Recap: Iggy or Gazzy might have spiked her orange juice this morning just for shiggles. I leave them to go change into some clothes and brush my hair.
I don't do much. Just put on an old t-shirt and some comfy jeans. Honestly, no one at ANY mall is worth it plus I just don't care enough.
So when I come out to wait on Fang with Dreslin and Nudge, they both look at me and then at each other before Dreslin finally asks, "Max, WHAT are you wearing?"
"They're called clothes." I respond.
She and Nudge share another look, "Now I'm glad we're going to the mall." Nudge says. Dreslin nods in agreement.
I just roll my eyes at the both of them as Fang walks in the room. He looks at me and says, "It's time to go."
A light shiver goes through me because of the look he gives me. I nod and get up. Dreslin and Nudge are so excited about going that they suspect nothing and follow behind us eagerly, talking about what they want to buy. In the end, I ride shotgun with Fang while Dreslin and Nudge sit in the back. Ashley and Gazzy ride with Iggy who follows behind us.
We stand outside our cars in the parking lot of the mall and I start giving everyone the rules.
"Okay guys. Stay with at least one person at all times. You know, buddy system? Try not to cause a lot of trouble and don't kill anyone. Understand?" I say in a serious voice.
"Yes ma'am." "Sure thing Max." "Whatever." "Uh huh" "Yeah" See Fang for nod of head.
"Right. We'll meet up in a few hours. Everyone keep your phones on. Let's go." I say then proceed to trudge toward what I believe will be my doom.
When we walk in, I almost groan aloud at all the brightly colored advertisements and unsuspecting people. That is until Fang slides up to the side of me and asks, "Wanna be my buddy?"
"Um sure..just let me check with…" I trail off, seeing that we are the only two left of our group. I think I see Iggy and Gazzy walk into a hardware store. Ashley, Nudge, and Dreslin having already disappeared into one of the many various shops.
I look back at Fang and shrug my shoulders then say, "Sure."
We start walking farther into the mall and he asks, "Well where you want to go?"
I think about it for a few seconds before responding, "Food court," with a grin.
"You're hungry?" he asks with a smirk as we change our direction toward where the food court is.
"I'm always hungry." I say, giving him a 'no duh' look.
"Fatty," he says and pokes my side.
"Yeah, what of it?" I ask playfully and jump out of poking range.
""Nothing." He says and chuckles as we approach the food court.
I give it a quick scan. There's a good even scattering of teenagers at tables, moms with kids, couples, old people, and plenty of places for a hungry customer to choose from. During my scan, I spot out exactly what I want.
With a huge grin on my face, I turn to Fang and point it out.
"There?" he asks with amusement.
I nod my head yes then grab his arm and drag him along, ignoring the spark that shoots through me when my skin touches his.
"Hi. Welcome to Coldstone's. What can I get you?" a sweet looking old lady asks when we approach.
"Uuuum…I want a double scoop of cookies 'n cream and cookie dough ice cream in a waffle cone please." I say.
"Alright and what about you?" she asks Fang.
"Vanilla and chocolate waffle cone." He responds.
"Vanilla and chocolate?" I say while giving him a weird look.
"Well what else am I supposed to get?" he asks me.
"Well you don't get something straight. That's just no fun." I say.
"Here you go." The nice lady says and hands me my cone then proceeds to make Fangs.
"Then call me plain Jane then." Fang attempts to joke.
I look him blatantly up and down and say, "No I don't think that suits you," then proceed to lick my ice cream enthusiastically.
"And here you go." The lady says and hands Fang his ice cream. He pays for them and then we proceed to just walk around again.
As Fang and I walk around the mall and eat our ice cream, we just talk to each other. It's actually really nice. We don't fight or argue. There's a little teasing of course, but we just act like good friends. It's funny that I've never noticed that we get along really well when he's not being annoying and I'm not obsessing over being better than him. In my own way, I already am. "You're a great leader Max," I remember Angel saying that.
When Fang and I finish our ice cream, he points to a video arcade store and challenges me to a game of air hockey which I, of course, accept. So we walk in and Fang puts the coins in the machine, we each go to one side of the table and prepare to play.
