I'm posting this on my phone since my iPad is dead so please excuse any formatting issues, I will edit this on my iPad once I get home.

This is by far my longest chapter (over 1.5k words)

Lily awoke to a pounding in her head. It was unlike her to get so out of control, especially with Nugget there.

Vague snapshots of last night flashed in her brain, her eyes widening with embarrassment. 'I can't believe I did that'. The thought of her drunken dancing on the living room coffee table crossed her mind, scared to even check her phone out of fear there were photos of her circulating the several groupchats her friend group had.

She pulled her duvet cover over her head and groaned loudly. Billy had, thankfully, left his twin a glass of water and an Advil on her bedside table when he got home. Lily pushed her thick cover off of her body and sat up, the foreign, dirty orange hoodie over her shoulders kept the cold from entering her system.

Taking a large gulp of water to down the pill, she tried to remember more of what she did last night. Her mind strayed towards the end of the night. She remembers Nugget taking her home and carrying her up her family's driveway.

Lily froze, her face turned red at the realization of what she had done last.

'Oh my God,' she thought in horror. 'I kissed Nugget...' Lily almost choked on her water (Some snorting out of her nose).

Shooting up like a rocket off her bed, ignoring the ache in her head, she raced to her dresser on the other side of the room and practically ripped her phone off its charger.

Unlocking it brings out a flurry of notifications, ranging from Gmail notifications and Criminal Case notifying her that her energy has refilled, to several messages on Imessage and Discord from her friends about how crazy the party was last night.

At the top of her Imessage home screen was a single notification that grabbed her attention.

Chicken McNuggets: Hey! Nugget hopes you got home safe!

Chicken McNuggets: Tenders says hi as well :)

Attached was an image of Nugget holding up his old cat who looked done with life. 'He looks so cute' she thought, unclear if she meant the cat or Nugget himself.

Lily smiled at the image and swooned at the thought that Nugget would do something like this after she completely embarrassed herself and probably him as well.

She began to type back.

The Pretty Lily <3: Yeah im fine lol

The Pretty Lily <3: Sorry for being such a burden last night tho

Lily barely had time to check any other messages she could've got before he responded.

Chicken McNuggets: You could never be a burden.

The conversation took a turn into a more serious tone quickly. Lily blushed and giggled to herself, hiding her face in the sleeve opening of her (his) hoodie.

Nugget had always, always had this effect on her, ever since they were in Elementary school. But now? It felt more... intense? Lily flopped back onto her large bed and kicked her feet in the air as she typed away at her response.

Firting definitely wasn't something new to Lily, in fact, out of the girls in their friend group, she probably pulled the most. Excluding Cindy and Carla of course. It wasn't something she actively did on purpose, it just happened!

But flirting with Nugget was foreign, dangerous, and... dare she say exhilarating? This somehow felt right, like all their previous relationships had been leading up to this.

Whilst staring at her ceiling thinking only of Nugget, she narrowly missed the small 'DING!' coming from her phone next to her. Her eyes widened as the young teen quickly flipped on her bed, almost missing the phone entirely. Grabbing the small rectangular device with such force she nearly thought it had cracked.

"There she is!" the small science room erupts with laughter, mainly from the male duo in the back of the lab.

Lily groaned in response, the bright fluorescent lights, even under her tinted reading-glasses, burned into her eyes. Drinking as much as she did on Saturday, even with the hangover cure Billy gave her and the whole 24 hours she had in preparation for Monday, caused her to have an aching migraine when she walked into her first-period, homeroom.

She practically threw herself into the chair at the desk in front of the boys, next to Carla who gave her a friendly pat on the hand.

"You were fucking hilarious, Saturday!" Monty let out during a fit of laughter.

"I now bestow my title of class wild card onto you, Lily!" Jerome added, reaching over to place an invisible crown on her head.

"Leave her alone guys," Carla interjected. As she turned to face the boys, she made a point not to make eye contact with Monty. A hush fell over the room as the tension between Monty and Carla became unbearable.

