Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Maximum Ride characters, all of that is owned by the wonderful James Patterson
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Chapter 9
I decided to take the next day off. I didn't want to go to school and face the nightmare that was Fang and Dylan, so I did the next thing I thought I would never do. I lied straight to Jeb's face.
Long ago Jeb and I made a vow to never lie to each other. When he adopted me I was old enough to realize that he wasn't my real parents, that for all I know I was just some weird science experiment, a test-tube baby. Jeb sat down with me and we talked. He told me he was going to take me away from the place where the government was keeping me and that he would take care of me. I nodded, all strong and straight faced, and I didn't want him to see any sign of hope on my face.
When we reached his house I was immediately over whelmed by the cleanliness, everything looked immaculate, organized, and sterile, almost like a hospital. I was nervous and Jeb could see it as clear as day on my face.
"Hey." he said to me, trying to calm me down. "I know it looks scary, but I promise it's not. We're going to be happy here, and don't be afraid to mess things up." he winked at me. Slowly I walked forward and brushed my little fingers across the pillows.
"Go ahead." he said, "Mess them up." I stared at him then quickly grabbed a pillow and threw it to the other side of the couch. Jeb nodded at me to encourage me. I sat on the couch and bounced a little, causing little wrinkles to appear in the fabric.
"You can do better than that." he teased. By now I was smiling big. I stood up on the couch and jumped on it, dancing from one end to the other, leaping and bounding, I almost felt like I was flying, now there was an abundant of wrinkles and imprints and dips in the couch from my antics. At this point Jeb was laughing hard, I'm talking holding his belly and leaning over red-faced laughing. After about five minutes of flying I jumped off the couch and stood in front of Jeb. He kneeled down so he could look me in the eye.
"See, I would never lie to you, and I would hope that you would never lie to me, even if you get in trouble or do something bad, you can always tell me the truth okay?" he said softly to me. He looked so honest and sincere so I nodded.
"Yes sir." I told him. He frowned.
"Why don't you call me Jeb?" he asked me. I was nervous at calling him anything other than sir or mister, but he was being so kind to me, and he was adopting me so I agreed.
"Okay Jeb." I told him, stumbling a little over the name. He looked at me, it seemed like he was contemplating something.
"What would you like me to call you?" he questioned me. I was confused, he knew my name.
"Well at the place they called me…" I started.
"I know what they called you," he said, interrupting me, "but what would you like to be called."
I stared at him.
"You mean you want me to pick my own name?" I asked him. He nodded. My eyes immediately widened in surprise, I had never had an opportunity this great before, I was getting to pick the name that would stick with me for the rest of my life. I sat back on the couch and Jeb sat next to me. He was patient; I must have sat on that couch for an hour before finally turning to him.
"Maximum." I said, as clearly as I could. Jeb nodded.
"How about Max for short." I agreed quickly, I could live with Max.
"And your last name?" he prompted. By then I was really confused.
"Well wouldn't I just get your last name?" I probed. He shook his head.
"I figured you would want your own last name, your own personal identity." he explained. All of this seemed to make sense to me so I turned back to him quickly responded.
"Ride. Maximum Ride."
Anyway, that was the day I chose to never lie to Jeb, no matter how awkward or painful the truth would be. It was like our own personal agreement, I could always trust him and he could always trust me, which is why lying to him this morning would be so hard.
"What do you mean you don't have to go to school today?" he questioned me, clearly disbelieving.
"Well all of the students are going on a field trip that they organized way before we moved here so I couldn't get in on it. All of my teachers told me to stay home because there wouldn't be any teachers there, just subs. Seriously Jeb, they told me to stay home, and I'm just following orders." I could hear my own voice shaking but Jeb didn't seem to pick up on it, Nudge, who was sitting next to me caught it and stared at me, luckily she kept her loud mouth shut.
"I don't know Max, it sounds a little crazy." he said dubiously, still concentrating on making the younger kids lunch.
"I totally know Jeb, but it's true, they're going to some local job fair to see all the different jobs and stuff, if you want I'll give you my teachers number, she said you could call her if you didn't believe her." I bluffed. I started to get up, making it look like I was going to get the number. My voice was still shaking and for some reason it kept shifting pitch, going from high to low.
"Just sit down Max, its fine, just stay home and behave, I've got to go, and Nudge, you need to hurry, it looks like you're taking the bus." Jeb said, finalizing all of the lunches and packing his briefcase for work.
"Okay." Nudge said irritably. She walked past me, stomping the whole way.
