DISCLAIMER: I don't own MR.

Fang

In every romantic comedy, or any other romantic movie for that matter, there will always be a part where the guy and the girl have an awkward moment or fight with each other and then just end up ignoring each other for weeks or months, like what happened before that meant nothing. It was just like that between Max and I. Only longer.

Because it's been almost a year.

It's a literal time skip from August to May. If that is not a long time, then I care to be enlightened.

I ruined everything. And by everything, I mean everything.

Well, yes, I did actually still see her on a daily basis. We had the same homeroom, though I always sat at the far end almost at the back, while she took a window seat somewhere in the middle of the rows. We had different classes, and even if we had the same homework, we never asked each other. Sometimes Tess and Iggy (who seems to be getting over it) invite her and her friends to sit with us. But we'd be caught up talking to someone else, and the noise on top of it all never really allowed for an actual honest conversation.

I missed her.

There were some times that we'd suddenly bump into each other and have a short conversation. That didn't matter so much, since it was always a greeting, followed by a how are you, and ended with an I guess I'll see you on Monday, or whatever day school was going to be on again. Pretty much the same conversation we rarely have when we're at school

I haven't seen her in the clearing for a long time.

While it feels, weird, it just basically reminds me of those times during freshman year, when we were just two people on the first-name basis. But those times then were less complicated. We still told each other random stuff from our lives. We still laughed at each others jokes, and stick our tongues out at each other's insults. Those times were before we kissed, before Iggy asked her out, before I told her how I feel.

I'm not back at square one. Square one started when we were already close. This was square negative-something.

I rarely hear her insults. I haven't heard her sing in what feels like a million years, even if it's just those corny commercial jingles.

But I wish I could go back to square one, so that I could start again and that I could just admit it to her right away, no confusion, no impulse kisses, no secret deals. No heartbreaks, no accidents, no complications, no awkwardness.

And those are exactly the things I never can and never will predict.

I know it's going to end here. After graduation there is a humungous chance that this will be forgotten, that this will be one of those parts of high school that brings out those amazing life lessons that you never knew you needed to learn, and then we'll probably just smile at each other and say our goodbyes and go to college. Then we'll come back all old and mature, and maybe I would call her up for some coffee and catching up, in the case we still had contact. And then we'll go back to the times like these and we'll just laugh about it and say something about how we've really grown up.

I don't want it to be like that. I want it to be us together at graduation, us bonding over during college, us going back together and sharing crazy stories with our friends. I want to tell her that I love her and I want to be with her even if it turns me into a lovesick wimp that tries to make everything work for that someone.

But I can't. I just can't.

"Hey, Fang," Tess called out, running down the stairs two at a time. "Let's play a game."

I looked up from the college brochures scattered over the kitchen table. Tess of course, couldn't care less about other choices, since she got into her first choice, which was also parent-approved.

"What game?" I asked. Iggy entered the kitchen, and I gave him a look asking if he knew anything about this. He shook his head.

"I call it 'Truth or Truth'."

"You're kidding, right?"

"No Fang, it's called 'Truth or Truth'. It goes like this: I ask you a question, and you either answer honestly or I give you a long speech convincing -slash- forcing you to answer honestly."

"How original."

She gave me her sweetest, most-convincing smile and sat down across me, swiping the brochures aside. Iggy leaned against the counter and raised an eyebrow at Tess.

"You up for the first question?"

I nodded, shifting my focus to the latest brochure I was reading. Tess quickly took it out of my hands and gathered the rest of brochures near her.

"You know I was reading that."

"You know you're doing something else than looking for another school when you already got accepted to several others."

"Fine. What's the first question?"

"No skipping, dodging, avoiding, or neutral answers. It's as simple as a yes and no."

"Yeah, sure. Go ahead and shoot."

This time it was Tess' turn to raise an eyebrow at Iggy. He merely shrugged in reply.

"Okay." She said, putting both palms on the table. "First question: Do you like Max, or do you like Max?"

"You do know that there's only one choice."

"I never said you had to choose. I just said that you had to answer 'yes' or 'no'."

"Is 'or' one of those options?"

"Very funny."

It took two minutes of silence for me to think if this was a prank or if they really had sensed that I had feelings for the aforementioned person.

"Remember," Tess reminded me. "No skipping, no dodging, no avoiding, and no neutral answers."

