Beach Days

Chapter 17 - Sad Smiles

Max and I walked to our area in silence, lost in our own thoughts. It was still raining heavily, making it hard to see more than a few feet in front of us. I wonered angrily how the hell people expected us to stay safe, and realized that they didn't.

They didn't have any guarantee that we were going to be safe, and in their opinion it was better our lives than theirs.

I was furiously plotting against our coward of a boss while Max ... well he had quite the poker face and I was kind of preoccupied trying to figure out whether I should stab, shoot, or toss our boss to the sharks.

Just kidding, I'm not that violent.

Not.

Once we got there, Max turned to me.

"So how do you wanna do this? Do we divide the time or just stay together for the entire 8 hours?" he asked. I frowned, remembering that boss had told us to split the time up.

"Well, boss said -"

"Since when do you give a fuck what anyone says? Particularly someone like that coward." he spat, and I eyed him, knowing he spoke the truth.

Up close, he had dark circles under his eyes and once glance at him convinced me that Max was exhausted.

A guilty conscience?

"Marissa was my cousin." Max said abruptly, kicking the wet sand. My head snapped up to meet his eyes at the sudden information.

Max scowled but met my eyes, and I wondered if he was telling the truth.

Yes, he was an excellent liar but I saw this vulnerability in his eyes that couldn't be faked.

"Huh?" I said stupidly.

"You think I did it. Killed them." Max said. I stared. How the hell...?

This boy was going to be the death of me.

"You're going to keep going around investigating this. I was ok with you thinking I did it if you stayed the hell away from me like a normal person would do to a possible murderer, but no!

You just had to get curious, and I know you didn't take what I said about keeping your enemies away from you seriously. So if convincing you that I'm innocent is going to keep you away from me, then I'll do it." Max said.

I'll be honest, I was hurt.

Yes, I didn't take Max's words seriously and yes I was interested and curious about this case. Yes I was keeping an eye on him, but it wasn't just for the case.

I had a stupid crush on him which made me want to be around him and his words hurt. Max wanted me to stay away from him even though he was 'innocent', which to me only meant one thing.

He didn't like me back.

And there we go ladies and gentlemen, the universe played yet another game with Shannon Miller's heart and guess what, they won.

Again.

"Rissa was my favorite cousin, we were really close. Mr. Fittes, or should I say James, was really nice to me, almost like a second father.

The only two other people that went missing were Aunt Lucy, Rissa's mother and my favorite aunt, and my best mate Mark.

Those two turned up dead only a few weeks after, but Rissa and Mr. Fittes were gone until a few days ago. So if you think I would murder some of the most important people to me in my life, well you really are an idiot." He finished.

Max has tears running down his cheeks, mingling with the rain. I knew it had to be tears because his voice sounded a bit odd and he was blinking hard.

"I'm sorry," I said in a hollow voice. I'd never have guessed, but I guess it made sense now how tense he was these few days.

"You wanna know why I want, no need you to stay away?" Max said finally after composing himself.

I looked up at him in surprise. I didn't really need him to tell me he knew I had a crush on him and he didn't feel the same way so it was awkward.

"Whatever reason you're thinking of, it's probably not it." Max interrupted my thoughts.

"Okay then what is it?" I asked.

"Look, the only people that were targeted last time were the people I cared about. The people who were important to me.

I don't want you or anyone that I care about to get hurt this time. So keep away from me, make whichever fucker who's doing this think that I don't care about you anymore so you stay safe." Max said and I was honestly surprised.

"I can take care of myself." I protested. A lot better than you think, I added inside my head.

"No, it's all starting again, I can feel it. Sending Rissa and James back was a sign. A sign that he's coming back, that I should start fearing for people who are important to me." Max shook his head.

"But -"

"No buts. You asked why I get panic attacks? My original parents were murdered, the mother I'm living with is someone who adopted me. I moved here, and just when things started to look up people died.

I only just managed to get less panic attacks, stop drowning myself in misery and this is happening. I let my guard down and made friends with you, so now I have to fix this before it's too late, before you get hurt." Max said, and I was speechless for a second.

Saying he had a rough past was an understatement.

"Trouble just seems to follow you around Max." I said softly, although I was unsure he could hear me above this rain and thunder.

Max smiled sadly.

"Trust me, you don't know the half of it."

A/N: OK so this chapter was a boring filler chapter but I felt we needed to learn a bit more about Max, about his past and why he acted the way he did.

But just like with Shannon, what he shared with Shannon isn't the full story, which you've probably assumed by now anyway.

I'm sorry for posting so late and then making the chapter I do post a short filler but this chapter was needed.

See you next update!!