“Maxynn!” a familiar voice called out from above me, but I still didn’t open my eyes to see if I was dreaming or not. “Maxynn, it’s time to wake up!”
I didn’t even open my eyes before rolling over and pushing my head into my pillow even more. I could just tell that it was way too early to wake up on a Saturday morning.
“Maxynn!” the person now shouted, and it caused me to groan. “Wake up!”
I finally rolled back over to glare at Kate, but I stopped when I saw that she wasn’t the only person in my room. Both Johnny and Zach were standing on either side of her, and I could see Aveline behind them starting to go through my stuff.
“Hey!” I shouted when she reached for the drawer that I hid the gauze in. “Aveline, don’t go through my stuff!”
“Oh, what’s the worst I could find?” she asked, rolling her eyes and thankfully going for another drawer. “What, is this where you hide your diary or something?”
I couldn’t help but scowl at her. “No, I just don’t want you going through my things!”
She shrugged, but didn’t stop. “I’d like to see what you have in here.”
“She has Disney movies hidden under her bed,” Zach informed the brunette girl, and I almost jumped right out of bed and slapped him.
“What are you guys even doing here?” I demanded, placing my feet on the ground and blocking Aveline when she tried to dive under my bed in search of my embarrassing movie collection. “And wait, why is Aveline here? She’s… she’s not supposed to know…”
I stared at the girl that had been making my life miserable, unable to speak now. She was the last person I wanted knowing that I lived in the same house as Zach! She would tell everyone and spread a bunch of rumors that weren’t true!
“Ethan told her,” Zach shrugged, and I knew I was going to strangle that little bug one day. “I invited her over, and Ethan told her how you were still upstairs sleeping. When she asked why you’d be upstairs, he told her.”
“Have I ever told you that I hate your brother?” I growled.
Zach shrugged, waving it away. “Something along the lines, yes.”
So Aveline knew. She knew that I lived in the same house as Zach, but I seemed to be the only one out of all of us that thought that that was a bad thing. We all knew that Aveline absolutely hated me! Why didn’t anyone else think that this was a bad idea?
“I made her swear to secrecy,” Zach now said with a shrug, and Aveline made a face. “I said I’d never talk to her again if she told anyone.”
“And I love Zach way more than I hate you,” Aveline scowled at me, and I seemed to be the only one out of all of us that noticed that she had used the word love. “So I’ll keep my mouth shut about it. But don’t think it’s because I like you or anything.”
I rolled my eyes at her before turning toward the rest of them. “Like I asked before, why are you all here?”
“We’re going on a trip,” Kate informed me in excitement, nearly jumping up and down as she did so. “So you need to get out of bed and get dressed so we can hurry up and go!”
“A trip?” I questioned, swatting at her hand when she grabbed for me. “What kind of trip?”
“A skiing trip,” Johnny informed me with a smile, and it almost made me melt. I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to wake up to that smile. “Kate’s uncle has a cabin up in the mountains that he’s letting us borrow for the weekend.”
I couldn’t help but make a face. “Skiing?”
“What, can you not ski like you can’t swim?” Zach asked with a growing smirk, and all I did was glare at him. I could ski, I just didn’t feel like being trapped in the car with Zach or Aveline. I was sure that Logan and Todd were going to come along, but it wasn’t like I had a problem with either of them.
“I can swim,” I growled, seriously not in the mood to deal with him. “I just didn’t want to.”
Zach shrugged. “Same thing. Now hurry up so we can go.”
I really had no say in the matter at all. Kate practically dressed me and before I even knew it, we were in the car and driving up the mountains. I was obviously very displeased by this whole thing, but no one even seemed to care about that.
I was right when I had thought that Logan and Todd were going to come along. We all were squished in Logan’s van, which was very, very uncomfortable.
But when we finally got to the mountains, things got a little better, and I was sure I was going to have fun with my friends for the next two days. Even though I had been a total grump at the start of this trip, I was starting to feel a lot better.
Johnny and I spent hours going up and down the mountain, having so much fun that it went by way too fast. I didn’t think I would ever be able to get tired of hanging out with Johnny. He was just too perfect.
“Hey, Johnny!” I heard Zach call out once my boyfriend and I got to the bottom of the mountain. “Get over here and look at what I made in the snow over here!”
“If he made anything below the belt, I give you permission to hit him for me,” I scowled, knowing that it was definitely something that Zach would do, especially with Aveline right next to him like she always tried to be.
Johnny laughed, taking a step toward his friends. “You’re not going to come along and look with me?”
