Our Broken Days

Chapter 6

I woke up on the couch sitting up, Fang's upside down. The memories from last night flooded my brain. I got up and stretched, and bent my neck to the side until I heard a pop. Jeez, my back hurts, Note to self: never sleep on the couch again. I bent down and shook Fang awake, he opened his eyes, and I started laughing.

"What's so funny?" he asked groggily.

"You're upside down." I say between chuckles.

"Wah?" he craned his neck to see below him, which was impossible because his head is on the floor, his neck and the small of his back at some awkward angle and his legs and feet pointing upwards on the back of the couch. Then he saw the ridiculous position he was in. "Oh crap" he said, then swung his legs over the couch and stood up. Then collapsed. I looked at him with alert, trying to see if he's hurt. He got on his hands and knees and looked at me, smiling. "My legs fell asleep" he said laughing. I relaxed and helped him sit on the couch to get the feeling back into his legs. Once he could stand again we got up, and did our usual morning routine, shower, brush hair and teeth and dress. I dressed in a green tank top and black sweat pants that I cut into shorts halfway up my thighs, Fang in a purple v – neck t – shirt and black jeans. It's all dark colors with this guy, what's up with that? Anyway we sat down at the table in the middle of the kitchen, the records staring us in the face. We looked up at each other

"How about after breakfast, I'm hungry" I offered.

"Alright" Fang said with a face that resembles a child that just got denied a toy. Makes me laugh. He got to the kitchen and started making pancakes, as usual. I sat down, restraining myself from ripping open those files. I probably have a different name; do I even want a different name? Fang too, probably has a different name. What if my name is something dorky? Or what if I don't have a last name? What if I don't have a family? Well I want a family, a brother or sister, and a mom and a dad, grandparents and cousins. What if Fang doesn't have a family? What would he do? Would he cry? I know I would. Would he just shrug it off and be okay with it? I wouldn't be okay. I mean I've spent twelve years of my life in a horrible lab being tested, operated on, injected with stuff, exhausted, starved, nearly dehydrated, injured, broken, depressed and lashed with a freaking whip; trying so hard to escape and find some kind of records of us since that day I found the file in that room, and only to find out that I have no one that I belong to (well except Fang, of course). No one to call mom or dad, that's just cruel… too cruel.

Fang interrupted my thoughts by flopping a steamy pancake onto my plate. He sat down and poured syrup onto his pancake and passing it to me. I drenched my cake with it.

"Jesus, you want some pancake with that syrup?" he asked

"Shut up, Fang." I snapped

"Whoa, somebody's in a bad mood today"

I glared at him

He rose his hands in mock surrender "So-rry, here, you just need a hug" he gets up and gives me a sideways hug; I slowly rise and hug him back. We stay there for a long time, wrapped in each other's arms, it feels like we're in a little bubble, like the universe just stops, I can feel the energy buzzing and fizzing around us. Then just like that something clicked in my mind, it all makes sense. Everything is so much clearer. But I can't tell him now.

"Fang, I'm scared."

"Me too, I've been thinking what if I don't have a family? What would I do?"

"Exactly my thoughts" I said with a little nervous laugh into his chest. I turned my ear to his chest, listening to his even heartbeat. It soothes me.

"Max, you're shaking, look, if you don't want to open the files – "

"No. I want to open them. It's just that, if I want to go live with my parents, then I have to leave you, I don't want to leave you, Fang. I lo…let's go open them." I separate from him and grab the files on the table. Then all of a sudden we are shrouded in darkness.

The lights went out.

Lovely.

I looked outside through the window. The big black line running from our house to a big wooden post off in the distance; has broken in two. I looked down and an electrocuted squirrel is on the ground.

"Seriously?' I yell at the celling. "A squirrel, in this part of Arizona?" I sigh and drop my head into my hand, rub my face and pick up my head. "Do we have any flashlights or candles around here?"

"I don't think we have a flashlight but I do think that we have a couple of candles lying around somewhere" said Fang.

"Okay, you look for candles and I look for some matches or a lighter or something"

So we disperse and search around the house. I start in the kitchen, rummaging around in the drawers for something to light the candles with. Fang's digging around in the closet for candles. And let me tell you, it is not fun looking for stuff in complete darkness. I have hit my hip on the corner of the kitchen island at least five times, hit my head on the cabinets, and tripped twice. I finally got my bearings as I rose from the floor from my third time sending my face down to meet it. I open one drawer and find a box of matches in it. A little blue thing with a swimming mermaid on it, Mermaid's Fire it said. That's weird. I mean, first of all, mermaids don't exist; second of all, mermaids live under water, so how are you supposed to make a fire under water.

Oh. My. God.

I'm going insane.

