In Too Deep

“Face it, Max. We’re lost.”

They had spent a good thirty minutes walking without a clue of where they were headed. Now, as it got darker, tensions were running high.

“It’s not my fault,” Max retorted, sitting on a trashcan at the mouth of an alley. “We’ve been going whichever way you choose.”

Jackie faced him, glaring. “It’s cold. I’m hungry. Don’t make me kill you.”

Max rolled his eyes. “And you call me immature.”

“What, being cold and hungry is immature?” Jackie asked sarcastically. “Because I think those are just two things that happen when you get lost on the bad side of the Bronx at night!”

“I gave you my apple!”

Jackie snorted and crossed her arms. “Yeah, that satisfied me for all of seven seconds.”

“Look, I’m sorry I got us stuck in this mess,” Max said. “But being a bitch is not going to make it any better.”

“And what will make it better?” Jackie asked angrily.

“I don’t know, okay!” Max yelled, getting Jackie to shut up. “I don’t know! I’m sorry! It’s my fault! Everything is always my fault… with my parents, with you…”

Jackie shut her eyes tightly for a moment. “God, I’m sorry,” she said, her voice cracking. “I’m such a bitch.”

“Yeah, you are,” Max said crossly, not looking her in the eye.

Jackie sighed and leaned against the alley wall, sliding down until she was in a seated position with her knees to her chest. She dropped her head forward and shut her eyes.

“What are you doing?” Max asked harshly, still perched on the trashcan across from her.

Jackie didn’t lift her head. She mumbled something, but it was completely muffled and incoherent to Max. He slid off the trashcan and took steps toward her.

“Get up,” he ordered. “The ground is disgusting.” He grabbed her shoulders and pulled her to a standing position.

Jackie pushed him away weakly. “Just don’t touch me,” she muttered, turning on her heel and walking farther down the alley.

Max groaned. “God, what the hell is wrong with you?”

Jackie stopped and whipped around, her eyes hard. “Good question, and I wish I knew the fucking answer!”

“What?” Max didn’t understand. At all.

“I hate it when this happens!” Jackie shouted, startling Max. “When I get in too deep and can’t get back out!”

“What are you talking about?” Max yelled back, frustrated by the fact that she wasn’t making any sense.

“You! I’m talking about you!” Jackie practically screeched. “We’re not supposed to be like this. We’re not even supposed to be friends. But now, after that stupid week alone, I can’t not be your friend, and after everything else… I can’t… I just…. I hate you! The way you confuse me… the way you make me feel… it’s the most frustrating thing I’ve ever had to deal with. And it’s all your fault, you stupid jackass!”

Max stared at her, his mouth slightly open in shock. Jackie continued.

“And now, when I want nothing more than to be pissed off at you, it’s so much harder because I know you. I know about your stupid parents and all the shit you go through, and things can’t ever be the way they used to, because I’m in too deep and nothing you do helps me to get out. I mean, seriously. You freaking slept on top of me without a shirt on. I’m surprised I didn’t pass out, and all you could do was smirk and bask in my discomfort! But at the same time… I was more comfortable than I’ve ever been. I don’t want to feel like this. I hate it. I hate you.”

When Max didn’t respond, Jackie shook her head and turned back around, walking into the darkness of the alley. Anything to get away from him at that moment.

Before Jackie got far, Max had rushed forward and pulled her by the shoulder, spinning her around.

“You know what, Jackie? I don’t think you have much right to be angry about this,” he said. Before she could open her mouth to retaliate, he continued. “How the hell do you think I feel? I went to you in Paris, after being surrounded by my family for weeks, and you completely rejected me. When you came back, I told you I wanted to be with you, and you suggested we just be friends. So I went along with it, and I thought maybe you’d start to like me like you used to. But you didn’t, not even after Lexi and Stella told me you regretted saying no. Not even then.”

“They told you that?” Jackie asked.

Max ignored her. “But I thought things changed yesterday in the pool. You know why? Because you started to kiss me. And maybe we were interrupted, but I talked to Carter and he told me to go for it. So I went to your room, and you acted like you didn’t want to see my face… when an hour earlier, you had been so close to kissing me. And then there was that conversation in my bed…” he trailed off, at loss for words.

Jackie stared at the ground. “I’m just… indecisive….” she said quietly.

Max took a step closer to her. “Really?”

“No! Not really!” Jackie said, slightly hysterically. “It’s like I said… I don’t want to get in too deep with you.”

Max took another step closer. “I already am in too deep with you,” he said, his voice low. He lowered his head until it was only inches away from Jackie’s face. “And I don’t want to get back out.”

Jackie gave in.

“Please don’t,” she whispered, before pulling his head down to meet her lips.

The cold, their hunger, the fact that they were lost in the Bronx at night with no money… it was all forgotten. For ten seconds, Max Leopold and Jackie Bodello kissed each other with no interruptions.

And then….

Out of nowhere, Jackie felt two arms wrap around her from behind and pull her roughly back. She was thrown painfully to the ground, and she felt her hands scrape against the cold pavement.

Jackie heard muffled voices and looked up in time to see a man dressed in black throw a heavy punch at Max. He fell to the ground, clutching a bleeding nose.

