The Make Out Scene—Fang's POV; Max: Chapter 19

"Then she said that she is a total freak and that she's staying here. After everything I came up with, everything I could think of, she said she's staying here." Max is strong, I know that, but she's still human—mostly. So I could hear the pain in her voice, buried deep. It was the only sound I could hear besides the distant sound of crickets and the crackling fire.

"She's just a kid," I reminded Max, rubbing my forehead with my hand.

It didn't console her. "You know we have to go. What if she really won't come with us?" Max looks at me like my eyes should hold all the answers.

They don't. "How can we force her?"

"Even if we made her come, she'd just hold it against us. She'd be mad."

I nodded. "You have to want to be with someone, or it doesn't work. You have to choose." Choose me, Max. I promise you won't regret it.

Her eyes were suddenly sharp on my face. She definitely heard the double meaning in my words, "Uh, yeah." Her face was blank. "Um, and she..."

I didn't want to worry about Nudge anymore. I gazed at Max, and she cut off, looking at me, holding my eyes. I leaned in closer to her warmth.

"I choose you," I deliberately made my voice softer than ever before. "Max." I reached out and wrapped my fingers around her chin, and I very gently kissed her.

This is it, I thought. I keep putting myself out there, I keep putting my heart into Max's hands, and she just drops it and runs away, every time. And for a moment, I was worried she would do the same thing. She was very still in my hold, her lips soft and warm under mine.

And then I felt her eyelashes brush against my cheekbones—she was closing her eyes! That's a good sign!

Max's thin, strong arms went around me, and the ground dropped out from under me, and I collapsed into her. We slid down sideways, and I was kissing her with everything I had. She was clinging to me—or stuck to me like glue. We went at each other hungrily for a long time. It felt like hours, but I knew that couldn't be true, because the sun would have been rising behind my closed eyes if that were true. And then we were slowing down. My heart was still racing, my skin tingling everywhere we touched, but we were relaxing. We were kissing each other softly, warmly, lovingly. I wished she had never rejected me to begin with. I wished she would have let me love her from the very start.

We laid back, her head coming to a rest on my chest. I had my arms around her, and I never wanted to let her go. And I'm typically very good at keeping my emotions off my face, but right now I just couldn't. There was a small smile stuck on my lips, and I couldn't get it off. I felt Max shift ever so slightly, looking up at me. I didn't meet her gaze. I didn't want to ruin the moment. She relaxed against me again, and she was just so soft.

"You ready to go back?" I asked eventually, because we had a flock to tend to.

She just looked at me blankly for a long time, and I worried she'd lost her mind. Then awareness came to her eyes, and she nodded.

I watched her take off before I did. She was the most graceful thing I've ever seen, even when she flinched in pain at her patched wing. That's my Max.

I threw myself out into space after her so she wouldn't notice my hesitation.