Me: Hey guyz, new chap. here:D
Angel: All go forth JP, Right Sylvia *smilling innocently* (You B*****)
Me: Yep, and I can read your thought too Ang.
Angel: *Blush*
Me: Enjoy guy and gal, vote and comment k'
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5
He stared at her for a minute before he spoke. "What are you talking about, I don't have any abilities. I wish I did."
"Then how did I know you were hurt? I was fast asleep and you were in the woods ... I woke up and I knew you were hurt. I could feel it."
"That sounds like YOU have a new ability, not me. You can spy on me in your sleep."
She shook her head.
"If I could communicate with you like that why couldn't I tell you what was going on when I woke up back there? Why couldn't I tell you I was so freaking scared that I'd open my eyes and you guys would be whitecoats trying to cut my wings off!" His voice had lowered to a mere whisper.
Max blinked. He was right. If he'd been the one controlling the ability she would have been able to feel that fear, she could see that now. But ... If SHE had been the one doing it, why hadn't she been able to calm him down?
"It wasn't me ... So, what was it?"
"Beats me..." He yawned. "I'm really tired, Max ... You can stay if you want, but I need sleep, you said so yourself."
She nodded and placed a hand between his wings, stroking the soft, dark feathers and trying not to move the bandage her mother had spent nearly ten minutes affixing to his wing and shoulder.
He was staring up at her slightly confused but not protesting. "You're going to stay?"
"Do you want me to leave?"
"No." He breathed, before he even knew what he was doing.
She blinked twice and stood, pulling over his desk chair to sit in and propping her feet on the edge of his bed. "I thought you said you were tired."
He closed his eyes but cracked them open to slits so he could watch her as he fell asleep.
Having an injured wing had its advantages he realized the next day. Though he could barely remember WHY his wing was injured. In fact, he was having trouble remembering anything that had happened the night before. He blamed that on the concussion. But the advantages were still there. Max was behaving civilly, nobody said anything when he showed up to Saturday lunch shirtless and Angel even let him win at checkers, although, when playing against Angel, winning was impossible unless she let you.
But, one of the problems that he found even more annoying than the pain and not being able to fly was that Dr. Martinez and Max were constantly hovering over him, so that meant he couldn't go to the post office.
He hadn't let anyone know about the post office. Which was hard to do because he had been going every day for the past three weeks and keeping a secret that involved you flying into town every day after school was harder than it sounds. Especially when you lived with a talking dog, and five other winged people, one of which was a mind reader.
At two-forty five that afternoon he was becoming irritated, pacing around his room cursing himself for not staying inside the night before and cursing his cautious nature for not having all his mail sent directly to the Martinez house but instead sent C/O the postmaster.
But, if he'd had his mail sent to the house everyone would have known ... And what would he do then if the reply was bad? So, at three his irritation and anxiety became too much and he pulled his injured wing in as far as he could and put on his oversized hooded sweatshirt.
"Hey, Iggy! You want to go for a walk?"
Iggy, who'd been acting strangely since the previous Monday, stranger than normal for a blind-mutant-bird-kid. Jumped at the chance to be alone and speak with the only other male in the house who understood what it was like to be a teenager. "Where are we going?" He fell into step beside Fang his hands hanging loosely at his sides.
"Town."
"Why?" They reached the edge of the yard and cut through the forest that separated the house from the city.
"Because I'm bored."
Iggy nodded. Just thinking about not being able to fly made him feel bored. He felt the urge to speak and beg Fang for help with his secret problem...
If being a teenaged boy wasn't bad enough, Iggy had to live under Max Rule, Which meant no flirting with girls, and no salivating over mental pictures of Beach-Bunnies, Gasman had described to him years before in Hollywood...
He smiled remembering that the then eight-year-old Gazzy hadn't understood why the other two boys had been so interested in the scantily clad bronze 'Beach-Bunnies'. Then he realized nearly twenty minutes of walking had elapsed and neither of them had spoken.
"Man, this is a long walk! Why didn't you ask Max's mom to drive you?"
"What? You don't like being around me anymore?" They stumbled out of the forest and into a vacant lot, circling a small concrete storage shed and passing through a chain-link gate.
Iggy rolled his eyes, "That's not what I meant and you know it."
