A/N: So honestly this has been the biggest break I have taken but I needed sometime to get back to the things I love. I have finally picked up a book and actually felt giddy these characters and I have felt the same when I was writing this. I want to thank Richie for pushing to keep going and owe him so much for editing and instilling this sort of confidence again(:
Keep on sinning, Comment, follow and Fav you gays (:
"You think you have any clue what it is to be me? To have this fucking legacy haunting your every move.. controlling my future?!" Nathan pointed the gun toward Max, his hands shaking and with a rapid pulse he numbly shook his head, searching within himself for the right words, to prove to everyone that he's not crazy... just suffering.
Max buries the heel of her shoe into her stance, her hands in the air but she's not scared, not of this, not of Nathan.
"Nathan just listen to me." Her voice as soft as ever, anxiously she bites the inside of her cheek as she speaks. "Your mom and dad do not define what you are or what you have to become.. you can get away from this town, from the tie to your family name. The matter of fact is, that even though you're a Prescott, they don't own you Nathan."
Nathan clenched his jaw while Max spoke, his dry throat making it impossible to pass the lump in his throat. Nathan regripped the gun, his palms sweaty, but he still had the safety on. The scared boy kept the words that hung in the air in the back of his head , he's heard them so many times from Victoria and from his sister.. the only people who Nathan could really trust.
He took a deep breath, running his fingers through his hair with the gun still in his hands. He had no clue how to respond, how to act, or who he's trying to become. If he's not a Prescott, if he didn't obey his parents rules and guidelines then what will become come of him? His worth won't mean anything... Nathan was nothing if not a Prescott. And not just a prescott but one that takes charge, the girl in front of him meant nothing to him, just a dumb naive girl.
Nathan paced in his room, opening the doors to his balcony, maybe ending someone else's life wasn't what he wanted, maybe he will never get a happy ending himself because that's just how the universe worked..
Stepping out barefoot into the the cold pavement, he sucked in the fresh air he stepped back and faced Max again "You know how fucking stupid it was to sneak up on me in the fucking bathroom, how insanely fucking stupid it is for you to come into my home and demand an explanation, proof against what Jefferson did? Did you not realize I was at his side for a reason ?" Nathan paused taking in a slow breath " He gets it, he got me, he was willing to help me with my shit and deal with it as it came instead of tossing aside what I feel, I thought he was making me better.. I thought if he could care then why couldn't my own flesh and blood." Letting out a shaky chuckle he raises the gun to his head. "Turns out we're both just as equally messed up, he and I are the same and that's what no one will understand."
Max's vision became blurry, her head must have been deceiving her; blinking a few times, she realized that what she saw in front of her was the reality she created. Max fell to the ground, her mind playing tricks on her; games she could no longer play with herself. The small girl on her knees crying and screaming within to make it stop, to make Nathan stop from hurting himself "Please, please just go away. He can't go, we can't go.. I'm doing the best I can." She sobbed on the floor, holding her head. She felt a strong energy inside, it felt heavy, and very fragile, trying so hard to be strong and let herself get through this. But the more she pushed herself the louder her cries become.
The second Chloe heard screams and shouting coming up from the manor she bolted, Nathan and Max were both screaming, they were not necessarily talking to each other; just chaotic blurts. Panting up the stairs, she turned the first corner and into Nathan's room. Scanning the room for Max, who was curled up in a ball. She slid next to her as she dropped to the floor, Nathan whom at that point had put away his toy and now his hands occupied a damp cloth, a strong scent like rubbing alcohol.
"I-I-I don't know what happened. I swear I didn't touch her." He tried bringing the drenched rag to her nose but Chloe slaps his hand away.
"Don't get near her." Chloe growled, picking up Max, trying her best to be tough with how out of shape she was, gritting her teeth she stood up tall carrying her best friend out of the manor and into her beat up truck.
"Max you gotta stay with me, we're going to get you out of here, you're going to be okay... I promise." Chloe wiped away her tears, grabbing the same damp cloth from before, tilting Max's head against the headrest and dabbing intoxicating rag on her forehead and at her neck, wiping her face hoping the smell would help her come back.
"Maxine I swear you better be okay."
Max lifted her head from the ground slowly, a light beaming down her face; covering the glare with the palm of her hands, it was really hard to adjust her eyes to her new surroundings. She wasn't really sure what was going on; her head was throbbing, her muscles ached and she felt funnier than usual. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a slim figure pushing the creaking door open, they didn't speak, didn't laugh and didn't even make a single sound.
