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[You know what? Fair. He earned that fry.]

Yeah... [The sentence "Chloe thinks I threw us all into an alternate universe" is about to form when she remembers his freak out earlier. Right, maybe less Chloe talk.] That is a point in pot's favor.

[Speaking of Chloe, while Nathan handles the bill, Max gets out her phone to check on her friend's response to her informing her of her location.

chloe
seriously, on my own turf???
max I think that qualifies as cruel and unusual

NVM I've thought about it and I prefer the idea that you're somewhere I can easily meet you

max
honestly it was his suggestion and I was so relieved
I was half expecting to be dragged across town to a fancy reservation only type place
anyway we have to stop by the store to buy a new pot for my plant baby Nathan accidentally dropped
then I guess we're going to this bonfire party thing???

chloe
he dropped your baby.
max read that again for me.
wait where's the bonfire thing at?

max
he did but I drop things literally all the time
I'm not sure actually, I'll ask and get back to you
ttyl

She puts her phone back in her bag and stands up before pulling it on over her head.]

So where's the bonfire thing at, anyway?

( nathan's in the middle of leaving a $100 on the table when max stands. )

It's not far. Like a mile or two off campus. Victoria knows someone.

( which isn't vague intentionally, but he figures that's all he has to say. vic is powerful. she knows how to make connections. if she talked some local farmer into donating their barn to a bunch of rowdy high schoolers for party purposes, nathan's not going to be the one to question it. )

So, where now? Target?

( see? he knows normal retailers!! )

[Jesus, that's a big tip. No way is Max going to stop him from leaving it, though. Service workers deserve some outrageously big tips every once in a while.

And while Max isn't really worried about it being vague, she can only hope the same can be said of Chloe. She'll text her that vague later, though.

He does know a normal retailer!! She's so impressed. She shoots him a smile.]

Target's perfect. I'm sure we can be in and out pretty quickly.

( he knows normal stores because victoria loves normal stores. within reason, of course. she loves a good tarjayyy run, and she wants starbucks and chipotle on the days she can't be bothered with campus food. they're not so far gone as to visit a walmart, but they can imagine. they look at 'people of walmart' online and think of how much it must suck to have to spend $3 on a towel that should cost $50.

target is an acceptable median.

the towels here cost $30. )

Can you cook stuff?

( he's pushing the cart, which they probably wouldn't need for just one plant pot. he'd told vic that they were stopping, though, so now he's meant to bring more snacks and mixers. soda, and popcorn, and marshmallows they can melt in a fire. it wouldn't be a bonfire without them. )

[It makes sense that Nathan's been recruited for supply gathering (and purchasing). Feels a little weird that she's here though, with Nathan, helping him prepare for what is probably essentially a Vortex Club gathering, if not a huge blowout party like they're more infamous for.

Every once in a while she really does feel like she's thrown them all into an alternate universe with her powers. She's going to hang out with Nathan's friends. Wild.]

Some things. Easy stuff, I guess. Why, are we going to have to cook something tonight?

Nah, I doubt it... Can you make burgers, though?

( sorry, he's a fan now. )

Like, for us to eat sometime?

[He's cute. Gawd, this feels weirdly domestic now that they're doing it. Rolling a shopping cart in a store together. She's not sure what to do with the feeling. (Other than write about it in her journal the next chance she gets, of course.)]

I could probably manage that much, but I don't know where you expect me to do it, unless you've got a grill hidden in your dorm room somewhere.

[She's headed toward the home goods section first, since they probably won't want to waste time their once they've got food and junk in their cart.]

We got a place. I mean, we got lots of places.

( 'we' being the prescotts. they can't buy a town without grabbing a few properties for themselves. farmhouse aside, nathan's family has no shortage of arcadia bay real estate collecting dust in their name.

one's bound to have a stove.

when it comes to foliage, nathan doesn't really know what he's looking for as far as interior plant decorating, but he likes that there's lot of options. target is cool like that. )

You want one with patterns, or you want it plain?

[Right... The real estate development plan. Is she gonna feel gross standing in one of those houses playing house, though? The thought does make her a little uncomfortable. She'll have to sit with it for a while.]

I'm thinking patterns. Maybe they'll cheer her up?

[Like a Get Well balloon, essentially. For her plant. This is the girl you're dating, this is the choice you've made, Nathan.

Looking along the shelves, she finds a few that make her smile. One shaped like a turtle, one with painted mushrooms on it, and one that she laughs at because it reminds her way too much of the Kool-Aid man with its roundness and strange face. She points it out to Nathan.]

Please tell me I'm not the only one seeing the Kool-Aid man there.

( as he often does around max, nathan considers saying something, but he thinks better of it. censoring himself is easy. it comes naturally. if it's not an insult or a complaint, rarely does it make it past his lips. like most bullies, he finds it so easy to be an asshole, not to mention self-assuring. being mean keeps others away, and he's convinced himself that he likes that, likes to be an army of one.

even his best friends don't hear his true thoughts.

but now, with max, he thinks about letting one slip. )

...Oh, yeah! I see it, all right.

