I couldn't help the smile that split across my face as I stood on the edge of the trail, overlooking Beaver Lake which had never been so still. My breath was still heavy from my run but began returning to normal after a few minutes as I stared in wonder at so much natural beauty.

I pulled off my running backpack and grabbed my hammock. It was the most peaceful thing – floating in the air, eyes closed, hair blowing in the breeze. It was like flying without actually moving.I got my hammock set up as high I could, climbed up the lower branches of the tree and hopped in sighing audibly as I laid back.

It was serenely quiet and still with only the birds chirping and the wind rustling through the leaves.

Suddenly, a twig snapped.

I bolted up and sat in silence – all of my senses on hyper-alert. A million thoughts started racing through my head: Was it an animal? If it was an animal then it must be a bear or moose or something heavy to cause that much noise. Was it Fang? He was the only person who knew I liked to spend time out here, but it couldn't be him. He was watching Angel all day; besides, Fang could move without a sound, blending into the shadows and becoming part of his surroundings. It was eerie how he could be completely invisible at times.

"Hello?" I called forcing my voice to come out as more confident and less unnerved than I was.

"Max?" A familiar voice called.

"Ryan?" I asked. In my haste, I managed to get tangled up in the cloth and plummeted to the ground.

I heard him suppress a chuckle, "Are you okay?"

I brushed some dust off my hands and knees where a I had so gracefully landed. "Never better. What are you doing out here? No one else knows about this place besides Fang."

He shrugged, "My brother's gone hiking around here and I guess he found this overlook one time. So, whatever happened to our plans to get coffee?"

I shrugged. In all honesty, I had forgotten about my agreement and Fang wasn't exactly keen on reminding me. It wasn't that I potentially blew him off.

"Well, we're both here. How about that?"

"Huh?"

Without another word, he hopped into my hammock. After my incident, the hammock was much closer to the ground, so he was able to just step right in. I smirked as the cloth sunk slightly under the added weight, but he just made himself comfortable.

"So," he said with his typical grin extending his feet out towards me. "This is cozy."

"You could say that," I said with a chuckle as his feet were inches from my hands. "It's a good thing you're wearing socks."

"What? You don't like my feet!" He asked wiggling his toes and reaching them towards my face.

I laughed as I leaned away. Feet are gross, I don't care what you say. "You remind me of my friend Iggy."

"Is he the one that doesn't like me?" He asked bringing his feet back.

I smirked, "I can't say either of them were in love with you."

"They weren't exactly thrilled. Can you tell me why?"

"Iggy just started dating my sister, so he's all protective lately. Believe me, it's not you. It's any guy that is taller and more muscular than him. It's an ego thing I guess. I'm sure if you hung out he'd get over pretty quick. He's not one for holding grudges."

"What about the other guy? With the dark hair. Strong and silent type," he prodded.

"That's Fang."

"Are you guys a thing?" I opened my mouth to interject, but he cut me off. "I know you said you weren't dating, but he definitely did not like me. I'm not an idiot, Max." I felt his piercing green eyes penetrating me in the same way Fang's did.

"No, really. We're just really good friends. He just likes things the way they are."

He raised his eyebrows, but didn't seem convinced. "So, if I asked you out in a date…"

I felt my stomach twist and tie itself into a great big knot. I had no idea what I wanted – I felt like I was stuck in a limbo: my head wanted one thing, but my heart wanted another.

"This awkward silence is nice. Just some awkward asexual tension," Ryan said and I had to refrain from rolling my eyes. He and Iggy would hit it off instantly.

"Look, it's not that I don't like you and you're such a nice guy…it's just that I don't want to lose you as a friend," I said. Even I could hear the fake sincerity in my voice.

He rolled his eyes, "Okay, even I know that's garbage, Max. That's the biggest line in the book: 'I don't want to lose you as a friend.'l

"You're so annoying," I muttered.

"You're so easy to read," he said and a hint of his brilliant smile played at the corners of his mouth.

"Fine," I said with a scowl and shifted my gaze to the ground. "I just don't know how I feel."

"About Fang?" He asked. The light reflected off of his green eyes, and brought out a hint of blue and a deep brown that hadn't been visible before. He took my silence as a yes. I was finally starting to admit to myself that I may have some "feelings" for Fang especially after what I overheard between Fang and Nudge. Not that I had bothered to confront either of them about it. "Okay. I have an idea. Go on a date with me." I opened my mouth to protest, but he cut me off. "Go on a date with me. If you feel weird about it, it means you have feelings for Fang. If you don't feel weird about it, then we go on a second date. No hard feelings. Honest, Max."

