~∞ ROSES ∞~
Chapter Ten: The Center of a Rose
"EEK! He asked you out again!" Nudge squealed, as if she had forgotten their earlier argument. The more forgotten, the better, Max thought, as she nodded. "He is sooooo flippin' whipped!" she exclaimed. "Plan W.T.F.B.I.T.C.H.E.R. in action!"
"Plan WTF Bitcher?" Max questioned, weirded out by her friend. Seriously, who comes up with plan names like that?
Nudge nodded excitedly. "Yep! W.T.F.B.I.T.C.H.E.R., also known as, 'Whip the Fangster Back into the Correct Healthy Ego Range!" she sang.
Max stared at Nudge oddly. "You came up with the acronym first, didn't you?" she accused, smiling though.
She shrugged. "Guilty. But it makes sense! Besides the fact he's 'the Fangster'. I had to improvise." Max shook her head, but had to laugh at Nudge's imaginative and silly ideas.
"It's late, Nudge. We should go to bed," Max said softly, as Nudge began giggling over nothing. She always had those days, when there was so much excitement, so much to talk about, that she became overly-hyped up, and began to crash.
Nudge giggled, but complied, as she snuggled down under the covers of her bed.
"Night Nudge," Max said tiredly. She was responded with a giggle.
As Max willed her brain to sleep, she thought of the past events of the day. And they all revolved around Fang. She wasn't sure if everything she had originally thought of him was a lie, or if he had suddenly changed. Max knew Fang was a cocky, prudish player – the whole school knew that – but what made Max so special? So special, that he somewhat improved his ways, denied the school's most popular girl, and worked up the guts to ask Maximum Ride out?
They way he acted towards Max seemed different – genuine. At least, that was Max's view on the situation, seeing he didn't flirt with her as much as he usually does, and that he asked her out twice in one day.
Max knew Fang was scared of rejection. She could see it in his glimmering black eyes when he first had asked her. If he asked her because of a dare... Well, he wouldn't have enough self-confidence to do so, nor would he want to risk his pride.
His pride, that he boasted around. "Hey look, I can do whatever!" was the aura that was radiated off of him when he walked through the halls.
The aura of a prick.
Max's eyes slowly drooped shut, with one last thought.
Fang isn't a prick.
Not to me.
...
He slid into the seat next to her at lunch. Max's face looked shocked, similar to the rest of the students in the cafeteria. One glare from Fang, and another from Max was enough to shut their mouths, and make them return to eating their lunches.
But that didn't stop the buzzing of gossipers. You could hear Nudge's phone vibrate at least fifteen times in ten seconds, as she smirked at Max from across the table.
Max shook her head, her hair flinging back and forth, causing hairs to slip out of the pony tail. This was all predicted by Nudge earlier this morning, and Max's brain still hurt from having to listen to all of it.
Fang had been rejected, twice, that was for sure. Yet he still was sitting at Max's side. If he couldn't work hard enough to get her to fall for him, then he'd just have to work twice as hard for Max to befriend him. To trust him.
Psh, who was he trying to fool? Max wasn't one to trust easily. She took a while to trust Nudge, her best friend. She was afraid of becoming to attached. Fang knew that all right. But he did know why. He only assumed it was because of her father, and only the Lord knows if Max would even admit to that.
Fang couldn't quite figure Max out. Everyone else, he could read like a book, but Max – Max was tightly bound together.
Like the center of a rose.
He knew something from Max's past lead her to an obsession of roses. The question was, what?
"Er, Fang?" Max asked quietly. He averted his attention towards her, eyes beckoning her to continue. "What are you doing here?" she wondered.
Fang shrugged. "I'm eating my lunch."
Max rolled her chocolate brown eyes. "Yes, I can see that, but why... here?"
"Do you not want me here?" he questioned, surprised.
She hesitated a second, before shrugging, and continuing to eat her lunch. "Max?" he asked.
"Yes, Fang?"
"Thanks for the rose, by the way," he said as sincerely as he could.
Max blinked, surprised. "You're welcome...?" She bit her lip. "Do you, uh, know what it is?" she asked awkwardly. This was so out of character for Max; she was normally loud, proud, and tall, not caring what others think. But sitting here next to Fang was just too tense for her to be herself.
He took a moment, before responding. "Yes," he answered truthfully.
"Really?" she inquired, her fingers digging closer together in her sandwich.
"Really. Black roses means hate," Fang informed Max.
"Yes, I know, but why did you thank me then? Even after I rejected you... twice?" she wondered, bewildered.
Fang smirked. "Do you know what the opposite of love is?"
Max blinked multiple times. "Hate? Which is why I sent you that specific rose..." she explained.
Although Fang's heart deflated some, he remained strong. "No. You're wrong. The opposite of love actually isn't hate. It's indifference."
"Explain?"
"Indifference means you don't even care about them. You simply ignore them, or in other terms, the opposite of love. Hate means you dislike them, but still think about them; there's a difference. You've been outsmarted, face it." He smiled smugly, pausing a bit for the dramatic effect. "And you know what? That means Maxie thinks about me alll the time."
She screeched, silencing the entire cafeteria. "I HATE YOU!"
"Yet you think about me every second of the day!" Fang retorted, full-out smiling. Many girls gasped, some even fainted. It wasn't everyday that Fang Walker smiled.
"YOU FRICKIN' MANGIRL!" Max cried, using some of the blackmail material she had retrieved the other day.
Fang's face blanched. "You wouldn't..." he warned, voice faltering some, so unlike his normal cool and collected persona.
Max smiled mischievously. "Watch me," she smirked, standing up and opening her mouth.
And that's when Fang tackled her to the ground.