Through the Eyes of a Servant | Chapter 3 | by: Rachel / Chapter posted June 4, 2010.
AU | Max/Fang | PG / 3,902 words
Max, Fang - 17 | Iggy - 19 | Nudge - 16 | Gazzy - 14 | Angel - 13 / The original age ranges have been changed.
When Max accepts a job as a maid in Fang's household, will it be love at first sight? Or will anything and everything come between them?
The idea for this story is my own, and no one else's. Everything else belongs to James Patterson -although I will be next in line for the throne when he retires xD-. I made no money writing this story, I simply write for reviews.
Surprisingly, there wasn't any conflict the next morning. Jeb was too worn out trying to deal with her moods, and she didn't want to see him at all. He wasn't around the house, but she sure wasn't complaining and she wasn't going to look for him. She skipped breakfast and ran out the door, not bothering to say good morning to Iggy or Gazzy. She ran to the bus stop before anyone could come after her and got on.
It was even darker than usual that morning, and rain clouds hovered overhead. Thunder rumbled in the distance and fog swirled along the ground. She grumbled to herself as her hair started to frizz.
The bus was almost empty. The driver ignored her as she handed over the money and she took a seat near the middle. There were a few guys at the back of the bus that she didn't want to sit next to, and didn't want to stare at without a can of pepper spray. But she got a glimpse of them as she sat down.
There were four of them, and they were all so typical. Max could have taken two of them if she'd been willing to fight, because she had enough anger in her now to throw one out the bus window, but those were the kind of guys you saw in videos about sexual harassment.
She shuddered slightly and turned her attention back to her job. Or, she tried to. It was just so different than this. In the same area, there was her crummy box of a house, and thugs that went around parading the fact that they could kick your ass, and huge mansions with dark-haired, dark-eyed boys inside who-
She shook her head vigorously to rid herself of that image. She had told herself over and over again that he was just a spoiled brat of a boy who knew everything about her personal life and flaunted it smugly. He had humiliated her, even though there was no one around. Max never begged or pleaded or apologized to jerks, least of all him.
A chorus of laughter erupted in the back, and Max bit her lip as she remembered that they could see her shaking her head and probably thought she was some kind of maniac. The last thing she needed was to be noticed by a band of thugs older than she was.
They made jokes about her in the back, called her a whore and whistled for her, which she pointedly ignored. They burst into a new round of laughter. The bus driver took no notice, of course. But then, she wouldn't have wanted trouble either.
When the bus stopped where she was supposed to take it on foot and walk to work, she flew off and walked in a rush with her arms folded around her in the cold morning air. No cell phone, no pepper spray, no one to see her or hear her cry for help. The situation wasn't good.
She heard the boys shuffling off the bus behind her, and she walked even faster. She heard the bus driver protesting and telling them that it wasn't their stop, and then she heard the sounds of a struggle and the leader telling him that he paid his 'fucking money' and he could get off wherever he wanted to.
Max bit back a groan as they got off the bus. They walked faster than she did, and she heard their footsteps behind her. When she was walking as fast as she could, they were still walking fast her, keeping far enough away just taunting her, scaring her. She couldn't see anything through the darkness and the fog, and she knew the mansion was too far away.
When she felt a hand brush the back of her jacket, a shiver went up her body. She couldn't fight back, and she couldn't escape. They were going to catch her, and do things to her that you heard about on the news the next day. 'Local Girl Found in Sewer', here we come, Max thought grimly.
But she had to think of a way to escape. So she acted on instinct, or rather, the quickest idea that popped into her head. Digging in her pocket to see if she had pepper spray, she came across the huge ring that she'd worn last year to prom. It was gorgeous, but it would have to go. She slipped it on her middle finger and pulled a thin glove on over it.
And she turned around, snapping her fist straight into the gang leader's face as hard as she possibly could. Before he could even blink, he'd been knocked over, a circular indention in his forehead. When he looked back up, she was running down the road.
If it wasn't for the fact that they were all watching her, she could have used her wings to fly away. But she was mutated, a freak, and Jeb had told her never to use them, after all. Max thought it was just because he was jealous, or scared of them, but in any case, she just couldn't.
But is dying in a sewer better?
The leader swore loudly and picked himself off the ground. It hadn't hurt badly, but it bought her some time to escape. That bitch was smart. But he smiled with satisfaction as he realized that yelling wouldn't do her any good. There was absolutely no one around.
Her lungs were aching, but she didn't look back as she gulped in mouthfuls of air and ran as fast as she could. She was shrieking like a banshee.