I looked at Iggy for a little help. He shrugged again, and I remembered that he had no idea about the truth.

"Don't you already know the answer to that one?"

She nodded slowly, and then stood up. "The answer's 'yes', isn't it?"

"Tess, what I meant by that was that you know that we're just friends."

"That's what you say."

"Care to enlighten me?"

Iggy, who somehow had a look of interest on his face (but not the type involved with anger or jealousy or whatever someone felt when they find out that their best friend likes their ex), sat down on the chair between Tess and I. "Exhibit A: you and Max spent more than half of the senior year not acknowledging each other. You guys usually hang out as often as we do."

Tess sat back down, this time with poise like an attorney's. "Exhibit B: you have been more silent, with or without Max. Emphasize on the 'with'."

"I'm stressed," I tried to reason out. "Yeah, I am sorry that I only seem to hang out with the two of you, but there's a lot on my mind, okay?"

"There's still something else." Iggy replied.

"Exhibit C," Tess answered, this time in a lower voice, even though the three of us knew that my parents weren't here. "I've seen you guys kiss."

That made me hold my breath and pray that it had nothing to do with the beach or the clearing or Aladdin. "Repeat that."

"When you got in the accident, and Max stayed for the night." You were talking in the middle of the night, while I was sleeping. There was one point I sort of woke up just in time to hear you say that you liked her and then you kissed her."

"So…"

This time it was Iggy who spoke up. "So it means that she rejected you." He said, fortunately without any sign of arrogance.

"So Fang, answer the question. Yes or yes?"

"Fine. Yes."

"I knew it!" The two of them said at the same time and exchanged high-fives.

"You knew?" I asked Iggy. Hopefully, he knew the parts after the breakup.

"Am I or am I not your best friend?"

"Unfortunately, you have a point there. So what are you guys going to do about it, anyway?"

"We're getting you guys together."

"Well I'm sure she wouldn't like that. I'm going to Tennessee, remember?" I said, holding up an acceptance letter in my hand as proof.

"Who says she's not leaving, too?" Iggy asked. Of course, as her ex, he knew a lot of things about Max.

"This is probably going to be a suicide mission, right?"

"But it's worth a shot."

"When did you start liking Max?"

As a "favor", I was now in Tess' room, sitting on her desk chair while she was on the floor near her bed, a pen and notebook in hand. According to her, she was doing an investigation of sorts to find the perfect way on how to confess and get Max.

"How is that going to help?"

"So I know if this is one of the impulse things you have, or if you really are in love with her."

"That story would take several seasons."

"I don't care if it takes seven books or four seasons and a movie. I will still be squealing at the cuteness of it afterwards."

And that's how I ended up telling Tess everything. And by everything, I literally mean everything. Well, not really since I left out some of the parts that indicated that Max might've "cheated" on Iggy, plus the other embarrassing ones. But, yeah, everything, right down from freshman year until the last time we had a serious talk, which was almost a year ago.

"Let me get a recap." She said. I cringed at the thought, since the last time I recapped with someone else, that someone else had practically dumped me.

"So you told her you liked her."

"Yeah."

"And then you kissed her."

"Yes."

"And then you guys had a serious talk."

"Go on…"

"And then she practically dumped you…"

"Something like that."

"And you never made another move?"

"I never did."

Tess instantly dropped her pen and had her palm connect with her face. The usual indicator that you did something wrong. After muttering a few choice words, she looked up at me with a half-pissed expression.

"Why the heck did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Not make a move."

"Because she didn't feel comfortable about it."

"Well, yeah, sure, it would've been just as weird and creepy as a vampire watching a teenage girl sleep, but you two are different. Because, one, you're not dead, and two, she likes you enough to not think that you're stalking her."

"Says who?"

"Says you telling the story. Think about it, there would be no chain reaction, no complications, if she didn't like you. But she did, and she shot back. If she didn't, then the worst would've been Aladdin."

"You amazingly have a point there, but no, I still do not believe in that nor will I follow your lead on getting us together."

"Who says that's going to happen? Either you follow my lead, or I will give you another long speech convincing -slash- forcing you to follow my lead."

"Well, if what you said is true, how are you sure that Max still likes me after what happened?"

"No ifs. I'm very sure about this."

"So what makes you say she still likes me?"

"Easy, she feels just as awkward as you are."