Here I am, standing in the kitchen, judging a matchbox. Judging a matchbox. I mean who does that? A crazy person, that's who, only someone completely insane would be doing this.

"I'm going crazy" I say, rubbing my face. "I'm going insane, that's it. I officially declare myself insane. Or maybe it's all the stress that I'm going through right now."

I pause for a minute

"And now I'm talking to myself."

"You say something, Max?" I hear Fang ask, his voice far away and muffled from his head being in the closet.

"No, hey I found a match box, you got some candles?"

"Yeah I found like ten in here."

So we met up in my room, there are no windows in my room, for some reason. I thought that was stupid. We lit all the candles in a semi-circle, me and Fang leaning up against my bed, the files laid out in front of us. The flames like fat orange apples dancing in the breeze from the vent in the celling. And the big candles in dense jars, all multicolored, sitting and burning away.

Fang takes a deep breath and looks at me, the flames highlighting the peaks in his face, making his features sharp and pointed. God, he looks so….so…. I don't know how to say it. He looks beautiful, but with the flames; all distorted.

So strange.

That's it.

Strange.

Strangely beautiful.

Freakishly beautiful.

The kind of beautiful that you just can't explain.

But beautiful all the same.

"You ready?" he asks, awakening me from my thoughts.

I take a deep breath, "As I'll ever be"

We take the edge of the folder and flip it over at the same time. In the folder is one of those orange—ey envelopes.

It was labeled 'Subject Birth Records'.

We looked at each other with wide eyes. I reached for mine with a visibly shaking hand, my heart pounding so hard it makes my chest ache. Then I stop, my fingers just brushing the envelope in the semi darkness.

"I can't do it." I admit.

"Okay, how about this…" Fang offers, "I open yours and you open mine?"

I nod and he hands his envelope to me his hand shaking too, even though he seems so calm. I fold up the little metal flats and open the flap, Fang does too. I pull out a thick piece of stationary.

His birth certificate.

I slide it out and read his name.

His real name.

I smiled.

"What? What is it?" Fang asks me with wide eyes and baited breath. I look up at him slowly.

"Ethan Benjamin Luna"

He lets out a breath.

"Really? He asks. I hand it to him and he reads the name, slowly mouthing it. "I like it" he says.

"Me too, Ethan" I chuckle and poke him in the ribs.

"Hey, no making fun or else I don't read you name"

"Sorry." I quickly apologize. Than he reaches for my envelope, then I suddenly tense up. I get all nervous and my heart starts to pound again. He slides out the certificate and lets out a poof – of – air laugh.

"What, what is it? Let me see." I said. I feel all panicky inside. He turns to me slowly, and my nervousness melts as those dark eyes look at me.

"Lena Charlotte Bell"

"What?" I said smiling. He hands me the paper. "Lena Charlotte Bell, born of George and Brooke Bell, on February 11th, 1998. What's your birthday, and who are your parents?" I ask.

"May 15th 1998. Ha! I knew I was older than you!"

"Yeah, by like two months. And your parents?"

"David and Jenifer Luna"

"Fang?" I ask

"Yeah?" he answers, tearing his gaze from his birth certificate.

"We have parents" I say

"Yeah, we do" he says. Than we just sit there, staring at each other. This went on for a long time. Then I decided to tell him that thing I found out before. I look down at my hands, take a deep breath and look up again.

"Fa-"

"Max" he says, cutting me off.

"Yeah?"

"I have something to tell you" I feel….. I feel…. Well I don't know how I feel right now, I can't even describe how I feel right now, and my thoughts are too jumbled up right now to think.

"Max…. I really have no idea how to say this right now, so I'm just going to say it." He drew his face up close to mine and pulled me onto his lap so our stomachs are touching. "Maximum Ride…. or Lena Bell" he says, he's so used to calling me Max that he forgot that I had another name. He takes a deep breath.

"I love you"

I smiled

"You took the words right out of my mouth" then I leaned forward and sent out lips crashing together. I pulled away. "You know what? Just call me Max" I say

"You can keep calling me Fang, if you want" he says

"I think I'll stick with Fang." Then I kissed him again, the candles softly glowing, creating strange shadows around us. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he wrapped his arms around my waist. I ran my hands down his back, feeling his wings tucked into his back. I feet him smile beneath my lips, he started leaning down toward the floor and I followed.

We stay like that for a long time, I have no idea how much time had passed. Now we just lay in my bed, next to each other, both on our sides, facing each other. Fang's playing with my hair, looping strands of my dirty blonde locks between his fingers. We were about to fall asleep, but just before we did Fang – er – Ethan said: "I love you….. Lena Bell"

"I love you too….. Ethan Luna"

Did you like it? I hope you did!

Reviews, comments and PMs please!

- Hugs, PR.