Max stared at her phone, her thumbs nimbly dancing along the letters as she composed a text. The music in the car was turned all the way down so that the only thing she could really hear was the continuous purring of the motor. From the corner of her eye, she watched another set of fingers tap away on a phone, though they seemed to move much faster than hers.

Max: Promise it's cool that we use the house?

Chloe: yea its cool! mi casa es sue casa!

Max: Who is Sue!? Are you cheating on me!?

Chloe: i saw the fuck up right away. will the day ever come when u don't torch me about typos?

Max: When I'm dead and not a second before.

"Okay, yeah, we're still good to go," Max said, leaning back against the seat with a smile. She raised her hand and grazed the car freshener hanging from the rearview mirror. "I didn't know you had a car, actually."

Pine-y. I like.

"I don't really use it that much," Dana said, dropping her phone into the cup holder between the seats. "Campus life and all that." She twisted the knob on the radio to raise the volume. "Okay, so we need to stop at the store for a few things and then we'll head to Chloe's. Sound good?"

"Yeah," Max chuckled, "sounds good." She bent forward and dug through her bag, grabbing her camera and sitting back straight. "I don't have any photos of you," she said, aiming it at Dana.

"Get my good side," she responded, smiling back and throwing up a peace sign.

It had been a few weeks since classes resumed and Max had more or less re-acclimated to the life of a student. Despite a rough transition into early mornings and homework, she was pleased to find herself gelling with the subject matter and not falling behind just yet. In addition, photography class with Ms. Waters very quickly lost its status of uncertainty and became something Max looked forward to with true enthusiasm. It was actually very fun and lacked that air of elitism that Jefferson could conjure during his lectures. Not to say that was the biggest improvement of having a new teacher, of course.

"This it?" Dana asked, already pulling into the driveway before receiving confirmation.

"This is the Price household, yep!" Max replied. She twisted her torso to collect the grocery bags off the backseat. "Do you like, know how to do this stuff? I don't know much about yum making."

But I'm good at eating it! Heheheh.

"Not...really," she admitted with a snicker. "But that's part of the fun! We'll figure it out together!"

When they made it to the door, Max reached into her pocket to retrieve the house key Chloe had given her. It was a 'no big deal' kind of thing, but she couldn't help but feel a sense of giddiness at the idea of her and Chloe having the same keys to the same house, as temporary as it was. Most things seemed like tiny glimpses into the future she couldn't wait for.

David and Joyce had left for their cruise just a day ago, marking the beginning of a ten day domestic adventure with Chloe and Max sharing a real, honest to god house. Though they had plenty of practice over the winter break hunkering down in her dorm, graduating to a home with a kitchen and...television filled her with excitement.

It's kind of funny. Chloe's lived here her whole life and I've been here god knows how many times. Yet now...it seems completely new.

"This place is cute," Dana said, following Max's action of kicking her shoes off by the door. "You know, I just found out David was Chloe's stepdad not that long ago. Trev was telling me about it."

"Yeah, there's a lot of scream filled history there," Max laughed. "But it's better now. It's pretty cute how they get along."

"That's nice to hear." She wandered into the kitchen and set the bags on the counter. "I sometimes feel shitty because my parents are still together and actually pretty happy."

Hmm. I've never really thought of that.

"Mine are too. We're just lucky, I guess," Max responded. She reached into one of the bags and pulled out a box of brownie mix. "How hard can this be, right? It's not like we'll burn the house down."

There...is a fire extinguisher around here though, right?

"Of course not," Dana giggled, rolling her eyes. Then, they narrowed and she seemed to think it over. "Let's not jinx ourselves." She made popping sound with her mouth and navigated through her phone. "The internet has every answer ever, so I'm sure we'll be fine."

"There's instructions on the box, Dana," Max chuckled, holding it out for her to see. She puckered her lips and slowly put her phone down on the counter, offering no verbal response. "Keep it on file, though. You never know!"

After retrieving the necessary pans and measuring utensils needed, they emptied out the rest of the bag from the grocery store. Max held up a heart shaped cookie cutter.

"This is still the cutest thing," she said.

"I know, right? I had to grab that when we saw it." She read over the box once again, her hand firmly planted on her hips as she did so. When she was done, she slammed it on the table and pointed at Max. "WE HAVE TO COOK!"

"Jesus, okay, Heisenberg. Cool your jets," Max laughed. She held a hand out. "I mean, technically it'd be bake anyway."

