One word to describe how Jac Lexington was feeling? Drained. Drained from running around in her black - and soggy - Gianvito Rossi heels, drained from all the phone calls she had to ignore from her mother, drained from catching taxi after taxi to check hotel after hotel for Paisely, drained from repeatedly trying to get a hold of Benny Costa, and drained from holding in cold, salty tears that didn't threaten her water-proof Kevyn Aucoin mascara but did threaten her calm, cool, collected demeanor.

She didn't have to hold it together for the cab driver - a balding man who kept playings songs from the 60s on his Spotify playlist - but she forced back the tears anyway because she needed to hold it together for herself. If she started to cry over a bellboy who constantly looked as if Target had thrown up on him on a pleather cushioned seat in a cab, then that meant that she, Jacqueline Lexington, was a facade. That she was as nonexistent as her mother's pregnancy. That she was waving around the 'calm, cool, collected,' image because she was everything but.

That like everything else in her world, she was fake.

Running a hand through her jet black hair, Jac tried not to lean her head against the tinted window of the dingy cab, the bright lights of Las Vegas still shining despite the fact it was six a.m in the morning. Jac had literally stayed out from nine in the night to the very next day and the lack of beauty sleep was taking its toll. When she wasn't holding in tears whilst searching for an adorable blonde, she was struggling to keep her emerald green eyes open.

As a punctual soon-to-be Valedictorian, Jac had absolutely made it her life's mission to catch her beauty sleep - only a night of hot-tubbing with Damon Felix being the exception but new exceptions were meant to be made and old ways to be broken.

Broken old ways such as not melting into Damon's arms as soon as sweet talk danced off of his tongue.

Jac tried to sit up straighter, focusing her sleepy eyes on the bright ambiance of her cracked Windows phone. She'd cracked the phone when she'd bumped into her ex and now a gigantic jagged crack slashed across the screen and strangely, the crack was comforting. Almost like some kind of battle scar from calmly, coolly, and collectedly severing all her silly emotions from Damon. For once, she could proudly say his sea, blue eyes probably wouldn't make her weak in her cross-country-bred knees and that thought made it slightly easier to hold in her tears.

Now all she had to do was calmly, coolly, and collectedly get over Blake, the Target-clad bellboy.

Scrolling through her messages, and ignoring the ones from Jeffrey Lexington, Jac breathed a sigh of relief, when she saw a text from Chris Edwards - a feeling she hardly ever had with Chris Edwards.

'Found the lost princess....still looking for new personality.'

The text was sent exactly three hours ago which meant she had been running around Las Vegas, drained from lack of sleep, for no reason!

Scowling, Jac calmly told the balding cab driver to turn around from the route to the Four Seasons and head straight for Benny Costa's Cosmopolitan penthouse. Just the thought of getting home and washing off the champagne from the XS club before practically drowning in the soft, cashmere sheets of her claimed guest room forced every bit of H20 back into Jac's sockets.

Calm, cool, collected Jacqueline Lexington was back and ready to calmly, coolly, and collectedly take her soggy ass to bed and cry there where not even her pride could see her.

When the cab pulled up in front of the tall, skyscraper Cosmopolitan that still managed to look neon and lively even in the early morning light of seven a.m, Jac tipped the balding driver 500 dollars - suggesting he buy a wig for the bald spots - and then strutted through the sea of opulent crowds already energized to start another day of sunny Spring Break, past a group of girls in matching Flagpole Swim bikinis, and into the first elevator that welcomed her with a whiz of its metal doors.

However, she wasn't entirely safe yet to crumple up like a rumpled Eres t-shirt because just as she pressed the button going up to the top floor, she bumped into Tiff Archeval herself, the platinum blonde trying to squeeze her way out of the elevator.

"Oh my gosh, Jac!" Tiff gasped, grey eyes wide as if she were slightly relieved and also secretly peeing her pants. The gorgeous senior was clad in a cropped Monique Lhuillier satin bandeau top that showed off abs crafted by the prep-school-athlete-curriculum gods and plain, denim R13 skinny jeans that screamed; 'I-just-rolled-out-of-bed.'

