"Joey, are you fucking nuts?"

"Oh, c'mon Bee! Tons of people get their nipples pierced!"

Joey had called Phoebe to let her know she was getting her nipple pierced and was trying to get her to come as support, but she kept turning her down. Phoebe would love to spend her time away from Luke with her friends but, unfortunately, she had to see the counselor.

"Look, I'm sorry I can't come, I got some shit to do. But send me pictures, okay?"

"Aww okay, no problem. You're still coming over for dinner later, right?"

"Of course, girl." Anything was better than whatever scraps she could fin in her fridge.

"Awesome! Well, I gotta go. Love you, Bee! Bye-" another voice cuts her off, but Phoebe can't quite hear it, "Oh, Anna and Grace say they love you too."

"Aw, love you guys! Bye! And good luck."

"Thanks, Bee. Bye!"

As she hung up and slipped the phone in her pocket, the smile she had moments ago quickly slipped off her face as she stared at the counselor's door. It was only a matter of time before she had to talk to the woman, but Phoebe had been dreading it.

Taking a deep breath. She stepped forward and knocked, turning the handle when she heard a faint "come in".

Phoebe felt uncomfortable under Ms. Gonzalez's gaze. She took a seat, eyes never leaving the woman who had her hands folded in front of a thick folder with her name on it.

"So...you wanted to see me?"

"Yes, your social worker contacted me and suggested we have semi-regular meetings to get you back on track and I agreed."

"Oh." Phoebe wasn't surprised, but that didn't make the news any easier.

Her social worker had mentioned something about part of her recovery involving academic success and more involvement in extracurriculars. She had quit the dance team halfway through her Sophomore year and her grades have been slipping since before that, so this talk was a long time coming.

"Now, I'll be honest, there's not a lot of time left. You're already halfway through your Junior year so we really have to hustle. I can set you up with a tutor if you're comfortable with that. Do you think that will help?"

"I mean, my friends get pretty good grades so I can just study with them." Bee looked away from Ms. Gonzalez's steely gaze.

"I personally would advise against it, friends could be a distraction, but it's ultimately up to you. Your social worker also suggests joining an extracurricular would be beneficial. If you would like to rejoin the Dance Team, if they'll have you, that's fine, but here's a list of alternatives," she opens the folder and pulls out a list of all the available clubs and teams at the school.

Phoebe smiled through the headache and accepted the paper Ms. G was holding out. Just the thought of trying to catch up after slacking off for so long was mentally draining for her.

"Thank you, Ms. Gonzalez. Um, can I leave now?" she pointed to the door, desperate to get out of the suffocating office.

"Yes, I suppose," the woman says with a sigh, folding her hands back on the desk.

"K, thank, great chat," Phoebe mumbles as she nearly sprints out the door.

It isn't until she's fully out that she lets out a deep breath. She doesn't even glance at the paper she was given before shoving it in her backpack with all the other worksheets she's carelessly thrown in there.

"God, that was torture."

●◉◎◈◎◉●

"Hey, so thanks for having me over for dinner."

Phoebe let her bag drop to the floor before flopping on Joey's bed, sighing in content. Joey's place felt like another home to her and somehow she always felt relaxed with her. And after the stressful meeting with the counselor, she needed relaxation.

"Yeah, no problem, Bee."

Bee picked at her chipped black nail polish as she glanced at Joey scrolling through her Instagram. Her eyes go wide and she quickly sits up as she sees Joey lift up her shirt. Her face goes red, mind going blank at the girl's unexpected action.

"Uh, Jojo, w-what-"

"Relax, just showing off my nipple piercing." Joey lifts up her phone and starts taking pictures of her nipple piercing. Joey sends the photo to the group chat and immediately gets a bunch of positive and supportive messages. Bee looks over her friend's shoulder and frowned at the overly enthusiastic text Luke sent, but she didn't comment on it. She didn't think about it too long when she saw Joey get a separate text from Tim and she let out a squeal of excitement.

"I knew it! I fucking knew there was something going on between you two!"

Joey groaned and rolled her eyes as Phoebe shook her shoulder, but still had a wide smile on her face.

"God, dude, stop. It's not even like that."

"Uh huh, but you want it to be," Bee stated matter of factly, smile growing wider as she didn't hear Joey deny it.

"I don't know...Anna would kill us-"

"Yo, fuck Anna. I'm sorry, I love that bitch like crazy, but she can't tell you who you can or can't date."