"Okay, look," Dana said, drooping her head forward and staring at Max, "no one likes a smarty pants."

Hmph. Chloe does.

"Heh, whatever." Max slipped a thumb through one of her belt loops and tugged a few times. "Don't be all jealous because my jeans are learned." She reached forward and tapped the box. "Plus we need to wait for it to preheat."

"Fine," Dana giggled, taking a seat at the little half table. "I swear I'm not like, actually stupid. I'm just kind of nervous because I want them to turn out good."

Well.

"I don't think you're stupid," Max said. "Did you and Trevor have any other big plans for Valentine's Day?"

"I don't know," Dana said, "I don't really think so? I'm going to get him something else, obviously, since these are like a pre-Valentine's Day gift but maybe we'll just try and go out to eat somewhere? It'd probably be too crowded, right?"

"Mhm," Max said, shaking a can of cooking spray, "I think it's one of the busiest days of the year. And Mother's Day?" She coughed when the spray came out as a cloud and kicked back into her face. "This is fucking dangerous."

"Yeah, please don't die," she laughed. She opened the box and tore open the bag of mix. "What about you and Chloe? Got anything romantic planned? A candlelit bath with the finest of wine?" She stopped and looked up at Max. "That image though."

"You're a perv," Max said, shaking her head with a smile. "I have something planned for her, yeah, but I think we'll probably stay at home for the night and just be together. It's like my favorite thing to do." She perked an eyebrow. "Candlelit bath..."

"You can have that one, free of charge," Dana snickered. She emptied the bag into a large mixing bowl and, carefully following the instructions, added each of the needed ingredients. She let out a frustrated 'fuck!' when a bit of eggshell made its way into the mix, causing Max to laugh. Once everything was added, she leaned back and smiled. "So...I guess time for the special ingredient, right?" She held up a small bottle and grinned.

Oh boy, here comes the big guns.

"So...do you know how strong this is going to be?" Max asked.

"I was told it wasn't going to be too bad," she replied, unscrewing the top. She took a whiff and recoiled. "Wooo fuck, that is...that's definitely weed."

"Here, I wanna see," Max giggled, leaning toward the bottle. "Oh my god," she said, wincing as she clapped a hand over her nose, "is this going to make the house smell? I didn't even think of that!"

"Um," Dana looked over the bottle, "I'm actually not sure." A glint of concern dashed through her eyes. "How long are her parents going to be out of town? I don't want to get you guys in trouble."

"More than a week," Max said. "I think that if it does stink we could probably Febreze it to death before they get home. ...right?"

That'd be a tough one to explain.

"Prrrrobably?" Dana shrugged. Max sighed with a smile.

"Well, it's too late now," she said. "We have to cook!"

"That's the spirit!" Dana put the cap back on the bottle, then pulled out the dropper and stared at it intently. "I could just pour the whole thing?"

"No?" Max tilted her to the side with a disapproving look of jest. "I think that's what you should be looking up on your phone. And since we bought a second box, maybe we should make a normal batch of brownies too." She shrugged casually. "Because I just want brownies."

"Okay bossy," Dana teased, scooping up her phone for the appropriate information.

After checking multiple pages, just to see how well the information lined up, she very carefully set to work on 'enhancing' the mix. When she was finished, they popped the pan into the oven and gave each other a proud nod.

"And now we wait," Max said, clapping her hands together happily. "We can watch TV or something while it bakes?"

"Sure, sounds good to me," Dana replied, following her out into the living room. They sat down together and Max turned on the television, easing herself back into the cushion comfortably. Dana was quiet for just a moment before turning herself sideways and slinging her arm over the back of the couch. "Okay, listen," she said, her eyes shining with a dose of mischief, "you need to tell me about this Victoria and Kate thing."

Cue the Whammy sound. Brr brr drr drrrrrrrr.

"They're terrible at hiding it, aren't they?" Max chuckled, running a hand through her hair.

"Are they...trying to hide it?" Dana laughed. Max gave a tired, confused shrug in response. "But seriously...what in the fuck happened there?"

"Dude, I'm not even saying this as some kind of secret keeping thing, but it's way too long of a story." She mindlessly flicked through a few channels. "To keep it simple: Victoria felt guilty, Kate is a divine creature and now their lips go together sometimes." She set the remote down and lightly pressed her hands together to simulate a kiss.

