Comment away to help promote SFC for the Wattys porfavor :) 

<><><><><><><><><>

We finally arrived at the lake house, after a 3 hour car ride wedged in between both Anna and Colton listening to songs ranging from Yellow Submarine by the Beatles to Mickey Mouse Club House by who knows what.

Overall, I was more than happy to be here.

As Max and Colton unloaded the car, I glanced around at the lake and the all too familiar vacation house. I had promised myself I wouldn't think about the past, but the old memories came flooding back to me and I couldn't help but frown a little.

My mom was in Paris- probably at some business meeting, the idea of Thanksgiving totally erased from her mind, and my brother- well he was in a better place...but still not here, where I needed him.

"Check out his muscles"

I moved my attention from the lake to Anna, who was standing next to me, eyeing the two guys lifting suitcases from the car.

My eyes darted to Colton, "Yeah" I said simply.

"Yeah, Colton's are alright but look at Max's!" Anna said in a hushed whisper.

I glanced over at Max, the tall dark-haired boy, with broad shoulders and may I add- a very structured jaw line.

All I could do was nod. When Carol and my dad had mentioned Max, I had pictured him as some scrawny kid with glasses and anxiety about talking to people. I guess that image went along with how a kid feels when their parents are going through a divorce- helpless. But now, taking a long look at him, he didn't look helpless, he looked strong.

Anna snapped her fingers in front of my face, "stop staring! Colton might get jealous" she joked.

I gave her a small laugh and drew my eyes away from him, looking over at Colton, who was carrying Anna's luggage toward the house.

"Don't worry, I don't think that'll be a problem" I said.

"Hey, where would you like your suitcase?" Max asked, carrying my suitcase over to me with one hand.

"Uh whichever room is closest to yours" I said, smiling at him.

It took me a second to realize what my sentence could be implying and I quickly brushed my hair behind my ear, "Uh, just so you don't have to walk too far" I said, "my suitcase is pretty heavy" I added.

Max gave me a warm laugh, "It's not too bad" he said, "and Carol said I could take one of the rooms on the bottom level, is that ok?" he asked.

I nodded, "yeah, that's great" I said, returning his smile.

Max opened his mouth to say something else, but Colton interrupted, "There's still plenty of stuff in the car, Max, why don't you bring it up?" he shouted from the porch.

"Sure!" Max called back before turning back to face me, "Sorry, duty calls" he joked, "I'll talk to you guys later" he said, before running over to the porch to drop off my bag.

"If my heart wasn't already set on Evan, I'd definitely be all over him" Anna said, as she looked over at Max with an awestruck look in her eyes.

I laughed, "Ok, Anna"

~*~*~*~

Shortly after everything was unloaded and all the rooms were claimed, the four of us kids decided to go down by the dock.

"It kind of stinks it's too cold for us to go swimming" Anna said, throwing yet another rock, picking up another as she heard it plop into the lake.

"Yeah, but I'm just glad we made it here to begin with" Colton said.

I looked up at him in surprise; Colton hadn't said a word to Anna or I throughout the whole car ride up until now.

"So you haven't been back here for three years?" I asked him curiously.

He nodded and shrugged, "We didn't have anyone to go with so we didn't go" he said, rubbing his jaw.

I just nodded and we all sat in silence until Anna spoke up, "How about we play a game" she said.

"What kind of game?" I asked, praying to God she wouldn't say something along the lines of 'spin the bottle' or 'truth or dare'.

"I was thinking 'hide and go seek tag'" Anna said, offering the rest of us a pleading smile.

Max shrugged, "Sure, sounds fun" he said, smiling back at Anna.

When Colton didn't respond, Anna prompted him, "What about you, Colton? Would you want to play?" she asked.

"It's not like I have anything better to do, so sure" he said, giving her a halfhearted one-sided smile.

"Well great then" Anna said, clapping her hands together, "How about we do teams?" she suggested, "I'll go with Max and Finnly will go with Colton"

"Sounds fine" I said smoothly, covering the fact that I was about to strangle Anna.

Anna explained the rules, which were basically pretty simple. One team would count to 30 while the other team hid. Then, once done counting, the seeking team would go search for the hiding team. Once found, the hiding team would try to run away from the other team. Once both members of the hiding team were tagged, the positions of the two teams flipped.

"Oh and there's a catch" she said, her lips curving up into a devious smirk, "Both team members must hide or seek together"

There it was. Yet another plot in Anna's grand 'Operation Folton' to get Colton and I alone in an attempt to make him fall in love with me...

If anything, hiding and seeking together would just make us more upset with one another.

"Ok then" Colton said, standing up from the dock, "Would you guys like to hide or seek first?" he asked.

"It's up to you guys" Max said, smiling at me.

I gave him a smile back, incredibly happy that he was genuinely a nice person. It would be a lot harder to become friends with him if he was some jerk.

"How about you guys hide first?" Anna suggested, giving me a sly smirk when Colton wasn't looking.

I rolled my eyes, "Yeah, sure" I said.

I took it as our cue to start hiding when Anna and Max started counting out loud, "1-2-3"

I started running toward the canoe shack on the other side of the property, glancing behind me to see Colton following me.

"20-21-22"

I opened the door to the canoe shack and made my way past some of the canoes and paddle boards stacked across the floor.

"It's kind of nasty in here" Colton said, brushing some cob-webs away.

I shrugged, "I guess that happens when no one comes here for 3 years" I said.

