Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. I did not write this.
Fangs Journal
Max asked me to write some music for a song she'd written. Somehow, I knew exactly what to play. Gods, her voice is beautiful. I could listen to her sing for hours. She made me make up scores for two songs. Both of them are about someone she's in love with. I know it. The odd thing is, I can't help thinking that maybe they're about me in some way. But I bet it isn't. Max doesn't love me.
Max's P.O.V. (not her journal.)
"Ohmigosh MAX!" shrieked Nudge, almost knocking me over.
"Hi Nudge." I smiled. The fact that she's sixteen when she should really be thirteen-fourteen-ish is a little unnerving.
"I can't believe Iggy proposed! It's so great! I'm so excited!" Nudge was practically bouncing off the walls, she was so hyped up.
"Nudge, breathe." I told her, and then shouted, "Fang! Nudge is here!" Nudge whispered in my ear,
"Are you two together yet? Cause I know you like him." I shook my head sadly.
"I don't think he likes me like that."
"Ohmigosh, FANG!" shrieked Nudge again, running over to hug him. She barely noticed that he didn't hug back. I rolled my eyes at him and he mouthed, 'she hasn't changed a bit, has she?' at me. I grinned. Nudge let go of Fang and took a deep breath.
"Max, can we go get my dress cause, y'know, it makes it feel real and I want you to help me choose cause you're, like, my best friend apart from Angel but she's only eight and she doesn't really know that much about weddings and…"
"Nudge! Breathe!" Fang and I said loudly.
"I already said I'd go with you didn't I? And so will Fang." I shot him a look that said, you-will-come-with-me-or-I-will-really-hurt-you.
He rolled his eyes and grabbed his jacket from a hook in the hall.
"I'll come on one condition. I drive." Nudges face fell.
"Uh, I have a car; it's just across the street. I though maybe…" she trailed off. A first, for Nudge.
"That's okay Nudge. You drive yourself up there, and I'll ride with Fang. Seeing how he wants to show off his fancy motorbike driving skills." He hit me on the arm. I hit him back.
"Okay." Said Nudge, her face brightening. Wow, lot's of short sentences from Nudge today. Maybe Ig's been training her not to talk people's ears off anymore.
Minutes later, Fang and I were zooming down the road, behind Nudge's red convertible. At least it wasn't pink. To tell the truth, I love riding with Fang on his bike. It's the only time I can hug him as hard as I want, and not get a weird reaction. He thinks I don't rate his driving skills, but I trust Fang more than anyone else. If someone has saved your life several times, you tend to trust them quite a lot. As we shot out of the suburbs onto the highway into town, Fang shouted an interesting proposition to me over the roar of the engine.
"You want to drive fore a while?"
"Sure!" I called back and we pulled over to the side of the road to change over. Soon I was speeding us down the tarmac, feeling great. Riding a motorbike wasn't too hard; Fang had taught me the basics. We were halfway to our destination when fangs hands, which had been wrapped around my waist, moved up to cross over each other and hold my shoulders. I frowned to myself. What was he doing? Then he laid his head on my back! What was going on, he's being all…emotional! His movements were distracting, so I slowed down.
After another half an hour's drive, we reached the mall. It was huge and commercial. I could see why Nudge loved it. As we pulled into the huge, multi-story parking lot, Fang resumed his original position. Very, very strange. Another strange thing was, as we got off of the bike and I stretched to loosen up my cramped limbs, I was sure he was string at me. Not in a, you know, sick, perverted way or anything. It was like I was some rare and exotic creature (okay, bird-kids are pretty rare, but exotic?) that had never been seen before. I shook off the feeling that he was watching my every move and dragged him over to where Nudge was waiting by the elevators.
The first one that arrived brought with it a tide of people that swept Nudge, Fang and I away from the elevator. We managed to fight out way back towards it, but another tide of people appeared from nowhere and dragged Nudge into it.
"I'll meet you guys at the bottom!" she called as the doors clanged shut and the elevator made it's way down. Luckily for us, the next one was empty, so we got in and pressed the down button. Talk about awkward silences. And this damn parking lot had about twenty floors before the actual mall.
