analogthis | open rp/inbox

Nah, 2008 is too modern for me. I've always said I was a girl out of her own time.

[She's teasing, somehow both herself and Nathan in one shot. But after all, he is still dating her dorky ass.

...Not even Victoria? Wow. Okay, well that does make her feel special. Even if it's not his own secret, it's one he's still kept from Victoria but is telling Max.

Her brows furrow somewhat as she listens to him, slightly angled in his direction too.

A few different things go through her mind during his speaking. The first of which is of course "what the hell fucked up thing did Mark Jefferson do to get himself fired?" That's definitely something she wants to look further into.

The second thought is a lingering on what Nathan was like during middle school. Would they have hated each other back then if they'd met? Chloe had said he was a little different even at sixteen...

And then the third thing is how much she really dislikes Sean Prescott. Tinged with some surprise, because for the few months that Max has known him, Nathan has always acted like he had his father's ear, that he owned the school, the town, had all this power and control because he was his father's son. Maybe that's more an image he projects than anything? That would explain the way he spoke to himself in the bathroom mirror, before he accidentally shot Chloe.]

...but you never heard what it was he was being accused of? I wonder if they have a file on that somewhere... It would help to know the exact year it happened.

[Not beating those Nancy Drew allegations, Max Caulfield.]

Anyway, I did hear a secret about you today. Want to know what I learned?

[The way she says it with a smile and flirty head tilt, this clearly can't be anything that bad.]

( what had jefferson done? according to the records, nothing. nothing ever happened that day, and no one can say otherwise.

as an apprentice, nathan learned that jefferson had been "sloppy," which is almost diminutive in its understatement. same jefferson, just without million dollars worth of designer drugs at his disposal and a decade of experience under his belt.

it's a miracle that girl got away. )

You get that this is major old news, right? It was probably something normal. Couldn't have been that bad if they let him stay... He probably hooked up with a student and some old, crusty teacher got jealous.

( which, given some of their classmates, isn't that hard to believe.)

Yeah? You hear that I'm dating a hipster who says 'cereal' unironically? 'Cuz that one's true.

[It strikes her as odd that Nathan backpedals the way he does. He doesn't sound panicked about it or anything, but it's just strange that he went from saying "serious shit, fucked up" to "probably something normal" within the space of maybe a minute. But maybe he'd just been trying to embellish to impress her with his knowledge of this? And then regretted embellishing? Still.

Max also wrinkles her nose at the idea that him hooking up with a student would qualify to Nathan as "something normal." Eighteen year old student or not, that's still majorly shitty in Max's eyes. At least wait until the girl has graduated.

...What had that text to Nathan been again? "Stick to the script"? She wishes she'd gotten a picture or had been able to write it down.

She's considering asking him if he thinks he might still be sleeping with students, but... Then he reminds her she was about to say something else.

Max feigns a gasp.] No, I hadn't heard that one! I better get to spreading that rumor immediately.

[She smiles, and lightly bumps his shoulder with her own.]

I heard that you were in a play. The Tempest. Chloe dished about it.

( max looks like she's about to ask something. way to go, nathan. he knows max is a regular sherlock holmes; naturally, she's going to want to know everything he can about this. it's like walking a tight rope, saying enough to sound natural without immediately giving everything away. it's why he never talks about jefferson with victoria. she brings him up, and he keeps it vague. it's for her own protection.

so why is he telling max anything? because that's what boyfriends do?

it's both fortunate and something of a nightmare when max changes the subject. he feels his face burn, but the humiliation of that night is far enough in the past that it's little more than an embarrassing memory. it doesn't hurt as much as it used to. looking back on it now, he doesn't feel the shame of failure that he once did.

but he still likes to pretend it never happened. )

Christ, of course she did. ( he wants to bury his head in his hands, but he settles for turning away from her and starting the car. ) She's one to talk. She was in that shitshow too.

( chloe hadn't been much better than he had, but she didn't have nearly as much riding it on it. the 'fate of the prescott name,' or whatever. their poor firm must've lost so many shareholders because some 16-year-old couldn't hold his own in a school play.)

[Nathan probably wishes he had some rewind powers of his own now that he's shared that info with Max. Yep, she's definitely not going to give up on learning more about that. But she might bide her time a little.

His face turning red is cute, and she's sort of enjoying getting to tease him in a way that's good-natured. But she also doesn't want to be outright mean to him.]

