Location: Dorm
Skills: N/A
April was not good at confrontation. The only person she had ever really screamed at or fought with had been her sister, and that didn’t count. Everyone yelled at their siblings. But when it came to her best friends, and the radio silence she had received all day? Her confidence failed her. She thought about rushing into Dorian and Danni’s room, demanding answers… but the truth that they had gotten bored of her, that their friendship was over… And she was not ready to face that truth. There were a lot of truths she wasn’t ready to face - some of them deep inside of her.
So as she knocked on the door to their room, she wasn’t here for a fight - to express her feelings or anything. No, she was there with one of Danni’s hoodies. She had borrowed it from him last year, and it had ended up coming back to D.C. with her instead of New Orleans with him. This was just her returning it. It didn’t change the way she felt sick to her stomach, or the way she had a death grip on the fabric.
”Guys? I have Danni’s hoodie, I wanted to drop it off - you home?” April called out, before knocking on the door again.
What if they were ignoring her? What if they were avoiding her? She swallowed thickly, doing her best to breathe evenly.
Dorian heard the knock at their door. He hadn't been doing much of anything at the moment, bored out of his mind as the idea of getting to play Hookey had already lost its appeal. After all, it was hardly as much fun to get out of classes when everyone else was still stuck in them. It wasn't like he could whisk himself away to another country and enjoy the sights while the others studied hard on their first day. So as soon as he heard the knock on the door, he rushed over and swung it open with such force that the spring stopper began to rattle.
"Ugh you're finally out of class. I t'ought it would be anot'er eternity until you were set free!" Dorian hadn't noticed her soured mood, walking swiftly past April as he pushed her in from behind and closed the door. Using his foot to gingerly avoid the broken porcelain while slowly closing the door behind him.
"We got t'e day off from school. Firestar wasn't 'appy at all wit' 'ow our first day went. Apparently it's bad form to blow up your students. Coffee?" He asked as he began to make his way over and pour himself his third cup of the day.
Danni frowned as Dee opened the door for April. The brewing ugliness in his chest had finally started to calm down - he'd convinced himself that she just needed some space, that she was upset about the situation, that she would respond before the end of the school day even though she
knew how being ignored made him feel. And then she just waltzed right in without even so much as a sorry, or a crazy adventure to excuse herself with. Nope, just a hoodie to return, probably ready to flaunt in their faces how cool her team is, how much better she was without them.
"Yeah, Poisson-Pas tried tearin' us a new one wit' a little C4. T'en Beanie told us how much we all suck as a team, but always figured we'd 'ave a different set up. Kinda got off on a shitty foot wit' your sister when we tried ta convince Poisson-Pas ta swap her out wit' you, but guess we can't get far when you don't even wanna text us back." Danni could feel the prickle of tears at the corner of his eyes, so he didn't make eye contact with April.
"Guess your 'appy wit' your team then, huh."April had a death grip on the hoodie, as if letting go of it would cause her to collapse into a puddle. The coffee in Dorian’s cup froze solid, as did the rest of the coffee that hadn’t been poured out just yet. Any skin care products that were unlucky enough to be in the room as well would find themselves partially frozen, and a thin layer of water condensed on the windows.
”I-I… I didn’t get a text?” April stammered out. She could barely feel her hands.
”I must’ve missed it, I’m s-so sorry. Um. I’m glad you… you didn’t get blown up. Or die. I… I can get going now, then, I’m sorry, this is… this is weird and I… yeah, cool, great.” She then turned around and started for the door, completely forgetting to hand over the hoodie.
Dorian watched as the coffee in his mug froze solid, the steady stream of liquid gold solidifying right before his very eyes like one of those pranks toys meant to look like a spill. He looked between Danni and April, confusion clear in his face as neither of his best friends had mentioned they were in a sour mood with the other and now suddenly they were fighting around him. He placed his mug onto a counter, the pot still frozen to it as it floated in the air when placed down.
"OK time out. What is goin on 'ere?" He said as he beat April to the door and leaned against it. If they were fighting they needed to hash it out now.
Danni rolled his eyes at April's theatrics.
"What's goin' on 'ere is someone didn't care t'at we, t'e t'ree best friends who 'ave done nothin' but dream about winnin' the Contest of Champions toget'er, aren't toget'er and couldn't even bot'er ta respond ta her best friend's text w'en 'e told 'er 'e wasn't gunna take t'is shit lyin' down. Probably 'cause she was havin' too much fun wit' her new friends. New year, new 'er, and fuck Danni and Dee, even though we fuckin' missed 'er like 'ell over the summer, am I right?" Danni snapped sullenly.
