Hello there, readers! It has been about a week since I updated and I sincerely apologize! This chapter is a little on the longer side, just a warning. Ummm I've been getting some mixed reviews and messages… but everything is appreciated! Even your criticism! So keep it up! It's great! I hope you enjoy this chapter. It's a tad jumpy, and I apologize for that. REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! Let me know your honest opinions! Enjoy and review!
KarleeRay
Surprisingly, I wake with a slight smile on my face, fingertips tracing over my bare skin in remembrance of last night. Thoughts of Fang whirl around my head. I reach for him in the bed beside me, wanting to thank him for being there last night, but I am immediately clued in on his absence.
I blink groggily around his room, slipping out of the bed and slinking over to his closet where I pull on one of his black t shirts and a pair of his sweats.
Hands fisted in my pockets, I walk down the hall and into the bathroom, pleasantly surprised at what I see in the mirror. I look refreshed, like a weight has been lifted.
Thoughts of Trent rush at me from every angle, and I feel a little guilty, but it wasn't that I was over Trent's death, not at all. It was just that seeing him laid to rest gave me that sense of finality. Trent isn't coming back, no matter how much I mope around and wish that he was. The fact is, life goes on, and I am choosing to live it. True, I will miss that boy like crazy. True, I am a little embarrassed over the way I have acted since he passed on. I should have been prepared. The old Maximum Ride would never have wallowed in self-pity the way that I had, and I was determined to get her back, to relight that inner fire. And true, I am probably emotionally unstable at the moment. That's not going to stop me though. I have a family who needs me. Besides, now that I have a clearer head, I swear I can almost see Trent looking down on me in disappointment.
I take the stairs two at a time, my stomach rumbling impatiently.
"Mom I—" I start as I walk into the kitchen, but then stop short when I see that no one is in there except for Fang. He's seated at the bar, head dropped in his hands, closed fists rubbing at his eyes.
I smile. "Hey you…" I wrap my arms around him from behind, but he immediately recoils from my touch like I'm poisonous, wriggling free of my grasp. "Woah… Tha hell?"
He sighs in response but doesn't open his eyes.
My brow furrows in confusion, but I quickly let it go. Grumpy pants.
"Fine. I'll fend for myself this morning," I tell him, opening the fridge and searching for anything that I couldn't completely destroy. Cereal it is.
I grab a bowl, the milk, and the box of Captain Crunch and plop down beside Fang at the bar. I eat in silence, studying him, reading him the way I had been doing my entire life.
Finally, I get tired of the silence. "You wanna tell me who pissed in your cheerios?" I ask around a mouthful of food, seeing no reason to use manners around Fang.
He shows no sign that I even said anything. His body remains in the exact same position. He doesn't even flinch.
I set my spoon down, let out a burp, and fix him with an annoyed glare. Almost as if he can sense my stare, his eyes flicker up to look at me and then quickly close again. His fists come up, rubbing at his eyes, and he angrily jerks out of his chair, beginning to pace.
"I can't even look at you," He mutters.
I recoil, hurt and a little angry.
"What? Would you care to use your words like a normal person, Fang?" I snap, standing also, hands on my hips.
He stops pacing and carefully turns to look at me. "How mad are you?"
Mad? Should I be mad? Did I miss something? "What are you talking about?" I demand, annoyed.
He runs a hand over his mouth before exploding at me. "I completely took advantage of you last night! You were in no condition to…. To be doing that, but I did it anyway. Selfish! I don't know what I was thinking!" He stops, taking a deep breath, his jaw flexing.
Okay, I'm not going to lie. Not at all what I expected. He's not even angry with me. He's angry with himself. But that's not fair. I initiated everything that happened last night. "Took advantage of me? Have you forgotten who you're talking to?"
"You were not Maximum Ride last night, and you know it," He counters, daring me to argue with that statement.
"I'm always Max. And I hate to break it you Fang, but you couldn't take advantage of me even if you wanted to. I could still kick your ass in a fight. Don't be stupid. If I had wanted you to stop, I would have made you stop," I tell him earnestly, meaning every word that I said.
