╭ ╮
━━━━  " 📂 "

𝙋 𝙃 𝘼 𝙎 𝙀 𝙎

╰ ╯

"THAT IS FUCKING... NO WAY." Kahlia couldn't help it, tapping on the notification from Darren as soon as she got it. She sat up in disbelief, jaw dropping as she got the picture. Ant and Spider looked up at the sudden movement behind them from where they were sitting at the end of the bed.

"You fucking kicked me!" Ant complained, his eyes darting back to the TV screen in front of him.

"What?" Kahlia glanced up from her phone at Spider's question. Ant glared at him and the blond rolled his eyes. She shook her head gently.

"Nothing... nothing, you'll see later." Kahlia pushed herself up from Spider's bed. "On that note, I'm going to meet Darren and Quinni for pres."

"You're leaving? How long has it been since you took the gummy?" Ant asked, concerned.

"Like an hour," Kahlia replied, with a wave of her hand and she glanced around the room. "I'll be fine, I'm just gonna go get the bus. Any message you want me to pass on for Darren?"

Ant let out a groan, his controller thrown back onto the bed. "It was just a wristy!" He said eyes scrunched closed as Kahlia managed to find her jacket and put it on. Spider held up her bag for her to take and she pulled the strap over her shoulder, before coming to a realisation.

"Oh - hey, hey, I'll... I'll walk you out." Spider tossed his controller too as Ant sat up, glaring at his friend once again. "What? Take another fucking gummy or something, fucking hell."

Kahlia watched from behind Spider's back as Ant mouthed something up at him, Spencer only shrugging before turning to her. She pulled open the door and left, waiting for him for another moment before he joined her and shut Ant in.

"Feeling chivalrous today?" Kahlia asked as she followed the familiar trail down out of his house. She could hear his mum in the kitchen as he followed her, shaking her head slowly. "Or just don't want me talking to your mum?"

"You're sure you're okay to go?" Spider asked her, avoiding the question with ease as they slipped out through the front door, beginning to wander down the street, the vision of a populated main road in the distance.

"Yeah." Kahlia nodded. "If the gummies actually had THC in them, Ant would've been knocked out a long time ago." She shrugged and smirked, confident. "Didn't want to ruin it for him, placebo effect and all that."

Spencer nodded. "You're coming cemetery, then?" He shoved his hands into his pockets, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet.

"Course I am, there has to be some audience to your apology."

"Fuck off." He rolled his eyes.

"I'm serious."

"Oh, I know," Spider replied. "Kiss? I'll pay for your share of Ant's gummies. They might be fake, but the guy still paid like thirty dollars for them."

"Sure, whatever." Kahlia even so much as gave him the grace of a smile as she looked up at him, teasing him as he rolled his eyes and kissed her, hand on her waist to steady her. "Haven't you become some kind of romantic?"

"Genuinely, Kahlia, fuck off."

"Fine... fine, I'll go."

She stood up on her tiptoes, gentle fingers brushing over the skin beneath his eyes. "You might wanna get more sleep, Spence, really. Looks like you've been up for weeks." Kahlia smiled and pressed a brief kiss to his lips before settling down on her feet again. "I'll see you later." She said and began to make her way down the road.

"I sleep fine, thanks!" He called after her.

Aviana turned back to face him, smiling. Her head tilted, as she continued to walk backwards, slowly, down the road. "I know you better than that, Spence." She told him and returned to her walk, head bent slightly as she messaged Darren back.

Slowly, after a moment or so of watching, Spencer made his way back up the stairs, into his house. The door shut behind him. "Was that Kahlia leaving, Spenny?" Cait asked, appearing on his shoulder.

"Yeah. Ant's still up there." Spider replied, a foot on the first step. "We've got a party later, going to Dusty's first though. Me and Ant'll stay there after."

"You better look after that girl tonight." His mum replied. "Don't get too drunk, especially if you want to keep seeing her, or whatever you're calling it. All these new fancy labels, you know, you kids are all-"

"Yes, mum." He all but rolled his eyes, and tried to figure a way not to say anything about all the wine-drinking that went on.