"I guess we can hide behind that canoe over there" Colton said, "it's right near the back door, so we'll have a quick getaway if they find us"

I nodded and squeezed behind the canoe, holding my breath as Colton moved in beside me.

I heard Anna faintly call, "Ready or not! Here we come!", and I shrunk down farther behind the canoe, incredibly aware that Colton's knee was awkwardly jammed into my side.

"So how was New York?"

I looked up at Colton, "What?" I asked, surprised by his random question.

"How was New York?" He repeated, meeting my eyes evenly.

"Uh, it was ok after the first year" I said, "It took me a while to get settled" I glanced down at my hands, not wanting to look at him.

"I'm glad it got better" he said slowly.

I just nodded and decided to dwell in the silence between us before he spoke up , "I'm sorry" he said , "If I had known Becca was lying I wouldn't have let her do those things to you when you came back here...I wouldn't have been such a jerk to you".

I bit my lip, "You knew Becca was doing that stuff to me?" I asked, hurt.

It didn't matter that he was her girlfriend, doing what Becca did to me wasn't right, and if he knew it was happening it wasn't ok that he let her do that.

Colton paused for a minute before responding, "Yeah" he sighed, "I didn't know it was as bad as it was" he said.

I opened my mouth to say something to him, but closed it as quickly as I could. The door to the canoe shack squeaked open and Max and Anna's voices spilled through the air, "Wow, no one had been here in for-ever! Look at all the bugs on the floor!" Anna said distastefully.

Max laughed, "We could easily clean this place up" he said, "Even fix some of these canoes so we could go on the lake"

Anna returned his laugh, "You have fun doing that, there is no way I'm doing any work over my vacation" she said, "Oh hey! Look at that! Foot prints!"

I took a moment to peek out of the canoe, and sure enough I saw a thin trail of footprints thanks to the dust and dirt on the floor.

I bent back down, suddenly feeling an itch in my nose. Not now, out of all times, I had to get the urge to sneeze.

Colton and Anna got closer and eventually I couldn't hold it in anymore; I let out a small sneeze.

Colton whipped around to face me, giving me a disappointed look before jumping up from his position, racing toward the door.

Way to leave me behind. I darted from my spot and took toward the door, running out of it right behind Colton.

"There they are! Get them!" Anna shouted, not far behind us.

I glanced behind me to see that Anna had fallen behind quickly, panting, while Max was still hard on our heels.

Colton shouted in frustration as he tripped over a root, giving Max just enough time to tag him and start toward me.

I let out a squeak as Max reached out his hand, an inch to short. I put an extra boost in my speed and kept running, letting out nervous shouts every few seconds.

I could hear Max let out a laugh behind me and I couldn't help but try my best to return it. Hide and seek was such a kid game, something I would play when I was little...but honestly, I was having the most fun I had had in a long time right now.

I felt my feet pound hard on the ground as I propelled myself forward and over rocks, toward the dock, no clear destination in mind.

I looked back at Max, to see that he was just as close as he had been before, maybe even closer.

"Finnly! Wait! Stop!" Max said, worry written on his face.

I was about to ask what was the matter, but instead I let out a quick gasp as I crashed into the lake, every bone in my body freezing as the cold water rushed over me.

When I surfaced I could see Colton running toward the dock, and Anna laughing her head off.

Max reached out his hand and I took it, letting him pull me out of the water , "I'm sorry" he said, a small smile on his face , "here" he continued, handing me his jacket.

Despite the shock of the lake, I let out a laugh, "It's not your fault, but thank you" I said, wrapping his jacket around me.

He laughed, "We should get you back up to the house" he said.

I laughed, "Yeah, wearing wet clothes isn't actually something I enjoy". I couldn't help but notice the laughter tinted in his eyes and the happiness written over his face. This definitely couldn't be the Max I had imagined.

But he was, and I found myself drawn to him immediately, incredibly interested in who he was.

"You ok, Finnly?" Colton asked, finally reaching to dock.

I nodded , "Yeah, I'm fine" I reassured him.

"Max, you've got to be more careful! It's seriously just a game, you could've hurt Finnly" Colton said, cooly, stepping in between Max and I.

Max looked taken a back and his eyes dulled, the light disappearing , "It was an accident, man, everything is ok- I'm just going to get Finnly back up to the house" he said, running his hand through his hair.

Colton shook his head, "I'll take her." He said, a bite to his voice.

I let him pull me away from Max and Anna, even as his grip on my wrist softened.

I glanced back at them, meeting Max's blue eyes. I hoped he could see the sorry I was trying to convey to him. He didn't do anything wrong, and I felt bad I didn't stand up for him.

Max gave me a smile and I tossed him a small wave before facing forward toward the house.

"Are you sure you're ok?" Colton asked, letting go of my wrist.

I nodded, "I'm great. I'll just go change and we can continue playing" I said.

"You still want to play?" he asked, surprised.

I nodded matter a-factly, "Yeah, why not?"

<><><><><><><>

QUESTION: What do you guys think about Max? Like him or hate him? 

I will be updating again in two days so 'yay' for an early update!! :) 

I've also decided on a new story i'll be writing after this one! It won't be the twin one i was thinking about, just because i felt like i got a way better and more exciting idea so stay tuned! I'll probably begin it early August! :) 

Song of the Chapter: Hey Jude by The Beatles 

Later lovelies- A 

(drawing to the side is by moonshadow8888 !! :)