Max's POV
"Max come onnn you have to get up! It's Christmas eve day!" my eyes aren't even open yet and I can already hear Ella yelling in my ear.
I never understood why she alway woke me up so early on Christmas eve day.
"Max come on Nudge is here already and we have to start prepping you" oh yeah, that's why.
Every Christmas eve we have dinner at Fang's house and then spend Christmas day at my house where we all open our gifts together, however I plan on giving
Fang his gift tonight, away from the prying eyes of my family.
"Ugh, Ella come on, you do this every year, can't you give me a break this time?" I say, glaring at her as I sit up in bed and rub my eyes, trying to push the
mess of hair out of my face.
"No we can not!" Nudge yells, sounding outraged, "Max you have a boyfriend now that you get to spend all of Christmas with, now you have even more reason
to look like a total babe".
I roll my eyes and sigh, knowing that the day I get out of this will also be the day that pig's fly, so, definitely not today.
Ella and Nudge hurry me out of bed, shove me into the bathroom and make me take a shower. They even told me which shampoo I had to use, talk about
specific.
I exit the bathroom only to be yanked back into my room and plopped down on a chair in front of my mirror. Ella and Nudge begin drying my hair and doing God
knows what else to me.
Several hours, pounds of makeup, and clothes later Ella and Nudge are finished with me and all I want to do is put my sweatpants back on and crawl back into
bed.
They've got my hair up in a 'messy bun' which for some reason took them 15 minutes to perfect although I'm not sure why it takes so long to make it look
messy, they yell at me for looking messy all the time.
I don't understand teenage girls and I am one.
I'm wearing a bright red velvet dress that goes down to just above my knees and the sleeves are short.
I have on a pair of see-through black tights underneath (there's a word for these things that I can't remember).
And then there's the red lipstick (my lips feel really sticky and gross, how am I supposed to eat?) which surprisingly doesn't clash with the red dress.
They put on some mascara and a thin layer of dark brown eyeliner and some other stuff that makes my cheeks look pink-ish that I don't know the name of.
And then there were the heels from hell, ridiculously tall and black. I could barely walk two steps without falling over.
To be honest, I kind of like it minus, the heels of course, but if you ever tell Ella and Nudge that I'll beat the crap out of you.
"Well, our work here is done! I have to get back to my family but you have to take pictures of Max and Fang together and send them to be because they're
going to look like the cutest couple on the planet!"
I'm about to object to Nudge's picture taking idea but it seems that Ella already thinks of it before I do.
"You're not getting out of pictures Max, we need them to put up at your wedding with Fang"
Why is everyone trying to plan my wedding with Fang, were both still teenagers, marriage is a looonnngg way off.
I just roll my eyes and shrug, I know there's no way in hell I'm getting out of it.
"I only have an hour and a half to get ready!" Ella squeals and runs out of my room with Nudge, neither of them close the door behind them, I hadn't realized
that closing a door was so hard.
I sigh and very carefully walk across my bedroom to close the door before realizing that I can just take off these stupid heels since I don't have to go anywhere
for another hour and a half.
Relief washes over me, 10 minutes in those things and my feet were already sore.
I cross my room and plop down on top of my bed, careful not to wrinkle my dress due to the fact that if I do Ella will kill me and then invite Nudge to join in.
Having nothing else to do, I pick up my phone and call Fang.
It ring's a few times before he answers.
Italics=Max Bold=Fang
Hey
Hey
Is there a specific reason you're calling me when we live 10 feet away from each other?
Ella and Nudge made me put on a dress
Oh no! Not a dress!
Ha ha verrryyy funny, how would you like it if someone put you in a dress?
I'd put on some matching lipstick and make a night out of it
I hate you
No you don't
No I don't, but I still hate you
I know
They made me put on heels too
I look forward to seeing you in said heels
I look forward to sticking one of those heels up your ass
Kinky are we?
