"So," Ella exclaimed as we set off walking down the driveway. "Iggy and I have date night tomorrow, but I don't know what to wear. My maroon leather jacket, dark jeans and booties or is it better to wear my suede skirt, denim jacket and olive sweater?"
I just looked at her, "Do you know who you're talking to, Ella?"
She shook her head and kept walking. "Okay, fine. I'll reword. If you were a guy," she began.
"Yeah, I'm not going to answer that," I muttered as I kicked a pinecone, watching it roll down the sloping street.
"You're useless." She paused. "Can I give you some fashion advice?"
"This has been a fun conversation of subtle insults," I said still watching the pinecone as it slowly came to a halt.
She huffed, "I'm just trying to help you, Max." Well, can you help me by not talking? I wanted to say but managed to hold my tongue. I had been trying to improve my manners and the general amount of insults I issued a day, but I knew I was eventually going to snap. "Let me take you shopping. I can help you learn what's flattering on your figure, find the colors that look best with your skin and eyes and even add a selection of jewelry. We can find some makeup"
"What's the sudden interest in my physical appearance?" I snapped.
"I'm just trying to help you reach your full potential," she said in a surprisingly nice tone considering my retort.
Thankfully, we had just reached Derek's house where we were going to have a movie night. We headed to the backyard first where everyone (read: Iggy, Derek, Nudge and Spencer) was circled around a blazing fire.
"Ella! Max!" Nudge shrieked as if she hadn't seen us in weeks. Ella ran over to hug her best friend.
"Don't trip in the fire!" I called after her. Nudge and Ella ignored me, but I saw Derek chuckle while Iggy went over to sit with Ella.
I scooted around the fire and sat down next to Derek.
"Max, long time, no see. Where's your other half?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked much more defensively than I had intended. Spencer caught my eye behind Derek's head and shot me a look. Nudge and Ella exchanged looks and Derek held his hands up in mock compliance as I tried to laugh it off. "Sorry," I muttered quickly. "It's been a long week."
"Please elaborate on why your first week of the semester in high school could have been so hard," Iggy said smirking.
I rolled my eyes. "High school is very taxing, Iggy. Not that you would have noticed with all the time you spend with my sister."
His face blushed harshly in the glow of the fire, but he looked very happy. "And I'm going to take that as a compliment."
Ella smiled and wrapped an arm around his shoulder from where she was perched on the edge of his chair.
"But I don't know. I'm sure Fang's on his way," I said taking seat and leaning back as I scanned the sky for stars. Being in the mountains was incredible because every night was crystal clear. I could never imagine myself living in some stuffy city where even Orion and the Big Dipper are hidden behind layers of smoke from pollution.
"So, how was your date with Gray, Nudge?" Derek asked, thankfully choosing to ignore my awkward entrance.
"Ugh," she sighed. "He's so dreamy and so talented. His smile literally makes the Sun stop in its tracks."
"Figuratively," Spencer muttered, and Derek and I chuckled, but Nudge was too invested in her fantasy romance to notice.
"And his eyes are just so pretty. They're really green, but they have specks of blue and light brown in them. They're so nice and he actually looked me in the eye which never happens with 16 year old boys."
"So, it went well?" Derek prodded hoping to prod Nudge in the right direction.
"Well, no. I wasn't exactly expecting it to be a romantic date or anything because I do think he just wanted to get to know me because I know so many people. But, I wasn't exactly expecting him to ask me to set him up with someone."
"That's so rude!" Ella said chiming in for the first time. "Who has the audacity to ask a girl out on a date and then ask to meet other girls? Especially somebody new to this town!"
"I told you I didn't like him before all this even happened Nudge," I told her trying not to laugh.
"You only don't like him because he's into theatre and you're not."
"Glad you're broadening your horizons to new types of people, Max. Very mature." Iggy shook his head at me laughing from across the flames.
"Well, who was the girl?" Ella asked clearly still adamant about this betrayal of her best friend.
"It was Max," Spencer said. Five heads spun to face him and Nudge looked absolutely floored.
