Author's Note: First I just want to apologize for my long absence. I had fully intended to write on these stories and hopefully have them finished or much much more fleshed out by this time but life always has a way of sneaking up on you. I'm working on these stories as much as I can and hope to have at least a chapter out every week or other week per story as I will be putting Picking Up the Pieces and Forgetting to Remember to the front and putting Worlds Collide on hiatus. I thank all of you for your follows and reviews and hope that you bear with me as I start to put these stories back on track. Thank you!
October 4th, 2013 6:30 AM
Max had been awake since 6 AM trying to decide how she wanted to proceed with her day. She didn't even want to get out of bed but what else was new these days. She rolled out of bed and collected her toiletries and clothing for the day, glancing at the clothes in disgust, before proceeding down the hall to the girls shower room. She hated her wardrobe ever since Chloe left. She had bought all new clothes at Chloe's insistence to fit in with her wants and style. She walked into the room and went to the farthest shower stall
She quickly showered before drying herself off and putting on her dreaded clothes. A black t-shirt with ripped black jeans. She walked out of the stall and over to the sinks having to resist the urge to throw up when she saw herself in the mirror. She had dyed her bangs red in an effort to make her former girlfriend happy and it had for a moment until Rachel walked in wanting to go chill at the junkyard. American Rust is what they called it. She wished she could go back in time and strangle the bimbo.
She exhaled just as the door swung open.
In walked the notorious Queen of Blackwell, Victoria Chase. She only gave Max a passing glance before making her way into one of the unoccupied shower stalls with a scowl. After Max heard the water begin to fall she made her way out of the showers and back into the hallway towards her room. As Max made began her walk back to her dorm room she passed several of the female dorm's residents. She passed the cheer leading captain Dana Ward and her best friend Juliet Watson who was an aspiring journalist. Following close behind them was Victoria's flunkies Courtney Wagner and Taylor Christensen.
She sighed as of the girls had passed her with glances of disinterest or disdain before disappearing into the shower area she had just exited. She had never been unkind to any of the girls but she guessed that after she had told most of them that she couldn't be friends with them so as to keep Chloe happy that it had left a sour taste in their mouths. The only other reason she could think of was that it was due to her sexuality. Contrary to what most believed she wasn't a full lesbian. She didn't care if the person she loved was male or female as long as it was actual love.
She passed by one of the rooms and as she did so she could hear the faint sound of a violin being played through the door. She had heard it many times before and allowed herself a small smile. The room belonged to one of the nicest people at Blackwell, Kate Marsh. She had never said an unkind word to anyone. She hadn't talked to Max either. She guessed it was due to the way she dress as even Max could admit she looked like a delinquent. The only other reason she could think of is her perceived sexuality as Kate was a devout Christian.
Finally after making her way back into her dorm room and checked her schedule to see what classes she had today. Most classes she didn't care about, but her favorite class was on the agenda for today, Photography. Max's teacher was the famous photographer Mark Jefferson. Photography and Mr. Jefferson were the last few guiding lights she had left now that the person she cared about most had abandoned her. Before she could sink into another bout of depression she stood up to gather all of the books and supplies she would need for the day. She pulled out a fresh pack of instant film to refill her camera.
Max sighed once she had everything she needed together and put it in her satchel before heading back out into the hallway of the dorms. She took a moment to lock my door before turning around in time to see Victoria come out of her room dressed head to toe in designer make-up and clothes. She spared Max a glance for a moment before turning towards the exit to the stairwell. As she began to walk down the hall ahead of Max the doors to two other rooms opened and out walked Taylor and Courtney. They fell in step beside Victoria as they chatted animatedly about various subjects. They finally made it to the doors and with a squeak of the metal hinges they were gone.
Max exhaled a breathe she didn't realize she was holding and began to make her way out down the hallway. Suddenly Kate's room door opened and she walked out. In Max's lack of attention she bumped into her and she dropped the books she had carried out with her. With a startled oomph they both landed on their backsides. Max looked up to see her looking back it Max with a slight blush.
"I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention," Max spoke as she began to help her with picking up her books.
"That's OK, I should have looked before walking out into the hallway," she replied as she moved to do the same.
Once they gathered all of Kate's dropped belongings they stood up and Kate gave Max a small smile. Max smiled back and with a wave they made their way out of the building and walked towards the main school building. Once they were inside they parted ways to attend their respective classes. Today like every other day just passed in a blur until it was time for the last class of the day, Photography. Max walked towards the classroom to see Mr. Jefferson standing there and greeting students as they made their way inside.
