Veronica shrugged away from Kai and paced the room twice before settling down on one of the solitary chairs, mirroring Carmen. Azalea, and Kai flopped onto the couch. Maylea remained standing, making a quick loop of the room as she placed a cookie in each girl's hand, then dropped the plate off on the coffee table before joining the others on the couch.

Veronica considered the warm little bundle in her hand, already faint stains of chocolate melting to her skin where they met. Her eyes went back to the trio; Kai in the middle and the other two flanking her.

"We need to hash stuff out," Kai said, shifting her treat from hand to hand. "With such close quarters and all ten of us being stuffed in here, we need to get rid whatever nonsense is killing our vibe right now."

Carmen rolled her eyes and draped her legs over the arm of her chair. "I think getting kidnapped is what killed the vibe, Kai."

Kai gave her a narrowed glare, then continued. "Regardless, stuff isn't right in this place. And most of those issues are within this group of five."

Azalea shrugged. "I mean, I've got nothing against you guys. You seem pretty chill to me."

"But it's not that simple, Kai," Maylea murmured, winding her fingers into her hair. "A lot of people don't get along under normal circumstances. Just because we all ended up here together doesn't mean we have to be automatic friends."

Kai sighed, pressing her lips together into a thin line. "I'm not asking for friendship, Maylea. I'm asking for us to not be brats and actually work together. We want to get home, right?" She looked expectantly at the group, until, slowly, Azalea started to nod. "All we have to do is tolerate each other until we get out of here. It's not that big of a favor to ask of you."

Words stuck in Veronica's mouth, thick and choking and silencing any hope of contributing, of speaking out. She swallowed, ducking her head and taking the bite of the cookie in her hand.

Carmen was not impressed, and the look on her face easily indicated so. "Yeah, whatever. I don't care what you're going on about, Kai. I have no issues."

"Oh so this mess with Corben is just nothing?" Azalea leaned forward, studying the other girl. "Because uh... seems to me like it's definitely something."

Carmen folded her arms. "You don't get to judge me, pipsqueak."

Azalea shot to her feet. "We're the same height!" She cried, eyes burning. "You literally have no room to talk!"

Kai pulled her back down, glaring at Carmen. "This is what I'm talking about," she said, a scolding tone in her voice. "This bickering. It needs to stop."

Carmen scoffed. "Oh, I'm sorry that I'm just reacting unpleasantly towards being kidnapped! Guess I better get to work on my manners to I can measure up to the standards of a stranger!"

"That's life."

Had Veronica said that? She must have, because the others were all staring at her, various expressions of confusions or surprise on their faces. She swallowed, choking down the lump in her throat. "Life is bringing yourself up to the standards of others, always. There's always some way you can be better, and if you refuse to acknowledge that, you're a fool and won't survive in the real world."

Carmen narrowed her eyes. "Oh, so now she speaks? And only to give some condescending bullcrap?" She swung her legs off the arm of the chair and sat forward, eyes darkened. "You guys don't get to judge me. You have no clue who I am and what my life was like before."

Maylea snorted. "You're going to use a sad backstory to excuse your behavior? Tragic beginnings don't make up for damage done in life, and you should know that!" She wrapped her arms around herself. "Want to talk tragic? Fine, let's talk about Corben then."

Carmen flinched. "Don't you dare bring him up!"

Maylea shrugged, staring at her, eyes cold. "Why? Don't want everyone to know about your little hissy fit your threw?" She turned to Kai and Azalea. "Want to know why Corben has been hiding himself away for the past week? Cause Carmen decided to label him as an abusive piece of garbage. I mean, I don't blame him for trying to remove himself from the situation."

Maylea turned back to Carmen. "You're really that insecure in yourself that you have to bring others down to make yourself feel better? Do you want to know why Corben is so weird about me? Why he cares just a little bit more about me? It's not cause he likes me, I can promise you that."

Veronica sucked in a deep breath, about to speak, when Maylea continued.

"I'm his kid sister's best friend. His dead sister. He doesn't actually care about me, Carmen, he's just honoring her." She shrugged, a defeated look on her face. "He's just so stupidly worried about taking care of everyone, and you more than anyone should get that! Yeah, he's kinda a jerk, but this jerk literally fed you from his plate. He watched out for you, and tried to comfort you that night." Her voice was getting louder and louder as she spoke, until Maylea was almost yelling. "Quit acting like the victim here!"

Carmen jolted up to glower down at Maylea. "I am the victim here! We are all the victims here! And I'm sorry for acknowledging that my life is really messed up, and for putting some blame on a dude who honestly deserves it! Out of almost everything that's gone wrong in this place, Corben is always in the center of it, so yeah! I'm ticked!"

Azalea cautiously rose her hand. "I'm sorry, when did this all become about Corben? I'm confused."

Kai sighed and leaned back. "This was supposed to be about reconciling with each other, but those two derailed everything."

