Max

Fang, Iggy and I walk to class together as we've become accustomed to and we sit where we always do. Iggy goes to join some of the before school classroom chatter, leaving Fang and I to do whatever we want.

"Oh yeah, before I forget. Here you go." I say, handing Fang his notebook.

"Thanks." Fang says, smirking a bit at me simply because he'd returned mine weeks ago but I kept forgetting to give him his back. Fang looks through his notebook and stops at the first bookmark I'd placed. He looks at me an raises an eyebrow, keeping his expression neutral except for that one eyebrow.

"It was one of the ones that stuck out the most to me. There are a few of them like that since so few are happy." I explain. This is the picture where he has the heart that's broken with the words, "Never love" written underneath it.

Fang nods and looks at the other ones. He flips to another book-marked page and smiles a tiny bit. He seems sad though. He shows me the picture. It's the one of the girl and him smiling, they both look really happy. "This is my twin sister Maya. Or at least it was her. She's dead now." He says quietly.

"What happened?-If you don't mind me asking." I ask.

"This isn't a good place to tell such a long story. Do you have any plans for after school?"

"Not that I know of."

"How about you come over. We can exchange explanations and then I can start teaching you self-defense. Okay?"

"Okay." I agree.

The bell rings and class starts. The rest of the day goes by unbearably slow. I'm ready to burst by the time we get to the bus.

Finally! I think. This was officially the slowest day of school ever!

Fang sits by me as usual and we make small-talk during the half-hour drive to the bus-stop. I text my mom on the bus and tell her where I'm going. She seems a bit concerned that my friend's name is Fang but that seems to be her only worry because she trusts me and knows I'm not going to do something stupid.

When we finally get off the bus I really am bursting with questions, but I force myself to be patient because I know I wouldn't want to be bombarded by a bunch of questions by someone, even if that someone is a friend I talk to everyday.

Fang and I say bye to Ella, Iggy, Nudge and Gazzy. Then we walk to Fang's house. His house is very nice-looking. It's a cheerful little two story brick house with beautiful flowers planted all over the yard.

As soon as Fang opens the door, a lady who I'm guessing is Fang's mom greets us with a smile. "Hi Fang. Who's this?" She asks.

"I'm Max." I tell her.

"Oh so you're Max. Oh don't be weirded out, I've asked Fang a million questions everyday about whether or not he made friends and how he likes the school. Don't worry, he didn't say anything bad." She smiles at me. She's really friendly.

"Is it okay if I take Max to the balcony?" Fang asks.

"Oh course sweetie, have fun. Oh wait, do you two want a snack?" She asks.

"Do you want a snack?" Fang asks.

"Um, sure; thanks." I say, feeling kind of nervous. I don't like making decisions of any kind. I can thank my dad for that. If I didn't answer right away I would get beat. Mom never knew though. He would always hit me where nobody could see the marks. I won't go swimming because of all the scars.

"There's some ice cream in the freezer or some brownies that are almost done, or if you just want some candy there's a huge box in the cabinet. You two can take it upstairs and finish it off if you'd like." She offers.

"What type of candy?" I ask. (I have the biggest sweet-tooth ever.)

She takes the box down and hands it to me. I look in it and see packs of Skittles, Reese's cups, various hard candies and lots of different chocolate candies like Milky Ways, Snickers, Baby Ruths, Hershey's chocolate and even Three Musketeers.

"Come on Max." Fang says, smiling a bit. Then he looks at his mom and says, "Thank you."

"Thank you!" I echo as I follow him up to his room. It's all black and grey in there. The walls, floor, carpet and blankets on the bed are all black. The furniture is greyish silver color. One of his walls is conpletely covered in his drawings. They're all beautiful and kind of sad.

Fang opens the doors to the balcony and we sit together on the balcony-couch, eating the candy.

"Okay, the first thing you should know is that isn't my real mom. She's my foster mom. She runs the adoption-center, nobody wanted me, she felt bad and took me in this year." Fang says.

"What happened to your real mom?" I ask.

"She's a drug-addict and she got pregnant when she was sixteen so she didn't want me or my twin sister Maya. My dad was arrested because he was already eighteen when my mom got pregnant and my mom left Maya and me at an orphanage. We were adopted by a really nice couple but when the wife died in a car-crash that Maya and I survived, the husband became an alcoholic and started beating my sister and me. He was drunk all the time and he would hit us and cut us and sometimes even burn us. He said nobody would believe us if we told anyone or if we tried to get help because he said we're bad, good for nothing kids. He was usually worse to me except for one night when he just started beating Maya and hitting her and cutting her. H-he cut her too deep, he hit her too hard. She d-died a few hours later. I-I tried to save her but I couldn't do it." Fang sniffles as tears gather in his obsidian eyes.

"I tried so hard to save my sister but I couldn't. I just-I couldn't. I tried but I failed. I let the only good thing in my life die. It's my fault she died because I couldn't save her. She was so young. She was only eight." He finishes, his voice no more than a broken whisper.

He looks like he's about to cry so I hug him tightly and stroke his dark, shaggy hair saying, "Shh, Shh," I don't know what else to tell him. It's not like I can tell him it's okay because it isn't. His sister's gone and nothing will change that. I feel my shoulder become wet immediately and I can feel Fang shake with silent sobs.

After a minute or two of sniffles Fang pulls away and says, "Sorry."

Fang

After telling the story about how Maya died I start crying. I never cry-especially not in front of people so crying in front of Max felt so very wrong. She just hugs me and says, "Shh, Shh," over and over as she strokes my hair, letting me cry into her shoulder.

After I regain my composure I pull away and say, "Sorry."

"It's not your fault." Max whispers. "You were only eight. Who told you it was your fault?"

"Mr. Sullivan." I answer, my voice thick from the stupid tears. I wish I didn't cry in front of Max. She must think I'm weak, I just hate thinking about how Maya died and how I couldn't save her. I let my twin die. I'll never forgive myself for that.

"He was the man that beat you; right?" Max asks.

I nod, not sure where she's going with this.

"It was his fault your sister died; not yours. He hit her; you didn't. You tried to save her." Max tells me.

"I tried and I failed." I mutter.

"You tried though; that's all that matters. It isn't your fault your sister died." Max tells me.

I look at her, she really wants me to believe her and I want to believe her too; I just don't know if I ever can.

"Chocolate bar?" Max offers, holding a Hershey's bar out to me.

I can't help but smile, she's must be trying to be really nice since she called all the Hershey's bars.

That's the end of this chapter. I hope you all liked it!:) Thank you for reading this story and don't worry it will get happy, I just need to have Max and Fang explain their pasts to each other or else the story won't make sense later.

Thank you everyone for reading this story. Special thanks to all of you who have reviewed this story! It always makes my day whenever I get a review!:D

Please review and tell me what you think!:D

Thanks again for reading!

Here's a sneak peek to Chapter 5:

Fang

"What's your story?" I ask.

"I was supposed to be a boy; that's what my dad wanted. I was born to either replace or save my older brother Ari. Since I ended up being a girl, my dad expected me to save my older brother. I went through surgeries all the time because my brother always needed blood or bone marrow or a kidney or something. My dad had my younger sister Ella just in case I failed. My dad was happy so he wanted another kid just because so my parents had my little sister, Angel. My brother died when I was eleven because his body didn't respond the right way to one of the transplants." Max explains.

Poor Max, she couldn't save her sibling either. I think.