On a bitterly cold November night, I found myself at Fang's once again sitting on his bed staring out the window. I was desperate for snow; I was excited to explore the mountain, but more importantly, I needed to redeem myself after my previous skiing fiasco.

"Iggy's here," Fang said grabbing his black leather jacket from the bed and following me downstairs. Nudge and Ella's homecoming dance had been such a success that they were going on a double date in Boulder going to dinner and then to a 21-under club. Nudge's mom, who was best friends with Iggy's mom, had begged Iggy to go to the same club to supervise from afar. When my mom got word of the supervising situation, she insisted I go as well, and since Iggy was already going too, I only complained a little. I had then begged Fang to accompany me as well because Iggy had found out that a girl he had a crush on would be at the club, its opening night, as well.

Iggy's mom dropped us off around 8:30, and we thanked her for the ride before walking towards the brick building that was visibly shaking as high-schoolers entered in hordes. We had our hands stamped as we entered, heading up the stairs to the dance floor. Iggy immediately took off, his eyes on the look out for Lydia, a very pretty girl who sat in front of us in biology.

"You think he has a chance with her?" I asked Fang who had returned with drinks.

He scoffed, "Not a chance. She's way out of his league."

I shrugged, "Maybe Iggy will find a way to woo her."

"Woo her?" Fang repeated with a smirk.

"It's an expression, maybe you've heard of it."

"Maybe you should go back to the 1890s when that phrase was last used."

"Hi Fang," a soft voice said from behind us.

"Hi," he responded without even turning towards her. The girl, who looked vaguely familiar, stalked away clearly irritated with the lack of attention.

"There he goes," I muttered as Iggy started chatting up Lydia.

"And now we wait," Fang said watching the pair of them across the dance floor. Miraculously, Iggy had talked Lydia onto joining him on the dance floor, and they both seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves.

"You want to dance?" Fang asked me

I raised my eyebrows, "Do you want to?"

"Not really," he said shaking his head. "But I figured I was obligated to ask since we're in a club."

"Well come on then," I said pulling him onto the dance floor.

"I said no." He glared at me, but followed me onto the dance floor. I started dancing in time with the music, but couldn't help laughing at Fang who was stiff as a board across from me. "What?" he asked defensively.

"You need to loosen up a bit. Like this," I showed him how to move his hips and shoulders with the rhythm.

"I hate this," he muttered under his breath.

"Only because you're not good at it," he glared at me again. "You just need to practice."

"Oh yeah? Well you do it then if you're so clever," he said with an annoyed look on his face. I shrugged, and then began to dance with more movement.

"Hi," I heard a low voice behind me. "I'm Chris."

"Go away," I said without turning around. I hated guys like that – the ones that only talked to you when you were dancing or drinking, but they would never bother looking at you, let alone talk to you, if you saw them in any other setting. I wanted someone who wasn't afraid to talk to me while I was running and covered in sweat or shoving copious amounts of chocolate chip cookies down my throat.

Unfortunately, a few minutes later, Fang announced that he needed to leave to go watch Angel for an hour while his mom was at a book club meeting and his dad was downtown Denver for a work conference all weekend. I promised I would text him when I was leaving with Iggy because we had planned to finally watch Shawshank Redemption this weekend.

Just after Fang had disappeared, another familiar face appeared. "Hi Max."

Of course. It was Dylan. "Hi Dylan. How's it going?"

He shrugged. "Not too bad. Homecoming was a bit of drag though. I wish you would've been able to make it."

I felt my face heat up. I felt slightly bad about blowing him off, but wasn't really all that shook up about it. Fang and I had a great day just the two of us, and I definitely did not feel like I had missed out on anything.

"So," he asked with a twinkle in his eye. "Do you want to dance?"

"Um sure." I had no excuses to get out of this one and besides, he seemed like a nice guy. Fang had never elaborated on the basis for his dislike of Dylan, so I had no reason to say no.

He led me out onto the dance floor, and I had fun dancing with him because he was relatively more relaxed than Fang, so he was able to enjoy the music. We chatted about normal things – school, sports, friends.

"You seem to spend a lot of time with Fang." He gave me a penetrating stare.

"So?" He gave me a skeptical look. "Look, we're just friends. Really good friends," I added as a second thought.

"Yeah?" His face brightened and he flashed me another dazzling smile.

Suddenly, the music changed to a slow song. Of course. It was just my luck. The one time I agreed to dance they put on the only slow song of the night. I was about to make an excuse to run to the bathroom or check in with Iggy, when Dylan but his hand on my waist and stared at me with his sparkling blue eyes. Slightly mesmerized by his gaze, I put my hands on his shoulders. We swayed in time with the music for a few minutes, and I tried to look around the room to avoid the intensity of his gaze. Thankfully, Iggy was absorbed with slow-dancing with Lydia, so he didn't witness my brief dance with Dylan.

"You have beautiful eyes, Max," he whispered and leaned in so that I could count every freckle on his nose. Before I knew what was happening, his mouth was on mine. I felt myself kiss him back for a moment, but then I came to my senses and pulled back. His eyes flew open in shock and he seemed angry. I tried to pull away, but he managed to navigate us, so my back was pressed against the wall. His grip was surprisingly firm on my waist.

I stared at him for a moment, watching his eyes that were full of emotion – sadness, hurt, desire and a touch of anger. The fact that he had pinned me to a wall did not go over well with me whether it was intentional or not. I ripped myself out of his grasp and took off searching desperately for the exit.

"Max!" He called after he realized I was gone, "Max!"

