It's a day late and lo siento mucho. But hopefully it'll be worth the wait. Probably won't. But anyway. Thanks for sticking with me lol.

They'd paused for lunch at the studio when Joel's phone started vibrating on the table. The contact name that appeared, entered after the first call he'd taken from Ellis, made his stomach turn in nervousness.

Adira's School

After the meeting that morning, Adira had seemed to be doing a little better. Or maybe she'd just been shouldering her walls back into place. After being called down because she'd admitted mid-panic-attack she'd kill herself if they let her, he couldn't help the dread the grasped at him now.

He got to his feet and stepped out into the hallway, sending up a prayer he hoped God understood better than he did before swiping to accept the call.

"G'day, this is Joel."

"Joel, it's Richard Ellis from Hillsboro High School."

The counselor's voice sounded upset, but not frantic. That could be a good sign?

"How are you?"

The musician swallowed hard, still fighting back the fear eating his insides. "I'm alright, how are you? Is everything okay?"

"I'm alright as well, thanks for asking," the man on the other end sighed. "Everything's... it's okay. Not a crisis like the other day or anything. Just something I thought you should know about, and knowing Adira, I didn't think she'd tell you herself."

"I appreciate that, Mate," Joel replied carefully, his nervousness only slightly alleviated.

"Adira and her..." A hesitation. "Friend?... Austin... visited one of our deans today during lunch to inform him of some cartoons posted on social media this morning. They're of Adira, and they're... pretty horrible."

Dread and fear dropped out to the throbbing emotion of No. Please, no.

"How... how horrible?" he asked quietly.

Another long moment of silence. "She was drawn naked," Ellis said finally, his voice low and grave. "With... self-harming injuries all over her. Depicted as a... prostitute."

Joel opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

"Before we got the pictures taken down, we recorded them for disciplinary purposes, and female staff produced mostly censored versions of them to use whenever possible for Adira's sake," the counselor went on. "I'll... send those versions to you so you know exactly what we're dealing with. A lot of students defended her and condemned it in the comments, but a lot of others... didn't. I imagine she's dealt with the same today in and outside of class."

Joel was still having a hard time forming words... and processing emotions.

"I offered to excuse the rest of her day, but she pretty vehemently refused. I believe she has a volleyball game tonight too. So I don't know when you'll get the chance to talk to her. But when you do..." Ellis exhaled slowly. "Now you know. I'll keep you updated on disciplinary actions for those making comments and if we can find out who posted them in the first place."

"Okay," he finally managed. "Um... okay. Thank you, Richard. You can... you can text the... documents to this number, or I can... give you my email address..."

"Texting is fine if it's alright with you."

"Yes. It's good. I... thank you. Again."

"Course, Joel." Another hesitation. "I'm so sorry. Thank you for taking care of her."

"Course," was all he could choke out.

"I'll talk to you soon."

"Yes. Thank you," he repeated, and the other line clicked dead.

He stood there for a long moment, then another. Still struggling to process what he'd just been told.

Why would someone... How could they... Wasn't she going through enough?

His phone buzzed again, this time with a text. He deftly opened it to find the link to a document. He clicked on it. Scrolled past the introductory details about the incident this was keeping record of. Reached a series of five highly censored cartoons, descriptive words replacing the blurred areas. And felt like he was going to throw up.

His fist, tightly clenched around the phone, collided with the wall in front of him. His other hand came up to press against the corners of his eyes, assisting in the losing battle he was fighting against a sudden rush of tears.

"Joel?" His brother's voice came half a second after he heard the door behind him open. "Hey, you okay?"

Joel didn't say anything, but it was quickly obvious to his brother that the answer was no.

"What happened?" His hand found his shoulder and squeezed a little. "Talk to me, Man."

Joel still didn't trust himself to speak without screaming or sobbing or both, so he wordlessly pressed his phone into Luke's free hand without opening his eyes.

There was a pause, a moment of complete silence as his little brother momentarily stopped breathing.

Finally, "Oh my... that's awful. She... why would someone..."

Joel just shook his head to say he had absolutely no idea.

