I don't own MR

Max

"Urgh," Nudge grumbled as she stumbled into the kitchen, her eyes still glued shut as she felt for a wall with one hand and rubbed the sleep away from her face with the other. Her hair was an untamed mess of chocolate brown curls as always, and her cocoa bean skin looked as flawless as ever.

"Nudge!" I cried out, running over to my friend to wrap her into a hug. Before I could, however, she managed to trip over her own two feet and tumble to the ground in a heap. I skidded to a halt, looking down at my old friend as her twinkling hazel eyes shot open and looked around.

"Ugh, Iggy did you mop or something?" She grumbled, ignoring my excitement of seeing her for the first time in a long time.

"Nudge!" I exclaimed again, and she spent a long moment examining my gray socks before tilting her head up to look at me. All at once, a wide smile crept over her face and she pushed herself to her feet, pulling me into a hug.

"Max! I haven't seen you in forever!" She yelled into my ear, now fully awake and buzzing with energy. Although it didn't take her long to switch over from the elation of seeing me, to the elation of seeing Iggy cooking food. "You better be making waffles," she warned, turning to the strawberry blonde who was slaving over the stove.

"But of course," Iggy smirked, winking at Nudge as he shook the pan a little before turning to look at us. "So, how was your nap?" He asked, looking to Nudge with a glint of mischief in his eyes, something I haven't seen since Lupo went brain dead.

"Fine, but by the look in your eye I'm a little scared," Nudge admitted, looking Iggy up and down warily.

"Oh you should be," Iggy snickered before turning back to the waffle and I turned back to Nudge.

"Alright, so apparently you have a lot to catch me up on," I told her.

"Right, where should I start?" She asked, tilting her head up in thought. "Well how about we talk about HQ?"

"Oh great, I'd love to hear this," I muttered sarcastically.

"Did I hear a new voice?" Fang popped his head in the doorway just then, a small grin on his face as he noticed Nudge despite the confusion in his eyes. "I don't think I've met you yet, have I?" He asked and Nudge giggled as she shook her head.

"This is your boyfriend? Oh my gosh Max! Why are you so lucky?" She exclaimed and I laughed.

"Trust me, I'm not that lucky. He's like a dog who doesn't understand the word 'no'."

"Ruff." Fang barked playfully, smirking at me.

"Okay, that was sexy. You. Are. So. Lucky."

"Ew! Not while I'm cooking!" Iggy shrieked and we all turned to him. "What? 'Fang' and 'sexy' in the same sentence is about as true as 'Max' and 'nice' in the same sentence."

"Oh shut up, Iggy! You're just jealous because Fang is taller than you!" Nudge snapped before turning back to the tallest boy in the room and beaming at him. For a single moment, a drop of the kind of fear known as jealously settled in before falling away instantly. Nudge would never try anything on Fang. We were too close for her to do something like that to me.

Iggy scoffed and shook his head. "Puh-lease,"

"Whatever," Nudge muttered before turning back to Fang and me. "So, anyways, what was I going to tell you about-?

"Well hopefully you were going to introduce yourself to me first." Fang interrupted silkily, as if he wasn't cutting Nudge off mid-sentence.

"Oh! Right, I'm Nudge. I'm like Max's Genie only she has unlimited wishes."

"You should wear one of those outfits, I think their shirts are see-through and-"

"Fang! Stop flirting. Oh my God." I snapped, rolling my eyes at my boyfriend. If this is how he was going to act I was probably going to end up snapping at both him and Nudge just for the way they talked to each other. Annoyance crept into my veins at the mere thought that this could have all been avoided if I would have never brought along the officer in training. If only I would have ditched Fang when I had the chance nothing bad would have ever happened. I might be dead right now instead of alive, but at least nothing would be complicated.

"What? I'm allowed to look at the menu, I just can't buy anything." Fang insisted, his eyes looking into mine with a kind of innocence I didn't think Fang could ever possess. Finally, after what seemed like ages, I shook my head at him and brushed past Nudge.

"If I flirted with Iggy you would snap his neck, and then snap mine," I pointed out.

"Nah, I'm eighty percent sure Iggy's gay and secretly hiding it-"

"I will stab you with my spatula and twist it through your heart until you die," Iggy hissed viciously, causing Fang to take a step back as I leaned on the strawberry blonde, laughter escaping my lips. Nudge had an adorably loud laugh that ended with a small snort which made Fang laugh, and before I knew it we all had tears in our eyes over nothing. It felt nice to be able to just be happy for awhile, to ignore the pain ripping at my heart. It was easy-going without having to think about my child; dead. Because of me.

Fang was the first to stop laughing. Something in his eyes told me he didn't feel he had the right to laugh anymore. Almost abruptly he left the room, and I sighed to myself, debating whether or not to go after him before deciding against it.

"Is he on his man period or something?" Nudge asked, "because that's not attractive."

"Well he's not an attractive person," I told her jokingly and forced out a smile as I watched him retreat up the stairs until I couldn't see the back of his black shirt anymore.

A couple days had gone by since Nudge's arrival and by then I had been caught up with all the latest gossip Nudge liked to hoard in her mind. Apparently Iggy's restaurant was still booming, the School was still two countries behind , and Tanner was actually still alive. You can imagine how the latter news caught me quite off guard, but I tried to ignore the shock so that way I could focus on more important things; like my broken boyfriend for instance. He didn't like smiling anymore unless he was flirting with Nudge; and had I not realized why he was doing it I probably would have slapped him into another year.

