Max's POV
Okay, I am about to share an experience with you. An experience that happened only a few hours ago. One that I'm not sure I will ever be able to live down. If
any of you ever tell anyone about said experience, I will personally make sure that you are buried alive.
-Flashback-
"Son of a bitch!" I yelled as I not-so-gracefully slipped on my bathroom floor and landed on my ass, creating a huge 'thud' sound.
I sighed and ran my fingers through my wet hair, if I'd been able to grab onto the sink with my dumb hand I wouldn't have fallen. It's officially... official... my
physical therapist has no idea what he's talking about, zero, none, nada.
My hand was supposed to be back to 100% function by now, and my stupid shrink won't make me stop seeing her until my physical therapist says I'm all good
to go, which at this point is looking like it's never going to happen.
I can't put any of this behind me until I stop going to therapy twice a week, and I can't stop going to therapy twice a week until I put this all behind me, see my
problem here?
And on TOP of that I have to worry about taking my drivers test again next year which was already agonizingly painful enough the first time, I think I'd already
forgotten half of the useless road rules I memorized the first time around.
You know what else is official? Maximum Ride is an idiot. Maximum Ride got flat out drunk because she was in love with a boy. Maximum Ride, then proceeded
to get behind the wheel while still flat out drunk because she wanted to run away from said boy.
And NOW Maximum Ride is thinking about herself in the third person.
"Maximum Ride is also talking to herself out loud", I heard Iggy say.
I looked up to see him leaning against my bathroom doorframe smirking at me.
"Maximum Ride is going to hit Iggy in the face is he doesn't get out of Maximum Ride's way" I said, struggling to get up.
"Need a hand?" Iggy said, walking towards me and sticking out his arm.
"Maximum Ride most certainly does not need a hand" I grunted, trying and failing to haul my most likely bruised ass off of the floor without my towel falling off.
I sighed, "Okay yes Maximum Ride needs a hand but you have to close your eyes and don't open them until I tell you to in case my towel falls off" I said.
"Max?"
"Yes?"
"You should really stop referring to yourself in the third person now, it's starting to get creepy"
"Yeah yeah just close your eyes and help me up assface"
He grabbed my hand and then closed his eyes, hauling me off of the floor.
I guess it's a good thing Iggy closed his eyes because the second I was back on my feet three things happened.
Three things that I really could've gone without having happened to me.
One, my towel untucked itself and fell off of my body, leaving me standing there buck naked, no big deal, I expected that to happen, I would have preferred
that my towel had stayed on my body of course, but it didn't. So I'm about to bend down to pick up my towel when
Two, a tall teenage boy wearing all black appears in my bathroom doorway, a tall boy wearing all black that I call Fang, you know what happens next?
Three, "Holy shit" Fang says, frozen in shock, then slapping a hand over his eyes.
Once Fang has cleared out of my door and I've wrapped my towel around my body I hear Fang's voice coming from my room.
"Wait, Iggy why are you alone in a room with my naked girlfriend?" Fang questioned.
"Max is naked?!" Iggy exclaimed.
"Get out!" I squealed, before forcefully shoving Iggy out of my bathroom and slamming the door.
I pulled my towel up higher on my body, "Holy shit" I whispered.
-End of Flashback-
Several things about that story are embarrassing, in fact, the entire story itself is one big ball of embarrassment.
I love Fang, and I love Iggy, but in two different ways.
I love Fang in the sense that I want to jump his bones 24/7. Whereas I love Iggy like an annoying little brother that draws on your face in your sleep.
That doesn't mean I wanted either of them in the room while I was completely naked, even though Iggy had his eyes covered.
I suppose one of them seeing me naked is better than both of them seeing me naked, but that really doesn't make me feel any better, like at all.
When I finally exit my bathroom, Iggy and Fang are both thankfully out of sight.
I think when Fang saw me naked, my face contorted into this expression of pure horror and my face is still stuck like that.
I assumed at some point Fang would see my naked and vice versa, but I always assumed it would happen without Iggy in the room.
I mean Fang's seen me naked before, but were like three years old in a bubble bath together, totally different situation.
"Max? You've been sitting in here for hours just staring. Are you okay?" I hear Ella sit down next to my spot on the bed where I've been sitting for the past few
hours. I just turn my head and stare at her with the same look on my face that's been there for hours.
