Dreaming In Stereo

Part 14 ~ Max

A crumpled slip of paper--moist from sweat and folded multiple times--was held between Ethan's palm. He crushed it softly, and then finally opened it and saw the details he had scrawled down when Jakob told him them: Max's phone number, email address, Instagram account and her skype account. He typed in the name, and then tapped enter, and held his breath. Sure enough, a legitimate account popped up on the screen. She was online. Ethan tapped, add friends. He introduced himself rather briefly in the message. 

A couple minutes later, Max had accepted and she'd typed a message to Ethan.

Video call?

Ethan replied: sure.

The video invitation popped up and Ethan accepted. Now he saw a tiny box in the corner of himself--rumpled beanie hair and tired eyes--and a large image of a blond girl in a blue tank top, the background of cardboard boxes and an unmade bed.

"Hey," Ethan finally said after a long pause.

"Hey," She replied. "Um, I'm Max."

"Ethan."

"Feels like deja vu," commented Ethan nervously. Max laughed in response.

"Yeah, it sort of does. Wow. We haven't seen each other, in, what? Eight years?" Max asked. She counted silently for a couple of seconds. "Yeah, eight years. So uh... how are you?"

"Good," Ethan replied. "How about you? How was living in France?"

"France was pretty cool," Max said. "I'm fluent in French now, which is like, pretty sick. And Hong Kong! It was incredible!"

"Yeah?" Ethan asked, bursting with curiosity. He'd never been to Asia before. "Did you learn how to speak Chinese?"

"Not really, no," Max grinned. "But at the school I went to had a lot of Chinese and half-Chinese kids. My friends were also mostly Chinese. Wait, I'll show you a picture."

She dipped down and was out of the screen for a couple seconds, then emerged clutching a couple pictures in her hand. One by one Max showed them to the character. Each of them depicted the same group of five kids: Max, with her blond hair tied up in a ponytail, wearing a thin, almost sheer peach tank top over a black bikini bottom. Next to her a Chinese girl in a hairband, a one-piece and flip flops. There was another Chinese girl with dyed brown highlights in her long hair, thin rimmed glasses framing her oval face dressed in a white tee shirt with a bag slung over her shoulder. Then, there were two boys--one blond-haired and surfer-looking, the other a medium brown small tufts of hair that curled at the ends, but they were both shirtless and wiry. 

"Who're they?" Ethan asked.

"This is Flynn," Max pointed at the girl wearing the headband. "Tara, or Tamara, is the one with glasses. The blondie is Jake and the other dude is Oscar."

"The beach doesn't look too nice," Ethan commented.

"Yeah, coming from Australia and France I personally thought the beaches were disgusting," smiled Max. "Plastic bags in the water... ugh. But it was still fun hanging out. I think this was the time we got kicked out of the coffee shop."

"What happened?" Ethan asked. He could tell that the story was slipping out of her lips. 

Max proceeded to tell a fantastically amazing story about how she and her friends entered the shop soaking, cracked a cup. Somehow it ended with them being chased down a dark alleyway and narrowly escaping.

"Yeah, right," Ethan's voice oozed with sarcasm. "I believe you."

"It's true!" exclaimed Max, but she was laughing. "It is true!"

Jakob sighed. It was a new day, Max's second day of school, and to Jakob's delight she'd walked straight up to him in the morning. Only to start telling him about how amazing she found out Ethan was.

"Seriously, he's just like when we were kids, only a little bit taller."

"And more mature?"

"Not really," Max joked, and laughed. Jakob laughed feebly, forcing his lips into a smile. He felt a pang of jealousy and asked the question on his mind.

"Do you guys... like, well, like each other?" Jakob asked.

Max was silent for a couple seconds, then burst out laughing. "No, no, no. We don't like each other. We're just good friends. Besides, even if we did, long distance relationships would never work out anyway. More likely I'd date someone from Sydney."

"Like me," Jakob said suddenly, and regretted it immediately.

"You want to date me?" Max asked.

"No, no," Jakob lied quickly. "I'm just saying. I'm from Sydney. Like, I belong in the 'lives in Sydney' group, which is the same group of guys you'd want to date. If you want to date, that is. Which I'm not sure you want to. And it's not my business. We're strangers. Not really. I'll stop talking now."

Jakob's cheeks flushed a bright, vibrant red but to his relief Max laughed lightly. Her laugh was like a soft spring rain.

"It's fine, Jakob," Max grinned. "If I had to date someone, it would probably be you. Or..."

"Who?" Jakob asked, curious.

"Chris," Max grinned at the dark-haired  boy who approached her in the skate park. "Hey. Um... your girlfriend is waiting."

"Oh, she's not my girlfriend," Chris said quickly. "Just best friends." He flashed her a smile and prayed. "So uh... I was wondering. What's your name?"

"You were wondering what my name was?" Max asked.

"Well, when you put it that way, it sounds creepy. It's more like... Hey, I told you my name, I'd like to get to know, what's yours?"

"Fine," Max grinned. "I still don't believe you, Chris, but my name is Max."

Max. Now Chris finally had a name to go with the blue-eyed skater in front of him. A beautiful name to go with a beautiful girl. 

"And since you'd like to get to know me... My name's Max. I just moved here from Hong Kong, before that Paris, and before that Geelong. Victoria," Max said. "You?"

"Lived in Sydney my whole life," replied Chris. "I like music. It's like, my passion."

"I love music as well," Max said. "Singing and guitar, really. I'm not all that great at it, though. I like Youtube. I don't ship Phan, but there's the 2009 Phan Song which I'm obsessed with."

"Yeah? You'd have to show me sometime." Chris grinned.

"Does that mean we're going to meet again later?" Max asked.

"Yeah, yeah. I guess it does." 

Max grinned to herself as she walked away, left hand in a pocket of light ripped denim, glancing over her shoulder and singing softly... 

Anyone in the Phandom here? I'm actually not, but I've got friends who ship them and they sing the Phan Song (2009) lots so I basically know most of the lyrics , and the lyrics go well with the story. please vote if you enjoyed! 

p.s. Their acoustic version of She's Rock and Roll to me was f*cking awesome and Ethan Karpathy is gorgeous (haha, F and T/N/L if you're reading this)