"Come on, promise me you'll look after her." Her hand reached out, brushing non-existent dust off his shoulder. "You've got to let me meet her - let me meet the girl who manages to put up with all your phallocentric garbage."

"Sure." He nodded and disappeared upstairs once more. He pushed the door open, and collapsed back down on the bed again, reaching for the controller. "Sorry, mate, Mum wouldn't get off my back about something to do with Kahlia tonight."

"Again?" Ant said, shaking his head. He didn't instantly go back for his own controller, digging into his pockets to pull out his tin. "These aren't strong at all, what the fuck was that guy on about."

Regardless, he popped another in his mouth and began chewing frantically.

✬

"Why do we always have to hang out on rooftops?" Kahlia felt as though she had been travelling for hours, when in reality it was all but half an hour, but the lift up to the top level of the parking garage had been slow and stopped two floors below. "I know Amerie cut her own bangs and everything, major disaster, but come on-"

Darren turned to face her, and with that, they pulled around one of the abandoned shopping trolleys. Amerie was sat within it, looking incredibly sheepish. "Oh, Jesus." Kahlia breathed out. "Give a girl a fucking warning, Darren."

"No - no, it's fine. You're totally fine to chat shit about my bangs." Amerie very almost stood up but decided it wasn't the best idea and remained seated. "You know... considering the whole map thing."

"Yeah." Kahlia rolled her eyes, coming to a stop in front of the three. "I didn't really think that the whole Spider thing would come out, but it's whatever, I've decided I don't care." She crossed her arms over her chest.

"You definitely shouldn't," Amerie replied, eyes wide. "I mean... it's Spider - but you've made that choice and I support you making it. And I'm sorry about putting it on the map."

"Lying isn't your thing, Ams," Kahlia said, pursing her lips. "Spider's clearly not a premium lay... It was a shit thing to do."

"If it makes you feel any better I think it was a pretty boss thing for you to do." Amerie continued, almost rambling out now. "Like he's pretty obsessed with you."

"Yeah, it's kinda creepy." Darren wrinkled their nose.

"Of course, he's obsessed with me, check the material, seriously." Kahlia hummed, but she felt herself slipping quite easily back into a friendship with Amerie. Her gaze landed on the building opposite them. "How's your nose." She sniffed.

"Fine, just stuck a tampon up there," Amerie replied. "Then I cut my own bangs."

"Tragic." Kahlia took several steps over, leaning down and pulling her fingers through them, Amerie letting her. She pulled the hair straight. "You'll be fine. You've not cut it too short."

"And our resident hairdresser is going to fix it." Quinni smiled, and Kahlia settled over on her trolley, arms resting upon it.

Darren dug out a mirror and a pair of scissors from their bag and copied Kahlia's movements from before, brushing through the bangs. They got to work swiftly, and it didn't take long to work their magic, carefully snipping at the hair.

"It's bad, isn't it?" Amerie sighed. "Like irreversible bad?"

They shook their head. "Nah. I shaved off both my eyebrows in year eight, and they grew back." They said, snapping the scissors closed. "Yeah. Way less shit."

Amerie studied her appearance. "More like heaps less shit, thanks!" She grinned.

"Why did Harper punch you in the face?" Quinni asked, all of a sudden. Kahlia met Darren's eyes, eyebrows wiggling. Now this was what she had been promised. Some good drama.

"I don't really know." Amerie replied.

"Well, you must have done something," Darren said.

"We went to that music festival a couple of weeks ago," Amerie told them. "After that, she just went ghost." She frowned, face full of confusion. It didn't explain anything more to them, the girl was lost in thought as Darren, Quinni and Kahlia all shared glances. 

"Did you get into a fight?" Quinni prompted, digging out a bit of melon from her fruit cup.

"Yeah," Amerie replied vaguely. "But I can't remember what it was about, we always fight."

