I didn't want to go home.

I did.

I didn't...ok so maybe I do...but I don't...but I miss my fridge...you understand, right?

I mean...it's the holidays...and if you don't have a fridge things get scary. Like maybe you miss the fridge so bad you start dreaming of it in your sleep and it's opening its doors to you...and you just want to go in and take a couple of snacks from its ever so welcoming coolness but you can't cos what if the fridge did something horribly wrong? Like...gave the microwave a hot look...no...It made kettle babies with the microwave. Would you forgive it for sharing its wire cable with someone else? Or would you never ever forgive it and go look for comfort with the oven? Or would you ditch it for a while and then go back to its lovely open doors and fling then open and cry and just sit there while it offers you cake and juice?

I mean...I really miss my fridge whose name might just happen to start with an F...and end with a G...and...It's Fang okay. I miss Fang!

But I also miss my fridge too...Dylan's isn't that great...it has carrots, I mean I like carrots...but I like cake too. You know what I mean? No? Okay. I'll stop now.

My second day at Dylan's house was...nice.

May had a dress up party at her friend's house and she was wearing the cutest little fairy dress ever. She was kneeling in front of me while I sat on a chair and did her hair, I'm not a hair person but it's different in her case. I mean five year old hair! C'mon people!

Creepy I know...

"And then Uncle Ron said he was going to get her a pony, but I said no because how are you meant to have a pony in your backyard, right Maxi?" she is the only person in the world I would allow to call me Maxi. "It's not normal. No one has a pony drinking out of a pool. All ponies drink from ponds where the duckies swim, everyone knows that. My friend, Casie, she has really pretty hair, she said they drink from it because it has bugs in it and the ponies want something chewy to munch on when they drink. Do you thing bugs are chewy, Maxi?"

"Very chewy."

"Ew!" she giggled.

"But you know what?"

"What?" she gasped. I loved her enthusiasm.

I lowered my voice to a whisper. "I reckon they have a crunchy outside so when you bite it goes crack! And then all the gooey bits fill your mouth like mmm."

She fell into hysterics. I laughed with her as I did the last twirl of her beautiful and because it was all I could do to keep from thinking about the latest conversation with Fang...

She got up and waved her wand around "Do you think one I'll find a frog, Maxi?"

"Of course. Frogs are everywhere, but be careful they have a horrible appetite for bugs" I said poking her stomach.

"No" she giggled "I mean a Frog Prince. In the stories all the princesses got Frog Princes and they get married and live happily ever after! Don't you pay attention, Maxi?"

"Will you ever find a Frog Prince?" I mused thoughtfully. Should I tell her to give up on her dreams and wake up to reality where there are no happy ever afters? Where the man of your dreams is never really Mr Right? If you keep shoving happy stories into little kids they end up believing the world is a happy place when it isn't. But breaking a little girls' heart seemed too harsh.

"I reckon" I said swallowing the bitter truth "That your Frog Prince is going to be the ugliest green you have ever seen. But when you kiss him he'll turn into the bestest awesomest prince ever, with blue wings and the shiniest crown."

"Maxi, you're a terrible liar."

"What? What did I say?"

"Princes don't have wings! And I'm not going to kiss him! EW! Boys are yucky! I'm going to ask him nicely and put on my puppy face so he can hug me and tell me nice things, see, look at my puppy face." She flashed me the cutest Bambi eyes ever and did a little fluttering of her lashes and pouting of her lip.

"I reckon if I was the Frog Prince I'd hug you right away.'

She smiled brilliantly at me and spun around. "How do I look?"

"Like a princess." I said with a big smile.

"No silly! I'm a fairy!"

"Oh...you look like that too!"

She shook her head at me as if I failed some sort of kindergarten test. "Come on Dumb Dumb we have to leave."

I picked her up just for the hell of it and ran with her out the door and she screamed and laughed before getting into the car.

Five year olds. The generation of innocence.

"So..." Dylan mumbled as we stood watching a bajillion little kids in fairy and pirate costumes run around like mummy gave them ecstasy. "You want some fairy bread?"

"Nah, I prefer the Pooh Bear cake."

"What about this?" he held up the most normal thing on the refreshments table: a gummy bear.

"Dylan...you look like an idiot."

He was collecting them all onto a plastic plate and making it as if they were playing soccer with Pooh Bear's ear. "Little kids parties suck. If Dora doesn't shut up I'm going to throw that CD player into a wall."

"I'll help."

"Max, are you ready to leave?" Dylan's mum tapped me on the shoulder and jiggled her keys.

Home.

Going home.

Crap.

"Um...yeah. Ok." I stood up just as Dylan did too.

"I could drive her." He offered.

"Really, Dyl?" His mum sighed. "Thank you so much these kids are already a handful, I'd make it worse if I left all the other parents." She handed Dylan the keys. "Sorry Max. Thanks for staying with us though."

"Thanks for letting me, I hope I wasn't too bad."

We waved goodbye and May gave me a goodbye hug before skipping back over to a little boy in a ninja outfit. I'm guessing that's here frog. Dylan and I got into his mum's car and started the short drive back to my place. "Thank god I'm out of there!" he sighed against the wheel "It's Dora" he mimicked.

"Dora the explorer!" I joined in. We both laughed. "It's like a disease."

"I know! You just can't turn away from her! It's like a new way to promote world domination or something."

We travelled the rest of the way in silence except for a couple of random comments about the mental scarring of Pooh Bear.

And then my phone rang.

Dylan looked over at me when I didn't answer it. "Are you going to get that?"

"Do you mind?"

"Of course not. Knock yourself out with your cellular device." He mimicked Mrs P at school.

I searched through my bag and found my flashing phone, it was Ella.

"Hi El" I said.

Dylan turned back to the road.

"I hate you. You know that right?"

"What did I do now?"

"Well for starters...how dare you pull a Fang on me? Why the hell are you still out of the house? I've had to make up excuses for mum!"

"And?"

"Iggy is using your bathroom time."

"Oh. I see your problem..."

I heard her sigh "Listen Red Riding Hood, just get back home or I will honestly murder your depressed boyfriend."

At the mention of him I fell silent. Depressed? A little pang of an unfamiliar emotion surfaced within me, something I never feel with anyone besides the people I love. Guilt. I had hurt him too... a lot more than he'd hurt me by the sounds of it.

"I wouldn't be surprised if I saw a blood stained razor in his room. It's driving me nuts." Ella continued mumbling.

The feeling threatened to escape as I pictured Fang lying on his bed, emotionless, dead eyes staring at the ceiling, lost in a dark void of thought he couldn't understand. All because of me.

"Dylan's driving me home now" I muttered into the speaker.

"Good. Oh and on your way home I need you to get a couple of things..."

"Like what?"

She cleared her throat. "An alarm clock, glass cup, a china plate that looks like something mum would buy and a black IPod."

"Uh...Why?"

"Like I said, the idiot misses you."

She hung up and I stared at my phone confused, guilt stricken and filled with a sudden urge to fling open Fang's door and curl up beside his broken body, just to mend that heart I had shattered so carelessly. As for his things...I had no money anyway.

Dylan looked at me quizzically. "Oh...Mum says hi" I smiled at him.

He nodded and turned back to the road.

Home time.