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MAX POV

"C'mon! Chop, chop!"

"Shut up, Nicholas!" I screamed at him, my voice rising too a very dangerous tone where I would start screaming my very loud, ear-piercing scream with frustration. Hitting all the schools blackboard dusters together to clean them I could handle. Polishing all the windows spotless I could handle. Sweeping and raking all leaves still lying on the ground from autumn (and it was winter now) I could handle. Even scrubbing every single grain of dirt on the cement I could handle. But with Fang yelling in our ears, above our heads like an annoying god, surrounding us with his controlling voice, "Chop, chop!" every single day, now that I could not handle.

J.J. sighed with exhaustion. "Watch out, Fang. She will literally hunt you down one day if you keep this up." She sighed again. I glanced up to see Fang's surprised face and grinned evilly. I would make him so scared, he'll poop his pants.

"Just... hurry up. I have better things to do than watch over you two." Sure, and we didn't want to spend our time some other way.

"And I haven't seen my two sisters in a year and need to do a little catch up. But we all can't have what we want." I couldn't help it. I was really pissed off at the moment and I blamed most of it on Fang, even though he hadn't really done anything. Well... he kind of did, if you think about it. "If we hurry up or not, we are still here for two hours, so why do we have to 'hurry up'?"

"I need to leave," was all he said and ran off toward the parking lot.

"C'mon, J.J. Can't stay here if we don't have someone watching us. We are forced to leave." I grinned widely and she mirrored my expression. And we skipped off towards home. Not really. We dawdled towards my house. W had made an agreement with our parents that J.J. would come over to my house and we would stay there until before dark, then J.J. would go home. "I am so not coming to school tomorrow. If I can plead my mum enough, that is," I stated.

"You just read my mind," J.J. said and we burst out laughing for no exact reason.

...

I couldn't persuade my mum and J.J. obviously could persuade her mum. Just like that I was all alone, with Fang (he didn't count as company) with rain pouring down on us. "C'mon, Max. I'll just tell the principal we left because it was pouring down buckets of rain. You can come off duty now. I don't know. Um... your home awaits you. Max, you'll get sick." Fang has been trying to get me to leave. He'd been trying to get me to stop since I started.

And I had refused to leave for god knows why. I just felt like I needed to be here. Right here, right now. I stayed on my knees, scrubbing away at the pavement. It was gonna get dirty again anyway. I wasn't making much of a difference.

Fang got down on his knees next to me, laying his hand on my shoulder that I surprisingly didn't shrug off. He lowered his face closer to the ground so I could see him. "Max. Go home. You'll get a cold."

"What does it matter to you? I have to walk home, anyway."

He lifted himself up and ended up sitting on his feet. "What do I have to do to make you stop this and go home? You've gone past your required time long ago and you won't even go home now. Please... just... what can I do?"

"Nothing." He wasn't making me pissed off today. He was just... I really don't know what I was feeling. But he seemed to feel concerned. That's not right.

He grabbed my face tightly in his hands and pulled me forward until I was only millimetres away from his face, forced to look into his deep, dark brown eyes. He moved the tinniest bit closer, hesitated, and then kissed my forehead.

Confused, I looked at him. He opened his mouth and words started tumbling out. "Remember when I said I didn't remember that offer I made to be friends? Well, I don't why I said that, just, please. I'm going against everything anyone ever told me to do. I don't know what to do. And your life looks so easy and you follow your own path and I thought maybe if I was friends with you, I could learn. Learn how to have a good life, my own life. Learn to have friends. I don't know. Please tell me what you were going to say." It looked like he would go and beg on his knees if he really had to.

"I was going to say..." I hesitated, debating whether or not I should tell him the truth. "...okay."

"What do you say now? I mean you don't have to, but–"

"Shut up, Fang! Okay, okay! I will be your friend!" A good thing or a bad thing. I had only promised that I wouldn't fall for him. I hadn't promised myself that I couldn't be his friend.

"Thank you!" Fang burst out in delight, wide smile spread across his face. He grabbed my face and kissed my forehead again. Letting go, he ran off and... I squinted to see past the sheets of water falling down around me. Was he dancing? Oh god. I burst out laughing, saw Fang turn around and smile at me, then keep dancing.

We were the only ones crazy enough to stay in the rain for hours, it seems.