"Very bad gossip skills," Dana snarked, "but I get you. I can't imagine it being anything other than...uh, fucking crazy?" Max nodded in response, her eyes wide as if to say 'you don't even know.' "Well, can't ever say Blackwell's not interesting, right?"

"We are literally a teen drama show," Max agreed. "Degrassi bows at our feet."

"Well, if we were, you'd be the main character, huh?" Dana winked. "Everything happens around you."

I don't think I'm ready to be on the cover of Teen Magazine.

"Yep," Max rolled her eyes, "I'm just a big ol' magnet of drama. The doctors say I'll grow out of it eventually." She raised an eyebrow and turned in the direction of the kitchen. "Uh oh..."

"It...really smells," Dana said, cringing before putting her head in her hands. "At least it's not like, terrible. You know how the smell of gasoline is kind of good even though it's really not? I think this is like that."

"Sometimes I worry I'm going to have to pry Chloe away from the gas pump because she likes the smell so much. It's Pavlovian or something. Or..." Max exhaled a laugh as she frowned. "You know, come to think of it, she's really bad with Sharpies too."

"Oh, I know that game!" Dana giggled. "I think...I had an actual problem in middle school?"

They continued to casually chat until the oven finally beeped, and they both sprang from the couch in excitement to see the finished result. After checking the consistency with a toothpick, they proudly set the pan on the counter, high fiving to punctuate their success.

"It's alive!" Max cheered, holding her fists up victoriously. "I guess we can start on the normal ones and when these cool down we'll make them into little hearts?"

"Uh huh, I guess so," Dana said, turning to pick up the other pan and sliding it in. "I didn't really think about how the stencils would leave a bunch of ugly chunks. They can be our precious little rejects." Just then, the sound of a car door slamming could be heard from outside.

"Speaking of," Max said with a grin, "looks like she's finished work." She prodded Dana in the chest. "If she's not stoked about this, I'm going to kill you."

"Honeys, I'm home," Chloe declared as the door swung open. "Bringin' home that bacon for my little stay-at-home." Max hurried to the doorway and grabbed each side of the frame, leaning out to flash Chloe a smile.

"Did you really bring bacon!?" she asked, then huddled in on herself when she saw Chloe stop dead and look around in confusion.

"Uh...why does the house smell like a straight up Snoop Dogg concert?" She slowly reached behind her to close the door.

Ah no, that's a worrying look.

"Well, um, me and Dana had this idea to...make you an early Valentine's present and..." Max said, stumbling through her explanation. From the corner of her eye, she saw Dana appear around the open side of the kitchen, skating across the hardwood floor in her socks. She had her hands together, cradling something on top of a napkin.

"We made you delicious baked goods!" she proclaimed, holding it out to Chloe once she was within arm's length.

"Maybe," Max corrected, pointing at it from the doorway. "It remains to be seen if they are delicious or not." Chloe took the napkin and peered down at it.

"I'm actually at a loss for words," she said. "It's in a little heart shape."

"Yeah, it's cute!" Dana said, giving Max a thumbs up. Chloe raised it to her mouth and was about to take a bite before Dana lurched forward. "Wait, hold on, maybe you shouldn't eat it. The smell isn't just...you know, coincidental." Chloe's eyes bulged.

"Wait, you made edibles?" She looked at Max with a blank expression. "What the fuck Twilight Zone is this?"

The...good one?

"I can't actually tell if you're like...okay with it or mad or what," Max said, rocking her body side to side nervously. Chloe burst into laughter.

"No, no. It's hella cool. Just...not what I was expecting when you asked if you guys could use the kitchen." She slowly looked around. "It does fucking reek in here."

"Yeah, sorry," Dana said. "We didn't really think that possibility through. But um, you like them? I figured it was a fun idea for you and Trevor. We're making some normal ones now so we can actually eat them."

"It's a heart," Chloe said, pointing it out once again as she held the brownie up. "That's so lame and so...fitting."

"It's not lame!" Max laughed, finally slipping through the doorway and putting her arms around Chloe. "It's super cute and very cool."

"It is totally lame," Chloe snickered. "But also the other things too. It's like a little brownie version of you." Before Max could pretend to be offended, Chloe leaned forward and kissed her. "Thanks, we'll have to have some fun with these bad boys."

