A/N: I was sick today so I was able to update quickly. I will always update a new chapter in less than a week but I try to make my chapters lengthy so...yeah. ANYHOW let's just get to the story now...your reviews have been so kind BTW...thx.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Maximum Ride or the characters. James Patterson does and although I dream I could be the writer of this awesome series, I don't. Dreams don't come true. Carry on.
I shuffled to the door and when I opened it, I slammed the door shut again. There was Fang, with his midnight colored eyes being the last thing I saw.
I slid down the slammed door with a plop on the ground. I heard Ari pound down the stairs and gave me a confused expression when he saw me. He looked through the glass door and no doubt, he saw Fang standing there.
"Max, move," he said exasperatedly and I shook my head. I then heard the laughs of two little children at the door and craned my neck to see who else was here. There was a little girl and a little boy, both with curly blonde hair and blue eyes. In other words, there were two of the cutest kids I have ever seen at the door. Two little angles next to Satan himself, how sad. Instead of opening the door, however, I got up and let Ari do the rest as I made my way to the kitchen, where my mom was.
"Why did you invite the neighbors?" I glanced around the room and noticed that we set up another large dining table. "Second thought, how many neighbors did you invite?"
"I just invited the neighbors next door. On both sides," my mom said cheerfully. I groaned. How many people will I have to meet? Most people wouldn't complain that they would get to meet new people and show off their house. In other words, most people were social. I wasn't, and I'm not looking forward to seeing how many people will join us today.
I wanted to sulk back in my room and stay there for the rest of the night when a cold hand squeezed my shoulder. I whipped my head around to see none other than Fang. I swatted his hand away but he just chuckled. It was one of those slow, deep, chuckles that showed me he was being a tease. I glared at him for third time today and shouldered my way past him, to the door where more people emerged from.
I saw a familiar strawberry blonde duck his way through the door. I definitely remembered this boy. The boy who stuck up for me in a class I didn't have with Nudge. The boy who let Nudge and I sit with him and his friends at lunch, which to my disapproval, involved Fang. The boy who immediately became one of the best friends I've ever had in one, dare I say, short day. The boy whose name was Iggy. Iggy quickly made his way through the chatter of adults and headed straight for me.
"Hey," Iggy greeted and I said the same. We went to the two tables in the kitchen, both seated six people. The adults followed us into the kitchen and took a seat at the fancier table. Iggy's parents, my parents, and Fang's parents began talking immediately, before the food was even served. Ari glanced over at the "kids" table and decided to pull up a chair and sit with the adults. Fang loomed over an empty seat across from me and sat down gracefully. The two children sat on the end seats leaving one open seat next to Fang.
"Is that seat open?" I asked, wondering if I'll have to see yet another person.
"Yup. My sister is coming but she'll be late, if she even makes an appearance," Iggy muttered the last part under his breathe. Before I could ask what her name was, my mom was suddenly there, with five plates balanced on her arms. That's what you're able to do when you are a waitress for years. My mom was serving lasagna, which she took hours to make until it was perfect, mainly because the kitchen nearly caught fire. Twice. She definitely wanted a good first impression although I could care less what most of these nimrods thought of me.
I dug in right away and started shoving pieces of the once-perfect lasagna in my mouth. What can I say? Lasagna's my favorite. I heard another deep chuckle from across the table, obviously from Fang.
"What?" I scowled at him.
"I've never seen a girl eat like that," Fang said comparing his barely touched meal to my almost done meal. I ignored his comment even though I felt proud of myself. It quickly subsided when I heard a knock at the door.
"Not it," I immediately said pointing to Ari. He got up, straightened himself and walked over to the door with no argument. Something was off. I heard a squeaky, girly, voice at the door and dread quickly settled in my stomach. I knew that voice. I saw Ari enter the dining room again, but this time his eyes were wide and I was disgusted.
Lissa walked in with the same attire as she did at school. She showed more skin now, than I did when I wore a bikini, which never happened. Literally. She had the same black, pencil skirt that just reached past her underwear with a really small, pink, crop top that obviously needed a tank. I could just see the bottom of her lacy bra. Her six-inch heels echoed through the hall until she sat in the seat next to Fang, her plate brought to her by Ari. He was literally drooling. Gross.