She didn't see him get up and come after her, she had just assumed he'd be out cold. But now she'd gotten him angry, and his friends were following him right toward her. When she finally decided to turn around, she saw them not ten feet away.
This is it, she thought. Well, so much for my plan. He's even more pissed. She screwed her eyes shut and ran faster.
And then she was falling, tripping over her own feet and plummeting to the ground. Her hands and face had been scraped, but the only thing she was worried about was the gang landing on her.
But they never did.
She peeked through the cracks in her bloody fingers, and she gasped aloud. There, in front of her and doing a fairly good job of beating up the gang members, was Fang. "Go, Max," he growled at her as he grabbed a gang member's arm and flipped him over his shoulder onto the curb.
She crawled to pick herself up and scrambled to her feet. As soon as she did, a searing pain shot up her back and she toppled over, clutching at her ankle. Shit. She had landed on it wrong, and was unable to walk on it. She crawled over as far away from the fight as she could and sat behind her tree, wincing as the pain became more prominent.
When she looked over her shoulder, he was still there, kicking one of them so hard she heard a rib snap. No one had that much strength at seventeen, no one but her, she noted. And how had he just shown up like that? Her eyes narrowed. This might only be his way of making sure she was never rude to him again.
But hadn't she been glad when she first saw that it was him? Surprised, but glad all the same? No. That was impossible. She was still mourning over the loss of her old life, for God's sake. This jerk was no one special. He'd probably dated all his maids one time or another, even led Brigid on.
Secretly, even if she wasn't going to admit it to anyone, hadn't she felt that sinking feeling in her stomach when Brigid had told her they were dating? She'd been happy when Brigid had been fired, and she knew it. But she wasn't going to tell anyone else that.
A few minutes later, Fang walked out from behind the trees and glanced down at her. She hated being in this position, helpless and not being able to do a damn thing about it, and on top of that, being rescued by the very person she was supposed to despise.
"Get up," he said like she was five years old. She stared at him for a long minute before sighing.
"If I could get up, would I still be here? I'll be fired, so what's the point?"
"No, you won't. It's not like she's so bad that she'll fire you if you're injured. And since you were stupid and tripped, I guess I'll have to carry you back."
There was a long pause. "…Excuse me, what?"
"I said, I'll have to carry you. You can't walk on that thing, can you? Here," and he bent down and picked her up bridal-style, much to her horror. He grinned down at her cheerfully. "I'm gonna take you back home to clean the blood off your face. Your ankle's gonna be fine. You'll just have to hobble for a few days."
"You know, I'm beginning to think you sent those thugs after me."
"Don't flatter yourself."
He started walking, Max kicking and putting up a fuss the whole way. It wasn't exactly a self-esteem boost, but he ignored it, just like he ignored his heart beating like a jackhammer in his chest. He'd spent seventeen years putting on an act to be calm and cool in front of everyone, and he'd perfected it. In one day, this one normal girl was about to tear it down.
And at the beginning of the day, Max was dead set with being miserable, and even though she should have been terrified of this normal boy cradling her back and possibly feeling her wings, she was feeling…happy? It had been a long time since she was last happy. Had this dark boy actually managed to make her happy?
Then, as he was walking to their house in the early hours of the morning, with no one to see them and the fog to cover up what they'd done, Fang felt like leaning down and kissing Max senseless, but he didn't. She just couldn't get involved with someone like him, and that was final.
Besides, he didn't want to. No, he absolutely didn't feel a thing for the stubborn, obnoxious, pigheaded, selfish, beautiful, wonderful, smart…alright, maybe he did feel a small something.
But if he didn't want to, if he was absolutely against it, then why was he leaning towards her with his eyes slowly closing, and why was Max's breath quickening, and why did she look so unbelievably afraid of him getting involved with someone like her?
Just when Max was finally ready to give in and just finally be herself around a boy, he pulled back abruptly, her head thumping awkwardly against his chest. Her cheeks reddened significantly as she stared at the reason for Fang pulling away. Right in front of them, looking as if she might cry, was Brigid.
She stared at Max in Fang's arms and knew that everyone, even your friend, even your boyfriend, could stab your back sometimes, and sometimes, as Max knew, too, they could get together for that much extra pain. "Brigid," Max said in a startled voice.
"What are you doing here?" Fang asked coldly, noticing that they were right outside the giant wrought-iron gate of his family's house. This was all very uncomfortable for him. The girl still had a crush on him, for heaven's sake.
"Relax, I'm not going there," she said in a voice just as hostile. "I'm going to see about an opening for a new job. Do you want know where the new job is, Fang?"