I watch him hop up onto the counter, letting his head loll back to stare at the ceiling.
Seeing that he's still bothered, I advance towards him, coming to stand between his legs. I reach for his hands, but he retracts them. "Stop," I murmur, placing my hands on his thighs. He trembles slightly under my touch, but remains composed. "Please stop." I reach for his hands again, and he lets me have them. My lips find their way to his scarred knuckles, pressing tiny kisses over them as if I could take away all the pain those scars caused.
I smirk as I lean in to kiss his neck, surprised when he doesn't push me away for taking it too far. "I, for one, loved last night," I murmur into his skin.
Fang grabs my hair from the back, pulling me off his neck so that he can look me in the eyes. He studies me closely, and I try to be as open as possible. "You mean that?"
The corners of my lips tug upward. "Yes."
Fang relaxes visibly, and I feel a swell of pride. I am one kick ass girlfriend. Fang is so lucky.
Two Months Later
"Carter!" I call loudly across the mass of student body standing in my way. I watch as Carter does a 180, having heard my voice but not being able to find my body. I work my way up to her. "Austin is looking everywhere for you, Miss Thang."
She raises her chin. "I don't want to talk to him. He can keep on looking for all I care."
I smile at her stubbornness, so much like my own. "Whatever. Be bullheaded. I'm just sick of hearing both you whine," I tell her, and she calls me a nasty word under her breath, which only makes me smile wider.
"Let's just go to lunch," She mutters with a toss of her jet black hair.
"I'll meet you in there. I have to go turn in this paper or I'll get a zero on it." I turn away from her, going against the traffic of students all trying to hurry and get a spot at the front of the lunch line. "Excuse me! Move! Sorry!"
Finally, I make it to the hall I am looking for, leaving the noise of the main hall behind me. I hustle down to Mr. Perkin's room, drop my paper in the turn-in basket, and begin to head back to the lunch room, my stomach rumbling impatiently.
The faint sound of someone playing a guitar makes me stop and listen. I know that beat. Without thinking, I turn on my heel and march back to the music room. There's a boy sitting on the floor in the front of the empty room, a beautiful guitar lying in his lap. I take in his ash blonde hair, tan skin, and quick capable fingers and decide that he's attractive in an interesting, artistic kind of way.
"Hey, is that Pumped Up Kicks?" I ask, my brain having lost all filter. The guy looks up, startled at my presence.
He sizes me up for a moment. "Thought I was alone."
I ignore his comment, entering the room. "You're really good."
Gray eyes latch onto mine. He doesn't smile, doesn't thank me for my compliment. He simply stares at me, as if trying to figure me all out.
"So I've been told," He says finally.
"Aah. Cocky one, are you?" I counter, propping myself up on top of a desk.
"I like to refer to it as seeing things for what they really are. I'm good, and I know it."
I shrug. "Nothing wrong with that, I guess. You know what they say… If you got it, flaunt it."
"Exactly," He agrees, before going back to playing. My eyes latch onto his fingers, watching them expertly work the strings on the guitar. They never falter, never slip up. His confidence is not misplaced. "Are you just going to sit there and watch? I came here to be alone," He snaps.
"Shouldn't you be in lunch?" I ask him, ignoring his hint.
"Not hungry."
"I'm Max," I offer. "Max Ride…. And you are?"
This stops him. He appraises me again, looking at me in a new light. "So you're the big shot Maximum Ride… I've heard a lot about you."
I sigh heavily, annoyed.
"Don't be dramatic. It must be so hard having everyone hold you in the spotlight," He sneers, tuning his guitar.
My temper flares just a tad. "It's not as easy as it may sound. You don't know me. Don't act like you have me all figured out."
He says nothing, just stands and sets his guitar against the wall. "I'm Kace."
"Cool name," I comment, without thinking.
