Yay, it's summer break for me! Yay...
I'm going to be so bored. Sigh. That means enough time to update on regularly... probably. They aren't going to be every day updates or every other day, but most likely within the week. I'm working on other stuff.
Thanks for the reviews! Hope you like the next chapter.
Eleven years ago (4 years old)
I tug on my six-year-old brother's shirt and he looks down at me a little annoyed. "What?" He asks. "I'm in the middle of a game." He glances back at the TV screen just as some zombie dude bites into his shoulder and Game Over comes up on the screen. "Dang it!"
He sighs and sits back against the couch. When he looks at me again, his eyes are softer. "What is it?" He asks brushing my bangs out of my face.
I crawl onto the couch beside him and tuck my body against his slightly larger frame.
"It's Fang's birthday tomorrow but I don't know what to get him. He'll think I forgot." I whine.
He sets his controller down on the table beside the armrest and hugs me to his body. "Well, why don't you make him something?"
"Like what?" I look up at him with my wide brown eyes. His blue ones look right back into mine and he smiles.
"I don't know. Maybe draw a picture, or make him a necklace or something?"
I scrunch up my tiny nose and stick my tongue out. "He's a boy, why would he want a necklace?" He shrugs.
"How about...something to do with music. You guys like music right?"
I nod vigorously. "We're going to form a band one day and be famous!"
"Okay, then write him a song."
"But I don't know how to write a song!" My eyes are wide and innocent.
"Well, if you're going to be famous you have to learn sometime."
I think for only for a second before I nod. "Okay! Can you help me though?"
"Why do you want my help?"
"Cause it has to be perfect!" I grin up at him and he smiles back affectionately.
"I'll have to watch out or he'll take you from me."
"Nu-uh, You're the best big brother in the world! I will always love you most!"
"You say that now, but wait till you start to date him."
"What does that mean?" I tilt my head to the side and stare up at him.
"It means-" He pulls my hair gently- "your going to fall in love with him and mary him like papa did with mama."
"I'm gonna mary him?" I ask.
"Yup. Just like mama and papa."
Now
"Easy, easy! I'm not goin anywhere!" I exclaim as I'm shoved into a holding cell at the police station. "Hey!" I call as the fat cop started to walk away. "Don't I get a phone call?"
He glances back before continuing his path away from me Nudge and Iggy.
Iggy's chuckling behind me.
"This isn't funny!" I turn on him. "We are so in trouble, Janie will kill us. And of course she'll blame me because I'm the oldest, like always."
"Hey," he says lifting his hands in surrender, much like we did not twenty minutes ago with the cops. "I didn't know it was privet property!"
I still feel violated from the guy that patted me down. He spent a little too much time feeling up my chest and when I slapped him, I got punched in the jaw. It's red and starting to bruise. Its sends a jolt of pain through it when I speak but I don't let it show.
The sound of metal on metal makes me turn once more to the cell door. Fang's handcuffs are removed and fatty shoves him in. He stumbles forward before I steady him.
When his eyes fall on my face, his gaze is immediately pulled to my swelling cheek.
"What'd he do?" He demands in an angry voice. His finger tips graze my jaw and I flinch before I can stop myself. His eyes grow dark in furry and I put a hand on his arm to calm him down.
"It's nothing. Leave it alone."
His jaw tightens just the slightest bit. The bars are swung open again and Gazzy gets shoved in, cackling.
He and Iggy high five. I hear a sniff come from Nudge and I see her eyes watering.
"Are we going to jail? I don't want to go to jail, I can't go to jail. Do you know how bad that would look on a college resumé? Terrible, that's how. Not to mention all the big dudes that would pick on a small girl like me. I mean, at least Max would survive because she's tough and got Fang, But I would be beaten to a pulp!"
"Nudge!" I call, interrupting her rambling. "We're not going to jail. We're minors, and Janie will bail us out. Don't worry."
She nods and Iggy wraps an arm around she shoulders. She leans into him much like I'm leaning into Fang. Gazzy glances around, then leans against the bars of our 'cage'.
A female cop comes to the bars of our cell and I pull away from my best friend. "What brings you to the door of our lovely..." I glance at the bench by the wall and the one toilet in the open. I grimace. "home."
She ignores me and takes us all in. "Who will be making the phone call?"
We are silent, none of us wanting to be the one to tell our manager, but none of us wanting to stay locked up.
Fang sighs. "I guess that would be me."
Miss. Cop Lady opens the door and grabs hold of Fang's bicep, leading him out of view.
I sigh and plop down onto the hard bench. I groan and put my head in my hands. Five minutes later, Fang comes back looking exhausted. His hair is messed up and looks like he ran his hand through it many times in the last few minutes. My heart stutters for a second.
"How was she?" Iggy asks, no longer finding the situation funny. He might be irresponsible and not care much about authority, much like all of us, but he knows enough to be scared of Janie. She might be a small woman but she can be terrifying.
"Pissed." He says simply.
"No surprise there." Gazzy says and I nod in agreement.
"Did you catch the time?" I ask since they took my watch.
He gives me a grave look. "10:04."
