DISCLAIMER: I don't own MR.
Those six words still kept ringing at the back of my head. The whole time.
I mean, yes, the very tiny 0.00000000000001 percent of my brain that was girly always wanted to be asked that question. The rest did not. And neither knew how to react to the said question, no matter how much the former appreciated it. I mean, what were you actually supposed to do once you said yes? Call each other at 3 AM and get eye bags? Frolic in the park? Hold hands while walking into the sunset? Or worse… have romantic candlelit dinners? Seriously, if they held a class for this, I would still not sign up.
What was I going to tell him anyway?
"This is totally a lose-lose situation." Nudge said as she inspected her newly done nails. The four of us gathered at her house to discuss the note. No other mentions of countertop dancing were heard.
"Elaborate." I said. Angel and Ella looked at me. They both looked like they were going to explain, but then shut their mouths as Nudge started talking.
"If you say yes, you get a summer romance, but then it's not with the guy you like. And the chances that Fang's going to put you in the friend zone will be extremely large. If you say no, you will be free for the whole summer if you don't consider the guilt of breaking a young man's heart, thus making Fang despise you considering that Iggy's his best friend. So you have no summer romance, but you get to make an enemy."
"So what am I supposed to say?"
"Under these circumstances, it's best you avoid him first." Ella said. "But then, he's not the type that's going to keep bugging you until you break down and say yes."
"So the best possible solution is that you can keep hanging out with them, but never bring up the topic."
"And if Iggy does?"
"Do the typical 'I need more time to think.'" Nudge answered.
Ella did her wide-eyed innocent face and turned to Angel. "And what do the vibes say?"
Angel tapped her temple, blinked, and then proclaimed, "Expect that you're going to see him soon."
"True. Iggy is an all-around guy." Nudge chirped.
"And he might ask you something relating to the very question. Might."
Should I mention once again how she has never been wrong about the vibes?
Fang
"Gosh, Iggy, don't be so jumpy." Tess said, eyeing all ten of Iggy's chewed down, almost bleeding finger nails. "You do know it's been less than twenty-four hours, right?"
Iggy mumbled something like "I don't care," and then started chewing down his thumbnail.
Of course he liked Max. He probably liked Max since sophomore year. But he only chose to tell us a couple of months ago. And yes, he begged that we abandon all attempts of matchmaking.
Of course I never told him about Max and I. And how we kissed. Thrice. Even if Iggy cracks jokes all the time, he's a really, really sensitive guy. Based on the extremity of this situation, if he ever found out about that, he would abandon all hope and lock himself in his room and listen to My Chemical Romance or some other "depressing" (his description, not mine) band for the rest of the summer.
"Relax, Ig." I said, and pulled his hand from his mouth. "I'm pretty sure bleeding nails are not the way to a girl's heart."
"And I'm pretty sure she's going to be cool around you, like you always are around her." Tess added. "You are pretty likeable."
"But it's Max." Iggy reasoned. "She's the most stubborn person I know; she probably refuses relationships until she's mature enough or old enough or something. She's probably too stubborn to even start a relationship."
"Iggy, from her state last night, she's probably not even awake yet." He started to open his mouth to speak, and I added, "even if it's not because she has a hangover."
Tess stood up. "Come on, guys. Let's go out. And maybe expose Iggy to some sunlight."
Max
I need coffee a lot of coffee. And maybe a couple of pop tarts.
I was sitting at one of the outdoor tables at a coffee shop uptown. The ice cream place where I once ate extra large hot fudge sundaes with Fang was not far from here. I could even see a large part of the park, the exact one where we kissed while sitting on a bench. What fascinating memories.
I gave a small, barely-there smile at the waitress who served me a large cup of black coffee and a plate of two croissants. I was obviously a terrifying sight to behold, what with my wet, sobered down hair dripping down my back and my eyes a little bloodshot with whatever Dylan put in my drink last night. The rest were just as hideous.
"Max?" I cringed at the familiar voice. I looked up and saw Iggy with a bright grin on his face and a cappuccino in his hands.
"Hey, Ig." I replied, trying to conceal any trace of nervousness. He sat down across the table and took a sip from his cup.
"The White Knight at your service." He said, his voice cool and calm. "I see you're still trying to cure your hangover."
"It was a bad night." I knew that Iggy knew about the countertop dancing fiasco, but did he know about the kiss? Did he even see it?
Obviously not. Duh. If he did, he probably wouldn't have given me that note.
"You here alone?" I asked, trying to make sure that my voice was in a nice, cool I'm-not-implying-that-I-need-to-talk-to-you-alone manner.
