Chapter 9-Max P.O.V.
"Mom! I'm home." I shouted into the house while I took off my shoes and tossed them into the shoe closet. I went into the dining room, where my mom and sister were sitting at opposite sides of the table, a thick silence over the room. I pulled out my normal chair and sat down, my mom offering me a kind smile.
"Did you eat, Max?" She asked, and I nodded, venturing to look over at Maya. She had already been watching me with cold eyes, and I quickly looked away from her. I felt a weight settle itself over my diaphragm. Whenever Maya was angry at me, she very rarely let it go.
"How was the game?" My mom asked, trying to ease some of the harsh silence radiating from Maya. I smiled and sat up in my chair, trying to be happy for my mom.
"Good. Packers won and Gazzy's mom made tacos. They have a stuffed horse in their basement." My mom spurted a laugh and took a bite of her salad.
"Like a stuffed animal?" She asked, and I shook my head.
"Like, a taxidermy horse." Her eyes bugged open.
"Oh my. That sounds like a strange reality show." I grinned.
"Thats exactly what I said." My mom finished chewing the last of her salad and pointed her fork at me.
"I was just telling Maya, Nicholas came by asking for you." I froze in my chair, if Maya told Lissa that he was affiliating with me again she would come after me.
"Did he say what he wanted?" I asked, my voice shaking slightly as I felt Mayas glare dig into the side of my head a little harder.
"No, just asked if you were here. I didn't know when you would be back so I just let him in. I don't know how long he stayed but he must have snuck out before I heard him. Quiet as a mouse the whole time." I just blinked. What could he possible want from me? Did he plant bombs or something creepy in my room? No one ever goes in my room, not even my mom because I keep it clean.
"I think he likes you, Maxie." My mom winked at me, and I tried to force away a dark red blush. Maya leaped to her feet and stabbed her fork into the dark wood of the table, so hard that the fork stuck straight up, wedged in the hard wood. She shoved her chair backwards and turned to stomp up the stairs.
"Maya Alana Martinez! You come down here now!" My mom shouted, getting up from her chair and sending a sympathetic look. I sighed and waited for my sister to come back down the stairs, looking scary calm. I got out of my chair and sprinted past Maya and my mom and up to my room. At the end of the hall, I went in my room and slammed the door closed and leaned against it, swiping my headphones off my desk and plugging them into my phone in my back pocket, scrolling through my albums, before choosing Marianas Trench by August Burns Red and turning up the volume high so I couldn't hear my mom shouting at Maya.
I looked around my room, seeing my chair out from under my desk and a butt-print on my bed from where Nick must have sat. I pushed in the chair and went to sit on my bed, pulling my laptop out from under my bed. I got on my hands and knees and peeked under my bed, nothing out of place. I let out a breath of relief and pulled myself back up on my bed. I took a few deep breaths, it looked like Nick just wandered around before leaving. I went and sat in my swiveling computer chair and unplugged my headphones from my phone and into the sound system attached to my computer. I pulled up my steam and turned up the fan on my tower, before turning on skyrim.
I needed a little video game sur-reality right now.
I stood in front of my closet, arms crossed, unsatisfied with my clothes.
"I wish Nudge could help pick me an outfit." I mumbled to myself, before choosing a black hoodie with a white diamond painted on the front and a pair of dark blue skinny jeans. I took off my pajamas, shivering in the cold while pulling on the clothes. I pulled a black belt with silver studs through my jeans loops and adjusted the hood on my sweatshirt. It was getting colder as November started to end, and I for one was ready for coats and wool socks. I pulled a brush through my wavy hair, and took a white, knit beanie from my hat basket and pulled it over the top of my head, so a tiny bit of my hair showed in the front.
I sighed, and pulled my backpack over my shoulders and ran downstairs, hoping I wouldn't have to face Maya. I grabbed a granola bar and walked out the front door, quietly closing the door and starting my walk to school. I stuffed my hands in my pockets, listening to the world around me. Two blocks away from school, I pulled out my phone and checked the time.
Seven, and school started at eight thirty, I groaned, I should have walked slower. I walked up the last hill and the school came into view, dread pooling in my stomach. I crossed the street and the lawn in front of the building, and pushed past the front doors into the warm school.
