A/N: Sorry it's taken so long for this update. I've been super busy with summer school finals and class. We also had a really bad storm here and every where's out of power and I haven't had Wifi to publish this or charge my laptop. Sorry! If I get 15 reviews I'll make the next couple chapters extra long. Please RnR! Thanks!
We decided we were gonna go uptown and hang out or something. Get ice cream. Maybe see a movie. Go to Walgreens! In case you were unaware, I could practically live in Walgreens. It's the best store in the entire world!
"Max…" I was now aware that Fang had said my name 3 times by now and I was spacing out fantasizing about Walgreens.
"Sorry, huh?" I kicked a bunch of dead leaves that were orange as we walked down the cracking sidewalk.
"Iggy texted me and wanted to know if the you, me and Ella wanted to go uptown with him and Ben. They said we should go get lunch and then see a movie. Whatcha think?" Fang asked slipping his phone into his back pocket.
"Sure, sounds good. I'll call Ella. Is it okay if Nudge comes too? I think they were hanging out today," I pulled out my phone and scrolled through my contacts until I found Ella. She put her self into my phone as 'Ella Dearest, Your Favorite Person In the World!:)' and I hadn't had time to change it yet. Fang just nodded in agreement with Nudge tagging along as I listened as I was connected.
"Hey Max!" Ella chirped.
"Hey, Fang, Iggy, Ben and I are going uptown to grab lunch and go see a movie. You coming? You can bring Nudge too, don't worry,"
"Yes! Nudge and I are bored out of our minds! I'll have mom drop us off! When and where?" I heard Nudge stifle a shriek of excitement in the background. Oh Nudge, ever the excited for such simple stuff.
I put the phone on my shoulder to dampen the sound. "There both coming and are gonna have my mom drop them off. Where we gonna eat lunch?" I asked Fang.
"Umm…Chipotle?"
"Meet us at Chipotle in 15 minutes."
"Okay! Thanks Max! Oh, and Nudge says hi!"
"Yeah, tell her we say hi back. Talk to you later," I said as we crossed the street and put my phone in the other pocket from my money.
When we got to the railroad tracks, I saw Iggy jumping up and down and waving dramatically and Fang and I, and Ben was next to him trying to ask people to help take care of his "different" friend. I laughed, and Fang chuckled, "Iggy, you're girlfriend's coming!" Fang yelled from where we were. Iggy instantly stopped jumping and went red. Then he happily turned around and flicked Fang off, and I cracked up.
"She's not my girlfriend!" Iggy hollered, as we came closer.
"Almost-to-be girlfriend," Fang said, not shouting anymore because we were close enough to them to talk at a normal level.
"Excuse me? What is all this talk about my sister? Not that anyone would go out with her," I said jokingly and they cracked a smile.
"Iggy has crush on Ella!" Ben exclaimed filling me in. Ahhh. That would make sense. I saw them totally staring at each other and blushing when we were at Fang's house the other day. I nodded with a smile.
"I totally see it, Igs. And don't worry I approve of you so you don't have to go through my training session," I announced patting Iggy on the shoulder, hand his face went an even darker shade of red. Ben was practically on the floor with laughter, and Fang chuckled softly. He's not really a big one for showing emotions.
"So Iggy, when you gonna make you move?" Fang walked over and sat down on one of the benches surrounding the square by where we were all standing.
Iggy glared at him, it was intense if I do say so myself, however I have just about the meanest glare ever. Ask anyone. "I told you, we're just friends." That caused Fang and Ben both to stifle laughter and I smirked.
"You are such a bad liar Iggy," I said walking over to sit on the bench next to Fang.
"Me? You're the ones in love. You and Fang," he said pointing at the two of us and making a heart with his hands. Fang and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes. I never really thought about liking Fang that way. I mean, I can't deny that he's super attractive, but still. He's my best friend, it's just weird.
I did a slow, artificial, drawn out chuckle for dramatic effect, "Iggy…not happening. We're the ones who are just friends."
