Chapter Twenty-Six

I called dad, who was on a buisness trip, later that same night and did some more yelling and some more crying. Dad said the same thing Lana had said. He had dated Lana for a little while, but had loved my mum, so Lana had broken up with dad and pushed my parents together and acouple months later Lana had started dating Mark. The four of them had been best friends.

Then I went home to Ella and told her. We cried together.

I felt terrible that I hadn't known mum was sick all that time. Sure, she hadn't wanted me to know, but shouldn't have I been able to see it? It wasn't like she just had a little cold or infection. No. This is cancer we're talking about. Cancerous cells eating away at the once healthy cells in her body. And chemotherapy kills your blood cell, skin cells, and hair cells. It is a serious, serious thing. And yet I hadn't even known she was going through it. I had no clue.

"It's not so bad." Nudge was saying as she walked out of the bathroom towel drying her wild hair.

"I mean it's not like they lied." She continued.

"Yeah but it feels like they lied Nudge. By keeping such a big thing from El and I. I feel terrible that I didn't know mum was sick. How could I have not known?" I lean back on the couch kicking my slippers off and tucking my legs up under me.

"You were so young, she died when you were thirteen Max. A child shouldn't have to deal with that kind of stuff. Your mum knew that." Nudge plopped down next to me. "and so did your dad." She added as an after thought.

I let out a deep sigh. "It's eight o'clock Ella and Angel will be here soon. I'm so in need of a good old fashioned musical night." I say trying to lighten the mood, grinning at Nudge. She grins back.

"Hells yeah girl. What should it be tonight West Side Story or The Phantom of the Opera?" Nudge asks as she walks over to our TV cabinet opening one of the glass doors and crouching down in front of our DVD collection. Nudge and I have an embarrassing amount of musicals on DVD. We started collecting them when we were ten, after Michael, Nudges dad, took us to see the stage show of Beauty and the Beast in Melbourne.

"Neither. I want to watch something fun and upbeat." I protest.

"Okay... how about a little Doris Day?"

"Calamity Jane?"

"Okay." Nudge put the two DVD's she had in her hand back then pulled out Calamity Jane.

There was a knock on the door, it was pushed open and Ella came in with a over night bag slung over her shoulder, a pillow under one arm and a plastic bag hanging over the other. Her and Angel are sleeping over tonight.

"Hey Guys. Sorry I'm late. Dad dropped me off." She said. She put the plastic bag down on the coffee table in front of me then gave Nudge and I both an one armed hug.

"No worries. Angel isn't here yet either." Nudge says. She sits back down next to me after putting the DVD in the DVD player and grabbing the remote.

Ella disappears into my room and a few minutes later comes out in pink with red hearts cotton button down pyjamas.

Nudge and I are already in ours. Nudge in her old Dora the Explorer ones and me in Fangs big University t-shirt and a pair of red and blue striped sleep shorts.

"Please, make your self at home." I say with a laugh as Ella flops into the arm chair pulling a blanket over herself and hanging her legs over the arm rest so she's side ways in the chair. Ella laughs. Throwing me a packet of crisps, out of the plastic bag.

I open the bag and offer it to Nudge who, instead of taking a hand full like I intended, takes the whole pack, grinning ruefully.

Ella let out a little squeal. Nudge and I both turn our heads to look at her. She smiles, looking slightly embarrassed, pulling her mobile out of her breast pocket.

"It vibrated." She says then fiddles with the phone for a moment. "Oh Angel texted, she's here."

"Great, we're all set here." Nudge replies with a mouth full of chips.

"You know, Dad talked to me on the way up here." Ella says turning to look at me. I sit up.

"He said he regretted not telling us." She continues. "But it was mums decision. He said he had wanted to tell us but she said no. And it was her choice. He supported her."

"Yeah I know Ella." I say with a sigh. "It's the guilt of not knowing, you know?"

