Disclaimer: This fic is based on the characters and setting of the film Across the Universe.

You've Got to Hide Your Love Away

With Jude and Lucy out of the apartment, Max took the opportunity to pick up an acoustic guitar and try his hand at plucking some chords. Everyone else could play, why couldn't he give it a whirl? He grabbed a pencil and a sheet of paper to remember what he'd played. Flipping his hair out of his face one last time, Max grabbed a pick and started to strum.

"G... D... F..." At first, Max seemed to like the music reaching his ears, then he hit a bad note. "C... no, no, no... shit!" He threw the pencil across the room in anger and stomped his feet a few times, probably causing the apartment beneath theirs great distress.

"You okay, dude?" Prudence asked, cautiously coming into the room. She always looked like she was hunched over or curled up, but this entrance made her look fearful.

Max took his upper lip between his thumb and first finger and exhaled. "Yeah, yeah babe, I'm fine – just frustrated." He took notice of her hunched spine and let his head fall back against the couch so he was staring at the ceiling. "What's got you down, Prude?"

Prudence smirked at the nickname and flopped on the old couch next to Max. "Can I trust you with something?"

"You know you can." That was the thing about Max: he was a nutcase, but when it came down to it, he knew just how to be a serious friend. "What's up, sugar pop?"

"I'm in love."

Max punched both fists straight in the air. "I knew it!"

She laughed a soft laugh that made his heart grow warm and playfully smacked his arm."No, not you."

"Well, you better tell me who it is, sunshine."

No hesitation was the best way to get it out in the open. "Sadie."

"Sadie?" Max seemed confused at first, and then his eyes went wide. "You're... oh! Rock on!"

"I'm glad you think so..." her voice faded. "My last boyfriend didn't."

Max looked concerned. "Prudence, you okay?"

"You know that day I came in through the bathroom window?"

"Yeah."

"That bruise I had on my face?"

He paused and caught her eyes with his own. "He beat you, didn't he? Didn't take it too well, I'm assuming."

"After I told him I was a lesbian, he called me worthless... his belt, his hands, his foot..." Prudence stared into what Max identified as empty space, but to her, was tracing her memory back to the night she left Logan.

Max let his head slip from the back of the couch into her lap gently and smiled up at her. "Hey, don't worry about it; you're with us now!"

"What am I supposed to do about Sadie?"

"Sorry to put a damper on your parade, honey, but she's with Jojo."

Prudence sighed heavily and began to entangle her fingers in Max's long, greasy hair. "I know."

"You'll find someone. But you gotta promise me something."

"What?"

"Don't get with dudes just because the Man wants it that way;" Max lifted Prudence's baggy shirt just above her stomach and lay his lips into her stomach, then pulled back. "Be you. Find a drop dead gorgeous babe. Be happy."

"I will." Prudence hugged his head and ruffled his hair before getting up off the couch. She turned back before leaving the room. "Max, be cool. Don't tell your sister or her man yet."

"No problem, Prude."

She laughed at the nickname once more and headed to the kitchen just as Max picked up the guitar and worked on the song he was writing. "G, D, F...G, C... F... C..."