Chapter 2
Dear diary,
I once thought I could never be happy again. But those last few months have been nothing more than awesome.
Don't get me wrong. Though it's now been almost five months since I lost Chloe, I still miss and shed my tears when I think about her, but…I also know that there are people here, who care for me.
Like Juliet said, Kate forgave me right away after I apologized and it strengthened our friendship. She and Dana also made up and now I spend a lot of time with them…especially with Jules.
I…I guess the cat's out of the bag now. I majorly crush on Juliet. She's so nice and beautiful. Gosh, I love to spend every free minute with her and listen to her stories. The thing is I so don't know if she feels the same or if she's just too polite to tell me to back off.
Tonight, Dana is throwing another movie night and I planned to confess to Juliet right after it. Oh dog, I hope I find some courage to tell her! Finals are coming close and soon our ways will probably part, and then what?
I know that, if I don't tell her tonight, I will never tell her and then hate myself for chickening out again. So Max, time to nut up or shut up!
Timidly, Max knocked at Dana's door. She was nervous. Very nervous! But not because of the upcoming movie night per se, but because of the confession she wanted to make later. And as the door opened with a click, she held in her breath while her heart almost stopped beating. Only as she saw that it was just Dana, who was standing in the doorframe, Max was eventually able to huff out the held up air.
"Hi Max!" spoke the very beautiful cheerleader, whose auburn hair was bound in a ponytail, with a warm smile, which changed into a frown as she realized how nervous and quiet Max was. "You okay? You seem a bit…nervous."
Taking a deep inhale, the freckled girl luckily managed to overcome her nervousness and speak up. "Uh, h-hi Dana! I…uh…i-is Juliet already here?"
'What the fuck, Max?! Why not wearing a sign around your neck, saying: Hi, I'm probably gay and crushing on Juliet Watson! UGH!'
Quirking one eyebrow, Dana's lips formed into a wide grin as she also witnessed her friend's intense reddened cheeks.
"Jules will be a bit late. She just wanted to finish her final big article about Vicky and the Vortex Club. You know how hard she worked on that."
"Y-yeah. It's gonna be her all-destroying masterpiece!" confirmed Max, knowing that she had big part on the implementation of this article as she was trying to find at least some justice for Rachel, Chloe and Kate.
'The Vortex Club and Victoria are going down for what they've done!'
"Hey, little grumpy cat," said Dana eventually with a soft tone, her soft touch on her shoulder bringing Max back from her thoughts. "C'mon in now and forget that shit that went down."
Nodding slightly Max walked into Dana's room. The door got shut behind her and just now, Max gave her mind enough space to finally get aware of her surroundings.
Normally, Dana tried to keep her room tidy and clean. Well, it mostly stayed by trying, as clothes, her rollerblades and other stuff – luckily no pregnancy test – was scattered around the floor and desk. However, for her infamous girl- and movie nights, the head cheerleader always grew beyond herself, cleaned up and even added some decoration.
On her couch table stood her big laptop as well as snacks, drinks and two bottles of vine.
"C'mon, sit down! Want some vine to gulp down that melancholy?" asked Dana and slumped down on the sofa. She reached for one of the bottles and opened it. "It's the cheap stuff, but it'll do the job. Just don't forget to eat a big load of food or else the headache will kill you in the morning!"
"Th-thanks Dana," spoke Max as she sat down, too. "But I think I'm gonna skip the headache entirely and keep with some soda."
With a friendly spoken "You got it!" the auburn haired teenager opened a can of soda and reached it to Max, who took it with a grateful nod.
"Thanks, D!"
Dana, however, immediately filled a glass to the brim with red vine and took a deep sip. And while they were waiting in silence, Max didn't get around to scan the attire of her hostess.
Truth be told, Dana was very attractive, and Max more than once had caught herself fantasize about her. Well trained, tall body, well-sized breasts, a beautiful face and a kind, caring character. Dana was indeed a good love interest, but sadly with a bad taste for men. Let alone, that Max's desire for the cheerleader was merely sexual, while she had developed very deep feelings for Juliet, which were way beyond crude urge.
"So," broke Dana the uncomfortable silence, "is Kate coming, too?"
"No," neglected Max with a headshake, "Her grandma isn't doing so well, so her parents picked her up and drove to her house. Hope her granny's gonna be okay, though."
"Shit! I know how it is to lose a grandma and geez that sucks!" said Dana and then raised her glass for a toast. "To Kate's granny and that she's gonna be back on her feet, soon!"
"Amen!" concurred Max and let her can collide with her friend's glass, before both drank another big sip. Then, it knocked and immediately Dana jumped up and opened the door.
"That must be Jules!"
"Sorry guys for being late! But this article needs to be in the next issue of The Beacon! I found some new dirt on the Vortex Club and…" Juliet had started to ramble, not even noticing that Dana had already closed the door and glimpsed at her with a wry smirk, her hands on her hip. Max had gotten up as well, timidly gazing at her crush.
