"I'm only human, and I crash, and I break down."
[ chapter seven ] → broken & bruised
Over the course of the next few days, Max had begun to hang around Annika more, until she eventually became friends with the blonde haired beauty. Max was happy to have someone to talk to, someone that wouldn't give her pity glances when Mike would take them away from her.
They had a delicate friendship, Annika being the quiet girl she was, barely spoke, and when she did it tended to be only to Max. She never spoke of her home life, only talking about topics that didn't involve her personal life. Max felt her heart go out to the blonde haired girl, she knew how hard it was to have a difficult home life, and she just prayed that if it was as bad she thought it was, that Annika was at least letting someone know.
Max had also begun her project with Mike, the pair had worked on it in class for the last four days, but had yet to meet outside of class to continue working. She had almost brought up the idea once, but decided against it, not wanting to get in Mike's bad books. They had come to an unspoken agreement that they would be civil to each other when working on the project, and Max liked it. She liked being able to hold a conversation with Mike, without them having to constantly take jabs at one another. She was slowly starting to discover a softer, sweeter side to the Wheeler boy, and she couldn't help but drink it all up. She slowly drifted off to sleep, thoughts still lingering in the back of her mind.
- o -
When Maxine Mayfield woke up the next morning, she could tell something was off. The house was silent, too silent. It felt like all the life had been sucked out of it, she couldn't hear the tv running downstairs, nor could she hear Billy's obnoxiously loud heavy rock music seeping through the walls of her room.
Deciding to go investigate she slipped out of bed, her feet padding quietly against the carpet as she made her way out of her room. Max searched the whole house twice before deciding that no one was home. She walked over to the kitchen, stomach rumbling with hunger when a yellow post-it note caught her eye. She scanned it over, realizing her parents had gone out of town for the weekend, leaving Billy in charge. Clearly, Billy wasn't home if the dead silence in the house was anything to go by.
Max grabbed some food before situating herself on the couch, aimlessly flicking through the channels on the TV.
She was halfway through an episode of 'The Golden Girls' when she heard the front door slam open, and Billy walk in, face red with anger,
"MAX, YOU BITCH!" He shouted, stomping over to her.
Max scrambled out of her seat, fear flowing through her veins, shaking her to her very core.
He shoved her against the wall, hand slamming the wall behind her, as he backed her up against the wall, face inches from hers, eyes filled with the utmost hatred,
"You lying, deceiving bitch, you told me you had no idea who crashed my car, or where it was, and then I find your green jacket in my trunk. I paid a thousand dollars to get it fixed, and now you're going to fucking pay," He screamed, voice rising with every word he spoke.
She didn't say anything, afraid that if she did, it would only get worse.
Billy growled in frustration when she kept silent, grabbing her hair and using it to slam her head against the wall.
Max felt like the wind had been knocked out of her. She felt tears flow down her cheeks, the pain penetrating through her head, her hair felt like it was being ripped out of her skull. She loud out a cry of pain when she felt Billy push her to the floor before he kicked her in the ribs. She tried to protect herself the best she could, curling up into a fetal position, but it did nothing to stop the pain that was flowing through her entire body.
It was another couple minutes of pure torture, and Billy finally stopped, lighting his cigarette, and kicking Max's body out of the way as he passed her on his way upstairs.
Max was on the brink of passing out, her body ached and she could feel bruises already beginning to form. She knew she needed to leave before he came back, but she physically could not move her body. Her brain was sending signals to move, but her body had shut down.
Max lay still for a few moments, giving her body time to heal, at least a little bit. She had nowhere to go. She could go to Lucas, but she didn't want to explain everything to him. She could go to Annika, but she didn't want to burden the poor girl. Deciding her best plan was to at least get out of the house, she inched her body towards the door.
Leaning on the door for support, Max forced her body to restart again and stand up, wobbling a bit as she stood, sharp pains shooting through her ribcage.