She couldn’t help it as the tears started to fall. She couldn’t bear to turn her head to look at Danni. Each accusation felt like a lash. But April hadn’t received a text message - she was almost sure she hadn’t - but she felt like such a mess that she didn’t reach into her pocket to produce the phone. She didn’t feel capable of removing her death grip off of the hoodie.
”You both have been ignoring and avoiding me all day!” April finally cried out, feeling like she had removed a dagger’s blade from her heart.
”I-I didn’t get a single text the entire time, a-and if I missed it, I just said I was sorry! You tw-two get to do the dream together without me - you probably don’t even need me anymore. I’m the fucking third wheel. I-it’s like those shows when you see three characters and one of them is just cl-clearly not it and the other two want them to leave and I get it now, you two hate me, it makes sense. Why’d you even want a girl hanging around all the time? I-I’ll go, it’s fine, you can - you can invite Zelda over or something or the rest of your team and I bet you’ll do great and y-you’ll win and…” To be fair, April
did have a tendency for over-dramatics. But she was feeling all of this deeply. And having Danni snap at her like this… it only fed into the thoughts she had, the thoughts that Danni and Dorian were done with her.
”I-I’m going to g-go, c-can you step aside?” she asked Dorian.
Dorian froze. It felt like what he imagined dial up was like. His brain couldn't compute with anything that was going on and the words quickly began to fade away into the background. This wasn't how they were supposed to act, none of this was in the script. Sure a few things went pear shaped earlier today but this was when it all got resolved right? The fighting just brought back harsh memories of when he was younger and hot tears began to form in the corner of his eyes.
"What t'e 'ells are eit'er of you talkin' about?! I didn't send anyt'ing because you were in class all day and I didn't want to get you in trouble, and you…what?! he looked at Danni incredulously.
"Avoiding you?! I am t'e clingiest bitch in t'is group, and you think I'm avoidin' you?!" Danni jumped up from the bed, furious.
"Your sister doesn't want shit ta do wit' us 'cause I demanded, in front of her, that we swap her for you! We told Poisson-Pas ta 'is face t'at 'e made a mistake on t'is dumb piece of shit. Danni waved the team letter around in April's face before setting it on fire in a calm, controlled burst.
"And I texted, verbatim, "Don't worry Princess, we'll get us back toget'er". And t'en nothing. Does t'at sound like we 'ate you, 'cause it sure as fuck doesn't ta me! Miss me wit' t'is t'ird wheel shit - we text, call, and phone bomb your ass while we're apart. You don't get ta say t'at shit when we're t'e ones t'at stood up for t'e t'ree of us while you go fuck off with your new lays!"April had turned around to look at Danni, and she flinched, as he waved the flaming paper around - even as a small part of her wanted to praise him for the control he was showing. But then, things got worse. Her eyes widened. She hadn’t told Dorian and Danni yet about making things formal with Leah - and Sabine. She wanted to tell them, of course, but it had basically just happened and she hadn’t had a chance yet. And it seemed like something that would need more than a text, especially when her replacement phone had a dinosaur of a keyboard, making individual words a pain to type out.
”I didn’t get a text!!!” April screamed, like it was a shield. She could hardly see, the tears were falling so fast.
”I didn’t get a fucking text from you!!” She said it like a prayer.
”A-and m-my lays??? I’m a fucking virgin, Danni, you KNOW that! And i-it like JUST happened with L-Leah and S-Sabine and you KNOW I would NEVER end our friendship or abandon you for s-s-some chicks!! I’m not the fucking devil! I’m not the villain!!” Dorian just watched as the pair of them went at it. His head swiveling back and forth from one to the other as their screaming match had continued on. More and more he was being put back into the role he had played when his fathers had fought. His chest tightened, his heart quickened, and it felt like he was about to black out. The frozen coffee mug went flying off the shelf, slamming against a wall as it shattered and the pot fell harmlessly on his bed. The chairs screeched and groaned as they pulled closer towards him and the lights began to flicker from his oncoming panic attack. He couldn't speak, he couldn't say anything, he just slid down the door slowly, hands against his ears like a frightened child as he closed his eyes and sat on the floor.
Danni recoiled as if he'd been slapped, angry tears finally falling.
"Beanie and Leah? What the fuck, I was talkin' about your team, not your relationship? What the 'ell, Princess. 'Ow t'e fuck are we just findin' t'is out now? I was gunna fight Beanie yesterday over you, now you're with 'er?" Danni's head was whirling. Beanie and Princess were like… secret, undercover lovers weren't they? He literally spoke with Beanie about this the other day, and then Princess was kissing Leah, and now all of them are together. How the fuck did that flow road go?! The temporary distraction faded quickly though, as he sidestepped a moving chair.
"Fine, you didn't get a text from us, sure. Then why didn't you text us, huh? Why didn't you stand up for us? I noticed you haven't mentioned anything about that. Or did you just-" Danni paused. Moving chair? He stared at it for just second before the flickering lights caught his attention. Danni looked at Dee, something mean and vicious and sharp on his tongue about why he wasn't upset too, when it died at the sight of him on the floor. Danni barely registered the thud of his knees hitting the floor as he wrapped around Dee as best he could.
"Oh no, oh fuck. No, no, no. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's okay, we're okay, everything okay." Danni rocked Dee, the argument with April already a distant thought.
”It happened, like, like last night! Like after we’d all talked! And I wanted to tell you all in person, so I was going to tell you now!” April sobbed.
”I didn’t stand up for you? What does that even mean? Stand up for you where? I-” she stopped, the words suddenly cut off. Danni wasn’t paying attention to her anymore - her rebuttals didn’t matter. It wouldn’t matter if she explained she hadn’t texted because
they hadn’t texted her and it had terrified her, terrified her that they didn’t need her anymore, that they were always going to be a pair and she was just going to be an extra.
But Dorian was on the floor now, clearly in pain. The room had come to life, like a haunted mansion. And April couldn’t help but blame herself. It was her fault. She shouldn’t have come over here. She wanted to reach out to help Dorian, to soothe him and cuddle him, but she was afraid that Danni would snap at her if she did so. Instead, April lowered herself down, sitting back on her knees. She was still crying, but the tears were silent now.
”D-Dory?”Dorian hadn't heard any of it. He'd blocked the noises out, muffling them as he sat there with his hands at his ears and his knees to his chest. He knew he wasn't the cause of this fight, yet he still was helpless. He couldn't prevent it, couldn't help. He could feel the vibrations of them yelling, like punches to his ribs. Then suddenly he felt pressure. Someone had wrapped their arms around him. His eyes shot open to see who it was, half expecting to see one of his fathers. His eyes a ghostly green as his powers continued to rage on. Tears fell down his cheek, though as they hit the floor they seemed to phase away.
"Please. Just…stop fighting. Stop yelling. Just…" He could feel his back wanting to give way. To have him melt into the doorway so he could escape this scene. He tried to relax himself but only ended up closing in tighter. His glowing green eyes looking towards his best friend's pleadingly as he felt the grip in his chest threaten more.
"We're done, we're done, we promise, don't we Princess? It's okay, don't cry. 'ush, Little 'auntling, don't say a word cause you probs wanna murder me for callin' you t'at." Danni sung off key, pulling at April's leg to get her into the cuddle pile. Why she was hesitating so long, he didn't know, but Dee needed love and affection damn it.
April bit her lip. She still felt incredibly upset. But she nodded anyways, as Danni asked her to.
“Y-yeah, it’s all good, we’re totally fine!” April lied. The cognitive dissonance going on in her head was leaving her feeling untethered. She twitched slightly at Danni’s hand pulling on her leg, but she complied, putting her arms around Danni and Dorian, feeling like they had just put a blanket over a bomb in hopes that it wouldn’t explode.
The second he felt April's arm around him, Dorian launched himself towards his two best friends, tossing them both to the floor. He sobbed quietly with them in his arms as he pulled them in even tighter.
"Can't we just solve t'is peacefully or wit' a pillow fight?" He said I between gasps for breath. He didn't care for confrontation, less so when there was yelling involved.
"I don't know what you two are on about but I love you bot' so much I don't want to lose eit'er of you.""We're not on about anyt'in', Little 'auntling. I just wanna know t'at Princess was fightin' for us ta be together like we did, but she isn't sayin' anyt'in' about t'at and just comin' in and sayin' t'at apparently we 'ate her even t'ough we chased her sister out tryin' ta get her in." Danni grumbled as he pinched Dee's cheek, avoiding looking at April.
"Shoulda run off Spicy instead. Total prick."She didn’t know what to say. Dorian was so clearly distressed about them fighting, and April was worried that anything she said back to Danni would just inflame the tensions again. She wanted to say that she didn’t even know how to fight for them to be together as a team - or that she had assumed the lack of texts from them meant that they didn’t even care. She hadn’t known anything about what was going on with Zelda - it vaguely occurred to her that she probably needed to check in on Zelda, or she was going to really get it from her parents’ if they found out.
”No one’s going anywhere, Dori,” April said soothingly. Her own tears had stopped, mostly because she had run out.
Dorian slowly let go of the pair, his eyes back to normal as a few remaining floating items fell down to the floor with a clatter. He looked past the wall where Percy's dorm was before looking back at the pair. He spoke through sniffles as he said
"Percy's not all bad. Even Beanie said so. Doesn't help that I made 'im vomit and pass out on 'is first day after you lit 'im on fire." Maybe a lot of the animosity was their fault, between the attacks on Percy and bad mouthing Zelda to her face, it was no wonder the team was falling apart.
"Poisson-Pas said we can't swap anyways. Where'd you even end up? We got a judges team but it's been radio silence from you all day. So spill, who'd you get stuck with?" "Ugh, and Beanie didn't even want ta team up toget'er! I'm still kinda hurt by t'at. You t'ink she'd wanna stick with 'er friends, but I guess she did win by droppin' us, huh?" Danni sighed, resting his cheek on Dee's head as he talked.
"Ugh, too much depresso, not 'nuff espresso. Yeah Princess, tell us who…" Danni trailed off. He really,
really wanted to make a snarky comment. Like,
really really. But damn, Dee just had a panic attack and honestly, he was such an ugly crier.
"Yeah, who uh… who are you paired with?"April shifted uncomfortably. Dorian had seemed to calm down, but the tension was still palpable.
”I got put on Lady Nimue’s team - she’s… kinda intense?” April explained. Nimue was new to the Margaret Carter Institute, as she was replacing Agatha Harkness as the new magic instructor.
”It’s me and Mads, which is fine - and then this freshman, Mary Sue, I kinda know her as her parents are friends with my parents… And then there’s my… aunt, Andy… from my dad’s bio side,” April said. She looked away from the two of them. She didn’t think much of the weird nickname they had given to their coach.
”There was supposed to be another girl, I think, but she never showed.”"Did she try to blow you up wit' C4 bombs too?" What was it with this year's batch of judges? Or were the judges teams always like this? Maybe this was why the Young Avengers were as good as they were, because they'd been facing actual life and death scenarios since Freshman year. He paused for a moment as something April said finally clicked in.
"Wait, did you say retro-chic is your aunt? 'ow in t'e world does t'at work out? She's younger t'an you are…I t'ink?""Wait, wait, wait. You got stuck wit' Nimue? I 'eard from Aggie t'at Nimue was a Sinister clone! You gotta be careful, or Nimue's gunna do wierd experiments on ya. Get Beanie ta look into Nimue's 'ead; maybe she can give you a 'eads up on t'e plan!" Danni supplied helpfully. Apparently as long as Dee was sandwiched between them, he wouldn't get to pout at April for not sticking up for the trio and he was
itching to tell her to pull out her phone, but they had to play nice. For now.
"But speakin' of Beanie… got yourself a two'fer, 'uh? 'ow'd t'at come about? I'd only 'eard about Leah, and kinda maybe t'ough you were doin' somet'in' downlow with Beanie after pur first day back with how y'all were actin'!"April’s eyes widened, as Dorian mentioned casually that their coach had tried to blow them up with C4.
”What? No! She did make us fight the questing beast from Arthurian legend, and Mothman, but not C4… Although I guess that’s probably worse?” Or maybe it was better? April couldn’t decide. Either way, it was reckless and dangerous. The coaches she had had before hadn’t done anything like it.
”A Sinister Clone?” April then repeated, completely shocked.
”I thought she was just, like, some sort of Arthurian legend sort of person - y’know, the sort of stuff that Captain Britain deals with…” She bit her lip, trying to think through anything Nimue had done that might seem sinister - which amounted to most of it, really.
”Umm, so like, I kissed Leah - and Leah had already started something with Sabine, so then I guess Sabine must’ve liked me or, like, not hated me or something? I don’t know. I def didn’t have anything on the downlow with Sabine. But now… well, it’s super new and I’m like not 100% sure of everything, but we’re testing it out, and I guess we’ll see if this triangle arrangement works out.” She was blushing deep red. This was all new territory to her. She was happy and excited, but scared and nervous at the same time.