With a loud and profusely spoken "Hello Jules! How are you? Haven't seen you in a while." mocked Dana her best friend and flung her arms around her shoulder for a short hug.
"Sorry, D!" spoke Juliet quietly, and as soon as Dana had released her, she immediately shifted her gaze to Max, who only managed to speak a whispered "Hi!"
Yet Juliet didn't answer verbally, but instead approached the freckled girl with a warm smile and took her into a very long and close embrace.
"Sorry for going silent on you for the last few days!" she whispered, now pressing the petite girl even closer, which caused her to smile warmly.
"Don't worry. As long as you make sure that the Vortex Club will never ever hurt someone again, I'm totally supporting you. Besides, I kept myself busy with planning a new portfolio."
"A new portfolio?" chimed in Dana, making Juliet and Max back away from each other to shift their attention to her. "What will be the topic? Nature? Animals? Arcadia?"
"A-actually…" Max began shyly, her cheeks flustered once more as she gave Juliet a short yet unnoticeable glimpse from the corner of her eye. "…it's a secret…for now."
"Oh la-la, a secret!" commented the cheerleader impressively, sauntering back to the sofa. "Can't wait for its revelation, but for now…let's begin the movie night! So, whatcha wanna watch, girls?"
Though most people might not see or believe it, but Dana was a geek in disguise, evident by the giant movie-collection on her external HDD. As the tall girl browsed through the content, the cursor kept on hovering over a folder, saying Love & Romance.
"Hell no, you won't!" protested Juliet right away while she was filling a glass with vine.
"Why not?"
"Because, A: I'm tired of watching those illogical romance-crap, and B: You always chose those half smutty ones, which is rather unpleasant when making a movie night. I wanna have fun and not get frustrated because I'm horny and can't do shit about it."
"You didn't complain as we watched Blue Is The Warmest Color."
"Because I was busy not fucking myself during the sex-scenes."
Max listened to the heated conversation between her friends with beet-reddened cheeks and a labored breath. Just imagining how Juliet would get aroused by that movie induced a hot feeling in her lower abdomen, almost making her scream out that they should watch this flick right away. However, her still functioning rational part of the brain told her, to put away her own, selfish wishes and desires, and suggest something else.
"How about some sci-fi?"
Both, Dana and Juliet stopped their argument and gazed at the freckled girl, whereas the budding reporter eventually announced joyfully "Yeah, let's watch some cool sci-fi!"
"Fiiine!" agreed Dana with a loud groan as well and made some space so that Max could choose a movie.
Soon, the three girls sat silently on the couch, covered by a blanket, and watched Blade Runner, while munching junkfood and drinking vine or soda.
After 90 minutes, Max mentioned that she had to hit the toilet. So, they paused the movie and Dana and Juliet stayed in the room.
"Sorry for freaking out, before!" spoke Juliet to her friend as they were waiting for Max to return.
"No worries, Jules," answered Dana with a soft smile. "Sorry for being a selfish asshole! I know how much you hate those romantic flicks, since that thing with Zac."
"It's okay. Guess it's time to finally get over it and move on."
In truth, Juliet had already been over this incident with her ex-boyfriend and Victoria before Christmas. She simply had cut all strings to the Vortex Club and had decided to stick to her other friends, like Dana, Brooke, Alyssa, Kate and especially Max. And the latter was also the reason, why she reacted so over-sensitive to romantic movies.
During the last five months, Max and Juliet had learned so much about each other that the bond between them had become very tight. Especially during the time they had worked on that article. Yet, taking the last step to become intimate with the budding photographer had been an entire new level for Juliet.
Yes, she wasn't as restrained as Max and would love to explore the other side of the river. Yet she somehow never brought up the courage, because her friend seemed to be so fragile and she actually never asked her about her game. And now, every time she watched a love movie, it reminded her about this frustrated situation and, of course, Dana would ask about her current love live at the end of each film. Tonight not being an exception.
"So…speaking of moving on… Any new candidates on the horizon?"
Shyly, Juliet averted her friends questioning gaze and looked at her with each other fumbling hands on her lap. Should she tell Dana about her crush on Max? Or should she keep her answer vague and without any details?
"Well…kinda. Uh…ugh! I actually don't know. It's kinda complicated, y'know."
Actually, Juliet would've thought that Dana might stay on the topic with persistence, demanding a clear answer. However, the cheerleader just gave her a wry smirk and said "You wanna know my opinion? Just go for it! High School's almost over and if it works out, you still have a chance to make something good out of it. Otherwise, it'll always bug you that you never tried."
As if on cue, Max came back, silencing the talk immediately, and took her place beside Juliet again. And as Dana witnessed how her reporter friend blushed, she simply shook her head with another smirk and started the movie again.
