Eleven days ago, Leia Zhang had thrown her delicate silver bracelet on the floor in front of Alex’ feet, stomped on it once, and underneath the soles of her vegan Doc Martens, the small heart shaped pendant that had held their initials cracked, along with Alex’ longest relationship.

Ten months wasn’t a lot. In twenty years, if he made it that far, Alex would’ve long forgotten about this relationship, only remembering it as a highschool fling. But, Alex and Leia lasted about ten times as long as Alex’ previous relationships, and they’d last about ten times as long as his next. Ten months, for highschoolers, was basically like being married. And eleven days ago, Leia had finally filed for divorce.

It hadn’t left Alex heartbroken, nor Leia. Both could see the end coming from miles away, and it was just a matter of time until one of them finally snapped and broke up. Their hearts had been broken a couple months ago when the illusion of love started to fade away. Now all that was left was pettiness.

Eleven days ago, Leia Zhang had told Alex how pathetic he was, and how he was a nobody, and how not a single person would ever care about him again, and how he was simply unlovable, and that he would never move on. And with this she had, of course, not hurt Alex in the slightest, and he didn’t care about her words at all, and he wasn’t affected by a single thing she had said.

That’s why he had instantly answered that he was in fact super lovable, and super attractive, and he could have anyone he wanted, because that’s how someone unaffected by a breakup would react. And to prove how over it and totally unaffected he was, Alex decided to turn this into a competition.

Eleven days later, Alex had won, or at least he was on his way to winning this competition that Leia wasn’t even aware of just yet. Eleven days after the heart shaped pendant cracked, Alex was already as in love as he’d never been before. Or at least he was pretending to be. And now he was on his way to pick up his pretend boyfriend to show how in pretend love he really was.

Alex promised to be there as soon as Youngbin’s biology class had ended, and then the two would have lunch together and use the opportunity to introduce Youngbin to all of Alex’ friends. Everyone needed to know about this. The news of Alex having a pretty new boyfriend had to spread faster than any rumours Leia would start. And if there was one thing Leia was phenomenal at, it was talking shit about people she didn’t like and making everyone believe it.

Of course, Alex had kept his promise to Youngbin, and he had arrived at the biology classroom a good five minutes before the end of the lesson. Leaning on the wall next to the door, he crossed his arms, put on his most pissed off expression, glancing toward the door every ten seconds.

He was already imagining it. The door would open, and Alex would prop himself up, and look at each student walking out, and as soon as he’d see Youngbin, he’d smile. And then say something like “Hey, Babe!” or maybe “What’s up, baby?” or perhaps “Hello, boyfriend that I totally love and admire and enjoy being around way more than spending time with my ex!” or something along those lines. And he’d say it really loud, so everyone would hear it, and maybe someone would gasp, and then Alex would pull Youngbin closer and look at whoever gasped, and say “You got a problem?” or something. Maybe someone could snap a picture and send it to everyone in the school, including Leia, and then she’d explode and die, maybe.

Fuck, Alex was gonna be so damn good at this.

So good that he missed his cue, and the door to the biology classroom had opened like a minute ago. Students streamed outside into the hallway, some not paying any attention to Alex, others stumbling over their own feet when they noticed him standing right there, with his arms crossed, quickly looking down to the floor as soon as their eyes had met his.

But, among all those students, Youngbin wasn’t there. Fuck. Shit. He was at the wrong classroom, wasn’t he? Or was it the wrong time? Or was Youngbin just a figment of his imagination and had never actually existed? The stream of students walking out had tickled out, and Youngbin hadn’t been among any of them. Or maybe he had missed him. But honestly, Alex was ready to admit it, he was stupid as fuck sometimes, but not that stupid.

Taking a step forward, he peeked through the classroom door. Ah. There he was. Dressed in a pastel purple knit sweater, a short guy with fluffy brown hair was holding his biology text book in his arms like his life depended on it, standing in front of the desk talking to the young and fresh and hip biology teacher. He seemed to be caught up in a conversation, a smile on his lips as he spoke.

