Chapter 11

His lips sucked against the heart of her throat, making her whole body squirm, weakening her resolve and the grasp of the towel to remain clothed around her body, she had an inkling as to what this would lead to and she wasn't sure she was ready for that.

As if by compulsion, Max seized his oral ministrations.

Breathing erratically, Phoebe closed her eyes, admitting the disappointment when the pleasure resigned but ultimately glad it did, she wasn't sure she possessed the will to defy what her body yearned.

"We should, stop."

Uncomfortable. His pants were so tight. He felt disgusted with himself. He couldn't let her see him like this.

"You're right."

"Then, could you let me down?"

He did, but she stumbled on her feet, he panicked and helped her retain balance. Phoebe struggled back into his embrace. Her knees were weak and she felt winded.

"Is it your ankle acting up?"

That would have made for a convenient excuse but Phoebe fell short - his eyes were so amazing up close. "Could you, help me into the bathroom, please."

He was undoubtedly strong for one who didn't undergo the strenuous superhero training she went through. She withheld a shudder when her feet made contact with the cool white tiles of the bathroom. Withdrawing from his torso, their hands brushed.

"I could stand in the corner," he suggested with a cock of his head in said corner of the shower. "in case your ankle acts up again."

The deduction blew her mind.

"Fat chance!" she barked, pushing him out of the door. How could he even joke about something like that?

He was making it a habit of sleeping on the couch, and she was making it a habit of draping a warm blanket over his slumbering figure with conflicted motives weighing on her very conscience. Lust was a public parasite – yet all it would take was a series of longing gazes and delicate touches and him inevitably withdrawing…

"Its kind of chilly tonight, wanna share?"

She was hoping he'd ask something in that line of thought. He wasn't home for nearly the entire day and his phone was off for five consecutive hours - her concerns were warranted.

"Where have you been?" she was hoping he'd utter something other than that insufferable name.

"Oyster's."

Since he was looking at her, the triumphant smile never reached her face. Cool and collected, she searched for his hands under the indigo blanket. He didn't wrestle for control or resort to any ulterior needs. Not much was served for passing time, except blankly staring at whatever was airing on the television.

"You left without telling me."

"Sorry about that."

"Have you had anything to eat?"

"Surprisingly enough, Oyster is good enough a cook despite what he looks like."

"Better a cook than I?" she asked playfully, nudging him.

"That a trick question?"

"Ouch."

He was giving her that look again, but wasn't showing any intentions of acting up on the underlying motives. Phoebe swallowed her pride.

"What are you doing?"

She pursed her lips and adjusted her knees on the couch, tugging aside his resisting hands to kiss him. The enthusiasm was one sided.

"Alert, alert, Cherry approaching!"

"Phoebe,"

The groan that left her throat cemented her displeasure of being disrupted. "We can ignore her. Maybe she'll go away."

"Nah, this is a blessing in disguise. Its late and I'm worn out anyway. You have fun with Cherry." His tone was brusque and his intonation clipped.

Phoebe stared at his migrating back with confusion, unable to comprehend the stinging in her chest.

"Is there nothing I can do to cheer you up bestie, your frown is really depressing."

"Sorry Cherry, you just came at a bad time." she explained, paging through an old family picture book, some of the rare and forgotten photos making her nostalgic and all the more sad courtesy to her stupid feelings. "I really miss the family."

"Not the rest of the family. Max is downstairs and you're here wallowing in your own misery and I happen to remember you're head over heels in love with him."

Phoebe huffed angrily. "I never said I was 'head over heels in love with him'."

"Then correct me again if I'm not mistaken. Did something happen, that you're not telling me about?"

"No, nothing happened, and that's it."

"This is to say you're over him?"

"I never said that." Phoebe defended.

Honestly, regardless of what a jerk he might be, his name alone rekindled a comforting warmth within her chest, aside from his frisky fingers and delectable lips. Her emotions were haywire and all over the place but the risky progress to get to this point was not insignificant.

"Then why do you sound like you're bailing?"

"I'm not bailing, its far from that." This topic was grating on her nerves. She jumped off the bed and took long strides out of her room, keen enough to hear Cherry's footsteps loudly echo behind her. "can we please talk about something else?"

"Why?"

"Oh I don't know, maybe cos our friendship not only borders around my disgusting and complicated love life." she said in exasperation, filling a pitcher with orange juice and hovering two glasses onto the island.

"As usual, you're making a big fuss over things."

"Cherry, trust me when I say coming out as this incestuous freak that wants something past the platonic tender loving care with her brother is no walk in the park."

"Well, I could encourage you but this is entirely new to me…and it's kind of obvious you're not telling me something."

"Cherry…"

"I know it's none of my business but I know there's something you're not telling me and it has to do with Max. And from the way you're acting I can only suspect you did something over the top and blew it."

"I can assure you none of that happened, and if it did I doubt he'd want to sleep under the same roof as me after finding out his twin sister has the hots for him."

