Okay. I have decided against making you have to wait another million years for the next chapter so . . . IM WRITING IT NOW! You should be impressed that I'm doing this so soon after the first one. I don't have a great history of doing that. :P Anyway . . . That is not why you are here. On with the story!

Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride or any of its characters. I also do not own any of the music used in this story.

Last Time In Chapter 9:

Sure enough there was blood on the sleeve. Damn it. I was hoping against hope that he wouldn't notice. Before I could explain he'd pulled my sleeve up and was staring in horror at my wrist and forearm. I saw the blood drain from his face. He looked up at me and searched my eyes. I was an emotion in his that I couldn't remember seeing before. He was afraid. "Max!" Crap. "Um. . ." This was not good.

Chapter 10: Like He Really Cares:

Max POV:

"Ummm..." I stalled. What should I tell him? What could I tell him? It was kind of obvious what had happened. It was then that my brain decided that it would be great to throw at me every time Fang had been a jerk to me since he and Lissa got together. Every insult. Every time I wanted to just scream out in frustration. The hurt. I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Why do you care?" I screamed in his face. "Huh? It's not like you really want to know is it Fang? You just want something else you can throw in my face tomorrow at school. Well screw you! I never should have come here!" I knew I was taking it a bit out of proportion, but can you really blame me? After the way he's been treating me I'm surprised I didn't swear my ass off the first chance I got.

"Why do I care?" Fang looked a mixture of shocked and horrified. I wasn't sure whether or not to find it amusing or get angrier. "Max! Why wouldn't I care? The only reason I'm here is because I was worried about that bruise on your face? You can tell me Max. In fact you already have. There's no point in trying to hide anything from me, I can see right through it." I felt tears starting to water in my eyes. Oh god, now I'm going to cry. "Oh yea. If that's so true how come it's taken you so long to notice? Wasn't it you who found me crying in the utility closet? You still said nothing. You just shut the door and left! Now you expect me to think that this whole time you've cared." Oh yea, the tears were definitely flowing now. "I was going to tell you about this that day. The day you stabbed me in the back. The day you made sure this place was never going to be a fun getaway for me anymore. You might still see the good memories and I wish I could but all I see it you sitting with HER telling me you didn't want to be my friend. I was going to tell you about all of this! The drinking, the abuse, the hate. You think I wanted this to happen." I was sobbing now. Hysterical in fact. I had to fight to stay on my feet and I was momentarily glad that no one was around to hear my outbursts.

Fang looked like he was about to say something. "NO!" I cut him off. "I don't want to hear it. Just leave me alone. I NEVER want to see you again. EVER!" I screamed. With that I did that classic turn and run away thing. I was trying to stop myself from crying. If Jeb saw me like this he'd call me a baby and beat me harder. I knew that when I arrived home I was in for a world of pain. Just as I turned off the street the weather took a turn for the worst and it started to pour. Within seconds I was soaked through.

Fang POV:

As Max ran away in tears I felt helpless. No not helpless; useless, stupid and naive. How could I have been so stupid? If I'd been more of a friend she might not still be in this situation. I still couldn't believe that Jeb hit her. I was shocked and above all else: angry. I wasn't just mad at Jeb though, if I'm being honest, I was angry at myself. Obviously I felt the urge to kill Max's lame excuse for a father at the first chance I got, but . . . I didn't realise how much she hated me. I guess I should have expected as much, I haven't really done anything to help her, nor have I been civil towards her until today. She was right. Not about everything but she did have some key points there. First of all, I did find her crying in a utility closet. At the time I assumed she was still grieving over her mom, but I guess I was wrong. Either way, I should have asked her.

Rain was pouring down on me but I was too entranced in my thoughts to notice. There was one thing she was defiantly wrong about.

I did care.

Max POV:

When I finally arrived home, soaking wet I might add, I was overly shocked to find that Jeb was nowhere to be seen. I checked every room but I didn't bother looking for a note. When Jeb went out he just . . . went out. Why would he bother to tell me he was going somewhere? It's not like I cared. I was glad he wasn't here. I could take a shower and pretend that everything that happened this afternoon didn't happen. That it wasn't me, just some other girl in the exact same situation. But I knew that was hopeless. I was petrified of going to school tomorrow. Would Fang tell Lissa? I knew she would want to know where he was this afternoon. Maybe she already knows! Maybe they planned the whole thing just so they could tease me the next day.

I felt angry rising again. Calm down Max, that stupid voice scolded. Lissa isn't smart enough to come up with anything other than an insult. Even then they aren't very good. Just CALM DOWN. I guess I really was angry if I was yelling at myself in my head.

With all of these thoughts whizzing around in my mind, I had a shower and methodically made a dinner for Jeb that he most likely wouldn't eat. After I had finished I made my own dinner. Something else of course. Something he wouldn't notice was missing if her ever decided to look in the kitchen for food instead of booze.

When I was done I started on my homework. There was a lot due tomorrow. Our stupid science teacher thought it would be fun to make us review the horrible dissection we had to do today and apparently we had to come up with ideas for a project. We had to do it in partners and I sure knew who I didn't want to end up with.

Longish type chapter. Well, for someone who is writing at 11:13pm when they got up at 6. I think I did pretty well. Sorry if there are any mistakes. I'm too tired to edit.
~eternalreader62