Fang POV

Dr.M and I drove to Phoenix despite the chaos, as seen on the news. For the entire 2 hours it took to get from Tuscon to Phoenix, Dr. Martinez lectured me about my behavior.

"Ever since you joined the basketball team you have become this unbearable, selfish, ungrateful-", she stopped her rant to glance at me. Noticing I wasn't paying attention, and normally I would just to say some smart ass comment but my heart hurt too much to care. I couldn't stand the look on everyone's faces when I told them Max left and why. "-teenage boy who just lost the love of his life." She sighed, "Look Fang, I know you love Max a lot but, you've got to start showing it. This past week is a prime example of how you should treat her on the regular basis. If you act like an insensitive douche all the time, that's what you'll start ot become. Am I right?"

I could see where Dr. M was coming from on this. I wasn't always such a douche I only started acting this way because thats the way all the other players act on the team and if I didn't start acting like them, coach would have cut me from the team.

We didn't talk for the rest of the ride, the silence wasn't awkward but it wasn't comfortable either. Kinda like with Max. When we first started dating and even before, we didn't have to talk all of the time. Our silence spoke for us and it was comfortable. Over the years as our relationship, er-um for lack of a better word, grew, the silence grew louder too. Almost deafening. Because we didn't talk often, when we were together tension was relevant. It wasn't awkward per say, just really frustrating. Our conversations became shorter and shorter, as did our temper. The silence was much too loud for both of us to bear. So loud in fact that our first fight started with a whisper.

Max said something, very quietly, almost as if she said under her breath but she wanted me to hear her. What she said was indecipherable and I automatically dismissed it, because I was so immune to hearing her talk. Little did I know I was about to become reaquainted with her voice.

~flashback~

Max looked up from the book she was reading to glare at me from across the room. It was a Saturday afternoon, everyone else was outside on this glorious day but I was inside spending quality time with my girlfriend. "I said 'Do you think we have communication issues?'!" Max growled at me while throwing a pillow at my face to catch my attention. "Max?! What the hell?!" I yelled back her. She stood up, "See Fang, this is exactly what I'm talking about! we never talk anymore!" I blinked, astonished by the fact that this was our first legitimate fight, and I wanted to win it.

~end flashback~

I shuddered as I recalled that moment; from then on, everything in our relationship went downhill. We couldn't be in the same room with each other for more than an hour without getting into a screaming match. That started about the same time I joined basketball and Max joined drama. I didn't have time to go to her showcases or plays, just like she didn't have time to go to my games. Our arguments became more heated but not once did we break up. I began to feel kind of bad about it because our family was suffering because of it. We couldn't enjoy movie night, with all of us present because of me and Max.

Oh and that night of the party, that was possibly the worst fight we had and it wasn't even a valid fight just a semi-heated discussion that turned into a fight with no boundaries. Any pressure point we could hit, we hit it.

~flashback~

I was in Max's room while she was in the shower, it sounds creepy but I swear it's not. She had changed it a lot since the last time I had been in here. Max had tons of pictures around her room, some of me and her, the Flock, but most of them were of her friends. As I took more notice to the pictures I noticed a recurring face. He was next to Max and all of her friend's photos and there were some of just him and Max. Like the one at the Winter ball that I did not go to, but apparently Max did with this guy, Jason I think. It was taken during the middle of a slow dance, he held her against himself with his hand just above her backside. In another, Max and Jason were sitting on a park bench, he had his arm around her, and they were sitting too close for my comfort. These were not the only pictures of them, because as I glanced around I saw that there were more photos of Jason and Max than there was of Max and I. That pissed me off.

Max came in her room in just a towel, and although if I was thinking clearly I would've been more distracted by that, my pride got the best of me. "Who is this?" I asked before she could even say anything. She squinted and came closer to me to see the picture I was holding up. "That's Jason, a friend of mine. Fang-" "Don't change the subject Maximum." I ended in a dead tone that made her shut up. "Is he your new boyfriend? Because golly gee Max wouldn't I like to know."

Max cocked her head and gave me a 'seriously?' look. She looked around her room, at all the pictures she had and her eyes fell back on me. The incredulous look in her eyes matched her slacked jaw. Max turned away from me and began to dress in her pajamas, speaking to me from across her room. Her voice was quiet as she spoke, "Fang, if you're implying that I am cheating on you, you have another thing coming." I rolled my eyes, already done with this conversation. I did not come here for this. "First of all, Jason is Suzanna's boyfriend that posed with me for a photo shoot that Suzanna conducted for her Photography final." She pulled up her shorts, "Second, do you think I'm stupid? Fang, if I were cheating on you do you honestly believe that I would have pictures of that person all over my room?" It was rhetorical question but I knew a part of her wanted me to answer it. By now, her pajamas were on and her hair was up. "Lastly," Max's voice got really quiet now. "Do you think I would cheat on you? Honestly? I mean come on Fang, really? Yes, we have issues that we need to work out but I would never, EVER hurt you like that. EVER."

Max shook her head as she grabbed her chemistry book and sat on her bed. I groaned from my place in her room and facepalmed so hard. I am so done with the fights. How do you relationship like this?

