After Alison stopped crying, the four of them walked back to the cabin in silence. No one was quite ready to go home yet, and the three friends still had questions for Alison. Nothing was going to get resolved until morning though.
"There's two bedrooms," Alison said, her voice a bit hoarse still.
Everyone looked between each other. If this had been the situation a year ago, they would have known at once who was sleeping with who. However so much had changed and no one was quite comfortable sleeping in the same room as anyone else.
"There's a couch in the office," Max pointed out quietly.
"And a couch here," Brady said, nodding to the couch in the living room they were standing in.
"Boys should sleep on the couches then," Julia decided.
"There's some extra clothes and blankets in the laundry room," Alison whispered before retreating to the bedroom in the back.
Everyone else looked at one another and then slowly Max went to the office and Julia went into the other bedroom. Brady went to get a blanket and then laid down on the couch. Tomorrow they would all talk and come hell or high water they were going to resolve things.
***
"So, how are the eggs?" Julia asked, hopefully.
Things were still a little tense between everyone. In the morning, Max was grumpy from being too tall and the couch in the office being too small. Brady was tired from not being able to sleep at all, his nightmares were more frequent these days. Julia was a little too concerned over everyone's well-being and Alison, well Alison was back to her normal self. As if she had not been sobbing in Julia's arms the day before.
Alison looked up meekly from her plate of eggs that she had taken exactly one bite of. She didn't really want to tell Julia that she had somehow messed up a dish that requires quite literally one main ingredient.
"Good," Alison said in a tiny voice.
Brady and Max both looked up at her from across the kitchen table. She gave them a pointed look and they mumbled praises as well. Content, Julia happily sat down and took a sip of her coffee. Perhaps this was some test of their friendship, would good friends be honest and tell her the eggs were terrible or suck it up and pretend for her sake? Alison didn't know which to do which felt appropriate given her tumultuous relationship with Julia anyway.
"So, you were talking to Kiera too?" Brady asked Alison as he ate his eggs, clearly trying to act unbothered by the burnt taste or lack of seasoning.
Alison shrugged. "She emailed me a few times."
"Were you going to see her?" Brady asked.
Alison raised an eyebrow. "Why would I?"
"She wrote to you, she said she was thinking of ending it all," Brady said quietly.
"I know. I saw that, is she dead?" Alison asked curiously.
Brady nodded woefully.
"Sucks for her," Alison said indifferently.
"You don't care?" Brady questioned.
Julia and Max glanced at each other nervously. Brady and Alison may have become closer during their time in captivity, but they were fundamentally different people. Brady was empathic, he always had been. Alison however, had learned to be apathetic. When you're hurt time and time again, you learn to stop feeling for others.
"I have a question for you," Max said, changing the subject. "How did Oliver get involved in you disappearing?"
Alison looked up at Max. She seemed surprised, and ever so slightly worried. "Did he say something?" she asked.
"We left no stone unturned," Max murmured. He hadn't touched the eggs after seeing Alison's expression when she tried to chew it. "Well, we stole your pills and phone to give to Jackson to see if he could get anything off it and Oliver stole both of the things from them."
Alison chuckled. "You trusted Jackson?" she asked.
"No," Max said, rolling his eyes. "But what choice did we have? By the way, why did Oliver take the pills and your phone?" Max asked again.
Alison shrugged and played with her eggs a bit, careful not to make it look like she was disgusted by them.
"Well?" Max asked expectantly.
Alison let out a heavy breath. "Well, it might have to do with the fact that Oliver not so nicely told me to get the hell out of town and stay out."
"Why would he tell you that?" Max pressed further.
Alison seemed confused why Max cared so much. Finally she just shrugged again. "Maybe I pissed him off," she said.
Julia peered over at Alison. "What did you do?"
Alison didn't say anything.
"Are you going to come back with us?" Brady asked.
"How can I?" Alison asked. "Oliver will have my head."
"Which brings us back to what Julia asked," Max pointed out. "What did you do to piss Oliver off?"
Alison didn't answer again. She just looked back down at her own eggs. "It's more about the person Oliver likes that I pissed off," she mumbled.
Max furrowed his eyebrows. "What does that mean?"
Alison grew upset. "Can you just drop it?" she yelled angrily.
She then stood up from the table and stormed away. They heard the bedroom door slam a few seconds later.
"Great, good job, Max," Julia said, rolling her eyes.
Max glared at her. "By the way, your eggs are terrible."
He too stood up and left the kitchen.
Brady, who had finished his eggs, looked up at her weakly.
"I liked them," he offered.
Julia looked at him skeptically. She leaned over closer to Alison's plate and took a bite. She spat it out at once.
"You don't have to lie," she said glumly.
Brady offered a sympathetic smile. "Come on, let's let Ali and Max cool off. We can go get food in town."
