Update: Every Version of You, Chapter 19

He finally looked at her then, his eyes hollow, distant. “Yeah. Well, welcome to the family business, I guess.”

Max’s chest ached, her grip tightening on his sleeve. She wanted to pull him out of that place, drag him away from the bricks and shadows and everything they meant.

But instead she whispered, timid but fierce, “I’ll help him. I’ll help the other you, too.”

Nathan’s mouth pulled into something caught between a grimace and a smirk. He just stayed silent, refusing to meet her eyes.

Max gave him a pained look. “Thank you for... showing me. We should probably, um, go back.”

Nathan huffed, straightening his shoulders and jerking his head toward the street. “Yeah. Before someone calls the cops on us for loitering in scenic piss alley.” He started walking and Max followed, keeping pace with him though the silence pressed thick between them at first.

The sunlight outside looked too bright after the shadowed corner, but Nathan didn’t slow his stride.

“So. What the hell even makes you hopscotch between worlds?" He looked down at her, then. "You trip and fall? Or is it like—bam, nosebleed, welcome to Prescott hellscape number two?”

Max bit her lip, thinking hard. “I… I’m not sure. But… it always seems to happen when I’m overwhelmed. With you.”

Nathan shot her a sidelong look, brow arched. “With me? You saying I’m so fucking irresistible it breaks reality?”

She flushed instantly. “That’s not—Nathan, I’m serious.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he muttered, eyes forward, but there was a weak smirk tugging at his mouth.

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