Chapter 13-Max P.O.V.
I left the door open behind me, not even bothering to put on my other shoe as I walked as fast as I could away from Fangs house.
Because I didn't fight back? What the hell did that mean? Was it some sort of sick dominance fetish he was talking about, Ugh...thats just gross. Taking me to his house was probably just a ploy, but he looked different when he said that, he looked vacant in the head, a little bit lost. I wiped under my eyes furiously as tears started to spill.
"Max!" I hear Fang calling behind me and the front door to his house slamming shut. I pick up my pace and look down at my feet, wishing desperately that he would just leave me alone. His footsteps came up behind me, and his fingers brushed the back of my tricep, but I yanked away my arm before he could grip me.
"Come On Max, talk to me." I let out a strangled whimper and a new wave of tears. I hated this, I hated how he was making me feel like I was weak, I was so freaking done with being weak. I drew my arms into my stomach and tried to walk away from him, he was just making this harder than it needed to be.
He huffed and tried to step in front of me, and I crouched down and bolted away from him, taking off at a sprint with blurry eyes and tight lungs not really working to my advantage.
"Hey!" He bolted after me, and I poured on the speed, not having any idea where I was going. My feet barely grazed the pavement as we flew past all the other huge brick country houses. The houses started to grow farther and farther apart, and a gap in the thick trees with a sign indicated the opening to a trail. I ran towards the opening, hoping to lose Fang once in the woods.
My lungs started to burn, and the woods started to thin out and a clearing with soccer fields and picnic benches appeared. I stopped running, and bent over, my hands on my knees and taking deep breaths. I really needed to get outside more, and Tumblr wasn't really helping with that.
Light footfalls came up behind me, and Fang just stood next to me, while I wheezed for breath. Right...he was the runningback for the football team, he could probably run forever.
"I just need you to listen." he told me firmly, and I straightened, shot him a venomous glare, and turned to walk away. He gripped onto my wrist, and I tried to rip it out of his grasp, but he held on.
"Let go of me!" I screeched, and shoved his away from me square in the chest as hard as I could, knocking him over, but he still held onto my wrist and dragged me down with him.
I landed with an oof on his chest, and he released my wrist. I lifted my head and glared again.
"Pervert." I mumbled, and he just let out a sharp huff of air. He brushed his hair out of his face and shot me an aggravated glance.
"It sounded really wrong in your mind, but that not how I meant it." He got out quickly, and I scrambled away from him to sit next to where he was lying in the grass. I pulled my knees up to my chest, it was the beginning of December, and the cold was beginning to set in.
"Sure its not. Can I go home now?" I asked quickly, not wanting to create a stickier situation than I already had. Fang bolted upright in the grass, a frown on his usually placid features.
"No." He said firmly, and I pushed him over in the grass a little harder than necessary, hoping he would hit his head and hopefully knock a few stones back in place up there. I stood and brushed myself off, tightening my hold on the cuffs of my sweatshirt.
"Thanks for helping me out this morning." I told him, shooting him a smile, that came out more like a grimace. I turned on my heel and walked away over the dew covered soccer fields, tacking in a deep breath through my nose. The sound of Fang tearing at the grass behind me slowly fading as I walked farther and farther away over the soccer fields, until I reached the small elementary school on the other side. I looked back over the fields, Fangs back just a small black line next to a painted white goal post.
"Whatever." I muttered to myself, walking past the small school and just wandering around the quiet suburban streets until I found a street that I recognized and made my way back home. Finding my street, I reached for my phone in my back pocket, but I didn't feel it. I whipped around.
"Fuck!" I shrieked at the top of my lungs at no one in particular. I had left my backpack at Fangs house, along with my phone and everything in my pack. Frustrated, I pinched the back of my hand and stomped up the porch steps and took the spare key that was under a rock in a planter. I went to unlock the door, but it swung open as I was about to unlock the door. My mom stood in the doorway and yanked me inside, enrapturing me in a fierce hug. I stood stock still, knowing the storm was coming.
"Oh, my baby..." My mom mumbled into my hair, and I wrapped my arms around her waist in return, inhaling the scent of her perfume.
"Uhh, what are you doing home?" I asked timidly, and she pulled away from me, holding my be the shoulders at arms length, a stern look on her face.
"I carted your sister off to the hospital to set her nose and then came home, not knowing where you were. Um, I made some tea...its in the living room." She told me, gesturing down the hallway, and I followed her obediently and sat across from her on the sofa, taking a warm cup of tea from on top of the glass coffee table, wisps of the sweet smelling tea wafting around the edges of the white lip of the cup.
