Sonny never thought he’d ever say this but he and Kavan were actually having a nice time just kind of chilling, away from most of everyone. They weren’t too far away. Sonny and Kavan had wandered more towards the back of Kavi’s house but they weren’t particularly outside just yet. There was a room in the Salvador house that acted like a lounging area for those who didn’t want to really engage with the more hyperactive partygoers that were currently in the middle of hyping up some kind of beer pong game. Given those who were present around it, Sonny didn’t want to approach them just yet. Instead, he and Kavan found a nice somewhat quiet place to just chill.

And then, not even a minute after Sonny had sat down on a comfy couch and red cup of some high-quality beer in his hand, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a dress-clad Archer and that one guy named Guy. It wasn’t so much that Sonny didn’t want to see Archer. They were on far better terms than they have been since Sonny and Marisol had rekindled their turbulent friendship, but given what Sonny was dressed as and how well he knew Archer, there was bound to be some form of a comment or two thrown his way from the Goddess.

So he stood up, not paying any mind to Kavan ditching him for his girl-not-girlfriend. “Yes, yes make the jokes.” He was only mildly annoyed while the rest of him was enjoying Archer’s own get up. “And what are you supposed to be? Some sort of Goddess of the Earth? Wait don’t tell me!” Sonny paused, smiling at Guy, even going as far as to flip his hair for maximum effect, “You’re making a political statement!”

God if Sonny was right, he will officially give up any and all remarks about Archer being unfunny for the foreseeable future. He will even cut the fairy remarks.

Raising an eyebrow Archer let out a little laugh "Oh wow! Look at you getting what I'm putting down. Impressive Torvie!" He shot his pseudo friend a quick wink.

As he stood opposite of Archer but his back to the door leading outside, Sonny wasn’t able to see her but as soon as he heard her speak, he just knew that Marisol was going to let something slip. And with infectious grin reaching its way to him, something else reached its way towards him. Laughing and smiling, he felt Marisol’s hand squeezed his plump cushion, which then she followed it with one of the worst pick up lines he had ever heard that didn’t come from his mouth.

He turned around, letting out a deep sigh. “Really?” His face went completely dead due to his surprise that she said such a line to him. ”That's the best you could come up with?” Sonny sounded almost disappointed. “You were impersonating the cringiest person at our school. You could’ve done better, but I give an A for effort and the very impressive ass squeeze.” Joking, Sonny returned the favor by slapping her ass.

"Screw you, asshole!" she laughed, wrapping her arms around Sonny and planting a kiss on his cheek. "You know if I say what I'm really thinking it'll make Archer here bitch at me for being 'gross'."

A tight-lipped smile spread across Archie's face as he gestured to them. "You don't have to say a damn thing, baby girl. This will always be 100% gross," he cracked a wide smile as he rolled his eyes towards Kavan. Kavan simply returned the grin and continued to watch as his friends bantered on.

"Hater," Mari shot back, rolling her eyes at Archer but shooting him a playful smile and a wink afterward.

“Archie, you wound me!” Sonny dramatically said, hand over his forehead and a gasping noise that sounded eerily like something very inappropriate. “Are you saying that a lady such as myself doesn’t deserve to be manhandled by Wednesday Addams?” He asked Archer, hiking up his voice a slight octave.

The tall boy scoffed “I’m pretty sure that a lady like you has been manhandled by far worse.” he smiled sheepishly at the pair.

"Oh you know it. You should have seen how I used to whoop his ass in the yard back in the day," Mari said smugly, patting Sonny in the back. "My mom and his dad got us these kiddie boxing gloves one summer and told us to have some fun with them. Next thing you know: Son's on the floor screaming to get me off him. He'd pissed me off so much I went in for it and didn't stop."

"Any chance that your parents caught any of this on film?" Kavan suddenly piped up, his voice humorous and his grin widening. "Watching Sonia get beat up by someone half his size? I would definitely pay good money to see some shit like that."

Guy smiled and stood quietly, sipping his cup of soda. These people had obviously been friends for a good long while. They had the ease, comfort, and cadence of people who had been conversing easily for years. He had not this sort of history with them. As time passed he only felt more awkward but did laugh at the thought of Baby Mari beating up Baby Sonny. “Perhaps not so different now,” he said quietly. His eyes widened and he tried to back peddle. “I just mean… I think she could take you… that is… God, wonder what my other foot tastes like.” He brushed his hair back from his face and glanced at Archer as his phone rang.

A loud vibrating noise could be heard from Archer's pant pocket. He held up a finger as he fished his phone out and answered. "What do you want Warren? What? I can't hear you, calm down… Hold on" he looked to the group "Sorry, it's my idiot brother! I'll be right back." He said and pushed through the crowd disappearing out of sight.

And now, Guy, king of being an awkward twerp, was left with a group of people he hardly knew and had just made a fool of himself. A hot blush dusted his cheeks as he watched Archer disappear into the crowd. He turned his attention back on the group, wondering if he should make an exit. Or would that be worse? Maybe say something? But he wasn’t good at that. Finally, he said, “I think you make a lovely woman. When Shakespeare was writing plays all of the women were played by men.”

“Finally, an actual compliment!” Relieved, Sonny immediately brought Guy into a sudden embrace, his arm wrapping itself around his neck in a friendly, yet affectionate, manner. “You guys should take notes from this guy. He knows how to compliment a fragile lady such as myself!” Even if joking, Sonia rewarded Guy’s compliment with a light, yet equally noticeable, peck on the lips that lasted all of one second.

The arm around his neck and closeness of this person he did not know very well caused the blush across his cheeks deepen. He mumbled out a small “You’re welcome...” and hoped he would let go of him soon. Unfortunately, quite the opposite happened. He kissed him. It was a light, innocent peck filled with fun and joy. However, Guy was absolutely shocked. His eyes widened and he opened his mouth to say something. He couldn’t find the words. He closed his mouth. Oh, wait. There were words. Mouth opened again. Aaaand there the words went. Mouth closed. A couple more times did he gawp like a fish before he finally decided to take a sip of his drink and looked elsewhere. “I think I see someone…” he trailed off, waited for a beat, and then turned and walked toward the refreshments table.

Mari watched in shock as Sonny planted a good one on their new acquaintance, making the boy visibly flustered before ultimately scurrying away. “Jesus, Sonny, was that really necessary?!” she scolded her friend, glaring at him and slapping his arm. “You scared the poor boy away with your slut behavior! What a fantastic way to make a first impression!”

Sonny responded with a shrug. He didn’t see what the big deal was. It was a joke kiss. Certainly nothing more and definitely nothing less. “I’m more surprised he didn’t try and kiss me back,” Sonny admitted. “Seriously though, who gets kissed and doesn’t want to return the favor?” He looked to either Marisol or Kavan for an answer.

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe someone you just fucking met not even five minutes ago?!” the girl replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes at how stupid Sonny was being. “I’m surprised he didn’t fucking give you a black eye, you dumb fuck!”

Sonny, again, would shrug. They obviously didn’t see it that way, so Sonny turned to Kavan. “You have to be the tiebreaker here, bro,” he said, his entire body facing Kavan. “Do you think it was a normal reaction for Guy to go straight to Splitsville like Wednesday here says or do you think he acted prematurely?” He tried to hide it but Sonny’s immature mind produced a semi-hidden chuckle as soon as he said premature.

"Well," Kavan said, a hint of hesitation in his voice as he took a quick glance at the boy who'd just left their group. "Given the circumstances… and seeing how nervous he already was, I think I'm gonna have to agree with Mari on this one, Sonia. Sorry."

“HA!” Marisol cried out, smirking triumphantly and poking Sonny in the chest. “Suck on that, bitch!”

“I hope the next time you go--”

Sonny was grateful for being cut off because the sight of Salem, that lean bean weasel and what looked like a dirty hoebag by the name of Ximena together no more than three or four feet, but with the number of people between them, it seemed like a greater distance. At first, Sonny didn’t think much of it. Salem, despite Sonny’s own opinions about the lanky dipshit, was easy on the eyes and Ximena was the school whore. That’s why he didn’t give them a second thought and they were almost an afterthought until their lips connected.

“--what the fuck!” Sonny blurted out, a growing ire at the sight of Salem with, of all people to cheat with, Ximena.

“What is it, Son?” Marisol asked her best friend, turning in the direction he was staring at. And when her eyes found the unexpected sight, the short girl felt her heart shatter into a million different pieces before dropping all the way down to the endless pit in her stomach.

Kavan watched in silence as the scene unfolded before him, his eyebrows raised in surprise at the sight of Salem and Ximena. And while part of him was mentally commentating on how Salem must think of himself as quite the ladies man, the other part was anxious to see how Mari would react. “He’s not worth it,” Kavan suddenly spoke up, trying to defuse the situation before it even really began. “If he’s that stupid to cheat on you with someone who’s probably had more STD’s than she has brain cells, then they deserve each other.”

Sonny was just waiting for Marisol’s green light so he could give Salem a dose of round two. This time it would be well deserved and it would at least save Marisol a second trip to the funny farm for her overreaction. “Just say the word and I’ll bop him real good with my Prada bag!” Sonny held onto the handles of his bag hard, ready and willing to smack Salem a few dozen times.

“No need for that,” the girl replied in a hoarse voice, her eyes still glued to the fateful scene unfolding right in front of her. Just then, Salem chose to put an end to the madness and walk away- but the damage was done. She didn’t realize the way her hands balled up into small fists, how her knuckles whitened, or the way her black nails were digging so hard into her skin that she was sure there would be bloody crescent marks on her palms.

After what seemed like forever, Mari briefly turned to Sonny and Kavan. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll handle this myself,” she told them before squaring her shoulders and pushing her way out of the room in the direction where Salem had gone.

Sonny wasn’t sure if it was a good idea for Marisol to go off on her own. He had half a mind to follow her. If not for anything, the last time she reacted to a situation involving someone she was really close to, a pricey German sports car was terribly damaged. “She seemed level-headed, right? I mean, how did she seem to you, Kavan?” Sonny asked him, worried about what Marisol might do to Salem.

