Chapter 39
Hey, sorry it's taken so long to get up. I've made major writers block plus I've been busy with school. So here it is and I hope you enjoy it.
"So, Max, you're back to square one," Iggy said suddenly. We'd been at Iggy's most of the afternoon and the only thing that kept us going through our homework was well… me! These boys are so lazy and they need a lot of motivation. They always wanted to stop and talk about something stupid like video games and violent films.
"What do you mean?" I asked him curiously.
"You no longer have a date," Iggy pointed out.
"Um, Ig, first of all Sam wasn't my date he was my partner and second of all, it's no big deal it's like in term three or four," I pointed out.
"Aw, you don't have to be alone!" Iggy cried dramatically.
"I hate to break up the soap opera but, Max, can we please stop this, its five o'clock," Fang begged me.
"I don't know," I said doubtfully.
"Max, we've been at this for one and a half hours. If you don't let us stop I'm afraid I'll have to kick you out," Iggy threatened me.
"Fine," I grumbled.
"Let's watch a movie," Fang suggested.
"Like what?" I asked.
"Let's watch 'Transformers'," Iggy suggested.
"Um…" I began hesitantly.
"Max, live a little," Iggy encouraged me.
"I don't know," I mumbled quietly.
"Max," Fang said catching my attention. He gripped my shoulder and stared into my eyes. "Trust me," I stared into his dark, hypnotising eyes and nodded.
"Jeez, you need to do the whole 'Max, I love you, stare into my eyes and trust me' thing just to get her to watch a movie," Iggy scoffed.
"Who said anything about loving her?" Fang demanded.
"Oh, it was written in the stars, and you wanna try to tell me there's nothing going on? Or do you wanna tell Blushy, who's as red as a beetroot?" Iggy threw back with a smirk.
"Shut it, Iggy!" Fang and I sneered.
This thing with me and Fang was so weird. We were friends and yeah I used to have a crush on him but I was over it. So why was I still blushing, instead of throwing up at the thought of me and Fang?
We started watching the movie and I was evidently surprised, since it's not the kind of movie that I would normally watch. I was asking so many questions that eventually Iggy and Fang threatened to duct tape my mouth.
We were about halfway through the film (or so I guessed) when Iggy's Mum Claire walked in.
"Nick, are you staying for dinner, and would you like to stay the night?" Claire asked Fang.
"If it's not too much trouble," Fang accepted.
"None at all," Claire smiled. She picked up the home phone ready to call Jane. "What about you, Max?"
"What? Me?" I asked in shock.
"Yes. Would you like to stay the night?" Claire asked me slowly. I had no idea what to say. I had never slept over at a guy's house before, with guy's there. I looked over at Fang and Iggy who were sending me subtle nods.
"Um, I suppose I could ask my Mum," I shrugged.
"I'll do that if you'd like. What's you're home number?" Claire offered. I gave her the home number and turned my attention back to the movie.
"Max, are you alright?" Iggy asked me.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I said bluntly.
"Don't tell me that you've never been to a sleepover before," Fang checked.
"Well of course I have, just not with boys. I didn't realise that it was something that people did," I explained.
"Do you live in a cave or something?" Iggy asked me and her received a punch from Iggy.
"Be nice," Fang growled.
"What, are you protecting your-?" Iggy began.
"Say girlfriend and I will kick your arse!" Fang growled.
"Whoa, whoa, guy's, break it up," I said as I tried to stop them from beating each other up but they took no notice of me.
"What? So now you're predicting that people are going to say girlfriend?" Iggy checked. "Or do you prefer her to be called Mrs. Ride?" Iggy checked.
"Whoa, we're divorced." I reminded Iggy.
"Don't bring Max into this," Fang warned Iggy.
"Dude! It's about Max!" Iggy exclaimed.
"Oh… right," Fang remember.
"Oi!" I exclaimed.
"What?" Fang and Iggy asked me.
"I'm still here! Let's get this straight, I'm not Fang's girlfriend, I'm his ex-wife and you two need to shut up and get over yourselves!" I told them firmly.
Claire walked back into the room and finally the boys sat down.
"Max, I just got off of the phone with you Mum and she said you could stay. I think some of Tia's things will fit you," said Claire.
"Thanks," I said. I was in shock that Mum had agreed to let me stay the night at Iggy's. I wonder if she thought that Iggy wasn't going to be there or something.
"Iggy, who's Tia?" I asked him after a bit.
"Oh, she's my big sister, she's in Melbourne studying to become a Vet," Iggy explained.
"Oh, ok," I nodded.
Once the movie had finished I had to admit that I was hooked on Transformers.
"The next movie is supposed to be coming out this year," Fang told me.
"We should go," I said. He looked at me in surprise.
"I mean with The Flock," I explained to him and he nodded.
"We should," Iggy agreed.
"Max, if you come with me I'll show you some of Tia's old things," Claire called out. I followed her into the room opposite of Iggy's. It was painted in a light purple and had oak furniture. She dug threw a drawer and pulled out some tracksuit pants and a shoe string top.
