#badass max

She's had enough.

Billy might not be able to bring himself to fight back, but she sure as shit can.

She slams out of her room, out of the house, down the cellar stairs. She can hear her mom opening up the front door and calling her name, but she ignores her.

She knows it's down here, with a bunch of baseball stuff, and sure enough it's leaning against the back corner next to a box of mitts.

That will do.

She grabs the bat and books it back up to the porch, where her mom is standing, eyes wide as Max shoves past her.

"What are you doing?" She asks, voice cracking as she follows her. "Maxine? Stop! Answer me!"

She does stop. Stops just long enough to glare at her mother. Her mother that she loves but has no respect for. How could she ever respect someone that stands by and lets her husband do this shit

"I'm doing what someone should have done a long ass time ago." She spits and then the adrenaline is pumping through her veins and she's standing in the hallway and she's opening the door, staring at Neil's back, watching him slam his son into a dresser and she's not even thinking anymore, she just swings.

She can feel the impact travel up her arms when she hits him in the back and he stumbles, groaning in pain and anger as he looks around wildly, eyes landing on her. "What the fuck do you think-"

She doesn't give him time to finish, to recover. She knows if she does, it's over for her. It's over for Billy.

So she swings again, and this time she hears a sick thud, hears her mom scream, hears herself scream as he staggers backwards. The third hit knocks him out cold and he crumples to the floor.

It should be over. Done.

She should back away and get the hell out of there. But all the fear, all the anger and hurt she's felt in the last year, all the pain that Billy's felt his whole life, is too strong. She can't stop herself. She can't hold back. She's already raising the bat over her head. Can already picture the blood on it, on her.

She already sees how she can end it.

End it all.

Because she hates him.

She wants him dead.

She wants him dead.

Tears are blurring her vision and she knows she's talking, saying things, crying but she's so disconnected from her body right now she has no clue what she's saying.

No clue what she's feeling.

Just knows she wants to make sure the man at her feet never gets up again. Never hurts her brother again.

But then there are arms wrapping around her, hands clamping down on hers to halt her movements. She struggles, tries to pull away, wants to finish this. Let me finish this!

But the arms just hold her tighter, and then there's a voice in her ear telling her to stop. Telling her that she's done enough. That she's ok. That it's all going to be ok, Max. Just put the bat down.

"I can't." She cries, and her own voice sounds so foreign. "I can't."

Billy squeezes her hands slightly as he tells her, "Yes, you can. Come on, Max. Let go."

She doesn't really want to, but she's shaking now, the adrenaline quickly draining away and she's just so emotionally exhausted…

She drops the bat.

There's a sigh in her hair, "That's it." And then he's pulling her backwards and out into the hall. He loosens his hold and she's turning around, pressing her face into his chest and hugging him like her life depends on it. "It's ok. You're ok." He repeats and he's awkwardly hugging her back, hand resting on the back of her head.

She can hear her mom's frantic voice as she speaks into the phone, asks for an ambulance, begs them to hurry. Can hear her repeating her husbands name, crying and praying and Max just wants her to shut up. Shut up. Shut up!

The only reason she'd even had to go this far is because her mom is a fucking coward. She knew what a piece of shit Neil was. Why would she stay? Billy and Max have no fucking choice, but her mom did. Her mom could have chosen them.

Could have stopped all of this.

But she didn't. She chose Neil.

She's still choosing him even now.

Doesn't she care about Billy's bloody nose? Busted lip? Battered body?

Doesn't she care about Max? About her wellbeing? About what she had to do to protect him?

Apparently not.

God she hates this, hates Neil, hates her.

Hopes he dies.

And she must have said some of that out loud because Billy is shushing her and telling her mom that she doesn't mean it.

But she does. She does.

She means it.

Because Neil is evil, and it's Billy that's holding Max right now while her mom blubbers over him, over an abusive asshole that made their lives miserable.

So she means it.

Every fucking word.