Through the Eyes of a Servant | Chapter 5 | by: Rachel / Chapter posted June 19th, 2010.
AU | Max/Fang | PG / 3,463 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 Jame's Patterson -although I will be next in line for the throne when he retires xD-. I made no money for writing this story, I simply write for reviews.
Max stepped out of the old beat-up pickup truck anxiously as Iggy pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant. Iggy grinned from the driver's seat, Gazzy making kissy faces and teasing her lightly. She tried to smile, but she just couldn't. What if this turned out to be a total disaster?
"Go," Iggy laughed. "Have fun. Eat lots of caviar and snails and don't forget to flirt with the waiter a little to make him jealous." He made her giggle, which was exactly what he'd been aiming for. Gazzy reached over and pulled the door shut, sealing her fate.
Before she knew it they were off, and she was standing alone facing the restaurant. She was relieved, from the outside it was a short little restaurant with not much to look at. Maybe it would be only a slight step-up from a McDonald's, for all she knew.
One step inside told her that she had been wrong. It was much larger on the inside, with crystalline chandeliers and crisp white tablecloths. Waiters in formal wear scurried around in a quiet order.
She didn't see a single child there, or even a teenager. The only ones around were middle-aged adults and old people. Fang wanted to take me here? The food better be damn near perfect. "Can I help you?"
"What?" Max snapped out of her trance. But she just couldn't help herself. Even before her mom had died, she had never been in a place like this. Strictly middle class. This was the kind of place where you'd spend a thousand dollars for a burger, two hundred dollars extra for cheese.
"How many in your party?" The woman at the podium in front of her asked cheerfully. "You look gorgeous, by the way. Meeting a date here?"
"Oh, thanks," Max said absently, eyeing her dress. It was one she had borrowed from Nudge, one that had been too big for her. Strapless and black, it stopped right above her knees. Her hair was partially up and she was wearing earrings so dangly her ears felt like they would break. "Yeah, um, I'm just waiting for…someone."
Yes, Iggy and Nudge had been only too happy to do everything for her. They were getting to be quite the pair. Of course, Iggy was content at first to pick out both the dress and put on the makeup, until he realized that the dress he had chosen was a pillowcase and that the makeup kit was a shoe.
Max walked away and sat down on the bench next to the exit. She felt a churning feeling in her stomach as the anxiety started to build up in her. The minutes ticked by, and she was starting to get the feeling that Fang had been lying, and that he had stood her up.
She whirled around into the bathroom, which was thankfully deserted. "God, what am I doing? He's gonna come, don't be an idiot! He probably just had to get away from his mom or Nudge is doing his hair or something." A few deep breaths later and she walked calmly out of the bathroom.
Still, ten minutes felt like ten years as she sat in an uncomfortable position. Everyone in the restaurant was extremely rich, and although she was hidden under a rich-girl costume, she would never be like that. It all seemed superficial and unnecessary, having that much. There was a time when she would have felt differently.
When he finally walked in the door casually, she jumped up and leapt for his throat. She backed him against the wall until he was cowering under her rage. "Where. Have. You. Been?" All heads in the restaurant swiveled towards the girl strangling her dinner date.
She jumped off of him and smoothed her dress. "Honey," she said through clenched teeth. Fang leaned down and put his lips to her ear. "I think somebody missed me," he smirked. She turned bright red and pushed him away. "Let's just go sit down or something."
But she was glad to see him.
One of the fancy-schmancy waiters led them to their table, and Fang pulled the chair out for her. She was temped to take the chair and beat him with it, screaming "sexist pig!" in his ear, but she sat down and smiled sweetly up at him. He rolled his eyes, but he was smiling, too.
"Wow, you kids officially get the award for goth couple of the century!" the waiter said sarcastically as he eyed her black dress and his black attire. He gave them a cheerful smile and was gone.
So they were left with doing nothing but staring at the menu and sneaking peeks at the other. Sometimes Fang stared a little too long, and looked pointedly away when it was her turn to look back at him. Neither one of them spoke, and Max was crossing her toes under the table, praying that it would all work out.