"I know that, girls can be a bit funny about being in their pyjamas around boys," Claire smiled.
"Thanks," I thanked her warmly.
"It's good to see Ian with such good friends,"
"Well he always had Nick," I reminded her.
"Oh, of course and please don't misunderstand me, I love Nick, he's like apart of the family. I simply meant that it's good that the two of them have expanded," Claire explained to me.
I left the tracksuit and top on the bed and rejoined Fang and Iggy in the lounge room. I gathered that Fang and Iggy's parents knew each other and were friends. It wasn't hard to understand why Jane and Claire were friends; they were both kind and gentle women with hearts made of gold. They welcomed pretty much anyone who came into their home with open arms. I had no idea how the two of them managed to raise two misfits who go by Fang and Iggy. I assumed that they must take after their fathers.
Fang and Iggy had a list of action packed movies that I just had to see and with that they introduced me to X-Men. I couldn't believe that I hadn't seen or even heard of some of these movies before. I was having fun with Fang and Iggy but I couldn't help wondering why Mum let me stay at Iggy's house.
"What's up, Max?" Iggy asked me, obviously noticing the expression of confusion on my face.
"I was just wondering why Mum agreed to let me stay here," I told him.
"Why don't you want to?" Iggy asked me.
"It's not that, it's just… well you know my Mum and how careful she is with me around boys. She's always telling me to be careful around Fang," I pointed out.
"I was wondering about that," Fang pitched in.
"I wouldn't think about it too much, Mum can be pretty convincing when she wants to be," Iggy told me.
"I just don't understand how a sweet woman like her could have possibly ended up with you," I said to Iggy that made Fang roll on the floor with laughter. Iggy's only response was to glare at me intensely.
"So, Fang, Max has gotten rid of Sam now we just need you to get rid of Lissa and then you and Max can live happily ever after." Iggy said as we were eating pizza.
"Why would I get rid of Lissa?" Fang demanded.
"So you and Max can live happily ever after, duh," Iggy repeated.
"First of all there is nothing going on with me and Lissa and she isn't in the way of Max and I being Max and I. Max and I aren't like that," Fang said in a way that made my heart ache. Did this mean that he liked Lissa?
"Dude, she likes ya. She's just a bit more subtle about it and besides you're so dense that you wouldn't see it anyway!" Iggy exclaimed.
"There's nothing to see," Fang insisted.
"Max, help me out here," Iggy begged me. Both boys turned to face me.
"Well, she does seem to have a bit of a thing for you, Fang, I don't know if she likes you or if she just likes to flirt," I replied.
"Ha!" Iggy teased him.
"But, Lissa isn't the reason that Fang and I aren't Fang and I," I added.
"Ha!" Fang exclaimed at Iggy.
"So, Max, you think she likes me then?" Fang asked me. I almost thought that he sounded hopeful.
"Why? Do you like her?" I demanded, probably a bit more aggressively than I intended.
"No! I was worried that she did after you're little speech. I mean she's nice and everything but just no," Fang corrected me.
"Ok then. Look, all I'm saying is keep a look out. I agree she's nice but I get the feeling that she can be really sneaky," I warned him.
I had no idea why I was even worried about Fang liking someone else. He was perfectly within his rights to like whoever he wanted to. It shouldn't affect me at all, but for some reason it was.
Claire and Iggy's Dad Kevin set up the two spare mattresses since Iggy volunteered to sleep on the couch. Fang had the mattress closest to Iggy and I had the one on the end. We stayed up talking for a while and then Fang and I could hear the subtle sounds of Iggy falling asleep.
"So what made you see the truth about Sam?" Fang asked me randomly.
"What do you mean?" I asked him.
"I mean the other day you said you didn't want to believe me and then this afternoon you told him to get lost," Fang reminded me. I felt a huge surge of guilt and sighed.
"Fang, I can't really explain it. I didn't want to think the worst and I'm not exactly the kind of girl that a guy falls for-" I began.
"Why would you say that?" Fang demanded.
"Don't worry about it," I sighed. "The point is, I spoke to Iggy and he made me realise," I explained.
"You spoke to Iggy?" Fang asked me with a frown.
"I knew you were mad at me and he knew that you were as well so he wanted to hang out and give me a lecture," I explained.
"Oh," Fang sighed.
"What's wrong?" I asked him.
"Nothing," Fang said with a small smile.
"Fang, is everything ok?" I asked him slowly.
"Max, I'm just glad that you finally saw sense," Fang said and I decided that it was best to drop it. I stared into Fang's eyes for a moment and I could feel him staring back. It seemed like there was something he wanted to say but he didn't.
"Goodnight, Max," Fang said softly and rolled over.
"Goodnight, Fang, sweet dreams," I said and closed my eyes.
I couldn't help but notice how weird it was that Fang so desperately wanted me out of Sam's grasp. Maybe he was just protective of me and he was worried that Sam might hurt me. Either way I was too tired to worry about it.