"Greaaat." I draw out. "Not only are we arrested, but we're late for curfew. Awesome, peachy, magnificent. Wake me up when the demon arrives." I stretch out across the bench and despite the hardness of it, I fall asleep easily.
I don't wake up to yelling as I expect I would, which is worse. Nudge shakes me awake at 10:48 and I see a guard open the cell for us. This time though, he doesn't put the handcuffs back on us.
We file out like the good little prisoners we are and into the office building. Janie is standing at a desk filling out paper work. She doesn't even glance our way.
When she finishes, she finally looks at us, but still says nothing.
She snaps her fingers and points to the door. We keep our heads down and stay silent as well.
When we get back to the hotel and the door closes, she finally speaks. "You guys are lucky that the family whose yard you decided to blow up is a big fan of the Fallen Angels. They decided to not press charges so I gave them an autographed picture of each of you and back stage passes to your next concert."
I step forward, knowing I should say something. "Listen, Janie I-"
"Go to bed!" She points at the beds, throwing off her shoes and jacket.
We don't bother changing cloths as we go to our sleeping spaces. I slip into bed with Fang, our backs pressed together.
Janie doesn't say anything again.
I wake up at about 3:30am with a gasp and a gag. I drag myself to the edge of the bed and throw up into the little trashcan beside it. I gag more after that as sweat glistens on my forehead and shoulders, tears running down my cheeks.
I feel Fang's hand on my back, rubbing circles, and I relax slightly. Red still blots my vision from my dream and I wipe at my cheeks.
I grab the water bottle off the night stand and swish my mouth before spitting it out. I climb out of bed and strip off my sweat soaked cloths until I'm just in my bra and underwear, and slide back in next to Fang. I turn and bury my head in my best friend's chest, his arms going around me.
"Nightmares?" He asks. I nod and he sighs, pulling us down deeper into the sheets. He knows about my nightmares, he just doesn't always wake up when I have them. He would just worry even more if he knew I have them every night.
He strokes my hair and I force my body to relax and slow my breathing. I listen to his stead heart beat and I let the drumming in my ears lull me into a restless sleep.
We get up early that morning and are at the studio by eight. It's some famous talk show or something and we have to get ready.
My stylist is in the middle of putting concealer under my eyes and bruised cheek and I keep nodding off.
"Max, what is with you? Did you not sleep last night?" Janie doesn't sound angry like the night before. It's more of a concerned tone. I jerk my head up from another almost nod off and sniff.
"Huh? Oh ah, no. Not very well. I had a nightmare." I say rubbing my eyes with a yawn.
She nods, not really knowing what to say.
She opens her mouth, but then we are being introduced and I have to get up and walk onto the stage. One by one, my band and I file onto the stage and sit down on the large couch.
By the time Fang comes on though, there is no room. He glances at Iggy who has his back to the arm rest and has his feet stretched out across the only open space. Fang seems to think it's not worth trying to move him.
His eyes fall on my lap, and then he plops down on top on me. I grunt at his sudden weight.
"Oh no, you are not sitting on me." I push as hard as I can and he falls tot the floor at my feet. He leans back against my leg and I roll my eyes. "You can't do this stuff on live TV." I hiss at him.
Our hostess, Susan I think, eyes us for a second, then turns to Iggy. "So we've heard some roomers about an arrest? Can you tell us about this?"
"Ha ha, well you see..."
"Iggy was being an idiot and wanted to blow stuff up on our free time. Us being the even bigger idiots, followed him out to a field he claimed to be safe. Well turns out, that safe field was privet property. Long story short, police showed up, we got arrested, Janie picked us up. She was not happy is to say the least." I say I one breath.
"Have ever been arrested before this?" She asks.
Iggy speaks easily this time. "Actually yes. I had to spend a whole night in a cell with some drug dealer because I left a smoke bomb in a store, causing a huge panic. I was only caught because Nudge taddled on me."
"You deserved it. If you're never caught, you're never going to learn. Besides, I warned you I would if you did it."
He sticks his tongue out at her.
"What about the rest of you?" Susan tilts her head and looks at the rest of us.
"Well, you know what they say. 'A friend would bail you out of jail. But'..." I raise my finger.
"'A best friend would be sitting right next to you cursing out the world with you'." the Flock finishes together. It's kind of our modo. That and, 'if you're not fast enough to the food, you don't deserve to eat'.
"So..." Susan tails off, not knowing what our answer meant.
"Yes, we have been arrested one time or another. It was all Nudge's fault though. She decided hacking into the school computer and programing it to say, 'the cow goes moo' every five minutes would be fun."
"It was Gazzy's idea and we wouldn't have gotten caught if Iggy had only done what I told him to do."
Fang looks into the camera and says, "Don't try anything you hear us say at home or anywhere else. We are very bad role models but we have kind hearts." I snort and fingers pinch my leg. I yelp and rub it.
Susan looks amused. "So what's the most stupid thing you've ever done?" The question is directed at all of us.
"Hmm.. That's a hard one... Probably the time I decided to hand cuff Fang and Gazzy together after a taco night. Let's just say, when Fang got free, I was in a cast for six weeks. Do you know how hard it is to build a bomb with one hand?" Iggy rubs his wrist like he still remembers trying to build that bomb.
