Taylor glanced at Alex as yet another comment was spewed from his lips, the look she gave him one that could kill, before Max gave her a look to stop, then turning back to Aarti. He nodded at her words about the government, a chalky taste of anger filling his mouth. Him and his sister had had from horrible run ins with the government. He nodded to Aartie, pausing, then speaking. "After we ditched the government program meant to save us, they started tracking us down. If it wasn't for Taylor, I would've gotten killed. This one time, we'd been running on our feet from them for maybe two hours, running, then hiding, then running, then hiding. Some how, I got ahead of Taylor and Scout, and I lost sight of them. I got corned by maybe 16 guys, all big and muscular. All of a sudden, a rope drops down, and I grabbed it. Taylors up 3 stories, and pulls me up. Turned out we were in a welding factoring, and she found a crane they used for lifting parts." Max told the story, getting slightly excited, yet still calm.
Taylor just watched Max speak, probably unhappy to be portrayed as such a savior. She didn't like having attention on her, and hoped that as Max was the one speaking, the attention would stay on him. She looked back at Alex, surprised that she didn't hate him. She should. Along with blaming their near deaths on her and her brother, he had basically outright called them stupid. If she doesn't throw him down, I might, she thought, though not daring to say such a thing as she glanced at the ever-darkening sky. Not acknowledging the conversation going on, or how far through they were, she spoke quick. "It's getting dark. We should set up beds." Although she was only meaning to say this to Max, as her word seemed to be law for him, but she realized it might've seemed like she was trying to be bossy to the other two, and simply looked at Max, projecting her words to him.