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The clock on the wall was driving her crazy.
Four days. Ninety six hours. 5,760 minutes. 345,600 seconds. All of them a loud ringing in her skull each time the pendulum on that stupid clock swung. Click. Click. Click.
It had been Ninety six hours since she last saw Max on that dock. Since she last got to hold him, be near him . She was going stir crazy, agonizing over everything. People were dead because of her. Max almost died because of her . Her fingers itched. Everything itched.
She wanted to go home. She wanted to sleep for a million years. She wanted Max.
Fuck she wanted Max. She wanted him so bad it brought tears to her eyes as she curled her arms around herself and stared at that stupid clock.
345,601. 345,602. 345,603.
Click.
Click.
Her fingers tapped on her thigh as she stared into space, her stomach curdling from lack of food. Lack of…everything really. It’d been a long four days.
She wondered where Max was. How was he holding up? Was he just as antsy as she was? Were they treating him okay? Was he scared? She wondered how he felt, at this very moment. Bored? Nervous? Scared? Angry?
The questions were eating her up inside, her arms coiling around her middle as she bent over.
Click.
Click.
She wanted to go home.
Everything was different now. She was different. It was all unknown .
And she was terrified. It was like staring into a big black pit and being asked to jump alone. She didn’t want to go, but she knew she had no choice in the matter. This was the path she’d chosen.
All to save him.
Saliva pooled in her mouth, thick and suffocating. It tasted like blood, from where she’d gnawed on her cheek too hard she guessed.
She scratched at her thumbs, eyes darting from the clock to the door. Eternity stretched on in a few days, leaving her sick and numb.
Where was Max?
She pulled her legs into the chair with her to curl up further, nails digging into her palms as the seconds continued to tick by.
Click.
Click.
Click?
Her head snapped up at the sound of the motel door unlocking.
“Ms. Kearney?”
“Yes?” she gasped, stumbling to her feet at the sight of the police officer. Her heart thudded in her chest at the thought of more interrogations. More questions. Less Max .
The officer had a worn face with thick eye bags and wrinkles from smiling and frowning. Her eyes were downturned and heavy as she let out a sigh. Laura felt her hopes dissolve at her fingertips at the sound but then the officer’s lips quirked up into a tiny smile. “You’re free to go.”
She stood in stunned silence before the questions coating her tongue sprung to life. “Is Max still here? Is he free to go too? Can I see my boyfriend?” she sputtered out, her hands trembling in their clenched fists. “Please, please let me see him. I-I have to…I need to see him.” Her voice trembled, cracking at the edges as she continued to stagger forward.
The officer didn’t respond, only shifted slightly to the right to reveal the oh-so-familiar boy standing behind her. She stopped moving for a moment, her arms falling to her sides as they stared at one another for a moment.
When he gave her that awkward little wave of his, every single emotion she had bottled up for the past four days came crashing down on her all at once; tears springing to her eyes as she launched herself at him. He let out a tiny yelp as he caught her, stumbling back a step as he spun her around. “Laura, Laura, Laura,” he murmured, petting her hair as she sobbed into his chest. “It's okay honey, I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere, sweetheart.”
She pawed at the fabric of his shirt, her voice coming out in thick whines as she sobbed into his chest.
“I’m not going anywhere ever again,” he whispered, kissing the top of her head fiercely. “We’ll get you home, okay? I’m gonna get you home.”
“I wanna…” she let out a tiny gasp, unburying her face to get a good look at him. A bit scratched up from what she heard was a fall from a tree, but otherwise fine. He swiped the tears from her cheeks as she lay a trembling hand to rest on his left cheek. He leaned into it as she let out another gasp. “I wanna sleep forever,” she finished, letting out a humourless laugh.
He kissed her forehead, down the slope of her nose to finally press the lightest kiss against the tip. “Mind if I join you?”
This time when she laughed, it was real. It was soon followed by another sob but it was real . “Fuck, yes Max, yes. I don’t want to go anywhere without you ever again. I can’t…” more tears spilled down her cheeks as everything fell over her in waves.
