Chapter Text
The parking lot was mostly empty- Warren kept adjusting positions on his car to try and look cool. Max was coming to meet him soon, and he didn’t want to look like a total dork. He waited a few minutes, going off and on his phone. None of the games on his phone were any sustenance. There wasn’t much to do. He already messaged her, so he thought that trying again would just seem annoying and desperate. She was such a bad texter.
It felt like an eternity to Warren before she showed up.
“What up, Max? How are you?” The boy went in for a hug, but he quickly retreated as Max dug into her bag and didn’t seem to notice, retrieving the flash drive. The sunlight caught the metal bit, looking like Max had a diamond in her hand instead of a USB.
“Here’s your flash. Thanks.” Max smiled.
“No problem,” He flashed an awkward smile as his hand traveled up to the nape of his neck almost subconsciously.
The two went on, conversing about movies, Victoria Chase’s paint picture, Warren’s beat-up rust-bucket, and your average geek things. The wind rustled the trees surrounding them, filtering out morning light and creating harmony with the chittering of small animals.
They were enjoying themselves until he showed up. Nathan Prescott.
“Max Caulfield, right?” He snarled. His dress shoes clacked on the pavement like an annoying clock. Max had a determined, but also nervous look in her eyes, one that said she knew exactly why Nathan was looking for her. She stood her ground as the blonde bee-lined for her. Warren was already on his guard.
“You’re one of the Jefferson's photo groupies.”
What a dumbass, Warren thought. He didn’t have a good grade in English, but even he knew that his wording was off.
Warren scooted closer to Max as he approached, just as some type of intimidation method, but Nathan wasn’t buying it.
“I’m one of his students..” Max refuted, as Nathan shoved Warren to the side without any thought.
“Whatthefuckever. I know you like to take pictures, especially when you’re hiding out in the bathrooms.” He badgered. Warren wasn’t having any of it. Nathan was acting like Max was some kind of creep! She was anything but that. He took the boy by the shoulder and interjected.
“Get away from her, dude!” Nathan tried to headbutt him, but Warren brought up his left forearm and blocked him. He must have had a thick skull because it hurt like hell, but he went in for a punch with his right fist.
“What the fuck!” Nathan yelled, stumbling backward with a hand on his cheek. A truck almost hit the towheaded teen, until he charged back towards Warren like a bull. Before they knew it, they were scuffling on the pavement. Max almost laughed at just how stupid it looked. She wanted to intervene, but it looked like Warren was winning.
“Max?” Whipping her head to where the voice came from, she noticed that the truck from before was still there. She looked into the windshield and saw a blue-haired girl with all too familiar facial features.
“Chloe?!”
In the meantime, Warren and Nathan were throwing punches and insults at each other.
“Stupid fuckin’ incel!”
“Dickbag!”
Warren realized mid-fight that Max didn’t even show any appreciation towards him for fighting Nathan for her! For some reason, it made him want to punch the shorter boy even harder. She just stared at them for a few seconds until looking at the truck that almost ran Nathan over. He saw David running over and pushed Nathan off of him. He knew this fight could jeopardize his scholarship.
“Get off! Mr. Madsen’s right there!”
“Like I give a shit, loser! I could blow up this damn school if I wanted to!”
“What the hell are you two doing?!” David ran up to the scene, Max moving out of the way for him and backing up- about to get into ‘Chloe’s’ truck. (Warren didn’t know who she was)
As the two started to stand up, they both stumbled as if the concrete wasn’t really concrete at all, but a huge pillow or sea of Jell-O.
Without any warning, their vision went black.