After watching Marisol push her way back through the crowd of people, Kavan let out a deep breath before refocusing his gaze back on Sonny. “Honestly?” the young man said uncertainly, “I think we should start thinking about putting together some bail money."

Stella tried not to say anything because her mind was a mess right now, so if she had decided to open the only thing that was keeping the chaos locked away, the odds of her making the situation she saw as bad a lot worse than it was were high. And in that, she gave a smile when she felt a smile was necessary, which seemed to be one-hundred percent of the time. With Mac trying to make the situation as awkward for Stella and Oliver as she possibly could. Thank every god, goddess, and higher power out there for Oliver’s apt response.

She soon found herself happily nodding along with Oliver, sending the big girl in the sky a big thank you for his interruption. Goddess only knew what would have happened had Oliver not come save her from having to answer the highly-intrusive, highly-awkward, and quite embarrassing questions. “Yeah, I’m his date and he’s mine!” She echoed like a delayed reaction of the two of them being in-sync with each other. She didn’t know what else to say so her attention went to Georgia as if she was hoping to take the attention off of her and Oliver so both of them could breathe. “Oh hey, Geo! When did you get here?” She asked.

“That’s a good question.” Mac remarked as she removed the arm from her person, half-laughing as she did so.

Georgie watched as the back and forth ensued between Mac and the lovebirds, smiling at how happy Stella seemed and how the whole situation exuded innocent romance. She wished for Stella and Oliver’s happiness but snapped back to the question asked of her instead of daydreaming and smiled, taking a drink of whiskey from the solo cup in her hand.

”Some times ago. Carter was nice enough to drop me off and all. What’s going on here? Stella and Oliver, you guys are like...together?” Georgie put two fingers side by side in the air, half drunk and only slightly kidding.

“That’s what she said, innit?”

And like that, the attention was back on her and Oliver. “No, no, no, we’re not together together. I mean, we’re here together but there’s no reason to think that we are.” A moment passed and Stella’s frantic eyes went to Oliver. It took her another moment to realize how horrible that sounded. “I mean, not that there would be anything bad about us being together but no, we’re not that. Just here as each other’s date. No reason to think otherwise!” Stella felt like she couldn’t breathe. So many words left her lips and in so little time.

Mac laughed, shaking her head. “Someone’s in denial. Why would you care if someone thought you were, anyway? Is there someone else? Oh. You have a rival! How exciting.”

Georgie followed along with Mac, giggling as she spoke. “Oooh, there’s a rival? Tell us Stells!”

Stella felt the walls around whatever makeshift prison of the pressure to give them an answer slowly close in on her. “No, there’s isn’t anyone else. The last person who I was with in whatever way you’re thinking was Santiago and I won’t ever go down that route again!”

Whether or not she meant to admit that as loudly as she did, she couldn’t take it back, so again her eyes fell on Oliver hoping he would interject at some point. She didn’t know how much more of Geo and Mac’s prying she could take before she was gonna say something really damaging.

Oliver had heard tales of female gossip; how a group of girls got together over drinks and just talked about random nothings. The random nothing in question, however, kept putting himself in an awkward position. Was he just to assume how Stella felt or was he supposed to be his actual self and allow her to answer for herself. Thankfully, the question was answered when Stella decided to pipe up. What Stella had to say made him feel a way that he couldn’t really describe. His heart sank at one line, just to get half the amount of hope that he originally had back when she said the next.

”The truth is, ladies, we just haven’t had the ‘are we an actual thing’ talk yet. This all kind of just….” Oliver made a strange hand motion, rolling one hand over the other repeatedly until he finally shoved them in his pockets. It seemed like the best way to give himself five seconds to think. ”The school did that weird homecoming experiment thing and as it turns out, Stella and I actually got along really well. Just because we aren’t together together doesn’t mean that - in time - we won’t be.”

He couldn’t help but let that tiny spark of rage flare up inside him at the mention of Santiago. ”I can’t believe you ever actually went down that road in the first place, Stella. He’s a piece of shit.”

“Hey!” Stella protested, “In my defense, he’s very pretty!” She huffed.

”So looks equal ev--” Oliver took a deep breath, his jaw clenched. Stella was drunk. Stella still had some kind of feelings for the guy. It was Oliver’s job to understand such things, not to judge. Not that he was judging. Just…. Stella. ”I didn’t mean it that way, Stel.”

Mac shook her head. “What way did you mean it?”

”In the same way any other friend would have meant it. Just that… maybe it wasn’t the best choice of words. Stella deserves better. Way better.”

“So serious. It’s a party, relax. It’s not like you’ve been introduced to her parents.” There was a pause as Mac looked at Stella and Oliver’s expressions. “Oh. Oh no. Stella, you didn’t.”

“He hasn’t just met my parents. He’s also met my Uncle Wesley, Aunt Florence, and their two kids: Abe and Winnie.”

“Oh dear god. Stella, mate, I told you about this.” Mac remarked as she finished her current drink. The British girl had told Stella a thousand times about jumping into things too quickly; and why it was a bad idea. How much trouble had she gotten into since summer had ended?

Georgie watched the exchange going on with increasing amusement. She didn’t know Stella as much as Mac knew her but well...Stella did kind of look like someone who would go about her relationships as enthusiastically as she went on with her life.

”Hold up.” Georgie turned to Oliver, extending her cup so it almost poked him in the face. ”Other than introducing Oliver to your whole extended family, minus your parents...I don’t even think I know him that well. Wait. Are we the first ones to find out? Am I in the in yet?”

Stella hummed for a good moment. “No, he didn’t meet my entire family. He only met my Aunt Florence’s family. There’s still Aunt Cassie, Uncle Charles, and a whole bunch of others that live in France,” she paused, looking at Geo, “but yes, as far as who all knows, not counting Oli, of course, you two are the only ones who know or even care to know.”

”Aw, that’s so exciting! You two are so cute together...I mean look at your faces!”

Georgie by this point had finished her cup of whiskey and thrown it to the side, stumbling over to both Stella and Oliver and joining their hands together as if she was preaching at their wedding. Normally, Georgie could hold her alcohol better than this but her thoughts had already been muddled entering the party. She had gone days without talking to her parents, becoming increasingly frustrated and alone. Add that to the split second in which she had spotted Sawyer smiling and having fun across the room and she could hardly find it in her to focus, much less retain sobriety.

Mac, on the other hand, seemed to have been enjoying the conversation merely for the spectacle. It was hard to say if it was embarrassing the two of them or Georgie’s own outbursts entertained her more.

There was still more of Stella's family? Oliver had thought that the people he had met the night of Homecoming was it. Perhaps that was the downside to having a small family yourself - you believed that everyone else did as well. Oliver had one aunt and no cousins. The Grayson clan was a small one. Truth to be told, his head was a mess at the moment. His subconscious was just grasping at strings of the conversation trying to sort out what Stella was saying. She had said that they weren’t together not even five minutes ago. Now what she was saying to Mac and Georgie implied otherwise. Perhaps all of the conversation was stemming from Stellas semi-drunken state. One thing that Oliver was sure of, however, was that once Stella had sobered up, the two of them were having a very serious conversation.

”Uh… thanks for that, then, I guess. Though I’m pretty sure all the cuteness in this relationship comes from Stella herself.”

“I don’t know about that.” Mac teased, offering a smirk before uttering a follow-up comment. “As for me, lots of party to discover. I’ll catch you guys later.”

Mac’s eyes drifted to Georgie’s own, before setting off to find more drinks and more entertainment.

”Wonderful.” Georgie said as she clapped her hands together after releasing the linked fingers of Stella and Oliver from her grasp. She stepped away slightly, unsure of what she needed to do next.

”Anyways, it was nice to meet you, Oliver. As always, a pleasure, Stells.” Georgie took off her hat and tipped it in their direction before she waved and slowly parted ways with them as well. She needed a refill of booze...or maybe a glass of wine. Both, she concluded.

---

---

In between the rotating door of partygoers who decided to come and go near where Kavi was and felt the need to offer him some sort of shot or ask him to drink with him, the host of this year’s Halloween party was well on his way to being hammered. His sense of direction and ability to walk in a straight line had started to become compromised and he didn’t like it. Not because he didn’t enjoy drinking. Kavi thoroughly enjoyed the taste of any and all alcohol, but it was the effects it had on him that wasn’t all that favorable.

And as he took a turn around, bumping into the table just slightly, he was able to witness first hand -- and in the second row -- to the carnage that was happening at his wonderful beer pong table. People talking about others’ mothers and Aiden getting laid out. And as if that wasn't bad enough, Santiago using that as a distraction to leave with Astraia? Wait, that couldn’t be right. “Isn’t he with..” Kavi’s thought trailed off into silent thought. If he was here, then April had to be somewhere close by.

So he scanned the back patio and sadly, nowhere was April to be found. Part of him was glad for that. He didn’t like Santiago one bit and disliked him even more now that he chose to leave with Astraia of all people, but he had nothing against April. There was nothing about the girl that rubbed him the wrong way. He still really enjoyed the memories of their homecoming date. It may have resulted in him having a suspended license, but damn it if it wasn’t a fun night. Totally worth all of the hell that came after.

Soon he arrived at the conclusion that April wasn’t in the back patio area, so walking slowly, Kavi stumbled into the house, moving his way past even drunker partiers -- some that he knew and some that he had no idea they went to KA. Eventually, after making his way through the Halloween costume-clad crowd, he was in the clear where he found himself by the stairs and sitting on the third one from the bottom was April and she didn’t look like she was having a good time.

That was when Kavi plopped himself next to her, albeit a tad sloppier than he thought he would. His body was more obtuse and his body covered more of the stairs than April’s did, but he smiled at her. “Been searching high and low for you, ya know.” He said in a drunken laugh.

