A/N. Okay, so how to start explaining my leave of absence...oh I've got it. It's a little something called school that sucks out all your free time then demands more than 24 hours in one day.

Seriously, I'm really sorry, guys. All I've wanted to do lately is update, write, and read, but all I seemed to have time for was school school school. It sucks. Anyway, I promise that I am not giving up on this story or my other story entitled Guardian Angel. It might take some intervals in between chapters...but please bear with me.

But excuses aside, here's what you're really here for:

-Don't Drink and Be Fang-

Chapter Four: The Fangs

Present...

FANG

I thought about the picture of Max I had in my wallet. It was taken while we were celebrating our high school graduation at Max's Mom's house. She made all this Mexican food and three batches of her famous chocolate chip cookies.

Max didn't know I had that picture because I took it when she wasn't looking. She was just so happy and content that I had to take a picture. I kept it in my wallet ever since.

Then, I looked at the horrible black smudge on my arm.

Smiling Max, black hole of nothingness.

At least drunk Fang was right about one thing: the tattoo was not Max.

I had to keep reminding myself that the tattoo was not permanent and I wasn't going to have to live with it for the rest of my life.

Iggy was still laughing at me, shoulders shaking with mirth. "I don't know," he said, "It kind of fits in with your whole black motif thing, doesn't it?"

I grimaced, "Not funny."

He held his hands up in mock surrender and said, "Okay, okay. Moving on to another interesting part of the story now..."

"Interesting?" I muttered, more to myself than him.

But of course, Iggy heard and yet another unholy grin spread across his face. "Oh yeah, interesting."

10 hours earlier...

Fang was muttering to himself about how horrible the tattoo was and how he should've gotten it done by a real tattoo artist instead of some dude who uses henna.

"What is henna, anyway?" Fang mused out loud, "Who would want a henna tattoo? Henna it sounds so girly."

Iggy glanced at his friend as he led him back to the apartment. "You're the only person I've ever heard call henna girly."

Fang ignored him and just stared ahead as they walked back to the apartment.

Iggy was relieved; he had half a mind to throw Fang into a mental institution if he kept up with all his babbling. Vaguely, Iggy wondered if all this crazy stuff actually went through Fang's head on a daily basis.

He silently thanked God for making Fang a quiet person. He couldn't deal with this every single day.

They finally reached the apartment and Iggy told Fang to stay on the couch for a moment while he went to make something warm for Fang to drink. Like an obedient puppy, Fang sat down and remained silent.

Iggy was tired. It was way past midnight and he spent most of his night chasing after a raving lunatic. He made a mental note to pull a prank on Max one of these days. After all, technically it was her fault that Fang got drunk in the first place.

Maybe a prank related to snakes. Or maybe one that involved her favorite Mickey Mouse alarm clock. Or maybe snakes and her Mickey Mouse alarm clock. Yeah, that made Iggy smile.

He was about to bring out the stuff he needed to make hot chocolate when he heard something. It was barely something to worry about, more like someone dropped a pen or something, but with Fang's state of mind...

He shook it off and heated the water instead. It couldn't be that bad it couldn't wait for a few minutes.

Crash!

Or not.

Iggy went rushing into the living room again, hoping that Fang didn't break anything valuable like the TV or their stereo.

And when he got there, he stopped dead in his tracks.

Present...

"And then, Iggy? And then what happened?" Iggy said in a really bad impression of my voice.

"I don't sound like that," I told him.

He waved me off, "Not the point. The point is now is the time you ask the wonderful Igster what happened next."

I sighed and rubbed my temples again. I glared at him the best I could, but even I knew that after that night, it would take a while for the glare to mean anything. "Oh, Figster, will you please tell me what happened next?" I said in the most sarcastic tone I could muster.

He wrinkled his nose at the Figster part, but otherwise accepted it.

"Meh, good enough," he decided and led me to the living room.

He swept his arm dramatically around the room, gesturing to the turned over chairs, the millions of paper lying around, the cabinets that looked like they've been ransacked by a raging bear.

