Through the Eyes of a Servant Chapter 8, a maximum ride fanfic

Through the Eyes of a Servant | Chapter 8 |

by: Rachel / Chapter posted July 25th, 2010.

AU | Max/Fang | PG / 4,074 words

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.

The next few weeks for Max were uneventful, but peaceful in a way. It wasn't boring, it was refreshing. Even though no one else knew they were going out, they knew, and that was enough. Every so often, they would have a secret 'date' somewhere in the house. Sneaking out of the house was difficult, but they managed to a few times.

Always keeping it small rather than going to fancy restaurants, Max was slowly carving him into a normal boy. All in the course of a month, he had eaten his first cheeseburger, had his first can of pop, and burped for the first time in his privileged life. He wasn't exactly normal, but they were taking small steps.

And she was loving every minute of it. Things went as usual for weeks, turning into a comfortable routine. Every time she was yelled at for coming into work late, every time she was ordered to do something, she just brushed it off. She never lost her temper or quit, and she didn't want to. This was her life now.

Fang seemed so easy to be with, simpler than anyone she'd ever known. It was like he understood her no matter what, grasping her feelings so easily. She could be herself around him. She didn't have to be guarded and strong like she was everywhere else, even at home. When she was with him, she was free.

But slowly, people were beginning to notice a change in Fang. He couldn't help it; Max was rubbing off on him, and in a good way. But there were telltale signs. He was cheerful –well, not excessively so, but he actually smiled sometimes- and more laid-back. He no longer fought with Nudge or Angel.

He was acting happier than he ever had, happier than he ever was around his family, and most of the older servants knew him too well than to believe anything else than the fact that he must have had a girlfriend. Slowly, they started to gossip, first between closed doors and then whispering to each other when they saw Fang.

He didn't notice, of course. The older servants called it the "honeymoon phase", in which the person in question is in love and therefore oblivious to anything and everything around him. He was easily distracted, and didn't hear their gossip. But letting his guard down was only his first mistake.

By the end of the third week after Fang and Max's little attic encounter, the place was absolutely buzzing with the gossip. But there were certain people who didn't hear the gossip. Specifically, the pretty young girls. There were at least five of them that could be considered 'suspects' and therefore weren't let in on any of it. Unfortunately, Max seemed to be one of those girls.

They were running out of time. As much as they could pretend, or convince themselves that they weren't going to be found out, it was already happening. There was going to be a time when the secret would have to come out. But the secret would be safe.

For now.

There she was, ditching lunch again. Sooner or later, someone was bound to notice that she hardly ever ate lunch anymore, always running away. She couldn't keep sneaking off just to spend some extra time with Fang, but she couldn't stop herself. They both knew it couldn't last much longer, but they'd deal with that some other time.

She'd just barely managed to escape. The other maids were always curious as to why she took her "work" so much more seriously than even her lunch, always skipping out because she "forgot to finish something", or another excuse to that effect. In a matter of three seconds, she was upstairs and pulled into Fang's closet, should someone happen to walk in.

To be fair, Fang's closet wasn't exactly small. Max had no idea why he needed such a big closet, considering that he was only a boy, and an emo boy at that. The rows and rows of hooks, hangars and shelves that most girls would die to fill with clothes were instead filled with black T-shirts, each looking the same as the next –well at least to her, anyway- and black skinny jeans. She doubted he owned a second pair of shoes.

He flicked the light switch on and gave her a look. "You can't keep skipping lunch and starving yourself just to see me." He rolled his eyes tiredly. "I know I'm irresistible, but I'm sure you can find something better to do than coming up here all the time." He was rewarded with a slap.

"Fang…" she paced around the closet helplessly, as she often did when she was stressed out. It was like she was trying to come up with a plan. "Fang, this just sucks," she stomped her foot like a child, and he almost laughed. Almost. "How so?" he replied, struggling to keep a straight face.

"You know how so!" she almost screeched, then clamped her hands over her mouth, suddenly remembering that they had to be quiet. "We can hardly ever get out of this house and go on a real date since your mom owns you, and so these are the only times we can be together! And we're going to get caught!"

"My mom does not own me," he grumbled.

"Oh, yes she does! You can't go anywhere because she has you locked up here, and you're too much of a momma's boy to do anything about it or stand up to her! So she practically owns you like a dog!" She glared at him pointedly.

He looked her in the eye. "Oh, I'm really sorry my mom is a controlling bitch. I really am. But I'm only seventeen, and to have any freedom, I'll have to wait a year and then get kicked out on my ass. And I can't stand up to her legally yet because of the law."

"That's not what I'm talking about and you know it," she seethed. "You can't even tell her the way you feel because you're so afraid of her and her disapproval." She didn't say any more, although she wanted to. She wanted to tell him that it wasn't fair, and that maybe he should just man up.

