CHAPTER 4: RAVING

Max was sitting next to her younger sister Ella, across from her older sister Maya, and diagonal from her other older sister Elena. Her mother was at one head of the table, her father in the other, and her grandmother refused to eat pork so she was having tea outside.

They ate silently until Max's mother's voice tore through the air. "Max," she said coldly, distant, "sit up straight and move your hair out of your eyes." Max did as she was told. Her sisters lowered their eyes.

They resumed. Max thought to herself: Just finish as fast as you can.

"Maya, have you decided whether to go to St. Anne's or Willard's?" her mother asked with a smile.

Max looked up and into Maya's eyes. She stared back with a resigned look and Max knew her answer.

"I want to go to Willard Academy," she answered.

As their mother praised Maya for her choice, Max's shoulders drooped. She was no longer hungry.

"May I be excused?" she interrupted. Her mother shot her a dark glare.

"You haven't finished yet."

"I'm full."

Her father, who was busy with a phone call, made a gesture for her to go. Max nodded and left before she could be stopped.

She noticed her mother clenching her fork tightly out of the corner of her eye.

She stepped outside towards the gazebo; where her grandma was at.

Max found her reading a book and having finished all the tea. She put down her book once she saw Max coming up to her.

"What's wrong with you?" she asked, not too harshly.

Max sighed and sat next to her. "Maya chose New York."

Her grandma nodded for her to continue.

"She's going to be gone all year now," Max cried.

Her grandma, whose name was Joanne, rolled her eyes. "She'll be back for breaks and for summer vacation."

"But it's not enough."

"You'll have Ella and Elena here with you."

"But I want Maya here too."

"You don't need Maya. You have your other sisters and Maya will come visit when she can." Max still looked crestfallen. "And I'm here too. Or would you rather go with her and leave me alone?"

Max was taken aback. "No! I want both of you here."

"Well I'll be here for you, but Maya chose for herself to leave and you have to accept that."

"Mom's going to pick on me more now," Max confessed."When Maya's around she's not so mean."

Joanne's eyes narrowed. She wasn't aware of how observant Max was to Valencia's behavior around her.

In a rare display of affection, Joanne wrapped her arms around the young girl. "Like I said, I'll be here for you even when Maya leaves."

"Forever?" Max asked.

"For as long as I can," she answered. Max closed her eyes and hoped desperately that things would get better.

.

"What do people usually wear to a rave?" Gazzy asks me. I shrug and gesture to my own outfit: black jeans, black shirt, and black shoes. Gazzy shakes his head at me and continues looking through Iggy's drawers.

Iggy walks in, shirtless, trying to write some words on his chest with a purple marker.

"What are you doing?" I ask him. So far he's only written an 'F' and an 'R', but they are slightly different sizes and they're crooked. He looks up at me with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

He grins wolfishly and spreads out his arms before him like he's about to present something. "Free kisses, baby!"

"Are you kidding me? No one's going to want to kiss your skinny ass," Gazzy tells him.

"It's true," I tell Iggy, smirking. "You should put your shirt back on before someone confuses you for a victim of anorexia."

Iggy scoffs and resumes writing in terrible strokes. "That's not what the ladies say."

"The ladies don't say anything because they don't go near you."

Iggy glares at both Gazzy and I, and we start laughing.

"Whatever, if you had a sister Fang, she'd be all up on me," Iggy says, pretending to do a hair flip.

"A sister of mine wouldn't have such bad taste."

"Ooh, burn!" Gazzy yells, like the 15 year old that he is. Iggy hits him upside the head which then makes Gazzy punch Iggy in the stomach and then they're pulling ears, twisting arms, and throwing each other onto the ground.

"I don't know why I hang out with you two," I tell them, maneuvering around them as they roll on the ground.

As Iggy has Gazzy in a chokehold he says, "Us manly men have to stick together."

"Oh, right. You're writing on yourself with purple and your brother has spent an hour trying to find something to wear. You're both very manly," I scoff.

Iggy grins and lets go of Gazzy.

At the end Gazzy ended up wearing the same thing I did and Iggy had to put on a shirt because he tried washing off what he'd already written and it just created a huge purple blob on his chest. We decided he'd get no chicks looking like that.

.