"Not especially," he smirked.
She continued as if she hadn't heard him. "Thanks to your stupid mother, and you for not sticking up for our love, I have to get a job at a gas station! A ruddy, worthless gas station, because that's the only place in this damn area that's hiring!" And she stormed past him in a huff.
He turned around to watch her stalk away, because we both knew there would be more. There's no way that chatterbox would have something so short to say to us.
"And another thing," she stopped dramatically without turning back around, "I know what you guys are doing. You're trying to make me jealous by being together all the time. Well, I hope you two get caught. I can't tip your mom off, because I don't work there anymore, but someone else will."
"We're not together!" Max protested
"Then why is he carrying you?" she almost shouted.
"It's a long story!" Max yelled.
"I'm sure it is," Brigid whispered, then took off walking away.
"What a bitch!" Max cursed to no one in particular.
Angel was waiting by the door for them when they got there. Worry was stamped all over her face as she glared up at Fang, demanding to know where he was. Then her eyes traveled down to Max and her bloody face and hands, and her mouth dropped open. "What did you do to her?" Angel screamed at Fang. "I thought you liked her!"
Fang would have slapped his forehead if he wasn't supporting Max. He glared down at Angel, who recoiled a bit, but grinned all the same. "Uh, whoops, gotta go," she said awkwardly right before scampering nervously away.
He rolled his eyes and walked past the huge staircase around to the enormous kitchen, which was a lot smaller if there were twenty people in it. To his despair, he remembered that this was the time of day when his mother usually had her breakfast now. It took twenty people just to make her breakfast and another three to deliver it. How did she manage to stay normal after eating that much? Or did she only order that much for the joy of seeing her slaves scramble for her praise? He thought the second.
"Out!" Fang bellowed, enjoying seeing the looks on their faces as heads raised in confusion. Rolling pins were dropped and servants stopped mid-step. Most of them stopped just to stare and wonder why another servant was in Fang's arms. The older ladies shook their heads sadly, knowing Fang had found another plaything that would last a few weeks. Of course, it never occurred to them that he just fell in love easily.
One of the cooks walked up and raised a hand timidly. Fang seemed to be enjoying this, Max noted, as he 'called on' said cook cheerfully. "But sir," the cook stammered, "Your mother will be…displeased…if she doesn't receive her breakfast at eight o'clock sharp."
"She can eat like a whale tomorrow," Fang clarified, receiving a few shocked expressions, several people biting their lips to keep from laughing. It had been a while since anyone had stood up against the 'queen', and no one had expected her own son. But then, he was the only one who could and not get fired.
With an excuse to get out of work and all the slave labor, no matter what they were getting paid, a few scurried out of the room right then. After one of Fang's signature dark look, most of them averted their eyes and ran out. The few that looked into the eyes were instantly terrified. The rest were driven out by the threat of being fired.
Fang swept a cookie tray off the counter and set Max on it, stepping over the cookie tray absently. Max's eyes narrowed. Some other servant had worked hard to make those, even if they were for his mother the bitch. He wouldn't know, he hadn't worked a day in his life. "Pick those up," she glared at him.
"Hmm?" he asked as he rummaged through multiple drawers, looking for a band-aid. He flipped through one drawer, jumbling the contents, then moving on to the next one. In a few minutes, the whole kitchen was a jumbled mess, the cookies still on the floor.
There was food on the floor, broken dishes, unorganized drawers and he had even opened the refrigerator looking for the band-aids. What was more than that, he didn't even seem to notice, or care, what a mess he was making.
Max was so caught up in watching the human hurricane go around the kitchen that she had lost her voice, but she hadn't forgotten about the cookies on the floor. He opened a cupboard hurriedly, and two plates tumbled out, crashing to the floor and breaking into small pieces. She couldn't take it any longer. She turned around so she was kneeling on the counter and opened the tallest cupboard she could find, the one everyone probably forgot.
There, in the far back corner next to old matches and a pack of cigarettes, were the band-aids. Covered in cobwebs but unused, clearly no one in the house had ever skinned a knee riding a bike or even cut themselves with a knife by accident. She pulled it out and cleaned it up a bit, then held it out for Fang to see.
He paused in the middle of yanking open the newest cabinet, causing a container of salt to fall out and break, spilling tiny granules all over the countertops and floor. His shoulders slumped as he took the band-aids from her. He opened the biggest one and placed it on the palm of her right hand, then grabbed a few smaller ones for her face and left hand.