Cherry thought for a moment. "Hm, that does make sense."

"Its getting pretty dark outside. Want me to walk you home?"

"I was hoping I could spend the night."

"Absolutelynot!"

"You seem down. More than usual. Something is bothering you."

"Do I really look that miserable?"

"I can't say.." Jessica adopted a thoughtful expression. "for one, you haven't been participating in every decision thus far, granted that its pointless since your brother is here so expecting anything unanimous is just asking for too much."

"He makes life difficult. It's his job."

And just like that, the conversation took a hold of another subject. They were walking past a couple of rides, rollercoasters, the spin-thruster, and most specifically the one that stood out the most, the bane of her childhood exploits – Thunderman The Ride.

"You can say that again, but I think his mind is somewhere else. A successful distraction, taking his mind off of things to be honest."

"Well, it didn't fester from home if that's what you think."

"Max never shoulders any issues for too long. I know him. This is particularly something that requires that rational part of his brain to put in the work, know what I mean."

Phoebe snickered at that. The dark haired girl was really making an odd day out pleasant with her carefree attitude. It was infectious and surprisingly taking her mind off of Max. A good thing for a change.

They met up again, and as much it hurt to sneak glances at him, it wasn't worth while. His efforts into incorporating any sort of fraternizing with her were null and void.

"Phoebe,"

Her inner turmoil was vanquished when an arm toyed with her hair. She looked at him questioningly.

Link smiled toothily, "You had a piece of candy stuck in your hair." he said, flicking it behind him, turning to mutter apologies when his actions elicited a Hey! from a random passer-by.

"Anyway, where to from here?" Jessica cut in, slapping Max's arm for good measure. He wasn't being cool getting succumbed in his own thoughts like that.

He cleared his throat and his eyes landed on Phoebe's. Her stomach did flips and she imputed the familiar emotion to him via a weary smile. He was unaffected. Great. So much for that.

"You guys practically forced me to come. P.S, this place sucks."

Apparently, Max wasn't pretentious of the fact amazing Land was excruciatingly boring. His mood wasn't for the high today. Jessica would try and remedy that for later. Hopefully, she wasn't the only one to notice the curt frowns he directed Link's way whenever he thought no one was watching.

"How about we take a turn around again? I'm sure we'll be able to find something exciting to do."

"What are we, twelve?"

Her glare was so fierce Max forced his lips shut. Good.

"Phoebe, you're with Max,"

"What?" They blurted out in unison.

"My co-worker and I want to use this time to get to know each other better outside of work."

"Why can't we all just go together?"

"Link, compared to you, I find to be great company." she said amidst protests, sticking her tongue out to him.

"How mature."

"Nothing personal, and it wouldn't kill to spend time with your sister you know, she needs it from the looks of things."

Satisfied with herself, Jessica and Link ventured through a narrow route towards the fare grounds, escaping the residue ocean of awkwardness they unknowingly left behind.

"I'm sorry if I'm sucking out the fun for you."

Surprised he initiated conversation, she took the bait. "Don't be, I knew what I was getting myself into."

He fell silent again, only smirking and nodding his head when a few girls giggled their way past them. The broody attractive type always tended to unconsciously attract attention. Figures. Phoebe sat beside him.

"Mom called last night. Asking if we knew where the fire extinguisher was."

"Woman wouldn't trust us if her life depended on it, no surprise there." he scoffed. "when are they coming back?"

"Next week, what she said." Their mid term break would have come to an end by then. It was unfortunate really. "Hey, want a magic pop?"

"Pass."

"Denied."

He wanted to argue when she up and left, wandering around a few booths and makeshift vendor modules.

He was so caught up in his own little world he didn't register the pat to his shoulder. A giant magic pop with it's ridiculous spiral colorful-

"It is as tasty as it looks like."

He didn't doubt that. Only one thing bothered him. "You only bought one when there's clearly two of us."

He was uncomfortable when she smiled widely, shifting ever closer, guiding his hand to the stick. "Meaning we get to share."

"Are you able to read my mind?"

"No."

"Exactly."

Phoebe lifted the giant candy out of the way, steeling her heart in the infuriating process. "Max, you don't have to hide your feelings from me. I know you. I can't say I'm particularly sure what you're mad about but if it has to do with the things I've put you through, or somehow involved you in, then I'm sorry and believe me when I say it will never happen again."

There was no way to say it, but even she was human and this fluctuation between civility and apathy was slowly but surely rubbing her in the wrong places, meaning if going blunt would encourage him to free himself of any guilt and anger, then so be it.

"You don't know what you're talking about!" he shot back, her courageous impassivity only fuelling to his outburst. "how can you get sentimental over something so stupid?"

"Being stupid is a mutual commodity."

He was avoiding the type of things she made him feel – the things he made her feel - and talking about his feelings made him uncomfortable and confronting them made him seem vulnerable.

