The Flood

I woke up to Alan shoving me off the bed and throwing my bathing suit at me while shouting, “YOU HAVE FIVE MINUTES TO GET READY BEFORE WE WAKE EVERYONE ELSE UP!”

“You know, if you shout loud enough, everyone will wake up.” I said, walking to the bathroom. I brushed my hair, brushed my teeth, braided my hair, and changed into my bathing suit. I pulled on a pair of shorts and walked back out.

“Alright, who's first?” I asked.

“Are you going to put on a shirt?” Alan asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

“You’re barely going to give me time to take of my shorts before you throw me in. There is no point.”

“Okay, so first I say Austin, Fred, James, then Lily, Rose and Tabitha, Josh, Tino, and Phil, Dom and Ashley. Then we get Vic and Teddy, Mike, and Hammy, Al and Scorp, and save Anna for last.”

“Alright. We got it.”

We left my room very quietly, sneaking out into the hall to the room Austin, James, and Fred were sharing. We quietly opened the door. They all looked so cute and peaceful- but not for long.

“So what’s the plan? Yell really loud or jump on each one of them individually?” Alan asked.

“Let me get this one.” I pulled out my wand, did a silencing charm on the room, and then charmed buckets of ice to the top of the bed frame of each of their beds. It was set to fall in exactly one minute. I put up my wand. “One minute ‘til they fall. So we wait.”

And wait we did. When the time came, they started to fall slowly. You could hear the ice hit them.

“FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!” James yelled.

“GODS THAT’S COLD AS HELL!” Fred joined in.

“Alan, Nyx I hate you both.” Austin complained.

“We do what we do.”

Fred and James came to their senses after a moment. “Wait, what are you doing in our room, Nyx? Why are you half naked?” James asked the first part, Fred had the second. They completed their sentences on a regular basis.

“Well, you guys have until we wake the rest of everyone up to get ready for a day on Paradise. We’ll be back.” I dragged Alan out by the hand into the hall way, down the steps and into the guest building where everyone else but Anna was sleeping. Vic and Teddy moved out here shortly after Warped. I quietly opened the door and shoo’d Alan in. We went down to the room Lily, Rose, and Tabitha were occupying.

“Alright. This one’s on you ginger boy.” He opened his mouth and started screaming about how their latest sexual exploits were published in tabloids.

Rose was the first to react. “FUCK FUCK FUCK! I TOLD SCORPIOUS NOT TO TELL AL! GOD I’M GONNA DIE!”

“DADDY’S GONNA KILL AL, THEN HARRY! OH GOD, MY DAD’S GOING TO GO TO AZKABAN BECAUSE HE’S GOING TO KILL THE SAVIOUR OF THE WIZARDING WORLD!” Tabitha yelled.

“But I’m a virgin?” Lily said, looking confused.

“SHUT UP!” I yelled.

“Yes?” They all said at the same time, just noticing us.

“We were kidding. We just had to get you up. You have five minutes to get dressed and meet us on the beach. I love you!” I ran out of the room, dragging Alan along before anything could be thrown at me.

“So Josh, Tino, and Phil are our next victims?” Alan asked.

“Yup.” I said as we walked to their door.

“This one needs to be planned out. It has to be brutal.”

“How about I levitate the beds together and we jump on them?”

“That works.” Alan said as he pushed open the door. I pulled out my wand and had the beds barely an inch off the ground and gently set them next to each other. “Before we jump on them, I’m getting Phil and Tino this close together.” The way I had placed the beds together, Tino and Phil looked like they were cuddling. Alan took their picture.

“Ready?”

“Ready.”

“On the count of three.”

“One.”

“Two.”

“THREE!”

We dived on to the beds and started jumping.

“GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP!” We were shouting and jumping. I’m sure my foot touched Phil’s hair. It was ridiculously soft.

“OW! That was my hand, douchebag.” Josh screamed.

“Oh, well looks like you’re all up now, so change yourself into beach clothes. Five minutes. LOVE YOU!” I said while getting down off the bed.

“You guys are crazy.” Tino said

“You woke me up.”

“Five minutes.” Alan said as we shut the door. As we walked to Dom and Ashley’s room we heard voices on the other side.

“Don’t you two even dare come in here. We are already up!”

I shrugged. Less work for me to do.

Next Al and Scorp, “I got this one.” I said with a shrug. This was going to be easy. “OH MY GOD! YOU’RE GIRLFRIENDS ARE PREGNANT!”

“WHHHAAAT?! They both yelled as they fell off of their beds.