I looked up into his expectant stare. I hated to admit it, but this actually seemed like a decent plan. It would at least help me figure out where my head and my heart were. Even better, it might help Fang figure out the same thing.

"Oh my gosh, Max you look SO good!" Ella exclaimed. She had ruthlessly cornered me and demanded to know where I was and when I finally caved and told her about Ryan, she insisted she be the head of the committee for clothes, hair, makeup and shoes for our "date". Why there was a whole committee necessary for dressing me for a not-real date was beyond me, but I also didn't care enough to ask.

"Shoes!" Nudge yelled from where she was buried knee-deep in Ella's walk-in closet.

"Why can't I just wear my converse?" I groaned. Of course Nudge was on the Fake-Date-Committee as well which meant that I had undergone a painful 20 minutes while she applied copious amounts of makeup to my skin. Okay, copious might be overdoing it but for me, mascara and lipstick were more than enough.

"Because Max," she said sounding very authoritative in her new role, "we don't want Ryan to think you're homeless."

Rather that fight her again, I just rolled my eyes and followed her voice to where she was throwing a pair of what I can only describe as Jesus-sandals at me. "These are perfect. Very trendy. Very in. He'll love it."

"And your jacket!" Ella called handing me a short light green jacket that wasn't horrible.

"It's the end of July, Ella. I don't need a jacket," I muttered.

"Who's in charge of the fashion committee?" She retorted. Yeah, I'm out.

"As enjoyable as this has been, and as enjoyable I'm sure this evening will be, I am leaving."

"How do you think Fang will take it?" I heard Ella ask Nudge in what she thought was a whisper, but what was actually in a voice loud enough for the neighbors to hear.

I tried tuning them out as I walked down the porch to where Ryan was parked, but heard Nudge mutter something about him taking it really well. Shocking, I know.

"You look nice, Max," Ryan said as I slid into the passenger seat.

"Thanks," I said grinning at him. "Did you blow dry and style your hair?"

He gave me his characteristic Trident-worthy smile, "It didn't dry well after my shower, so I was left no choice. But don't worry, I borrowed my brothers girlfriend's blow dryer."

I rolled my eyes, but couldn't help smiling. He was so good-natures about everything and never took anything too seriously. "Well, it looks very nice. Maybe you could switch gears and become a professional hair dryer. Seems to suit you."

"It's a gift. If you ever want your hair professionally dried, you know who to call. I'll even give you the friends and family discount!"

"Wow, I'm touched. Ill send Ella and Nudge your way. You'll have yourself a couple of regulars in instantly."

"I'm sure Iggy would be thrilled to hear that," he said sounding slightly more serious.

I shrugged, "I really think you two would get along. The first day you met him was literally maybe an hour after he started dating Ella. He's normally not like that."

"Alright, I'll take your word on that. Anyway, we're just about there. I figured you weren't looking for something that fancy, and I know you're not exactly the clubbing type."

"We're 16, Ryan. Where on Earth would we go clubbing?"

"A kid can dream, can't he?"

I rolled myself eyes again. Geez, I would be turning into Fang soon if I kept that up.

"So, I thought it would be fun to see a Ukrainian film! It's all in Ukrainian, but there's English subtitles, so we should be able to keep up. It sounds great! A young Ukrainian boy goes on a quest to discover his family history, so he spends 8 years reading ancestry books in the library. Thrilling, right?"

I stared at him. A Ukrainian film? Thrilling? I didn't want to be myself and be blatantly rude because it had been a long time since Ryan and I had hung out together. Maybe it had been a long time since he had seen a movie at all. Maybe he'd never seen a movie before. If this was his idea of fun, he had clearly never been on a date before.

He stared at me expectantly and all I could offer was an attempted smile, that I'm pretty sure turned into a grimace halfway through.

Finally, he burst out laughing. "Oh, Max you should've seen your face! As if I would ever go to a movie where I had to read. I get enough of that from books." He shook his head still chuckling at his wit.

"A Ukrainian film? Really? I'd rather go to the dentist," I muttered laughing along with him. What a relief.

"Seriously, the dentist?" He asked slowing down.

I shrugged, "At least I get a free toothbrush out of it."