“Nah, I’m good,” I answered back, not even wanting to think about what Zach had made in the snow. God forbid it was anything too bad, since there were children around… “I’d like to keep my eyesight. But you go ahead.”
Johnny laughed before fully turning away and heading toward his best friend. I just knew he made something gross in the snow. It was just like him to make something disgusting or disturbing.
“Hey, have you seen Kate or Logan?” a new voice suddenly asked, and I turned to see Todd slow to a stop next to me. “I haven’t seen either of them since they went up the mountain an hour ago. I’m sure they’d be down by now, but I’m not able to find either of them.
I shook my head, not very surprised that Logan and Kate were both missing together. They were usually always glued to each other’s sides. But something just didn’t seem right, and Todd knew it too. “No, I haven’t seen either of them. Have you checked the cabin?”
“Yeah,” he nodded, and now I started to get worried just a little bit. “Do you think something happened to them?”
I gulped, not wanting to think about it. “I don’t know. Should we go search for them?”
Todd seemed to think for a moment, but I knew he was thinking the same thing I was. “Yeah, we should. They could be in trouble, or hurt.”
Todd and I both nodded at each other before we went our separate ways in search of our friends. I was really worried that something bad had happened, especially to Kate. She was my best friend, and the only person on this planet that I could truly trust. If she was gone, I didn’t know what I would do.
So I hurried out into the trees, hoping that I would find at least one of them, because then it would have made things so much easier to find the other one. If I was even luckier, I’d be able to find both and we’d all get to go back to Kate’s uncle’s cabin and sleep.
The snow was coming down fast now, which didn’t make anything easier for me. I didn’t see any sign of Kate and her bright pink skiing suit, and I didn’t see Logan’s blue one either. In fact, I couldn’t see anyone anymore. All I saw now were snow and trees.
I didn’t know how long I had been out there for, but I knew that it had to have been at least over and hour. The snow was now coming down hard, it was practically a blizzard, and I could barely even tell left from right. I was I supposed to get myself out of this mess.
When I tripped over the stupid skis, I let out a frustrated shout before pulling them right off. They weren’t helping me at all, so I might have as well just got rid of them. I’d definitely die out here if I continued moving around in them.
I was absolutely freezing now, and I felt my clothes under my skiing outfit completely soaked. This was not good. I had no idea how to get out of this situation, and I was starting to get seriously cold.
I tried to get up and continuing walking, but I felt my legs growing numb. This caused me to fall right back into the snow, and I couldn’t help but cuss loudly. I could barely see with all this snow falling, even with the goggles that I was wearing!
When I felt arms wrap around my waist, I let out a shout and almost drove my elbow right into their stomach. I stopped when I heard a familiar voice shout, “Stop, you idiot, it’s me!”
When I was being picked up bridal style, I saw that this person was Zach. And honestly, I wasn’t very surprised that he was the one holding me, since he had been the one that saved me so many times before. I was starting to think that he was doing things on purpose to save me just so he would seem like a hero.
When I saw a small cabin coming up in the distance, I couldn’t help but let out a relieved sigh. At least we’d be protected from the snow now.
“Why the hell did you go out like that when there was a blizzard coming?” Zach asked as he kicked the door to the small abandoned cabin open. “You could have frozen to death out there!”
“Logan and Kate…” I swallowed, not wanting to lose my ability to speak while the rest of my body continued staying numb. “I had to find Logan and Kate.”
“And they’re worth losing you?” he nearly shouted now.
I stayed silent, because I honestly had no idea what to say back to this. The way Zach had said this made him sound almost… scared. The smartest thing I could do was just stay silent, because nothing I could say would make this better.
“You really are the most troublesome girl I have ever met in my entire life,” Zach heaved as he placed me gently on the floor of the tiny, right in front of the fire place. He then took a log and started the fire as quickly as he could. All I could do was continue to lay there and watch him. He then turned toward me as he said, “Now we have to get your clothes off.”
“What?” I screeched, though my body was too numb to move away from him. So much for him being like a princely hero! “Is right now really a good time for that?”
He rolled his eyes at me, reaching for my jacket. “Idiot, you need to get into warm clothes or you’re going to die.”
What he was saying made sense, but I still didn’t feel comfortable with Zach undressing me. Even though we had been playing the game for a while, it was still too weird having him remove my clothes from my body.
I didn’t remember about the gauze or the scars until my shirt was almost off. I tried to pull away from him, but my body was still way too weak and Zach was way too strong. So I gave in, covering my face with my good arm as he pulled my shirt off, leaving me in my tank top that luckily wasn’t very wet.