It's already dark by the time we arrive, but we could see the stadium already since it was so bright and there were probably thousands of people standing outside. The stadium itself was on the outskirts of the city and so the parking lot was huge and it was almost entirely full.

I drove in and out of lanes with Iggy yelling, "There's a spot over there!" and then once we got there it'd already be taken up.

The music was loud and finally, after about half an hour, we found a spot.

"The carnival this year is going to be fucking awesome!" Gazzy yells. He brushes a hand through his blonde hair, messing it up even further, and puts on a backpack. I don't know what he has in it and I don't think I want to know either in case he gets caught for carrying pyrotechnics or something.

Iggy straightens himself up and takes in a deep breath. "I am ready for this."

I shrug. "It'll probably be the same as last year."

"Whoa, pessimistic Polly," Iggy begins. I raise an eyebrow at him. "Just because Max didn't text back doesn't mean the rest of your life is going to be a bust."

I had only texted Max once since I had seen her at the diner, but she hadn't responded. It was a simple 'hey' and maybe she hadn't even known it was me. She wasn't even in the greatest of moods when I saw her so maybe she was still out of it and she didn't have time to text back. Yeah, that's definitely what happened.

I roll my eyes and then start laughing. "Since when have I been optimistic about anything?"

Iggy looks thoughtful and then says, "Yeah, you're right. Let's go." And then he walks off and we follow.

As I get closer, I notice that a lot of the girls are wearing bikinis and many guys are shirtless. Sluts and douche-bags, I label them.

Except the girls are hot. Some of them eye me up as I pass and I smirk right back. I swear one of them must have stopped breathing. That's a little concerning .

When we pay for our tickets and we finally get into the stadium, I am awestruck. There are literally thousands of people walking around wearing the weirdest shit. Like, seriously some people have full-on animals costumes, others are painted up with bright colors, others have feathers on their heads, some have metal-looking clothes, and a lot of them have barely any clothes on at all. Not that I really mind, but still.

We make our way to the biggest stage where there are neon lights flashing up and down and around the crowd and there's smoke coming out of the sides. The rides on the sides of the crowd are also lit up and it makes it all feel like we're in a dream.

The people are jumping up and down, yelling, a lot of them are making out, and others are dancing with their hands up and bobbing their heads from side to side.

I had said it was going to be just like last year and I wasn't lying, except I wasn't being pessimistic. Feeling the bass reverberate through your bones, listening to the beats practically being ingrained into your head, and having a bunch of girls want to make out with you is awesome.

Except I don't really dance. I just stand while a girl dances around me usually.

Iggy, on the other hand, has put on his LED gloves and is doing some complex movements while Gazzy is just fist-pumping.

Right on cue I feel a girl's arms snake up my back to my shoulders. I look behind me and see a girl that looks slightly familiar. She has medium-length brown hair and brown eyes. She's kind of short, I notice. She moves so that she stands in front of me.

She looks up at me with what I think are meant to be sultry eyes and then she starts dancing. I grin at her. She's kind of pretty, I guess.

I'm watching her and the people around me when out of nowhere this huge guy comes and grabs the girl roughly by her arm.

I have two options: pretend I didn't see or…

"Hey!" I yell at him, moving forward to separate them. The girl looks up and grimaces. "Leave her alone," I grind out. The guy sneers at me and shoves me away.

I won't lie and say I'm the strongest guy out there, because I'm not, but this guy was clearly competing for the title and so that shove actually pushed me back a few feet. Iggy sees this and he comes over.

"What's going on?" he asks, eyebrows pinched together in concern.

I rub my chest from where the guy shoved me and gesture to the guy in question.

Iggy sees the girl and his eyes widen and his jaw drops a little. I look back, thinking that maybe the guy hit her, judging by Iggy's reaction, but he's only yelling at the girl. Iggy's features harden and he marches over to them. I follow and I hear Iggy saying in a serious voice, "If you don't let her go I'll call security and you'll get kicked out."

"Wait, no," the girl objects. She bites her lip and glances nervously between the three of us and then at Gazzy when he arrives. "He's actually taking care of me. I wasn't supposed to wander off."

I furrow my brows. "And it's alright for him to treat you like this?"

"It shouldn't matter to you how I treat her, dick," the guy yells at me.