"Yeah, but maybe she got a point. Like, what if we break up and things are mad weird between us?"

Phoebe goes silent because she had no idea how to respond. It was a question she had been thinking a lot about, just not with Joey and Tim. What if she and Luke broke up? What would happen? She'd thought of a million possible outcomes and none of them were good.

"Bee, you good?"

Phoebe snaps out of her thoughts, realizing she's been quiet for a lot longer than she thought. She nods her head and tries to give her friend a convincing smile.

"Yeah, yeah. All good, just...Look, I'm sure you two will be fine. I say go for it." She notices Joey doesn't look too convinced so she sighs and takes the girl's hand. "Or don't. It's up to you. I completely understand wanting to avoid drama."

"Okay, I'll think about it." Joey stands up, still holding Phoebe's hand as she drags the girl off the bed and out of the room. "C'mon. Dinner should be ready."

●◉◎◈◎◉●

"Dude, I asked you to help me."

"I am helping you," Luke says as he brings his hand farther up her leg, only for Phoebe to bring it back down.

"Not like that, asshole. With my homework. I don't understand how you can be so smart but so dumb at the same time," she sighs, putting down her homework since she wasn't getting anything done.

"Okay, if I help you, what will I get in return for my services?" he whispers in her ear, effectively making her skin crawl.

She desperately needed to get her grades up, but not that desperate.

"You know what? I'll just ask Joey tomorrow." She tosses her homework back in her bag and gets up off the bed, ignoring Luke whining for her to come back. "Calm down, I'm just gonna get ready for bed."

She slips into his bathroom, taking the things she'd stashed in the cabinet out and setting them on the sink. She was pulling her hair into a bun when she frowned, noticing some marks on her neck. They were faint, easy to cover up, but still visible with her hair up. She'd worn a turtleneck that day to hide it, but she couldn't wear one every day or her friends would get suspicious.

She finishes up in the bathroom, washing her face and brushing her teeth, before returning to bed with Luke, already dressed in one of his t-shirts.

He lets out a low whistle and pulls her onto his lap so she was straddling him. She let out a nervous chuckle, not sure what he was doing or what would happen.

"Fuck, babe. You look hot," he practically growled, which confused her even more.

"What are you talking about? I'm in a t-shirt and not even wearing any makeup."

"Yo, am I not allowed to think my girlfriend looks sexy as hell no matter what?"

She mentally cursed herself as his words made her blush. Now was one of the rare moments he actually made her heart flutter and she remembered what made her love him in the first place.

"If you're fucking with me, I swear I-" she poked him in the chest, Luke feigning hurt as her long nails pushed against his skin.

"I'm not fucking with you," he takes the finger she was poking him with and brings it up to his mouth, giving it a little kiss. "Sometimes I forget to tell you how beautiful you are and I'm sorry about that."

All thought of the bruises on her neck and other parts of her body leave her mind as she leans in to kiss him, slowly at first but quickly picking up the pace.

"I love you, Phoebe."

She quickly pulls back, looking at him with wide eyes. It wasn't the first time he's said those words to her, but it was the first time in a long time. Or at least the first time that felt genuine. She spent so long wondering if he still loved her, worrying that she wouldn't be enough for him and he'd cheat on her, but his words reassured her.

She gently grabbed his face, smiling from ear to ear, and kissed him slowly again before pulling away.

"I love you too, Luke."

●◉◎◈◎◉●

Phoebe waited outside the boy's locker room for Luke after the swim meet. She was having the shittiest day and rather be anywhere else, but she didn't want him or anyone else to ask questions so she did what she usually does: bottle everything up.

Her mom had really pissed her off that morning, effectively ruining her whole day. Linda Hertz had the audacity to call her daughter a whore for staying over at her boyfriend's house when the older woman was constantly hooking up with random guys. The irony of the situation would've been laughable if the words didn't hurt so much.

She got so much shit already from people at school, hell even her own friends, that she couldn't stand hearing it at home. She felt like she had nowhere to run, nowhere to escape, but she was desperate. The question is, how far would she go?

"Hey, babe. Thanks for waiting up," Luke came up to her, interrupting her thoughts.

"Of course. How're you feeling?" She gave him a side hug as they walked to his car. She felt bad that he was still benched with a broken leg, but he didn't seem to be too upset about it.

"I'm all good. I'll be back in the water in no time." His positivity about the situation shocked her a bit, but she found comfort in knowing he was okay. "Oh, you going to the movie with us later?"

