Chapter 35

So even though Max is being an idiot right now in my story, I watched this and that reminded me that he really is a good guy. This interview makes me love the Pens 150,000 times more than I already do.

Also, I just moved back to school this weekend so the updates might be a bit slow. As I get back into the flow of school, the updates will slow down in general but I will continue to write both of my stories. I love them too much to stop :D



Eliza's POV:

I woke up earlier than Max like I usually did and slipped out of his arms and our bed. It was now around 2pm and if I didn't get up now, I wouldn't be able to sleep that night. Even if it felt like everything was falling apart right now, I needed to hold on to some sort of a normal sleeping pattern. The house was quiet and I passed the time picking up and tidying the downstairs where the flurry of yesterday's activity had left it a little messy. As silly and possibly OCD as it was, cleaning had always relaxed me and I took comfort in knowing that for as messy as life got, I could always take my frustrations out on organizing and cleaning knowing that I could at least put physical things away when I couldn't do away with the emotional.

"Hey honey" Lucy said entering the kitchen where I was unloading the freshly run dishwasher. "Is Maxime still sleeping?" I nodded not wanting to be rude, but also feeling pretty un-talkative.

"By the way, your Mom called earlier while you were both asleep. She heard on the news what had happened and we cancelled the dinner plans for tonight."

"Thanks, Lucy. I'll give her a call. She's probably worried."

"Why don't you go call her and I'll look for something to make for dinner later on, okay?" She didn't give me a choice and practically chased me away with the phone. After talking to my Mom briefly and explaining the whole story of the previous evening to her, she let me go telling me to call her later in the week.

"Are you sure you're okay? You don't sound right" she said asking one last time before we hung up.

"I'm fine, I promise. My sleep schedule is just a little whacked right now because I was up all night."

"Okay" she said not sounding very convinced and we both hung up. She probably knew that I was lying she always knew but I was still too drained to have the energy to actually care.

Max was still in bed when I walked back into the room and suddenly I was angry at how peaceful he looked. I wanted to hit him with one of the millions of throw pillows we had laying around until he looked significantly less peaceful like nothing was wrong.

Instead of giving into this urge, I decided to take a bath instead to relieve some of the tension I was feeling. I was starting to get irrational and hopefully a bath would relax me enough to sleep off some of the anger I was feeling. I had never used the whirlpool in our bathroom before so I had to play with it a bit to get it going before I was able to dump in the bubble bath and let the hot water pour in. I stripped down and turned off all of the lights in the bathroom letting natural light from the windows pour in instead.

I laid there for awhile almost drifting off when I heard the door open and Max walk in clad only in his boxers.

"What are you doing?" he asked yawning and wiping a hand over his face. I didn't say anything thinking that it was pretty obvious what I was doing.

"You should have woken me up, I would have joined you" he said grinning at me. He ran some water over his face taking the time to clean the area around the stitches on his forehead. I kept silent secretly wishing that he would just leave and go back to sleep until I had cooled down a bit.

I closed my eyes again and put my head back against the ledge of the tub while he moved around the bathroom. If my eyes were closed, I was positive that he would leave me alone. Finally he did leave shutting the door quietly behind him, thinking that I had fallen asleep. Eventually I did doze off only waking up once the water had gone cold. After draining the tub and going through my normal lotion routine, I pulled on a pair of baggy sweats and one of Max's t-shirts that was way too big but was one of my favorites because it smelled like him no matter how many times that I washed it. Sure, I wanted to smack the hell out of him for being such a dumbass, but I would never stop loving the smell of him.

I blew my hair dry before returning downstairs to see what was going on. Lucy had made a pot of soup for everyone and there was a pizza on the counter from a nearby takeout place.

"Hey, you're awake" Max said pulling me to him for a kiss. Last minute, my head moved on its own accord and his lips met my cheek. My eyes stung with tears as he looked at me confused. This was the second time he had tried to kiss me in the past 24 hours and the second time that I had given him the cheek. With his parents around, he didn't push the issue and let go of me to step back and grab a water from the fridge.

I texted Emma and Vero asking if we could meet up and talk. I had to talk to people who would tell me what to feel right now.

Max's POV:

She hadn't kissed me and it was starting to worry me. Since we had started dating a few months ago, there hadn't been a time when we hadn't kissed except for when I was on the road. And even then we sent sappy text messages to each other.

Something was seriously wrong now and it wasn't something that she was just going to get over. But how can I fix it if she won't tell me what's wrong? There was something at the root of this that was bothering her but I needed for her to be honest and just tell me.

I heard the door shut and knew it was her running away again. "Where did Lizzy go?" I asked walking into the living room where my parents were eating. I bet they're happy they came for a visit now.

"Oh, you're out of a few things and so she went to the grocery store." The grocery store? I knew that her and my Mom went shopping already this weekend. There's no way that she would forget anything because she always had a crazy, detailed shopping list with her.

"She's just trying to get away from me" I said surprising myself for even saying it out loud.

My Mom looked at me sharply and muttered in french to my Dad. "Well son, do you really blame her right now?"

What was that supposed to mean? "What's going on?" I asked. I would hope that my own mother would remain loyal to me. She switched to french which made me feel like I was 10 years old again getting in trouble for breaking something in the house.

"You know Maxime. I tried to have faith in you. Give you the benefit of the doubt. But if you really don't know why she's so upset, then I don't know what to do with you." I looked to my Dad for support and got nothing. He was concentrating a little too hard on the TV and I knew that he was trying to stay out of it.


"Thanks guys." I said leaving the room to find my phone. Thanks for all of the help.


"I swear, he doesn't deserve her, Serge" I heard my Mom announce once I had left the room. At least I knew where I stood in the pecking order now.