I sat on the edge of her bed and laid on my back, lowering my hands to my chest. Max glanced at me briefly before going back to studying. I sighed, choosing my words very carefully, "Do you want," I started slowly. "To go to a party with me?" I asked her without looking at her. Max glanced at me, "Uh, yeah sure. When is it?" I chuckled a bit before getting up to leave, "Tonight. So get changed 'cause it starts in like an hour." Max thought for a second. "Sorry I can't. I have a huge lab in chemistry tomorrow."

I pivoted to my lovely girlfriend. "Listen, Max. I don't want to fight, now come on and get dressed," I tried again. "Who says we're gonna fight? I just said I'm not going." I sighed, "Max, you and I both know that whenever one of us does something that the other doesn't like we always end up fighting-" "Only if the subject needs to be discussed. This does not need to be discussed." "So what? What's important to me isn't up for discussing?" This time it was Max who sighed, "No, Fang. You're not listening." "No I think you're not listening to me! Figures." I ended with an eyeroll. Max turned her head to face me and got up from her seat on her bed. "What's that supposed to mean?" I smirked, although I did not want this to happen I couldn't help but get more ticked off. "Oh nothing, Maxie! Just that in our relationship, even if you do something stupid Ialways end up apologizing for it!" "OH SHUT UP!" I could tell that Max had had enough. "You can be so melodramatic sometimes! I swear I liked it better when you didn't talk! You're always bitching about something. Just because, what? You think you're better than everyone? NO FANG, YOU'RE NOT!" "WHY THE HELL ARE YOU YELLING AT ME? I DID NOTHING BUT STATE MY OPINION ABOUT OUR RELATIONSHIP! ISN'T THAT HOW COMMUNICATION WORKS?!"

Our voices were overlapping each other. she said something about how I wouldn't know a thing about communication if someone told me. Then I said something about her being a narcissistic bitch and we kept going. Spewing below the belt insults at each other, never really hearing the other person. Not caring about each others feelings, losing our minds.

At some point her mom came in, "Alright," she said at first. We ignored her as our love slipped into hatred. "ALRIGHT!" We stopped yelling at the sound of her voice. Dr. Martinez pinched the bridge of her nose. "I don't care what happened this time," she started calmly. "I don't. I do know that you two need to separate." Max and I looked down at the forcefulness of her voice. "I just got home from work, and I was naive enough to think I'd for once come home to some peace and quiet but no. What do I hear as soon as I pull into our driveway? You too at each other's necks!" She pointed to Max's open window and then at both of us. "Fang, go to your party-without Max. Max we need to talk." I glared at Max and before I left I said, "Have a shit ton of fun talking to your chemistry book, Maximum."

~end flashback~

That night at the party, I was drunk off of my feelings. My endothermic feelings made me really, desperate to say the least. More desperate for Max than anyone else. Kamryn was just more of a rebound, even though Max and I weren't over, it felt like we were. I knew she liked me because she flirted with me all the time, plus she was the only girl at the party who didn't care that I had a girlfriend.

She didn't help me get over Max, and deep down I knew she wouldn't. As I flew home from the party, I weighed the pros and cons of being with Max, and I realized that being with her was not an option for me. I need her.

When I got home that night, the house was empty and dark except for a solitary light in Max's window. I burst through the front door and ran to her room. "Max! Wake up!" I blurted as I shook her awake. "Fang, what the hell?" I hugged her, kissing her shoulders as I rocked her from side to side. She hugged me back slowly but to be fair I didn't give her much room to move her arms. "Maxie, you're still mine. Right?" She didn't say anything, I knew she was considering what I was saying. "Max, I am in love with you. I always have, and I always will." I let her go and sat crossed legged in front of her. She stared at me intently. "It's just that- sometimes I forget just how much I love you, and how much you mean to me; which is a lot. So I act like an insensitive prick and push our relationship to the edge of a cliff that falls to an abyss of oblivion. And I don't want us to end up like that, I don't want our love to be forgotten, by anyone, especially us." I put my hand on her neck, using my thumb to rub the tears that were falling and running down her cheeks. "Max, we have had a lot of issues lately but I am willing to fix them if you are. Are you?" She nodded and pulled me in for a hug. "Fang, I love you so so much!"

Max and I stayed up that night just talking, about the issues we had. Although, we never really solved them because we were not going to fight again, that was a mistake. For the rest of that week and until yesterday we have been inseparable. Of course that was part of the problem. Our silence at that point was awkward and uncomfortable, so we filled it with make-out sessions, and incessant banter. But we would never really talk about anything because actually talking would lead to fighting, which would lead to the inevitable, breaking up. And since, neither of us wanted that to happen -even though we both knew it needed to- we made small talk which was never our specialty. It was either that or talk about the real stuff, Max and I both knew that there was only one more fight left in us before we ended it. How I wish I'd knew about that picture.


I sat lost in my thoughts of Max as Dr. Martinez and I drove through Phoenix. The city was in despair. Buildings were still burning and the people were no where to be found. We drove past a Starbucks that seemed to be overly crowded, considering the size. "Okay, we'll circle back this way and get out over there," Dr. M said while pointing in the direction of the previously mentioned Starbucks. We pulled up to the coffee shop and were about to get out. I recognized a faint ticking sound, but before I could warn Dr. M, the building with the Starbucks exploded.

I am so sorry! This story is far from being over and I've kind of left you stranded in the middle. Sorry again!