Jac regarded the girl through her naturally thick lashes. She was over confrontation. She'd been there, done that with far too many girls like Callie and Veronica and had decided she was over it. Besides, it wasn't the girl's fault, not entirely at least. It was the boyfriend who decided he didn't give a shit that he was taken - even if it was only for three days with a month's worth of mixed signals.

So, rolling back her shoulders, Jac calmly pretended not to see Tiff and coolly made for the elevator doors.

However, the doors nearly closed on her fingers as she tried to make an escape, and she collectedly realized she was stuck in an elevator ascending all the way to the top of a skyscraper building with the girl her ex-Target-advertiser had just cheated on her with.

This was even worse than running into Damon Lying Felix!

"Jac, hey, can I talk to you for a second?" Tiff asked and Jac exhaled silently before turning around.

Tiff looked so unlike how she usually did at Alabaster Prep; bitten french nails, runny makeup, and wearing off brand flip-flops that literally looked like she'd randomly picked them up from Goodwill.

Jac put on her best cool expression. "Considering this elevator is going up to the fiftieth floor, I don't think I have a choice."

Tiff smiled sheepishly, showing her bunny teeth that were yellow - 'Gross!' What had happened to her since the Love Wins event? "I know we don't really talk-"

"We don't." Jac said, pretending to be invested in a lock of her jet black hair that she had a feeling smelled like chlorine, champagne and only a pint of the Aveda conditioner she'd used the morning before.

Tiff shifted what little weight she had to the other foot. "Well, I guess I'll make this quick because I heard you're dating this guy named Blake Evans..." She trailed off and sucked in a ragged breath.

Seriously, what was wrong with the girl? Jac couldn't even hold the cool attitude she was radiating as it felt like rather than confessing infidelity, Tiff was about to confess to cheating on every midterm Alabaster Prep had ever given - or maybe the nose job Jac's father had given the senior in sophomore year that she still denied despite it being public knowledge.

Tiff exhaled for the sixth time, her thin shoulders dropping. "I'm telling you this because it's the right thing to do."

"I already know." Jac replied and then looked up at the mini gold chandelier that lit up the elegant elevator before the image of Blake with his arm around the platinum blonde could ripple into her mind.

"Know what?"

Jac dragged her green eyes to the cracked screen of her Windows phone with a tired sigh. Was she really going to play dumb? All she had to do was give a lame apology - like Emma Carmichael - and keep it moving. "About you and Blake. I saw everything."

Tiff blinked in confusion. "Saw what?"

"I saw you with Blake." 'Calm, cool, collected.'

"Doing what?"

"Look, I already know what you're going to say and I don't have the time to care." ' Calm, cool, collected.'

"Do you even know what I'm talking about?"

'Calm, cool, colle- oh, fuck it.'

That was it. Like a fuse being blown out, Jac glared at Tiff with the most uncalm, uncool, and uncollected expression she'd ever conjured and while she didn't mean for cold, salty tears to start spilling over, they did anyway."Of course I know what you're talking about it! I'm not an idiot! I know about you and Blake shagging, fucking, whatever it is you wanna call it and if you're here to apologize, like all the other bitches before you, I suggest you take a hike off a cliff because I Do. Not. Give. A. Fuck."

Tiff gasped, opening her chapped lips and once again revealing her yellow bunny teeth as if to say something but Jac couldn't stop.

"And newsflash, you weren't the only one! I'm pretty sure he's been screwing around with Emma Carmichael too so all that stupid crap he told you about being special and wanting to protect you was bullshit. He's just like everyone else and if I were you, I'd move on too - oh and by the way, brush your teeth. It's not cute and it's not authentic, even though I'm suuuure he told you that's what normal people do right?"