I lied, I totally hate you
Come on Max, in won't be THAT bad
Yes it will
Well I for one can't wait to see you
Too bad you have to wait another hour and a half
Or you could just come over now
I am not subjecting myself to you smirking at my ridiculous appearance for longer than absolutely necessary
If it makes you feel any better Iggy gave himself a black eye this morning
I didn't know you could give yourself a black eye
Iggy's very talented, he fell and hit his face on the sink
You were right, that did make me feel better
See? You looooveeee me
I hate you
As much as I enjoy listening to you talk about how much you hate me, I have to get dressed before my mom kills me
Have fun
See you soon
I shut off my phone and drop in to my side, not knowing what I'm supposed to be doing until I have to head over to Fang's for dinner.
My Mom is already at Fang's house cooking and Ella's in her room doing who knows what with who knows how much makeup.
I'm starving, and I know there's already a batch of chocolate chip cookies stashed away for tomorrow morning in the pantry downstairs, but my Mom would kill
me if I 'ruined my appetite' by eating before dinner.
Several episodes of Adventure Time later Ella drags me into my heels and out of my room, I barely have time to grab Fang's gift.
"Elllaaaa" I groan and she drags me down the stairs and towards the front door.
"Max just keep on the damn heels, it's not like you'll have to wear them all night anyways"
"Exactly! So why do I have to bother wearing them at all?" I whine as Ella throws my coat at my face.
"Because they match your dress and they just... hurry up Max were already late"
"Someone wants to see Igggyyy" I tease.
Ella's cheeks turn a light shade of pink as she puts on her coat and practically shoves me out of the front door, I almost fall down the stairs and face plant into a
mountain of snow.
It takes me 10X as long to make my way down the driveway, down the sidewalk and then up Fang's driveway because of these stupid heels.
When I finally walk up Fang's front porch I'm almost out of breath, then I vow to never wear heels again unless there's a gun pointed at my head, not that I
would put it past Nudge and Ella to go that far.
Ella opens the door and enters before me, since she got there before me again, due to my lack of proper footwear.
As I enter the room and take off my coat the whole room goes silent.
"What?" I say, somewhat angrily.
Iggy is about to speak up and no doubt make a perverted comment when Fang interjects.
"You look beautiful" he breathes and walks over to take my coat.
"Thanks" I say, scratching the back of my neck, this is super awkward.
"Um this belongs to you" I say, handing Fang the bag containing his gift.
"It's not even Christmas yet"
"I know but I wanted you to open it later because it's kind of... personal" I trail off.
Fang smirks and kisses my cheek, heading upstairs to stash my gift in his room.
"Can you guys stop staring at me please?" I say, giving everyone in the room a death glare.
That's when Angel rushes into the room and practically knocks me over, I hadn't yet had a chance to take off my ten million inch heels.
"Omg Max! You look like a Disney princess or something" Angel squeals as she gives be a bone crushing hug.
"Thanks Ange" I choke out, I look up and see Fang has returned and is having a conversation with Iggy across the room, I can tell that he's not really paying
attention though, on account of the fact that he won't stop staring at me.
For the first time since I got here I notice what Fang is wearing, beige coloured dress pants with a black button up shirt and black tie.
It's simple but it was very... Fang.
And I can't deny that he looks ridiculously cute.
Angel follows my line of vision to Fang and then smiles up at me, "He loves you Max"
"I know" I reply, I can definitely feel my cheeks starting to heat up, making Fang smirk at me from across the room.
"No like I mean he reallllyyy loves you, like this much" Angel says stepping back and opening her arms as wide as possible.
I smile at Angel and give her one last hug before heading towards the kitchen to see if they need any help.
I can hear all of you laughing at me right now, yes I know I don't cook, I only set things on fire.
But right now I need to be out of Fang's line of vision before my face turns into a tomato, or before Angel and Ella continue planning my wedding.
"Max? Why are you in the kitchen?" Fang's Mom laughs at me as she stirs a pot that's sitting on top of the stove.
"Um" I try and come up with a good excuse but I can't.