"Nope." He replied, and motioned his head to the inside of the coffee shop. "Tess and Fang are still placing their orders."
"Oh,"
"Um, Max... about the note..."
I gulped. "Yeah?"
"Are you... well... do you want to go out sometime? I mean, if you're not comfortable with the two of us alone, we can always get Tess and Fang to be with us. I'm sure they're fine with it."
"Um..."
Thankfully, my almost-reply was interrupted by Fang and Tess who arrived and took the remaining seats, which meant that Fang was beside me.
"Whoa, Max," Tess said once she had a good look at me. "And I thought Nudge looked worse."
"She still does, actually." I said, taking a bit of my croissant. "At least I already showered."
Iggy and Tess smiled at the comment. Fang, meanwhile, just took a sip of his coffee.
"You know Max, we're going to Iggy's tonight to have a movie marathon and maybe sleep over there. Do you want to join?"
I looked at Iggy while taking another bite of my croissant. His eyes were totally pleading me to go with them.
"Why not?" I shrugged. "Not like I have a lot of things to do this summer."
I have been to Iggy's a couple of times. And even if he didn't send that note, I'd still be joining them. Not because Fang was there, too (although that does contribute), but because Iggy has a pretty impressive collection. In a way, he's more well-stocked than the local Blockbuster.
"Do we get to pick randomly again?" Tess asked, eyeing the fishbowl full of scrap paper which was on his desk. I was pretty familiar with their "Random-sampling" system, where they just picked from the fishbowl instead of having to choose from the collection.
Iggy smiled before picking up the fishbowl and shoving it in my direction. I mixed the contents a bit before picking out a tiny piece of paper.
"Ah, The Fast Five." Tess said from behind me. "Not a bad choice. How about you, Ig?"
Iggy was trying hard not to laugh and drop the bowl. He took a deep breath and handed Tess the paper in his hands.
"No way!" Tess exclaimed, her eyes wide. "You told me you threw out this one."
He grinned sheepishly in reply. In Tess' hand was a worn out, too-much-rolled paper that had the words High School Musical written on it in what I presumed was twelve-year-old Iggy's handwriting.
"Let's hope this one's better." Tess said as she put her hand in the jar. Laughter erupted as she read the words Mean Girls out loud. "We are so having a quote-a-thon."
"Fang?" Iggy asked, turning to the only other person who hadn't been talking much since our arrival, besides me.
Fang blinked at the bowl for a second before snatching it out of his hands and placing it back on the desk. "Let's not make this weirder than it already is."
The rest of us agreed. Tess and I headed to the media room to set up (which is pretty much like their living room, except they don't watch actual TV there) while Iggy got the DVD's and Fang prepared all the popcorn that we needed.
"I still don't get why his parents had to get this room when they have another perfectly functioning television and couch downstairs."
"Iggy hasn't told you that story yet?" Tess asked, a mischievous grin on her face.
"Do I want to know?"
"You'd rather not." Fang said as he entered the room with two large bowls of popcorn and setting them down on the coffee table.
Iggy followed, with the chosen DVDs and a grin on his face. "Let the marathon start."
"I still think Dom's a better driver." Iggy stated.
"No way. Brian is." Fang said.
"Meg is." Tess argued.
"I'm pretty sure she can't even do a four-wheel drift." Iggy replied.
"I'm pretty sure you don't even know how to do a four-wheel drift."
"And you know how?"
"Place it into rear-wheel-drive with a manual transmission, enter the corner, pull the handbrake with the clutch depressed, then release the clutch and floor the accelerator, and counter-steer."
"I give up."
"God, Zac Efron looks like a Disney kid there." Tess said, cringing at his Justin-Bieber-like hair and horrible taste for tracksuits.
"Maybe because he was?" I said.
"Plus, his voice is really high there."
"I'm pretty sure that's not what he sounds like when he sings." Iggy said as he nonchalantly munched on popcorn.
Three pairs of eyes, including mine, instantly turned to Iggy.
"What?"
"She asked me how to spell 'orange'." All four of us said as Damien said the same words at the same time.
"This totally goes well with Harry Potter." Iggy said as he grabbed more popcorn.
"I don't think I can take any more of this movie's greatness." Tess said.
"Me too." Fang and I said at the same time.
"Me three." Iggy chimed in, ignoring the little coincidence that just happened.
"Anyone want to popcorn toss?"
"Aw, c'mon, Max. You're supposed to aim at my mouth, not my nostrils." Iggy laughed.
Due to sudden extreme boredom getting in the way, all of us decided to find out who could catch popcorn the best, even if we were in the middle of the film. By the time it was the Prom scene, Fang proved that he was indeed the "Popcorn Toss King". Iggy went next, and I kept on missing. Or rather, he kept on missing and didn't like to admit it. Maybe a little bit of both. Either way, it was funny seeing popcorn trying to shoot in his nostrils.
