In Too Deep

Scooter’s shrill singing voice rang through Room 204. “Like a virgin… touched for the very first TIIIIIME! Like a viiiiiiiiiirgin…”

He danced about to his own music, bumping into things and tripping over his feet. Lexi halfheartedly tried to calm him down, but she was too busy laughing to do much.

“It’s HOT!” Scooter exclaimed when he finished singing and dancing. He bounded to the window and wrenched it open, allowing the cool February breeze to fly in. “Aaaaaah!” he sighed. “Freedom is MINE.”

“Maybe he shouldn’t be so close to the window…” Stella suggested. As Scooter lifted, one leg to put on the windowsill, Max and Jackie each grabbed one of his shoulders and pulled him down. He collapsed on both of them, pinning them to the ground as Lexi and Stella laughed hysterically.

“Scooter, move!” Max complained.

“Hello!” Scooter said cheerfully, bending his head at an odd angle to see the faces of the people he was lying on. “Who are you?”

“I’m Madonna,” Max replied, rolling his eyes. “Get off of me.”

Jackie was gasping, as most of Scooter’s weight was on her. “Can’t… breathe… drunk freak… crushing my lungs…”

“What’s her problem?” Scooter asked, just as Stella and Lexi managed to yank him up. Max chuckled as Jackie sat up, massaging her rib cage.

“Shut up, Madonna,” she muttered darkly.

“I think it’s time for bed,” Stella announced decisively. “Scooter, why don’t you lay down on that bed right there? Good job! Who’s a good boy? You’re a good boy!”

“Stella, he’s my boyfriend, not a puppy,” Lexi said with a laugh as she helped Scooter take off his shoes and get under the covers of her bed.

“Should you two really sleep in the same bed?” Max asked with fake seriousness.

Lexi rolled her eyes. “Don’t be stupid just because you’re sleeping on the floor.”

Max crossed his arms. “I’m a guest. I should get a bed.”

Jackie threw one of her pillows and an extra blanket on the ground. “There’s your bed, Madonna. Stop being a diva.”

Stella crawled into her own bed and Lexi squeezed herself in next to Scooter, who was already snoring loudly. Max set up his “bed” right to next to Jackie’s and attempted to find a comfortable position as Jackie extinguished all the lamps.

“Goodnight, everybody,” Jackie said as she moved toward her bed.

“OW!” Max exclaimed. “Jackie, that was my foot! I need that!”

“And I need to get to my bed, so move out of the way.”

“No.”

“It’s dark. I can’t see. You’re in my way. I will kick you.”

“If you can’t see, how will you aim?”

“I won’t, I’ll just kick.”

“Yeah, right—OW!”

“Oh, was that your stomach?”

“No… it was lower…”

“Oh. Sorry.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to have children.”

“Shame. Any of your offspring would be really beneficial to the world.”

Stella’s voice interrupted the argument. “Max, Jackie, if you two don’t shut up, I will wake Scooter up and tell him to start singing again.”

“Who needs Scooter?” Jackie asked, finally making it into her bed. “We’ve got Madonna right here.”

“I hate you.”

“I hate–“

“You hate each other, we got it!” Stella screeched, and both Max and Jackie kept their mouths shut.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Mom, why can’t we go?” The curly-haired teenage girl’s cheeks are pink with anger as her mother shakes her head for the thousandth time that night.

“I’m not having this conversation again,” the mother states firmly. “You’re not going to a party at ten o’clock at night with that boyfriend of yours. Especially in this storm.”

An eleven-year-old girl—close to identical to the teenager in looks–watches the argument from the doorway. Her older sister storms angrily away, running up the stairs to her bedroom where her boyfriend is.

“Why aren’t you letting Sissy go, Mom?” the girl asks, confused.

The mother sighs. “You’ll understand when you’re older, Jackie.”

Suddenly, the little girl is standing in the bedroom doorway, watching as her big sister crawls out the window. Their eyes meet, and the teenager pleads silently. The little girl keeps her mouth shut.

Then comes the phone call.

“We’re sorry. Michaela Bodello is dead.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Jackie gasped as her eyes shot open. Cold breeze tickled her cheeks from where Scooter left the window open, but she didn’t close it. The cold kept her awake, and if she was going to have dreams like that, she didn’t want to be asleep.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry, Dad…” A voice moaned quietly. Jackie blinked in the darkness and sat up. She could see Stella, Lexi, and Scooter sleeping on the other beds peacefully, none of them stirring. Jackie scooted to the edge of her bed and looked at the figure below.