"I hope you know you're about to lose," Fang says to me with a heart-stopping grin.
"I hope you know you're wrong," I reply with all of my confidence.
And this is where I wish I could tell you I kicked his butt and shot down all of his cockiness, but it was quite the opposite. I. Lost. Three times. To FANG.
At the end of the third game, I groan and throw down my paddle.
"Aw what's wrong Max? Mad you lost?" Fang walks to my side and taunts.
I shoot him a glare. "No one else needs to know about this. Got it?" I say in the deadliest voice I can muster to cover up any defeat I'm feeling.
"Of course. Your wish is my command. Don't want to ruin your tough girl image. I get it. I understand. Max remains undefeatable," he replies with enough sarcasm to rival me.
I just continue to glare at him as I lean against the air hockey table. Fang glances around before he positions himself in front of me and places his hands on my lower back.
"What're you doing?" I ask him, retaining my glare, but glance around as well. There are a few younger kids mixed with a few older teenagers at some of the other games around us.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" he says with a smirk then proceeds to slowly rub his hands in circles up and down my back, kneading into it with his thumbs.
I slowly start to melt like butter under his hands and his gaze. He is looking in my eyes the whole time. Eventually my own glare is gone.
"Max," he says after a few minutes.
"Mhm…" I say, not really wanting to ruin the moment.
"You aren't mad at my awesome air hockey skills anymore, are you?" he asks.
I chuckle lightly before I shake my head no at him.
"Good," he says before stopping the miracle his hands were working on me and grabbing one of my hands in his then says, "Let's go." And proceeds to drag me out of the arcade.
"Where are we going?" I ask him.
"I don't know," he says, keeping my hand in his even when he finally slows down.
I see a few girls glance at me with jealousy in their eyes as we walk by.
"You think we should call the others and head back?" I ask him.
He shakes his head no at me.
I breathe out a heavy sigh and ask, "Then what?"
I see him think about it for a couple seconds before he says, "Borders?"
I mull over the idea for a second. I'm not much of a reader, but a good book every once in a while never hurts.
"Okay," I agree and we make our way there.
We stay in Borders looking at joke books, those random fun fact ones, and just goof around. It was actually fun. Eventually though, Nudge calls and says that they are all ready to go and waiting for us by the car. I tell Fang it's time to go and guess what he says? "No,"
"What do you mean no? We have to leave eventually," I say.
"I want to stay here. With you. Alone." He says in defiance.
"Oooh, well that isn't going to happen." I say.
"I know that," he says sadly.
"Well let's go. Everyone is waiting." I say and yank at his arm.
"Hang on just one second," he says huskily and pulls me closer to him.
Unlike our kiss earlier today, this one is urgent. Needy. I can tell he's holding nothing back as our lips move together. He's probably trying to fit the years of constant teasing and anger into one kiss. I have no problem with it. His need and urgency, surprisingly matched my own. And I can honestly say it scared me how much we both needed this. The sense of closeness we got today. Just being together. It's exhilarating.
I don't know how long we stay in that little area of Borders. I don't care. I just know that we bought one joke book then when we get to the cars where Nudge, Dreslin, Ashley, Gazzy, and Iggy are waiting and Nudge says, "What took you guys so long? I'm like sooo tired from shopping. Oooo you should see the stuff we got you Max. It is like too cute! You're going to look soo GREAT in everything. We got a lot as you can tell from the bags. We would have gotten more, but we realized that we had to carry everything back so we decided to stop. Well what did you and Fang do? You didn't buy anything but a book? That's no fun at all! It defeats the purpose of even coming to the mall,"
I don't say anything about her ranting either. I just let her go on and on. All through the car ride too. Even when we get back to headquarters. What do I care about anything right now? Gazzy could let off a stink bomb and I don't think I would have minded…well… I take that back. That probably would snap me out of whatever high Fang has me on. Oh well. Sleep time. Maybe when I wake up, I'll be thinking coherent thoughts again…
AN: I'm SORRY! Had a writer's block. Don't hate me. Just put any and all anger in a review. Please? I really think that'd help with the next chapter. *hint hint*