Cheating Death – Chapter 17

By MyNameIsCAL

"Max, I need to talk to you."

She stood in the doorway, looking tired. It was late, almost midnight. I should have been asleep, but the pain and my own thoughts had kept me up. Slowly, she moved towards the bed and got in, resting up against me.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

I let out a breath. "I feel like you're avoiding me."

It took her a minute to respond. "I…I'm sorry if it seems that way."

"I don't want to lose you," I whispered.

"Why are you worrying about that?"

"You're barely home," I answered. "It's like you're keeping your distance from me. Do I scare you, or something, Max? I mean, for the longest time, it was killing me that you didn't know, but now I feel like I wish you had never found out…"

She took my hand. "It's just…I don't know, Fang. I…

"I need to know you're not going to get yourself killed to save us," I interrupted her stuttering.

"I already promised you I wouldn't," she reminded me.

"But I feel like I'm losing you."

She sucked in a breath. When she finally answered me, her voice shook. "You're not going to lose me, Fang. I know you'd never be able to live with yourself if I went and got myself killed to save all of you."

I closed my eyes. "Then why have you been avoiding me?"

"I'm not avoiding you, Fang," she said.

And that was the end of the conversation as she let go of my hand, turning away from me. I spent the rest of the night up, wondering if I had done something wrong or if Max was just getting caught up in herself.

When I woke up the next morning, Max was already gone with Mom. There had been no visions that night and I found Iggy sitting in my kitchen as I shuffled slowly out of the bedroom, my chest still with numb pain.

"What're you doing here?" I asked.

"Well, babysitting you, to make a long story short. Max is worried about you," he answered.

"But I'm worried about her. I think she's avoiding me."

Iggy shook his head. "She's not avoiding you."

"How do you know!"

Iggy sighed. "I just do, alright? Are you hungry? I'll cook you something."

"No!" I gripped onto the tablecloth, throwing it onto the floor, taking all the plates with it. "You all know something that I don't! I'm not going to sit here and pretend everything is okay because it isn't! I am not going to listen to you tell me that my wife is avoiding me because I know she is! She wasn't even here when I woke up this morning, she didn't even say goodnight to me last night!"

Iggy grabbed me by the wrist, but I shook him off.

"Fang, please," Iggy said calmly. "Sit down, okay?"

I picked up a chair, tossing it across the kitchen.

"Fang, stop!" He made a blind grab at my other arm, but I managed to pull away.

"Get out of my house!"

I was sweating, my hands shaking as I backed away from Iggy and into the wall. My chest had gone from numb pain to this intense throbbing that hurt. Iggy dragged a chair over.

"You need to sit or you'll hurt yourself," he muttered, pushing me into it slowly. "Max will be home soon and you've made a mess of the kitchen."

I looked around, glass on the floor, a plate broken into pieces. Looking at the tablecloth, it had been new. My rage ripped a hole in it. Behind me, I could hear the garage door opening. Iggy let out breath, standing up straight. He moved towards the garage door, cursing as he stepped on a piece of glass. I closed my eyes, leaning my head back against the wall.

"Is Fang awake yet?" I heard Max ask.

"Yeah, he is," Iggy grumbled. "Actually, he rampaged through the kitchen just a few minutes ago."

"Is he alright?"

"I think he will be."

Max sighed heavily. "I should have told him before."

"I'm sure telling him now would be just as helpful."

"Are you bleeding?"

"I stepped on a piece of glass, I'll be fine. Go talk to him first."

I heard footsteps come towards the kitchen. Max entered first, Iggy hopping slowly after her. She held a couple bags in hand, setting them down on the counter. After stepping around the glass, she pulled a chair in front of me and sat down.

"Do you know what today is?" she questioned me, her hand reaching for mine.

I shook my head. "It's November."

"You married me five years ago on today," she spoke softly. "And after everything we've been through, I thought you'd like to get away for a weekend. I had planned this a while ago, but then you got hurt and all this happened, but Iggy convinced me you'd still appreciate it if we did something. But I didn't want to tell you or to make you feel obligated to do anything, and I should have told you so it didn't seem like I was avoiding you, alright? I'm sorry, Fang."

I wanted to cry, but I wouldn't. "I'm sorry I forgot."

She let out a laugh, shaking her head.

Like I said, you shouldn't worry too much about Max and Fang. It's hard to not forget about relationships during trying times, but I thought it would be nice to put something in there with Max and Fang since it seemed like there's been a whole lot of tension between them.

Anyway, we'll see what they do to celebrate their anniversary in the next chapter, which I'll put up during the week. Thanks for reading!