The huge zit in the middle of someone's face

Empty.

He had forgotten how good it felt to be empty. Weightless. Running purely on adrenaline. It was wonderful. Why had he ever stopped? He couldn't remember. All he could recall was this magical feeling, this feeling of flying, of soaring amongst the clouds on raven feathered wings, the tips drawing wispy swirls into the tops of clouds. He was flying, he was higher than he had ever been - the possibility of falling seemed distant, far away, impossible - he was in ecstasy.

It was a little hard to slip back into his old habits – after all, he'd spent all that time after he'd met Max eating like a pig – and the feeling of hunger was at first, unwelcoming and unpleasant, but eventually he remembered and it became so much easier, he embraced the hunger pangs like an old friend.

Every time he skipped breakfast, or lied to his friends to excuse himself from lunch, or did sit-ups in his bedroom until his stomach felt as if it were on fire, he felt elated. Powerful. He was in control, no one else. He could make himself hurt if he wanted, he could shape and mold his body like a wax figurine into something beautiful, something perfect.

He knew that it was kind of stupid – wanting to be perfect. He knew that no one was perfect, but he reckoned he might as well get as close as possible to being perfect – and that was being skinny.

At the moment, he was hiding in the library, avoiding eating lunch under the watchful eyes of his friends. His stomach grumbled – applauding him. He smiled.

A sheet of paper with the words "English Essay" scrawled at the top and "Francis Harrison" scribbled messily in the corner lay in front of him, propped up against a hardcover book about anorexia.

For some strange reason, lately Fang had grown increasingly interested in the disease. Not that he wanted it – please. It was a girls' disease, after all. No, he just liked reading all the symptoms and comparing them to himself – checking to see if he fit.

He had gazed at page after page of emaciated teenage girls with sunken chests and protruding ribs, prominent hipbones and icy blue nails, brittle hair and dead lifeless eyes. At first, his reaction to them was of course, disgust. How could they do that to themselves? I mean, I'm trying to lose weight too but I'd never let myself go that far, Fang thought to himself. I'd never let myself lose that much control. It was revolting.

But then the jealousy starting seeping in, the admiration. Fang stared longingly at the girls' skeletal frames and thought to himself, I want that.

And the losing weight thing would be easier too if I had anorexia, Fang mused to himself. It would speed it up a lot.

He shook his head and turned back to the blank piece of paper staring up at him. His earphones were jammed into his ears, the volume roaring at full blast and he started sketching on the paper he was supposed to be writing his essay on.

He was listening to his favourite song of the day on repeat, somehow he found meaning to the lyrics and could even connect to the song, not that he'd ever admit it to anyone who asked.

The intro of electric guitar and drums faded as the lyrics kicked in. He mouthed the words to himself, getting lost in the song.

I wear my heartache on my sleeve

I love myself too much to sleep

It haunts me -

"Whutcha doin'?"

He looked up to find Max squatting down next to him. He turned down the volume a couple of notches but left the earphones in his ears.

"Oh, you know. Just catching up with some homework. The usual."

"You're such a nerd." Max scoffed. "You practically spend every lunchtime here – in fact, I haven't seen you in the cafeteria for weeks!"

"Yeah, well I'm kind of busy." Fang said sheepishly. "Doing homework and all. You should try it some time."

"Nerd." Max repeated, rolling her eyes. "What are you listening to?"

I am a teenage drama queen

I throw my guts up for self-esteem

"King Adora." He said uncomfortably, not wanting to show Max the song. Some of the lyrics were a little strange, he had to admit, but he seemed to relate to them well enough so -

"Oh, cool. Never heard of them before. They any good?"

"Their band was named after a certain type of sex toy." He smirked at her.

Her eyes widened, a shocked expression on her face. Fang chuckled. She could be so innocent sometimes. It was endearing. "Ew, Fang! Why do you listen to this kind of stuff?"

Every boy wants a body to die for

And every girl who's thin is his rival

I wish that I had a body to die for

"Meh, I dunno. Just like their style I guess." Fang shrugged.