"Max? You're scaring the crap outta me, have you been possessed by a demon or something? Also have you seen Iggy? He's been AWOL for the past few hours"
Then mention of Iggy just makes me replay the whole ordeal over again in my head, sending a shiver down my spine.
"I-I" I stutter, trying to make my words to form a sentence.
"Breathe Max" Ella says, starting to look seriously concerned for me.
I take in a deep breath and then say it all at once "Fangsawmenaked" I blurt.
"WHAT!?" Ella screeches in my ear.
"HOLY HELL MAX WHAT HOW WHEN WHY?", for some reason Ella feels the need to yell this directly into my ear.
Then she leans in and whispers "Did you two do the nasty?", that usually would have sent me into fits of laughter, not today.
"No" I choke out.
"Oh my god, were you going to do it but then he saw you naked and bailed, because if he did that Max I can totally beat him up"
"No" I manage to choke out again.
Before Ella has a chance to dig up any other imaginary scenarios in her head I tell her the whole story.
"Wow" is all she can say for the first few seconds after I finish talking.
"Iggy didn't see you naked though right? Cause that would be kind weird..." Ella trails off.
"No, Iggy was spared" I say, my facial expression at this point has not changed.
"Oh Max that's... geeze. I'm sorry but I have no idea what to say at this point, I mean I'm sure 'holy shit' probably meant 'holy shit my girlfriend is super hot'
not 'holy shit gross' if that helps at all" Ella offers up, trying to make me feel better.
"I think it was more of a 'holy shit my girlfriend is naked in a room with my brother wtf' kind of situation" I say, wiping my hand over my face.
Just as I finish my sentence Fang appears in my bedroom doorway, perfect.
Fang's POV
"Dude, the expression on your face right now is hilarious!" Iggy says in between fits of laughter.
"Iggy, this is not funny" I say, I'm dead serious.
Were sitting in my living room and while Iggy's having a good laugh over the whole situation I'm kind of freaking out.
Okay, freaking out is an understatement.
Yes Max is my girlfriend, and as my girlfriend we were obviously going to see each other naked at some point but this was just... this is a whole new level of
weird and awkward.
And now I can't stop seeing naked Max in my head, not because I'm a pervert, but because I'm a teenage boy and once you've seen you girlfriend naked it's
something that's very hard to un-see.
I rub my eyes, trying to erase the image that is glued to the back of my eyeballs, my method proving impossible.
"Aw come on dude it's not that bad" Iggy says, wiping tears out of his eyes after having laughed so hard.
"Iggy, put yourself in my shoes and pretend that Max was Ella" I say, looking him in the eyes.
Iggy flinches a little "Okay yeah so it's bad, but you two will get over it" he shrugs.
"Okay you know what? No big deal... okay well yes big deal but c'mon dude. Just give Max a few hours to recover from... everything and then go over there and
talk to her about it. It's not like you guys can hide from each other forever." Iggy says, attempting to be helpful.
"Yeah... okay" I trail off.
I sit down next to Iggy on the couch and look down at my feet, running both of my hands through my hair.
"Holy shit" Iggy says in a poor imitation of me, once again laughing his ass off at my unfortunate situation.
"Shut up" I grumble, punching Iggy, hard. He deserves it anyways.
"You might want to mention to Max that that 'holy shit' wasn't a bad thing" Iggy winks at me.
I turn my head and glare daggers at him, not saying anything this time.
I honestly never thought that I would find myself in this position.
As I make my way towards Max's house, I notice that it's snowing, again, and despite my coat I'm freezing my ass off.
After opening Max's front door and removing my coat I slowly make my way upstairs.
I take in a deep breath before walking down the hallway towards Max's bedroom, I can hear her and Ella talking but can't make out any distinct words.
As I approach Max's doorway I hear the end of her sentence.
"naked in a room with my brother wtf' kind of situation" Max abruptly stops talking when I step in front of her doorway.
"Hey Fang!" Ella says cheerfully, "Oh I mean... uh hey Fang" she says again in a deeper, less cheery voice.
"I'll leave you two alone for a while" Ella says awkwardly as she gets up and leaves Max's room.
I tentatively walk over and sit down next to Max on her bed where she shifts uncomfortably.
And we sit there, we sit there for I don't know how long, not looking at each other, not saying anything at all.
