I WOKE UP TO a white room, and immediately thought I was back in the hands of the whitecoats. Then I noticed a sleeping Iggy aside of me, and comprehended that I was, once again, in a hospital. For Pete's sake, why did I keep being put in hospitals?! What was stranger is that Iggy was the only one in the room. Not even Angel was around.
I noticed Iggy had a try in front of him, and it still had food on it. My stomach was growing with hunger, so I reached for the container of pudding.
"Touch my pudding and I will kill you myself." I jumped back at Iggy's threat. There was a certain tone in his voice that made me stop and think.
"What's wrong, Ig? You sound upset with me." I swear, if Iggy wasn't blind, he would have been giving me the death stare.
"Don't act all innocent. You know what you did." Iggy continued to stare in my direction. I was baffled.
"What are you talking about? I didn't do anything!" Was I going completely insane or was my flock?
"Oh, so throwing both me and Fang across the room and telling Fang you were only pretending to like him is doing nothing?"
"What?!" Okay, this had to be a dream. I mean, Iggy was even against me! He's usually on my side on matters like this.
"You seriously don't remember dance lessons? One minute I'm dancing my heart out with Crystal, the next I'm fighting for my life when you went crazy!" I, for once, was speechless. "And your not supposed to know this, but you really hurt Fang."
"Physically or emotionally?" I was afraid to ask, but I had to know. I really wanted to know was why I did those things, nonetheless, remember them.
"Both, unfortunately." I winced at his words, "Fang has a broken rib from you slinging him against the wall. You said stuff like you never really liked him, and you just loved watching him go crazy over you. You ended with, 'it was all a game'. Oh, and you even punched him in the face." Once again, I was speechless.
"Oh my gosh," I whispered, "I don't remember saying ANY of those things." I was about to say something else but Iggy interrupted.
"Fang was trying to hide how hurt he really was. Turn's out, his injuries were worse than expected, and he's lost the will to live. You were his reason for living, Max." I couldn't find words to say. Fang not wanting to live? That's not like him. "Nudge and Gazzy don't know; Crystal's with them, and your mom knows. Angel probably knows, though. She could read Fang's mind, too."
"Iggy, you have to believe me," I started, "That wasn't me who did that!" Iggy wasn't believing me. "Ig, look, after the avalanche, they took X-rays, and they found a chip on my spine. The doctor said he was going to study it to figure out what it was. Maybe that's what happened! You see, the Eraser's kidnapped me by accident. They really wanted Crystal, so they could put the chip in her. I'm telling the truth!" Iggy didn't say anything for a long moment.
"I'm not the one you have to convince of that." He stood up and motioned for me to follow. He opened the door and let me head out first. "Find room 122," he told me. I found it without a problem. As I opened it, my eyes shot over to Fang. I saw him hooked up to about a dozen monitor's and wires. My mind flashed back to the last time he was this bad. I almost cried. Almost.
"Fang, you awake, buddy?" Iggy asked and approached the bed. Fang opened his eyes and he smiled. That is, until his gaze came upon me. Then he just frowned. It was a look that I took as, I'm-really-really-mad-at-you-right-now-and-I'm-not-going-to-get-over-it-easily. I noticed his eyes were puffy and his face was still wet with tears. Iggy hadn't been lying.
"Will you let me explain?" I asked, Fang didn't look the least bit interested in what I had to say.
"There's nothing to say; You said it all earlier." I could tell right away that this wasn't going to be easy.
"Fang, you have to believe me, that wasn't me! Okay, it was me, but I think it was that chip I was telling you about!" Fang's expression didn't change a bit. Normally Fang only had one facial expression, which was being expressionless. Now he looked broken hearted and alone. It killed me to think that I had actually done this to him, even if it wasn't intentional.
"You don't believe her?" Iggy asked. Fang maintained his expressionless appearance as he replied.
"And you do?" The coldness of his voice did me in. I couldn't stand it anymore. I turned and ran out the door, making a b-line for my room. When I reached it, I collapsed on the bed, replayed the entire conversation, and cried.