“Shut up!” Alan yelled at them, and then they looked at us.

“We were joking. Get ready for the beach.” I said.

We walked to the biggest room in the guest house. “Alan, go to Vic, Jaime, and Mike’s door. We’ll bang on it, that way we get the rest of them up. Wait.” I looked down the hall to make sure that no one was coming out of their room. I conjured two air horns and tossed one to Alan. “On the count of three? We go in and blast them. That way everyone out here is up.”

“Alright. One. Two. Three.”

I busted through Teddy and Vic’s door and closed my eyes as I started making the air horn as loud as possible. I could hear Alan doing the same across the hall.

“We’re up!’ Vic yelled as she shot up out of her bed.

“Good. Five minutes to get down to the beach. I love you.” I ran into The Mexican’s room and slammed the door real loud as I started with my air horn again. They fell out of their beds.

“Oh good, you’re up.” Alan said. “Get changed and it’s beach time in five minutes.” He smiled at them. I jumped on his back.

“Let’s go.” He started his air horn and I did mine. He ran through the guest house, past Austin, James, and Fred’s room, and then outside of Anna room. She had already heard the air horns, so she was ready by the time we reached her door.

Well, that saved us time. I turned Alan around and we made our way back to Austin’s room until the rest of them were ready.

“WHAT IF I WAS NAKED WHEN YOU CAME IN HERE!?” Fred shouted as we opened the door.

“Why is the door still open and I’m not even wearing real pants yet?” James said.

“Are you two just gonna sit on the floor like that until we’re ready?” Austin asked.

“Can you close the door?” James complained.

“Seriously? Nyx. Close the door.” Fred said.

“Nope.”

“Alan, make Nyx close the door.” Fred whined

“You really think I can make her do anything?”

“But please?”

“I WILL GET NAKED RIGHT HERE AND RIGHT NOW IF SOMEONE DOESN’T CLOSE THAT FUCKING DOOR!” James bellowed. Anna walked by the door then and slammed it shut.

“Happy now?” I smirked.

“Ish.”

“Well are you guys read yet?”

“I don’t even have swimming trunks on yet.” Austin said.

“Well put them on.” Alan replied.

“I can’t.”

“And why not?”

“I have to get naked.”

“Really? Just hide behind the curtains or something.”

“I don’t wanna do that.”

“I have an idea.” Alan suddenly said. He looked at Fred and James, then somehow they both knew that he was going to tackle me face first into the floor. I’m glad it had carpet.

“GET OFF ME!” I yelled from the bottom of the pile.

“Austin! Change! Hurry before she sees!” Alan shouted.

“Dude! If he would have asked nicely I would have waited in my room for him to get changed.”

“Well, I didn’t know that, now did I?”

“No you didn’t but did you even ask? No, you didn’t. So all of this is NOT NEEDED!”

“But it’s fun.”

“And I’m pretty comfortable. James why are you so fluffy?”

“Alan, get off.”

“I can’t.”

“Too bad. Do it.”

“But I can’t!”

“Do it.”

“I can’t.”

“Figure it out.”

“Tell Fred to move. He’s the one who’s at the top of the pile.”

“Guys?” Austin said.

“Alan, it was your idea. Now. Move.”

“WHY DON’T YOU TWO JUST GO MAKE OUT ALREADY?!” Fred shouted.

“Oh GODS! EWWWWW!”

“What the fuck dude! That’s fucked up. She’s like my sister!”

“I think I’m gonna throw up for someone even thinking that. I need to brush my teeth.”

“Just ew.”

“Guys?” Austin repeated.

“I can’t even… Just ew.”

“How could you even. Just gross.”

“Guys.”

“Fred, just no. That’s like me telling you to go make out with Roxy. Just gross.”

“I seriously need to brush my teeth. I think I threw up a little in my mouth.”

“I was kidding. No need to overreact.”

“But still just EW.”

“Low blow dude, low blow.”

“GUYS! Shut up!” Austin shouted.

“Huh?” Alan, Fred, and I all turned and looked at him. James was trying his best not to laugh at us.

“We can go to the beach now. I’m ready.”

“Goodie!” I jumped up from under the pile of best friend, asshole, and James, and hopped on to Austin’s back “To the beach. Wait, Alan, toss me my air horn.” He obliged. “Off we go!” We ran through the house, down the stairs, outside through the guest house and out onto the beach. It was going to be a good day.

