play gentle melodic riffs and sing whatever came into my head,

stopping every so often to write out the riffs and the lyrics in my notebook. Once all the students

are in the classroom, I stop playing and I gently place my guitar back in its case. Mr.Biersack

came bursting into the room with high energy. "Hey guys I have a special treat for you all! I've

brought in a special guest today", Mr.Biersack said with a smile. "As you all know, I am the lead

vocalist for the band Black Veil Brides, well today I brought in my good friend Jake and my good

friend CC!" Mr.Biersack exclaimed.

"I want y'all to welcome them in!" Mr.Biersack said as he waved at the two men for them to

come inside the classroom. Jake came into the classroom wearing the exact same leather

jacket that I am wearing, a black shirt, black ripped jeans, and solid black vans, his hair was long

and straight. CC came into the classroom wearing a white bandana around his forehead, a black

dress shirt and tie, black jeans, and black dress shoes, and his hair was straight yet slightly

messy.

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Chapter Thirty-Two

"Hey everyone I'm Jake", Jake says with a smile. "Hey guys I'm CC", CC says with an

awkward smile. I try hiding a little but Jake notices. "Hey Max, nice to see ya!" He says

excitedly. A few of the other students look at me puzzled, wondering how I know Jake and

CC. "Who here knows how to play an instrument?" CC asks. A few people raise their hand.

CC picks a scrawny looking kid in the front. "What instrument do you play?" CC asks. The kid

smiles, "I play piano", he says with a prominent pubescent squeak. "I know my friend over

here knows how to melt faces when she plays guitar", CC says as he points over to me. I

shake my head at him.

"Hey CC, why don't you show the class your skill on that drum kit over there?" Mr.Biersack

said as he pointed to the massive drum kit in the corner. CC smirks at him, "Alrighty", he said

as he walked over to the kit and sat down. He grabbed a pair of sticks and went to town on

the drums. I look around the room to see a few people moving along to the beat, including

Ronnie. After a few minutes, CC stops playing and smiles. "Jake and I go way back since

'09, and he's been the lead guitarist for the band for thirteen years", Mr.Biersack said with an

excited smile. "Jesus, has it really been that long???" Jake says a little shocked.

"It really has", Mr.Biersack said with a smile. "If you were to pick a favorite song from the

band's past, what would it be?" Mr.Biersack asked. Jake looks up as he thinks, "I'm not sure

but my favorite to play live would have to be Wretched and Divine", he says with a slight nod.

"Maybe you could play it for us?" Mr.Biersack said as he pointed to an electric guitar in the

corner of the classroom. "I'll play it but on one condition", Jake says with a playful smirk.

"What?" Mr.Biersack said concerned. "Max has to play with me", Jake said as he winked at

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me. "How about that?" Mr.Biersack said with a smile. All of the students turn and look at

me. Feeling the pressure on me starting to build, I give in. "Alright", I said as I picked my

guitar up out of its case and I carried both the amp and the guitar to the front of the

classroom and I stood beside Jake. I put the guitar strap over my head, I plug in the guitar

and turn on the amp. Jake plugs in his guitar into a separate amp and turns it on. We both

quickly check to see if our guitars are in tune.

Luckily they both are. "CC count us in", Jake says excitedly. CC nods and counts us in. As

he counts us in I take a deep breath. Jake hits the first intro riff and I play the quick riffs. CC

begins to play along as well and Mr.Biersack sings as well. As the song progresses we start

coming up to the bridge and Jake nods for me to do the solo with him. I began to play the

solo and Jake turned his part into a harmony solo. The melodies intertwined so well it

almost brought a tear to my eye as we were coming out of the bridge I played the rest of the

song. Mr.Biersack whispered in my ear to do a solo at the end, so I played what my heart

told me to play.

I stopped playing and sighed. I look over at Jake and I see that he started to cry. Suddenly

the bell rang for lunch. All of the students get up and leave the class. I go to leave but Jake

catches my arm. "Max, we need to talk to you", Mr.Biersack said as he closed the classroom

door. "I noticed that every time you play from the heart it always sounds like your heart is

broken", Jake said as he wiped away a few stray tears. I look down awkwardly, "You're not

wrong", I said with a sigh. "Is there something going on at home?" Mr.Biersack asked. I

shake my head no. "You've been really distant lately, almost like you've put up a wall to

protect yourself", CC said gently as he gently pulled the guitar strap over my head and

placed my guitar in a stand, once he placed my guitar down he gently held my hands.

"Someone from my past tried contacting me and I'm a little scared", I said quietly as I let go

of CC's hands. "Has this person hurt you in any way?" Mr.Biersack asked concerned. I nod

and slightly tear up. "He keeps trying to apologize for what he did, but what he did was

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unforgivable", I said as the tears started flowing faster. "What did this person do, may I

ask?" Mr.Biersack asked gently.

"He tried to rape me and almost killed me when I fought back", I said as I sunk to my knees

as I hid my face in defeat and cried. Those words hit the three men like a baseball bat to the

gut. "Was this recent?" Mr.Biersack asked angrily. I nod fearfully. "Have you told anyone or

gone to the police?" CC asks gently as he sits on the ground in front of me. "They won't

listen to a basket case like me", I said angrily. "They will and don't say that about yourself",

Mr.Biersack said. "It's true!" I shouted. Mr.Biersack whispers to Jake to go to the office and

ask for Mr.Ocala to come down here. Jake nods and walks out of the classroom quietly. "Is

it a student that goes to this school?" Mr.Biersack asks gently. I shake my head no. I get up

off the floor and I walk over to my guitar, grab it and put it back in its case. "Where are you

going?" Mr.Biersack asked a little worried."I'm going to my next class", I said as I grabbed

my bag and my guitar and I walked out of the classroom as fast as I could. I quickly jog over

to my art class and I wait outside the door until it is time to go in.