Jac didn't bother to wipe away the tears streaming down her face. The damage was done. Jacqueline Lexington had totally just cried in front of someone at school; 'Calm, cool, collected,' reputation was officially out the window like the Yeezys the fashion world had rejected.

She couldn't help but think that the Jac before Blake wouldn't have broken. Surely, she would have kept it together but lately, Jac felt like an open book being held upside down, all it's secret pages spilling over on to the floor.

Tiff simply stared at her with wide, grey eyes and Jac instantly felt horrible. The poor girl had already been told off by Paisely Mont Vernon at the Love Wins Event.

"Jac, I-"

"Sorry," Jac sniffled. "I'm sure you have a reason for why your teeth are yellow." Although she couldn't come up with any justified reason for horrible dental hygiene besides being homeless or a zombie apocalypse.

Tiff snorted. "Yeah, I've been smoking twenty cigarettes a day because I found out I'm HIV-positive."

It was Jac's turn to stare. "What?"

Tiff hung her head sheepishly and there almost seemed to be tears building in her eyes like cherished diamonds. "That's why I came here. Blake told me you were staying at Benny's penthouse in the Cosmopolitan. I-I thought you had the right to know..."

"Right to know..."

Tiff lifted her head slightly, a fierce glint in her eye. "He's waiting for you at Benny's. He's going to lie, I know he is, but you deserve to know the truth so you don't end up like me too."

Jac practically felt her heart beating in her ears as she took a step forward - and then subconsciously took a step back. "Don't tell me he-"

"I'm not lying!" Tiff cried, grabbing Jac's arm that she felt too dazed to pull away. "I dated Blake long before you did and he didn't tell me...even after we did it...Blake has HIV. He's like in denial or something but he does and it wouldn't be fair for you not to know." Then she started to sob and let go of Jac's arm.

Jac barely heard the soft ding! Of the elevator doors as they finally opened.

ⓁⓊⓍⓊⓇⓎ

Just the sight of Blake Evans pacing back and forth in front of Benny Costa's door in the velvet-carpeted, chandelier-lit hallway was enough to completely drain Jac of any ounce of calm, cool, collected-ness she had left. Blake was still wearing his cheap Target-ad clothing from last night which Jac might have found cute and authentic before but now just made her feel even more unhinged. 'Why couldn't it be cheating?' She thought, almost laughing at the fact she would gradually take being cheated on over an STD.

Jac took one last peek of the bellboy before quickly moving around the corner of the hall again, flattening herself against the dim gold-wood walls of the suite.

She could take cheating - even if it hurt like Hell. She'd had more than enough practice in that area but HIV? How was she supposed to deal with that? What was she supposed to say? What was she supposed to do? 'What would Erika do?' Jac found herself thinking, surprising herself with the thought of her former auburn-haired friend. She used to think about Erika's fierce antics all the time, trying to emulate them when 'calm,cool,collected,' wasn't working out for her.

But the answer was simple. Erika wouldn't do anything because she'd have never dated a peasant in the first place. Jac could see the girl now, either cracking up in laughter or hesitantly comforting her for being so gullible.

Sucking in a silent breath and tousling her flawless, jet black hair, Jac decided she was going to wing it like how she usually did in Debate class when she was called on for subjects about Donald Trump - the guy was so awful, she didn't need any prepared arguments. She was going to pretend this was Debate class and simply say whatever she felt like saying. No more holding back or biting her tongue because 'calm, cool, collected,' meant 'perfect, emotionless, and closed.'

She was going to be an open book because she was an open book - and closing it didn't feel like an option.

Jac ambled around the corner then and Blake looked up, hand slightly rubbing his hot stubble, with a half-smile.

"Hey," was all he said, the word warm and nice and friendly....but Jac barely even felt it. All that ran through her head was; 'break up, HIV, breakup, HIV,' as if she were some robot about to malfunction.

"Hey," she replied quietly but couldn't bring herself to smile back.

