Chapter 23 : What's Your Answer?
I woke up an hour or two later and I instantly sat up and yawned. I glanced out to window to see that it was dark outside, maybe 8 or 9 p.m. Out of habit, I stretched, but immediately stiffened and waited for the pain to come. But it was no longer there...or, to be more specific, I could actually take a breath without wincing. I still couldn't move my body into any extreme positions, but that was better than not being able to move at all.
And besides, I needed to get out of that bed. I felt like a sick old lady. But before I could even swing my legs over the side, Angel and Melody barged in with determined looks on their faces.
"How are you feeling?" asked Angel as they stood in front of me. I gave them a smile and stood up from the bed, stretching myself out again.
"I'm feeling much better now. Why, did something happen?" I asked, my tone now becoming worried.
"No, no. Nothing happened" Angel reassured me with a smile and a glance at Melody, who was oddly quiet. I raised an eyebrow at both of them and crossed my arms over my chest.
"What's going on?" I asked in a no-nonsense voice. They were keeping something from me and I was going to find out what it was. Melody looked up at me, and I noticed a pleading look in her eyes.
"Are you...ticklish...?" she asked. My eyebrows shot up and I looked at her in total confusion. What the hell was going on?
"Um...I guess..." I replied slowly, not knowing where exactly this was going.
"Ha! I told you! Pay up" said Angel with a prominent smirk on her face as she put out her hand toward Melody. My mouth dropped open as Melody reluctantly took a piece of candy out of her pocket and handed it to Angel while mumbling something incoherrent.
"You guys were betting?!" I asked, incredulously.
"Yep. And she lost" replied Angel as she popped the candy into her mouth, which happened to be one of those ultra sour war heads. Melody scowled at me as Angel's face scrunched up just like the lemon on the wrapper.
"You could have lied or something" she said. I shrugged my shoulders and gave her a small smile.
"Sorry. If you wouldv'e told me before hand, I might have considered it" I replied.
Suddenly, Melody's eyes lit up and she instantly whispered into Angel's ear while keeping her eyes on me. Angel giggled with excitement, and I suddenly got a queasy feeling in my stomach as they both separated and turned toward me with devilish smiles on their faces. "What are you guys planning..." I said warily as they walked closer to me.
"Your punishment" said Melody with one evil giggle.
O::O::O::O::O::O
Even though I was so curious to see how Ember was doing, I decided to give her some space and hang out with the Flock as Iggy experimented with his new x-ray skill on everyone. But in less than 15 minutes, everyone got bored and went to do whatever; Nudge and Gazzy went to go play video games, Iggy began making miniscule bombs, Total sat with me as I updated my blog, and Melody and Angel went upstairs to Ember's room. I was going to tell them to let her rest a bit more, but I decided against it when I heard that she was awake. After a few minutes though, I could hear caution in Ember's voice as she said, "What are you guys planning...". I thought I heard Melody mumble something before Ember let out a loud shriek that made me jump and look toward the room just in time to see Ember burst through the door with Melody and Angel right behind her. She jumped over the banister from the second floor and landed gracefully on the balls of her feet before sprinting into the other room where Nudge and Gazzy were.
"What the hell..." said Iggy as he got up and joined them with Total following behind him. It was quiet for a few seconds, and I was thinking of getting up to see what was going on when the chaos started again.
"GET HER!" someone yelled; I couldn't exactly tell who it was since it sounded like everyone yelling at once. But suddenly, Ember burst from that room also, looking wide-eyed and panicky, like a lab rat in an unknown environment. I stared after her in total shock and almost busted out laughing as Ember somehow tripped on her own feet and landed face first on the floor. Ember quickly recovered and only got to her knees before getting pushed back down by the entire Flock. They all had her surrounded, even Total, and I soon heard...laughing?
"Oh, God, no...hahahaha...that...that TICKLES! Hahaha, STOP, HAHA!!" shrieked Ember through a fit of giggles and laughter. Everyone was laughing with her as they continued their onslaught of nimble fingers on her skin. Tears were streaming down Ember's cheeks as she fought a losing battle against everyone. She rolled along the floor to try and escape, but that only made them more persistent. "Stop...please, stop......ow, pain, ow..." Ember struggled to say, her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath between gasps and more laughter. Everyone instantly stopped and backed away from her with worried expressions now replacing their amused appearances.