The two had always had some sort of tension but this time? It almost seemed hostile and bitter. Lily was too shit-faced at the party to see either of them interact, and there was nothing in any group chats she was in that would suggest otherwise. To Lily, this negative energy came out of nowhere.

"Alight class," Dr. Danner's booming voice washed over the classroom, commanding the teenager's attention. "You know the drill, despite the ending school year we still have much to discuss and experiment with. Take out your bunsen burners and laptops." He turned to the board and began writing down the instructions for the experiment they were performing. Jerome groaned in protest as he dramatically shifted his body weight and flopped onto the side of the ginger sitting next to him.

Next to Lily, Carla got out her laptop and stood to make her way over to the protected shelf where their teacher kept all the sensitive (and extremely dangerous) lab materials. Lily looked at her friend with concern. 'Carla's never this quiet...' she thought.

When she returned, Carla wasted no time getting to work, not even sparing a glance toward Lily.

"Alight, what'd you do?" Adrian deadpanned.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Monty deadpanned.

Lily, Billy, Nugget, and Adrian confronted the ginger after class. Billy, taking the role of bad cop, pushes him against a wall of lockers with his forearm.

"Ever since the party, you and Carla have been avoiding eachother," Lily accused. "More then usual." she corrected.

"Oh, you mean the party where you were shit-faced most of the night?" Monty scoffed. Nugget took an intimidating step infront of him, staring down the shorter teen infront of him.

"T!" Cindy shouted at the ginger from down the hall. Jerome and Buggs on both side of her, glaring at Nugget bein so close to their friend. "Lets go..."

Glaring back up at Nugget, Monty lightly, but aggressively, placed a hand on the teens shoulder and pushed him back with a roll of the eyes. Bumping into his shoulder with his as he walked away to join his friends.

"WHY, would you do that!" Carla screeched into the bottom microphone of her phone. The afro-latina girl had left school three periods before the end of the day and went home. She didn't tell her friends why just that she was fine and not to worry.

"There was some weird tension between you two during first period that wasn't romantic or sexual this time, I just wanted to make sure noting happened!" Lily defended, crashing onto her queen sized bed and landing on her back with a soft thud.

"Christ- nothing happened! I barely saw him!" she lied, thinking back to their almost-kiss down in the garage.

"I just wanted-" Carla cut her off.

"Lily, I understand that you wanted to help, but you just fucked everything up for me! Monty and I are already on weird terms, and you confronting him might've made things worse." the girl on the other line spoke softly, a tinge of hurt stunk in her vocal cords.

Sitting up now, Lily looked down at Carla's contact, the call time being close to three minutes now, she heard the pain in her voice and shut her eyes solemnly.

Lily heard a notification ping from the otherside of the line, then shuffling, and finally Carla spoke once more.

"Look, I'll call you back soon Lil." three loud beeps were all that followed as the line went dead.

🤓☝️: So,

🤓☝️: You and Tara?

Goddess <3: What are yo talking about?

🤓☝️: You and Tara were hanging out at the party

🤓☝️: After you kisses me

Goddess <3: I'm p sure you and kissed me but wtv

Goddess <3: How is that any of ur business??

🤓☝️: I just find it weird how after MY party you were entertaining other people

🤓☝️: When, not even an hour before, we were about to kiss??

🤓☝️: Just an observation tho

Goddess <3: God ur a fucking nerd.

Goddess <3: And how is who I talk to any of your business?

Goddess <3: We are NOT dating.

🤓☝️: Fine. if thats how it's gonna be.

Closing his phone and placing it face down on his desk, the teen placed his hands over his eyes, a loud sigh escapes his mouth. Tears weld up in his eyes that he refuses to let fall while the black cat perched next to him looks on in concern.

In a fit of anger and heartbreak the teen girl throws her phone across the small bedroom, uncaring if it shatters or not.

I love writing angst in school <3

I rewrote Monty and Carla's text convo like million time cuz I don't know how not to use AAVE when writing texting. If Monty sounds like a black person it's my fault lol.