25: Fires, Fires

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Alison was pissed. Dr. Potter confronting her at the diner about her no show appointments and then handing her a journal to log her emotions was bad enough. Julia accusing her of hooking up with Brady was much worse.

Like Alison could have ever done that. Even if Julia and her hated each other, Alison would never do that to her, not her best friend.

When she got home, she raced to the guesthouse and she threw the journal so hard at the wall that a frame came crashing down. Alison checked to make sure that Indigo's tank was still okay, and then stormed upstairs. Not even bothering to change, she collapsed on the bed and began to cry. She was crying so hard she could barely breathe. She hadn't cried like this since the night Max bailed on her all that time ago. The night her parents had abandoned her.

Alison cried and cried until tears refused to leave her eyes anymore.

Her phone went off a few times, she ignored it. Eventually, there was knocking at the door. Alison ignored it until she heard the door open.

"Alison!"

She groaned. It was her dad. Of course he would have a spare key. He came upstairs and found her in bed.

"Why did I get two calls today? One from the school saying you have been absent all week and the other from Dr. Potter saying you haven't shown up to a single appointment either."

"I don't know," she whined.

"Alison Josephine Hart!" he yelled. "Get up!"

"Go away," she complained.

Her father stared at her. "What is going on?" he asked.

Alison shot up from the bed and glared at him.

"What's going on is that I was freaking kidnapped! For a year, you all moved on and now you just expect everything to go back to normal! But that's just the problem, nothing is the same and I hate it! Now get the hell out!"

Mr. Hart stared at his daughter again. He didn't know what to say, much less do.

"What can I do, Alison?" he asked. "How can I help you?"

Alison began to cry again. "There is nothing you can do," she said through tears. "I just wished I had died down there, death would have been easier than coming back."

Mr. Hart looked down at his daughter with worry.

"Alison, let me help you. Please, what can I do?" he pleaded.

"Just leave me alone!"

***

Max hadn't really been listening to Liam and Jackson's conversation. He was just playing with the straw in his mint chocolate chip milkshake.

He only looked up when he heard fighting. His eyes lingered on the source and he was surprised to see Alison and Julia.

"Woah, dude. Cat fight, ten o'clock," Liam whispered.

Max listened to the two girls fighting and felt sick to his stomach. Julia was accusing Alison of hooking up with Brady. A thought that had already crossed Max's mind a time or twenty.

There was no way of knowing for sure, but Max thought about how close Alison and Brady were. How they sat together every day of summer school. How they connected in a way no one else could ever relate to. How Brady seemed to understand Alison better than anyone else and vice versa. Maybe it was true.

It made Max's blood boil.

Alison stormed out of the diner and Max looked up at Jackson who had a smirk on his face.

"Can't believe Julia had it in her," he said. "Didn't think she'd actually confront Alison."

Max's eyebrows furrowed. "What are you talking about?"

Jackson chuckled. "Who do you think supplied Julia with the ammo for that gun fight?"

Max grabbed Jackson by his shirt across the table, spilling the milkshake everywhere.

"What are you talking about?" he said through clenched teeth.

Jackson only smiled. "I just told Julia what she needed to know."

"Was it true?" he asked.

Jackson smirked. "I saw what I saw."

Max shoved him back against the seat angrily and ran off after Julia who was running to her car.

"Julia! Wait!" he yelled as he ran after her.

Julia saw him coming and her eyes widened.

Thankfully, Max caught up to her before she could leave.

"What was that about?" he asked. "Is it true?"

Julia took a deep breath. "I think so," she whispered.

Max studied her intently. "You think so?" he repeated.

"Well what Jackson showed me was pretty incriminating."

Max felt his world crumbling around him.

"I'm sorry," she said as she touched his arm comfortingly. "I didn't mean for you to find it that way."

Max scoffed. "Please, if there's one thing Alison was right about it's that Hailey is a problem, and you're just dumb enough to be blind about it. She changed you."

Julia took offense to that. With a hand on her hip she glared at him. "Like you are a walking standard of perfection? No wonder Alison doesn't want to be with you anymore."

Max clenched his jaw. "Well it's no wonder Brady has no interest in you anymore either."

Julia wanted to punch him for that. She glared once more before storming away to her car. Max angrily stormed off too.

***

Max was pissed and hurt. It was a terrible combination.

It didn't help when he went to class every day that week and would see Brady sitting in the back of the math classroom, alone. Alison had not been seen for awhile now.

Max was barely passing his math class, and apparently Brady was doing just as terrible. After class, they were told to stay behind.

"Look," the teacher said. "This was your second chance, taking a class over the summer is a redo and still you're both failing. Again."

The boys were both staring anywhere but at each other.

"Now normally, I would ask the top student in the class to tutor you, but Alison has been out sick all week," the teacher said.

