Into deception

Scoot over

📚

"Mia" he softly greets me, as soft as an actual feather falling down to the ground.

I don't say anything and for a second I believe that I made up my mind, that I won't speak to him too, that I'll pretend he's not there when he truly really is. But then, then my eyes blink, my lip's part and I say something causing both me and him to be slightly shocked.

"Hi" is all I say, hi is what I say after 3 whole fucking years and I both want to die and laugh all at the same time. I guess he saw what I was thinking and laughed anyways. His laugh, I missed it more than I ever allowed myself to think.

"Hi, Mia" He looks at me, really looks at me like he's catching up on the 3 years of not seeing me kind of looking and I let him because I'm doing the same thing. His hair is even more black than I remember, His eyes still the coolest shade of blue I have yet to see and his warm smile still manages to penetrate through me like a bulldozer. It's Max. My Max.

"Would you like a drink" I hear Mike ask behind me

"Yeah, I'll have whatever she's having, thanks" That's the only time he takes his eyes off me before they were set on mine again. His body moves closer to the chair next to me and I swear with each stride he took I felt the oxygen deflate out of my grasp and I had to begin rationing it to not pass out.

"Mia-" He begins but stops, not smiling anymore but with something else drawn on his face, something like hurt "I'm so sorry-"

"Please don't" I suprise myself for the second time today by speaking "Please don't apologies for something that you never had part in"

His beautiful eyes sparkle in the dim light with hope, hope that seems to have spread over me too for a moment and I don't know what to do with it. I don't know where to store it because I have no room for it. Hope is something I crossed off my vocabulary, hope is something I never said to myself or anyone else again for that matter.

"I missed you" He says but doesn't look at me, yet the overly sparkle in his eyes only tell me those are tears "I wanted so badly to reach out but I couldn't. I didn't let myself for many reasons like how I thought it was my fault, my fault I didn't protect you"

"Protect me? Max that was never your job, you were my friend-"

"I knew Bane better than anyone Mia, I should've known something was off but I didn't. It just felt so real-"

"Max" I say calmly reaching for his arm, the soft sweater he's wearing feels like a cloud of pillows in my hands "What happened- what I said to you that day was my mistake, my biggest one and I'm sorry"

"I'm sorry that I didn't trust you when I should've and I'm sorry I didn't reach out" I say, being completely honest with the both of us.

The next thing I know is he's standing up and I'm in his arms. My head is resting just below his chin and my hands have wrapped themselves just as tightly as his are around me, I can hear his heartbeat beat against me and I refrain from laughing from just how fast it's going. I don't pull away though, I let him hold me because he's the only person alive who still makes me feel human. Like me breathing for a little longer is okay and that I should lean off the thought of dying just for a little while longer.

Sadly, but surely, he does pull away, but his hands trail up to my shoulders keeping me from going anywhere yet.

"You know you're still my best friend, right?"

And I laugh. Who knew I would ever be laughing again but of course I am because it's Max that's speaking.

"I can't tell if that's just really sad or a compliment"

"Oh, it's definitely both but probably a little more sad"

Laughter rings through the bar and I look over at where Will is who's laughing with the rest of some guys I still know nothing about. Ray on the other hand is standing near us, waiting it seems for me and Max to catch up before he can interrupt.

"Can Ray join us because that sad fucker doesn't do well in crowds"

"Ray? not doing well in crowds? well who would've thought" I smile at his face and watch as he beckons Ray to finally come over, it only takes a couple of second until I feel a hand set on my shoulder and another on Max. Ray looks between us smiling like I've never seen him do before, it automatically makes us both smile back and before I know it we're all downing alcohol like it's water.

"So, wait- you assassinated who know" I lazily say, my brain is having a hard time holding onto what he's saying and from the way he's trying to not throw, he's just as fucked as I am.

"This stupid moron that was in this band-" He hiccups slurring some bad words before continuing on but that just confuses my brain so much more "- he was like 'no don't kill me' and then I was like 'yeah I am' or wait- no did I say that? I don't know but I killed him"

"Did you get paid at least"

"Stacks on stacks-on-stacks BABYYY" he laughs but slips out of his chair and if it wasn't for me still having a grasp on the present he would've went face first into the not so soft carpet. I pull him up and all three of us laugh even more.

"Okay that's enough we're going to sleep now" Will says or is it Will I don't really know but my feet are moving along with somebody's grip on my arm, it's soft and careful so it was to be Will, I think. Who knows, what I do know is my head feels like it's in my hands and it's buzzing like a bee in a tree and the vision- dear god I can't see a thing.

The next thing I know my eyes are opening and I'm buried between soft pillows, a voice hanging just above me repeating itself over and over.

"You asleep?"

I groan at whoever it is to piss off.

"No I'm not Bane you moron it's Max" there's some shuffling behind me and my body seems to feel like it's in a boat somewhere deep in the sea, or maybe I'm just really drunk "I'm not sleeping on the floor princess so scoot over"

I do, I scoot over just for him to shut up.