Home ||~~Elax/Elmax~~||

Read between the lines

A couple of weeks after finally being allowed to leave the hospital, El and Max were sat in Max's house having a lazy day watching tv. El couldn't do too much during the day as she got tired very easily, but she was steadily improving, enough to be allowed away from home as long as she was careful.

"It's so unfair" stated Max, pouting at El.

"What?"

"You've practically been prescribed pie, ice cream, chips, and chocolate by the doctors" she said, handing over another bowl of chips to El, who smirked in reply.

"Awww, are you jealous of my special medicine?" she teased, wafting a handful of chips past her face before stuffing them in her own mouth.

Max laughed, happy to see El relaxed and joking around, finally starting to look more like the El of old. Her laugh petered out, replaced by an affectionate smile, one filled with adoration. "What?" El questioned.

"I love you El" Max said in reply, "thank you so, so much for coming back to me, I...I struggled so much without you, I never want to feel that way again."

El looked down, they'd avoided talking about everything that'd happened in any detail, just cherishing the time they were spending together before they did. "I'm sorry, I never wanted to leave you, I can't say sorry enough times..."

"No" Max interrupted. "No. You never have to say sorry, ever, do you hear me! You came back to me, I have you back, and that is all that matters, that you're mine again, forever, for the rest of our lives." She paused and looked into El's eyes, "I love you so much."

El wiped away the few tears that had fallen on her face and pulled Max close, kissing her softly, "no matter where you are, I will always find you."

They pulled away, smiling at each other, and realised that Max's mom had returned and was watching. She gave El a small smile, "hi El, I...um...Karen rang a few minutes ago, she's just about to leave to come pick you up."

Max frowned slightly, not remembering hearing the phone, whilst El answered, "oh, ok, I should get my jacket from upstairs then."

"I'll get it" Max offered, "you're looking a bit tired."

"Thanks."

A minute or so after Max walked upstairs, her mom turned to El and said "I don't think you should come here anymore, El." El frowned and shook her head slightly, not quite understanding why she was saying it. "Max doesn't need you in her life anymore, you hurt her badly, she was just getting over whatever you did to her and then you come back and confuse her all over again." El's face fell, she had no reason not to believe Max's mom, an adult who'd always been kind and supportive, and immediately thought that Max had been lying to her and was just trying to protect her feelings, waiting to let her down gently when she was in a better state both physically and emotionally.

"I'll wait outside" El said quietly, before standing and letting herself out, head down, desperately keeping the hurt inside. She didn't wait for Max to come back down with her jacket, didn't wait to say goodbye, what was the point? Instead, when Karen arrived a minute later, she told her to drive off straight away.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

"Thank you for the lift" El said quietly.

"That's ok" said Karen, "I know you still get tired, even if you don't like to admit it" she added upon seeing El's expression of denial.

She smiled and they sat in silence for a few minutes. With a thoughtful expression on her face, El finally asked "why did you want me home so early?"

"What?" Karen replied, her surprise evident, "I didn't...I wasn't going to come until much later."

"But you rang..."

"Nnnooo" Karen said slowly, "Max's mom rang me and asked me to come pick you up...you didn't ask her?"

El frowned, something not feeling quite right, and shook her head "no."

An hour later, El was lying on top of her bed just staring at the ceiling and deep in thought. Something wasn't right, Max's mom had lied to her, somehow she just knew it, Max just wouldn't do this to her. She was shaken from her reverie by the sound of small pebbles hitting her window and went over to investigate. "Max? What are you doing here?" she whisper-yelled down to the ground.

"C...could you let me in, please?"

El nodded, her mind racing with possible reasons why Max was standing below her window with what looked like a pretty big bag. She hurried downstairs and opened the front door, "why didn't you just ring the bell?" was her first question.

"I didn't know if Holly was in bed yet" Max explained.

"Oh...makes sense. Actually, Holly is spending a couple of weeks at her cousin's house, they've always been really close, they're really cute together" El said half-smiling, thinking of all the games of hide and seek, all the make-overs and fashion shows she'd been roped into.

"Hmm" Max hummed in understanding, "well, anyway, can I come in?" she asked awkwardly.

"Yeah, of course" El said, "shall I help you with your...really big bag? ...say, what's with the really big bag?"

Max's control started to slip and El saw the almost imperceptible wobble of her chin, betraying the hurt she usually hid so well from the world. Not waiting for an answer, she pulled her close and held her tight, not saying a word, waiting for Max to feel ready. "Turns out...turns out my mom is a homophobic bitch who...blames you for corrupting me" she said with a bitter laugh.

El didn't know what to say, but she felt incredibly guilty. All she managed was a pathetic "oh" whilst at the same time realising that's why it'd been 'arranged' for her to leave.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*