Max expected it to be one of those places where they took an hour just to bring you your drink, so that gave her lots and lots of time alone with Fang. But what if I can't think of anything to say to him and it gets awkward and uncomfortable? Now that I like him, I can't just insult him…
She stood up suddenly. "I have to go to the bathroom," she announced, and she was off before he could even answer her. She fled to the very back of the bathroom and locked herself in the handicapped stall, pulling her feet onto the toilet seat and holding her knees to her chest.
I am such a spazz, she thought to herself.
The waiter brought their drinks, and Fang muttered a thank you as he scuttled away. If Max thought she was nervous, that was nothing compared to what Fang felt. Not to mention that he had to sneak out of his window just to be able to come here. And his window was twenty feet off the ground, no wing slits on his tux.
Sure, he had gotten scratched and messy, but no biggie. He just hoped Max hadn't noticed the blood and dirt on him.
After ten minutes of nothing but waiting, he finally got up and headed around the corner to the women's restroom. Looking both ways, he snuck inside. A few elderly ladies saw and started conversing to each other as to whether or not he had multiple-personality disorder.
"Max?" he called quietly, leaning down to check under the stalls for feet.
"Go away!" she almost shrieked. "You're not supposed to be in here, you're a guy!"
"Man, that explains so much," he said, sarcasm dripping from his voice. "Look, Max, is it your time of the month or something?" he asked quietly.
"Gah!" she jumped up from the toilet seat and opened the door. "First of all, you don't even know what you're talking about, let alone what a 'time of the month' actually is! Did you think that it was that time when I was just naturally bitchy? Because if so, I've had a very long time of the month, Fang! Ugh, just go. I'll be out in a minute."
"Okay, okay!" he ran from the bathroom and out into the restaurant. But this time, everyone saw him come out. "That's him!" cried the elderly woman. "That's the poor young boy with multiple-personality disorder!"
"What?" Fang asked, dumbfounded. He had all of three seconds before they all began yelling and pointing at him, yelling that they knew a psychiatrist or that he was a freak. So he did the only thing he could have done…earn their sympathy.
"Stop it!" he stamped his foot and put one hand on his hip. "I'm only here to see my best friend, Max…ine. Maxine. I'm just a regular girl named Lisa! I love cats and puppies and cloudy days…don't judge me!" and he stormed off to his table, smirking to himself. I am so good.
Nudge was in her room with Iggy again, flipping through a magazine while Iggy fiddled with her iPod. "You have Brittany Spears on yo
ur iPod? I bet you like to sing it when no one's around," he grinned. "Oh, God, why's she singing about a threesome?"
Nudge was quiet for a moment, then raised an eyebrow. "Hey, if you recognized that it was Brittany Spears…then you listen to her, too."
His face turned bright red. "I…Gazzy…sometimes listens to her…"
"No, it's you!" she cackled, then got quiet. "You know…" she said, looking up at him and how incredibly cute he looked, "We have more in common than I thought." She closed her eyes and leaned forward, and saw him doing the same.
And then his cell phone vibrated –he only had it because he was 'disabled'-, and he picked it up. "Yeah, Dad? Oh, be right there." He hung up. "Nudge, I gotta go, bye!" And he was out the door.
She fell forward, but the only thing she got was a facefull of pillow.
Max walked out of the bathroom, only to hear the quiet chatter about some poor boy with multiple-personality disorder who thought he was a girl. She walked up to a waiter and asked quietly, "Who's this boy with multiple-personality disorder?"
The waiter looked surprised. "Well, you should know. That guy you're with. Poor loser. He thinks his name is Lisa and that you're his 'best friend!'." Max's eyes narrowed as she saw Fang jump up and wave at her. He had some serious explaining to do.
"Long story," he answered immediately when she sat down. "I figured," she hissed, but all he did was tell her to talk to the 'hand'. Little did she know that the old lady was spying on them just to make sure he was for real.
A few minutes later, it became awkward again, and this time, Fang was looking just as uncomfortable as she was. It was his first date with anyone, after all. She excused herself to the bathroom again, and flung herself inside.
She ran to the sink again and looked in the mirror at her wild eyes and she smoothed her hair. "Get it together!" she commanded to her reflection. If she was that reflection, she would have cowered in fear.