It definitely had to do with how Fang dealt with loss. The best way to get his mind off of things was to talk to the freshest meat around; and since he already had me right where he wanted me, he found Nudge an interesting new play thing. I warned her about my discoveries last night and told her not to get too attached which she claimed would never happened so I wasn't worried about it.

However, there was no flirting tonight, no long monologues from Nudge, no sarcastic remarks from Iggy, no playful winks from Ari. No, tonight was all about the horror movie marathon going on in Fang's and my room. Everyone except Lupo was hanging around in the room, their eyes locked on the screen. Fang lay sprawled out on the floor with me tucked into his side, while Ari laid flat on his stomach on the bed, his large puppy dog eyes staring up at the screen in fascination as a head was slashed off a body. Nudge sat on the loveseat, her face buried in Iggy's shoulder while she squeaked in fear. If only Lupo could have been with us; she would've completed the picture.

I knew where she would have been; right next to Iggy laughing as another head went flying, claiming how the fake blood didn't look real enough, and how the effects were mediocre at best. Sometimes, especially now; I missed the Lupo I had grown to befriend. It was difficult for me to walk past her room everyday, to know she was going through a kind of pain I couldn't even fathom, and why? Had I not gone through the same thing she had? Maybe I was just heartless. A monster. The exact thing Fang claimed I wasn't. That had to be it. It was the only solution.

"Hey," I cleared my throat right after some random character I didn't bother to pay attention to was pushed off the high school roof and slammed on the ground with such force his arm flew off his body.

"Hey," Ari said back, smirking at me. I glared at his unnecessary comment before getting to my feet.

"I'm going to get more popcorn, hand the bowls over." All at once four bowls were tossed at me. I barely managed to catch the four large plastic half-spheres before stomping out of the room. I didn't actually want to get more popcorn, I just wanted to get out of there. To clear my mind.

As I walked past Lupo's room I paused. The door was partially open and I felt my heart leap in my throat when I peeked through to find Lupo staring right at me. No, not at me; past me. Past life. I stumbled back in shock and banged into the wall; mumbling under my breath. I struggled to compose myself from the mere shock of watching her colorless eyes staring right through me. For that one terrifying second I felt like I wasn't even a person. Like I wasn't even real.

Slowly, I stood up off the wall and took a deep, calming breath; forcing myself to step towards the door. For a long moment she stared right through my body until finally it was like her eyes registered that I was there, and they locked onto my own chocolate ones. Somewhere deeply hidden in her hollow shell I could tell Lupo was there, she was trying to claw her way out of the mess she had gotten herself into but now her attempts were more defeated, less purposeful. Somewhere, my friend Lupo was pleading to get out, but she was stuck inside a lead weight, unable to move or see; hardly able to register food and water.

I knew I should say something, tell her that even though I would never feel the pain she did, I knew what was going through her brain. I wanted to tell her I knew that she was giving in and that she couldn't succumb to the pressure. At the same time though I felt a part of me tugging at the back of my mind, asking me to join her.

Why not? Fang will get over you. Ari will move on, nobody will miss Maximum-

I pushed the thoughts away with my guilt before they could even finish. It was bad enough having one of us shut down, and if I turned off too, well, I doubted any of my friends would ever be the same.

So I sucked in a breath and opened my mouth, then closed it, unsure of how to prod the lost soul in front of me.

"You're my best friend, Lupo," I started cautiously, hoping- praying that she understood. "I know we haven't talked in awhile; and I know you probably secretly hate me because doesn't everybody? But I want you to know you're my best friend. Even though we're not as close as we used to be whenever you're around I get stronger, I get better. I hope you stick around so I can stay better." I spoke, and then mentally slapped myself as I thought of each word. I, unfortunately, had a horrible trait of speaking before thinking, and my words sounded conceited in my mind. Lupo was my friend, she knew what I meant obviously- or at least I hoped so- but that didn't make it right for me to sound that way. I sure didn't feel that way.

"I mean," I began to backtrack, "I don't want you around to make me better, I want you around because you're my friend and… and, Lupo I'm horrible at heartfelt speeches and I just hope you know what I mean and- and I'm sorry. Everybody feels slightly at fault for

what happened, and in truth it wasn't anybody's but the School's, but I still feel horrible for letting them take you away. You know I would have done anything to save you from that, right?"

Lupo was staring at me, I knew. Her mouth slightly cracked open as if she wanted to say something, but instead she snapped it shut, and I could see her eyes getting duller even as we peered at each other; waiting for the other to do something. "I know this is hard for you; something I didn't quite understand before, and I'm not mad at you for being like this, I just- well I hope you wake up, Lupo, so we can really be friends again. As close as we used to be. And so Iggy can have that stupid grin back on his face, and so Fang has somebody else to be scared of," I went on, letting a small smile come to my face just at the thought. But after all, it was only a thought, and so after a few moments of silence, of both of us trying to figure out what to say I turned around and went down to get some more popcorn.

Maybe it was just the screams coming from my room that played tricks on my ears, but I could have sworn I heard Lupo's voice whisper, '"I'm awake."

And that was chapter 47 for y'all. Sorry I haven't been updating once a week like I originally planned to. I'll try to get back on that.
Editing probably isn't the best for this chapter since I just decided to post without having my friend look over it and fix all my spelling errors first.

Anyways so

Question of the Chapter:

Is Lupo really awake?

Soar on

VR