Hello! So I know it's been a while, so here's a new chapter. It's kinda long, I've been working on it these past weeks whenever I had the chance to. Please let me know what you think by reviewing after you're finished reading, I like reviews :] And for those people who also read my other story, "Neverending Things" I just want to say that I haven't abandoned that story. Just think of it as a reeeeeally long long long hiatus. Okay, here's the chapter:
Just Watch
Chapter 7
To Save You, You Must First Scream
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"No, I definitely think skydiving is much more fun –and risky" He turns his head in a fast movement, sending her a devilish grin.
She rolls her eyes and turns onto her back, now against the green surface of the grass.
"-I just think bungee jumping is for wusses. Now, if you want the real thing -you know, without all those secure cords and straps suffocating you-"
"They're so you won't fall to your death when you jump into the air, duh" She rolls her eyes once more, chewing her pen.
He scoffs, "Yeah whatever…but like I sa-"
"I know, I know. Your point is proven, geez. Now could you be quiet?" She gives him a sarcastic smile.
"Oh, and by the way, you say that skydiving beats bungee jumping? Well, you're greatly mistaken sir…ever heard of parachutes? You're supposed to use 'em when doing the whole, ya know…'sky diving' " She says, putting quotes around those words.
"Alright, I give up" He throws himself on the grass, his back landing on her hard backpack.
"Ah, what do you have in here? Bricks?-" She snatches her bag away before he finishes his sentence.
"Female stuff" She says dryly towards him with a straight face.
"Har- you know what, I'm not even gonna go there" He drops the topic.
"You do that" She smiles, closing her eyes. The sun shines bright on her face, revealing a healthy glow of such an innocent girl.
"Do you have sunglasses?" She asks out of the blue.
He turns to her, "Can you imagine me with sunglasses?" He rests on his side, the front of his body facing her.
Max squints her eyes a little, as if visualizing and grimaces. Fang rolls his eyes at her reaction.
"Ew, no you're right. That would be disturbing"
"Naah, I think I'd look pretty-"
"Hot?" She turns to him
He looks her in the eyes and grins, "I was gonna say less emo-y…but nooow-" he chants, "-that you mention it, I would, wouldn't I?"
"Like I'm answering that" Max mutters under her breath.
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"I'm bored" Fang says a few minutes later after the small talk between them has subsided.
"Say something" He touches her side, and it makes her giggle a little.
"Okay" She sits up. He does the same.
"I think I have a massive crush on Iggy" She bites her lip.
Fang says nothing of this but instead stares at her indifferently. He feels his stomach sink lower, just a little.
"KIDDING!" She laughs in his face.
Fang rolls his eyes, letting himself fall back onto the grass.
"Hah! And you thought I was serious, mmm mmm mmm…."
"So not funny" He says quietly, not finding her joke hilarious at all.
"Ugh, whatever"
"He-ey!" A distant voice calls.
They both run around, "Hi" Fang says to Nudge. She grins at both of them.
Iggy soon joins them, "Whatup dude" He nods to Fang.
Fang gives them a slight smile.
"So what're you two lovebirds up t- oh, that's right, Max has a boyfriend and it's not Fang" Iggy frowns.
Fang moves his head to the side clearing his throat a bit and turning to Max.
She turns away, avoiding his eye contact. He sees the small tint of pink forming on her fair cheeks.
"Blushing" He mutters very quietly so that only she can hear him and not the other two. He runs his finger along her side like a feather, very lightly and without any intentions. Just casually and not importantly.
But with every contact, her smile grows wider and she's about to burst open into joyful laughter.
"How cute" Nudge nods towards them, telling Iggy.
Iggy nods, placing his arm around her waist and whispers in her ear, "do you know why Max is going out wi-"
"Oh,-" Nudge looks at him and shakes her head, "no"
"Ah, somehow I knew you wouldn't"
"Is she shy?" Nudge whispers back.
Iggy shrugs, "Barely know her. Ask Fang. He's super quiet so they're compatible" He smiles. Nudge nods, "They're adorable" They both look at Max and Fang who keep exchanging small quiet words to each other and letting out little chuckles every now and then.
"You know I don't like you having boyfriends" He says sternly to her, watching her as she searches for something around the living room.
She glares at him, "Don't need you to tell me" She says silently.
"I heard that!-" he uncrosses his arms and approaches her, grabbing her hard by the wrist making her wince, "-don't challenge me" he whispers with clenched teeth into her ear.
He lets her go and she clutches her own wrist, seeing the visible redness now, "I hate you…I hate what you've become!" She yells at him.
He lifts a hand up in the air, warning her.
She looks up at it and then to him and keeps backing away as he keeps getting loser to her.
"You wanna hit me? Go ahead, hit me! But they'll find out, they all will, eventu-"
Her body turns around by the force from his slap to her face. She puts a hand to her lip, seeing small spots of red on her hand now.
"I warned you" He says, his face all red, pumped with blood.
"Upstairs. Now." He threatens her with wide eyes.
She glares at him behind teary eyes and starts walking behind the couch, not wanting to get near him to get to her room. He stares at her all the way as she runs upstairs, clasping her lips shut to prevent herself from sobbing out loud.
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"That looks pretty bad" The short nurse with light brown hair says as she gently lifts Max's chin up to inspect her lip.
"How did you say this happened again?" She jots some notes down onto the papers in her wooden clipboard.
"S- um, stray cat" She says, stuttering and feeling stupid that she didn't plan ahead of what to say as an explanation.
The school nurse looks up at her, "Must've been one really feral cat." She jots down more notes.
Max nods and looks to everywhere in the nurse's small office.
"Were you trying to give it food or something? You should never go that close to un-tamed animals. You come too close and they might interpret you as a threat and attack, only to defend themselves."
"I -yeah, I know. It won't happen again. It was stupid of me, I know"
"Strange though" The nurse stares at Max. Her heart starts to quicken, feeling nervous and not wanting her to interrogate her any further,
"What?"
"Unless that cat had on some boxing gloves,-" she laughs of humor,"- I don't see how you could've gotten that bruise right under your bottom lip" She glances to Max while looking for her ice pads in the small cooler.
Max is reluctant; she never wanted to come here in the first place. The only reason why she's in the school nurse's office is because one of the teachers saw her lip and led her to the nurse. It was out of worried concern though, it's not like the teacher was mad or anything. That would be stupid.
"Here, just put this near your bottom lip" The nurse hands Max a blue frozen ice pad.
"Thanks" Max murmurs to her.
"You know Max-" She looks at her in a worried way. Max looks from the floor tile up to her.
"Never be afraid to come and talk, okay? We have-"
"Whatdya mean?" Max asks, as if knowing nothing.
"This is a serious matter" The nurse folds her arms over her chest and takes off her glasses.
"There is no reason to be afraid-"
Max cuts her off once more, "Oh, no! Really, it's nothing at all. I feel really good. I'm fine, really. I'm not feeling down or anything. And this doesn't even hurt" Max hands the ice pack back to the nurse but she does not take it from her.
"Keep it" The nurse says. "Max, I don't want you to feel uncomfortable about this"
"It's not that at all" She puts a hand to her throat, feeling her voice start to crack. Given from the facial expression of the nurse, she noticed as well.
"I know some girls can be mean and nasty. Just no more fighting okay?" The nurse tells her.
"Wha- oh, yeah yeah. Definitely, no more. Okay" She nods, feeling relieved that the nurse misinterpreted the situation.
"Did this happen in gym or something?"
"Yeah, the lockers, no biggy though"
"Are you sure? If you tell me who hit you I could tell the principle and have her speak to her"
"No!-" she takes her aback, "Please, don't. Like I said, it was no big deal. I just had a bad day yesterday and I let it out on some girl. She did nothing, really. She just pushed me and I lost my balance because the floors were wet since the janitor had just cleaned them so I backed into an open locker door and that's it. Really." Max says with pleading eyes, not wanting the nurse to question he any further.
First Fang, now the school nurse! Max thinks.
"Convincing story" The nurse replies, arms still crossed.
"Okay, well-" She turns her head, glancing over at the huge round clock hanging on the white wall.
"Next period is about to start. You go on, and if you ever need to talk just know that the school counselor is only down the hall."
"Right, got it" Max says in a hurried rush, walking out the office and disappearing into the crowd once the loud bell rings.
"….."
"Whoa!" they both say all of a sudden in surprisement.
She bends down; grabbing her books she dropped by accident.
"Hey" He smiles at her.
"What did I say about saying hey too much? And every time we meet, it's creepy"
"Creepy?" He raises an eyebrow, "You do know hey is like saying hi or what's up?" He corrects, throwing her a playful smirk. She rolls her eyes, "Whatever, Fang" She says under her breath.
"So you have lunch period too, right?" He inquires, stuffing his hands in his pockets.
"Yeah"
"Great-" He gives her a small smile, "Sit with us" He says.
"Us?" Max questions, eyebrows raised. Fang nods his head,
"Yeah, you know Iggy and a bunch o' other people" Fang lends her a hand for her to get up, finishing putting her textbooks back into her bag.
"Oh, I don't know…I like sitting alone most of the time"
"But we've sat together before. See? You were never alone, at least not really since I've started talking to you"
Max sighs, "Well that's mostly because you never really talk during lunch. You just sit there…all quiet and observing people. It's like you enjoy eavesdropping or somethi- hey! Were you like a spy in another life?" She laughs, obviously kidding.
Despite feeling happy seeing that beautiful girl smile, Fang rolls his eyes, "See you there" and casually runs away, spotting a flash of Iggy over her shoulder and going off to catch up to him.
She rolls her eyes, "Jerk" She mutters, putting her hair back; off her chest.
"So you guys are like a thing now?" A girl walks up to her, touching her shoulder to get her attention. Max turns around, "Um, why are you talking to me?"
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"Here. That's where Nudge always sits. She like totally freaks if she doesn't sit in the same spot all the time" Fang tells her, switching seats with Max. He watches her every move from setting her tray down on the table to tying her long hair back so it won't get in her face. In a causal manner, of course. Not in some creeper obsessed way.
"There you go with the whole observing thing again" Max mutters to herself.
"Sorry. Hey do you ha-"
"Hey sexy" The guy's head appears in between their shoulders, separating them a bit. He gives her a full on kiss on the lips, surprising her.
"Um, hi" She is clearly just as startled as Fang is.
"You're looking even hotter today" He looks at her and she sends him a normal smile but Fang can tell it's obviously an uncomfortable ugh get outta my face you pervert type of fake smile.
"Bet you noticed too" He turns to face Fang, smiling at him.
"Nope. Must've missed it" Fang replies, both Max and the other guy hearing him.
Okay, so she feels like she's just been insulted, but she decides to just shove it off.
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She gets out of the stall and walks up to the sink, washing her hands. For a second, she has eye contact with the huge mirror right in front of her. She looks at herself.
"Who would ever think I'm sexy. He said himself he didn't even notice"
She looks down, wondering when in the world did she start caring about what Fang thought about her appearance.
If she's ugly or not. If he think she's ugly or not. If he thinks she's beautiful.
She dries off her hands with the brown paper towel and laughs a bit at herself.
"Stupid. What am I saying?"
"You talkin' to yourself?" Nudge enters the girls' bathroom with a confused face on. She manages to smile at her still though, being the friendly person she is.
"Uh no. Heh, I was just…it's nothing" She aims for the black tall trash bin in the corner of the washroom, throwing the scrunched up paper.
"Bye" She starts to head out the door.
"Bye? We still have lunch together!" Nudge giggles. "I'm starting to think you're avoiding me. I don't bite you know" She grins happily at Max.
"I know-" Max tries to do her best to smile back but clearly isn't up for the jokes or humor of anything.
"I've got these bad stomach cramps so I'm just gonna go rest in the caf room.
"O-kay?" Nudge is left alone and puzzled towards Max's strange behavior.
I can't believe even for a second I actually cared about what he thought of me! He's just stupid, stupid, stupid! Fang is so stupid and just too ughh! All guys are stupid!
"You okay?" His voice appears from nowhere
She gasps, "Yeah, I'm fine" she says quite coldly
"Ouch" Fang sits down next to her on the bench
"Oh, I'm sorry, did that hurt huuuge narcissistic ego of yours?" She bites back.
"I'm sorry if I said something mean to you?" He asks with quite confusion.
"Whatever" Max gives out a small laugh to herself, rubbing her forehead. She reminds herself again why she is so mad at him and that the reason seems to be very stupid.
"You know what, never mind. Just forget it."
"What up people?" Iggy blurts out, playfully bumping Fang's shoulder. He takes a seat next to Max, unaware of her state.
"We were talking" Nudge says with huge eyes, "and we think we definitely should go on that double date!" She grins at both Max and Fang.
"Dou- you're serious?" Fang lets the words slip out of his tongue like slowly spilling juice from a glass. Max notices and feels quite insulted, again.
"Yeah, it's not like I like him. And anyways, I have a boyfriend"
"Thanks" Fang mutters sarcastically. However, since both are sitting so closely to each other, their arms touching, she can clearly hear it. She looks down at her lap, now feeling a bit mean. Besides, she knows she's overreacting about the whole thing. And since when did she ever care about Fang's opinion? Her boyfriend called her 'sexy', so she obviously must be. Maybe Fang just doesn't look at girls as if they were some sex symbols.
"Oh, you know that party this guy from Dyl's Geometry class is hosting?" Iggy looks up from his phone.
"No" Nudge says
"I didn't tell you guys?" He looks up at all his friends and they shake their heads no.
"Oh, well he's throwing this party tonight. Starts at 8. Do you wanna go? You don't have to though; I was going to go so I was just wondering if you guys wanted to come with me."
"Yeah we should-", "-Ohmygosh!- Everyone but her jumps a little out of their seat
"I just remembered!" Nudge exclaims, frowning.
"What?" Iggy looks at her.
"Dentist appointment on Friday! My mouth is gonna hurt sooo much" She complains, shoulders dropping.
"Aww, and I wanted you to come" He replies, giving her a smile. She rests her head on his shoulder
"Yeah. Omg! Max -Fang, you two have gotta like take at least 100 pics of you guys together!"
"I won't be go-"
"Sure, sounds fun" He smiles at Nudge, then turns to Max who is already looking at him and his smile suddenly changes into a more intimate, wanting one. She loses eye contact with him again, feeling not exactly 'uncomfortable' but just very….nervous…hot when he does that. Not to mention weirded out. Since when did Fang start flirting with her?
"Sooo…-" Fang gets off the bench and gets close to Max, talking low enough so the others won't hear, "Can we talk like after school? Maybe you can meet me before leaving?" He waits for her reply.
She nods, putting strand hairs that fall on her face behind her ear. Though, she wouldn't mind hiding it for a while from the peering eyes looking at her.
She watches casually as he walks off, eventually fading as he takes a turn down the hall.
"Gotta go to. Study time. Big test" Iggy grins, bouncing off quickly.
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"You wanted me?" Max asks, approaching Fang from behind and seeing him put away a notebook into his bag.
"Quite a play on words" He replies, smiling and making her bite her lip.
"But yeah, I did. Are you going with us?" hope present in his eyes.
"Us?" She raises her eyebrow, confused.
"Iggy and I are going to that party" She rolls her eyes, a little smile tugging at her lips, causing him to give out a small laugh.
"Yeah, I know right? That word seems highly overrated, but maybe you should just have some fun once in a while, you know?" He licks his lips, smiling at her.
Indeed she wonders why he's been smiling to her a lot lately. And not just his normal smiles-well, if he has any. Since she's been hanging out with Fang, she's surely noticed this one thing about him and it's that he never really smiles –in general. No genuine smile in general. Sure he throws around fake smiles around all the time. Okay, not all the time. Just no real and warm smiles. Not at people, like a friendly welcome; not at jokes; not really anything. Okay, maybe sometimes at Iggy because he makes Fang happy. This makes her wonder if she makes him happy as well. That's different though, they've known each other for years and years. Iggy's like a brother to Fang. However, when he does smile, it's usually towards her and that's what makes her freak. She'll never admit it though. Mostly because she doesn't really like him so she doesn't want to give him mixed signals. But even if she did like him, she still wouldn't tell him.
But maybe it's all really only because she's afraid of what his response might be…
"You know I'll have to ask my dad" She looks at him, watching as he lets out a deep exhale, "Tell him you have a school project and that you're spending the ni-"
"You want me to lie?" She cuts him off, eyebrows raised.
"Like he'll let you Max. This is him we're talking about" He tries to reason with her
Max sighs, "Fine. I guess you're right. But you can't be the friend I'm supposed to be 'spending' the night ov-"
"Oh, definitely not" He gulps, his face turning more flesh toned.
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It is exactly 7:40 PM and Max has twenty minutes to arrive to that party.
Not like it's some important meeting, I should just calm down! She reassures herself. Though she is quite a bit nervous, that she must admit. Mostly because she's never really been to a 'party' before. Sure she's been to one or two get-togethers with a couple people she knew at school but that was like back in 6th or 7th grade. Plus, they weren't really her friends. She hears some 'popular' and 'cool' kid is gonna host this one, so she definitely has a right to feel like throwing up.
Sad though, that she's not used to going out to these kinds of things. Always stuck in her house, barely comes out of her room; feeling safe in there. Somewhere she can hide away from him. Where she can lock the door and stay safe. Though sometimes she feels like she's contradicting herself, feeling caged in her room all day.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa wait" He puts a rough hand on her shoulder, startling her for a moment.
She turns to face him, already feeling the sweat drip down her forehead.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"Stroject p-" She stops herself, realizing her error in use of words. He raises his eyebrow to her, not seeming very pleased. He definitely knows something is up now that she was so nervous, she confused her words up.
"You lying to me?" His lips barely part as he speaks. He looks at her from an upright angle; as if she were his slave and he were disgusted of her behavior just now.
"Did you plan on coming back?" He doesn't let go of her arm, instead applying more force on it.
"I never said I was leaving!" She snaps, trying to dislodge her now red arm away from his strong grip.
He suddenly lets go and now grabs her chin, "Did you tell anyone about this?" He asks, grimacing at her.
"No! And you know what? If someone finds out-"
"They're not gonna. Put that shit girls wear on your face. They won't notice a thing" He walks out the living room.
Max puts a hand to her heart, feeling it beat rapidly. Without thinking, she grabs the house keys and opens the door, running outside.
…running as fast as she can, away from her father.
She checks her watch, 7:58 PM and notices that no cars are home in Fang's driveway. Maybe he left already? Wait, does he even drive? He's 17, so she guesses so.
He did invite her to come with him though, so wouldn't he have waited for her or something?
A sound comes from behind her and she automatically hides behind Fang's garden. Ha. His mom's garden.
She sees her father leave the house and go into his truck, driving off. Thankfully, he didn't even notice her.
She runs for Fang's front door, gently knocking on it.
"…"
After a short while, she rings the doorbell -repeatedly.
No answers. Max looks up to see all windows dark, no light is on.
No one must be home then.
And yet, he even offered to go with her.
Rude.
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At first, it seems quite odd that everything sounds so quiet. Her face of worry fades as soon as she finds the right house and sees that it is indeed not quiet at all. There is music literally blasting out of the windows and door creaks, that you could hear it from miles away.
The door is left open, perhaps for anyone to come in. Even strangers. Guess this guy doesn't care much of who attends his party. Max makes her way into the house and notices it's quite dark, only flashes of techicolor lights spinning everywhere in the room, hitting every single angle.
Everywhere she walks, dozens of people are literally dancing their feet off. Others are just sitting on couches either passed out or making out with their partner.
Where are they? Max thinks, starting to feel lonely since she knows no one in the room. Especially since she's not really used to being crowded in a small room with dozens of people she doesn't know.
"Excuse me" She mutters, placing a hand on someone's back gently pushing them to move. They don't notice her much, only after a friend of their accidentally shoves her, causing her to almost fall over the lamp that's on top of a glass shelf.
"Oops, sorry" The guy laughs, glancing back to her and then continues doing what he was doing.
"Move!" She yells at someone's face since they won't want to get out of their way just to let her pass
"Hey-hey, calm down princess" A guy giggles, giving his friends a nod to look at her. He gives her a dirty smile. She grimaces at their face expressions,
"pervs" She says under her breath.
Finally, she spots a doorway so she enters, taking her to a kitchen. She grabs one of the tall stools and sits on it, resting her elbow on the marble table.
Someone barges in the kitchen door, startling her. A girl giggling holding the hand of her boyfriend.
"Upstairs" She bites her lip and he nods quite dizzily with a cheeky grin. Both the girl and Max's eyes meet for a second.
"Oh, great" Max says, recognizing the girl. One of Lissa's best friends. She just hopes that if Lissa is here at the party, she won't bother her since she can be super annoying.
She sighs, starting to get bored. Well, at least no one is talking to her. Or trying to talk to her, that is. She's glad no random guy or girl is coming up to her wanting to tell her their problems or just looking to have a good time upstairs. She doesn't want to sleep with a random stranger. At first she thought she did, but now she's just neutral about it. And she doesn't care that some girl just got dumped by her boyfriend through a text message.
"This sucks. Why'd I even come here?" She complains, getting off the stool and heading towards the living room door where the main focus is.
"Wanna dance?" A random guy grabs her by the waist
"Lemme go" She pushes him off, knowing that he's drunk and way high since his eyes are red. His legs bump into the sofa making him fall over.
"I'm leaving!" She says, pushing people out of her way.
A familiar laugh is heard so she turns around. She could've sworn it was Iggy's. But then again, she doesn't know him much to recognize his laugh. The voice is what sounded familiar.
Two hands suddenly gently place themselves down her shoulders, making her gasp. Thinking it's another weirdo, she decides to speak up
"I said sto-" She stops as soon as she turns around and sees the person's face.
They grin.
"Okay, this makes my mouth hurt" He rubs his jaw. Max rolls her eyes, but still unaware of what to say.
"I hate smiling" He complains to himself, making her grin.
"I'm glad you came, Max" He touches her arm in a friendly manner.
"And I'm really sorry that I-"
"What?" Max shouts as a group of guys pass by her, almost sweeping her away.
Fang grabs her hand, helping her get out of the crazy crowd.
"I said I'm sorry I didn't pick you u-"
"Don't worry about it. I get it. No big deal"
"Well- He bites his lip, "-I was gonna come with you, but I didn't know if whether or not you already left with Nudge. Iggy gave her your address"
"Oh, right. Whatever" She heads into the kitchen.
"You're not mad are you? Look, Iggy literally just showed up at my doorstep and off we went"
"Hmm, interesting. So you were afraid to knock on my door and check? I see. Funny."
"No, I just…ugh, I'm sorry that you were waiting for me"
"Waiting for you?" She laughs, shaking her head. She grabs a random can of beer that someone left on the counter and smells it. She makes a face at the strong smell but decides to drink it up anyways. Fang watches and grimaces, "Don't, please" He rests her arm down with his hand so she'll stop.
"I'm thirsty!" She yells in his face, taking him aback.
"Then here" He bends down, looking for something under one of the cabinets. He lets it close by itself, handing her a soda from a box that hasn't been opened.
"What do you like live here or something?" She asks, confused as to how he knew where the stuff would be.
He shrugs. "Sooo, you're not mad are you?"
She takes a sip, "Eew, this is warm", setting it down.
"Where's Iggy?" She adds. "Somewhere" He answers casually.
'Wow, I thought you guys would be stuck like glue to each other"
He half smiles, "Nah, every time we go to hangout at places like this we always separate"
"Aw, why?" She sets her drink down on the table.
Fang shrugs, "'Cause…I dunno" He says.
"Aw I think you're in love" She giggles
He looks up at her all of a sudden, his eyes huge
"WHAT?"
Her response comes out as a huge cheeky grin, "I'm kidding!" She smiles.
"Oh Go- you're not starting with the whole gay thing again, are you?"
"No" She grins.
He shakes his head at her, putting two hands on her shoulders
"Max, I am not gay. Do you understand?" He looks into her eyes, clearly annoyed.
"Yeah yeah, whatever" she begins walking upstairs.
"Where are you going?" He asks.
"Bathroom!" She yells, looking behind her to see him still standing in the kitchen, leaning against the table.
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"Uh, hello?" She knocks the door once, then a second time, but louder. Since no one answers, she turns the knob, entering.
"Oh wait!-" A female voice stops her. Max turns around, "Are you just gonna use the bathroom?"
"No, I'm gonna look for some meds" She answers, "Can I come in too? I desperately need a mirror!" She begs.
"Sure" Max replies. Both girls go in. Max opens up each small drawer in a shelf leaning against the bathroom wall. She begins looking for some pain relievers.
"Ugh, not it" She murmurs, tossing the product aside back into the bin. She stands back up, after soon finding a small bottle of Aleve pills; she takes it along with the soda Fang handed her.
She sighs, "Why are these pills so big? They're so hard to swallow" She complains. The girl chuckles, "I know right" she glances at her, putting on some lip gloss.
Max glances at her and spots her cosmetics bag resting on the sink. She notices a bottle of foundation and remembers what her father told her
"Hey, can I borrow some of that?" She asks. The girl smiles, "Sure" as she hands it to her.
Max looks at herself in the mirror. Since it's a very wide mirror, there is more than enough room for two people to use it at once.
She sees the bruise starting to turn darker. The bruise she got from her father, when he slapped her near her lip. It was hard enough to create a mark a purple mark near her chin.
Luckily for her, the makeup matches her skin tone just right.
"No one will ever notice a thing" She screws the cap of the glass foundation bottle back on, leaving it on top of the girl's makeup bag.
"What?" The girl says, now adding more mascara
"Max hesitates, "Nothing. Just a small incident"
The girls turns to Max, "Ooh" She notices the bruise.
"You can still see it?" Max asks, worried.
"Not really, no- but I remember seeing you like earlier"
Max's face turns into that of dread and the girl sees.
"Hey, don't worry. I'm sure no one saw it" She says, making a pop sound with her lips.
"I broke up with my ex because he hit me once. Never saw him again. But I'm happy. I suggest you do the same with that boy over there-"
"Oh, he's not –he didn't do this. I told you, just a stupid accident"
She scoffs, "Yeah. And I'm a virgin" She puckers her lips, raising an eyebrow, obviously kidding about that, given her appearance.
The girl smiles, "'s never nice to be hurt" She gives Max one last look and exits the bathroom.
Worry and awe clash together in her insides. She looks back into the mirror then taking a deep sigh, opens he door and leaves. Although she should probably feel bad about the situation that just occurred, she's not. She's just glad Fang didn't notice it. Maybe it has to do with the fact that all the different colored lights faded out her real skin tone. Either that or he's been drinking a little to not notice.
Somewhere deep inside her though, she hopes that Fang hasn't noticed the purple mark on her chin.
She starts looking for Fang, wondering if he stayed where she left him.
No, who is she kidding? Fang isn't some puppy. Loyal and all.
He's a boy. And he's at a P-A-R-T-Y.
What do you think that means?
Obviously looking around for some easy-to-get girls.
"Ugh, shut up" She whines, grabbing her head. She knows he's not that type of guy. But why does she care is he is?
She shakes her head, smiling a bit as she arrives back at the kitchen where she was previously chatting with Fang. Well of course he wouldn't have stayed for you to finish using the bathroom! Who does that?
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Fang lays himself on a random bed in some random room he found. Feeling a bit tired and with a stomach ache, he decides to close his eyes and take a small rest.
He turns the lights from the lamp off, as it gives him a headache.
Then suddenly, a creak from the door of the room he's in is heard. He decides to ignore it though. Small footsteps are heard as they approach him.
The bed creaks and he just knows someone is trying to get his attention.
"What do you want?" He mutters, half asleep and eyes still closed.
"Max? Is that y-" He is cut off by a pair of lips smacking against his. Now that she's kissing him, he doesn't stop her. But maybe because he thinks it's a specific someone.
It is pitch black and neither can see. But this girl obviously followed him there, so she knows what Fang looks like.
"Mmm…" The girl moans out as their kiss suddenly turns more into a physical fierce one.
She lets go of his shirt and both her hands start trailing down Fang's jeans; his brows furrow as she starts to unzip them. Feeling like he's about to throw up makes him feel weak.
"Wait, st-" He stops, holding in his breath feeling a sudden rush in his throat. He puts a hand to his stomach and tries to get away to go find a trash bin or the nearest sink. The girl however, stops him. She grabs his arm, wanting to play a little longer and go to the next stop.
"Where you going?" She gives him the eyes of the devil along with a mischievous smile. She reaches down her white plain cami and takes it off, jumping on top of him faster than he can get out a reaction of this whole thing.
"Please, get off" They both freeze by the loud noise of the door banging against the wall, a form of rectangular light coming into the dark room as the door opens fully.
The lights switch on.
Max.
"Max-" Fang practically throws the girl off him as she runs to a corner with a pillow held to her naked chest.
"Never mind" Max mutters to herself, trying her best to just casually walk away from the whole scene. Given that she wants to run instead.
...
"Hey, wait!" He pants out, "-I've been looking everywhere for you" He says
"Well here I am" She says coldly. He notices, "Are you ok? Ca-"
"No Fang, I'm not okay! And if you were going to ask me if you could talk about this we cant! I really really don't care about what random girls you hookup with. I'm just not calm 'cause I feel like my damn head's about to explode, random perverts keep wanting to touch me and to top it all off you left me all alone knowing that I didn't know anyone in this party, they're all strangers! You know I'm not used to this type of scene" She rubs her temples, her elbows lying on the balcony of the stairs.
"Okay, first I just wanna say I'm sorry. Look, I wasn't feeling good so I had to lie down for a bit-"
"Oh, you were lying down alright" She coughs out with such scorn in her voice.
"What do you me-"
"You were under her control like a puppet"
"Would you stop cutting me off every five seconds? You never let me finish my sentences!"
Max's eyes widen and she turns to him, crossing her arms.
"So now you're the mad one now? Ugh! I should not have let you drag me into this! I'm in a lot of trouble just for stepping an inch out of my house! You think I wanted to come to this stupid party? I only came because you insisted! I thought-" She laughs, "-we were gonna have a nice time together! But that's not happening is it? Instead I find you with some topless slut!"
She puts a palm to her forehead feeling a sudden rush come to her head all over again.
"You know what, I try to be nice to you because I feel fucken sorry for you.-" He steps closer to her.
"I try to be your friend Max- your, your everything"
She whips her head to his direction after hearing this, looking surprised but saying nothing
"You think no one else notices why you're so weird at school? Why people haven't brought up anything about your visibly clear cuts or those bruises you try to hide so well, well they have! But you wanna know why they haven't ever bothered to come up to you to ask, it's because they don't care Max! Wake up! Look at the world we live in! Nobody cares about anybody anymore! These days you're either a loner or lucky enough to have few by your side. Bottom line, I want to mean something to you but I can't if you keep getting pissed at me every five minutes!"
Through his whole loud rant she has not once blinked. She has not once stopped starring at him either.
"Wow. Jerk" She says under her own now cracked voice. He gives her one last look, noticing water start to build up in her eyes. She runs down the hall, soon disappearing out of Fang's vision.
He leans his forehead against the wall in frustration, "stupid, stupid" He mutters to himself with his fists clenched.
"Hey girl"
Max turns around, the same girl from before who let her use her makeup on her bruise.
"You don't seem okay. What's wrong?" She nudges her shoulder gently with her beer bottle.
"It's nothing" Max leans her cheek against her knee. The other girl shrugs, taking a long jug of her beer down.
"Whatever. If you wanna talk about it, it's fine. I have nothing better to do. That guy in all black yours?"
Max turns to her, eyes all red as well as nose.
"No. We were never together."
"Interesting-" She takes another jug down.
"Why do you say that?" her brows furrow in confusion
The girl shrugs, "Dunno. For that fight, figured you guys were a couple or something"
Max chuckles, "No. He's just a friend. Or actually maybe he's not just a friend-" she pauses; now thinking.
The girl raises her eyebrow, finding the story interesting.
"Maybe he's just a person whose there. He says he cares"
"Does he show it?"
"What?" Max asks
"Does he show that he cares about you?"
She shrugs, "I dunno. What a hard question" She rubs her temples
She laughs, "Not hard at all hun. It's a simple question, very simple."
"Well I don't know that ok?"
"Geez, don't have to get all defensive"
Max sighs out, "Sorry, whatever. Just that, you made me think. Maybe he's just one of those people who come and go?"
The girl shrugs, "It's all up to you babe, whether you think that or not" She gets up, "Gotta go" She holds her cell to Max implying she got a text.
"Cool talkin' to ya" She smiles at Max, waving subtly as she runs off.
…
Soon she stands up, realizing that sitting there and moping over whatever it is she's feeling hurt by isn't going to take her anywhere.
She walks out the hallway downstairs and into the back door, leading her to the backyard. There she hears giggling and stops at the scene right ahead of her, through some thin silk curtains. The clearly sees the scenario, a guy and a girl being busy with each other. The guy's silhouette being somewhat similar to Fangs.
"I knew it" She says under grinded teeth. Without a second thought, she runs back inside the party to where all the loud music, screaming, and karaoke is.
"Move!" She pushes though a small crowd, not caring whether or not she's being rude. They give her a what the hell look but she couldn't care less about that.
She finds the same bathroom, stepping in and locking herself in. She practically attacks the small medicine cabinet just above the sink, not knowing what she's looking for but just digging through many different bottles and other small containers.
"No!" She suddenly shouts out as a bottle of pain relievers slips from her grip and smashes against the sink, the unsecured top causing the last few pills to fall down the drain.
"No, no, nooo" She falls back against the wall, her back sliding down as she throws the now useless empty bottle to a side.
Her vision falls to her ankle from where her sock rode down and few red cuts are on it. She looks at it in amazement. As if she had never seen them before. Maybe it's just the lighting though, maybe it makes them appear to be a much vibrant color. Certainly the red is not that all attention seeking.
She rolls up her jeans, seeing other scars on her calf; they don't stop anywhere near her knee. They go up her thigh and into the deepest part of her soul.
She rolls up the other leg of her jeans and sees that this leg is in much worse condition than the other. She puts a hand to her mouth.
No wonder he didn't wanna sleep with me!
Through all her agony she thinks that it's so funny how she's hurting over the fact that Fang didn't want to sleep with her before.
She thinks that she's a monster.
Just look at yourself. Scratches, cuts, bruises, scrapes, cuts, scars…..not one single area of my body is flawless. I think I'm so innocent because I'm still a virgin but I'm not at all, not like this. I'm just a monster.
"It's just like Fang said, nobody cares about me"
She drifts off to sleep on the bathroom floor, her back leaning against the wall, and her facing the toilet, idly watching the white tiles behind it.
…
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Max wakes up soon though as the loud clatter of maybe a vase or something made of glass has rough contact against the non-carpeted floor.
She rubs her eyes and fans herself knowing falling asleep next to a toilet was not the smartest thing to do.
She gets herself up, unlocking the door and stepping out.
"Um, hey do you have the time?" She sounds a little off balance as she approaches a guy.
"11:17!" The person shouts over everyone's loud chatter. She finds it unbelievable of how these people can stay up so lively all night.
"Hey-"
Thinking it's Fang calling her, Max turns around with a small pint of hope.
"-Where ya going?"
It's not him, she realizes.
"Me?" She puts a hand to her chest.
"No, the girl behind you" He laughs with his friends.
She turns back around, "jackass" she says underneath her breath.
…
"You seem pretty lonely, wandering around here by yourself" Another stranger's voice calls out.
Max disregards him, continuing to make her way through the crowd back to the upstairs portion of the house.
"Where are your friends? Or did you come alone?" He asks, standing up and approaching her.
"Please don't follow me" She mutters. He however, does not take any action to stop.
"You know…-" He grabs her hand, getting her attention.
"I could show you a good time" He whispers in her ear, finally getting close enough to do so.
She's flustered, avoiding his eye contact as he slowly surrounds her with himself and a wall.
"Bet I could make you all hot and sweaty" He whispers again, "Sowhatdyasay?" He asks in a fast tone, seeming very eager and just knowing she'll cave in to him.
"I say…don't ever touch me again-"
As she starts walking away, she's stopped by the back of her top being tugged at.
"C'mon baby, be with me tonight" He flashes a smile.
"I don't even know you" She glares at him, trying to make him let go of her shirt.
"After this night, you'll know everything about me babe…and I you"
"Don't talk to me like that"
"Heyhey calm down-" He reassures her, "I don't wanna hurt you, I just wanna know you" he gets closer
"Well I don't wanna know you"
This is officially one of the most awkward moments she's ever been in. She doesn't know if she should scream at the top of her lungs –would that sound a bit too exaggerated? It's not like he's murdering her after all. Or should she just go with the flow? Make him think that he's lucky and then kick him in the nuts last minute to run away from this perverted creep.
…
"Have you seen Max?" He asks some random girl, "Who?" She looks at him like he's crazy.
"Girl, about 5"6 more or less, light brown hair?"
She rolls her eyes, giving off a small laugh at his inquiry; she exhales the smoke through her nose towards him, laughing her butt off.
He coughs a bit.
"No, but do you wanna smoke one with me?" She hands her cigarette to him.
"No thanks" He moves on to another person.
"Hey, have you seen a girl with wavy light brown hair, she's abou-"
"Is she hot? 'Cause if soo…" The guy answers out, shrugging while sending him a reckless smirk.
Fang looks at him like he just said the most stupid thing in the world, "Never mind" He says quietly to himself, walking away.
"Max?" He calls over the crowd.
"Max!" His voice goes a bit louder this time.
"Whoa, sorry-"
"Fang!" The girl's eyes go wide as she sends him a bashful and flirty grin.
"Lissa…." His voice trails off, taking in her appearance. He grimaces a bit as she continues to smile at him, placing her hand on his chest. He was just never really the type of guy who liked easy-to-get girls or girls that sold themselves cheap.
"You wanna hang?" Her long fake lashes bat at him.
"Can't.-" She grabs his arm, "Why? Stay." She leans in and he hesitates, grabbing a random dude next to him, making her bump foreheads with him.
"Fang!" She calls out, pissed that he rejected her kiss.
…
"…so whatdya say let's just get outta here?" He tries to be gentle but is very demanding and forceful to her.
"I told you already, leave me alone" She gets out of his grip finally.
"Hey, just chill. I said I wasn't gonna hurt you. What's your name?" he smiles at her.
"I told you, stop it"
"I'll pay you" The guys says suddenly
Max stops and turns to look at him, "I would never do that"
"Your price. Just name it" He smiles, "20 bucks? 50? 100? 200?"
"You don't have that type of money" She says.
He raises an eyebrow, "So does that mean you're interested?"
"I don't need your money, I'm not interested. I'm just con-confused" She reaches for her forehead, the pain starting all over again.
"You need help" He says.
She looks at him,
"I see a lot of things in you. You live a life of pain"
She looks at him with such dread, "I don't know what you're talking about"
"So why not…just let the pain drift away for one night?"
"No." She puts the tips of her fingers to her temples
"You don't know anything about me. You're just a creep, don't ever talk to me again" She runs to some bathroom, pushing a girl out of the way
"Say excuse me bitch" The girl says, giving her a nasty look.
She disregards it, and knocks on the bathroom.
"It's locked. Great" She sighs out.
"Um, where's the bathroom?" She asks another guy.
"Right in front of you" He says, sounding all high with his eyes red and puffy.
"I mean another one?" She corrects herself.
He shrugs, making her walk away knowing he won't be of much help.
She stops in front of a door.
A room, thank you!
Opening it, she looks for a bathroom or sink somewhere. She knows she can just go outside and let it out in the bushes or something but it's not really her style at all, plus she'd feel super uncomfortable just barfing in front of random strangers, she'll just freeze.
"Yes, a bathroom!" She cheers, rushing for the door.
She turns the sink on and splashes her face with cold water, feeling refreshed all of a sudden.
"Need a towel" She mutters but literally stops as soon as the room goes dark.
Someone switched off the lights.
A door closes shut, making her jump.
"Hello?" She asks, forgetting about the towel thing.
"Fang? Is that you?"
She leaves the bathroom and starts to blindly navigate her way to the front door of the bedroom, her arms spread in front of her to feel her surroundings.
But then there are quiet footsteps and she hears them.
Her heart starts to quicken, "Fang, if that's you it's so not funny" She backs away and hits a wall.
"That's not funny" She says in a breathy voice. Something touches her leg and she gasps out frightened running anywhere in a panicked rush. She trips though over something hard on the floor and comes falling forward as her forehead comes in a rough contact with the wooden bed post. She falls to the floor, unconscious.
An hour and 38 minutes later
Her eyes finally open up as her brain starts functioning clearly again. She sits herself up, the lights being switched on. She now fully remembers what had happened.
Oh no….she thinks in worry, panicked.
Did they?...Did I? No no, this can't b-
She stops her thinking, gasping as someone brushes against her arm. She looks down to them, not knowing there was someone lying beside her.
"Fang?" She shouts with widened yes, clearly shocked.
Immediately he awakens, coming instantly back to his senses as well.
"Max-" He rubs his eyes, "are you alright? I just found you sleeping here so I waited till you woke"
She sees it in his eyes how worrisome he seems to be towards her.
"I-I don't, I don't know" She says, thinking what had happened not more than two hours ago.
"You're starting to worry me, Max" He says.
"It's because I don't-" Her voice cracks, "I just don't know!" She falls back onto the bed spread.
"Oh, God!" She starts crying.
"Max, what's wrong?"
"There was someone…" She looks up at him through watery eyes, her vision starting to blur.
"Someone?" He asks. She nods, "There was a guy from earlier, and he wouldn't leave me alone. He…he wouldn't stop bothering me" She says in a breathy voice that's about to breakdown.
"Wait, wait…what are you saying?"
"No….no. I wasn't Fang"
"You weren't?" He asks, confusion defining his face.
"I wasn't! I wasn't! Oh God…" She sobs in her hands.
"I went blank after a while and I don't know what happened…" She continues crying silently, tears streaming down her face, but no noise coming out.
He looks at her with a face of pure horror, "I don't believe-"
"I don't want to believe it!" She cries out. He searches her eyes, "I'm not gonna say it's okay, because it's not. But please know that you're safe now" He grabs her head and puts it to his chest, she doesn't resist. Instead, she silently cries, using his chest as support; all her tears making his shirt damp.
"You wanna get out of here?" He asks, grabbing her shoulder gently and looking her in the eyes. She nods, her eyes very red.
He stands up, off the bed and makes his way to the other side of the bed, giving her a hand. He stands there patiently, waiting for her to grab it.
"I'll never hurt you" He says, reassuring her.
Though Fangs trying his hardest to be very sensitive and caring to her, these words make her want to barf and scare her because he's not the first person to tell her that.
She remembers those words the guy told her.
Hey, just chill. I said I wasn't gonna hurt you. What's your name?
Fang sighs out, feeling useless all of a sudden. He thinks….and comes to an understandment with himself that this is his entire fault. He did drag Max into coming to this party. And he left her alone, twice.
"I feel like killing myself" He says. Max turns to him from the bed, looking up at him from his standing position.
He bends down to his knees, "C'mon, lets' go" He tells her in the gentlest voice. She gives him his hand, getting off the bed but stumbles a little in trying to keep her balance.
He gives her a you ok? Look but before he can say anything, her cheeks puff up, just a bit. He realizes what she's about to do and runs her to the bathroom down the hall.
"Not here" He mutters, barging the bathroom door open. He opens up the toilet lid and she bends down while he grabs her hair.
She looks past him, eyeing someone and he notices so he gets up and shuts the door closed so she can have her privacy.
She begins retching and couching into the toilet, nothing coming out except her own saliva spit. He grabs some toilet paper, giving her some. She wipes her mouth
"You really finished?" He asks. She nods but then shakes her head and vomits into the toilet.
Fang starts to rub her back in soothing motions, "You'll be okay" He whispers, still holding her hair up.
"You'll be okay" He repeats in a quieter voice, but not to her.
This time he says it to himself, as if to reassure himself. As calm as he may seem right now on the outside or as calm as he's trying to be, on the inside he's having a panic attack.
"You're good?" He asks as she reaches for the handle of the flush.
"I'll do it" He gets up faster than her. He knows she feels both physically and emotionally weak right now. And he knows exactly why.
"Are you cold?"
She nods her head.
"Uhh, I don't have my jacket. Crap" He grabs her out of instincts and pulls her gently close to his chest. She huddles close to him, folding her legs and trying to keep as warm as she can.
"Oh-" He says, realizing something.
"I'll go get some blankets or something from the bedrooms-" He turns around, seeing her stopping him from getting up as she grabs the back of his shirt.
"Or not" he says to himself, sitting back down and hugging her to keep her warm.
"I'd give you my shirt, but I'd be freezing my ass off" He tells her, trying to make her laugh. She only smiles the slightest bit however and lies her head down in between his legs. He tenses up a bit, "probably the most uncomfortable thing you could do to me right now" he mutters under his breath, but just shakes off all those hormonal feelings aside.
"Max, you're not…" He sighs out, trying to find the correct words to finish his sentence.
"You're not some monster…."
Now it is Max who tenses and she looks up at him, giving him a long good stare.
Did he read her mind or something? How could he know she was thinking that?
"And I'm an idiot. An asshole, you name it. I'm a jerk for saying those things I said before. I'm so sorry, I really am. See, I don't know what's gonna happen from now on, but I do know this, it'll only get better. Someday, it will. Believe me" He stops, clearing his voice. She stares at his one tear that trails down his face and tracks it down till it falls on her own cheek, then trailing down her face.
As if they cried the same tears. Share the same pain.
"I promise you it will get better. And the only thing I don't regret from what I said earlier was wanting to be your everything. Well…I wasn't lying."
Max stretches an arm out and touches the side of his face with her palm, feeling his hot and moist cheek.
"My scars make me ugly" She confides to him, finally speaking.
He looks down at her, "They don't…without them you'd be some totally different person. You wouldn't be the Max you are today"
"You're right-" She says, her hand falling down to his chest.
"I'd be a much happier Max"
"You're not a blank canvas, Max. I get it. You wish to be like other girls, but you're not. You'll never be as confident as Lissa or happy as Nudge because that's them. You've gotta be your own person."
"Well, if there's no confidence or happiness in me then there's only ugliness. I see it, Fang. I see it everyday in the mirror. On my body…it's everywhere. If you were to look at me naked, you'd only see one thing Fang. And it's not what most guys like. And it's not what most girls want to be"
"That's not tr-"
"Fang, look at me!" She sits up, off his lap, spreading her arms wide apart.
"I see you" He tells her in his serious tone, "But I don't see anything wrong"
She starts unzipping her pants but he stops her, "And I don't need to" he whispers, placing his hand over hers.
"If what you say is so true Max, then why is it that the only thing I see sitting right in front of me beauty?"
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Thank you for your previous reviews :] I hope you review this chapter as well, please :]