"Heheheh," Dana giggled with a somewhat devilish flair, "success! Success!" She crossed her arms and smirked. "I get a kiss too, right?"

"The kiss of death if you so much as pucker those lips," Max shot back, clinging to Chloe with half-lidded eyes. Dana threw her hands up.

"Wow, alright," she said, heading back into the kitchen, "that's cool, I'll just be over here sulking."

As they waited for the second batch to be done, Chloe ran over her schedule at the Two Whales with Max. Due to Joyce's absence, she'd be picking up more morning shifts so the other waitress could slide back to evening. Luckily, because of classes being back in session, this didn't bleed too much into her and Max's time together. She also told them about how Frank's RV had somewhat found a new residence tucked in the back of the Two Whales parking lot. Nobody seemed to object to it being there, so he figured it wouldn't hurt to keep it there more often than the beach. Of course, with Dana present, the story had to be greatly elongated to fill in all the blanks.

"Aaand ta-da!" Dana said, slamming her hand down on the stencil for the last time. "We're done!" She turned back to Max and Chloe. "So? How are they?"

"Pretty fucking good," Chloe replied, dropping the last piece into her mouth with two pinched fingers. Max was busy chewing, but did shoot her a thumbs up.

We made a thing that is edible! In...two ways!

"Nice! Okay, well at least the normal ones are decent." She picked up one of the left over pieces that didn't make it into the heart shape and ate it. "We should separate them into different bags and divvy them up so we each get to keep some."

Once they were all sorted, Dana tugged the cap off a marker and leaned over the table.

"Label the 'special' ones," she explained, touching the tip of the marker to the bag.

"Just do a star or something," Max laughed. "We don't need to advertise." Dana pointed the marker at her.

"Good point." She quickly drew a couple stars on the appropriate bags, then smiled. "So," she grew an impish grin, "head back to Blackwell and take 'em for a spin later? Double date?"

Yuss! Double date with Dana and Trevor!

"That sounds fuuuun," Chloe responded, wiggling her shoulders excitedly. "Just let us know when."

"Will do!" She patted her pockets and scooped out her car keys. "Well, I'll head back now. I need to take care of some planning for school Valentine's stuff." She chuckled and gently smacked a palm against her face. "Scandalous double life." Before leaving, she gave Max and Chloe each a hug, then stopped as she was halfway out the door. "Uh, sorry again about the smell." She shrugged and waved. "Anyway, ciao!"

"I like Dana," Chloe said, nodding with approval. Max smiled and leaned into her, breathing out a dreamy sigh. There was a beat of silence. "We need to buy a lot of Febreze."

"Oh, totally," Max replied.

"Put the porn away and open up," Chloe called through the door as she knocked. "We have some treats!" She stepped back and assumed an innocent stance when the door opened.

"Okay first of all, I wasn't watching porn," Warren muttered, staring at her with an unamused expression.

"Hey man, it's natural," Chloe said. "You're a growing boy." Her eyes darted to the side as she thought. "I mean, we're your parents when you're not at home so if we need to talk about birds and bees, I can-" The door shut in her face and she scoffed, throwing her hands in the air. "Teenagers! Ugh!"

"You're awful," Max snickered, lightly rapping on the door again. "Come on, Warren, I promise we won't be weird. We really do have treats." The door opened once more.

"You cannot even pretend to be able to keep that promise," he said with a smirk, backing out of the doorway. "What do you mean treats?"

"We have these adorable little heart brownies," Max said as she dipped into the room, jostling the small Ziploc bag. "We made a bunch and figured it'd be nice to pass some out. You can share them with Brooke!"

"Oh, that's cool." He took the bag and looked it over. "This can act as partial payment for you pinning me down in some kind of Valentine's Day trap with her."

Oh god again with this.

"I said I was sorry!" Max rolled her eyes. "And besides, you'd have to get her something anyway. You should be thanking me for saving your ass."

"Do you know what you're gonna get her?" Chloe asked.

"I'm not sure yet, I don't really know what's appropriate. Flowers?" He sat down at his desk and shrugged.

"Flowers are cool," Chloe responded. "There's a shop not too far. It has a pretty decent selection."

Brooke and flowers...eh.

"Mmn, is Brooke a flowers kind of girl?" Max asked. Warren shook his head immediately.

"Hell no. God no. I mean, I don't think?" His head lulled backward and he folded his hands in his lap. "I'm just not sure what else works with the holiday."

