I spent this past weekend reading over my entire story, and making a crazy amount of revisions. Since I've started writing this, I haven't actually read through the whole thing from the beginning… and let's just say that I'm very glad I did :P. I actually ended up deleting one my very first chapters. It was too whiny, too faxy (oh my goodness, did I really just say that?), and it was just blah. It took me forever to fix all the names of each chapter, yada yada yada, but it's finally done. Thank goodness.

Well, with that said and done, off we go.

Chapter 20: Out

Things have been… dull lately.

Honestly, that's really the only word I can think of to describe the past few days.

Dull.

I hate it. All this dullness.

I hate how Iggy has slowly retreated inside himself, how he's shutting all of us out. I hate how Angel cries herself to sleep every night. I hate how Fang is even moodier than normal. I hate how Nudge's constant drone of chatter has come to a screeching halt.

But you know what I hate the most?

I hate that I can't say what I hate about what Gazzy is doing right now, because he's not freaking here.

Did that make any sense?

Didn't think so.

Never mind.

. . .

One night, Fang asked me out.

Well, I guess I wouldn't technically call it asking me out. It went more like this:

"Max?"

"Mmphf?"

"We're going out to dinner tonight."

"Right. Whatever."

So what if I'm not the most talented flirt in the world?

. . .

Fang took me to the Jitterbug Café.

Yeah.

Well, if the name doesn't give you enough of a clue as to how that "date" was going to go, I don't know what will. Honestly. The Jitterbug? All I think of when I hear that name is that chunky cell phone with the big number keys, and Bristol Palin on Dancing with the Stars. Which is clearly not what the owners were intending.

It's some dinky little coffee shop downtown, with big red booths and black and white photos on the walls. A record machine stands in one corner, and some girl with pigtails and a gap in her front teeth is begging her mom to let her choose a song.

Our server is a guy with a cool accent that I can't quite place. He's got an earring in one ear, spiky pink hair, and a peace sign shaved into the back of his head. It reminds me of when the Flock got a makeover when we were trying to avoid being captured by the school. Gazzy had wanted to get Bite Me shaved on his head…

The thought makes my eyes feel prickly.

I turn my attention back to the server, who has apparently been asking what I would like for quite awhile now. He's got an annoyed look in his eyes, but I just wave it off.

"Aah… I'll have a Grande Caramel Latte Cappuccino. Actually, make that two. And one of those scones. And two slices of the carrot cake. And maybe some whipped cream, with that cappuccino?"

The guy just shakes his head in disbelief, his eyes wide, but wisely keeps his mouth shut.

Fang orders next.

"A large black coffee. Two blueberry bagels, with cream cheese. A chocolate chunk cookie, and an oatmeal raisin cookie. And… how about a biscotti?"

As the server walks away, I turn to Fang. "Do you even know what a biscotti is?"

He shakes his head, and I laugh.

But suddenly, the mood turns serious.

"Fang… why are we here?"

He just stares at me with those hot, dark eyes, and I momentarily lose my train of thought.

"I mean, what are we playing at? You and I both know this won't work out."

He waits a couple moments before speaking.

"Why won't it, Max? Why won't it work out?"

I stare at my hands folded in my lap. Fang suddenly seems to break out of his reverie.

"Let's just… not talk about this, okay? When I said I was taking you out tonight, I didn't mean it as a date or anything. I just knew we both needed to get away for a bit."

I tried not to be too disappointed at his last statement.

We sat in awkward silence for a few moments. Finally, I spoke again.

"Well, then. What next?"

"Mm?"

"I mean, what are we going to do next? We're wasting time. We should be saving the world, doing research, I don't know…"

"What about going back on the cruise? I know the one we were on is over by now, but I'm sure the kids would really like a real vacation, one that isn't interrupted by spontaneous Eraser attacks."

