girlfriends | elmax

VII

As they reached Max's house, Jane felt slightly nervous. What if Neil was home? What would he do? Pushing her thoughts away, she followed Max into the house. Stepping inside, she saw a man sat at the dining table. Panicking and thinking it was Neil, she stood behind Max, so close that Max could feel her breath on her neck. With a soft chuckle, Max whispered to Jane,

'It's ok, it's just Billy." Feeling kind of embarrassed, she stepped back a bit, the redness not leaving her cheeks. However, she was still gripping Max's hand tight. Only just noticing their presence, Billy looked at Max and smiled.

"Hey Madmax, how was school?" he asked, closing a folder of what looked like some kind of documents.

"Good yeah, um this is my friend Jane, is it ok if she hangs out here for a bit?" Max asked, silently hoping he would say yes.

"I don't see why not." he answered calmly.

" How come your not at work?" Max asked casually, advancing into the kitchen to grab an apple, Janes hand still interlocked with hers.

"Oh yeah I forgot. One of the customers was.. let's just say they were rude to me. Started breaking a bunch if shit, but I kept my cool and called the manager, who let me have the rest of the day off." answered the teenage boy, pushing back his hair.

"Oh, sweet I guess" Max said, smiling.

"That's not all, he gave me a pay check for handling the situation well and cleaning up the store. It was a pretty big one too, so..." getting up from the table, he walked towards the couch and grabbed a gift bag which he then handed to Max.

"Billy we spoke about this.. I can't keep accepting gifts from you! You worked for this money!" Max spoke guiltily.

"I know I know, just open it please." he insisted. Huffing, Max let go of Janes hand and opened the gift bag. Reaching inside, she pulled out a brand-new shiny skateboard. She smiled to herself, a small tear rolling down her face. Putting it down, she walked up to her brother him a hug.

"Thank you" she whispered into his chest, before wiping her eyes, grabbing the board in one hand, and Janes hand in the other and bringing her upstairs.

"Nice to meet you Jane!" Billy called up.

"You too!" She shouted back down. Walking into Max's room, the redhead placed down the board, then began to search through a box of records whilst the caramel haired girl sat in her bed, examining her room. She saw heaps of posters, most of a superhero named wonder woman. She also saw a lots of rainbow things around the room, and a small lesbian pride flag. She realised she probably couldn't have a big one because of Neil. She heard the freckled girl let out a gasp as she's clearly found what she was looking for. Picking up a slim black record, she raced over to her shiny retro record player, slotted the disk in and placed down the stylus. Suddenly Jane jumped, as music began to blast out of the small machine. Max turned around sharply, smirking at the brown eyed girl sat on her bed. Running over to her, she pulled her off the bed by her hands and began to dance and sing to the tune of 'Everybody Wants To Rule The World' by Tears for Fears. Jane giggled, looking into the ocean blue eyes of the girl in front of her. With the redhead too lost in the music to notice, Jane admired the girls face. The caramel haired teen felt warm inside, her heart beating fast and adrenaline pumping through her veins. That's when she realised, shit. She had really fallen for this girl. Snapping out of her daydream, she danced and sung with Max for what felt like forever, but was only a few hours. However she wasn't complaining, this girl made her so fucking happy, she didn't have a care in the world about anyone else. Just as 'Material Girl' by Madonna was finishing, the girls were startled by a door slamming downstairs. They heard a few loud thuds and some shuffling, and Jane didn't really understand what was going on until she saw the panic in the redheads eyes as she ran over to the record player and removed the spinning disk.

"Shit Neil's home early, he can't see you!" Max explained in a hushed tone. "Come on you can hide in my closet." Grabbing Janes hands softly, Max led her to her cream closet covered in stickers. She opened it and took some shit out before helping Jane in. She sniggered softly.

"Jane Hopper in the closet, how ironic." She received a small smile from the girl, but noticed how nervous she was. Reassuringly, she placed a soft kiss on the tanned girls forehead, causing a Jane to turn a bright shade of pink.

"It's gonna be ok." The freckled girl whispered gently, before letting go of the brunettes hands and laying in her bed, grasping the nearest thing to her which was a wonder woman comic book. Heavy footsteps stomped their way upstairs, before the door swung open and an angry looking Neil stumbled in.

"What. Have we said about music Maxine. Don't you ever fucking listen?! Your lucky I haven't smashed that thing, in fact-" walking in the direction of the record player, he went to luck it with his fist before he was stopped by the blue eyed girl.

"Neil please don't. I won't do it again when your home I swear!" she begged, meeting her fierce blue eyes with his immensely angry ones. She could feel the aggression inside him, she could smell the alcohol in his breath. Exhaling angrily, he lifted his hand and slapped her across the cheek.

"DON'T FUCKING DO IT AGAIN YOU WORTHLESS DYKE!" he yelled, before turning and storming out of the door, slamming it behind him. Max slowly reached her hand up to her face, touching where he slapped her. She looked at her fingers. Blood. This was so embarrassing, Jane would probably never come over again. Shit, Jane. Shyly walking over to the cupboard she opened the door to see Jane with tears in her eyes.

"Fuck Max, your cheek!" she whispered, reaching out to wipe away the blood. Smiling weakly, she pulled the girl out of the closet and into a warm, embracing hug. They stayed like that for a while, just enjoying the moment, before Jane pulled away and looked her deep into her eyes.

"It's not always gonna be like this Max, it's gonna get better. And until then, well, you have me. We can get through this together. But I should probably go, I don't want you getting in trouble." Jane said, careful to be quiet. Although she didn't say it, the fiery-haired girl really wanted Jane to stay, but she new it wasn't a good idea.

"Here, you can use the ladder by my window." she replied, leading Jane over to the other side of her room. Opening the window, she helped the caramel haired girl clamber steadily out and onto the ladder. Once she was out, Jane turned to Max and cupped her face in her soft hands, before planting a kiss on her cheek, then pressing her forehead against the taller girls. They gazed into each other's eyes, and for a split second it was like there was nobody else in the world. Smiling softly, Jane gave in and moved her head away, before climbing quietly down the ladder and walking off. Softly shutting the window, Max spun around and flopped onto her bed, raising her hand to the spot where Janes lips had just made contact with her skin. She felt a feeling which she hadn't felt before, where she was all hot and flustered.

"Holy shit," she whispered, catching her breath, " Do I- like Jane?" cursing a few more times, she rolled over and groaned into her pillow. She missed the girl already. For now, Max just decided to get some sleep. Drifting off, her dreams were engulfed by fantasies of a girl with soft pink lips and gorgeous brown hair.