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Explosive Decompression

altunderscore

9


Max came awake slowly, the acoustic twang spilling from the speaker on her nightstand not quite loud enough to be jarring- at least not yet.

Her first alarm was merciful.

She yawned and rolled onto her side, still tired enough not to care too much that, somehow, she had wrapped her blanket around her head in her sleep. She tensed from her hips down to the tips of her toes as she stretched, arching recurve against the pull of her core and sighing as the sleep reluctantly fell away.

Unfortunately with wakefulness came awareness, and the first thing Max became aware of was the dryness of her mouth. The second, following shortly behind, was the realization that today was Monday.

'Mornings are the worst..' she grumbled to herself, her voice sticky and slow even inside her own head.

Her left hand stretched out into the blind void and paused in its course halfway between the alarm on her bedside table and the bottle of water just next to it. She considered for only a moment before her hand dropped, quickly finding her third option.

Working purely by muscle memory she flicked her thumb across the smooth glass and tapped once near the bottom. She canted her hand a bit to the side, then blindly tapped the screen again. The sharp -snap- of her phone's camera did more to wake her than the soft chorus pouring from her speakers ever could.

She sat up with a groan, and only then did she reach up and pull the tangled blanket down and off of her face. She instantly regretted her decision.

'Great call, genius..' Max thought as she brought an arm up to shield her eyes against the sudden burst of sunlight. It was way too bright for..

-she checked her phone through squinting eyes-

.. half past 8 in the morning..

Okay, maybe she was the problem here, but still.

She again reached over to her nightstand and pawed half-blind at her water bottle, switching her alarm off with the bottom as she pulled it back towards her. She twisted the thin plastic cap off impatiently and stood, riding out the last shudders of another full-body stretch as she did.

Max thought over her plans for the day as she swished the stale water around her mouth. She swallowed, and then reached back until she felt the familiar weight of her phone.

First things first, then.

The picture she needed was the first one in her camera roll, and it was alien enough that it didn't unsettle her too much to look at; as far as morning selfies went, this one was.. abstract, would probably be the most charitable description. The most recognizable bit of her in the frame was a tuft of brown hair erupting from a cocoon of cream fabric that otherwise swallowed her from her head to her upper chest, aside from the single skinny arm poking through a gap in one side.

She flicked through a pair of menus before she could even begin to regret what she was doing.

Max: in case u wanted to know what u were missing ;^)

There. Victoria had asked her to at least try to take a few pictures, and this one definitely counted. She could hardly recognize it was her, granted, but still. Baby steps.

She took another sip of water, then stepped towards her window after a brief but firm tug at her nightshirt to make sure she was mostly decent. She'd been leery about that window ever since Victoria's little outburst a few days prior.

'Not sure I can look at Warren the same anymore,' she winced.

He had to have had a reason, right?

After a quick glance around to make sure the coast was clear, Max knelt down and looked over Lisa's pot for a moment. None of her leaves were wilted or damaged, but her soil was a little dry to the touch.

'My girl's thirsty, huh?'

Max hummed as she upended the leftover half of her water bottle into Lisa's planter, then turned away from her window and stepped over to where her guitar sat on the floor next to her couch. Her first class wasn't until ten, so she had a little bit of time to unwind beforehand. With any luck, she'd hear back from Victoria or Kate by then.

She flopped down onto her thin-cushioned couch and lazily hooked a bare foot underneath the smooth neck of her guitar, kicking the head up into her waiting hand with a practiced motion. Her pick wasn't in its usual spot between the strings at the top of the fretboard, and Max quickly found herself glancing between the box of spares on her dresser all the way on the other side of the room and down at her rough-bitten fingernails.

Sacrifices.

Her first bare-fingered strum across the open strings sounded off, and her second narrowed the problem down to her A-string. She softly hummed what she remembered A to sound like, and a few key-turns later she was comfortably back in standard. With that dealt with, it was the work of seconds to scroll through her playlist until she found the specific song she needed. A few seconds after that, she was pressing play and picking up her guitar again.

Her left hand slid up the neck and splayed across the frets as her right plucked experimentally at the strings farther south. She'd never looked up exactly how to play this particular song; but then again, picking apart the notes and chords herself was always a comfortable kind of distraction.