"She's avoiding your son" my Mom pipes up from the other side of the kitchen where she's doing... something with food, what? I don't cook.
"Any particular reason for that?" Anne (Fang's mom) raises an eyebrow.
"Max is all dressed up and looking beautiful and you know how teenage boys are. And Max doesn't want to admit that she thinks Fang looks handsome but that's
hard to do when Fang won't stop looking at her so she's come in here to get away from him" my mom says, dead on.
Notice how my Mom spoke for me and I had absolutely no part in the conversation?
"Max honey, I love you and I'm sure it's horrible being gawked at by my son but every time you're in the kitchen you tend to... ah... burn things down, no
offence" Anne says to me, she wasn't wrong.
"None taken" I say, giving them both a small smile before leaving the kitchen and running, you guessed it, directly into Fang.
"Hiding from me?" he says, looking down at me.
"How do you know I wasn't helping with the cooking?" I say, crossing my arms.
Fang doesn't say anything, I can see the corners of his mouth twitch slightly before I smack his arm.
"Hey! I didn't say anything" he says, rubbing the spot on his arm where I'd hit him.
"Your face said I all" I give him my best glare but it's hard when even I can't hold back the smile threatening to creep up on my face at the notion of me cooking
anything.
Fang just smirks even more, damn him.
"I hate y-"
"You hate me I know" Fang says, "And you're beautiful" he says, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.
"I don't think I've seen you with your hair up since we were kids" he says, inching closer.
"Uh huh" I murmur.
And then Fang grabs my hand and drags me back into the living room to be tortured by everyone, despite my protests.
I sit down on the couch next to Fang and listen to the current conversation.
"Okay but all I'm saying is if you had to choose one which one would you pick" Iggy says.
"But that's dumb, I wouldn't ever have to choose between those two things" Gazzy replies.
"Okay what if someone was offering you a million dollars to pick between the two"
"I wouldn't do it, what's the point in having a million dollars when you're going to be stranded on a desert island for the rest of your life? I would just use the
million dollars to pay a ship to bring me supplies every month and then I could build like a whole society and stuff" Gazzy says.
Iggy sighs and wipes a hand over his face in exasperation, then turns to me.
"Okay Max! If you were stranded on a desert island or the rest of your life and had to choose between only having toes and no fingers or fingers and no toes,
what would you choose?"
"That's a dumb question Iggy"
"OH COME ON!" Iggy yells before throwing his hands up in the air.
He then turns to Ella and pouts "You don't think it's a dumb question do you?" he asks, giving her puppy dog eyes.
"It's pretty dumb" Ella admits sheepishly.
"Betrayed by my own girlfriend, I can't believe it" Iggy says while pretending to wipe tears out of his eyes.
"To be fair" I interject, "this question is coming from the guy who let a bathroom sink give him a black eye" I say, smirking at the purple tint surrounding Iggy's
left eye.
"Fannng! You said you wouldn't tell anyone about that" Iggy whines.
Fang just shrugs "They would've found out anyways"
"Would not! I could've told everyone that I got in a bar fight or something cool"
"Yeah, because your mom would've let you walk around having everyone convinced that you're the kind of guy that gets in bar fights" I laugh.
"I'm a grown man, my mom doesn't tell me what to do" Iggy pouts, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Oh she doesn't does she?" I hear Anne say from the doorway.
I laugh at Iggy's facial expression, despite not having a father Anne had done a pretty good job of raising Iggy, of raising all of them.
Their dad had taken off when Anne was pregnant with Angel and Gazzy, he was an alcoholic, really into drugs and was just not a very good person over all.
My mom told me that some nights when I was younger they'd have to stay at our house, I only vaguely remembered some of those nights.
They usually included lots of hot chocolate, chocolate chip cookies and cartoons. Fang, Iggy and I would sit around eating and watching cartoons while my mom
and Anne sat in the kitchen and talked.
Then we would all fall asleep and my mom would have to slip pillows under our heads and drape blankets over our bodies.
