talk too much | max mayfield

*34. wanted

WANTED

✧･ﾟ: * So, El hit Angela in the nose with a roller skate wheel, but it was one of those rubber roller skate wheels, or like a soft plastic as opposed to wood or metal, so Angela will probably be fine.

Nora changed out of her clothes once she got home, not liking the way they felt on her anymore, then sat down for dinner with in between Jonathan and Argyle, across from Will, Mike, and El, as Murray (who came out of nowhere) and Joyce sat at the ends of the table, and Max had gone home to her dad's by then.

"Can you pass me the olive oil," an incredibly high Jonathan whispers in Nora's ear as she slouches over her plate, picking at her food, not having the energy or appetite to eat it.

"It's wine," she replies monotonously, not even in the mood to laugh at his demeanor.

"A skate attack?" Joyce asks for clarification a few minutes after she established she had to go to Alaska for a business thing or something.

"Yeah," Jonathan nods along. "But it wasn't an ice skate it was um. . ."

"Like plastic," Nora provides from the conversation they having in the car earlier, still picking at her food as she feels a headache coming on. "Rubber."

"Rubber," Argyle nods, agreeing with her word choice.

"Rubber," Jonathan finalizes.

"Y'know what?" Argyle closes his eyes for a moment. "I'm not sure, but anyway," he opens them again, "she looked like she was gonna be fine."

"Totally fine," Jonathan agrees.

"She didn't look fine," Mike states, causing El, Will, and even Nora look up from their plates to stare at him as he keeps his head down.

El looks especially upset and gets up suddenly, leaving up the stairs without a word.

Nora kicks him under the table, and he simply glares back.

"I sense tension," Murray states after a moment. "Is it the risotto, does everyone hate the risotto?"

"Absolutely not," Jonathan assures.

"I love it," Argyle agrees.

"The risotto's good," Nora offers, looking down at her full plate.

"This risotto is shmackin', dude," Argyle states.

—

✧･ﾟ: * "Is Max coming over today?" Will asks Nora as the two watch Mike get up from the breakfast table to give El her food since she hasn't come down since yesterday night.

"No," Nora replies, unable to bring her forkful of waffles to her mouth.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Will doesn't really know Max and Nora are dating dating, but he can definitely tell they act a little bit more than just friends around each other.

"No," Nora replies again. "Y'know what?" She stands up suddenly. "Oh, never mind," she sits back down.

Will looks amused. "No, do go on, what were you gonna say?"

Nora stands up again. "I should go talk to her." She sits down. "But I don't think she wants to talk to me." She stands up. "But I really have to apologize." She sits down. "But I don't want her to think I'm only apologizing because I want her to apologize." She stands up. "But I was a bitch." She sits down. "She was kinda a bitch too. No, she wasn't, I can't say that. She was right, I'm just-"

"You should go."

Nora stares at Will.

"It's like a ten minute walk," he assures. "Give your apology for whatever you're sorry for then come back. Do it for yourself, it doesn't necessarily have to be for her."

"Will the Wise," Nora smiles slightly, mostly to herself, but Will smiles too now. She stands up again. "I'll be right back."

Nora steps out into the warm, California air, then sees a cop car pull onto her street and she pauses to see what'll happen.

Do you think- No, no way. . . unless?

"You live here, sweetheart?" One of the cops steps out of the car and stares at Nora as she stands at the front door.

"Um."

"You wouldn't know a Jane Hopper, do you?"

"Nora?" A voice to Nora's right causes her and both police officer's to turn and see a certain redhead walk up the sidewalk.

"Does Jane Hopper live in this house?" the other officer gets her back on track before Nora can distracted by the fact that Max came to see her.

"What's this about?" Nora knows better than to answer right away. Her house had gotten more than enough noise complaints back Steve's party days.

"Excuse me," the door opens behind Nora and Jonathan's voice rings out. "Can I help you?"

The officer then goes on to talk about and incident at Rink-O-Mania and warrants but all Nora can pay attention to is how close Max is to her now and how easy it would to just grab her hand- but no. She wanted space. She said she doesn't want to be with Nora. People who aren't together don't hold each other's hands.

The police come into the house now, and Max and Nora follow, assuming this is more important than their relationship status - but only a little bit more important, not too much.

The rest happens fast; the police put handcuffs on El, they read out her rights, they lead her outside as everyone else follows, Mike trying to comfort her as the police put El in the car, everyone else on the street staring as they walk by. Will and Jonathan run back inside to see if Joyce's flight has left while Nora and Max stand a bit behind Mike, next to each other, watching the police car drive away with it's sirens on.

Max tries interlocking her fingers with Nora's, as a form of comfort, but Nora pulls her hand away, not able to look at Max even as she sees the redhead's shocked eyes in her peripheral vision.

"You're doing it again," she says softly to Max, swallowing heavily to hold back her tears.

"Nora-" Max tries, but Nora can't do it, not with everything else going on right now. She doesn't move from beside Max, deciding she could be strong enough for this, but she tunes out her words.

Nora.

Why does she do that? She thinks she can come in here and hold my hand? As if yesterday didn't even happen? I don't even have time for this. El needs us. She won't survive in prison. She barely even knows what prison is. Yeah, just keep thinking about El. Not Max.

Not her warm hands and cute freckles. Not the way she smiles at my stupid jokes. Not the way she holds my hand when we're skateboarding and holds me by the waist when I'm about to fall.

Not the way I think I love her.

a/n:
team ben or team paxton