Shit just got real.

The three of us stared at each other for so long that I heard the music change twice in the background. Nobody spoke. No one knew what to say.

Connie ran a hand through her hair after pulling down her black tank top to cover up herself. Her eyes switched from me to Alfie, while he stood there scratching the back of his head and not even bothering to pick up his shirt from the floor.

In our circle of friends, us three knew each other the oldest. Our bond was tighter than the rest. That was why Connie couldn't resist it whenever me or Alfie asked her to cook for us or to make us a sandwich. She never gave us shit for it.

I was sure a lotta people would think this was incest. I would've been one of them, if it wasn't for the fact that I've seen Alfie get weirdly protective of Connie sometimes.

"What's that on your face?" asked my best friend.

That broke my trance. His face was scrunched up as he tried to figure out what was on my cheek. I caught sight of a tissue roll on a shelf only an arm away. I quickly grabbed one and wiped the chocolate off my face.

Then, I returned my eyes on them.

"Well, this isn't something you see everyday," I finally said.

I knew I should've come up with something wittier. But whatever, man. I just saw my two closest friends suck each other's faces like there was no tomorrow. I was a bit shaken up, cut me some slack.

"This isn't what it looks like!" panicked Connie, stepping forward.

"Pretty sure it is what it looks like, babe," shrugged Alfie.

She shot him a glare. "Don't you 'babe' me like one of your bimbos, Alfie," she spat.

"How d'you know it's you?" my best friend snorted. "Maybe I'm talking to Oz." He sent me a look that said to go along with it.

"Yep, I'm your bimbo," I said tonelessly.

Alfie chuckled. "That's what she said." He paused, realizing what he said. Then, a slow grin made its way to his lips. He looked pretty pleased with himself.

"Put a damn shirt on," hissed Connie.

"I thought you wanted them off," he smirked, taking a step closer to her.

I raised my hands up. "Hey, quit flirting. I'm scarred enough." I turned to Connie. "You do know that's not your boyfriend, right?" I asked her. "What happened to Parker?"

She looked away and avoided my eyes.

"What?" I asked.

"Motherfucker cheated on her," growled Alfie, grabbing his shirt from the floor. When he stood back up, his expression was dark.

I froze. I could practically feel every vein in my body popping in rage.

"Say that again," I told him, my voice dangerously low.

Alfie chinned up, his eyes looked dead.

"She caught him sucking faces with a bang bunny earlier."

My hands turned to fists.

"Where the fuck is he?"

Connie sighed, rolling her eyes. "He's not worth it."

"Kurt's already taking care of him," stated Alfie.

Her head whipped to him in shock. "I told you not to do anything."

"Yeah," he snorted, "like we'll let that little shit go."

I'm surprised he didn't join in. Probably too busy comforting Connie.

I frowned.

Wait. Was that why Kurt asked for the mops?

Oh, hell no.

"Shit," I muttered, before I took off and ran down the stairs as fast as I could.

They wouldn't want an audience with them beating up one of our own, so I was pretty sure they were outside. If I had to guess, it would be behind the pool house.

I ran through the sea of people. I almost got beer spilled on me, but I dodged it quick. The dude behind me wasn't so lucky. By the time I got to the pool house, Parker was tied to the tree looking like he was about to shit his pants.

Damn. Made it just in time.

"Oz!"

They all turned their heads to my direction. Kurt nodded.

"Want in on the fun?" he smirked.

My eyes found Frisco beside Kurt. He cleared his throat and lowered his head, then I turned my attention to the billiard stick he was holding.

"What the fuck are you doing?" I asked them.

"We're gonna play darts," explained Kurt, like it was no biggie. "A bigger target means bigger sticks. You add that up."

I stared at a scared shitless Parker on the tree, before scanning everyone's faces. Most of them had wicked gleams in their eyes, while some looked uneasy as hell. I bet those who didn't want this were his close friends. They couldn't say anything because Kurt was leading this raid. And anybody would have to be fucking crazy to go against Kurt.

Except me.

"Let him go," I ordered.

Everybody gawked at me.

Seeing everyone gang up on Parker like this reminded me of Rafe and the loner girl at the Youth Center. It felt wrong and sick. Though Parker deserved bloody hell for what he did, doing this to him wasn't right.

We weren't the fucking mafia.

"Untie the dickface and let him the fuck go," I deadpanned.

Two of the uneasy ones stepped forward and quickly untied Parker. Kurt stared at me with his mouth open in disbelief.

"Dude, what the?"

"I wanna handle this right," I said seriously.

"Yeah? What're you gonna do, tell his fucking parents?"

I could tell he was frustrated because I spoiled his fun. But this wasn't the right thing to do if we wanted the sucker to learn a lesson.

"No," I answered calmly. "I'll give him hell the right way."

Frisco frowned at me, while Kurt looked completely lost.

"Thanks, Oz," said Parker, when he passed by me.

"Don't thank me yet," I replied, my voice deadly cold. He stopped dead in his tracks and looked at me. "Connie's like a sister to the team. You disrespect her, you disrespect all of us." I stepped closer to him. "You disrespect me."

He shook his head. "The chick came onto me. I di –"

"Stop the bullshit," I frowned. "If you're not ballsy enough to handle a girl like Connie, you shouldn't have went after her. That only makes you a fuckboy."

He shut up.

"On Monday, the defensive line will take turns tackling you," I informed him.

"Hey, I wanna have a go at him," piped up Kurt.

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Last time you tackled someone that pissed you off, he was sent to the hospital." I nodded to Parker. "He maybe a goddamn shithead, but he's still a good fullback. We need him on the team, so we're just gonna rough him up a bit."

I scanned the faces of my teammates. I raised a hand and pointed the tissue roll at them, completely forgetting that I was still holding it. Shit. Just gotta go with it now.

"Anybody got a problem with that?" I asked, in a no-nonsense tone.

Nobody spoke, but I caught them eyeing the tissue. It took all my willpower to keep a straight face on. At least, I didn't have chocolate shit on my face anymore.

Thank God Alfie wasn't here.

"Sounds reasonable to me," shrugged Frisco, throwing the stick to the grass.

Kurt sighed. "Fine."

"If you pull through it without whining," I started, lowering my hand and turning back to Parker, "then we'll be cool again. For now, fuck the hell off."

He rubbed his face, before walking away with his shoulders slouched. His two friends followed after him to the main house. I caught one slapping him on the back of his head, as if scolding him. The other one was shaking his head in disapproval.

Without saying anything to the rest of the team, I stormed off. I was seething angry after dealing with that ass Parker. I shouldn't have let him anywhere near Connie. Damn it.

I headed back upstairs to check on Halo. When I opened the door to my room, I was a bit taken aback by how bright it was in there. See, I wasn't used to turning on the lights and I always kept the curtains shut. Plus, I didn't stay around much in here.

But whoa. I didn't know it was this neat.

Sure, the bed wasn't made. But there were no clothes and shit on the floor. I kept my dirty clothes in the laundry bin in the bathroom. My desk was bare, because I usually studied in the den. And all my other stuff were in the basement. The only thing that gave life to my room was the football mural on the wall across my bed.

Speaking of . . .

My eyes traveled to the bed, where Halo was still devouring the Nutella. I sighed and walked towards her. She smiled lazily when she saw me. I sat beside her, taking the jar away and placing it on the bedside table.

She pouted but didn't say anything. I then went on to wiping off the chocolate on her fingers, then on her mouth. She didn't make a fuss. When I looked at her, I saw that her expression was blank as she stared at me.

As soon as I was done cleaning her up, she leaned back and grabbed my red blanket. I watched as she placed it around my shoulders.

"Now you're super mad!" she grinned.

I snorted.

"I read it on the internet," she explained excitedly, rubbing her nose in the most un-ladylike manner. "It works!" she added, laughing.

A little smile made its way to my lips. Just like that, all was good again.

Damn this girl.

"I'm hungry."

I chuckled. "I'm sure."

Halo scratched her throat.

"You want water?"

She nodded wildly. "Yes, with straw please."

I gave her an incredulous look. But then, she suddenly covered her mouth. My eyes widened. She stayed still for a moment, before relaxing and lowering her hands.

"False alarm," she sheepishly assured me. "I'm oka –"

She lurched forward and barfed. Athletic me reached out my hands on reflex in record time . . . and caught the puke.

It was warm.

Awesome.

* * *

I lifted the cup to my lips as I watched people get more wasted by the minute. This was proving to be a long ass night.

After putting Halo to bed, I went back down to monitor the party – just to keep an eye on things and make sure nobody's being a fucktard.

