Dreaming of a Nightmare 3
-Fang
"Fang, what the hell happened back there?" Iggy's voice yells through out the whole skiing lodge. "You ditched me out there! I was right behind you and–"
Iggy cuts himself off as he witnesses Max and I sitting down together at one of the benches in the lobby, waiting for our hot chocolate to cool off that I'd just bought for the both of us and her adorable little sister at the food stand. Iggy makes a small crooked smile and raises one eyebrow, slyly. He steps towards Max and holds out his hand and pulls down his goggles, revealing his bright blue eyes. "Hey, I'm Iggy. What's your name, Baby?"
The self-center piece of –
Max lets out a sharp breath as her eyebrows shoot up behind her bangs. "Well, it sure ain't Baby, asshole." She gives a sarcastic but perky smile.
Angel starts giggling next to her. "Maxie said a no-no word."
The look on Iggy's face was priceless. Never in his life had he ever been shot-down by a girl. It must have been a very big moment for him, I realize. Iggy stands there for a second and then turns on his two heels. "I'm getting hot chocolate," he says in a glum voice over his shoulder.
After Angel drains her cup of hot chocolate, Max hands Angel the rest of hers. "Here, take the rest of mine. Drink up, it'll make you warmer."
I watch as Max monitors her little sister, making sure she doesn't make a mess on her new jacket she told me she'd just bought for her.
So far, I've seen four sides of Max: a snarky yet sarcastic side, a loving and affectionate side, a pissed off side, and a relaxed, calmed persona – all in the past hour.
Is she bi-polar?
Suddenly, Max stands up, noticing the quietness that has fallen over us. "I . . . should get back. I promised Angel we wouldn't be here too long and we still have to unpack." She turns to look at me. "Sorry I ran into you like that . . ."
I shrug and give her one of my rare smiles. "Anytime."
She pauses at my smile and Angel has to tug her sleeve to bring her back to reality.
"Come on, Maxie! Let's goooo," Angel trills as she pulls Max out of the lobby.
Jack, Nate and Derek were just walking into the lobby as Max was pulled out. Jack took one good look at my face as I stared at her and one look back at her. He took a long low whistle as she left. It wasn't a perverted whistle . . . it was more of a, you-wanna-tell-me-what-just-happened whistle.
I shake my head and nearly jump out of my seat at the sight of Iggy staring intently at me, sitting right where Max had just been.
When did he get there?
He stared off into the distance, shaking his head slightly. "Damn . . . what happened to bros before hoes, man?"
I scoffed. "What are you talking about?"
He pointed to where Max had left. "You look at her like a lost puppy."
Rolling my eyes, I disagree. "No, I don't."
Nate sits down on my other side, Derek on Iggy's side, and Jack on the end next to Nate. "Iggy's right," Derek says as he unlaces his shoes. "And you know I don't lie, man."
Nate and Jack nod with each other.
"Shut up, guys," I tell them as I get up from the bench. I grab my snowboarding bag and sling it over my shoulder as my friends moan.
"Dude, sit down. Don't leave," Nate says.
"Yeah, come on. We were just jokin'," said Derek. Jack rolls his eyes at this.
Iggy turns around and says in a low voice, "I wasn't jokin'."
Derek and Nate slap him on the shoulder as I make an effort to grab my belongings quicker and make a beeline for the door.
A blast of cold air hits my face as I walk outside and run towards the bus stop, where I can see Max holding Angel's hand as they get onto a bus.
"Wait!"
-Max
"Wait!" I hear Fang yell.
I turn around and there's Fang, running through the thick snow trying to get over to Angel and I. "What are you doing?" I call back to him.
As he makes his way over to the bus he shrugs at me and gives the bus driver his money. Fang looks back at me with those gorgeous dark brown eyes that–
Wait, what? Forget I just said that, please.
Anyways, Fang looks back at me. "I thought I'd help you unpack, if you don't mind."
I blink. "Uhm, sure. That would be great, actually. Right, Ang?"
I look back at Angel to see her head nodding fast. She's gleaming up at Fang. "Sit next to me!"
He gives a small, soft smile and sits down next to Angel, making sure there's enough room for me to sit next to him. He pats the space next to him on the seat, getting me to come over and sit down. "Come on, the driver's a prick. Don't be standing up when he starts driving or else he gets PO'd."
I nod. "Thanks for the heads up."
-Fang
I reach into the back of Max's car and pull out a large box that was labeled in a quick scrawled handwriting that said "Max's Things." She pulls out a box too and I lead her over to the elevator in the lobby of the building we lived in. Angel had already run up to her apartment to show her mom her new jacket that Max had bought her.
"So, do you have any siblings?" Max asks me as we ride up the elevator.
I nod. "An adopted sister named Monica, but everyone calls her Nudge. She's eleven. And I have an eight-year old brother named Zypher . . . but everyone calls him Gazzy."
Max's eyebrows scrunch together. "Why–"
"You don't wanna know."
The doors to the elevator slide open and Max and I walk out together.
"So, where are you from?" I ask. When have I become so talkative?
Max smiles a little. "Arizona."
"Huh."
It seems like forever until the elevator doors finally open, revealing the long hallways that lead to each individual apartment.
"So, your apartment is right next to mine?" Max asks as I hold the door open for her as she walks into her apartment.
I nod. "And you know what's cool? Each apartment is an opposite replica of each one, so the rooms are just reversed. You know how sometimes a hotel room might have a door to the next hotel room?"
Max nods.