"You'll think of something," Chloe said. "If it's from the heart and blah, blah, blah."

"Yeah, alright," he laughed. "I guess I should take advice, or..." he scrunched his brow, "what could loosely be considered advice, anyway, from the gold standard of good relationships."

"That's actually pretty sweet," Max said, pressing a hand over her heart.

"Stay on your toes though." Chloe held a hand to the side of her mouth and leaned forward as if divulging a secret. Her eyes darted to the door. "Kate and Victoria are becoming quite the power couple. If it comes to war, I trust you'll be on our side."

Heh, literally a white knight.

"Uh...sure," he snickered.

"But, speaking of those two," Max said as she shook the other bag of brownies in her hand, "we do have to stop by and drop them off." She put her hand on Chloe's forearm and smiled at Warren. "We'll catch you later. Have fun brainstorming on the gift thing." He huffed in response.

"Victor, you've received a parcel," Max said, trying her best at a posh accent as she knocked on the door. A few moments later, it opened and revealed a narrow eyed Victoria.

"Jesus, those eyes," Chloe chuckled.

Her hosting skills could do with an upgrade.

"Hey you two," she greeted, crossing her arms. "What's up?"

"Not a ton," Max replied, holding out the Ziploc bag. "Dana and I made brownies so we're spreading the wealth." She poked one through the bag. "See, they're heart shaped so it is sentimental."

"Uh, thanks," Victoria snirked, taking them from her. "What a...weird and out of nowhere gift."

"Yeah, it's slowly sinking in how random this is," Max laughed. She turned to Chloe. "We're like a really weird Santa."

"Wouldn't it be Cupid?" Victoria asked, smirking in amusement.

"Hmm..." Max thought it over and pouted. "Yeah, I guess so, huh?"

"'Cause you're an angel," Chloe pointed out. Victoria rolled her eyes.

Heheh gross.

"Well, thanks for the food," she said. "I gotta back to my homework though so I can hang with Kate later."

"Ew." Max tsk'd disapprovingly. "Oh yeah, make sure you share with her! Tay and Courtney too if you see them, but I won't hold you to that. They're very good if I do say so myself."

I'll brag, I don't even care.

"Alright, alright," Victoria snickered, "I'll text you later to see if you want to hang."

"So but yeah," Trevor said matter-of-factly from the floor, "Valentine's Day is all corporate. Those little heart candies with the messages on them? I bet there's a code in those."

Only a few hours had passed before Max received the invitation text from Dana for their double date. They decided to meet in Trevor's room for a change, and she was surprised to find it actually quite orderly. However, when she saw Dana fussing over a crumpled up piece of paper, she knew it was probably mostly her doing. Max was lying down with her head in Chloe's lap, admiring her from below.

"Well," Dana laughed, "that hit him already." She reached across the bed and grabbed her laptop, clicking around until music began to play at a soft volume.

"What kind of code?" Max asked, reaching up to poke the underside of Chloe's chin.

"The love cheat code," Chloe responded.

"No way, man," Trevor waved his hand. "Probably some crazy shit, like if you took the third letter of each one it'd be all kinds of Illuminati stuff."

"Trev, you realize there's like hundreds of variations of those from multiple brands, right?" Dana giggled, planting her foot on the back of Trevor's head.

"Probably different languages, too," Max added. "Te amo...uno...eh...triangle eyeball." She closed her eyes in defeat. "I can't Spanish."

"Do you guys know what you want to do with your life?" Trevor asked with a sudden look of seriousness. Dana cringed and glared at Max.

Wha?

"Oh god, these aren't going to be like...bad trip brownies are they?" She bounced her foot on his head a few times. "Come back, don't go down that path. Follow my voice!"

"I'm still not sure," Chloe said. She placed her hands on her cheeks and rubbed them. "Something cool. Or something nice. I could be like, a therapist for little angry teenagers."

Woah, that's an unexpected response.

"Or a rockstar," she added. Max grinned up at her.

There it is.

"Oh," Trevor replied, "that's a good answer. Mine is that I want cereal." Dana burst into laughter.

"You fucking freak," she said, rocking herself forward to attack him. She threw her arms out to her sides. "Kay, there it is. My balance is gone."

"You're a cheerleader." Trevor leaned his head back to look at her. "I'm dating a cheerleader. Isn't that cool?"

"I mean, I kind of like it?" she responded with a smile.