"You, once again, have a point there. But that does not necessarily mean that I will all of a sudden start buying red roses and sing love songs while she's up in her balcony."

"That can be arranged. You can buy another flower, and you'll just sing right in front of her. I'm sure she doesn't have a balcony, anyway."

"So what else am I supposed to do that does not have anything involving flowers and love songs?"

"You'll see," She replied, a smile beginning to form on her face. "I have more ideas than you think."

"And that is why I believe that my half-sister is a true psycho when it comes to matchmaking."

"Hard to believe that." Iggy replied. "If she's that great, then I should've asked her las time."

Oh, right. Iggy equals Max's ex. All year that was the only thing that was constantly in the back of my mind, since it was the voice of reason Max used when we had that serious talk . They did occasionally sit beside each other during lunch, but the two of them were less awkward. Plus, they talked more often.

"Iggy, serious bro talk over here."

"I'm listening."

"You are over Max, right?"

He sighed. "Let's do a recap shall we?" Without waiting for me to reply, he started counting off his fingers. "How long has it been since we broke up? Nine freaking months. How many times do we have conversations in a day? At least five, which is way more than yours. How many girls have I flirted with since the breakup? At least ten. So yes, that means I AM over her."

"It's just that… Well, even if I know that not dating your best friend's ex is in the rules of feminism, isn't that in the bro code, with the exception if she wasn't a scumbag and you were the one who dumped her?"

"Well, you know Max wasn't a scumbag. And even if we were practically adults then, that didn't mean she already wanted a relationship right?"

"Something like that."

"Actually, the question is, did she not want a relationship? Or did she not want a relationship with me?"

"You do know that you're pretty much implying that she was with you because she was desperate to be with someone?" I asked, hoping that he knew nothing about the kiss.

"I'm pretty sure that isn't true," He said, and shrugged. "But then you'll never know."

"So what am I supposed to do now? There are no chances of me not getting involved in this."

"You'll just pretty much have to let her, or maybe the two of us, come up with a Fang-proof plan. Or maybe not a Fang-proof one. Either way, you're gonna have to do it."

"Do your plan or be with Max?"

"Isn't that the same thing?"

"Yeah, sure. Any pep talk advice?"

"Are you serious?"

"Probably."

"Okay. One thing, dude: Do not mess this up. I repeat, do not mess this up."

After those two pep talks -slash- investigations, Tess called up for a "meeting", where, according to her, the different courses of actions would be announced.

As if I was going to follow their crazy plans. Well, maybe I would, but that didn't automatically mean I was going to follow all the steps.

I entered the dining room the last, interrupting Iggy and Tess in heated conversation on whether I was supposed to put her name in a song if such situation happened. I took a seat beside Iggy and made a coughing sound, getting their attention. Tess stood up and went to the kitchen, coming back with a flip chart.

"Why the heck did you make an organizational chart for this?"

"Because my brother's so lonely and single and unorganized."

"Hey, not entirely true."

"Face it Fang," Iggy said. "You pretty much turned into a very wimpy and lovesick young man."

"Okay, fine. Can we just get on with it now?"

Tess smiled. "Glad you asked." She said and flipped the cover, displaying a page with the heading OPERATION: MAXIMUM RIDE and a poorly drawn sketch of the said person with her information on the side.

"So, as your bestfriend -slash- almost lover, I'm sure you know a lot of things about Max. The rest of the details were provided by Iggy. That means that you know what and what not to do."

"So that pretty much means that this'll be easier." I said.

"That is what you think." Iggy said, standing up and standing on the other side of the flip chart. "There is the extremely hard part."

"Which is?"

"Getting you to man-up and tell her how you feel."

Oh, right, that. I had to admit, these two made incredibly good points. But not quite encouraging.

"And now, without further ado," Tess said, flipping it to the next page. "Plan A."

"And if that won't work?"

"There are twenty-five other letters. Hopefully, we don't need to use all of them."

Okay, so not actually what I aimed for, which is 3K. But it is long enough, right? RIGHT?

So… I miraculously updated in a week. (I secretly wanted to wait if two more reviews would come, but I'll be incredibly busy since it's almost the summer, and I couldn't resist updating.) By the way, my sister thanks MPHknows and JealousMindsThinkAlike for the comments.

So, a review, hopefully? Let's see if this'll hit 462.

See you in a week (or two)! =D