Max has the same expression on her face that I have, slightly horrified and slightly embarrassed.
I cough a little and take in a deep breath. I can approach this one of two ways.
One: Talk about it, like someone mature would do.
or
Two: Try and laugh it off, but I'm Fang. I don't laugh.
I look at Max, deciding to go with option number one, but the second I look at her I smirk, why? Because I'm a teenage boy. Also I'm an idiot. The later
probably has more to do with it.
Max stares at me blankly for a few seconds, before smirking in return, which then turns into full on hysterical laughter.
"You alright?" I question as Max practically falls off of her bed laughing.
"Yeah it's just... oh my god" I wait for Max to stop laughing, although I have to admit it's pretty funny.
"You know" Max wipes away a tear from her eye "I really don't know why I'm laughing so hard I just don't know what else to say" she finishes.
"Okay" I reply.
"You know" here goes nothing "when I said 'holy shit' I didn't mean...uh" I scratch the back of my head trying to find the right words.
Before I can say anything else Max cuts me of "I know" she says, "I know".
"So are we past this whole thing?" Max asks, looking me straight in the eye for the first time since this whole thing happened.
I shrug, "guess so"
"Okay good" Max smiles at me and leans her head on my shoulder.
"Fang?"
"Mhm?"
"Bet I can kick your ass at Mario Kart, again"
"Oh it's on"
Max's POV
"COME ON COME ON COME ON! GET OUT OF MY WAY ASSHAT!" I scream at the television screen, okay, maybe I'm being a bit melodramatic.
But come on, Princess Peach is always in my way.
"Can't keep up Max?" Fang smirks, not even batting an eyelash. How he manages to keep his cool while playing a game of Mario Kart I have no idea. I mean,
who doesn't go a little bit crazy?
Okay I hate to admit this but Fang was totally kicking my ass right now, jerk. He's ego is probably the size of Texas by now.
Not that his ego wasn't already the size of Texas.
Actually if I'm being honest Fang's ego isn't that bad, Iggy on the other hand is a whole different story.
I'm sitting right next to Fang on the floor, less than 10 feet away from the TV screen, don't lecture me about ruining my vision, Mario Kart is more important
than my vision.
The problem with sitting next to Fang is that our legs are pressed together and I can feel the heat radiating off of him, the smell of fresh laundry and spearmint
washing over me, it was a lot easier to kick Fang's ass when I didn't feel like sucking his face off every time I was around him, wait... ew.
That sounded gross, but you get the picture.
But I figure, if Fang has this effect on me, it has to work the other way around.
"MOVE FASTER!" I yell in fake frustration, while slowly inching my way closer to Fang, he smirks.
"It's not my fault! If all of these idiots would get the hell out of my way I'd be number one by now!"
Fang says nothing as I casually drape my legs across his lap and place my elbow to rest on his shoulder.
Time to pull out the big guns.
I lean my head on his shoulder and take in a breath, is Fang dumb enough to fall for this? Yeah, probably.
"You know..." I trail off, not taking my eyes off the television screen.
Fang turns to look at me, trying to pay attention to the screen and failing.
"What?" Fang barely says, and then he's kissing my neck, and I'm kicking his ass at Mario Kart.
I tilt my head to the side, making sure to keep him distracted without letting him know that I'm still paying attention to the TV.
"YES!" I scream.
"W-what?" Fang stutters in a daze, then he realizes what I've done and turns to glare at me.
"You're evil Maximum Ride" he says.
"I may be evil, but I also kicked your ass" I say with a huge grin on my face.
"Only because you seduced me..." Fang grumbles, standing up to stretch.
"Whatever, it's not my fault you can't control yourself Fangy boy" I get up and wrap my arms around his shoulders.
"Oh no, I don't think so" Fang says, grabbing both my hands and removing them from around his neck.
"You know, tomorrows Christmas eve, and I'm not sure I want to give you your Christmas present anymore" I say frowning.
"Max, if anyone should be pouting it's me"
"You don't pout Fang, you brood"
Speaking of Christmas, I should really wrap Fang's gift, actually I should probably finish putting his gift together before I wrap it.
I bet you're all sitting here wondering what I got Fang, too bad, you're going to have to wait.
I glance out the window and notice that the snow has stopped, and that the driveway is covered in what looks like three feet of snow.
