(lol... I like this pattern, how about you?

Although I think the font color isn't quite right. :/

Will have to think up something new too.

Ideas; suggestions; even covers/banners all are welcome!)

Max was in the study of the Wilder's mansion, reclined in the comfy armchair, engrossed in a book. A noise from the bookshelves pulled him out of the words that so captivated him. He turned to see it was Neil.

"I was just putting these books back in the shelf." Neil said quietly without sparing Max a look.

Max raised an amused brow. He didn't know his favorite cousin had suddenly grown a pair of eyes behind his head.

Seeing that Neil was about to turn and leave, hurriedly Max called, "Neil."

And as Neil halted, he asked, "Is my brother still mad at me?"

Neil looked over his shoulder and Max stared back stiffly.

"You never apologized to her." Was Neil's blatant retort— straight to the point.

Freaking great.

"To whom, Neil?" he asked through gritted, although he could very well guess who Neil was talking about.

Whirling around to now completely face Max, Neil gave him a look of incredulity. "Sofia, of course, who else! But you very well know that, don't you?"

"I see," Max felt anger raising from within him and dangerously coming up to the forefront at the mention of her name. "So she has in fact bewitched you as well, just like she had all the others around her. How can you let her manipulate you to this extent! Will now an outsider so easily poison the blood between us brothers?"

Neil shook his head in frustration. "You're seeing what you so badly want to see. But one day, you'll realize how very different the reality is and how baseless your assumptions are."

"All I've seen is how you have invited Sofia in your party and not your cousin, Neil."

"No need to get your boxers in a twist, I didn't even invite Nolan—"

"Nolan is away with his wife to see his in-laws. Stop trying to get around the truth. Tell me, isn't it because of Sofia that you haven't even let me know about this party of yours?" Finally, Max let his accusation spill out.

"Sofia was there for the catering," Neil said defensively, and then, in a firmer tone he continued, "And about not inviting you, you've already given a nice demo of how you enjoy parties these days. I couldn't risk you raising another drama which I can bet you would have regarding Sofia's presence there. That party was very important for me."

Wow!

"And so you chose her." Max pointed out with raged finality.

Neil heaved a deep breath. "I did what seemed right to me, just like you yourself do what you deem right all the freaking time."

"I've already told you I had reasons to do whatever I did in the reunion party. Sofia needed to have a taste of her own medicine." Max didn't know why Neil failed to see his point.

Neil shook his head in frustration. "Max, you're stretching things that happened so long ago way too far. Talk to her about it all—"

"So that she can manipulate me with her lies?" Max's lips stretched into a sardonic smile. "Like how she has manipulated you."

Neil stayed silent. He looked somewhat resigned at this point even.

Good. Max thought. He didn't like losing arguments, anyway.

"She didn't care, she never cared about me. But you already know that Neil, don't you?" Max said through gritted teeth. "The geeky Max never mattered to her."

He had always thought Sofia Hayden was a being that possessed a fiery beauty within her heart which was bigger than the entire sky even. She was someone he always looked up to and craved to spend time with. The adoration had soon transformed into a far more intense feeling. But the teenager Max was blind. He couldn't see her evil heart and her selfish, dark soul.

Max didn't plan to return to that blindness anytime soon, just as a blind man would never after being granted his eyesight.

Bitterness is always better than vulnerability.

It was his secretive formula of self-preservation—something that he'd discovered with the course of time, experiences of life and because of an evil girl who never left his mind.

For the hundredth time, Sofia tried to start her car which had yet again decided to betray her in the middle of the road.

"Please, please, please, don't cheat on me like this, please!" All her begging and pleading, however, did nothing. The car kept making horrible gurgling noises every time she twisted the key.

"Damn it." Sofia hissed and slapped hard on the steering wheel.

At that moment, another car—sleek and new and black, slowed down to a stop next to her battered down, ancient white pigeon.

Instinctively Sofia looked out the window and raised her brows in surprise as Robert Wilder's face peeked out the newly arrived car's rolled down tinted window. The man had aged with grace. Despite some creases decorating his face and gray hair quickly overcoming the dark brown hair, Robert was still very much handsome with his unyielding personality always dominating the minds of people around him.

"Sofia! Why are you parked up here in the middle of nowhere?" Robert asked.

"Actually, I—" Sofia paused seeing Max's face in the passenger side as she shifted on her seat a bit. Quickly she averted her eyes from him and concentrated on Robert instead. "Ah..., my car just broke down. I've to pick up Sam from his basketball practice and this car chose this exact moment to give up on me."

She heard Max muttering from the background, "What's new in it!"

Sofia breathed in and out a few times to control her anger over this man who had done nothing but caused only pain to her since the day he returned. She knew it was Karma overdue, but still...

Robert threw Max a reprimanding look over his shoulder. Sofia watched from the corner of her eye as Max rubbed the back of his neck.