"When's Harper's birthday?" Darren asked.

"November twenty-one?"

"Uh-huh." They nodded and took Quinni's fruit cup when offered. "Scorpio. Unsubscribe."

"What yours?" Quinni asked.

"I'm a Virgo," Amerie replied.

"I'm an Aquarius, Quinni's a Libra, Kahlia's Taurus."

"Oh, are we compatible?"

Darren's expression dropped. "Not all queer people are astrology experts." They said, tone serious. Amerie's face fell, and she went to apologise. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding... we are. I'm gonna need your time of birth, because if you are a Leo moon I am not messing with you."

Amerie didn't say anything, her expression still gloomy as she stared at her feet, lashes fluttering over her cheeks.

"Ams" Kahlia asked, leaning forward. "Listen, I know she's your best friend... but if she's gonna beat you up, literally make you bleed and give you no reason for it at all then she's not your friend. And you don't want to be friends with someone like that."

"Yeah, defo." Darren agreed. "Toxic bitch behaviour."

"Do you feel sad?" Quinni asked, standing up in her trolley. Amerie nodded. "What do you feel saddest about? The fact that you were really popular and now you're not? The fact that Harper doesn't want to be your friend anymore? The fact that everyone knows that you did the map? The fact that we're all currently in sex prison because of you? Or the fact that..."

"Quinni!" Darren interrupted her rambling, the air turning awkward around them.

The tense silence hung for a moment, before Quinni clapped her hands together and began to clamber out of the cart, Kahlia trying her very best to hold it still. "We should try scream therapy!"

"What?"

"Scream therapy." Quinni reiterated. "You scream your frustrations to the moon."

Amerie shook her head. "No..." She protested

"Yes! I think you should - I think we all should. It's helped me before! Come on - let's go." Quinni reached forward and together, she and Darren pulled Amerie up off of the trolley.

"Okay... we're doing it." Amerie looked awkward as she clambered out, following the rest of them over to the edge of the garage. There was a pause, she cleared her throat. "My best friend dumped me!" She yelled. "...Damn, that actually felt good."

"Told you," Quinni replied, turning to Darren.

"Oh... um." They took a moment to think about it, before; "I'm a reject!"

They all turned to look at Kahlia. "I'm not yelling..." She shook her head. Eyebrows were raised, imploring gazes given. "Fuck sake. Fine. Um... All the guys I've slept with are dicks!" She yelled and collected herself. "Except Ant. He's a sweetheart most of the time. Quinni, your go!"

Quinni nodded, without hesitation. "I have a lazy kebab vagina!" She shouted.

"Right." Amerie looked awkward again. "I'm really sorry about that, I should never have put that on the map, Spider's a lying dick."

"Too right." Kahlia nodded.

"Oh, no, it's okay." Quinni smiled. "It doesn't matter, I'm not upset about it anymore. I just wanted to know if my flaps were actually too big."

"I don't think they can be too big." Amerie replied.

"Yeah, that's what my research led me to believe too."

"I'll still look at them if you want me to." Amerie offered.

"Nah. I'm good."

Darren stood up to look back at them. "You know, I used to think you were a real bitch. But getting knocked off your high horse really suits you."

"Make the most of it." Amerie grinned. "I'm definitely changing schools."

"Absolutely not." Kahlia shook her head.

"Yeah, you can't just quit." Darren agreed.

"Everyone hates me," Amerie told them.

"We don't hate you," Quinni said.

"I did hate you for a bit, but now I don't," Kahlia said. "Which is why I'm suggesting we get off this roof, go back to mine and pre for cemetery. I need to get changed, and I have the tiniest dress ever to wear but I need your approval."

Amerie shook her head. "No way."

"Nope, we're going." Kahlia decided, clapping her hands together gleefully. "Come on, get down, there's a bus in ten minutes and that lift sucks fucking balls. I have several bottles of vodka, my mum's expensive gin and an endless wardrobe. We're all going to look cute as... and Quinni will be getting an apology off of Spider."

