Wishing
Max
Ten
"Max! Max! Have you seen my purse?!" Angel screams from some other room in the house. My eyes move from the pot on the stove to the kitchen table where a cream clutch sat near the edge. Angel had been screaming and freaking out ever since that Andrew kid from her school invited her to play lazer tag with some of their friends. However, Angel told me he had a girlfriend that reminded her a lot of Brigid in a way; Fang winced every time someone said her name because he knew she had been flirting with him by now.
Tonight was taco-lasagna night and it's been a week since Riddle asked Iggy and Nudge when they were going to get married. Ever since, Iggy and Nudge had left the room whenever one of them entered the same room. They were awkward around each other and passed uneasy looks between each other when they did stay in the same room. No one liked the tension wafting through the house, except Fang, who loved to tease Iggy about it. Ella came over yesterday just to notice something was up and then she freaked when we told her about it.
She claimed that she liked Iggy, and that was enough to make Nudge stand back and let the two work out whatever they had. It was painful watching Nudge leave the room whenever Ella and Iggy did start to cuddle or something. During those moments, Iggy would longingly watch Nudge leave as if he wanted to go with her. Obviously, Iggy was torn between the two girls and was messing with both of them on accident as he tried to figure it out. His relationship problems weren't the only relationship problems lingering around this house anymore.
It was true Fang and I were a lot closer to the point we acted like a couple, but it wasn't official. For some reason, Fang was hesitating on asking me exactly what he wanted to ask me, and that bothered me. It felt like he was hesitating because he didn't know if he actually wanted to be with me again. When it did seem like he was going to ask me, we were always interrupted around the middle of the sentence. Sometimes is was Riddle, sometimes it was Angel, and even Gazzy or Iggy sometimes interrupted during rare moments.
I roll my eyes and shred some more cheese into a long glass pan, "Yes, Angel, I have seen your purse!" She appears in the doorway of the kitchen seconds later, hair perfectly curled as always and bright blue eyes wide. Even though she had literally been flying around the house in a frantic search, she still looked calm and picture-perfect. "It's over on the table, sweety, just like where you always put it after school" I sigh and she runs to the table, snatching up the purse and then rushing over to me.
She wraps her arms tightly around my waist in a sort of hug I couldn't return since I had cheese in one hand and a cheese shredder in the other. "Thanks, Max! Andrew's mom will be here any second to pick me up," she said, practically bouncing in place. This boy had done something to my baby girl; she was giddier than when she got Celeste for free.
Fang strode into the kitchen, "I still don't like that she won't have a chaperone all night," he says, frowning deeply. He came behind me as Angel moved away, rolling her eyes in the true pre-teen fashion she had. I felt a new, stronger pair of arms wrap around my waist and Fang rested his chin on my shoulder; I felt my lips lift into a smile.
I glanced at him from the corner of my eye, "I already spoke with Andrew's mom about that kind of thing. She assured that she's taking all of the kids to the place and then taking them home. They won't have any alone time with six other children tagging along," I try to calm his nerves a little bit.
If it wasn't for how old Angel was, I would think she was one of Fang's children as well especially at times like this. Fang was protective over Angel like he was protective over Riddle; he acted like Angel was his own daughter. Technically, he was the father in the house; I never got in his way when he was making rules unless the rule was completely unreasonable. Angel acted like she hated him at times, but she always got over it and came back to apologize. One night during an all-night terrible thunderstorm, both Angel and Riddle ended up in bed with us.
"Fang, nothing's going to happen! I told you, Andrew has a girlfriend and he doesn't like me anyways," she sighs, looking down at her pink flats. The head leaves my shoulder and looks over at Angel; he kisses my temple then pulls away.
"Come on Ange," I hear Fang say, "let's go have a quick talk about guys and the way they show a girl they like her." She snorts humorlessly, but follows him to the living room anyways, probably believing she had nothing to lose.
Ten minutes later, the doorbell echoed around the house, bouncing off the walls; I set my cheese and cheese shredder down. I wipe my hands down on a hand towel and walk to the front door, planting on a smile like I tended to do when meeting another parent. I looked through the window beside the front door to check out the person on the porch, still careful. A woman with long brown hair, bright hazel eyes, and wearing a floral dress stood in front of the door. I glanced down at my black skinny jeans, red high-tops, and long-sleeves tight red shirt.
Sighing to myself, I swing open the front door with that smile still stretching my lips upwards. "Hi, you must be Mrs. Raven," I take her out-stretched hand, shaking it just a little bit as she studies me for a second.
"You must be Mrs. Ride?" she says but it comes out more as a question; I glance to the side where a young boy is standing. I laugh a bit, realizing she thought I was Angel's real mother and that I could be married as well.
"No, I'm Max, Angel's adoptive mother, and I'm not married, either," I tell her just as I feel Fang's presence behind me. "This is Nick, Angel's adoptive father," I introduce and he politely takes her hand, shaking it a bit. Angel squeezes between us and emerges in front of Andrew; she blushes and steps to the side quickly.
Mrs. Raven smiles again, "Hi, Angel, are you all ready?" she asks and Angel nods, giving off a shy smile. I glance over at Fang warily to see him practically killing Andrew with his eyes, I nudge him in the gut with my elbow. He turns his gaze to me, not even flinching at my hit even though my elbow was stinging in pain.
