talk too much | max mayfield

bonus chapter 3 1/2

WHATS-HER-FACE PT. TWO

tw: sexual harassment

"What the hell was that?" Annie looks dumbstruck after Max has left the room, Nora's lips still tingling from where the redhead had pressed her own against.

"What?" Nora's brain is still catching up to current events. Max always manages to pull her into a different world somehow.

"Look, Nor," Annie puts a hand on Nora's upper thigh through the thin blanket resting over her legs.

It takes every ounce of strength in Nora not to shove Annie's hand off of her.

She remembers being in these kind of situations all too well; where Annie would get too close for comfort, talking sweet in Nora's ear, and leaving the girl no room to back out of her aggressive hands.

She would make Nora feel obligated to make out with her because "she feels so safe with her," and "it's so hard for the two of them in a time like this and they're basically all each other has," and Annie would see Nora looking at the back of Max's head all throughout English class and she would just feel "so betrayed" and like Nora "doesn't even care about her," and Nora didn't know what to do and she thought she had to make it up to her, so she would kiss her neck and run her fingers through her hair, but it always felt wrong.

"Nora," Annie pulls the girl out of her thoughts as she says her name in a harsher tone. "Are you even listening to me?!" She sounds incredulous.

"Yeah," Nora tries to sink back into her pillows as Annie gets closer and closer to her. Not again, not again, not again.

"Okay, look," Annie seems to show mercy for a moment, willing to explain whatever she had said earlier again. "I'm just trying to say that I think we need each other."

"What?" Nora feels sweaty as Annie now moves the hand that isn't on Nora's leg to interlock their fingers. It's the arm with the bullet wound still prominently in it, so Nora winces at the sudden pain shooting through shoulder as she tries tugging her hand away.

Annie just tightens her grip and stares Nora down. "I mean, Max has already hurt you once - I know something's gone down between you two in the past - and I have always been there for you. I've always had my arms open to you."

"I didn't ask you to do that." Is it getting hot in here? Is it just me or is she getting closer?

"What, so you just want me to never be nice to you?" The conversation is clearly not going as Annie's planned, but Nora feels her mind in a different place as she tries distracting herself from the fact that Annie is centimeters away from her lips, and knowing the strawberry blonde, she won't hesitate to force her lips on Nora's.

"Max and I are okay now," Nora thinks she's more so talking to herself at the moment. "You shouldn't be in here."

"Why not?" Annie refuses to take the hint, still getting closer and closer. "You know you can't control yourself when you're around me?"

"What? No." No, no, no, no, no.

"It's okay, Nor. It's not like I'll tell anyone," and Annie presses her lips against Nora's, and Nora tries pushing her away but her arm hurts and her stomach hurts and she feels like she can't breathe and Annie's close to putting all her weight on her and even though the strawberry blonde's a flyer on the cheer squad, Nora still feels too much weight pressing down on her arm, pressing down on her leg and she thinks she might throw up as she tastes Annie's raspberry lipgloss, but she hopes if she just stays still, not moving a muscle, the pain will go away and Annie will go away and Nora'll wake up from whatever nightmare this is in Max's arms and everything will be fine.

There's a sudden release in pressure, but when Nora looks up, Annie's still standing there.

"Just think about it," she says, and Nora wills for the tears in her eyes to just stay put. "You and I were perfect together."

And she slips out the door before Nora can say anything back, but even if she had more time, the girl doesn't think she can open her mouth ever again until the taste of raspberries is chemically burned out of it.

"What was she doing here?" Steve takes the place of the door where Nora's eyes are still staring blankly.

"Saying 'hi'," Nora responds almost robotically.

"Weird," Steve can obviously tell something's up, but doesn't pry as he drops into the seat beside Nora's bed, his little sister's eyes still trained on the door. "She know about you and Max?" He asks, vaguely aware of the sneaking out and suspiciously locked doors whenever Annie and Nora were together.

"Yeah," Nora says blankly, the million thoughts running through her head taking too much brain power for her to try give real responses.

"Why do you look like a zombie?" He keeps trying to get any kind of emotion out of her, but Nora's not in the mood for small talk.

"I'm just tired," she looks back to him, finally, hoping that'll shut him up. "I'm going to sleep now."

"Okay. . ." Steve looks slightly suspicious but stands up to give her some peace anyway. "I'll be with Eddie if you need anything."

"Hm," Nora nods as he walks away, but makes no move to get more comfortable in the bed.

Most of the thoughts in her mind have settled down leaving her with only a pit in her stomach, bile rising up in her throat, and one sentence running through her head.

I can't tell Max about this.

a/n:
i got pinkeye writing this so maybe it's a sign from the universe that you'll all hate it so lmk if u do and i'll delete my entire account dw

also this what I was talking ab in the last author's note about making Annie annoying so ya anyway so I could literally talk for hours on topics like this but in this specific case it was the idea of, like I said in a diff author's note, making Nora a bit more dynamic and less "my life is perfect and I've never experienced hardship" yk? and if while doing that I can also emphasize the idea of same-sex sa and how little it's talked ab then I think that's rlly important too. I hope u guys not necessarily enjoyed this chapter but understand what I was trying to do and if u hated it pls lmk bc the whole point of this plot point is to amplify diff perspectives and stories and ik I can't speak for everyone but I still want to make everyone comfortable so yeah anyway ily all and I'm here if u ever need to talk <3