Second Choice

Chapter One: After Party

The setting sun placed an antique filter over everything, dragging exaggerated shadows across the ground. Everything was so still. Warren couldn't tell whether the campus felt serene or eerie. How appropriate for the day.

An October breeze rolled through, cutting right through his thin hoodie. Warren shivered, and a petal from the bouquet of sunflowers he was holding fell to the cement. It'd certainly gotten a lot chillier since the funeral. He glanced down at the flowers. A rumble came from his gut as it did a micro flop. Hopefully Max would appreciate the Fibonacci seeded beauties and not think it was totally inappropriate. It wasn't, right? He was just a friend trying to cheer another friend up in her time of mourning. Besides, the candle in his other hand definitely negated any unwanted romanticism of the flowers. He'd seen the votive when picking up the bouquet from the gift ship in town. It was an appropriately simple white with a blue ribbon tied around it. A zinc alloy butterfly charm hung from the ribbon. Max had gotten really into butterflies since… since Chloe was killed. He swallowed hard. It was still so surreal. Too horrible to even think about.

Warren hadn't passed a single person on his way to visit Max. He'd foolishly thought he'd gotten lucky. After tucking the candle safely between his chest and arm, he reached out for the door to the girls' dormitory. His fingers grasped air as the door was pulled away by someone inside. He took a step back as Ms. Grant came out. Of course she was there! Since when was he ever lucky? She gave him a slight smile and clucked her tongue softly. "Why Warren, isn't it funny to see you here?"

He tried to force a chuckle, but it choked and died.

"You do realize this is the girls' dormitory, don't you?"

"Uh yeah, I was, um, just here to see Max for a minute."

She examined the gifts he carried. Ms. Grant shook her head slowly once, trying to hide her widening smile. Still holding onto the door, she pushed it open wider and waved for him to go inside. "Don't make me regret this now."

"Thanks!" He smiled like a complete dork. "I always knew being a teacher's pet would pay off!"

She laughed her musical laugh. "Remember, I didn't see you here tonight."

"Of course not!" He awkwardly gave a salute while continuing to balance the candle against his body. He quickly scurried inside, knowing better than to push it.

Unlike a lot of his fellow male peers, he'd never been inside the building before. A childish giddiness bubbled inside of him as he climbed the stairwell to the second floor. Coming out into the hall, his wondrous expectations of what the girl living quarters would look like instantly deflated. It looked exactly like the hallway he used to dread seeing every morning as he made his way to the bathrooms. Even the mean spirited graffiti was basically the same.

The hallway ceiling lights were out, but most of the dorm rooms were open and lit. Looking for Max's room was like looking for the right screen in a movie theater. Each dorm he passed was a vignette, all in a different genre. He tried not to stare, but found it difficult to keep his eyes to himself. Taylor and Courtney took turns modeling different tops they held up to their torsos. Definitely a YA flick. A rom-com played in another dorm as Juliet and Zachary sat on a couch staring into each other's eyes. He bit his lip to keep himself from giggling at the absurdity of it. A meticulously tidy room stood empty as he creeped past. Shadows fell upon the stark décor. Biblical would be the easy answer, but he was thinking film noir maybe. Another empty room came next. This one wasn't so clean. Dark clothes made the floor into a mountainous terrain and there wasn't an empty spot amid the books and makeup on the desk and dresser. Even the walls were cluttered with posters from obscure sci-fi and monster movies. He smiled. Alyssa. She was a dark comedy if he'd ever met one.

Warren knew Max's room before he reached it. He could feel it. Like the others, the door was open and the lights glowing. He paused off to the side. While he shifted from foot to foot, a nervous tingle made its way through his limbs to his chest. He was going to be in Max's room. To bide a few more moments, he read the white board in front of him. Like every other slate in the hall, and in his hall for that matter too, there was a message bemoaning the late Chloe Price. In Max's handwriting was the message 'You'll always be my partner in time.' It was just the blue letters against the white slate. None of the underlining or doodles she liked to decorate her notes with.

"You can come in," a quiet voice called from inside the room. It wasn't Max. A rosiness rushed to his cheeks and ears at having been caught. He took a few more seconds to try and lessen his embarrassing blush before entering the room.

It was everything he imagined. From the so-overused it's ironically cool Keep Calm rug to the polaroid snapshots patterned on the wall. The whole place was her. The only thing that didn't feel Max-like was Max herself. Zombie faced and slouched against the wall, she didn't seem to register his presence at first. She was still wearing her black dress from the funeral. Only now it was wrinkled and starting to collect little white hairs from the spotted bunny sitting in her lap. She absent-mindedly pet it with two fingers.

