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Chapter 28

"Well what do you think they're going to do now?" Ella asked, leaning back against Iggy where they sat snuggled up on the love seat. We were at my house, and after that verbal smack down in the cafeteria none of us were certain what Lissa and her new right hand man, Lizzie were going to do next.

And I said just as much. "I don't know. Lissa's always full of surprises. And Lizzie is giving her ammunition. We can just bet it won't be fun."

"Well what more can she do?" Gazzy asked. He too was curled up with his girlfriend on a recliner, Nudge perched in his lap.

I shook my head. Lizzie had almost surely told most of my secrets to Lissa and looking back I realized that what I had thought was super secret back then weren't too bad (even though I would have preferred that they were never told).

Lizzie would eventually run out of ammo and I knew that Lissa would soon resort back to her old conniving ways. I just didn't know what to expect.

I turned to Fang who'd been sitting quietly beside me all night.

"What do you think?" I asked him.

He looked up from where he'd been studying his hands and gave me a blank look. "About what?"

Iggy snickered and Ella, Nudge, and I rolled our eyes at the same time. You'd think we'd rehearsed it.

"Well somebody wasn't paying attention now were they? I asked what you thought Lissa's next move would be?"

He shrugged indifferently. I felt my brow furrow at his nonchalant ways. Almost detached as if he didn't care what Lissa's next plot to hurt me would be. "Don't know. She'll surprise us."

"Well that doesn't help. We already figured that out thank you very much." I said snidely.

"Well then why did you ask me?" he said in a matching tone.

"I thought you may give it some thought but apparently not."

"Trouble in paradise." I heard Iggy mutter.

"Shut up Ig!" we both said at the same time.

"Look, whatever they do, we'll just have to tough it out." Ella said in an attempt to lessen the tension. "It can't be anything you can't handle. Besides, you'll always have us."

….

Lizzie and Lissa tried, I'd give them that. They spread rumors, they told secrets, and they bashed me. Luckily, two years of having paparazzi spin random stories about me had me prepared for whatever they threw at me. I was the bigger person, I turned the other cheek so to speak. I ignored the secrets, discredited the rumors, and bashed them right back.

But just because I looked fine on the outside didn't mean I wasn't a wreck on the inside.

They only thing that did confuse me, was Fang. I don't know if the rumors affected him or what but he continued acting strange. The rest of the Flock was fine, they helped me discredit rumors over the week that Lizzie started school, they even spun a few of their own (not that I condoned them but they were frickin hilarious!).

Fang didn't participate though. He sort of seemed detached. Well, more than usual. I guess he was the same to everyone else but I couldn't have silent conversations anymore, he was avoiding eye contact. I didn't know what he was hiding. Maybe the rumors were changing his view on me. Did he actually believe them? Did Lizzie and Lissa tell him some secret about me that he didn't like? Did he agree with some of the things they were saying?

He was driving me up the frickin wall. It was like that for the entire week back from Thanksgiving break.

I found out what was wrong on the first day of December.

"…and so Janie Harman was saying like 'I heard she hooked up with her boyfriend back in California' and I was like, 'um excuse me, but no. Max is no slut unlike you,' and she was all like—"

"Nudge!" I interjected finally, touching my hand to my ears to make sure they weren't bleeding.

"Yeah Max?" she asked innocently while Ella smirked at her side.

I sighed. "I'm just going to go find Fang and we'll leave, okay?"

"Okie dokie!" she said happily and I made my escape down the empty hallway, heading towards Fangs locker.

I wondered what was taking Fang so long. He usually just met the Flock by my locker at the end of the day, but at this point I'd do anything to escape Nudges incessant babbling.

As I turned the corner I heard a slight scuffling and the sound of the lockers rattling. My eyes immediately located the source of the disturbance.

Two teenagers were pressed up against the lockers in a tight embrace, completely oblivious to their surroundings.

One was short with fiery red hair….

And the other was tall with olive skin and black hair.

Fang.

I felt my heart seize up in my chest, like I'd just been electrocuted and my heart had given out. The feeling seemed to smother me, making my breaths come in short but harsh gasps.

It was the feeling of my heart slowly and irrevocably breaking.

"I hate you," I managed to choke out, after what seemed like an eternity of watching Fang and Lissa in a lip lock. In reality it was probably two or three seconds.

Almost immediately Fang had pushed Lissa away and his eyes focused on me, a look that just screamed I'm in trouble.

Well yes he was.

"Max," he started but I'd already spun on my heels and was heading quickly towards the schools exit.

I heard him call after me but I ignored him, lengthening my strides. I needed to get out of here before the tears that pricked at my eyes became too much to hold in.

So this is what had been wrong with Fang all week. He didn't want me anymore. He wanted Lissa.

"Max, what's going on?" Ella asked as I rushed past them. I didn't answer, I sped up until I was running.

A sob ripped its way out of my throat and I hated my weakness. But this is what happens when you let your guard down. This is what I deserve for thinking that I, Max Ride, could actually have a normal life, a boyfriend. That I could trust anyone in my life.

The pleas behind me grew in volume as I jumped the school steps and ran for the gate. I'd run the whole way home if it meant getting away from him.

He was getting closer, I could feel his presence as the skin on the back of my neck prickled. Suddenly his hand came down on my shoulder, pulling me up short.

"Max, you don't understand…" he panted. I pulled away from him. There was no way that I was going to stick around and listen to him make excuses for himself.

I started stalking off towards home in strong determined strides.

"Please, you have to listen to me—"

"No you listen to me Nicholas Walker!" I shrieked, my voice ripping through two octaves. I saw him blink, momentarily frozen. Shock showed plainly on his face, and on the Flocks faces, where they stood a few yards behind him. I never called Fang by his real name, not once since I'd been told his nick name.

But a nick name is how you address a friend, someone who you were close to. And after this, I wanted to be as far away from him as possible.

"I trusted you! Do you know how hard that is for me to do? Of course you know!" I answered my own question. "Because I told you everything about me! I trusted you and you took that trust and just threw it in my face." My voice cracked and I hated that I felt tears leak out of the corners of my eyes. "Just do us all a favor and stay away from me."

I turned my back on him and his hurt expression and ran down the street towards my house.

Don't kill me! We all know that the happy couple has to fight at some point. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger and all that jazz. Read and Review! Also, some of you have showed interest in the Flocks reaction throughout the story. Well heres the deal: I did write some chapters with their POV's but they didn't flow well with the body of the story. SO if you guys want, after I finish the actual story (Chapter 35 is the last chapter for this story), I could post the alternate POV chapters. Let me know what you want!

Peace!