"I went to a friends house for a little while after school to cool down a little bit. Sorry." I apologized, keeping my eyes down on my hands. She chuckled, and took a sip from her cup of tea.
"Just tell me what happened baby." I looked up at her, a strained smile on her face. She really tried to be a good mom, and I felt a pang in my chest. If I could just stay out of Mayas way for just a year and a half before I graduate it would be so much easier on her.
I fidgeted uneasily on the couch before retelling the events of the fight this morning, leaving out the finer details of Mayas taunting and Fang taking me to the nurse and his house. At some parts of the story, my moms hand would tighten around the handle of her mug so hard that her knuckles would turn white, her lips pressing into a fine line whenever she wanted to say something, but didn't. I finished up the last of my story, the feeling of dread rising up in my stomach again, and my mom just stood up from her chair and hugged me again.
"Thanks for telling me. I'll need to have a talk with your sister." She told me, a frown settling into her features as she turned away from me to pick up her now empty cup from the coffee table.
"I'm going to pick up Maya. get some sleep, okay?" She stroked my hair and I nodded, taking a sip of the spicy tea, leaning back into the couch as the door slammed and I heard her car back out of the driveway.
Hey guys, so this segment of this chapter has a dark theme, so I guess this is a warning. If you don't agree with what Im writing that's okay, if it disturbs you I apologize.
Fang P.O.V.
"Thanks for helping me out this morning." Max told me, shooting me what seemed like a genuine smile, but her eyes didn't smile like the rest of her face. With that, she turned on her heel and walked away over the dewey soccer fields, and I tore at the long, dying grass that I was holding onto.
I sat and tore at the grass as her back became smaller and disappeared the farther away she went. I pulled my phone out of my pocket, toying with the black case as Max faded from sight, leaving me behind. I hated being left behind, almost as much as I hated being rejected, and Max had done both, with one shoe on one shoe off. She didn't even try and she was totally crushing me, but I wasn't exactly helping my case much either. She would leave me behind just like my parents did, leave behind their fuck up son who could never say quite what he thought. I peeled off the case from my Iphone, the four pencil sharpener blades gathering at the bottom of the case in a little silver pile.
I sifted through them, trying to keep myself from screaming, I was so angry. Selecting one, I looked down at my cold arms, goosebumps in the cold because I forgot my jacket at home. Two years of dark red, white, and purple scars littered my arms from my wrists to my armpits, some of them long and thin, others shorter and the shape of narrowed eyelids. Underneath my scars, my veins stood out from under my skin from the cold.
I turned the tiny blade over and over in my fingers, my thoughts starting to overwhelm me. Everything that I had failed at, all the people that I had loved who I hurt haunting me at the back of my mind. I had fucked everything over with Max, got her beat up and only succeeded to drive her farther away from me. Maya probably hated me now too, her and all her friends would turn their backs on me, the only "friends" I had left was my football team, and they knew nothing about me. I didn't even want to get started on my parents, that always ended up badly.
The blade in my fingers alighted on a vein, with a flick of my wrist I made an inch long scratch in my skin, a split second later, beads on blood like string decorating the shallow cut. The sting was present for only a second, before fading blissfully. I cleared my throat as my failure of the day bubbled to the surface, picking up a rhythm with the blade, back and over down the line. Beads of blood gathered together and ran down the side of my arm. I dropped my hand and laid down on the damp grass, eyes open as I watched the clouds slowly crawl across the sky.
I hunted around in the grass for my phone and case, lifting it so I could see it. I wiped of my blade of my t-shirt and dropped it back into the black case, rearranging them and snapping my phone back in to hide them. My arm itched, but I ignored it and watched the clouds roll by as the wet, cold grass soaked the backs of my clothes. I closed my eyes, taking in a deep breath through the nose. I shivered, and sat up, the cold becoming a little too unbearable. Checking the time on my phone, it was a little past four, making I had been lying around in cold weather for half an hour and I had a furry dog child at home to feed.
I stood up, tucking my phone into my pocket and brushing grass off the back of my pants and tee-shirt. I strode away from the park the way I came, the pieces of my shield falling back in place as I walked back through the woods, the thick pine trees thinning into perfect uniform lines. I left the woods and walked back to my house, picking off the dried beads of blood, the white stone and glass looming over untrimmed bushes and dead flowers that I refused to pull up.
I pushed through the front door, and Total trotted up to me, letting out a whimper as he nudged the back of my calf. I knelt down, rubbing the top of his silky head. Total trotted away from me and into the kitchen, sitting down next to his food bowl with what I always swore was a smile on his face. I sighed and scooped out two cups of food for him, before flopping down at the breakfast bar.
Mondays really did suck.