"Well, the apartments are sorta like that. One room in the apartment has a door to each other apartment. My room has that door. If you got the room across from mine, your room would have the door that would lead to my room." Jeez, I was talking a lot.
"Huh. Cool," Max smiles and then frowns a little. "But I didn't see a door in my room."
Shrugging as she leads me to her room, I explain. "Maybe. Which room is yours?"
She points to the room that was across from mine and I smiled. "Then your room should have a door that leads over to my room."
"No, it doesn't," she says as she opens the door to her room and glances around it. "See?"
I look over to the far right corner of the room, where I expect the door to be. In it's places is a large dark wood mantel blocking it. I point to it. "That's blocking it."
Max's eyebrows shoot up.
"Let me move it." I get behind the mantel and push, revealing the door that connected to my room, as I had predicted.
Max surveys it, steps forward and jiggles it. "It's locked. How does it open?"
Oh, right. That. "Uhm . . . to open the door, there's a lock on each side of the door. So both sides need to be unlocked with a key for the door to open . . ." My words trailed off.
She catches on quickly to what I'm saying. "You don't have the keys . . ."
I shake my head. "No . . . but I know who does."
-Max
"Okay," Fang say's in a hushed voice as we crouch together behind a couch in the main lobby. Behind us was the hotel manager, standing at the back of the front desk . . . in front of all the apartment keys. He was maybe in his early or mid-twenties? He had sandy brown hair and bright green eyes. You could tell just by his persona that he might be a bit of a . . . pervert? "Here's the plan." He motions with his hand for me to lean forward into him and listen.
As he cups his hands and whispers the plan into my ear, I nod, a smile growing on my lips. It takes a lot of will-power for me not to laugh at my part of the plan. Just as he was telling me the last part, his lips brushed against my skin.
I shuddered and then stood up, about to take action into my part of the plan.
-Fang
"Excuse me, sir," I hear Max ask the manager at the desk. I glanced over at Max to see her leaning forward on the desk, flashing the manager a dazzling smile. She bits her lip playfully. "I was wondering . . . how old are you?" She asks him in a sweet voice.
The manager, Tom, gets up from his seat and leans towards Max, a crooked smile on his face. "I'm twenty-four years old. How old are you, sweet-heart?"
Max's smile faltered for a second. "Uhm, sixteen-years old?"
Tom reaches forward and touches one of her perfect blonde ringlets. "You say that like you're not sure."
I shuddered. What the hell? Jeez, I should have been the distraction in this plan so Max wouldn't have to deal with that creeper. I shake my head as I dive behind the counter without Tom even noticing me.
I smiled, realizing how stealthy I was.
"You're new here, right?" Tom asks in a husky voice.
From the corner of my eyes, I catch Max nodding. "Just moved in."
There were rows and rows of keys dangling on the wall in front of me. I knew that I was in room 3-B . . . but what room was Max in? I knew that she was in the apartment next to me but I didn't know if she was in room 4-B or 2-B?
My eyes and Max's meet for a brief second. Tom notices her looking at something behind him, me, and starts turning around but Max catches his chin with her hand. Tom smiles at this and stares into her big brown eyes. For a second I wondered what it would be like to do that myself . . . to stare into her eyes . . . I bet there were flecks of gold in her eyes. Yeah, and I could just imagine myself leaning forward and–
Dammit. Never mind.
I motioned to the tags above the keys, the apartment numbers. Max nods a little then turns back to Tom and smiles a little at him. "Just to let you know . . . I'm in room 2-B . . . come visit me sometime?"
I grab the two extra keys to 2-B and 3-B and dash out from behind the counter and into the hallway. I compose myself and look down into my hands at the keys and grin. I stalk out of the hallway like I was just coming out of one of the rooms down it and announce myself. "Hey, Tom. What's goin' on, man?" I ask like we're best friends – which we're so not.
Tom sneers a little and leans away from Max. Good.
Before he see's, I drop the keys into the bottom of my pocket.
"Get out of my lobby, Fangy Boy . . ." Tom steps out from behind the manager desk and steps in front of me. "I'm busy."
I try my hardest not to laugh, and Tom notices that. His eyes glowered at me.
"Sorry . . ." I say as I hold up my hands in front of me defensively. A couple laughs escape my lips. "I'm leaving."
My eyes lock with Max's and she nods. She turns back to Tom. "See ya."
"Wait, what?" Tom asks surprised.
But Max is already pressing the button to the elevator and I'm getting on with her.
-Max
As soon as the doors to the elevator slid closed, I started cracking up, leaning against the wall and sliding down against it as we go up to our floor. Fang sat down next to me and laughed a little. For some reason, I got this feeling that Fang never really laughed a lot . . . or smiled.
Glancing over at him, my laughing slowing down, a tried giving him a small sweet smile.
Fang looks down at his knees and clears his throat. When he looks back at me, I'm staring into two dark, mysterious eyes. They were so dark it seemed as if they went on and on forever. His glossy dark hair was getting in his eyes, I could tell. I wondered what he would do if I just pushed his hair back a little? Just so that I could see his eyes better . . .
The elevator doors slid open. Fang and I, both just looking into each others eyes, just sat there for a moment.
I looked away first.
Dang it . . . my cheeks were getting warm. I hoped that Fang didn't notice.
Fang stands up and offers his hand. I take it and as he pulls me up from the ground, I notice he doesn't let go of my hand for a long second.
He clears his throat, clearly a little embarrassed. "Uhm . . . let's go see if we can open the door now."