"Touché," he said with a smirk and pulled into a parking lot. "Well, since you shot down my true passion, I figured we'd try this. They're high-speed Go-Karts."

"No way," I exclaimed jumping out of the car and gracefully whacking my head on the ceiling on my way. "This is sick! I've always wanted to try these."

"Well, I'm glad you're finally tall enough," he said gesturing at the sign as we made our way past the gate.

I shoved him as we passed the sign requiring all participants to be at least 54" tall. "C'mon!"

The crew got our basic information, fitted us for helmets and then explained the basic controls.

"Right is gas, left is brake."

"Could you, uh, write that down for me?" Ryan asked with such a genuine look of confusion I almost believed him.

The guy looked alarmed, "Didn't you drive here?"

Ryan nodded, "Yeah, but I left my cheat sheet in the car."

The guy gave him a funny look and his eyes widened remarkably.

"I'm just messing," he said giving the guy a good-natured pat on the shoulder. The guy laughed, gave us a bit of a weird look then led us to our carts.

"Alright," he called once we were all belted in. "When the light is green, you're all set to go! Have fun!" He must've seen the glee in my face because he called out after us, "And be careful please!"

Once the green light flashed, I hit the petal to the metal and flew out of the gates. To my surprise, Ryan was right next to me.

"All the wind is messing up your hair," I called as we went up a gentle hill.

"Win some, lose most," he called back and then accelerated past me cutting the curb close on the hairpin turn.

I pressed my foot down even more and caught up to his red cart before giving him a sly grin and passing him on his left. "So long, sucker!" I called.

The next 45 minutes flew by as we rounded turns, ascended and descended built-in hills. The dorky guy came back out, waved his white flag and called us in. Unfortunately, our hour was up.

"So," I said as we headed back to his car, "that was really fun."

"I feel so alive," he said running a hand through his windswept hair. It surprisingly still looked perfect even though it had been ravaged by the wind.

I was still exhilarated when we reached the car and my heart was still pumping rapidly as we approached The Cone – a timeless ice cream hut just outside town. I call it a hut because there's simply no other way to describe it.

"I'll have a double scoop of Mint Chocolate chip and whatever she's having," he said gesturing to me as he pulled out a wad of cash.

"Oh hi, Sydney. Can I get a double scoop of Raspberry sorbet and Triple Chocolate Chunk?"

Sydney, a girl who I had been forced to do a history project with when Mr. Davis had grown irritate with the antics that would undoubtedly happen between Fang and J, wrinkled her nose but nodded, "You do you, Max."

I grabbed my waffle cone and sat on the bench next to Ryan who eyed me skeptically. I was used to looks from Lissa and her squad of sluts in the cafeteria when I ate anything more than a singular carrot.

"I'm hungry, okay?" I said sounding much more defensive than I had intended.

"I'm not judging how much you're eating; I'm judging what you're eating. Please, enlighten me. How is raspberry sorbet and Triple chocolate death or whatever it's called a food combo?"

I shrugged, "I don't make the rules of the universe, Ryan."

He chuckled and took a bite of his ice cream. Yeah, you heard me right. He took a bite of his ice cream. With his teeth.

I gaped at him.

"What?" He asked, his eyes wide.

"What kind of monster was ice cream like that? Doesn't it hurt your teeth?"

He laughed. "I'm telling you Max; I'm no mere mortal. I have gifts from God that I can't control."

"Whatever you say, you weirdo," I grinned at him and felt surprisingly peaceful as we watched the sun set behind the mountains in front of us. It was hard not to be content in a place like this. But despite how well everything was going, so I felt weird. Was it guilt? Confusion? Ryan was incredible, why didn't it feel right?

We talked for a while more, and then we headed back so Ryan could drop me off. I got out of the car, and was surprised when Ryan joined me as I walked to the door.

"So…"

"So," I replied already dreading this conversation. He raised his eyebrows expectantly, and I decided the truth would be the best. "I…I just don't know still. I'm sorry."

"Maybe this will change your mind," he said softly taking a step closer. Before I knew what his happening, his hand had slid behind my ear and through my unusually silky hair and his lips were on mine. He angled his head to kiss me better and slid his other hand behind my back. I let my hands fall on his chest. A few moments later, he pulled back.

"Well?"

Alright, here's your next chapter! Thanks to everyone who reviewed so far! Let me know how you're liking the story and this chapter in particular. Also send me your thoughts on who you think Max should end up with: Fang or Ryan…for the time being.