I couldn't help but notice that he said "kids", not "the Flock". Because "the Flock" implied Gazzy. And Gazzy was a subject that we were both treading carefully around, being mindful not to lose our balance and take the impact of the hard reality.

"I don't know about going back on the cruise. It… I don't know. So much has happened. It would just feel wrong, you know, to go back and pretend everything is normal."

He nodded, but I noted the way the corners of his eyes tightened when I said "normal".

Normal.

Are our lives ever normal?

. . .

A few minutes later, our server brought our food. Actually, he was accompanied by another frazzled server who looked like she was carrying food for a full army.

What can I say? We're growing teenagers.

Growing mutant birdkid hybrid freak teenagers.

Same difference.

"How's your Caramel Latte?" Fang asked mildly, after a few minutes.

"Decent. And how's your… ugh. How can you drink that stuff?" I replied, looking in disgust at the black coffee he was slowly sipping.

"Lots of caffeine. Keeps me going."

"Ah."

Awhile later, a few employees dragged speakers up to the front of the café. I looked at Fang in question, but he just shook his head. He didn't know what they were doing, either.

A guy and girl in their mid-twenties carried stools over to the makeshift stage and sat down. Our server handed them a microphone, and the guy nodded in thanks.

"Hey, everyone. Lovely night out, isn't it?"

There were a few half-hearted whoops from the diners.

The guy smiled good-naturedly. "Well, my friend Amy and I are going to perform a couple songs for you guys here, does that sound good?"

I expected them to whip out their electric guitars and drum sets and perform some crazy crap that I didn't really want to listen to, but instead, they both pulled out good old acoustic guitars.

The guy lifted the microphone to his lips.

Do you hear me? I'm talking to you
Across the water, across the deep blue ocean
Under the open sky, oh my, baby I'm trying

The girl called Amy sang back to him.

Boy I hear you in my dreams
I feel your whisper across the sea
I keep you with me in my heart
You make it easier when life gets hard

I unconsciously scooted closer to Fang on the booth.

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again
Ooh ooh ooh

Fang slid his arm around my shoulders, and I leaned back, closing my eyes.

They don't know how long it takes
Waiting for a love like this
Every time we say goodbye
I wish we had one more kiss
I'll wait for you I promise you, I will

A tear slid down my cheek. I turned my head into Fang's chest, hoping he wouldn't notice. He did. He lifted my chin up with two fingers and brushed the tear away.

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again

The rest of the song faded out as I sat there in Fang's arms, my eyes closed, simply enjoying being there with him. The fact that Gazzy was gone still pressed down on my heart, a heavy pressure that wouldn't go away, but being with Fang helped ease that pressure. He lifted some of the pressure off my chest, helped share the weight, and yet did it with a smile on his face.

Lucky we're in love in every way
Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed
Lucky to be coming home someday

I smiled up at the ceiling, wishing time would freeze and that we could stay like this forever.

The song used in this chapter was Lucky, by Jason Mraz, feat. Colbie Caillat. It's a beautiful song that isn't nearly as popular as it deserves to be.

This was posted for Bookaholic711's Project Pull.

Oh - and one thing that paramoll and TweetieSweetie101 just reminded me of - since I changed around the chapters this week, and ended up deleting one, if you reviewed my "chapter 20" last time (which is chapter 19 now, since I deleted a chapter), FFnet won't let you THIS chapter 20, because apparently, your not allowed to review the same chapter twice. So (and this is only if you reviewed the old chapter 20 and aren't able to review the new chapter 20) if you still want to review, you have three options. 1)Review a previous chapter that you haven't reviewed before, (but make sure you let me know the review is for chapter 20). 2)Log out and review as an anonymous reviewer (just sign your name so I know that it's you). 3) Just send me a PM.

Sorry if that did not make any sense - I tried to explain it the best I could, but it was a bit difficult :). In a nutshell, if you did NOT review my past chapter 20 that I posted two weeks ago, you have nothing to worry about. Otherwise, see the above paragraph.