Once more, the girls watched the flick in silence, but since Dana had planted the idea of coming out to Max into her brain, Juliet couldn't really focus on the film anymore. Every few seconds she had to glimpse at Max, taking in her cuteness and every detail of her face. Soon, she had reached a point, where her brain started to go haywire and her needs took over.
Cautiously, she shuffled closer to Max, almost leaning against her petite body. A quiet sigh escaped her mouth as she made contact and felt her crush's body heat. But it wasn't enough. With slow movements, Juliet's hand creeped its way along her own thigh, ready to make the jump on the other girl's ones. Her heart was thumping in her chest and her breathing shallow out of nervousness. What would Max say? Would she flail out and go all ballistic on her? Would she enjoy it?
Sadly, Juliet never became the chance to find out as Dana let out a loud yawn and she realized that the end credits were already rolling over the screen.
"Sorry, girls…" groaned the brunette cheerleader as she was stretching her limbs. "But I'm totally busted and gonna meet with Trevor in town in the morning. So, hope you don't mind if I'm gonna throw you out now and hit the sack."
"No…it's okay!" answered Max and got up, Juliet following stat.
"Yeah, no problem, D!" she chimed in, already flinging her arms around her friend. "Have a good night!"
After Max had done the same, she and Juliet left Dana's room. Normally, both would've parted ways now, since each of their rooms were on the opposite end of the floor. However, the two girls hesitated and kept awkwardly silent for a minute, until Juliet spoke up with a slight sass, her arms crossed.
"So, you lil' vixen got a secret portfolio and didn't tell me about, huh?!"
"Uh…yup. Otherwise it wouldn't be secret," snipped Max back with faked cheekiness as well, which ultimately turned into a shy smile as she said "W-wanna see it?"
Of course, Juliet agreed the offer to look at her friend's secret portfolio, since her inner reporter always wanted to find out the truth. And after both had reached the Max's room, she got handed a plain folder.
"It's not finished, yet. So,… Yeah, just look at it!" said the smaller girl and sat down on her bed while timidly fumbling with her hands.
Eagerly, Juliet opened the folder and gazed with astonishment at the first picture that was depicting her and Max together. The other photos weren't any different. They all were showing those awesome last five months both had experienced.
With her mouth agape and a stammered "Max, I-I don't know what to say," stared the stunned girl at her best friend, clearly lacking any other words.
"Jules," Max spoke shyly, not able to look into her friend's eyes, "I'm making this for you. Graduation is coming closer and then this all here will be over. I just…I just wanted you to have good memories about us and…"
Max didn't come any further as Juliet leaned in and kissed her with passion, following Dana's advice to just go for it and see what will happen. And to her surprise, swung Max her arms around her neck and pulled her even closer, letting both of them sink onto the mattress.
After a minute, both backed slightly away and gazed deeply at each other while breathing heavily. Juliet didn't actually know what would happen next and as Max pushed her softly aside, she almost expected this dream to be over. However, as Max sat up and after she had put the binder aside, she started to unzip her grey hoodie. This was the moment Juliet immediately realized that there was more to come. And right away, doubts started to creep their way into her mind.
Max however – smart as she was – realized this and stopped her lover's attempts to end this endeavor by touching Juliet's mouth that wanted to intervene in her doings.
"No, I want this!" she spoke softly instead, quickly stripping off her hoodie, followed by her pink shirt.
Although Juliet was way more experienced than Max, she didn't know how to react on this dominant behavior, letting the other girl have her way with her. Only after some minutes and some more clumsy tongue kissing, she actually realized how inexperienced the freckled girl really was. Yet, she was already way too aroused to put an end to this.
"Max," she whispered, tenderly brushing over the photographer's cheek. "You really wanna do this?"
A shy nod of confirmation was everything Juliet needed to take over the lead. She reengaged the kissing. But this time it didn't contain just lust, but also love. Very cautiously, she rolled Max back on her back before pushing herself off the mattress.
At first, Max didn't know what Juliet's plan was until the reporter started to seductively strip off her clothes, as well. First her sweater, then her shirt and bra, and eventually socks, Jeans and slip. With bewilderment, Max stared at Juliet's naked body, taking in every detail.
"Like what you see?" cooed the naked girl with a wry smirk and, once more, only received a nod. "Let's get you out of your cloths, too, 'cause I finally wanna get my hands on you!"
Juliet leaned down and gave Max another kiss while her hands wandered around her back and unclasped her bra. After doing so, she kissed a wet trail down her lover's body until she'd reached her waistband. Button by button she undid Max's jeans and pulled it down. But before she did the same to her undies, she once more asked for permission with a questioning glare. This time, the brunette photographer took the initiative again by stripping the garment off by herself.