Blake ran a hand through his blonde hair. "I was just about to call you. I thought you were back here but I've knocked about ten times and I don't think anyone's in there." He gestured to the gold-wood door of Benny's penthouse.

Great. Jac had totally forgotten Benny had ran off with Seth Montador and didn't give anyone the key. How was she supposed to make her escape?

Blake looked as if he were about to say more but clamped his mouth shut when a pair of men clad in black and wielding bluetooths rounded the corner at that moment. Jac and Blake stared each other down as they passed; Blake's smile slowly dissipating and Jac's expression indifferent because she couldn't bring her envied face muscles to do anything.

As soon as the bodyguards disappeared down the hall, Jac decided she wouldn't bombard him. Maybe he was planning to tell her and just hadn't gotten around to it yet. Not that that was going to change the ending because Jac already knew exactly how this was going to end. So instead of blurting out that she knew he had HIV, she simply said, "I saw you with Tiff last night."

There. That gave him room to be truthful because surely, Blake wouldn't lie to her face. He wasn't like he-who-shall-not-be-named-even-though-she'd-seen-him-a-couple-of-hours-ago.

Blake's soft, brown eyes widened slightly and then he sighed, eyes averting to the velvet carpet. "Yeah, I can explain that."

"Then explain." Jac said fairly, trying not to cross her arms.

"It's not what you think," He insisted gently, taking a small step forward that Jac didn't bother fighting. "Tiff and I are just friends and she was going through a hard time so - "

"How do you even know her?"

"From working at the Beverly Wilshire," Blake answered sheepishly, rubbing the nape of his neck. "That's kind of how I meet every rich person I know. I mean, I'm around millionaires all day so..." He trailed off, leaving Jac so unsatisfied that it was pitiful. Of course he'd met one of her classmates at the Beverly Wilshire. That's how he met her.

Jac had the urge to cross her arms again but if she crossed them, she was never going to uncross them. She swallowed hard instead. "Go on."

Blake seemed to gulp nervously but he didn't fidget or look at anything else but her emerald green eyes like he used to. Instead, he looked her directly in the eyes, a tentative smile seemingly ready to bloom on his lips. Jac didn't want to kiss him though. "Tiff and I used to date a long time ago. We met during a dinner the Archevals were hosting in the ballroom because I nearly dropped a platter on her head and she had been really cool about it."

He grinned slightly before shaking his head. "Anyway, long story short, it didn't work out but we decided to stay friends and last night, she was having a breakdown. All her friends had ditched her at some party so she was all alone-"

"You should have told me the truth," Jac interjected pointedly. "I would have understood." Instead, he chose to give her a relationship anxiety attack with the phrase, "job thing".

"I know but I didn't want you to think that something was going on," Blake agreed, hanging his head like Jac's baby cousin, Marie, did when she was caught in a pile of Ralph Lauren and Phillip Lim clothes in her closet. "I just didn't want you to worry but you're right, I should have told you."

Silence fell over them like a cashmere pashmina; Blake smiling apologetically and Jac regarding the bellboy in front of her expectantly. She was trying to give him a chance, trying to give him the chance to tell the truth. However, Blake rocked back and forth on the heels of his black Converse shoes as if everything he'd had to say was now hanging in the air, waiting for Jac to receive them.

"Anything else?' She asked, keeping her voice leveled so that it didn't seem like she was testing him.

Blake only shrugged innocently as if he had pondered his words. "I-I don't think so, why?"

"Well, I just saw Tiff on my way up here," Jac avered and once again, tried not to cross her arms. She tucked a lock of wavy hair behind her ear instead.

"You-you did?" Blake asked, still not catching on to what he had to say, what she needed him to say.

Then it struck her.

Blake was exactly like him. He was a liar, a really good liar, and he had just broken her heart like the jagged crack on her Windows phone. Jac had said she was done with being 'cool, calm, and collected,' but she found herself chanting it in her head anyway because she was going to break - correction, she was breaking. Again for the second time in a row to be exact and her cold and salty tears were totally not cool, calm, and collected.