Veronica closed her eyes. "Let them feel. Let them yell. You don't have to control everything, Kai."

Kai frowned at her. "Oh, I'm sorry for actually caring, Veronica. Would you prefer if I just ignored everyone, like you do?"

Veronica shrugged. "Fine with me. It would definitely be quieter around here."

Carmen got up, storming away from the group. "I'm out of here. You guys deal with your own issues, because I have nothing left to say to you."

Kai stood up. "No!" She snapped, arms folded. "Sit your sorry self back down. We're talking through this, and no one is leaving this room until we clear the air." She pointed at Carmen. "You think Corben is a terrible person, but you're wrong. He's terrible at articulating his feelings but at least he has them and tries to act on them. Besides, if you actually addressed your issues with him, I'm sure it would just be a misunderstanding."

Carmen rolled her eyes, but she didn't move any further away from the group, even though her demeanor remained hostile.

Kai turned to Maylea. "Quit putting yourself down to defend your boyfriend." Maylea made a small noise of protest, but Kai cut her off, continuing. "You two have issues. Stop waiting for him to make the first move, and go talk to him. Make it happen."

She swung around to look at Azalea, then paused. "Actually you're really nice and have no issues. Keep it up." Another turn. "And Veronica! I don't know what you went through in the crazy room, but this whole funk you're in is freaking everyone out. Talk to somebody about it, and quit shutting everyone out."

Veronica lowered her cookie and glared at Kai, words stinging on her tongue, but she swallowed them down.

Kai sat back down, exhaling loudly as she slumped in the couch. "Alright you guys have free reign to complain now. Keep it civil, please."

"I don't want to be civil!" Carmen shouted. "I want to yell and scream because this whole situation is crazy!" She threw her hands to the sky. "Reminding you once again, because you obviously haven't been listening, but being kidnapped sucks! I'm allowed to throw a fit if I want! I'm allowed to be angry!"

"Have you considered maybe that's how Corben feels?"

Azalea's voice was soft when she spoke, but it brought all of the attention and fury from Carmen onto her. "For all we know, he could be the best person ever outside of here, but like you said, Carmen, we've all been kidnapped. We're all reacting differently."

Carmen folded her arms. "I'm not like him, Azalea. Don't compare us."

Maylea drew her legs up and wrapped her arms around them, hugging them close. "She didn't say you were, Carmen. She just said he's dealing with this too. We all are. Kai is trying to be a therapist. Juno is baking. Charlie and Blair spend every day wandering the halls. It's been over a month, Carmen, and we don't know if this will actually ever get any easier, so yeah, we're all stressed."

Something in Carmen's face changed, and when she spoke, there was a slight tremble to her voice. "That doesn't mean he can treat me the way he has been."

Kai scoffed. "Like he's treated you any differently than he's treated the rest of us. So maybe you just have a sucky nickname, but beyond that, I can't see what he's done that has been so antagonistic towards you!"

She gestured vaguely towards Maylea. "If anyone in this group deserves to be upset with Corben, it's Maylea. But she's not pitching a fit, she's not messing with group stability. She's dealing."

Kai sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "This is going nowhere. Obviously, Carmen, you need to bring up your issues with him, not us. Nothing is going to be fixed if you keep running away from him." She stood up, grabbing a cookie from the plate on the coffee table. "I don't care anymore, because you obviously don't care enough to fix things yourself."

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Corben was sitting on the floor, back leaned up against the bedframe, a stack of books to his side, with another few littered on the blankets above him. His foot tapped in an uneven beat, distracting him from the words on the page. Who was he kidding, it wasn't like he had even been reading the book in his hands, anyways.

It had been too long since Carmen's explosion, yet she still refused to talk to him. And, if Corben was honest to himself, he didn't really want to talk to her, either. She could never seem to make up her mind on how she felt about him, what with the slap and the kiss and the anger afterwards. Corben wasn't quite sure how it worked for normal kids, but for most of the teens in his circle, making out on day two was a nonexistent event.

He groaned and tossed the book away, then felt a twinge of guilt when he heard the sound of its impact with the floor. Sighing, Corben got up and walked the few steps to get to the book, straightening out a few pages after picking it up.

He smacked it twice into his palm, thoughts still caught on incomprehensibleness that was Carmen, before turning to move back to the bed, back to the comfort of words and blankets and the fictional problems that books provided.

A knock on the door.

Corben froze, and then a voice was speaking from the other side of the panel.

"Corben? Are you in there? I think as need to have a talk."

Who is there to talk to Corben?
Answer here —>

Sorry this took so long! I ended up started taking college classes as a junior in high school, because I'm a homeschooler and my mom can just do that. Also, college is a lot of work lol

I'll try and update this through the summer, but I have a lot of stuff that will be happening, and several weeks without my phone.

Until next time!