"You're just being ridiculous right now." I shouted at Max, following her into her room, where empty boxes laid. Her wardrobe was opened and she had removed some clothes from the hanger and stuffed them inside her suitcase.
She paid me no heed and continued packing, "Now you're just going to ignore me? That's very matured of you, Max. That's what you always do. You ignore things, you never face them head-on."
"I understand that you're very upset right now, but be careful of what you say Abs, there are some things we say that we don't get to take back." She warned me quietly.
"Okay fine, I'll watch what I say. But listen to me Max, all of this," I gestured at her room which had been turned upside down, "all of this is ridiculous."
"What about this is ridiculous Abby? The fact that I took a leave of absence from work just so I could be with you when you went to that place that left you with no good memories? Why are you insisting on pretending to be strong? I can see right through you, you know? You're not fooling anyone, especially me, with this strong act of yours."
"I hear you, but you can't just throw your life away for me Max, I can't allow you to do that."
"Oh would you stop exaggerating please? I'm not throwing my life away, I'm taking a leave of absence from work Aby and it's just for two months. I deserve it actually, I never take any days off, so this is my vacation period and I doubt we'd be there for that long anyways and if I'm throwing my life away for you, it's because you're worth it."
She declared and I couldn't help but be touched by her gesture.
"I can't believe you. I really can't. You're crazy, you know that right?"
"Of course I do, but you still love me anyways." Max answered and pulled me in for a hug.
You were probably wondering what was going on right? Allow me to bring you up to speed about what that whole conversation was about. We were leaving for Riverwoods tomorrow, yes, you heard right, Max and I were going to Riverwoods tomorrow. I thought I'd be the only one going, but I must have been mistaken because when I got home after my session with Jules on Wednesday, I came home to find that Max had turned the entire apartment upside down because she was packing. I thought she was planning to take a trip because I'd be away, I was shocked when she told me she had gotten herself a flight ticket to Riverwoods, of course I flipped, I didn't understand why she was insisting on coming, but I understood after the explanation she just gave and I couldn't find it in me to be angry anymore.
"Let's pack your things first and then we move on to mine."
"Sounds like a plan." Max answered and we started packing her stuff.
"You don't have to answer if you don't want to," Max broke the silence after ftee minutes, "but what was Riverwoods like? Why does the very thought of that place torment you?"
I sighed and dropped the clothe I was folding, "Riverwoods looks like your average, typical suburban town, the people there were wonderful actually, but just not to me. I didn't understand how they could treat a child so cruelly when I hadn't done anything, at least that's what I thought."
"I'm sorry Abs.
"Yeah, it is what it is. People suck sometimes." I answered nonchalantly but Max still saw the pain in my eyes.
"You know what?" She stood up and looked at me, "we are going to turn that town upside down. Everyone, I mean everyone is going to know you are back and you're not here to be mistreated and disrespected."
"I don't want to do anything crazy, Max. I'm just going so we can finalize the burial arrangements, have the burial and figure out what to do with the company."
"Fuck crazy Abs, fuck crazy, we are going to destroy that town." She declared and I gave her a blank look, "okay maybe destroy is an exaggeration."
"You think? I'm just going back there with an open mind and if nothing has changed since I left, then I'd just keep to myself through out our entire stay."
"Sounds like a plan." She raised her hand up for a high five and I slapped it.
We were done in her room in no time, she didn't have a lot to pack, so we just packed a few necessities and personal items. We moved to my room and stopped at the door way at the sight of my room. At least Max just turned her room upside down, mine looked like a tornado storm hit it.
"Yikes!" Max exclaimed, looking around at the mess I had made, not knowing exactly where to start from.
"Well, don't just stand there. Chop, chop. Let's get packing." I barked out and Max groaned, but started packing.
"So did you have any friends there?" Max again broke the silence.
"You're just so chatty today, aren't you?"
"Well sue me then. I just want to cover all the bases so I don't get blindsided when we get there." She explained herself.
"I didn't have any friends Max."
"Really? Not even one?" I nodded, "I thought you'd have at least one person that treated you like a human, I didn't know it was that horrible."
"It was."
"What about the handsome stranger that shows up in your dreams every now and then?" She wiggled her eyebrows.
"That's what's so funny about it. I don't think I've ever met him before." I chuckled at the ridiculousness of the situation at hand.
"So what? You think he's your mate?"
"Ha, ha. Very funny Max." I answered sarcastically.
