Chapter 10

Oh, my God.

OK, Max.

This isn't a joke. This isn't part of the 'game'. Because if it is, you'll probably have to kick Fang's butt, right here and now. And then never ever talk to him again.

Ever.

But no, this seems pretty legit. I mean, he's leaning in slowly, inching towards your face, his face at a sort of weird angle so that there's more … what? Oh, damn, you're blabbering on in your head again. I mean, 'seems legit'? What are you, a Maxdroid?

He's going in for a kiss! And, so are you! This is real, Max. No more Maxdroid jokes for you!

Just… don't screw this up. OK? Think you can manage that, Max?

He's so close… You can smell him. And that's slightly creepy, but… um… he smells nice…

Oh, dear, even the blabbering part of your brain is turning into mush. 'He smells nice'?

Sheesh.

I'M A GONNA REPEAT THIS FOR YA: Do not… screw… this…

"Wait," I breathe.

Well, so much for that more or less simple thought.

Fang stops.

Regrettably.

Well, well done, me. Minus 1 point.

You douche!

OK. I can probably fix this. I mean, I could probably kiss him right now, and then everyone would probably forget that I even opened my big mouth for anything that isn't snogging the face off of my best friend (OK, ew. 'Snog'=not a very pretty word.) seeing as we'd both move off to live in an amazing, gigantic pink castle in the clouds, in Disneyland.

Aaaaalriiiight.

Let's do this.

"MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAX!"

I take a second to react, because at first I think that it's me shouting at myself in my head. How's that for a weird sentence?

Fang leans away from me to frown into the distance, and I realize that:

1) It wasn't in my head.

2) It's a child's voice.

Wouldn't be allowed out, and anyways, I'm betting on Gazzy. I bet that Iggy has brought him out to spy on us.

Why, the little stalkers- and shit (sorry for the swearing, I try not to, honest!)! They've seen me and Fang… and Fang and me… and oh, I'm doing it again…

The teasing will never end!

I brace myself and take a quick little look at Fang, to see how's he's taken the whole me-rejecting-him thing, but he's staring behind me in what looks like disbelief. Well, at least it's some sort of emotion…

I turn around, pleading silently no pink cheeks, threatening face, when I'm tackled by a small boy. Into a small boy bear-hug.

"Max, it is you!" small boy shouts into my ear.

I look at Fang in confusion, but he's stiff now, and his face is expressionless. Well done, small boy. Way to ruin the mood.

And yes, I am going to blame the whole thing on small boy. I mean, screw it up? Me? Nah. Why, you must have me confused with small boy.

And then I realize who small boy is.

"Ari?" I gasp, as he pulls away to beam at me. Whoa, the little sucker really took the breath out of me.

And I mean that nicely, of course.

"What… What are you doing here?"

"I'm with dad!" Ari tells me, jerking his finger behind him.

Oh no.

I pull Ari off of me as nicely as I can before standing up as casually as I can. Fang follows my lead.

I am not going to look at Jeb. Never again.

Ever.

So, naturally, I walk right into him.

I mean, naturally of course.

"Max?" he asks in his 'Jeb' voice. Gah, it's so annoying!

Alright, so it's a 'father' voice, and he's my father and so on and so on… but not anymore! Not in my head he isn't!

"Jeb," I say as Fang nods in recognition, true to his post as my right-hand man.

And, thanks to me – I mean, small boy, unmasked as Ari, just that.

Whoa, I am stupid!

I mean, small boy is stupid.

Ah, but that's just mean…

I decide that acknowledging his presence is probably enough to give him a good night's sleep – not that he deserves it – and I try to walk away, with a nod to Fang, but Ari grabs onto my t-shirt.

"Max, you're not going right now, are you?" I turn to see my own brother's broken expression. I really am stupid! "I thought that we could hang out."

I turn around, not looking at Jeb, not looking at his face, and crouch down to meet Ari's height. Fang stands behind me, looking ready to break out into an all-out gansta fight at any second.

"I can't right now, buddy. It's late. And I have a…" I stop, partly because it would rhyme (I know, I'm thinking what the fudge? too right now) and partly because… am I still going to go? After what just happened with Fang… which was… Nothing.

Sigh. Nothing just happened with Fang.

Well, nothing new anyways. I mean, what's an almost-kiss after this past week?

A real almost-kiss…

Shut UP, Voice!

"No you won't," Ari mutters. No more carefree small boy. Now it's angry small boy. "You said that you would when you left, but then you didn't."

Ahh… Okay… The little tyke got me there…

"I'm mean, you came on Christmas, and on my birthday… but can we ever just hang out? Some of my friends won't even believe that I have a sister."

And I feel terrible.

"Oh, well… I'll come another time. I promise. I'll… call."

I shudder involuntarily at the thought of Jeb picking up the phone instead of Ari… And then I see the look on Ari's face, and I forget all about it.

"You super promise?"

What kind of person am I if my own brother gets hopeful to see me, for all the wrong reasons?

"Yup," I say, trying to keep my voice from breaking. "I super promise."

CHEESE ATTACK!

Just shut up, Voice.

"OK," Ari says, starting to jump up and down. "Were you and Fang kissing?"

OH HOLY MOLY.

But it's OK, because he asked it with the innocence of a seven year-old.

I can just imagine Fang smirking behind me.

Who am I kidding? It's not OK.

"No," I say quickly. "We were just talking… really closely."

"That's what Michael's sister tells him."

"Well, believe her next time." Poor girl.

And Ari tackles me in a hug again. And I feel even worse, because it's feels like he's going to squeeze my eyeballs out, which means that he's hugging me pretty tightly, which means that he really wants to hug me.

"You are a real sister, aren't you?" he whispers into my ear. "Like Michael's sister."

