"Gazzy, give me the bombs," I demanded, placing one hand on my hip and the other outstretched.
Just a few minutes ago, I had been relaxing down by the beach when Angel had let loose a bloodcurdling scream. I had jumped up awkwardly and sprinted over the hill, where the scream had come from. The first thing that ran through my mind: Those freaking Erasers.
When I had approached the top of the hill, I looked down to see Angel plugging her nose while a mischievous Gazzy was laughing his head off. Apparently, Gazzy had set off a stinkbomb right in front of Angel while she was playing with Total.
So now, here I was, with Angel on my left, holding Celeste tightly and Fang on my right, silently watching the argument. Nudge and Iggy were sitting on the beach quietly, building a sand castle.
"Max, why can't you ever let us have any fun?" Gazzy shouted, throwing the homemade bombs at my feet. He gave me a heartbreaking look, and then streaked off into the woods.
I sighed as I picked up the gas bombs on the forest floor. Being the leader of the flock was tiring and hard. I had picked this secluded spot in Southern California, hoping it would give us time to relax and just take some time off.
Boy was I wrong. Gazzy was already flaming mad at me and we had only been here for ten minutes.
I walked quickly towards the ocean, reaching the water's edge within seconds. I chucked those darn bombs as far as I could throw them, watching them plop noisily at least ten metres away. I looked out to the horizon, wondering how I could fix things with Gazzy.
"Nice throw," Fang mumbled quietly, standing beside me.
I didn't respond for once and just kept looking out towards the ocean. I could tell Fang was watching me, but I ignored him.
"Don't worry about Gazzy."
"How can I not, Fang?" I said loudly, turning to face him. His dark hair was blowing in the wind, slightly covering his eyes. I noticed how much he'd changed in the time that I'd known him. He'd started to look more like a teenager and more like a boy every day. The Fang I trusted was growing into a man. That was hard to believe.
He was silent as he returned my gaze. I didn't know what to do. Every time he looked at me, my stomach did flip-flops. I didn't understand. Yeah, we'd kissed twice but I'd totally wiped those incidents from my brain. I'd never really thought of him as more than a friend.
Right now, I had about fifty thoughts scrambling in my head. I really needed to sort them out.
"I'm gonna go out for a bit. Don't even think about following me. Just look after the kids," I said suddenly, as I spread out my large wings. I took off into the air soundlessly and heard a, "Max! Wait!" from Fang.
This was something I had to do on my own. I had to sit, alone, and just think. Think about the "saving the world" aspect of my life, the Fang aspect of my life and the flock.
I flew gracefully below the clouds, looking around trying to find a good spot to rest. I spotted a dark canyon and began to descend. I found a perfect spot to sit and relax. I curled my legs up around my face and wrapped my arms around my ankles, pulling them closer. Now, came the harder part.
Thinking fast was my specialty. But thinking in general, oh no. My mind always went crazy when I started to reminisce about stuff. How could someone like me save the world? How could someone like Fang, my best friend, kiss me twice?
I'm not going to lie, I thought about Fang a lot. He always had my back, looking over for me when I needed him the most. When I was younger, I always thought Fang was my right-hand man. Now, I was starting to think of him as something more.
I sighed and reached down to pick up a stone. I threw it off the edge of the cliff and watched as it pummelled towards the earth below. That's when I saw him.
At first, I thought he was a Flyboy. All I could see was a silhouette of a flying someone, flapping their wings quietly. As he came closer, I realized it was Fang.
Relaxing, I dug my face even harder into my knees, "Nice way to scare me."
He landed silently and I felt him sit close to me. He didn't say anything, which was such a GREAT comfort.
"How the hell did you find me?" I asked quietly. I didn't dare look at him.
I'm guessing he shrugged, "You're easy to find."
Yeah, because that answered my question. I shifted slightly, instead glancing at the horizon.
"I talked to Gazzy. He's sorry he blew up at you today."
I snorted, "That's ironic, considering he was setting off bombs."
I heard Fang sigh. I closed my eyes slightly and just relaxed.
It felt like we stayed like this for hours, but Fang broke the silence.
"What are you thinking about?" I finally peeked at him, and saw a startling amount of worry written across his face.
I decided I better give him a truthful answer, "The flock, saving the world."
Well, partly truthful.
"Why does it have to be me, y'know? Why am I the one who has to save the world? Why can't it be someone else, someone more responsible? I'd give ANYTHING just to be a normal kid, worrying about school and if she was going to have a boyfriend by the end of grade nine."
Silence. Such a reassuring sound.
"I expected as much," I huffed.
I saw Fang turn his head to glare at me, "What do you want me to do, give you advice like Dr. Phil?"
"Who the hell is Dr. Phil?"
"Never mind."
I sighed out of frustration and lay down on my back. I dangled my feet over the edge of the cliff and folded my hands on my stomach. This way, I could make it look like I was gazing at the stars and not Fang.
I watched as he rubbed his forehead, "I thought you had a boyfriend."
