Me, Myself, and Her

Chapter Six

Chapter Six: Call it What You Want

The next morning, not even knowing how she got roped into it, Annie was standing outside of the school's dumpster with Max and the Party- well, except for Lucas, who was in it. He had drawn the short straw, apparently. She was possibly going to be late for class, not to mention how confused Holly and Meghan will be when she's not there.

Her eyes met Max's and she looked away, back at Lucas in the dumpster. That was another thing. Ever since she admitted her crush to herself, Annie has no idea how to act around Max. She wanted to try and act like nothing was wrong, but that was so much more difficult when that involved being close and such to her- she was freaking herself out.

Although she wouldn't say it, Max could tell there was something weird going on with Annie. It sucked because she didn't know how to bring it up and ask if she was okay. Max didn't know how to describe her relationship with Annie. It kept reminding her of something from forever ago, but she didn't want to jinx or jeopardize anything.

"This is so disgusting, is it really necessary?" Max asked. Annie had to nod her head in agreement, taking weird breaths to try and avoid the smell.

Suddenly, Dustin came around the corner and stared at the group, confused. "What the hell's going on?" he asked. Annie mentally laughed at his timing.

"What do you think, we're looking for Dart!" Mike said, as if it were obvious. It should be, but it's not like that's the first thing to go through everyone's heads. Especially in Annie case, who was only here because of Max, who wasn't even sure why she was still there when Mike was so against it.

A black bag came flying out of the trashcan right towards Annie, something she hadn't noticed while Max did. She grabbed Annie's arm and pulled her out of the drop zone just before the bag could land right on her.

"Holy shit!" Annie yelled as she got pulled out of the way. Max raised her eyebrows at the girl having never heard her swear before. "What?" Annie asked, self-conscious. Max shook her head and moved on from that.

Lucas vaulted over the side of the dumpster and landed in the middle of the group. Nearly gagging, Annie had to step away from the smell. She didn't mind hearing Lucas dig into Dustin, however, with his super convenient timing.

"You stink," Max stated, then walked over to the bags to start digging around with her a stick she and Mike had. Coincidentally, that happened to be over by Dustin, who was very thrilled at the girl being close to him.

Annie deflated slightly and figured no was a good time to go inside and hope to find Holly and Meg before first period. "I'll catch up with you later," Annie said to Max as she passed by.

The brunette started to walk away. "I'll be back," Max said quickly, handing off her stick to someone else and going after Annie. "Hey, Barbie, wait!" she called out.

Annie's cheeks flushed at the nickname. It used to be cute- still is- but in a more friendly way. Now, in her mind, it was in a flirty way.

Stop it, Annie. You can't do that to yourself.

She stopped and let the redhead catch up. "Hey, are you okay? You've been acting a bit weird lately... Is it because I'm hanging out with them? If so I can totally stop or whatever," Max rambled.

Annie shook her head, stopping the rambling. "No, no, it's not because of that. Even if it were, I'm not gonna force you to stop hanging out with people you like hanging out with. I guess it's just the stress about Will," Annie lied. Sure, some of it was, but not all of it. Not even close to half of it. But it's not like she could tell Max the real reason.