Max POV

"Shit!" I bolted upright.

"What the he-" A sudden crash from the kitchen made me jump.

"Are you fucking kidding me!?" Frowning in confusion, I threw the blanket off me and peeled myself off the couch. Releasing a yawn, I shuffled across the hall and into the kitchen. A hunched form covered in black was currently digging through the cupboard, a string of cuss words making their way out of his mouth. I smirked.

"Having trouble?"

"Fuck!" Fang jumped, knocking over quite a few pans and sending them to the ground. They landed and bounced, making a lot of noise. I laughed.

"Looks like someone forgot to take their happy pills." He turned and glared at me but I only bit my lip to try and contain another laugh.

"Whatever. I'm done with this. You want breakfast, you make cereal." Stomping past me, he stormed into the living room and landed on the couch with a thud. Plopping down next to him, I watched as he angrily flipped through TV channels.

"Dude, what's wrong with you?"

"Nothing." I stared at him. Nothing. Really? That was his answer.

"Bullshit. Now tell me what's wrong." Sighing, he turned off the TV and turned to me.

"Max, last night-"

"Never happened." I snapped. He sighed again.

"Look, when I walked into that kitchen, the last thing I expected to find was you holding a knife and looking at it with a scared expression. It scared the hell out of me. Then you said that you didn't mean to and... I don't know. I felt... Relieved? I actually thought that if I had come ten, even five minutes later, I would have found you bleeding to death on the floor. That thought scared the absolute shit out of me and I don't know why. I just care about you... Like a sister maybe? Not only that but, how would Anne and everyone else react? They'd be devastated."

"You don't think I know that? You don't think I know that the day I actually do kill myself and Anne walks in to see my cold, lifeless body on the ground that she won't be devastated?"

"I know you realize that, Max. But I feel like that's the only reason you haven't killed yourself yet." I glared at him, anger starting to bubble in my stomach.

"You're a real asshole, you know that?"

"Why? Because I care?"

Then the doorbell rang. Before I could react, Fang was up and heading towards the door. Leaning against the couch, I let out a heavy sigh as the sound of welcome greetings came from the hall. Staring hard at the dark TV screen, I could hear the faint sound of footsteps as Fang made his way back to the living room with someone by his side.

"Max, I want you to meet my friend, Alex. I want you guys to talk." I turned around, peering over the side of the couch to see Fang standing next to a guy I've never seen before. His brown hair was gelled back away from his face and his ice blue eyes stared warmly at me.

"Hey." I furrowed my eyebrows at him, confused beyond belief.

"Hi..." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Fang escape to the kitchen. The ass.

"So Fang told me you have... Issues." I froze at his choice of words.

"Why the hell would he tell you that?" I snapped. Alex sighed, moving to sit on the opposite end of the couch.

"I know it's hard to admit it to people, especially strangers, 'cause you feel like everyone will judge you no matter how hard you try to explain but I just want to say, that I'm not like other people and I'll understand." I glared at him.

"And how the hell would you understand?" Closing his eyes as if he were entirely against the idea of what he was about to do, he rolled up the sleeves of his jacket. I nearly gasped at the sight of his arms. Instead of smooth skin, it was a collision of puckered scars. Then I realized I had reached out to touch them and snatched my hand back as if I had been burned.

"It's okay. You can touch." He smiled at me and I returned it with only a small one. Scooting closer to him, I traced over a truly gruesome one that was jagged and reached from his wrist all the way to the inside of his elbow.

"Well, looks like you do understand." I smirked, trying and failing miserably at trying to crack a joke. He chuckled though, shaking his head in amusement.

"Yep, probably more than anyone."

"So why are you here?" I asked, turning to stare at him in confusion. He heaved a huge sigh, sinking back into the couch cushions.

"Fang told me how you had demons that were hard to fight and asked me if I could help. He knew my past consisted of self-harming and multiple times where I had tried to kill myself. I felt so worthless and had so much self-loathing that I didn't think I could find a way out. Then someone I knew had a long, serious discussion about how, even though everything seems dark and empty now, things brighten up in the end." He gave me a small smile.

"So Fang called you here to have a serious discussion with me on how, even though it may seem like my life is worthless, there's actually meaning?" He chuckled.

"You say it like that's the stupidest idea you've ever heard." I rolled my eyes.

"No, I just... Don't know why he cares so much."

"You truly are blind, aren't you?" I stared at him.

'What?" He sighed disapprovingly.

"Fang loves you."

... What?

Fang POV

I sat in the kitchen, anxiously bouncing my knee up and down. Alex and Max had been talking for twenty minutes. I really hoped this worked. Alex was the one guy I knew that had any chance of changing Max around. His past wasn't pretty; his dad was murdered and his mom was almost never there to comfort her son. The family moved here when he was about fourteen and we've been friends ever since. I had found Alex trying to kill himself once. He tried to convince me that it wasn't what it looked like but I knew better. We ended up having a long, serious discussion about, even though his life may seem worthless, there was something waiting for him in the end.

I heard something crash against the floor, which immediately sent my senses into overdrive. I was about to march into the living room when Max stomped into the kitchen. Storming up to me and pointing a finger in my face, she started to scream.

"You! Why the hell didn't you tell me you loved me!? God dammit, Fang! I can't believe you would keep something like that from me! What the hell were you thinking!? You can't ju-"

"What?" Her eyes widened, a hand shooting to cover her mouth. "What?" I repeated.

"I, uh, I-"

"Did you just ask why I didn't tell you I loved you?" She shook her head, backing up. I mimicked her steps, closing in on her personal space. Her back pressed up against the wall as I invaded her bubble. "Who the hell told you that?" She gulped, eyes darting to the kitchen doorway. Alex. "I can't believe that ass-"

"Is it true?" I froze. She stared at me expectantly while I just sat there, jaw on the floor. "Is. It. True?" She repeated. Now I gulped.

"Um, uh, I-"

"Please, Fang, just answer the question. I don't want anymore bullshit, I just want the truth." She pleaded, eyes sad. Something in my heart hurt at that look in her eye, wanting so badly to take that pain away. Mentally, physically, and emotionally. Placing my hands on both of her cheeks, I leaned in, drowning in the scent of her; earthy, like the forest. Stopping just centimeters from her teasing lips, I, once again, breathed in her delicious smell.

"Yes, I think I love you." Then I pressed my lips to hers.