"Spencer…what…how did you know? Are you friends with Gray? Did you know it was Max before we went out?" Nudge spluttered.
"Calm down, Nudge. I promise I didn't know anything. It was just an educated guess – a hypothesis if you will." Nudge still looked confused. "I was with you, Max and Fang when you were detailing your attraction to Gray after class one day by the lockers, and after you said that I just happened to be near him in the hallways and before classes frequently. Harding High isn't exactly a large building. And I noticed him several times watching Max with that wistfulness that you associate with a minor crush. So, when you mentioned that Gray was into somebody else at Harding, I just assumed it was Max based on my personal encounters and the relatively small class size."
"You're freaky, dude," Derek said from his seat, but fist bumped him anyway. Guys are weird. But then I realized what Spencer was saying: Gray, this theater dork from Rhode Island, had a potential crush on me and was using Nudge to make his move.
"Wait hold up," I said, sitting back up in my chair. "Is this true Nudge?"
She nodded, "Yeah. He was super nice and I guess he wasn't under the impression that we were having a romantic-ish evening. We were chatting about something and then theater class came up and he said there was a cute girl in his class. Naturally, I asked who, but he didn't know your name, so he just described you and I obviously knew it was you. So, I showed him a picture and he confirmed."
"I don't know what to do with this information," I said, and the guys laughed.
Ella groaned and Nudge just sighed. "Well you could go on a date with him," Nudge said rather bluntly.
"Max's going on a date with who?" A familiar voice asked as the footsteps stopped above my chair.
"Nobody," I assured him quickly as the guys greeted him enthusiastically. His brow furrowed and he looked at me weird for a second, but he must have been afraid he was drawing attention to himself because he dragged a chair into the space between Spencer and me.
"Actually, Max is going on a date with someone," Ella said.
"I'm sorry since when are you making my decisions for me?" I asked.
Ella shrugged. "Since now because you're apparently unable to make the right ones."
Derek let out a low whistle and Spencer audibly tensed. Neither of them wanted to deal with sisterly drama and honestly, neither did I.
"Gray, that new theater kid from the East Coast, has the hots for Max," Derek muttered to Fang who didn't respond, but I saw his hands tense up as he slid them into his pockets.
"Thanks for that graphic support, Derek, but I'm not going on any dates with this theater kid any time soon."
"And why is that?" Nudge asked.
"Because I don't even know this kid! Besides, you clearly are into him. You should just pursue this. I'm supporting you as a friend," I said growing more and more exasperated.
"As fun as this girl drama is," Iggy interrupted, "I'd rather talk about almost anything else. Besides, gossip is boring. Let's play a game."
"Iggy choosing a game makes me nervous," Nudge said.
"What about truth or dare?" Iggy, of course, asked.
"Too middle-school," Nudge said.
"Scrabble," Spencer suggested.
"Too academic," I replied. "Sorry Spence."
"Charades," Ella suggested.
"Absolutely not," Fang muttered.
"Yeah, I second that. A hard no from me," I added. No acting outside of necessary class hours.
"What about King's Cup?" Derek asked.
"I'm in," Iggy said. We all chimed in our approval.
"I need the bathroom, so I'll grab a deck of cards and some beers," I said hopping up.
I grabbed a six-pack from Derek's "super secrete stash" under his bed but was interrupted before I could find the cards.
"Hi," Fang whispered his face breaking into half a smile. He grabbed my hand and pulled me away from the door. "What was all of that about Gray?"
"Oh, nothing," I muttered hoping to down play it. "He asked Nudge if she had any single friends, and Nudge suggested me. I'm not sure if she was serious or if she was trying to get me to crack and say something about us."
"Then why did Derek say he thought you were attractive?" I smirked at his replacement of the words "the hots" with attractive.
"Well, I guess he was asking about some girl in his drama class, and that girl happened to be me. And naturally, Nudge trying to stir the pot, wants me to go on a date with him and Ella was backing her up," I explained.
"And?"
"And what?"
"And what did you say?"