Ember struggled to get up as she caught her breath while the Flock asked if she was okay. Suddenly, her body disappeared from the middle of the small circle of bird-kids and we all looked up to the second floor as we heard the door shut and Ember call out, "Suckers!". The Flock was silent for a few seconds before they all rushed to Ember's room and started banging on her door while saying things all at once. "I'm not letting you in and if you blow up this door, I will wring your necks!" she called out, and it was obvious that the last part of this statement was referring to Iggy and Gazzy, who were slowly slinking away from the door with mischievous smiles on their faces. After hearing this threat, they abruptly stopped and scowled at the door, and I couldn't help but silently chuckle.
"If you want something to do, go tickle Fang!" Ember yelled through the walls that were protecting her. Everyone paused, and their glances shot towards me with a questioning look. I quickly brought my attention back to my laptop, finding nothing funny at all that Ember had made me their new target.
I didn't know if I was ticklish or not; the only touches from anyone that I have ever felt was one of pain from being punched in the gut or one of gentleness from being hugged or something. But never tickled. None the less, I didn't want to find out.
"Hey, Fang. Are you ticklish?" asked Angel as everyone crowded around me. She sat down to the left of me while Melody sat on the right.
"No" I replied in a flat tone, maybe a little too quickly. I could already see the gears turning in Angel's head and before I could give her a warning look, I felt something poke me on my side. A chuckle escaped through my lips involuntarily, and I quickly clamped my mouth shut, but it was too late. The rest of the flock were looking at each other with sudden realization dawning on their faces but before they could do anything, I had already jumped off of the couch and darted up the stairs.
"Hey, Ember. Open up!" I said in a rushed tone of voice.
"No. I'm not letting you in. Serves you right for laughing" she replied. I stood in front of her door and gritted my teeth, noticing the Flock coming up the staircase filled with anticipation.
"Fang..." called Angel in a sing-songey voice as she came to the top of the stairwell. "Stay there" she commanded as I turned to dash into one of the other rooms, and I felt my body freeze in place.
That little cheater.
"Get him!" everyone yelled as they charged at my unmoving body, and I barely felt their fingers graze my shirt before Ember opened her door, grabbed my wrist, and yanked me inside of her room. I landed on her floor like a sack of ripe apples as she swiftly closed the door and put her back against it as the door began to move violently.
"Aw, c'mon Ember! That's not fair! Why are you helping him?" I heard Total ask.
"Because I can. Now go find something else to keep you occupied" she replied. The banging stopped and there were a lot of disappointed groans.
"You're a fun killer" said Nudge, and I saw Ember smirk.
"So sue me. Now go find something else to do" she said again.
"Yes, dictatress" Iggy said, emphasizing his distaste for his fun being ruined and their footsteps slowly dragged away from the doorway. A full blown smile had now made its way to her face and she moved away from the door and sat on the bed beside the window. "You're lucky I'm so nice" she said to me as she sat Indian style and brought her laptop on her legs. I got up to sit next to her on the bed.
"It's the least you can do after I saved you" I replied. I noticed her frown slightly, but she kept her eyes directly on the laptop screen.
"I appreciate your help and all, but I could've gotten out of that by myself" she said. I snorted and she glared at me.
"Uh, huh. Sure you could" I said. Ember threw a pillow at my head in response and laughed at me when she saw my shocked expression.
After a few minutes of bantering back and forth at each other about absolutely nothing, we started talking about our plans and how long we were planning on staying here. But when I asked her what she was going to do about her mom, she grew silent and she had nothing but a blank expression on her face, as if a cloud had come over her and fogged up over her feelings. But just as quickly as it came, it was gone in an instant and she smirked at me and challenged me to a game of pinball on her laptop.
Despite my concerns about her sudden mood swing, I agreed and we spent an hour or two beating each others' scores. We ended our little match when we both caught the scent of the delectable dinner that Iggy was making. We stayed upstairs for almost half-an-hour more before Ember's stomach growled and she grimaced.
"This is ridiculous. I'm not staying up here for another second" she said as she jumped out of bed and headed toward the door.
"You're gonna die of laughter if you exit the room" I warned nonchalantly, my eyes following her every graceful move.
"Well, I'll just have to take my chances. Besides, I'd rather die by laughing instead of starving". At the last part of the statement, she turned to me and flashed me a small smile. My heart skipped a beat, but before I could compose myself, Ember opened the door. "Have fun torturing your stomach" she said just as the smell of lasagna wafted into the room and surrounded my nostrils and took over my brain. She chuckled softly and only closed the door behind her slightly, leaving it open enough so that the smell of dinner would drive me crazy.
