A/N: This is my first songfic! YAY! And my first fanfic...and my first story on wow...a lot of firsts there. Anyhow, this just sort of came to me when I was listening to my Simple Plan CD (Still Not Getting Any…). The band is awesome, by the way! If you've never heard them, I thoroughly encourage you to listen to one of their songs. Well, without further ado…I give you all, "Thank You". R&R Please! Reviwes make me happy! D
Disclaimer: I do not own James Patterson's Maximum Ride.
Other Disclaimer: Lyrics by Simple Plan. I do not own the song "Thank You".
"Thank You"
I sighed. The flock looked at me expectantly. I sighed again. Wait. I was the leader. Why was I on the spot? They couldn't do this to me. Could they?
We had wandered into a small café; the smell of warm coffee was very alluring in the morning's bitter cold. I don't know how, but eventually our quiet conversation turned to the School. We reminisced about ugly days, as well as good days (which really weren't that good, but, hey, when you're stuck in a lab for mutant children, any day without tests is a good one). Somehow the topics turned to what we did in our time alone with each other, or, as alone as you can get with cameras and recorders placed all around the room. We used to talk through the bars of our cages, and it wasn't only us. We talked to the others too. The not-so-lucky ones. The failures. A couple of us were even friends with some of them. But it always ended in heartbreak and grief. Friends are hard to lose, and losing them because they're spliced DNA unraveled, well, you get the picture.
So, anyway, Fang had decided to ask me about the human who was in the cage next to me. We always talked, hardly ever letting someone else into the conversation. It could just be me overanalyzing things, but I swear Fang always seemed, if only a little bit, jealous of the guy, though I would never even guess as to the reason why.
He was all human. In other words, no spliced genes. One of the luckiest. For a while, at least. He was one of my best friends. The others being Fang and Iggy, of course. I even had a bit of a crush on him, to be perfectly honest. It was hard to lose him—too hard. Even harder because he wasn't really dead, just unreachable.
I thought that I could always count on you,
I thought that nothing could become between us two.
We said as long as we would stick together,
We'd be alright,
We'd be ok.
We made so manypacts thatwe'd always be friends. For ever and ever. Apparently, forever is shorter than it used to be.
"Max?" Fang asked.
"Yeah?" I answered, only half paying attention.
"So…?" he began. I sighed for the third time in, like, what, a minute?
"Yeah, okay," I answered, "Shane was my friend—well, I guess we were best friends. Maybe even more…" I added as an after-thought. Fang fell silent at that, looking down at the table with great interest.
"More? Like…ew," Gazzy clarified. I shrugged and cast my eyes downward, allowing my once-again long hair to fall in front of my face.
"What happened to him?" asked my little Angel cautiously. She probably already knew, from reading my mind and such, but she wanted the others to know too. I supposed she was right.
But I was stupid
And you broke me down
I'll never be the same again.
"He—he…betrayed me, I guess. Even though i know it wasn't his fault or anything. We could never be friends again. After—after what they did to him."
"What did they do?" asked the ever-talkative Nudge.
"Eraserfied," I answered sadly. The flock gasped, even Fang.
"What? Really?" Nudge's astonished tone made me smile a bit. I swept my hair back behind my ears and looked up at her.
"Really."
"God, Max, I—I'm so sorry! That must have been horrible!" Gazzy whispered.
"Yeah, well, that wasn't the worst part," I breathed out. The flock stayed silent, expecting me to continue. I did.
"They made us fight. And he won."
So thank you for showing me,
That best friends can not be trusted,
And thank you for lying to me,
Your friendship and good times we had you can have them back
More gasps.
"Did he hurt you?" That was Fang. Finally, I thought. I was beginning to wonder if he was even still alive over there.
"Yeah. In more than one way, too."
I wonder why it always has to hurt,
For every lesson that you have to learn.
I won't forget what you did to me,
How you showed me things,
I wish I'd never seen.
But I was stupid,
And you broke me down,
I'll never be the same again.
"What did he do?" Nudge asked innocently. She just didn't seem to get it, did she? I could practically feel Fang glaring at her from my side. A single tear rolled down my cheek. Gazzy gawked at me, and Fang, seeing him staring, looked over with round, concerned eyes. They were pained somehow, but they made me feel safe. He brought his hand up, hesitantly, and brushed the tear off my face. Then he smiled at me—a genuine Fang smile—reminding me of Shane's crooked grin. Another tear came down from my eye. Why was I being such a weenie? It was so long ago...
So thank you for showing me,
That best friends can not be trusted,
And thank you for lying to me,
Your friendship the good times we had you can have them back
Fang's smile disappeared instantaneously, and he brought his thumb up again. Wiping my tears carefully, he leaned in close to me.
"You okay, Max?" he asked, his breath ragged against my skin. I smiled, a tiny smile that was hardly noticeable to anyone but him.
"No. But I will be. If you promise me something—please," I practicalybegged him. I knew that i sounded weak, but I had to do this. Had to put that ghost out of my mind.
"Anything," he answered immediately. And, believe me, I could tell that he meant anything. Good thing what I wanted wasn't so huge.
"Next time we see him…help me—help me take. Him. Down." Fang smiled again. Twice in a few minutes. That was more than I'd seen him smile in four-teen years.
"Will do," he answered happily. And then, without warning, he leaned in the last couple of inches and kissed me. Right on the lips.
When the tables turn again,
You'll remember me my friend,
You'll be wishing I was there for you.
I'll be the one you'll miss the most,
But you'll only find my ghost.
As time goes by,
You'll wonder why,
You're all alone.
I kissed him back, totally surprised by what was happening but too happily dizzy to care. Finally, after what seemed like eternity, we broke apart and just sat there, smiling at each other. The flock gaped at us, but I didn't care. We could deal with them later. All that mattered was that Fang had managed to put Shane out of my mind—and into a place where he could never haunt me again. Because now I had Fang; I didn't need a back-stabbing Eraser friend.
So thank you for showing me,
That best friends can not be trusted,
And thank you for lying to me,
Your friendship and good times we had you can have them back.
So thank you, for lying to me,
So thank you, for all the times you let me down
So thank you, for lying to me,
So thank you, your friendship you can have it back