Five minutes later…

The bell rings and the art teacher opens the door. I quickly walk into the classroom and go

to my easel. I look at today's assignment and it's a gothic renaissance style and we need to

draw a past memory. I automatically think of what happened with Hunter. I set up my page

on my easel and I set up my pencils. I begin drawing a screaming self portrait, then I add a

tall dark shadowy figure standing behind me with its left hand clawing at my throat and the

right pulling at a screaming skull attached to a spirit. I added some more shading and

details to it using charcoal. It wasn't till after I had finished drawing that I noticed that I was

crying. I try wiping away my tears but end up smearing charcoal on my face. I turn around to

see Mr.Ocala standing behind me looking at my art piece. "Can I speak with you for a

moment outside?" Mr.Ocala asked gently. I nod and walk out of the classroom with

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Mr.Ocala. As I walk out of the classroom I am greeted by my brother and a police officer I

remember all too well, Mr.Biersack,CC, and Jake. I look up at the officer and he smiles gently

at me. "Hi Max, do you remember me?" The officer asked. "I remember you Constable

Dickson", I said wearily. "I was called here because you disclosed something to Mr.Biersack

that is quite serious", Constable Dickson said a little concerned. I quickly avert my gaze to

the floor and I try to swallow my tears. "Max, why wouldn't you tell me?" Pete said a little

upset. "I didn't want to tell you because I was afraid that you wouldn't believe me", I said as

the tears came flooding out. I try wiping away my tears but I keep smudging charcoal all

over my face. "Would you like to go somewhere quiet alone with me so you could tell me

what happened?" Constable Dickson asked. I nodded. "You can use the staff room",

Mr.Ocala said as he pointed to an empty room down the hall. Constable Dickson gently

leads me to the staff room. Once inside he closes the door. "Now Max, I want you to tell me

exactly what happened, start with the date", Constable Dickson said as he pulled out a small

recording device.

I take a deep breath to keep myself from crying. "It was April 27th when this happened", I

said a little choked. "It's ok, take your time", Constable Dickson said. "I was being released

from the hospital and I was supposed to be picked up by a friend of mine named VIncent, I

don't know his last name. But instead it was Hunter Cunningham who was outside the

hospital that day. He opened the door for me and he got in the car, once inside the car he

kissed me. I got angry at him for it because I had already told him that we are not a couple,

then we started driving down the road. I noticed that he was going down the wrong streets

so I yelled for him to let me out of the car at the next red light, that's when he locked the

doors and said I'm not going anywhere. He then proceeded to drive to the abandoned

parking lot off Morning Glory Drive and Crimson Avenue. He parked the car, laid my seat

down and got on top of me", I said slightly scared. I took a moment to breathe. "He pinned

me down by laying on top of me with his whole weight, pinning my wrists above my head

with one hand and choking me out with the other. He then tried to pull off my shorts that I

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was wearing but I kicked him hard enough that he would let go. I unlocked the door, grabbed

my backpack and ran as fast as I could. I ended up trying to hide behind a dumpster in the

alley on Crimson Avenue. I called my brother Peter for help, but Hunter found me behind the

dumpster and started trying to drag me back to the car. Luckily my brother was able to

contact some people to help. Ronnie Radke, Jake Kiszka, and Andy Hurley saved my life that

day", I said as I finally gave into the tears. Constable Dickson turned off the recording device

and placed it in his pocket. "Max, I know you didn't want to report this but I believe it was a

good thing that you did", Constable Dickson said with a gentle smile. "I promise that I will

look into this", Constable Dickson said with a heavy sigh. "I don't want to press charges", I

said blankly. Constable Dickson coughs. "I'm sorry? You don't want to press charges?"

Constable Dickson asked, confused as if he misheard me.

"I don't want to have to go to court because I know for a fact that they are going to bring up

the fact that I have been hospitalized for many suicide attempts", I said as a matter of fact.

"They are just gonna bring evidence of how much of a basket case I am", I said angrily.

Constable Dickson nods as he tries to process all of it. "So no I do not want to press

charges", I said as I got up from my chair and walked out of the room angrily. I made a

beeline for the girls washroom and ran inside, locked myself in a stall and threw up violently.

Disgusted with myself and angry at the fact that Mr.Biersack called the cops. The angrier I

got, the more violent I threw up. I stop throwing up just long enough to hear a knock on the

stall door. I open the door and it's Pete. He kneels down beside me and holds my hair back

as I begin to throw up again. After a while I finally stopped throwing up. Pete hands me

some paper towels and helps to get me cleaned up. He helps me up off the floor slowly and

wraps me in a bear hug. "I'm sorry Max, When you said he assaulted you I thought you

meant that he tried to hit you, I never would have thought that he would have tried to rape

you", Pete said through his tears.

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"I'm sorry I wasn't there to protect you", Pete said as he cried. I held Pete tighter and cried in

his arms.

Chapter Thirty-Three

An Hour Later…

I'm sitting on the end of my bed, in my room alone thinking about everything that had just

happened when there was a knock at my door. I look up and I see Warren standing at my

door. "What are you doing here?" I ask him, confused. He sighs, walks in and sits down

beside me. "I know I haven't been the best friend that I know I should be and I'm sorry I

haven't really been there for you", he says with a slightly depressed yet still manageable

mumble. I sigh and lean my head on his shoulder. Warren wraps his arm around my

shoulder. "I want to make it up to you, I just don't know where to start", he says with a sad

sigh.

I looked him dead in the eye, "You can start by checking in everyday and actually 'talking' to

me", I said to him and I put a little more emphasis on 'talking'. Warren looked at me with

tears in his eyes, he pulled me close and hugged me tightly. "I'm so sorry Max", Warren said

painfully.