I furrowed my brow. What was he talking about? Sam?
"Sam doesn't count. That was for, like, three days."
He didn't reply.
"Besides, boyfriends aren't really at the top of my list right now."
I saw Fang raise his eyebrows. That got me angry.
When I got angry, it wasn't just "you're a jerk" angry. It was "I'm so gonna kill you with words" angry. Most of the time, I regretted what I said.
"Why do you care what I do with my personal life? All you do is sulk around when I'm out with a guy, and then when you have a date with another girl, you expect me to not feel the same. So maybe I DO care when you like another girl. Why, I don't know. Why should I even bother caring about someone like you?" I waved my right hand around in the air, exasperated.
Yep. Totally regretted that speech.
"Someone like ME?" Fang snapped, glaring at me heatedly.
I had already calmed down and figured out what I said was wrong, "Look, I'm sorry, Fang. I didn't mean to blow up like that...sometimes, it just happens."
"Yeah, you better be sorry. And you wanna know why I'm jealous when you kiss another guy?"
I stared at him, wide-eyed, waiting for what he was going to say next. This was so very un-Fang-like.
"I'm jealous because you don't throw yourself into space when you're with other guys. Anybody but me, 'Sure, I'd love to kiss you', but when it comes to me, oh no. The fearless Max can't STAND to kiss someone like Fang," his hands clenched into fists and his teeth ground together.
I was frozen with shock for two reasons:
That was the longest speech I'd ever heard from Fang.
He was actually showing a real emotion I didn't know he had.
I sat quietly, unsure of what to say. Fang took my silence as arrogance.
"Fine, don't listen to me! Go on thinking about Sam like I know you are!" he hissed angrily, getting ready to take off.
"Fang," I pleaded.
He stopped mid-jump, teeth still clenched. I stared at him intently, praying he would get what I was trying to say.
He didn't leave. But he didn't sit back down beside me. He walked as far away as he could and just stared at the sky, hands in his pant pockets.
"I don't think about Sam," I murmured quietly.
He snorted and I scowled. He didn't believe me.
I couldn't hold it in any longer. I hadn't told him anything about how I felt and I was sure it was affecting our friendship, "The only person I ever think about is you. It drives me crazy and I'm sure it probably drives Angel crazy too. So what, the last few months have been confusing and weird, but that doesn't mean they stay that way.
"At one point, I did think Sam was great; really nice, sweet, normal. But it didn't feel right. It didn't feel...natural – really – to be with him. I didn't know what WOULD be natural but I knew that wasn't it. I'm not the best at thinking about relationships," I laughed nervously.
I watched as his face stayed solid.
"Okay, so you don't have to respond to me. But at least if you listen –"
Before I could finish, I noticed a silhouette of what now actually was a Flyboy. I jumped to my feet and Fang followed my lead. Without saying a word, we both tore off into the sky.
"Fly or fight?" Fang yelled to my right. (AN: I've been known to rhyme occasionally in my stories, just a heads up)
I quickly glanced behind me and took a head count. It seemed there weren't very many and if we stayed to fight, it would be fewer for us in the future.
"Fight!" I yelled.
I spun around and blasted towards the four Flyboys heading our way. I met the first one and blasted a famous roundhouse kick to his head. It flew off and he plummeted down towards the brown, dry earth.
I got lost in the moment and continued to watch the headless robot fall towards the ground. As I finally looked up, the third Flyboy winded me in the stomach. I flew backwards a bit and prepared to punch his lights out.
That was when I felt something more than just no air. There was a sharp pain in my gut and I felt my strength fizzling away.
Crap, I thought, this really doesn't feel too good.
I flapped my wings a few times, trying desperately to stay in the air. I saw Fang taking out his own Flyboy and didn't want to make any noise to alarm him. No big deal, I'll just stay like this until he finishes up.
So much for that idea. I was getting weaker and weaker by the millisecond and my strength completely faded. I clutched my stomach and felt myself falling, quickly, towards the ground.
Through the whistling wind, I heard Fang call my name, for the second time today. I didn't want him to come catch me; he needed to finish off that last Flyboy. It was my fault I was falling. Why did I have to stop and watch a robot fall to the ground? I was so stupid, stupid, stupid—
Suddenly, the falling feeling stopped and I could tell somebody was carrying me. My first guess was Fang, and it turned out I was right.
"You're an idiot."
I wanted to laugh but it sounded like a cat being strangled. I settled for just a faint smile. Trust Fang to call me an idiot when I was rendered unable to fly.
I leaned my head against what I thought was his shoulder. He shifted to make me comfortable but continued to say, "What's wrong with you? Never mind, I know you can't answer my questions. But I can answer you."
Another long speech from the usually-quiet Fang.
"What you said back at the cave...I don't always respond to you because I'm scared to say what I really feel."
This was becoming too mushy for my taste and I snuggled into Fang's arms instead of listening to him.
After all, he did the same to me. It was my time to return the favour.