A/N: Hey there. A big thanks to anyone who's reading this story (haha...if anybody). You're all awesome. I'm dedicating this chapter to one of my friends. Her brother passed away yesterday for an unknown reason because he collapsed while running on a treadmill up at our high school. Just trying to keep the family in my thoughts. Send them positive vibes or something. I don't know.

Chapter 11: Sparks Ignite Over French Fries

Max's POV

The slight breeze kept rustling the papers of my Math book as I flipped through it. I was sprawled across my bed and the window was wide open in an attempt to air out my stuffy room. It was Sunday night, probably around 9:00 p.m., and I was trying desperately to finish up the homework that I'd been neglecting over the weekend. In the past few days, I'd been doing more homework than I had ever done in my life.

After hurriedly finishing up the last few Math problems we'd been assigned, I rolled over on my back and sighed. The light from the laptop I'd borrowed from Mrs. Martinez was glowing on my floor. Staring at the screen, I suddenly remembered that I was supposed to have read a pamphlet or something for one of my elective courses. I'd chosen an Introduction to the Study of Medicine class because it had sounded like one of the least boring, and also because I really had no interest in much of any of the other choices. It was actually turning out to be pretty interesting.

Right now we were learning about major types of disease, and we'd been given little packets to read. I dug through my crammed backpack and pulled out a creased packet of paper titled Cancer in bold, underlined letters. I yawned, tired from a long day. I'd woken up early again as a result from another one of my reaccurring nightmares, and had spent the day being edgy and nervous again, jumping at little noises and phone calls. I cringed inwardly at the thought of having to wake up and go to school tomorrow.

I was sort of skimming through the packet, when a paragraph caught my eye. It was a section on bone cancer, to which I had no connection whatsoever, which left me wondering why it had jumped out at me. I read through the paragraph and it seemed to start to trigger some memory lodged deep in my brain. I couldn't extract it, though. Then it began to list different types of bone cancer. One of the types in particular grabbed my attention. "Osteosarcoma is the most common form of bone cancer in children and teens..." I muttered to myself as I read. There wasn't much more information on it, so I pondered whether or not I really felt up to delving any deeper.

In the end, my curiosity got the best of me and I dashed to Mrs. Martinez's laptop and pulled up Google, typing in "osteosarcoma". After sifting through a few shotty websites, I finally found a good one and clicked on a Symptoms option. It read:

Osteosarcoma is a bone cancer extremely prevelent in children and teenagers. It is also the most common bone cancer. Osteosarcoma usually developes in areas where bone is growing quickly. (i.e. near the ends of long bones) Some symptoms of this cancer include pain and swelling around the affected bone. This may result in a limp if the tumor is in the leg.

That's why the whole bone thing had jumped out at me! I was remembering Shayla's limp when I had seen her in Dairy Queen a little while ago. I chuckled at myself. I felt stupid now, getting all curious and hopping on the web. What was I even trying to accomplish? Even after asking myself this, though, I continued to read.

Bone fractures and breaks are also symptoms of osteosarcoma, though they are not very common.

That concluded with the list of symptoms. I moved on to a Treatment section. It mentioned several different methods, from surgery if necessary to remove the tumor, or chemotherapy. It went on to list several side-affects to chemotherapy, and I again felt my curiosity being picked. "Nausea, vomiting, flu-like symptoms..." I murmered. I almost gasped when I read 'flu-like symptoms'. Was it just me, or was this beginning to sound CREEPILY similar to Shayla? I literally felt like I was reading something that was supposed to be describing her. It was slightly disturbing. I shook my head.

"She can't have cancer." I said to myself, shutting the laptop. I needed to stop playing detective and finish my homework. But as I was shifting to grab the packet again, I froze and thought about it.

"She was limping when she left. And her ankles DID looks sort of swollen or something, now that I think about it." I thought.

"But Fang said she was just getting over a cold. Maybe she just had a sprained ankle or something." The other part of me argued. God, I swear...sometimes I feel like I have another voice in my head. You know, other than my own. It is SERIOUSLY annoying to argue with yourself all the time.

"Well...maybe I should just do a tad bit more research. You know...just to make sure." I couldn't help it. Once I got started snooping around, it was hard for me to stop. And Fang's fishy evasions of the questions I'd been asking at the mall were just adding to the appeal of more research. He was so secretive all the time. He seemed like a ball of yarn just waiting to be unraveled.

I wondered vaguely if he thought the same of me as I opened the laptop again and pulled up a fresh page of the search engine.