I walked past the early kids to my locker, undoing my lock and grabbing my history notebook. I zipped up my backpack and went to find a bench outside. I left the building, hoping that if I stayed outside Lissa and her friends wouldn't be able to find me. I laid back on the bench, looking up at the sky and closing my eyes and soaking up the chilly sunshine.
My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I lift it to see I have ten minutes until my first class starts. I sit up and scoop up my backpack and go inside. The school is now buzzing with people, and I blend with the other people as I make my way to my first class. I can see the door around a corner, when someone taps my shoulder. I carefully turn, but someone punches me in the face, my head whipping to the side as I hiss in a breath and stumble back.
Oohs rise from the crowd of people in the hallway, and I look up, expecting to see Lissa but instead coming face to face with my own sister, a snarl on her face. My blood boiled, Maya never hit me, just her friends.
"Watch it Maya." I ground out, and she just smiled sweetly at me, knowing I wouldn't do anything.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I was aiming for a different whore." She said nonchalantly, flipping her hair over her shoulder. I ground my jaw, and raised my arm, and slugged her back across the face. Hard. Everything in the hall went silent. I never fought back, and no one ever messed with Maya, much less punch her.
She stumbled back clumsily in her heels, her hand holding her jaw where I punched her. She looked back up at me, a murderous glare on her face. I felt adrenaline pour into my veins as the people in the hallway began to close in around us to create a perfect circle caging us in. This is usually where most people would roll up their sleeves and start throwing insults, but I let Maya's friends do that for me.
"Teach her!"
"Put her back where she belongs Maya!"
"Kill her!"
"Fuck up the whore!"
"Break her! Fuck her up!" I heard from the crowd, and Maya smirked at me, and my face went impassive, feeling the weight of the people around me, but this was different from all the other times I had been beat up.
This was my sister beating me and this was my school telling her to kill me. Needless to say, I was furious. Maya screamed and rushed me, swiping at my head with an open hand. I ducked, and swiped her feet out from under her, and she landed with a sickening splat on her stomach, her legs in the air like a scorpion. How oddly fitting.
People in the crowd oohed, and I cracked my knuckles, feeling immense power. Maya scrambled up, looking a little disheveled but furious. She rushed me again, but her wind up was too predictable and I blocked her fist with my left forearm and punched her hard in the stomach, the air rushing out of her lungs with a whoosh and she doubled over, and I undercut her in the face so she reeled back, gasping for breath.
Maya became a flurry, grabbing a handful of my hair and flailing her fist on the back of my head. I retaliated, kneeing her hard between the legs, and her knees buckled under her and I tried to shove her away from me, but her hold on my hair only tightened and we both fell on the ground. She scrambled up as I struggled to get up from my knees, And landed a hard kick to my cheekbone with the heel of her shoe. My head whipped to the side so hard that I fell on my side.
The crowd was roaring by now, all sound washed away by their shouts. She kicked my in the face again, catching me in the mouth, my lip splitting. She wound up to kick me again, but I rolled away, her foot barely grazing my face. Somehow, I gracefully got back up on my feet and launched myself at Maya so fast that she didn't have time to react, punching her square in the face so hard she flew backwards into the crowd and I had to take a few steps because I swung through the punch so hard. The crowd pushed her back, tears and her usually perfect makeup running down her face, her nose now bleeding, but her glare was still as cold as ever.
"You think beating me up will justify you?" She asked, an evil smile stretched over her features. The crowd was still roaring, but somehow I could still hear her.
"You will still be the same tomorrow and the day after that. People will still hate you, because there is nothing about you to love, Useless." She took steady steps towards me, My fists clenching and unclenching by my sides.
"You are nothing!" She screamed, and I let out a strangled roar, my insides feeling like they were on fire. In a rage, I leaped on Maya like a panther, knocking her back to hard she fell back , hitting that back of her head on the ground so hard the crowd squirmed. I punched her hard repeatedly in the face, her nose releasing a new wave of blood. She clawed at my arms, but I was lost, teeth barred, and girls in the crowd screaming.
I was totally rabid, landing punch after perfect, destructive punch on Mayas perfect face.
