Spy Games

Chapter 5

"What are you doing?"

Fang frowned as the Gasman began following him down the beach. "Trading things."

"For what?"

"Candles."

"Are we holding a séance?"

"No."

"Oh. Are we gonna tell ghost stories?"

"No."

"Are we-"

"We're not doing anything, Gasman."

"Then what are you gonna do with candles?"

"Max and I are going to have a romantic night alone together."

"Ew."

He gave the little boy a look. "I just need to get some blankets now."

"You can use the one that we have in our hut."

"I already got that one. I need another."

"Why do you need two?"

"This is special, Gasman. Max can't be lying on the ground."

He frowned. "Ew, are you guys…ew. That's… Why did you tell me, Fang?"

The older teen felt his face heat up some. He didn't blush of course because, duh, he's Fang, but he did get inwardly embarrassed. He hadn't meant to tip the other boy off so much. It just kinda all came out at once.

"Go away," Fang said then, shifted the candles in his arms. "Or better yet, take these up to Max and my cliff. Leave them there and then go away and stay away. Got it?"

"Why should I?"

"'cause I freaking said so."

That was enough for the younger boy. Taking the candles from him, he said, "You can keep that blanket, by the way. Iggy and I don't want it back."

Rolling his eyes, Fang patted the boy on the head before sending him off. Now all Fang needed was another blanket, some matches, and deodorant. And some cologne if he could find some. Oh, and tooth paste.

This would have to be perfect, after all. Max would want it that way.

"Maybe a nice dress shirt too," Fang mumbled to himself. Running a hand down his chest, he debated whether that dress shirt should be buttoned up or not. He didn't want to be too suggestive, after all. Besides, in all those pornos he used to watch, undressing was part of the fun.

And this would be a lot of fun.

"So since we've already decided that Fang's cheating on you, let's talk about the reasons why he might and how you can fix it."

I frowned at Nudge. "If he is cheating on me, I don't want to fix it. It's over."

"Girl power!" Ella held up her hand. I just stared for a moment before she spoke. "Uh, high-five, Max."

"Yeah, no."

"Oh, whatever, Max," Nudge began again as Ella lowered her hand dejectedly. "You took the boy back when he freaking left you. Multiple times. Even when you had the unbelievably hot Dylan."

"Since when is Dylan-"

"Focus Max!"

"Besides," Ella added on. "He's rocking a smoking hot goatee."

"I know," Nude said. "And he can fish."

"And-"

"I thought we were talking about Fang?" I asked, frowning.

"Oh yeah, him."

I gave Nudge a look. "Fang is very hot too. Unbelievably so."

"The only thing that's unbelievable is that you waste your time on him."

"Coming from the girl that's with Iggy? Iggy?" I rolled my eyes. "Your guy radar is totally off whack anyways."

"You little b-"

"Stop it. This is about Fang's cheating, not you two's catty behavior." Nudge rolled her eyes. "So anyways, Max, when's the last time you and Fang went on a date?"

"A date?"

"Yeah, a date."

"Um…last time we left the island, I guess."

"What?"

I shrugged slightly. "What do you think we can we do on an island? We hangout if that's what you mean."

"No, that is not what I mean." Nudge looked at Ella. "Can you believe her?"

"Max, sometimes Iggy makes me, just me, dinner and we go eat alone."

"Fang and I eat on our own sometimes. I guess. Or whatever."

"What kind of date did the two of you have off the island anyways?" Ella asked.

"When we went to Europe the last time, Fang and I went out alone and ate at this rundown restaurant."

"They have restaurants?" Ella asked.

"In some parts of the world, they already have power and stuff," Nudge told her. Ella had never left the island and I think she was a little jealous of that fact. "Not a lot, but some. It's nice. We've stayed in some hotels with, like, running water too. Not all the time."

"What did you guys do after you went out to eat?" Ella asked me.

"We walked around, held hands. Then we went flying. Fell asleep on the roof of some abandoned building. Got in trouble for not getting back to the hotel by Mom. But really, that's not fair of her to-"

"What did you guys do on the roof before you fell asleep?" Nudge prodded.

"Uh, talked?"

"Max," Ella complained. "She means, like, did you kiss?"

"Well, yeah. We kiss all the time."

"Did you, like, kiss for real? Make out or whatever?"

"Yes," I said with a blush. "We make out. We did that night."

"Did you snuggle?"

"Nudge-"

"I bet Fang's a snuggler," Ella said with an affirmative nod towards the younger girl.