"Um, what was all that about back then? You know the hugging and the staring…" I asked, feeling my cheeks flame with embarrassment. Surprisingly, Fang seemed to be embarrassed as well.
"Uh, it's kinda hard to explain." He said, not looking at me.
"Tell me. You know you can tell me." I told him, shuffling my feet.
"I know I can. Tell you stuff, that is. But this is different." He rummaged in his pocket and handed me a small black book. Even without opening it I knew it was a journal. It looked almost exactly like mine. Except that mine was sky blue.
"Thanks. Actually, I think you'd better read this, as well." I handed him my journal. I always carry it with me; I don't want it to fall into the wrong hands.
"Read it later, alone." We both said at the same time. Then we laughed. There was a loud, ding as the elevator reached the bottom floor. The doors swished open and we stepped out and looked around for Nudge. She was hanging around, looking bored – boy has her attention span shrunk – outside a glass fronted store that sold, yep you guessed it, wedding clothes.
"What took you guys so long?" She complained as we walked over to her.
"We were only gone for, like, three minutes Nudge." I said. "Now, shopping time!"
Fang groaned as me and Nudge both cheered.
"O.K, who are you and what have you done with the real Max and Nudge?"
"Oh, lighten Fang. It's only shopping." Said Nudge, heading into the wedding store.
"Shopping, translated from the language 'female' means 'torture'." He muttered darkly, following us in.
"Oh, Nudge, you look di-vi-ne!" I cried as she twirled out of the dressing room. She was wearing a white dress that was tight at the waist and then flared out at the bottom. There's probably a technical, fashion name for it, but if there is then I've never heard of it.
"You really think so? It's not too girly or anything is it?" She looked worried.
"Nudge, you look – pardon the pun – like an angel. You should get that one. You'll blow Iggy away." I told her. Now, unfortunately, it was my turn to try on the single dress I had picked out. God, no matter how much I disguised it, I hated clothes shopping.
"Your turn Max." Nudge had gotten changed faster than I had thought possible and was shoving me into the changing room. I locked the door behind me and changed into the dress. It wasn't white, like Nudges. It was a shimmery gold color, like my wings. Well, it would be if they were made of silk. It was a straight up and down thing, with a high back and a, ahem, slightly low front. I looked at myself in the mirror and tugged at the neck, trying to raise it a bit. Nudge started to bang on the door.
"Max! Hurry up! I want to see what it looks like." Okay, here goes nothing. I opened the door and stepped out. Judging by the looks on both Nudge and Fangs faces, I looked better than I thought. I did a quick twirl then stopped, embarrassed.
"Max, you look a-ma-zing." Breathed Nudge, her mouth forming a small 'O'. I looked at Fang.
"Well? What do you think?" I asked him, expecting a sarcastic remark or a smirk.
"I agree with Nudge. You do look fantastic." This time, my jaw dropped.
"Wha…what?" I muttered
"You look fantastic."
"I…uh…thanks." Then I hurried back into the dressing room and changed back into my jeans and t-shirt. Compliments from Fang were not what I was expecting.
After we had paid for our dresses and Fangs tuxedo – which, by the way, is a very strange word but I'm just saying – we headed back to the parking lot. Nudge carefully put the outfits in her car and said
"See you guys back home!" and drove off. Cue yet another awkward silence between me and Fang. We got on the bike and drove home. In complete silence. Then again, it is kind of hard to have a conversation on a motorbike. So, as I couldn't thank him for his compliment by actually saying so, I did what he had done on the way here; crossed my arms over each other and held his shoulders and laid my head on his back. Through his coat I could hear his heart. It was very relaxing.
Pretty soon we were home and Nudge was waiting for us. She handed us our clothes and went back to her and Iggy's house.
"Thanks. For the compliments, I mean." I told Fang as we went indoors. He shrugged noncommittally. "Oh, by the way. You should go read my journal now. Before I change my mind and take it back." He smiled and said
"You do the same." I nodded then we both went to our rooms and read.
The next part will be tweaked a bit to make it shorter in length so my computer does not spontaneously combust. It might. JK. Sorta.
R&R