"Max!" I felt strong arms go around my waist and yank me hard, up and away from Maya.
"Let me go! I'll kill her! I'LL KILL YOU!" I shrieked, and teachers broke up the crowd of students and Lissa, Brigid and Ella helped a now bleeding and sobbing Maya up off the ground. I writhed, shrieking like a banshee in the grip of whoever was holding me up off the ground, kicking at their knees hard with my heels and pulling at their fingers. I wanted to hit Maya hard again. I wanted her to be so scared of me that she would never touch me or look at me again. Whoever was holding me up off the ground lowered me so my feet touched the ground, and I tried to bolt, but they held me back. Turning me in their arms, and stroking my hair.
"Shh, Max. Its okay." Nick, Nick was the one who had pulled me off my sister, Nick who was hugging me. I stopped struggling, and his arms tightened around me, And I buried my face in his shoulder, wrapping my arms around his waist and holding onto him like a lifeline.
"Are you okay?" He asked again, softly, and I nodded, but let out a strangled cry into his shoulder, tears falling and my body shaking uncontrollably. I clung onto him tighter, and his arms moved higher on my back to hold me more securely.
"Hey, Its okay. You're okay." I let down my walls and started sobbing uncontrollably into his shoulder, his one hand stroking my hair and his other one hugging me. I had never been this close to Nick, never smelled him, and here I was, a bloody mess, letting the waterworks run rampant and hugging him. He gently released me, but I still hung onto him as he scooped me up bridal style, my arms going around his neck and burying my face into the crook between his neck and shoulder, the leather of his jacket cool on my cheek.
"Max! Oh my god! Is she okay!" I head a pair of footsteps run up to Nick, but I just kept on crying and holding on to him. It was Iggy and Nudge, Nudges voice asking a million questions a second as Nick walked me to the nurse. His chest rumbled as he tried to keep up with her questions, and my crying slowly subsided, but I didn't loosen my hold on him or open my eyes.
Nick turned me sideways to step into the nurses office, and I heard her forced pleasant voice.
"Ah, The other Martinez sister." The nurse and I were friends, I guess you could say. When I knew I was in trouble with Lissa, I would fake sick, and even though the nurse knew I was fine she would let me go home. Nick sat me down on the couch, but I leaned into his side, not wanting him to leave me alone. I knew I was going to get it for what I did to Maya, I was going to pay. I few stray tears leaked out of the corners of my eyes, and I left two other weights settle down on the couch. Nick drew an arm over my shoulder and pulled me into him, his thumb tracing tiny circles into my shoulder.
I peeked up through my hair, to see Maya holding an ice pack to the back of her head, her whole body turned in her chair so that she was angled directly at me, her face a mess, but her eyes watched me like a falcon, piercing and cold. She had one eye swollen shut, her nose and lip bleeding, a large purple bruise stretching from her fight cheek over the bridge of her nose, her makeup smudged and running. I dropped my gaze, and closed my eyes, wanting it all to go away. The nurse tipped my chin up, and Nick pulled away from me, and I immediately missed his comfort. She dabbed with a wet cloth under my eyes and around my split lip, examining my split pointer and middle finger knuckles, her lips pursed, but old eyes sad.
"You are the last one I expected to get in a fight, Miss Max." She told me quietly, and I cast me eyes downward again. She was right, I was more a flight person, really.
"You don't look so bad. You can go." She told me softly, and Nick stood, offering me a hand, which I took and let him pull me up from the couch and wrap his arm around my shoulders again, Nudge and Iggy standing up too and followed up out of the nurses office.
"Are you okay, Max?" Nudge asked, looking genuinely flustered. Just like a mother hen, I thought. It was the best I could do to just nod, and she hugged me hard.
"I'm going to take her home." Nick said firmly behind me, and Iggy just nodded next to Nudge, looking worried. Nick took my hand, tugging on my arm a little, and I followed him towards the front of the school, the hallways now empty. I rushed away a few stray tears that were meandering down my face, and Nick just squeezed my hand and offered a small, unsure smile too me. I returned it shyly, and followed him out to his car.
If he was supposed to be my enemy, why did it feel so right when he held me in the middle of all those people? Why did I feel so safe now?