Max was the last student into the room and he closed the door behind her. Max sat at her table at the back of the class by herself as usual. He began to speak about one of the many photographic processes used by some of the most famous photographers in history and I zoned out. Even though Max usually paid great attention in this class she was just too distracted by the events of the past few weeks and the time frame Frank had given her yesterday. She had no idea what she could possibly do to get the money. She went over it in her mind a thousand times and couldn't find a single solution.
Just as Max felt like she was about cry she heard her name called out by someone.
"Wha…," she replied unceremoniously as she had no idea who or what she was asked.
"I said can you tell me what the process is called that you teenagers refer to as selfies and its creator's name," repeated Mr. Jefferson as he stared pointedly at her.
"Um…..I use to know...but I can't remember right now," She replied feeling now even worse that she had been unable to answer a question asked by her Photographic idle and Teacher.
"You either know this or you don't Max. Can anyone else answer," he said looking around the room.
Almost in a flash the hand of one Victoria Chase shot up ready to impress the teacher and prove her superiority over her classmate.
"Yes, Victoria," he said as he pointed at her.
"The Daguerreian process. Invented by French painter Louis Daquerre around 1830," Said Victoria as she looked at Max before continuing to speak, "Now it looks like you will be forever stuck in the retro zone, sad face."
Mr. Jefferson frowned at her statement at her fellow classmate but chose to ignore it to keep his class going.
"That is correct Victoria. Wha wha wha," he continued to teach but Max had already drowned him out feeling even less like being there today now that she had effectively embarrassed herself in the one thing she had to look forward to.
She had been holding back tears already and this just felt like the final straw as she slid all her items back into her bag and just waited for the class to be over. About a 10 minutes later the bell rang signaling the end of class as Mr. Jefferson told the class to make sure to read up in their text books. Just as Max thought she was in the clear she heard her teacher call out to her.
"Max, I need to speak with you before you leave."
She slung her bag over her shoulder and walked slowly up to his desk. Victoria was already standing there practically draping herself over the desk trying to get any kind of reaction out of their teacher.
"Excuse me," Max said meekly, not feeling like having to argue with Victoria even on her best days.
"Yes excuse you," said Victoria in a biting tone, making Max wince a little at the tone.
"No, Victoria, excuse us," Mr. Jefferson chimed in with a tone that left no room for debate. Victoria hmphed and strut out of the room in a bad mood.
"You wanted to see me sir," Max said as she heard the door shut behind her.
"I wanted to ask if you had your entry for the Everyday Heroes Contest," he said as he watched her watched her to examine her reaction. She flinched remembering the photo she had taken of her now eloped ex sitting on the bench next to the lighthouse with the sun going down.
"I don't have one right now," she responded not knowing what to say to his inquiry.
"Max, You're a better Photographer then a liar. Now I know its a drag for you to hear some old dude lecture you, but life wont wait for you to play catch up. You're young, the world is yours, blah blah blah, right," he said as he walked around and placed his hand on her shoulder and she looked up into his eyes and he looked into hers.
"But you do have a gift! You have the fever to take images, to frame the world only as you envision it. Now all you need is the courage to share your gift with others. That's what separates the artist from the amateur," as he finished his peace he took his hand from her shoulder and gave her a small smile.
Max couldn't help but feel worse at being admonished by her idol as she nodded and turned to leave the classroom. She opened the door into the hallway and closed it behind her. She looked around the hall seeing the various other students attending the school and sighed. She didn't really associate with anyone so she just stuck her headphones in and began to walk towards the front entrance to leave.
As she began to walk around the corner she pulled her phone out to check the time. Now Max had never believed in fate but it seamed as if fate had it out for her as she felt herself run in to something head first. With a pained yelp she fell backwards and she felt something that wasn't exactly heavy but certainly wasn't light land on top of her.
"What the fuck?"
She looked up to see who had spoken those words to find herself face to face with the prodigal son of Arcadia Bay. The one, the only, Nathan Prescott. She didn't know what to do as she stared into his startled eyes. He got off of her not even bothering to offer to help her up. She sat up and simply looked at him. Nathan was known to have a short fuse and she was wondering if he was gonna explode on her. She seriously just did not need this today.
"Watch where the fuck you are going next time, Caulfield," he said with an annoyed but not angry tone.
She held her head down as he stood there just staring down at her.
"I'm sorry," she spoke softly not wanting to escalate things any farther.
He didn't respond as he walked past her and began to walk towards the same corner she had rounded. She sighed as she went to stand up only to feel a sharp pain in her ankle. With a hiss she dropped back down one a knee and grabbed her ankle. Just great. More shit to add to her cesspool of a life. She tried to stand up again only to fall back down again feeling the same pain. She felt like everything was just stacked against her and she was bound for failure no matter what she did.
