As the walk from her previous classroom towards the nex was a short distance, Max slowed down her walking and tried to find Rachel nearby. The model wasn't ever late to lessons so she'd have to be nearby.
Max was looking around and finally spotted the blonde in question, she walked up to her and saw that she was talking to the boy she accidentally bumped into the day prior, Didn't he say his name was Warren or something? She questioned and walked up to the two.
"Hey Max!" Rachel said as she noticed the brunette walking over towards them, "This is Warren-"
"Oh hey, we bumped into each other yesterday right?" the boy said and Max nodded,
"Sorry about that... Stuff was on my mind" Max muttered out and looked towards Rachel who looked annoyed. Probably because she was cut off when she wasn't expecting it, "You okay Rachel?"
"Mhm, anyways, lets get into class before Miss Grant complains or something", the two nod and all walk into the science classroom.
Before Max could disagree, Rachel took her hand and walked the both of them towards a empty workstation and settled down next to one another in the stools. Rachel looked like she'd rather be somewhere else and Max couldn't agree more; she never got the hang of numbers and letters in more then the basic way. Adding such things together and calling it science hurt her brain more then anything, she'd prefer a maths lesson over even a basic science lesson.
Sighing, Max tried not to cringe when Miss Grant began the lesson, Rachel apparently seemed to be bored out of her mind. Both girls took down notes and finally there was a practicle to do, use a pipete and add different solutions to Magnesium, Zinc, Iron and Copper. Write down the results and pack up afterwards.
"This'll be quick" Rachel remarked as Max went out to retrieve the metals and saftey specs, once she returned, Rachel had set up the equitment and was waiting for the photographer's return.
Just as the two began putting on different solutions onto the metals, Max wanted to break the ice, the reason to why she wanted to talk to Rachel more, "Can I ask you a question?"
The blonde blinked and looked at Max with a soft expression and smirked, "If its about this experiment, I have no idea what the results would be", the two chucked shortly and Max coughed indicating something else,
"If only I would be so lucky.. Uh- You did that thing again..."
"What thing?" Rachel asked as she placed some drops of solution onto the iron nail in a dish,
"When you saw Mr Jefferson..." Max said and stopped herself to see Rachel's reaction. She looked towards Max and seemed to be thinking about something, shortly afterwards she made up her mind.
"Okay, tell you what..." Rachel began as she started writing the results down in her book, "After we finish this, we'll meet up with Chlo and I'll tell you what's wrong. Deal?"
The blonde sounded honest, Max tried to see if there was any hidden message between the lines or anything but she knew that Rachel would have to tell her what the problem was. Hopefully then, she'd understand the other then.
"Wait... How'd you know I'd be with Chloe?"
"You two are best friends, aren't you not?" The blonde smiled as she peeked over at Max after she finished writing down notes, Max muttered something and smiled back at Rachel. They looked in each others eyes and both couldn't ignore the sudden pull towards each other they had.
Ignoring this pull, they both decided to rush the rest of the practical while making bad science jokes. Max of course had to expose Science Chloe to Rachel who was very amused with this discovery. She knew that Chloe loved science when she was younger but never knew how much young Chloe and Max did stupid experiments including firecrackers and such.
Once they finished, they packed up their equitment and showed Miss Grant their results. After she made sure they were accurate enough, she let the two leave the class and they both went towards the enterance of the school. They saw a familiar truck in staitonary, the two walked down the steps and managed to see a small puff of grey smoke leave the open window.
A door on the side ploped open and a smirking punk waved them both in. Rachel slid in first and Max next to her, she closed the truck door and Chloe began driving out of the area towards the diner.
"Hello ladies~" Chloe said with a shit-eating grin, all what Max did in responce was roll her eyes and she smiled back, "Hello to you too troublemaker"
"You wound me Maxi-pad"
"Ew! Why- No. Don't explain that name." Max cringed as she remembered the creation of that specific nickname, she didn't want Rachel to know. Her reputation with Rachel could change dirastically and she didn't fancy hearing the story again.
"Oh? There's a little secret that Maxy has? I want in on the tale", Max was blushing in embarassment as Chloe began retelling the story of how Max's first period went...
"Poor Max, how did you not know it was puberty?! Surely the science friend would know what it would be?" Rachel said as the story was ending on a bad note, young Max and Chloe were panicking and blood was everywhere. Such a great traumatic experience for the two to have bonded over...
"I was more into chemistry over biology y'know?" Chloe shrugged as she parked in a space in the car park for the diner.
