"Hey," Nadia greeted as I entered the student council room in the morning.

               "Hey," I said, dropping onto the couch.

               Kace was lounging against the wall, nursing a cup of coffee. It made me wish I'd grabbed some on my way to school.

               He caught me looking and held it out towards me. "Want some?"

               "No, thank you," I forced myself to say.

               He shrugged. "Suit yourself."

               The door opened and Leigh came bounding in. "Good morning!"

               "Morning," I said. "Let's just have a quick collection meeting, and then we'll talk during lunch. Okay?"

               "Sounds good," Nadia said, sitting next to me.

               Before I could say anything, though, there was a knock on the door. Kace went over and pulled it open, and we were all surprised as the assistant principal entered the room.

               "The principal wants to have a meeting with all of you," he said, looking around at us. "Head on down to his office, please."

               "Of course, sir," I said, standing up. The others looked to me and I shrugged helplessly. I had no clue what this was about.

               We left the room and I led my friends to the office. The secretary waved us through, and I knocked on the principal's door before opening it.

               We stepped in and I froze. Marshall and his council were already seated, and he watched me with nervous but determined eyes.

               Oh, god. I'd forgotten to speak to the principal about him.

               Suddenly anxious, I sat down with my friends. The principal, Mr. Shearer, waited for us to get settled before speaking.

               "Gabriel, I must say, I'm disappointed," he said.

               "Excuse me?" I said.

               "There were complaints about you earlier in the year, and now we have more," he said, shaking his head. "Marshall brought it to my attention. Some seniors submitted it to his student council electronically because they said they were afraid to speak out about you. It was mostly anonymous, but we did confirm they were from senior accounts at the school."

               "Sir," Nadia said before he could continue. "Gabriel was complained about earlier in the year because Taliesin Torres orchestrated that to get Gabriel in trouble. It's no secret Marshall has issues with Gabriel. How do we know this isn't a repeat?"

               Marshall stared at her indignantly. "You think I'd do that?"

               "Absolutely," Nadia said. "I won't take anonymous complaints that were conveniently submitted to you as proof that Gabriel is doing a bad job."

               "As I said, we confirmed the complaints were from senior accounts. Marshall would've had to hack all those accounts to make it happen," Mr. Shearer said. "I sincerely doubt he'd manage that. And the complaints are valid. Students have yet to hear anything about the senior ball. We need to plan for that months in advance. The senior advisor said she hasn't received the plans from you yet."

               "I have them," I said, taking my phone out. "They're on our drive. Here, I'll show you. We were just fixing everything up before we submitted it."

               I pulled up my app and swiped through our drive. But then I frowned, swiping through again. And again.

               "I..." My stomach twisted. "It was here. Nadia, why isn't it showing up on the drive?"

               She took out her phone, and Kace and Leigh took out theirs. All of us checked, double checked, checked once more. Several key documents were missing.

               "Someone deleted them," I said in alarm. "Sir, I swear, we had the plans. Several of our documents are missing."

               But Mr. Shearer was eyeing me warily. "This is what happened last time, Mr. Rizzo."

               "And last time it was Taliesin Torres! I find it a little too coincidental that Taliesin comes back into Gabriel's life and suddenly we're having a repeat of this," Kace said angrily. "Mr. Shearer, we had the plans almost ready for submission. All of us can vouch for that."

               "Which is great, but you still don't have the documents," Mr. Shearer said.

               Kace glared. "Give us a week. Please."

               Mr. Shearer didn't comment on that. Instead, he looked at some papers from a file in front of him. "On top of that, there are complaints that you haven't submitted the fundraising plans for the senior shirts yet."

               One of the other missing documents. I pressed my lips together tightly.

               "Or the pictures from the senior mentor event at the beginning of the year. Yearbook is waiting for them," he said.

               More missing files.

               "So all of the things we haven't submitted yet are complained about, and then mysteriously go missing off our drive?" Nadia said. "And you don't find that a little suspicious?"