"I give up," I said, throwing the last piece of popcorn, making it land perfectly on Iggy's tongue. "Please pass those huge s'mores."
"Mmmm," Tess said as she took a bite. "I would totally kill for some chocolate milk now."
Iggy suddenly smiled at Fang, who (slightly) smiled at Tess, who smiled at me.
"Are you guys thinking what I'm thinking?"
The four of us silently tiptoed down the stairs with a mini flashlight in hand. The rest of the Griffith family was sound asleep, and I'm sure they're not in the mood to be woken up right now. As soon as we reached the kitchen, Iggy ran for the lights, Fang got some glasses, Tess got a huge carton of chocolate milk out of the fridge, and I took some bendy straws from the cupboard.
"I confess, Iggy, that this was why I was friends with you in the first place." Fang said as he watched him pour the contents into his glass.
"Aw, shut up. You already told me that."
"Hey, the two of you stop talking and start drinking before his parents catch us."
"I can't believe you still have a lot of these." Tess said as she licked her chocolate-milk-covered lips and went to get her third glass. "I'm going to feel really terrible when I wake up in the morning."
"Me too." I said, resisting the urge to burp loudly and waking up the whole neighborhood in the process.
"Guys, do you know it's one in the morning?" Fang asked, leaning on the counter, eyes slightly more alert from all the chocolaty goodness.
I looked at the digital clock on the kitchen wall. Fang was right. "We should go to sleep before we get into more trouble. Plus, this is already empty." I said, lifting the carton of chocolate milk that was now filled with air.
We cleaned up before going back upstairs. They've been probably doing this for a couple of years, because the kitchen looked untouched after we finished. Save for one missing carton in the fridge and one empty carton in the trash, it didn't look like a bunch of teenagers snuck in at midnight and got drunk over chocolate milk. The boys were going to sleep in Iggy's room, while Tess and I were at the guest room.
"I'm totally going to get a hangover." Tess groaned as she got in the bed.
"Me too. I apologize in advance if I ever vomit on you."
"Great." A moment of silence. "Um, Max?"
"Yeah?"
"You still remember that Iggy's asking you out, right?"
"Yeah."
"So… are you going to say yes?"
Of course. I could never avoid that question. But why would I say yes? And most importantly, why would I say no? Iggy's cute, has a knack for explosives just like my brother, got complimented by my mom for his awesome cooking skills, and he's nice. The kind of nice that no matter what reason, you wouldn't hate him.
"I think I am." I answered. And probably lied.
Fang
"Do you think Max really likes me?"
"Iggy, how many times have you ever asked me that question? Oh, wait, let me guess… a trillion." I said. "Are you going to let me sleep?"
"Gee sorry, I didn't know you were that sensitive."
"You're just really paranoid Iggy. Now go to sleep."
"I don't know. Sometimes when we talk she seems a little off. Like she's really paying attention to me and actually has an idea on what I'm talking about, but there's this tiny part in her mind that's always distracted."
"And what's wrong with that? Everyone has that kind of part in them."
"But when she's distracted, it looks entirely the opposite. Like when we're talking, she's answering all my questions, but then she looks like she'd rather have another person asking them and she'll be imagining the conversation in her brain while I go on and on."
"You leveled up with your paranoia."
"Do you think we're okay together?"
"Iggy, you are getting weirder by the minute, but for your sake, yes, you two look okay together." I lied. It was hard imagining the two of them together: Iggy, the fun all-around guy and actor with Max, the bad-ass loner. Opposites do attract sometimes, but they weren't exactly opposites.
"Do you think she'd kiss me?"
If she was intoxicated or if both of you were drunk, then yes, she'd kiss you. Other than that, you'll have to step up. "Yeah."
"'Kay. Goodnight."
I know, I know, I skipped another week. I swear this chapter took long to plan out. So go ahead and abuse your Caps Lock/Shift keys.
Anyway, I'd like to greet everyone from America a Happy Thanksgiving, and probably an "I hope you guys have a good time putting out those Christmas decors." (Since there's no Thanksgiving here, every possible Christmas ornament has been put up since SEPTEMBER.)
On another note, I'll be really slow in updating this December, with more exams and Christmas shopping and going to places where there is no such thing as Wi-Fi. January-March might also be a little hectic, since they're the last three months of the school-year. So expect that you'll be using the Caps Lock/Shift keys a lot.
(And yes, I am aware that this chapter looks like a filler written by your cat on caffeine.)
Review =D.