She felt the sting of fresh tears coming to her eyes. Why couldn't just one thing go right for her?
"What the fucks wrong with you?"
She turned around to look at the voice behind her. Nathan stood there just at the corner looking back at her. She tried to bow her head so as to not allow him to see her face as she felt the tears start to fall. She tried to stand once more and took a quick step forward trying to will herself to escape only to feel the pain once more but more intense since she had placed all her weight on her pained ankle. She fell and this time she fell hard.
Now Nathan wasn't exactly known for being a nice guy in the school. Hell even he could admit that he had done nothing to help his image out. But as bad as he was he couldn't just stand by and watch someone flounder like that. So when he had asked her what was wrong he realized that he could have worded it better, but he tended to speak before he thought what to actually say. So when he saw one Max Caulfield take a step and effectively face plant very hard in to the ground he was frozen. He just stared for a minute until he heard sounds coming from the girl. Was she crying? He walked over to see if she was alright.
"Damn that looked like it hurt. You alive down there?"
He only heard a pained groan and as the girl sat up he could see her bottom lip busted and her nose bloodied. Nathan didn't know what to do. He had had his fair share of bumps, scraps, bruises, a few cracked ribs, and even a broken elbow once when he was younger but for some reason he felt a pain inside at seeing this girls face. And as someone who hid his pain he knew when someone was trying to hide pain. He could see the tears rolling down her face as he walked over.
"Fuck Caulfield, you really fucked yourself up there," he said with a smirk not know how else to respond to the tears.
Max just sat there knowing now with her ankle she couldn't make a quick get away but also feeling the sting of her lip, which was now bleeding, and the pain from her nose. She seriously hoped that it wasn't broken as she couldn't afford to miss work to go to the hospital today on top of everything else. She knew the tears were falling now but she couldn't stop them. She simply covered her face and let them fall, trying to keep her sobs as low as possible.
Nathan just looked at her she covered her face and he heard the muffled sobs coming from behind them.
"Fucking damn it, don't cry. I will help you get your clumsy ass to the nurse," he said more out of a need to get out of the situation than to actually help her.
He stooped down and put his hand out for her to take, realizing that with her eyes covered she couldn't see it. He chose to poke her shoulder to get her attention. The poke must have startled her cause he could see her visibly jump and her eyes shoot up past her hands. She saw his hand and looked him in the eyes as if searching for any kind of deception. Seeing none that she could distinguish and seeing no other way to get help she took his hand.
Nathan pulled Max up and put her arm over his shoulder. It helped that he was only a little taller than her. With his help they made their way towards the nurses office which was down the corridor to their left. They made their way there easily with everyone now being mostly out of the building. Nathan opened the door to see the school nurse Mrs. Fischer sitting there. She stood up seeing the boy practically carry a female student in.
"What happened Nathan," she asked looking at the boy and girl before her.
"She was clumsy and tripped over her own feet," he responded, knowing full well where her line of thought was going.
Nathan was no pacifist by a long shot, but he wasn't too keen on hitting girls if he didn't have to. So he didn't appreciate the accusatory glare now leveled at him. Max chose this moment to finally speak up.
"I bumped into a student earlier and they landed on top of me. I think I sprained my ankle and I tried to move too fast and fell and hit my face on the ground," she explained as she excluded Nathan's name as the student she bumped into.
Mrs. Fischer just glanced between the two looking for any form of deception. While she didn't think it was the whole truth she felt that if he had done it to her she would not have let him bring her here. She sighed and walked over and helped Nathan guide max to a chair to sit down. Once she was seated Mrs. Fischer carefully removed Max's shoe and sock of her right leg, which Max tried her best not to make a sound but couldn't help but give out a small hiss as she did so. The nurse could already see the tall tale signs of a severely sprained ankle.
The area around the ankle was already beginning to turn purple from the bruising and had a small amount of swelling. She walked over to her small mini fridge which contained an ice pack and then over to her supplies cabinet to pull out some bandages. She wrapped some of the bandages around Max's ankle gently before putting the ice pack where the worst of the swelling was and wrapping more bandages around it to keep it in place. She then moved up look at Max's lip and nose. She gave the nose a good once over and could see no outward signs of it being broken and her lip had already stopped bleeding. She grabbed some paper towels and wet them from the sink behind her desk and began to clean up the blood under her nose and around her lip.
Max winced at the pressure on her still tender lip and nasal area but said nothing until the nurse had finished.
"Now, Miss…..," Mrs. Fischer trailed off realizing she never got the girls name.