I stand up straighter. "It matters if you're hurting her," I tell him.

The girl rips her arm away from his grip and says, "He's not. He was just worried. I'm sorry for this. We'll be leaving now."

Iggy locks gazes with her and says, "Be careful."

The guy rolls his eyes. "C'mon, Ella," he orders. He grabs her again, and nearly drags her away.

I shake my head at their retreating forms.

"She is beautiful," I hear Iggy murmur.

"What?"

Iggy turns to me and shakes his head quickly. "Nothing. What were you doing with her anyway?"

I eye him warily. "Just dancing."

Gazzy shrugs and says, "That has got to be the most boring confrontation ever."

I hit his shoulder. He glares at me and then walks off into the crowd.

Iggy is energized, jumping from foot to foot, and then he tells me, "Hey man, I'll be back. I have to go do something."

Before I can ask him anything, he runs off in the direction of the Ella and the guy. I knew it. I just hope he doesn't do anything stupid, like try to pick a fight with the dude. Iggy's a scrawny guy and he would definitely be on the losing end of that deal.

While I contemplate going after him or not, my shirt gets gripped from behind and suddenly I'm being pulled away.

"What the fuck?"

My first thought is that the guy has friends and he sent them to come beat me up, but then a girlish voice says, "It's me."

And I can't believe my ears. She lets go of my shirt and I turn around to come face to face with Max. All thoughts about following Iggy flee my mind and all my attention is on Max.

Her eyes are a little blood-shot, but not like that time at the diner, and she says, "Come with me."

Before I have the time to process a single thought , she's walking away and I'm following closely behind.

She winds through the crowd as if they're not even there and people move over as I pass as well. She walks really fast, but my legs are long so I keep up easily.

Eventually, after a lot of bumping and many girls – and some guys – trying to grope me, Max stops near a door. It's just a normal door except it doesn't seem to have a handle.

"Hold on," Max tells me and then knocks twice, then once, and then again three times. The door opens and Max gestures for me to go with her.

I should be suspicious, I know, but how many times does the girl of your dreams ask you to follow her?

I step into the room, leaving behind the deafening noise of the music and the shouts of the crowd, and see about ten people standing around, drinking, smoking, and making out. Are these the type of people Max hangs out with?

Max looks at some people distastefully and then sits down on a bench in a corner. I don't know what I'm supposed to do so I follow her example and sit next to her. The room is obviously some type of office and a huge one at that. There are some trophies behind a case and a desk on one wall where a girl and a guy are groping each other.

Max leans back and closes her eyes, breathing out slowly. I notice then that she's not dressed like everyone else. She's just wearing a pair of dark-washed jeans and a black long-sleeved shirt. The fabric clings onto her. I would say I did the right thing and looked away, but instead I stare like she is being displayed just for me.

She opened her eyes suddenly and stretched. Her arms above her head and her legs pointed out made her torso elongate and arch which gave me a view of her perfect flat stomach and her chest. I would've blushed if I had the capability. Instead I just raise an eyebrow and say, "Is there a reason you brought me here?"

Max brings her arms down and shrugs. "You looked lost out there." Likely story.

"Or maybe you just wanted my company," I counter, teasing her.

She freezes for a moment but quickly regains her composure. "Don't flatter yourself," she tells me jokingly. "I figure you're not so bad, so why not take you out of that dump outside and bring you where the real party is."

I raise an eyebrow and scoff. I gesture to the people around us. "This is what constitutes a party?" There's no real music on since the one from outside can still be heard, but otherwise it just looks like any normal group of friends hanging out together.

"To me a party means alcohol," Max says, shrugging. She stands up and heads to a table that I hadn't noticed that has some half-empty bottles. Oh, I guess I am pessimistic. She picks one up. "I can't get any of this out there, but we have plenty here." She grins.

I shouldn't be drinking since I'm the one driving so I raise my hand and shake my head. Max rolls her eyes. "If you don't want to stay you can always leave."

I don't even entertain the thought, so I just shrug.

"There's also some joints over there if you like that," she points to a group of guys who are high out of their minds, leaning against the wall with their eyes closed.

"No, I'm good," I tell her.

She must have seen something in my expression because she says, a bit peeved, "What, too good for you?"

I'm taken aback, but I don't show it. Why did she get so defensive? "I'm sober for tonight."