"I'm dating a grungy, punk girl!" Max said, wiggling her head in Chloe's lap.

"Why are we just saying random facts?" Chloe asked. "I have ten fingers?"

"Because it's unexpected." Max wriggled her fingers mischievously. "It's cool. Edgy. Fighting the system."

"Eight and two thumbs," Trevor said, staring at his hands.

"No offense, but edgy is definitely not the word that comes to mind when I think of Max Caulfied." Dana chuckled as she fiddled with her laptop again. Max looked at her in feigned shock.

"I am so edgy, I've been in Hot Topic like four times!" she yelled.

"You are such a lightweight," Chloe said, smiling as she began running her fingers through Max's hair.

I guess I kind of am, yeah...

"Whatever," she teased, "not my faul- oooh!" She clapped a hand to her pocket and dug out her phone. "Vic's calling me?" She squinted and looked around. "Do I sound high?"

"Yeah, very." Dana nodded.

"Hey Victoria, what's up?" Max answered after a shrug of 'oh well.'

"Um, hi Max." It was Kate's voice.

That's...weird.

"Kate? Why are you calling from Vic's phone?" Max sat up, the others in the room quieting down at her concern.

"It was just the closest one," she said. Her voice was mousier than usual. "I'm with Vic, we're watching a movie but now she's acting kind of weird." As she was about to ask for clarification, Max heard hysterical laughter in the background. It paused just long enough to release a joyous 'oh my god, his hair is so dumb!'

Oh fuck, oh no!

"Uh, I-I think I fucked up," Max stammered, springing up from the couch. She wobbled a bit and put her hand against the wall to steady herself. "I think I fucked up."

"What? How?" Kate's voice was calm, yet nervousness was evident. Max slapped a palm against her face, shaking her head in disbelief.

"Does that bag of brownies I gave Victoria have a little star on it?" she asked.

"Um..." She could hear Kate scrambling through the room. "No, I don't see one. Why?"

What the fuck, did we screw up labeling them?

"Okay, so...don't freak out," Max said, her thoughts thick and cloudy in her head, "but I think I accidentally gave her, uh, special brownies." Chloe and Dana's eyes shot wide in unison.

"Special?" she asked, and then a tiny crack scurried through her precious innocence. "Oh my gosh," she giggled, "like marijuana?"

"Yeeeah..." Max clamped one eye shut. "Did you eat one?"

"Uh uh," Kate responded.

Oh thank Jesus Christ.

"Okay, well, obviously...don't." Max started to make her way to the door. "Do you need me to come down there?" She sighed and released a desperate laugh. "Full disclosure, I had one not too long ago and I'm feeling it pretty hard. But I can come down if you need me." Kate was quiet for a moment, but Victoria could still be heard giggling wildly.

"Is she just going to be like this?" Kate asked. "I don't really know anything about it. I don't have to worry about anything bad happening, right?"

"Um, no, I don't think so," Max said. "She'll probably just be really silly for a little while. Do you need me?"

"No..." The sound of Kate's lips smacking in contemplation could be heard. "I think I should try and handle it. She's my girlfriend and I should be able to do this kind of stuff." She started to laugh quietly. "I think the movie has her pretty entertained, anyway. We're watching Labyrinth."

That's probably a trip. Now the hair comment makes sense.

"Alright, but if you need me at all, please let me know, okay?" Max was now pantomiming unintelligibly to Chloe.

"I will," Kate said. "Thanks, Max."

"Dude!" Max shouted after hanging up the phone, hurrying over to Dana. "You screwed up the labeling! Vic is like, stoned as heck right now!"

"Heck?" Trevor asked with a snicker.

"That doesn't make sense! I did it right!" Dana argued back, clasping her head.

"Is she okay? Is...Kate okay?" Chloe was leaning forward, ready to leave if necessary.

"Yeah, I think so." Max turned back to Dana. "Calm down, okay? Don't freak out. I think it's fine."

"Man, I feel so bad!" She dragged a hand down her face, one of her fingers tugging her eyelid. "I guess we should double check the rest of them and make sure." Max stared at her blankly and, without taking her eyes off her, tapped her thumb against her phone.

This is such cliché sitcom shit, how did we fuck this up!?

"Warrrren, hey," Max laughed nervously. "So, for no reason in particular I was just curious if you ate any of those brownies." She pressed the phone hard against her ear, straining her neck as if it'd help hear better.

