Me, Myself, and Her

Chapter Forty-Six

Chapter Forty-Six: A Perfectly Goo Heart

As Annie stood outside the door of the counselor's office, waiting for Max, Lucas joined her.

"You excited for the game tonight?" Annie asked, figuring waiting in silence would be boring. "I mean, even just watching from the sidelines has to be kind of fun- I would know."

He laughed. "Yeah. I mean, it's the game of the season! Oh and hey- sorry about Jason's speech this morning. I wish I had known he was gonna do it, maybe talk him out of it," he said, and Annie could see how honest he was.

She smiled. "It's fine. Wasn't expected, but whatever, right? Just... try to keep it at a minimum tonight at the game?" Annie asked. It was a ridiculous thing to ask, because they both knew how much pull he had with Jason (none).

"I'll try," he answered anyway, still wanting Annie to feel better.

After the Party heard what happened with Annie's friends, they didn't really know what to do for a while. After the funeral, things got better, but there were still times the guys didn't know how to handle things.

The door to the office swung open and Max came out, instantly smiling at Annie. It reminded Lucas that even when they didn't know what to do, Max was always there.

The redhead turned to him. "Hey, nice outfit," she said, ending her point with a snort.

Lucas just rolled his eyes, used to Max's teasing- it happened every time he was in his basketball sweats, which was a lot this year. She never made fun of Annie's cheer uniform, something she was currently wearing, but he knew why.

"Ha ha," he said, and fell in line next to the girls as they walked. "So, I wanted to formally invite you to the game tonight! I know Annie, you're already going to be there, and Max, you'll probably go for Annie, but... I don't know, I need some people cheering with me tonight, you know?"

As he spoke, Lucas held out a ticket to Max. She smiled, and took hold of it. "I don't know, might have some really important plans tonight," she said.

Annie sighed and gave her an elbow to the side. "Oh shut up," she mumbled.

"The only plans you have are to gawk at your girlfriend as she does her cheer routine during halftime," Lucas joked.

While Max laughed, Annie's face went nearly as red as Red's hair. This kind of banter was fine- she was so glad the Party was comfortable with them- but she didn't like it being so loud in the school hallway. Annie swore she saw someone turn and give them an ugly look. Or maybe it was just a random glance?

"Hey, you okay there Barbie?"

Max's question snapped Annie from the anxious path she was about to travel down. "Just fine, sorry. Anyway, I'm sure Max'll be happy to cheer you on. The other two coming? I know Steve's bringing a date, so I might need a ride tonight."

The look in Lucas's eyes made the whole feel of the conversation take a different turn. "Hellfire's tonight. The end of Eddie's campaign and everything. I tried to ask them to see if he can move it, just this once! But... I have serious doubts they'll ask. And if they do, even more that it'll move."

Annie deflated slightly at his words. "Damn, I'm sorry Lucas. But don't worry! Max'll be there, Steve's gonna be there, and I will be, too. You've got people in your corner," Annie said, doing her very best to make him feel better.

He smiled. "Thanks. I'll see you guys later tonight then," he said. With a wave, one the girls returned, he turned and walked off to his next destination.

"Bathroom?" Max asked.

Annie nodded, and the girls walked to the closest one together.

"I'm kinda pissed at the others, Mike and Dustin," Annie said suddenly.

Max tilted her head. "Why?"

"Well, Will told me about how they almost ignored him last summer. Never wanted to play DnD with him and continued to brush him off," Annie started. She saw how heartbroken Will was whenever the others said they didn't want to play and instead wanted to do other things. "And now they're about to blow Lucas off for their weird Hellfire thing? It's kind of rude."

Max's eyes widened at the news. "Seriously? Douchebags..." Annie nodded in agreement.

Once they were in the bathroom, Annie plopped her backpack up on a sink and pulled her bottle of Tylenol out to take some.

"How was the counselor today?" she asked, her voice low so it wouldn't echo as bad.

Max simply shrugged. "Not too bad, asked if I still had nightmares or if I was getting headaches again. Neither have been happening too much, so that's why it was so short," she answered. The look on her face shifted, and she took a step closer to Annie. "And you? How are your sessions going?"

Annie did the same, shrugging before she answered. "Not much happens. She talks a bit, I don't say much back, we go back and forth a bit before she sighs and says I can go."

As if acting out what Annie just described, Max sighed. "Annie, you should talk to her about this stuff. I know for a fact you still get headaches and nightmares and that random nosebleed in history yesterday is weird. Don't bottle it up, it's not healthy."

The brunette shook her head. "I know that, but to her? Someone who doesn't know the truth about that night? Someone who, if I told the entire truth to would lock me up in an institution of some kind? How can I talk about it if she still thinks it was a fire that killed them."

They were silent for a second, then Annie shook her head again. "I'm gonna head out, I'll see you after school? Are you coming over or going home?"

Max smiled, but it was sad. "Yeah, if it's okay. See you after school." She kept smiling as Annie left, but once the door shut, she felt her smile drop.

This hadn't been the only time Annie started to shut down after Max tried to bring up what happened. Today, what with Jason's speech, just made it even worse.

When she was about to head out, a retching noise stopped her. After a second, Max asked, "Are you all right?"

"Yeah- yes, I'm... I'm fine," came the girl from the stall. Max thought it almost sounded like Chrissy, the one girl on the cheer squad who's been nice to Annie.

"Okay. Um, you're sure?" Max asked. She didn't want to just leave, but also didn't want to intrude on anything.

Chrissy took a few breaths. "Please just go away."

The redhead did as requested, letting the door squeak as it shut.

A/n: my proofreading is becoming easier since I've written a lot of this more recently 😁