Out of the corner of my eyes I saw Iggy slump as I got up to grab his ear and pull him out of the room.
"Ouch," Iggy complained. "What was that for?"
"Lissa's your sister?" I whisper-screamed.
"Yeah," Iggy bowed his head in shame. That's when I started cracking up. Real hard. A faint blush spread across Iggy's pale skin as he joined in with a nervous chuckle.
"How can you live with her? She's…she's…" I struggled to find the right words.
"Revolting?" Iggy suggested.
"Revolting doesn't begin to cut it. How can Fang even like her? I mean they are both horrible but—" I was cut off by Iggy.
"Fang's not a horrible person. You just have to see what he's really like," Iggy said in a soft voice. "Here," he said outstretching his hand. It had a little piece of paper in it and I snatched it immediately. "It's my phone number. Text me if you ever want to see the real Fang." At this I snorted. Actually snorted and we started in another round of laughter as we came back to our seats.
I composed myself as I sat down but one more look at Lissa, I couldn't help it. I started cracking up again. After a few very-unattractive snorts, Iggy joined in and Lissa just looked at me with disgust. But as soon as Fang joined, I quickly silenced. He didn't even know why we were laughing. Would he still be laughing if he knew that the laugh was directed right at his girlfriend? Iggy awkwardly coughed and I excused myself. I grabbed my plate and slid it across the counter, into the sink.
My mom was watching me with an evil eye but I didn't care. I ran up the stairs and slammed the door to give the hint to everyone down there that I was done. No more slutty girls. No more mysterious guys. No more screeching children, no matter how adorable they are. No more. I quickly changed into shorts and a tank and hopped into my bed. I closed my eyes and ended up falling asleep. The last thing I remember is a person drifting into the room.
I woke with a start, no help from my alarm clock this time. I still had twenty minutes until my clock was supposed to go off. Sweat was plastering my hair to my neck and forehead. With a sigh, I placed a hand over my heart, feeling it race as I plopped backwards into my bed. I had a nightmare…again. I kept having the same dream over and over again, where somewhere was chasing me but no matter how hard I ran, I wasn't getting any farther from them. I always wake up the second the indistinguishable person grabs my shoulders and makes me turn around, right before I can look up in their face.
I turned off my alarm clock and decided to start getting ready. I hid my tan legs behind another pair of skinny jeans and a baggy T-shirt that read 'Revenge' in a blood red. I threw my hair in a messy bun and quickly finished getting ready. I walked down the hallway and found Ari snoring in his room, twelve minutes until his alarm clock goes off.
I grabbed a black permanent marker from my backpack and snickered. I crept into his room and glanced at the clock, eleven minutes. I uncapped it and he stirred. I froze and after a short moment, I began drawing. I drew a moustache, a beard that stretched from one ear to the other, and a unibrow. I knew he was a heavy sleeper so I grabbed some of my mom's lady-smelling shampoo. I rubbed it all over his head, drenching it while I was at it. I quickly capped the marker and grabbed the shampoo and tip-toed out of the room, just as his alarm clock went off. I ran down the stairs and out the door. Might as well be early to the bus-stop today.
Within the next few minutes, I see Iggy leave his house with his backpack slung over one arm. Once he gets over here, I tell him what I did to Ari and we start sniggering.
"So…" Iggy starts. "One of my friends is throwing a party Friday night and I was wondering if you wanted to come with and we could hang out there." A slight blush begins to bloom across his cheeks and his ears turn bright pink. I ponder it for a moment and think, what would Nudge want me to do?
"Sure, Iggy. I'll go with you. Where is it?" I say and a smile begins to spread on his face. He opens his mouth to answer but Ari cuts him off with a shout.
"MAX!" Ari yells. "How could you! You ruined everything?" Ari raised his voice at the last part and Iggy turns his head to look at Ari. He's running out of the house, which is only a few houses down, and his face is red. Either from rage, embarrassment, or trying to rub of the marker, I didn't know. The marker stood out even more and Iggy and I started cracking up as Iggy gave me a high-five. When he got closer I noticed his hair. Uh-oh. The shampoo only didn't make him sound like a fifty year old woman, it also dyed his hair a light blonde, mixed in with his average dark brown hair. He was pissed and I knew how he was with his tempers.