--

It was just Austin and I on the beach. Everyone else had either left to go get food, or went inside to enjoy the air conditioning. I was enjoying laying out on the towel out in the sunshine.

“Are you going to do anything remotely productive today? Or is today going to be one of those lazy, I’m-not-doing-shit days.”

“I’ll choose the latter option, please.”

“Of course you would Nyx. Of course.”

“Hey, when you have the option would you rather deal with stuff you don’t want to deal with, or be at the beach all day getting this fantastic tan.” I held up my arms to his. I was almost darker than he was. This had been going on since the week of my birthday. Austin and I were seeing who could get more tan.

“Hey, you’re almost beating me.”

“I’m close.”

“Well, if I stay out here with you as much as you’re out here by yourself, we’ll just stay the same color all summer.”

“You like spending time with me, don’t lie.”

“I cannot argue with that. You are pretty enjoyable to hang out with. Except for, ya know when you’re waking me up by throwing water on me.”

“Hey, Alan pushed me off the bed and I couldn’t be the only one woken up rudely, now could I?” I smiled at him.

“Of course not. What kind of world would it be if you got treated unfairly and the rest of the house didn’t have to suffer as well?”

“A horrid one. It would be absolutely horrible.”

“If you say so.”

“I will throw you in the water.”

“Why would you do such a thing?”

“No idea.”

“I don’t think you could, though. You’re so tiny. I highly doubt you could pick me up, anyways.”

“I could if I felt the energy to, I’m sure. But alas, I’m a lazy person. So we will not find this out today.”

“Do you want to get in the water?”

“I’m thinking about it. It looks really nice.” The thing was, it did, from my position of laying on my stomach next to Austin. The way the light reflected off the surface made me think of something, but I’m not quite sure what.

“It does, doesn’t it?”

“Very much so. In like five ten minutes I’ll get up and get in.”

Austin started to get up. “Not five or ten minutes. More like now.” He hoisted me on his shoulder.

“NO! I don’t want to be in the water now!!” I half-yelled, half-laughed.

“Too bad!” and that’s when I got thrown, like literally thrown, into the ocean. Not tossed, not even sat down nicely. Legit thrown. Payback time.

“Come here, Austin.” I said.

“No.”

“Seriously though, come here.”

“But I don’t wanna. You’re gonna hurt me.”

“I swear on my two namesakes and Alan’s guitar that I will not hurt you if you come here.” I bargained.

He looked at me. He was studying me, trying to tell if I was bluffing. I wasn’t. I’m wasn’t going to hurt him. Just get him really wet. Wait, that sounds dirty.

“Promise me.”

“I promise that I won’t hurt you if you just come here.”

“That won’t work.” He smirked. He had lately started making people use formal promises like ‘I, *insert your name here* promise *insert whatever you are promising here.*’

“Really? I have to go through all that rubbish just to get you to come here?”

“One. Your British is showing, and two, Yes you do.”

“UGH! Fine!” He laughed at me. I shot him a look. “I Venus Nyx Winterburn promise that I will not hurt you, Austin Robert Carlile, if you come over here.” I stuck my tongue out at him. He started walking toward me. I started slowly backing away so he was in a deeper part than what I was.

“Hey, stop backing away!”

“Just do it. Wait! Stop there! Stay! I need something!” I said. He stopped, so I just skipped past him and about halfway to the shore to where it was easy for me to run, and I knew he’d at least fall in a deep-ish part off the water. I started running toward him. He heard me, but didn’t think about it. Idiot. I jumped on his back and we both went under. Small price to pay for payback. He came up and splashed me.

“Hey! What was that for?” I laughed and splashed him back

“You jumped on my back and dunked me!” He splashed again.

“You threw me in the water first. It was just payback. And I didn’t hurt you so I didn’t break my promise so ha!” I splashed him one last time with my kick off as I swam away.

“Come back here!” I heard through the water. When I stopped swimming he was nowhere to be seen, and I was just floating. Right as I thought that, I got jerked underwater.

“You jerk! That was totally unnecessary!”

“Was so necessary.”

“What in your right mind makes you think that?”

“Payback.”

“This is war.” I went under the water and swam away before he could reply. I swam to a little sand bar and sat on the edge. Then I saw the dark shape of him underwater. When he got to a close distance, I got in the water and was about five feet in front of him. I just stood there waiting on him to surface. He swam into me.

“Really? War? Is war necessary for me just dunking you one measly little time?” He asked. I threw a bit of sand at him. “Sand. You’re throwing sand now.”