               "I can't find it suspicious, because I have no proof you had any of it done in the first place," Mr. Shearer said, which was a fair point. But still, how could he not see this was wrong? He folded his hands over his desk and looked at me. "Gabriel, I'll grant Kace's request. You have one week to submit all of the missing materials, or I'll be forced to remove you from your position and have the advisor take over for the year."

               My face paled. If I was removed for incompetence, that would be on my school file. That would look horrible for college.

               "This isn't fair," Nadia said. "You're taking Marshall's word over ours. We had all of that stuff, but now it's missing? Someone got on our account and deleted it."

               "Sir, Gabriel works himself to exhaustion for the student council," Leigh said, her voice quiet and pained. "Please, don't do this to him."

               He spread his hands. "We have things that need to get done around here. This isn't the first time we've had complaints against Gabriel. And while I understand Mr. Torres played a heavy role in that, I must also remind you that Gabriel is the one who insisted on Taliesin staying in your group. Then when he was kicked out, Gabriel refused to take on a new member to help with tasks. I might let this slide if it wasn't the senior student council. Seniors don't get another chance. They're gone after this year. I want it to be a good year. I'll do what I must. We'll investigate these complaints for validity, but the work needs to be in by the end of the week, or that's it for you, Mr. Rizzo."

               I couldn't speak. It couldn't possibly be happening again. This was just like before, but somehow worse.

               "Dismissed for now," Mr. Shearer said.

               Nadia took my arm and hauled me out of the chair, leading me out of the office. We reached the hallway, but she didn't stop. She kept leading me back towards the student council room.

               "Gabe?"

               Taliesin came up to me, tea in his hands. He was frowning as he offered it to me.

               "You okay?" he asked. "What's wrong? What happened?"

               "Like you don't know," Kace said, venom in his voice.

               "If I knew, would I be asking?" Taliesin said in irritation.

               I looked at Taliesin, remembering last night. Something had been wrong. This was it. He'd known. He'd lied to me again. All this to get Marshall more control. Get me out of the way and eliminate the resistance.

               "Why?" I whispered.

               "What?" Taliesin asked.

               I took the tea from him and flung it at the wall. The bottle hit and fell to the floor, rolling away, loud in the sudden tense silence.

               "Why? I was willing to give you another chance, but you just wanted to do this to me all over again," I said, my chest aching. "It'll be on my student file, Taliesin! That'll hurt my college applications!"

               "What is going on?" Taliesin asked, his frown growing. "Gabe, what are you talking about?"

               "God, I'm not doing this again, you fucking liar!" I said, mortified as I felt tears welling in my eyes.

               Taliesin moved his hands towards me, but didn't touch me. They hovered helplessly in the air.

               "What happened? How do I help you?" he asked.

               "Help him?" Kace barked a laugh. "You sick fuck. Never recovered, did you?"

               Anger whipped onto Taliesin's face. "Say one more fucking word to me. I dare you."

               "Enough." Nadia's voice rang out. She put a hand on my shoulder. "Taliesin, it's best if you go. Now."

               "But-" She glared at him and his shoulders sagged. He looked me over. "Okay. If that's what'll help."

               Nadia didn't wait for him to leave. She guided me into the student council room and sat me on the couch.

               "It'll be okay, Gabriel," she assured. "I don't care if I have to pull an all-nighter all week. We'll get this stuff done."

               "I should've backed our stuff up," Kace said miserably. "But I did keep notes of everything we did. We should be able to recreate everything. It'll just take time. But we'll get it done, Gabriel. I promise."

               Leigh hugged me tightly. "It'll be okay, Gabriel."

               God, my friends loved me so much. Why the hell didn't Taliesin?

               "Shit," I whispered, and hastily wiped at my eyes. "Okay, alright, it'll be okay. It'll be okay."

               "It will," Nadia said, putting a hand on my shoulder and squeezing it. "Don't stress about it. Please. It'll be okay. We'll all make new emails and set up a new drive. No one will know the passwords or that it exists. Kace can scan his notes during lunch and upload them, and we can start focusing on getting everything done. We'll each take a task and then check each other's work. We've done all this before. We can do it again."

               But it had taken us so long before. "What about the missing pictures?"