He rolled his eyes, "It's so obvious. You guys already like each other and are too immature to admit your feelings to the rest of the world."
"You want me to admit my feelings?" I asked laughing and Iggy promptly nodded. "Well, once you put it that way…I have to pee so freakin bad can I go find a bathroom? Please!" I wasn't kidding. I hadn't gone since forever ago and I was gonna burst. Fang cracked a smile, and Ben stifled back more laughter.
Iggy just looked confused. "Huh?"
"She. Has. To. Take. A. Piss." Ben said slowly annunciating every word and syllable to make it easily understood. Iggy rolled his eyes at Ben and gave him a lighthearted glare.
"I wasn't kidding! I gotta go!" I almost cried. I stood up doing one of those awkward 'I gotta pee' dances, that little kids normally do.
Just as I stood up, a silver Audi S7 drove up, and two highly talkative girls, I knew very well, got out.
"Max! Fang! Iggy! Ben!" the first one out with crazy brown hair and gorgeous smile squealed. She ran over and gave me a huge hug.
"Hi Nudge!" Oh man, I was gonna explode. Fang noticed my expression and smirked.
"Iggy! Fang! Ben! Max!" another voice yelled as she got out of the car. This one had less-crazy hair, but the same gorgeous smile. This one was my sister. Fang, Ben and I exchanged glances as she ran over and gave Iggy a hug first. Maybe there was something going on between them.
"I hate to interrupt this lovely gathering," Iggy said with fake sincerity to Nudge and Ella who were going around hugging everyone, "but frankly, I think Max is gonna pee her pants if we don't find her a toilet in the next 30 seconds." I mouthed 'thank you' to him and he just laughed. 'I really had to go too' he mouthed back and I laughed. We walked inside the door to Chipotle, and were hit with all the delicious smells of cooking Mexican food. I made a mad dash for the bathroom, and came back out and joined the others in line once I was finished.
"Better?" Fang asked smirking, and I nodded vigorously. "What are you gonna get?"
"Steak tacos!" Steak had always been my favorite food and I hadn't had any in a while, and I was totally craving some.
Fang smirked, "I'm getting the same thing I think, but the spicy kind." I nodded, but made a face when he said spicy.
"I hate spicy food!" I exclaimed.
"How?" Fang asked in apparent shock, "don't tell Iggy. He's crazy for anything spicy. He puts Tabasco Sauce on anything and everything. And even I think that's gross." I watched as Iggy and Ella stood in line together talking, and I noticed Ben and Nudge were together too, and that left me and Fang. But I meant what I said before, Fang and I were just friends, and I figure we always would be. Not that he has cooties or anything, just that I can't see him as anything else than a best friend.
"Is there really something going on between Iggy and Ella?" I asked having been wondering for a while now anyway. We'd been here for about 2 months, and we had one other gig last week. Fang had been teaching me guitar after school a few days a week, and we normally got together to do homework before or after. And on every Tuesday, we all met at the library and worked on homework and projects and stuff. I've been learning really fast, and Fang thinks I'm really good, but I don't think I'll ever be as good as him. I've been borrowing his old guitar for the time being, but I want my own, so I'll have to start making some money.
"I'm not positive, but I know Iggy likes her, and he isn't sure if Ella likes him the same way or just as friends. He might ask her out later in the year or something, but he doesn't want to ruin the whole flock's friendships, if it became awkward between him and Ella," Fang explained leaning against the wall. I nodded.
"I'm pretty sure Ella has a crush on Iggy too, but I wouldn't want to rush anything. I'll talk to her about it sometime, it's not like we don't live together," I said with a smirk at the end. "What about Ben and Nudge?"
"What about them?" he replied getting up to walk forward, since the line was moving up.
"Are they the same way? Like do they like each other in that way, or are they just friends?" I asked. I'd been wondering if there was something going on between them too, like Iggy and Ella.
"No. Nudge likes a guy named Blake.. He's really good at basketball and baseball and sports in general, and he's smart and nice. He's a good guy, I know him," he explained.