"How did you know where they were?" he asked after a few minutes, still focusing on putting the band-aids on her face and hands. In her opinion, she was completely covered and he was doing a crappy job, but it was kind of nice with no one around. He was trying to care and do the right thing, but unfortunately, he wasn't quite used to it.
"We keep them in the same place back home," she answered. "Only, they usually aren't surrounded by matches, cigarettes and cobwebs. At my house, people actually need to use the band-aids sometimes, not like here in your little padded cell."
"I resent that," he said sarcastically. "But actually, you lied. The band-aids at your house have been surrounded by cigarettes and cobwebs, pretty much ever since-"
"Ever sine my dad started smoking again, I know," she interrupted him angrily. "Look, why do you know so much about me? It's a violation of privacy, and who are you to know everything about my family's problems? Yes, my brother's a blind guy who's too poor to go to college, and Gazzy's taken the move better than me, and-"
"And you're angry at him for moving away from your school, your friends, at him for moving away from your school, your friends, your boyfriend," he muttered the last part under his breath, but she didn't hear. "But most of all, you're not even really mad at him, you love him and you want him to know that, but you're just frustrated and hurt ever since your mother died."
Her head snapped up. "How do you know that? I haven't told anyone about that, at least no one here, and I haven't even mentioned it to my dad for weeks. So how do you freaking know everything about me?" She grabbed him by the shirt collar, and pulled him dangerously close, forgetting even how much she was starting to like him for the moment.
"It-wasn't-me-it-was-Angel!" he choked out, finally. She released him with a trembling hand, sending him back on the floor. She had almost really liked the little girl, in fact, she had. Angel had a spark that wasn't from an ordinary rich kid. Angel was smart.
"And how would Angel happen to know everything imaginable about me, and all the other servants," Max asked, struggling to keep her voice calm and failing miserably. She was close to hyperventilating. What had happened? Had they sent spies in to check on her, into her room at night, hunting through her diary that she hadn't written in for almost a year, ever since her mother died and her dad had lost his job because of his grief?
Fang held up a finger and winced as he picked a piece of broken porcelain from a plate out of his back, groaning as it came loose, then tossing it across the room, reaching for the band-aids. Max held them back defensively. "Tell me," she ordered.
"She…Angel can read minds," he blurted. Max stared for a minute and then rolled her eyes.
"Sure, Fang, you really had me going there. Now tell me the real reason or that iced tea over there's going down your pants."
His eyes widened. "No, Max, I'm telling the truth. She was born with it. It's…it's hard to explain, but she can read minds. And every day for the past couple of weeks you've worked for us, all you've been thinking about is how much you resent about working here."
It took her a moment to process that. She took a deep breath in and then let it go. "Alrighty, so Angel can read minds. That's just dandy. All I need right now is a little twelve year old inside my head."
"Thirteen," Fang corrected automatically.
"Whatever," she snapped. "Anything else I should know about? Does Nudge have heat-vision? Does your mother have the power to kill someone by looking at them? Well, maybe. Do you by any chance turn invisible whenever you want to?"
His blood ran cold for a moment. Had Max figured out his secret? But when she continued ranting, he breathed a sigh of relief. She had only been joking because she was pissed off.
"So you know what? You're going to clean this whole damn kitchen, because if you wanna know so much about my life, this is part of it. Get going now unless you want me to force you into the female maid's uniform that I have to wear on a day to day basis, that shows my freaking ass!"
She had already forced a broom into his hands and a trash can at his feet. "Today, you're going to do my job. If I find a single cookie crumb on the floor, you're a dead man."
And that's exactly what he did. He cleaned the kitchen. Sure, it took him almost the entire day, and he couldn't figure out where to put the broom back once he was done, and he burnt the replacement cookies, but she sure had a good time watching him.
At the end of the day, he wiped his forehead and gave Max a chocolate-chip cookie. She smirked down at him. "So…" he began, trying to get on her good side. "I guess I could talk to my mom about new maid's uniforms…"
"That would be lovely," she smiled down at him, got down from the counter and walked away as she heard Iggy's truck pull up in his driveway.
It was Fang's turn to smirk. There was no way he was ever, ever getting that pretty girl a new maid's outfit.
Sexist pig, Max thought to herself, knowing what he was thinking, as she walked away.
I couldn't take it anymore. I hate it when authors keep a secret for twenty chapters and then they finally tell you the big secret. The 'tragedy' is that her mom died, just so we're clear. More on that later.
Yes, Max was a bitch. You probably would be too if you were living in a box with Gazzy. xD Yeah, Fang was a man whore. In today's society, you don't have to be rich to be one. It'll get better.
Thanks for reviewing :)
~Rachel