"Yeah Max. I know." Ella and I share a look then both turn to see Angel coming into the front door announcing her presences with a crash as she drops her large over the shoulder bag onto the floor.

"Hi guys." She calls out from over her shoulder walking into the kitchen. We call out our hello's after her. She comes back a minute later with a bottle of lemon and lime bitters (our musical night preferred drink) and four glasses.

"What are we watching tonight?" She asks. She sits down on the floor in front of Nudge who runs her hand down the length of Angels loose blonde ringlets.

"Calamity Jane." Nudge answers her. Angel nods her head in acceptance, smiling back at Nudge then looking over at Ella. "You aren't going to sing to all the songs again are you?" She laughs.

Ella grins. "You can't really enjoy a musical unless you sing alone."

Nudge makes a noise at the back of her throat in agreement. She then holds the remote out towards the telly and turns the film on.

After the film was over Nudge suggested we have a dance party as she called it.

She leapt up of the couch and ran over to my ipod dock that is plugged in and sitting on one of the shelves of the book case, turning some dance music on. She then comes back over to the couch and pulls me up by my arms.

She's still holding my hand when, with her other hand, she pulls Ella up and starts dancing around us. By now Angels already up and doing some kind of strange shimmering thing with her body. I laugh at her, deciding to follow her lead of weird dancing. I start doing the retro chicken dance, that Nudge and I made up when we were bored at dance class years ago. The other three girls join in. Moving our heads forwards and back like we are pecking our beaks and flapping our arms like we have wings...

It's this move we're going when we turn around and realise Iggy, Gazzy and Fang are standing in the door way, their arms folded over their chests and a grin on Iggy and Gazzy's faces and a smirk on Fangs.

Ella gasps when she sees them, but then laughs. "How long have you been standing there?" She asks.

The boys just laugh.

It's, oh so embarrassing, moments like these when you wish your friends knocked before coming into your apartment.

Last week Gazzy caught Nudge and I watching Play School. And the week before that I was running out of the bathroom with only a towel around me when Iggy came into the room. Thank goodness he's blind, as he had reminded me as I yelled at him.

"If you girls are going to continue doing embarrassing things you should really start locking your door." Iggy says, coming over and sitting down on the couch. Fang and Gazzy follow him in and sit down also. It's a small couch so they are practically arm against arm.

"No please continue." Gazzy jokes. Angel sticks her tongue out at him. But Nudge does another shimmy with a gleeful laugh. I roll my eyes.

"What are you guys going here?" I ask. I walk over to them and lie across them so my back and back side is across Fangs lap, in the middle of the other two boys, my shoulders and head's on Iggy's lap and my legs on Gazzy.

"Man, You weigh a freaking ton! What have you been eating, rocks?" Fang asks in jest as he pats my flat stomach.

"Why, is your head missing some?" I ask.

Iggy snickers. "Young love." He says sighing theatrically.

Gazzy lifts my legs up then lets them drop down again as he says "So tell us about your Dad and Lana?"

"Oh yeah! What was that fight about you had with Lana?" Angel pipes in. She sits down on the coffee table next to Ella and Nudge, right in front of us on the couch.

"Dad and Lana use to date." Ella answers.

"Well cut my legs off and call me shorty." Gazzy exclaims.

"What?" I snort.

"People say that!" He defends himself, taking in my teasing stare.

"No one says that." I shake my head at him.

"Yeah!"

"No."

"Yeah people do. Cool people." He pushes my legs off him and I would have fallen off the couch if Fang hadn't court me.

Iggy puts his hand against my face; I think he's feeling for frown lines or something. "Are you okay with your dad and Lana dating?" He asks.

"I don't know. Yeah, I guess."

"It's just so weird." Ella says. "Think about it. Fang and Max could have been siblings."

"Don't even say that." Fang says frowning.

"It's the truth." She shrugs.

"That means we could have been cousins." Nudge says happily looking from Ella to me.

"I think best friends is enough." I grin at her.

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