"I thought you weren't on the team anymore!"

I nearly tripped over my own feet and fell as the voice broke through my train of thought. I stopped, throwing my hands on my knees to catch my breath and finally looked up.

Max was across the field by the bleachers, his arms crossed over his chest as he watched me completely red faced and struggling to breathe.

"I'm not." I answered once I was able to get a full breath out, "I still want to keep in shape just in case." I stood up a little bit straighter, my hands on my hips as I shook my head at Max.

I took a deep breath before starting to jog across the field, blowing the strand of hair out of my eyes as it repeatedly fell into them.

"Just in case? So you think he might give you your position back?" He asked, staring up at me in curiosity. I grabbed my water from my backpack on the ground, shaking my head as I drank from it.

"You never know. He could change his mind, and I don't want to lose the chance if it comes." He stared at me, his expression still fresh with curiosity as he watched me down most of the water bottle.

"My mom said you were driving me home." He muttered, actually sounding a little embarrassed. I reached into my bag for my phone but hesitated a second later.

Knowing my mom, she probably had already called and let me know that I was supposed to drop him off before going to pick Austin up from his weird job down at some clothing store.

"Kay." Was all I said. He waited for a second before starting to roll after me, whispering something under his breath to himself.

We didn't talk a lot on the way home. I was too busy trying to tell get my brothers crappy radio to play something other than Metal, while Max stared out the window, his expression wiped clean.

"We're here." I said, shutting the car off. He sat still, his eyes still staring blankly out the window. I reached over to help with his seat belt, his hand grabbed my wrist seconds before I could press the button to release it.

"I don't need your help. I can do that myself." He said, pushing my hand away.

I dropped my eyes to the clutch, I could barely see his hand moving out of the corner of my eye. It wasn't until he finally let out a hiss of pain that I took the opportunity to get out of the car and grab his wheelchair from the trunk. I pushed it around the side only to find that Max had buried his face in his hands, his hands and cheeks both a sickening shade of red.

"Max-"

"I'm fine." He snapped. I had to bite my lip to stop myself from asking anymore questions. I helped him into his wheelchair, wincing a little too myself when I saw how pissed off with himself he was.

He looked as if someone had beat him until he was barely breathing, then decided to keep putting pressure on his wounds. And, in a way, I guess that might be how he feels.

"Do you need help up the driveway?" I questioned, pushing him up on to the sidewalk. He grimaced, shrugging his left shoulder.

"I'm good. Thanks." I nodded, turning my attention away from him so he wouldn't feel like I was was watching him struggle. I waited until I was positive that he was on the porch to grab the door to my brothers car and yank it open. I was about to grab at it again when a familiar voice spoke up behind me.

"Q, hey!"

"What the hell are you doing here?" I said, so quiet that I barely heard myself say it. Jayden was jogging toward me, his strides far from the gracefulness that Max had once had.

"Babe, listen to me for a sec-"

"I have to go pick up my brother." I cut him off, turning my back to him. As I continued to fiddle with the handle, I could feel his eyes burning into the back of of my head.

It was times like these that I wish my brother would realize that his car may look great on the outside, but the inside and parts were absolute garbage. That it was nearly impossible for me to get the door open.

"Quinn, just listen for a second!" Jayden grabbed my elbow and forced me to face him, his eyes scanning my face as if he were looking for something.

"What? Listen to what, Jay? To all the damn excuses you have for what you did?" I lashed out, pushing him away.

Before I could get a grip of myself, he shoved me back against my brothers car, his hands pinning me back on to it.

"My mom is calling me a fucking disappointment, Quinn. Because of you, because you won't talk to me, because she knows I cheated." I tried to squirm from his grip, regretting it when I felt his hand slam mine into the car. I cried out, bringing my knee up and ramming it into his groin as hard as I possibly could.

"Stay away from me!" I screamed, holding my throbbing wrist. "Or I will call the cops." He didn't seem the least bit phased by my threat.

"Stop acting like it hurt." He barked out, "You like it rough, just like your little whore best friend." I felt my body stiffen at his comment.

That was it, he had forced me to my breaking point. I momentarily forgot about my wrist, about being late to pick up my brother, and threw myself at him instead, slamming my good hand against his chest.

"Listen here, asshole! Kacey isn't a slut, she just does what she wants, she goes against everyone's words. But you? You're nothing but a lying, low life piece of shit that I somehow forced myself to forgive even after you hit me repeatedly, after you lied!" I shouted, sure that Max and his mother were probably watching us through the blinds by now.

"A low life piece of shit? I'm sitting here trying to make something of myself while your trying to play some game and being a fucking dude! You know who makes it big in soccer, Q? It sure as hell isn't women!" I shoved him away from me again, my mind racing with thousands of comebacks to what he said.

"You play a mans game and expect to be treated like a chick? Why can't you be more like the other guys' girlfriends? The ones that wear tight skirts and shirts, the ones that actually spend time with actual human beings!" I swung at him midway through his sentence, my hand closing into a fist by the time it made contact with his face. He stepped back in surprise, holding his bleeding nose.

"You're a sexist asshole." I growled, backing away form the car instead of getting into it. I spun around, jogging up the Duncans driveway as quickly as possible so I could get out of his reach before he had enough time to react. I jumped in surprise when I felt a cold hand grab at my wrist.

"You're bleeding, Quinn. Are you all right?" I felt a whole new kind of relief wash over me when I heard Mr. Duncan's voice.

"I-"

"This isn't over, Q! I'll be back." I recoiled back against the porch wall as Jayden stalked back toward his car, throwing his door open so hard that it nearly came off it's rusty hinges.

"Quinn? Who is that boy? Do I need to call the cops?" I shook my head as Jayden's beat up Chevy took off down the street, the anger draining from me and was replaced with the pain from my hand.

"Come inside and I'll help get you cleaned up." For once, I didn't say no, I actually took the offer. Maybe it was because I was terrified to go back down into the street with the chance of Jayden waiting for me to leave and following me. Or maybe it was because, for once in my life, I was done denying and pushing away people's help.

I had tried so hard most of my life to do everything on my own, but maybe, just maybe that wasn't really the answer to my problems.

***AN***

Hope you enjoyed!

Let me know what you thought!

~ChasingMadness24