Of a Girl and a Boy

"I'm not paying a hundred fifty bucks for a concert," Zach said, sitting cross-legged next to Nathan, who was leaning against a tree. "Sorry bro, ask Hayden, I'm broke."

"Dude, you shitting me? That's your pocket money," Nathan protested, "am I right? He should go to Lorn with me." Nathan looked to Maxine, who rolled her eyes. She was cute, especially when she was annoyed by him, which – unfortunately – happened a lot. Nathan held back a grin; he wasn't even mad.

"You can't expect everyone to carry around a hundred dollar bill just for breakfast like you do, Prescott," she said, crossing her arms. There it was – that famous Caulfield look, judging the hell out of you. Oh, how Nathan loved it.

"Well then I guess I have to invite you," he said with a smirk, winking at her. She blushed, trying to hold back a smile, but the redness was shining through her freckles. Her sapphire blue eyes were wandering from left to right, like an innocent deer, which had heard a suspicious sound, and she was trying to search for a cheeky response, but she kept quiet, averting her gaze.

"Geez Nathan, stop flirting, it's pathetic," Courtney said mechanically. – "Shut your dirty mouth," Nathan laughed, playing it cool and succeeding with it. The squad giggled, talking about Courtney always being such a bitch. Max was smiling shyly, and Nathan couldn't stop looking at her.

"Thursday's gonna be so fetch," Vic said, bending forward, "Courts, could you organize all of the party supplies, if ya know what I mean?"

"Who do you think I am, bitch," Courtney said, taking a drag and passing on her cig, "sure I did. But you know what pisses me off? Listen, you see that guy over there? He said the Vortex Club parties were full of zombies, the fuck does that mean? Some ugly guy trying to be ultra hipster."

"Preach it, sista," Vic said, and both kept on bragging about nerds. While doing so, Nathan bended over as well, facing the girl next to Vic who had been silent for a while. Nathan knew that she wasn't the extroverted type, and sitting all together, hearing music and bitching about life wasn't as easy for her as for Vic or Courts.

"Yo, Mad Max," he said, and the deer eyed girl looked up, "you cool?"

"Oh, uh … Yes, now I am," she said shyly, and Nathan flushed. She smiled tenderly, then she brushed a strand behind her ear. Nathan pressed his lips together, forcing himself not to grin like a complete idiot.

Maxine Caulfield, why are you so beautiful?

"I, I just wanted to ask … uhm, so, Go Ape's still a thing? We could, I mean, if we're hungry, we could get something to … I mean, only if you want, we could –"

"How about dinner beforehand?" she chuckled, and Nathan smiled clumsily. – "Y-yeah, good idea!"

Both of them smiled, and she averted her gaze, blushing again. Nathan felt a warm wave of tender feeling splashing over him, and he dried his sweaty hands on his new blue cardigan.

"Nathan, back to bidness," Zach said, pulling him off cloud nine, "I'm not paying a hundred fifty bucks for a concert."

"Whatevatehfuck," Nathan sniffed, "you can get your broke ass off this grass now, because the Prescott's fucking own that one, too."

"You're rich, we get it. A shame money can't buy beauty," Zach said and Nathan thumbed him in the ribs. – "You should talk, with that ugly ass face or yours."

Him and Zach continued fighting, until Nathan noticed Maxine being somehow distorted … lost in thought, more than usual. Nathan didn't know why, but for a second, she kind of seemed like she had no clue where she was. The deer looked around in confusion. Vic noticed, and, being as straight forward as she was, stared at her.

"Hello, are you even listening, Maxine?"

Maxine glanced up, staring at Vic like she'd seen her for the first time. Then she slowly opened her mouth, saying "Max, never Maxine."

"I know, sorry Mad Max. You're not pissed at me, right?" Vic said, looking at her insecurely. She tilted her head, but Maxine didn't respond.

Max …? What a silly name, never had she ever insisted on being called Max, even though everybody did except for Nathan and Vic. Nathan frowned, observing the spectacle in front of him, seeing Max changing in a heartbeat. What the hell was happening?

"Do you want to go hit the girl's potty and smoke 'em peace pipe?" Vic said, but Maxine didn't look at her. Nathan observed her strange behavior with a mixture of fascination and uneasiness. This chick had always been unpredictable.

"I think Max is high," Courtney claimed.

"She's acting, like, so weird. … You cool, Max?" Taylor asked, and everybody turned their heads to Maxine.

"Nobody listened when I said we shouldn't let her in the Vortex …" Nathan heard Courtney say from above. She had always been jealous of Maxine, because Vic hung out more with her than with Courtney. She also had been really pissed, since Taylor had asked Maxine to join her visiting her mother. But Nathan knew that she wasn't as bitchy as she wanted everyone to think. After Maxine had asked her to help her with her outfit for the next club party, they had started to bond.

"Courtney, you don't want anybody in the club," Taylor said, and Courtney rolled her eyes. – "Like, whatever bitch."

Nathan looked at the others staring at Maxine; seeing Hayden laying there, checking her out, made him furious. He once had tried to hit on her, but Maxine had pushed him away, and he had called her a bitch. Nathan had gotten so pissed that he had almost broken his nose.

All of sudden, Maxine stood up. Nathan stared at her, but she didn't care about the others. She looked worried, almost terrified, frowning like something horrible had happened. Then she ran – what the hell was going on?!

"What the –" Nathan said, and he wanted to call her name, but she was too far away, staring at Warren and his girlfriend. Nathan clinched his fist thinking about this fucker.

"What the fuck did just happen," Taylor yelled.

"As I said, stoned as fuck," Courtney said with her constant bitch face, looking at her nails.

"Bitch gone wild," Hayden yelled. – "Shut the fuck up," Nathan hissed, and it got quiet. Hayden glared at him, giving him that look. Nathan knew that he liked Maxine as well, but she would never hook up with such a jerk.

