The sun was shining through my window and a morning orange bled through my closed eyelids. My head was still rested on top of Vic’s chest. He was breathing slow and steadily. I’m not sure how long I’ve been listening to the gentle beat of his heart but I do know that this is the most relaxed I’ve ever been. I wanted to appreciate this moment; I want to commit this feeling of comfort in his arms to memory. Just as I felt the silence in the room making me drift off, my door was thrown open.

“Phoenix it’s time to- What the fuck?!” an all too familiar voice called.

I peeled my eyes open and openly glared at Jaime for ruining one of the best moments of my life.

I felt Vic shift beneath me and hurriedly sit up. He rubbed at his eyes in all his shirtless, messy haired glory, the sheets still concealing his waist. I slowly sat up, keeping the warmth of the sheets wrapped around myself.

“What the hell do you want?” I grumbled.

I looked up at him and noticed Tony and Mike standing behind a furious Jaime. I clenched the sheets around me tighter as Jaime practically ran over to the bed.
“What the hell, Fuentes!? Did you have sex with my sister?!” Jaime shouted, tackling Vic out of the bed.

Tony angrily walked over to me and asked with clenched teeth, “Did you guys fuck?”
I noticed Mike run over to Jaime and Vic’s struggling bodies. Jaime was trying to land a punch while Vic attempted getting a word out.

I then realized this must have looked really bad. Vic shirtless, me keeping the sheets around myself the way I am.

I frantically jumped out of the bed and helped Mike pull Jaime off of Vic.

“What the hell Jaime?!” I shouted.

“You!—He!--”

“Nothing! Vic and I did nothing!” I interrupted, exasperated.

Jaime stopped his squirming and looked at Vic with slit eyes, “Are you sure? Don’t lie to me.”

I took his chin in between my pointer finger and thumb to force him to look at me, “I’m positive that I didn’t swipe my V-card last night.”

“You’re a virgin?” Tony asked awkwardly.

“Yes,” I confirmed definitely.

Vic stood to his feet, holding his head, “Way to jump to conclusions assholes.”

He angrily stormed into my bathroom and slammed the door.

‘Someone that’s not so much of a morning person as you,’ Phe acknowledged.

Shut up, this is your fault.

‘Must I remind you that I’m just a mere voice in your head?’ she replied haughtily, stressing the “your”.

I turned to a cranky Jaime, “Why did you burst into my room anyway?”

“It’s almost 12 in the afternoon. We were going to ask if you had seen Vic.” He scoffed, “You’ve
seen Vic alright.”

Ignoring his mocking statement, I cocked my head to the side and looked at Mike, “Vic woke up at almost three last night and texted you.”

“I knew where he was—I tried to get them to leave you guys alone but they insisted,” he huffed, crossing his arms.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Tony asked in a gruff voice.

“I knew you would have beaten up my brother. I was praying they’d be up and dressed by the time you broke the door down,” he answered just as sharply.

“Alright that’s enough!” I grumbled, touching my temple. “Don’t ever burst through my door ever again, clear?”

“But what if--”

“No,” I interrupted Jaime, “I don’t care if you hear the wildest, roughest sex ever in this room, don’t you dare just walk through my door.”

I noticed the effect my example had on the boys; Mike’s eyes widened tremendously, Jaime looked ticked off again and Tony was looking away from me, his cheeks showing a very small blush.

Ignoring them, I walked over to the bathroom and knocked.

“Vic?” I called softly, “Are you alright.”

The door cracked open and I walked in, closing the door behind me. He sat on the closed toilet with a tissue pressed to his nose.

“What happened?”

“Jaime managed a solid punch to my nose…”
I pulled the hand holding the tissue from his face and looked carefully at his nose, “Good news is it’s not broken.”

“How would you know?” he asked, curious.
I contemplated how I wanted to answer that.

“I’ve experienced a few beatings in my time…It’s definitely not broken. It’d be bleeding a lot more and it’d be slightly crooked.”

