DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything related to Skins.

Author's Note: Hi, here's chapter six! Not sure what else to say, hope you enjoy:D

Chapter 6

More weeks passed. James was around less and less as opening night for the musical approached. For me this meant more time with Tony. More time becoming increasingly confused by Tony and his strange way of making me feel both completely happy and annoyed at the same time. When I spent time with him it was like I was dreaming. Like I was high on Tony. He made me feel like nothing else mattered but him and me.

"Maxxie?" Tony asked one afternoon while we sat on the roof of my block of flats and watched the world go by down below on the road. We could still hear the strange buzzing noise that always came from flat 603 and the Scottish lady who lived on the top floor singing the same Broadway song, but up on the roof everything was quietened. Everything was hushed. The roof was one of my favourite places to go with Tony because it's strange and surreal atmosphere reminded me of Tony.

"Yeah?" I asked, looking down at the traffic that was moving on the street.

Tony took my hand suddenly and although he did it often and I was used to it, I looked down at our joined hands anyway. "I feel good today."

"That's good, Tone." I said distractedly, I'd given up trying to understand the cryptic meanings behind all of Tony's words.

"It's not good."

I looked up at him, "It isn't?"

He gave a small smile and shook his head, "It's different. A good different, but still mainly just different."

Again, I tried not to get bogged down in trying to decode his way of thinking but once more only succeeded in feeling frustrated that I couldn't, "Fine then, that's different, Tone."

"Do you know why I feel good today?" he asked another seemingly random question.

"Why?"

"Because it's getting easier for you." He leaned into my space, transfixing me with his blue eyes, "Because each day that I sit in your flat and watch you with James," he lifted his hand and gently placed two fingers on my cheek, "kissing him," he stroked his fingers down my cheek, "fucking him," the fingers moved across my lips, "and loving him." his hand moved down to my neck, "Each day you slowly begin to realise…" his hand moved to the back of my neck and he leaned in even further, brushing his lips against the corner of mine and gen-

"Tony, stop." I pulled away completely and put at least a metre between us. He didn't move though and froze where he was, extended out to kiss me just like before I had moved, "You can't do t-"

"Each day you slowly begin to realise that you're in love with me." He cut across me, finishing his sentence and then getting to his feet and taking the stairs back down to the flat.

I watched him with the same mix of pure happiness and painful annoyance that I always got when I was with Tony.

I couldn't look at James when he returned home that night after a long day at rehearsal. The guilt hit me like a strong punch to the gut and I curled into a ball in my bed- our bed- and tried to convince myself that there was nothing in my feelings towards Tony that should make me feel guilty.

"Max?" James asked as soon as he had grunted an acknowledgement to Tony's whispered goodnight and come into our bedroom.

I didn't answer him, trying to pretend to be asleep.

"Max?" the tone of his voice and the rough shake he gave my shoulder to wake me up made it clear that he was annoyed.

I had no choice but to respond. I pretended to have been woken up by his shake of my shoulder, "James?" I turned over to face him and asked 'sleepily'.

"Where were you today?" he asked coldly. He had switched the light on so I could see his stony-faced expression clearly.

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused because I was still feigning having just woken up and also because I genuinely didn't understand his question or the reason why he was seemingly angry with me.

"Answer the question."

"I was at school, went shopping for some groceries and then I came home. Why do you want to know?" I asked again, more alertly this time.

He glowered at me before turning away, changing and climbing into bed next to me, lying with his face facing away from me. I gave a huff at his odd behaviour and turned off the light. Five minutes later he spoke again, with the same accusing tone in his voice, "You weren't answering your phone."

"Sorry that I didn't sit by the phone all day just in case you needed me." I said back in a defensive voice. If he was going to be angry then so was I.

"It would be nice to be able to get hold of you without wondering whether you're too busy keeping Tony happy."

I sat up abruptly, switched on the light and turned to face him with a shocked expression on my face, "What the hell does that mean?"

