A/N: Good news is that I'm back in business! Bad news is that I'm trying to get back into that pattern of writing so this is going to suck! More bad news is that my boyfriend- of three years, mind you- and I had a falling out so I'm also distracted, which is going to make this chapter even worse. But, hey, it's chapter and I'm working on the next one right now!
So, please DON'T LEAVE HATE and I'll do better, I swear!
Alright, bye chickas and... chickos? -BlackSkinnyJeans101
Fourteen
It was Monday, a week after I told Fang that I wanted a break and I feel even more terrible now, since he's pretty much ignoring me. I want to take back what I said, I desperately do, but that would show weakness and I'm terrible at showing weakness. Macy comes into my room without even knocking, she spreads the curtains of my room and chirps at me to wake up. Groaning, I roll on my bed until suddenly I'm falling and I land on my carpet; Macy snickers as she leaves the room quietly. My shower takes five minutes, then I quickly do my hair, and go through my closet for the lazy clothes I set away from everything else.
I wore some white Nike really short tennis shorts, a faded blue Superman loose t-shirt, and I slipped into some dark blue Ugg boots. Then I put on some bracelets with a necklace Fang somehow got in my clutch the night of the dinner.{A/N: *sigh* link on PROFILE} I put my hair in a weird bun but I could honestly care less; I walked downstairs and past the kitchen without even glancing at the food. As always Nudge sat in my driveway with the make-up and the small granola bar I had agreed to eat just to shut her up. She took one look at my outfit and shook her head but she unlocked the car and I slid into the passenger seat.
"Here, eat it," she commands as she starts rubbing the makeup under my eyes to hide the bruise-colored rings. She's been coming every morning to cover the rings and to feed me a granola bar, which is the only thing I agreed to. Then she left for Iggy's house or school and I was once again alone to deal with my stay-at-home sister, Maya. Except for today, I had agreed to start going to school again and Nudge claimed that it was about time.
I don't even remember the last time I took my pregnancy control pills, I just remember taking them the day after Fang and I did the deed. It's not like it matters now anyways, I don't have an actual boyfriend only a boyfriend that I'm on break from. Fang hasn't called to check up on me like he used to every night and I've only seen Iggy once ever since the dinner. I pick at my tennis shorts and munch unhappily at the granola bar that just tastes like sandpaper to me. Nudge looked tense, her hands tightening on the steering wheel and her eyes flicking over at me every other minute or so. Sometimes I think the girls are taking this thing a lot worse than Fang is; from what I've heard he's trying out for the school's track team.
Anyways, after I talked to Fang that night I had completely fallen apart in the exact way I was trying to avoid so long ago. I stopped looking at food with a hunger, I started just staying in my pajamas all day to watch sappy movies and eat icecream, and I just couldn't sleep. Now Nudge pulls out of the driveway, heading for the one place I've dreaded for my last week off on break. When we arrived the first thing I saw was Fang, hanging with the football players and the guys of our group and laughing along. Nudge looks at me guiltily but I just stand from the car, immediately eyes turn on me and the jocks begin to whistle; I flip them off.
"Come on, Babe, we heard you're free now!" one called; I frowned but didn't dare take a peek at Fang for I would just break down. Nudge grabs my wrist and tugs me inside, never letting her eyes stray from ahead of her; I, on the other hand, looked around at all of the kids staring. I knew this would happen, of course, everyone's used to the power couple together and now we're acting like two enemies.
Lisa steps in front of me with a fake look of sympathy on her face, "I'm sorry about your break-up with Fang, Max. Everyone's talking about it," she slings an arm over my shoulder and I'm too tired to shove it off again. Nudge glances over her shoulder when Iggy calls her, "Go to your boyfriend, Nudge, I'll keep an eye on Max." Lisa tells Nudge and soon Nudge dashes off towards her boyfriend, showing no self-control of her own movements.
"What do you want?" I snarl as soon as Nudge is gone; I grab Lisa's wrist and take it off of my shoulder slowly. My head was spinning from my lack of food, and yet I didn't feel in the least bit hungry; my stomach growled in disagreement.
She smiled, "I want you and I to hang out this weekend, you know some girl time. And I could totally help you get back up on your feet to where all of the guys are falling for you just like they are for me." To prove this she winks at a passing football player and he smirks back, dipping his head and shoving his hands into his pockets.