"What do you think I said Fang, don't be an idiot. Of course, I turned the offer down, and Iggy thankfully changed the subject. He was shockingly helpful for once."
"Sorry, you're right. I don't know why I even asked that."
I smiled, "If worst came to worst, I would tell them about us before going on a date with some random dork with pretty eyes."
Fang practically leapt back from his position next to me as we heard footsteps approaching.
"What are the two lovebirds doing in here?" Iggy asked smirking. "I was sent to nullify any sexual tension or activity that was currently happening."
"Gee thanks, Ig. While you're at it, do you mind finding the deck of cards?" I rolled my eyes as he wiggled his eyebrows at us.
Accompanied by Iggy and a deck of cards, we returned to the circle and prepared King's Cup.
"Rules are simple." Derek began. "Two you. Three me. Four floor. Five guys. Six chicks. Seven heaven. Eight mate. Nine rhyme. Ten never have I ever. Jack categories. Queen question. King King's Cup. And ace is waterfall."
The game started smoothly with Nudge and Ella choosing each other as mates and Spencer enlightening everyone with the meaning of the world hurcle which rhymes with circle. (In case you were wondering, it means to bring your arms and legs in towards your body – apparently.)
Iggy pulled the third ten, so we did another round of never have I ever. None of us are that exciting or do that many wild things, so we started targeting each other when we ran out of good ones.
"Never have I ever been kicked out of school," Ella said smirking at me. I glared at her as I bent my first finger down.
"Never have I ever fallen off a chairlift," Derek said flashing Nudge a playful smile. I nudged Fang and ha gave me a look. We were silently rooting for the two of them to get together partly because it would take the spotlight off of us, but partly because they were secretly into each other but refused to acknowledge it. Sound familiar?
Thankfully I had never technically fallen off a chairlift, so I was spared.
"Never have I ever broken a bone," Spencer said quickly hating his brief moments in the spotlight.
"Never have I ever had feelings for my best friend but refused to address them," Iggy said with a maniacal smile in my direction.
"No offense, but this game sucks." I said finishing my drink. "I think I'm going to bounce."
"That's so lame, Max. You're totally just avoiding the bitch cup," Iggy groaned.
"We've run out of things to talk about, so we're using never have I ever as a way to target people." I shrugged. "I'm bored and tired."
"Rude," Iggy muttered with mock severity etched on his face.
"I'll walk you home," Fang, who had been even more quiet than usual, said getting to his feet.
Nudge wiggled her eyebrows, "A romantic moonlit walk? Sparks are flying."
Fang just rolled his eyes as per usual. "It's dark out and I live around the corner from her. This is purely safety."
Nudge did not look convinced.
"Anyone else want a safety escort?"
Everyone laughed, but nobody took him up on it.
"Ella are you coming with us?" I asked.
"I wouldn't want to interrupt," she said slyly. "Besides, I'm sleeping over at Nudge's."
"Suit yourself. See you all hopefully later," I muttered as we headed down his driveway. I turned to Fang who was walking stoically beside me, "You don't have to do this, Fang. I can take care of myself."
He shrugged again but didn't respond.
"What's up?" I asked. I hated the non-verbal shrugging. "You're being extra quiet and moody."
"I'm not moody," he retorted. He paused. "I'm just tired of having to change how I act around my friends."
Oh. "I know," I said but trailed off not knowing where I wanted to take that sentence.
"Look, don't you think it would just be easier if everyone knew? No more sneaking around. No more obnoxious jokes."
"Probably more obnoxious jokes," I admitted with a smirk.
"Well, what do you think?" He said turning his sparkling eyes on me. I hated when he did that because it's so hard to resist.
"I'm not against it."
"So tomorrow?"
"Wouldn't it be fun to mess with them first?"
He paused and then his face split into a smirk. "Well what did you have in mind?"
So sorry for the super long delay, but there have been a million things going on. Thanks to anyone who has stuck with me and this story over the past year. As always, I thoroughly enjoy any/all feedback, so don't hesitate to hit me with your thoughts.