"Shit, she is pissed," Vic said, shaking her head in dismay, "what did I do? Was it my fault? Maxine … she's my bf, she would tell me, right?"

"I thought I was your best friend," Nathan said indignantly. Vic ignored him, running her fingers through her hair, stressed. "I better text her."

Vic stood up, excitedly typing a message for Maxine, and slowly, the squad started to get up and do their own things. Nathan headed for the boy's dormitories, left in confusion. Maxine's face … there was something about it, which had made him feel uneasy. This unfamiliar look in her eyes… Last time he had asked her if she wanted to join the squad getting breakfast at Two Whales Diner, she had denied. She needed to develop her photos in the dark room. But then again, yesterday when they had been photographing the whales – before they had been washed up off the shore –, she had been absolutely lovely, nothing had been wrong. Nathan smiled thinking about yesterday – it had been their third date, so to speak. They had met Frank, providing them with some dope. After photographing, Maxine and him had went to him, smoking a joint and she had complained about him naming her Shih Tzu. Nathan had just laughed, telling her that his name was Rott, which wasn't any better.

Nathan closed his eyes, enjoying what had been left of this beautiful day. He saw that creep Samuel doing some stuff at the entrance of the dormitories, and Nathan chuckled, thinking about the last time him and Maxine had called him a pedophiles, telling him that the kindergarten was the other direction, and he had almost fallen off the ladder. Or this one day when Alyssa had been trying hard to look sexy, and Maxine had thrown a paper ball at her, asking her why she was playing hard to get when she was already hard to want. Alyssa had started big huge whale tears, Nathan and Vic had bursted out laughing. Later, him and Zach had sprayed it on the school's wall.

Nathan entered the dormitories, walking down the corridor to his room, grinning like an idiot about what Maxine had written down on his slate a week ago.

~ Are you a camera? Because every time I look at you, I smile. ~

She had written it after getting threatened by Warren, who probably wanted some stash or something, since his family was broke. Nathan had stepped in and had to take a black eye, but that was ok. He had been Maxine's rescuer. Warren hadn't talked to Maxine again. Now, Nathan sometimes saw him standing with this girl, and Nathan didn't know why, but it made him feel kind of … uneasy. There was a sting in his heart seeing them, but he couldn't find out why or what it was.

Before Maxine had written that cute pick-up line on his slate, Nathan hadn't known if she was interested or not, since she got along well with everybody, but when she has asked to frame him with her polaroid, he had known that she also felt … this way. He looked at the other slates, noticing that none of them had such a cool slate as he did. On the contrary: seeing all of the guys' hypocritical quotes on their slates, being sorry for Kate Marsh and everything. What about "will bang 4 jesus"? Nathan hated all of them and their lying asses. Seeing Kate macking with some dudes had been such a blast. Crawling on the ground, high as fuck, trying to pose for the camera even if she had been stoned and hadn't realized shit, and everything on tape. Unfortunately, it had been deleted by some narrow-minded, lame ass fucks, who didn't know how to have fun. Luckily, Maxine had the original one still on her phone – who had known that she wasn't only a brilliant photographer but a great film-maker, too?

He put on his whale songs, then he took a look at his phone. One unread message from yesterday evening.

'Hey lil bro, I just wanted to tell you that it was soooo nice to see you again. Having dinner with you and Maxine was awesome, she's such a sweetheart! I understand why you like her so much (and don't give me this look, I KNOW you do). Dad's realllly sold on her, he even remembered her full name the whole evening. I think he still doesn't know Jack's name haha. We need to go on a double date! Anyway, I'm still in town for some days, so let's hang out once more like we used to when we were kids.

XOXO' – Kris

Nathan grinned, he loved the fact that Kris and him were still as close as ever.

He looked at Maxine's selfie he had found, hanging on his wall. Seeing her, his heart got lifted up. Her and Vic made things so easy. Back when him and her had met for the first time, Nathan had been annoyed by her, trying so hard to be a hipster, and being such a smartass. Now, she was the girl Nathan secretly dreamed about, the girl Nathan hoped to be his first and only girlfriend.

"First I hated you, I thought I could never score with you, and then I couldn't help but fall for you," he mumbled, facing the tiny selfie of the deer-eyed girl. "Life is … weird."

A crashing noise wrenched Nathan out of his sleep, almost giving him a heart attack. He sat up straight, startled. His eyes went wide in fear, and his blood ran cold when the noticed something on his window. Then he swallowed, drying his sweaty hands on his shirt, which he took off afterwards. His whole back was wet, and his cheeks were burning. The bird, which had collided with his window, was dead, and Nathan took a deep breath, trying not to freak out.

"Crap," he growled, rubbing his eyes, before he tried to search for his phone in the dark. 23:34 pm. What the fuck. He had slept through. He grabbed some pills, swallowed them while retching, then he stood up, almost falling over. He wiped off the sweat on his forehead, then he rubbed his eyes. Shit, his whole body was a disaster, his internal felt rotten and dead. A walking corpse.

Then he looked at the tiny photo hanging from his wall, dim light was shining on it.

"Maxine," he sniffed, "what the fuck did I just dream. I don't give a flying shit about you, Maxine, and you'll never be part of the club, and you're not cute. You're a stupid noisy snitch, a pathetic wannabe hipster who could never mess with me. Don't try to fuck with me, hoe. Rachel's not there, she will never be seen again, and you know it."

He clinched his fist, suppressing the desire of punching her shitty selfie. "Rachel's dead, and it's never gonna be normal again, get it? This stupid dream, it's a fucking dream and it will never be reality. She's dead! You hear me? She's DEAD!"

Then he collapsed as he covered his face, sobbing bitterly.