Spy Games

Chapter 3

"At least Gazzy's enjoying himself," I muttered more to myself than my sister as we crawled through the underbrush. I could hear Gasman and Nudge doing the same in the trees above. Well, not crawling, but jumping. Same difference.

"Shhh," my sister shushed which only succeeded in making me roll my eyes.

"How far is he going to freaking go?" I grumbled, no longer amused with this stupid charade. "This isn't fun anymore."

"Anymore?"

"You know what I mean."

Iggy eventually came to a stop at the end of the path. He was feeling his way around now, hands out, as if trying to find something. When his hand finally brushed against a certain tree, he laughed slightly, finding his way down a branching path.

"Where is he going?" Ella mumbled to me.

"I dunno. Fang and I mostly just stay up top, on the cliffs and in the caves."

"I'm sure you do."

"What's that-"

"Shhh!"

I was really about done with her. I mean, God, I was doing this as a favor. And if the favor wasn't for Mom, I'd probably had already given up and claimed that it was an impossible task. And wasn't it? How can I prove that Iggy's cheating on Ella when he isn't? Because honestly, I don't think that Iggy is cheating on Ella. At all.

We had to stop long before Iggy, as he made it into a clearing. Hanging back in the underbrush, Ella and I watched as he headed towards the center of the clearing, which held some kind of runoff from the ocean, forming some type of lagoon or something. I'm not too good with that kind of terminology.

"What's he doing?" Ella whispered to me as he stopped just as his bare feet hit the water. Iggy was rare to wear shoes. After a year on the island, he'd built up so many calluses on his feet that it doesn't matter much anymore.

"I dunno."

Iggy just sat down, his feet in the water.

"I think he's relaxing," I muttered, shaking my head. "This was dumb. He's not doing anything."

"Maybe he's waiting for someone," Ella said, biting her nails now. Reaching over, I grabbed her hand and pulled it away from her mouth, sighing slightly.

"Ella, I really don't think-"

"Who's there?"

I froze as Iggy suddenly turned his towards our general area. "Who-"

"It's me."

Frowning, I watched Angel walked into the clearing as well. The heck?

"Oh. What's up?"

Angel just went to sit down next to him. "I was looking for Max. I need to talk to her."

"Can't you just get in her head and tell her what's up?"

"No. She gets on me a lot about that now. I'm trying to be good."

"You? Good?"

"Iggy."

He just reached over blindly searching for her head to pat. Once he found it, he shifted his hand down so his arm was draped across her shoulders. "How'd you find me?"

"I just asked around. Someone told me they saw you go down this path. I just followed it to you."

"Mmmm."

"Iggy…"

"What?"

"If you knew something, like something serious about Max that would affect Fang, would you tell him?"

"Like what?"

"Like if she was still dating Dylan too?"

What the hell was she going on about? I crossed my arms, trying to keep myself from going over there and sort everything out.

"Oh yeah. Definitely."

"Oh." Angel looked down at her hands before back up at the blind teen. "Would you tell Max if Fang was doing something with someone else?"

"Eh…probably not."

What?

"Why not?" Angel asked, clearly confused.

"Because me and Fang are boys. We've got each others backs."

"Oh. So you don't have Max's?"

"I do. I guess. Kinda."

He was so dead. So dead. I would kill him. Cheater or not Iggy was dead. Dead and buried. Gone. Over. Dead. So, so dead. God.

"Do you not like her?"

"I do. Max is our leader, Angel."

"I guess so."

He hugged her to him slightly, wiggling his toes in the water. I'll cut those damn toes off. I swear. God, I swear.

"It's just different," Iggy told her. "Like you, you're a girl. You would never tell on Max. Or any other girl for that matter."

"Really?"

"Yeah. And I'm a guy."

"A boy."

"A man," he decided finally. "I don't tell on other men."

"If you're a man, does that make Max a woman."

"No, that's not what makes her a woman."

I'll stab him. In the heart. Then I'll pull his damn sightless eyeballs out and feed them to Total. Or Akila. Whichever will eat them. Don't matter to me.

"Then what-"

"The point is, Angel, that I wouldn't tell on Fang. I might talk to him, tell him that I don't think what he's doing right, but I wouldn't tell on him. I'd try to fix things myself."