I stormed out of the club furious. Who did he think he was? I was nice to him once, so that gave him the right to try to hook up with me. I wouldn't have been seething as much if he hadn't pressed me up against a wall. I had felt trapped which does not mix well with my extreme control issues.

I looked around for somewhere that I could wait until Iggy's mom came back to pick us up and I could spend the night with Fang which would at least take my mind off things. I had decided to tell him what happened, but not yet. I wanted to process it first before I gave him another reason to hate Dylan. I spotted coffee shop two doors down and burst in, causing the bell to ring loudly and almost fall off the wall. Embarrassed, I hurried into line, ordered myself a latte and noticed Spencer sitting in the corner with his nose buried in a book.

"Hi," I said softly pulling out the chair opposite from him.

"Hi Max," he said his face lighting up. "What are you doing here?"

"I was at that new club down the block."

"Interesting. I definitely didn't have you pegged as a clubbing girl."

I shuddered at that image. "Definitely not. Ella and Nudge went there on a double date. Iggy and I were sent to supervise, but Iggy's attention is currently very much elsewhere."

"Lydia?" He asked with a laugh and I nodded. Man, you could not slip anything past this guy.

"Why are you here?" I asked curious as to why he would be in a café so far from Centennial.

I noticed his face harden slightly and his jaw set. It was such a subtle change, but I noticed it immediately. "Babysitting, same as you," he said lightly. I raised my eyebrows. He wasn't the only one who could read body language and his was blatant. "My twin sister is at the same club you were just at, but we're polar opposites. She's a little crazy. Okay a lot crazy. Our parents know it, so I'm constantly sent after her to wait in the background for her to do something stupid."

"I didn't know you had a twin," I said quietly.

He nodded bitterly. "It's not like you would ever see the resemblance; she refuses to be associated with me afraid that I might hurt her image. She's fighting to be the most popular girl in school."

"With Lissa?"

He nodded again, "Yes, but she makes Lissa seem relatively tame.

"I'm sorry," I told him sympathetically. I couldn't imagine having my life dictated by my sister let alone her refusing to look at me at school. I made a mental note to spend some extra time with Ella.

He shrugged. "Thanks. I'm over it; I'm just tired of having life revolve around Erica and live under her shadow."

"Live under her shadow?" I exclaimed. "Spence, you're the smartest kid in our entire grade. If anyone's living in a shadow, it's her. You're taking two college classes as a sophomore. You're practically a genius."

He smiled sheepishly. "Thanks, Max. You're sweet, but it's just not that easy I guess."

"Oh, I almost forgot. I finished Shawshank! The book is in my room, so just remind me to bring it to school for you."

"What did you think?"

"Amazing. It was so short, but I just fell in love with the story. The ending was by far the best part. I can't wait to watch the movie; Fang and I are going to watch tonight. How did you know I would like it so much? It's the first book I've read in years," I added a little sheepishly.

He shrugged. "Seemed like something you would enjoy. I'll find you something else to read; just stop in the store one day this week and I'll get you all set up."

"Thanks," I said giving him a huge smile. Huge shout-out to this kid for getting me to read for fun.

"Max, is everything alright?" He asked me, dropping his voice. I took a sip of my latte to keep myself from answering, but ended up choking it was so hot.

After my coughing fit, I turned to face him. "Yeah, why?"

"Max," he said in a very no-nonsense tone.

"Fine," I said giving in. "But how can you tell?"

"You refuse to look at me if you're lying. Plus, you always fiddle with something – your hair, your belt loops, your shoe laces. And your pupils dilate. Well, unless that means you like me," he added with a wink.

I ignored his last comment. "Okay, well you know that Dylan asked to the homecoming dance right?" I paused, and he nodded. "He was in the club too, and after Fang left he came over to talk to me, and then he asked me to dance with him, and I said yes because I had no reason not to, and then suddenly I was pressed up against a wall while he was kissing me. I'm an idiot."

"You're not an idiot, Max," Spencer said looking at me sternly. "You did nothing wrong; just because you agree to dance with someone does not imply that you have any desire to be romantically involved with them in anyway. Dylan's clearly an egotistical jerk; he's been pining over you for a long time, and he probably got upset seeing you with Fang again, and wanted to take advantage of the time he had with you when Fang wasn't there."

"What's the deal with him and Fang?" I had briefly questioned Fang on it once or twice, but he had just ignored me each time.

He sighed, "That's something that Fang needs to tell you because I don't think he can even admit it to himself."

"Admit what?" Now I was even more confused.

He shook his head while his brown eyes looked at me, and I could tell he was reading me, looking for any telltale body language signs. "Are you okay?"

I shrugged. "Yeah."

"Max?"

I shrugged again. "Just a little freaked I guess. I wasn't exactly expecting to be pinned against a wall anytime this week."

He nodded. "That's totally understandable. What he did was horrible, and there's nothing you can do to justify his actions." He shook his head. "Some men disgust me." He paused again. "Just promise me you won't beat yourself up over this. The blame is entirely on Dylan."

I nodded, "Thanks, Spence. You're right." I was getting over my confusion, and anger was coming back now. "Should I tell Fang?"

He studied me closely again, "I think you should tell him, but not tonight. Give it a little while. Fang hates Dylan more than anything, and I'm mostly worried that Fang would go after Dylan if he found out he hurt you in any way."

I nodded. "Thanks again, Spencer." He gave me a reassuring smile before returning to his book. I sat there in silence for a while watching him read and trying to figure out what was going on in my own head. Before long, Iggy texted me that his mom was here, and I gratefully headed outside and hopped into her minivan. She agreed to drop me off at Fang's on the way back.

Happy Easter! Please let me know what you think of the writing, plot and character development!