Warren knew he was awkwardly gawking at her, but he couldn't seem to stop staring until Kate stole his attention from the other side of the room. She and Alyssa were sitting on a couch. Kate was hunched forward with her face in her hands and her elbows on her knees. She sat precariously close to the edge. "It was good of you to come by," she said with a soft smile. Her red rimmed eyes weren't on him though. They kept to Max. "Those flowers are lovely."

Alyssa had her face in a paperback. He knew she wasn't being rude, just trying to process. "Look at you, breaking all the rules," she greeted.

He wished he could come up with something witty to say. His brain felt like Jell-O in his skull. It wiggled around uselessly.

"Warren," a tired voice dragged out.

He turned around again to face his friend. She looked up at him and he was so afraid that she was going to be this frail vulnerable little thing. He liked the idea of being, like, some kind of alpha type. Being someone she could count on for protection and support. But the image of his friend being a broken toy dropped on the floor—it was too much.

Max wasn't broken though. She looked exhausted and sad of course. When their eyes locked though, he saw her fiery spirit burning deep in them. He cracked a grin. "Hey Mad Max!"

"I didn't think you'd actually sneak in here. I'm impressed."

"No arbitrary gender confines can stop a man of science."

A halfhearted chuckled came from her throat even though it wasn't really all that funny. "So whatcha got there?"

"Oh just a couple something somethings I picked up in town." He didn't want to shove the flowers in her arms while she was still holding the rabbit, so he just tilted them down toward her. "I thought Lisa could use some company."

She leaned forward and buried her face in the large flowers, inhaling deeply. "They're great. I don't think I really have anything to keep them in though."

"I have something," Kate said and got to her feet. "I'll be right back."

"Do you want me to give Alice back?"

"Oh no, if you still want her, you're more than welcome to visit a while longer. It's good for her to be out of her cage like this."

"Of course she's helping me, cute little thing." Max said in a baby voice and rubbed underneath the bunny's chin. It twitched an ear. After Kate left to presumably retrieve a vase, Max asked, "What's that?" She nodded towards the candle.

"This?" he held the candle out to her. "I saw it and it reminded me of you. I thought, uh, I thought maybe you'd like to bring it down to Chloe's memorial."

She took the votive and held it up to her face. The inner corners of her eyes got a little watery as he stupidly brought up her dead friend. Warren looked off to the floor while she studied the charm. He heard her sniff the wax. He'd smelled it in the store—generic vanilla. Nice, but kind of boring. "It's awesome!" Max set the candle next to her on the bed before giving him a long hard look. "She'd really appreciate it, I think."

"So, is it cool if I stay and chill, or do you want me to leave? I totally get it if you want me to go. I don't want to get my man scent all up in your cool Max lair."

She patted the bed next to her. "I'll survive. Take a seat."

There wasn't a whole lot of talking going on for a while. Kate came back with a plastic water tumbler, which made Max laugh pretty hard. "Sorry, it's the best thing I had. I only have one vase and I forgot I leant it someone." She took up her perch next to Alyssa again and they went back to just sitting in almost sort of comfortable silence. Warren looked at a website that posted passive aggressive signs on his phone for longer than he wanted. He would have switched to his usual forums, but every once in a while Max would look over and snicker at whichever photo displayed on his screen at the time.

The place livened up when Dana and Juliet walked through the door. Dana had a plastic shopping back at her side while her best friend was carrying a pink flat iron. "So we still doing this?" the cheerleader asked. She bounced further into the room towards Max. "Hey Warren," she greeted with a raised brow.

"Yeah, of course," Max answered and scooted forward. Her hands carefully scooped the bunny more towards her body.

"I think I'll bring Alice back then," Kate said. She kept her face lowered more than usual with the two popular girls in the room. Warren felt bad. He hadn't seen the video, but had heard enough about to know what went on in it. Victoria had taken it down before Nathan was even all the way into the cop car. Still, they must have been bringing it up a lot during the investigation. Evidence and all.

Max immediately asked, "Wait, you're coming back, right?"

"Uh," Kate glanced at the company in the room. "Sure, if you want me to. I think I'll just go check up on Stella first. She wanted to compare notes."

"You can bring her over here. If you want."

Kate scrunched up her brows. "Okay? I'll ask."

Warren tried to get Max to look at him, but her interest was on whatever Dana was showing her in the bag.

