Chapter 24:
"Your hairs almost an inch long now!" Valencia exclaims, running her fingers over the new blonde growth at the back of her daughter's head. In the mirror, Max is chewing her lip with her arms crossed.
"I still want to cut it off." Max mumbles, and her mother sighs.
"But you have such pretty hair…" She says, running her hand over the back of Max's head one more time before she gathers the blonde strands and combs them back into a ponytail.
"Okay. Who's your friend at school, Monique? Do you think you can ask her to cut it for you? You know how the last hairdresser we tried botched your sister's hair." Valencia tries, and Max smirks. Nudge would probably lose her mind given the chance to cut Max's hair.
"I'll ask." Max says, and Valencia moves to let her out of the bathroom. It's been over a month since she's gotten burned, and her mother can hardly recognize her. She's stable, hanging out with friends on weekends and eating regularly. She watches Max go down the stairs and out the door to school.
Max slides into her chair next to Ella in french, and Ella smiles and leans in, a smug grin on her face.
"How's Nick?" She asks, raising her right eyebrow suggestively. Max rolls her eyes.
"Please, Ella, let me live." She says and Ella props her face up on the heels of her hands.
"Oh come on, you're always at his place. One of these days Maya's going to explode with jealousy." Ella taunts, and Max pushes her face away.
"We play videogames and talk, Ella, you know that." Max scolds, and Ella just shakes her head, still grinning. They've become close, but not close enough for Max to tell Ella her precious life story and problems. The rest of the students file into the room with the teacher and the class starts. Across the room, Dylan watches Max with rapt attention. She's become an enigma to him. He thinks about texting her, but he can't get his fingers to move towards the phone in his pocket. The more he tries to get closer to her, the harder it becomes. She's an Uneven surface, and he can never seem to get his feet under him around her, he can never tell just what she's going to do.
"Sure, but I see the way you guys look at each other when the other isn't looking." Ella says, and Max leans back in her chair, sending Ella some serious cut eye. She wouldn't admit, even to herself, but she does watch him, when his eyes wander over shapes and his tight jaw relaxes for a few seconds before he snaps back and tenses up again. Their class starts, and Max drifts though it easily. Ella walks with her to her next class, where they're surrounded by girls Max doesn't know, or care to know. Max writes in the footnotes of her notebook and leaves her class in a warm haze of calm. She hasn't seen her sister or any of her cronies, yet, and she's happy with the peace. She has a break before her next class, and she meanders down to the library, not noticing Dylan on her trail, trying to work up the courage to call out to her.
"Hello, Max." The librarians greets her, and she just smiles back. At the back of the library, a hand snaps out and grabs her wrist. She struggles for a second, before she recognizes the smell.
"Fuck." Fang whispers, his arms crushing her to his chest. She's scared for a few seconds, before she relaxes and hugs him back.
"What's wrong?" She asks, eyebrows furrowing. She let's him walk them back to lean against the wall, hidden from the rest of the library. He leans his forehead against the wall, but can't get his body to relax.
"I liked it better when I'm suspended. Everyone here keeps asking questions." He murmurs, tuning his face into her hair. This is how they sometimes end up, him needing to hold onto her, and her just existing in one place long enough for him to find his sanity again.
"Just keep answering them." She says, and he sighs, loosening his arms and pulling away from her, but staying close to her, her back against the wall. She watches him through calm eyes, she looks completely unfazed from being so close to him. At least that's what he thinks. He marvels at how little she is for a moment, probably two inches shorter than her twin, only up to his collarbone.
From where he's standing at the corner of a bookshelf, Dylan watches the exchange with clenched fists. It's always Fang, girls always like him better because he gives off the, "Troubled and angry" aura. He turns on his heel and leaves, shoving away the urge to rip her away from Fang.
"I just...How do you want me to answer them?" He asks, leaning closer to her with his forearm on the wall. She shifts, cocking her hip, the side of her face inches away from the sleeve of his jacket. She shrugs, her eyes drifting away from him and back to his face. She can feel the heat radiating off him in waves, wishing she could press her cold hands against his probably warm neck….Oh god. She flushes and presses her palms against the wall at her back.