"What are your pet names for each other?"

"Knock it off," I told them.

"Max, you have to be completely honest with us," Nudge told me. "It's the only way to discover the problem."

I couldn't do this.

"Max, it's just between us," Ella assured me. "Girl talk."

Taking a deep breath, I let it out slowly before saying, "Sometimes I call him Raven or my falcon or something like that. Hawk. Stuff like that."

Nudge and Ella just stared at me. Then, slowly, Nudge asked, "You call him bird names?"

"Well, yeah."

"And that makes the two of you…hot?" Ella asked.

"Well-"

"What does he call you?"

"Nudge-"

"Tell us, Max," she insisted. "Come on."

"He doesn't call me anything."

"Really? He doesn't have any kind of pet name for you? The girl that he's known his whole life?"

I sighed loudly. "He doesn't call me names. He just likes to tell me how much he loves me and how he'd die without me and how I'm his whole world and that he'd slit his own wrists if I broke up with him. Stuff like that."

Again I got stares.

"I swear, the two of you are psychotic," Nudge said, shaking her head.

"I don't even think we should help the two of you stay together."

I gave my sister a look. "This isn't about our relationship though. This is about whether or not Fang's cheating on me."

"Right." Nudge nodded slightly. "And to determine that, we first must decide why he would cheat."

"How do we do that?"

"Well, we can start with the most basic concept."

"Which is?"

Ella and Nudge both looked at each other before my half-sister spoke.

"How much…loving do you give Fang?"

"Loving?"

"You know."

"No."

"Max."

"What?"

"Don't make me say it."

"Say what?"

"Max."

"What are you-"

"How much sex are you having?" Nudge finally asked in her blunt way.

"Nudge!"

"Well, you were just beating around the bush," she defended to Ella before looking back t me. "Well?"

I just gapped at her for a moment before speaking. "I swear, Nudge, if I had some soap right now, I would wash out your m-"

"So none," Ella said flatly.

"This is a very private matter-"

"None," Nudge agreed, shaking her head slightly. "Max, you have, like, one of the hottest guys on the island and you're not even giving him head?"

"Forget the soap. You're grounded. Which one of your friends have been saying words like that? You're in so much trouble, Nudge. You-"

"Okay, maybe Nudge is being a little brash," Ella said, looking around the empty clearing we were sitting in. "But Max, come on. Are you and Fang honestly doing nothing at all?"

"Well, we kiss. Make out. That kind of stuff."

"You've never…gone further? Ever? Or even fooled around?"

The red in my cheeks turned an even darker red.

"I let him, like, grind against me once, but-"

"Did he cum?"

"Nudge!"

"Well, excuse me for trying to save your relationship, Max." She rolled her eyes heavily. "I mean, God, Max, how can you not be having sex with him? What are you waiting for? You guys have been together since you were born, practically. It's not like you're going to get to know him any better or something stupid like that."

"It hasn't come up."

"When he was grinding against you, you never thought that maybe he was trying to get you to take off your pants?"

"Ella."

"What, Max? I'm trying to help."

"Not every guy is a horny pig."

They both looked at each other before Nudge said, "Yeah, they kind of are."

"God, Max, you don't think Fang doesn't want to have sex, do you?"

"I know he does," I said, frowning. "I just don't think it's that big of a deal in our relationship. I mean, we have fun without it."

"Max, if he's not getting it from you, he's getting it from somebody."

"Nudge, that's-"

"True," Ella told me. "If he's not getting it at home, he's likely to roam."

"Did you just make that up?" Nudge smiled at my sister. "That one's good."

"It just came to me. I mean, I'm always good with rhyming. Like once in grade school, I got to read my poem to the whole school at an assembly."

"Really? What was it about?"

"About how I-"

"Would you two idiots shut up?" I frowned at them. "My God."

"For someone that came to us for help, you sure are-"

"I didn't come to you two," I told Nudge. "You idiots came to me."

"Stop calling us idiots," Ella said. "You're the one that was dumb enough to not have sex with your boyfriend. Whose fault is that?"

Jumping up, I immediately headed off before taking to the sky. They're the dumbest people I have ever met. I swear.

"Hi, Fang."

He frowned, but continued to do his pushups. Angel just landed on the cliff, looking around for a moment before approaching him.

"What are you doing with all these candles? And how come you stink?"

"I don't stink, Angel. This is cologne."

"What's that?"

