a/n: please listen to the song of the chapter Last Kiss by Taylor Swift to the top. It goes really well with this chapter.

You told me you loved me

So why did you go away

Chapter 24 ~ Last Kiss

Liam Slater

I stared at the orange bottle of prescription pills in disbelief and squeezed my eyes shut with the hope that when I opened them again, this would all be just a dream.

It wasn't.

"Whoa, wait, you're saying Marcy did this to Scotty?" I questioned Max, who just gave a nonchalant shrug.

"I don't know. You seem pretty convinced that he wouldn't kill himself, and if that's the case..." He glanced down at the bottle and thumbed it between his fingers, "...then something else must have happened, right?"

A minute of total silence came over us. As time passed by, the revelation continued to settle in the forefront of my mind. I never thought of the possibility of Marcy having anything to do with Scotty's death. Hell, I never thought of the possibility of murder. Sure, I didn't want to believe he committed suicide because he never gave an explanation, but I would have never considered murder.

Especially not Marcy, of all people. She wasn't the nicest, but she couldn't be a killer.

Max realized I was getting lost in my thoughts and crawled over to my spot on the floor to place a comforting hand on my shoulder. "Liam, it's just a theory. We don't know if it's true and even if it is, we can't prove it."

A dizzying sickness swept over me and my vision started to blur. I stared straight ahead, trying to focus my sight on a single object, but all I saw was an indistinct blur. Not bothering to wonder about the cause of the problem, I slowly closed my eyes.

All of this information was too much for me to handle at once. My brain was trying to make sense of it, I was trying to make sense of it, but nothing made sense. Somehow, it hurt less to think Scotty killed himself rather than to think someone killed him. That would mean that someone else decided his fate and he would have still been alive if it hadn't happened. He would still be mine.

I wasn't quite sure why I felt the sudden urge to hold Max's hand, but I knew it calmed me down enough to speak. "I'm going to ask her."

"No!" he protested in a loud uproar. "Are you crazy? If she did it, she won't admit it and that'll only give her a reason to hurt you."

"What's the point," I answered, monotone and vacant, eyes still shut. "She already hurt me."

"The point?" He squeezed my hand a little tight, making me turn to look at him, even though my vision didn't allow me to see much. "The point is I don't want anything to happen to you."

I nodded gently. "How did you even know that, anyway? About the pills."

"Well, scientists manufacture drugs so that they are safe for the consumer. It's hard to overdose and even if it happens, it rarely results in death. The only time when it's the most dangerous is when it's mixed with something else. It's common knowledge."

I leaned my head back against the wall and gave a soft, weak laugh. "It's not common knowledge if I don't know it."

He ran his thumb along my knuckles, managing to soothe me. "Well, you dropped out of school, remember?"

I laughed again, but it sounded like a wheeze. It was like the discomforting thoughts biting at my mind were making me physically sick, and I wasn't sure how long I'd last before I truly went insane.

"That's how I know that taking anti-depressants and getting high is dangerous," he added.

I wanted to roll my eyes, but I didn't have enough strength. "I don't get high because it's cool or because everyone else is doing it. I do it because my world is very dark and the drugs are the only light I have." I felt my lips twitched into a frown. "That, and there's you. But the thing about cocaine is that I can't hurt his feelings. I can't make him hate me. I can't break his heat. I can't push him away."

Max's fingers slipped between mine and he scooted closer to me. "But the other thing about cocaine is that it can kill you. I know that right now it doesn't sound like such a bad thing, but imagine how it'll make me feel. No matter how much you push me away, or break my heart, or hurt my feelings, I still love you."

I slowly met his gaze. A slight pain ripped through my heart, and I didn't know if it was good or not. What I did know was that my vision cleared up in that instant and I was staring into Max's beautiful brown eyes.

"And I know you don't love me back, and that's okay. I just-" He broke eye contact and glanced at the floor, "-I don't want to lose you. So please, just stay with me a little longer and we'll figure this out together."

I forced my eyes shut again and released a heavy sigh before opening them again. "Okay."

Max smiled. "Okay, good."

He started to say something else, but I placed my hands at the back of his neck and pulled him into a kiss, cutting him off. He emitted a soft surprising hum, but eased into the kiss just seconds later with his eyes fluttering shut and his hands falling down to my waist. There was something magical about the kiss, like nothing I had ever felt in any of our previous kisses. I knew Max must have felt it too, because he kissed me like his life depended on it, like it was the only thing keeping him alive. Just like he was keeping me alive in this very moment.

A crack of thunder outside made the house tremble and made me simultaneously break away from the sensational kiss. "We should go," I said.

Max nodded and swiped his tongue over his lips, and I tried to resist the urge to kiss him again. Snatching Marcy's necklace from the floor and entangling my hands in his, I led Max out of the room and down the stairs. He followed quickly behind, giving my hand a tight squeeze whenever he felt like his hand was slipping out of mine.

The heavy rain drenched us as soon as we stepped outside and we made a run for the car, not once letting go of each other except to slide into opposite sides of the car. Even when we had escaped the rain and were seated safely behind closed doors, my hand still found his.

"We can't go back to the school," Max warned me. "The highway will be backed up because of the rain."

I nodded. "Where to, then?"

He buckled his seatbelt. "My house."

I started up the car, pulled out of the long extended driveway, and started on the route to Max's house.

Aside from the faint sound of rain pattering against the window and the occasional thunder, bitter silence filled the car for most of the drive. Max's hands left mine somewhere in the middle of the drive and he didn't try to strike up a conversation with me. I kept glancing over to him, afraid that he had changed his mind about this whole thing.