"Hey, you wanna go get some ice cream after school?" Max asked Fang. "I heard they've brought in a whole bunch of new flavours and I wanna go try them all."

"Uh, sorry. Can't. I've got all this homework to do." Fang lied. Really, he was going to go for a run until he couldn't stand, then come back home and do sit ups and push ups on the floor of his bedroom.

"Fang, you gotta stop worrying about school and stuff. Live a little, eat some cake, go sky diving, you know?" Max said, grinning at Fang.

He frowned at her. She sighed and rubbed her temples, plopping herself down next to Fang. "Just relax, okay?" she said, staring into Fang's eyes, clutching onto his arm. "Don't push yourself. You're only a kid once, you may as well enjoy it."

"Thanks for worrying about me, Max but really, I'm fine." He stared into her eyes, concern swirling in their dark chocolate depths.

"Hmm, well okay then, Fang." Max said reluctantly. "But you've really got to start taking care of yourself more – you've lost a lot of weight and you're starting to look really pale all the time." She leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the mouth before walking away, throwing him one last concerned glance at him over her shoulder.

It was working! Max had said that he had lost weight! He felt happy, elated, like he was flying.

Fang smiled to himself and continued sketching on his sheet of paper, cranking up the volume again.

Sweet anorexia.

Skinny is sexy.

Big isn't beautiful.

Nudge pressed herself against Ari's hard, chiseled body, her lips frantically attacking his, wanting more. Her fingers clawed at his bare chest, his making their way up the back of her shirt.

They were in Nudge's bedroom (Ari's house was out of the question – Max, duh) and seeing as Nudge's mother was out, they figured that they'd have a little "alone" time to themselves.

She didn't really know how this had happened – one moment they had been rubbing each other the wrong way, going on awkward but sort of enjoyable dates, the next they couldn't get enough of each other. They hadn't exactly done it yet, but they had practically done everything but.

How she had gotten so close to Ari in such a short amount of time, she didn't know. It wasn't like she had planned it or anything. It had just sort of, happened. And it wasn't just the physical stuff, if she'd had a bad day or found a dress she had really wanted on sale, gotten an A in Maths, embarrassed herself in class, she knew she could talk to Ari.

Surprisingly for such a douche bag he was a good listener. And eventually, he started talking too. Not the sarcastic blasé façade he hid behind, no, the "I love my little sister, flowers are pretty, Luna Lovegood is my favourite character ever" kind of guy he was.

She didn't mind that he was kind of conceited and stuck up, and self centered most of the time because that was who he was. It just wasn't all of him. He could be caring and compassionate when he wanted to be.

Nudge had the sneaking suspicion that Ari might want to go all the way soon, but she wasn't letting up. Every time his hands got too close to the hem of her skirt, she'd smack them right back up. It wasn't that she wasn't ready, or that she was a prude (she had done it before - once.), it was just that, well, she hadn't exactly told Max that she was going out with Ari.

She supposed that she should have told Max about her and Ari now, but she had gotten so deep into the relationship that it was hard. What if Max rejected her? Or what if she and Ari broke up anyway? Maybe it was only working out the way it was because it was a "secret" relationship. It was exciting, exhilarating for Ari to hide behind his sister's back, and if she told Max about them then Ari might get bored and ditch her.

She pushed away from Ari, running a hand through her frizzy hair. She sat slumped on her bedspread, biting her lower lip.

"What's wrong?" he asked, slinging one arm around her shoulders. She snuggled into his chest.

"Max."

"Well, it's good to know that my kissing skills are so good to the extent that you're thinking about my little sister while we're making out."

Nudge scowled. "I'm serious, Ar. We still haven't told her yet."

He ran his free hand through his hair. "Yeah, I guess. But what's the big deal, anyway?"

"I don't know, I just don't want her to hate me, that's all."