Now that I was finally getting into the swing of things, school days seemed to be flying by. Before I knew it, it was already halfway through the week and the end of the day was fast approaching. It was Wednesday and me, Fang, and Caitlyn were in study hall, one of the last classes of the day. We were all sitting at the same circular table, our books spread out in front of us. Fang had one ear bud from his ipod in, and I could vaguely hear the tune of some unfamiliar rock song. Caitlyn was hunched over a book, marking pages as she went along. I reclined in my chair and tried unsuccessfully to concentrate on my Biology homework.

My mind was too cramped with thoughts at the moment to take in any new information. Though I was trying with all my might (well...sort of) to read the text book in front of me, I kept sneaking glances at Fang out of the corner of my eyes. Thankfully, he didn't seem to notice. Every time I saw him, I just kept thinking about Shayla, and my stupid suspicions. The additional research I'd done last night on that osteosarcoma thing had only backed up my hunch that it was what Shayla was suffering from. The symptoms fit, along with the age range and the areas that are most commonly affected.

Of course, the notion was ridiculous. I couldn't think of any reason Fang would have for trying to cover it up. It seemed so...dumb. Like...there was no need to do it that I was aware of. Why go through all the trouble? But these questions I kept asking myself only made me more interested in him. It was like he was hiding some big, dark secret. It was going to drive me insane. I knew I had to bring it up to him, but I had ABSOLUTELY no idea how to. I mean, what was I supposed to do? Just lean over to him as he's working on his algebra and say "Hey...what did you get for number nine? Oh, by the way...does your sister have cancer?" Just thinking about saying that made me cringe.

I was turning the idea of how to approach the subject over and over in my mind when my stomach began to growl embarrassingly loud. I cleared my throat a tad awkwardly when Caitlyn and Fang looked up from their work. "Well SOMEBODY'S hungry." Caitlyn teased me. I saw Fang try to hide his grin behind a conveniently placed hand.

"Sorry..." I whispered. "All I had for lunch was..." I thought about it for a moment and then reconsidered. "Actually, I had a pretty big lunch. I guess I just got hungry fast." My stomach growled again, and I wrapped my arms around my middle, begging it to shut up. "God, I'm really craving a hamburger or something right now." I said longingly, imagining a burger and a large order of fries sitting on the table in front of me. My mouth was beginning to water.

"Actually, a hamburger sounds AMAZING right now." Caitlyn piped up. "We should all go to Burger King after school and grab something to eat. It's not that far away, but I can take everybody in my car anyways." A Burger King sounded like heaven right now. I eagerly agreed to Caitlyn's proposition. Even Fang was hungry enough to tag along. "Okay, so we'll all meet outside after school's done. You should ask JJ and Michael if they wanna come too." I nodded. I was sure they'd be just as happy to come along. Iggy was unfortunately sick today. Aww, too bad...I guess that meant no fast food for him. Haha, sucker.

When the bell ending study hall rang, we dispersed off to our final classes, and I took the liberty of hunting down Michael and JJ. I found JJ loitering around by a girls bathroom, waiting for the hallway to clear up. I pushed my way through the crowd to get to her side so I could ask her about after school. "Hey, me, Caitlyn and Fang are going to Burger King after school. You wanna come with?" She looked confused.

"Who's 'Fang'?" she questioned. Of course! I'd forgotten that not everyone knew my nickname for Nick. I quickly explained to her why I was calling him that. Thankfully, she seemed to not think much of it and quickly continued on with the conversation. "Well, I'd love to, but I can't. I'm helping some kids from the drama club work on some sets for a play their doing. It's right after school, and it's gonna go on for awhile. So...sorry." She looked sheepish as she refused the offer.

"Oh, that's fine. I was just asking around. We'll have plenty of people either way. I was just gonna go find Michael and see if he wanted to come." Unfortunately, though, Michael had a response similar to JJ's. He had basketball practice after school and couldn't come either. And with Iggy gone, it looked like it was just gonna be me, Caitlyn in Fang. Well, that would be alright. I looked forward tremendously to a Whopper regardless of who was coming with. This thought had my stomach growling again as I made my way to class.

"Where is she?" I muttered impatiently under my breath, tapping my foot. Fang snickered at my behavior.

"Impatient?" he asked me softly. I glared at him. He shrugged. We were waiting for Caitlyn outside of the school building, sitting on one of the round tables. The final bell had rung about ten or so minutes ago, and now the only people that seemed to be here were the last minute stragglers and us. Everyone else had vacated the premises. And I was NOT in the mood to be patient. I was so hungry it hurt. And if Caitlyn didn't turn up soon, I would probably be forced to high-jack her car.