Next to him, looking like she was waiting for Youngbin to finish, was a girl, about Alex’ height, with a mint coloured sweater that matched Youngbins. Her two large afro puffs were a bit lopsided, her eyes looked tired, though everything else about her appearance was as awake as it could. Rainbow coloured shoelaces, bracelets made of yellow pearls, a tiny star shaped sticker underneath her right eye, she looked like she’d never hurt a fly.

Until she looked up, and spotted Alex leaning against the doorframe. And her almost golden eyes narrowed into a gaze as sharp as a blade. Alex wasn’t scared of other students. But maybe he was a little scared of her. And apparently her sudden shift in aura had alerted both Youngbin and that slimy looking bio teacher, Mister Carter, who now both turned their heads towards the door.

Youngbin’s face turned from surprise to a millisecond of fear to a gentle smile, as if his brain had to process the entire past day again before finally responding the way it should. Mister Young-And-Fresh however raised his eyebrows, and he straightened his back to pretend to look more authoritative.

“Alexander!” Alex was going to launch this motherfucker into the sun. “Class is over already. Or are you planning to finally submit the chemistry homework from last year?” Oh, right. Alex was in his chem class last year. He only went like five times and then stopped showing up. Memories of a “serious conversation about your behaviour and dedication to your education” popped up in Alex’ head again, where he tried to be all relatable and so in tune with the youth and so understanding of Alex’ problems and then ended up telling him that he’d never make it anywhere in life. Which wasn’t wrong, but not the thing you should tell a student that obviously seems to Not Be Okay.

Alex decided not to answer, and just grin, the most shit eating grin he could muster. Instead, Youngbin was the one to quickly call out to him.

“I’ll be ready in a sec!” The terrifying sunshine girl and Mister Carter both widened their eyes in surprise as Youngbin brightly smiled at Alex, turning back to the teacher instantly to continue his conversation. Fuck, that boy could smile. Like nothing bad had ever happened in his life. Like this stuffy biology lab was the most fulfilling place on earth.

Alex wanted to say something back, like “Take your time, Love!” but decided not to. Well, he didn’t decide to not say that, it was his mouth that did. Because that sentence was laid out perfectly in his brain, and yet it wouldn’t go far enough to actually come out.

“Thank you!” Youngbin finally said to the teacher, and Alex couldn’t imagine any scenario where someone would thank this slimy fucker, but Youngbin looked like the kind of person that would say sorry and thank you after getting run over with a car. He turned, now finally walked towards Alex, his tall friend following him with narrowed eyes.

“Hi, Alex!” He actually sounded happy to see him. Man. 24 hours ago Youngbin still stared at Alex like he was about to break down in tears, and now he smiled at him, and walked towards him, and greeted him, and- Oh. Took his arm. Or tried to, because Alex’ body had spontaneously turned into an immovable rock.

“Hey, B- Bin. Hi.” Oh yeah. He really had his lines down perfectly.

“Youngbin? I’m just wondering, uhm.” The sunny girl crossed her arms, stared at Youngbin, then at Alex, then at the pathetic attempt of physical contact. “What the fuck?”

“Ah-” Youngbin cleared his throat, but his smile wouldn’t fade. “Alex, meet Kaya, my best friend. And Kaya, this is Alex-”

“I know.” Kaya was the same height as Alex, perfectly on his eye level, and her ability to stare down right into his soul with her almost uncanny golden eyes made her a bit scarier. “Why is he here.”

“Right-” Now there was a bit more insecurity in Youngbin’s voice. “I tried to tell you during class just now? But you were sleeping- We, uh-”

“Are dating,” Alex quickly added, to seem at least a little useful.

Kaya stared down at her friend, then pierced Alex again with her eyes. And then, she lifted her hand, and started gently slapping her own face.

“What are you-”

“Waking up. I’m trying to wake up.”

“Kaya, I’m being serious-”

“This is the most fucked up dream I’ve ever had.”

“It’s not- Kaya-”

“We are serious. Since yesterday, actually. I asked him out. Now we’re- boyfriends.” That word, boyfriends, was somehow hard to pronounce, stretching like bubblegum as Alex tried to pull it out from his mouth.

Now Kaya’s eyes widened again, but this time in understanding. She smiled, actually, nodded slowly, turned to Youngbin. It was that easy to make her believe-

“Are you insane?” Was the last thing Alex was able to hear as she had ripped her friend back into the classroom, followed by a “He’s fucking with you-” before her mumbling got too quiet. Right. Youngbin had come to that conclusion plenty of times yesterday, of course Kaya would as well.

It took maybe a minute until the two emerged from the classroom again. Kaya had the kind of expression that said “fuck with him and I’ll fuck you up”, and Alex could respect that.

“Well. I’m gonna go to the library. By myself. I have homework to copy.” She stared at Alex one last time, then stared at Youngbin, probably for a few seconds too long, and Alex started to think that maybe they were communicating telepathically, before finally she spun around on her heel, leaving Youngbin with a sad wave.

“She’s not believing us?”

“She’s not believing you,” Youngbin answered, letting out a sigh with a tired smile. “It’ll be fine. Give her some time.”

“You’re not telling her about the- fake thing?”

Another sigh, and Youngbin shook his head.

“I love her but she would judge me to death, and also probably spill the secret somewhere on accident, and then-” He shrugged. “She knows she’s bad with secrets. She won’t mind.”

Huh. Alex realised that he hadn’t even thought about telling his friends the truth. His best friends, that was, his two closest friends. His only real friends, in a way. He could see Lani and Margo in front of him, staring at him like he was the world's greatest loser. Affectionately, of course. But still. Margo’s voice was already echoing in his head. “You dumbass. You absolute idiot. You’re so stupid. Do you ever think?” She wouldn’t say that, of course, but she’d think it. And Alex could read minds sometimes.

“We’re running late for lunch.” Youngbin now ripped Alex out of his thoughts and terrifying hallucinations. “Shall we go?”

“Yeah! Uhm. Sure. I’m gonna, like, introduce you to my friends. If that’s alright with you.”

“We already discussed that yesterday.” The two started walking down the hallway, finally, though Youngbin wouldn’t try to take Alex’ arm again. And Alex wasn’t sure if he was allowed to try himself. “I’m- ready to meet them, I think.” He sounded like he was going to say “excited” but changed his mind last second.

“They’re not that bad.” Alex cleared his throat. “Well, the trash took itself out. I mean, the bad ones hang out with Leia now. So the cool ones are left.”

“Is it like, you know, like in Mean Girls?”

“In- what’s it like in Mean Girls, exactly?”

“You know. Like every clique has their own table and you can’t really sit with anyone else.”

“I mean-” It was, it kinda was. Alex always sat with his friend group. Leia always sat with her popular girl gang. Dennis Lost-A-Teeth-To-Alex Nelson always sat with his jock groupies. There was one table with people that never talked to each other and only read massive books in silence during lunch. But that was just kinda what friend groups in school were like. “I don’t think I’ve seen Mean Girls. Ever.”

“That’s depressing,” Youngbin only concluded. And after a minute of walking through the halls in silence, he’d finally add: “We should watch it.” Wow. Was that an invitation to a date already? After one day of dating? “Because it’s a pretty significant piece of media that inspired plenty of teen oriented media and chick flicks. You can’t really go anywhere without encountering a Mean Girls reference, even if you don’t notice it. Then again, Mean Girls itself is a reference to a certain book that describes high school in a pretty interesting hierarchical way. Ah, what’s it called again…” Youngbin stopped in his tracks to think, and stopped walking at the same time, leaving Alex a second to react and dodge him instead of crashing into the boy.

He talked a lot, sometimes. Not that it was a problem. Actually, it was the opposite. Kind of cute.

“I’m sorry, I forgot the exact title. Something with Queen Bees. And that is a term still used, or at least used more frequently in-” He stopped again, blinked a few times, then looked up to Alex. “I apologise.”

“For what?”

“Talking,” Youngbin quickly answered, then continued walking. A few more students were now surrounding them, jumping to the side as Alex stomped through the halls in an attempt to keep up with Youngbin’s surprisingly large and quick steps. “I do that sometimes.”

“No big deal.” Alex didn’t really know how to answer exactly. The concept of someone having to be sorry for talking about their interests sounded really fucking stupid. What the fuck were you even supposed to answer?

“Tell me if it’s too much.”

“Why would it be too much?”

Youngbin hesitated, and Alex could see him furrowing his brows ever so slightly as he thought.

“I don’t know. It’s too much for some people, I suppose.” Well fuck those people, then.

“That sucks. Keep talking.”

“About Mean Girls?”

“About anything, really.”

“Ah.” Youngbin cleared his throat, then lowered his voice. “I pretend to be in a serious conversation with you because we are boyfriends and there are a lot of people around now.” Well, that wasn’t the conclusion Alex would’ve drawn, but sure.

“Hey. Entering the cafeteria soon. Get your act on now.”

“I suppose I can tell you more about Mean Girls then. And-” There it was again, Youngbin reached for Alex’ arm, and this time Alex wasn’t going to turn into a stiff shell of a human. "Okay. I’m ready.”

“You sure?”

“I am. Let’s go.”

Youngbin didn’t sound so sure. But he didn’t ever sound like anything. His voice always sounded a little monotone, but not in a way that threw Alex off, just in a way that made him a tad bit harder to read. So, Alex was learning that already, trust his words more than the way he said those words.

It felt a little bit like they actually stepped on a stage as soon as the two walked through the door of the cafeteria. People lining the hallways had already been looking, staring, whispering even, but this was- Hm.

Alex felt a bit exposed. A bit- uncomfortable wasn’t the word. Overwhelmed? Not really. But it just felt like- a lot. There were always eyes on him. But now, it felt like more than ever. Or, maybe the eyes weren’t on him, but on Youngbin instead.

Alex looked down to Youngbin as the two walked past tables and lines of students waiting to grab their food. He felt his fake boyfriend’s grip around his arm tighten, yet Youngbins face stayed the same. And he didn’t look like he’d be ready to continue to talk about Mean Girls. Alex couldn’t blame him. The boy seemed too focused on not- well, dying.

“Where’d you get that twink?” Someone called from one of the tables, a dude surrounded by the worst smelling people of this school.

“Get fucked,” Alex called back through the laughter of several stinking jocks. The guy yelled something back, but Alex couldn’t hear it over the hollering of those assholes. The hand around his arm held onto him a little stronger. Fuck that. Alex was coming out to like, half the school this very moment. And so was Youngbin. Which felt much worse, and Alex couldn’t help but feel a sting of guilt in his chest.

“Alex, you got a guy stuck to your arm.”

Ah. Finally. Her.

“He belongs with me.” Alex stopped abruptly in front of a table, and Youngbin nearly ran right into it. Fuck. He really looked like he had- turned off, somehow. Gone on standby to ignore the looks.

“Oh?” The pink haired girl that had called out to him raised her eyebrows, then instantly made some space on the bench next to her. There’d been plenty of space already, the girl was small and thin and barely taking away space in the first place, but it was a nice gesture. That’s how Margo was. Nice and considerate- towards anyone but Alex.

“This-” Alex moved his arm a little in an attempt to snap Youngbin out of his trance, and it worked, as the boy blinked a few times, and a smile crept onto his face slowly, though not as glowing as before. “-is Youngbin, by the way.” It felt awkward introducing him, definitely. “My-”

Ah, and there it was again. Alex got stuck saying the word. So, instead of saying it, he just put on a beaming smile. They’d get it. Surely they’d get it.

“Your what.”

Of course they didn’t get it. Seven people sitting at (and on) the table leaned in closer to observe Youngbin, who, in return, cleared his throat in an attempt to say something, but failed. Alex wouldn’t blame him.

“Well, you know, my- You know! Me and him, we are-”

“Dating,” Margo finally finished the sentence.

“No way they’re dating.” Lani, the girl sitting next to Margo, about 20cm taller than her, shook her head, maybe a bit too violently and her perfectly cut bangs swayed side to side. Alex pretended to be offended.

“Dating! Of course we’re dating!” Alex’ friends, or at rather acquaintances at the table gasped, or let out an “ooh”, or, in Lani’s case, said “stop fucking lying, dude”.

“Why would I be lying about- Lani, this is my- Why would I lie about my boyfriend?” Well, there were plenty of reasons to lie about a boyfriend, and Alex was doing it right this second. “We’re like, we totally- you know, we-“

“We met a week ago.” Oh, thank fuck. A piece of their conversation from yesterday flew through Alex’ mind. Let me do the talking. Youngbin sure was doing the talking now. “I know it hasn’t been a long time, but sometimes things go kind of quickly when you… you know. Like someone. Uhm. Hi, I’m Youngbin, by the way.”

Silence from the group, for maybe three uncomfortable seconds, then at least five of them simultaneously tried to introduce themselves as well. Margo aggressively patted the free space next to her, inviting Youngbin to sit down, who finally let go of Alex’ arm. It felt like maybe he had left bruises there already.

It looked a little silly. Youngbin sat with his back straightened, his hands resting in his lap, smiling softly at each member of Alex’ clique, who all observed him like he was some kind of funky looking bug. He looked so damn out of place. Alex felt a bit sorry.

“Why’d you not tell us?” Lani asked as Alex had finally decided to sit down as well right next to Youngbin.

“Well- I didn’t- I mean, it happened like, yesterday? So, like-” Alex was a phenomenal liar. Except when he had to lie to Lani. “I mean, I’m telling you now!”

“Too busy to tell ‘em yesterday?” One of the guys Alex barely even knew added, wiggling his eyebrows. Alex was going to tell him to fuck off, but before he had even opened his mouth, Margo shot the first question at Youngbin, patting his shoulder.

“Aight, vibe check. If you were in a high fantasy video game, what weapon would you use?”

Youngbin flinched at Margis touch, then blinked a few times, giving one swift look to Alex, as if to ask if he was allowed to answer. Alex just grinned, unsure why that was the first thing Margo would want to know about her best friend's boyfriend.

“Uh- B-Bow and arrow, I suppose?”

Margo gasped, then looked over to Lani, who gasped as well. They were getting something that Alex wasn’t.

“You seemed to me more like a healer.”

“You can’t just tell a guy he looks like a healer, Margo. That’s disrespectful.”

Was that an euphemism? Alex hoped it wasn’t. And hoped that Youngbin wouldn’t think it was an euphemism. But Youngbin didn’t seem like he was thinking anything at all right now.

“Okay, next question. Favourite Lady Gaga song?”

The right answer was Judas, obviously.

“Bad Romance?”

“You looked like a Born This Way kind of person though.”

“Margo, you can’t just assign someone to be a Born This Way person.”

“I’m not assigning him, I just assumed that he was a Born This Way person. So, next question, would you rather fight one cow sized ant or a thousand ant sized-”

“Margo.” Alex reached his hand around Youngbin to give Margo a light slap on the back of her head. “Can you stop conducting a job interview with my boyfriend?” Ah, there it was. Boyfriend. That did come out somewhat right. And his arm now just happened to be in the right position to rest it around Youngbins shoulder. Boom. Super convincing boyfriend moment.

“That’s a fucked up job he’s getting interviewed for.” The last member of this clique, Min, one of the few Alex actually had a somewhat meaningful connection to, arrived at the table. Alex wasn’t sure how much they had even heard of that conversation. “Who’s the cute boy exactly?”

“Youngbin! My… boyfriend.”

“Already?” Min raised their eyebrows, yet couldn’t hide a smile. “Hasn’t it been like, a week since you broke it off with Leia?”

“That’s what I was thinking,” a girl commented. Alex didn’t even remember her name right.

“Well, first of all-” Alex scooted around on his seat to make a bit more space for Min’s wheelchair to pass through. “It’s been eleven days since me and- It’s not even important. I’m over her, as you can see.” Alex felt Youngbins body move underneath the weight of his arm, as though he had held back a chuckle. Alex wanted to feel offended, really.

“Also, Leia broke up with you,” that one girl added now. Why was she even part of this group- Oh, yeah, right. She was introduced by Leia. “Leilei also told me that you cried, is that true?”

There it was. One of the other guys chuckled, and the girl had the most shit eating grin on her face. Leia “Leilei” had started with her plan to humiliate Alex. But she did not know what was coming for her.

“You think I cried? Seriously? Come on now, you think I really cared that much?”

“She said you cried like a baby when she took off that cheap bracelet you gave her.”