"Jesus, how did you manage that?" Amerie asked.

"Blowie," Kahlia replied. She received several blank stares. "Fucking hell, I'm kidding - come on."

✬

They approached the cemetery as sunset arrived, pink on the horizon and steadily descending over the students of Hartley High. The four were a little bit drunker than they had been on the rooftop, fuelled by Kahlia's stash of liquor and endless wardrobe, the loud music they played throughout pres pushing them thoroughly into the mood for a party, another gathering where Woodsy would hang her head in shame if she knew about it.

Luckily, it wasn't that far from Kahlia's home, and they hadn't had to worry about stumbling onto buses to get there, having visited it many times before, the girl knew the easiest way to get in, seeing as the gates had been locked to the public much earlier.

They made their way up to the centre of the mayhem, up the pathway to the paved area where their friends were gathered, arms linked. "Okay..." Darren looked nervous. "There's actually a lot of people here." They said.

"I told you!" Amerie hissed, clutching onto Darren's arm with a terrified, vice-like grip.

"Don't worry about it." Kahlia reiterated, for about the fiftieth time that night. It had become almost mantra-like, because as much as Darren and Quinni could try and reassure her, she was the one who had ensured they would all be there, and there was hardly any choice for people to accept otherwise if they were with her. Some might call it a huge ego, others might have just seen her going for Sasha the day before. "Seriously."

"It's gonna be really fun," Quinni said, and she truly sounded more excited this time.

"Yeah, it's gonna be fine. Really fun. Just remember what we said." Darren nodded. "Just own it... Okay, I've never made an entrance like this before."

They seemed to be noticed quite quickly, Harper was standing with Sasha and Missy and they started whispering almost instantly. Dusty raised a beer in Kahlia's direction, but Ant and Spider stood behind him and made a face.

"We should go. We should definitely go." Amerie began pulling back the four of them.

Kahlia decided to send a glare Sasha's way before tugging her

"It's fine, Ams, I promise." She said, with a smile. "Just go get a drink, enjoy your evening, and when everyone gets drunk they'll completely forget everything and it'll be fine. Just have another shot." Her attention returned to the makeshift dance floor and saw Malakai approaching. "Speaking of, I'm gonna go do that."

Kahlia pulled her arm out of the grasp of her friends, fingertips dragging down the hem of her dress. "Malakai." She smiled, sweetly, as she passed, as he approached Amerie, Darren and Quinni.

"Hi, Kahlia." He replied and came to a stop in front of a terrified Amerie. Kahlia slowed her step, glancing back, hoping that he wasn't upset about the map - she would be fuming if she had been roped into a class like SLTs without even having begun at the school. "Hey, cunt." He greeted her, and from what Kahlia could see he was smiling. "My actual name's Malakai, by the way."

And Kahlia didn't hear the rest of it, because there was a hand on her's and guiding her slowly towards the speakers. "Spider." She looked up at him. "Did you break the news to Ant about his gummies?"

"Nah, reckon he'll figure it out when he doesn't go batshit insane when drinking." Spider shrugged.

"Don't be a dick."

"I think he figured it out," Spider assured her, his hand drifted away from her wrist as he tipped the beer bottle back against his lips. "Yeah, he's DJing." His lips pursed and eyes travelled over her shoulder. "Why the fuck is Map Bitch here? I thought you were pissed because of the whole map thing. And you know, SLTs."

Kahlia glanced back. Malakai was handing a drink to Amerie. "Because I wanted Amerie to be here." She replied. "Is that a problem?" She asked, head tilting, just waiting for him to say something stupid.

Spider knew exactly what would happen if he said anything otherwise. "Nah." He decided. "I'll get you a drink." He offered.

"Thanks..." Already a little tipsy, a couple shots deep from the journey there (they weren't not going to pre, that was insane), Kahlia smirked. "Coming back to mine after?"