My stomach growled again. Ugh...that was so annoying. I fiddled with my new cell phone, flipping it open and closed in boredom. I had already called Mrs. Martinez and told her what my plans were. So of course, if Caitlyn wasn't going to show, I had no ride home. I would have to walk. Don't get me wrong, I like walking, but I'd most likely die of starvation at this point if I had to walk all the way home on no food. "You are the most impatient human being I have ever met." Fang said.

"Damn right, I am." I said stubbornly. I saw him discreetly roll his eyes. He then caught sight of something up ahead and nodded in the direction, telling me to look. Caitlyn was jogging towards us from the main doors. "Well, it's about time." I said quietly. The heat and my hunger had made me a little irritable. Caitlyn squealed to a stop in front of us, panting lightly.

"Guys, I'm so sorry. I totally forgot. I have to tutor this kid today. I'm already late. I'm sorry, I can't take you guys to Burger King." she said breathlessly. I felt my eye twitch. I waited all this time just to find out that I would have to walk home on a painfully empty stomach? No Burger King? That's it...God hates me. I know for sure now. I wanted to bang my head against a wall repeatedly. Caitlyn seemed to sense that I was a little less then thrilled at her revelation. "But hey, you guys can still WALK to Burger King together." She gestured to me and Fang.

We both looked at each other and then looked away quickly. "Uh..." Fang said quietly, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye. Caitlyn looked at us expectantly. My stomach rumbled. I groaned.

"All right, all right! I get it, you're hungry!" I yelled at my stomach. I looked back at Fang again, who was looking a little amused by my antics. "You know, what? You're coming with me." I said, grabbing him forcefully by the wrist and pulling him towards the sidewalk that would lead us into town. I started walking to the right. "I'm so hungry, I wouldn't even care if fricken' Charles Manson was coming with me. I just want some damn Burger King." I was practically dragging Fang behind me. I heard him clear his throat.

"Uh, Max?" he said almost soundlessly.

"What?" I acknowleged him without stopping my pace or turning around to face him.

"Umm...that was a great dramatic exit and all, but the Burger King is that way." I paused this time. Turning around, I saw that he was pointing in the opposite direction I was headed in. Of course! I released his wrist and then let out a long sigh, starting to walk back the way we had come. I heard Fang chuckling silently behind me.

"Don't... say... anything." I told him with finality, frustrated with myself. We walked in silence for probably the first ten minutes. I kept trying to think of something to talk about, but everything sounded stupid in my head, so I figured it would sound even stupider out loud. Finally, I decided to bring up the lab we'd done in Biology that day. Okay...so maybe it wasn't exactly the most exciting topic, but at least it wouldn't make me sound like a COMPLETE idiot. "That Biology lab we did today was so boring." I said, hoping he would respond.

He just sort of shrugged at first, but then spoke. "I don't know...I thought it was alright. I don't mind Biology." I fought back the urge to be surprised. He was rarely talkative, so just the fact that he was elaborating on his answers was stunning in itself.

"I guess I just really don't like Ms. Brigid. She kind of annoys me." I said, thinking back to the first day I had met her.

"Hmm...I think she's pretty cool. She's really smart. And...yeah..." he looked like he was thinking about her. A pang of jealousy tensed me. In truth, I was a bit irritated at him for talking about her like that. He only liked her because she was pretty, and blonde and...ugh! Boys are so stupid. I narrowed my gaze and stared at the sidewalk. We didn't speak again until we arrived at the Burger King.

It was cool inside from the air conditioning, and I fanned the air towards myself in appreciation. It was relatively empty, so we got to the counter immediately. I ordered a Whopper, a large fry, and a Pepsi. Oh...junk food. I love it. Fang stared slightly at me as I placed my order. "What?" I asked defensively. "Have you never seen a hungry girl order food, or something?"

"No...I just...nevermind." he muttered. He stepped up to the counter. "I guess I'll have what she's having." The man behind the counter tapped some keys on the computer and then took Fang's money. We waited until our food came out, and then I dashed to find a table, eager to eat. We found one with the least amount of grease residue on it, and I immediately started to unwrap my burger. I took a large bite of it. Ahh...that hits the spot. Fang sat down across from me, and started eating his fries.

We ate mostly in silence, both of us being pretty hungry. I finished my whole meal and Fang just laughed at me. "I have never seen a girl eat so much in my life." he said jokingly, finishing off his own meal.

