I think that Max and Steve, if they had more scenes together, would have a really nice friendship. Hopefully in season 4 they get to talk more!
Chapter 1
Max sat on her dead brothers bed. Billy. She was destroyed by his death even though she should hate him. He was verbally abusive and was not afraid to get violent. He was an asshole, but she still cared for him. It sounded batshit crazy, but it was true. She did not want him to die. She wanted him out of her life more times than she could count, but not like this. He was actually gone... forever.
Now she was stuck as an only child with her mother and abusive step-father. He was never abusive towards them, but who knows now? Now that Billy is gone, who will he turn his anger to? Her mother? Herself maybe?
Most of the time, she rarely sees him even though he is on temporary leave due to the death of her brother. Makes you wonder what he is doing all day. And when he is home, she is in her room all day or out skateboarding. Her mom works as well and right now she is at her day job, which means she is all alone with no one to bother or harass her. There is no one who is supposed to be babysitting or watching over her. There was no loud rock music blasting throughout the house to the point where she can't even hear herself think. She missed it. She really did.
She couldn't be in his room anymore. Couldn't be in the house. She dashed to her room, grabbed her skateboard and headed for the front door. She started skating to the one place she goes to for comfort and safety. The video rental store.
She suddenly stops and sits down on the curbside, she can't breathe. She sets her skateboard down and put her feet on top of it, resulting in her knees being close to her chest and face. She doesn't realize that she has arrived at her destination and is in full view of her new friend. Steve saw a flash of red out of the corner of his eyes. He turned his body towards the big window at the store and saw Max sitting on the curbside near the entrance of the parking lot. He got worried and jumped over the front counter and ran towards the door while yelling to his coworker. " Hey I'll be right back, cover me."
Robin said nothing to Steve and just rolled her eyes. She knew the little red-headed girl or the curly haired kid must be nearby. She covers him on almost every shift they work together. It can get annoying.
Steve jogged up to Max and put his hand on her shoulder. Max quickly turned around ready to fight, but quickly realized that is was only Steve. Steve backed up for a second, fully believing that Max was about to knock him out with her skateboard. God knows how many times he has gotten beaten up. She sits back down and Steve does the same.
"Are you okay? Why are you sitting out here instead of going inside?"
"Just wanted some fresh air."
He didn't believe her, she didn't look so good. He didn't push the conversation any further, he knew that she did not like to share her feelings.
"Hey, you wanna hear something that happened to me today" Steve said while pulling her up and wrapping his arm around her shoulders.
"Yeah, what happened to you this time? Got rejected by another girl?" Max said while chuckling.
"Noooooo, actually quite the opposite"
Max was kind of in shock. She knew he was quite cute and funny and brave, but she didn't think that he would get a date so soon. She should have known that it wouldn't have taken so long. She would say yes in a heartbeat. I mean no she wouldn't. She don't like him like that. It's just a harmless crush.
Am I jealous?
They were already in the store when Steve started to tell his story and Max nodded towards Robin as a way of saying hello. "So Max, long story short. Two girls came in last night looking for a gross chick flick movie. I get a random movie from that section over there." He points towards the romance section. "They get it and come back today and told me that they loved it and blah blah blah. One of the girls, the hotter one, asks me for my number and check it out my friend. Here it is."
He pulls out a piece of paper with a phone number written on it with a pink pen and a heart drawn on it. Max had no reaction to it. She tried to force a smile, but couldn't physically make it happen. Steve wondered why she didn't say anything or at least make some type of joke like "I bet she gave you a fake number". But no reaction. Before he could say something, Robin said "He just got lucky that there are a lot of desperate women here that would date someone like him."
"Hey! Watch your mouth. I am handsome and I have a charming personality." He said on the defensive side.
Max started to smile, silently agreeing with Steve.
"Hey! why are you smiling? You better not be agreeing with Robin because I am not ready to die from my broken ego just yet!"
Max started laughing "I am not smiling because of that." but didn't say anything else.