To say April was in a shitty mood was one hell of an understatement. For around half an hour know, she’d been watching Santiago from a dark hallway, just outside of where the rest of the party-goers had congregated. She’d spectated the entirety of what had gone down, from the super competitive drunk beer pong game to Julie randomly stripping down and sliding into the pool.

But the part that had really pissed her off, was once again seeing Santiago wander off with another girl. It was a damn near perfect repeat of what had happened at the beginning of the year, except this time she had the advantage. Santiago had no clue that April had joined the party. Had he been even the least bit observant, he would’ve noticed April’s practically trademarked white Maserati parked not thirty feet from the entrance to Kavi’s place. Knowing Santiago however, she knew that he wouldn’t pay attention to it. Not with so many attractive distractions present.

She couldn’t even have a drink to calm herself down or to forget about the entire thing. Why the fuck did she ever get attached to that man-whore?

“Have you now?” April turned towards an intoxicated Kavi, her head slightly cocked. “Then it appears my entrance wasn’t unnoticed like I had intended.” April turned back towards the crowd, shooting a venomous glare to the spot she’d seen Santiago and Yessi disappear to not five minutes before. Many ideas were running through April’s vindictive mind. What could she do to absolutely ruin their night? What was the most damage she could do that was within the law? Hell, was she willing to break the law to get back at the Devil of King’s Academy? It likely wasn’t out of the question.

“So, why exactly were you looking for me anyway?” April inquired, her gaze not leaving the crowd in front of them.

Kavi wondered if she knew about Santiago. He knew that idiot wasn’t really subtle and her being by the stairs meant she had the perfect vantage point to see just about everything that went on. He half-wanted to tell her, but she was already in such a foul mood from the way she didn’t bother looking at him that Kavi opted to not do that.

“We haven’t really seen much of each other since homecoming. So I figured I’d come to find you and chat for a bit,” he said using his elbows to level his upper body some so he didn’t appear to be a total slob when speaking to April. “Or if you want to be left alone, that’s cool too. It just seems like you rather not be left alone?” He was guessing at this point. Deep down, Kavi wanted to check up on her but he didn’t want to really mention anything Santiago-related if he could help it.

“Can I ask you something Kavi?” she said in a genuinely nice tone, looking to him with a slightly better expression on her face. Between homecoming and now, Kavi had actually shown more genuine care and interest towards her than Santiago by a landslide. And even again, on Halloween night--one of April’s favorite occasions because of all the fun with costumes--Kavi was there when Santiago didn’t even want her there. “Am I attractive as Yessi or Bea?” It sounded like such a stupid question as she said it, but it was too late to take it back now.

While it likely wasn’t the best thing to be thinking, April had to wonder whether Santiago actually gave a shit about her more than he did about any other given girl at King’s Academy, or whether she was just another notch on his belt. She felt like an idiot, going back to him time after time only to have him pull the exact same shit he had pulled previously. “And I don’t mean that in a bad way towards either of them...well, maybe towards Yessi I guess...fuck, I don’t even know what I’m saying. And I haven’t even had anything to drink!” The brunette slumped her head down onto her arms, taking in a deep breath.

Kavi had managed to sit up during April’s rant about Astraia and, surprisingly, of all people, Beatrice. He didn’t understand the mention of her but he knew, even in his somewhat intoxicated state that April must’ve seen Yessi and Santiago pass on by somewhere. At least it saved him the awkwardness of bringing it up, but that didn’t change anything. That idiot Santiago hurting a perfectly good one for Astraia. Kavi had a close and complicated relationship with Yessi, but it seemed coming back had done more harm than good.

As Kavi just looked at April, he didn’t know what to say, well he did but the words wouldn’t come out just yet, so he put a hand on the nearest wrist it could find. “April,” he managed to say, “Yessi doesn’t hold a candle to you. And if that dumbass ex of yours can’t see that, then I say forget him. You can do much better than him.” Oh yeah, he could feel something churning in his stomach. Kavi had no way of knowing if it was guilt for being nice to anyone other than Ariel in a way that would look problematic at best, or butterflies for April that just made it all worse for outside eyes.

“God, I wish it were that easy.” April said in a muffled voice, her head still tucked into her arms. There was a small part of April that wanted to leave it at that and say nothing more about the human growing inside of her. The human that she and Santiago had made. A larger part of her, however, wanted to scream it to the rooftops that she, April Lillian Foster, was pregnant with the Devil’s child.

“You really think Yessi doesn’t hold a candle to me?” April brought her head back up, looking to Kavi with the yellow-red eyes made possible by her costume. “It...it just feels like no matter what I do he never really cares about me. Why do I bother?” she asked, though more to herself than to Kavi.

“You think I should just ditch him?” she asked, the tone of her voice genuine but almost hesitant. April almost regretted asking, but at the same time, Santiago had done very little to actually support her. Every time there was a moment where she’d really needed him, Santiago would just go silent for a few days before returning as if nothing was wrong. Why the fuck should she stay with him? Apart from the fact that she was bearing his fucking child--which didn’t seem to matter to him, his level of faithfulness hadn’t changed a bit--April had zero reasons to stay.

Kavi, on the other hand, had been there for her multiple times. Maybe it was time for Santiago to see what it felt like to be cheated on.

“Well..”

Kavi couldn’t really find the words. No, that wasn’t true. He had the words but maybe it wasn’t his place to say them? He had a girlfriend who he loved a good deal. They had a fight but he loved her. Kavi loved Ariel and she loved him ...in her own way. So him telling someone else to dump their whatever Santiago was/is to April didn’t feel like it was his place, yet at the same time, nobody else was around and Kavi felt like he had to say something. Anything.

He just had to say something.

“He should be here with you instead of me, but he’s with Yessi. I will be here regardless of what you do, the Kavmiester is here for you, April O'Neil.” He patted her hand a couple more times for support and an added assurance.

“I appreciate it Kavi. At least I can count on you.” April reached to grab Kavi’s hand, giving it a gentle squeeze before sending him a warm smile, a rather unsettling look with April’s makeup and contact lenses. Then, with a quick glance to the crowd in front of them to check for any on-lookers, April moved to push herself gently into Kavi. The small distance that had been between them before was no longer present. April looked into Kavi’s eyes, trying to read whether he was alright with the situation or not before closing her eyes and leaning in to kiss him rather passionately.

Initially, Kavi was taken by surprise as his eyes widened when their lips had connected and there was a large part of him that kept poking him to cease and desist all actions. Think with the brain and heart and not the body part he left in charge of such decisions. He didn’t stop and for a long series of moments that were as slow as a tortoise, the passion lingered and Kavi had actually returned the kiss for a bit. His arms had reached around April’s head, his hands running themselves through her light brown hair and for a moment, he didn’t have any thoughts but to keep kissing her.

Until he closed his eyes and saw Ariel’s face with her beautiful smile, her voice calling his name. And that’s when the guilt set in, immediately forcing Kavi to pull away. “I can’t I--” Kavi looked at April, uncertain what it was but he couldn’t bring himself to bring up Ariel right now. He was about to and maybe he should have told her he had a girlfriend, but Kavi couldn’t. “--it wouldn’t be right. You’re upset about Santiago. As much as I want to get back at him for how he hurt you, this isn’t the way.” As soon those words left his mouth, he was equally divided between the situation he was in and what he should say right now versus what he wanted to do. Yes, he should mention Ariel, but also yes, he wanted to go back to her soft lips and kiss her some more because holy shit, April was a great kisser!

April’s mind was a flurry of emotions that spun around almost as fast as her heart was beating. As Kavi pulled away from her, she couldn’t help but feel disappointed. It had been at least a few weeks, if not longer since she’d really kissed anyone else. “I...I’m sorry Kavi…” April looked down to the floor, her cheeks a fiery red and her breaths rapid. “Fuck…” she muttered under her breath. Every bit of her yearned for the feeling that Kavi had just given her. To be genuinely cared for and loved. The fact that he too was a damn good kisser was just icing on the cake.

“I shouldn’t have done that...I don’t know what I was thinking. I haven’t even been drinking...” April finally spoke with a bit more purpose and strength to her words. The long locks of her brown hair partially hid her face as she closed her eyes, shaking her head to herself. What the fuck are you doing April…

“A-are you mad?” she asked, her head unmoving from its position facing down to the floor, resting in her hands.

He wouldn’t respond immediately. Instead, he kept his eyes on April and seeing how messed up she felt about kissing him. That was something that Kavi could relate to. Just as she felt horrible for kissing him, he felt the same tugging feeling between what he desired and what was right in the pit of his stomach. The butterflies died and now a sinking hole replaced it. How could he do this to Ariel? Why didn’t he go to her when she walked off? All of these questions were coming to him, but the one thing that he knew he had to do was assure April that she had nothing to apologize for.

He put a hand on April’s, like before he made sure she knew he wasn’t going anywhere. “I’m feeling a lot of things but anger isn’t one of them,” he told her, smiling. “What would I have to be mad about? I got to kiss a beautiful girl and probably stick it to Santiago in the process. As far as I see, there was no harm done.” There he went lying for the sake of comforting another. And in the back of his mind, he knew it was wrong. He had to make it right before it went too far. “I’m just not sure how I’m going to explain this to my girlfriend,” Kavi mentioned so casually that it barely registered with him until he saw the look on her face.

April’s face went paler than the creature she was portraying with her costume as those final words came out of Kavi’s mouth. Her heart sank so unbelievably fast that she briefly felt like she was going to pass out. “Jesus fuck…” she stood from her seat and paced back and forth, running her hands through her hair nervously.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. April was supposed to be getting revenge, not feeling like shit because she probably broke another girl’s heart in the process. “Fuck Kavi, I am so unbelievably sorry...I feel like such an asshole. W-when you tell her, tell her it was all me...it was my fault. I did it.” April continued a very nervous pace back and forth before an idea spun together in her mind. There was still something she could do to get back at Santiago, and while it wasn’t the most ambitious of plans, it would definitely get everyone’s attention. “Kavi...I have an idea.”