"Shut up." I said, chucking my balled up Whopper wrapper at him. He ducked and it hit the back of some guy's head in the booth in front of us. My eyes widened as he turned around in confusion, and I quickly averted my gaze, pretending to be innocently sipping my soda. Fang snorted, which made me start laughing because it was uncommon to hear him make any sort of noise at all, and soon we were both laughing. People in the restaurant were spinning in their seats to see what was going on. "Come on, let's go before we get kicked out or something." I said, stopping my laughter and standing up to dump my garbage in a nearby trashcan. Fang followed suit.

I was on my way to the door when Fang's voice halted me. "Hey, hold on a second." I turned to see what he was doing. "It's um...it's pretty hot outside. You want to get some ice cream?" Ice cream sounded amazing at the moment. Unfortunately, I had exhausted my cash supply on the burger and fries.

"I don't have any money left." I informed him in dissappointment. Fang looked down at the bills in his hand, counting.

"I think I have enough for two. Hold on." He walked back up to the counter. A little irritation flared up inside me. What year did he think it was? The 1930's? Women could pay for their own food by now, thank you very much! But the sight of the delicious looking, cold ice cream quelled my anger. I supposed I could eat the ice cream...But I won't enjoy it!

We exited Burger King, me slurping away at my ice cream. Glancing at the time on my phone, I saw that it was nearing 5:00. Fang and I strolled leisurely down the sidewalk in silence, each of us studying the view in opposite directions. I looked at all the windows of the little shops we were passing, and he glared out at the street. "So...about that algebra test..." I tried again. Fang looked like he was about to laugh. "What?" I demanded.

"You are by far the worst conversationalist I have ever met." he said. My jaw dropped open.

"You're one to talk!" I said in exasperation. "You hardly EVER talk at all. Period. At least I TRY."

"Yeah, and fail..." I heard him mutter to himself. I rolled my eyes.

"Well, I bet that you can't think of anything interesting to talk about either." I said stiffly, averting my gaze from his dark eyes. They made it harder for me to be irritated with him. But when I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye, I saw that he was thinking.

"Hmmm...okay. I've got one." he said. "What's your story?" I paused in my walking for a second. He stopped as well to see what I was doing, but I immediately began to walk again, recovering myself.

"What do you mean?" I asked him, though I was fairly sure I knew what he meant.

"You know...where did you come from? What did you do before you got to Sierra Vista? Why did you move out here in the first place?" I felt my walls going up. Why did he have to be bringing all this stuff up? We didn't even REALLY know eachother that well. Who the hell did he think he was? I shyed away from him a little bit, brooding silently as I finished off my cone. He watched me expectantly, but I didn't say anything. Maybe if I just kept silent for long enough, he'd just let it go and move on to something else. But of course, the ONE time I want him desperately to shut up, he gets all personal and talkative. "You know...I've never met someone who I've been more interested in hearing about. I've never talked to anybody who's background was so...mysterious to me." he admitted.

He looked extremely embarrassed that he was sharing this with me. Part of me was flattered that he thought I was so interesting, but the other part of me was getting nervous. I didn't like talking about my past. There were some stones just better left unturned. It made me angry when people just went ahead and asked whatever questions they wanted. Didn't they realize that if I really wanted to share, I would probably eventually just do it? I didn't need anybody prying into my personal life. It's complicated enough as it is. "I already told you. It's because my mom lives out here." I said rather quietly, hoping he would get the message that I wasn't in sharing-mood. "Umm...what did you get for that really hard question on the test? The one about the-" He cut me off.

"Max. You keep deflecting the question. What are trying so hard to hide?" He asked me, grinning slightly. He was being extremely out of character. I'd never heard him ask so many questions before. "I know you're keeping something from everyone." I glared at him.

"You're such a hypocrite sometimes." I said angrily, starting to walk slightly ahead of him. He had no problem keeping up.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked, now walking by my side again. I stopped and turned to face him. His eyes told me he was confused.

"Fang...If you're going to sit there and tell me that I'm the only one keeping secrets around here, then...I don't know what."

"What are you talking abou-?" I cut him off before he could ask the question.

"Shayla has cancer, doesn't she?" The sentence slipped out sounding rather harsh. A stunned silence filled the atmosphere.

"I-What are you talking about?" he said. I groaned.

"Fang, I know she doesn't have the flu. I was reading something for a class I take, and something came up about bone cancer. All the symptoms reminded me of Shayla." There was more silence, followed by a stream of denials from Fang.