They were quiet for a while, the near silent sound of Fang's easy footsteps on the pavement and the sound of his breath the only reminder that there was indeed someone else walking beside Iggy.
"Fang?"
"Huh?"
"Can I ask you a question?"
"You just did."
"Shut-up ... You- You and Max have like, kissed ... Right?"
Fang smiled to himself. Whenever Max and the girls weren't around Iggy was a normal teenaged boy. He guessed the 'sexist-pig' in them was calm enough to come out when Max wasn't around to scare it off...
"Once or twice..."
"Well ... How do you do it?"
Fang laughed out loud. "Who are you planning on kissing? It's not me is it, 'cause Ig, you're not my type!"
Iggy shot him double birds and made a face. "Do you swear never to tell?"
"No ... Who is it?"
He took a deep breath and spilled his guts...
Fang's feet made an awkward stumbling sound against the sidewalk. "Jesus, Iggy! You just stood there!"
He nodded.
"Why the hell didn't you kiss her then? Why did you just STAND there? She probably thinks you don't like her now!" They passed through a parking lot and another chain link gate. "Jeez, you're DUMB."
"I didn't know what to do! I mean I'm standing there butt naked and she's standing there ... What was I supposed to do!"
"KISS HER!"
"Why didn't you tell me that before, huh? Like when I could have actually DONE something other than just stand there like a statue while she's got her hands on me!"
"She had her hands on you?" Fang turned and walked backward gaping at Iggy.
"Well ... On my chest..."
"At least tell me you SAID something."
"I told her she smelled good."
Fang shook his head, "As opposed to smelling bad?"
"I ... I didn't think of that."
"Listen, try kissing her if you ever get a chance to, you know, be alone with her again- You have ZERO chance of that happening if Max is around though-"
"That's why I was hoping you could like ... Take Max out or something, give us some time alone."
"Right ... The day I take Max on a date is the day I get abilities."
"Do you not like her or something?"
Fang sighed and fell back into step beside Iggy. "Listen ... Max is different, she's not like other girls. Yeah, you can take her on a date like that guy did in Virginia, but ... I don't know. Max is different. You can't push her into being a girl, she's a girl when she wants to be and only then."
Iggy nodded, "That made no sense."
"Shut-up ... Anyway, if Max finds out she'll kick your ass into next year."
"So, will you help me? Will you like ... I don't know, distract her?"
"Oh, yeah, I'll create the diversion while you do your thing," He could picture Iggy sneaking off behind the bushes grinning like the devil. Like a horny monkey he'd seen on a nature special sneaking off with a girl monkey. "She'll kick both of our butts into next year if she finds out that I know ... And, incase you forgot, I got my butt kicked by a TREE last night, Ig. A TREE! I've had my fill of beatings for one week."
Iggy grinned, "Did you really go flying naked last night?"
"Who told you I was naked?"
"Angel ... She said Nudge was thinking it."
He rubbed his forehead and turned the street corner toward the post office a hand on Iggy's arm to guide him. "I wasn't naked."
"Where are we?" Iggy said as they started up the walk.
"Post office..."
"Why are we at the post office? Our mailbox is just at the end of the driveway!"
Fang shrugged, "I told you I was bored ... That and they got new stamps."
Iggy giggled, "You collect stamps?"
"You can come in or you can wait, your choice."
"I'll wait..."
Relief washed over him. "Your loss!"
The postmaster, a short balding man in his late fifties, was standing on a ladder affixing a new dangling advertisement for Federal Express to the ceiling when Fang walked in.
"Hi ... Uh, did a letter come for Nick Ride?"
The postmaster shook his head. "Sorry, kid ... No letter today ... Are you sure you had the right address?"
His heart sank and he shut the door, leaning gingerly against it praying it eased the ache of his wing. "Yeah..."
The postmaster climbed off the ladder and shook his head. "It's been three weeks, Nick ... Maybe he moved..."
He sighed and rubbed his neck. He felt tears in his eyes and for some reason he was unable to hold them back.
"Listen, I know its rough ... But give it one more day. I'll keep an eye out for anything with your name on it ... If you don't mind me asking ... Who should be sending the reply?
Fang wiped his eyes on his sleeve and snuffed back the tears. "Bernard Hutchinson."