Maximum Ride: Forevermore

Chapter Two

The figure outside the treehouse was only a shadow, their silhouette barely outlined by the strange light in the sky. My instincts flared immediately - I'm not a very trustworthy person, for a lot of reasons; good reasons. The stranger approached the door and I tensed, nimbly springing from my hammock and crouching down against the wall. I had nothing if I didn't have my overreactive sense of paranoia.

Whoever it was was taking their sweet time - I mean, my leg almost got cramped waiting for them to move. Why were they hestitating? They hadn't moved since they'd landed, which made me even more sceptical. If it was a member of the flock, they would have launched themselves in the door, shouting and being loud and adorable and irritating all at the same time. Unless it was Fang. Fang could be in the room right now for all I knew, invisible, blended into the wall. The thought both creeped me out and excited me at the same time.

Hoping it was Fang, I got up gingerly, looking out the side of the door and praying that they couldn't hear my thumping heart rattling in my chest. The stranger stood with their back to me, standing on the ledge of the branch connecting my home to Fang's. They watched over the little treehouse village, quiet and still as a statue. It took me a moment to realize it was Fang. But why was he hesitating? I mean, hello, his girlfriend (that word still gave me the jitters) was meant to be lying, unconscious, in a hammock right inside the doorway. But instead she was there, I mean, I was there, watching him waiting. But waiting for who?

Suddenly another whooshing sound came from outside, and another winged-kid landed next to the stranger. Definitely not my flock. Before the Split we had made a couple of other kids who'd had wings too, a newer version of us Gen 54 crew, and now I was about to meet one of them.

A female one of them. My teeth gritted and I slinked back into my hiding spot behind the door.

The blonde winged girl landed with a graceful thud, a lot more graceful than I could ever have managed, coming to a standstill next to Fang. At least she's not a redhead.

Maybe she was a volunteer, one of the decent survivors who had made it out alive and then had helped us find the flock and other members of the community who'd made it through.

Or maybe she was just a trouble making sl-

"Lucy," Fang acknowledged her by giving her a brief nod, not moving from his position, overlooking the village with his hands behind his back.

"Fang," Lucy breathed, her voice leaden with guilt or agony or angst or some other sort of emotion I didn't deal with unlike many other teenage girls. "Your girlfriend..."

"What about her?" Fang snapped, though he sounded non-chalant. He turned his head to face her, their eyes connecting intensely. My throat constricted as Lucy leaned in, her eyelids lowering in a sultry way that would have made me look like a doped puppy. Her lips puckered ever so slightly; Fang didn't move. She was going to kiss him, on the cheek, maybe? She got closer and closer, bile rising in my throat.

“Your girlfriend…”

“What about her?”

Lucy stopped not 2 centimetres away from his ear, and said, amused: "You do know she's watching us from behind that door, right?"

My cheeks burned more than the sky had twelve hours ago.