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Chapter 40: I've Seen Rice Grains With More Style

Fashion is a trend. It's the fever that everyone needs to go through to be considered a somebody. Style is what lives within you. It's the singularly unique trait in a person. While fashion screams "me too!" style whispers "only me".

~Starlight24

White on white greeted me as I opened my eyes. I groaned loudly. This place was going to be the literal death of me.

The hospital.

"Day!" Mom exclaimed, smiling widely. "Get her in a wheelchair," she instructed somebody. "Max has been asking for her."

I gulped loudly. "Max is really awake, isn't he?" I asked, feeling light headed. "He's actually alive?"

Mom smiled widely, although it looked mildly painful. "Yes, Honey. He's awake and he's been asking for you the whole time."

A gold ball sized lump formed in my throat. I'd been imagining the situation where he awoke several times but now that it was actually happening, I couldn't wrap my head around it. What was I supposed to say to him, really? Was I to mention the unsent text?

Was I supposed to address the fact that I knew he was in love with me?

I gulped loudly as someone shoved a glass of water down my throat, instantly feeling marginally better. Then, a few doctors hoisted me up and onto a wheelchair and my eyes kept darting around the place and I couldn't really focus on anything.

Max was alive.

Tears of both joy and relief rushed down my face and I began breathing rapidly, each breath shallow and soft as a nurse pushed me down. "Hi there, Sunshine," whispered the nurse, and I whipped around to face Holly, the nurse that had helped me out last time I was here. "Do you pop up here a lot?"

I laughed dryly. "More than the average person does, for sure," I said honestly.

Holly smiled. "Well, now you'll get to talk it out with that boy, right?"

My eyes widened and a feeling of nausea swooped over me. "Um, yeah, I guess," I said, clenching my fists down tightly (or attempting to; both my hands had been horribly injured during my fall when Cady pushed me out the door) and resting my head back.

"Hey now, don't feel scared," Holly crooned, smiling down at me. "Max is a good kid; I was taking care of him. He won't do anything to hurt you."

I nodded.

He loved me. He wasn't the one who was going to hurt me.

I was going to hurt him.

Holly pushed the doors of Max's room that had been moved from the ICU to his own ward. The room was full of wooden shelves, a TV set, a couple of gifts on a stand next to Max's bed, a couch and a bathroom. It smelt of fresh, wet roses and air freshener spray.

Oh, and Max himself.

"Day!" he exclaimed, looking very happy to see me. "I heard about your fall. That sucks! Miss. Klutzy strikes again, huh?" he asked n rapid-fire.

I smiled tightly and gulped, unnerved by his normal attitude and his old nickname for me just bouncing back up. "Yeah," I said, stiffly.

"Hey, Mom?" he asked, and Mrs. Edmonds, whose head had been buried in a book, shot up, smiling widely and holding a protective stance as she walked towards her son.

"Yes, Max?" she asked, sounding eager to tend to him.

"Can you please leave? Day and I have..." he paused, as if trying to figure out how to frame his sentence. "We have a lot of catching up to do," he concluded.

Oh dear, please don't leave us alone. Please say you need to be around Max at all times because he's your precious son and you can't let him out of your sight. Please say you need to be there with him at all times. Please say you need to—

"Yeah, sure, Honey," she said, before scurrying towards the doors and heading out before I could even blink my eyes. So much for that.

"So, Day, what's new?" he asked, sitting up. I winced as I saw his condition. He had a plaster across his leg and was sporting a few gashes across his left cheek where the glass must have slashed across because of the harsh impact. His right eyebrow was slashed up and his lips had faint crusts of dried up blood latched across it.

I shrugged. "Nothing much, I guess," I said, feeling a little bit awkward.

Max rolled his eyes playfully. "Well, we both know what we need to talk about, so why beat around the bush?" he asked, grinning.

An uneasy feeling settled in my gut. Why did he have to be so happy about the fact that he loved me?

"Um, I don't know," I said, feeling the sudden urge to just get up and throw up all the contents in my stomach from today morning.