OK.

STAB ME WITH A FREAKING RUSTY KNIFE WHY DON'T YOU. YEAH, YOU TOO.

Hugging Ari, I can't help but look up at Jeb, who's looking at us with his sad, sad eyes, and suddenly, I feel really sorry for him.

Heck, right now I'll feel sorry for anyone. As long as 'anyone' isn't me.

'Cause I suck.

Maybe I've been a bit harsh on him… I mean, he is my dad… he was only doing what he thought was best for me…

WAIT A SECOND.

No, Max, no forgiving of Jeb. Nu-huh.

"Sure I am," I say to Ari, letting go.

"OK," he smiles.

I smile at him and stand up. As soon as I'm at eye level with Jeb (either I'm taller or he's shorter… Maybe both?) my smile disappears.

"Are you stalking me?"

He sighs.

"No, I'm not stalking you."

"Dad didn't believe it was you sitting here, because you were kissing Fang," Ari tells me. "He said not to bug Fang, but I did anyways because I knew that it was you and because I haven't seen you in ages."

Okay.

The rational part of me is thinking: I wasn't kissing Fang, alright?

But the cranoodle-istic part of me is thinking:

"Someone that looks like me but that's kissing Fang isn't me?" I demand angrily. Whoa, that was stupid.

Jeb looks at me skeptically.

"Fang kisses a lot of girls," Ari says. I look down at him in disbelief.

"No he doesn't!" I say when Fang says nothing from behind me.

"And you always said that you would never like him like that…" Jeb continues. Please shut up in front of Fang, Jeb. Please. It will only make me hate you more. Then Jeb shrugs. "I'm sorry. Things change. I should pay more attention to you. But, it is hard-"

"Oh, don't turn this around on me! I'm leaving," I say. Before he makes me dig myself into my own pit of guilt and leaves me there to die. "I'll call you, Ari," I tell my brother. "I promise."

I get ready to see Fang's smirking face as I turn around but – whoa! – he's not there.

Well, that sucks.

"Where'd he go?" I ask Jeb. As reluctant as I am to talk to him… Where the cranoodle is Fang?

And, more importantly, when did he leave?

Jeb looks as confused as I feel.

"I don't know," he says. "I didn't see him leave."

It's my turn to sigh.

With my luck, he probably heard the whole 'You always said that you would never like him like that…' thing.

Who am I kidding probably?

That's most definitely what he heard.

My phone buzzes in my pocket, and for a bizarre – yet completely understandable – second I think that it's Fang, with either:

1) I hate you, I'll never speak to you again, you don't like me and never will, Jeb said so

2) Meet me at the park entrance so that we can get our snogging on.

All in a Fang way, of course. Probably without the 'snog' verb.

But, nope.

Somehow, he-who-has-been-completely-forgotten-over-the-past-few minutes managed to get my phone number.

Oh, oops. I gave it to him.

From: Dylan

Where r u?

"Holy cranoodle!" I gasp out loud. Jeb frowns at me, and Ari´s already asking him if he can have an ice-cream – at eight at night? We certainly have some catching up to do – but I don't really care. "Bye," I mutter, stomping away from them, looking around sort of frantically for Fang.

And no, not for a snog.

Yeuch.

I'm looking for Fang because he can either say (through our super cool mind-reading power thing, of course) No, don't go because I'm here and I'm sort of trying to confess my actual real feelings for you or Sure, go ahead, you can't leave the poor guy hanging like that.

OK, I just snorted to myself at the second option.

But the first…

"Fang?" I ask aloud. No one around.

D'aww, the poop has really hit the fan here, Max.

OK, Voice. How many times do I have to tell you to SHUT THE CRANOODLE UP?

Yeahh, I'm putting the A/N at the end of this chapter so that you don't have to read it before reading the chapter because WHOA that was a mean cliffhanger. Sorry you guys.

Many of you asked WHY?

Well, the answer is simple.

IT'S BECAUSE I'M EVIILL.

OK, not entirely sure. I don't even know why I left it there *shrugs*. I suppose I didn't really care, because I knew what was going to happen, but that's sort of selfish… Ummm… EVILNESS.

Here I am going to mention how in love I am with every single one of my reviewers, in a nice, friendly kind of way, not a very creepy, stalker kind of way.

OKAY.

Oh, and YAY to the guys who got the A Very Potter Musical reference! And to those who knew AVPM but didn't catch the reference, it was the "You're the Tigger to my Winnie, the Mickey to my Minnie!" bit. Kinda stole that from Ginny's/Cho Chang's song. It came up on my iTunes. Sue me. (BUT DON'T REALLY) And yus. I have seen the sequel. AND IT WUZ AWESOME.

And for those who don't know what A Very Potter Musical is, well… a bit out there on the fandom thing, BUT, if you like HP (END OF AN ERA, GUYS! D': SHIIISKEBAABBB) you should most definitely look it up on youtube. In fact, even if you don't like HP, you should watch it. Because Darren Criss is supermegafoxyawesomehot.

So, also, I lied to everyone (even myself) about the angst last chapter. It was weird… In my head, there was going to be angst. A bucket-load. But, then I wrote it, and there wasn't any at all. See, I felt sorta bad for Fang and didn't want to make him look like a total douche (new word, I find it bizarrely funny!) again.

And OMG I'm using this as a diary. ARGGG, sorry GAIZ. Most of you probably aren't even reading this. Who am I kidding? No one's reading this!

Well, peace out!

(And I'm listening to Darren Criss being supermegafoxyawesomehot as I write this chapter… kept on distracting me… he made me like Glee… DARN YOU, DARREN… and, for the record, the first half of the first season of Glee is the best stuff out there)

HOLY CRANOODLE I'M UNSTOPABBLE.