More like problematic, messy, and unstable.

"Jac, what's-what's wrong? Are you okay?" Sympathy gleamed in Blake's eyes and he moved to hug her.

Jac took a huge stride backwards. "Don't touch me, you're a liar."

"Liar? What are you talking about? Jac, I promise you, that was the truth."

"Do you or do you not have HIV?" Jac blurted out as if she were harshly ripping a tag off of a Gucci purse.

Blake gaped, looking as if he'd been slapped in the face but Jac couldn't actually bring herself to do it for real. It wouldn't be satisfying, it wouldn't fix anything, and it wasn't like Blake wasn't already suffering enough.

So Jac opted for a teary, accusing leer instead. "Answer me, Blake!"

Blake, who had practically went slack-jawed as if his worst nightmare had conjured itself before him, quickly shook his head. "Jac, no, why would you think that?" Jac only scoffed profusely. 'He's really playing dumb.' He was really trying to lie to her face and here she thought that she'd found a peasant who was noble and trustworthy.

"I thought you were different," She managed through her tears, deciding to focus on the intricate gold designs on the walls rather than the brown eyes that used to remind her of Autumn. "You promised me you were different but you're just like everyone else. Why would you do that? Why would you promise not to hurt me but then turn around and do it anyway? Why?"

"I'm not like everyone else," Blake pleaded but didn't move towards Jac. Instead he kept his arms at his sides as if he were fighting some kind of urge. "I meant what I said Jac. I'd never want to hurt you."

Jac only tittered humorlessly. She probably sounded like a crying, strangled maniac but she didn't care. "Then tell me the truth."

"I did-"

"Tell me the truth, Blake, because the fact you're lying hurts more than you think." She admitted, her voice cracking into willowy whispers.

Another blanket of silence fell over them. Except this silence was incredibly long and Jac barely breathed through it as Blake hung his head and traced the patterns of the velvet carpet with his Converse shoe. Then, after a few agonizing minutes, he lifted his head and finally met her gaze, something somber in them that made more tears well in Jac's eyes.

"I've been HIV positive for three years now. I didn't want to to tell you because, well, because you would have never given me a chance. You're different from everyone else, Jac. You're perfect. And perfect girls don't like sick, poor guys." He exhaled then, a long, throaty exhale as if he were trying not to cry too.

Jac stared at the bellboy in front of her and suddenly she didn't see a boy named Blake Evans. She just saw exactly what the people in her world saw when they looked at Blake; just a random peasant who worked at the hotel because she wasn't seeing with the 'normal' scope anymore, she was looking through something more familiar.

"Thank you, that's all I wanted to know." Jac said, realizing she was literally drained of emotion.

Then she sauntered past Blake for the door to Benny's penthouse, not caring that no one was going to open the door for her. She just wanted Blake to go away and never come back. She wanted to press her back against the door, slide down to the floor, and cry until she was a messy, teary, open book.

Just as her manicured hand rested on the shiny, gold knob, Blake stopped her, Jac flinching away from his touch. "I said that's all I wanted to know."

"I know what you're going to do," Blake said dryly. "You're going to go back to him because we didn't work out."

Jac tsked. "You don't know anything about me." He had just called her a perfect girl when she was far from it!

"No, Jac, I do," Blake insisted. There wasn't any taunting in his voice, just confidence. Depressing confidence as if he hated to know what Jac was supposedly going to do. "It's the little things you don't say but I see them. You hate being alone. You don't like your own company so you search for other people to fill it if he can't. And now that this is over, you'll be alone again and I don't think you'll even be able to last a night, Jac, because that's what you fear more than 'cheap' things."

Jac glared at the insightful peasant in front of her, trying to mask the searing pain in her chest. She wasn't sure why she was glaring though. Maybe it was the annoyance that he thought he had her all figured out or maybe, just maybe, because he was right.

"Well, here's something you don't know about me," She snapped, finally crossing her arms tightly across her chest. "I never liked you. You peasants disgust me and what I'm actually about to do is go take a blazing shower before your cheapness rubs off on me."

