Maximum Ride Saves Us All

Truth be Told

Max POV            

                I really stepped in it. This was the worst mistake I had ever made in my entire, miserable life. I don’t know how I could have possibly done anything worse.

                This time was different. My moral judgement had been way off. More than that time I actually allowed Gazzy to set off one of his ‘practice bombs’ for testing purposes. It went off perfectly. In the shower. While Nudge was in it. The bomb wasn’t big or anything. It was a small, harmless baby bomb Gazzy had placed in Nude’s shampoo bottle for a prank. Prank gone wrong if you ask me, even though I allowed him to do it in the first place.

                I knew what I did was wrong, I knew it was going to backfire but I did it anyway. I don’t know how I could have made myself feel worse…not to mention how I made Dylan feel.

                It’s really quite interesting how the male brain works, isn’t it? You make one mistake that negatively impacted someone who just so happens to male with another male, regardless of whether or not you’re officially involved with said male and it’s like the whole world comes crashing down. I know that was confusing, so I don’t blame you if you were unable to follow that.

                To clarify, I kissed Dylan but you already knew that. Right now, my brain is swirling with a million thoughts, all full of regret. To this day the thing I feel most guilty about was kissing Dylan and neglecting to tell Fang. Everything was so messed up, I had messed up and even thought things ended differently to what I expected, I lay here next to him; unable to keep my mind from wandering back to earlier that day.

                “You tell me here and now Maximum Ride.”

                Fang stood directly in front of me, breathing with such heaviness he could have convinced me that he was having an asthmatic attack. His lips pulled together in a straight line, chapped and dry. His eyes were hard and cold as ice. Whenever I looked him directly in the eye I felt a chill and the pain he was feeling in my own heart. These moments made me realize the mistake I had made and how stupid I had truly been.

                Of course Fang would be upset if I kissed another guy. Especially if that guy was Dylan. I don’t even need to tell you about the tension that existed between them and the hatred that just seeped through them in every possible way. Ever since Dylan had showed up he had been at war with Fang. At first they thought no one else was aware of the feelings between them but you could cut the tension with a knife. Fang never suspected anyone had ever overheard his cursing or his threats to Dylan in secrecy. They thought their feud was unnoticed, that is, until their first public fight.

                After Dylan had revealed he was my 'perfect half', the feelings Fang had been trying so hard to subdue for my sake had surfaced and they surfaced hard. He nearly killed Dylan the first time they fought. Dylan was supposedly to have been 'made for me', to be my match of muscle, brains and looks but when he fought with Fang, it was like two beasts fighting to the death. If no one was around to break them up, one would surly have ended up on the kitchen table, that one being Dylan.

                When he finally piped up about the secret plan that had been formed about he and I going off to Germany to... procreate, I had never seen Fang so outraged. I nearly lost my arm trying to stop him from ripping Dylan’s wings off, one at a time.

                I never feared any of my flock members, mostly because they were younger than me and the cutest little things on earth, except for Ig and Fang. They were also my family and I knew them inside out…but Fang…oh Fang. When someone purposely pushed his buttons, he got angry. Most of the time Fang could control his anger but there was one stage of aggression he had that I never let any of the flock see. There was a side of Fang that when unleashed couldn’t be tamed until he wanted to calm down himself. I knew not to mess with it because I had once been hurt by it. That time I had sprained my wrist and told the flock it was from a bad experimental landing, I lied. I had sprained it trying to control a very out of control Fang who was three times my size and two times as strong. I had always tried so hard to hide it from the flock by taking the blow myself but this was different. I couldn’t stop this.

                Fang outdid Dylan in all areas, there was no chance at survival…and now Dylan was weak.

 

                “You tell me here and now Maximum Ride.” He spat.

                It was like the whole world was spinning in slow motion. I had never seen him this angry. Not once in my life had I seen him this way. So infuriated, so physically strained…so hurt.

                That was the worst part of it. I had hurt him. I hurt Fang so badly it was evident in his eyes. It broke my heart to see him so emotionally ripped apart because he never showed me how he truly felt. I knew in that moment I could give him a thousand excuses as to why I did what I did but there was only one true answer, one overall reason as to why I would kiss Dylan and lie about it.

                I couldn’t hurt him anymore but I was so worried he would never forgive me and why should he? I knew I had to own up to what I did but I wanted to do it far from Dylan to prevent him both emotional and physical pain and causing any more destruction than I had already had, but what was the use? Fang wouldn’t budge and he obviously didn’t trust me anymore…I was as good as nothing to him at this point and now I had to make it worse on everyone.

                “Alright, alright. Fang…I…I” I stuttered out of fear.

                “No wait.”

                I craned my neck to see Dylan sitting up on his bed. “What are you doing?” I warned.

                “I want to do something for the good of the team.”

                “This won’t do you any good.” I warned again.

                “Someone better tell me what the hell is going on before I knock some heads together.” Fang snapped.

                “Not in front of her.” I pointed to Angel. “If you want answers, you are going to follow me and if not, I will make sure Dylan won’t be able to speak to tell you himself. This is my mistake, I will tell you but on my terms.” I demanded. The forcefulness in my tone surprised everyone, even myself.

                “You are in no position to be making negotiations or terms!” he roared.

                “I know you’re angry with me but you will not throw a tantrum in front of Angel! And I want you as far from him as possible.” I pointed to Dylan.

                Fang just shook his head. His eyes widened to the size of golf balls. “No…no...No you didn’t…you wouldn’t…did you?” Fang’s tone switched from acid to hurt and betrayal just like that.

                I couldn’t do anything but nod. It was like my head moved without my consent. “Yes…I kissed Dylan…Fang I’m so sorry.”

                Then nothing but silence.