dark red- max mayfield

xxii. clockmaking wizards

☆★☆★→ ←☆★☆★

MAX YAWNED and Josh immediately straightened up against the couch, rubbing his own eyes tiredly. He stared at her before looking away. While staring, he had noticed the dark bags under her eyes. She had probably only slept for a few minutes, and he couldn't tell if it was more or less than he'd slept.

Throughout the night, they'd played Running Up That Hill on a forty-six minute loop. Every time it ran out, either Max or Josh would hit replay, depending on if she was awake or not. At some point or another, Max had fallen asleep on Josh's shoulder, and he didn't have the heart to tell her to move. He didn't have the heart to tell her that it was him that she was sleeping on— if she'd known, she'd probably move as far away as possible.

Dustin was supposed to be on both Josh and Max Watch, although Josh had noticed his slumbering state, slumped back against the television where he had been sleeping. The only people to truly take their slots seriously were Nancy, Cassie, and Lucas— the others had allowed their eyes to fall shut sometimes.

"Seriously?" sighed Max as she stood up. "Did you sleep at all last night?"

"Uh..." Josh looked at her strangely— she couldn't know. "Of-Of course I did, obviously. I'm, uh, just on Max Watch right now."

"Yeah, and you've been on 'Max Watch,'" she put air quotes around the words, "all night, even if someone else was scheduled to be. You need sleep, you know."

He trailed after her as she headed towards the stairs. "Y-Yeah, well so do you. I promise, I'll tell you if you start levitating again."

"Teasing already, huh?" she scoffed as they headed up the stairs. "I don't know why I didn't expect it."

Josh sighed apologetically as they headed up into the kitchen, where the Wheeler family (consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler and Holly) were all sitting, eating breakfast. Holly was in the dining room, playing with a toy.

"You two are up early!" said Mrs. Wheeler positively. "Here, are you hungry?" she handed a plate of pancakes to Josh, who beamed at her.

"Thank you, Mrs. Wheeler." he said appreciatively.

"Oh, please, take everything we have if you need to." muttered Mr. Wheeler, his eyes peering at Josh over the top of his newspaper.

"Well, now that I have the invitation, I would love to." Josh titled his head and winked at Mr. Wheeler before turning around, his heart dropping. Max wasn't beside him anymore.

Then, he sucked in a breath of relief when he saw her sitting at the dining room table with Holly, drawing on some pieces of blank paper. She only had a few crayons around her, and the majority were just shades of red. There were some browns, a yellow, and a green, but other than that— red.