Running • Iggy

Necklace

"I am ready to be murdered by Maximum Ride." I sighed as we stood outside the door of our hotel room. I froze for a minute. "Okay, I'm not ready, but I never will be." I turn to Gazzy. "Let me take the blame, okay?" I ran my hand through his hair. He didn't respond, I just unlocked the door and pushed it open. The first thing I saw was Max pacing the small space of the room, rambling about how we were dead when we came back. Well. Angel waved to us from her bed, no one else noticing we were there. Fang stared at Max pacing the room, and Iggy sat with his head pressed into his hands, looking like he had one hell of a headache or something of the sort.

"There will be no murder taking place at this establishment, please and thank you." I stated, leaning against the door frame. Max spun around to face me and Gazzy. Iggy's head shot up, eyes widening. "Where the hell were you two?" Max growled, anger lacing her tone. "We kinda got lost." I lied, gently closing the door as me and Gazzy got through it. "For three hours?" Max snapped, looking down at Gazzy. "You knew where we-"

I cut Max off harshly. "Don't yell at him." I snapped. "It was my fault. I took him to get a donut, it's why I was doing the whole singing thing." I began, holding Gazzy's hand tightly as he cautiously looked up from where he'd been hugging me. "I felt bad he hadn't gone out to get one, like a normal kid, y'know? And then we had an idea, we chose a small portion of the money and went shopping together like a normal family. We lost track of time." I took a breath. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have but I just... I wanted him to have something normal." I murmured, running my hand through Gazzy's hair.

"I should've taken her back, sorry Max.." Gazzy looked up at the girl, who looked like she was in between screaming and crying. It was Iggy who took the next move. He got up, walked straight over to me and slapped me, hard enough for me to stumble back and hit my head against the door. "The fu-" Iggy was already speaking. "You two worried us sick." He growled "You made us think you'd been taken, or hurt, or just got lost" He breathed harshly, and I managed to push Gazzy gently towards Angel before Iggy could hurt him too. Because that's what he had done. My face hurt, badly, I think it was bleeding, or at least close to it.

"And you were out shopping?" He cried out, slamming his hand above my head onto the door, anger dripping from each word. "While we were in here, panicked to death, you took Gazzy out on a fucking field trip?" He hissed. "I thought you, of all people, knew better than that." He growled. Okay, apparently words can hurt more than physical wounds. "Iggy, I swear I didn't mean to stay out that long. 30 minutes was all I meant, I swear.." I tried to stop myself from shaking. Not good. Don't break down. Not now.

"30 minutes would've been longer than planned anyway." Fang muttered, his dark eyes studying me. I was having trouble breathing, everything felt so tight around me, so small. "please move." was all I could manage. Iggy laughed harshly. "No. I'm not moving until you understand how shitty of a move that was." Now there was real panic. I pressed myself back against the door as hard as possible.

"I'm sorry okay?!" I blurted out, shutting my eyes tight. "I was dumb! I was stupid, I should have never thought I could do that. I just wanted to feel normal, I wanted him to feel normal! I was stupid to believe I could ever have a normal life, with my little brother, going shopping with pocket money! I'm so sorry, please just let me go!" I begged. Iggy took in a sharp breath, halting.

"That's not what I.." His voice was softer now, but I didn't care. "Let her go." Fang snapped. When Iggy moved his hand from the door, I flung it open, slamming it behind me. I needed to get out of there as fast as possible. I couldn't be in that room, not when the walls felt like they were suffocating me. Not when I felt like I was going to cry. I sprinted outside, the dark, chilly air smashing into my warm, clammy skin. I really didn't know where I was going, I just needed to breathe. I sank against the side of the building, holding the full backpack to my chest.