I look across the living room and see a picture inside of a black frame of little Iggy, Fang and I all asleep on the couch I used to have in my living room.
I'm asleep in between Fang and Iggy and were sitting upright on the couch, Fang's head resting on the armrest, mine resting on his shoulder, and Iggy's resting
on my shoulder.
In some ways I guess I miss being a little kid, not so many worries, not as much drama.
Then again, young Max couldn't make out with Fang. Current Max could.
"Love you mom!" Iggy says, snapping my out of my thoughts.
Anne rolls her eyes, "Dinner's ready so you should all come and eat, except for you Iggy, wouldn't want to tell you what to do" Anne winks and walks back into
the kitchen.
Poor Iggy, it is not his day.
We all get up and make our way into the dining room where my mom and Anne are currently placing bowls of delicious smelling food all over the table.
I take a seat in between Fang and Angel, immediately going for the mashed potatoes.
I silently thank whatever God out there decided to create potatoes as I practically dump half the bowl onto my plate.
Halfway through dinner I'm starting to feel full.
I grin as Fang links his foot around my ankle under the table, causing goosebumps to run down my spine, I'm still ridiculously nervous about his reaction to my
Christmas present.
"So, what'd you two get each other for Christmas?" my mom directs at us from the end of the table.
And then we both shrug, at the exact same time.
My mom rolls her eyes "Use your words!" she laughs.
"I got him a present" I say nonchalantly, "and I got her a present" Fang smirks.
"As long as neither of you got the other an STD for Christmas I really don't think it'll matter" Iggy says before casually eating a forkful of food.
I choke on my water when he says this and then spend the next several minutes coughing my lungs out.
"Let's hope that that applies to you and Ella as well" Fang retorts, causing Ella's face to turn red while Iggy just sticks his tongue out in reply.
"Let's just say that no one got anyone any STD's this Christmas or any Christmas" Anne says.
"Agreed" we all say at the same time.
I'm surprised that after almost 17 years with these people I'm not even more messed up than I already am.
Most families don't discuss STD's over the dinner table, then again, this isn't most families.
After dinner Fang drags me up to his room and leaves everyone else in the living room to watch Christmas movies.
I offered to help wash dishes but Anna was afraid that I'd somehow manage to set the sink on fire, not that that's ever happened before of course...
We make our way up the staircase and down the hall to where Fang's bedroom.
His bedroom is dimly lit and looks the exact same as it had the last time I'd been here, except for his unmade bed.
I close the door behind us and am about to say something when I'm pressed up against the back of his door, not that I'm complaining of course.
And then Fang's lips are on mine, and my arms are around his neck and my fingers are getting tangled in his hair.
"I've barely been able to talk to you all day" Fang murmurs as he leaves a trail of kisses down my neck.
"Because were doing so much talking now that were alone" I giggle, oh hell no, Maximum Ride does not giggle.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, damn this boy.
"Did you just do what I think I heard you do" Fang says, stopping to look me in the eyes, a smirk making it's way onto his face.
"No" I reply, a little too fast.
"Just open your gift" I smile, standing up on my tip toes to give him one last kiss before removing my hands from around his neck.
"We only have another 30 minutes at best before were summoned for desert" I say as Fang grabs the bag containing my gift from his desk.
I sit down next to him on his bed and twist my hands together anxiously, he's removing the tissue paper slowly to upset me.
"If you take another 20 seconds to remove that last piece of tissue paper I swear to God Fang you won't live long enough to even see your gift" I say.
"Okay okay, pushy" Fang smirks as he takes the object wrapped in red wrapping paper out of the bag and starts tearing at it.
Here goes nothing.
Fang's POV
It's obvious that Max is nervous as all hell, judging by the expression on her face.
I'm not sure why, she knows that I'd love it no matter what, hell, I could be opening socks right now and they'd be the best pair of socks I'd even own.
Once I've torn off all the wrapping paper I glance down at the object in my hands and a huge grin makes it's way onto my face.