"Reckon I might do." Spider pulled her along again, as Malakai began dancing behind her, and Darren, Qunni and Amerie soon followed. Kahlia took a seat on the hunk of rock Dusty was, Spider somewhere behind her, pouring her out a drink.

"Those gummies were a total dud by the way," Ant told her, pushing his headphones off of his ear for a moment, still dancing. "I took about three."

"I told you to get a new dealer," Kahlia told him, and flung an arm over Dusty's shoulder, as Spider handed her a drink. "Thanks, Spence." She smiled, already a little bit tipsy. "Your mum have a chat with you yet, Dusty?"

"Yeah, told me that she couldn't believe I'd done that to her." Dusty shook his head. "It was a bit overdramatic, to be honest."

"Yeah, mine told me that she couldn't look me in the eyes again." Kahlia rolled her eyes and took a sip of her drink. "I think the whole threesome thing tipped it over the edge."

"Still mad I wasn't invited."

"As if I wanted your riddled dick near me again," Kahlia told him, shaking her head. "As if!" She sipped on her drink. "Doesn't matter, think we've ruined those god-awful dinners for a couple of months now."

"Come on, Kahlia." Quinni extracted herself from the group dancing, reaching for the girl, who nodded, held a finger up and downed the rest of her drink, letting Quinni take her hands and pulling her up from the stone.

She joined the fray, drinks were passed and the sun disappeared beyond the ocean-covered horizon, as she danced. It was almost, for that time, as Amerie, Quinni and Darren pulled her along, that the atrocities of the week hadn't happened, and her sex life hadn't been laid out in front of the school. Her parents didn't know the secrets she purposefully kept, and everything was just the same as it had been during the holidays. Perfect, calm and ultimately, classified.

Nobody knew who she had sex with, nobody - excluding a few, select people - knew she was having sex with Spider, and nobody knew that she had hooked up with some random guy in Melbourne, the same random guy who had all of a sudden appeared at her high school at the beginning of eleventh grade. Amerie hadn't betrayed her trust, Harper hadn't completely changed in the space of two weeks and everything was as it should have been.

Now it was like that. As the sky became an inky black, the cemetery far away enough from the city for the light pollution to fade away into non-existence behind them and they could enjoy an evening away from school and parents and the drama of it all. Hours slipped by into nothingness, and Kahlia had found herself back in old habits, a cigarette hanging from her fingers as she leaned against a gravestone, stroking a random girl's hair as she threw up.

She was drunk enough to not know who it was - Lucy, Julia, maybe Becky? She didn't know, but she had seen the girl wander off and followed her without thinking, her legs stretched out in front of them.

"Just get it all up." Kahlia lacked the necessary niceness of someone who was trying to help the girl but said it nonetheless. "You'll feel better afterwards, swear on it."

"Swear?" The girl repeated, before gagging again.

Kahlia's nose wrinkled, and took a drag of the cigarette, breathing smoke into the night. Everyone knew it didn't count when drunk. "Yeah, promise." She replied. "Then you can drink again, and everything is alright in the world." She said, brushing her hands in what she attempted to be soothing through the girl's hair.

"Thought I'd lost you." Kahlia looked up and found Spencer standing above her, offering her a hand. She stubbed out the cigarette and threw it into the abyss of the night and took it, pulled again him. "Who's this?"

"Don't know." She shrugged, as he pressed another drink into her hands. "Thanks." Kahlia took a sip, and whatever liquor was in it didn't taste as bad anymore. "Hold on..." She squinted as she looked into the crowd of people not so far away, trying to find someone. "Don't know... don't know... Livvy - what the fuck is she doing here."

"Reckon Dusty wants to hook up," Spider replied.

"Fuck's sake." Kahlia rolled her eyes and drank some more. "Livvy - yes, you, dumb bitch - Livvy!" The blonde-haired girl turned around. "Come over here and look after her, she's supposed to be your friend."

"Is she?" Spencer asked.