I hit him again but this time with a seashell, “Hey you started this. Remember, you’re the one who threw me into the water to begin with, so this is your entire fault.” I dived into the water right as he threw some sand.

“You crafty woman!!” I stuck my tongue out at him and swam around the sand bar. I loved this place; it was where Alan and I would spend hours as kids just talking. Suddenly, I was tackled. Once I resurfaced, I had to spit out the water from my mouth.

“You got water in my mouth.”

“Oops.”

“That’s not good for you.”

“What do yo-“ I splashed him with water and it went into his mouth, He spit it out. “I forfeit. I’m done. I give up.”

“You’re weak, Austin.”

“Not weak, just watching out for my personal safety.”

I lay down on the sand bar. He sat beside me. “Whatever helps you sleep at night Austin, whatever helps you sleep.“

“So what are we going to do now?” He asked. His eyes looked really nice, reflecting the blue from the ocean.

“Well, I’m totally cool with just chillin' here for a little bit.”

--

Austin’s P.O.V. Two days later.

--

God, I was exhausted. I needed a shower. More importantly, I needed time alone.

“Everyone, minus Teddy and Vic, get your ass on the front patio in five minutes or you’re going to have hell to pay!” Nyx screamed for some reason. I was chilling in the room that I seldom have to myself, as I shared with Fred and James, and Nyx and Alan or someone else is always around. I needed to think about something.

I walked out to the front patio. Alan, Nyx and Anna were at the head of the table, which was weird. Anna always sits there by herself. I wondered what this was about. After most people starting walking (running) in there, I asked Alan, “Hey what’s going on?”

“Just wait, you’ll find out.” He said.

I looked around. Almost everyone was here. The Wotters (minus Teddy and Vic), Josh, Ashley, Tino, Phil, Steph, Mike, Jaime, Tony. They were only here because Steph was, I’m pretty sure.

“So you people are all here for a reason. I have something to tell you, something that only Anna, Alan, Teddy and Vic know,” That explained why they weren’t here. “And I needed to tell all of you at some point in time, because you are all my dear friends and it’s something really big about not only myself, but my relationship with Alan and my sister.”

“Okay, so?” Fred asked quietly.

“So this is really hard for me. There are things I don’t remember that these two will help you understand. There are things that are going to be hard to understand now. But I will take the time to talk to each of you alone, or a group of people. It’s your choice, but I will help you understand all that went on.”

“Okay?” James said.

Nyx let out a deep breath. This was something that was bothering her. She was leaning Alan more than she normally does when she’s tired. Her hair isn’t even braided, which in itself is a miracle. She’s still in her pajamas. This must be big.

“Okay, so here goes. Fourth year started out like any other. Alan and I pulled pranks, we got in trouble, we did everything together. It was to the point where I had a mini-trunk in his dorm 'cause I’d stay there most of the time. Well one day Alan and I got in a little argument. It wasn’t anything big but it turned into it. After we had gotten into it I went walking around and was looking for Anna to talk to her, but I couldn’t find her. So I was sitting in one of the hallways upset, and this guy sat down beside me and starting talking to me. This guy’s name was Blake Ehr, if I had known that at the time I would have got up and left but I didn’t and I was upset.”

“Blake and I never got along, at all.”

“Anyways, he was the one who got me over what Alan had said that night, but he also got me to think that Alan was doing some stuff that I didn’t agree with and that Anna had known and been keeping it from me. The next day I blew up at both of them, calling them liars and saying some stuff that I never meant, and that I regret to this day. Blake and I had gotten close so we started going out. When we first started dating, everything was great, it was ‘perfect,’ everything a relationship should be.” She used air quotes around the word perfect. “That changed. One day I had mentioned something about missing Alan and Anna. I hadn’t talked to them since I blew up, which wasn’t something I could do under normal circumstances, and he well… he hit me, saying that I shouldn’t miss people who lied to me.” Wait. What? The fuck did I just hear? “At the time, we were a month or two into the relationship, after that I learned not to mention either of them in front of him again. He had apologized for hitting me, saying that he didn’t mean to; he was just upset that I was considering to talk to them again. I had thought it was an honest mistake, but little by little everything I did became wrong and he kept hitting me. I never told anyone about it then. By the time we had been dating six months he was hitting me every day, and emotionally abusing me as well, telling me that I would be nothing without him. I believed him too, that’s the sad part.” With those words, I felt the sudden need to go find this dude and kill him; I did not care if I have to trek cross country to do it. How could you hurt someone as amazing as her? “Then one day, he just dumped me. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t talk to Alan about it, or Anna. So I sat in my dorm at nights, only coming out for meals and class, I cut myself.” She pulled up her sleeves, her pant legs and there they were scars. Not just little scars, although there were small ones. Mostly there were big ones, fully healed ones, and ones that didn’t heal correctly, all kinds. Nyx was crying; I wanted to hug her and tell her everything was going to be fine. She doesn’t cry. Dear god, what am I thinking? I seriously need time to figure out everything going on in my head. Nyx seemed ready to talk again after the general shock of that revelation. “It was something that I thought was helping me. It was, to a point, but not in the way I needed help. During one of the worst nights, it had been almost a month since Blake and I broke up, and that night I was considering suicide, and I would have done it.” She lifted up her hair and necklaces and then showed everyone the thin line that went from right behind her ear all the way around her neck to the other ear. Oh my god. Just. Wow. “I had done this, if it was even a millimeter deeper I would have died instantly, but it wasn’t. I hadn’t gone to classes or dinner that week, and I never noticed Alan watching me while we ate or during class.” Nyx was crying still. Alan was holding up most of her weight, and Anna was looking at her sister like she shouldn’t have told all of us. Alan looked like he lost his best friend again.