Just when he was about to tell her she had a very small part in this, Kavi just watched her go back and forth. It wasn’t making him dizzy, thank god, but he lost sight of her a couple of times until she mentioned some idea. That was when he popped upright with a smile. “Well do tell. What sort of idea is brewing up in that beautiful brain of yours?” He inquired.

“I’m gonna call him out in front of everyone. Show him that I’m done with his shit.” she said proudly, before reaching down to grab Kavi’s hand. “I’m gonna need you to be up there with me for it though, just for the extra effect.” April said with a grin, before half-dragging Kavi back into the party, up to the front of the crowd and then into the DJ’s booth. “I need to borrow the mic if that’s alright.” she gave the DJ a pretty please look before being reluctantly given the mic. With Kavi still in tow, she tapped the mic a few times against her thigh to get the crowd’s attention before beginning to speak.

“Good evening King’s Academy!” April called out to the crowd in her best hype-up voice. “How’s everyone doing tonight?” She called out, resulting in a loud cheer from the crowd in response. “I just want to say a few things before we bring back the music. First off, I would like to thank Kavi here for throwing this amazing party and making this all possible. I would also like to thank him for being there for me when my boyfriend Santiago wasn’t! On that note, I would like to give a shoutout to the new couple that ran to the back a few minutes before, Santiago and Yessi! Congratulations you two! Let's give them a big round of applause!” April clapped her hands together. For a moment, the audience was hesitant to do anything--it was definitely an awkward moment--but after a deafening silence, a gentle clap began that slowly grew into full applause.

“On one final note!” She called out loudly. “Because of the current situation regarding our dear Devil of King’s Academy, I would like to make a big announcement. Santiago! You are the father! You are the father of the child I am carrying, in case you forgot! Yes! I am pregnant bitches!” April’s hand shook as she said these final words, the false confidence she’d had at the start was beginning to wear off as familiar faces and strangers alike stared at her. “And now, back to the music!” she called out at last, resulting in a brief cheer from the crowd before the thumping bass kicked back in and everyone began to dance once again.

April turned to Kavi, both hands still trembling. “...W-well...how was that?”

“I could just kiss you right now..” As soon as he said that, he awkwardly transitioned into a laugh. “Oh you know what I meant. That was great. Santiago and Astraia will probably be furious, so that’s good and you spoke like a pro. You have a natural talent for this.”

“It's about damn time someone called him on it. Now he can’t hide it from anyone.” April said, taking a deep, shaky breath. No more hiding anything.

"I couldn't agree more," he said, half of his attention on April but the other half was at the DJ's stage. “Just excuse me for one moment.” Kavi gestured towards April to hold whatever thought she was about to put to words as he went back to the DJ table, Alonzo rolling his eyes at Kavi.

“What now?”

“I just need to use the microphone for one or three moments.”

Annoyed, Alonzo handed it over. “Fine but make it quick!”

“Thank you!” Kavi imitated a grateful bow as smiled politely at Alonzo. “So sorry I’m interrupting again, I know but Ariel, if you’re still here, which I’m hoping that you are. If you’re not still pissed at me, can we talk?” Kavi said into the microphone. “If so, I’ll be waiting for you by the hot tub!” He said with a hopeful voice, trying not to feel awkward with everyone staring at him.

Soon Kavi stepped away from the table and did very little to meet the eyes and the mild laughter of those he passed by. He didn’t have time to really think about what they thought about him. There were more important things for him to focus on. He had to figure out what he was going to say to Ariel and if he should bring up the kiss with April or not. No, of course, he should. Kavi couldn’t run away from it. He learned that lesson last month at Homecoming. He had to at least make the attempt to do better this time around. He loved Ariel so much. Contrary to what everyone thinks and keep saying about him on social media, Kavi Salvador is capable of change!

“Now I just wait and pray she will answer my plea.”

Kavi always hated waiting. He always felt exposed but Ariel was worth it. She was worth everything.

So Kavi wanted to apologize. Cool. Great. Fine. Dandy. He should want to apologize. Ariel was the over-reactor in the relationship, not him. He couldn’t just swap roles with her and expect her to just go along with it. But if Kavi wanted to apologize, she figured that she should hear him out. If all else fails, well, she could yell at him. In her somewhat drunken state, it took her just a little longer than usual to maneuver around the Salvador residence. Taking a moment to spot Kavi, she forced her way through yet another crowd of people. With nothing else to say, she would decide on the perfect ice breaker rather quickly.

”What?”

“I didn’t think you would show up. Thought maybe you were too mad at me, but I’m glad you did.” Kavi smiled towards her, wanting to hug Ariel, which he did attempt to but from the way her body was acting and the way her fists were balled up and how apprehensive she was towards him, he had it on good authority they weren’t there yet.

She took a deep breath, doing her best to calm her nerves. While she managed to unball her fists and crossed her arms, Ariel didn’t return his smile. ”Relationships require communication. That’s why I’m here. Now, what’s on your mind?”

As he would take a seat on the edge of the hot tub, Kavi tried really hard to think what he wanted to say to her. What could he say that wouldn’t sound like a half-assed attempt to get her to forgive him? He could say that he was sorry for calling her crazy, say that he shouldn’t have mocked her when she was in front of him, and try pressuring her to smoke weed with him. All of that didn’t amount to anything because he felt the pinging guilt inside about what he and April did. It was eating away at him and Kavi wanted to say something right now. Get it out there so she could hear it from him and not someone else. He needed to tell her. He didn’t like the situation, but he made his own bed and Salvador men don’t turn away from their problems, they faced them head-on.

He took in the slowest breath he could, or what felt like a slow breath. His head was bowed down to the ground, hands on his thighs as he felt them shake. To gain some control over his body, Kavi curled up his hands into balls and slowly nodded to himself. He had this. He could do this. “I can do this,” he repeated to himself slowly. With every inch his head went up, he kept repeating the same line over and over. So when he met her eyes yet again, the time Kavi took to finally open his mouth, she had to have been just waiting impatiently. He couldn’t think about that right now. He had to say it. “Something happened. After you stormed out. I mean, something happened with me and--”

Before Kavi could say it -- or at least attempt to get it out -- he heard both his and Ariel’s phone ring. Even with the music bumping, their ringtones seemed to be at full blast. “Now is not the time for..” And that’s when his heart sank. Literally, his entire chest stopped for maybe one second as his worst fears came to life. Someone had tagged both he and Ariel in an Instagram story that caught the short make-out session between him and April. “H-how...w-when…” Kavi had forgotten how to English. “A-ariel, I can explain..”

It was easy to tell the Kavi was nervous by his body language alone. The fact that his apology was taking so long only added to Ariel's anger, even if he was nervous - though what about she had no clue. After all, apologies were never anything to be nervous about. Unless you sent someone an awkward dick pic. Then you should apologize. But for Kavi, random dick pics weren’t the case. Regardless, Ariel stood there, paying close attention to the rhythm of the bass beneath her feet. Her eyes never strayed from Kavis face, and while she was trying to be understanding, she could also tell that something else had to be wrong - or at least that’s what she hoped. If an apology honestly made him this torn up, Ariel didn’t know rather Kavi had it in him to find what decency was left.

When the song changed, her phone went off, signaling a notification. Just like every other teenager, Ariel had the immediate reaction to reach for her phone and check said notification. Seeing a familiar username tag her in an Instagram story, she opened the app up, as Kavi was doing the same.

Her brain still being a little clouded from her drunken stupor, it didn’t take Ariel much to realize what she was looking at. Kavi was - or had been - lock faced with none other than April Foster.

If fate hadn’t decided to send her a rage fueling angel named Shawna, perhaps Ariel would have had the initial thoughts of comparing herself to April. The ‘am I not as pretty as her’ and the ‘why the fuck did he go to her’ thoughts. She would tuck them away for a good cry during her sad boi hours at a later date. Instead, what came to her was a sinking feeling in her stomach. The sort of feeling that feels like you’ve been punched and makes you want to hurl. The sort of feeling that Kavi had not caused her to feel once, but twice.

Her left hand balled into a fist, her right hand clutching her phone for dear life as her knuckles turned white, Ariel took what seemed like her millionth deep breath for the night.

”What,” she began, her voice nearly a whisper. ”The. Fuck.” Pressing her lips into a thin line, she focused on her breathing. In and out, calm and steady. His nose had just healed. Considering that it was a nice nose, she didn’t want to break it again. That and Mr. Salvador might not be a lenient this time. ”Why…” She put her phone back in her pocket, un-balling and balling her fists back up in a repetitive motion. ”Why do you….” Closed eyes. Deep breaths. ”.... Insist on constantly humiliating me?”

Kavi closed his eyes waiting for something to happen. What did he expect? A punch in the groin, a fist to the nose again, a swift kick to the jewels. All of those would have been a lot more favorable than her eerily-calm voice speaking to him in such a low tone that it somehow felt a lot worse than all three of those things would have. Calm, empty disappointment stung worse than any sort of act of physical violence ever could and Kavi had only felt that particular blow twice in his life: once with his father after he was released from jail and now, from Ariel.

And to make matters worse, she wanted to know why? “Why? What do you want me to say? I don’t know what to say, Ariel. I can be the self-pitying cliche and say I’m a terrible person and you should have known better or it wasn’t me, it was her. Yeah, I don’t know, I could tell you I slipped inside her mouth cause I’m such a clutz.” Somehow Kavi knew making a joke out of this made it worse but what cards did he have left to play? He had nothing. So yeah, he was going to joke and maybe walk away with some form of self-respect.

Did he really just ---- Yes. Yes he did.

”You wouldn’t have to think of what to say if you didn’t put yourself in these freaking situations,” she spat at him, her voice now returning to a normal level and rising. ”First Nadia. Now April. Who next? Xixi? Some other fucking side hoe?” Calm. Deep breaths. No reason to cause a scene. ”Do you wanna be the next one to get April pregnant? Or did you just want to step in and be the stepdad in some piss poor way to try and redeem your shitty personality?”