"Why wouldn't you do that with Max?"

"Because, Ange, Max is a girl."

"A woman."

"A chick," he determined. "And chicks cheat because they're not getting enough attention or because they've fallen in love with the guy they're cheating with."

"Really?"

I'll bash his head in. I'll use the bits of his skull to make jewelry and wear it. I will wear jewelry. Of Iggy's bones. As mementos. Because I'm hardcore.

"Yes," he said, nodding his head affirmatively. Ella was just silent next to me, watching him as well. I don't think she was having as murderous thoughts as I, but hey, I'm a violent person. It comes with the territory.

"So what would telling Fang do?"

"It'd let him know either 'Hey, start paying your girl some attention' or that 'Hey, your chick's fallen in love. It's not with you. Move on, bro.'"

"Oh."

"So see, Angel? It's a gender thing."

"Max says that gender don't matter that much."

"Max can hardly read. What does she know?"

I'll gut him. I'll gut the little blind fool and watch him slowly die. Then I'll eat his intestines. Raw. In front of all his friends.

"Would you ever cheat on Ella?" Angel asked, looking up at him once more. Iggy just shook his head.

"Nah. She's my girl."

"Your chick."

"My woman." He ruffled Angel's blonde hair. "I love her. You know?"

"Does Fang love Max?"

"I-"

"Oh, Iggy!"

My sister suddenly jumping out of the bush scared the crap out of me. And I was next to her! Still, I thought we were all in agreement that we were stalking, I mean spying, on Iggy. You don't do something like that when you're spying. At least you don't in the movies.

"Ella?" He stood up, turning towards the sound of her voice. "What-"

"Oh, I love you too! So much!" She literally launched herself at him. This of course too Iggy off guard and he fell backwards, right into the little pond/lagoon thingy.

"That's not how you spy on someone, Ella," Nudge complained as she and the Gasman jumped out of the trees. "God, you suck at everything."

Angel frowned, staring at all of us. "What were you guys- Oh, Max."

"Hey, sweetie," I said awkwardly as I climbed out of the bush as well. "What's up?"

She seemed to forget her question from before as she rushed over to me.

"Max, I gotta tell you something."

"W-"

"What were you guys doing? Who all is here?" Iggy was trying to get out of the water, now, clearly annoyed. "Ella-"

She just wrapped her arms around him, both of them soaking wet now as they stood in the water. "I love you too, Iggy."

"What-"

"I thought that you were cheating on me."

"You what?"

"So we were following you around, trying to find out."

"Wait, what?"

"But now I know that you're not so it's all okay!" She bounced slightly, threatening to take the blind guy down again. "I'm so happy!"

"Max," Angel whined, pulling on my hand to get my attention. "I have something I gotta tell you."

"What, honey?" I looked back down at her, more focused on Ella and Iggy. I mean, really, what was accomplished? So yeah, Iggy confessed his love for Ella to Angel, but did that really mean he wasn't cheating on her? Oh well. At least she's happy again. Win one for Maximum Ride.

"Um…I was with Fang earlier."

"Oh, that's nice."

"Yeah, and he was with these girls."

Got my attention.

"What girls?"

"Jenna."

"Oh, they're just fr-"

"And some girl named Blake."

I stared at her a moment before swallowing. "Well, uh, that's not that big of a deal. Fang does have friends, sweetie."

"Yeah, but he sent me away."

"Sent you away?"

"He was like real mean about it too," she said, frowning. Clearly, she was more upset about how rude he was to her. "We were having fun, playing twenty questions, and talking and stuff."

This wasn't shocking. Fang and Angel had forged some kind of bond recently, which really just annoyed me for the most part. He typically would now take her side when she was totally out of line with me. Still, it was kind of cute, I guess. Fang really did love Angel and that was just his new way of showing it.

"Then what?" I asked, staring down at her. "Angel?"

"Then they showed up and he, like, didn't even care that I was there. He just kept staring at them. And then that one, Blake, asked my name and he still wouldn't look at me." She crossed her arms, always one to get putout by being ignored. "Then when I tried to talk to him, he told me that I should go find you and tell you about dinner tonight and find Iggy and ask him what he was making and all this other stuff."