"That's ridiculous. She doesn't have bone cancer. She's just getting over the flu." There was a hard look in his eyes, but I could tell that he was starting to flake.

"Come on...she looked SICK, Fang. Like...too sick for the flu. And she had a limp." I stated matter-of-factly. He just stared at me with this...expression. I can't even describe it. It was so odd. "Fang..." I said, this time trying to sound a bit gentler. "Does Shayla have Osteosarcoma?" I let the sentence hang there for awhile. It took a couple of minutes, but he finally leaned back against the glass window of the nearest store. He slowly nodded without making eye contact with me. I walked over to lean on the glass next to him. He stared straight ahead when he started talking.

"Yeah...osteosarcoma. Stage IIA." was all he said. I cinched my eyebrows together. Even after my research, I didn't recognize this 'stage' thing.

"What does that mean?"

"It means the tumor is confined to the bone, it's eight centimeters across or less, and it's high grade." He relayed this information so blandly, it almost made me sad.

"Wh-Where's the tumor?" I asked, trying to be delicate in my voice.

"It's-It's in her leg." he said, looking down at his own leg as he said this. I looked down at mine as well.

"Shouldn't they be like...giving her some medicine or something to treat it? Or surgery?" I asked, feeling incredibly stupid, but wanting to learn more. He shrugged.

"They're um...trying her on chemotherapy for a little while. Seeing if that'll help shrink it a little bit. It's too big to be removed by surgery right now." I felt a pang in my heart as he said this.

"Well, shouldn't she at least be in a hospital or something?" I asked, thinking of the last time I had seen her. When she had been walking (or rather limping) around the Dairy Queen.

"Yeah, she is. She um...She went about a week ago, actually." I felt my eyes go wide.

"Oh my God, Fang. I'm so sorry. I had no idea." I blabbered, feeling guilty that I'd brought it up. I knew I could be rather tactless at times, but this was a new low for me. But Fang seemed to react in a rather unexpected way at my apology. He actually looked...angry. "What? What did I say?"

"This is why I hate telling people about this. This is why I didn't want anybody to know." he said, starting to walk again. He threw the last little bit of cone that remained from his ice cream on the curb. I followed after him.

"What? Too many questions?" I prodded, also having no issue keeping up with him. I was a pretty fast walker in general. He didn't even acknowledge that I'd said anything for the first minute or so. I figured he was either thinking, or never going to answer. Considering that neither case scenario would benefit from me asking more questions, I remained silent. When his walk began to slow down a little bit, I knew he was going to speak.

"I don't know. I guess I was just...I don't want people feeling sorry for me. You know? I go through enough shit as it is without having people throwing themselves at me and telling me how awful they feel for me. How hard it must be for me. 'Cause I don't think that any of this is an excuse to be all 'woe is me'. I don't want anyone to think I need their help. Because I don't." He paused to look me directly in the eyes. And the look he gave me told me that he had never been this honest with anyone before. It also told me that he would never be this open with me again. At least not for a really long time.

And in that moment, I was so reminded of myself by the way he was talking, that I felt like my heart was going to explode. The way he didn't like talking about himself or his past, but he was curious about others. The way he didn't want pity from anyone. Even some of his expressions were ones that I sometimes saw in the mirror. My heart was beating at super-sonic speed. I felt my face heating up, and a warm feeling flutter in the pit of my stomach. Then my own subconsious kicked in to warn me about what was going on here. "Woah, woah, woah." I thought. "Are you...falling for him?" The thought rang in my head.

But then I started to laugh at myself internally. Yeah right...Maximum Ride was NOT falling in love with anybody. Not today. The fluttering in my stomach? The temperature rise? Probably just indigestion. Yeah, that's it. Ugh...I didn't want to think about this at the moment. Fang probably thought I had a mental condition already from the way I hadn't responded to him in over a minute. "Well..." I said, thinking back to what he had just admitted to me. "Then I guess we'll get along pretty well then. If you ever need some cheering up or something, I'd be happy to like...tell you to stop being a whiny bitch." He just looked at me for a minute. And then he chuckled.

I pretended to be amazed. "Oh my gosh." I said with sarcasm. "Emotion? Who are you and what have you done with Fang?" He rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah...By the way, we're outside of your house." He gestured behind me. We were indeed standing outside of the Martinez residence. Just at the edge of the driveway.

"Oh right..." was all I said. We stared at eachother for a minute. "So umm..." I fished around in my mind awkwardly, trying to think of how to say goodbye.

"I'll see you at...school tomorrow?" he provided for me.

