🅢🅐🅕🅔 🅗🅐🅥🅔🅝| Madwheeler

chapter 13

(TW for this chapter: mentions of abuse) 

Max curled herself up into a tight ball once she got into his bed, bringing her knees up and hugging them as she rested her head on them and closed her eyes. "Hey are you okay?" Mike asked her worriedly as he lightly shook her. She nodded, "Yeah, I'm just thinking, that's all." "If you need to talk I'm here," he replied back as he got into the bed also and made himself comfortable. After a minute she uncurled herself and asked as she flipped over to face him only to find she was looking at his back and head of wavy black hair.

"Why do some people get shitty lives and others don't?" She asked, curious to what Mike's answer would be. Mike turned around to face her when she asked it and gave her a serious but comforting look before shrugging. "I really don't know. But it's bullshit. You don't deserve this Max. I'm sorry you have to deal with Neil," he said back sadly. Max nodded then said thoughtfully, "maybe life decides to throw more shit at the people it thinks are strong because it thinks they can handle it." "Yeah well if that's the case life has terrible judgement," Mike said back with a scoff. Max nodded as she laughed a little.

She opened her mouth to speak again but instead was met with his lips kissing hers. He kissed her quickly and once he pulled away he said, "Max just go to sleep. Don't think too much. Just try to relax right now." Max nodded slowly as she looked into his eyes, trying to see if she could scout out any pain in his dark brown orbs. She had been vulnerable with him so she wondered if he would end up being vulnerable with her, if he even had anything to be vulnerable to be about.

After a moment she recognized some pain in his eyes, some loneliness that she had once in her eyes too. And maybe still did, since her pain and loneliness wasn't quite cured because she didn't want to fully rely on him quite yet. She was afraid that would be a mistake again if she did that. "Mike," she started softly. He groaned slightly but met her gaze and asked back, "Yes Max?" "Are you hurting? Dealing with anything?" She asked, genuinely concerned and curious. Mike shrugged, "just sick of being ignored and sick of damn feelings."

Max nodded slowly then asked before she could stop herself, "are you upset that you fell in love with me?" Mike gave her a surprised look and sighed. "I don't know... no. I mean look at us, we're working out. It's just annoying because I hadn't meant to fall in love with you and especially not while I was still with El. And loving someone who is broken is painful. Don't get me wrong, I love loving you. It's just loving you hurts me sometimes because so damn often I have to worry about losing you," he said, accidentally going into a little rant. Max smiled at his last sentence and she nodded as she moved closer to him. "I understand, and I thank you for loving me still, despite that," she said back appreciatively. "Of course," he said back as he drapped an arm around her waist and closed his eyes. "Goodnight Mike," she said to him before as she admired his handsome sleepy face. "Goodnight Max," he said back tiredly just before he dozed off.

***

Mike woke up and flashbacks of what happened the night before hit him like a bullet when he looked over and spotted the red headed girl who was so much smaller than him. He was about to wake her when he decided not to. She looked so at peace and he knew sleeping was probably one of the few times when she was fully at peace and he didn't want to ruin that.

But a few minutes later she woke up on her own anyways. He looked over at her as she stretched and rubbed her eyes while yawning. He couldn't help but to smile, she was adorable. And again for the second time in his life he found himself admiring how pretty she looked with the sunlight shining on her. When Max finally noticed him staring at her she spoke up in a teasing manner, "staring is rude."

He rolled his eyes playfully and scoffed. She was about to say something else when he moved to hover over her. "I don't want to hear another word from you," He purred before kissing her. She laughed a little and kissed back until her memories of last night came back to her and she pulled away a little more harshly than intended.