She has a really pretty smile
"Hey Max, why don't you pick out a movie so we can watch it at my place." She nodded and walked around the store. She was in-between two movies. A horror movie and a comedy movie. For obvious reasons, she wanted to pick the horror movie, so she could be near him whenever she got "scared". Max also wanted to laugh, oh how she missed laughing. She went for the comedy realizing how pathetic she sounds.
"You ready to go?" Max nodded and they headed out towards his car.
This was his chance to talk to Max, try and get her to open up a bit.
"So are you okay... with uhmm like everything that has happened?"
Max tensed up knowing exactly where this conversation was going. She didn't want to talk about, think about it or hear about it.
"Hey Max?"
"I don't want to talk about it Steve."
"You don't even know what I am going to s-"
"BILLY! I don't want to talk about him Steve. Please"
It was quite. It was been months since the death of her brother, but she was still the same. She didn't talk to anyone about not Lucas or even her mother.
" I'm sorry Steven... for yelling at you. You didn't deserve it. Sorry" Max suddenly said.
He slightly turned his head towards her, just for a second before he was watching the road again.
"No Max, I'm sorry. Shouldn't have said anything until you're ready for that."
He patted her thigh and continued driving with both hands.
"Thanks" Max whispered, but loudly enough for Steve to hear.
They got to his house, parents gone for the majority of the year and went inside. Steve was setting up the movie and Max was calling her mom to tell her that she is sleeping over at a friends house. They are both on the couch with a single blanket and start watching the movie, laughing for almost the entirety of it. After the movie ended, Max asked him a question about earlier.
"Are you really going to go on a date with that one girl?"
"Hell yeah, I haven't been on a date for a long time." He said realizing that sounded kinda lame.
He then took the chance to mess around with her a little.
"Why are you asking? Are you jealous Maxine?" She glared at him when she heard her name.
"Sorry sorry don't get mad, I was just messing with you Max haha"
"I know you don't okay, Lucas would make that very hard to happen."
"I actually broke up with Lucas, foreal this time." Max said to Steve.
"Oh shit, I'm sorry Max. I didn't know. I wouldn't have said that if I-" He got interrupted once again.
"It's fine Steve really it is" she said with a small smile. After a short silence, Steve said,
"So it is possible for you to have a crush on-" Steve couldn't finish the sentence because he found a pillow thrown to his precious face. He was so oblivious to the fact the Max did have a crush on him. If only she was a couple years older, but she knew that her feelings would not be returned and she just had to stay quite or she would ruin their friendship.
"Okay okay I'm done with the jokes."
"Lets go to sleep Max, I'm dead beat tired."
They both walk up the stairs and Max asked " Hey Steve, can I please sleep with you again?"
Steve debated on this. The first time Max slept over, they were both in separate rooms, but she started to scream, cry and yell as she was having nightmares. So ever since then they slept in the same room. He wanted to break the cycle soon, but he knew she wasn't going to be able to sleep well. She had her mom sleep with her as well at her house, but her step-dad put a stop to that quickly. He would even get mad when she woke him up with her screaming. She had to stay up as late as possible so she wouldn't make him mad in the middle of the night.
"Yeah, sure Max."
She had a duffel bag with her things in his room, so she went to grab it and got ready for bed. She went under his covers and he went to get the air mattress. She has always felt bad for having him use that whenever she is over.
"Hey Steve, you can sleep on the bed with me"
He turned to her "Are you sure Max?" He never had any ill intentions with Max or even thought about it. That wasn't what he was thinking. He was thinking that she really was alone in this world, just like him.
"Yeah I am, I always feel bad when you sleep on the air mattress."
"Haha don't worry Max, I don't mind."
"I want you to Steve."
He went under the cover next to Max and started to tell her some stories about his childhood and life. Some funny and happy and others sad. He wanted to make sure that she could talk to him whenever she wanted and hopefully this could make her open up a bit more.
Max thought He really is lonely, just like me.
They both went to sleep around the same time, with Max hugging Steve for comfort and safety. She felt protected.