I dialed her number waiting for her to answer. If she didn't then I was going to be forced to drive around until I found her and I really didn't want to do that.


"Max?"


"Where are you?" I asked bordering on sounding demanding. I didn't want to turn into that guy but she did bring out the stupid and crazy in me.


"I'm grocery shopping" she replied. She and my Mom must have planned this out and I wasn't buying it.


"Lizzy, come on. I know something's up. I can hear Vero in the background. Just please tell me where you are." I heard her sigh and say something to Vero who I knew was in the background.


"Max, what do you need? I just went out for a little bit and I don't see what the big deal is. Can't you visit with your parents?" She was getting annoyed. Well good, so was I.


"I need to talk to you. You know we need to talk too." She didn't say anything but I heard muttering and then all of the sudden Emma was on the line.


"Max, she's here at my house. Just come over." She reminded me of the address and hung up before I could thank her or say anything else.


Eliza's POV:


I had gone over to Emma's with the hope that they would tell me what to do and they wound up turning on me.


"Emma! He can't come here!"


"Too late" she said shrugging. "Want more hot chocolate? Maybe some vodka instead?"


"Oh yeah, that's a great idea. Let's get her drunk before they talk."


"Yeah, but it could make for some really great make up sex." Emma said both of them bursting into laughter. Yeah, great. Thanks guys.


"We are not going to be having make up sex because we are not making up right now." I hissed trying to shut both of them up.


"Oh please. He just needs to grovel and you two will be fine" Emma said, her laughter finally subsiding.


"Hey! There is way more to the issue than grovelling!" Where was the solidarity I needed right now?


"I know sweetie. We're just saying that yes, it was unbelievably stupid for him to rush home while the roads were bad but he was probably just trying to get home to you faster. You definitely need to make him see how stupid and dangerous it was because of your Dad but you also need to listen to him." Vero said stepping in to calm me down. "This is Max we're talking about here. He practically worships you and he wouldn't do something like this on purpose."

The three of us watched some TV to pass the time while we waited for Max to show up. When the doorbell rang, I wanted to bolt but Emma locked my leg in place as if she could read my mind.


"I'll get it" Vero announced jumping up. Within seconds Max was standing in the room staring at me with a stern look on his face. What the..?


"Come on" he said waving his hand as if to say 'here girl' like he was talking to a stupid puppy.


"What?" I tried to keep the growl in check but I couldn't help it. Was he seriously trying to order me around right now?


"Come on, we're going somewhere where we can talk." he said still ignoring the fact that there were other people in the room.


"I'm not going anywhere with you while you're talking to me like that." I said settling back against the couch. Who was he to be mad at me?


"Sorry girls" Max said acknowledging them for the first time. "We're going to go somewhere else to fight about this."


"Don't touch me!" I growled, because yes, I was growling at him now, trying to scoot closer to Emma for support.


"Maxime!" I screamed as he picked me up from the couch grunting from the strain on his shoulder. "Damn it, put me down." I managed to strike his lower back with my fist causing him to groan again in pain.

"If I put you down will you you stop hitting me and go outside willingly with me?" When I didn't answer he tightened his hold and began to walk to where his rental car was parked.


"Fine. Put me down and I won't strike you again." As soon as I was down I turned around to punch him hard in the stomach. "What the hell is wrong with you coming over here like this?"I said while he bent over wheezing.


"What the hell is wrong with me? What the fuck is wrong with you?" he bit out still holding his stomach protectively. "And don't tell me nothing, because we both know that we need to talk about what happened last night and the fact that you haven't let me kiss you all day."


I felt a majority of the anger I had in me dissipate as I remembered last night.


"Come on baby. Talk to me" he pleaded taking a step closer to me. Before I could control it, I felt a sob bubble up in my throat and Max grabbed me pulling me into his chest. I went from angry to weepy in less than 60 seconds.


"Shhhhh" he said rubbing up and down my back with his free hand. I was finally letting out all of my frustration and the terror I had felt after hearing that he had been in a car accident. "I'm sorry" he said over and over again mumbling it into my hair so that only I could hear it.


"I hate you" I blubbered getting snot on the sweatshirt he was wearing.


"I know" he said still rubbing my back in the way that always calmed me down.


"No, I mean I really hate you. You could have died Max!" I struggled to pull away from him wanting to put the distance back between us. When he was close, I couldn't argue with him as well.


"You could have died like my Dad."


"Baby" he breathed out looking like I had suckerpunched him again. "Is that what this is about?"


I nodded and tried to wipe my face as best as I could.


"Lizzy, I'm so sorry. You know that I wasn't thinking. I was just trying to get home faster. I have should have known" he pulled me closer and kissed my forehead and then my eyelids, his scruff scraping against me like it always did.


Once again my body acted on its own accord and moved closer to his as I slid my arms around his hard waist.

"I love you. You know that I would never purposefully hurt you, don't you?" he asked holding my face almost tenderly.

I nodded now trusting that he wouldn't do it on purpose. Deep down I did know that. I was just all shook up still. To show him that I did understand, I leaned up intending to give him a kiss to let him know that it was going to be okay and that I wouldn't be hitting him again any time soon. As soon as our lips met, Max tightened his hold around my waist and pulled me closer to deepen the kiss.


Like every other time before, the feeling of Max's lips against my own made me forget everything except for the fact that he was here and he was holding me.


"Max, can we go home?" I said trying to disengage my lips from his. We were still standing in front of Emma's house and I'm sure that I saw them watching us between the curtains.

He kissed me again and released me so that we could both get into our separate cars. "Get home safely" I told him before giving him one last look and shutting my car door. He nodded knowing that there was a lot of meaning behind those words.