"Couldn't tell you even if I was sober," Kahlia replied, taking the lead as they made their way back to the others, the fire. She felt a hand curve over her waist, pull down the hem of her dress and turn to face him, continuing to walk, albeit slower when backwards. "You like it?" She asked.

Her dress. Black and tiny, a little looser below the waist and brushing over the top of her thighs. There were two red bows on the halter neck, and mesh sleeves pulled up over her arms. The stupid stick-n-poke tattoo, a sun, given in the summer on a night very much like the one she was living presently, was visible on her shoulder.

"Yeah." Spider nodded, eyes flickering over her appearance. "Yeah, suits you. Wore it for me?" He asked, drunken and hopeful.

"No... unless, you don't piss me off tonight, then... maybe." Kahlia smiled, and turned back around with a flounce, joining Ant and Dusty by the laptop and the speakers they had hooked up to. Her drink was discarded on the floor for a brief moment, and her hands appeared on Dusty's shoulders as Spider trailed up behind her, more than used to the behaviour.

It was how it had always been. Flirting when nobody was around, getting on in empty rooms and quiet corners and leaving together when nobody would bat an eye and notice. They were friends, were they not? Kahlia did not know why she had worried so much about everything, the worry was entirely useless. It was like nothing had changed. At least that was how she felt at that moment.

"Lia." Dusty grinned, looking up at her.

"Don't sleep with Livvy." She told him, suddenly serious.

Dusty frowned. "I'm not gonna not sleep with someone just because you don't want me to, Lia." He told her.

"Why would you want to sleep with her anyway?" Kahlia asked. "She was caught mazzing in the library, apparently used her mum's vibrating toothbrush as a dildo and she and Jessica what's-her-name scissored in the cabin where me, Amerie and Harper were trying to sleep last year. And they were on the top bunk!"

"Who was below them?" Ant asked, leaning forward.

"Who do you think?" Kahlia replied. "I was traumatised."

"You hung up all her clothes and shit from the trees the next day." Spider chimed in.

"Yeah, Lia, I'm not just gonna not sleep with her because you hate her."

"Fine." Kahlia stood up. Harper walked over and began asking Ant to put something in the queue. "I thought you would appreciate my opinion more than this, so... Livvy has the clap."

"Who has the clap?" Harper asked, leaning forward.

"Livvy, the blonde psycho." Kahlia rolled her eyes. "Broke bitch tries to steal my bags-"

"She wanked in the library once," Harper added. Kahlia looked pleased, folding her arms across her chest as Dusty sighed. "And she definitely has the clap. She slept with Malcolm after he slept with Saskia, who got it from that dude with that really unfortunately placed mole."

"Charlie?" Ant's eyes widened. "Shit, Charlie has the clap?"

"No, idiot, he got tested and sorted it out," Harper replied. "Now put on that song."

"What did I tell you, Dusty." Kahlia shrugged. "Bitches like Livvy aren't worth all the philosophical deep talk you make up to get them to hook up with you." She reached for her drink and drank the rest, happy her message had been passed on.

Quinni, clutching a folder, brushed past several people dancing and came to a stop in front of Spider, tapping him on the shoulder. He looked up and sighed, glancing over to Kahlia, who simply raised her eyebrows.

"Hey, flaps," Ant said, surprised. Both Kahlia and Harper hit him gently in the chest.

"Hey, Spider," Quinni said, and shoved the folder into his chest, forcing him to take it.

Spider began to flip through it, laughing. "Yuck!" He exclaimed. "What is this shit?"

"Oh." Quinni frowned. "You don't like vaginas?" She asked.

"No, I like vaginas." Spider corrected. He glanced back to Kahlia  - apparently, this was not what he had in mind when she told him that he was going to apologise to Quinni, or else something he definitely did not want to happen would inevitably end up happening. Kahlia much appreciated the whole friends-with-benefits situation, but she was stubborn as hell and would stick to her word. The girl simply raised her eyebrows and took a sip of her... well, one of her drinks.

