In Too Deep

Jackie and Max sat in the corner of one of the many cafés about Paris. While Max eagerly devoured a croissant covered in nutella, Jackie ate… a blueberry muffin. Surprise, surprise.

“This is one of the only cafés I’ve found that has giant blueberry muffins with the crumbly stuff on top,” Jackie explained, staring fondly at her muffin. “But they don’t have cranberry juice, so I have to drink this fancy Parisian coffee instead.”

“Freak,” Max said with his mouth full. “You need to branch out. Try new muffins.”

“You need to stop eating like a starved pig,” Jackie retorted, disgusted.

“Jeffrey said those exact words to me a couple weeks ago,” Max said.

“How is he?” Jacked asked as she took a sip of her coffee.

“He’s fine. Dating Dina.”

Jackie choked on her coffee and spit it out all over Max’s face. “Hot! Hot!” he exclaimed, wiping madly at his face. “It’s hot!”

“He’s dating Dina? Again?” Jackie asked incredulously, ignoring the fact that she’d just spit hot coffee into Max’s eye.

“Yeah, and they’re very happy,” Max said bitterly, rubbing his face with a napkin. “Probably because she doesn’t cough up things that have been in her mouth all over his face.”

“But... but… it’s Dina!” Jackie exclaimed. “She broke Jeffrey’s heart, she and her friends wrote that article about us, and if I remember correctly, she called me a slutty tramp! She’s a bitch, Max, an evil, wicked, malevolent bitch!”

“Evil, wicked, and malevolent are all synonyms…” Max said slowly.

“When did this start? Why haven’t Stella and Lexi told me? Why aren’t you more upset about this?” Jackie demanded, banging her coffee cup on the small table with each question.

“Because they’re happy?” Max suggested. “Seriously. They got back together a few days after you came to say goodbye in December, and they’ve been all lovey-dovey and couple-y since. And then there are Scooter and Lexi, who make out every five seconds… it’s nauseating, really…”

“I miss everything. I officially hate being here,” Jackie groaned, propping her elbows on the table and dropping her head in her hands.

“I hate you being here too,” Max said quietly.

Jackie glanced up at him, prepared to see a smirk, but Max looked completely genuine. “Stupid school in Nashville that kicked me out,” she muttered darkly. “At least then I was on the same continent.”

“Stupid Jackie for leaving JA in the first place,” Max said seriously.

“Max,” she sighed, “you know why–“

“You know what, I really don’t,” Max interrupted. “At least I don’t know why you’re still here. You left JA so you could forget about Michaela, which was a stupid idea. Then you came and said goodbye to her on the wall. You decided getting over it was smarter. So why can’t you come back now?”

Jackie stared at him, surprised at his seriousness. “My mom sent me here. I can’t just leave.”

“Well, you had no problem ‘just leaving’ before!” Max accused rather loudly.

“Just… just shut up, okay?” Jackie said harshly. “Why are we talking about this? It’s done.”

“It’s only done because you finished it,” Max retorted angrily.

Jackie looked at him, confused. “Are we still talking about me leaving…?”

Max didn’t answer with words. He leaned over the small table, cupped Jackie’s chin with his hand, and pressed his lips into hers. For a few seconds, Jackie responded willingly.

And then she realized what was happening. With a gasp, she broke the kiss and scooted her chair back a few inches, breathing heavily. “No, no, no. We can’t,” she said quickly. Max leaned back in his chair and stared blankly at her, but didn’t say anything, so Jackie continued to ramble. “I mean… I’m here, you know? I’m here and you’re there, and we can’t do it with an ocean in between, and we’re just.. just… it won’t work…”

“God, stop being so negative!” Max interrupted, startling Jackie. “You don’t want to try? Fine. We won’t. I’ll walk you back to your dorm.”

He stood up and walked to the door of the café without even glancing back. Jackie took a deep breath before standing up and following him.

Needless to say, the walk back to Bartolin Lycée was quiet. Both Max and Jackie had their hands stuffed in their pockets and their eyes locked on the ground in front of them. Not one word was spoken.

As they walked down the hall to the dorm, Jackie stopped suddenly. “Oh, shoot,” she said, breaking the silence that had been between them for so long. “I need to check my mailbox.” Max just looked at her blankly. “It’s just down the other hall. I’ll, uh, be right back.”

Max nodded and continued to walk to her dorm room, while Jackie took a turn down a different hallway to reach the mailboxes. She found hers, unlocked it, and peered inside. There was one postcard from her parents, who were vacationing in the Bahamas for their thirtieth anniversary. That was it.

“Thanks, friends,” Jackie muttered under her breath. “I send you detailed emails and letters and postcards every day. Thanks for returning the favor.”

When she returned to her dorm, she found the door open just a crack, and Max was nowhere to be seen. Assuming her roommate had let him in, she opened the door and entered just in time to see Max lean forward and kiss Annette on the lips.

Jackie stopped in her tracks, staring speechless at the scene in front of her. Max had kissed Annette. Annette wrapped her arms around Max’s neck and he did the same to her waist. Jackie knew they were aware of her presence, considering the door had creaked noisily when she entered. But they didn’t stop kissing.

Jackie found herself getting incredibly angry. “You should go now,” she said loudly.

Max and Annette separated and he turned to look at Jackie. “You want me to leave?” he asked cheekily.

Annette turned to face Jackie and shook her head quickly, as if to say ‘Tell him to stay! Tell him to stay!’

Jackie ignored her. “Yes. Now leave,” she said harshly.

“Fine,” Max said dismissively, walking to the door. “I’ll go.”

He shoved past Jackie when he exited, and she cracked. Spinning on her heel to face Max, who was now in the hallway, she shouted, “You are such a jerk!”

“Me?” he asked, equally loud. “Save it, Jackie. Nothing you can say will change how much I fucking hate you right now.”

I hate you. Those three words had been thrown between the two of them so many times in the six and half years they’d known each other, yet never had they stung as much as now.

“Yeah?” Jackie retaliated. “The feeling’s mutual. Get the hell away from me.”

With that, Jackie slammed the door in Max’s face and collapsed onto her bed with a frustrated groan.

Annette rolled her eyes. “Americans!” she muttered dramatically.