( you know, like the old commercial? and if she doesn't laugh, he'll be justified in never saying anything aloud ever again.

he picks up one shaped like an old, retro camera and grins. )

Too on the nose, you think?

[If there's anyone safe for Nathan to be a dork with, it's Max.

She does laugh, though it's light and sounding a bit surprised. The grin on her face is definitely genuine.

Who doesn't remember the Kool-Aid man commercials?

She moves closer to him as he picks up a planter, examining it in his hands.]

Maybe not too much. I mean, it is different to the camera I use myself. Older. And really beautifully made. I like it.

[She also really likes the idea that Nathan picked this out. Not only will Lisa stay in it, a new home picked out in an apology for accidentally hurting her, but it also means a piece of Nathan in her dorm room. And when she goes to water Lisa, she can think of Nathan, too.]

Let's get it.

( she comes in closer and nathan holds his breath without meaning to. max is right; this is entirely too domestic. he doesn't know why he thinks he can have this. casual discussion while shopping, someone good like max by his side, he's not deluded enough to think he deserves it.

still, he wants to pretend for a while longer. )

Yeah? ...Sure, okay. Lisa's about to get a lot less naked.

( and he lowers the pot into the cart.

they both look out of place in their clothes reserved for special occasions. target feels like the kind of place you wear a t-shirt to, not a dress. not to mention nathan's slouchy posture while he pushes the cart, shoving it along like he's some delinquent in a teen film [which, in some ways, he is].

no one's staring, though, so it must be fine. )

Wanna stand on the back?

( true delinquent energy: abject misuse of shopping carts. )

[Nathan's question nets him two raised eyebrows, some careful consideration, and a laugh before Max finally steps up to the cart.

The place is surprisingly empty for a Saturday night. Or maybe because it's a Saturday night? Either way, it's nice that they don't have to worry about lots of disapproving stares from fellow shoppers. Especially since Max is taking Nathan up on his offer to stand on the back (front?) of the cart, holding on tight to the bars along the sides to keep herself anchored.

This is putting some serious trust in Nathan. Trusting him to not go so fast he'll lose control of the cart, trusting him not to bump into anything on purpose... And yet, for Max, it didn't even feel like a difficult decision to make. Nathan had called her an ambulance and rode with her to the hospital, stayed the night with her in the hospital room. Held her hand.

Anyway, she does wonder if he'll be surprised by her decision. This is the kind of mischief she used to get up to with Chloe when they were kids, not how she behaved by herself at Blackwell.]

( nathan's list of crimes tends to get eclipsed by his worst moments. the time he chucked a chair at mrs. hollingsdale when she asked what's wrong in a voice just a little gentle, and he couldn't formulate a way to say 'everything'. the time sam approached him with kindness, and his self-loathing had him choosing to interpret her words as mocking. he regrets that, too. she healed all right, from what he heard.

beneath his outbursts of rage-coated-fear, nathan's got fun crimes on his rep sheet. petty vandalism, breaking and entering, attempting to steal blackwell heirlooms. he drew a dick on principal wells' portrait once, and victoria cackled at how bad he is. he'd done it for her. to make her laugh.

similarly, he takes the reins on this target trolley and drives max throughout the store with a grin. he's her chariot. and while it'd be fun to see just how fast they can go, she already landed in the hospital once. not worth it. sean's going to be pissed enough about paying one bill, let alone two.

rather than piloting this shopping cart like a racecar, he obeys the laws of traffic. he makes the blinker sound before rounding a corner, and stops for pedestrians — the one other person occupying the store with whom they happen to cross paths. )

—Ah, fuck, it's a one-way. ( it is not a one-way; the aisles of department stores are traffic circles at best. still, he backs up and wheels her around to take the long way through the snack section. )

Grab whatever. Everyone'll be so fucked up soon, it's not like they'll care.

( except victoria. she might not care, but nathan does. he takes the time to pluck her favorite snacks from the shelf — those mini-doughnuts covered in white powder. )

[It's moments like these where she feels grateful that it was Nathan. Would life be easier if she'd lost her virginity to someone else? Probably. That doesn't mean it would be as fun or exciting or as meaningful. Getting to see this playful side of Nathan is something special, for sure.]

You're ridiculous. [Yet it's spoken with so much affection she might as well have kissed him on the mouth in the middle of the store.

She has free reign of the snacks for a popular kids gathering? Interesting. While a very small spiteful part of her thinks about getting really bland things, it's easy to curb that impulse. Not everyone there has wronged her, anyway. Technically not even Victoria has lately, at least not in this timeline.

Max grabs potato chips, Cheetos, Oreos, wafer cookies, among other things, using Nathan's direction to determine how much she should be tossing into the cart. She doesn't know exactly how big this gathering is going to be.]

We still need the stuff for s'mores too, right?

[Fucked up teens and a bonfire sounds like a recipe for disaster to Max, but it's probably something they've done before, right?]

Yeah, I think. ( ... ) What do you need for those, again?