I just kept looking at her, not really even listening anymore. Then, finding my voice finally, I said, "Well, I don't think-"

"He just kept looking at them," she went on, still upset that Fang had chosen someone over her. "It's not fair. We were playing and having fun. Then he just kept looking-"

"Ogling."

"Shut up, Nudge," I said, hardly glancing at her as she butted into the conversation. I couldn't do this. I really couldn't do this.

And okay, maybe it wouldn't be such a big deal, Fang being around these girls, if he hadn't left me before. I mean, he's literally left me. Like gone to a whole other continent. Multiple times. And I know that relationships thrive on trust, but he just makes it so hard. So, so hard.

"I've saved one relationship, Max," Nudge told me, nodding her head slightly. "So, now that you've seen the magic that I can work, do you want to-"

"I said to shut up, Nudge," I repeated, closing my eyes for a moment. The heck was I supposed to do now? Confront him? For what? He hadn't really done anything. Act like nothing was wrong? Everyone knew I couldn't do that. Acting like everything was good wasn't my strong suit.

"Max," Ella called over to me, still hanging off her boyfriend. I just gave her the stink eye. "Aren't you so happy? Iggy's not cheating on me!"

I just stared at him for a moment before looking back at Angel. I really couldn't give two craps what the heck her and Iggy did. Not when my own relationship was on the line.

"We were, like, totally just talking about how we wanted fish, Dylan," Nudge gushed as she took a bite of hers. "Like seriously. Thank you so much. It's freaking amazing. Like-"

"You're welcome, Nudge," he said, poking at the fire in the center of our circle. "Just saw some other guys fishing and thought I should try my hand at it."

Fang made a face before glancing to his side at me. In my ear, he whispered, "I don't know about you, but my fish is disgusting."

He was joking of course and even gave me a playful elbow to the ribs. I just shifted away from him, not saying anything.

"What's wrong?" Fang frowned at me. "I hobbled the whole way down here to have dinner with you guys. Why are you so down?"

"I'm not," I told him sharply, moving to grab a piece of fruit out of the pile in front of me. "I'm fine."

"You're obviously not."

"I said that I'm fine, Fang."

"Alright, whatever," he said, moving away from me as well. When I got upset with him, Fang usually just ignored me for awhile until I got over it. He wasn't into drama.

…So what the hell was he doing with girls as friends?

"Here," Ella was saying as she fed her boyfriend a piece of fish. "It's good, huh? Dylan did a good job."

"Yeah," Iggy agreed, his one arm wrapped tightly around her. "Real good."

"Not as good as you," she bragged.

"Who could be?"

They make me want to barf. Seriously.

"You like your fish, Angel?" Fang had turned to look at her, as she was on his other side. "Huh?"

"It's okay."

"Just okay, eh?" Dylan smiled at her from across the circle, seated between Gazzy and Ella. "I'm offended."

She giggled some which made Fang frown. He was getting what he deserved though, so I didn't say anything.

"Remember, Max, I could fix all this," Nudge, who was on my other side, whispered to me. "I fixed Ella and Ig-"

"You fixed nothing. He wasn't cheating on her, she realized that, the end."

"Well, I was there."

"Bugs were there, probably, crawling on the ground. I'd trust them over you."

"Well then."

After dinner, everyone dispersed for their before bed activities. Fang immediately got up, nodding at me to do the same.

"You ready to go up to the cliff and, uh, hangout together?" He scratched the back of his neck, wagging his eyebrows slightly. "My back's acting up real bad. I could use a-"

"Actually, Fang, I think I'm going to stay in the girls hut tonight."

"What?"

I nodded slightly. "If you're back is that bad, you shouldn't fly all the way up there."

"It's not that-"

"So, goodnight."

"You're going to bed now?"

Nodding, I walked passed him. "So, I'll see you in the morning, okay?"

"Max, what did I do?"

"Nothing. God."

"Then what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong."

"Why are you lying to me?"

"I'm n-"

"Fine." Fang opened his wings. "I'll be asleep on our cliff if you want me."

I just watched him fly away, wanting to make sure his back didn't suddenly spasm causing him to fall from the sky. He didn't though. So I just headed to the girls' hut, not even looking back.

Fang hadn't mentioned that he was hanging out with those girls. No matter what he was doing, that within itself is wrong. …Right? God, maybe I do need Nudge's help.