"Wow, that's a lot of new stuff goin' on! Mothman sounds fun though… Do you t'ink Poisson-Pas will let us fight somet'in' cool, or do ya t'ink he'll just keep blowin' us up? I'd like ta do some fightin' rather t'an just survival exercises over and over but Poisson-Pas seems like 'e kinda wants us ta like, live or somet'in'." Danni spoke with false cheeriness, bad at keeping his emotions in check but trying so fucking hard for Dee when all he wanted to do was cry at the thought that Princess wasn't going to have time for them anymore.
"And wow, when's the first date Princess? You guys got anyt'in' planned yet?" "Ugh I 'ope so! I can 'andle beasts and Mot'man no problem. But a bomb?! What am I supposed to do wit' t'at?" Dorian said, a bit exasperated. Sure some heros had to deal with those kinds of threats, but he wasn't expecting to be one of those heros. That was more of a techies problem than his. He hadn't said anything about April's relationship yet. Still unsure of what to say in the first place. She managed to bag 2 people at once and he managed to make his cosmic love vomit in front of everyone. Great.
"Oooo yeah when's t'e first date so we can wear fake mustaches and spy from t'e corner."April nodded again - she was pretty nervous, mostly because all of this was so new and she was scared about messing things up. But she was happy and excited - the drama of the encounter with Danni was just continuing to stress her out, causing her mood to swing dangerously between extremes. The smile on her face was both genuine and a lie. “Um, not really? My phone’s kinda busted so texting has been really hard… I need to call my parents and ask for a new one,” April admitted. She pulled out her phone and flipped it open, pressing a bunch of buttons to navigate to a chat with Leah and Sabine. “I tried earlier and, well…” she showed it to the two. Most of April’s messages were complete gibberish, random letters and symbols without any meaning. “To be fair to me I was texting in class so I couldn’t look at the phone.”
Danni nodded along, biting a wobbling lip as his eyes started tearing up. So that's what happened. She started a new
thing with Beanie and Leah and now Danni and Dee were second best. Texting her new besties and ignoring them. The ugly feeling in his chest grew heavier, sinking into his stomach, and he couldn't hold back a sniffle as he tried not to cry. Dee didn't want them fighting, Dee didn't want them fighting, Dee didn't want them fighting so he just had to learn to hold it in. Yeah, he could do that. Totally, 100 percent, no problem.
"Dang, yeah, gotta do t'at stat. 'ow you're workin' wit' t'at dinosaur is crazy." Danni laughed, ignoring the crack in his voice and pushing past the hurt in his chest. He disentangled himself from their little pile, scooching away from them.
"Make sure ya keep us in t'e loop t'ough so we can plan 'angouts round your dates and all our practices." Dorian didn't miss the crack in Danni's voice. Nor did he miss the way he moved himself apart from them. This whole situation was really hurting him, and neither of them would make the move to prove the other wrong.
"Oh, if you 'ave a new phone you're goin' to need to a new wallpaper for it." He said with a half chuckle as he pulled out his phone. He opened up their group text, noticing the lack of message from Danni.
Instantly Dorian knew this wouldn't be good, but he also knew this would never be resolved unless it was shown. So instead he picked a photo from his gallery that had all three of them, a particular pic that depicted one of their happier moments together at AA from years passed. He hit send, both Danni and April's phones chirping to life as the image went through and more importantly, the chat would be shown where Danni had never sent his message.
April bit her lip, seeing the physical rejection from Danni, as he scooted away from them - and she caught the way his voice had cracked, the sniffles. They were both pretending to be okay, for Dorian’s sake. It probably wasn’t healthy. But April was fine with pretending - she pretended to be okay all the time. She pretended to be the perfect student, the perfect daughter, the perfect friend - the sort of person that could always be relied on, that was always there to help, never asking for anything in return. She did her best to give and give and never take.
Her clunky phone buzzed twice, as Dorian’s message came through. She had managed to get her phone number switched to this phone - which had taken about an hour or so to figure out, unfortunately.
”It’s loading,” April said, as she opened up the message.
”Might take it a while,” she admitted sheepishly. But on her phone, she could see the chat - the messages that were sent - and that Danni had never sent her one. The guilt and shame melted away - not all the way, but at least partially. She looked at her friend, not saying a word about it. She couldn’t find her voice.
Danni's phone went off, an upbeat song that he would let a call ring to the voice-mail just to dance to. It was awkwardly out of place and Danni fumbled it even though Dee had given them heads up; it took him a few seconds to open up the message. Even though he was upset, he still smiled at the photo - all three of them crowded together and smiling after… gosh, was it a test they'd all been stressy spaghettis over? Ugh, he didn't remember but he chuckled at how happy they all looked together. It was such a stark contrast to where they were now, this bundle of hurt, angry, soggy potatoes, and that thought slapped the smile off his face real quick.
Well, fine. If Princess wasn't going to admit she was wrong, he'd just prove her wrong now. He backed out of the picture, scrolled up to the message he'd sent, and… He frowned at what he saw though. There weren't any messages from today before this picture. Danni backed out of the chat and opened it again, scrolling it once more to see if anything had loaded. Still nothing, he scrolled up faster, checking each and everyone of his good morning texts that he sent every day, even when they were apart because he loved his friends and he wouldn't deny them the amazingness of his perfectly planned good mornings, but he still didn't find one from today. The date above the photo Dee sent sat there, irrefutable proof of one thing and one thing alone.
He fucked up.
And oh, did he fuck up big. He could feel his entire face heating up as the realization hit him, embarrassment making him want to crawl in a hole and die. He could hear his heartbeat in his ears and he opened his mouth to speak, to apologize, to scream, to do anything but he could barely breathe, let alone speak. His vision swam and dark spots clustered around the edges of his vision, and his phone shook, his fingers aching and white.
What now? Scenarios flickered through his head, unbidden and unwelcome. April only staying friends with Dee, April ignoring him, getting a message in their chat saying she blocked him, April on dates and never telling Danni all about them. Years of friendship gone because he hadn't sent a text, because he hadn't double checked, because he… he fucked up. Something gross and unwelcome boiled in his, making him want to scrub his skin off his bones, set fire to himself and everything around him, anything to get rid of it and he wasn't sure what it was. It wasn't embarrassment - he'd been embarrassed before but a quick joke and a laugh made everyone move on. Now this was worse and he just wanted it to stop.
"I… I never sent… a t- text." Danni managed to croak out, he hesitantly looked up away from his phone, He couldn't bring himself to look Princess in the eye.
"I coulda swore I did. I didn't even send a good mornin' text? I… I always send a good mornin' text. It's like my t'in' cause I always want ta talk ta y'all first every day. 'ow did I not send a text? We… we were walkin' ta trainin' and t'en before we went in, I wanted ta send y'all a text so we could all make t'em fix t'e mistake cause we were suppose ta be on a team toget'er. No one… can stop us if we were toget'er but I didn't send t'e text. 'ow did I forget ta send t'e text. It was important." Danni let his mouth run, not knowing what else to do.
"And t'en I… I… God, I'm so sorry!" Danni sobbed, all but launching himself at Apri with hugging intent.
"I was scared and upset 'cause you said you didn't fight for us ta be toget'er but I never even sent ya anyt'in' and I'm so sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I just… it sucked so much, I missed you so much, it was fun at t'e time even wit' a teacher blowin' us up but after I just felt empty since we weren't wit' you and I was angry and grumpy and I didn't double check and please don't leave me, please please please don't stop bein' my friend! I'm sorry!" April’s body shook violently - not from fear or surprise or anything along those lines, but more as a release of tension and stress. She didn’t try to hold it together for Dorian’s sake anymore. The tears came readily, and her shaking arms wrapped around Danni, trembling as she could barely hold onto him. A part of her was relieved - she
hadn’t missed a text from him, she hadn’t been the one to mess up here. But then another part of her was sad - he really
hadn’t sent her anything. He had meant to though. The other thing though filled her with shame -
she hadn’t texted
them. She had been so consumed in her own inner monologue of morose sorrow that she hadn’t reached out to her best friends.
”I’m sorry too,” April mumbled into Danni’s neck.
”I-I should’ve reached out. I was just so sad and scared and thought you two… that you didn’t need me anymore. A-and that something must’ve changed over the summer o-or that maybe I did something wrong and I’m not good enough anymore to be your friend,” April admitted.
”L-like ten years from now you’d be off in the stars having adventures and shit and you’d go oh remember that girl from school, wh-what was her name, June? a-and I’d be in some shitty town like, I dunno, San Jose and I’d be alone and… Sorry I should stop rambling, I think I’m getting off topic anyways…” Dorian wrapped his arms around both of them, squeezing them tightly.
"We've all been so stressed about auditions and team placement of course somet'in's get forgotten at times. It doesn't mean any of us love any of t'e ot'ers any less. We need to see the positive 'ere! We each made a judges team!!! After t'ree years we did it!!" He squeezed them again before planting a kiss on each of their over dramatic cheeks.