Ari walks up to me, even as I put my hands up in surrender, and grabs my shoulders and starts shaking me but it didn't change anything and I continued to laugh. He didn't stop shaking me and I started to get dizzy. He pushed me into the stop sign and it was hard. Stars began dancing in front of my vision as the metal continued to vibrate. From the looks of it, he wasn't going to stop till I was on the ground, bleeding in more than one place. That's usually how things ended with Ari once he got started and you would have to be stupid to try and stop him.
"Ari…stop," I gasped. He was really furious about this. "I'm…sorry," I choked out. A few other people were here and they were giving us strange looks. When the steps got closer to me, they suddenly stopped as Ari was whipped around. Someone punched him and Ari fell to the ground with a sickening crack. After I processed what was going on and my head cleared, I saw Fang looming over Ari, ready for another blow.
"FANG, STOP! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" I shrieked, getting in-between Ari and Fang. Fang glanced at Ari and I saw guilt flash through his dark eyes before another wall was built up, blocking all emotions. "I don't need your help. Just get away from here," I seethed. It's a different story if I punched Ari, but Fang is the last person I would allow to ever get arms distance from Ari if there was anything but rainbows and unicorns being discussed, let alone punch him.
"I—" Fang began but Iggy interrupted him by murmuring something in his ear and they both walked away. I don't get how a sweet boy like Iggy could be best friends with Fang. I heard Ari groan and snapped my head in that direction.
"Ari," I gasped. "Your nose!" Blood started to trickle down his chin and his nose was becoming swollen and reddish-purple already. I pulled an extra T-shirt I kept in my backpack out, and began plugging his nose with it.
Now I felt really bad. First, I was impulsive and drew a facial features on him and accidentally dyed his hair and ugly mix of blonde and brown with a marker and a shampoo I knew wouldn't come off. How childish of me. Then Ari got super pissed and that's why he got punch, because Fang…Fang stopped him. It took a moment for that to process as well. Was Fang trying to help me? I glanced over at Fang and the usual, composed, calm guy was gone. He was slumped against the red STOP sign.
I helped Ari up just as the bus came into view and we all filed into the bus. Fang sat with Ari the first day, but today I sat with him. Nudge was upset that I didn't sit with her and pouted in the front seat, where we usually sat. Fang and Iggy sat in the seat next to us. Fang sat on the aisle seat, closest to Ari and I and finally spoke.
"I'm sorry," he said to Ari but was looking at me and we locked eyes for a moment. Iggy was right; there was a different side of Fang that I needed to learn. Maybe if Fang was at the party I could learn more about him. After all, the party is tomorrow, Friday. My phone vibrated and I broke eye contact with Fang. I felt naked with Fang's warm, intense gaze on me.
I glanced at my phone and saw it was from Nudge. 'What's going on? OMG where you in a fight? Who's the hot guy next to you ;)' is the first thing I saw when I looked at my phone and I wanted to roll my eyes at the last comment. I texted her back 'I'll tell you on our way to class.' I could imagine the pout on her face when she read that message.
I turned to Ari and saw the shirt tightly placed by his nose, shades of red blooming all over still. I removed the shirt and saw his nose still flowing freely with blood. I quickly looked at Fang and noticed this wasn't the same guy I saw earlier. The man she saw before looked sympathetic and guilty for his actions. The man she saw now had stiff posture, clenched jaw, and hard, steely eyes. This gesture gave off a don't-mess-with-me vibe.
"Ari…I…I'm," I stuttered. I'm not the person who usually has to apologize so this didn't come easily. Before, when I said it and the bus stop I wasn't sincere, more like I didn't want an ass-whooping for something stupid.
"It's okay. I overreacted." Ari's voice sounded muffled under the shirt but I could hear him just fine. I gave him an encouraging smile and put my ear buds on for the rest of the ride, feeling a gaze boring into me the whole time.