Turns out the reluctant Vortex club members had brought hair dye at Max's request. They pulled her desk chair into the middle of the room and found an outlet close enough to plug the straightener into. "Do you have any old shirts to put on? I don't want to get anything on your pretty dress."

"I'm sure I do. All I have are t-shirts." She got up from the couch and began to rummage through her closet. From where he was sitting, Warren could see that, in her search, she had come across a particular top that obviously had some kind of meaning to her. She crouched down, front hidden away in the closet from the rest of the teens. She held the shirt out in front of her. There was a butterfly with a skull on it. A tear glistened on its way down her cheek.

Before he could register what he was doing, Warren had jump to his feet and was wriggling out of his hooded sweatshirt. "Hey Max, why don't you just use this?" She quickly wiped her face with the shirt before throwing it into the closet.

"Are you sure?" she asked while reaching out a hand and taking the hoodie he was offering her. It was just a cheap plum one his mom got him from Walmart. Probably on clearance. What guys even wear plum? Or call it that for that matter? Oh man, he was a loser!

"Sure. No biggie. If anything, a few stains might improve it." He looked over at the tall girls expecting them to either be glaring or laughing at him. Instead they had their backs turned while mixing up the chemicals.

Donning his sweatshirt, Max took the seat in the center of the room while the two girls worked. First they straightened her hair. She complained about whether that was necessary or not, but was quickly overruled. Kate and Stella joined the party as Dana squeezed the first strip of dye out onto a stretch of Max's hair. Alyssa had stretched out onto her back, holding the book above her face. Warren sat more in the middle of the bed, so the two nerd girls took a seat on either side of him. He smiled at the thought of them being in a geek hotspot. Temptation came to call Alyssa over to the dark side, but was unsure of just how playful of a mood should be allowed. Instead, he sat there mostly quiet between the girls. Sometimes he'd comment in the conversation they were holding over him about lit class. Every time he did, he swore Max looked at him funny. Maybe he was just seeing things though.

As they were finishing up the color framing Max's face, a few more peeps joined the party. He mentally used the term peeps loosely. Taylor and Courtney, dressed like they belonged in an Aeropostale catalog, hung in the doorway. "Hey Max," Courtney greeted. She hung onto Max's name a little too long.

"Heya."

"We just wanted to drop by and see how you were doing."

"I'm fine."

Taylor noted, "It looks like you're having a party in here."

"Just chilling. Want to come in?"

The newcomers didn't hesitate. They, too, bore gifts. An unopened wine bottle hung in Courtney's grasp, and Taylor had most of a pack of Solo cups. "Thought we'd bring something to cheer you up." Courtney raised the pink moscato to face level.

"Is it really a great idea to drink during times of sadness?" Kate asked bluntly.

"Uh yeah," Courtney had a genuine look of confusion on her face. "Isn't that what they invented alcohol for?" She moved to the back of the room to set up a drink area on the bookshelf.

Taylor bent down to examine the work the other two girls had put into Max's hair. "So what are we doing here?"

"Funky colored bangs," Dana answered. "Seemed approps."

"Straightened it too," Juliette threw in proudly.

"You look really nice, Max." Taylor stepped back as Dana began to wrap Max's wet locks in aluminum foil. "I can't wait to see the color."

Max smiled. It didn't look sarcastic at all. "Thanks. How's your mom doing, by the way?"

Taylor beamed. "Really great! Her surgery went amazing and they say the recovery is gonna be super quick."

"Awesome! I'm so happy for you."

The girls flanking Warren watched the scenes unfolding with as much awe as he. Since when had Max become so close to the Vortex club? He knew she was crazy cool, but they had never recognized it before. When had she become close enough to Victoria's slave to know about her family troubles? It unsettled him. Horrible thoughts of revenge plans came to mind. They weren't pretending to be nice to lull her into a false sense of security only to later get back at her for getting Nathan locked up, were they?

Warren was snapped out of his paranoia by Courtney shoving a plastic red cup in his face with a smile. "Want some?" He accepted it and took a quick sip. The urge to shudder and spit it out was strong. Felt like acid on his tongue. He managed to swallow the drink down in an attempt to look cool though.

The night definitely headed in a party direction. Warren mostly watched from his spot on the bed. He'd been sitting so long that his legs cramped. Someone put on music at some point. Dana was the first to dance, but the other Vortex girls joined soon after. Alyssa did too. That wasn't surprising; girl loved to get down. Max stiffly swayed near the edge of the group. Warren took another drink of the sweet then burning wine. Something was up. Mad Max wasn't one to party. Unless party meant binge watch Quantum Leap season five and then go argue online about it being a perfect ending and a sixth season with Al being a leaper was totally unnecessary. Warren sighed. And then he finished his drink.