They finally leave after Mrs. Raven gets my phone number and Fang and I watch them drive away. I look at Fang, shaking my head at him, "Way to scar a child for life, Fang, I can't wait until Riddle starts liking a guy and starts dating."
"Then keep waiting because she doesn't get to even look at a guy like Angel did until she's eighteen and out of this house." He tells me seriously and I laugh, kissing his cheek quickly then returning to the kitchen to finish dinner. "What can I help with?" he asks, quickly kissing my shoulder and sending a long shudder down my back.
I glance at him quickly, "You can go bribe Riddle to clean her room," I offer, shooting him a smile when he openly winces at just the thought. He grumbles all the way out of the kitchen; Riddle had a terrible stubbornness she got from both Fang and I.
That night Fang unexpectedly shows up in the doorway of our room as I was searching for my favorite pajamas. "Hey, you don't work tomorrow, do you?" he asks, watching my bare back since I had stupidly stripped before I found the pajamas. He only got in because I gave him a key that can unlock every room in the house; it was a copy of my own. So there I was with my back to him in the matching lacy red undergarments set Tess got me last year.
"Come on in," I sigh, still searching for those stupid pajamas that I could've sworn I washed just a few days ago. Fang chuckles and enters the room all the way, shutting and locking the door behind him. "No, I don't work in the morning, why?" I glanced at him over my shoulder, watching as he relaxed on the bed. After another frustrated second, I whirled on him with my hands planted on my hips. "Have you seen my black tank and red shorts? The pajamas I like so much, you know?"
His eyes roamed up and down me before he grinned slyly, "Maybe, but why would you want to wear those? I like that outfit a lot better," I snatched a pillow from the bed and hit him in the head, reaching into one off his drawers after.
"You are such a guy," I grumbled, pushing some dark jeans and black boxers aside to find some shirts. Wow, there was such of collection of charcoal gray, black, gray, extremely dark red, extremely dark green, and just a few white. "And you have such a nice fashion sense," I mumbled and Fang chuckled from the bed. A black shirt that reached my mid-thighs easily slid over my head and I spun around, satisfied.
Fang says, "Anyways, I wanted to know if you would take a little fly with me, just the two of us without interruptions." His arms were around me in the next split second and he tossed me onto the bed; I laughed as he landed beside me. He rolled so he was hovering over me, his arms on either side of me and his face right above mine.
"Mm," I pretended to think about it, reaching up and wrapping my arms around his neck and biting down on my bottom lip. "I think I will go for a fly with the father of my child," I had to think of something to say since I couldn't say 'boyfriend'. Fang dropped a bit, putting some more of his weight on me and inching his face even closer to my own.
His lips brushed against mine just a bit as he said, "You want to leave in an hour?" and I nod, unable to speak without shaking. "Great, wear something warm and meet me on the back porch," he moved to just kiss my forehead. Then he smoothly got to his feet and left me there; I glared at his back as he left, smirking smugly.
***Nudge's POV***
I groaned, dropping my pencil on top of the half-finished essay I had worked on for the past three hours. No matter how hard I tried or what I did, I couldn't focus when Ella and Iggy were spending Ella's last few hours in Alaska at her hotel. She would no doubt ask him to just go back with her to Arizona and he would probably agree and go with her. There was nothing here keeping him back or at least it was nothing he knew of since the one reason was too shy. I groaned, folding my arms on the top of the desk and dropping my head down on my arms.
School was terrible with multiple people still asking me about the flock and our travels and what was happening now. It was great at first, being recognized as the famous girl with the wings that actually work and aren't glued on. After a while, though, it got annoying with people only wanting to be my friend because I was that famous girl. They wanted to meet the rest of the flock, too, and get autographs or flirt to their hearts content. Iggy and the others were the only people I really trusted anymore because of all those fake people just pretending to like me.
There was a sudden knock on the door that made me jump, startled; the old days were still getting to me. My knees had knocked straight up into the table, causing the furniture to shake and tumble over quickly. I yelped, falling from my chair, seeing the door slam open and a pair of dark blue toms come into my line of vision. Out of everyone, I was the clumsiest especially when startled and now a mess was spread around a part of my room. The desk was holding down my legs and I winced because I knew the table was bruising my legs.
"Nudge!" the person that walked into the room removed the table quickly and then kneeled down next to me. Bright blue-gray eyes stared into my own and I blinked, looking down and away from Iggy; his hand wrapped around my upper arm. "Hey, are you okay?" he asks worriedly while I scramble to my feet, pulling my arm out of his grasp again.
I started picking up papers, "I'm fine, Iggy, what are you doing here? I thought you were spending the day with Ella since she leaves tomorrow morning. Or maybe you're going back with them, so you came back here to spend the day with us because you felt bad. I mean it's not like you have anything here that's holding you back. If you love Ella, then you should probably go with her anyways. And, besides, love is the most-," I was going to continue. That is, until my mouth was covered by a hand and I saw Iggy looking at me, confused.
"Nudge, I don't love Ella," he says seriously.
"Wait, what?" I pulled his hand away from my mouth to ask.
He looked away from me, "Look, I don't love Ella. I like her, but I don't love her. I don't love anyone other than in the usual family kind of love."
I nodded, "Thanks for your help, but I think you should leave." I murmur; he gives me another confused look before nodding and leaving my room, shutting the door behind him. As soon as he's gone, I drop onto my bed and pull my knees to my chest, feeling tears building in my eyes quickly. He only liked Ella, I told myself sadly, of course he only liked Ella.