Oh, yes. And Dana dished about that to us last night.

[Seriously, Rachel must have been playing with superpowers of her own to get Chloe on that stage with like, no time to prepare.]

Don't be too embarrassed, though. I like getting to learn more about you, and what you did before I got here. I prefer the touchable Nathan to the untouchable one, you know?

Dana's a b— ( so accustomed to shit talking, he stops himself a bit too late to fully recover from recklessly insulting one of max's favorite people. ) —butt.

( which is nearly as rude as calling her a bitch, but he didn't have anything tamer immediately on deck.

after all the chit-chat, he finally gets them on the road to the diner, and he only speeds sometimes. usually he'd treat traffic laws like mere suggestion, but he's got someone else to look out for now. )

None of that stuff matters, anyway. We were dumb kids.

( some dumber than others, like how victoria allegedly managed to drugs herself on opening night. do sedatives grow on fucking trees in arcadia bay? those things are everywhere. )

All we are is who we are right now.

( so he doesn't have to be on the hook for any of his bad deeds— )

[Rude or not, "butt" actually makes Max laugh. She would have been pissed if he'd gone through with "bitch," and she is aware that's what he was heading toward. But the fact he redirects is a relief and that he redirects himself to butt of all things is, frankly, hilarious. It's possibly the most childish insult he could have landed on, and it makes him sound almost endearingly petulant? Grumpy, instead of aggressive.

Anyway, she's not expecting him to rework every bad habit overnight. And she wouldn't expect him to change anything he doesn't want to change, anyway. Shit-talking is fairly harmless when the people aren't around to hear them. (But she still would have been pissed at the use of "bitch.")]

You're right. The past is the past. [Which, considering that's coming from a time-traveler, is saying something. She isn't sure what it's saying. But it's saying something.] What's important is going forward.

[She gives him a soft look he may or may not be able to see while he's driving. And as used as she's getting to being in a car with Chloe driving like a bat out of hell, she's also appreciative that he's doing relatively well at not getting them in a wreck.]

I do like who you are right now.

( max laughs, but it feels good. they both know it was a pretty lame thing to say, so it feels like being laughed with rather than being laughed at. it helps him to loosen up, and he even smiles as her giggles subside.

he can't help but frown, still, once she says she likes who he is. that seems impossible. once she finds out the things he's done, there's no chance that she'll ever like him again. it's part of the reason she can never know. as much as it's for her protection, there's a selfishness in his need to keep the truth hidden from the people around him. they'll never look at him the same way, and nathan isn't sure what he'll do when the soft, sweet look in her eyes calcifies into something unreachable. )

You don't know who I am right now. No one does. ( leaving it there would be pretty emo, even for him. ) But... you could. If you wanted. I guess that could be cool.

[It does hit her as pretty emo, admittedly, but... She's seen his notes in his phone. She's not telling him that (should she? is it wrong not to?), but she did. The emo doesn't come as a surprise, and she understands (at least on a very basic level) that there's reason for it with him.

Anyway...]

It's okay. I was thinking more in this moment, anyway. Just, the present? You and me, right here, laughing and everything... But I do want to know you. That's kind of what dating is about, right? Getting to know each other?

I guess. I mean, I think. I haven't really done the whole dating thing. I've got too much other shit going on.

( which is a pretty flimsy excuse. he seemingly doesn't do anything but drink and party, which means he's had plenty of time for dating. )

My dad says I gotta marry this chick back home in Florida. I'm not going to, obviously. I never even met her. But it'll be good for the family, or something. Her dad's like the Steve Jobs of real estate. So... Don't tell my dad we're dating.

( which is meant to be a joke, or at least part of one. max isn't ever going to see his dad, so there's no chance of that happening. but she should probably know the kind of rich people bullshit she's getting herself mixed in with. )

[Max hasn't done the whole dating thing either, really. She's kissed and made out before. But they were brief flirtations back in Seattle. Usually just stuff at parties. (But like. Normal teen parties, not Vortex Club level parties.)

Though just a week or two ago Max would have been inclined to believe all he does is drink and party, she feels now like that's not true. (And to be fair, he did practically fund those stupid parties all on his own. That probably did take some work.) It's very clear he has pressure put on him by his father. Maybe he has rich kid duties she doesn't know about. How could she? She's not part of that world.

