A/N: Finally, the much-awaited chapter is here! The second to the last chapter of this story! YES!


Chapter 8

Fang

Honestly, it was like going back in time. Instead of taking Max, I was giving her back.

Let her go. I should let her go. Leave the past and live the present. Those were my thoughts during that trip. And I really should let her go. It's not good to keep her with me. Like that saying, "If you love something, let it go. If it comes back, you deserve it. If it doesn't, it wasn't meant to be."

It hurt. It still does. Nothing good ever comes out when you sneak out at night and leave a token as a goodbye. Which I did to Max. She must be hating me right now. Not that I blame her.

So what really did happen? You must be asking that. Even I question it.


It only took hours to get from Washington to Arizona. Then another two hours by bus to get to Mesa, Arizona.

Max's face was of excitement and relief. She really wanted to be here in Mesa. Maybe I did get a little jealous because of her mom. I never knew mine, you know.

"I want to surprise them," she said, her voice was full of elation. I could only say yes to her. It was hard not to say no when it was my first time seeing that kind of look in her face. And I wanted see that look more often.

I don't mean to offense Max or anything, but her surprise was not a surprise at all. See, Dr. M's house is a kinda like a California bungalow house. You know, when you stand in front of the house, the front door is in the middle with a rather large window in each side of the door. And the windows don't happen to have curtains or window blinds. So of course the people inside the house would see who was outside perfectly.

Before she could push the doorbell, the door opened and Ella hugged her right away. Dr. M was hanging back and holding the door. Behind her, Ari had his arms crossed and leaning against the wooden stair railings. Even though his face was scowling, I could feel that he wanted to hug Max too.

And I, as usual, just stood there and watched the interesting family "reunion." This family just saw each other last Christmas! I had no right to voice my complaints, however.

Ella finally pulled back and wiped her tears. Max smiled like a sister who loves her younger sibling would. My heart started beating faster. I rarely saw that smile.

I turned my head away and met Ari's stare. Ari blinked and looked away. He must have seen the way I looked at Max. Every person I know probably know how I feel about Max except Max herself.

Ella told us to come in and I followed behind Max. After Ella, Dr. M attacked Max and Max started to burst into tears. Could this family get any weirder? I almost rolled my eyes upward.

After a few minutes of crying, hugging, and wiping each other's snot, Ari gave Max a simple pat on the shoulder and stood beside me. I looked down at him. I felt like hugging him for being such a man. But you know I don't hug people. I turned back to the three women smiling at each other.

"Why did you bring her here?" The voice beside me asked.

"She wanted to be here."

I felt Ari's stare at me. "You do whatever she wants?"

I looked at him. "You'd the same."

Ari shook his head. "No. No, I wouldn't."

"Are you sure?" I asked him.

But he avoided my question. Instead he answered with a question. "You wanna know why?" I didn't say anything. He continued, "Because she's Max. She hates people who give her whatever she wants."

True. "She hates me, then."

This time, Ari grinned. "You're not even close. And Dylan said you're smart."

He laughed all the way up the stairs.

What?


I knew Dr. M would want to know why we were here the minute she finished with Max. She practically grilled with me her questions. Oh, the typical questions most fathers ask like, "Did you do something to her?", "Did you touch her?", "Is she hurt?", "You two didn't do anything, did you?", and "Why is she here?".

(I can't even touch Max even if I wanted to! She's like one of those paintings by famous painters. She's like Mona Lisa.)

Dr. M really is exceptional. Most of my answers were No. The only question I had to explain was the "Why is she here" question. Actually, now that I think about it, Max answered that question. She said the same reason that persuaded me to bring her here in Mesa.

When Max asked if she could stay here in her mother's house, all three agreed. Ella suggested that I could stay too. Almost immediately, I wanted to say yes. My heart wanted to.

But my conscience was saying to me no. Even if I did say no, Max was sitting beside me. I couldn't say no to her. What with those brown eyes of hers did to me; it was impossible. I nodded yes.

Then Max smiled gratefullly. She hugged me too. Oh, God, I thought. Please don't let her hear my heart. I was pressed so tightly to her that I knew she could feel my heart beat. I awkwardly patted her back instead of hugging her back.

Ella gave me two thumbs up and Dr. M just nodded in return. Ari laughed. I thought maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing. I thought the next two weeks will become somewhat like freedom.

Those two weeks became hell.


Whoever thought that living together with the person you love would be the best thing ever? I suffered rather than be relaxed because Max and I weren't the only ones living in that house. But to me it felt like we were the only ones there.

That made it awkward for me. I wasn't good with one-in-one talk. Do you know how I felt when Max came to my room, begging me to take her to Arizona, that time? I wasn't thinking straight then. All I could think was There's a girl in my room. There's a girl in my room. Girlgirlgirlgirlgirl. I never brought a girl in my room, much less a girl visiting it.

I was normal the first three days. Then it got weird when the morning of the fourth day happened.

It was around 4:37 in the morning. I went downstairs to the kitchen because I was thirsty. I was only wearing boxers then. (It was Arizona! Do you know how hot it gets?)

Every square foot of the house was hardwood floor. Except the bathrooms. Those had tiles. Anyway, as I went down the stairs, you would think the stairs would creak. It didn't. My steps didn't make any sound. (That's why Dylan told me I'd make a good CIA agent. I agreed, of course.)

I was too busy staring at the fridge that I didn't see that there was a person tying their shoes facing the door to the garage. And they didn't make a sound.

I thought I was alone, so I went ahead and opened the fridge. I took out a cold water bottle, twisted it open, and gulped down the entire half liter of water inside the bottle. Then came the scream.