Max has never been the most uh... artistically talented person on the planet.
When she was younger she used circles to draw people, and when I say circles I mean circles.
The arms, legs, fingers, toes, everything, was a circle, although now that I think about it it was kind of cute.
The object in my hands is a scrapbook, that Max had clearly put a ridiculous amount of time into.
The front cover is made of black leather and has one single picture that was made to look like it'd been sewed into the front cover.
In the picture Max and I are sitting on the old swing set that still sits in my backyard, my hair is in my eyes and I have a stoic expression on my face while Max
is smiling with all of her teeth.
I open to the next page, and the one after that, and so on, focusing all of my attention on the amount of detail that she'd put into every page.
It had started out with when we'd been born, our birthdays, important life events, and had gone up all the way to present day.
Each page had been filled with various handwritten notes and doodles along with picture from our childhood.
The very last page was titled "16th Christmas" and was full of empty slots, presumably to fill with pictures we would take tonight and tomorrow.
I look up at Max and a flash blinds my vision.
I see Max holding up her phone, "I needed a picture of you with the book, for the last page" Max smiles sheepishly.
"This" I breathe, "Max this is amazing I mean I" I can't speak.
So I do what I usually prefer to do as an alternative to talking anyways, I lean over and kiss Max.
"Thank you" I whisper, our foreheads are pressed together.
"Now" I say getting up to retrieve Max's gift.
"Time for your present" I say, handing her what is obviously a guitar case.
"You bought me a guitar?!" Max says incredulously.
"Fang you didn't have t-"
"Just open it" I say in my best Max impression.
Max unzips the case and lifts the lid, staring at the light wood acoustic guitar, her mouth is frozen open in shock from what I can tell.
"Fang this is... This is way too much I don't even know what I'm supposed to say I just"
"You don't have to say anything" I smile.
It's an acoustic guitar, but every square inch is covered in hand carved engravings.
There are quotes from notes I'd passed to Max during class over the years and vice versa, names of our favourite songs and songs off of this lists Max has taped
up in her room.
"Turn it over" I say, nodding my head at the guitar.
"Max carefully picks up the guitar and turns it over, setting in down across her lap.
There's only one small engraving on the back of the guitar, smack dab in the middle.
I love you it reads.
"Fang I don't cry, and when I do it's in the privacy of my own room but I think I'm going to cry right now" she says, setting the guitar back into it's case.
"This must of cost you a fortune how did you, I mean I-"
"The guy at the guitar shop owed me one, I did some web design for their website, it's all good" I reassured her.
Obviously they didn't give me the thing for free, but I got a break on the price so it had been affordable.
Although I would have gladly been in debt for the rest of my life if that what it had taken.
Max practically attacks me with a hug, "Thank you" she whispers into my ear, "Thank you so much"
"You should play something" I say, wrapping my arms around her even tighter.
Max nods and lets go of me, lifting the guitar into her lap.
She strums a few times before playing the first few chords of a song that's familiar to both of us, I Miss You by Blink 182.
Three minutes and fifty seconds later Max is finished the song and there's a huge smile on her face.
"Max" I say calmly, "Do you realize what you just did?" I ask her.
"Um, I played a song on the guitar?" she says, raising and eyebrow.
I nod, urging her to come to a conclusion on her own.
"Oh my God" she says, "I just played an ENTIRE song on the guitar" she says, her smile even wider now.
This is something Max has had a very difficult time doing since her accident, and this means that her hand is better.
This means that she is better.
A/N That's a wrap! I spent hours on this chapter (mostly because I got distracted by pretty much everything around me while writing it) so please review! Also, I've been working on another story (also Maximum Ride) and I only have the first few chapters written but was wondering if all of you, my lovely readers, would prefer that I post the pre-written chapters now and continue writing them as I go or if you'd prefer that I write the entire story and then post it. This would just mean that the posting of chapters would be more random as apposed to posting them at a specefic time on specific days of the week. Let me know!