Suddenly, she felt like she was in way over her head, and that she liked him way too much for her own good. And if Iggy was right, she didn't know what she'd do. But she also knew that she couldn't blame for this. She had to blame someone, though, and he was the only one in the room.

"Do you want to talk about something? I'm sorry that I can't just walk up to my mom, tell her the truth and get you fired, and for no reason. Look, I'm frustrated, too, alright? Just give me a second to figure this out."

"It's gonna take more than a second," she growled under her breath. He ignored her.

She slumped against the wall, a good day turning into a troubling mess just like that. He noticed. "Come here," he said quietly, and pulled her closer. She reluctantly leaned into the hug, but she couldn't help but stay worried. Neither could he. But they were trapped in the spider web of his life.

Nudge walked into the gas station again, just as she had done every day for the past few weeks. As soon as she was inside, she took off the hood and removed the sunglasses, freeing her hair and eyes from the general disguise that was just a precaution, should her mother happen to drive by in the limousine.

Every day for the last three weeks, she'd go hang out with Iggy around noon, when the house was busy preparing her mother's meal and when everyone was distracted. She'd sneak out of her window and out to see Iggy. Neither one had forgotten about the kiss, but neither one of them had mentioned it.

"Sneak out of your window again?" Iggy asked, knowing it was her. She came in every day around this time, when it was slow. She gave him a nod, knowing that he couldn't see that either, but that he would catch it just the same. "It sure is quiet in here without Brigid. I mean, I know it's been three weeks, but seriously."

"I know. I decided I wouldn't get any more help at the risk of it being another freak. So now I'm working on my own. It's harder, but the owner said that if I was working harder, I'd get a raise." She nodded.

"Saving up to buy a new car?" she asked. Most guys had jobs like this to get selfish things. Iggy probably would have been too, if his family wasn't so poor. But as soon as she said it, she covered her mouth with her hand. "Oh, God, bad question," she chuckled, taking in his blindness.

"More like a new cell phone," he grinned. "I'd like to start small. I know what you're thinking, by the way. It is that bad. I'm just lucky you guys hired Max. She's working for all the food and supplies and bills and I'm still trying to put money away for college."

"You're going to college?" Nudge put her purse down and walked over to get a donut. "Anything specific you want to be? Hey, I'm taking this donut, by the way," she added as she grabbed one with chocolate sprinkles. "How much do I owe you?"

"Oh, just take it. Anyway, I thought about being a doctor, like my dad. I'm sort of a year late, 'cause I don't have the money, but medical school is way too expensive, so being a teacher might be possible." She smiled slightly at the thought of Iggy the teacher.

"Well, what about you? Do you have any goals, any dreams?" She could think of a few, none of which were possible. So she shook her head.

"No. When I get older, I'll still be stuck. I won't go to college because I won't need to, and I'll get one third of the money when my mom dies. I'll marry some other rich guy, and be a housewife for the rest of my life."

He smiled wryly. "Well, that sounds boring. Look, your life doesn't have to be like that. In two years, you're an adult. Remember that. She doesn't own you in two years. You can do whatever you want with your life, not what she tells you. You're too smart to be what she tells you."

Nudge gaped. "I…I have to! If I don't, she'll disown me, and I'll be all alone on the streets."

"So?" he asked. "So you'll be alone, big deal. Isn't that what you wanted, for her to leave you alone? You can do anything you want to when you're finally free from her. So why are you afraid?"

"I'm not afraid!" she protested.

"Yes, you are. You're afraid of things being different than they are now, even though you hate your life. Because when you leave, for the first time in your life, you'll be on your own. And even though you want it, it scares you to death, because no one's gonna be there to catch you if you fall."

"What's wrong with that?" she stood up and walked to the counter, looking him straight in his blind eyes. "What's wrong with wanting someone to be there? Alright, yes! Yes, I am scared, because I won't have any money, any options, or anyone to be with! And I'm sick and tired of my life being controlled for me, but I'm afraid!"

"Did you ever stop to think that people would be there for you?" he asked quietly.

"Like who?" She was furious. Who did he think he was, trying to tell her how to live her life and who to be and pretending to know anything about her life, when he wasn't the one stuck inside it? She wanted to kill him.

"Like me," he said, and all the fury went away. And heck, did she want to kiss him. But she never got the chance. Right at that moment, the door flew open, and a gun was pointed at the both of them. Nudge screamed and threw her hands up, not wanting to be shot. Iggy had no idea what the heck was going on.

He leaned forward, thinking Nudge was still there, leaned too far and smacked his head into the counter. Nudge smirked wryly. How does it feel when it's you getting rejected? It was then that the gun was pointed at Iggy.