"What? Don't you see things making sense here? He's a werewolf in your dream, you've never met him before and based on all the electrifying chemistry you say happens between you two and from all the werewolves stories I've read, then he definitely has to be your mate."
I pretended to think about it and said, "All of that makes sense actually. Except the part where, he only exists in my dreams and I've never met him before and that werewolves don't exist."
"Now, you're just deliberately taking the fun out of everything." She pouted.
I laughed but she continued, "Let your imagination run wild Abs, let your mind believe the impossible. That's what our imaginations are for, to conceive the unconceivable." She declared passionately.
"Just keep packing Max."
And that's what we did, we packed and organised all of our stuff we'd be taking on the trip. It was already late evening when we were done, we had spent the entire day packing. We just started cooking dinner when we were finally done.
"You know what?" Max piped up again.
"I have a feeling I'm going to regret it if I say what, but I'm just going to go ahead and ask anyways. What Max?"
"I say we have a marathon night, just like old times. One last tribute to our final night in New York?"
"Are you crazy Max? We have an early flight tomorrow." I argued logically because it seemed like I was the reasonable adult between the both of us.
"Boo!!! The old Abby would have never said no to Marathon night."
"Just like you said, the old Abby." I turned back to the pot and stirred the sauce.
"C'mon Abs, we'll set alarms so we can wake up early. I don't know about you, but tonight feels like the last normal night we're going to have for a long time to come. So let's just make the most out of it. Please? Pretty please with a cupcake? Pretty please with a cherry on top of it?"
She did have a point even though she was being completely unreasonable, it'd be nice to have one more normal and quiet night before we dived into the craziness of Riverwoods. She knew she had won me over when I sighed, "Yay!" She jumped up and down.
"But we share one tub of ice cream and only one movie."
"Just one?" She asked in a small voice.
"You want marathon night or not?"
"Okay, shesh. One movie, one ice cream, but just know, that isn't any different from our regular movie night. And movie nights are always boring."
She said and stomped out of the kitchen, no doubt, to go find a suitable movie for us to watch.
By the time dinner was ready, she had everything set in place, the blankets were drapped on the couch and our ice cream bowls were already set. We ate dinner first before we moved to the living room.
"So because it's going to be our last night here for a while and I didn't want us to get teary eyed and all, we'll be watching some good old fashioned comedy and who better to make us laugh than the king of comedy himself." She said and played Kevin Hart's and Dwanye Johnson's, Central Intelligence. I gave an approving howl and we got started.
"You know I love you for doing all of this right?" I turned to Max, halfway through the movie.
"Of course. I know you've felt alone for a long time but you're not alone, not anymore. You've got me and I'll ride or die with you. You saved me Abby, and I'll do the same for you." She took my hand and interlaced our fingers. "It's just you and me."
"Just you and me." I answered and we fell into a peaceful slumber after watching two more movies.
I woke up feeling disoriented the next morning, "what time is it?" I asked and turned to Max who was sprawled out on the floor, eyes closed and soft snores coming out of her mouth. I chuckled and grabbed my phone, my heart dropped when I checked the time.
"MAXINE!"
I yelled and Max sat up, looking around in panic, "I'm up. Who died?"
"We slept through our alarm!" I showed her the phone and got up from the couch.
"Oh shit!" She said and facepalmed herself.
"Oh right. I told you the movie marathon was a bad idea."
"Relax, if we hurry up and get dressed now, break a few laws, like running over the red lights and driving past the speed limits, I'm sure we'll make. Now up we go, let's get dressed."
She pushed me into my bedroom and that's when all hell broke loose. We had the shortest history of morning routines for the first time in years. After we showered, we both just grabbed the first thing we saw in our closets and put them on. We already loaded up the car with our luggages last night, thank God we did that, all that was left was to grab a few personal items and we locked the door and before we knew it, we were on our way to the airport, hopefully we made it on time.
I drove like a maniac, but luckily, I managed not to kill anyone or get us killed too. We arrived at the airport in one piece and didn't waste anytime in grabbing our luggages and bolted straight into the airport.
"Coming through!" Max yelled at the crowd, dodging in and out, it was easier for her to weave herself through the crowd because of her small stature whereas, I on the other hand, kept colliding with everyone and everything, every now and then.
"Excuse me!"
"Oh I'm sorry." I turned around and apologized to someone I bumped into, Max didn't even wait for me, she just kept running straight ahead.