"Jac, you don't mean that." Blake sighed, shaking his head with that look he always had when he was observing her world; the one that he had started to convince her was fake. But maybe Jac liked her world, the fake one, the one where people wore fur coats and didn't give a shit about the animals that had died for it, the one where money was put on a pedestal and if you didn't have it, you were at the very bottom of the totem pole. The world of luxury where Jac had always belonged anyway.

"You better hope Tiff doesn't press charges for what you did to her," She said simply, pretending as if she were about to open the locked door. "I'm sure you're too broke to pay bail."

She watched as Blake's eyes widened in horror and then his shoulders dropped. Wordlessly, he turned on the heels of his Converse shoes and disappeared down the hall without a glance back.

Then Jac broke again, outright sobbing until she couldn't bear to stand out in the hall any longer. She pulled at the door knob, twisting and shaking it until she simply slid down to the floor just as she had planned and buried her head in her hands. She had never cried so hard before - not even when she'd cried on Erika's shoulder in the Alabaster courtyard. Yet here she was, heaving out sob after sob over Blake Evans - no, not Blake Evans, not even the fact he had HIV.

She was crying because he was right.

She was all alone and she hated it.

The door opened at that moment, Benny Costa's messy head of wavy, raven hair peeked out into the hall. Her face was naked and she wore a plain white, long-sleeved Zimmerli t-shirt and black yoga pants as if she had been inside the entire morning drinking coffee and watching morning reality shows. Benny slowly stepped out, revealing a blue mug of something steaming hot in her hand.

She leaned down and handed it to Jac.

Jac frowned. "What is this?"

"Tea....with a dash of vodka," Benny replied quietly then shrugged sheepishly. "I heard everything and I figured after all that heavy stuff, you need it."

"You were in there the entire time?" Jac asked incredulously, just the thought that someone else had heard her break only made her want to cry even more. It was already enough Tiff Archeval had seen her cry!

Benny nodded. "Yeah and I know I'm pregnant but I'll kick his ass if you want. I'll even get my unborn child to kick his ass too."

Surprisingly, Jac found herself laughing and Benny laughed too, helping her up to her feet. She laughed so hard that her whole body shook as her fingers enclosed around the handle of the mug, the vodka-tea burning her skin.

Jac didn't get to cry a lot, never allowed herself to, so maybe that was why her laughing turned to crying. She started to cry so hard that Benny had to put her arms around her, rubbing her back as if she were a skilled Luxe spa masseuse, trying to make the pain go away.

One word to describe how Jac Lexington was feeling now? Broken.

ⓁⓊⓍⓊⓇⓎ

To: Addie

From : Chris

Hey, aren't you the girl that helped Erika hack Huffington?

To: Addie

From : Chris

Never mind.

To : Jason (the one who sucks at defending)

From : Chris

Bro, I need a favor. Still into video editing?

To : Chris (asshole #2 from Lacrosse)

From : Jason

I pay for my services now. Charging 50k for each video.

To : Jason (the one who sucks at defending)

From : Chris

Yeah whatever. I need you to edit a very special video & be super precise with it cause it's gonna be a hit ;)

To : Chris (asshole #2 from Lacrosse)

From : Jason

Am I gonna get expelled for this?

To : Jason (the one who sucks at defending)

From : Chris

I'll pay 500k & get my Dad to put in a good word for you at Andover. You'll be fine.

-----------------

A/N: This is the quickest I've updated in a long time ofmgh

Also I've noticed a lot of people kind of forgot who Tiff was so I'll backtrack; at the yacht party, she's the main one who congratulates Paisely for destroying Erika then at the Love Wins event, she is nearly told off by Paisely and then apologized to. THEN she's seen as a contact on Blake's phone, THEN she is seen with Blake at the hotel. I hope that helps lol

Thank you to all who reads & thoughts are so, so, so welcome!