"Well?" Ryan asked again.

I looked up into his wide green eyes hating that I had to do this to him. "I'm sorry, Ryan, I really am. "I really like you, but –"

"Well, then no buts," the corners of his mouth turned into the hint of a smile.

"I don't know how to say this," I tried, but scowled at the pavement. This sounded so forced, so fake.

"Then don't," he said softly.

"But that's not fair," I started.

"Max, it's okay," he said grabbing my arm gently. "I get it. You don't feel it."

"I'm sorry," I repeated numbly. "I don't know why, it just doesn't feel right."

"I know why," he said looking at me funny. "It's because of Fang."

I opened my mouth to retort, but he cut me off again. He seemed to have a habit of doing that at exactly the right time. "You have feelings for Fang," he said bluntly. At the shocked look on my face, his smile softened. "It's not a big deal. We went on a date, we had fun – we can still be friends. Besides, I go back to Arizona at the end of the summer anyway."

"Friends?" I asked, and he nodded before wrapping me in a hug. "Well, I'll see you, Ryan. Thanks for tonight, I had a lot of fun."

"Me too," he said with his trademark smile, but there was a hollowness to his eyes. He gave me a wave as he headed back to his car and drove off.

"So, how was it?" Ella nearly shrieked the second I made it upstairs. "Tell me everything, everything."

I shrugged, "Not much to tell."

"No, no, no. Where did you go? What did you do? How was it? Did you kiss? Are you going to go out again? Did he compliment your outfit?" She rattled off jumping off her bed and bounding into my room.

"Can't I just sit in peace for a moment?"

"Sure! After you tell me everything. Max, this is huge! When was the last time you went on a date? Have you been on a date?"

"You're unbelievable," I muttered. "But if you must know, he took me to go Go-Karting and then we got ice cream. Look, he's really sweet and funny, but I don't think it's going to work out." I shrugged, "Sorry."

She plopped herself onto the bed next to me, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"I had such a good time with Ryan – he was fun, easy to talk to and super good-natured."

"But," she prompted.

"But, it felt weird. It just didn't feel right," I said.

Surprised, I saw Ella smile. "Are you going to talk to him?"

"Who?"

"Fang!" She said exasperated.

"Look, Max. Don't interrupt me and don't deny this. We all know that you have feelings for Fang, and Fang has feelings for you. Can you two please just talk to each other about it? It would honestly make everyone else's lives significantly easier."

I wanted to protest but didn't see the point. Ella was right. I had to come to terms with my feelings that I was intentionally ignoring at this point. "Well, what do I even say?"

She shrugged, but her brown eyes were soft as she gave me a sympathetic smile. "Just tell him how your date went. Tell him you felt weird being out with someone else and you think you might know why. Just try to get him talking."

I rolled my eyes; she was beyond unhelpful.

"So," she said her voice light. "When are you gonna talk to him?"

I glanced at my watch, "Well it's already 10, so probably tomorrow morning."

"Geez, Max. What are you, 85 years old? Go talk to him now! His house is like six minutes away you can practically see it through your bedroom window."

"You're a pain in the ass, you know that Ella?"

She grinned cheekily, "It's my best and worst quality."

I took her advice and headed over to Fang's after he told me he was home. On the walk over, I kept replaying possible ways the conversation could go. He could look at me like I was crazy – tell me he never wanted to see me again. He could completely ignore me. He could tell me he had no feelings for me and didn't know if we could be friends after this. Each scenario was worse than the previous one.

Not wanting to wake Angel, I knocked softly on the door. A few seconds later, Fang opened the door and joined me on the front stoop.

"Hi," he said softly. "How was your date with Ryan?" He asked, avoiding meeting my gaze.

"It was fine," I said hoping this would not be as painfully awkward as I had imagined. Having this kind of talk was bad enough, but someone you spent 90% of your time with made it even weirder.

"Oh," he said looking up from the pavement.

"He was super nice, and we had fun, but it just didn't feel right…" I trailed off unsure of how to end it.

"Yeah?" His voice was soft, barely louder than a whisper.

"Yeah," I nodded, taking a step closer.

His dark eyes scanned over my face searching for answers – answers that I didn't even know. "Are you going to see him again? Another date?"

"No," I breathed, and he took a step closer so that I could feel his breath tickle my nose. "And I think I finally know why."

"I think I do too," his voice was barely audible. I met his gaze, and there was a fire burning that I had never seen lit in his eyes before. He mumbled something else, but I didn't catch it.