I sigh, aggravated, "If I agree will it get me out of this conversation?" I ask and she squeals, nods, and hugs me before running off. After she's gone I troop to my first class, dropping down in a seat in the very back, aware of Nudge frowning and following me with her eyes. I pull out my house key and start scratching into the black top of the desk until our teacher walks in with the rest of the students.
Brigid walks in with them and she takes the now-empty seat next to Nudge, grinning and looking over at Fang with a wink. To my utter disgust he returns it with a smirk; Nudge watches as well then looks back at me but I just look down. When class is out, I'm the last one out the door until my teacher, Jerry, calls me back into the classroom. He's sitting on the corner of his desk, rubbing his glasses with the bottom of his shirt and setting them back on his nose. He wasn't stupid, he noticed how I isolated myself from everyone else and tried not to make eye contact with Fang, Iggy, or Nudge.
"Miss Martinez, I know you just got back from your doctor's break, but you can't start slacking in this class because of the accident. Tomorrow I want you to sit with Dylan and work with him, alright?" he asks and I agree with an expressionless face. I leave the room and walk down the hall to my next class, once again isolating myself from everyone else.
When lunch rolled around the corner I sat down next to Nudge and Kate and stared down at my food, barely touching the chocolate chip cookie. "Max, you haven't been eating enough," Nudge snaps shoving a cookie close to my face and waving it around impatiently.
"Maybe I'm just not hungry," I snatched the cookie away and dropped it onto Sam's plate, shoving the rest of my lunch away.
Angel sighs, "Would you at least eat a cup of ice-cream?" she asks, pulling out a dollar so we could get some of the school's ice-cream.
Nudge looked hopeful until I replied, "No way," and she threw her hands in the air, nearly smacking Iggy in the face.
She narrows her eyes, "You need to eat! You can't keep starving yourself like this!" she exclaims causing most of the cafeteria to go dead quiet and turn towards us. Brigid decides to take that moment to burst into the lunchroom in a pencil skirt and blouse with matching heels. She walks over to our table, plopping down next to a silent Fang that couldn't succeed in catching my eyes.
"You know, Max," Brigid snaps, "she's right about the whole starving yourself thing. Just because Fang broke up with you doesn't mean you should be this hard on yourself." That was the last straw; I grab my filled lunch tray and dump it over her head before turning and leaving the cafeteria like a boss.
Soon Kate, Angel, JJ, Star, and Nudge rush out; they explained that last time I stormed out of the cafeteria I went missing. They didn't say anything as we just roamed around the school, then we went to our classes and I left my head down for the rest of the day. Afterwards Lisa found me in the parking lot, explaining how we would go and get our make-overs and then have a sleepover at my place after. I groaned, knowing this would be torturous and I didn't know if I could handle it at the moment; everything was happening so fast. When Fang walked out of the school building and saw me talking to Lisa, he raised an eyebrow but then went back to his track friends.
"Let's do it," I decide and Lisa squeals, dragging me to her car; Nudge, Kate, Angel, Star, and JJ looked confused along with Holden, Ratchet, Ari, Sam, Fang, Iggy, and Gazzy. I slid into the passenger seat, allowing Lisa to chatter even though I wasn't listening.
It's been an hour into this girl trip and Lisa was throwing little pieces of clothing into the dressing room, continuing without a pause. I tried it all on and let her see before she agreed on some things and disagreed on others; my credit card was going to get whiplash. We wandered through every slutty store in the mall until we were forced to rent a cart for all of the bags. Lisa was chatting about the latest gossip, filling me in on stuff I didn't actually care about at all; she acted like she did at school. After two minutes of persuasion I was able to drag her into Forever21; I took her back to the best section, but she looked at it in pure disgust.
"Just try on a few things, okay? For me?" I do the thing with puppy dog eyes that she'd been doing for the past hour. She groaned but agreed and locked herself in a dressing room while I started fingering through the clothes. I took maybe four things down for me since most of the stuff was already in my closet, but I took down a lot of stuff for Lisa, too. I threw the stuff over the dressing room door and listened as it plopped down on the floor at Lisa's feet.