Ariel had gone from being dangerously calm to now nothing but straight fury; her anger blinding her from the fact that she had inched closer and closer towards him. ”I wanna make this work,” she did in her best Kavi mocking impression. ”Is this a game to you? A joke? Do I look like a complete fucking fool to you? Or did someone tattoo ‘dumb bitch’ across my forehead when I wasn’t looking?” Close your eyes. Count to ten. ”You. Are. A. Completely. Self-centered. Asshole!” On the last word, she felt her arms raise, and before she knew it, Kavi was pushed back as he was falling backward into the hot tub.

His impact with the warm little pool created a splash that carried water to the side and splashed others, who didn’t pay it any mind other than laughing at Kavi Salvador and clapping for Ariel Grey as everyone had heard it. Or at least everyone who was near Kavi and Ariel.

And while the cheers came in and the eruption of laughter seemed to match the loud, pulsing music of Marilyn Manson’s cover of This is Halloween, Kavi fussed with how his body betrayed him as it forbade him from getting up immediately. When he finally regained control, he came back to his feet just in time to stop Ariel from leaving. He let her leave last time and he made the worst mistake anyone could make in a relationship. He wasn’t about to let it happen a second time. When he had grabbed on her wrist, it was a frail attempt and his grip was lost due to his hand still being wet from the hot tub water, so he quickly hopped in front of her, stopping her from going any further.

“Will you just wait a minute?” He pleaded. “You can’t just walk away like that. I’m not going to let this go unfinished. You want to talk about our issues? Fine, let’s talk! If I meant anything to you, give me five minutes. That’s all I’m asking for, Ariel. Five minutes and if by then you don’t want anything to do with me, then I’ll back off and leave you alone.”

”If I meant anything to you, you wouldn’t have kissed someone else. I’ve got major urge to break shit, and you’re the only thing in front of me. So either move, or let me break your face again.”

He inhaled slowly, already regretting what he was about to do. “If breaking my nose, kicking me repeatedly will give me five minutes, then do what you have to, Ariel,” he said standing his ground. “Cause I’m not moving until you give me a chance to explain everything.” Whatever may come his way, Kavi was prepared to take the full brunt of her heartbroken rage.

Ariel was doing her absolute best to not cry angry tears, and Kavi was making it extremely hard to do so. ”That’s the problem. I don’t want to break you. I want to break things. How about I get to break shit for five minutes while you talk. Compromise.”

And again, she surprised him. He didn’t quite know exactly what was going to happen, but Kavi nodded. At the end of the day, the fact that she was willing to give him five minutes was more than he deserved. If he was her, he would have gone for the nose again, which still was in recovery since the brace has only been off for a week. So maybe Kavi should be grateful it wasn’t him she wanted to punch repeatedly.

“Where do you want to go? To my room maybe? It’ll be a lot less noisy in there.” He didn’t know why he suggested his room. All of his favorite things were in his room. Oh well, too late to turn back now.

She quickly calculated a rough estimate of how much money was sitting in his bedroom. PlayStation, TV, Radio, Speakers…. She could even set his bed on fire if it came to that. ”Room is good,” she said simply, grabbing him by his wrist and dragging him with her.

Pushing her way through the crowd - shoving when need be - Ariel led the way to the chamber of breakable expensive stuff. Kavi seemed to be enjoying no part of this ordeal, but the people who were taking pictures of their wet host seemed to be entertained enough. Stepping over the lightweights that were already passed out in the hall, she opened the door to the bedroom. Still half dragging Kavi, she planted him on the bed.

”Sit and talk. What you say first decides what I break first.”

Kavi took a seat on his bed. It was the perfect vantage point to see exactly where Ariel was walking and what she would break first. Everything in his room, theoretically, was replaceable. It would cost him a year’s allowance and he would have to dial it back on the brand name products, but he could replace it all. So he wasn’t worried about it, but seeing stuff he has been with for over two years was going to be tough to process.

He inhaled deeply, eying Ariel carefully and with enough caution and worry that now she was the man and he was the dumb bitch. “That Instagram story only showed you the act. I’m not excusing myself from being partially guilty. I know what I did was a shitty thing, but what you don’t know is what happened before.” As he began, he saw her eying his electronics. “I mean…” He had to get a grip and more importantly, get it all out in one go. “Before I even found April, Santiago and his crew were having a beer pong match. Someone said something about their mother and Aiden got laid out. Santiago went off with Astraia Astor somewhere and that got me thinking about April. I thought she had a right to know, so I ventured inside and went to find her. And wouldn’t you know it? I did find her parked by the stairs with nobody around but her.” Saying all of that felt like a weight was lifted. It actually made him feel good. Kavi did a good thing by seeking out April.

”So seeing a guy sneaking off with someone that wasn’t his girlfriend made you want to do the same. Got it.”

Truth to be told, Ariel wasn’t really listening. She didn’t care what he had to say right now, and probably wouldn’t for quite some time. Surveying the room, she spotted one of his Judo trophies on the shelf. She waltzed over, picked it up firmly in her grasp and took yet another deep breath. Playstation or TV? TV. Kavi didn’t have a baseball bat in his room, so the trophy would have to work. And so she swung.

Again, and again, and again. The cracking sound of the TV screen gave her a certain sense of euphoria, which only fueled her need to break things even more. With her final blow to the TV, it finally fell to the floor. Brushing the loose hair from her face, she turned to Kavi.

”Continue.”

“Well, I..I mean…”

Kavi felt a part of him die when just two acts of unnecessary carnage was unleashed in his room. First was irreplaceable, first place judo world championship trophy he won when he was thirteen. One of his proudest achievements now being used to destroy his sixty-inch television, the smart TV that he had for six months which he was immensely attached to. While the trophy remained, the smart television was no more. The only part of it that remained were the stands used to hold it up against his wall and now he was left with a firm dread set in his stomach and heart, knowing full well that this was just the first of many acts of violence Ariel was about to commit.

He didn’t want time to waste, but how could he find the words when he knew she wasn’t listening? No, he had to say it. At least then he could say he didn’t leave anything unspoken. “After I found her, we started talking. First, it was just catching up. Haven’t really seen her since homecoming and so we talked and, well I guess it just went from that into her confiding in me. Honestly, you would have been proud of me. I didn’t initiate anything! Only thing I did was let her know I was there for her. You know, like I was there for you after that visit to the principal’s office!” Somehow, Kavi just knew she wouldn’t take it the way that he meant it.

”Proud of you?!” she shrieked. ”If you hadn’t have sought her out in the first place you wouldn’t have had to ‘be there for her’,” she said, doing air quotes while she mimicked the last part of the sentence. ”If you want to be there for somebody next time -” she threw the trophy at the wall across the room. ”Buy them a freaking teddy bear!”

“And I wouldn’t have had to seek April if you didn’t storm out like a crazy person!” Kavi snapped and he knew it was the wrong thing to snap with.

Cue the angry tears and picking up of the PlayStation. A crazy person. There were those words again. She wouldn’t have had to storm out if Kavi wasn’t trying to force her to do something she didn’t want. She wouldn’t have had to storm out if she would have just punched Kavi in his face and cause a scene again. She wouldn’t have had to storm out of the room constantly if…. If.....if she was dating anyone but Kavi.

The more she thought about, the more her grip tightened on the gaming system, her knuckles turning white in the process. She couldn’t even think of what to say at the moment. All she could think of was how badly she wanted to hit him now instead of just break his things.

”Are you really that stupid,” she growled, chucking the PlayStation at him and he had immediately ducked.

“What the fuck is wrong with you!?” Kavi gasped, turning his head around briefly to see the pile of mechanic parts of his Playstation 4 resting on his bed and some of it against his wall. As the gaze lingered, he slowly turned back to Ariel. He was truly at a loss for words.

“You’ve lost it!” He said, still in shock that she actually tried to hit him with his formerly-functional gaming console. “You know what? Screw this, Ariel!” Whether premature or not, Kavi was past his breaking point. “I thought you were at a point to be reasoned with, but fuck all of this. You did this, not me! If you weren’t so full of all kinds of issues and overreacted to every little god-forsaken thing, then maybe I wouldn’t have been in a situation that put me in April’s radar. You didn’t want to smoke weed with me? Fine! Maybe you should have just made it clear. Don’t want to be here? Alright cool, then just say so. But no, Ariel fucking Grey has to make every little damn thing about her!”

Kavi was mentally exhausted being someone who he obviously wasn’t. He did everything different for her. He gave up who he was and what everyone expected him to be. He tried being the devoted boyfriend that he thought she deserved. He tried being the kind of person who didn’t clap back at someone by dating whoever was close to them. He had tried being all of that and more, but it wasn’t worth the headache.

“I’m just done trying to meet your unreasonable expectations and everyone else’s for that matter. You don’t like it? Then fucking get out of my life!” Kavi shouted as his voice cracked and before long his throat was drier than the Sahara.

”Maybe I wouldn’t overreact if you acted like it was okay for me to feel something! Maybe I wouldn’t overreact if you expect for everyone to make you happy every second of every goddamn day. You think you have to live up to people's expectations? You think that you have to go out of the way to be someone your not? Try being happy twenty-four seven so that this doesn’t happen when you aren’t.”

The tears were rolling down her face even faster now, the lump in her throat growing larger by the second. ”And for the record, I did make it clear that I didn’t want to smoke your weak ass weed with you. And then you overreacted. I tried to be the adult this time Kavi. I tried to walk away to give you time to cool off. I could have been reasoned with - IF you hadn’t had went off and shoved your fucking tongue down April's throat. Excuse me for not being okay with that! I’m not sure what female wouldn’t react in a similar way that I am.”

She wiped her face off before speaking again. ”If you know that I have ‘issues’ then why don’t you try talking to me to see what fucking triggers me next time, hm? Maybe try not being such a fucking dick. Just because your girlfriend doesn’t want to do what you want doesn’t give you the right to go find comfort in some other chick. Me saying no shouldn’t put anyone on your radar for any reason. Ever. She wouldn’t have been on your radar if you didn’t want to be a whore in the first place.