"Okay, does Ben like Nudge though? I mean cause there always standing together."
"No. You know Lexi? Dark brown hair, green eyes, freckles, really good athlete?" Fang moved up to place his order. "Can I have 5 spicy steak tacos with lettuce, pico de gallo, cheese, no sour cream, and the hottest salsa. And a bag of chips and a drink." The lady across the counter nodded and put the order into the cash register. "We'll share chips," he muttered to me under his breath.
"Pay at the far end register." The lady told Fang, then moved onto me, "Can I help you miss?"
"Yes please. Can I have 4 steak tacos with cheese, pico de gallo, lettuce, a tiny bit of sour cream, and the mild salsa, and a soft drink please," I asked politely.
She nodded and repeated, "Pay at the far end register." I nodded and walked back to the line at the other end.
Standing next to Fang again I nodded, "Yeah I know her."
"Yeah well he's liked her forever, since like 6th grade when they started school together. He finally got the nerve to talk to her last year, and now they're really close friends. Like hey hang out all the time. I'm not sure if she likes him, but he's like in love with her," he explained to me.
"Aww, that's so cute! What's he do? Like why do you think he's in love with her?" I asked smiling.
"Cute?" he asked first, and I rolled my eyes, "And well he texts her so much, and sends her all these sweet messages, and he talks about her like she's an angel. He's always talking to, or about her, but in a good way. He changed for her too."
"Changed?" That was really sweet of him though, I hope he ended up getting her because he seemed like a great guy for her.
"Yeah, well he hung out with the wrong crowd of people, like all the druggies, and skater guys, but then once he started talking to her, she told him she didn't like his friends and all them, and so he met us. But he never did anything bad, just hung out with them, then he met Iggy and now he's with us. He's an amazing musician."
"Is there any reason he and Nudge are together so much?"
"Well, for one Iggy and Ella are always together, you and me are always together, and there like the other two left, so they go together. And when they were raised as kids, Ben's dad died and he and Nudge grew really close because she knew him and we didn't, so she helped him through all of that. So they're just good friends now, and Nudge's friends with Lexi from something, and he's trying to get more ways to get Lexi to like him," He explained, and then went up to pay and grab his food. Oh, so Ben likes Lexi, Nudge likes Blake, Ella and Iggy like each other, and then there's me and Fang.
"$9.84," the other cashier said, "Here's your food."
I grabbed my food, "Thanks," and went to go fill up my drink.
Fang and I were the last in line and we saw a table in the back where Ella, Nudge, Iggy and Ben were all sitting. Fang and I walked over and took the two remaining seats next to each other in the booth. Everyone else had been eating for a while, and Fang and I both dug in.
"What movie are we seeing?" Nudge asked since she was already finished.
"Avengers," Iggy said.
"People Like Us," Ella chimed in.
"Rock of Ages," I announced.
"Avengers is awesome," Ben added. "Lexi and I saw it right when it came out. So good."
"Avengers," Fang said taking a sip of his pop.
"Well that leaves it 3 out of 6 which is half of us. We are a democracy, so let's go. Avengers it is," Iggy got up to go throw out his garbage, and got another refill on his Dr. Pepper. "Besides Max, Rock of Ages doesn't come out til later anyway."
I sighed, "Fine. I guess Avengers is fine. But we're all going to see Rock of Ages when it comes out. Midnight premier baby!"
"I love rock 'n roll!" Ella and Nudge sang.
"So put another dime in the juke box baby!" I sang loudly causing stares from surrounding tables.
"I love rock 'n roll!" Fang, Ben and Iggy sang back.
"So come take your time, and come dance with me!" I sang again, this time getting up to throw my stuff away.
"You guys, I absolutely love 80s music! Foreigner, Journey all of that stuff is so great!"
"Agreed. Maybe I can convince my dad to let us do an all 80s gig. That'd be pretty cool."
"Yeah, and then we can be like the Sound of Music. Fantastic," Iggy spread his arms wide and pretended to skip through a meadow. "The hills are alive, with the sound of music!"