Neither of them said anything for a minute. Joel used it to gain a semblance of control over his tears.

When he finally looked up, still blinking them back from his eyes, Luke asked quietly, "Do you need to go get her?"

He shook his head. "She's in class."

"Her counselor called you?"

A nod.

"Do they know who did it?"

"Not yet."

Another pause. "I can't imagine..."

Once again, Joel shook his head. "Me either."

The door behind them opened again, this time revealing a worried Vince.

"You guys okay out here?" As Luke had, he quickly saw that the answer was clearly no. "What happened?"

Joel exhaled slowly. "Adira, the... the young lady who's staying with me and Moriah right now... someone at her school... posted these cartoons..."

He nodded towards his phone, and his brother handed it to their bandmate. Vince took one look and winced, looking away with shock and second-hand pain all over his face.

"Oh my God," he said softly. "Kids are so mean." He hesitated before asking, "Does she really..." He indicated his wrist like he wasn't sure how to say it.

Joel nodded a little, swallowing down a fresh wave of tears. It wasn't something he'd even explicitly told Luke for Adira's sake, but considering the fact that had been all over Instagram, he thought he could entrust it to two people he knew would never judge her for it.

Vince returned the head movement, his lips pursed and moisture present in his own eyes. "Man. That..." He blinked and swallowed as the moisture increased. "Man."

He handed the phone back to Joel, who scrolled down a little to see screenshots of the comments which would warrant school discipline. His stomach turned and a little red clouded his vision all over again.

Reading over his two shoulders, both Luke and Vince shook their heads in sadness and disgust.

"Kids are so mean," Vince repeated softly.

A fresh load of devastated compassion hit Joel like a ton of bricks. "She's gonna have to get up in front of a bunch of them and play volleyball tonight."

"You gonna go?" Luke asked, and he nodded a little.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure Mo will too."

"Can we come?"

He looked over at Vince with a question on his face. "What?"

The Texan nodded sincerely. "I was gonna say we..." He indicated the other for KING & COUNTRY members still in the writing room. "Should write her some notes. You know, Priceless stuff. And I still think we should. But if some of us came to the game, there'd be more people to cheer her on, keep the rats in line."

"I think I owe Coco another volleyball date anyway," Luke offered.

"I..." Joel blinked back fresh tears, but this time it was for a better reason. "Thank you. If we could all just make her feel less alone... I've been trying so hard, but maybe... maybe if you..."

"Joel, we got you," Vince told him, reaching up to clap his shoulder and squeeze hard. "What are we doing playing Priceless every night if we can't say it to the people who really need to hear it?"

Joel nodded slowly, looking back at the comments documented on his screen. "These boys could certainly use the speech."

"They could also use punched," his friend put in, his tone dark and not really joking.

Joel nodded in sync with his little brother. "Yes," they said together. "They could."

pov-change sponsored by red season

Ray had been out of town on a college research trip since Tuesday. It had saved her a lot of conversations and explanations and as much as she did miss him, she was dreading him coming home tomorrow.

But it was Austin's car that she found herself in before her volleyball game, Reagan in the backseat as usual. The past few days she'd just kept him at daycare late, but this time, Austin had insisted he'd watch him like Ray usually did. He hadn't really left her side since that morning, except when their separate classes and practices demanded it. She'd told him repeatedly he didn't have to stick so close, but the last thing she really wanted was for him to go, so she had little real resistance for his quiet persistence. She'd only taken off his clothes when she had to for cheer practice. She was dreading doing it again when she went in.

But she didn't have to for another twenty minutes, and she wasn't going to do it a minute sooner.

They hadn't been saying much... he'd pulled up the Predators game currently going on, on his phone and their conversation had mostly revolved around it. But as the second period drew to a close, he exited out of it, navigating to Spotify and hitting shuffle on their go-to playlist, but turning down the Ed Sheeran song that began to play.

She felt him looking at her, but didn't have it in her to meet his gaze.

"Can I ask you a personal question?" he asked softly after a moment.

She knew what was coming, had known it was coming all day, and yet her stomach still turned at the realization that it was here.