"Uhhh I don't know, babe. I've had a really bad day and just want to be by myself, maybe blow off some steam. Thinking about going for a run." She helped him into the passenger seat before going around to the driver's side.

"You good? What happened?" He looked at her once she sat down, but all he got was silence as she gripped the steering wheel, not yet putting the keys in the ignition. The look on her face let him know exactly what was wrong. "Shit, your mom? What'd she do?"

"She didn't do anything worse than usual. She just said some pretty nasty stuff that I'd rather not talk about, okay?" One look into his eyes told her that he wanted to talk about it more, but he sighed and let it go.

"Yeah, aight. But lemme know if you change your mind about hangin out."

Phoebe definitely preferred this considerate, lovey-dovey, sweet Luke a lot more than the jerk he so often is. Being with him was like playing a game of Russian Roulette; one moment everything's fine, but there's still that chance of something going horribly wrong. Some days he made her feel like a princess, and luckily today was one of those days.

"I don't know what I'd do without you."

He's the only guy she's ever been with. Just the thought of being with anyone else just felt wrong. She didn't have many positive examples for a happy and healthy relationship, but she figured she had to be doing something right for him to stay with her through all her bullshit.

"Honestly, I think you'd do just fine without me. Do you not realize how fucking smart you are?" She spared him a confused glance as she started the car and took off.

"What are you talking about? My grades suck," she shook her head, laughing. She counted herself lucky every day for having such smart friends because without them she'd surely fail.

"Nah I mean...like that one time the Dance Team was freaking out over the cheap uniform, and you took charge by getting that costume store to donate fabric and making the new uniforms yourself."

She blushed at his praise, despite his words not being entirely true. The fabric hadn't been free and had cost her some feet pics, but it was totally worth it. She probably would've been considered for Captain if she hadn't fallen off the deep end and quit the team altogether.

"Okay yeah, that was awesome. The girls practically worshipped me for weeks." She felt warm and fuzzy just thinking about it. Some of the girls on the team might've been a little bitchy, but she loved it. She loved dancing, loved performing for crowds of people, and she missed it like crazy.

"So why don't you go back?" he asked as if reading her mind.

"Ugh, believe me, I would love to, but I have to wait until next year to audition again. No way those girls would just let me back with how much of a mess I was last year." She sighed in disappointment, thinking about how much of her old life she'd lost. How amazing her life was before she had to go and fuck everything up. Things were slowly starting to get better, but she didn't know if anything would ever be the same.

Phoebe's phone buzzed, and before she could ask Luke to turn it on silent, he reaches into her bag and starts reading her messages. Not wanting to start a fight, especially since she was behind the wheel, she kept her mouth shut and watched him from the corner of her eye.

"Wait, Leila? Why you texting George's girl? You got a thing for Freshmen too now?" he teases.

"No, I gave her my number in case she wanted to talk or whatever. She and her friend seem cool," she shrugs, not wanting to discuss the subject anymore.

"I don't know. I mean, I barely know her, but she seems kinda...desperate. And from what George tells me-"

"We're here!" Phoebe breathes out a sigh of relief, quickly taking the key out of the ignition and unbuckling her seat. Somehow, George always ends up causing problems for the couple, whether he's there or not. She hooked up with him once on a dare, and ever since then Luke had been extra possessive of her when it comes to his best friend, and just in general.

"Look, all I'm saying is," luke starts, not picking up on Phoebe's hint to drop the conversation, "she gives me crazy ex-girlfriend vibes. Like she's mad clingy already and they ain't even fucked yet."

"Okay...so she's a little clingy, but she's probably never had a boyfriend, and the first guy to give even a little attention to her just wants to hook up. Tell me that isn't even a little bit messed up." She handed him his crutches, helping him out of the car.

In all honesty, Phoebe saw a little bit of herself in Leila. When she started going out with Luke, she was also a Freshman, granted they were friends for a few years already, but still. She was just naive and eager to be in her first relationship, causing her to be blind to all his flaws. Friend Luke and Boyfriend Luke were two very different people, and she was the only one who could see that.

"Fine, but if she goes all psycho on him, don't say I told you so."

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a/n: oof it's been almost a month since i updated so, uh, sorry about that i guess. I've actually had this chapter written for weeks but didn't edit or look through it until now. still not 100% sure im happy with it, it's kinda short and sort of a filler chapter, but i think this is as good as im gonna get it for now.

hope yall liked it, and please comment and vote! bye!!!!