Smiles :-: Chapter Six :-: You Haven't Lost Your Smile
:-: FANG :-:
I sigh, shaking my head as I erase and re-erase the words I had written on the sticky note.
Why won't you smile?
I shake my head again and erase the pencil marks.
Just tell me why you don't smile.
No.
Smiling is good for you, you should do it.
Ah… no.
Suddenly, the inspiration hits me… something a random freshman had doodled on her journal that she had left on the ground last year.
You haven't lost your smile. It's right under your nose. You just forgot it was there. ~Fang
I stare at the messy scrawl on the green sticky note for a moment, debating if I should stick it on the bathroom mirror or not. Maybe she has actually lost her smile. Maybe this is just a waste of time. Maybe she'll never smile. Maybe—
The slamming of the shower door echoes through the house and I shake my head for the third time in the past five minutes. I make up my mind and just stick it to the mirror of the bathroom.
I wonder what today's response will be… I think mutely, logging onto the laptop on my desk.
The screen lights up, revealing my previously opened tabs and my blog. With a sigh, I start a new post.
:-:-:-:-:
What Have I Gotten Myself Into?
Yo, Fang here.
Haven't posted anything in a while because… well… let's just say I'm in a completely different situation than I would have ever thought I'd be in, all because of some damned earthquake.
Remember that girl I vaguely mentioned before? Once or twice maybe? 'Moxie'? Well, her home is my home now, and my real home is crushed to bits and pieces.
So yeah. I'm stuck in a home with a girl who don't smile. Fun times.
She's got something against me too. Something about the room I'm in, that's right beside hers with a connecting bathroom between it… Something about me in general. Normally I wouldn't have cared. I'd just keep living through the summer as I usually would if Dad and I still lived in our own house.
And now I can't.
God dammit, what have I gotten myself into?
You see, somehow I've made it seem that I was going to spend my summer vacation making Moxie smile, and in front of her mom too. And since her parents are letting us stay here while our house is getting rebuilt, it's awfully rude to back out of this.
Pfft, when did I ever have manners?
But really, I don't want to just be a bothersome to them, so it's best if I do help, right? Even if it's the unthinkable.
And to top it all off, I've decided that the only way to get Miss-I-Got-a-Snake-in-my-Boot—yes, I'm guilty of seeing Toy Story—to smile, is to get to know her.
Wish me luck, I guess. I'll need all the luck I can get to convince Moxie to smile.
To think, she accused me of clearing the custard yesterday!—Don't ask.
Until next time.
Fly on,
Fang
:-:-:-:-:
Honestly, I think Max acts as if she's never had a shower every single time she does go to shower. By the time I'm done with my blog post the shower water finally cuts off and minutes later the green sticky note comes sliding back under the crack of the door.
I shut the laptop off and pick the square of paper from off the ground.
I don't know what's under your nose, but under my nose is a mouth. Have a lovely day. ~Max
Sighing, I lean against the bedroom wall.
This is going to be a lot harder than I originally thought.
My laptop pings with a new email in its inbox displaying a new comment submitted:
Good luck.
:-: MAX :-:
Is it weird that it seems like the tone of Fang's writing on his sticky notes has changed since, well, yesterday? That it no longer seems so… demanding?
I shake my head with a scoff. As if. It's not like he's had a change of heart on this entire situation so soon… or ever, for that matter. And it's not like he's ever going to get me to smile.
No one can.
I mean, how can I smile, knowing that it was my entire fault? That I… taken someone else's life… stripped them of their future… ruined everything for him…
Ari.
"Max? Fang?" Mom calls our names from down stairs, her voice slightly muffled from the series of walls and stairs.
"What?" I shout back, as I hear a door open and close nearby and then feet pad down the stairs.
"MAX! COME DOWN HERE NOW!" is her reply. I guess she no longer cares to play the oh-so-wonderful hostess around Fang, otherwise she normally wouldn't have yelled at me from such a distance.
I stop by the bathroom on my way down, checking to see if my face was more neutral than I felt. When I reach the kitchen, I see Mom and Fang sitting at the dining table, both with blank expressions similar to mine.
Slinking down into a chair at the head of the table, I turn towards Mom expectantly.
"You," she begins, looking at me, "and you,"—to Fang—"Need to get out of this house."
Fang is quicker to protest than I am. "Mrs. Marti—Val," he exclaims, his once opaque slate of a face contorting into incredulity and disbelief. "Are you saying to leave this house?"
"Are you kicking me out of my home?" I simultaneously screech.
Mom looks at the two of us, first with a confused gaze, and then one that looked like amusement. "No, no, no, that's not what I meant," she says, rolling her eyes. "I meant like, go outside, do something else rather than mope around the house all day."
"Well, Mrs. Ma—Val—you have a very nice home…" Fang replies, looking at her with a deceivingly charismatic expression. I'm not the only one who disagrees with this!
"Nice try, Fang, but you two should leave the house for a bit. Take Max to the lake or something," Mom chuckles with a smile. The lake?
"Mom. Does Max not have a say in this?" I grumble, stopping when I catch Mom's glare.
She claps her hands together, a bright grin on her face. "Well that settles this!" Mom announces, completely ignoring my complaints. "You both are ready too, so here are the keys to the car, Fang. Why don't you guys head out of here?"
"What about breakfast?" I gripe as my stomach begins to groan.
Fang nudges my shoulder with his own. "She's packed it all already—"
"And lun—"
"It's packed too."
I throw him a nasty look. By the way he's acting I wouldn't be surprised if he actually wanted to go on our… picnic.
"Well, hand over the keys because you aren't driving my car."