I wake up on the bed, my bareback to the mattress. I'm sprawled out like a starfish at the end of the bed, one of my legs hanging off the end. I turn my head to see Tim next to me; the back of my left hand lying on his stomach. Tim is also on his back, his legs hanging off the side of the bed, his hands behind his head as a pillow. I look over to the door, it's still locked and my parents haven't tried to wake us up or anything. I peel my hand off Tim's stomach and stretch my arms upwards. I roll my shoulders and stretch my legs.

I poke Tim in the stomach. He groans but doesn't move, so I poke him again but harder this time. He turns to his side facing me, then back to his back. I slap the back of my hand against his stomach, and the skin against skin echoes. I laugh as he jumps up holding the now red area.

"I warned you with the poke, next time listen," I say sitting up. "What time is it?"

He glared at me, then shook his head and looked around for his phone. He pulled open his bag and dug around. He pulls out a cigarette and smiles, and now it's my turn to glare at him. He rolled his eyes and shoved it back into his bag. He takes a second to pull out his phone, and he stops and scrolls around.

"Dude, come on," I shake my head and start looking for my phone.

"It's 12:14," he says blankly, I look up at him with a raised eyebrow. "Jackass is requesting to pick you up and see you early."

"Tell him I'll see him at 8 at our area; no sooner."

Tim smiles and quickly responds.

"He apologized to me for being a dick, well, a dick to everyone," Tim continued. "I told him apologies mean nothing without action," he sat down on the floor and reached back into his bag. "Are you sure you wanna do this tonight? You don't have to face this guy, we can do it for you."

I watch him pull out that same cigarette, I snap my fingers and wave my finger. He rolls his eyes and reaches back in. He pulls out a vape pen, he gives a questioning look.

"Fine," I say and he smiles. "No, I want to do this. I want to say it. He might try and pester me, but I know how to prevent that from happening. He has issues, specifically trouble accepting others' feelings for him, which is why he always bounces around," he throws the pen my way, I catch it and he shrugs. "I'm good, thanks," I throw it back. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. I know his weaknesses."

He lays down and blows smoke circles, I sit down next to him and pat his arm. He's worried about me falling into some type of trap, or falling too hard and getting butt hurt. But, I know I can handle myself against Jack. If he tried to be friends, I'd tell him I'm in love with him, it'll scare him away.

"Are you still drunk?"

"A little," he props himself up on his elbows. "I just want to show that asshole he messed with the wrong gay kid."

I laugh. "Bisexual and I'm not a kid."

"I want to beat his ass."

"Okay, too much," I put my hand on his shoulder. "I won't permit you to 'beat his ass'. He would probably knock you out before you could swing anyway."

"He needs a wake-up call..." his words drift, and he looks at the ground. "What if," he jumps up. "I give him no reason to get any closer?"

"Tim, you are crazy. And, still drunk. Knock it off. You have these "schemes" that don't work 50% of the time. Let's not do whatever you're thinking."

"You haven't even heard it yet," he grabs his phone and FaceTimes the group chat.

"What the fuck do you want? We got hangovers," Rain says after answering.

"So do we. I need your opinions on something, wait for the others," he says and pushes me to sit on the bed.

"What do you want?" Pat sighs.

"Okay, now that most everyone is here," he pauses. "Sara, can you wake up Em?"

I hear Sara giggle and then there's a smacking sound. Em is now awake, wrapped around Sara, smothering her.

"Thank you, now listen. We all know Mac doesn't want to get close to Jackass, right?"

"Yes, because Mac has the feels for Jack. The point?" Rain.

"Jack is being resilient, messing with Mac, even more, wanting to get closer, wanting to keep up the fake relationship act. Jack also doesn't like me because I've been seen as a "threat", reasonably so. What if I'm seen as a bigger threat and make him stop contact with Mac?"

"Tim? What are you on about?"

"I should be Mac's boyfriend. Jack is intimidated by me, so I could set him in his place. I have already tried, but I was "the brother", so what if I was the "boyfriend"?"

"You are fucking crazy," Em yawns.

"I know but it could work!"

"Okay calm down Tim," I grab his arm and pull him to sit beside me. "You are still tipsy and aren't thinking straight."

"None of us think straight, Mac".

"Shut up, Em," I roll my eyes.

"I'm right though. I talked to that denim guy-" Tim starts and I hold up my hand to ask a question.

"Denim guy? You mean Gene, right?"

"Yeah, that asshole. Anyway, I talked to him after the principal made us leave, and he just confirmed my suspicions. He was like "Jack knows that you're making moves on Mac and he's not cool with that, so back off." And went on about how Mac is useful to Jack, and "Mac is a good kid that doesn't need people like you holding him back" and blah blah blah. So-"

"Stop," I grab his face, my palm covering his broad nose. "Okay, so, you think that Jack will back off if I start dating you because they think you are making moves on me?"

"Yes," his voice comes out nasally because of my hand. I let go.

"Okay and what if that doesn't work, what do we do?" Rain asks, xeir bedroom light is now on.

"If that doesn't work I will force him to stop messing around with me. Use his info for the worst. Attack his innocent side."

"Sounds good enough, we will gladly help with that." Em shrugs against Sara.

"So why were we needed here?" Patasked and yawned.

"So we can have a game plan to protect baby Mac," Tim says like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

"Baby? Who are you calling a baby?"

"Okay bye bye now," Em hangs up Sara's phone.

"I'm leaving too, I love you guys but not when you're drunk. I'll talk to you later when you're sober and smart," Pat leaves the call.

"Alright dumbasses, keep me updated on the Jack situation. I'll talk with you later," Rain smiles and waves.

The call ends and Tim turns to me with his arms open and eyebrows raised.

"We got a plan to save you from the dragon. Your knights have arrived to assist you," he bows with one arm still extended and the other going behind his back.

"Dumbass. I doubt this will work, but okay, let's do this