“We knew Nyx and Blake broken up. We didn’t know why, but we were worried. We figured that if Nyx wanted to talk to us she would, that she needed her time. So we waited for her, and then I noticed one day Nyx wasn’t in class. Neither Anna or I had thought anything about it, but then every day that she wasn’t in class, we got more and more worried. It was a full week since she’d been out of her dorm. So Anna and I went to go check on her. I went up to her dorm I found her covered in blood and picked her up and ran Josh’s mom.” Alan’s face was pale. I knew him, he was seeing this all over in his head again, and I was seeing it. That is the one of the most horrible things ever. I could never imagine her that weak, that alone. Nyx was always so happy.

“Alan has literally saved my life. I love this boy to death. I owe him so much.” She leaned on to his shoulder. I swear if anyone who didn’t know them would assume they were a couple. But if you watched long enough, there’s a difference between the way he looks at Nyx, and the way he looks at Anna.

“I waited in the 4th year common room while Alan went to get her. When he came back out it was the worst thing I had ever seen. He was so worried about her, and I’ve never seen him focus like that ever since. He loves her; no one would ever challenge that. We took her to the Hospital Wing then Madam Trice told Alan that if he had gotten there later she would have died. Madame Trice did everything she could, gave her blood and everything else that she needed. Nyx was in the Hospital for two weeks after that. They had to keep her under watch, in case she tried to commit suicide again.”

“Alan refused to leave my side during the whole time.”

“Hell yeah I did.” Alan puffed up when she said that. He had that protective look in his eyes that he only got when it came to Nyx. She was his sister, for all it mattered.

“Again, anyways, He had gotten the teachers to start coming during their planning periods and teaching us what we had missed. If any other student had done what he did, they would have suspended them, but in first year both Mom and Alan’s mom sent a letter to the headmistress saying that if something ever happened to one of us that we would not leave each other’s side until we knew they were better and that there was nothing they would do that would change that.”

Wow, just, wow. Everyone one was in silence. I looked around. James and Fred shared the same look of shock, and disbelief. Steph, Dom, Ashley, Nyx, Tabitha, Rose, Lily, and Anna were all crying. Tino and Phil were talking quietly between themselves. I could see wheels turning in Jaime’s head as he processed this. Mike was just staring at her open mouthed. Tony looked worried. Then suddenly Jaime got up, walked from his spot at the middle of the table, and just hugged her, and then slowly all of us were there. Hugging her, all of us just being there for her. Hell, it was all I could do, just try to put how sorry- no, that’s not the right word- how much I cared into that hug.

“Nyx, the dude was a douche. You have all of us here for you. But I will take you up on that offer of talking later.” Jaime said as we all let go of her then her ruffled her hair. She hit him for that, and walked out of the room. Slowly more people did the same.

--

Nyx and I had moved out to the beach and were lying down next to each other looking at the stars. The silence was nice. We had talked small talk, not really saying much, not really wanting to say anything, and I’m not gonna push her to talk to me right now. She’ll talk more about whatever’s on her mind when she’s ready to.

“Hey Austin?” She looked over to me; her eyes still had unshed tears right there. I wanted to reach up and wipe them away from her face. She looked so much prettier when she smiled.

“Yes, Nyx?”

“Will you think of me differently now?”