"Ugh" I groan, this would mean I'd have to shovel so that my mom could get into the driveway when she got home from work, which would hurt a hell of a lot,
considering my right hand and all.
"You know I can do it for you" Fang says, reading my mind, as always.
"No, I'm not crippled I just-"
"Max I know that the situation you're in sucks but causing unnecessary strain on your hand won't make it better, if anything it'll just make it worse" Fang says
as he walks over to the front door and slips on his coat and boots.
"I'll just make Iggy help" Fang smirks as he opens the door, preparing to stand outside for who knows how long it'll take to shovel the stupid driveway.
"Wait" I say, plunking my hat down on his head, it's just a plain black beanie, in case any of you were worried about Fang's masculinity being at stake.
"Wouldn't want you to get sick, then I'd be stuck taking care of you" I winked and shut the door on him, leaving him standing on the front porch, maybe I am
evil.
I leave Fang and presumably Iggy, to shovel the driveway and head up to my room to work on Fang's present (talk about leaving things until the last minute)
and to keep working on the song I was supposed to have done for school once break ended.
I decide to get Fang's present done first with Christmas eve being tomorrow and all, I wouldn't be able to get away from my family long enough to get any work
done.
For the most part Fang's present is mostly finished, I just need to add a few things, I want it to be perfect.
Once I've finished that, I stick it in a gift bag with a snowflake pattern on the front, then shove some black tissue paper in the top to conceal my gift.
After hiding it in the back of my closet along with all of my other wrapped gifts, I pick up my guitar which I've barely played in months and begin to strum,
trying to create the music to go along with the lyrics I have written down in my notebook next to me.
I probably went through 50 notebooks every year, each one over half filled with pages of scribbled out lyrics.
After trying to focus on writing music for an hour I start to lose focus, I need to play something I already know.
I decide on Shake me Down by Cage the Elephant, a song I mastered years ago after the lead singer jumped off of the stage and accidentally kicked me in the
head when I was at one of their concerts.
I strum the opening chords as best as I can, trying to find a good rhythm.
Shake me down,
Not a lot of people left around,
Who knows now,
Softly laying on the ground, ooooh
Not a lot people left around, ooooh. ooooh
I close my eyes and focus, forgetting everything, forgetting my hand, forgetting school, forgetting that I'm even alive.
In my life, I have seen,
People walk into the sea,
Just to find memories,
Plagued by constant misery,
Their eyes cast down,
Fixed upon the ground,
Their eyes cast down
I'd always admired how the song started so calm and then picked up so fast while still keeping it's initial vibe.
I'll keep my eyes fixed on the sun
I'm still sitting on my bed, eyes closed, guitar in my lap, when I hear the front door open and shut.
I can hear Iggy speaking but not Fang, surprise surprise.
I sigh and gently place my guitar back in it's case and slide it under my bed along with my notebook.
As I enter the living I look up and see both boys have red faces and look very irritated.
Fang has taken off his coat and is sitting on the couch brooding, I was right, he does brood, and Iggy hasn't even bothered to undress himself, he's just pacing
back and forth, dripping melting snow all over the living room floor.
"It would't have taken us so long if you'd just been shovelling your snow onto the right side" Fang grumbles.
"OH OKAYYY" Iggy yells, throwing his arms up in the air for effect.
"Oh HEY MAX, let's see what Max thinks huh Fang?" Iggy crosses his arms and taps one foot on the floor.
"Iggy, no offence but you kind of look like someone's mother" I smirk, it was true, he looked like he discovered a broken window and was standing in front of his
children waiting for an explanation, for one of them to fess up to the crime.
"Okay so Fang here asks me to help him shovel your driveway, and because I'm nothing if not a gentleman, I agree to help him. So I'm shovelling the snow
to my left but what I didn't notice was that mr tall dark and toasty here is standing in my way, so all that's happening is I'm piling even more snow on top of
the fresh snow"
I hope he realize how bad that makes him sound.
"Iggy, you were on the right side of the driveway" Fang says.
"I'm aware of what side I was on Fang"
"That means you should have been piling snow onto the right side"
"I hate to break it to ya Igs" I say sitting down beside Fang, "But Fang's right, you were literally just piling snow on top of the side of the driveway that Fang was
shovelling, therefore making Fang shovel twice as much snow as he should have been"
"I WAS NOT!" Iggy yells, yet again, throwing his hands up in the air.