I ended up spitting out the water, instead of swallowing it. Oh, I did swallow some. The swallowed water went on the wrong pipe and splashed out onto the hardwood floor.

I was still coughing when I saw the person. It was Max. She had a mix of horror and confusion look on her face. I played it cool, as if I didn't just choke on her seconds ago.

Leaning a hand against the opened door of the fridge, I tried playing it cool. Because of my weight, the door slid close and I ended up in a bend position, my vision of Max became sideways.

"'Sup," I said, without straightening up.

Max turned her head the other way and covered her mouth. She was laughing because her shoulders were shaking. Only then did I notice what she was wearing. She was going for a run, so she wore a black sports bra, blue athletic shorts, her Pumas, her wavy long hair in a high ponytail and a strap around her upper right arm has her iPod.

I'm in trouble. Max finally couldn't contain her laughter and bursted out her laughter. She doubled over and pointed at me. I could feel my ears getting hotter. It's like fire broke out in my ears.

I straightened myself and found out my chest was wet. How embarrassing. Max composed herself, but she kept biting her lip to keep from laughing. I stood in front of her and looked at her dead in the eye.

I saw myself in her eyes. My dark hair was mussed, the tips dripping water, my chest damp, and my boxers soaking wet. God, it's like I took a shower in the kitchen.

"We will not speak of this ever again," I said in low tone.

Max nodded. "Sure. Never again."

I nodded too. I went past her and went back upstairs.

I so wanted to kiss her then.


There were other awkward moments after that. One involved mayonnaise and ham. One moment happened while I was in the bathroom. I don't need to elaborate further on that. You can imagine what happened.

On the fourteenth day, they came. Ratchet, Star, Kate, and Holden came. They're my gang.

We had a signal when we have to say we have to go. Kate is always the one who makes that signal.

So around noon, Kate came. She rang on the doorbell and Ella went to get it. It must have been so long because Kate's used-to-be waist-length black hair became chin-length pixie cut. Still pretty enough to be a supermodel.

"Hello!" Kate said with a smile. I saw Ella smile back. "I'm from the local fresh market and I want to know if you're interested in buying fresh apples today." Kate showed a basket of fresh apples beside her.

Ella looked at me for help. I shrugged. Ella turned back to Kate. "Sure. I was thinking of making apple pie for dinner tonight."

Kate clapped her hands. "Perfect!"

Ella held a finger to Kate. "Wait a sec. I'll go get my wallet."

"Take your time!"

That left me with Kate. I rose one brow at her. A corner of her lips lifted in return. With her right hand, Kate fixed her short hair. This was the signal. I looked past her and saw an old Ford pick-up truck parked just across the road. Ratchet was in the driver's seat and the others were in the back, eating apples. How fitting.

I looked at Kate again and she nodded. Finally Ella came back with her wallet and paid for the whole basket.

"Thank you so much! It's good making business with you!" Kate left the porch with the money and crossed the street. She climbed on the back of the truck and waved at us before the truck drove away.

We waved as the truck turned right and disappeared.

Ella walked to the kitchen and began washing the apples.

I continued standing there, staring at the place where the truck was. Someone tapped me in the shoulder and I turned. I looked into Max's brown eyes.

"What are you doing there?"

"Staring at the tree."

She narrowed her eyes. "You know you're weird, right?"

I snorted. She shook her head and joined Ella in the kitchen.

"Max," I called out after out.

She stopped and turned around. "Yeah? Were you going to say something?"

I'm leaving. I'll never see you again.

I shook my head. She rose her eyebrows in suspicion and went back to Ella.


That night, there was a note stuck in the bottom of my window. I took it out and unfolded it. I read the content.

Fang,

EUROPE, baby! Are you ready? Meet us at 1:36 in the nearest Mickey D's.

-R

I folded the paper again before snickering. That fast? They wanted to leave that early? I thought. Fine. Let's do this.

The next ten minutes were a blur. I packed my clothes in five, made my bed in two, and shaved in three. I was ready. Taking a yellow chrysanthemum from the glass vase on top of the dresser, I left my room and entered Max's.

Laying the flower on top of her desk, I wrote a note to her. After that, I touched her cheek and - I couldn't help it - kissed her lips.

I didn't want to go. But I had to. I left her room, taking in her sleeping form and left.

The trickiest part about sneaking out is where to sneak out. People think the front door is always the bad exit. They're right. The back door has always been my favorite.

See, the funny thing about Max's house was that they never lock their back door. Which was an advantage for me. I pushed the door open, and because of the wind, it closed on its own.

Now for the back yard. When I was all alone in the house one day, I realtered their back fence. Walking to the left corner of the fence, I tapped three times on the top of the wood and felt it give. I smiled and pushed. It opened like a gate.

I went out the gate and it closed behind me. I could see the road a few feet from me. I walked and before I could step on the road, I looked behind me and waved at Ari, who was watching me all the time. He quickly hid. I smirked and went to the road.

Putting my head phones on and heard The Afters singing, I walked seven blocks before turning right and saw the all-too-familiar M sign. In one of the windows, I saw Star choking a Big Mac.

I reached the store and pushed open the door. The smell of grease brought back memories.

Pushing next to Ratchet, I took one of Holden's fries and chewed on it.

Ratchet wrapped his arm around my shoulders. The others looked at me with their staring eyes. I looked at them.

"Let's go."

I'm never coming back. I'll never see her again.


A/N: Technically, this is the last chapter. The last chapter is going to be a short epilogue. Really short. Thanks for everyone! Please await the sequel of Once Upon A Glance next week! RnR?