"Good heavens," murmured a woman at the end of the row of sinks, and fled the bathroom in alarm. "We have too many nuts loose in the restaurant tonight."
You can say that again, Max thought tiredly as she walked back to the table.
"What's with you?" Fang asked. "Did you not want to go out with me or something, because you're leaving a whole hell of a lot." He noticed the old woman staring at him, and he made his voice high and girly again. "I mean, a whole heck of a lot."
She gave an exasperated sigh. "No! I'm just a little nervous, okay? It'll be fine."
"I hope it'll be fine! I already have grandma over there thinking that I'm 'Lisa', and now this! What is the world coming to?"
She rolled her eyes and grabbed a piece of bread from the basket.
Fang did the same, and stuffed it into his mouth quickly. He was starving. But then he saw something at the front door that made his skin crawl, something that made him want to hide in any way possible. He choked on his bread and fell over.
"Max," Fang coughed, like he was about ready to have a heart attack or that he had seen a ghost. He fell off the chair and rolled under the table.
"What's wrong?" Max asked, immediately concerned. "For God's sake, don't choke to death. She leaned down and ducked under the table to face him. "What's wrong?" She grabbed her glass of water and took a drink.
"Don't look now, but I just saw my mother in the doorway." He was rewarded with a cold shower as she spewed her water all over his face. "What?" she whisper-shrieked, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand and trying not to have another panic attack. "Why is she here? Fang, I'm going to get fired!"
The witch herself was at the door, forcing some busboy to take her coat and screaming at a waiter to get her a booth, despite all the booths being taken. Her friends didn't appear to be shaken by any of this. She didn't see Max and Fang huddling under the tablecloth.
"Well, she told me that she was going to leave me in charge tonight – well, figuratively of course, because we have like a thousand servants, because she was going out to dinner. She does that all the time, going out with friends of hers. I didn't know that she meant here out to dinner!"
He peeked under the tablecloth and saw that she had turned away. He grabbed Max's arm and pulled her along behind the other booths as they watched her being led to her table, which just so happened to be right next to theirs.
He watched his mother sit down and bark at the waiter for a menu, and he pulled Max along with him past the main area and around to the bathrooms. "Alright, I know what you're thinking. This is horrible. But I can fix this, just give me some time…"
"Would you excuse me, I'm going to run to the restroom to freshen up a bit," Anne Walker announced to her friends. They nodded politely and she retreated to the bathroom. She had no care in the world, her son and two daughters were at home like good children, and Nudge was finally over that disobedient phase.
"We have a problem!" Max squeaked to Fang, who turned around and saw his mother waving back at her friends. He looked all around, but he couldn't just drag Max into the men's room, and they were trapped.
Then he saw it. He saw the air vent right behind where Max was standing. Without warning, he pried the lid off. "Max, go in the air vent. We can find an opening in a different room, but if she catches us, you're dead, and I don't just mean figuratively. Get in!"
She shook her head. "I'll go in, but you're going in first. This dress is short, and the last thing I need is a pervert like you staring up my ass." Fang gave a deep sigh. Ah, so much for her not figuring it out…
"Fine," he hissed, and crawled inside the vent. It was tall enough that he had enough room if he kept his head down. "Hurry," Max urged, until there was room for her to crawl inside the vent, too. She pulled the lid on right before Anne looked over and walked into the bathroom, suspecting nothing.
"It's so dark in here!" Max complained as she followed Fang through the maze of vents. "I can't see anything, and I can barely breathe!" Fang rolled his eyes and led her to dead end after dead end.
"This is hopeless!" she cried. "Why can't we find the exit? What's wrong with you?"
"This is why I told you to go first," Fang smirked to her, and pointed ahead of him to a light coming from the end. "Look. There's your light at the end of the tunnel. Let's get out of here and I'll take you somewhere else, okay?"
But when they got there, the light at the end of the tunnel turned out to be a vent that wouldn't open, in the supply room where no one could hear them. Fang kicked at the door and smashed himself into it, but it wouldn't budge. Max hung her head in despair.