Max was silent for the whole ride and wanted to jump out of the window, if it wasn't for Rachel's hand on her own that is. For some unknown reason, the blonde was holding onto her hand for the journey. It was theraputic slightly, it helped her stay grounded. She didn't realise how much she liked the feeling until they left the truck and walked into the diner.
Joyce was working and waved the three in, shortly afterwards, they sat in the same booth they did before and sat in the same seats. Max and Chloe opposite one another and Rachel next to Max, but she linked arms with Max, she didn't mind but felt a little awkward.
"Can we ask you something Max?" Chloe said with a slightly worried tone, Max didn't pick up on that though. In Max's head, she wanted to know how Rachel was feeling as she said she'd tell her here.
"Sure" Max offered and smiled softly, she moved in closer towards the table and so did Rachel, it felt as if she was about to spill something out the bag.
"Okay... Rach told me about what happened this morning."
"Oh..." this made Max look away from the two momenterally and she knew that this was going to be an awkward situation, Rachel's hand was ontop of her own and just like before, she was caressing it softly. The brunette could only feel awkwardness, she didn't want to talk about this- only Rachel.
"All we wanna know is, what did you mean by 'how you used to act in Seattle whenever Chloe messeged you'?" Rachel said and held Max's hand slightly tighter then before, the brunette had the right to decline continuing the conversation but she had to explain how she might, well probably would act like in the near future.
Before Max could reply, Joyce came up and asked for their orders. Max and Rachel ordered a vegetarian burger while Chloe ordered eggs and bacon. The breakfast meals always stayed available and Chloe loved taking that to her advantage. After ordering, the two girls looked over at Max who needed to address the elephant in the room.
She sighed and made eye contact with the bluenette infront of her, "Whenever you tried to reach out to me... I kinda... Always had a meltdown..." Max looked disapointed in herself and held onto Rachel's hand tightly, "I- I was always sent to Dr Lyn afterwards- She explained t-that I was suffering extreme seperation anxiety and the m-messed up grief I had because of William...
"Whenever I tried to reply, I always chickened out and panicked o-over that. It got s-so bad I had to take medication for these sudden attacks- I-I tried to not be scared but it was hard. I wanted to tell you that I was c-coming back but my parents told me not to reach out. T-they said that you probably moved by now and... I didn't really want to get my hopes up...
"The attack I had this morning p-probably won't be the last... I think I-I get better then something just triggers m-me and I meltdown into a mess... I-I hate that I'm like this- Even my parents hate me- I- I'm sorry.... I'm so sorry..."
Max tried to be strong but she couldn't, she couldn't lie to Chloe or even Rachel. Just as quickly as Max began to tear up, Rachel pulled Max into a hug and Chloe moved to the other seat and hugged Max from behind.
Rachel stroked Max's brown locks off of Max's face and used her thumb to wipe away some stray tears which were visible, sniffled from the girl in her embrace were there and the two girls hugging her had to make sure she felt comfortable enough now.
"Max..?" Chloe said and leaned off of her to speak, "I never knew how... I knew you had anxiety- If I knew how bad you were having it..."
"Its okay Chloe... If you never said anything, I would've felt worse or something..." Max said as she moved her head towards Chloe's face, she smiled softly and Chloe did too. Rachel was silent suprisingly during this interaction and slowly let go of Max, she didn't really want to let go but she couldn't not feel slightly awkward at this inteaction; the model helped Chloe whenever she had a breakdown over Max and now learning the other side of the story, it felt weird to say the least.
Shortly afterwards the two, Max and Chloe, talked about different things, mainly how their next adventure together could end up as. They wanted to go to their pirate hide-out in the near future and show Rachel. Talking about Rachel, Max still thought about her.
Joyce had come up and placed their orders down, the punk moved back towards her seat as her mom placed the plate down there and after she began chomping down the food, they all laughed at how quickly Chloe was eating and made joked about her being a 'wolf'. Once the waitress left, Max began thinking and knew what was going to happen next if she placed her cards down right,
The conversation was naturally ending, this was the perfect time to talk about whatever Rachel was hiding. "Rachel..? Earlier, you said that you'd talk about..." the photographer trailed offwards slightly as she noticed Rachel's expression change. It was tense; not exactly as tense as in photography but, she seemed tense.
"Yeah... Chlo, I'm gonna tell her about him..." Rachel said in responce and Chloe nodded, the two shared a silent conversation in their minds.