For another minute, both girls ogled each other in awe until Juliet lied down beside Max and started to kiss her again while she let her hand glide over her lover's body. Reminding that Max had once told her that she's still a virgin and had never been in a relationship before, Juliet made the decision to help her by giving the shy photographer some guidance. Softly, she took her hand and led it to her cheek. From there, she guided it down her neck, over her collarbone and let it stop at her well-sized breasts, moaning quietly as Max began to knead them.
"A-am I doing it right?" she asked timidly and Juliet's answer was a slight moan, paired with a frantically nodding.
"Yes! Y-…you're doing great! My nipple…s-suck on my nipple, please!"
Max did as she was told to, but stopped right away as she heard her girlfriend hiss in discomfort.
"Not so needy!" Juliet, however, just chuckled, not being mad at her inexperienced crush and then said, "Here, lemme show you!"
After exchanging rolls, Juliet was now the one getting busy on Max's breasts, treating them so cautiously that Max moaned out and felt so aroused that her hand found its way to her own sex and started to massage it.
Of course, these activities didn't stay hidden very long for Juliet, making her back away a bit and observing what was going on down there. And as Max – entirely ashamed – wanted to pull away her hand, the reporter kept it in place and whispered into her ear "Keep going! I wanna see it!"
Gulping down hard and almost on the edge of running away, Max kept on masturbating while Juliet took a seat at the other end of the bed, enjoyed the show and, eventually, joined in.
Her brain in overdrive upon witnessing the sexy reporter treating herself, Max climaxed immediately, biting down on her arm to suppress her loud moans.
Feeling embarrassed upon this premature orgasm, Max wanted to cover her face with a groan whereas Juliet just snickered and shoved the ashamed girl's hands away with one of her feet. And as soon as the freckled girl's sight fell once more on her crush, she witnessed how her loved one climaxed as well. But unlike Max, Juliet let her groans out as they came, willing to let everyone on this floor know what was going on in this room.
Breathing heavily, Max let her head fall down on the mattress and not a few seconds later, Juliet slumped down beside her and stole herself another passionate kiss, before she whispered "You're so hot, Max!"
But if the budding photographer had thought that their little sexual adventure was over, she couldn't have been more wrong, evident as Juliet began to touch and kiss her even more, only to end up with her mouth between her legs.
Never having felt a tongue on her sex before, Max couldn't do anything else than moan out loud in surprise. Her arousal increased once more, telling her that she was ready for round number two.
Loud, eerie screams were chiming through the old house of granny Marsh, making Lynn, the youngest daughter of the Marsh family, wince and burry her face in Kate's lap.
Both siblings were sitting on the couch whereas their parents, Richard and Janine Marsh were strolling through the entire ground floor. Once more, a loud scream sounded from upstairs, letting Kate's mother, Janine Marsh – a petite woman with long blond hair – lose her composure.
"Richard, I can't take this anymore! Maybe we should bring her to the hospital anyway."
"Darling," answered Richard, a tall man with glasses and short dirty-blond hair, "Father Andrews knows what he's doing. He has done this to many people, who were suffering from the same symptoms, before and can heal my mother."
With a loud sigh, Janine turned around, not knowing what to do. "Lynn," she then spoke to her youngest daughter. "How about we look how Carla is doing, hmm?"
"Oh yeah!" the small girl cheered, happy for the presented distraction, and followed her mom into a room at the other end of the house, where Kate's second sister was resting, leaving Kate and her father alone.
"We should bring grandma and Carla to a hospital, Dad! Grandma has a high fever and Carla isn't doing any better." spoke the 18-year-old honestly after some more passed minutes, letting her dad look at her with concern.
"You're probably right. But what if my theory's right and…"
"There are no demons, Dad!" replied the blonde with urge and shook her head. "A Father can pray for your soul, not heal your body. Only Jesus could do that and he's…"
Suddenly, they heard someone stomping down the stairs and just now became aware that it was very quiet and the screams had stopped.
Thinking that it was finally over, Richard almost collided with the priest as he wanted to take a look upstairs.
"Oh Father, how is…ARGH!"
With a loud cry the holy man tackled Richard to the ground and bit him in his throat, which turned the family-father's screams into some gurgling noises.
In shock and with dilated eyes, Kate stumbled backwards, clenching her hand around the golden cross around her neck. In horror she had to watch as her grandmother joined the Father's feast on her dad by ripping open his belly and starting to eat his intestines.
It took Kate quite some time to overcome this petrification upon witnessing such a cruel, bloody mess and finally making the decision to run away while these demons were still busy with her poor father. Unfortunately, the only possible way out was blocked by three other bloodied creatures that once used to be Kate's mother and her two sisters, who were now staring emotionlessly at her with milky eyes.
Whimpering and speaking a prayer with a trembling voice, Kate backed away until the wall was in her back. And all she could do was to shriek out loud as her entire beloved family stormed at her to munch on the Christian girl's petite body.