"Right, Iggy. Because that would definitely happen. I'm sure you'll have great luck dressing us all up in curtains." We left Chipotle and were walking across the street
to the Classic Cinemas, theatre.
"6 tickets to Avengers please," I walked up and bought all of our tickets.
"$36, theatre number 8. To your right." The young girl behind the counter said handing over 6 tickets. We walked over to buy more food.
Iggy and Ben split a popcorn, and each got Icees. Ella and Nudge split an Icee, a popcorn and a box of Junior Mints. Fang and I each got Icees, split a popcorn and split a box of Swedish Fish.
We made our way to our designated theatre, and found an empty row and made our way to the middle. The seating was: Nudge, Ella, Iggy, Ben, Fang, Max .We got comfortable, and then the lights dimmed, and the movie started. At the beginning, I was so confused, but as it went on, I started to piece it together. The guy stole this powerful thing and hijacked a bunch of the workers to be able to work it so he could get his bad guy army into Earth. But one of the guys in charge of it escaped, and he found some super heroes (the Avengers) to get it back . Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man and Thor. But at the beginning they were all fighting, and trying to get all the glory, but then at the end they started to work together. They finally defeated the bad guy, and sent the thing back with Thor to the other galaxy. But there was a ton of fighting and it was really good.
After 2 hours of sitting through the movie, we all got up and stretched and headed out of the theatre. We saw more previews for Rock of Ages! It comes out November 12, 2012. It was decided. I was coming to the midnight premier, and I didn't care if anyone came with me, but I wanted to see it so bad!
"I think Captain America was by far the cutest one," Nudge said talking to Ella, Nudge and Iggy.
"Yeah he was really cute! But Thor was pretty cute too, with that giant hammer," Ella squealed.
"Whether he was cute or not doesn't decide who was the best of the Avengers," Iggy argued back.
"Yeah, Iron Man was the best. He can fly, he has armor and he's super strong. Why wouldn't he be the best?" Ben shot back to the girls with the look of slight amusement on his face.
"No! Captain America is cute, and strong and he doesn't need any stuff to help him! He's too good for that!" Nudge retorted with a slightly dreamy look on her face.
"I agree with Ben, Iron Man wins!" Iggy cried dramatically causing Ella to giggle.
"Nope. Thor is the best! He was ripped!" Ella chirped, pushing open a set of glass, double doors. We emerged into sunlight and I immediately put a hand in front of my eyes in an attempt to shield them from the bright light.
"No, no, no," Iggy began, "Thor and Captain America clearly weren't the best."
"Hulk!" I said loudly.
"Smash!" Fang chimed in with a horrible imitation of the Incredible Hulk. "Hulk. Angry!" I was laughing so hard, I had to grab onto Ella's shoulder who was standing next to me, bent over in laughter.
I wiped my eyes, "But honestly, the Hulk was awesome. You've gotta admit it. He took that bad guy and slammed him on the ground a ton of times!"
"Whatever you say Max. You guys just don't have the insane ability to judge superheroes with, and decide who is the best," Iggy said smirking as he kicked over a pile of dead leaves that was on the pavement.
"OMG!" Ella yelled, her jaw dropping open as she stopped dead in her tracks. "Snow cones! Why didn't you guys tell me there was a snow cone place uptown!" My face broke into a grin. I love snow cones. They are the best thing in this world besides Walgreens and homemade chocolate chip cookies.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Fang asked, "They aren't gonna bring 'em to us."
Half an hour later, 6 hyped up kids emerged grinning from the snow cone shop. Ella and Nudge stuck out their tongues, and went cross-eyed trying to figure out if their tongues were colored. I laughed, they looked ridiculous. Ella's tongue was stained a dark purple, from her giant grape snow cone, and Nudge's was bright pink from her pink lemonade and watermelon mixed snow cone. Iggy opened his mouth, and his now bright orange teeth broke into a grin. Ben did the same, and his mouth was bright green from his green apple frozen snow. Fang and I both had blue mouths from blue raspberry, the decidedly best flavor ever.