The guy was tall, even taller than Iggy, and Iggy was at least six foot four. He was wearing a hood and sunglasses, unlike the cliché ski masks that most of them wore. And the gun was real, pointing straight at Iggy. "Open the cash register and give me the money." Iggy remembered the day that he was shot because he laughed. So he hesitantly opened the cash register.

"Give me the money!" Nudge had crawled away and was watching the scene from another aisle. She had to do something. If Iggy was robbed again, he'd be fired, because this would prove that a blind guy wasn't able to guard a gas station. She scrambled around with the cereal boxes, poptarts, and crackers, none of which she could throw.

She fell to her knees when she heard the gunshot and fell to the floor. When she looked up, Iggy was on the ground, and she was alone in the room with the robber.

Max was walking down the stairs after the lunch break had passed, just coming from Fang's room, when she noticed a large crowd gathered in the front hall. And one thing she had learned from working in the house was that large crowds could never be good news, because Fang's mother didn't approve of anything.

The first thing she noticed about the crowd was that it was only made up of the young to thirty-year-old girls, who all seemed to be interested in the two girls in the center. She slowly crept down the staircase and to the back of the crowd as silently as possible. No one seemed to notice.

Their eyes were all focused on the two in the center. Max recognized them vaguely. The first girl was Brittany Harris, one of the richest servants and a know-it-all that always showed up late and who Max knew for a fact had a crush on Fang. She seemed to be cornering a shy girl, Jessica Simon, who looked frightened and shocked.

Max didn't know about the rumors that had been circulating about Jessica. The maids in the laundry room had spread their opinions around so that everyone was led to believe that Jessica was seeing Fang. She had a pretty face, and that was all they saw. They didn't see the girl who was too shy to speak to anyone she didn't know, the girl who still wore glasses instead of contacts.

Brittany had that smirk on her face that Max normally wanted to punch off of it, the smirk that advertised the fact that she was almost as rich as Fang, and she knew it, the smirk that reminded them all that she only worked there because she was convinced that Fang would one day fall in love with her.

Jessica flinched away as Brittany turned around to face her. "You've been a bad little girl, Jessica. Going against the boss's orders and seeing Fang. Dating the employees isn't allowed here. But of course, it's not his fault that you were a little whore." And she slapped Jessica straight across the face, sending her spiraling into the wall behind her.

She hit the wall and fell to the floor, her glasses falling off her face soundlessly. Brittany's high-heeled shoe crushed it firmly, cracking the lens and rendering it useless. She was still wearing the cruel smirk to go along with the jagged, pointed shoes. "I'm not-" Jessica protested, but she was silenced.

"Shut up!" Brittany interrupted her. "People like you make me sick! Throwing yourselves when you have any right to him, especially when, if anyone was to deserve him, it would be me! I'm the one who's rich enough, pretty enough and good enough for him."

"I'm not dating him!" Jessica finally found her voice, but it was barely more than a squeak. She looked petrified with fear, although Brittany couldn't really hurt her. But the red mark on her cheek said otherwise. She pushed Brittany's foot away from her glasses, looking at them hopelessly.

"What are you, gay?" Brittany smirked, snatching the glasses and snapping them in half. "Oh, I guess that's what it is. You're a little lesbian, so you're not good enough for Fang." She grinned sadistically, and she was rewarded with a chorus of laughter from the other maids. Max laughed to blend in. But it killed her to laugh.

Suddenly, they heard footsteps down the stairs, and it was Anne Walker before them. Brittany stepped back into her place in the circle as Anne's eyes raked over the scene. "What's going on here?" she asked sharply. "You all have work to do, I'm sure."

"It's her, Mrs. Walker!" Brittany spoke up, pointing to Jessica on the floor. "She's dating Fang, we all know it. She's been lying this entire time." Anne's eyes flared, and Jessica looked hopelessly through the broken glasses that she had tried desperately to fix. But she had to hold the lenses up to her eyes to see.

"Miss Simon, this is very serious," Anne said sharply. "No one in this house is dating an employee. I thought I made that quite clear." Jessica just looked down. Come on! Speak up and tell her the truth! Max thought desperately, but she didn't make a sound. "I'm afraid the punishment for this is great. You are fired, Jessica. I didn't expect this from you."

"That's because she's a lesbian," Brittany hissed, and Max felt the urge to strangle the idiot of a girl. This made the rest of the servants chuckle quietly as Anne walked back upstairs. "Now, get back to work!" she said from the top of the stairs, and everyone scurried away.

Max stared down at Jessica on the floor as Anne walked away. This is my fault. I'm getting people fired just for seeing Fang. This isn't right. I should turn myself in and tell them that Jessica is innocent. But she remembered Iggy and his education, and her father and how he would be disappointed in her. So she bit her lip and walked away, trying to ignore Jessica's sobs.

This is so wrong.