Playing with her bare fingers didn't give her the same tone as a pick (or even just actual fingernails) would have, but there was something.. soothing, in a way, about feeling the notes ring out beneath her fingertips, with nothing between her and them.

Like she could reach out a hand and pull the notes from the air in front of her, almost.

Natural.

She smiled to herself as her fingers slipped through the verse and into the chorus, lowly humming the vocal line under her breath as she did.

Max didn't feel nearly confident enough to actually sing the song; not yet at least, and especially not with Victoria potentially in hearing-distance just across the hall, but..

-Stagefright, Max?-

She heard Victoria's voice over the wash of the Willamette just as clearly as she had the night before, but with some effort managed to keep her tempo despite how fundamentally strange it was to feel herself sitting and standing at the same time.

Stranger still to feel her breath enter warm and leave cold.

Max's hand seized on a downstroke and her eyes pulled open in frustration. There was a pressure she couldn't ignore right behind her fingernails; a pins-and-needles ache racing from her wrist to the tips of her fingers, incessant and just south of stinging. She huffed and tossed her guitar onto the couch-cushion at her side and stood quickly, sparing a glance as she did towards the remains of the photo-collage on her wall. A little less than half of it remained; the rest having been boxed away, mailed home, or handed off to friends of hers she thought would appreciate them most.

Anything to keep her from having to look at them the way she was now.

All it would really take was a few moments of concentration and she could fling herself backwards, to a place where things were better.

The one just under the far corner, maybe; a selfie from mid-September. Her first time in Kate's room. Kate wasn't in the frame, but as Max stepped closer she let her eyes unfocus and-

Kate was on the far side of the table tuning her violin. Steam curled from the kettlespout between them, and Max breathed in a cloud of honey-ginger tea.

Kate glanced up from the instrument in her lap with a look of modest denial on her face and shook her head in reply to something flattering Max had said. She opened her mouth even as her cheeks pinked from the praise and-

-Max tore the picture off its pin and flicked it into the pile below without a second glance.

They were sirens. Each and every one.

She reached for the next photograph and pulled.


The front doors of Blackwell Academy shut behind her with a heavy sound she only barely heard over the noise of the students in the hall. Thankfully, there was a crowd between her and the bathroom off to the side, and she did her best to ignore it as she made her way more deeply into the busy foyer.

If she happened to push through the crowd a little more forcefully than would normally be considered polite, well.

Zach was a big guy. He could deal.

Her first period was History, and fighting her way up to the second floor every Monday morning was basically a Greek epic on its own. She had just managed to drag herself out of the crowd in front of the doorway when she spotted a familiar blonde on the far side of yet another pack of students at the same time the other girl saw her.

"Oh, Max!" Kate said, her voice just loud enough to be heard clearly over the noise of the hallway. Kate didn't seem to have quite as much trouble navigating through these crowds as she did, Max noticed maybe a bit enviously as she watched the blonde approach.

Kate's look was somehow both warm and appraising as she took Max in; the way her shadowed eyes crinkled near the corners told Max her smile was genuine (if subdued), but the slow upward creep of her eyebrows and the sigh hiding in her exhale were both textbook exasperation.

Familiar territory, and Max was grateful for it.

"Long night?" Kate asked diplomatically after a brief but firm hug, and Max nodded as she thought through her reply.

"Do I really look that bad?" She probed as she turned towards the classroom, careful to keep Kate's face in her periphery as she did. She fought down a grin as Kate blanched beside her.

"I didn't mean it like that-" she said in a rush, but Max cut her off with a soft laugh instead.

"I'm kidding, Kate." she said, smiling tiredly. "You're right though, it was a long night."

Kate nodded her head and quickly relaxed, her expression sympathetic but not pressuring. Instead of asking Max to elaborate, she quietly opened the door to the mostly-empty History classroom and led the both of them to their usual spot; a far corner next to one of the large windows overlooking the Blackwell grounds. In the time since Max had woken up that morning, the sun had hidden itself behind a screen of thin grey clouds- wispy like smoke.

The trees ringing the courtyard were the color of a low campfire at night, and for a moment, she was happy enough to watch the breeze rake through the branches, sending handfuls of tiny ember-leaves whirling in the wind like ash riding an updraft.

She was leaving Kate hanging.

Max turned from her spot in the corner, catching Kate's eyes as the blonde girl rummaged through her bag for a notebook and pen.

