~∞ ROSES ∞~

Chapter Fifteen: Rose Girl

"Hey, Max," Lissa chirped with a big smile, as she slid into the seat to the right of Max. "Hi Fang, Iggy, and Nudge," she added.

Max nodded up at her. "Hey. What brings you here?"

"Oh, I just wanted to sit with West High's most popular, perfect, and unpredicted couple! And introduce you to my boyfriend, Sam!" Behind her, was an average height guy with brown, chestnut hair to his ears, tortoise-shell eyes, and a blinding white smile. "Everyone else has already met him, correct?"

Sam looked at Max with a deep gaze that made Fang's fist clench until they were white. He looked around, noticing no one else was irked by it.

"I'm Sam," he introduced himself, holding out a hand for Max to shake. He flashed a wide smile at her. "So, this is Fang's infamous rose girl. Glad to finally meet you, Max."

She raised an eyebrow. Rose girl? Max thought. I'll have to ask him about that later... None-the-less, she shook his hand, giving a brief smile in return. "Yeah. That's me, the rose girl," Max replied, sending a pointed look Fang's way.

Fang shrugged, winking. "Well after lunch yesterday, you were mine for all to see," he smirked. Maybe he was just being friendly, Fang thought. Not like he'd try and make a move on her; he has Lissa, and I have Max...

Max cocked her head to the side, trying to remember what happened yesterday at lunch. Recognition flooded through her brain and Fang could almost see her mind replaying what had happened the other day. "Ugh! You retard. A hickey. Seriously. A frickin' hickey!"

"You know you liked it," he retorted smiling at her, to everyone else's surprise. For Max, it was almost natural to see him smile, or hear him talk. She rolled her eyes playfully in response, her face beginning to heat up.

"Shuddup," she muttered, brushing a piece of hair behind her ear, and taking a bite of her sandwich. "No one wants to hear you toot your ass off."

Fang nodded in agreement. "Yes, because they all would rather see it," he said nonchalantly.

Max's mouth gaped open as she choked on air. "You did not just -,"

"EEK! Wow, you two are just so adorable!" Lissa crooned, her cheeks stretched out in a grin. "I'm so glad we're friends now, Max. You're cool to hang out with," she complimented.

I'm... cool... to hang out with, Max mused, not even yelling at Lissa for interrupting her. "Um... Thank you?"

She nodded excitedly and headed off to the salad bar. Sam slid in to where Lissa was previously sitting (to the right of Max) and began talking. "So, Max," he began. "How are you?"

Stuffing her sandwich in her mouth, Max opened it to respond and Sam's nose wrinkled in disgust. "Uhm, mm fine," she mumbled, her words distorted and jumbled up with the food still in her mouth. Fang tried to hide his snicker, covering it up with a cough, by the look of disgust on Sam's face.

Gingerly, Sam picked up a napkin and held it to Max. "Well, I know what someone's going to be doing this summer," he attempted to joke.

Fang's eyebrows raised. "What, snogging me?"

"Fang, only British people say, 'snogging'," Max said, rolling her eyes, not even picking up on the hint that Fang wasn't planning on dumping her by the end of the school year.

He looked at her. "Your point?" Again, she rolled her eyes.

A small cough came from Max's right. "Umm, no. Taking lessons on manners," Sam said all 'matter of factly'.

Max and Fang looked at each other for a split second before the couple burst out into guffaws of laughter. Well, Max did, and Fang simply laughed. "M-m-manners?" Max choked out clutching her stomach.

"My Max? And manners?" Fang asked incredulously.

Sam's face showed clear confusement. "Don't all girls care about manners and being ladies and doing their hair?"

Max pinched the bridge of her nose. "You clearly don't know me," she managed.

"Yeah," Iggy added, from where he and Nudge were talking. "Because I like, love to like, do hair and like, nails, too!" he mocked in a Valley-girl accent.

Sam blinked at Iggy. "Whoa, dude. Lay off the accent. For a second, you reminded me of Sydney!"

It was now Iggy's turn to blink at Sam. "Not cool dude. Not cool. Sydney's my ex and you know that. Besides, hers is much more coated with crap than mine."

"It's more like, 'Gurlfriend, I like, love your nails. They are like, so cool! We should like, totally go get mani-pedi's together one day! Like, that'd be tots amazing!" Nudge imitated. "What?" she exclaimed when she noticed the stares she was getting. "You know it's true! At least one word in every sentence is emphasized when she talks. Don't say you didn't notice that! You did, right Iggy? Since you dated her?"

"Umm... yeah... She did."

Nudge sighed, before she straightened her back. "Look, here she comes now!" she whispered. All five heads turned to look at the girl strutting their way.

Sydney wasn't necessarily a slut, but her clothes were more revealing, or tighter, than most. Today, she was wearing a tight pink polo, tight enough so you could barely see her bra showing through, and her obviously flat stomach. Her long legs were covered with a pleated white cotton skirt, going down to past mid-thigh. In all, with her curly brown locks thrown into a neat ponytail, she looked like she was ready to go play tennis.

Her green eyes flared when she spotted Max with Fang's arm wrapped around her, but other than that, she kept up her 'charming' smile that wooed the boys into willingly dating her.

Sydney hadn't come there to 'steal Fang away'. She was, so to speak, a bitch at times, but there was such things as 'girl code' existed in her vocabulary. No, Sydney was there to get Iggy - or James, as she called him - back.

"Hey, Fang," she smiled charmingly at him. "Sam." Another dazzling smile. "And last, but not least, Iggy." Sydney batted her eyelashes at him flirtatiously. She turned to the three other girls, seeing Lissa had returned. "Oh. And there's you all."

Max scoffed, looking at Sydney weirdly, but Sydney just tossed her hair over her shoulder, completely ignoring her. Rather, she turned her attention towards Iggy. "So, Iggy," she flirted. "I've like been thinking about you, ever since we broke up -,"

"Since you broke up with me."

She waved it off. "Whatever. But I want to give us a second chance. Are you willing to like, do that for me?

Iggy opened his mouth to respond, but he was cut off by someone who just entered the cafeteria doors. "Hot, damn, she is hot."

Sydney smiled. "Why thank you!"

He shook his head. "Not you. Her."