Fishing Trip//Max Joseph//Catfish: The TV Show//Catfish

*Chapter Twenty-One*

💙Vote Please!💙

-Max's Point Of View-

"So how long have you known... about this," I heard myself ask. I motioned towards nothing in particular. Her, the wall, the stack of papers sitting across from us. Who knows? I was drunk as hell, and I had a crush on my best friend.

     No, not Nev... Ellie. My question earned a confused look from her, and I restated what I was trying to ask. "The heart thing," I said, correcting myself. "Oh," she mouthed, looking up and to the right, remembering. "Gosh, I don't even know. Years. Since like, high school."

     I hummed and looked around the room. My eyes found hers again after a while, just like they always do. They were an even darker blue than usual. I sighed heavily and hiccuped. "Drunk?" she asked, smiling. I raised my eyebrows and nodded.

     "And tired," I continued. Ellie's eyes widened. "You're tired!" I heard her laugh. "I had a piece of metal shoved in my boob! This has been the longest week of my life!" I looked up at the "boob" part. I guess she was a bit tipsy too.

     I chuckled and looked at the clock above the stove. "C'mon, Elle. Let's go to bed." She blinked slowly. "Mhmm. 'Time is it?" she asked, taking another sip from her bottle. I looked up at the clock again, out of habit. "Twelve."

"It's only twelve! Come on, Max. Your grandma's probably still awake."

     Well, that didn't work. I called after her as she stood and made her way to the fridge. "Elle. Come on. No more alchohol." I sniffled and stood to follow her. "Bed."

     "Nah... we should get blackout drunk!" I furrowed my brow. "Are you kidding me? Who are you, and what have you done with my Ellie?" She giggled and grabbed ahold of the handle on the refrigerator door, pulling it open. The cold air covered my face. It felt nice.

"Max, have you ever even been blackout drunk? Because I can't picture y-"

"Yes. No more beer. Let's go."

     "Keep going," I ordered, pushing her toward the bedroom door. She turned around before turning the knob. "Sure, mom." I laughed and shook my head. "Don't be an ass," I said, giving her a light pat on the butt.

     "Square up!" she joked. "Let's go, Maxie!" I grinned and grabbed the small fists that she'd made. I pushed her backwards into her room and turned around to flip on the light. Ellie pushed toward me, leaning into my chest. "No," she wined.

     "Why are you so difficult," I asked. I grabbed her wrist and spun her around so that she was facing the rest of her room. My gaze landed on her vanilla scented candle, its flame dancing around the small glass. "You need to stop leaving that candle lighted when you're not in here. You're gonna burn the damn house down."

     I reached around her from behind and held onto her waist. "Goodnight," I whispered, kissing her cheek. I could feel her smile. She turned toward me and wrapped her arms around my neck. "I could get used to this," I thought happily, leaning toward Ellie.

~~~

"Ellie," I reasoned, putting her on speaker phone to grab a shopping cart. We'd been arguing over the same thing for over an hour... it was getting old. I pressed the home button on my phone to check how long we'd been talking. The green bar at the top of my screen said 1:27. "A freaking hour and a half. This is why people talk in person!" I thought angrily. "Listen to me. There's less than two weeks till Christmas."