As Jackie scrambled up to help him, another man wearing a dark blue coat pulled her up and pushed her against the alley wall, trapping her with his arms. The first man grabbed Max’s collar from where he was lying on the ground and shook him roughly.

“We saw you holding luggage earlier,” he said in a raspy voice. “Where is it?”

Max looked like he could barely respond, as blood from his nose was rapidly pouring down his face. He opened his mouth to say something, but he couldn’t form words. The man shook Max harder, hitting his head against the hard ground each time.

“Stop!” Jackie screeched from where she was trapped. “It’s at the mouth of the alley! Stop hurting him!”

The man in the blue coat swiftly slapped her across the face, causing Jackie to gasp in pain and slide down the alley wall, clutching her raw cheek. The first man took off toward the mouth of the alley, where Max and Jackie’s suitcases sat.

The man in the blue coat crouched down to Jackie’s level and brought his hand back up, preparing to strike. She flinched, but this time he slowly stroked the pink skin he just slapped. Jackie shivered.

“Don’t touch her!” Max gasped out as he tried to sit up. The man in the blue coat chuckled and stood to his full height. He walked over to Max and kicked him fully in the face. Max fell backwards, and the man spun around to clamp a hand over Jackie’s mouth before she could scream.

“Mmfff!” Jackie said, trying to yell his name.

The man in the blue coat held his hand over her mouth harder. “Don’t scream,” he said harshly, “or your boyfriend will get it even more.”

Just then, the first man’s raspy voice rang out. “Damn it! Nothing but clothes! Check their pockets!”

Jackie felt the man’s free hand reach into each of the pockets of her jeans, finally pulling out her wallet, which held nothing but her school ID, and her cell phone. “No money,” the man grunted.

Max, who lay motionless on the ground, was being searched by the other man. He grabbed Max’s small bit of money and cell phone. “Let’s go!” he ordered.

The man in the blue coat took Jackie’s phone and released her, following his partner into the depths of the alley.

It took two seconds for Jackie to scramble to Max’s side. His face was covered in blood from where his nose had been both punched and kicked. His eyes were shut. He wasn’t moving.

“Max,” Jackie said hurriedly, slightly shaking his shoulder. “Max, come on. Open your eyes. Max, please! It’s Jackie! Please, wake up!”

Max groaned and moved his head. His eyes clenched tightly in pain and he raised his arm weakly to reach for his nose. Jackie grabbed it before it could reach the bloody mess and quickly intertwined their fingers.

“Max, can you hear me?” she asked, giving his hand a squeeze.

“Mmhmm…” he moaned.

“Okay… okay, good!” Jackie exclaimed, on the verge of hysteria. What the hell was she supposed to do? Both their phones had been taken. They had no money for a payphone. Max was half-conscious in an alley with a bloody broken nose, and she was scared out of her mind.

“People… we need people,” Jackie mumbled, releasing Max’s hand and jumping up. She ran to the mouth of the alley, where their suitcases lay opened and rifled through, and looked desperately for help. Of course, they were on a dark, deserted street, and no one was in sight.

“Shit, shit, shit,” Jackie murmured frantically under her breath. Max gave a particularly load groan, and she ran back to him. “Max, I’m here, it’s okay,” she said quickly.

But she was lying. Because their present situation was far from okay.

Max suddenly made a small chuckling noise from the ground. Jackie stared at him incredulously. “What? What’s funny?” she asked hurriedly.

It took Max a moment to answer. “We’re in so deep, we don’t even notice two creeps getting ready to mug us,” he said, smiling through the blood.

Jackie stared at him. “It’s not funny!” she exclaimed angrily.

Max sighed. “Just trying to lighten the mood,” he mumbled.

“How can you say that right now? You’re on the verge of death!”

Max rolled his eyes. “My nose is broken. I’m not even close to dying. Calm down, Jackie…. Are you crying?”

Jackie sniffed and wiped away a tear rolling down her cheek. “I d-don’t know what t-to do….”

The smile faded from Max’s face. “Get a shirt to wipe my face clean,” he said softly. She nodded tearfully and grabbed a spare t-shirt from her suitcase. Returning to Max, she brushed it across his face, clearing the blood as best she could.

“Thanks,” Max said when she had finished.

“Can you walk? Sit up? Breathe?” Jackie asked hurriedly.

“Breathe, yes. My head hurts a little too much for the other ones,” Max answered. “Until then… lay down with me.”

Jackie frowned. “I thought the ground was too dirty for that.”

“Well, I’m stuck here. Might as well make you stuck too.” He wrapped an arm around Jackie and pulled her down next to him. She sighed and scooted as close to him as possible.

“You’re warm,” she commented, nuzzling her face into his side.

“Body heat, baby,” Max joked, his voice sounding similar to Elvis’.

Jackie chuckled. “So are we just going to wait here?” she asked, becoming serious again. “On the disgusting alley ground?”

“Until my head doesn’t feel like it’s being trampled on, yes,” Max answered. “And I’m terribly sorry that I happened to fall in a spot too dirty for your liking.”

“I don’t care,” Jackie whispered. “Just don’t die.”

“Who’d have thought? Jackie Bodello actually doesn’t want me to die,” Max joked.

“Who’d have thought any of this would ever happen,” Jackie said, and Max pulled her closer.