               "They were on one of the school's cameras. I'll talk to the yearbook organizers and see if we can find the memory card they were on. I doubt they would've wiped the cards yet," Leigh said. She offered me a reassuring smile. "Don't think about it right now. Afterschool, we'll focus on it. Okay, Gabriel?"

               "The bell is going to ring soon," Nadia said, checking the time. "Can you guys give me a minute with Gabriel?"

               The other two left the room. Nadia sat next to me.

               "I don't think Taliesin did this," she said.

               "Who else could've done it?" I said. I felt anger burning a blush onto my cheeks. "Taliesin always managed to figure out my passwords. It's how he deleted things the first time without any of us knowing who did it. Besides, Marshall doesn't have the spine for something so risky. If he gets caught, he'll risk a lot. The administration won't be as forgiving as they were with Taliesin. Hell, I still don't even know why Taliesin didn't get in more trouble than he did."

               "He genuinely looked like he didn't know what had happened," Nadia said. She put her hand on my back. "I know I told you to be careful around him. I stick by that. But he..." She shook her head. "I just don't think he's behind this."

               I felt exhausted and sick to my stomach. I wanted to go home and curl up in bed and never leave it again. I'd worked so hard during my time here.

               But Mr. Shearer was right. He had no proof that we'd done the work. And if we dropped the ball, all the seniors suffered for it. He couldn't be lenient with us, or he'd suffer backlash from the seniors and their parents if things weren't done timely and properly.

               "We'll make it," Nadia said, standing up and pulling me with her. "Keep your head on your shoulders. We'll get this done, and then we'll find out what happened and make sure whoever was behind it is properly punished. This'll pass, Gabriel."

               "Thank you," I said, reaching out to draw her close to my side. "You guys are so good to me."

               "You're our friend. Of course we've got your back in this," she said, smiling a little. "I'll walk you to class. If you don't think you can keep your composure around Taliesin, just stay away from him. You don't need anymore trouble thrown into the mix."

               We left the room, and I forced a smile for Kace and Leigh before heading off with Nadia. My stomach was twisting itself into tight knots, but Nadia was right. I had to keep my head on my shoulders. I had to get through the day.

               We reached my classroom just before the bell rang. Nadia gave me a quick hug.

               "I'll see you next period," she said.

               I slipped into the room and took my seat. I kept my head down as kids came in, as if they knew what had happened. Which was ridiculous; of course they wouldn't know. But I felt ashamed nonetheless.

               "Here."

               I looked up as Taliesin set the tea down on my desk. He was frowning at me.

               "I'll leave you alone if that's what you want," he promised. "But you look cuter with a smile on your face, sunshine."

               He had seemed to genuinely not know what I was talking about. But I couldn't believe that he had absolutely nothing to do with this. It was too convenient.

               "Just go," I muttered, too tired to deal with this right now.

               He hesitated. "Are you going to be okay, Gabe?"

               "I don't know," I said. "But you being here right now isn't helping."

               It was a mean thing to say. I saw the slightest wince at my words before his expression cleared and he nodded, turning and heading for his own seat.

               I stared at the tea he'd set on my desk. Why try so hard to get back in my good graces if he'd intended to pull a repeat of last time? He had to be involved somehow.

               I stared at where Taliesin was sitting, his eyes focused ahead on the board. He'd warned me he wasn't a good man. Should I really be surprised about this?

               I'd been starting to trust him again, though. My mistake.

               I took a deep, shaky breath. I had to get through this week. Then I'd worry about getting to the bottom of this whole mess and who was behind it. Part of me desperately hoped Nadia was right and Taliesin wasn't involved, but part of me knew it was impossible for him not to be.

               But that's what happened when you shattered someone's trust. I was fool to think things would ever be the same between us. This could really be the final nail in the coffin of our relationship, as friends and as lovers.

               So I let my eyes drift to the board, and I let Taliesin become just another face in the crowd.

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A.N.- Uh no promises on regular updates for this, but also here's a showing of good faith that I haven't abandoned it. Sorry I'm the absolute worst my dudes