"However you want." She says lazily, and he drops his head, rolling it to the side, earning a crack that makes Max's eyebrow twitch.
"Gross, Fang." She mutters, and he tightens one corner of his mouth, eyes glistening wickedly. He holds back a childish comment.
"You know what I want to tell them." He says, shifting his shoulder to move closer to her. His guts are twisting behind his ribs. She sighs and turns her face completely away from him, catching her lip between her teeth. His fingernails are digging little crescent moons in his palms.
"You'd be lying to them." She says softly in a low tone, both of their stomachs squeezing uncomfortable at her quiet words. He breathes out softly, leaning closer to her, pressing his lips to her cheek. He's going to use the last shred of his ego to do his best to find out what she really feels. He's been doing it for years, without realizing what he was doing, but now he's going to do his very best to make her feel special instead of worthless.
"Maybe you're right." He says, sliding his cheek against hers, to her ear and back. He pushes away from the wall, taking a step back and tightening the straps in his backpack.
"Later, Max." He says over his shoulder, leaving her frozen and wide eyed. She watches his retreating figure and resists the urge to chase after him and punch him in the back of his stupid head. Instead, she drives her fist back into the plaster of the wall and grinds her teeth. He's intentionally driving her up the wall, it's like a game of ping pong, them batting confession back and forth. She's not going to lose.
Stepping away from the wall, she leaves the library, pressing her cold hands into her pink cheeks. That damn kid.
At lunch, Nudge slides into the seat next to Max, unpacking her lunch and staring right at her the whole time with a silly grin on her face.
"What?" Max asks, eying Gazzy as he sits on the other side of Nudge.
"Just say no to her, Max." He says warningly, and Nudge immediately turns, slapping him on the arm.
"Hey!" Nudge barks at him, turning back to Max, still wearing her borderline sinister grin. Max leans away.
"I'm going to a party this weekend with…"
"No." Max cuts her off. She doesn't know obvious she could make it that she's not the party type. The last party she went too was the damnable one after homecoming. That being said, she got ditched by her date and had to haul Fang home with Iggy. Not a good time.
"Come on! You went with Iggy, but you won't go anywhere with me?" She whines, and Max turns her attention back to her sandwich. Iggy appears and climbs into the seat next to Max, letting his tray clatter to the table as he sits down heavily.
"I'm so bad at english." He grumbles, draping one arm over Max's chair back and letting his head loll backwards.
"Iggy!" Nudge half-shouts, reaching across Max and grabbing Iggys sleeve, shaking him. He sits up and bats her hand away.
"What?" He says, and Nudge retracts her hands back to her own space.
"Max doesn't want to go to Hannahs. She went to Homecoming with you, and she's always hanging out with Fang, but she never goes to parties with me." Nudge pouts, and Max swallows a bite of her sandwich half chewed. Iggy turns to Max.
"You don't want to go? That's fine with me..." Iggy says and Nudge shrieks, reaching for his shirt sleeve again, but he pulls out of the way this time.
"Iggy! Don't tell me you're not going either! I mean, granted, my other friends are still going, so I could hang out with them, but you guys are my BEST friends!" Nudge says, and Gazzy beside her snickers and Angel seems to appear out of thin air next to her brother. Max has finished her sandwich and is watching Fang across the room out of the corner of her eye. He climbs over the bench and drops heavily, one of his friends puts an arm over his shoulder and another greets him loudly, and he calls back with a grin, head cocked slightly to the side. She knows this version of him is fake, but she can pretend he's happy.
"No, I was going to go with a few guys from my history class." He replies, and Nudge sighs a breath of relief.
"Okay, so at least you'll be there somewhere." She says, turning her whole body to Max. She snacks on her chips as Nudges eyes narrow in determination.
"I'll get you to go." Nudge murmurs in a low tone, a wicked smile pilling on the corner of her lips.
"Quit that, it's too scary." Iggy says, pushing Nudges face away from Max.
"Hey!" The two argue, and Max finishes her chips, lost in thought. She doesn't want to think about how Nudge is going to try and get her to go to Hannah's party, and how she's going to get out of it..
blah blah I suck at updating I know I'm trying luv u bb.