I was about to ask him something, but all thoughts were swept from my mind when Fang's lips came crashing on to mine. My hands were stuck in between us pressed against his chest, but I could feel each muscle move as he tilted his neck. I felt his hands slide up my back and rest there, holding me to him tightly like he would never let go. The kiss was fiery and passionate – a kiss to make up for all the times we almost did, the times we should have and all of the opportunities we missed in the past year.

Finally, I pulled back slowly taking in a deep breath. Whatever had just happened between us effectively changed the dynamic of our friendship and therefore my entire life. My gaze slid up meeting Fang's and the golden specks seemed to bounce around of their own accord with no light to trigger them.

"So," I said softly.

"That was one hell of a kiss," he whispered.

I nodded, feeling a smile break out across my face. Fang, who rarely smiled, had his rare smile etched onto his face – the one that made the Sun literally stop in its tracks. He leaned down and kissed me again, but this time it was soft, gentle and sweet.

He pulled back first this time leaving me yearning for more. "Well."

"Well what?"

"Well, do we want to talk about this?" He prodded.

Oh. "I mean honestly, I'd rather not."

Fang rolled his eyes, "So, what? We're just going to kiss occasionally and that will just be part of the contract as best friends?"

Now I was the one rolling my eyes. "Fine, your highness, what would you like to talk about?"

He shrugged, "The relationship."

"You're such a girl," I groaned.

The light in his eyes which normally resembled ink pools was immense. He grabbed my hand softly in both of his calloused ones and we sat down. "I just don't want it to be weird. Or to lose you as my friend."

I nodded feeling the weight of the world drop onto my chest. "So, you basically just kissed me twice and are now deciding it's better off to stay friends?" I asked trying to ignore the knot that formed in my throat causing my words to choke.

"No, no, no," he shook his head with his eyes wide. "All I'm saying is that maybe it's better for us if we keep 'us' a secret. From our parents, friends and especially Iggy."

"Oh." I suddenly felt foolish for my dramatic thinking moments earlier. "Spencer will know."

Fang shrugged again, "He probably already does. That kid's practically a psychic."

I laughed. "Well, what should we tell them? Ella knows I came over here and I won't get off easy tonight."

"Just tell them we didn't want to ruin our friendship. We didn't want to ruin the group dynamic."

I nodded – that wasn't even stretching the truth because at least for me, that was my biggest fear. "Done." I sighed, and leaned against Fang's shoulder, and he dropped my hand to wrap his arm around me and hold me against him.

Everything felt so peaceful. For the first time in my life, everything was falling into place. But I knew, especially with my luck, it would never last long.

"Make sure you don't tell your parents anything, otherwise they will definitely start limiting how much time we spend together. Especially on our own," I said watching his mom's shadow pacing upstairs through the curtains.

I could feel his chin rub against my head as he nodded, "They will probably put a swift end to our spontaneous sleepovers too."

"I should probably go in a few minutes or my mom and Ella will start imagining things," I said, but then realized everything they were likely imagining was no longer fictious.

"Probably all true," he muttered, and I smirked. If only they knew.

Fang walked me home, despite my heated protests that I was absolutely fine on my own, but dropped my hand when we were in sight of my house.

Much to my dismay and not at all surprise, Ella was waiting at the door and threw it open as I climbed up the stoop.

"So?" Ella asked the second I pushed the screen door open.

I knew I had to sell the whole 'still-just-friends' thing if I wanted Ella to buy it, so I knew I had to suppress my excitement and put on a mask of dismay.

I shrugged, keeping my eyes turned to the ground. "We talked about it for a while, and it just doesn't make sense for us to get together."

"Um, I'm sorry why would that be?" She asked clearly annoyed and I had to suppress the urge to laugh.

"Look, Ella. He's my best friend." Thankfully she ignored that and refrained from asking why she wasn't my best friend. "It would just be too weird for us and the group dynamic if we got together. The thought of losing Fang as a friend is much worse than accepting the reality that we shouldn't date each other. Besides, everyone breaks up eventually. It's not like we're going to get married."

Ella looked at me glumly with her eyes wide and mouth in an uncharacteristic frown. "I'm really sorry, Max. I had hoped that it would work out for you guys. I – we – all thought it would."

She wrapped me in a hug and I was thrilled with my winning performance. But, when I got into bed that I night I couldn't fall asleep because everything I had told Ella kept repeating in my head. Everyone breaks up eventually. Losing Fang as a friend. Accepting the reality. Weird group dynamic.

Finally, I fell into a restless sleep full of unpleasant dreams of ugly breakups and lost friendships.

HEYO thanks for everyone who has stuck with the story this far. When I set out to write this, I didn't anticipate it getting this long and had planned to only write 15 chapters or so. Review/PM me and let me know if you'd like me to continue with the story and build the plot more, or if I should just wrap it up in the next chapter or two.