There was some shuffling and then Lisa swung open the door now in some cute ripped skinny jeans and a dark green top. She looked a lot like someone I could get along with during those couple of minutes of both of us staring at her reflection in the mirror. "What about shoes? I only own heels," she looked to me and I bit down on my bottom lip for a moment.
"We'll go down to Shoe Emporium after we finish up here," I decide and Lisa nods while turning around in front of the mirror to check out every side. "I like it, Lisa, you actually look cool and not like a total... well, you know," I trail off awkwardly and Lisa nods slowly. She was still gazing at her reflection where her red hair clashed perfectly with the dark top and the ripped jeans actually weren't bad for her.
She suddenly started twiddling her thumbs, "You know that whole being a slut thing isn't real, right Max? It's just an act that I've been playing for my father," she shook her head sadly and stepped back into the dressing room. Something about the tone of her voice confused me, that usual squeaky tone was replaced with a normal teenage girl voice. It was the same voice I would look for on an athlete, but not on a Lisa so it was kind of odd hearing the tone on Lisa. Ever since 6th grade she had that squeak to her tone, always making the sentence sound screechy.
I was staring confusedly at the dark door, "How do you mean? Why would you act like a total slut for your father?" I frown and start fingering through the racks outside of her door. I pick out some short-shorts and crop tops and throw them over her door along with some tank-tops.
There was a pause for a good three minutes before Lisa decided to replay, "My father wants me acting like the stupid little spoiled brat. He says all of his coworkers have dumb daughters, other than your dad, and that we need to just blend in. So he told me he would pay for my college if I spent the four years of high-school acting like a slutty spoiled brat." There was that hint of hate lingering in her words and I found myself leaning against the wall as I replayed her story over and over in my head.
"We could always get you a job, you know," I murmur and Lisa steps out again in a new outfit and she slightly nods at me to continue. "That way you wouldn't have to go to school looking and acting like a slut and we could actually hang out. I'll even get a job with you for after school," I smile slightly when Lisa agrees excitedly, claiming she never thought about getting a job.
We end up getting Lisa twelve new outfits before we leave Forever 21 and head for another store of my favorites. This time she pours over the clothes, grabbing jeans and narrowly avoiding the skirts on the other side of the store. She gets fifteen outfits there and then we make our way to the largest shoe store I had ever been in. We go through the fifty aisles, grabbing pairs that would match her new outfits and avoiding the super tall heels she would normally float to as if on impulse. When we finish I take her to the bathroom in the mall's Belk and I let her change into her favorite outfit before we leave.
"I feel so new," Lisa squealed and did a 360 for me in her new ripped dark skinny jeans, white long-sleeved shirt, and black knee-high boots. She grinned at me through the mirror considering her back was too me and I was removing the clips and such from her hair. I brushed it out and the pretty red waves fell down her back perfectly; I let her get down and take in her new makeup-free and hairspray-free look in the full-body mirror.
Even I find myself smiling, "You actually look really awesome," I comment and she grins at me and next thing I know she's engulfing me in a hug. "Let's go to the food court, and yes you do have to eat something other than a small salad and small water."
She rolls her eyes and tries to speak again, "I was going to say great I'm starving and I could seriously go for a meatball sub and a large sweet tea." We leave the Belk and head for the food court when she suddenly jerks me back into a store with a wide smile. "Wait, you still need to change out of those clothes if we're going to show off my new look then we need to show everyone the breakup isn't going to kill you on the inside."
"It didn't kill me on the inside and we aren't even technically broken up, Lisa. I told him that maybe we should just have a break from each other and didn't give him a chance to argue with me," I tell her truthfully.
She nods sadly and gives me a sorry smile, "I heard that he broke up with you so I just assumed that was why you weren't in school for another week after him. Please let me help you pick out an outfit?" she widens her dark green eyes and pouts out her bottom lip. The look was so puppy-like that I found myself watching her carefully to see if she would suddenly turn into a ravenous dog or something. Then I rolled my eyes at my stupidness, someone turning into a ravenous dog is just a fantasy that won't come true.