I got a towel from the cabinet and dampened it. I gently tugged his head back and pressed it to his nose.

“So that’s where you keep your towels,” he mumbled.

“Mhm…did you look for them?” I asked nervously.

My razor. Did he find my—

“Yeah…I found your razor while I was looking for something to stop the bleeding.”
I stared intently at the towel I had pressed to his face; I could feel his heavy gaze eyeing every inch of my face. Eventually, he slowly moved my hand from his face.

“Have you cut since that day?” he asked silently.

I looked down and shook my head.

Vic’s large hand wrapped around my thin arm and tugged me into his lap, kissing the side of my forehead.

The silver blade glinted in the palm of his hand, “Phoenix, you need to throw this away.”

I began to shake my head furiously, “N-No…I can’t…”

“As long as it’s in this house, you’ll never get better,” he persisted in a whisper.

There was a long pause before I took a deep breath.

“…I’ll think about it…okay?”

He nodded and we both stood up to exit the bathroom. It should be easy for me to throw the damn thing away considering all the damage I've done since it's been in my life but there's a lot of things that should be but just aren't.

Jaime walked up to Vic, who immediately tensed.

“Don’t worry,” I giggled quietly, “I talked to them.”

“Look Vic, I’m sorry. I just thought--”

“I know what you thought,” Vic interrupted nervously, “It’s alright. If I caught Tony and Nix in the same bed I’d flip too.”

I felt my stomach drop to the balls of my feet.

“What would um,” I cleared my throat, “What would make you say th-that?”

He shrugged, “Nothing in specific. I care about you and Tony’s a friend of mine so naturally, that would piss me off.”

“O-oh,” I stuttered. “I’m going to go freshen up and we can go do something, okay?”

“’Kay,” Jaime called.

I walked into my bathroom and waited to hear them shuffle out of my room. Once I heard my bedroom door close, I slid down my bathroom door and put my head in my hands.

“I can’t keep hiding this Phe,” I confessed aloud.

‘Then tell him about the kiss; rip the bandage off.’

“I hate the way you worded that,” I huffed.

‘Get up, wash your ass and worry about it later,’ she smirked.

I sighed and crawled over to the tub and turned on the water. Rising to my feet, I took off the clothes I wore to the thanksgiving dinner and stepped in, washing away Vic’s wonderful smell. I glanced to my left and noticed the shiny silver metal sitting teasingly on the cabinet. I forced myself to keep a clear head and focus on bathing.

---

Once I finished my usual routine, I headed down to the living room where the boys were patiently watching TV.

“So how are we spending our thanksgiving break?” I asked once they noticed I was standing at the entrance of the living room.

“We were thinking the mall,” Vic answered. All of them stood to their feet.

“You look good by the way,” Tony muttered. He avoided everyone’s questioning gazes and put his hands in his pockets. I glanced down at myself and blushed. I was wearing a pair of destroyed skinnies, a long sleeved, wool sweater, a black and grey patterned cardigan and knee high combat boots. My hair was in a messy, braided up-do and I decided to swap my usual gauges and chains for pearls.

“Thanks Tone,” I giggled.

I felt Vic’s hand envelope mine, “Let’s head out then.”

I nodded and we all headed out to Vic’s car. Mike, Jaime and Tony took the backseat and I got shot gun. As soon as Vic turned on his car, one of my favorite Mayday Parade songs blasted through the speakers. I immediately picked up with chorus, a painfully big smile on my face as Vic pressed on the gas.

"Lipstick lullabies!
This is sorry for the last time
And baby I understand that you're making new friends
This is how you get by
The moral this time is
Girls make boys cry”
I
was completely rocking out, forgetting my surroundings and just being happy. My favorite part of the song finally came and I belted it as strongly as I always did.

“And your name remains the same!
All that has changed is this pretty face!
So pull the trigger
It never gets closer
You want to start over
But never start over!