He turned around to face her but ended up getting squished himself. "Look, we're gonna get out of here. Just trust me, Max." She found herself nodding, even though a few seconds ago she had been ready to bite his head off.
They were off again, crawling through the vents, trying to find the exit. Crawling behind Fang, Max at first thought her eyes were playing tricks on her. She saw that familiar wrinkled bulk under his jacket, the kind she got, too when she was trying to conceal her wings under a hoodie.
It was the kind of thing that just made you look ripped or muscled, like a bodybuilder or some kind of dude on steroids. She wore jackets all the time because of that. She could sweat, crawling behind him, that she saw it, even though there were no wing slits.
Slowly, she reached her hand forward as she crawled, which was an odd effect. She inched closer, closer to feeling his back to seeing if it could be true, that there could be another like her, and she wouldn't be so lonely in the world. But she screwed her eyes shut and shook her head. She wouldn't. She couldn't. She was afraid to know.
But peeking out from under his jacket, she could see feathers, jet black feathers creeping out from under the jacket. Sometimes the wings relaxed when you weren't focused on them. Max felt her own wings come out, but she didn't care. She didn't want to see Fang's 'wings' anymore. She was imagining it.
She closed her eyes again, and she kept them closed, crawling along anyway. She didn't want to see whatever that had been, didn't want to get her hopes up, or confirm her worst fears – that the School had made more like her. It was a horrible thing.
She ran headlong into Fang, and opened her eyes. He was stopped right in front of a drop, and she had almost sent him off the edge. The vent just dropped, straight down. "Sorry," Max murmured. "I'll turn around." Fang nodded quickly in agreement.
But when she did, she bumped him in the back and sent him flying headfirst down the vent. He tumbled down vertically, letting out a yell and causing Max to turn back around. "Fang!" she cried, peering over the edge, craning her neck to see.
And maybe she craned her neck a little too far. She tumbled over the edge and followed Fang down into the darkness. Without warning, it ended, and she landed with a thump on top of a soft surface.
A soft surface that cracked…make that Fang's back. He groaned and pushed Max off, massaging his spine. "I think you broke something," he moaned.
"More importantly, how are we going to get out of here?" Max wailed. We're in another vent, aren't we?"
"I wouldn't be so sure," Fang said, and stood up. He walked around a bit and stumbled over something. "A coffee table," he said dryly. "How ironic." He wandered along the room, feeling along the walls for the light switch.
"Hey!" A man called, shining a flashlight on both of them. "What are you kids doing down here? You're not allowed to be in the basement. How'd you get down here anyway?" He asked curiously. Fang pointed up and cast her a murderous glare. She grinned sheepishly.
They followed the security guard up a flight of stairs and back into the restaurant. By the time they got back, his mother was gone, but Fang informed her that she wouldn't be back to the house for a while. She was stopping by the neighbor's mansion for a while.
"God, you people are rich," Max mused.
He walked her home, because he didn't exactly take a ride. He took her for ice cream and walked with her until she finished it. When they arrived at her house, Fang looked at it like he looked at his mansion. "It's nice," he said. "Not so big."
"If you like it," she shrugged.
"Do I get to meet your family?" he asked with a grin.
She shook her head. "You'll meet them one day."
He nodded, then started to walk away. "I'll see you tomorrow," he said, too intimidated and ashamed of how awful the night had been to even think about kissing her. But it surprised him when she grabbed his arm and turned him around, grabbing his jacket and pulling him closer, finally pressing her mouth to his.
He pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her waist, not caring if her hands were on his back and could possibly feel his wings. He'd have to deal with it eventually, but now he just wanted to feel the kiss.
When they broke apart, she leaned against his chest and he whispered, "I'm sorry about the way tonight turned out."
She looked up at him. "Are you kidding? That was the best date ever."
Alright, bonus chapter, because I got so many good reviews ^^ Thanks for all who do. I don't think I made any 3rd person errors this time, correct me if I'm wrong. YES! I am so getting the hang of this! WOOT xD
Next up, I'll have to work on Iggy and Nudge *cackle* Oh, that should be fun.
Again, please review for only a minute of your time! :)
~Rachel