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Run
For once, the fact that people consider her to be so dense and thoughtless comes in handy. Every time Spinelli looks at her with his heart in his eyes, or Lulu tries to hint at their friend's feelings for her, Maxie can pretend like she has no idea what's going on and change the subject. Each opportunity missed is one more day that Spinelli is safe.
He likes to warn her about how much danger their friendship poses to her. She's willing to admit that he has a point. She grew up in Port Charles, and her dad is the police commissioner. She knows all about mob violence, all about the cost, all about how innocent people get caught in the crossfire, and she doesn't want to be one of them. She just finds it odd that Spinelli sees himself as the danger when Maxie's the one who leaves a trail of dead or broken people in her wake.
Every time she's with someone, it ends badly. Jesse and Coop are dead, Lucky- well, that's one mess she'd be happy to never think of again. Her cousin's heart beats in her chest; the memory of her sister lurks around every corner. Her parents are nowhere to be found, too busy saving the world to bother with checking up on her. Frisco didn't even attend Georgie's funeral.
Mac and Robin and especially Spinelli would all insist that it's not her fault, that she's not to blame for most of it (not even they can excuse the Lucky drama), but isn't she always the common denominator?
She can't lose one more person. She just can't. Especially not Spinelli. He's become her rock. He's given her his trust and his support and his unconditional love. When he promises that he'll always be there for her, she can actually believe him. Losing him… she can't even let herself think about it.
So she keeps things as platonic as she possibly can. She offers hugs before he can get up the courage to kiss her, subject changes and deliberate misunderstandings before he can confess how much he loves her. And she hopes that she won't slip up and let anyone know that she loves him, too.