"Mayfield!"
Her head shot up when she heard his voice, wondering if she was becoming delusional or if she had actually heard it. Blue eyes met brown and Max had never been more relieved to see Mike Wheeler in her entire existence. She felt her lips pull into a small smile as she saw him discard his bike on the ground before racing towards her.
He reached her just as her knees buckled underneath her, and she fell into him. He clutched her close to him, terrified of what would happen if he let her go.
He looked down at her, his stomach plummeting when he saw the bruises covering her face,
"We need to leave," she said, her voice small.
All Mike could do was nod, he let her lean on him, supporting her, and they both walked back to his house in silence.
Mike's thoughts where racing. He had been horrified when he saw her standing there on her doorstep, blood dripping down her face. He had never seen something so terrifying in his life, he would rather face 1,000 deme-dogs alone, then watch Max writhe in pain. He knew that he was going to have nightmares, even though it was broad daylight when he had seen her, the environment had been nothing but dark.
She trembled under him as they walked, and even though she didn't once say anything he knew she must be in an excruciating pain.
How was she so calm about this?
Then it dawned on him, that maybe the reason she was so calm, was because this had happened before, that this wasn't uncommon, and that thought made his skin crawl.
What happened behind those closed doors?
- o -
Max let her exhausted body fall onto Mike's bed as she watched him rummage through his closet. Finally, he pulled out an overly large blue t-shirt along with some shorts. He handed them to her, and stared at him confused,
"Why are you giving this to me?"
He looked at her, his expression timid, "Maxine, you have dried blood on you, it's everywhere. You need to change."
Max was struck by how generous he was being towards her, he had seen her at her worst multiple times now, and instead of tearing her down, even more, he was helping to put the pieces back together. It was in her moments of pure vulnerability that she found herself standing next to none another then Mike Wheeler himself. He always seemed to be there, right when she was sure that it was all over, he was there. Time and time again he had proven to be the light she so desperately sought when consumed by darkness. Over the course of the last few months, she had slowly started to peel back layer by layer the hard shell Mike build around himself, and she would do so until she was left with nothing but him. Just him.
It dawned on Max, for the first time, that perhaps she had got it all wrong. Maybe she didn't hate him at all, maybe they weren't destined to be enemies. They kept up a facade of loathing each other because that was all they knew, that's how it had always been. If they got past the labels they didn't know where they stood, they where the grey area between love and hate and Max was determined to find out what exactly that was. So as she sat on Mike Wheelers bed, on a Sunday afternoon, red locks covered in crimson blood she restored her faith, that maybe in the end things could be ok. That they could make it work. She didn't know how she was going to do it, all she knew was that when Mike had given her that smile in the gym, she liked it, and she was going to do everything in her power to make him smile like that again.
"Max, go change please," Mike's voice was soft and there was a slight desperation in it and he pushed her slightly towards the bathroom.
She walked slowly, being careful to not put too much pressure on her throbbing right hip. Right before she slipped into the bathroom she decided to poke fun at Mike,
"Onto first name bases are we Micheal?"
She heard him groan from behind her, and a small smile played on her lips as she shut the door behind her.
Hey guys! So last chapter I introduced a new character Aanika and she didn't really appear this chapter, needless to say nor did anyone else. This chapter and the next will solely be Mike and Max. However, I promise the action will pick up after that, I just wanted to give you guys one more Madwheeler moment before things get a bit messy. Also if you guys see any grammar/spelling mistakes feel free to leave a comment about it, i'm going to go back and edit this book soon. Thank you for reading!
This chapter was very gruesome and dealt with some very touchy subjects, if anybody reading this goes through anything like this or something related, please let someone know. Feel free to dm me and reach out, or you can call a hotline and get help.
[ Suicide Hotline ] 1-800-273-8255
[ Domestic Abuse Hotline ] 1-877-988-5559
[ National Child Abuse Hotline ] 1-800-422-4453
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