I sighed after a few minutes, knowing that I couldn't resist anymore. I walked toward the door and opened it. I walked through the doorway and instanyly noticed that everyone was hanging around in the kitchen, grabbing numerous plates of food that almost made my mouth water. As I walked down the stairs, everyone froze and stared at me.
"It's about time you came out. Hurry up or else your not getting dinner" Ember said as she put an empty plate on the table for me. Everyone's eyes hungrily shifted back toward the food, dismissing me for a few moments after remembering that there was food to attend to.
"Ha-ha, Fang's ticklish. I'll remember that the next time I want to get something out of you" Total said with a smile as I reached the kitchen and grabbed my plate.
"I dare you to try" I replied and a small hint of a smile play at Ember's lips. The rest of dinner went by like the ones that we used to have when we were still with Jeb and Max in our old house; we laughed, we cracked jokes at each other, we ate tons of food, Gazzy let one of his 'deadly weapons' loose, and we had to evacuate the immediate area or risk suffocating, which quickly ended dinner.
After we threw out our disposable plates in a trash can far away from the kitchen, we all went into the game room just for something to do.
"Who wants to play Gears of War with me?" Gazzy asked. His answers were plenty of mumbles from everyone except for Ember and Melody, who were clueless to the fact that Gazzy was the gaming master.
"I'll play" Ember volunteered as she shrugged her shoulders.
"I bet on Gazzy" said Iggy after a chuckle.
"Why?" Melody asked curiously.
"Because she's playing against Gazzy, for one thing. Two, this is Gears of War. And no girl is any good at playing a shooting game" Iggy said confidently. Nudge, Melody, and Angel glared at Iggy and I could imagine daggers coming out of their eyes.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Angel asked as she cracked a knuckle.
"Just how it sounds" said Iggy confidently. Total, Gazzy, and I exchanged glances with each other, and we all wondered how we were supposed to help him when the girls ambushed him and tied him up by his ankles. But Ember, who had been silent through this conversation, had a smirk suddenly emerge on her face.
"Do I hear a bet?" she asked. Iggy deliberated on this for a count of 3 before he smiled.
"Yeah, why not. If I win, you have to admit that girls can't play shooter games and buy all the guys ice cream" he proclaimed.
"And what if you lose?" Ember questioned.
"Um..." began Iggy.
"Oh, oh I know!" Nudge suddenly exclaimed and she rushed to the cabinet that held all of the games and produced a CD. Angel and Melody crowded around her as she blew off the dust from the cover before a fit of giggles consumed them. "You have to sing 'I'm A Barbie Girl'!" Nudge cried out in excitement. Gazzy and Total were bowled over with laughter, Angel and Melody had exploded with a new fit of giggling, and I had managed to only crack a smile.
"You're on" said Iggy with total confidence. Ember looked at Gazzy now.
"You ready to start this?" she asked. Gazzy grinned and he cracked his knuckles.
"Oh, yeah. Hope you're ready to eat my virtual gunpowder" he mocked and I noticed something flash in Ember's eyes, as if she had something up her sleeve. They set up the game and before they began, I finally saw the look that I had been waiting for. Ember looked at Gazzy hopelessly and held up the controller.
"You have to show me how to play" she said. Iggy smirked at this new revelation while Gazzy showed Ember the ropes before playing a practice game. We all gathered around the two seated players and watched as Gazzy curb-stomped Ember's guy in no less than 3 minutes.
Why was she so confident if she knew she couldn't even play? Was she just pretending so that Iggy wouldn't get instant satisfaction?
"So, you ready to play for real?" asked Gazzy with a chuckle, knowing that he would win.
"Yeah, I guess" replied Ember as she glanced at the controller again in uncertainty. But as soon as they started a new game, Ember's facial expression instantly changed into one that someone would have when an evil plan was coming together perfectly.
Within 10 minutes, Ember had chain-sawed Gazzy in the back.
Everyone's jaw dropped, even Iggy's, who was being given a play-by-play from Total. My eyebrows raised as Ember laughed half-heartedly and rubbed her arm in embarrassment.
