Her Perfect Mistake // Max Mayfield

3. Trick Or Treat, Freak

"Morning!" someone shouted, slamming the front door behind them hard enough to wake up the sleeping girl up the stairs. She awoke immediately, her right arm entangled somewhere in the mess between pillows, blankets and Max. Her immediate thought was to look around in an attempt to figure out how early it is or if it is even worth it going out of bed. The window beside her showed a dark picture outside - the trees standing still, lonely as ever.

She forced herself to remove her arm out of her friend's grasp, careful not to wake her up. Annabelle tried her best to remain quiet in changing her clothes out of pajamas and then going down the slightly creaking stairs. She was thankful her room was far enough from them, because otherwise it would've been painfully obvious to anyone in the house that she was going up and down a floor.

Once her foot stepped on the cold floor and her eyes adjusted to the light, she could make out her sister's figure in the kitchen, her clothes reeking of manly odor and cheap alcohol. Emma was rummaging through the kitchen cabinets, as if she forgot the edible part of the house was in the fridge.

"What's wrong with you?" The blonde girl's groggy, but silent voice tried to get to Emma's probably not at all sober mind.

"What's wrong with me!? Absolutely nothing, little sister!" Completely opposite of Bella, the older sister was excited, and loud enough for two people. "Happy Halloween, by the way!"

"You are so drunk, E..." Bella audibly sighed, trying to show that she was not at all pleased by the way she was woken up nor by the way her sister was acting more immature than her. "What time is it?"

"It isss... 5:30." Her response was accompanied with a laughter and a slamming of yet another cabinet. This time, in her hands she was holding onto some of Bella's chips. It was for a reason they had separate cabinets with separate treats, but if it was going to make her quieter, the blonde was willing to give away the snack.

"Just be quiet. Please." She begged and although she didn't expect her to, Emma nodded her head and took herself up the stairs, with a big portion of the content from Bella's cabinet, she noted.

Annabelle followed her up the stairs, feeling her eyes dropping down every once in a while, and feeling them hurt with fatigue. She passed her sister's room and heart a couple of giggles, as if Emma was gossiping with someone. But she continued moving her legs until she found herself closing her own room's door. Her eyes caught a glimpse of the costume she was going to use tonight for Halloween and she made sure to put it on a hanger to prevent it from getting wrinkled.

Her smile widened once her hand brushed past the lower part of the costume. Granted, with the money they had she could be pretty much anything, despite the price of the costume, but she always tried to make the costumes herself. She found that part of the preparation oddly pleasing, and she was especially happy with how it turned out this time. Alex Owens from Flashdance was what she originally picked, but then had a hard time with sewing the original pants from the movie.

Usually, it would be her sister that would help her with getting the whole look together, but this year she had tried to do it on her own, partly because of her sister not being present enough at home. Even though she didn't have the exact hair, she was proud of how the overall costume came to life purely from a black and white picture-magnet on their fridge.

What she failed to notice while admiring her work was Max waking up and stretching behind her. Unlike what Bella imagined her ginger friend's voice to be in the morning, it was rather smooth and gentle. Like music.

"Morning to you, early bird. Do you always wake up that early?"

That was a chuckle-worthy question.

"No, never. Emma just came home and woke me up. Didn't want to do the same to you so I wanted to prepare my costume. Wondering if I should wear it to school right now or after."