Brady rolled his eyes and Max just sighed. Of course Alison would be acing a class she barely showed up for.

"You two need to go to the office and meet the principal, he's expecting you," the teacher explained.

Both boys began to walk over there, but the tension between them could be cut with a knife.

Brady was mad at Max. How long had he been back and how long had it been since his best friend tried to reach out? Too long.

Max was also mad at Brady. For the alleged rumors about him and Alison that had been in his head all week.

When they arrived at the office, they were asked to sit and wait. The boys were glaring at each other.

The glaring stopped though when none other than Alison and her father walked in. Both Max and Brady were shocked by her appearance.

Her eyes were puffy and red with grayish purple eyebags underneath. Her skin looked sickly pale and she was wearing an oversized black hoodie and gray baggy sweatpants. Max wondered if Alison remembered that they had once been his sweatpants.

She didn't acknowledge either boy. The secretary just handed them some papers and an exam booklet and then guided Alison into the conference room. Brady and Max watched as Alison almost flew through the pages. She finished the exam in twenty minutes.

"All right, sweetie," the secretary said when she finished. "Take care, okay?"

Alison nodded curtly and she and her father left. Max and Brady looked back at each other and it was clear that both of them were very concerned for Ali's well-being.

"Boys," the secretary called.

They both stood up and made their way into the room Alison had just been in. The principal met them there.

"Look, I want to get straight to the point," he said to Brady and Max. "As understanding of the situation as I am, we can't slow down the course content. My advice is that you both need a tutor. The school is providing one after class in the library. You start tomorrow."

"Together?" Max asked.

The principal nodded. "It helps to work with others."

Max rolled his eyes. Brady just stared straight ahead.

"All right, both of you better be there tomorrow," he said before letting the boys go.

The boys walked out of the school and that was when the fighting began.

"I heard the rumors," Max said icily.

Brady turned and stared at him with a raised eyebrow. He had no idea what Max was talking about.

"The rumors about you and Alison," he said through his teeth.

Brady furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. In all honesty, he had no idea what Max was talking about.

"Some friend you are," Max said angrily.

Brady still had no idea what was going on and he knew ASL would be useless, Max didn't know it.

He just shrugged his shoulders and left. Hayden used to pick him up but Brady was mad at him. So now his mother came, he got in her car and they drove away.

"Was that Max you were talking to?" she asked hopefully.

All she wanted for her son was for him to be happy.

Unfortunately, he signed to her with an annoyed expression.

"What's wrong?" she questioned.

He just shook his head. Everything was wrong.

Hayden had traveled with Alison to California and lied about it to everyone.

Julia could barely give him a second of her time these days.

His best friend hated him for some reason.

Brady was having a terrible summer. The only consolation was Olivia. He had met her in an ice cream shop where he was furiously signing to a worker and pointing to what he wanted. Olivia's little brother was deaf so her whole family had learned ASL. She calmly came over and signed to him and helped him out. Brady liked spending his days there now. It was where his mother was dropping him off right now.

"I'll see you for dinner, okay?"

Brady nodded and waved goodbye.

Olivia was helping a little boy put toppings on his ice cream when Brady walked in. She had put her curly blonde hair up into a ponytail and she was wearing the apron her coworker was wearing as well. She smiled when she saw him and brought over his favorite: vanilla with chocolate chips.

Olivia was the only person these days who actually signed to him even though she could speak.

How was class? Olivia signed.

Bad, Brady signed back.

Olivia chuckled. I wish I could help but I'm terrible at Math, Olivia signed.

Brady smiled. It's all right, he signed back.

She signed that she would be off soon and then went back to work. As Brady opened his math textbook, his mood fell. He really needed Alison's help.

Maybe he should not have been so upset over whatever led her to invite Hayden to California. It wasn't like Brady was expecting an invitation for himself, but as childish as it was, Alison was supposed to be his friend. She was supposed to be dating Max. Things were supposed to be a certain way, but they weren't.

Things were all screwed up now, and Brady desperately wanted everything to go back to normal. He wanted his best friend and his girlfriend back. He wanted Alison to go back to Max and for her and Julia to be best friends and for the four of them to be okay again. He wanted to go back to his light-hearted relationship with his brother. He wanted Hayden to keep his little crush on Alison a secret like it always used to be and for Alison to forget about Hayden like she had when she fell for Max.

However Brady knew none of that was possible. Time only moved forward. It didn't wait for things to resolve themselves.

Julia was no longer his girlfriend. She and Alison were no longer friends. Alison and Max were over. Max hated Brady now. Brady and his brother were on thin ice. Him and Alison had not spoken in days. Nothing was the way it should be, and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

So, for now, he ate his ice cream and tried to pretend everything was okay. Although everything was far from it.


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