Guys, this trilogy, as a whole, now has a name: Our Eternity. The idea for the name came from UNDERLANDERfromtheOVERLAND, who came up with it after I told her the name of the third story. Which, as I forgot to mention last chapter, is You and Me Forever. So thanks to UNDERLANDERfromtheOVERLAND, because I just love the series' name!
"Max, wake up. We've gotta go to work."
At first, I couldn't figure out whose voice was above me, and then I realized it was Fang's. I hadn't spoken to him since our disagreement the day before. About an hour after I stomped off to my room, he'd come in and rubbed my back for a while, occasionally trying to talk to me, but I refused. Eventually, he got up and left, leaving me feeling guilty and lonely, but mostly stubborn.
"Okay," I mumbled, rolling over. "Five more minutes."
"No, we're already running late," Fang said, gently pulling my covers off of me. "That's my fault. I--"
Now, detecting something in his voice, I looked up at him. "You what?"
"I just got back," he muttered, moving from the door. "It took longer than I thought."
"What took longer than you thought?" I demanded, standing up and crossing my arms.
Fang nervously ran a hand through his shaggy hair, and I raised my eyebrows, waiting. "I took Gracie out for a flight, and then took her to school."
"You what?" I shrieked, enraged. How could he do that? How could he take her someplace dangerous, and behind my back, no less? "She's at school?"
"Yeah."
"I am going to wring," I seethed, taking a step forward with each word, "your scrawny little neck."
Fang kept stepping back until his back hit the wall, and I stood on tiptoes to get in his face. "I cannot believe you took her to school, where Brigid is, Brigid, who pushed her off the monkey bars! And behind my back!"
"If it helps," Fang said, "you look really hot when you're mad."
On instinct, I slapped him across the face. He winced and held his cheek. "Guess I deserved that."
"Yeah," I said. "You did." I looked across the room at the clock. It was too late-- we didn't have time to go get Gracie, bring her home, and then go to work. "As soon as we get off work, we're going to the school and getting Gracie. And unless something happens, they are not going back after Christmas. That's the way it's gonna go, no arguments. Okay? Okay."
Without waiting for a response, I shoved him into the hallway and slammed the door in his face. And that, my friends, was Max taking control.
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We drove to the store in silence. Fang was driving, calm and stoic as always, and I was slouched in the passenger seat, my arms crossed tightly over my chest, seething. When we parked, I got out and slammed the door, then marched past Fang and into the store. He heaved a big sigh, but didn't say anything, and I headed to my register, where I worked alone for the next two hours.
I helped a lot of customers, but I did it in a half-sleeping state, as my thoughts were racing. First, I was worried sick about Gracie and whether she was safe. And then, right behind that, I was wondering what was happening to my relationship with Fang. He used to be just as paranoid as me, and now, he didn't seem worried about anything at all. I didn't understand it, and the thought of not understanding Fang, who I had always known like the back of my hand, was a very scary thing.
As I handed a woman her change and receipt, I heard running steps behind me. Assuming it was just some wild little kid, I wished the woman a good day and began ringing up the next customer. I'd barely gotten started, though, when I was grabbed from behind, then lifted into the air and spun around.
"What the--" I stopped when I saw who was holding me: Fang, wearing the biggest, brightest smile of his life.
I was totally confused. We were in the middle of a fight, our son was at home with Iggy because he was suspended, and we were dirt poor. So I could not, for the life of me, figure out what had caused this random burst of happiness.
"Fang, what is--" I began again, but then Fang did the most shocking thing of all. Right there, while my customer was still waiting for me to ring her up, with our boss only about fifty feet over, in the middle of that busy grocery store, he dipped me, way back, and gave me a very long kiss.
When we drew back a full minute later, both of us breathing hard, Fang still holding me only a couple feet above the ground, I whispered, "What was that?"
"I got a job," he said, the grin slowly stretching back across his face.
At that, I lost interest and rolled my eyes, pushing him back so I could stand upright. "Yes, Fang, I know. So do I, and we're both supposed to be doing them."
"No, I mean, like a real job!" he said. "As a columnist. At Tucson Weekly."
I stared at him. "No way."
"Yes way."
I couldn't even wrap my mind around it. Who would hire Fang? I mean, he had all of three months of schooling, he was seventeen, and he was an infamous mutant freak. Even if he had been looking for another job, which I knew he wasn't, I highly doubted he would be hired. "How?"
"This guy came through my line and read my name tag," he said excitedly, almost hopping up and down, as hard as that is to believe. "And he asked if I was the kid with the blog, and I said yeah--"
"Why'd you say yeah? He could have been after you!"
"Max." Fang took my shoulders and held me in front of him. "That guy was the editor at Tucson Weekly. And he loved my blog. So he hired me, on the spot."
"That's great!" I said, now beyond the paranoid I'd had when he said the guy knew who he was. I threw my arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Marie, looking extremely displeased, bustling toward us, but I didn't care. She could fire us and it wouldn't matter, because one of us had an actual job. And we could provide for ourselves. Finally.
"How much are you gonna make?" I asked into Fang's shoulder.
"Thirty-five thousand a year," he said, a smile still in his voice.
I don't think I had ever been so happy before. It was like, after all this trouble, these seventeen years that included a horrific childhood, countless near-death situations, too much hiding, and absolutely no money or way to make it on our own in the world, something had finally gone right. And everything was looking up.
"Max," Marie said as she got close to us, at the exact moment the phone behind me rang. Figuring I should try to infuriate her before I was fired for good, I pulled away from Fang and picked it up, answering cheerily.
"Ms. Ride." I'd gotten used to talking to Dr. Clement on the phone, but his voice sounded different this time, and it unnerved me. Plus… Devin wasn't even there. What on earth could this be about?
"Yeah," I said, furrowing my brow. "It's me."
"I'm afraid we have a bad situation here," he said, and cleared his throat. "Gracie seems to have disappeared."
I stood, motionless, for a moment. Out of my peripheral vision, I became vaguely aware that Marie was ushering my long line somewhere else, her face growing more irritable by the second. "She what?"
Fang stepped closer, watching me carefully, as Dr. Clement said, "Gracie and the student teacher, Ms. Drison, went outside to recess but didn't come back in. We searched the playground and the immediate area around the school, but there's no trace of either of them."
I didn't need to find a trace of them to know what had happened. Brigid had kidnapped my little girl.
Not bothering to say goodbye, I slammed the phone back on the rocker and spun to poke an accusing finger at Fang's chest. "This is all your fault!"
"Max, calm down," he said, catching my hand and encompassing it in his. "What's going on?"
"Gracie's gone," I snapped, and paused to register the shock, worry, and sudden paleness of his features. "And guess who else disappeared? Brigid! Do you think she's harmless now, Fang? Are you still gonna take her side now that she has our daughter?"
Without waiting for an answer, I brushed past him and ran toward the store's exit, only thinking about getting to my baby, even though I had no idea how I was going to do that.
Oooh. Drama.
Review, please?