After we walked around uptown for about an hour and a half, we decided to head back home. Ben's mom was coming to pick him up, and Iggy had to walk to Butterfield to pick up Gazzy from baseball or soccer practice. So it was Fang, Ella, Nudge and I walking home.
"Wait! Ella!" Nudge's face lit up into a huge smile.
"Yeah?" Ella turned around to face Nudge.
"What if," I heard Nudge begin.
"Oh God," I muttered under my breath.
"We went and got manis and/or pedis!" she finished with a flourish, and grin.
"Omg! Yeah! Let's do it! Which nail salon?" Ella asked grinning from ear to ear.
"Well Paradise Nails isn't too far from here, and they do designs for free, but the polish job's are really good!" Nudge said looking like she just won the lottery.
Ella's face lit up, "Yeah!" Then she and Nudge exchanged looks and at the same time turned towards me and Fang.
"Max-" the both began together, but I cut them off before they could finish their sentence.
"Absolutely not." I heard Fang chuckle next to me, and I smirked.
"But-" they tried again.
"I'm not going with you to get my nails done. No way," I replied matter-of-factly.
"Please-" they tried one last time, pulling Bambi eyes on me. I had to admit, Nudge had really good ones, and Ella's were a close second, but I managed to stay strong.
"Nope. C'mon Fang," I finished turning the other way. Fang and I turned to start walking back, and I heard Nudge and Ella again.
"Ooooooh," they began in that voice that people use when they find out who someone likes. Like 'Oooh, you like Billy…" or whatever. I rolled my eyes, and turned around.
"What?" Fang and I had both turned around at the sound.
"Omg! Max, it's so obvious!" Ella cried.
"Duh! You and Fang are like soul mates, and meant to be! Ever since you moved here you guys have been all over each other," Nudge sighed dreamily. Well now that I knew she liked Blake, I had some blackmail. Perfect.
I kinda laughed, kinda made an awkward face at Fang. "Eww, no offense Fang, but I mean your attractive and all, but I only like you as a friend. You know that right?"
He smirked, rolling his eyes. "No duh Max. And I wouldn't wanna go out with you, and all your attitude. You're like my best friend and that's weird. That'd be like dating my sister."
"See. We're friends. F-R-I-E-N-D-S." I said slowly, spelling it out for them.
"So you're friends with benefits!" Ella exclaimed with a smirk. I rolled my eyes at her. "Yolo!" Nudge cracked up and I rolled my eyes. You Only Live Once. No duh, I don't need a phrase to tell me that. I'm not a cat.
"Whatever, they'll realize it eventually. C'mon, let's go get our nails done!" Ella stuck her tongue out at me, and then she and Nudge high-fived and turned the other way towards the nail place. I smirked, rolling my eyes.
"Have fun," I called after them sarcastically.
"You're the ones who are gonna be having fun!" Nudge called back in her weird seductive voice.
Fang and I exchanged glances and started laughing. Just the thought of us being anything more than friends was just weird, and definitely not 'yolo' worthy.
"Why do they think you like me? And that I like you?" I asked somewhat confused. I'm not a super touchy-feely person if you hadn't picked up on it yet.
"I don't know. Probably cause we spend so much time together. And I talk to you," Fang answered. Would it kill him to talk in complete sentences?
"Yeah I guess. What do you mean you talk to me? I mean obviously, I'm not deaf," I replied with a hint of sarcasm. Fang's lips twitched up into a smile, then went back to his normal expression. But there was something different about it now, a twinge of sadness maybe. I couldn't tell exactly, he was particularly good at his hiding his emotions.
"Let's go somewhere, and I'll tell you. Like somewhere private, or special," he said softly. He was being unusually quiet, even for Fang. I nodded, and looked at him questioning.
"Where? Like at my house?" I asked still confused. He shook his head.
"No, there's a place I remembered. I'll show you. Let's go."