The lack of sleep. The lack of food. The stress. The blood. The nightmares.
He hummed to her, wrapping her up in another hug. They rocked back and forth as her nose found its way into the crook of his neck. “You didn’t leave,” he murmured, their hands finding their way to one another. He was warm. She was cold, she didn’t realize how cold she was until she found herself in his arms again.
“Of course I didn’t,” she responded, breathing him in. He smelled like cheap soap. She never wanted to leave. “I couldn’t…I would never leave you. Where you go, I go.”
He chuckled softly. “How’s home sound then?”
“Yes, please .”
He made eye contact with the officer over the top of her head, nodding once. “Thank you, for keeping her safe.” He didn’t sound like he wanted to say it, it came out a bit gruff and she was sure if he had it in him he’d growl.
She snuggled closer, letting him tighten his grip on her shoulders.
“You two better be gettin’ home safe now, you have a long drive ahead of ya,” the officer replied. “Phones downstairs if you need to call someone. Bus is coming in half an hour otherwise.”
He nodded again, still rocking her back and forth. The only sound after was the officer’s footsteps down the hall and his soft murmurs to her hair. “See? We can take the bus to the next town over and call my mom, she’d be happy to pick us up.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, gripping his shirt so tightly her knuckles turned white. “I’m so sorry.”
“Laura? Hun? What do you have to be sorry for?” he asked, holding her shoulders gently to push her out of the embrace to get a good look at her face. The pad of his thumb brushed the corner of her lip as his eyes searched her own for answers.
“I got us into this mess,” she whispered, the words the final nail in her metaphorical coffin. It was the truth, the honest to god truth. She got them into this mess. She was the reason Max got hurt. She was the reason he turned. She killed and maimed to fix her mistake. It was all her fault.
Admitting it didn’t make her feel any better.
He kissed the top of her head. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for, hun. It happened, that’s all I can say. It happened , and we can’t change that.”
“I nearly got you killed , Max,” she said, pushing him away to wrap her arms around herself.
“I’m still here, aren’t I? Takes a lot to get rid of ol’ Max a million.”
The joke fell on deaf ears as more tears welled in her eyes. “Shit, Laura, I didn’t mean-”
“You are, you are alive, but what if you weren’t? What if you died, Max, what then?” Everything she thought about over the past four days came bubbling out, all at once. She was a pot boiling over, and there was no stopping the hiccuped words or shocked look on his face. “Where would that leave me ?”
“I didn’t die, Laura,” he said softly, reaching out to her. “It was scary, I won’t lie. I was fucking terrified . But it was never about me.” She raised a brow, he conceded with a small sigh and a little smile. “Okay maybe part of it was about me, but not all of it!” He ran his hand down her clasped arms to find her own hand, trembling. “Didn’t you stop to think, just for a moment, how I was feeling about it?” His voice was whisper soft as he threaded his fingers through hers. “I clawed out your eye, hun.”
“But that wasn’t-”
“I know ,” he snapped, making her cheek twitch. “I know , but it still doesn’t make it any better because in some way it was me. It was me behind those bars, it was me reaching out.”
“It was the stupid fucking curse.”
“But it was still me.”
“I don’t believe that,” she murmured, letting him untangle her arms. “My Max would never willingly hurt me.”
He sucked in a small breath through his teeth. He ran a hand through his hair before letting out a tiny sigh. “Just like my girl wouldn’t willingly put me in danger,” he replied, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. “Simple as that.”
Her shoulders started to sag. “Can…can we go home now?” she asked, lifting her head to peer at him through her lashes. She was tired. She was so tired.
Heavy bags pulled at his beautiful eyes, but his smile, as small as it was, was real. He was real. It was all real.
And they were free . They were going home free .
“The bus should be here soon, I told my mom to get us in the next town since it's going to be busy with the others.”
“Us?”