"Yeah, right." I said, shifting my feet slightly.

"So...bye?" He phrased it more like a question.

"Yeah, bye." I said. Then without thinking, I moved forward and brought my arms around his neck in a hug. He froze where he was and didn't move. It took me a second to realize what I was doing. When I did, I practically jumped backwards off of him. He just stared at me in a sort of stunned way. "Umm...bye!" I called, running straight for the house. I jumped gazelle-style over the plants blocking me from the path up to the door and then dove inside.

"OWWWWW!" I crashed into something warm and hard that let out this tremendous screech of pain. I was a bit dazed at first, and on top of whatever it was on the ground. When my vision cleared up from the impact, I realized it was Ella that I was crushing underneath me.

"Ella?" I asked in confusion. "What are you doing?"

"Having my internal organs crushed." she groaned, trying to shove me off of her body. I rolled off and stood up. She remained on the ground, trying to regain her breath.

"Well, what were you doing standing right in front of the door?" She didn't answer my question at first. She just looked suspicious. Which of course made me suspicious.

"Oh...nothing. Just...looking for something." she said, crawling to the stair railing to help herself up. Then the realization dawned on me.

"Were you WATCHING me?" I asked incredulously. I watched her turn red as I called her bluff, and new immediately that she had been spying on me from the little windows embedded right next to the door. "Why were you watching?" I cried.

"Who was that guy?" she asked cheekily, grinning. "He was pretty cute." I felt my own face go red.

"He's just a guy from school." I said, straightening myself up and starting to walk into the kitchen. "Where's your mom?" I was hoping to distract her.

"She ran out to pick up some stuff from Target. Was he that guy you were talking to at Dairy Queen?"

"That's none of your business." I said, slinging my backpack up onto the kitchen table.

"I knew it!" Ella squealed excitedly. I rolled my eyes, starting to unpack tonight's homework. "What was he doing walking you home?" Ella nudged my arm in an attempt to get me to talk. I groaned.

"We didn't have a ride. And we went to Burger King after school to get something to eat." It took me a minute to realize that I had revealed too much information. Ella's eyes got as big as saucers.

"Oh my god! You went on a date!" she said, practically jumping up and down.

"Shhh! Quiet down." I said, trying to calm her. She was getting WAY TOO excited about this. "And it was NOT a date. We were starving, and no one else could go with us."

"Yeah, sure..." Ella said sarcastically, plopping down into a chair in front of me and looking up at me with huge eyes. "Admit it...you like him."

"I do not!" I cried defensively. Ella just laughed.

"Oh, come on! You hugged him for God's sake!" she giggled.

"It was just a...a...friendly...embrace thingy. I don't even know what I was doing. It just happened." I blabbered. She only laughed harder.

"It was a full-frontal hug!" she protested. My eyes went wide.

"A full-what hug?"

"Nevermind..." she said, rolling her eyes.

"Well, either way. It didn't mean anything. I don't like him. We're STRICTLY friends." I stated firmly. Ella smirked.

"Well, fine then. I guess you don't want to hear about his expression when you hugged him." she said jauntily. I stopped unpacking my backpack.

"What about it?" I asked cautiously. Ella pretended to be picking her fingernails.

"Oh, nothing. He just looked...well, nevermind. You don't want to talk about it." She smiled at me. My eyes narrowed.

"What did he do?" I asked intensly, leaning down until I was sitting in a chair in front of her.

"No...you don't want to talk. I understand." she teased me. I groaned loudly.

"Come on, Ella! I wanna know. It's gonna bother me." I was practically begging. She looked at me for a second and then grinned. Then she leaned forward and launched into a play-by-play description of me and Fang's goodbye from her perspective. It was a minute or two before I realized what I was doing. I could've smacked myself. I was listening intently to my twelve and a half year old half-sister describe a hug that had occured between me and some guy from school that I barely knew. Well, sort of knew, but not...really. You know?

Oh man...I am really starting to turn into a girl aren't I? What has this place done to me? Before I know it, I'll be reading fashion magazines and painting my nails, and...gulp...going on diets. I paused my thinking process for a moment. Nah...who am I kidding? I like Burger King too much.

A/N: Yay! Es finite! Eh...I'm not really feeling this chapter, but I liked the end. I'm sorry if I'm boring you guys! But I love you! :D That must count for something.

Me and my cats would really loved it if you reviewed. (Not sure how this would benefit my kitties, but...) So...clickety clickety the button? It's extremely sexually frustrated, lol. It wants your babies. No, not really, but click on it. O.O