( this is nathan, he's eighteen, and he's never eaten a fucking s'more! )

[What, seriously? ...Okay, well then they just need to correct that immediately!]

Graham crackers, Hershey's chocolate bars, and giant marshmallows. Those make for the most ideal s'mores, anyway.

[She finds the chocolate and the graham crackers on the aisle they're on.] So now we just need marshmallows... They may be with the baking ingredients.

( he tracks the motion of falling s'mores ingredients with his eyes. this cart has more junk food than anyone has a right to. )

Okay, but couldn't you, like... ( give him a second to think about it. ) Teleport to the marshmallows, get them, bring them here, then go back in time... No, wait, that doesn't work.

( fortunately, no one is around to hear such blatant, obtuse discussion of her biggest secret. )

[She kisses him to shut him up because it seems like the most reasonable way to do it in a slight panic. (She doesn't even need to panic.)]

( nathan's still pondering the space-time continuum when max's lips meet his. even in this empty-ass target, he feels himself flush at the sudden public display of affection.

they can't be that couple. )

[Well, it worked. Success! But she doesn't continue once he's shut up, because they do have other things they have to be doing. And s'mores are important business.

She pulls away, and very smartly doesn't comment on the flush of his cheeks even if the sight does make her smile.]

Maybe we can cool it a little with the ime-tay talk in public? [The pig latin probably wasn't necessary either.] Just... be careful, please. Do you want me to go grab the marshmallows and meet you at the registers?

( before he can think better of it, his hand grasps onto hers while max is still close. )

What, you think the Men In Black are gonna show up in this random Target? We're good, girl...

( at the mention of splitting up, he lets go. )

Yeah, babe. Meet you up front.

[She briefly rolls her eyes in exasperation at his dismissal, but it's partnered with a squeeze of his hand and a smile so it holds no sting.

Babe is still nice. Does she need to be coming up with a term of endearment for Nathan, too? Well, something to ponder as she heads two aisles down to find the baking supplies and the marshmallows among them. Sha grabs two bags, one regular jumbo marshmallows and one color changing marshmallows. Because the idea of somebody being in shock and awe of those while high is too amusing for her to pass up.

Max promptly heads back up to the front with her bounty.]

( nathan's got things lined up on the rolling conveyor belt when max joins him, arms full of sugary goodness. he and his sister gobbled down marshmallows and played chubby bunnies as a kid, but that was damn near a decade ago. he's grown now, and the thought of being see with fluffy, rainbow marshmallows feels a little humiliating.

but if max likes them, it'd be stupid to complain.

the woman at the checkout scans it all with a paid smile and an interest in small-talk that's too put upon to be genuine. Oooh, looks like someone's planning to have a good time! Where's the party at? I'll have what you're having. Double Stuffed Oreos are my favorite!

she's really angling for that five-star rating. it's annoying, but it's harmless. nathan doesn't answer her inquiries, and she gradually tapers off.

until the end, that is, when she whispers with faux sympathy: )

"I'm so sorry, sir, but that method of payment isn't going through. Any chance you have another card?"

( which makes the rainbow marshmallows seem like firearms in terms of the humiliation they cause him to feel. )

What the hell are you talking about? Of course it's going through. You have any idea how much I have in my bank account??

"...Well, no. I don't—"

A lot, okay? I've got thousands. Millions. This shit is nothing.

"Be that as it may, sir, you're going to have to try again."

( her plastic smile makes him stew, and he swears he can feel max's eyes on him. her rounds on her. )

What the fuck are you looking at?

[She's not any more eager for small talk with the cashier than Nathan is, honestly, though she does give the lady a friendly smile.

Up until Nathan's card apparently declines, and it drops off her face.

Is this her fault? Was the hospital bill too much? She shouldn't have insisted on Nathan paying it, or shouldn't have let them all talk her into staying overnight.

His dad. She remembers suddenly the text from him threatening to cut him off. Is that it? Would that have happened so soon and so suddenly? She'd figured it was just some sort of intimidation tactic but maybe that had been naive of her.

When he turns to look at her, she's staring at her own hands while she silently stresses, though she immediately jumps at his tone, looking up at him and looking guilty. Like this is all her fault.]

I.. I wasn't... [She trails off, eyes flicking quickly from Nathan to the cashier to the register read out.

How much is it? Maybe... She does have her parents' credit card... Though she feels bad even considering it. (Still not even close to the price of the hospital bill, though.) What other option do they have, other than Nathan calling and talking to his dad? And groveling for more money from him. The thought makes her sick for him.]

We can use my card, Nathan.

[She whispers it to him, as if the cashier isn't close enough to them to hear that. She has the gut feeling that Nathan is going to be mad at her for offering, like she's purposefully trying to humiliate him. It would be nice to think she's built up enough rapport that he won't automatically think that, but... She's not sure if that's true. She says it with conviction, anyway.]

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jumpcut to shopping, unless you think we need the drive over?

no, this works!

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💀💀 max ur bf is DUMB

and dreamwidth ate this notif wtf rude

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