”Want me to leave? Fine. ‘Get out of your life’? Fine. Done.”

Walking across the room, she gave him one last ”Fuck you, Kavi Salvador” before opening the bedroom door and slamming it shut behind her so harshly, a sound of crashing glass frames were heard for a brief moment before being mostly muffled from the door.

“I’m so utterly stupid.”

Kavi lost count how many times those words left his mouth and how long he had been staring at the carnage in his room. Ariel’s rage may have left the building, but her impact remained. Everywhere from where his prized television was mounted to one of three judo trophies he had acquired over the course of ten years was snapped in half, and a brutally-destroyed Playstation 4 that sparked a few times since being decimated, its sticky parts stuck to his wall like a new coat of paint. As much damage that was done, as much carnage that remained in his room, devoid of sound and life, nothing could top how he had effectively killed any and all chances of salvaging his relationship with Ariel. And what was the final nail in the coffin? Was it digging his nose in Santiago and April’s relationship? Was it consoling April when her baby’s daddy wasn’t around to do it for her? Or maybe it was not stopping the kiss that April had initiated almost immediately after it happened?

He couldn’t stop playing the conversation in his mind. How he blew up at her, ruining his only chance to explain. “No, it wasn’t possible..” Kavi knew there was no way for him to explain it. He let another girl kiss him and almost kissed her back. Then, of all things, he acted like he did nothing wrong. “God, why was I so stupid?”

He walked up to his wall, looking at its blankness for nearly a minute, his forehead pressed against it. He started to bang his head slowly, each time the banging noise getting harder until part of it cracked. Time and time again he went at it as if he was really trying to do some serious damage. After a full minute of repeated smashing, Kavi stopped and saw a small forehead-shaped blood print and soon he was starting to see red drip down his face along the inside corners past his eyes and along both sides of his nose. Matters were made worse when Kavi’s dripping hair thinned the blood out and caused it to pour down his face at a faster rate.

Kavi couldn’t stop staring at the damned bloodprint. Why couldn’t he stop staring at it? Everything else around him was destroyed, crushed, and a reminder of how much of a screw-up he was when it came to understanding the female species? So why, of all goddamn things, was Kavi Salvador unable to take his eyes away from that forehead bloodprint?

“It’s just a fucking wall!”

In a fit of rage that truly would make his girlfriend -- ex-girlfriend -- proud, Kavi balled up both of his hands and two swift punches, as hard as he possibly could, he made sure he wouldn’t have to look at that wall ever again. The left fist had punched a hole into it but had not made the bloodprint disappear completed, so the right fist punched in the same place. He did this three more times and at the same spot. When he finally felt satisfied, he was left with a hole in the wall that revealed the other end.

After a quick trip to the bathroom down the hall and a change of outfits, Kavi had changed into a different construction outfit that was basically the same as the one he had on before, but it was one, not covered in his blood and two, not wet. He knew it wasn’t perfect but he didn’t care. The only thing that he wanted to do was continue on with the party and get as shitfaced drunk as quickly as he could. Forgetting about everything that happened he was mid-kiss with April was his main objective. So he would start by making his way over to the beverages table that was inside the house. And so he started to pour himself a drink, downing about half of it.

“Maaaate! That’s either a totally lit costume or you need, like, to get that looked at.”

The voice of Palm Beach’s resident Brit slurred from his right, though Kavi wasn’t sure whether to laugh or to tune it out, given the current state of things. Between the splitting headache, his sore knuckles, and the general mood he was in, Kavi wasn’t really in the right mindset beyond “drink to forget” and “worry about it later”.

“The costume is bought; bruised knuckles and gash on the forehead are my own personal touches.” He hadn’t turned to face whoever it was that did call out to him, but as soon as Kavi did, he opened his eyes a little wider. “Mac? Is that you?”

“Well, I’m not your fairy godmother.” The British girl quipped as she took another drink from the bottle of Patrón that she was holding between her fingers.

Mac appeared to have returned to Palm Beach just in time for everything at the party to get a little… crazy.

Dressed in a full she-devil get-up, it seemed that Mac was fully prepared upon her return to Palm Springs, though Kavi wondered how long she had been back. She had missed Homecoming and nearly two months of the new school year, so he nearly thought her dad had quietly transferred her to some boarding school in California. As one of the few actual female friends Kavi had, her absence at King’s hadn’t gone unnoticed. He was someone who didn’t have a lot of female friends. He’d date them and that’s it, but after his quick thing with Mac, the chemistry between them was too high to leave it at just the date, so they became quick friends. Nobody out of his ex-flings could ever understand the burdens of being beautiful than Mackenzie Davenport did.

“What a relief it is to see you haven’t lost your sense of humor since I last saw ya,” Kavi said, taking a sip from his drink. The alcohol was doing its job numbing the pain he felt but it wasn’t working nearly as quickly as he would prefer.

“Wouldn’t be me if I did, yeah?” Mac looked closer at Kavi, noticing the gash on his forehead a bit better after Kavi mentioned that he had done them himself. “So, do you need to run to the hospital? I can call an Uber if you need one.”

”What? You crazy or something?” A laugh came after as he realized he said that word again. He laughed as he finished the rest of the alcohol in his cup. “Oops, I said that word again.”

Mac laughed in response, “If I was crazy I’d be driving, what are you on about? You said what word again?”

He wasted no time refilling his cup, though midway through it, he found himself hunched over a couple of inches as he bumped into the table. This caused his cup to fall into the punch bowl. “Well, that’s just great, isn’t it?” He looked up at Mac. “Crazy. The word was crazy. It seems to be my favorite word tonight.”

“Okay? What does that even mean?”

”What it means, Mac,” He said turning to face her, using the table to hold his body up. “I got dumped because I called my ex crazy one too many times for her liking.”

Mac raised a brow, “Your ex?”

“Yes, my ex. Ex-girlfriend. Person I was in a committed relationship with up until thirty minutes ago.” Each word came a sloppy arm gesture.

“Are you taking the piss?” She set her bottle down on the table next to her. “Because, last time I checked you didn’t do ‘committed relationships’.”

She has a point.

Kavi Salvador didn’t commit to anything but who the next great time was going to be. Whether that was the head cheerleader or someone else from the squad, there wasn’t any sort of intentions of ever seeing them for a second date unless the first one went horrible and she really wanted a do-over. If Kavi was going down that route, they would need to be insanely hot or offer him something that he couldn’t get during the first round. The more he thought about it, the more it made his head hurt.

“Yeah, well I guess I had a temporary change of heart.” He chuckled, then chucked up a small amount of puke. “But don’t worry, I won’t ever make that mistake ever again.”

“Well, before you paint all of the punch green, let’s get you some air. Don’t want people to tweet and everything. Also, I like the punch not to taste, you know, bad. Maybe, we should do something about your face, too.”

Mac seemed to keep her attention on Kavi, while also scanning the table for items. Whatever her intention was, he wasn’t really paying enough attention to care or notice.

Begrudgingly, Kavi followed Mac away from the table, away from the house, and outside. They walked at a somewhat slow pace to match Kavi’s sluggish body. His feet had dragged a bit but that was only due to the headache starting to be the main issue instead of how much alcohol he could consume to numb it out. Kavi hadn’t bothered to wait for Mac to help him down as he collapsed on the green grass. It sent chills down his spine as he had looked up at the stars.

“This was a good idea, Mac.”

“Well, any idea is better than smashing your face because some girl… got too sensitive? Needy?” The girl uttered as she tossed a bottle of Vodka and a tablecloth she had grabbed on the way out of the party on the ground. She was trying to hide it, but there was some semblance of concern. Kavi may have been drunk and not thinking clearly, but he could tell that much.

“You might be right about that. I tried to change for her, be someone she could love or be safe with. I don’t know.” Kavi rocked himself to a somewhat upright position, feeling the weight of something begging to come back up for round two. “Have you ever gone down that road of trying to change for anyone?”

“Fuck no!” Mac responded with laughter.

”Smart girl.” He responded to her laughter with his own. “I wish you were around to talk me out of my own mistake like a month ago. Probably could have saved my hands from getting wrecked.”

“Well, I’m sorry I was trapped in California with my cunt of a dad.”

They continued their conversation. Mac popped the cap off the vodka and poured a little of it on the tablecloth, groaning in displeasure that she not only had to waste vodka like this but that she wasn’t getting to enjoy the party. As she moved the tablecloth like an impromptu cloth across Kavi’s forehead she used her other hand to brace his head so he wouldn’t move. When Kavi realized this is what Mac meant about doing something about his face, he knew it was going to suck. But really, it was his own fault in the first place.

“Jesus Mac!” Kavi screeched for a brief moment.

“There is no god. Only vodka.” She quipped, continuing to clean the wound.

“Can you not pour so much of it? It’s a small gash, not a severe wound.” He whined. Ironically, for a martial artist, Kavi did not do physical pain well.

“I am admittedly, very not sober, but I can’t have you bleeding and spewing into drinks. Think of the children. Imagine if Stella took a sip of that punch! Instant party killer.”

“Are you sure it’ll be that and not the Maury-styled ‘you are the father’ announcement April made not too long ago?”

“True. But you never did host the best parties.” She commented, before she finished cleaning up the gash, before tearing the cloth and tying it firmly around Kavi’s forehead. “Well, that’s the best I can do. I think I did it right.”

“I don’t see any blood dripping down, so you must’ve done something right.” Kavi felt around his forehead. When he pressed against the cloth, though soft, a stinging sensation went through him.

“Lucky you.”

He shrugged. “Now that you’ve done your duty, I suppose now you want to get back to the party, huh?”

“Why? You don’t want to?”

“I don’t know, Mac. When you get dumped, it kind of ruins the party within, ya know?”

The British girl rolled her eyes. “What, you want to trade the real party for a pity party? Mate, it’s one girl.”

“I know it’s hard for you to imagine, but I actually fell pretty hard for her, Mac.” Kavi admitted, swiping the Vodka bottle and taking a hefty swig of it.

