Winter ➳ Byler ♡

January part 2

The art room. Will knew for sure Max had to be in there. Fast pace walking soon turned into running as his thoughts on Richie began consuming him. He needed to know what this whole summer scandal was as soon as possible.

"Max, I assumed you'd be in here" Will smiles softly at his redheaded friend. He enters the art room looking around at all the school art work that was truly amazing.

"It's either this or skateboarding during after school hours, the snow is crazy outside so I settled for this" She picked up a different paint brush and started to paint light brown brush strokes.

"Who ya painting, it looks....wow" Will always thought Max was the most talented person on planet earth, he was aware that he may be exaggerating in the slightest, but Will looked up to Max, like the older sister he never had. Even though Max was only a month older than Will, the freckled girl came across as someone who had the mind wiser than an elder. She had sort of an old vibe to her as if she lived many past lives before.

"Just...someone" a blush was present on her cheeks which made Will understand that it wasn't just someone. He didn't bother to hound her on it, though he was exceedingly curious.

"What brings you here anyways. I assumed you'd be running after the Tozier kid"

"I actually wanted to talk about him....with you. Mike keeps telling me there's some story to tell about him, and you know about it....why does Mike hate em so much"

"Mike isn't the only one who hates him, he's a bad kid Will, listen to your friends" Max drops her paint brush next to rest of used ones, then rolls up the sleeves of her shirt that was now covered in paint splatters of every color you could think of.

"Do you mind telling me what went down? Will nervously chewed on his lower. "I just wanna know."

Max nodded her head in agreement to telling him, she was planning on doing this anyways for the sake of Will's safety. She sat comfortably in a seat close to Will and started. "Well...remember how I told you I shared a cabin with Richie last summer at camp right?"

"Yeah...I remember"

"Uh yeah well we dated for some time" Max explained while scrunching her face up at the memory. "In the beginning it was really great I genuinely enjoyed his company and he made a great boyfriend or so I thought, then things quickly changed once the two of us got comfortable with each other" Max looked down at her hands and Will could tell she was getting uncomfortable. She continued anyways.

"He explained to me while we were dating that he had anger issues, he told me how it gets pretty intense sometimes. I was so 'in love' with him" Max rolled her eyes putting up air quotes. "I completely overlooked it. Until he started to show signs of being controlling and abusive etc. He would kiss me when I clearly wanted space but the boy just doesn't understand the meaning of 'stop' he'd put his hands on me even after I clearly told him to back off...it was unsettling" Will could see the hurt in her eyes as she explained. It hurt him to see her like this. "I tried to reason with him, dumb ol me...and I asked him why he was acting this way. Richie claimed to be an alcoholic and that's why he did the things he did, I wish I could see the lies he was spilling" Max sighed deeply

"Wait so, you shared a cabin with him, how did you manage handling that" Will asks, intrigued by the story as if Max was reading this straight of an intense drama filled novel.

"That brings me to the next part of the story. One night Richie wanted to share a bunk with me. At the time I thought this was the most romantic thing. It is, if your boyfriend isn't Richie Tozier" the redhead shook her head tears starting to well up in her eyes. "Saying yes to this was the worst decision I have ever made.....because he stole my virginity" Will has never witnessed Max cry. She was never the crying type I guess you could say.