"It was a long night yeah, but not a bad one," she said, unintentionally vague, and Kate smiled that same content-but-conflicted smile from a couple of minutes ago.

"All for a good cause, then?" Kate asked, her eyebrows raised inquisitively.

Max returned the curious blonde's smile flatly.

"It's kind of a complicated situation, but something like that, yeah."

She hated being evasive with Kate, and apparently some of her apprehension was visible on her face because the other girl immediately gestured around their isolated corner of the room with a reassuring wave of her hand.

"This is a judgment-free zone, Max. Don't feel pressured to open up if you're not comfortable," she said, her voice low but clear- mindful of their teacher (Mr. Goram) who had only just stepped into the room.

Max nodded, and was once again thankful that Kate Marsh was the type of girl she was.

She swallowed. It was probably best to be direct.

"I spent some time with Victoria yesterday. It was.." Max paused, considering.

"It was.. nice. Like, surprisingly nice."

Kate blinked, not sure what she had expected to hear.

Max turned her head towards the front of the class to at least look like she cared about what the teacher was talking about, but continued whispering to Kate under her breath.

"We can talk about the details later, I promise. There's that, and some other, harder stuff too."

Max flicked her gaze to the side to look at Kate. She played with her fingers below the desk, suddenly nervous again.

"I don't want to dump my mess on you like this, but I don't want to keep you at arm's length either, you know? You deserve better than that."

She saw Kate's lips scrunch a little as she thought.

"Lunch, maybe?" Kate asked quietly, and Max agreed as emphatically as she could without drawing the attention of everyone else in the classroom.

"Definitely." She said, then asked; "Is Two Whales okay?"

She had been meaning to check on Joyce anyway.

"Perfect. We'll meet out front at noon?" Kate asked, and at Max's wordless noise of agreement the two of them fell into a comfortable quiet, happy to let Mr. Goram's lecture on the history of the native Tillamook fill the space between then and the bell.


Max's eyes had just begun to sneak closed for what felt like the dozenth time when the intercom buzzed to life and signaled the end of the period. She stifled a yawn with one hand as she pushed back against the desk, her chair scraping against the tile with a shrill noise as she stood. Beside her, she saw Kate had gathered her things and was moving to stand as well, though she was doing so much more quietly.

Max shouldered her bag sluggishly and huffed, taking a moment to steal one last glance out the window. It looked like the clouds had dropped some and darkened. She could see where the wind stirred at the bottoms of the looming grey things and for a flash of memory she smelled rain.

She wanted to curl up under her heaviest blankets and send sleepy texts to Victoria while the storm poured itself out into the sea.

There was a polite but pointed noise behind her, and Max turned to see her best friend staring at her with a knowing look on her face.

"You're not skipping class today, Max."

The freckled brunette groaned pitifully as she stepped away from the window, tugging idly at the strap of her bag.

"That's easy for you to say; you have Creative Writing next period," she grumbled. "Meanwhile, I'm stuck in Algebra with Ms. Reynold, Juliette, and way too many of the Bigfoot dudebros to be kosher."

Kate rolled her eyes.

"Something tells me you'll survive," she said, her tone distinctly close to a laugh. "If you want though, I can put in a prayer request for you the next time I visit the senior center."

Kate's upbeat mood proved to be contagious, and Max found herself smiling too as they turned the corner at the far side of the wing.

"You really think it'll help?" she asked, and Kate quirked her head in consideration.

"Mr. Andrews swears his youngest granddaughter has a 'direct line to the man upstairs', so it probably couldn't hurt to give it a shot. Stranger things have happened, right?"

Max's fingernails itched, just a little.

"It couldn't hurt," she shrugged as they came to a stop outside the stairwell branching off from the English department. "Besides, it's not like any of us are in a position to turn down free positivity, right?"

Kate nodded her head emphatically and grabbed Max gently by the wrist, tugging her out of the mouth of the busy stairwell and into a quieter spot near the wall, shielded from the boiling crowd by the bulk of a vending machine on one side and a row of lockers on the other. Max watched as Kate snuck a glance over her shoulder before she spoke; her voice low but playful.

"Do I need to walk with you all the way to Algebra, or can I go to class without worrying about you making a run for the dorms as soon as I'm gone? "

Max wanted to laugh but intentionally or not, Kate had a point.