"Caulfield," Max responded to get this finished as she could tell she was already late.
"...Caulfield, you should stay off your ankle for a few days until the swelling goes down. Now to be safe I would say you should go to the hospital to get your nose and ankle checked but its up to you whether or not you want to do so as I see no obvious signs of a fracture to either but the eyes can only see so much."
Max hated hospitals and always had. She did everything she could do to avoid them. With a sigh she resigned that she probably should go just to make sure she hadn't done any permanent damage to her ankle.
"I have a pair of crutches here I can loan you to use for a few days, but please return them as soon as possible," Mrs. Fischer said as she grabbed them from beside the supplies cabinet and adjusted them for Max's height.
She took a moment to show Max how to use them before Max thanked her and went to leave the room. Nathan grunted as he held the door open so she could make her way out. Once they were out in the hallway Max checked her phone to see she had 2 missed calls from her boss. She looked at the clock to see she was 15 minutes late. She cursed and called her boss's number. She heard the dial tone twice before hearing a voice on the other end.
"Max, where are you! You're 15 minutes late, again!"
"I'm sorry Mr. Davis. I had an accident at school and had to go to the nurse. I banged my ankle up. I will try to be there as soon as possible," she pleaded hoping that he would overlook her past tardiness thanks to her past dating of Chloe.
"List Max, I've given you chance after chance. If you aren't here in the next 15 minutes just don't bother coming in and find yourself a new job," he responded before hanging up not waiting on a response.
Max didn't know what she was gonna do. The next bus wasn't even set to leave from Blackwell for another 15 minutes. How the hell was she going to make it to her job?! She felt like the tears where gonna fall again until she heard the boy who had stood next to her speak up again.
"Your boss sounds like a real prick. Fuck it, I guess I can help a charity case out this once," Nathan spoke up as he started to walk down the hallway. He didn't know why he kept opening his mouth to help this girl but he did and it irked him inside. Regardless though when he told someone he was gonna do something he did it. That was one lesson his father had pounded home into his head that actually took.
Max was a little stricken by the offer. She had never heard of Nathan being nice to anyone other then his closest friends. She couldn't help but be frozen in place until he turned around to look at her with an annoyed glare.
"Well hurry the fuck up! I don't have all fucking day," he snapped at her causing her to finally start moving towards him.
She made her way behind him as fast as she could, having never used crutches before. Soon they were outside at the parking lot and Max was panting.
'Using these things is harder than it looks,' she thought to herself. As she heard the clock of Nathan's SUV unlocking. She opened the passenger side door and slid in as she pulled her crutches in with her. Nathan got in with a slam of his door and turned to look at her as he started his ride. Max just looked back at him not really knowing what to do.
"You gonna tell me where the fuck you work? Or do you not want to keep the job," he snapped out. He always hated being stared at.
Max realized she hadn't said where she works and felt kind of dumb just sitting there waiting for the vehicle to move.
"I work at Gregg's Second Hand Wares just down the street from Two Whales," she said with a small blush of embarrassment. Nathan backed up and with speed that was a little unnerving to Max took of out of the parking lot and down the road towards the center of town.
Ten minutes later saw Nathan and Max pulling into the parking lot at her job. Nathan parked right at the door so as to make sure Max could easily get in, not that he would ever admit it though. She opened her door and slid her crutches out and positioned them so she could easily use them.
"Thanks for the ride Nathan," she said as she slid out and positioned the crutches in her under arms.
"Don't mention it...no seriously don't mention to anyone one. I can't have all of Blackwell thinking I will be their own fucking personal chauffeur," he said as she turned and gave him a small smile. Nathan wasn't expecting that. He never really did anything to elicit a smile from anyone.
"Don't worry. I wont say anything," she said as she gave a small wave and shut the SUV door to make her way towards the entrance.
Nathan sat for a moment and watched her go inside before slowly backing out and making his way towards his own home to see what lied in wait in his own personal hell. Sure he had a dorm room but when his father called and said he needed to see him he knew he better show up or there would be hell to pay. Knowing he was already late he sighed and stepped on the gas and sped off for his date with the devil.
Max heard the ding of the bell to the front door and made her way inside towards the counter. There behind it stood the owner, Gregg Simone. He looked at her for a moment before realizing she was on the crutches. He stood up and walked around and stood in front of her.
"Damn kid, I thought this was just another excuse for being late. Sorry I didn't believe you," he said as he helped her around to the chair behind the counter. Old faithful he had always called it. Just one of the many items he would find when he was out buying abandoned storage lockers and the like while looking for things to sell in the neighboring towns around Arcadia Bay.
