Packing sucks. Especially when you're on your way to meet the woman who abandoned you. That woman and her new and improved family. The Wardens had been making feeble attempts at cheering me up all afternoon, but the only thing that would truly make me happy was strangling some cute, fluffy bunnies and getting all that anger out.
Now that Jeb was in custody, all my things had been returned to me, although I wasn't sure how much I wanted to keep them. They had to many stories and connections behind them. Just wearing a certain shirt made me feel like some kind of ghost. Glancing at my watch, I sighed. I had exactly an hour and a half until I had to be at the police department to meet my mother. (The word 'mom' sounded too accepting, like she had cared for me. I would be resistant to the last.)
In terms of my relationships, they were all going well. Finally. Angel still hadn't officially apologized, but I wasn't sobbing with sorrow that she didn't like me. In fact, I wasn't too sure I liked her either. Everyone else was back on my good side, for the most part. I'd been watching Fang like a hawk for any sign of cigarette smoke or equally incriminating evidence. Part of me wanted to start shunning them all then and there since I knew I would never see them again. All it takes is one of us accidentally losing a number or forgetting to call and then it would be over. Why wait that long? The bigger, childish part of me was holding on the hope that this could all be fixed in the end.
"Hey Max. Can I talk to you?" I gritted my teeth and turned to face Fang.
"I'm busy," I said shortly. Realizing that I would sound like a bitch, I hastily added, "But you can hang out in here if you want." He nodded very Fangishly and sat on the bed, studying me. I could tell that he was preparing for my goodbye too, trying to ingrain me into his memory. I put a smile on my face. If this was his last image of me, might as well make it a good one, right? "So... what's up?" He smirked.
"I know things have been weird between us since that night... But I just wanted to tell you that I, too, love you more than you'll ever love Sam or I'll ever love Lissa." My cheeks burned crimson. Seriously? Out of everything that happened that night, that's what he took away? And did he just say he loved me? Oh my God. He totally did. Fang loved me! As a friend, though, I was sure. Because we weren't relationship people.
"Wha...?" Smooth, I know.
"Just saying. You know, because you seemed pretty distressed." I was going to wipe that smug look off of his face, really, I was. I was like thisclose to beating his ass into next year. But then we both kinda stepped forward and our noses were touching and you can't really hit an attractive guy in that position, you know?
"Fang," I said shakily. "What are you..." And now, the moment you've all been waiting for. He kissed me. It was quick enough to make me wonder if he'd made a mistake and went and kissed the wrong Max, or something. "Doing?" I finished squeakily. He kissed me again... And again... And again...
I'm not gonna lie here. It felt like eating ice cream on the hottest day of the year. That is, really, really, fantastically, amazingly good. So I kissed him back and we kind of, like... ate each others' faces off. It was like watching Animal Planet during the primal mating season - on one hand, it was pretty nasty, but on the other it seemed so natural. I squeezed my eyes shut to block out any intruding images of my not-so-stellar past with my perverted father. I was all ready to stop the whole making out thing and even prepared myself to pull away... And then Fang's tongue flickered out and I turned into the wicked witch of the west when Dorothy poured water on her.
I'm ashamed to admit that I moaned a few times while all this was going on. Moaned, actually moaned. But then again, Fang did too. Hey, we were hormonal teens who thought we'd never see each other again. We had a right to be horny. I dug my nails into his back as his lips drifted across my collarbone.
"Fang," I gasped.
"Mm-hmm?" he murmured.
"Ma-ax!" I stumbled away from Fang's lips, struck with an odd sense of deja vu as Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy and Angel paraded into the room to see Fang with his arms around me in a suggestive manner. Only this time, we couldn't really deny that anything had happened. Not with my multiple hickeys, both of our swollen lips, and Fang's 'little friend' just dying to pop out. A mouthful of chips fell to the ground as Gazzy's mouth dropped wide open.
"Shit," Fang mumbled. I didn't bother correcting him.
"I would've thought you'd say 'fuck,' but I guess you two are past that," Iggy smirked sarcastically. I glared at him.
"I was totally right!" Nudge squealed. "Like, you guys are gonna get married and have tons of little babies and I'm gonna be like, that really cool aunt that everyone loves and we're all just gonna like, backpack around Europe or something for you wedding, which is gonna be awesome, BTW, because I'm totally planning it and I'm picturing like, a lavender theme because that is just so totally hawt and this is just so, so perfect!"
"N-no, that's totally not what's going on," I assured them firmly.
"It's not?" Fang murmured.
"No. I-I was just saying... goodbye. Because I'm leaving. You know, in like, twenty minutes, or something. Just... no. Um, everyone, you should probably, like leave. You too, Fang." A hurt, childish pout flickered over Fang's features before melting back into stoic nothingness. He shrugged like it didn't matter to him that I'd basically said kissing him was a mistake.
"My mom's gonna drive you to the station in like... two minutes," he grumbled, following everyone else. Sighing, I slammed the door behind him.
You know, sometimes, I really hate my life.