The moment Nudge and I had our supplies, she bombed me with questions. "What happened? Why does that hottie have your shirt? Why is it covered in blood? Did you get in a fight? Is he your—" I cut off Nudge with her answer.
"Brother, Nudge. He's my brother, Ari, so please stop calling him hot," I said nonchalantly. Her eyes widened a fraction of an inch before she nodded her head.
"Well…Fang punched Ari in the nose and it won't stop bleeding…" I glanced over at Nudge to see her reaction.
"You're welcome by the way," said a new voice behind me. It was Fang, this time the snobbish, nonchalant, Fang walked behind me. I immediately stopped walking and he practically ran into me, dropping all of his stuff while Nudge and I continued to walk in peace. I gave a triumphant smirk and Nudge started giggling.
"Max, you're so asking for trouble. I don't want you getting hurt," Nudge muttered, serious once again.
"I know what I'm getting through my actions and you don't need to worry if I get hurt. I'll be fine," I mumbled in return. I hope. Fang was scrambling to get up and we ran with our stuff until he was out of sight and we were in the doorway of our math class.
"See you at lunch," Nudge whispered as we parted ways to opposite sides of the classroom. Iggy was already seated by the time I got to my chair and he smiled at me. His gaze quickly switched as Fang jogged into the room, his face flustered. I bit down a laugh and averted my gaze. The bell rang before he got a chance to get to his desk.
"Why aren't you on time, Mr. Walker," Mr. Batchelder pointed to Fang just as he slid in his seat.
"Max…erm… distracted me in the hallway, sir, I had no choice," he said with a smirk. The class started cracking up as Lissa starting glaring at me, while Nudge and I did the same to Fang. My face started to heat as Mr. Batchelder went on.
"Ms. Ride, Mr. Walker, down to the office now," Mr. Batchelder raised his voice for the last part and the class silenced. I pushed my chair out and stomped over to the door, furious with the turn of events. Fang followed silently, he probably wasn't expecting to get in trouble too.
I didn't know very well how to get to the office from this corridor, so I started to back track until I ran into something hard, putting up my hands to protect myself from falling. I looked up and saw Fang's steely gaze focus intently on mine. For a moment, I was mesmerized by his midnight eyes and I was in awe at the hardness of his abs under my hands. After I realized what was happening, I pushed him away and kept walking, not giving him a second glance.
After I cleared things up with the principal for the second time already, I headed to lunch since I missed second period. I won the conversation with the principle since I was completely innocent. Fang just tripped and fell and I happened to be close by. Case closed. I was a little late so Nudge and Iggy were already seated and so I was on my way to the lunch line.
Lissa stopped me on the way and grabbed me by the shirt.
"Don't you dare touch my Fangy," Lissa attempted to seethe but her squeaky voice gave it away.
I snorted but then said, "Yeah, right, like I'd even want to." I looked down at her hands still clutched tightly to my shirt and pulled back. "Don't touch me," I said nonchalantly but it was clearly a big threat.
"Try me," Lissa smirked. Bad decision. I clenched my fist and swung, aiming for her jaw. Bulls-eye. She was pissed, I could tell, but she then changed with a smirk on her face although she was in pain. I soon felt hot sauce and spaghetti drip down my hair, all over me. Just grand. I turned to see Brigid and I kicked her in the stomach and she yelped, doubling over in pain. Damn was that school lunch hot, especially since it was poured on from behind.
I saw Iggy and Nudge make their way over to me but I just ran out of the cafeteria. The lunch was definitely hot and it burned my skin, causing me to wince. Someone grabbed my wrist and then grabbed my forearms. It was Fang, but at the moment he was the least of my problems.
"Piss off, Fang, I'm not in the mood," I muttered.
"Max, you can't keep running away from your problems," Fang advised. He held me for one second too long and I snapped. I jerked my head forward and connect with Fang's nose. The last thing I saw was Fang's blood as I ran out of the school and to the place I once called home.
A/N: Finishes second Chapter...(pats self on back)I will get the next chapter in before Sunday FOR SURE (probably). Am I the only one not being able to figure out how to do anything. I'm so confused, it took me nearly as long to type the chapter as it did to figure out how to post it... that's a long time. Oh well. R/R!