Max was curled up in his blanket, shivering, with his eyes scrunched up. He looked like he had a bad headache. Jackie could tell by the way his chest rose and fell that he was fast sleep and dreaming.
“Not good enough,” he murmured. “Fuck them all…”

Jackie sighed as she lightly placed her feet on the floor and dropped to her knees beside Max. What with “I’m sorry, Dad,” “Not good enough,” and “Fuck them all,” Jackie assumed he was dreaming about his family.

“Max,” Jackie whispered, shaking his shoulder. “Max, wake up.”

“Stop hurting me…” he moaned, trying to bat Jackie away.

“It’s Jackie, and I’m not hurting you. Wake up!” She shook harder.

“I hate you!” Max exclaimed rather loudly, jerking awake and pushing Jackie away simultaneously. She fall backwards and her head hit the bedpost.

Jackie hissed in pain as Max sat up. He looked at her quizzically. “Jackie?”

“No shit,” she mumbled, holding the back of her head. “Thanks for pushing me.”

Max looked around confusedly, remembering where he was. “Sorry,” he whispered. “I thought you were my older brothers tackling me,” he explained.

“Yeah, I figured something along those lines.”

“Huh?”

Jackie leaned her back against the bed as she spoke. “You were mumbling in your sleep.”

“What did I say?” Max asked slowly.

Jackie smirked. “You said, ‘Ms. Magaña, I love you… marry me… you’re so sexy…’”

“I did not!”

Jackie laughed. “Maybe not. But you were muttering about not being good enough and hating them.”

Max shrugged. “It’s a pretty regular dream.”

“Really?” Jackie asked.

“Yeah. Don’t you have repetitive dreams when things are bothering you?”

Jackie thought about the dream she had had only moments ago. Max obviously saw her change in expression, as he scooted himself next to her and leaned against the bed as well.

“I relived it,” Jackie said softly. “The moment I saw my sister’s face out the window when she snuck out. The moment I decided not to tell my mom.”

Max sighed. “You haven’t figured out what’s still bothering you?”

“No,” Jackie admitted. “And you’re the only one I can talk to, since Stella and Lexi don’t know.”

Max’s head perked up at this. “Wait, Jackie…” he said slowly, thinking.

“Yeah?”

“You need to tell them.”

“What?”

“That’s why it still feels wrong,” he explained. “You’ve been lying to your best friends for close to seven years. Now that you’ve come to terms with what happened, you just need to tell them.”

Jackie turned her head away, uncertain. Max nudged her to make her look back at him. “Do you want it to haunt you forever?” he asked pointedly.

Jackie glared at him. “What about you, huh? Do you want your jacked up family haunting your dreams forever?”

“No,” Max replied instantly. “But what the hell am I supposed to do about that?”

“Confront them,” Jackie suggested. “Or stop letting them get to you.”

“Not possible…” Max said, shaking his head.

“Then you’re an idiot,” Jackie stated bluntly. “Because there is so much about you they should be proud of, and if you can’t see that, they’ll always have that control over you.”

They were silent. Jackie looked at her lap as Max simply stared at her, baffled by such a reply.

“Why are you staring at me?” Jackie asked uncomfortably.

Max snapped his head back. “Sorry,” he muttered, when he couldn’t come up with a clever response.

Another awkward pause. “What time is it?” Jackie asked, breaking the silence.

Max glanced at the clock. “Almost three,” he answered. “You tired?”

“Not at all,” Jackie responded with a slight chuckle.

“Same,” Max said. “I’m having trouble without Nacho.”

Jackie frowned. “Are you hungry?”

Max laughed. “Not nachos like chips and cheese… Nacho, my stuffed dog.”

“You… have a stuffed dog?” Max nodded. “That you sleep with?” Max kept nodding. “Named… Nacho?”

“Yes.”

Jackie burst into laughter, but quickly covered her mouth when she remembered the three sleeping people in the room. Max frowned at her. “I can’t believe you’re laughing at Nacho.”

Jackie shook her head. “I’m not laughing at your stuffed dog! I’m laughing at you!”

“Most girls find it cute that I have a sentimental stuffed friend,” Max joked, crossing his arms.

“Because I’m totally like most of the girls who have ever liked you,” Jackie said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

Max gave a small smile. “No,” he said. “And that’s why I like you way more than any of them.”