“Your mom is on a trip right? And your dad is too far out to get you today. My mom was itching for us to be released, so she jumped the gun and got my sisters all packed up. They really want to see you.”
She barked out a tiny gargled whine. “You didn’t…I don’t…”
He didn’t say anything, just wrapped his arm around her shoulders before planting a kiss in her hair. “Yes I do, and yes you do. We’ll go home and get you that nap, if you don’t mind me passed out beside you.”
She laughed. “I can’t think of a better place for you to be.”
His tiny hum turned into a tiny gasp as he looked at her.
“What?”
He pulled away to crouch in front of her, his smile growing larger. “Well well well, lookie here,” he said, his smile lopsided as he brushed her cheeks with his thumbs gently, catching the tears that went astray. “Mhm, that’s right.”
She leaned into his touch, kissing the pad of his thumb. “What’s right?”
“You’ve still got the prettiest eyes I’ve ever seen.” His brows shot up to his hairline and his smile grew into a grin. Her cheeks heated. “And woulda look at that!” He tapped the skin under her eyes, making her fight her smile. “One…” a dramatic pause before he tapped her other eye and rested his hand against her cheek. “...two. You’ve got two of them!”
She started to giggle, her nose wrinkling a bit at the gesture, his cheeks growing rosy at the sound.
“God I love making you laugh,” he said, wonder shining in his eyes. She stopped her giggles as heat climbed into her face. “It’s my favourite sound.”
“S-Stop, you don’t mean that,” she sputtered as he brushed her lips with his thumbs.
“I do, I do mean it. I mean it more than anything else.” He surged up to kiss her, the sweetness of his words painting his lips as he leaned so far into her he was starting to lower her into a dip.
She loved him.
Fuck she loved him.
She loved the way he loved making her laugh. She loved the way his eyes lit up whenever he was excited. How soft his hair was. She loved him .
And she would do it all again, if it meant getting to hold him.
“Let’s go home,” he whispered against her lips before she pulled him back.
~~
The bus smelled something awful, but she was relieved they were finally leaving. The demon clock that haunted her for four days straight a low thud in the back of her skull as Max held her hand.
The aisle was small, Max letting her squeeze through first to find seats in the very back by the window, just like he liked. His eyes glittered as she let him sit in the window seat, never letting go of her hand as she plopped down next to him.
They were both exhausted, watching the bus remain empty. The low hum of the engine covered their conversation as she yawned.
“I think…I’m gonna take a year off,” she murmured, snuggling into his side. “From…school.”
He pressed a kiss to her temple. “You deserve it.”
“And…and I want to spend time with you.”
“What happens after?”
She yawned again. “I don’t know. I just know that wherever you are, that’s exactly where I wanna be.”
He chuckled. “You get so sappy when you’re tired.”
“Savour it while it lasts,” she giggled.
He tilted her face up to press a whisper soft kiss against her lower lip. “Can I see a smile before we go?” he murmured before kissing her again.
It was small, but she slowly felt her smile climb across her face as he continued to shower her in kisses. He kissed between her brows, pulling back to look at her. His eyes were a bit duller from the months but they were still her Max’s eyes. So large and so blue.
She wrapped her arms around his neck as they kissed again, curling her fingers in the hair at the nape of his neck. He nipped at her lower lip once before pulling away. “That’s my girl,” he whispered, kissing the tip of her nose before wrapping his arm around her shoulder.
Warmth settled in her stomach as she curled up against his side, basking in the feeling of being closer to him. As the bus sputtered to life he kissed the top of her head and twined their fingers together.
“I love you,” she murmured, squeezing his hand as she let herself nod off.
She watched his eyes widen a bit through a tired gaze, his cheeks flushing pink before he looked down at her with a softness in those big blue eyes of his.
Another kiss to her forehead as he whispered to her skin, “I love you too.”
She was staring into that black pit again. It called to her in a soft song with slurred words. Swirled around her ankles.
But she wasn’t alone this time.
Max squeezed her hand as he followed her into the unknown.