Rachel looked at Max and sighed, "Okay. Let's talk about it, why I act so... Weird... Around Mark", the brunette nodded and wanted to reach out her hand to hold onto Rachel's but Chloe beat her. Even if this was a difficult conversation, Max felt sllight jealousy over Chloe holding Rachel's hand, No Caulfield. Time and a Place fuck... She cursed at herself and listened to Rachel's speaking.
"Myself and Mark have a... history. And not a pretty one. I was stupid last year and needed to let of steam somehow, a new photography teacher had come round and he was known to help students get a place in a job with known companies. I really just wanted to escape this place.
Once I got properly introduced to him, he asked if I would be okay for private lessons, the fool I was said yes. One of my biggest regrets was agreeing- Anyway, uh- First few sessions were fine, he was nice, sweet even. Then he wasn't. He insisted me to be in weird poses that seemed... sugestable...
I told him that I'd be more then happy to do them of course, I love being a flirt 'n all... Its just- He found my attempts at flirting intresting and he began flirting back. A student and a teacher, weird right? Then it went too far."
Rachel stopped briefly to see if Max was keeping up, and she was. Max was very interested in this development. The girl she knew of was turning out to be more of a flirtatious person then she originally thought of, she even got a teacher over her finger. Was Rachel doing the same too her? She couldn't think about that right now, she needed to hear the rest.
"It went too far one time because..." it seemed like Rachel was trying not to say what she wanted to say, Max held the blonde's shoulder and nodded slightly, emphasising that she was listenining to her. Rachel sighed and a singular tear went down her cheek, "Mark drugged me."
Max's mouth was open slightly and she didn't blink, thoughts were going through her head as she repeated the phrase in her head over and over. How- WHY would Jefferson do such a thing? To Rachel as well? What did she do do deserve getting drugged.
"He took me to his dark room and he took shots of me in my state. I don't remember much of the situation really, I just remember the sounds of the clicking from the camera... And that someone else was there- I don't know who. I just recognised his voice. If I knew who else were there, I'd kill them and Jefferson."
The brunette went closer towards Rachel and wrapped her arms around her waist, "I'm so sorry you went through that..." she muttered out and tried not to cry- she already had a cry session and didn't want her friends to comfort her. Rachel needed comfort.
"It was 6 months ago... It doesn't really matter anymore does it.."
"It does matter! Did you tell the police?!" Max barked out and looked at Rachel in the eyes, she picked up on Rachel's tone of voice now. It sounded empty, alone.
"No one would believe me Max... Only Chloe..." Rachel cringed at the mention of saying her friend's name, there was certainly something else between the two of them but Max really didn't care at this point,
"I believe you." Max said and tried to comfort the girl she was holding and helf her tighter, "I'll always believe you Rachel."
The older girl infront of her blinked and smiled softly, she moved a hand over towards Max's hair and ruffled it slightly. "You really care about me already, huh?"
"Of course! You were with Chloe when I wasn't and you've helped me with my shit. And why would anyone make that up? I'm on your side Rachel. Honestly..."
Chloe let go of Rachel's other hand and got up, she didn't want to mess up whatever bond was goung inbetween the two of them and held Rachel's card to pay the bill.
Now the two were looking at each other and realised how close they were towards one another, Max for once didn't break up the closeness between them and smiled at Rachel who smiled back.
"Thank you Max. I really apreshiate you... I used to think you were a jerk because you left Chloe... But now I've met the real deal and found out how adorable she really is"
A spark of joy occured inside Max, she loved Rachel's compliments, "If I could reverse time, I'd make myself stay here. And then I'd get to meet you again"
"You're so nice Max, too nice. I swear I'm not as great as you think I am" Rachel chuckled and stroked Max's hair again, she noticed how Max would slightly move her head into her hand more. It was a small thing she liked from Max, small little qwirks she picked up on. Even if they hadn't known each other a lot, she knew that Max was completely different to whoever she's met before.
"I'm only nice if you need someone to be there for them" Max smirked and held onto Rachel's hand softly, "And I don't care about past mistakes or whatever- Just whatevers in the moment"
"So if I told you that I was a dangerous supervillan like Poison Ivy, you'd still be nice to me?"
"Of course" Max smiled and Rachel laughed, they both really do like being in each others personal space now. They didn't even hear Chloe coughing to get their attention till she actually spoke,
"Uh lovebirds! Truck time now, curfew ends in a bit" the punk laughed and the two infront of her blushed, Max turned red whilst Rachel smiled a bit more then before.
Rachel rolled her eyes and linked arms with Max, both slid off the booth and all three ventured towards Chloe's beaten-down truck.