We got to the departure area, a little out of breath and all sweaty, Max dropped our passports and tickets on the desk. "Flight to Riverwoods, did we miss it? Please tell me we didn't miss it." Max pleaded with the the lady at the desk.
"Excuse me ma'am, that flight doesn't leave till 10." She politely answered Max.
"But it says 10:30 here." Max pulled out her phone and showed it to the lady.
"The time is 9:30." She pointed at the digital clock behind her. Max was about to argue further when suddenly, I remembered what I did last night, then I started laughing.
"What did you do Abs?" Max slowly turned to me, already suspecting I had something to do with this whole misunderstanding right here and she was right, I did have something to do with it.
"I'm sorry." I started and told her how I had changed the time settings on our phones to be an hour faster after she had suggested marathon night yesterday. Even the lady at the desk laughed at it.
"I can't believe you did that."
"Well cause I knew something like this would most likely happen. Good thing I did. Excuse us." I said to the lady and pulled Max away from the desk.
"Are you upset?" I asked Max who was sulking.
"No, I can't believe I didn't think about that." She declared and we laughed.
"C'mon, let's go grab something to eat." Our flight was in 30 minutes so we just went to get some food and sat around till it was time. At 10am exactly, our flight was called, it was time to leave. We boarded the plane and got comfortable in our seats, it was going to be a long flight.
After ten gruesome hours, the plane landed at the local airport, miles away from Riverwoods. Riverwoods wasn't a big town, so we always had to drive to the next town to board a plane.
We retrieved our luggages and went outside, a car was waiting for us outside the airport, the driver was holding up a sign that read, "Abby Connor," that was me. He introduced himself as Daniel and loaded up the car with our luggages.
"Get comfy. It's about an hour drive." I told Max who had made herself comfortable in the backseat of the car, she waved me off and made herself comfortable. I sat beside Daniel in the passengers seat, I think he was surprised when he saw me get in the front seat beside him. My father might have been a big shot in Riverwoods, but I was raised better by my mum.
I wasn't a quiet person, the normal Abby would have tried to fill in the silence by making small talk, even if it was with the driver but the fact that I was back here, travelling through these same roads like i did six years ago, it felt surreal and I was still trying to wrap my head around it.
The final blow was when I saw the huge signboard that said, "Welcome to Riverwoods." The signboard had been there since I was born, it still hadn't changed after all these years.
'This is it, I was finally back.' I thought to myself. I reached out to the backseat and tapped Max, "Max, wake up. We're here." She stirred in her seat then looked out the window when she was fully awake.
I, too was looking around as we drove through town. Nothing had changed, everything had been the way I left it. I hoped it was only the buildings that remained unchanged, I hoped the people had changed too.
We drove around and took some turns and finally, we were back in my childhood home. Home wasn't the proper word for it, it was far from home. "Holy biscuits." Max gaped from the back, no doubt awed by the new environment we had entered. The area was separated from the rest of the entire town and it housed a huge, beautiful mansion, the place I grew up.
"Abby!" Max exclaimed when we stopped at the front porch, still looking around in awe.
"I know, it's weird."
"So your family is like super rich or what?"
"My father was super rich, not me. I'm still broke."
"Whatever was his, is now yours."
"I don't think the saying goes like that." I answered and rang the doorbell.
"Whatever Abby, but you understand what I mean."
"I don't think I do."
She was cut off by the front door which opened, a middle aged lady came out, her face lit up in excitement when she saw me, "Oh miss Cooper, we're delighted to have you here. We've been expecting you all day long. Come, come. I'm Mrs Jefferson, but you can call me Lana, we spoke over the phone." She introduced herself and I recognized her as the woman I spoke to over the phone a few days ago, she was the caretaker of the house.
"It's lovely to meet you and please, call me Abby and this is Max." I introduced Max and they exchanged pleasantries.
She showed us inside and I watched as Max' jaw touched the floor this time around, it turned out to be quite comical, I wish I took a picture. She was spinning around in circles, trying to take in as much details as she could.
A few staff were waiting inside and they greeted us when we came in and took our luggages from us. They showed me to the room we staying in. I already told them to make arrangements so Max and I could share the same room.
"So this is where you grew up?" She asked when we got settled.
"Yes, my own personalized hell."
"Stop being so extra, remember you're keeping an open mind."
"Yeah alright." I answered and we proceeded with unpacking our suitcases.
I was keeping an open mind but all of this still felt weird. There was a funny feeling inside me and I felt anxious all over again.
Something wasn't right, but what?