"Drama queen" I mumble, Fang smirks while Iggy shoots daggers at me with his eyes.
I get up and walk over the the window, looking out at the driveway, "See, theres a huge ass mountain of snow on the left side and none on the right" I point out
to Iggy.
Iggy stands beside me and peers out the window. "I don't know what you're talking abou-oh"
"Yeah, oh" Fang says, getting up and heading into the kitchen.
Iggy makes sad eyes at me and sits down on the couch, still fully dressed in his winter gear.
"Want hot chocolate Max?" Fang yells from the kitchen.
"Yes please!" I yell back, "What about me?" Iggy says sadly.
"You don't deserve any" Ella says as she descends the staircase.
"Yes, I heard your entire argument from my room" Ella smiles as she walks over the the couch and sits next to Iggy.
"Ella, tell your boyfriend that he's getting the couch wet" I say, gesturing to Iggys clothes.
"It's not my fault that Fang shoved me into a bank of snow"
"I did not shove you, you fell" I hear Fang say from the doorway of the kitchen.
Iggy starts to protest but I interrupt him.
"Okay I don't care who shoved who or who piled what snow where, Iggy change your clothes and Fang put some marshmallows in my hot chocolate"
Fang just looks at me and raises an eyebrow, I sigh "Please" I huff out, "Better" Fang says, smirking before heading back into the kitchen.
I glance at the corner of the living room where our Christmas tree shines, covered in silver and red ornaments and a few oddly coloured blue ones Ella and I
had made in our elementary school years.
One ornament, a transparent sphere, containing a picture of Fang and I when we were three years old, sitting on Santa's lap at the mall, I was too young to
have rememberd taking the picture, but I remember what inspired the choice to put that photo in my Christmas ornament, or rather, in Fang's Christmas
ornament.
-Flashback-
I'm sitting next to Fang at my desk, I'm six years old and I couldn't be happier, tomorrow is Friday and then were off for winter break which means food, lots of
it, and Christmas presents, and Christmas cookies!
My loyal best friend, Fang, is sitting to my right decorating the parts of his Christmas ornament that wouldn't get in the way of whatever picture he decided to
put in.
I'm focusing really hard on drawing perfect gold stars around the top of my ornament with gold glitter paint, when Fang accidentally nudges my elbow, making
me splash a huge blob onto my ornament instead of a pretty star.
I start to feel tears well up in my eyes, but refuse to let them splash down my cheeks, instead I look sadly at my ornament, and then look over at Fang's, which
is already so much prettier than mine.
"Sorry" Fang says casually, going back to decorating his ornament with red glitter paint before realizing the defeated look on my face.
"Oh Maxie! I'm sorry!" Fang says, looking at my ruined decoration, "I was going to put a picture of us in it, but now I can't" I said, placing my decoration down
on my desk, giving up.
"Here, take mine" Fang smiles, handing me his beautifully decorated ball "I can use yours, it's okay Maxie!" he smiles at me again, carefully wiping away the
paint he'd made me splatter on my ornament.
I smile, instantly feeling better, Fangy always knew how to make me feel better, he was going to be my bestest friend forever!
-End of Flashback-
I remember a week after that, on Christmas morning, I gave Fang my ornament as a present, except the inside contained a small piece of paper that said 'Maxie
+ Fangy 4ever' in bright red crayon, whereas Fang had given me his ornament that contained a picture of the both of us from three years ago.
You could still see the big smudge of gold glitter paint that Fang had managed to wipe off just enough of so that the picture inside was visible.
Fang has the ornament I gave him hanging up on the tree at his house, and he makes fun of me for it every Christmas.
"Hot chocolates ready" Fang says, walking out of the kitchen, somehow balancing four mugs full of steaming hot chocolate in his arms. Without spilling any on
the floor, or himself, he maneuvers his way over to us and sets them down on the table in front of the couch, handing me the one with extra marshmallows.
I take a sip of mine and immediately regret it, burning what I'm sure is most of the skin off of my tongue.
Sigh.
A/N This Chapter was more of a filler but things are going to start happening again soon so prepare yourselves! Also that story about the lead singer of Cage the Elephant kicking Max in the head during a stage dive actually happened to me, it was awesome. As always, review and I hope you enjoyed!