"Right, okay." Quinni continued regardless. "Well, you clearly don't know much about them because if you have a look... um, first one... here..." She flipped over several pages, finger jabbing a certain one, "if you have a look here, you'll see most vaginas have very pronounced flaps, or labia, and some of them, um, are even quite lopsided, which I'm assuming is where you got the entire 'lazy kebab' from, but, it's very common, it's very, very, normal-"

Spider glanced back at the group again. Kahlia was glaring at him and he returned to stare down at the pages Quinni was flicking through. "You probably wouldn't know because it's not actually taught in public schools very much which is actually-"

"I've seen heaps of vaginas, thanks." Spider interrupted her, closing the file with a slam and pushing it back into her hands.

"Okay..." Quinni clutched the file to her chest. "I just assumed, on account of the fact that you were  lying about seeing mine, that you were also lying about seeing others, too?"

Sasha was the first to laugh, curling around into Missy's side. Others joined in quickly, the sight not often to be seen. Spider said nothing, brushing past her shoulder silently, rolling his eyes as he rejoined Ant, Dusty, Harper, who was grinning, and Kahlia, who had a sour look on her face as she continued to sip on her drink. 

Spider retrieved a near-empty bottle of vodka that had been hidden in the longer grass left abandoned around the pavilion. When they initially started hosting parties there, much to the local cops' dismay, the unused benches had been ripped from the concrete that held them down. Not that it deterred them, but the checkered tiles remained regardless, now surrounded by an overgrown wilderness.

Dusty was the first to catch Kahlia's expression when his gaze followed Spider. Kahlia was doing the same, eyes narrowed into a glare as the blonde took several mouthfuls of the clear alcohol, grimacing. He reached out to nudge Ant, nodding over to Kahlia.

"Ohhh shit." Ant grinned.

"What?" Spider asked snappishly. Evidently, he hadn't enjoyed Quinni dragging him down a peg or two. Ant's eyebrows rose silently and Spencer turned to her. "Oh, Jesus fuck, Kahlia, what now? Pissed I didn't apologise - didn't exactly give me a chance for that, did she?"

"What the fuck do you mean you've seen heaps of vaginas?" Kahlia asked him. "What the fuck did you mean?" She asked.

"Oh, shit," Spider repeated Ant's words, less of the joking behind them. "Listen-"

"'Oh, shit'." Kahlia rolled her eyes. "Yeah, oh shit! What the fuck do you mean you've seen loads of vaginas?" She reiterated. 

"That's not what I meant." Spider glanced around, certainly aware of the attention that had fallen upon them, especially after Quinni. "Lia, c'mon, you know that's not what I meant. Let's go talk." He offered.

"What the fuck did you mean then?" She snapped. "How else am I supposed to take that? I actually fucking hate you sometimes Spider - what the fuck!" He had reached for her hand and was dragging her forward, towards the wall that separated the cliffside cemetery and the sea below and away from everyone else. "What the fuck?" She asked, drunker than she initially thought she was.

"Why have you dragged me over here? You trying to give me the clap... maybe Woodsy wasn't joking when she said you had crabs?" She asked.

"I don't have anything!" Spider hissed. "I haven't seen loads of vaginas, Kahlia, for fuck's sake."

Kahlia didn't say anything for a moment, looking up at him. She swallowed, finally listening to what he was actually saying, and cleared her throat. "Fine." She sniffed. "Let's talk. And if I have to go get tested you're paying for any of it."

"What are you staring at?" Spider asked, glaring down at where Livvy was still sitting with the girl.

"Fuck off, Livvy." Kahlia snapped and let Spider guide her forward to the wall, the pitch black of the ocean behind her back as she pulled herself up to sit on the stokes, disregarding the uncomfortable grooves of stone digging into her thighs. She was just about drunk enough not to care.

"When this whole thing has been happening, I haven't seen anyone else's." Spider reiterated, rolling his eyes. "And I haven't seen Quinni's. I swear, like never."

Kahlia looked up at him, head tilted. "I know you haven't, She has better standards than I do." She replied impertinently, a smile slowly creeping onto her lips.