"Nothing to worry about," Robert told Sofia. "Max will fix your car right away. He's good at repairing things." He then turned back to a stunned Max and ordered, "Max? Go ahead, what're you waiting for? Help your friend."

Both Max and Sofia looked at each other at the same moment and both of their eyes spoke volumes.

Friend, huh?

Maintaining a calm look, Sofia knew was for his father's sake, Max got out of the car.

Sofia stepped out as well and stood by her car's bonnet as Max walked past her. She refused to look directly at him and when his arm was just about to brush against her shoulder, she jerked back a step, preventing the contact.

Max paused for a moment with his back facing her—clearly he'd noticed.

All her senses centered upon his except for her eyes.

A rare, warm breeze blew past that very instant.

And suddenly she'd this insanely acute urge to have the both of them turn around, face one another and say something—anything, even if it raised another argument—another fight.

But...

The moment passed like all the other ones. She quickly released the breath she was holding in.

And Max moved on to reach for the bonnet.

--

The rare, warm breeze did leave then to travel to a place far away. But it did leave one effect behind, in the form of Robert's hawk like eyes narrowed and zeroed in on the two. A quick idea took form into his sharp brain. An idea he wasn't yet too sure about but believed to have a huge chance of success in the end.

That Max was incredibly attached to this girl was a no brainer. It was the reason why Robert began keeping an extra eye on Sofia too, kept on going over to her diner—the delectable food was an extra bonus which he wasn't going to complain about.

During Max's teenage years, he had observed the certain kind of pull between the two. He had heard his son on more than one occasion talk with such incredible adoration about this girl so long ago. It had almost seemed like puppy love back then.

Sadly though, things changed in the course of time. And he wasn't aware of the reason why. But on second thought—had things truly changed?

In a much deeper level perhaps everything was still the same, just waiting to be rekindled back to life.

Because, Max wasn't happy.

Because, it could be that none of these two might ever be happy if not together.

The lines of age around Robert's eyes crinkled, wondering the possibilities. The risks might just be worth the gain.

--

Sofia was in for a surprise when she came back home picking up Sam from his basketball practice. Her aunt, Marla, was back.

"I swear I'm here to stay, for real this time, Sofia. And I've been clear for a whole week, I swear this time it's going to be different."

Sofia watched as her aunt stared back to her pleadingly, swearing on her children that she was truly back home for them now, that she wanted to be clean from drugs.

"You've not proved yourself to be much trustworthy in the past," Sofia had her arms crossed. "Also, Skyler and Sam won't be comfortable about you coming back."

Marla's eyes lit up for a fraction of a second. "They are my children."

Sofia contained huffing from irritation. "Then you must behave like their mother."

Marla had the decency to flinch and look down.

Now, Sofia wasn't really keen on separating a mother from her children. But growing up herself in a household which she wouldn't really recommend for a child's upbringing, she knew both the importance of a parent's presence and the damage they could bring if that said parent was irrational, or god forbid—deranged.

With Marla, Sofia knew that once again the choice wasn't in her hands. Marla had got the custody of Skyler and Sam after her divorce—her ex-husband was too pleased because of that.

Now, Skyler was just two months shy of eighteen, so she could decide on her own about the quantity of her mother's involvement in her life. But Sam was still a kid and Marla had a say in everything that concerned that boy.

Sofia could be their provider and protector but she was only their cousin in the end of the day.

Dinner that evening went on with all the Hayden family members doused in awkwardness because of Marla's sudden presence among them. Gramapa had already emptied out his feelings through a heated tongue-lashing to his daughter earlier in the evening, so he was grumpily quiet at the table.

Skyler was all about indirect jibes to her mother while Sam just sat not knowing what he should do.

It was a complete ruckus in the house and Sofia literally felt her head spinning trying to bring some sort of a peace in the midst.

When Skyler and Sam left the table later and Sofia was just picking up the cutlery to take to the kitchen, grampa spoke out to Marla in curtly, "I only allow you in my home whenever you want to come back is because you're my only alive child. I've lost a son and my daughter-in-law, now I don't want to lose you. But sometimes I wonder if I've lost you, just as I had my son long before he died."

Sofia's fingers curled around the plates she held.

"This is your last chance, Marla," grampa announced fighting back a cough. "I can't endanger my grandchildren's lives anymore in your presence. Do what you can do to stay clean and stable this time because there will be no more time after this one. It's already a nightmare enough what my son did to Sofia—"

"Grampa," Sofia brusquely cut in, her voice wavering.

He looked up at her apologetically.

Sofia inhaled a long breath to steady herself before continuing, "I'll go over to a rehab and enroll aunt Marla—"

"But I said I'm clean and good, I don't need—" Marla was objecting, however, grampa didn't allow any such nonsense.

"Do whatever you can, Sofi," he consented.

Sofia nodded, letting her mouth curve up into a smile despite memories—horrid ones rushing in to sting at the back of her eyes.

People can't really control toxicity, it's the toxicity that controls them.