"So that's why Fang smelt like a sewage leak and you were all banged up." I muse. "Nice. I would have done the same." Fang taps his fist to mine.
Nudge goes next. "Mine was going to Iggy for advise about a boy. I mean, eww! I was thirteen Iggy!"
Thirteen year old Gazzy sits for a moment, thinking. "Everything I do can be defined as stupid." He shrugs.
"I should have never agreed to let Iggy play dress up with me. I looked like a Barbie from hell." I say rubbing a hand across my face.
"Max." Fang says.
"What?"
"The stupidest thing I have ever done was meet Max." I can feel him grin as he leans back against my legs. "She's a pain in the ass but life would be way to boring without her." There were 'awe's from the crowd and I blush.
"Idiot." I mutter.
Susan looks at us, shaking her head. "How long have you and Fang been secretly dating?" I choke on my spit and hear Iggy fail at an attempt to hold in a laugh.
"What? We're not dating, just friends."
"You seem to be awfully close."
"Well yeah, we've been best friends since we were kids, of course we're close."
"But when did it start to be more than friends?" She prompts leaning forward in her chair. I hear Iggy snickering beside me.
My palms are sweaty and my heart is oddly fast. "Sorry?"
"You mean you haven't seen it?" She reaches beside her chair and pulls out a magazine, handing it to me.
I can feel a terrible heat rushing to my face. On the front cover is Fang and I in our hotel bed. I'm curled up into his bare chest in my tank top and shorts and Fang in his boxers, arms wrapped around me.
I can see how bad this looks now.
I don't even want to look at the caption. "Shit." I turn to Iggy who is cracking up. "Iggy, when this is over, you better run for your life because I swear I will kill you. The only reason I'm not strangling you right now is because I don't want everyone watching this show, to be witnesses to your murder." He gulps and slouches in his seat.
Fang tugs the magazine from my hands and looks at it. He actually has the nerve to laugh.
"So tell me." Susan leans forward in her chair even more. "What is your relationship?"
I open my mouth but Fang beats me to it. "She's my girlfriend." I face palm. There are a bunch of squeals.
"I am not your girlfriend!"
"Are you a girl?"
"Oh my god. We are not having this conversation again. Yes, I'm a girl. Yes, I'm your friend. That does not make me your girlfriend."
He blinks up at me. "How?"
"Ugh! You have had a girlfriend before. You know what a girlfriend is. You just like to get on my nerves. Don't. Encourage them."
I turn to the hostess. "Listen, we are best friends and we have known each other since we were born. Our parents were best friend in high school so we grew up in two houses. Half the time we slept at my house, the other times at his house. We share everything, and yes, even beds. We were one short so we don't mind sharing." I finish my short rant.
I hear a snort beside me. "Not once in you life have you not shared a bed." Nudge says. "Even when we have extra beds, we wake up to you two curled up beside each other."
I turn my glare to her. "Not helping."
"Okay." Fang butts in. "Let's move on. I don't want to talk about our love life anymore."
"Oh my god." I throw my head back and groan.
"Hey Max, save it for the bed room."
"That's it!" I shoot to my feet. "I don't care if the entire world sees, I'm going to kill you." I take a step toward Iggy and I had never seen him move so fast.
He was out of his seat and screaming as I chased him. I tackle him to the ground and sit on his chest. I hear Janie yelling at me to get off of him, but then he opens his big ass mouth again.
"You see this Fang? Max is cheating on you!" I hear laughter all around me.
Then I'm being lifted off the colorful pyro as if I weigh nothing. Then I'm being carried away.
Fang sits down in my previous spot with me in his lap. His arms are locked around me meaning, I'm not going anywhere. I mentally curse Iggy, Fang, Susan, and the entire damn world.
I pout but lean back against his muscled chest.
Susan looks at us and shakes her head. "How are you not a couple? You certainly act like it."
I have calmed down immensely so I answer. "This idiot seems to think so, but I think he just likes to annoy me. He's just lonely because he can't keep a girlfriend for more than one date, let alone get a date without my help. He can't flirt his way out of a paper bag." He pinches me in the side and I yelp, slapping his hand away.
"I can't keep a girlfriend because I don't want one."
"Ah, that's right. You still have that crush on someone back home."
He shrugs. "Somethin like that."
Susan turns to Iggy. "Do you have a special girl back home?"
He shakes his head. "Nope, no one."
She smiles a little. "I'm sure it wont be that hard to find one."
"Oh, don't get me wrong, I like someone, it's just she doesn't like me back. Not many girls actually fall for a crazy pyro."
"That is true." Nudge nods in agreement.
Iggy's eyes darken.
"Well, what about you? Do you have someone special?"
Nudge shakes her head but her eyes flick to Iggy. I cover my mouth to keep in a squeal.
"Gazzy does though. He has a thing for Max's little sister."
My head jerks up. "He what?!"
Gazzy's face turns red, starting at his neck. "You promised you wouldn't tell!"
"Sorry."
"No you're not."
"I know."
Thanks for reading. Please leave a review, let me know what you think.
Thanks for everything,
-Fantasy