"Fuck off, Lia," Spencer replied. "All I'm saying is I've not fucked anyone that isn't you since we've started... y'know. I know you have... but you were in Melbourne and we've already talked about it - that's fine, I don't care that you slept with him... I've not hooked up with anyone else but you."

She looked down, drunken and somewhat embarrassed, because suddenly all Spider was doing was making sense for some reason and she didn't have to spend hours of her life convincing him of something. "Yeah, I know." She replied.

"So there's no point getting upset-" 

That snapped her right back to reality. That and that stupid little smirk. "Trust me, I'm not upset."

"Jealous, then."

"Why would I be jealous?" She asked, voice smooth and low, smiling prettily, irritatingly.

"Then why keep going on about it?" He asked. She looked up at him, still smiling, but didn't say anything. "I like this." Spider glanced down, beyond the expression, a thumb running below the hem of her dress. "Suits you."

Kahlia followed his movements, his fingertips cold against her thighs. "Wore it for you." She admitted, reaching for his hand when she felt goosebumps on her skin. Maybe he hadn't pissed her off that much. Their fingers intertwined.

"Yeah?" Spencer asked, his voice lilting upwards as he did so. "Wore it all for me?"

"All for you," Kahlia repeated back. Behind him, the music became louder. Someone threw something in the fire and for a moment it roared to life. "Just for you, Spence."

He shook his head and kissed her, like he always did, a hand on her waist and another on her cheek, pulling her up to him because wherever they were she was never quite tall enough.  

"Right here?" She pulled away. "Really, Spencer? In front of everyone?"

"Don't see why not."

Her fingers curled around the hard, jagged edge of the wall and peered over his shoulder. "We're not exactly hidden away, Spence." She looked back up at him, head tilting. "Although... don't see why we have to now, with the whole Incest Map and everything."

Spider didn't say anything for a brief moment, following her gaze back towards the party where Dusty and Ant were still chatting to Harper, and Livvy was hanging around them awkwardly. Desperately.

"You still coming back to mine either way?" He asked. Better to keep Kahlia distracted; clearly she was in the mood for a scrap and even though he would definitely rather it be Livvy or Sasha than him, they could probably all do without it.

"Thought you could come back to mine, take advantage of the fact my dad won't be home for another couple of days yet and... y'know, don't have to worry about sneaking me out or hiding me from your mum." She smiled up at him, more than feeling the copious amounts of vodka she had drunk, her arms snaking around his neck. 

"Guys!" Came a shout from the crowd. The pair paused, peering over through squinted eyes to try and make out who was shouting. Ant was running back to the group. "Cops!"

Panic ensued, as blue lights flashed and a siren chirped louder than the music they had been playing. Scrambling for belongings, Kahlia watched as her friends and, well, the rest of them, began to tear away from the light of the fire, disappearing into 

"What, d'you wanna get arrested?" Spider asked, breaking her out of the comfortable blurriness of staring. He was holding a hand out to her and without a second thought she took it, hopping down off the wall and following him as they ran towards the back gates.

"Hey, bag!" Dusty appeared as though from nowhere, tossing the lump of fabric in Kahlia's direction as they approached the gates. Without a second thought, he and Spencer knelt and put their hands together, giving Kahlia a boost over the gate. 

Scraping a knee on the metal, the alcohol numbing the pain and realisation almost instantly, she dropped down to the ground, standing up on her tiptoes to take the case of beer before she was joined by Spencer. 

"Dusty, what the fuck are you doing?" Spider asked as they turned back to see that he wasn't following him. 

"Just go." Dusty waved. Ant was helping Quinni over, which Kahlia decided to ignore at that moment. "Go, the cops are coming." 

"Shit." Kahlia saw the bobbing of flashlights and began to back away. "Shit, Spence, if he wants to wait for her let her fucking wait for her." She met his eyes and he shrugged. 

And as the cops grew ever closer, they turned and set off at a run once more.