"You owe me big time." she muttered under her breath, grabbing her backpack and walking out of the door to the bus stop. I winced sharply. I already had a sick feeling in my stomach from lying to Jeb, and an even worse feeling because he bought the cheap lie so easily, now Nudge was going to hold this over me as blackmail forever. It was too late for me to go back, I had already dedicated to the lie and I didn't want to hurt Jeb by telling him it was a lie. I had never lied to him before, and as far as I know I would never lie to him again, not if it made me feel like this.
Soon Jeb was out the door and I was all alone, it was quiet, amazingly quiet. I finally felt at peace. All week I had been feeling like the world's biggest slut, fooling around with Dylan, and then still initiating things with Fang. I was an idiot. To be truthful, I didn't want Dylan, I didn't want anyone, I definitely had feelings for Fang, and I knew I loved Dylan, but I wasn't in love with him, I just got confused. He came over and I was feeling vulnerable and he told me he loved me and he kissed me and I just got caught up in it all. Fuck, I'm such an idiot.
I spent the rest of the morning cleaning; I think I did it mostly to make myself feel better about lying to Jeb. I had just sat down on the couch after making the house immaculate, and yes, it's the same couch I jumped on when I arrived, all the kids did, it's kind of tradition at this point, when I heard the doorbell ring. I groaned and rolled my eyes. Who the hell would be at my house in the middle of the day, everyone should be at school. I figured it was just UPS or something so without thinking I opened the door wide.
It was Dylan.
"What the hell are you doing here?" I practically yelled at him.
"That's not the greeting I expected." he answered chuckling. He pushed past me into the house; I was too shocked at his sudden appearance to stop him.
"Um what are you doing here?" I asked him again. He just smiled at me and closed the door.
"Well I came to see you of course Maximum." he joked, taking a step closer to me. I put my hand out to stop him.
"Well as you've seen me, so maybe you should go." I told him, gesturing to the door. Now he was frowning at me, his eyes once again taking on a dangerous edge.
"But Maximum, I came all this way to see you, I at least expect a kiss." he spoke seriously.
"That doesn't seem like a good idea." I said softly, backing away from him a little.
"Come on Maximum, you said you loved me, I just want a kiss from my love." Dylan said slowly advancing on me. I was starting to feel uncomfortable, my breath was getting shallow.
"I might have made a mistake." I told him sheepishly. I glanced up at him and his eyes darkened.
"What kind of mistake?" he questioned me, deadly quiet.
"It's just maybe I'm not as in love with you as I thought, actually I don't think I'm in love with you at all, I mean you were my first friend when I came here so I care about you but…" I spoke, breaking off.
"So you lied to me?" he said. He reached out and grabbed my bicep, squeezing it hard, it hurt immediately, I winced hard.
"Ouch, Dylan that hurts, let go." I begged him, trying to wrench my arm away. His grip just tightened.
"You lied to me!" he continued, his voice now rising to a yell. I flinched at the loudness of his voice, still attempting to yank my arm free.
"Yes, but I didn't mean to, I'm so sorry Dylan, I just got caught up in the moment, I'm so sorry, please let me go." I cried out, begging him to release me.
"You liar!" he screamed finally releasing my arm.
"I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry." I cried out, tears beginning to run down my face. He glared at me, his eyes focused and dangerous, I was scared, but I wanted him to know how sorry I was, maybe if he knew he would leave and we could pretend this never happened. I was wrong.
With no warning he reached out and shoved me, hard. The force of his push knocked me off balance and sent me flying back into the sharp edge of the small table behind the door. I cried out and fell to the floor sobbing.
"Maximum? Oh my god I'm so sorry!" I heard Dylan say above me. He knelt down to my level and wrapped his arms around me attempting to pull me into his chest, I was too scared to fight him, and I didn't want him to hurt me again. I let him pull me in as I sobbed, soon I felt his own tears dropping on my shoulder and hitting my arm. He was crying too.
After about an hour we had both stopped crying, he still held me, but we were quiet, no one spoke. Finally he let go of me and stood up.
"I've got to go, I'm so sorry Maximum, I love you, and I'll make this up to you I swear." he whispered to me as he walked quietly to the door. Without another word he walked out.
I pulled my legs up to my chest and leaned back against the wall, I sat there for a long time after, just remembering how to breathe.
Okay so this one definitely got a little crazy, but ya'll craved updates and I was feeling a type of way haha, I figured you guys deserved an early treat for being awesome, so I gave you an early chapter haha, anyways I hope you guys enjoyed, thanks for following and favoriting and reviewing, it definitely keeps me writing more, fly on lovelies 3