Julia began to smile. "All right."
***
Max was sitting stubbornly outside Alison's door when he heard Brady and Julia drive off. He texted Brady to bring them back something edible to eat. Then, he started knocking on Alison's door again. He knew she would get sick of it soon enough, she had always been ill-tempered. He was right, she barely lasted two minutes.
"Enough!" she yelled through the door.
"Then unlock the door," he demanded.
Alison didn't budge.
"I already picked the front door lock, I'm not going to hesitate to pick this one too," Max warned.
Finally, he heard the door unlock. He stood up and came face to face with her. She looked angry, but so was he. It was a disastrous combination. The two were standing in the doorway ready for another face off.
"You're so stubborn, when are you going to stop fighting and just let us in?" Max asked.
Alison looked upset. "Like you would ever do the same?" she questioned back with a hand on her hip.
Max looked surprised by that.
"I'm not the one who runs away from every problem I have," Max argued.
"Yeah, you're just the one who shuts down and isolates every time something goes wrong," she argued back. "How many times did you ghost me so that you could deal with your issues? How many times did I have to hear from Isa that you were out dealing with your mom instead of just telling me the truth?" Alison questioned. "Don't act all high and mighty around me when if the positions were reversed you would have done the exact same thing."
Max glared at her. He was mad that she was right.
"That doesn't excuse you running off." Max pinched the bridge of his nose frustratedly. How better could he explain to her? "Look, I wish I had let you in," he finally said. "I wish I had opened up to you. I wanted to, but I was so scared of being vulnerable. I don't want you to make that same mistake."
The fire in Alison's eyes seemed to dim yet again. She stared at him, searching his face for sincerity which she found rather quickly.
"Please, Ali," he practically begged. "Talk to me."
Something in his voice broke her. The sorrow, the agony, he was so desperate to help her.
"I'm scared you'll think differently of me," Alison admitted quietly. "I know my reputation. That I'm insanely tough and nothing gets to me. Voicing that I'm falling apart makes me feel weak and I don't want you to see me like that."
"Believe me Alison, you're one of the strongest people I have ever met. If something is making you tremble then it's not something the rest of us could ever deal with. Facing something like that does not make you weak," Max said with a certain assuredness that made Alison believe him.
Slowly, the fire in her eyes dimmed completely and Max caught her as her legs gave out and she collapsed in his arms. He held her tightly and gently brought her to the floor where she sobbed in his arms.
"I'm so sorry," she said through her cries.
"Don't be," he said soothingly.
***
"Max wants edible food," Brady teased as he checked his phone and Julia drove.
"Ha-ha, we'll bring him back something," Julia chuckled.
Brady glanced over at her with a small smile on his face.
"Aw, don't feel bad about the eggs, I never recalled you being an amazing cook anyway, I always did the cooking on our dates," Brady said.
Julia smiled. "I cooked for your family while you were gone," she said. "Or well, my family chef did and I assisted."
Brady laughed. "I suppose it's the thought that counts."
"I'm really sorry, Brady, for everything," she said sincerely.
"I know, it's okay," his smile sobering up a bit.
"It's not," she said softly.
Julia parked the car in a parking lot and looked over at him.
"I hurt you, time and time again, how can you just forgive me for that?" Julia questioned.
Brady tucked a piece of her blonde hair behind her ear.
"Because you're here right now, aren't you?" he pointed out. "You're not as terrible as you think you are."
"I know you've heard the gossip about what I was up to while you and Ali were missing," Julia said.
Brady shrugged. "It doesn't matter," he said.
"Yes it does," she murmured. "I almost slept with Jackson."
"I know," Brady said quietly. "I heard."
"I didn't go through with it," she whispered. "I kept thinking about you."
He stared into her blue eyes that were swimming tears.
"You going missing was the worst thing that ever happened to me, I wanted you, only you, and there was nothing I could do to help get you back. All I could do was pretend that the part of me that changed for the better was gone along with you."
"I'm glad you found her again," Brady said quietly.
Julia leaned in a bit and Brady brushed her out of her face.
"I'm so sorry," she repeated.
"Stop apologizing," he whispered.
He leaned in closer and she felt his breath on her face. Julia parted her lips, giving him permission and Brady kissed her. Slowly at first, almost as if he was scared she would back off. Julia wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back, hoping he would get it. That she loved him even after all this time. They only broke apart when they were both out of breath. Both of their cheeks were red and Julia felt dozens of butterflies in her stomach just like she did all those times he kissed her before. It felt like their first kiss all over again.
Brady smiled and ran his hand through his dirty blonde hair.
"We should probably go back," he said finally. "Perhaps with some food."
Julia laughed, that effortless giggle he missed so much.
"McDonalds?"
"McDonalds," Brady agreed.