I agree and we start going through the store, grabbing stuff for me until we finally come together with a new outfit. The black ripped skinny jeans matched the white crop top that had a mouth in black, gray and white on the front and the teeth in the mouth were biting down slightly on the corner of the bottom lip and the mouth was surrounded by black spikes. Then I slip on black Fever Pitch heels along with a black leather jacket that I left unzipped. I put in some black chandelier earrings and slipped on a ring that resembled a curled feather and another ring of a skull surrounded by roses. I clipped a silver chain with a skull pendant around my neck and snapped a black multi-strand bracelet around my left wrist.
Before leaving, I bought a belly-button ring that had a music symbol inside of a silver circle and I quickly slipped it in. I got my belly button pierced without Nudge a few weeks ago and I got the woman to do it at my house so I wouldn't have to leave. Sighing, I left the store with Lisa and we finally went to the food court right after Lisa made me take my hair down. The bun made it extremely wavy and it fell down my back in waves that reached past my mid-back now after going a few weeks without a haircut. We walked into the food court and Lisa went to the Subway while I ventured to the Chick-fil-a for some nuggets.
"What the hell are you doing here with Lisa?" a way too familiar voice hisses at me; I thank the lady at the counter and take my tray after paying. Nudge follows me to the table Lisa put her purse on and I put down my tray then turn to look at my friend.
I raise an eyebrow, "That honestly isn't any of your business, Nudge. Just because you've been taking care of me for the past week doesn't mean you're now my mom and can know everything about me." Her eyes flicker over my appearance and I see her eyes sadden slightly when she sees my pierced stomach.
"Well unless you want to explain the situation to the others then I suggest you get out of here," Nudge narrows her eyes back at me. I look around her and sure enough the rest of the flock is sitting at our usual table, talking and laughing with each other. It was as if I never even existed, as if one of their friend's wasn't missing from their huge group and I felt my stomach pang hurtfully.
I look back to Nudge, "Just go sit with your friends, Nudge, I really don't need this right now," I frown when I see her eyes are no longer pointed at me.
"Hey Max, the guy at the counter said that Coco's is hiring if we wanted to check it out," Lisa appeared beside me.
My eyes flickered to her for a second, "Okay we can check it out next weekend but right now we should just eat and get out of here." Nudge was on her way back to the flock's table and Lisa nodded understandingly; we sat down and started eating. Lisa practically shoved the whole foot-long in her mouth and then sucked down half of her sweet tea. "You're going to choke," I informed her and she slowed down, blushing slightly at her eating habits.
"Hey, ladies," a smooth voice said from above us and Lisa quickly wiped her mouth and swallowed the rest of her food. We both looked up and saw two guys from the football team, Brent and Cade, looking down at us with wide grins. Brent's eyes go wide when he realizes who I was with, "Lisa?" he questions disbelievingly and Lisa smirks. We both stood up and the guys staggered back, looking at us as if we would pounce and rip them to shreds in a second if they so much as looked at us wrong. I couldn't tell about Lisa but I was sick and tired of these two thinking they can flirt with anything that has stylish hair and boobs.
Lisa twirled some hair around her finger, "Don't you like my new look, Brent?"
He gulped visibly and Cade elbowed him in the side and then answered for him, "It's cool and all but a little too badass for you." I rolled my eyes and shoved his shoulder, he fell back into a chair and stared at me, bewildered.
"She is not a slut you can pick up at a party, Cade, so get your ass and your friend's ass out of here before I kick them out of here." They both leave and Lisa curls over laughing; Kate, JJ, Star, Nudge, and Angel are all staring at me in betrayal now. "Let's get out of here and go to my place for that sleepover," I push some hair over my shoulder and leave with Lisa.
When we get to my place we head downstairs to the theater with our pajamas and such in our arms; Lisa goes to pick out a movie. I start the popcorn machine and pick two recliners to spread our sleeping bags on since we were planning on sleeping down here. We settle down tiredly and into the second movie I find that Lisa has fallen asleep with popcorn all over her lap. I roll my eyes and cut off the screen; I leave the theater and go upstairs to my bedroom to look for my journal. In third grade my mom gave me a journal, but I never used it and just put it somewhere and forgot about it but now I want it.
The journal isn't what I find, however, when I step into my bedroom; instead, the whole flock- minus Ella- is standing around my room. Iggy moves to block the door before I can make a run for it; the last thing I wanted was to confront all of them right now. It seems, however, that I wouldn't get a choice in the matter this time.