New Beginnings // Max Mills FanFiction

T H R E E

annalise

i looked nervously at max. he met my eyes and he looked sorry for me. i hated those looks. looks of pity. i looked away and down at the ground.
"so who is this?" dad asks with his drunken voice
"you remember max mills right? he has a twin harvey?" i say
"ohhh yesss.." dad says and nods
"hello mr. hall." max says and holds out his hand
my dad slowly takes it and shakes it rather aggressively.
"nice to see you again kid." he says
"you too." max says
"you know you would be a great boyfriend for my daughter. she's been looking around for one." dad says and raises his eyebrows
"oh..uhh.." max trails off
his cheeks go pink
my dad pats my back which is more like slaps hardly.
"see.. you're already blushing." dad says
"dad stop." i say
"ohhh sorryy wouldn't wanna embarrass you any more than i did." he says
i looked at max, his eyes met mine. i tried to get him to read me, i was calling for help. i wanted to get out of this situation before it got worse. because it can get much worse. max seemed to read my cry for help.
"i was just about to take annalise over to my house, my little sister really wanted to see her." max says
"oh okay. you're popular anna." dad says and shakes my shoulders aggressively
"it was nice seeing you." max says
"you too kid." dad says
he lets go of my shoulders and at first i'm frozen and don't move. but max takes my dads place and begins directing me over to his house. i breathe out in relief.
"thanks.." i say
"no problem." he says
"sorry about my dad.." i say
"is that why you wanted me to leave?" max asks
i nod. i hated whenever people saw my dad drunk. that wasn't even the worse of him. he could get much worse, it wasn't pretty.
"how long has he been like that?" max asks
"awhile." i say not meeting his eyes
"i'm sorry." he says
"don't. i hate when people feel sorry for me." i say
max nods. it surprises me because usually people ask so many more questions but it feels like max just understands. he knows where the limit is and he doesn't push it.
he takes me around the back of his house where it's quiet and we sit down on the grass. it's silent for what feels like hours and hours but he finally breaks the silence.
"remember when we were nine and i snuck out and climbed into your bedroom window?" max asks
i laugh and nod
"yeah..you said you couldn't sleep." i say
"wanna know why i could sleep?" max says
"you had a bad dream?" i ask
he laughs
"no. you had a bad day that day. and i just couldn't sleep knowing you still weren't happy. so i snuck out and ran to your house. i wanted to make sure you were happy." he says
i feel my cheeks go a bit of pink.
"remember when we were eight and we went to whales together with our families? and harvey ignored us the whole time?" i say
he nods
"and then he got upset because we weren't playing with him but he didn't wanna play with us." max says
i laugh
"such a weirdo." i say
"remember the summer of year 2 and you moved in and we were six?" max says
i nod
we sit there in silence reliving all of those memories within our heads. i missed those days. we were carefree and we didn't think about anything but when we would see each other again. i didn't have to worry about the countless fights my parents had at nights, i didn't have to worry about my dad coming home drunk, i never worried about my dad beating me when i did something wrong. i was carefree, now that's all gone. i just wanted things to go back to the way they were. but i knew that we were older and different.
"do you ever miss it?" max asks
i look at him, confused.
"what?" i ask
"our friendship?" he says
"all the time." i say
"i just feel like it's different now. we're older. we're not eleven anymore." he says
"who says we can't make new changes. who says we can't make new memories?" i say
he looks at me and for the first time i could feel our old connection again. for a quick second i remembered why i really did like him.

❥
annalise and max are slowly finding their way back to each other
annalise has some untold family problems digging into her that she doesn't share.
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