For her part, the blonde girl seemed to spot something in her expression and her mood shifted noticeably; after only a moment's hesitation she stepped forward, close enough Max could track the small movements in her eyes as she glanced downward at something Max couldn't see and then back, finding her own and holding there. Much more modestly than before, Kate reached out and took Max's hand in hers. A second later she felt the girl's other hand slide down from her wrist and rest along the ridgeline of her knuckles.

Her hands were cold, but her hold was firm.

Max stayed silent for the pair of beats it took the sandy-blonde to open her eyes and speak.

"If you really don't feel like going to class right now then don't," Kate said quietly.

Max's eyes were drawn to the still-fading stains a week of sleepless nights had brushed along the hollow above Kate's cheeks.

"You were there for me when I needed you, Max. Even with all the awful shit that happened you still found time for me, and I'm not sure I'd even be here right now if you hadn't."

- a note, half-crumpled and dark where the ink had bled through the page-

".. If I'm being too forceful about all of this, I'm sorry. It's just.. I know how pulling back from everything can feel like the right choice, even when the isolation just makes everything worse."

Kate shook her head slowly, and Max watched as a strand of dark-blonde hair pulled free of the bun pinned at the back of her head and swayed to fall along her cheek. Kate's laugh was quiet as her eyes wandered out towards the faceless current winding down alongside them.

"Not everybody has a Max Caulfield to push open their door and say just the right thing right when they need to hear it, you know? I.. "

Kate's throat bobbed as she swallowed her uncertainty. Still looking out into the crowd, she swept the strand of hair behind her ear and kept on.

"I want to help take care of you the same way you've taken care of me, but it's so hard to tell you to not shut yourself away like I did when there's a large part of me that just wants to take a raincheck on this whole week with you, just so you don't have to do it alone."

Kate's hold on her wrist loosened and the shorter girl took a pair of steps away, stopping only when her shoulders came to rest against the side of the vending machine.

Max slid backwards half a pace as well, until she felt the bump of her backpack against the locker behind her. She traced Kate, from the fatigue in her shoulders down to the uncertainty in the set of her feet and back up, settling on the open honesty on her face.

Max tilted her head a little to one side and worked her hands into the pockets on the front of her jacket as an idea started to take shape in her head.

"Wanna skip class with me then?" she said, as boldly as she could manage.

Kate's eyebrows danced, dipping low for a moment in consideration before riding back upward on her sudden laugh.

"More than a little bit, actually," Kate said, unable to hide all of her surprised smile behind the hand she cupped in front of her mouth. She then peeked over her shoulder again and tensed, and Max followed her eyes out into the hallway to see what was the matter.

The river of students flooding through the hall had wound down to a stream and then a trickle as they had talked, and even now the only people left standing around were the stragglers moving hurriedly towards their destinations.

Max sniffed, suddenly a bit anxious herself. She turned towards Kate, finding the other girl shifting nervously from foot to foot.

"I think we should hurry up then. Unless you feel like dealing with Mr. Madsen?" Max said, unable to stifle her own grin when Kate abruptly paled and shook her head in response.

"Then come on, we can grab some snacks and Alice from your room and watch a movie or something. Sound good?" she asked as she stepped backward into the hallway proper.

Kate nodded and followed a hurried step behind her down the corridor and towards the stairwell.

"I also promised you a story, didn't I?" Max said, peeking along the lobby the stairs fed onto for any signs of school security or loitering teachers.

Whatever Kate had meant to say when she opened her mouth to reply was cut off by the high tone of the warning bell over the intercom, signaling the start of class.

They were officially late.

Good.

Kate made a panicked noise and her eyes widened as she grabbed Max's wrist and hurried forward, now tugging Max along behind her towards the front doors in a rush.

"We can talk when we're back in your room, now come on!" she said, pausing only long enough to push the heavy wooden door open enough for both of them to slip out.

The wind outside was humid and chill on her skin, and the clouds above had finally blown in from the sea and swelled, like a dark wool quilt pulled over the horizon. Out, deeper in the clouds off over the ocean she saw flashes like embers in smoke.

Thunder.

She caught her breath as they turned the corner towards the dorms, speaking over the crunch of leaves beneath her shoes.

