Fang POV

I walked back to Max's dorm with her. The spots on my arm that had touched her, still tingled. When that guy had talked to Max like that, I felt extremely angry. What is going on with me? Why do I feel so protective over Max? I walked behind her a little. She had on a gray Gorillaz T-shirt and a black skirt. The skirt puzzled me because she didn't strike me as the skirt wearing type. I knew I was just stalling from asking her what happened back there.

"Are you gonna tell me what happened back there?" I finally asked.

"Oh, right." she said looking down. "I was at an amusement park earlier and he tried to hit on me, but he was a total ass, so I kneed him in the balls." I chuckled slightly. She smiled and looked up at me.

"And what were you up to on this fine evening?" she asked jokingly.

"I was actually headed to your dorm to see Lissa." I said.

"Ah, I see. You'll be lucky if she's even there. She almost never is." I nodded.

Sure enough, Lissa wasn't there. Max unlocked the door and let me in. I sat on the couch and she walked to her room. When she came out she was wearing sweats.

"I meant to ask you, what was with the skirt? You didn't strike me as the type of girl to where skirts." I said when she sat down.

"My friends 'renovated' my wardrobe 'cause they thought it wasnt girly enough. I went to the amusement park and I knew if I didn't wear a skirt they would yell at me." she explained, putting quotations around renovated. I nodded.

"Want to watch a movie while waiting?" she asked a few minutes later.

"Sure," I answered.

"Uh, you might want to make the popcorn. I'm a horrible cook." she said with a nervous smile.

"Okay," I said getting off the couch.

"It's in the cabinet above the fridge."

Max POV

I watched Fang walk into the kitchen. I picked out some DVDs to choose from.

"Transformers, Harry Potter, or Grown Ups?!" I called to Fang.

"Transformers!" he called back.

I popped the DVD in the TV as he walked in with the popcorn. He plopped down next to me on the couch with the popcorn between us. I found myself wishing the popcorn wasn't there, separating us. What is wrong with me?

About 3/4 of the way into the movie I started to shiver. I tried to cover it up as best I could. I felt something warm drape around my shoulders. Fang had gotten up silently and grabbed a blanket for me.

"Thanks," I said.

"Your welcome," he said looking into my eyes.

I noticed how close were and backed up a little, returning my attention to the movie. Lissa's heels clacked in the hallway outside our door.

"Well, I'll just leave you two." I said standing up.

"Thanks, Max." he said.

"For what?"

"Hanging out with me." he smiled at me, and it took my breath away. I smiled back and walked to my room. I could feel

my cheeks growing red.

* * *

When I woke up it was 10. I didn't have plans with the gang so I decided to go for a run. I pulled on a black tank top and some black athletic shorts.

After I finished eating my cereal (the only edible food I could make) I put my running shoes on and walked out the door. When I walked out of the dorms, I made my way to the park across the street and started to run.

The hot, summer, California sun, beat down on me and I had to stop for water after the first mile.

"Max?" I stopped drinking and turned toward the voice from the water fountain.

"Hi, Fang." I said, a little surprised to see him.

"Are you running too?" he asked.

"Yeah, I just stopped for a drink."

"Oh, well, did you want to run toghether?"

"Uh," I said just noticing how toned his arms were. "sure."

He was wearing black basketball shorts, and a black wife beater. His arms were muscley but not the overly ripped type, if you know what I mean. Stop swooning! I told myself. We started to run. After about 5 minutes we started to talk. We talked about music, good places to eat, stories from high school, nothing big. After another mile we turned around.

"Max?" he said a few minutes later.

"Yeah?" I said. We had stopped to sit on a bench at the park.

"Are we friends?" I looked at him, thinking for a second.

"Yeah, I think we are." he smiled at me, then said "Awesome,"

"Well, now that we're friends I think I deserve to know your real name." I said.

"Nick Ride." he stated simply.

"Nick," I tried, "It just doesn't suit you."

"I've been told."

"Wanna come hang out with my friends and I later? We're all meeting at my sister's apartment she shares with our friends Nudge and Angel."

"Sure, but how will I get there? I don't know where they live."

"Just come meet me in my dorm in about a half hour and I'll drive."

"Okay. See you later." he said heading iin the other direction.

I got to my dorm 3 minutes later around 4:30. I heated up some leftover spaghetti. 20 minutes later I was in the shower. I was feeling in a soft pop kinda mood so I started singing Corrine Bailey Rae's Put Your Records On.

I stepped out of the shower and sang Bubbly by Colbie Caillat while I brushed my hair. I slipped into jeans and a T-shirt, then walked out to the living room.

"Nice Pipes." I heard Fang's voice say and jumped. Fang was sitting on the couch with a smirk on his face and the spare key in his hand. I glared and said "Shut up."

"No, Max, I'm serious." he said looking at me with a straight face. I blushed and mumbled a "Thanks,"

"You ready to go?" he asked.

"Just a second," I answered walking to my room. I put on my black converse and grabbed my keys.

"Ready," I said.

* * *

When we arrived at Ella's apartment I knocked on the door.

"Hey, Max! Everyone else is already here. I'm so glad you could make it! Wait! Why are you in your normal clothes? You could have at least worn something girly. Oh, hi there. I'm Nudge. Are you a friend of Max's? Max you could have at least told us you were bringing someone else." Nudge said when she opened the door. I glanced at Fang, who's eyes were wide staring at Nudge. I giggled a little and said "Nudge, this is Fang. Fang, Nudge."

We walked into the apartment. I introduced Fang to everyone and sat down next to Iggy.

"So your friend seems nice." Iggy said to me, wiggling his eyebrows when he said "friend".

"My friend is Lissa's boyfriend, Iggles." I said.

"Oh," he said looking down.

"Yeah, so what are we doing?" I said to everyone.

"How about we play Life?" Angel suggested.

"Yeah!" we all said.

We decided to play in teams. Ella, Nudge, and Angel were a team, Iggy, and Gazzy another, and Fang and I were a team. Ella and Nudge kept looking at Fang and I and giggling. Fang raised an eyebrow at me and I shrugged as of to say "No clue.".

About 15 minutes into the game Iggy and Gazzy got another passenger in their car and were acting like an old married couple.

"You never respect my decisions." Iggy said in a feminine voice.

"Well, maybe if you had good judgement..." Gazzy said. We all started cracking up and even Fang chuckled a little.

After our game, the gang all decided to watch a movie. We decided on Ghost Ship and as soon as it started I knew it was going to be terrible. (A/N this actually happened to me once. That movie is hilarious!) The girls cowered while Fang, Iggy, Gazzy, and I were laughing really hard.

"This...is so...stupid!" I said through my laughing fit.

Fang and I left after the movie.

"They were...interesting." he said in the car on the ride to my dorm.

"Yeah, they're something special." I said.

When we got to the dorm I went and changed into sweats.

"Is that like your ritual, to change into sweats?" Fang asked when I sat down next to him.

"Yup," I answered, "Want something to eat?"

"I thought you said you couldn't cook."

"I can't. I was thinking Chinese."

"That sounds good." he said smirking.

Our food came 20 minutes later. We sat on the couch eating and watching MTV, when Lissa burst through the door looking pissed.

"You bitch!" she spat, looking at me.