Nudge crouched on the other side of the aisle, knowing that the robber would try to take care of her next before going after the money. Honestly, how stupid could you be? He probably thought he already killed Iggy, too. She peeked her head around the corner, which was her first mistake. He saw her, and aimed the gun at her head.

She just barely missed the bullet that whizzed past her face as she snapped her head around and crawled away. She heard the footsteps as he walked toward her, and she just made it to aisle two before another bullet was shot at her. She cursed at herself. She needed a plan.

Rummaging in her purse, she discovered that she had a can of pepper spray and really nothing else. She clutched the can firmly in her hand, and ran around to his opposite side, hoping to sneak up on him. He saw her coming, and caught her in a choke hold so that his arm was around her neck and her back was to him. In a matter of seconds, she found herself choking.

She growled. She wasn't going to let some freak come in her and kill her, or even rob Iggy. She stepped on his foot –hard. He shouted out and struck her, but she only elbowed him in the stomach. He hunched over, letting go of her with one arm. Her arm snaked up and spayed him in the eyes with the pepper spray, the back of her foot connecting with his shin.

He fell back and hit the wall, and her left fist came up to smash into his nose. He groaned in pain and she realized she had broken it. Nevertheless, she felt no guilt as she grabbed his arm and flipped him over her shoulder, slamming on to the ground. He passed out, and the only sound in the place was her breathing.

"Mess with me, bitch," she growled, flipping open her cell phone. "Hello, 911? Some asshole just tried to rob the gas station on 13th and West Street. I think you might want to get over here. Oh, and he'll need an ambulance."

Fang found Max in the garden, watering a plant glumly. Sometimes turning invisible had its advantages, and he had seen the entire situation with Jessica. He felt terrible about not doing anything to stop it, but her family was upper-middle class, so they'd likely be fine. Max seemed much more depressed about it, though.

"She'll be fine, you know," he said casually as he appeared behind her. He was still amused that she thought that it was just his emo boy image instead of the fact that he really had special powers. But really, what was she supposed to think? That he was bitten by a radioactive spider?

"That's not the point," she answered. He went and sat farther away, so that no one thought he was actually talking to her. They were out in the open, after all. "I cost someone their job just because I wanted to be involved with you. That's selfish and wrong, and what if it happens again? I'd sooner it just be me."

"Max, you can't!" He tried to keep the desperation out of his voice. "I know it's hard, but you can't leave!" He hated how pleading he sounded. "Look, if it's me, I can change. And I'll tell my mom someday. But I just can't right now. I know I can be pushy and rude and a spoiled rich brat, but I'll try to be better, whatever you want me to be-"

"Stop. This isn't because of you. I lo-like you too much to leave." She blushed furiously at her little slip-up, although it hadn't been the first time, certainly. "The point is, I'm staying, alright?" She suddenly realized that she was face-to-face with him. And without warning, kissed her lips tenderly.

She knew she shouldn't, that the other girls were right inside and could look out the window at any time. But her arms went around his neck and pulled him closer, because he was just so irresistible. It always felt like their first kiss.

A loud cough behind them interrupted them, and they sprang apart. But it wasn't who they were expecting it to be, and Fang didn't even know who it was. "Sam?" Max asked, bewildered and highly embarrassed. The last thing she needed was for her ex to see her kissing some other guy.

"Look, can we talk?" he asked, and Max followed him a few feet away from Fang. She didn't notice him turn invisible and follow them. "Look, Max, I'm sorry for anything JJ told you. It never happened between us."

He was exactly the same as when she had last seen him. He was an inch or two shorter than Fang, with lightly tanned skin and soft brown hair. He had the most welcoming eyes and smile, and more muscles than Fang. Why am I comparing them? Fang is my boyfriend! It's over between Sam and me! Still, she couldn't help but be drawn to him.

They had really been serious when she had broken up with him, she thought sadly.

"Max," he grabbed her hands. "You know that we broke up because you left. I don't know who that guy is or how well you know him, but my family just moved her, so I could be with you." She gaped. "I guess what I'm trying to stay is…I want you back, Max. I love you, and I want you to choose me."

Once again, I apologize if I made any 1st/3rd person errors, or if the line breaks weren't in the right places. These just don't work with my computer very well, sorry! I'm also very sorry to say that I will still update as often as I can, but it will be a little less, I have a very busy schedule. I tried to update this one ASAP, but I was in lake tahoe and then at my dad's for a week, so.

The pairing for my next story has been decided: Fang and Ella. Don't knock it til you try it, just give it a shot. If you voted, thanks. If you didn't, you suck. xD Just kidding.

Sam's here...what about Dylan and Lissa? Oh, they'll be here soon enough. Read and review if you hate me! xD If you love me...still review, haha. Plus, you already read it, so ya know...you're half done.

~Rachel