She slid down as gently as she could. Gregg walked away and around the store for a moment before returning with an old stepping stool and a pillow. He place the stool down with the pillow on top and gently raised her leg onto the pillow covered stool. Max couldn't help but smile. Gregg had always been nice to her since she started working here and she always felt like he was an Uncle of sorts.
Gregg was a character that's for sure. He wore his hair in an old pony tail and wore a tie dye button up shirt with bell bottoms and sandals. He looked every bit the old hippie cliche even though he was anti drug. He gave her a small smile once they had her foot elevated.
"Well kid, I'm gonna hang in the back for a bit. Feel free to yell if you need any help," and with that he walked through the hanging beads that served as a passageway to the back room and Max was left to her own devices.
Max sighed as she thought on the events of the day. Of all the people to be nice to her she never thought it would be Nathan Prescott. She pulled her phone out to check for messages, none. She didn't know what she was expecting. No friends, no family. She felt her depressive state coming back that she had previously forgotten about in the 10 minute car ride.
She heard the bell to the door ring and she looked up, being pulled out of her musings. The person before her wasn't who she was expecting. In walked none other than the mother of her jilted lover, Joyce Madsen. She looked around for a moment before her eyes landed right on Max. Max had no idea what was about to happen. She hadn't talked to Joyce since Chloe took off on her and she was terrified that she would hate her.
Joyce strode towards Max with purpose and walked right around the counter towards her. Max saw Joyce raising her hand in the air and Max closed her eyes and grit her teeth, bracing for impact. Max was surprised when she felt the hand just brush her cheek. She was expecting to be slapped not to be gentle caressed. She opened her eyes to see Joyce smiling down at her, and not a fake smile. A genuine real smile of warmth and love.
"Max, how are you,"she said as she stooped down beside her. Max was lost. No one had shown any compassion to her since this all happened. She felt her lips start to quiver and the tears started flowing and her hands shot to her face as she started to sob. Joyce just pulled Max forward as she let her cry all her hurt and frustrations into her shoulder.
Fifteen minutes later and Max had calmed down and Joyce had gotten a wet paper towel and helped wipe the tears, old and fresh, from her face. She stayed there for a short time just holding Max's hand.
"I'm so sorry Joyce. I don't know what I did wrong. I'm sorry Chloe left," Max said as little more then a whisper.
"Max. honey you did nothing wrong. Chloe was always a stubborn one so it doesn't surprise me that she took off. I'm only wondering why you didn't go with her," Joyce spoke back. Joyce saw the flinch from Max as she sunk a little lower in the chair.
"She didn't tell me," Max whispered out as she felt like she was gonna cry again. Joyce was a little shocked at this revelation. She bent down and looked Max in the eye.
"I want you to know Max that no matter what you are always welcome at my home. Just cause Chloe has lost her way doesn't mean I see you any differently. You always be my second daughter," Joyce said as she ran small circles with her thumb on the top of Max's hand.
Max was lost for words. She thought that Joyce would blame her for Chloe taking off. She had swore that Joyce would despise her. She felt all the weight she had bore down on her self lift a little at knowing at least someone else cared about her. She gave Joyce a smile that could melt the polar ice caps and Joyce gave her back one just as warm.
"Well honey I hate to leave you now, but I was just on break and was coming to see if I could find any decent throw pillows cheap. I guess I will have to come back tomorrow," she smiled and with a wave she made her way out the door and back down the road to the Two Whales Diner.
It was at this moment Gregg had chosen to make himself known as he came out from the back room. He looked at Max before leaning against the wall and folding his arms.
"Feeling better kid," he asked as he looked towards her. Max never knew why he always called her kid. He knew her name so she just figured it was him set in his old ways as he was just on the good side of 50 now.
"I guess," she said while looking down at her hands.
"Look I know I'm your boss and I probably just seam like some old guy, but if you need anything you can always feel free to come to me," he said as he watched her for a response.
Max never like to bring her problems down on others, preferring to sort them out herself. Though she had to admit it did feel better having someone offer to talk to her about it. She gave him a nod and with a grunt he he disappeared back into the back room. 6Pm rolled around and it was time for closing. With her leg she wouldn't be much use so Gregg told her to go ahead and take off and he would see her Monday.
Max made her way out the door on the crutches and decided maybe she could use a bite to eat so she made her way down the road towards Two Whales. As she approached the door opened in front of her and out stepped the last person she wanted to see right now, Frank Bowers. She stopped in her tracks and stared at him as he turned and his eyes made contact with hers. He walked towards her and she knew that this would be one hell of a conversation.