"It's a manly perfume." He finally stopped working out, moving to stand.

"Why are you shirtless?"

"I didn't want to get my shirt sweaty."

"Why are you working out? And what's with the pillow? Where'd you get it?"

"I had to trade a lot for it," Fang said. "That and the blankets."

"But why?"

"Uh…" He frowned, trying to figure out a plausible excuse for the little mind reader. "Max and I get uncomfortable up here, you know. On the cold, hard ground."

"Oh." Angel bounced slightly. "So what are the candles for?"

"Just 'cause we like the smell."

"Like with your cologne?"

"Exactly."

"Why are you working out then?"

"'cause, Angel, I need to stay at peak physical condition."

Giggling, she went and got him his shirt when he pointed to it. "Where'd you get a button up shirt?"

"Trade for the too."

"Are you and Max going out on a date tonight?"

"Sort of," he said, nodding his head.

"That's nice."

"Mmmhmm."

"So you don't wanna eat dinner with me?"

"Not tonight, Angel," he said, buttoning up his shirt. "Maybe tomorrow, huh?"

"Can we eat breakfast together?"

"No," he said, shaking his head. "Max and I will probably be sleeping in tomorrow morning."

"Oh."

"Yeah, and we'd really appreciate it if you didn't bother us tonight."

She frowned, now suspicious. "How come?"

"Because Max and I want to spend the maximum amount of alone time as possible."

"Is today your anniversary or something?"

"Is it?"

"I don't know. I was asking you."

Could that be why Max was so mad at him?

"Hey, Angel?"

"What?" She had gone over to one of the lit candles and was smelling it, giggling slightly.

"Has Max mentioned to you why she was so upset?" He went over to the little girl and stared down at her. "She wouldn't sleep up here with me last night. Is something wrong?"

"I dunno. I thought she just wanted to sleep with me." Angel giggled. "We cuddled last night. It was cold."

"I know," he said with a slight frown. "I was up here all alone."

"You could have come snuggled too, Fang."

He just patted her on the head. "You sure you have no idea, Angel? She just suddenly got upset with me over nothing."

"Oh." Angel looked off for a moment. "I want to smell this candle. What do you think it-"

"Angel," Fang said slowly, staring at her hard now. "What did you do?"

"Look, Fang." She rushed over to an orange candle. "It smells like a pumpkin! Like Halloween. Remember when-"

"Angel, look at me."

"Fang-"

"What did you tell Max?"

She just stood there, holding the orange candle. "Will you yell at me?"

"Angel-"

"I don't want you to be mad at me is all."

"What did you do?"

"You were really mean to me, Fang. You sent me away when those girls showed up and that wasn't nice." She sat the candle down, glaring at him now. "I thought we were playing, but then you just-"

"What did you tell her, Angel?"

She looked at the ground. "That you were hanging out alone with two girls."

"What?"

"And that you made me leave."

"Angel, how could you-"

"You did, Fang! You did that. You were mean to me. And I was being so nice to you because you hurt your back." She turned her glare back on him. "And now you're up here doing pushups? I thought you were hurt? You're a liar. You're a mean-"

"Knock it off. Now."

"No! You-"

"I took some pills from Max's mother finally and they helped my back pain," he told her. "So don't call me a liar."

"But-"

"You were very bad, Angel," Fang told her. "Telling on me like that. I thought we were buddies."

"We are, but-"

"You don't go tattle on your buddies, do you?"

"No, but-"

"If you thought I was wrong, you should have come to me, not Max. That's almost like going behind my back." He shook his head. "I'm very disappointed in you."

"I'm sorry."

He just shook his head. "I accept that, Angel, but you still screwed things up between Max and I. Do you get that? And why?"

"Because I thought Max should-"

"No. You were jealous. Admit it."

"Well…yeah."

"Alright. Come here."

She quickly moved to hug the teen. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

"Do you think I should-"

"I think you should go find Iggy, have him give you dinner, and then go to bed."

"But-"

"I'll see you in the morning, alright?"

"Okay," she mumbled, releasing him. "Goodbye, Fang."

"Goodbye and goodnight."

After Angel was gone, Fang went and sat down on the edge of the cliff, kicking his feet over the edge.

What was he going to do now? Huh? He didn't like to think that Max would really believe he'd cheat on her, but what else could the problem be?

…And more importantly, did that mean he wouldn't be scoring later that night?

Thanks to anyone who reviewed about the Island Time stuff. Life savers, I swear.