“In a way yes, but not in a bad way. You’re a lot stronger than people give you credit for. You went through all of that when you were what? 15? 16? I admire you more now. I’m not going to look down on you for what happened then, that was so long ago, before I met you. The past is the past. But what I don’t get is what happened to this dude?”

“He got expelled. When I was in the hospital they put me under hypnosis and got me to tell them about everything. Well, that’s what Alan told me when I woke up the next day.” Hypnosis? Oh yeah, I didn’t know anything about magic and that stuff, not to her. I should really have told her. I hated keeping that part of myself from her, but I just didn’t know how to tell her. I was in deep; I needed to talk to Alan about this.

“Well, I’m glad he got punished.”

“Me too,” Nyx put her head on my chest “The stars look pretty tonight don’t they?” She had a small smile on her face; from the conversations we’ve been having lately she loved astronomy.

“Mhmmm. They are.”

“You want to know my favorite thing about stars and space in general?”

“Of course.”

“I guess it’s the one thing that never changes, no matter where you’re at. You’re looking at the same stars, the same moon; it's all the same things.”

“That is a nice thought…” I said. “So! I’ve been thinking about something. With Alan of course.”

“And what is this genius plan you two are coming up with?”

“Well how about each you, Alan, Anna and I write a bucket list? Stuff that we could get done in a day or two, but no more than ten or else that’d be ridiculous.

“Seems like a great idea.” We stayed outside for a long time, and she fell asleep. It gave me time to think about things. An important thing that I haven’t even told Alan yet, for me that’s a really big deal, I always tell Alan my lady issues… Though I'm not really sure this is an issue or what.

It's her. Venus Nyx Winterburn. She’s got a temper. She’s got a soft side. She drives me up the wall. She makes me see reason. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Alan as calm, and focused as he does when he’s with her. The light feeling I get when I talk to her. I don’t know. There is something about this girl. God, the way she smiles, it’s like something inside me goes all weird and funny and shit, like in a good way, though. She always surprised me. From her temper, which was a hell of one- she yelled at James and Fred for twenty minutes for messing up her room- to her ability to calm Victorie down about wedding plans. Her love for everything she did, the passion she puts into everything she does... I can’t get her off my mind. And I have no idea why. I just need to figure out all these feelings. They’re so confusing. I can’t tell if I like her from the weird feelings that I get when I see her smile and the fact that I keep noticing small things like the way her eyes shine when her and Alan have pulled off a prank. I keep noticing the way her red hair and tan makes her stand out, and the way she gets when she’s having a conversation with Vic about wedding things, and how I can sorta tell that she wants that someday. The way she likes her coffee (more like ass tons of creamer, or if there is none of that, about three cups of sugar and half milk.) The fact that I’ve seen her sit for hours and just write on that same little note-pad every day. The way she looks at all the Wotters like they’re her extended family. The fact that she’s accepted Tino, Phil, Jaime, Vic, Tony, and I, plus all the others into her life like we were here all along. Okay. So, I liked her. Sue me.

I just don’t know what to do about it. Would she even like me back? What the hell is going on? I sounded like a girl. Fuck. I sounded like Victorie. I needed to talk to Alan or Vic about this. They are her best friends. They probably know. But I don’t know how I can prance up to either one of them and be like,‘oh hai by the way I really like your best friend and I need to figure out if she likes me back so I can do something about it, but I want you to find out for me because I’m a wimp and have a horrible fear of rejection.’ That’d go over really well. Alan would probably hit me. Really hard. I never knew he had the ability to throw a punch until I started making fun of him about Anna.

Nyx started moving. She stretched.

“What time is it?” She asked.

“Uhm. I honestly have no idea. I don’t have my phone with me.” I really didn’t. “But you’ve been asleep for about thirty or forty-five minutes.”

“I think I’m going to go inside and go back to bed.” She got up and looked down at me. “Are you going to come in?”

“Nah, I think I’m gonna stay out here for a little bit longer. Think about some things.”

“Alright.” I watched her as she walked away. She got to the door and stopped. “Hey Austin!”

“What?” I shouted back to her.

“Goodnight.”

“Night Nyx. Sleep well.” And then she disappeared.

I had no idea what I was going to do, what to do about all this. Fuck, I didn’t know who I was going to talk to about this. I didn’t really want to get injured by Alan, and I was not sure I’d be able to deal with Victorie. I could’ve talked to Anna, but I wasn’t sure how that would go over. God. I needed to get this figured out.

I would go talk to Alan; I’d risk the physical injury.