"That was probably all luck. Do you want to play again?" she asked. Gazzy's shocked face diminished and was replaced with a determined look. He nodded once and restarted the game. It only took 8 minutes this time to beat him again. They continued to play, always ending with the same result, and after the fourth game, Gazzy gave up, although he was more pleased than Iggy to actually have someone beat him. Iggy was fuming, mumbling something about cheating and un-fair advantages. Ember gave him a playful punch on the shoulder and a smile while the girls went in search of a CD player.
"Aw, suck it up. You can't win all the time" Ember said.
"I guess" he replied stubbornly, not wanting to admit defeat.
"If I showed you some cool pressure point moves, will you stop sulking?" she asked, sounding like a mother trying to bribe her child with candy.
Iggy thought about this and finally answered with, "Only if they're good". A faint smile appeared on her face before the girls came back with big smiles on their faces holding a small stereo with a CD compartment. Iggy still had to sing the song, but he didn't do it without help from Melody, to which I noticed Ember raise a curious eyebrow to.
After the horrible performance and several good laughs, Ember called it a night for her and walked right past me to her room without looking back once. I followed her with my eyes until she went into her room and closed the door behind her. The rest of the Flock had gone back to playing Gears of War, but Iggy came up to me with a slight curiosity on his face.
"What do you think about Ember?" he asked, and I shrugged my shoulders, my eyes still glued to her door as if I was expecting her to come out just so that I could see her.
"She's alright" I replied simply.
"Oh really now. Is that all?" he asked with suspicion in his voice and I glanced at him with one of my eyebrows raised.
I wasn't stupid; I knew what he was insinuating, but I wasn't planning on telling him anything.
"Unless you have something to add to that, I'm pretty sure that's it" I said. His grin widened, but before he could say anything else, I walked away, sat on the couch in the living room and took up my laptop. But for some strange reason, I couldn't concentrate at all; I kept shifting my eyes toward her room.
Jeesh, it's just her door. Why is it bugging me? I thought to myself, and in minutes of that thought, I groaned inwardly, grabbed my laptop, and walked up the stairs. I gently knocked on her door with uncertainty. She opened it after a few seconds and a breath that I didn't know that I was holding in had slowly escaped through my nostrils.
"Hey" I said, sounding incredibly stupid.
Why was I up here again?
But Ember only replied with a "Hey" before stepping aside to let me in. "Was downstairs too noisy for you or something?" she asked as I walked into her room and sat down on her bed.
No, that's not it. I truthfully have no idea why I came up to your room. Maybe it's just because I wanted to see your face.
"Eh" I replied with a shrug as I opened up my laptop again. I noticed that she was staring at me and I raised an eyebrow at her questioningly.
"You had a laptop all this time?" she asked. I nodded, keeping my eyes glued to the screen as she sat down beside me. "Did you come up here just to bug me?" she accused.
"If it's that easy then I should probably do it more often" I said, a smirk appearing on my face. Ember poked my side and I quickly scooted away from her after a inhaling a surprised breath. She laughed at my expression and I stored away the sound in my mind without a second thought.
"What are you doing?" she asked, now curious at what was hidden from her vision on my laptop screen.
"Wouldn't you like to know" I said, keeping my attention on the screen.
"Yes, I would" she said before she suddenly appeared behind me, looking over my shoulder, her hair barely brushing over the back of my neck, her cheek just centimeters away from my own, the skin that wasn't covered on her arm brushing up against mine. "This is a blog" she stated casually, as if she wasn't aware of how this was affecting me.
She probably wasn't.
But I was still on edge, still aware of every breath that she took. I couldn't turn my head to look at her. I knew I would see her full lips and the way they curved up in a small smile as she read over my shoulder. I knew I couldn't even permit myself to glance at her, knowing that I may be tempted to...
Tempted to do WHAT, Fang? my own thoughts questioned to me, and I could see two of myself in my head; one of them looking down condescendingly at the other Fang, who was looking quite confused. You barely even know her, so why are you even thinking about stuff like that? Is it because she seems like a replacement for Max? asked the serious Fang. I then knew which one I was as the confused Fang slowly looked up at the face of who I thought must have been my conscience.
And no matter how much I wanted to knock him out and tell him to shut-up, he was right.
I barely knew anything about Ember at all, and yet these weird feelings were enveloping me. They weren't foreign to me; I had felt something similar when Max was here; but now, it felt stronger, if that was even possible.
And that brought up another question; am I really trying to replace Max?