"Well, you got my text, didn't you?" he asked, his eyes softening. "The one that landed me up here?" I winced visibly at the way he put that, and he clicked his tongue impatiently. "I didn't mean it like that, but you know what I mean."

I took a deep breath. "I don't love you," I blurted, before my hand went straight to my mouth in horror as I realized what I'd just said.

He cocked his head to the side, staring at me like I'd grown a third eyeball. "Huh?"

I braced myself for him throwing me out or doing something really violent. "I read your text. The last line... you were going to say you love me. I don't want to lead you on or anything, because I don't exactly love you back. I'm sorry," I whispered.

By now, Max was looking at me like I'd just turned into a mermaid with tiger toes. "What are you talking about?" he asked, incredulously.

"Um... you love me?" I asked, feeling confused now.

Max shook his head. "Wait," he said, before taking out his phone, looking thoroughly baffled. He read through his message and after two minutes, he burst out laughing.

"What?" I asked, feeling color rise to my cheeks. What was he laughing about?

"Over here, it says, 'Truth be told, I lo,' and it was unfinished," he began, gasping like a retarded goldfish on land because he was laughing so hard. "I was going to say, 'Truth be told, I loathe these kind of sentimental messages, but I am trying to say all this because I still feel guilty about being the first guy to ever break your heart,' but of course, you being the over analyzing person that you are, assumed that I was going to say I loved you. To be fair, that is the tone of the whole message, but I can assure you that I don't love you."

I felt a rush of embarrassment across my body, crashing against me like a gust of wind. Of course I'd assume the worst. Of course I'd assume that everyone loved me. Jeez, I was such an idiot. "This is kind of mortifying," I said, burying my face in my palms.

"Aw, don't be embarrassed," he said, still chuckling. "It happens. I just wanted to sort out things with you today and kind of talk it out. I still like you, and I'm not going to deny that, but I'm sure I'll get over it and I'm not mad at you or anything."

I blushed at his confession. "Okay, well... I never used you for Jase. I don't even like Jase! I just said I did to make myself not seem like the desperate one who was vying for a guy who wasn't truly even in a relationship with her to begin with," I muttered, feeling completely disappointed in myself. Saying that had been such a bitchy thing to do, and of course I jumped ahead and did it anyway.

Max looked kind of relieved at that. "So... your feelings were real, right?" he asked, still unconvinced.

I nodded. "Completely and totally," I said, but then I scrunched up my face. "But... I'm sorry, but I don't like you anymore."

He nodded, as if he hadn't really expected anything different. "Yeah, I know," he began, biting his lower lip. "That was kind of my fault, anyway. I should have told you about what Nat was doing. Speaking of which, you know exactly what happened, right?"

I nodded, swallowing lightly. "Yeah, she told me about Ashley and stuff," I said, shaking my head. "Although what she didn't tell me was why you actually agreed to help her."

He stared at me incredulously. "She didn't rat me out? Are you sure?" he asked, looking almost dazed by this.

I nodded, furrowing my brows. "Yeah... why?"

Max shook his head. "Well, as I already said, my dad was a part of a lot of bad things, right? Well, he'd murdered this girl in the area, and I didn't want anyone knowing it was me. She kind of held that as leverage."

I shook my head in disbelief. "That must have been awful, I'm so sorry," I whispered.

He smiled. "Yeah... well, we're actually moving now," he admitted, and I raised an eyebrow, motioning for him to continue. "My dad... John, rather, has been sentenced to a lifetime at prison, and my mom and I have decided to move away back to England."

My eyes widened. "When are you moving?" I asked, my voice cracking slightly. Just because Max and I weren't a thing anymore didn't mean we couldn't be friends.

"Well, right after graduation," he said, avoiding eye contact.

"What!?" I exclaimed. "Grad is in a month!" I whisper-screamed in disbelief.

He nodded. "I know, but we wanted to get away as soon as possible. John asked my mom and I to come to the court and help his case, but it was too much for Mum to bear so she decided to get away from this place. It kind of holds way too many bad memories for her to handle."

"Oh," I said, feeling a little stunned by his revelation. "Well, I guess we'll have to hang out to make up for you leaving, and promise me you'll keep in touch?"