Her heart hurts hearing about this engagement to a stranger thing. It feels very, like... Victorian? Regency? Something like that. Real old school. She didn't know rich families still did that, married off their kids to one another purely for money and status reasons. Jesus.]

Sure. I'll try not to let it slip during our weekly dinner conversations, me and your dad.

[Was he aware she was this much of a smartass before he started dating her? It's said playfully though, not with hostility.]

For reals, though, that's so shitty... He's, like, trying to plan your whole life out for you just because you're his son. That's not what parents are supposed to do. They're supposed to support you.

( no, the declassified guide to dating max did not warn about her humor. it surprises him every time he finds that she's genuinely funny. )

Thanks.

( you know, for not narcing on their relationship during those imaginary dinner parties. )

It's whatever. I bet your parents want you to marry rich and famous, too. All parents are sorta like that, yeah? A little bit?

( max, tell him that all parents are victorian lords and ladies when it comes to auctioning off their kids!! )

Maybe all rich parents? I don't know, my family experience seems... vastly different to yours. My parents sometimes ask if I'm seeing someone yet, which yeah, can be annoying, but... They've never actively tried to set me up with anyone, much less a stranger.

[Sorry, Nathan. She absolutely cannot tell you that's normal.]

What about Victoria's family? Are they like that?

( maybe max will understand when she's older and more rich. nathan doesn't seem too shocked by it, though. it's just more confirmation that his family is full of assholes, as if he didn't already know. )

Never met 'em.

( he's got some theories about vic's parents based solely on what she's said about them in passing, but that's next level gossip. as he pulls the truck into park, he considers if he'll get to the point where he tells max everything, even his dumb theories. )

What do you normally get when you come here?

A lot of different things? Over the course of my life, I've probably had one of just about anything Joyce has ever made.

[She lists things off on her fingers as she thinks of them.]

Breakfast foods are always good. Grilled cheese is awesome. The burgers aren't bad either, but I'm more of a chicken strip girl myself. Especially with homemade gravy. You gotta dip your fries in those, too.

You know the cook by name? Damn, you really are a local...

( he hopes it doesn't sound too insulting. he doesn't like this town much, but he means it in jest. 'local' is only an insult when he and victoria are complaining about how arcadia bay still hasn't gotten around to building a starbucks.

none of the food she lists sounds particularly appealing, but nathan isn't much of a food person to begin with. he likes how she lights and she remembers them all, at least.

he gets out of his side of the car, then walks around to let her out. he won't always be this pretentious about old-timey dating etiquette, but his mom would've a cow if she ever saw him leave a girl in a dress to get out on her own. )

[Oh, man. He doesn't know that Chloe's mom works here? Well... hopefully that knowledge won't ruin the date. Probably not, he seems a little more chill about Chloe now? Just... hopefully they don't run into her here... Max didn't even think about that.

Now that she does think of it, she pulls her phone out to shoot Chloe a quick text telling her where she and Nathan are, while Nathan moves around the truck to open her door. (She did also promise to keep Chloe in the loop about where they are outside of school, so. Better to get into that habit now.)

She smiles at him and takes his hand as he lets her out, carefully climbing down from his truck. It's a little more elegant than the way she hopped out of it earlier today.]

Such a gentleman. You trying to sweep me off my feet, mister?

[She's just gonna link their arms together as they head inside. Because she feels like it.]

( he thinks he likes her more when she jumps out all recklessly, but this is supposed to be a date [a date to a run-down americana diner, but still a date], so elegance wins out. )

Here's to trying.

( christ, they're really playing at this danny and sandy thing, clean up to the scene where danny chooses his asshole friends over claiming good, clean, wholesome sandy as his girl. they'd done that part already, thankfully. he doesn't remember it, but if max's time travel powers say he called her a 'virgin slut,' well...

he sighs as he steps inside. the only time he comes here is when frank requests a neutral meeting area for a drug deal. it's strange being here for actual dining purposes. )

Uh, table. By the window.

That's called a booth, darling.

