"Max, get yourself together," I said to myself. "He's just a guy. You have to find Angel."
I, Max, leader of the flock, was moping about the motel room that We had gotten. I had sent the rest of the flock off to do something or other on research to find Angel, while I didn't do anything except sit and cry. And talk to myself, apparently.
"Just because he's gone doesn't mean anything. You're perfectly fine without him."
I'm going crazy.
"He's got his own flock. I've got mine. He's-" I choked up for a second and swallowed. "He's not replacing me with Maya. N-no, he couldn't, because we're nothing alike."
Completely insane.
"No, you're Maximum Ride, and no one could ever replace you."
Yup. I've gone 'round the bend. Over the hill. Nuts.
"You're right. No one could ever replace you, Max," came his voice from the direction of the doorway. "Though why you have to tell yourself that, I'm unsure."
I didn't dare look, but I knew it really was him. If I looked, it would be my imagination, and just go away. "Why are you here?" I asked, staring at the wall in front of me.
"This is the room we stayed in... I left something."
"Oh," I said in a very small voice. I shouldn't have dared hope even a little he had come back to see me. I wasn'g going to look at him. It would only hurt more.
"Max."
I ignored him.
"Max."
I closed my eyes.
"Max!"
"What?" I opened my eyes and his face was an inch from mine. I sucked in a breath. "What is it?" I asked him, in a whisper this time. I couldn't look away from his eyes.
"Say my name."
"No," I whispered weakly.
"Max, please."
I closed my eyes tiredly. "No. You're not coming back. I'm not saying your name. Get away from me."
"Please, Max."
"Call me Miss Ride."
"Max."
"It's MISS RIDE."
"But-"
"Mr. Whoever, get out or I will kick you out."
"Max." He whispered it just like he used to say it, so full of love, and his eyes were showing the emotions they did only for me.
My lips trembled and my eyes started filling with tears. "Don't. Don't make me. Please. If you aren;t going to come back, don't torture me any further. Please."
"What-" He stopped and thought for a minute, then said, "What if I did?"
I held my breath while I thought. Then I let it go as a sigh and said, "You won't."
"I might."
I looked him straight in the eye. "Will you?"
"...No."
"Exactly."
"But, Max, I just... Let me hear you say it again. Just once."
"I can't," I whispered.
"Max..." he whispered. Then he kissed me. It was a kiss so full of love and pain and longing, that I could help but kiss back.
And the tears flowed.
When we finally pulled away, we were both smiling. I laughed a little, choked on tears. "Fang."
That's all I could say at the moment.
"Max. Maximum Ride. I'll come back to you. You're the love of my life. Nothing can change that." He got up and picked something up, then headed for the door.
"But what about Maya?"
"What about her?"
"Fang. You know what about her."
"I'll work it out. Besides, you have Dylan."
"That's not fair."
"How?"
"I didn't ask for him."
"I didn't ask for her."
"Yeah, you kind of did. You're the one who had to go and find her again. She was fine, and then you had to go find her and talk to her and recruit her to YOUR 'flock'."
"I needed people. She needed direction."
"You didn't need to leave at all."
"Just... trust me, okay?"
"I don't think I can, Fang."
"Please."
"I just don't think I can do that."
"Why?"
"Because you betrayed my trust before."
He had no answer to that. He just walked out of the room.
**A/N: Pleeeaaaassse review! It's critical for my work! I need your honesty to be better! Do not just send stuff saying that it sucked and whatnot, PLEASE, give some actual constructive criticism!