"Today is definitely a good day to be truant," Max joked, and Kate's grip on her wrist tightened briefly as she pulled the front door open and tugged Max inside.

"I think you might be a bad influence on me," Kate said as the door closed behind them with a click. Her tone was reproachful, but her expression said otherwise.

"Please," Max said as they went up the stairs. "You're top of the class in Creative Writing and Ms. Bastin loves you. You can take a personal day every now and then.

"Besides," she continued knowingly, "I have it on good authority you like to be a rebel, every now and then."

Kate flicked her eyes back towards Max as she wriggled her key into the lock on her door and Max saw her cheeks redden a bit, but she said nothing as her door swung open and her light flicked on.

Kate's room was way cleaner than hers, she thought.

Now it was Max's turn to be embarrassed.

"Actually, give me a minute to straighten up before you come over?" she said, quickstepping towards her own door.

She heard Kate's exasperated sigh from down the hallway.

"I'm taking that as a yes!" she said through her grin, but the only reply she got was the thunking of Kate's door against its frame.

Max fumbled for her keys with one hand and dug her phone out of her pocket with the other.

2 unread texts.

She swiped over to her SMS app as she stepped into her room and began hastily kicking the clothes on her floor underneath her bed along with a couple shoeboxes of pictures; their lids taped securely shut.

Victoria had apparently replied sometime before she had left for class.

-'Tori'-: you're a hot mess, caulfield.

-'Tori'-: apparently /my/ hot mess though. try not to smother yourself before photography? i have plans for you

Her sheets were hopeless, but she used the time it took to straighten out her wreck of a comforter to think up a witty reply.

Max: :(

Fucking elegant.

Max: no promises. gonna skip the rest of today probably?

She sat her phone down long enough to unplug her laptop from the wall and drag it (and the tangle of cables trailing behind it) towards her couch. Her phone buzzed as she was scooting her guitar mostly out of the way underneath it, and once more as she walked back to her bed to see what was up.

-'Tori'-: we'll make a delinquent out of you yet, maxine

-'Tori'-: want me to get you something to eat later?

Max felt her nostrils flare as she flopped onto her bed and started typing.

Max: call me maxine again and i'll show you delinquent .*

Max: also you're an angel, but are you sure driving in this storm is a good idea?

Victoria's reply was immediate.

-'Tori'-: biiiish i'm from seattle. i can handle a little rain i promise

-'Tori'-: and i can't help i like the way 'maxine caulfield' rolls off my tongue ; ) Max's face abruptly flushed scarlet and she shifted onto her side, half of her wanting to respond quickly with something clever while the other half shouted at her to bury her face in her pillow and ride the embarrassment out in peace.

Her phone buzzed back to back against her belly and she tensed, suddenly a bundle of nerves.

How bad could it really be?

The chime indicating an image file told her everything she needed to know.

Max pushed through enough of her embarrassment to check the texts Victoria had sent, but that picture was staying unopened for now. She'd learned her lesson the first time.

Her suspicions were justified.

-'Tori'-: i think you might be better with your tongue than i am though, so maybe i should take your word for it?

-'Tori'-:

if you want to try and convince me tho, i've got all the time in the world~Max swallowed hard and crossed her legs at the ankles.

This girl is dangerous.

Not the first time she'd thought that, but did Victoria have to keep reminding her?

She paused again as she considered.

'Definitely,' she thought with an anxious smile.

Feeling wanted was a new sensation for Max. She liked being flirted with, even if it made her cheeks warm and her knees squirm and her tongue tie itself in a clumsy knot.

Victoria Chase liked her. Anytime they had been close, Victoria had always been willing to pull her closer. It was intoxicating in a way, to be wanted like that. Comforting, to know that no matter how much she decided to give, that there was someone to take all of it. Secure, to know that she wouldn't be pushed away.

.. and more than a little frustrating, sometimes.

'Like now,' she thought to herself as she looked at the picture Victoria had sent her.

It was fairly simple, and not even overly suggestive. It'd be strange if it was, considering it was taken in the middle of Victoria's calculus class.

It was a selfie, shot with Victoria's eyes just out of view. Her cheek rested against her fist, her pale forearm framing one edge of the shot. The class behind her was out of focus- what little of it she could see, considering how close the perspective was. She wore a knit blouse over a collared shirt left unbuttoned enough that, given the angle, Max could just barely see-

Her lips.