"Yeah, I ate two of them almost immediately. They're super good!" he responded. Max breathed out a sigh of relief. "Why?"

"Just wondering how they were," she said. "Make sure you save some for Brooke." She hung up the phone and tossed it behind her onto the couch with Chloe. "Warren's fine."

At that, the room fell quiet, with only the gentle music from Dana's laptop dancing through the air. They all glanced at each other, though Trevor looked like he would fall asleep at any moment. As the tension slowly bled from them, Max grew a big smile. She started to giggle, then it grew into a full laugh. Chloe began to as well, and then both Dana and Trevor joined in. No one was sure how long the four of them laughed, but when all was said and done, tears were streaming down their face and they clutched their stomachs, radiating with the best kind of ache.

A/N: Hey! How's everyone doin'? Big 'ol weird author's note comin' at ya.

I had a lot of fun writing this chapter – it's been a long time since I set out with the sole intention of writing something that's just fun and silly for the sake of it. Usually I try to at least include a little bit of 'realness' or something that nudges the character development forward, but I just wanted this one to be goofy all the way through. Plus, though I'm sure it's obvious, I love Dana! Being able to include her and Trevor/Justin was a fairly big factor when coming up with the premise of the story (finding a way to blend the two endings so there weren't any restrictions on who I could/couldn't write about.) That Kate/Victoria "situation" certainly seems like it'd be interesting too. Maybe someday we'll explore that and see if anything of note happened there. Anyway, I hope it was entertaining at the very least – it'll be good to have something light before the next few chapters.

Also! I wanna do a little 'real talk' with you all, since I like doing these little peeks behind the curtain every so often. I know there's a pretty big spectrum of opinions when it comes to the idea of Max and the gang smoking (and drinking!) I've noticed a few times in comments/messages that it can sometimes seem like I'm giving the impression that I think marijuana is some sort of 'cure' to inner struggle and I want to be clear that that is SO not the case. I'm in no way like, "advocating" for it as a viable means of coping, but I can totally see how in some contexts it could come off that way. Whoops!

The truth, and this is something the people that I routinely talk to in the community know, is that I actively try to not project too much of my emotional state into the story. I don't really like to delve too deeply into topics like depression or whatever other shenanigans may be currently going on with myself. That's actually kind of what Play Crack the Sky is for – if you haven't checked that out yet, please do! The responses we've gotten to it have been SO touching, so despite the darker tone I'd really love if you gave it a glimpse. ...I'm derailing lol. Anyway, my point here is that even though I try to keep those sorts of influences out of the story, I do pull from my own experiences in a lot of different ways.

I don't know if a lot of people know this, but everything about Ouroboros was completely foreign to me when I started it. I'd never written something like this before – everything from the romance, to the banter, to the NSFW scenes and even the long running, casual 'TV series-esque' format were a departure from my writing before it. That's pretty much why the story is the way it is. I wanted to experiment. So, because of that, I had to try and figure out HOW to write these sorts of things, and when it comes to the social dynamic between all the friends, I can only rely on my own experiences with my own social circle. If we're being REALLY honest, there's some dialogue in Ouro that are things I or a friend have ACTUALLY said (especially those text chapters.) So when things like smoking or drinking or what can seem like over the top affection between friends find their way into the story, it's because that's how I personally know friends to be. For me, things like alcohol or drugs or parties or whatever are just a very normal (and fun!) part of how things go. I don't have a moral stance or soapbox to stand on for that stuff, I just never really saw it as a big deal. How OOC Max and friends can appear is such a tangled, subjective mess, but I personally can easily envision these kind of things happening.

Anyways, this gigantic wall of text isn't really JUST about weed and I hope that topic isn't what the comments focus on in particular, BUT it was a good lead in to discussing some of the inner workings of how I compose the story. I actually do have a lot of fun getting into that stuff! I really wouldn't mind finding some avenue to answer any questions people might have, whether it's about Ouro or PCTS in particular or something more general (I recently responded to a comment asking what race/class in WoW Max, Chloe and Warren would be when they played.) If any of you have any suggestions for something like that, I'd love to hear them and if there's interest, I'd totally set it up. Just something to think about!

AHHH. Well, I didn't expect to type such a massive author's note, but it just kind of fell out. Again, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'll have another coming your way as soon as I can! Thanks for reading and I loooove ya.