Maybe he didn't want to be included in anything that involved Scotty, and I didn't blame him. I came across as an asshole on more than one occasion whenever I put Scotty first.

Max was staring out the window, watching the rain pound heavily against the glass. He was curled up in a ball with his arms wrapped around himself as he trembled from the cold.

"Hey," I called out, "I have a jacket in the backseat if you're cold."

"Really?" Max gave me a look of relief and he started to reach into the backseat. "Thanks."

I gripped the steering wheel tighter and took occasional glances at the black clouds rolling across the sky and the blinding lightning that illuminated the sky every few seconds. As soon as Max got settled in with the jacket, it was silent again.

And I didn't like the silence.

It made me think and if there was anything I knew about my thoughts, they were never healthy.

I refused to believe Marcy could do something like this. Why would she? Scotty was her friend, too.

Then again, I had no idea Marcy had anxiety problems. As her best friend, that was something I should have known. If not when Scotty was alive, then definitely when I told her about my problems with depression. It was something that could have bonded us together and if she liked me as much as she said she did, she would have taken that opportunity.

The day we found out about Scotty's death, we both cried. Looking back on it now, however, Marcy didn't seem all that sad the very next day. It was like she had flipped some sort of switch. I cried for a month straight, and she only cried for a day.

Then there was the fact that she wanted to be more than friends. Feelings like those didn't develop overnight. If she had romantic feelings for me when Scotty was alive, could jealousy possibly be a factor?

No, impossible. In order for Marcy to be jealous, she had to have known I was dating Scotty and she only recently found out about my sexual orientation.

Or did she?

I had gone so long thinking that Scotty did this to himself. It was his fault for leaving me. He was the selfish one for leaving me. I realized now, that couldn't be farther away from the truth.

I didn't know how, and I didn't why, but I knew Marcy did this.

The road was nothing more than a great expanse of tire-marked tar in the middle of the woods and I was driving way too fast to read any of the road signs, but at this point, I didn't care. Max didn't seem to notice, though. He kept his eyes glued to the window, barely moving, except to brush his damp hair out of his eyes.

I returned my eyes to the road, but I was barely paying any attention to it. My mind was elsewhere and I didn't even realize I had veered out of my lane and was heading straight for a commercial truck until Max jumped out of his seat and shrieked, "Look out!"

Suddenly realizing what was about to happen, I shut my eyes for a split second before I turned the wheel to get back into my lane, only to completely lose control of the car. It swerved off the slick wet road and barreled into the woods, plowing through everything in its way. I slammed onto the brakes, but it didn't do much considering that the car lost traction as it continued to charge further into the woods.

The sound of tree branches beating violently against the car frightened me but it was the sound of Max's screams that made my heart tighten in my chest. I was more worried about his safety rather than my own, and I nearly died on the spot when his hand grabbed onto mine.

I swallowed a lump in my throat as the car approached a large sturdy tree trunk , preparing myself for what was about to come.

**

When I opened my eyes, I became consciously aware of the incessant throbbing of my temples. It took me a while to remember what happened, but the flashback of my car stampeding though the woods flooded my mind when I noticed the smashed windshield and the difficult position I was in. When I tried to move, a searing pain shot through my body, and I gave up.

The good part was that I was still alive and breathing. "Max, are you okay?" I asked the boy beside me as I tried to free my leg from its jammed position between two pieces of bent car metal.

I didn't get a response.

"Max, are you-" I stopped myself when I saw Max's face pressed against the passenger window, blood trickling down the side of his face. I sucked in a shaky breath and looked at him in pure horror.

"Max!" I yelled as I grabbed onto his shoulders, shaking him violently. "Max, wake up. Please, wake up!"

When he didn't respond, I pushed through the pain in my leg and grabbed onto the dress shirt under my tux, tearing off a large strip of it. I tried to steady my breathing as I wrapped the piece of cloth around his head. "You're gonna be okay," I assured him, but I was really trying to reassure myself. "You'll be fine, I promise."

He sat there, completely still and unresponsive, but I could still hear his faint breathing. Knowing that he was still alive, I relaxed into my seat and let out a sigh of relief. It took me a while to find my phone, but when I realized it had fallen between the seats, I quickly grabbed it and dialed 911 to report the situation.

I threw my head back against the seat and squeezed my eyes shut, desperately trying to erase the sight of Max's bloody face from my mind. I had intended to keep my eyes closed until the ambulance came, but my breath closed in my throat when I realized I couldn't hear Max's soft, labored breathing anymore.

I shot up in my seat and traced my fingers along his neck, feeling for a pulse. "Max?"

When I couldn't find a pulse, I went livid. "No!" I cried desperately. "Max, please don't be dead. You can't be dead. Please don't leave me!"

Seconds passed without a response and I even did as much as feeling for the indent under his wrist and placing my hand over his heart to feel something, anything, all while tears flowed down my cheeks steadily with every moment without a response. "Max," I pleaded. "Don't give up on me. I lo-" I choked on a sob that ached as it came up my throat. "I love you! I love you so much and I don't wanna lose you either."

I threw my arms around his still body and buried my face into the crook of his neck, sobbing. "I love you too, Max, I love..." I should've said it earlier. I should've told him I loved him, and now he was gone and he didn't even get to hear it.

I cradled his body in my arms drowned myself in my tears and the distant sound of ambulance sirens.

**

a/n: so ... yeah.

Is Max really gone? I have to admit I kinda teared up as I wrote this chapter. I'm a marshmallow, I know.

I just wanna take a quick moment to thank you guys for reading this story. It's really amazing that you take time out of your day to read my updates, vote and leave wonderful comments. It means a lot to me, it really does, and I'm very thankful to have such amazing readers like you!

Until next time,
Lara <3