The focus of the shot was on Victoria's lips.

The way her cheek rested lazily against her knuckles made it ambiguous whether the phantom smirk on her face was intentional, or just a consequence of the way she was posed.

What wasn't ambiguous was the subtle press of her teeth into her expertly glossed lips, or the restless boil it called into Max's head.

Max felt her breath slow down as her eyes unfocused.

If she were to be honest, she kind of hated lipgloss. On Victoria at least. Her lips felt too.. insubstantial that way. Like paintings of themselves, with paint still too wet to hold. It was better when she didn't need to worry about things like ruining Victoria's makeup. Better, when the slickness on her lips was hers-

Kate opened the door, and Max's fingers unclinched from where they had dug into the pillow she had pulled against her chest.

Kate turned, balancing Alice's cage by the handle with one hand and a bag of snacks in the other. She sat Alice down on the carpet to close the door and Max used the moment's distraction to run her fingers through her hair and collect herself. She could untangle this figurative knot of emotion on her own time. For now, she had a best friend to open up to.

Or to watch The Holy Grail and dodge the issue entirely with.

Kate was perfect like that.

Max's giggle escaped through her nose with the last of her breath as she sat up to help Kate get settled in. They'd had a few movie nights in Max's room before, but none that had started on a matinée. They'd need to cover her window up with a blanket to get the room dark enough to see the screen well, and even more blankets to make the floor comfortable enough for the three of them (Alice included) to really splay out on.

Kate must have heard Max's quiet laugh because she turned towards her with an eyebrow raised.

"Something I need to know about?" she asked, and Max pulled her head out of her closet long enough to reply.

"Just thinking about how good a friend you are," she said, and at Kate's skeptical mien she continued, newfound extra blankets in-hand.

"No, really, I mean that."

Max unfolded the thickest comforter from the stack and shook it, then spread it out as evenly as she could across the floor next to her bed.

"I mean, you're here skipping class with me on a Monday morning just to make sure I'm not alone. You're pretty darn amazing, Kate," Max confessed honestly.

Kate busied herself studying the patterns in the old quilt at the top of the pile Max had set down between them, unable to look at the girl across from her. After a beat, Max turned away to tuck a spare beach-towel into place over the blinds in her window, and Kate chose that time to look up and speak.

"It's really not that big of a deal, Max. Dana and Juliet do the same thing at least once a week."

Max snorted as she turned away from the window, a smile visible on her face despite the dimness of the room.

"And if it wasn't illegal in Oregon half the school would think they were married. Well, that and how aggressively straight both of them are."

Kate blushed at Max's comment, but unexpectedly nodded her head in agreement and even giggled.

"That'd be a power-couple, wouldn't it?" Kate joked. There was a look in her eye that the room was too dark to decipher, but her shy laughter proved to be contagious enough regardless.

Max shook her head as she powered her laptop on, already feeling herself starting to unwind. She sank down onto her belly and tugged a pillow underneath her chin while she fiddled around with the definitely-not-pirated stash of movies on her drive. She felt something warm and fuzzy plop down onto her back and a second later recognized Alice's ticklish snuffling at the nape of her neck. Kate followed a pair of moments behind, sliding in next to Max on the floor and tugging another blanket up around them with the hand that wasn't holding a bag of popcorn.

A socked foot bumped against Max's ankle and she turned away from the computer screen to see Kate staring at her with another one of her inscrutable looks on her face.

"Storytime first, or a movie?" Kate asked leadingly, and after a beat of hesitation Max answered by way of shamelessly pressing play.

Kate managed to look surprisingly vexed for a girl with a mouth full of popcorn, but rolled her eyes and turned towards the darkening laptop screen without complaint.

Sometimes Max just had to be Max.

Somewhere to the west there was thunder, and above them the heavy clouds had finally opened up with rain. Yet, even as the storm tapped and washed against the darkened windowpane, and still-distant rumbling drew both of her bedfellows closer to her side, Max thought to herself that there were very few places that she would rather be.


A/N|

Hi. This is the start of the second act, and I'm looking forward to writing it. More complete notes can be found on Ao3, but suffice to say that it's a wild time to be alive right now.

Love y'all, and wash your hands,
alt_