“And why would you go and do that for someone who is just going to be passive aggressive to you for the rest of the year because you didn’t live up to her idea of you?” Mac sighed, crossing her arms as he began downing a good portion of the vodka. “Why would you do that to yourself? You know who you are.”

While he sat there really thinking about it, Kavi couldn’t stop himself from thinking about Ariel and how after everything went downhill because of his stupidity, he was here and she probably wasn’t. If she was, there was a good chance she was far away from him. Maybe Ariel wasn’t worth it after all. He had thought about canceling the party and chasing after her and maybe fixing things, but what would that do? She made up her mind about him the minute she tried to kill him with his own gaming console. She was done with him so now, perhaps, it was Kavi’s turn to be done with her.

He took another drink from the bottle. “Yeah, you’re right, Mac. If Ariel Grey doesn’t want me, then I’ll just be who she already thinks I am.”

“A lot has happened.”

Stella only spoke a number of times since Georgie and Mac had left her with Oliver. The two had stayed together, talked a few times, but for the most part, both of them have been silent. The only times that either of them said a single word was when either Stella or Oliver would say something and they’d respond shortly, but then it was back to the awkward silence. She didn’t have any answer as to why she couldn’t just talk to him. It should have been easy. She had always been able to talk to Oliver. That’s what was so amazing about their friendship. Because they were always so open and honest, she felt like there wasn’t anything she couldn’t say to him. But now…

“Now I don’t know…” She spoke softly, watching scene after scene unfolding before their very eyes. From Kavi and April being near the DJ booth and watching April Foster announce to the world she was pregnant to Kavi asking Ariel to meet him by the hot tub. “Let’s go there.”

Stella pulled on Oliver’s hand, almost dragging him as they joined the crowd of people. The two talked and then they went silent. Kavi looked sad for some reason and then Ariel suddenly pushed him into the hot tub. Stella was so out of the loop that she wasn’t sure what prompted that. Then, as Ariel brushed past them, she and Kavi had a short conversation and they left for inside the house. Throughout the next five or so minutes, she ran the possibilities of everything through her mind only to ponder about something.

“I really do hope they don’t break up, Oli,” Stella said around him, looking down at the ground. “I mean, Kavi has been really happy. I know a lot of people give him a lot of grief for being a player. I know it’s well-deserved, but lately..” Her head raised up, smiling at Oliver, “he’s been acting like how Kavi before the chip on his shoulder became an entire potato, ya know?”

She felt like she was rambling, but truth be told, if Kavi and Ariel stood a chance, maybe there was something to be said for her. She had no clue how to bring it up to him, but god, if she couldn’t at least talk to Oliver about her feelings, then why was she even here?

“Oliver…” Her voice was again low. “Can we talk? I mean, go someplace quiet and talk?” She asked him, her hand squeezing his as if to siphon the excess emotions coursing through her body right now. Her heart was beating incredibly fast and she had no way of stopping it.

It seemed like every time Stella and Oliver got together, someone said something that left Oliver in a state of silent thinking. Were they together? Were they not together? Was he supposed to just assume what Stella felt and make the decisions for both of them? No. That seemed like a dick move, and while Oliver had the tendency to be a bit of an ass at times, he wasn’t a dick. Just like any other time, he followed Stella around like a lost puppy - this time outside to the hot tub area.

Just like so many others, he watched the brief squabble between Ariel and Kavi. While Oliver didn’t wish for anyone's relationship to end, it seemed like all Ariel and Kavi could ever do was argue - at least at social events. He had been thinking of something to say when Stella's last sentence finally brought him back down to earth. ”I uh…. I don’t have any idea of any quiet place here… I… maybe upstairs?”

“Yeah, that works.” She responded immediately. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to go through the back patio. Too many people are there,” Stella remarked, “but don’t worry, I’ve been here a lot of times. There’s a staircase through the side entrance of the house that leads upstairs.”

Stella took the lead as she pulled Oliver’s hand, guiding him past the crowds of people who were still talking about April’s announcement and something about Kavi kissing April. It came as a shock to be sure but Stella wasn’t surprised. She was only disappointed in him for potentially ruining a good thing with Ariel. In the time she would spend thinking about Kavi, her and Oliver had sped past the garage, popped back into the house where the staircase was only around the corner.

“It should be here--”

As Stella was about to turn around towards the staircase, she felt a brief gust of air hit against her face softly as a mixture of obscenities, Kavi’s name, and remnants of crying sounds faded with the sound of the music playing. Stella was worried and confused. She only caught a brief glimpse of red hair.

“I think that was Ariel…” She muttered to herself, shaking her head. “Anyway, let’s find a room, I guess,” Stella said, going up the stairs with Oliver.

Following her once more, Oliver turned to see the red-haired figure himself. ”Yeah… I’m pretty sure it was. I really hope they didn’t end up having to big of a fight or anything…”

Soon the two found a free room, but Stella didn’t realize which room it was. “Okay, so of all rooms, I pick Kavi’s parents’ room. Cool!” And cool it was. And big. Holy cow was it a spacious room!

Stepping inside of Mr. and Mrs. Salvadors room, Oliver felt like he was committing a crime. You always heard of kids sneaking into the host of the parties parents bedroom, but Oliver had never had it happen to him. At least not until now. ”I never realized someone could ever need this much room to sleep,” he commented.

“This is nothing,” she laughed, “my room is almost as big as this one is.” Suddenly Stella felt like she just exposed herself to open criticism.

”Hm. Guess I just never gave that much thought to it. I mean, I think everyone has pretty nice sized houses here. Guess I’m just a simple guy. I’ve never really had to have that much room.” Not quite comfortable enough to touch anything in the room, he just stood there sort of awkwardly. ”So what was it you wanted to talk about?”

As she sat on the cushioned platform in front of the bed, Stella just thought about how she wanted to phrase this. Lord knew that she wasn’t a religious person but if there was ever a time she needed the Lord’s strength, right now was that time. She knew she wanted to get it all out there and tell him where her mind was at (or would it be her heart?), but there was that gut-wrenching wall of actually making the decision. And it also had to do with how this was the only thing she couldn’t outright tell him. Her discomfort was obvious in how Stella’s lips puckered and wiggled. She’s been told it was a tell of hers when she was stressed about something.

Her lips opened, but no more than a single sound came out. She gave it another try and still, there was nothing. “Screw it!” That time she spoke and this time it was loud. “Oliver, I..I mean,” she looked up at him. “Can you come sit with me please?” She pleaded with him, a longing gaze lingering at him that was almost desperate on her part.

Whatever she wanted to talk about was obviously bothering her, and the look on her face made him wish he had gotten something strong to drink when he had the chance. Without a word, he walked over and sat down beside her, hands in his lap. ”I - If I did anything wrong or something, I’m sorry,” he blurted out.

Stella shook her head. “No, it wasn’t you. I mean, not really.” When she spoke, she immediately heard herself and looked at him. “No I mean, you didn’t do anything! I just..” She huffed inwardly, taking in deep, albeit short, breaths. “I’m sorry, Oliver. I just can’t seem to say what I want to say.”

Now was one of those awkward moments where Oliver was really starting to think that he had done something wrong - even though Stella had told him otherwise. ”Well regardless of whatever it is, I’d be more than happy to sit here with you until you got the courage to say whatever it is.”

That’s it. If I had, we wouldn’t be here suffering.

That’s what Stella wanted to say and more. So instead the brunette closed her eyes, took in a deep breath, and muttered something to herself. It was only a short moment, but when she finally calmed her center, she turned to face Oliver, eyes and attention on him. Her heart was beating too fast for her comfort, so she took hold of Oliver’s hands. When she felt it became too much, she squeezed them but Stella wasn’t going to back down. Too far now and she needed to get it own.

“Oliver..” She said slowly, the air around her starting to get thick. “We’ve known each other for a while. I mean, we have been going to the same school since third grade. I remember when you were the new student and you stood out like a sore thumb but you never let that stop you from shining on,” Stella laughed with a smile, picturing how adorkable Oliver was with his bowtie back then. “I remember how the kids at school teased you and even though I didn’t stop them, there was always someone nearby who did.”

”Well, I mean, I don’t blame you for that or whatever. Come to think of it, I kinda always admired you. You were always like this ray of freaking sunshine walking around with bows in your hair and crap,” he said smiling. ”But what does any of that have to do with this?”

Right, the point. Stella had a tendency to not get to it. “I just mean we have been near each other for so long and only in the past two months have we gotten to know each other. Like, you know that my favorite colors are lavender and bubblegum pink and that I don’t like jalapenos on my nachos. You know I’m deathly afraid of spiders.” She said, unconsciously moving closer to Oliver. “All of these little things you know about me and you’ve never judged me. Everyone else has cause they’re pretty dumb, but you haven’t.” She was doing it again, so she shook her head. “What this has to do with everything — at least, what I’m trying to say and failing at — is that you’ve been around all this time and it took to our senior year for me to realize just how much I like you, Oliver.”

People that judged you because of your favorite colors, fears and nacho preferences were stupid - and that was something Oliver firmly believed. ”So like…” he took a deep breath, licking his lips. ”Are you saying that you like… like me, or that you like… like like me?”

Part of her wanted to laugh but she was so high on nerves right now, the only thing Stella could do was look at him with a smile. Truth be told, she wasn’t exactly sure what the proper answer to his question was. She knew it was more than simply liking him as a person. She liked Sonny. She liked Kavi. She liked all of her friends. And yes, she liked Oliver, but he was different. The way he speaks so passionately when he’d say basically anything to her whether it was about how much he loves pickles and how not having them on a cheeseburger was a crime always makes her smile, or when he tells her about all the dog breeds he wants to own in his lifetime (cats too) and how they both agree pits are unjustifiably hated.

Everything she and Oliver might talk about just has this effect on her. She might not understand most of it cause they still have different interests, but Stella does like Oliver the person. She loves how he gets whenever there are raw pickles for sale in the cafeteria. She loves their back and forths when they list all the things wrong with President Trump and how Bernie Sanders is the man. There is never a minute that she isn’t smiling when she’s with him. Even for someone who quite frequently misses certain cues people make, she never has missed one when she’s been with Oliver.