"Hello? Is anyone in here." She called out thinking that maybe it was her mind again, her stupid fragile mind playing these ridiculous games.
The figure approached Max, crouching down to her eye level and with a giggle this person proceeded to move Max's hands out of the way.
"Well hello there you precious little thing." This person's voice was so inviting, so familiar but yet so distant.
Max, squinting her eyes sat up straight a little. At first she couldn't make out who it was, this person wasn't someone who she knew but she did know of her.
"Rachel Amber? Is that you?" Now that the name rolled off the tip of her tongue Max was trying to piece all of this together, now she knew exactly where she was at. A place that all three of them had touched and felt and grieved for something. They were at the Junkyard, in the little shack out just blinded from the rest of the world.
Rachel smiled, it was radiant, she was radiant... of course she was.
"Yes Max it's me." She reached her hand to help Max up from the floor.
"I thought that maybe now was a good time to talk, I know you and Chloe have a lot going on so I won't take much of your time." Rachel brushed a strand of hair out of Max's face revealing her pouting.
"You want to talk to me ?" Max's expression was puzzled, her gaze followed Rachel Amber, Max didn't know what to expect from this encounter. She didn't know what version of this girl she should believe; which was the true Rachel Amber and which had her friends and classmates made up along the way. There was one version she had to believe in and it was the version that Chloe shared, the version where Rachel Amber had been there for Chloe, to protect her to be a guiding light in all the dark times her best friend might have faced.
Rachel Amber nimbly ran her fingers over her graffitti on the brick wall before looking up. She smiled flipping her long hair over her shoulder, revealing her long blue feather earing. "Oh Max, you're so silly. Of course I want to talk to you. I've heard nothing but great things about you. You know that Chloe won't stop bragging how great you are, how great you've been to her." Rachel Amber grasp Max's wrist and pulled her outside to the junkyard, unlike any other day the sky is covered in dark grey clouds and out of nowhere the water comes pouring on both girls. The raindrops drenching the their clothing, Rachel Amber has a wide smile on her face, screaming with laughter, jumping into the big puddles. Rachel's damp hair clinging to her face and her eyes are like rays of sunshine whenever she smiles it feels contagious, warm and bubbly to be around her, even if all she was now was an enigma.
Max has her arms wrapped around her waist, she was cold and extremely wet but watching Rachel so intensely, at first a bit of jealousy pangs her chest, she wants to be as free as Rachel, to be so carefree.. she doesn't realize until she looks past the puddles and the rooting girl in the middle of the junkyard where exactly their location is at.
Rachel tilts her head back down, rolling her neck; her eyes closed feeling as ease with nature and feeling at peace with the surroundings. Rachel slowly fluttered her eyelids open and inches her head to Max's direction, the corner of her lips tug up into a smile. "Hey there cutie. Don't worry, I don't bite ." She trots over to grab Max's hand and hooks her arm with Max's, making their way to where Chloe and Max had recovered her body, now it was nothing more than just a crime scene, yellow tape plastered all around the area including part of the school bus.
Max nibbled at the corner of her lip as she looked at the plot no more than a foot deep. Finding Rachel's body was always a hazy memory one that was always in the back of her head. Both Chloe and Max had cried, had grieved for everybody's dream girl. Thinking back to that very perplexed day Max too lost something so important and she doesn't know if this thing is something she can ever get back or if wishful thinking is just what it is. Max lost a part a Chloe, a part of Chloe that shined and thrived, the idealist and the one who instilled them both with so much undying faith.
Rachel got on her knees and started playing with the dirt that covered the remains of her body, the moist soil slipping through her fingers before she dusted off her hands on her ripped jeans. Rachel's head cocked to the side to look up at Max. " Max I know how hard all of this has been but I want to thank you for coming back in time to help Chloe through this journey. You see.." Rachel flickered her eyes to the lighting in the distance and then back to Max. " Chloe.. my best friend, she is strong, she is so very strong. She takes after Joyce." Rachel plays with her feather earing composing herself. " But she is also broken, and fragile. The things I did and the things I hid from her are because of that. I want you to know that I never meant to hurt Chloe, I never meant to hurt you in the process either. I admired you for being so good to her, being so good to me too; for caring so much about a dead girl. A dead girl that meant absolutely nothing to you." Rachel turned her cheek, a stream of tears falling from her face, wiping them away with the sleeve of her flannel.
Max sits down next to Rachel resting her head against the other girl's shoulder "You come with the Chloe Price package, she loves you and I don't think that will ever change and by extension I feel like I know the parts of you that she loves." Max's voice now cracking "So please help me do right by her, help me get better." She whispers.