He laughed and nodded. "Of course," he said, and then his eyes darted to what I was wearing. "By the way, nice dress," he said, trying not to laugh.

My eyes dropped self-consciously to my clothes, and my mouth widened as I realized I was wearing nothing but a thin, humongous white hospital gown that made me look like a bag.

"Are you kidding me?" I said, wailing. "I've seen rice grains with more style!"

Max laughed loudly at this. "I missed you," he said, smiling widely.

My gaze dropped to the floor. "Max..." I said. I didn't want to have this conversation and he knew it.

"No," he said, quickly. "Not as a girlfriend way. I just miss our conversations. You're still great company," he stated with a grin.

I looked up and locked my eyes with his large, sincere ones. "The feeling's mutual, buster," I said, laughing lightly.

"This is the best type of friend zone," he joked, and I grinned widely.

"Is it, now?" I teased.

"Jokes aside," he said as if suddenly realizing something. "How did your talk with Nat go?"

I smiled widely. "We're actually friends now," I said, laughing at his baffled expression.

"You and Nat... an explosion hasn't set off yet?" he asked, looking at me like I'd sprouted a new head.

"We talked it out," I explained. "And she apologized for being such a bitch to me and now we're cool, I guess," I said, shrugging lightly.

Max fell back into sleeping position. "I swear to the gods, I will never understand girls," he said, and I grinned as I remembered how I'd loved that he'd used gods too. That seemed like a lifetime ago.

"The same goes for me! I'll never understand guys, either," I said, and then my cheeks warmed as I remembered something. "Um... you know about my crush on Dylan?"

He laughed, and he didn't even seem like it bothered him. "Yeah, you weren't exactly subtle about it. Neither was he, by the way."

I averted my gaze. "We kind of hate each other, though. I was at Cady's place and..." I bit my lip, remembering my horrible run-in with Cady.

"What happened?" he asked, sensing my mood-shift.

"Well..." I began, and I found myself launching into the whole story about Miss. X. Max just stared at me wide eyed and didn't question me even once, and didn't interrupt. It felt so good to just vent it all out, and by the end of it, his jaw had pretty much unhinged.

"Wow," was all he said.

"And it didn't help that I thought you were going to die," I added, my voice wavering.

"That must have been really harsh. It'll be okay, though," he assured, and I smiled.

Max was alive. We both were friends. Everything was going okay, and I felt like everything else was going to fall into place now.

Who cared about stupid Cady? I had other friends who really mattered. Who cared if Dylan and I were fighting and if things might never be okay again? I had Popcorned.

As I spoke to Max animatedly about the things he'd missed and the random, crazy moments I'd had during the time we'd not spoken, I felt something I'd not felt in a while.

I felt at peace.

A/N:

Heyaaa guys =)

AariaChaseMontgomery thanks so much for the lovely cover. It's so sweet that you took the time and I loved it so much!

Here's a random pic of Max and how he looked:

A question for you all:

Were you expecting that outcome? So looks like Day and Max are okay now... who all are happy about it? I personally loved writing this chapter. Even if it was kind of short, it was crisp and I feel like I didn't want to drag this too much.

Okay, guess what?

We've got the chapter you all have been looking forward to (psht, I'm not gonna lie. I've been looking forward to it too...) coming up NEXT:

POPCORNED. WILL. BE. REVEALED.

*screams*

Song of the Day: Starving by Zedd ft. Hailee Steinfeld

Also, guys, just a quick run through of what's coming up, there will just be a few more chapters to go, maybe 4-5 maximum. Also, I'm planning on putting an epilogue from a different POV and trust me, you won't be disappointed with the person I've picked!

There will also be a bonus chapter with a reunion a few years later.

I'm going to make something very clear now:

THERE IS NOT GOING TO BE A SEQUEL.

Okay, I love MSLIO and everything but there's no more to the story that I can drag onto. I MAY include a little snippet of Deeds and Jase but that will be the most. And even that I'm not sure of.

I am, however, opening up Project Perfect again after this is over. I'm done writing the book and I actually really love what's been done, and it would be amazing if you all could go check that out.

Love you all,

Lexiiii