Pull the trigger
It never gets closer
You want to start over
but never start over!”

I repeated the chorus and once the song ended, I felt my cheeks burn at the silence in the car. The next song on the CD began to play but Vic hurriedly turned it down. He kept looking between me in the road, baffled.

“You didn’t tell us you could sing!” he finally managed.

I felt myself sink into the leather seat, thoroughly embarrassed, “I don’t think I’m that good. I only do it because it…feels good.”

“You’re voice is fucking amazing,” Tony blurted. “Seriously, if you were going full force—because I felt like you were holding back—you’d be rock-star material.”

I shook my head, “I don’t like singing in front of people.”

“You just sang in front of us,” Mike rebutted.

“You guys are different! I trust you guys with my life,” I countered.

“Any other hidden talents?” Vic asked, turning to me.

I shook my head to give an honest answer.
Vic eyed me suspiciously before pulling into the parking lot of the mall.
I exited the car and turned to them, “So what do you guys want to look at?”

“I wanted to look at the electronics, I need a new laptop since Zoey kind of smashed mine,” Jaime shrugged.

“What the hell do you mean she ‘kind of smashed yours’” I laughed.

“Long story short, she thought I did something I did and while she was confronting me, I was
playing on my laptop so she snatched it and threw it on the ground,” he grumbled.

“Damn…She’s always been crazy though,” I nodded.

“What about you guys? Need a new laptop?” I joked.

Mike chuckled, “Nope, but I do need a new controller for our Xbox and our PS3.”

“I wanted to see if they had any mods for my skateboard. I don’t have anything to go on my new one,” Tony spoke.

“So, Mike and Jaime are going to electronics, Tony is going to the sporty part of the mall and—what about you Vic?”

“Nothing in particular,” he shrugged. “I’ll just hang with you for today,” he declared with a toothy grin.

Just as I was about to genuinely smile back, I could practically hear Tony's eyes rolling. Ignoring his blatant gesture of distaste I threw up my hands.

“Well, I plan on shopping for more clothes so I hope you have a hell of a lot of patience,” I smirked.

“Food court, two hours?” Jaime asked, slowly backing away towards the electronics side of the mall.

“Sure,” I nodded, grabbing Vic’s hand. “See you guys then!”

---

“Let me see the dress!” Vic called with exasperation.

“No! I look…I look…”

“Nix, I walked through the pits of hell to get that dress and I demand to see you in it,” he pouted.

What a drama queen! Fighting off a few determined shopaholics is hardly the pits of hell!

“Fine, “ I muttered, throwing open the dressing room door.

Vic’s eyes widened and his annoyed expression dissipated.

“It’s too much isn’t it?” I whined fearfully. It was a tight-fit black and white print baneau wave dress. The floral patterns had a similar look to tattoos—it was a bad ass dress. Vic’s silence and strenuous staring was making me nervous.

Do I really look that stupid?

I embarrassingly turned to go back in the dressing room to change when I felt him gently tug on my arm to turn back around.

“You look gorgeous in the dress Phoenix,” he blushed, smiling shyly.

I looked down coyly, “Thank you.”

Vic nodded towards the dressing room, “You should go change, almost time to meet at the food court.”

That was a fast two hours! I have tons of new clothes courtesy of my awesome saving habits.
With a simple nod, I slipped back into the dressing room and hurriedly changed back. I carefully hung the dress back on the plastic hanger and emerged from the changing room. My eyes glanced down at the price tag and I cringed.

‘Welp, time to put that shit down,’ Phe laughed.

No way could I pay for this dress...!

Vic looked at me curiously as I walked past him. I went to hang it back on the rack when he questioned me.

“You’re not getting it?”

“No way,” I scoffed. “Maybe if I had Beyonce’s bank account.”

I heard the sound of rummaging till Vic spoke again, “I’ll get it for you.”

“No, Victor,” I immediately said, my face stern.

“Just let me be a gentleman and get you the dress—you looked stunning in it,” he said in a soft tone.