He sat up as well and turned to face me, "It means that I would like to come home and be able to be with my boyfriend without having him constantly thinking about another man!"

"What the fuck are you talking about? Tony's my friend and of course I worry about him. Excuse me if you don't have all of my attention a hundred percent of the time." I shook my head at this ridiculous conversation and how it really wasn't helping the guilt that still lay in the pit of my stomach, "Besides the fact that you're the one who's always at rehearsal and never around anymore."

"That's my work!" he defended before adding, "And I'm not asking for every ounce of your attention, I'm just saying that I can't have a moment in this fucking flat without hearing about Tony this and Tony that. I can't even come home and kiss my boyfriend-let alone fuck you!- because you're worried that Tony might see or hear or heaven fucking forbid- get jealous!" he was building himself into a rage, gesticulating and throwing wild accusations around.

"James-"

"Don't try and lie to me, Max. Everyone knows that he's in love with you."

"Ja-" I tried again before he took this too far, further than was recoverable.

"But that's the crazy thing, isn't it. You'd think that he was completely insane for allowing himself to fall for a guy who has a boyfriend who lives in the same flat that he's been infesting for the last couple of months. But actually it isn't that far-fetched because the guy with the boyfriend; he's the one who's so concerned for Tony. He'd do anything for his precious Tony. He'd even allow Tony to believe that coming into my flat and falling in love with my boyfriend was perfectly acceptable."

He paused for a breath and let his words sink in. Tears were filling my eyes at a rapid rate as I realised that there was nothing I could do to stop him. Anything I said, or tried to say, would make James angrier. He'd just find a way to twist my words to add fuel to his fire.

"From the moment Tony showed up here, I knew that things would change around here. But I didn't know that you'd actually let him change you." He spat these words at me, kicked off the covers, grabbed a coat and pulled on some jeans before stalking out of the room and slamming both the bedroom and the front door.

I stared down at my hands and let the tears fall. The worst part of it all was that James was almost a hundred percent right. James was my boyfriend and James was the man that I was supposed to love…that I did love. And it was all Tony's fault making me question that.

"Maxxie?" Tony opened the door to my bedroom quietly and poked his head in.

I looked up, hoping it would be James but knowing that it wasn't. "Go away Tony."

"What's wrong, Maxxie?" his voice was gentle but it grated against my nerves.

"GO AWAY!" I shouted, my face was tear-stained because of him. Tony looked surprised for a moment but soon his face turned soft and he entered the room against my order, "I'm not leaving you, Maxxie."

"It's all your fucking fault, Tony!" I shouted again and this made him stop in his tracks and not approach the bed anymore.

"What do you mean?" he asked quietly, clearly knowing that I was soon going to explode in frustration and bracing himself for my angry words.

"God, don't act so bloody stupid. You know exactly what I mean. I was so perfectly content before you came here. I had James and I loved him. I had school and friends and everything was perfect. But then you came and fucked everything up with your stupid problems and the way that you needed me all of a sudden. You never make any sense to anyone but yourself. You talk crap and have the balls to tell me of my secret feelings for you when I don't even know about them." I deflated slightly and run a hand through my hair in frustration while Tony continued to stand in front of me and just listened silently, waiting for me to finish, "James hates me because of you. You came into my life and made me question everything. You messed everything in my life up and now I'm just…s-so confused."

My rant over, I collapsed back onto my bed and covered my face with my hands, letting the tears of frustration and helpless anger pour out after so long of having kept them in because I had needed to be the strong one.

I didn't hear Tony leave but when I found an empty couch the next morning, I figured he must have finally made up his mind and decided to actually do me a favour and make my life easier for once. Sighing with a large amount of regret and some relief, I folded up the blankets and put away the pillows and the clothes that I had bought for Tony to use and sat down to wait for James to come home to me.

A/N: Thoughts? :) -Cloey