But before I could elaborately think about this, Ember reached over me and took the laptop out of my grasp. She didn't seem to notice the dilemna that I was having, but it didn't help when she accidentally touched my hand, leaving a slight tingle. But she finally gave me space as she took the laptop and started to read. I took a calming breath, unbeknownst to her, and glanced at her curiously when I heard her chuckle. I could tell that she was completely amused, probably laughing at the comments that my fans had left.
"Well, aren't you popular" she said in a sarcastic tone, and I had to again look away from her as some of her hair fell into her eyes and several ideas flashed through my brain.
How did I really feel about her?
Was she seriously more important to me than Max was, or was I really trying to put her where Max used to be?
But if that was the case, why do I feel...something different, something more?
"Who's Max?" Ember suddenly asked, snapping me out of my reverie.
The question that I didn't want her to ask, but now that it was out in the open, I knew there was no way to avoid it, especially now that Ember was burning a hole in my head with her stare. I sighed, keeping my eyes away from her, focusing to keep my voice steady.
"Max was someone who grew up with us at the School. We considered her our leader, our friend, part of our family..." I ended up letting a small smile come on my face despite myself as I remembered all of the good times that we had. "She was stubborn, motherly, annoying, and a nag. But she was smart, determined, strong, kind, and she really cared for us...at least, that's what we thought" I finished, anger now entering my voice.
"What happened?" asked Ember, her curiousity even more piqued than before.
"She betrayed us...after all that we went through together, it turned out that she was one of them..." I mumbled as anger began to flood through me and that day started to replay in my mind. The day when everything fell apart, just when we felt good about ourselves.
"I'm sorry" I heard Ember say timidly, and I now looked at her, wondering what could cause her tone of voice to change. But she wasn't looking at me anymore; she was drawing patterns on the bed sheet with her finger.
"Why?" I asked. She was silent for a short while; the only sound that came out of her was the sound of her breath. I instantly got that feeling again; the one where I wanted to force her head up to look at me just so that I could see her thoughts. I pushed the feeling down and put my hand in my pocket so it wouldn't do anything rash without my say-so.
"You really liked her, didn't you" she murmured, not meaning this as a question, and finally looked at me with guarded eyes.
My breath caught in my throat; was it really that obvious to a stranger how much I had cared for Max? And what was with those eyes that Ember was looking at me with, as if she was trying to protect something? Her eyes widened for a quick second before she turned her head away, as if she had given something away.
"Ha-ha, I'm becoming too nosy. Forget I asked" she suddenly said with an embarrassed smile, and I blinked once, trying to catch up with her weird mood swings. She then handed me back my laptop, and leaned the back of her head against the wall, closed her eyes, and sighed, saying how tired she was. I nodded in agreement and looked at my laptop, answering questions on my blog and surfing the web.
Within minutes, it had become completely quiet in her room, and I didn't know that Ember had fallen asleep until I felt her head on my shoulder. I smiled to myself, watching the way her lips slightly parted, her face looking serene as her breath came out evenly without a sound. Looking at her reminded me of something that I had read somewhere, and I started to say it out loud, as if I spoke poetry every day.
"...Her gesture, motion, and her smiles. Her wit, her voice my heart beguiles. Beguiles my heart, I know not why. And yet I'll love her till I die..." I murmured to myself, now aware that Ember had now unconsciously moved closer to me, as if I was a very comfortable pillow. I felt my cheeks get a bit warmer than usual as I stared at her; bits of her hair falling into her face, the full moon that had now emerged from behind the clouds shining against her hair. My right hand twitched, and I closed my laptop and sighed, knowing fully well that I wouldn't get anything done.
It was time to face facts, and stop dancing around the issue. I liked Ember...liked her enough to want her to stay with us and get to know her even more. And although I don't know if she even thinks of me in that way at all, I knew that I would protect her from everything that threatened to tear us apart from her, not just because she was part of the flock now, but because I really couldn't imagine her gone.
My mind flashed a name into my head, and I clenched my teeth.
Jake.
I didn't know who this guy was, but I would never let him mess with my flock, especially Ember and her sister.
And that was something that I would stake my life on.
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Author's Note: Well, to compensate for my lack of posting, I wrote a very long chapter. Still kinda sucks in my opinion but not as painstaking to write as my last previous chapters (I'm still kicking myself for not posting during spring break XD). Well anyway, I hope you like it. Hopefully, I can get the next chapter up soon (maybe sometime today?). Reviews. Need. Enjoy.