"Oh, okay," Max says, her previous mood back. She fills a cup for herself and sits down next to me again.

"Why did you come if you were just going to hole yourself up in here?" I ask her after a few minutes of silence. Not that I don't want to be there with her, just her presence is enough for me, but I did pay $140 to get in.

"I like the music. The people not so much," she answers. She sips at her drink. "To be honest, I wasn't planning on coming at all, but my sister did and she's two years younger so my parents...asked me to come with her." I didn't know she had a sister.

Max points out the guy making out with the girl on the table. "He works here and got us this place so I figured I'd come and make the best of it."

"So which one's your sister?" I ask, looking around for someone who looks similar to Max.

Max shakes her head. "She's out there somewhere."

I scoff. "You're doing a good job of taking care of her."

Max's jaw tightens and so does her grip on her cup. "She can take care of herself," she says under her breath.

"Okay," I say, kind of awkwardly. I'm not one to pry, so I don't.

"Where's your other half?" she asks me.

Panic sets in. Does she think I'm taken? Because I'm not, I want to tell her. If she wants to get with me she totally can. "Who?"

"The guy with the blonde hair," she clarifies.

I'm about to answer when I remember that she was never around when I was with him. "Well first, I'm straight." This information is imperative to her. "And secondly, how do you know about him?"

Max laughs. "Hey, I'm not the stalker here, but I did notice you around school when I used to go with you."

Wow. She noticed me before. Ugh, I sound like a teenage girl. But this is crucial. She noticed me before. Yeah, I'm happy now. Let it be known to everyone that I can die happy now. Well maybe if I kissed her just once then I'd die happy.

Max is staring at me and I remember her question. "Oh, he went chasing after some girl."

Max laughs. "So the two of you are exactly alike."

I smirk. "No, for me it's more like the girls are doing the chasing."

She scoffs and downs the rest of her drink. "It seems like the cocky side of you is back. But I wouldn't doubt that." She eyes me up and down and I feel like the air is too hot. "You're decent."

"Decent?" I ask, curious.

Max shrugs. "Sure. Maybe you're trying a little too hard for the bad boy image, but you're all right."

I furrow my brows. "I'm not trying for anything. This is how I am."

Max rolls her eyes. "I was joking." She eyes me curiously and then stands up quickly. "Hey, you want to go somewhere with me?"

I stare at her in bewilderment. "I'm already here, aren't I?"

She sighs exasperatedly. "Obviously, but I mean somewhere else. Outside of the stadium."

I think of the money I paid to get in here. It was a lot. She probably sees this on my face because she says, "Don't worry. You can sneak back in later."

It almost seems like I'm trying to get out of going with her, which I don't want, but I have to say it. "I'm my friends' ride." There, I hope Iggy and Gazzy appreciate what I'm sacrificing for them.

Grinning wryly, she says, "We'll take my car so they don't think you ran off without them." I'm speechless. "There? Or do you have any other demands? You'll like what we're going to do. I swear." She smiles at me almost mischievously.

And now I'm intrigued.

I grin at her and shake my head slowly. Standing up, I follow her out of the room and into the parking lot and then eventually slide into her Mustang.

As she shifts into first gear – god, she looks sexy driving a stick-shift – she looks at me out of the corner of her eye, looking a bit nervous, but then the look fades and she smiles softly at me. I can't help but to smile back.

.

Don't do this Max, I tell myself. Don't do it. He seems like a good guy. A genuinely good guy. A dark thought crosses through my mind. He's not like that, I tell myself. But really, how much do I know about him? Not much. What am I even doing?

I can tell he's looking at me. He's not actually hiding this fact, which is a little unnerving, and it's making me kind of nervous. Should I go through with it? But I've already taken so many chances. Just one more, I decide, almost like a voice in my head made the decision for me.

At the last second, instead of going left, towards my house, I make a right turn.

You're so stupid, Max, I think to myself. So stupid. I can already feel myself regretting this.


Disclaimer: Characters are owned by James Patterson.

Not my best chapter. I'm a semi-English major and the weekly 10 page essays have been taking up my time, sorry. I get out in 4 weeks, so more writing time then. Youtube 'EDC Las Vegas' for what the carnival thing is like. What did you guys think?