( and, immediately, he's ready for this date to be over. goddamn hicks with their boooooths and their charming, small-town penchant for calling people 'hun' and 'darling'. he misses florida. everyone's an asshole there.

still, they get shown to the booth with only kind, playful laughter from the server at nathan's ignorance. they get told will be by soon to grab their drinks. )

[As long as no one's expecting Max to sing Hopelessly Devoted or show up in a pair of leather pants, she doesn't care about the Danny and Sandy comparison, really. Because wow is she ever not doing either of those things! Not even for Nathan. Sorry, Nathan. ~~The short cheerleader skirt may be the best he gets in that area.~~

(Wait... were the Lisa pics her version of Hopelessly Devoted to You? ...Shit. Maybe better not to think about that, for her own sanity.)

Joyce doesn't appear to be in the diner tonight, which makes sense. She usually has her shifts during the day. She's probably already left for home. Maybe that's a good thing. Max doesn't recognize the current server. Which isn't a huge surprise, since she'd only been back for the first time in five years like a week ago.

When their waitress laughs, Max gently squeezes Nathan's arm, before ultimately letting it go so she can slide into the booth. She's not used to doing this in a dress, so it gets a little wrapped around her legs until she sorts it out, half-standing to do so.

She takes her bag off to put next to her.]

So, that wasn't Joyce. She usually works the day shifts. And... she's also Chloe's mom.

( he looks up from angrily googling what makes a booth all that different from a fucking, goddamn table when max speaks up. he hasn't noticed her dress troubles, which wouldn't have made much of a difference since he probably wouldn't know how to help her.

or maybe he would. maybe how to sit down in a dress is divine knowledge that all of the world's wealthiest are just born knowing. )

Seriously? Chloe's mom works here? ( he doesn't know why that's surprising. in truth, he just never considered that the girl he's nearly killed twice now has a mom. ) And Madsen's her dad?

No wonder she's like that.

Her stepdad. [Sorry, she needs to correct that, like, immediately.] Or as Chloe likes to call him, the stepdouche or stepdick. [Her bestie sure has a way with words.]

Her dad was actually... really, really cool. Her mom's not bad, [Debatable, since she brushed off the whole "hey your husband slapped your daughter" thing, but Max has so many fond memories of her that does color her judgment] but she... used to be better. Before they lost her dad. I feel like her life has gone to shit since I left. And I hate it.

[She sighs, folding her hands on the table.]

Sorry, you probably didn't want to talk about Chloe...

And her mom married that tool? God, he's such a hardass. Talk about winning the shit lottery...

( hearing about chloe as a sympathetic figure doesn't particularly move the needle for him when it comes to his opinion. he's ambivalent about her as a person, and he wishes he'd never done what he did.

he can't feel any worse about his part in ruining her life, killing her friend. max has already said she feels bad about moving away, but that pales in comparison to his part. )

I mean, it's cool. I don't care if you talk about her... ( max leans forward on the table and nathan leans back. ) Just sound like she got fucked over by life, same as the rest of us. She's like this town's punching bag.

( which is a crude way of putting things, but blackwell's resident 'voodoo doll' might understand her position more than most. )

You love the freaks, huh?

[She hums in agreement about "shit lottery," that's for sure. And yes, it doesn't escape her that Nathan's played some part in that. Though she only knows about the drugging part, not about his involvement with Rachel. She might not be sitting here now if she knew about that. Or... maybe she would, if she knew the entire story. That is the risky game Nathan's playing by being with her, though. Especially knowing that she's a Nancy Drew knockoff.

There's a smile that passes her lips when he says it's cool for her to talk about Chloe, though it's immediately taken over by a quick wince at "town's punching bag." Yeah, that probably about sums it up.

But his final question makes her laugh a little.]

I guess I do. [Her stomach flutters about using the word "love" there, though.] But, you know, who's to say I'm not also a freak?

( now it's his turn to laugh. )

Max, you're like the most normal chick I've ever met. You're like something off of a TV show.

( the non-joyce waitress stops by, and nathan just asks for a water. very responsible of him, staying hydrated. )

[She orders tea and waits for the waitress to leave again before she responds, looking down at the menu for a moment that she honestly doesn't need to even look at.]

And yet, I also have a super power that gives me headaches and nosebleeds and makes me pass out. Not to mention the vivid nightmares and the weird ghost deer that I've been seeing.

[Right, she hadn't mentioned that part to him yet.]

Anyway, we really haven't known each other for that long. Who's to say there aren't secrets about me you don't even know yet?

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

listening to Hopelessly Devoted as I write this tag and cackling about it tbh

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject