THE CALVERT-EGERTON HOUSE was quiet at midnight. The lights had been turned off long ago, and the two of them were quiet as they entered the house.

Amphion glanced at the shoe rack and frowned. They hadn't seen Zeth's car outside either.

"He's not here," Livia muttered. "Hasn't come back yet, from the look of it. Is he still with Brie?"

"That's strange, isn't it?" It's been more than an hour since the two of them left together. Zeth should have been back ages ago. "I'll text him."

"We both know he's not going to answer," Livia replied. "I'll call Brie."

They both whipped out their phones at the same time. They shared a look, rolled their eyes, and got on with their respective ways. Livia walked into the living room, turned one of the lights on, and sat down to find Brie's number. Amphion flopped on the sofa and started furiously typing away on his screen.

The fifth ring, and Brie still did not respond. Livia's eyes narrowed.

Amphion glanced over after a few minutes. "He hasn't been online since this evening, when we left for the party. No idea where he is."

"Brie's not answering."

"Fucking hell," Amphion swore under his breath. "Should we look for them?"

"Where?" Livia asked incredulously. "We can't really just show up to Brie's house, can we? What if she's like, asleep or something? Besides, she has Lila."

"But Zeth..."

"If he's not here, he probably doesn't want to be found," Livia pointed out. "I'll stay here for a little bit, just in case he responds. I need to use your toilet."

"You know the way,"Amphion said. "I'll try calling him again. Or maybe he went back to the party. I'll call Aurelius."

"Alright." Livia left for the bathroom, taking the turns still far too familiar to her, still imprinted in her mind. She knew the Calvert-Egerton house like the back of her hand. She's been here thousands of times over the years.

When she went back to the living room, Amphion was on a call with someone. Aurelius, most likely. "Yeah, okay. I'll go check. Yeah, thanks, Au. I'll do that." He looked up as he placed down his phone. "Zeth is not at the party. Aurelius says he thinks Zeth might be out and about."

"At this time? Alone?" Livia exclaimed.

"That's what I thought. I'm going to go look for him."

"We don't even have a car."

"Aurelius says he thinks he knows where Zeth is. You know The Sleeping Briar?"

"Of course I do." The Sleeping Briar was a local bar, around a ten minutes walk away. Livia hadn't been there before, since she'd only turned eighteen this year, and she wasn't particularly interested in bars anyways. "Don't tell me he's wasting away at a pub."

"Apparently, Zeth quite liked going there a while ago. And Aurelius says he suspects he's there drinking his life away."

"How has Aurelius been there?" Livia asked, flummoxed. "He's not eighteen."

"He hasn't," Amphion replied. "I don't even know how he knows, honestly. But Aurelius knows Zeth quite well."

"Better than you?"

"In some aspects, yes. I'm going to go there now."

Livia shook her head. "I'll go with you. But I need to change first. Give me ten minutes? I'll pop back over to my house and change and meet you in your yard."

Amphion looked reluctant, but as Livia raised her brow, he relented. "Fine. Hurry up. I don't want him to get into trouble."

"He's Zeth, he never gets in trouble," Livia replied, exasperated. "He's Zeth. You don't need to worry."

"Heartbreak makes people do stupid things."

Livia paused for a moment at that, but she didn't reply as she rushed back to her house. She was quiet as she entered. Her parents and nai nai had long gone to bed, and Pamela still wasn't back. She went into her room and changed into a thick hoodie with sneakers before rushing back out to meet Amphion as she promised.

He was already waiting on the road right outside her house. He acknowledged her with a nod, and without another word the two set off for the Sleeping Briar. They didn't say anything as they walked. Both of them were running through potential situations in their heads: what kind of state would they find Zeth in, if Zeth was there at all? What happened when Zeth and Brie left the party? How should they handle the situation?

And, for Livia, how could she justify her advice for Zeth to tell Brie the truth, if it ended up hurting him far more than it helped him?

Amphion seemed to realise what she was thinking. As they neared the bar, he turned to her and shook his head. "Whatever we find in there, Livia, you need to know that it's not your fault. No matter what Sarah might have said. The two of you are alike in the sense you both always think you know better than everyone else. It's both of your biggest flaws."

Livia sucked in a breath, and then released it. "Thanks, I guess?"

Amphion gave a stiff nod, and then the two of them walked in.

The Sleeping Briar was less of a bar, in all honesty, and more of a pub. The interior most definitely leaned towards the latter. No one batted an eye as they walked in, everyone either too drunk or too deep in conversation. They took one turn around until they finally spotted Zeth, tucked away in a corner booth, three empty glasses before him and the fourth in his hand.

A waitress walked by, noticed Amphion's face and stopped. "You related to that guy?" she asked, jabbing her finger in Zeth's direction.

"Unfortunately," Amphion said grimly. "How long he been here for?"

"Less than an hour," the waitress sighed, "and he's already four glasses in. Slightly concerning, honestly. I'm scared he'll piss himself."

Livia coughed. "Don't worry, we'll get him sorted."

The waitress nodded. "Call if you need any help. Moving him and that kind of thing."

Amphion and Livia carefully approached Zeth, trying their best not to startle him. Livia reached for the glass, softly yanking it away from his opened mouth. "Zeth, no more. Come on, my guy. I hope you weren't planning on driving back home like this."

"I wasn't... wasn't going to drive." Zeth was clearly not in the right state of mind. "I... I was going to walk. Walk back. Leave the car."

"Let's hope you were," Livia muttered, finally managing to wrestle the cup out of Zeth's grasp.

"My guy," Amphion grunted, patting his twin on the back. "I thought you were the one who said drinking wasn't the way to deal with your problems."

"I... I changed... I changed my mind, Amphy."

Livia raised a brow. She hadn't heard anyone call Amphion that since they were twelve. Amphion's face remained impassive in the face of the nickname, but his hand on Zeth's shoulder just got a tiny bit tighter.

"It... it actually... it actually works." Zeth glanced at Amphion, offering a sloppy grin. "Sorry I told you otherwise last year."

He was most definitely drunk. There was no way he was sober. But still... her eyes flickered to Amphion. He took up drinking last year? She didn't know that.

"Let's not talk about that," Amphion said sternly. "We'll get you home, Zeth. Come on."

"No. No. I want to stay. No. I don't want to go... I don't want to go home."

"What happened?" Livia asked softly. "Did you drop Brie off at her house?"

"We... we... we..."

His voice trailed off, and he shook his head. "She's... at home."

"And you decided to come out here and drink yourself into a stupor," Amphion said, sounding slightly amused. "Interesting choice."

"It fucking works," Zeth gritted out, suddenly giving a shake of his body, his eyes shutting. "Let me... let me do... what I want."

"What happened?" Livia asked again, crouching down slightly so that they were on equal level. The front of Zeth's shirt was wet, and upon closer inspection, Livia noticed the dried tear tracks on Zeth's cheeks. He'd been crying.

Things hadn't gone as planned, then.

Well, fuck.

Zeth didn't respond, and after a quick glance at each other, both Livia and Amphion began moving to help Zeth get into a standing position. If they could find where Zeth parked the car, they could drive him back. But Zeth swatted both their hands away. "No! No! I don't want to... I don't want to go. Let me stay. Leave me alone. Go away, go away."

"Zeth," Amphion said sternly, "we're not just leaving you here like this. You're drunk out of your fucking mind, and heartbroken to add along to it."

"Amphy..."

"Do not call me that."

Ah, there it was. So it did still annoy him after all. Livia was glad to hear that. She still remembered the fights they had, in that period of time when that was the only way Livia ever referred to Amphion. At twelve years old, at the cusp of puberty and with an ego that was unmatched, it had something that annoyed him incessantly.

"Amphy, leave me alone."

"Zeth. Zethus Calvert-Egerton."

Livia pulled upwards, though Zeth still did not bulge. "We're going, Zeth. We can talk in the car. Or tomorrow, when you're less wasted."

"Livia..."

"Come on, Zeth."

"I don't want to. I don't want to go." He was kicking his legs now, pumping his fists in the air. Livia pushed one hand back down, exasperated. "Amphion, help me out here."

"Come on, big guy," Amphion said with a low, soothing voice. "Let's get you home and cleaned up. Promise you'll appreciate it once we get back. Stop drinking."

It was with great effort that they eventually managed to move Zeth out of the bar. While Amphion attempted to get Zeth settled in the car, Livia paid for the drinks. Amphion had drunk at the party earlier, but she hadn't, so she got into the driver's seat.

Zeth was still rambling in the back. Amphion got in the front of the car, glancing at his twin brother occasionally while Livia started the car and began the short drive back to the Calvert-Egerton house. After parking the car in the yard, they got out and moved Zeth quietly into the house and up to his room.

She hadn't been to Zeth's room all summer. It hadn't changed. There was a picture of the six of them on his desk, some fresh flowers next to them. His balcony looked out the back of the house, at the hills and mountains, rather than the sea. They moved the boy onto his bed.

"Don't go," Zeth mumbled when they started heading to the door.

Livia let out a sigh. "You were the one who told us to leave you alone at the bar."

"Stay," Zeth said, sloppily patting his bed. "Stay."

Livia and Amphion exchanged a glance and sighed. Livia checked her phone. It was twelve thirty. "I want to head back by one," Livia announced. "Pamela's definitely going to be back by then, and I don't want to worry her if she doesn't find me there."

"Fair enough," Amphion said with a shrug, moving towards his brother. "What happened, dude? What did you tell Brie?"

"She figured it out," Zeth murmured. "She figured it all out."

"Your crush?" Livia asked quietly.

"She knew. No, not knew. Suspected. She suspected it."

Livia blinked. If Brie suspected it, she'd never shown an ounce of it, and she wasn't someone who hid her feelings particularly well.

"Okay, how did you react to that information?" Livia asked patiently while Amphion rubbed his twin's head, his expression twisted in concern.

"I told her it was true."

"And what did she say?"

"She didn't say anything," Zeth said aloud, staring up at his ceiling, though he still didn't seem fully sobered up. "She didn't say anything until we arrived at her house, and then she thanked me for the ride and left."

"Oh."

That was... unexpected. It didn't seem in Brie's character. Or Zeth's, to not have tried to get Brie to say anything, or laugh it off as a joke. That was what she'd have expected from them, but then she supposed they'd all changed.

She was starting to get used to it now, that feeling of being unable to predict what her friends might be planning on doing. It didn't surprise her anymore. She was accepting it, that everyone had changed, and so had she.

Sarah must be proud.

"She suspected it," Zeth whispered, "and she didn't care. She didn't even bother hiding Mark from me."

"Maybe it was her way of telling you she wasn't interested, to carefully dissuade you," Amphion comforted. "It's okay, Zeth. It's all over now."

"No it hasn't," Zeth said bitterly. "It's only all just started. She was my first crush, Amphion."

And most likely, Livia thought to herself, his only.

Not everyone got their white moonlight in the end. They wouldn't be white moonlight if they were so easily attainable. They'd lose their preciousness, lose their divinity. Nothing was more deadly than a white moonlight to one's future relationships.

"Forget about it," Livia told him. "Move on. This chapter of your life, it's closed now, Zeth. Forever."

"How?" he asked. "How do you move on from that rejection? That sting? It feels like my heart's been ripped out of my chest and casted into the sea. No, not just that. It's been used as bait to catch better gifts for another man. What do all these years of friendship turn to?"

Livia didn't need to turn to know that Amphion's eyes were trained on her. He must have realised that one year ago, Livia was in this exact situation. Watching him give his attention to another girl while she languished away in a one-sided infatuation that she didn't feel the safety to show.

But she got over the pain. Zeth would too.

"It washes away," Livia said quietly. "The pain will always be there, but eventually it will become nothing compared to the rest of your life."

"Five years, Livia."

"At least it was not longer. That is enough to be grateful for. That you have gotten an answer, that you have been given an incentive, a reason to stop. Don't hang onto this."

"I won't. I'm not her."

"And stop thinking about Brie."

"That's far more difficult."

"You'll succeed eventually," Livia assured. "I promise you. It'll work eventually."

"I believe you."

"You should," Livia gave a little giggle, and she realised there were wet teardrops rolling down her cheeks. She wiped them away quickly. "I know best, after all," she said cheekily.

"That you do," Zeth mumbled.

Amphion stood up. "We'll leave you, Zeth."

Zeth didn't reply. He had turned his head to stare out of the window as if he was in a daze. Livia didn't think he wanted to respond. So she stood up and turned towards the door. Amphion followed her.

They went in silence down the stairs. To the front door. Livia put her shoes back on, and then Amphion said her name.

"What?" she asked, turning around.

"You were crying."

"I cry quite easily, despite popular belief. You should know this."

Amphion hung his head, silent for a few moments. She could only see his silhouette, but she could still tell exactly what was on his expression. Changed as they may have, they had not altered enough as people to not be able to guess these things about each other.

He walked forward. Livia didn't step back. Not when he wrapped his arms around her and squeezed. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything."

Livia wasn't sure what he was apologising for. Last year? Tonight's events? Or something else? But she didn't say anything, just stroked him on his back until he let go.

Her shoulder was wet.

He was crying too. Harder than her, at any rate.

"I am sorry," he repeated.

"It's okay," she told him. "It's okay."