In and Out of Love-Chapter 11

By MyNameIsCAL

"I really want pizza."

"Pizza?" I asked. "After all the cooking Iggy does for us and you want pizza?"

Max nodded.

"Alright, I'll go pick up a pizza," I offered.

"How are you going to get there?"

"I'll walk. It's right down the street."

I stood and pulled on a cap and picked up my sunglasses.

"The media is gonna kill you," Max frowned.

"They don't know who I am," I smiled.

The reporters all stood out there. Either they were stubborn or they had nothing else better to report. The news channels probably showed the apartment complex every day. The reporters darted towards me.

"Are you Max's neighbor?" one of them asked, shoving a microphone in my face.

I cleared my throat. "I suppose so."

"Do you know anything about her?" they continued.

"Not really. She sort of keeps to herself," I lied.

"Sir, what's your name?"

"Hey, it's already bad enough I'm talking to you. I don't want any part of this mess," I scowled. "You oughta leave her alone."

I pushed through the reporters.

"Can I have one large pizza to go?"

Joe squinted at me. "Fang?"

I pulled off my sunglasses. "Yeah, it's me."

He laughed and placed a pie in the oven. "You got reporters chasing after you?"

"Well, they haven't figured out that I'm the guy they're looking for," I whispered back. "They just interviewed me as Max's neighbor."

Joe laughed again. "Oh, that's funny. The media is nuts. You be careful."

He took the pizza out and placed it in a box.

"Thanks," I said.

I stood at the door, ready to go in, when I heard someone else's voice, coming from inside the apartment.

"He's going to hurt you." It was a man's voice.

"And you're not?" Max countered. "Why do you care so much?"

"Because it was a mistake for the two of us to split like we did."

"Don't make this difficult. You can't do this now, not with everything going on." Max sounded frustrated.

"Max, please. Don't go hurting yourself again. We can start over." It had to be Carter. "He's had so many chances with you and he's blown them all."

"I don't think you understand."

"No, I think you're being stubborn."

And then there was silence.

I opened the door and there Carter was, on the couch, kissing Max. She made no attempt to push away, but at least she wasn't kissing him back.

"What the hell are you doing?" I lifted Carter off the couch.

He stammered. "I…I can explain."

"Don't lie to me," I growled. "Now get out of here before I hurt you."

I dropped him and he fell to his knees. If this had happened in a difference place and time, I just might have beaten the crap out of Carter, but we needed him for our battle against George and I would only have disappointed Max by hurting him.

"I'm sorry," Carter whimpered.

"Get out!"

He fumbled to get up and staggered out the door.

"Here's your damned pizza," I muttered, throwing it on the coffee table in front of Max.

She stopped it from sliding off. "Fang…I'm so sorry."

I turned to my room and slammed the door shut.

I spent the rest of the day ignoring Max. When Iggy finally came home, he picked the lock to my door, letting himself in.

"Jesus, Fang," Iggy sighed. "You could at least tell us you were ok."

"I'm ok, now leave me alone."

"Don't be immature," Iggy frowned. "Max says she's sorry."

I let out a deep breath. "I don't think I have much a choice than to forgive her, do I."

"Well, no," Iggy frowned. "Unless you'd like to lose her to Carter again."

Again.

Maybe it was because Carter was a lawyer, but Max and I had been fighting. Now that I look back, the fight had been petty. We were supposed to go to dinner with Carter to celebrate the end of the Itex trials. I always knew Carter had a thing for Max. We were arguing about it. In fact, it didn't even matter because if I would have went instead of storming off and not showing up, Max would probably not have ended up with Carter.

Defeating Itex had become bittersweet after that. I used wished we were still fighting Itex, just so I could have Max and not worry about someone winning her over. She told Carter about what happened, and he charmed her into a yearlong relationship. The only reason they split was because he repeatedly let Max down. He promised to be back for dinner and didn't come home until midnight. There were times he was supposed to pick Max up from places and he never showed. Max finally got fed up and left.

She had a couple guys between Carter and George. Those guys never lasted though. They always had other motives for being with her. If we were on good terms, I would be there, pulling Max back together. Even if we weren't talking at the time, somehow her breakdowns were my ticket to winning her back for a little while. Every now and then we fought. Whether it was about my habits or her boyfriends, there was always something that we managed to get angry at each other about. Iggy had finally talked some sense into me and I calmed down, for the most part.

It had gotten better though, which was why she was probably giving me another chance now. Max had given me so many chances already that I wondered when she would get tired and leave me in misery. And I would have deserved the misery too. Although I always suspected that Iggy talked to Max about me. I wouldn't be surprised either. We all talked to each other about the others. Sometimes Ella would call me up to talk about Iggy. He had his share of issues, but it had been a while since anything came up. We were all delicate in different ways.

"You can't screw this up anymore, Fang." Iggy almost sounded like he was pleading. "I've watched you two for years and years. You two were the ones that gave me hope through all the mess Itex caused for us. But now you're falling apart. I feel like that doesn't say much."

"Sometimes I wish Itex was still around," I admitted.

"Don't say that," Iggy shook his head. "There are better things to wish for."

He was right. "Yeah I know."

Happy holidays! Thanks for reading. Hopefully I'll have new chapters up for all my stories before 2010 happens.