"With the understanding," he added, "that your answer isn't gonna change the way I feel about you."

Adira swallowed hard, blinking back tears as her hand started to shake. Even if she knew how to answer him, she wouldn't be able to do it without sobbing.

The boy beside her laid his hand over her trembling one, utterly gentle. His voice came out barely audible and full of sadness. "Have you really been hurting yourself, Princess?"

The term of endearment, the way his tone said he meant it with every part of himself, was finally too much for her. She felt her face break and water begin to helplessly flow down her cheeks.

"Will you believe me if I tell you no?" she choked out without really meaning to say anything.

The briefest glance at him, even through her wet, blurry vision, revealed that his eyes had filled as well. He slid his hand under hers and carefully intertwined their fingers, squeezing gently before replying.

"Not if it would be a lie."

As much as she wanted to hang on, she pulled away because she needed both hands to cover her face, the thought of him looking at her with his new knowledge simply too much.

"I'm sorry," she sobbed into them. "I'm sorry I lied to you, I... I just..."

I just think I'm in love with you and I didn't want you to know I was a monster.

"Addi, you don't need to apologize, I'm not... I'm not mad." He sounded heartbroken that he was even having to say that. "I just wanna help, okay? Not gonna change how I feel about you... I meant that!"

"No, no, I'm sorry!" she pressed.

He couldn't not be disgusted by the fact that he'd fallen for and kissed a freak like her. He was too amazing to admit it, but deep down, it had to bother him.

"I shouldn't have let you kiss me!" It was the first time either of them had actually said anything about the matter at all. "I shouldn't... I shouldn't have... and I'm sorry. You don't have to pretend it's okay."

"Shouldn't have let me..." he repeated in what sounded like genuine sadness and confusion. "Addi, that's not... you can't..." He stopped, taking a deep breath. "Look at me, Princess."

Against her own will, her eyes slid up to his, she lifted her face from her hands and met his desperately sad gaze.

"I..." He faltered and took another breath, swallowing hard. "I love you."

She froze.

"Okay? I love you a lot. And that..." He gestured helplessly. "It could never even start to change that. I wish you would have trusted me with it, but I understand why you didn't. I wish I hadn't found out like I did, but I... I'm glad I know, because you cannot believe it could change the way I see you."

"It should, Austin!" she managed despite the fact that she was still barely breathing. "It's messed up! You know that!"

"It's not messed up," he tried. "It's just... it just says you're in a lot of pain. And God knows you have good reason to be. But it doesn't make you worth any less or any less beautiful, you hear me?"

She shook her head, pressing her eyes closed. "That's not true, Austin! It's not.."

"Hey."

Her eyes opened again, locked with his as he leaned closer over the console between them.

"I love you."

He reclaimed the hand she'd pulled away from him and squeezed once again.

"I love you."

His lips brushed hers and out of instinct, she kissed him back. Just for a second, like a feather, and yet the meaning behind it was undeniable.

"I love you," he said a third time, his brown eyes pouring into hers.

She just stared at him, barely breathing, unable to comprehend the reality that he knew, and yet he was really still sitting there, holding her hand, having just kissed her, saying words she hadn't dared to hope he ever would anyway.

"You don't have to talk to me about this," he said after a moment, his voice quiet and tender. "But you have to know that I'm here and you can. And you have to know that I love you and I'm not going to stop."

She dropped her chin again, unable to hold that sincere gaze any longer, as a fresh wave of tears hit her.

"I'm trying to stop," she managed. "I swear, I... I'm trying."

She nodded with a teary half-smile, squeezing her hand yet again. "Okay. That's so good, Addi. Cuz you're worth so much more than that, you know? But not because it compromises anything about that worth. Okay?"

She nodded a little, not because she believed him, but because she didn't know how to fight the desperate love he was showing her.

"And I'm here to help if you want me," he added. "Just remember that, alright?"

Again, she nodded.

The music still softly coming from the car speakers was the only sound for a moment.

Adira didn't know what to think or believe or do, but she knew one thing that she had to say.

"Austin?" she asked in a tiny voice.

"Yeah, Princess?"

"I love you too."