"How could she hate you?" Ari asked, tracing patterns into the bare skin of Nudge's shoulder absentmindedly. "I mean, you're annoying as hell sure, but you're like a huge zit in the middle of someone's face. At first you're a pain in the butt, but eventually you grow on them."

"Ari!" Nudge elbowed Ari in the ribs. "That's not a very nice thing to say to your girlfriend!"

Ari rolled his eyes. "Whatever, sweetheart. You know you love me."

Nudge scoffed. "You're so full of yourself." She retorted back. "And stop sidetracking me, seriously what are we gonna do?"

"Just tell her. It's not that hard."

"Why don't you tell her then?"

"Because I live with her." Ari said simply. "I don't want to get bitch slapped every time I bump into her in the corridor."

"You'd probably get slapped anyway if I told her."

"Yes, but if you tell her, I'd at least have some time to hide."

"I don't know how to tell her though. I don't want her to hate me. She's gonna be so disappointed." Nudge mumbled into Ari's chest.

He tightened his grip around her, kissing the top of her head gently. "She's your best friend, Nudge. She'll understand."

"Hmm, I guess so." Nudge said, but she couldn't help but think otherwise.

Max frowned to herself, balancing her school bag on her knees as she stared out the window of the bus. Ari was busy doing something after school again (by "doing" something, Max assumed it was some girl) and her dad had some important meeting to attend to so she was stuck taking the bus. Again.

She sighed and blew a curl of hair out of her face. Suddenly, the bus jolted over a bump in the road and lurched Max forward. She steadied herself but a wave of nausea came over her, stabbing her painfully in the stomach.

She closed her eyes and swallowed, taking a few shaky breaths. Her head throbbed badly. She'd been getting these dizzy/wanna throw up spells for a couple of weeks but she just assumed that she had caught a bug or something, no biggie.

But what if I'm relapsing? A small, pesky voice said at the back of her mind. She quickly pushed the thought away. Even if she were relapsing, well she had a checkup at the hospital coming up in a couple of weeks so there was no point in worrying about it until then.

Not wanting to think about it anymore, her thoughts trailed to Fang. She smiled a little – her boyfriend. She'd never had a boyfriend before, well not a real one anyway. She just went on dates before then, most of them ending awkwardly when the guy didn't know what to say or do because of the whole "cancer" thing.

But Fang, Fang got it. He understood that yes, cancer was a big part of Max's life but no, it wasn't her whole life. She actually wanted to talk about other things besides a huge pity talk about her life story battling cancer.

And he was easy on the eyes too. Max thought, blushing, which always helps. Although, lately Max was beginning to worry about Fang. He always looked rather pale and sickly, like it was a huge effort even standing. Like he would topple over if the slightest gust of wind came along.

She assumed he must be stressed about his parents' and the whole divorce thing. She decided to talk to him about it later, she hated seeing him in pain and obviously every day was a constant struggle for him.

She could tell by the expressions on his face, by the way he trudged behind Max on their way to class, how he avoided going to lunch and hid in the library or the computer labs or wherever. He needed help and if Max couldn't give it to him, then what kind of girlfriend was she?

She would help him through this.

Suddenly, the world seemed to spin on its side, pulling Max to the floor. She toppled over in her seat, hard, but luckily she went headfirst into the soft back of the chair in front of her. Breathing heavily, her eyes darted around the bus frantically, searching for a spot on the wall that wasn't moving.

How could she help Fang when she couldn't even help herself?

Dear reader,

My internet is being a butt and I can't get onto it on my iPod OR laptop, so I have to go onto the family computer to do all my stuff. It's really awkward 'cos everyone's always looking over my shoulder =.=' Like, what if I wanna look at porn? (not that I do *shifty eyes*)

Yeah, so what do you think? Love it, hate it? What do you think Nudge should do? Is Max getting sick again or is she just overreacting? And when will Fang realize that he's sick, it's not just something he can turn on and off?

Leave your response in the review thingy below ^_^

So turns out, I didn't eat any of you guys pancreases (too lazy last chapter, doesn't mean I won't do it again though :D)

Necrophobia :)