Once the elevator doors sprang open, Max stepped into the parking structure, and, lo and behold, the girl from 310 was standing right next to his truck.

A flare of suspicion shot through him. This wouldn't be the first time some rando staged a meet-cute for their own agenda. These clowns would typically introduce themselves with a super amped-up smile and try to fake laugh their way into his good graces. The girls would get a bit too friendly, the guys would "bro" him to the point he wanted to muzzle them, then they would casually steer the convo towards a mutually beneficial collab video—only if he was interested, of course—all the while eyeing his subs like clout-thirsty vampires.

Was his new neighbor hoping to bombard him with questions about his recent fallout with Lexi?

He regarded her with suspicion. Max wouldn't be surprised if she was planning to cash in on his pain. He had run into his fair share of influencers who made commentary videos just to stir up fake drama. As a fellow vlogger, he fully understood the appeal of clickbait, but he possessed no interest in being featured in some stranger's narrative about his own fucking life.

Max was about to turn tail and run when he suddenly remembered that the parking spaces for Units 310 and 311 were assigned right next to each other. He flushed slightly. Maybe his new neighbor wasn't trying to trap him, after all. Maybe she was simply trying to get to her car. Like him.

Shit, that would make a lot more sense.

Moments like this made Max genuinely grateful that social media hadn't advanced so far that others could read his thoughts as easily as they read his tweets.

Sometimes, he could be a certified dumbass.

Max started moving across the structure again and felt dumber still when he saw that the new girl was in the middle of unloading shit from her car, which was, again, a perfectly valid reason for her to be standing next to his truck. He couldn't help gaping at the sheer amount of crap she was removing from her compact two-door Civic. Max didn't know whether to laugh at how ridiculous she looked, trying to haul all that stuff by herself in just one trip, or applaud her for being so close to pulling it off.

Like a superhuman freak of nature, she somehow managed to balance several bags of groceries on top of a laundry basket with two-dozen expensive-looking handbags dangling off her arms. An oversized backpack was strapped to her shoulders while her remaining hand was attempting to drag a large black suitcase with one busted wheel back to the complex.

Max thought chivalry had died inside of him the day Lexi posted her "break up" video about them, but, then, he found himself walking up to the girl from 310 before his better judgment could catch up. Maybe it was the guilt from jumping to unfair conclusions about her just seconds ago that compelled him to be nice. Or maybe it was the fact that she was kind of hot, and he hadn't gotten laid in months.

Even Max himself wasn't entirely sure of his own intentions when he said, "Hey."

She glanced up. "Hi?"

He sucked in a breath.

Of course she would be fucking gorgeous. Long black-brown hair. Huge brown eyes. And those full, sweet lips.

Max suddenly felt very unprepared for this encounter.

He cleared his throat. "I'm Max. I live next door in 310, I mean, 311. Would you, um, like some help?"

She hesitated. "Are you sure? Looks like you were on your way out. I think I can manage."

"I mean, I was gonna grab a burger, but it can wait."

The girl paused again. "No, it's okay, actually. I want to do this by myself."

Max shrugged and tried to mask his disappointment as he turned to go. "Oh, okay. That's cool. Have a nice day."

"Thank you, though. It was nice of you to offer," she called after him. "I guess I'll see you around... Max."

He waved goodbye. "Yeah, see ya."

As he got into his truck, Max realized that his neighbor never told him her name. For some reason, it bummed him out. He wished he hadn't been so quick to leave. He should've stuck around to ask her a few more questions.

Max didn't run into "310," which was his new nickname for the new girl, again over the next few weeks. It seemed she always left her apartment at the crack of dawn and came home very late, and he was too preoccupied with his own shit to give her much thought.

He desperately needed to make a public response to Lexi's video before his career tanked to the point of no return. Max knew his silence over the last couple of months made it appear as though she was telling the truth while he was guilty as fuck. Yet, every time he tried to make a post on Instagram or film a video for YouTube about it, he always ended up tossing the drafts. His words never felt convincing or genuine enough.

Simply put, Lexi was an evil genius, and she had outplayed him.

They never dated while she worked for him in the Wilder Ones mansion, but she used everything from their real relationship in high school to support the fabricated one in her recent video. So, technically, Lexi wasn't lying when she said Max often put his social media career ahead of her happiness. She wasn't lying when she said he kept talking to pretty girls online while they were together. She also went into great detail about all the reasons why she loved him, sharing dozens of sweet memories from their childhood all the way to high school.

When she told the internet that he had ripped her heart out and shredded it to pieces, Max felt it in his soul. He always suspected that Lexi liked him a little more than he liked her back then, but he never knew just how much he had hurt her or how much it had messed with her self-esteem.

In her video, Lexi also talked at length about how their breakup triggered her eating disorder, which also seemed to be true. These days, the girl was starting to look more and more like a skeleton. He didn't know if her eating disorder started right after they split in high school or more recently, but, either way, Max was worried about her. He was pissed at her. He felt betrayed by her and guilty about how he treated her at the same time. Honestly, he didn't know what to think about her anymore.

So, Max said nothing. Did nothing. He continued to spend his days sleeping, drinking, and smoking weed. His mom wanted him to move back in with her, but he never returned her calls.

Max was alive, but he was barely living.