"This part of the story," he said, pausing for dramatic effect, "requires a little visual aid."

"I did this?" I asked.

Iggy nodded, "Yup, and after our little storytelling, you're cleaning it up."

9 hours earlier...

"FANG!" Iggy almost yelled, but caught himself just in time.

Fang stuck his head out from his bedroom. "Yes?"

"What the frex did you do?" Iggy said furiously. He turned his back to make hot chocolate for a few minutes and now their place looks like a nuclear bomb was dropped on it.

Fang grinned like he was genuinely happy that Iggy asked. "Well remember when we were five and I dressed up as Dracula for Halloween and I went around biting people and Max nicknamed me Fang for that? And remember last year when she gave me a pair of fangs as a joke because they still call me Fang because of that? Well except my mom because she still calls me Nick..."

Iggy gave him a look of pure incomprehension. His living room, the one that was fine five minutes ago was gone and Fang was talking about, well...fangs.

"Anyway," Fang continued, "I'm looking for the fangs now."

For a while Iggy just stood there as Fang pulled all their belongings all over the floor before he shook his head and went into Fang's room. He reached into the back of the closet where he knew Fang kept a box filled with knick knacks that he's kept after all these years.

Finally, he threw it at Fang who caught it happily.

Fang, who was holding a bowl to see if he somehow put it there by accident, dropped the bowl when he caught it and Iggy winced at the sound of breaking glass.

"You know, I don't know why she decided to call me Fang. I mean, I was wearing these false teeth that have two fangs; so technically, she should have called me Fangs. Then I'd be liked, 'Hi, my name's Fangs, what's yours?'" Fang said before sticking the pair of plastic fangs in his mouth.

He made a half-grimace, half-sneer and tried to look fearsome before breaking into laughter.

After a while of standing there dumbfounded, Iggy started to laugh too. "Okay, Fangs, just please sit still for a moment and I'll give you something that will put you right to bed."

He went to finish making the hot chocolate (that may or may not have had tiny amount of sleep medication), and handed it to Fang.

Then after five minutes, Fang was finally asleep. The whole ordeal was over.

If Iggy had the energy, he would've broken out into song.

But he didn't, so sleep would have to do.

Present...

"You drugged me?" I scolded.

Iggy raised his eyebrows, "That's what you take out from the story?"

I sighed and gave him a pointed look, "Dude, so not cool."

"Hey," I didn't know what else to do," Iggy defended himself. "Besides, apparently I didn't drug you enough," he said, gesturing to my pink shirt.

"I must have woken up and gotten out," I agreed reluctantly.

Iggy nodded, "And I was too asleep to hear you."

I racked my head for something, anything that I might've done last night, something that included a change in my wardrobe.

And then something clicked.

I ran back into my room and I saw it, right where I was sitting while Iggy was telling me about the horrors of the previous night, was my cellphone.

My head hurt too much for me to concentrate on anything else, but now that I think about it...

I was sitting on my phone the entire time. Great.

Iggy followed me and noticed my phone too. "That wasn't with you last night when I picked you up," his eyes widened.

Did I call someone? I remembered leaving it near the wall because I was charging it, but if Iggy didn't unplug it and I didn't unplug it before I was drunk, then that only left one alternative.

I turned to Iggy and handed him the phone. "You look who I last dialed then tell me if it was that bad."

"If it was your mom, she's going to kill you, you know that, right?" Iggy told me.

I nodded, dreading the name he was about to say.

"Oh."

"Oh what?" I asked.

He looked at me as if he was debating whether to tell me or not.

"Well?" I urged.

He took a breath and showed me the phone. Let me tell you, it was not my Mom.

"Max," he sighed.

Crap.

A/N. There you have it, folks, the intro to the mysterious pink shirt. And as you might have guessed, Max will be appearing in the next chapter!

Any guesses what happens next?

Oh, and for the readers who also read my other story Guardian Angel, new chapter will be up tomorrow!

Thanks again for all your support and for being so patient with me. You guys are awesome.

Please review! This was one of my longest chapters to make up for the slow updates!

-Indy