“I...think it might be the second one.” She spoke, her face as red as fast her heart had been beating this entire time.

”Thank. Fucking. God.” he said, a smile breaking across his face as he laughed light-heartedly. ”I’m sorry that I made things so awkward for you and like between us and everything but I’m not good with these things at all and I really, really like you. I just didn’t want to make things super awkward for us if you didn’t like me back and I just….” he took a deep breath. ”Yeah.”

He couldn’t help it. Oliver just kept smiling like a complete idiot for a few brief moments before he decided to talk again. ”So does this mean I get to, like, hold your hand in public now?”

They were left alone. Not only were they left alone, but with Marisol going off to calm down after her intense confrontation with Salem, which Sonny still wished he was able to hear and was even more surprised to see that she didn’t kick him anywhere, both Sonny and Kavan sat there in their little corner of the Salvador house doing absolutely nothing. He didn’t know if Kavan was waiting for him to say something or for Archer to return. Either way, it was awkward and something definitely to be done about it.

But nothing did. God, Sonny usually could handle small talk but aside from their respective gayness (even though Sonny’s still in the closet to the public) and their gravitation towards each other as of late, there wasn’t a lot of common ground between the two. Pharaoh and woman did not make for a dynamic duo meme to name.

Sonny had turned to face Kavan, giving the man a small smile that was more awkward than if he had pulled out one of his silicon breasts again. The only thing worth noting was April’s announcement that she was currently with child and people talking about how Kavi got shoved into a pool. Sonny was more disappointed in himself that he didn’t have anything to talk about with Kavan. Did they really have so little in common that he couldn’t think of something to talk to him about?

“So, uh, this is fun.” Sonny awkwardly said. It was the first thing said that didn’t feel like a completely idiotic thing playing out in Sonny’s mind. “I mean, I guess--” Before he could get that out, Sonny heard some people speed past him.

“This way, bro! That one fairy dressed as a fairy is about to get creamed by Brad!”

Seeing the group of excited students brag about some fairy, it didn’t take long for Sonny to figure out who they were talking about. “I think that fairy they mentioned is our fairy.” Already he was getting pissed off and instinctually took Kavan by the hand. It was one thing for Sonny to jokingly call archer a fairy. He knew it came from a place of like and respect, but for others to use it so casually set something ablaze inside Sonny.

Hearing someone other than Sonny refer to his boyfriend as a "fairy" had also lit a fire inside of Kavan; his fingers tightened around the other boy's hand as he watched the group of students rush towards the back of the house. This anger, however, was almost instantly replaced by an intense feeling of worry as what that last student had said finally sunk in. "Oh my god," Kavan suddenly said to Sonny, "We have to go!"

And without uttering another word, Kavan rushed off in the same direction as the rest of the party-goers, practically dragging Sonny behind him. He didn't stop until the horrifying sight of Archer being punched in the face by none other than Brad Leone stopped him dead in his tracks.

Sonny knew that Kavan wasn’t much of a fighter and neither was Archer, so that made him even angrier. The more he watched the more it seemed like Sonny couldn’t just do that. He and Archer had their problems and maybe even had a genuine beef with each other at one point, but just like Archer has been coming to terms that Sonny isn’t a bad guy, he also was coming to terms that Archer wasn’t a great person. Sonny would even go as far as to say he was starting to think of Archer as a friend. He always has but now it’s got respect on its name.

One of his hands balled up into a fist while the other gripped his Prada bag. “Jesus Bradley,” Sonny said, stepping forward. “You got a lot of pent up rage, beating up a gay boy. There must be a reason for this. Like maybe you’re struggling with something that you’re not ready to admit to yourself and that’s why you’re taking it out on my boy here.” He taunted him, shooting a wink Archer’s way. “Wouldn’t you agree, Archie?”

Groaning, Archer took the opportunity to crawl away from under his attacker as he was distracted by what Sonny was saying. Spitting blood on the grass he looked up at the crowd. “I’m busy trying to not die to agree on whatever you said Sonny.” he panted. "But listen Brad. Are you done? Have you exerted enough testosterone to attract a mate?" Archer said gesturing towards the crowd that had formed with one hand and gingerly touching the bleeding cut on his left eyebrow. Judging by the rage that spread across Brad's face he either didn't like Archer's comment or he just didn't understand it, so he went in for another punch.

But what Brad Leone wasn’t expecting was to feel a hot, sharp, stabbing pain in the left side of his ribcage as a blunt, heavy object made contact with his body.

With a loud grunt, Brad’s heavy body fell from Archer. The large lacrosse player rolled around clutching his side. An almost animalistic growl escaped him as he whipped around to see who had hit him. He rose slowly, steam almost emanating from his body, to come face to face with none other than Marisol Castillo.

“All these damn years and you still haven’t learned you don’t fuck with Archer?!” Mari cried out, looking very much like a deranged Wednesday Addams with her red face and murderous glare. “Did you forget when my brother kicked your ass two years ago for it? You need me to fuck you up too?” she threatened, tapping the tip of the bat against the ground and taking up the stance of a batter in the home plate. "Come at me, bitch!"

When Marco and Soleil Castillo had settled out of court with Victoire Bailey’s father to keep Marisol out of jail nearly three months previously, it had been on the condition that she keep her nose clean and stay out of trouble. The arrangement for Mari to basically ‘pay off her debt’ by working for Kai Parata’s surf shop was, of course, with the intent that their daughter understands that her actions had consequences. And finally, the two-week stint at the mental preserve was meant to teach the volatile young woman better, healthier ways of dealing with her anger issues.

But how could anyone expect Marisol to remain calm when life threw back-to-back curveballs like these her way? After the breakup with Sal, the green-eyed girl had done an excellent job at keeping herself in check when all she wanted was to break his nose the same way he’d done to Sonny. Hell, even her words had been dialed down into something less vicious than what she wanted to say. She had planned to go straight home, have a good cry to get things out of her system, then dilute her feelings with a little weed. But nooooo, Brad Leone had to play tough guy with Archer again. And what was a volatile girl to do when her best friend was getting beat up by a bully other than to spring to action? She’d take the assault charges over watching Archie get snuffed anytime.

It was around this time that Kavan took the opportunity to grab Archer by the arms and help lift him back up on his feet. "God, this guy needs some serious anger management classes," Kavan muttered as he placed himself between Archer and the events that were unfolding on the lawn; while he wasn't much of a fighter, he figured that he'd rather throw a few punches and risk ending up like Archer than watch his friends face some rage-filled meathead on their own.

Archer was quiet as he stood behind Kavan. He stood looking at his feet letting the situation sink in. It had been a long time since he was in the center of this kind of scandal, and here he was again dragging his friends into his shit. Worst of all he was dragging Kavan into all of this. Archie grabbed Kavan’s arm to signify not to get involved. If his boyfriend got hurt because of him, Archer would never forgive himself. Before them getting together Kavan would’ve never have had to face something like this. He would just go through his senior year in peace. He looked into the dark eyes of his partner bloody lip trembling, words escaping him. “Kav…” he whispered, not knowing what more to say.

Kavan simply shook his head and took hold of Archer’s hand, giving it a comforting squeeze after he did so. He then returned his attention to Brad, who didn’t look too happy about being struck by Marisol’s bat. While part of him was wondering if Mari always brought along the aluminum object just in case of instances like this one, the other was beginning to grow anxious as he watched the large Lacrosse player approach her with a clenched fist.

And that’s when Sonny had aptly intervened. The blonde wig flowed with the motions of his body. A sound of tapping flats on the stonework ground following the muted noise of his arm over the height of his body, blocking the punch that Brad had irresponsibly directed at Marisol. As he held the lacrosse player there, seeing the way he gritted his teeth, Sonny with his cherry lipstick-covered lips curving into a smile, stood in front of everyone and shook his head at the unlucky jock.

“So, let me get this straight,” he began, doing a quick headcount. “You not only try and maim Archer but after feeling the wrath of Marisol, you try and attack her, too?” He sighed. “I knew you were homophobic, but Jesus, Bradley! How will you come back when people find out you’re a misogynistic asshole too?” As he repeatedly shook his head, Sonny brought his free arm, the one that was carrying the loaded Prada bag and swung with every bit of strength he could muster, slamming it into the same part of his abdomen that Marisol’s trusty bat had hit.

Brad yelled out in pain and staggered back briefly before a new spout of rage burst forward. The large man lunged forward and charged Sonny with the intent of tackling him to the ground.

Marisol didn't even think twice before she dropped the bat, lunged forward and tackled Brad. His body hit the floor first, hers falling on top of him and shielding her from any real damage. Before she had time to react, Mari wrapped her arm around his neck in a chokehold of sorts, pressing her forearm against the boy's neck.

"Last warning, Leone. You mess around with Archer again in any way and I find out? I won't play nice. You know I don't give a fuck about going to jail."

“What a sight,” Sonny remarked, basking in the glory of the sight in front of him. “This won’t go well for his street cred. Getting knocked around by a dude in a dress and a girl. And all because he picked the wrong fight with the wrong person.” Sonny turned his head, shooting Archer a wink. “This, boys and girls of the audience, is what happens when you’re homophobic trash. You get beat up and embarrassed!” Sonny spoke loudly and quite charismatically at that, laughing at poor defenseless Brad.

Archer just looked on without moving a muscle. Instead of relishing in the revenge that was going on right in front of him, all he wanted was to go home. "Mari… just. Let's just leave. I think he gets it." He said shakily still grabbing Kavan's arm.

“Your wish is my command,” Mari said sweetly, giving Brad’s neck one last squeeze before releasing him and standing back up. She pretended to straighten out her black dress and hair and turned to Sonny, Kavan, and Archer with a grin on her face as if she hadn’t just released all the pent-up anger of being broken up with on Brad Leone. “So! Now that the trash’s been taken out… Where to next?”