Things in Warren's head were definitely a lot spongier after his cup of wine. He registered that Kate had left and he now had Alyssa and Stella with him on the bed. Max had unveiled her new hair some time ago. Her cute freckled face was now flanked by a purple-y red color. It looked really nice with her eyes. He told her this. Several times. He thought.

Max floated from person to person, like the butterflies she now adored. She laughed with the girls. She took pictures with them. She hugged them. Her little bug legs never landed on his nose though. Courtney filled up his cup. She tried to make horrifically uninteresting small talk with him, but he busied himself by drinking what she poured. Another bottle had come into the room. He had no idea when.

His geek squad bounced at some point. With them gone, nothing stopped him from sprawling out on the roomy bed. Warren laid on his back and closed his eyes. He took in the acoustic song strumming through the speakers as it mingled with the conversations he couldn't quite pick up on. He didn't belong there. And not just because he was a guy. A manly guy. In a way. Warren just knew he wasn't what Max needed. She'd barely talked to him the entire night, and she had kept a few feet between them throughout the service. He couldn't pinpoint a specific time, but he felt like she chose to blow him off a lot lately. Even before Chloe was killed. He was a terrible friend. Half of their conversations were just him trying to impress her. Probably tired of his stupid ass.

Warren swore he would back off Max if she made it clear she didn't want him. A lot of people called him a bitch or friend-zoned. He respected the Max attack. If she would just tell him to knock it off, he would. No matter how much he wanted her. She just wouldn't do it though. Sometimes he even thought she was leading him on.

"Like that note she left on my slate," he mumbled to himself before drifting off into a tipsy sleep.

When Warren woke up the room was empty. He sat up with a head drowning in grogginess. He wasn't sure whether it was from the nap, the alcohol, or some combination of the two. He pulled out his phone and check the time. Almost half past midnight. Damnit, he was out past curfew. Madsen had been a real hard ass since everything went down. If he got busted sneaking back to his dorm, well, his scholarship might be in danger. Probably not, but one never did know when it came to Blackwell.

"Hey," a voice said from the doorway. Max stood there in his hoodie and a pair of pajama shorts. Short pajama shorts. At least the new color in her hair made it slightly less excruciating to keep his focus off the skin he was in no way prepared to see. He liked that her thighs were freckled too. "You okay?"

Warren silently cursed himself. Focus you perve! "Yeah, totally. Completely. Sorry, I think I fell asleep."

She laughed. "You did indeed. Highlight of the party."

"Shit, really?"

"No. Nobody really even noticed."

"Oh. Good. I think."

She crossed over and lowered herself on the bed in front of him. He really did like the new bangs. His hazy head allowed him to reach over and touch one of the auburn locks. Soft. "I really dig the new look. I kinda thought that you'd go for blue though."

"Nah, wouldn't work on me. That was her thing." Her eyes momentarily flicked downwards. "So you crashing here tonight?"

"What?" he blurted like an idiot.

"You can if you want. It'd probably be bad if you got caught by David, anyway."

"Sure, yeah, yeah. If you're cool with it."

"I wouldn't have offered if I wasn't." Max got up and went to her desk. "The bathroom down the hall is empty, if you have to go. I'd take the chance while you can. Some of the girls here get upset when guys use it."

Warren did just that. When he returned, Max had all her pillows propped up against the wall at the head of the bed. She was sitting up, slipped under the covers. Thank dog her distracting legs were no longer visible to cause havoc. She was all the way over towards the wall and her laptop was open in the center of the bed. A movie with the title card Razortooth was paused on the screen. "Wanna watch a movie? I think I found one you'd like." He didn't want to spoil it by saying he'd already seen the delightful CGI mess complete with burping eels, so he kept his mouth shut and just nodded. For the second time that evening, she patted the bed for him. Oh, if she only knew how many of his fantasies started off that very same way. Better that she didn't.

He sat on the side of the bed with his body twisted uncomfortably to stare at the screen with her. Her blinks were getting longer. He figured he'd stay like that until she finally passed out, and then he'd go crash on the couch. "You can get under the blankets, you know," she offered just when he thought she'd fallen asleep. Her blue eyes fully opened when he sputtered at her words. Max laughed. It was beautiful.

"That'd be sorta crossing a line or something, wouldn't it?" He was not going to be the creepy guy hitting on the girl who lost her best friend. Well, he might flirt some. But he was not going to take advantage of any latent vulnerability.