“Gauze?” I heard Zach ask in surprise, but I said nothing back to him. “Why are you wearing gauze, Maxynn?”
“Don’t touch it,” was all I said to him, still covering my face with my arm. I was still freezing, but I would have rather froze to death than let anyone see the scars those burns had left me. “Just don’t touch it, Zach.”
“It’s soaking wet, Maxynn,” he told me, and it was something that I already knew but was too stubborn to admit. “I have to take it off or you’re never going to warm up.”
“I don’t care!” I shouted when I felt him begin to unwrap. My body was way too numb to fight him off, so all I could do was continue shielding my face with my good arm.
When I felt the gauze come off completely, I said nothing and neither did Zach. I knew he was staring at my scars, though I refused to move my arm from covering my face, and neither of us said a single word about it at first.
“So this is why you always wear long sleeves,” I heard Zach say, but I didn’t dare look up at him or at my scars. I promised myself I would never look at them, and so far it had been going well. But now I had no gauze to cover it with at all, which meant I was going to have to do something about it. “You got this from the fire, didn’t you?”
I didn’t answer him; I only continued to bury my face into my free arm, not able to face him or my scars. Time had passed, so they didn’t hurt any longer, but that didn’t mean that they didn’t hurt me emotionally or mentally. Just because they didn’t cause me pain physically didn’t mean they didn’t cause me pain anywhere else.
“Maxynn,” Zach started now, wrapping his hand around my wrist but not removing my arm from my face. “Look at me.”
“No,” I choked, the tears burning at my eyes. The last thing I wanted to do in front of Zachary Deveraux was cry. “Just put me in warm clothing or leave me out in the cold to die.”
He removed my arm from my face now, and my tears leaked from my eyes and rolled down into my hair. Zach stared down at me with a look I hadn’t ever seen before, and this whole situation made me wish that I hadn’t ever moved to Corvus or met him. If I hadn’t ever moved, my mother would still be alive and I wouldn’t’ have these scars.
“Maxynn…” was all he said, and I now sat up and looked over at the terrible, ugly scars that the fire had left me. They were just as I expected them to be. They were so horrible.
“They’re just as I thought,” I whispered, tears spilling down my face. “They might be even worse.”
“When I grabbed you, the night you moved into my house…” Zach trailed off, as if he didn’t know what to say. He took off his jacket and wrapped it around me, this making me feel so much better because it was warm and covered my scars. “This was why you flinched.”
I stared down at my lap. “This is why I flinched.”
“You could have told me,” Zach informed me seriously now, but I really didn’t believe that anything would have been different if he knew. “It would have made a lot more sense. This is why you couldn’t swim, why you hid your arm when you were in the hospital after fainting at your mother’s funeral, and why you never wore anything but long sleeves. I was starting to think something was really wrong, Maxynn.”
“Like what?” I snapped, not wanting to talk about this any longer. The scars were so ugly, even in this horrible lighting. Johnny would never find me attractive if he saw them. No one would ever find me attractive if they saw them.
“I don’t know, I thought that you might have been hurting yourself,” Zach snapped right back at me, and it made me stop and think for a second. Did Zachary Deveraux really care about me enough to worry that I was cutting myself or hurting myself in any other way? “I haven’t seen your arms since after the fire. I thought that you were so depressed about your mom dying and people thinking that you started the fire that you were doing something to yourself. I was worried.”
“Sure you were,” I sniffed, wiping away at the unwanted tears that still wanted to fall. “You were so worried about me that you went off and hit on Kate, flirted with Andie, and wouldn’t let me out of the game even though I’m dating your best friend. Yeah, you sure were worried about me. Why don't you just stop lying and leave me alone, Zach?"
The look on Zach’s face was hard. He said nothing at first, but I didn’t expect him to do so.
“Do you think I’m really going to just let go of you after I finally got you after being rejected for a year?” he asked me quietly now.
I couldn’t think of anything to say to him. I just wanted to cry and let everything out. These scars had been haunting me ever since I had woken up after the fire. They were a reminder that my mother and my house were gone. They were reminders that my life had been crashing down.
Without even thinking, I buried my face into his shoulder and just started sobbing. Zach’s body stiffened for a moment, as if he didn’t know what to do, but he then wrapped his arms around my shoulders and just let me cry. He let me do what I needed to do after so long. He just let me cry.
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This chapter is too short to me. I might go back and make it longer later. But it's two in the morning now, so I'm going to bed now. xD
I hate that I have to update this so often. I won't make it in time for the Watty Awards if I don't. D:
This is for the 2012 Watty Awards! Please COMMENT, VOTE, and SHARE! :)