"Sure," He replies, turning to head out the door. I watch his retreating figure, noticing something not quite right under his button down shirt. I'd mistake it for excellent muscle tone if I hadn't been familiar with that exact "not quite right" shape my entire life.
"So I tell you I'm Maximum Ride, and you don't think to mention that you have wings?" I call after him.
He freezes, before turning to look at me. "If I don't mention them, maybe I'll forget they're there."
I desperately want to know what he means by that, but by the time I open my mouth to ask, he's already turning the corner.
I skip basketball practice after school, instead taking off on my wings and heading into town. I touch down right outside a little shop I've come to know has the most beautiful flowers you've ever seen.
I pull in my wings as I walk in the door and head to the back.
"These are really in right now," a woman tells me, pointing to a bouquet of beautiful blue flowers. They're breathtaking, really, but not exactly what I'm looking for.
My eyes roam over the rainbow of flowers in front of me until they land on a small bouquet of red roses. Simple, yes, but they spoke to me.
A smile graces my face as I pay for the roses in cash, and then head outside.
I walk to the cemetery, not in a hurry. My thoughts carry me to Trent, and I let them linger there. My memories are bittersweet. Tears threaten, yet there is a smile of remembrance on my face.
I push open the gates of the cemetery and trudge up the hill until I come to the exact grave I visit when I'm missing my best friend just a little too much.
"Brought you something," I whisper as I lie the roses down beside the headstone. I sit down cross legged on the ground and pull my hoodie on over my tank top. "I went to see your family last week. They're doing okay. They miss you like crazy though. We all do…. But you already knew that didn't you ?" I tease, smiling lightly to myself. I take a deep breath and allow myself some peace and quiet with Trent. I swear I can almost feel him, hear him laugh and make jokes. This is where I feel the closest to him, and this is where I will continue to come.
"You look stunning, sweetie," I tell Nudge who is surveying herself in my mirror. Her hair hangs perfectly straight, and her face is literally glowing. She does a 360 for me, making her simple white dress billow out around her.
"You think so?" She asks me, looking hopeful.
I smile and to my absolute dismay my eyes start to burn. My little Nudge is growing up. I nod and open my arms. She comes into them eagerly, nestling into my chest. "I know this is hard for you, Max. But I'll be fine. You know it, and I know it."
"You're right," I sigh, pulling back to look at her. "You nervous?"
Her face takes on an anxious look. "Very….. what if he tries to kiss me?"
My protective instinct kicks in, screaming at me to tell her that if that boy tries to kiss her, to punch him directly in his pretty little face. Instead, I remind myself that Nudge is 13, and I'm not her mother right now. Right now, I'm her sister and her best friend. So I steal what the voice once told me when I had my first real kiss. "Just go with the flow, baby girl."
Nudge beams at me. "What if I mess up though? What if it's nasty and tongue-y and slobbery?"
"You won't mess up. It's natural, Nudge. Don't even think about it. And, if it's with the right person, nasty is the very last thing it will be."
She swallows and pulls me back into a tight hug, not letting go until the doorbell breaks us apart. I laugh at her nervous expression. "Go get him, Tiger." I press a kiss to her forehead and watch as she leaves to go on her first real date.
And at 11:21 PM, Fang and I creep to my window and watch as Jett walks Nudge to the front door. Fang stands rigidly beside me, and I know he's feeling protective. Me? Surprisingly, I just feel happy for her.
They stop on the front steps, and I hold my breath as Jett leans in and Nudge meets him halfway. I should look away, let her have this private moment, but I can't. My eyes are lasered in on them as they tilt their heads this way and that, pulling each other closer. There is no hunger in their kiss, just exploration and affection, sweet and innocent, just as it should be.
"Okay I think that's enough," Fang mutters, impatiently, and I laugh, pulling him away from the window.
"Let them be."
"Distract me?" He asks hopefully, and I am happy to oblige. I press my lips to his, pushing him back onto the bed. Unlike Nudge and Jett, our kiss is not filled with exploration and affection. Our kiss is filled with passion and love and hunger. It's beautiful, and mature, and I will never get enough.