“No, it’s too much,” I repeated. I refuse to back down this time. Every other time I’ve eventually given into Vic’s will but I’m drawing the line here.

“Phoenix--”

“No,” I interrupted, grabbing his hand and dragging him out of the store.

He huffed, lacing his fingers with mine and saying nothing more about the dress.

---

“For the last time, what do you want?” Mike growled at Jaime.

“It’s not that simple!” he whined, his eyes darting from the Chinese restaurant to the McDonalds.

“Don’t make me pick for you,” Mike threatened. His tone was serious and he looked annoyed and hungry.

“Alright, I’ll get… Chinese,” Jaime hesitated.

Mike darted off before he could change his mind again.

“What do you want to eat?” Vic nudged me, laughing.

“ Hm…I haven’t had subway in a while,” I thought aloud. “I think I want a foot long.”

“Coca-Cola?”

“Yes please.”

“Coming right up,” he winked, pecking my cheek and heading to Subway.

Jaime smirked at me, “You two are awfully touchy-kissy lately.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I replied curtley, avoiding the mischievous look he was giving me.

“You two are acting very couple-like,” Tony stated matter-of-factly with pursed lips. His dermal seemed to glint just as brightly as the hurt in his eyes.

“We’re not boyfriend and girlfriend, it hasn’t came up in a long time."

“So you’ve talked about it,” Tony immediately asked, leaning towards me.

‘He’s awfully interested in your love life,’ Phe observed.

“Yes—well sort of..?”

Tony looked away from me and balled up his fist on the table.

“I’m going to go get something to eat,” he mumbled more to himself than Jaime and I.

I watched him stand from the chair and head over to some pizza place. Somewhere deep in my heart, I felt bad. I really didn’t want him to be angry with me. There’s no denying I, Phoenix Slade, still felt something for the misunderstood skater, bad-boy. The only question was if I was willing to let go of something so much stronger for something that could grow just as strong.

“You need to choose,” Jaime deadpanned, ripping me from my thoughts.

“W-What?”

“Tony and Vic, you need to choose before you hurt one of them,” he advised.

"How do even know if Tony likes me?"

"I saw that damn kiss, Phoenix."

He was the one that saw-- he closed that creaky door!

"But don't worry," he leaned back, "I'm not going to say anything."

“Thank you but It’s not that simple,” I whispered.

“It’d be selfish to just leave things as is. If you don’t like Vic, don’t let him think you do. If you do
like Vic, tell Tony that you don’t want a romantic relationship with him. You’d save both of them a lot of heartache.”

“Jaime, I need to sort it out. I don’t want to hurt either of them,” I frowned.

“Then don’t,” he responded bluntly. A tray was placed in front of me, landing against the table with a sound that made me flinch.

“Sorry,” Vic smirked, “Didn’t mean to scare ya.”

“It’s alright,” I tried smiling.

“Here’s your damn food,” Mike called edgily at Jaime, slamming the tray in front of him. I unwrapped my sandwich while Vic took out his burger. Tony returned with a slice of pizza and joined in with our conversation on what we did and interesting things we saw today at the mall, though my mind kept tugging me back to my thoughts on what Jaime and I briefly discussed.

Notes

Nix's Outfit: http://www.polyvore.com/punk_pearls/set?id=105710053

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Someone asked me why I update at such weird times; I live in South Korea. I'm not Korean though, my dad's in the military so we travel tons. This was the first time we moved overseas but we move back to the states in January (yaaaay). So yeah, an interesting fact about the lovely writer of this story *flips hair, sighs* This is long guys .-. I won't get any homework done till I update so here it is! And No, Nix will not be starting a band or anything of that nature -,- I just wanted to develop her charecter a tad bit :D Comment, Rate, Vote, Subscribe and all that jazz!~

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Topic of the Day: How should Phoenix handle her little situation? How do you feel about the way Vic and Tony are acting? Comment, loves~ c: