The ice-cream mountain

Three months ago . . .

"Fang, what's wrong?" Iggy asked Fang as they walked back from school together. Even though both knew how to drive, they preferred walking – a tradition they had carried out since elementary school.

"What? Nothing's wrong." Fang said, tightening his grip on his backpack. It seemed especially heavy today. Lately, everything seemed heavy – objects he tried to carry, his head, his body . . .

"Don't bullshit me, Fang." Iggy said, annoyed. "I know something's up. You look like shit, your grades are slipping, you're avoiding me and our friends, what the hell is going on?"

"Nothing's going on." Fang insisted. "I'm fine."

Iggy looked skeptically at him. "Fang, seriously mate, what's going on? I'm your best friend – or at least, I thought I was. I thought we were supposed to tell each other everything. I even told you that I liked Ella for crying out loud – I didn't even tell Dylan about that."

Iggy stopped walking and turned Fang around by the shoulder so that they were facing each other. He left his hand on Fang's shoulder.

"Fang, I-I'm worried about you. Ever since you broke up with Maya, you've been acting strangely. What's going on?" Iggy looked at Fang, his blue eyes burning intensely into Fang's black ones.

Fang looked away. "It's nothing, it's just that –"

"Yes?"

"I mean, I don't really –"

"Uh-huh?"

"It's just that sometimes I –" Fang shook his head. "You know what? Never mind. I'm sure it's nothing. Don't worry about it."

He turned to continue walking, but Iggy's firm grip held him back.

"That's it? You won't tell me? I'm you're fucking best friend! I care about you! Why can't you see that?"

"I'm fine." Fang hissed. "There's nothing wrong. And anyway, even if there was something wrong, you can't help. No one can help me."

"You think you can do it alone? That's crap! I don't know what you're going through right now, but I'm willing to help if only you'd just tell me what the fuck is going on!"

"No." Fang set his jaw in defiance.

"Fine! Be like that! Call me when you fucking want to be my best friend again and fucking tell me what's going on!" And with that, Iggy stormed off leaving Fang very much alone.

This had consumed his life, it had taken away his good grades, his social life, his free time, and now it had taken his best friend and for the first time, Fang wondered if it was even worth it anymore?


"So, what's up?"

Fang and Max were sitting opposite each other in a liquorice-red booth at the ice-cream parlour Nudge had been talking about.

"Same old, same old." Max replied.

"Cool."

Nudge and Gazzy were twenty minutes late and Fang and Max (especially Max) were getting impatient.

Fang was jiggling his leg impatiently, and Max kept doing drum solos on the table with the packets of sugar in the box on the side of the table. She had already burst three.

"Where are those guys?" Max asked, brushing the sugar off her fingers and pulling out her phone. "Nudge said two o' clock, on the dot. Well, it's almost two thirty and they still aren't here."

"Maybe they got lost." Fang supplied helpfully.

"But Nudge was the one who suggested coming here in the first place!" Max said exasperated, texting furiously into her phone. "I'm gonna ask her where she is."

A moment later her phone beeped. Max flipped it open:

Lol, Gaz and I rnt coming – I set it up so tht u n Fang wld b alone togthr! Hahaha, now go make some 3 wid Fangy ;D

Max paled as she stared at her phone.

"What'd she say?" Fang asked, leaning over to read the text message.

"No!" Max cried, clutching her phone to her chest. "Uh, I mean Nudge said that she and Gazzy couldn't come. They had something to do."

"Oh." Fang said, sitting back in his seat. "So, d'you wanna just go then?"

"What, so I'm not good company then?" Max asked, affronted.

"What, no! I just thought that you wouldn't want to hang out with me alone." Fang muttered, looking down at his hands in his lap.

Aww! He's so cute when he's embarrassed. Max cooed. Arrgh! Shuddup, brain.

"So, I'm gonna go order some ice-cream. Anything you want?" Max asked, getting up.

"Nah, I'm good."

A few minutes later, Max and Fang stared entranced at the ice-cream mountain sitting in front of them, barely supported by the glass sundae cup it was in. Fresh strawberries and cherries littered the top of the mountain and chocolate sauce was drizzled generously over the whole thing.

"Woah, that is one big ice-cream. How much did you order?" Fang asked.

"Well, there was a special – twenty flavours for twenty dollars."

"Twenty? How on earth do you expect to finish it?"

"With lots of difficulty. Oh well, it was worth the money." Max shrugged as she dug into the side of the mountain with a spoon.

"Don't you want some?" Max asked through a mouthful of cookie dough ice-cream.

Fang smirked. "Nah, it's much more entertaining to watch you eat. How can such a small girl eat so much?"

"I dunno," Max mumbled through her ice-cream. "Practice?"

Fang chuckled.

After ten minutes, Fang stared speechlessly at Max, amazed.

The mountain of ice-cream had been conquered.

"Aaah!" Max exclaimed, standing up and patting her stomach. "That was nice."

"What, I can't even - arrgh." Fang spluttered.

"I better go for a walk to burn it off. Join me?"

"Sure." Fang said, still shocked at how Max had devoured the whole mountain in barely ten minutes. By herself.

They walked through the local neighborhood, just - well - talking.

They got to know each other, more so than when they hung out at school This was different. This time they were by themselves without Nudge or Gazzy.

Fang unconsciously put his hand in Max's when they crossed the road, (Max said nothing, but had blushed profusely) and forgot to remove it so now they were walking hand in hand, down the sidewalk in the warm spring air.

Max told him of how her mother had died in a car accident one rainy day and how, even after ten years, she still missed her.

Fang told Max of how his parents were almost never around, and when they were they were arguing. He worried that they would split up.

Max told him how she first found out she had cancer when, on a routine check-up at the doctors when she was five, they had found that her white blood cell count was high. The next thing she knew, she had been diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and going in and out of hospitals, visiting doctors, coming home exhausted every day.

Fortunately, she had a slow-progressing disease and didn't need treatment for almost seven years, going for frequent check ups to monitor the disease.

But then, she began feeling sick all the time. Her once hearty appetite left her, she felt hot and shivery and she got pains in her abdomen.

The doctors decided to treat her with chemotherapy.

And eventually, it worked.

Of course, by the time she was well enough to do anything, she had already missed out on almost a year of schoolwork, moved to an entirely different city, lost contact with all her friends and had to repeat Year Eleven.

She felt exhausted from fighting the disease for so long and irritated that she had let it affect her life so much.

And even now, it was still affecting her life. The possibility that it could come back at any moment scared her. She didn't know if the cancer was gone for good, she could only hope that it stayed out of her life for good, or at least long enough to let her live her life to the fullest.

Fang put an arm around Max's shoulder in an awkward but warm side hug and told her how brave she was.

Max learnt that Fang's favourite colour was green, but that he always wore black because it was supposed to make you look slim.

Fang learnt that Max loved dogs and cats, but was allergic to both.

They talked for hours, wandering aimlessly around the streets until they reached a park.

Excited, Max pulled Fang along and plopped herself onto a swing, Fang sitting on the one beside her.

They swung lazily on the swings, the old chains creaking under their weight, watching the oranges and reds and golds of the sunset swirl together in the evening sky.

"The sunset's beautiful." Max said, looking up at the sky.

"Yeah, you are." Fang breathed.

"What?"

"Err, I see a car."

Max looked at Fang, a bewildered expression on her face. "Uh, okay."

They sat there like that for a while, in comfortable silence, bathing in the warm glowing of the day's last rays of the sun.

"Okay, I think I should take off." Said Max, getting up and stretching. "My dad's gonna freak if I get home too late."

"Yeah, me too." Fang said, brushing off his jeans as he stood up.

"D'you want a ride home?" Max asked, taking out her phone and texting. "I'm gonna ask my dad to pick me up."

"No, that's okay." Fang said. "I live close by – I'll just walk home."

"This was nice." Max smiled up at Fang.

"Yeah, it was." Fang agreed. He couldn't tear his eyes away from her.

"We should do it again sometime."

"Yeah, we should."

They stood there like that, just staring at each other, a light breeze ruffling Max's curls, pushing them into her face.

Fang had the sudden urge to brush the curls out of her face.

"So, bye." Max said.

"Yeah, bye." Fang said, but neither of them moved.

Fang pushed all thoughts out of his head, and leaned down – just as Max turned around.

His lips brushed her eyelid.

Realising that he had missed, he quickly stepped away.

Max turned back to Fang, her eyes wide. "Were – were you going to kiss me?"

"Uh, no." Fang denied, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "I just uh, wanted to smell your hair because I wanted to know what shampoo you use – it smells really nice. I just missed and got your eyelid instead."

"I don't wash my hair – it's a wig." Max said, raising her eyebrow at him.

"Oh yeah, uh." Fang said. "Well, the wig making place sure makes nice smelling, er wigs. Maybe you could give me their address sometime and uh, I could buy one." Mentally, he face palmed himself. Wig making place? Really?

"Sure," Max smirked. "Well, see you round."

"Yeah, see you." Fang watched her leave, swinging her hips slightly, her pale skin glowing in the sunlight.

And as she walked further and further away, he couldn't help but feel disappointed.


Dear reader,

Disappointed?

More plot is coming in next couple of chapters, so stick around ;D

Rock on,

Necrophobia :)