【Maxine's POV】 Cʜʀɪsᴛᴍᴀs ᴄᴀᴍᴇ ᴀʀᴏᴜɴᴅ, ２００８.
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New things in my life since he left; a side-shaven haircut, and a sudden need for more destruction than a shooting range. No pull, though. I may be a deviant, but certainly not that much so.
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At least, I don't believe so. Maybe others think different of me. I wonder if he ever--
I can't finish that sentence. I promised myself that he wasn't going to be on my mind 24/7, didn't I? I must snap out of it.
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I believe I might obtain myself a gun permit soon. Perhaps it's what's expected of me. Would it be wrong to get what I want for once? I'll have some fun with this.
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What's wrong with a little deviance?
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【3rd Person POV】
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This was her first mistake. She had been cooped up in her house for too long, and her thoughts spoke audibly in that tune. A song with a misplaced name crooned with her words, too, but very distantly.
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{ ɪ ᴛʜɪɴᴋ ᴏғ ʏᴏᴜ ғʀᴏᴍ ᴛɪᴍᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴛɪᴍᴇ
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ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴛʜᴀɴ I ᴛʜᴏᴜɢʜᴛ I ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ
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ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴇʀᴇ ᴊᴜsᴛ ᴛᴏᴏ ᴋɪɴᴅ. }
She took her wallet out, the somewhat crumpled photo sticking out of the top. She slipped it out, and pinned it to the wall above her desk with a red pin. Looking at that photo now made her stomach hurt, but not in the sickening way. In the way that butterflies feel. She brushed it off as nothing, though. No harm done.
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She turns her back, checking the clock on her phone in her other jean pocket. 4:23 PM. It was still early. She slips on a pastel-yellow sweatshirt, pulling her hair out from inside it, and shuffles to get any paperwork she had with birth-dates on it. She looked young, she knew it'd be a bit challenging to get the permit she had thought to get just moments ago.Then, off to the gun range she went.
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【Time Skip, but Still 3rd POV】
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While her permit was printing, she shut her eyes, putting her glasses away. She then cracks her knuckles-- not for intimidation, but just as a habit. Such a habit gave her an idea to take karate-- or just fighting lessons. Perhaps boxing-- but, first things first, right? Guns, then fists. That was her philosophy.
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What she hadn't brushed upon, even though it was her own thought, was she was doing this so when he came back, when/if they fought, she'd surely win. Little did she know that he's learned some tricks himself. Ironic.
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She softly blinks, then rests her head on her arm while waiting for her permit. She felt almost nostalgic; like those moments when her parents would tell her to wait an hour before going swimming because she had eaten recently, when she was a little girl. Of course, she'd never think that now, but she still does so-- force of habit, like the knuckle-cracking.
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A thought crossed her mind that she could have texted Tord all this time, but it made her feel weak to think such. Scolding words crossed her mind, "Only text him when he texted you first, young lady. He barely knows you, it's odd to text him. Especially if you aren't friends." The last sentence reminded her of her mother's voice, giving her that same drop in her stomach when Tord had left. She had been unconsciously breaking her own rule from 2007, before the gun-range attendant put the permit on the desk. She blinks a few times, stuttering a low, "thank you," before quickly shuffling out of the range.She picked at her own fingernails, shoving the permit in her wallet with the rest of her IDs and such. Maybe she should text him.
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She's hesitant to take out her phone, her nails digging into her case as she thought about it. "Maybe a call would suffice better..." She muttered, her eyes searching the ground for things to say to him if he even did pick up. Would she go for a simple 'How are you?', or say something more, like 'It's been quiet without you here. I miss the explosions'. Either one got the point across, didn't it?
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She takes a deep breath, before calling him. It takes a few moments, but he picks up almost immediately.
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"A-ah, gosh-- I didn't expect you to pick up so fast. Hello-""Yes, yes, I'm on break. Did you need something?"
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"..No, it's just um.. I wanted to know how you're doing. It's been a year and a half, after all.""I am just fine."
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"...Th-that's it? Just fine? Nothing horribly bad happened at all?"
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"Not in the slightest." He said, sounding somewhat surprised.
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"Ah, that's good."
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"How are you--?" He asked back, his tone going from surprise to being awkward. Almost as if he wasn't really listening, but trying not to be rude.
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She hadn't expected him to retort the question. "Oh, uh-- I'm fine. I just got my gun permit, so.. that's exciting."
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"Oh, did you~? If I come back, you need to show me. Anyway-- I must go. He is lining us up again for training."
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"Wh--" Before she could ask who, he muttered a quick but lovely goodbye, then hung up.
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His sudden leave really left her mind in complex pieces. But, hearing his voice, accent and all, made her feel an unsuspecting ball of warmth in her chest. She always had liked his voice, as strange as it sounded. It made her unconsciously smile, just a little.
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"What did he mean by training?" She thought, trying to push his voice behind her with a shake of her head. As long as she walked home now, she sat there worrying about him. What if he had enlisted in the army without her knowledge? That would make her go ballistic-- not in a destructive way, more like a cry-because-my-only-friend-is-gonna-die sort of way. She'd always been the worrying type, just good at hiding such.
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But, when someone you unintentionally care about is at stake of getting himself killed, you become a bad liar.
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That thought in bold made her heart leap a little. She sighed, quickly going off topic as to not think about such things and starting walking faster. When she got home, she slipped off her shoes, but kept her hoodie on.
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【Time Skip, Involving Max Calling a Boxing Coach-】
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After a long call, she hung up. She held the phone in her fingers, thinking of texting Tord again, but she brushed it off. She'd heard his voice enough. She ends up falling asleep.
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(The cute thing is, she scanned the polaroid and made it her background on her phone, just in case she lost it.)
YOU ARE READING
ᴜɴɴᴀᴍᴇᴅ.
General FictionMaxine and Tord were... let's say 'distant but well-known friends', before he had changed into what he's become. She hadn't known what he had turned out to be (The End, part 2), until she realized that they had become almost one in the same when it...