Phoebe licked the candy in slow and deliberate motions, unmistakably his eyes did falter, embarrassed when they both knew the thoughts running through his head.

"I hate you,"

"So does the candy."

Max saw this from a while away when she didn't emerge from the stall all by her herself.

He was older and had the badass rockstar meets golfy nerd look to him. Not bad. But the bunch of tattoos littering his arms in the variety of ritualistic third dimensional triangles conjured a bad taste in his mouth.

Phoebe caught sight of him but still resumed talking to the tall stranger. He couldn't help but feel offended. Forced to stand there and bear witness to this atrocious social encounter.

To top it off, the blonde freak of nature crammed something into her hand which he suspected to contain a rough inscription of his contact details. Max was already scowling. Which only deepened when they parted on intimate terms.

Phoebe walked over to him, ignoring the glare he was sending over her shoulder, but cautious of his apprehensive behaviour.

"Took him long enough to give you his number."

Flabbergasted, and hurt by the infliction upon her standards, she jerked his arm using excessive force. She brandished the thin sheet of paper, removed the insulation and slapped it to his wrist. Max could only watch as she rubbed it, feeling the effects of its unsavoury adhesive nature.

Afterwards, she removed it.

"There, happy?"

He didn't call after her when she abruptly stomped away, inventing the tattoo on his wrist. There were two hearts, respectively pink and red, underneath it, were scribbles that when he squinted his eyes, clearly read;

Here for U – Forever.

Only then did he realize his mistake and the beginnings of overwhelming guilt.

"Phoebe tells me-"

"Shut up." Max interrupted rudely, taking a bite out of his cotton candy. "and keep it shut for the next thirty minutes."

Practically being ordered into acting buddy-buddy with this forsaken waste of perfect evil genes was succeeding in degrading his already foul mood.

"I heard that."

Typical, he didn't even thank him for the cotton candy he bought him. Link sighed. And just how did Jessica figure he was to establish a friendship with this egotistical moron?

"Would it kill you not to bring up my father's accursed past?"

"Wouldn't be surprised if he quit being evil because he was embarrassed his only son, his only legacy, shamed him over some stupid cape."

"Your father probably had the same motivations. I mean, out of all his children, only you turned out to be the sour puss." Link retorted, hitting home hard when Max grit his teeth, unable to come up with a comeback. "now if you're done playing hard boiled, how about we spend the day without getting on each other's nerves?"

"I don't take orders from some girl and this isn't a date!"

"It's a play date buddy! Come on! Where's the love?"

"Let go of me, freak!"

"Link! Your eye! What happened?"

Despite sporting a very swarthy and swollen eye, a serene smile graced his face.

"Apparently, this is what I get for taking male bonding too far."

Max, with his crossed arms felt no guilt whatsoever, but Phoebe was about to disabuse him of that notion when she roughly and for the umpteenth time, jerked on his arm.

"Max!"

"What?"

"What do you have to say for yourself?"

"Other than the fact he deserved it; nothing."

Then and there, Phoebe slapped him. Whether out of retaliation or acting on pent up frustrations, neither knew, but it was clear the two needed air. Jessica studied him closer, not saying or doing anything to simmer down the proverbial glaring contest he was having with Phoebe.

Max was shocked and mostly incensed at that point. Phoebe looked panicked for a second but schooled her features and dismissed the inflating regret, tending to Link and instructing him of a medical facility not far from them, glancing behind when she heard Jessica yell after her brother, taking it hard to discount the fact she might have ruined things for the both of them.

"You know, you should really learn how to get along with other people."

"And you should learn to mind your business for what it's worth." he retorted angrily, slamming the door shut, hoping she'd get the message and just leave.

Jessica removed her jacket and tossed it on the couch, following his aggravated figure into the kitchen.

"I don't know why you're so upset but I'm going to assume you're overreacting over something small and have yet to think straight and separate doubts from facts."

"Can you cut to the point and leave already? It's getting dark and I don't feel like walking you home tonight."

That's how much annoyed he was.

"If that's the case, then I won't be going home.." she said, placing her phone to the side.

Max tried calming himself. He was becoming paranoid over little words, and the squabble was merely meant to throw water under the bridge anyway, but his mind made up with the fact he was actually acclimating to that setting considered it a threat and he ultimately lost control.

"I'm serious Jessica."

"As am I." she shed her braids to the side, and Max was forced to slowly brush aside his aggressive blender to admire her hypnotizing beauty…her alluring lips.

"Then…"

She shushed him with a slow kiss, conniving him into the foreign act. It was as exciting as he had imagined. Warmth snuck in through all the right places. It was his turn to be embarrassed. His anger evaporated so instantly showing him just how much of control she had over him but taking into account that her shirt was buttoned. In seconds, the fabric was thrown behind him. There were no deceptions; she wouldn't be spending the night at home that evening.