I leaned my back on the patio chair and released a breath.

"I'm here to pick up Snow."

I glanced at the dude who spoke. He quietly walked over and took a seat on the chair beside mine. I didn't warrant him an answer and turned my attention back to the party.

"I've been doing some digging."

About damn time.

He sighed deeply, making me look at him. I had to squint my eyes because it was dark. He looked pretty broken, like the world betrayed him or something. His green eyes showed nothing but utter disappointment.

"I think I know what happened – who started it."

"Good for you," I said nonchalantly.

He ran a hand through his red hair, his expression in disbelief.

"I didn't wanna believe it," he admitted, his voice cracking. "But no matter which way I looked at it, they all kept pointing to . . ." He stopped and closed his eyes, shaking his head. "I'm sorry, Oz." I could practically feel the sincerity oozing from him.

My eyes wandered to the people around the pool, dancing and laughing. No enemies. No grudges. No worries.

I've waited so freaking long for Scout to figure it all out. Now that he has, I've already made a decision to drop out of this messed up game.

It's too late.

"It's over, man," I breathed out.

I could feel him looking at me.

"We're done," I shrugged.

Silence.

"That's it?"

"Yep," I said simply, before sipping from my beer.

"Aren't you wondering why?" he frowned.

I raised an eyebrow. "Was that supposed to be a joke are you really just stupid?"

Scout considered it. "Yeah, okay."

I made a there-you-go gesture.

"But don't you wanna know the details?" he urged. "Why keep me in the dark? Why choose to . . . stoop that low?" His jaw clenched. "I still can't believe they had anything to do with that. Nothing about that is right."

I snorted. "And you wonder why they didn't let you in on the secret?"

He leaned back, rubbing a hand on his face. He looked so troubled.

"I owe your team a huge apology," he muttered.

"Why?" I smiled mockingly and cocked my head. "You ain't the one who burned down our building and almost killed Adam, but definitely ruined his career. You ain't the one who destroyed our season and the chances of the seniors getting scouted. When you think about it, you're just a mere bystander to all this."

Yet I harassed you, too.

Honestly, I wanted to tell him sorry. He didn't really deserve the shitty things I've said to him before. But no matter how much I opened my mouth, the word wouldn't come out. I felt like there was a lump in my throat. Or maybe it was just pride.

"But they're my teammates," insisted Scout. Quietly, he added, "They're my friends."

"It's done," I said, looking back at the crowd. "There's nothing more to it."

All of a sudden, I felt something heavy on my chest – a strong ass urge to do something uncharacteristic and gross. I also hated the fact that I knew I had to let it out, or else it would drive me fucking crazy.

I took a deep breath.

"Hey, Crimson."

"Yeah?"

I met his stare. Without realizing it, I gripped my cup so hard that I ended up crushing it. Good thing there wasn't much beer left in it or that would've been a waste.

"I know," he said, with a small smile.

My forehead creased.

"What you're trying to say," he explained, nodding, "I get it."

Damn.

No wonder everyone loved him so much. He was just so fucking good at being good. He was practically a male version of Mary Poppins.

The corner of my mouth turned up, as I looked away. I tossed the empty cup carelessly on the ground, all the while acknowledging that deep down I knew I respected this guy.

"I'll help," he announced a-matter-of-factly.

"With what?" I asked.

"Getting to the bottom of this," he replied firmly.

"Dude," I sighed, hanging my head.

"I said some pretty nasty things, Oz." He frowned. "I falsely accused you of being the bad guy when all along it was – This is my way of making up for it." He sent me a determined look. "Let me do it."

I shook my head, the tip of my tongue darting out to wet my bottom lip.

"My friends and I spent the last few months plotting our revenge, drowning in fucking misery at the injustice of it all. But you know what I realized?" I turned to him. "Whatever kinda shit life throws at us, all we can ever do is either deal with it or kick it to the curb."

The dipshits got what they deserved. We dealt with it, and we got our revenge. Now it was time to kick it to the damn curb and move the fuck on.

Scout looked down on his hands, absentmindedly playing with his keys.

"And honestly, Crimson?"

He raised his head and waited for me to continue.

"I just don't give a shit anymore."

_____________

Whatcha think? Will their lives be quiet at last or do you believe shit is just about to hit the fan?

Btw, did you know that there's only 9 chapters left?! :O