Cheap? That accusation was worse than the crying thing. The bracelet was expensive alright!

“Why would I cry? I literally couldn’t give less of a shit about-” Now it was Alex that received a slap on the head. A less gentle one.

“Hello, Alex? Can you not talk shit about your ex when your boyfriend is right next to you?” Margo now put her own arm around Youngbin, and it felt like she already had more contact with him than Alex did. “Youngbin, don’t worry about that. He doesn’t know how to behave sometimes.” She patted his back, grinned at him.

“It’s fine! I don’t mind!”

Margo hesitated, sighed for reasons unknown to Alex, then patted Youngbin on the back a second time, this time audibly harder. She shot Alex a glance that said something, but god knows what exactly it said.

“You still need to answer a few questions, by the way. So, would you rather fight one cow sized ant, or one thousand ant sized cows?”

Through the forest echoed the thump of a basketball hitting the ground, followed by a “FUCK YOU!”. Margo’s voice had that thing about it where she’d always sound like a princess or a fairy or something, even if she yelled the most heinous shit that could come to her mind. And there was a lot of heinous shit that came to her mind sometimes.

Alex sat on the roof of a little shelter, swinging his feet off the edge, looking at the scenery in front of him. Somewhere in the forestry surroundings of Rosebury laid an abandoned outdoor pool, drained of water, overgrown, markings and names and pathetic attempts of art sprayed on the walls.

It had a little shelter as well, grey concrete peeking from underneath graffiti, its flat roof easily accessible though boxes and rubble stacked to form a staircase. There was a basketball hoop, rusty and slanted, a few old tires, a shopping cart, an old mattress were all dumped into the pool. But what was a junkyard for some, was a treasure trove of another. For three troubled teens, for example.

Alex and Lani had discovered this place years ago, when they were kids and had decided to run away together. “Running away” meaning Alex actually tried to escape from his home, while Lani’s mother had packed lunch for the two and told them to be home by sundown. That counted as running away to Alex, though.

And they’d run away a few more times, again and again, and always back to this place. It wasn’t even hidden that far into the forest, and yet Alex had never seen anyone else here, other than himself, Lani and Margo. Margo was introduced to this secret haven as well, but she’d be the only person that would ever be told about this place, Lani and Alex swore that. This place had to be protected from anyone that wasn’t these three. Shithole Haven, as the three had dubbed it, was a secret that could never be shared with anyone else.

Margo failed another shot at the basketball hoop.

“Give up. You’re too short for this anyway.” Alex swayed a can in his hand back and forth, the cheap cocktail in it almost spilling out of the opening.

“Get fucked,” Margo answered, and after shooting the ball over the chainlink fence that surrounded the area, added: “Get fucked hard in the ass.” Ah. She just had a way with words. She retrieved the ball by crawling through a gap in the fence, then threw it back into the pool and began climbing up the roof to where Lani and Alex were sitting.

“So.” She had finally settled down between her two best friends, cracking open a bottle of coke.

“So?” Alex repeated.

“Your boyfriend,” Margo said.

“Your boyfriend,” Lani also said.

“My boyfriend. What about him?”

“How? Why? What the fuck?” Margo gestured with both hands, one almost letting go of her coke, and Lani nodded.

“My questions exactly.”

“It’s been like ten days. You have a history of dating the popular girls only, and now you suddenly pull a guy that looks like straight out of 2016 Tumblr. What the fuck happened.”

“Well,” Alex started, but didn’t know how to continue. He could tell them the truth now, probably. Say that it was a lie. It was probably going to save him a lot of trouble. Or, maybe cause him more trouble.

“I honestly hoped you could enter your slut phase now. Like all three of us could have had some great ‘we are all single and touch starved’ bonding time. You know. Making out with random people in the club. Then going home and getting shitfaced drunk alone.” The way Lani talked about this sounded a bit too serious. “But at least you’re dating a boy. Sometimes with Leia you were acting so straight and had already contemplated why I’m friends with you again.”

“Aside from the disappointment in you not entering the slut phase, I’m more so worried about Youngbin. Poor boy looks like he’s never even thought the word fuck.” Margo was right. He probably hadn’t. “Like no offence but you’re probably not the best company for a… whatever he’s got going on.”

“Well,” Alex started again. And, once again, he shut up immediately. Only that this time, his friends were actually waiting for him to say something. But Alex had nothing to say, not really. Sure, he himself also would’ve loved to enjoy single life for a while. And yes, Youngbin didn’t look like he’d survive a week around Alex’ friends, but- But? But what? There was no but.

“How’d you even meet?” Finally a question Alex could answer.

“I kind of… ran into him? A week ago, I think. And he stuck with me.”

“‘Cause he’s sooo your type!” Margo leaned forward a bit, resting her arms on her legs and swinging her feet. “I remember all the times you’ve dated small fluffy haired shy boys.”

“You know, sometimes you just fall for people unexpectedly. It’s like that sometimes.” It wasn’t like Alex had ever experienced that, but he had heard that sometimes, love was unpredictable or something like that.

“So you ran into him. And then?”

“I was- well. I asked him out yesterday.”

“After you ran him over. Did you talk to him at all?”

“No. But it worked out, as you saw.”

“Sure saw that.” Margo now let herself fall back, staring up into the sky above her. “You introduced him to us and then started talking about your ex. Gee, it’s sure going well between you two!”

“Are you sure,” Lani now added, “that he didn’t just say yes because he was scared of you?”

Honestly, he might’ve agreed to this whole thing because he was scared of Alex. But not anymore, right? He didn’t seem scared after the two had gone out for coffee yesterday.

“You guys are really hurting me with your assumptions.”

“We’re just worried, I’m sure you get that, right?” Because Lani was always worried. Not a day went by where she wasn’t.

“Worried about what? You should’ve been worried about me and Leia. That was worrisome. But Youngbin is-”

“Leia was hella worrisome, alright. That’s why I worry now, again. You just got out of a comparably long relationship, and now you’re dating someone you barely fucking know. It makes me think that maybe- Maybe Leia messed a bit with your head and now-”

This could’ve been the moment where Alex admitted to it being fake. He could’ve said that, yes, Leia did something to his brain and now he was the most pathetic wet beast the world had seen and he needed a pretty boyfriend to make himself look cooler, and that was probably a valid reason to be worried about him, but also not the most worrisome thing about him.

Of course, Alex decided to not say this.

“I know what I’m doing and I’m happy with him.”

Lani sighed, like she’d always do, and chugged the beer she had been holding in her hand for a bit too long. Then, she’d also fall back.

“I want to trust you. You know I want you to just be happy.”

“I know, mom.”

“I’m serious, asshole. Like, even if you’re actually into Youngbin, I can’t see how he’d be into you. I’m sorry. But I don’t want you to get hurt. Not again.”

“I wasn’t hurt, Lani.”

“Of course you were, fuck, Alex, look at you! Look at the past months! Leia hurt you!”

Alex chose to not answer at all, because Lani was right, and he had tried to argue with Lani before knowing fully well that she was right, and it didn’t end well. And, of course, Lani knew that.

“See,” she said, sitting back up, and opened another can of beer. “You’re probably gonna get fucked over.” Silence. “And we will be there when it happens. But I’ll also say-”

“You’ll say ‘I told you so’.”

“Yes. And I’ll also tell you that you’re stupid and self destructive and kind of terrible in general.”

“As you always do.”

“And I’ll say it with love.”

“As you always do.”

Lani seemed like she was going to say something else, opening her mouth, then closing it again as she furrowed her brows. She looked eerily like her mother, with her lips pressed together, her green eyes narrowed. Caring enough to worry about Alex but still a little too distant to actively talk him out of this relationship.

After a while of silence, and not an uncomfortable one, that Alex used to blink into the setting sun, Lani cleared her throat, her voice quiet and careful.

“Margo fell asleep.”

Alex didn’t look away from the sky. She did that a lot.

“Let her.”

“Yeah. I don’t wake a sleeping beast.”

The sleeping beast let out a sigh in her sleep, and Alex did the same.

He probably should’ve told them. But now it was too late. Guess the mission now was to not only convince the school that he was happily dating, but also his very best friends.

Chapter 4 - VIBE CHECK

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