She looked him straight in the eye. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I could really use someone to sleep with." He stifled a nervous giggle. She knew and lightly punched him in the arm. Max paused the movie. "Things have been so bizarro, and it would just be nice. Like old times." She wasn't talking about their old times. That was for sure.

"If you really want me to, I will. You have to promise not to, like, snore or eat me in your sleep or anything." His forced joke almost fell flat.

"I can't make any promises. I tend to turn into a shark mid-sleep."

"Just when I thought it was safe to go under the covers!"

He used their mutual laughter as a distraction to lift the blanket and slip a leg underneath. "You're really going to sleep in jeans?"

"I didn't bring a change of clothes. Thought flowers and a candle would be enough."

"Look, I don't want to make things weird, but if you're not commando, I'm totally cool with you taking those off. I promise I won't look!" Max put her hands over her eyes and then spread her fingers. "Seriously though, it sucks to sleep in denim. Wake up with all those marks. And it's itchy."

"Alright, alright, you've convinced me," Warren said with a waver. At least he was wearing boxers, so it wouldn't be that weird. It was going to be ungodly weird though. He'd have to try and wake up early enough to ditch before she could see anything that might happen to him in his sleep. Max turned her head and he unzipped and let his jeans fall into a wrinkled mess on the rug. He quickly dove under the blanket and covered himself. His face burned. And hers was getting rosy as well. She turned the movie back on without a word.

Whether it was the effect of stress or the incredible awkwardness of the situation, they both made it awake through the end credits of the sci-fi flick. Max closed the laptop and handed it to him to set on the floor. She scooted down into a resting position. "Can you do something for me?" she asked while staring at the ceiling.

"Anything."

"Would it be weird for you to, like put an arm over me or something?"

He gulped like he was a cartoon character. It was audible in the quiet room.

"Sorry, sorry, that was too much to ask."

"I've gotta be honest with you, Max. It might get weird if you want me to spoon you."

"Noted."

"I'll do it though!" he said a little too eagerly.

He scooted himself down and turned onto his side towards her. He'd rather lay the other way or on his back, but he was feeling heavy. And he could never get comfortable any way but on that particular side. Max stayed on her back, arms on top of the blanket at her sides.

"Hey," he said and lifted up his right arm. "We could hand spoon."

"You mean hold hands?"

"Same thing. Friends do that all the time. I've heard."

Her breath hitched. She squeezed her eyes shut. What had he done? After a long exhale, Max grabbed his hand that was still stupidly in the air. She didn't entwine their fingers. Still, her warm palm was cupped in his hand. He nuzzled the side of his face into a pillow. The scent of raspberries mixed with some kind of herb enveloped him.

No words were exchanged for what felt like forever. Warren listened to her breathing even out as he felt his do the same. A solid sleep was just about to land on him, when she murmured, "Thanks for this. I really needed it."

"No problem," he mumbled.

"I haven't felt safe since," she paused, "you know."

"Don't worry about it. I've always got your back, Max." A foggy memory came to his worn out mind just as it began to give out for the day. It felt important that he mention it, so he added, "Like that time with Nathan."

He didn't see her eyes bolt open, though he did feel her grip tighten. He was too far gone to read much into it. "What time with Nathan?"

"When I got that black eye."

Max said something. He didn't know what. Sleep claimed him.

Note: Hey, so this is the first time I've written a fic centered on a hetero couple in, well, maybe ever haha. I couldn't help myself though. I've been in such a writing slump, and something about Max and Warren inspired me. A lot of people were bothered by his white knight syndrome, but I think he's just an awkward sixteen year old boy that's trying to balance a friendship with his romantic feelings.

Anyways, this will be taking place after my specific play through of the game, so I'll give you a few notes on how it went. Kate died (because I apparently suck at talking people down). Max befriended pretty much everyone (with plenty of rewound conversations). And every slight romantic action one could choose with Warren, I chose. And I did not have Max kiss Chloe. Oh and I sacrificed Chloe.

Another note I wanted to include was that I, personally, didn't feel like there was a romantic/sexual love connection between Chloe and Max. I know that's not a popular opinion, but that's just how I took it. I think Chloe had a thing for Max, but Max fell further towards the straight end of the spectrum. She just made too many random comments about boys being cute (with sheepish inflections) for me to think that she'd want to have sex with the very hot Chloe. I do think that Chloe was her soulmate though, if that makes sense. Maybe I'm just weird, but I do believe that your soul mate can be someone that you have no desire to sleep with.

Sorry for the long note!