One thing I remember my Mom telling me is that silence is the equivalent of approval. If someone does something wrong to you or someone else and you don’t say or do anything about it, you are allowing it. Maybe Vic believes my stunned stare is my silent confirmation.

--But it’s definitely not.

Something about the way the fire completely died in Vic’s eyes when he voiced that he thought I was cheating on him with Tony. Something about the way his shoulders lost their tautness and the firm lines in his face smoothed over. There was something about the burning his hurt stare caused in my chest that completely broke me. It shocked me into a silence that was felt impossible to break. I realized in that very moment that I haven’t been a good girlfriend if that’s something that even crosses his mind. But before I could fully collect my thoughts, Vic whipped around to face Tony. The fire returned, the hard lines resurfaced and he resumed his tense posture.

Vic’s lips pursed and his balled fist winded back. My eyes widened in realization but my body didn’t seem to register what was going on as quickly. Mercilessly, Vic’s fist crashed into Tony’s face. Everything moved in slow motion from that point on. Tony’s anger flared and he got up and went to return the blow without so much as a grunt. Jaime and Mike ran into the living room to get the two furious boys away from each other.

Mike finally got a hold of Vic and Jaime pulled at Tony. Both of them were still lunging and kicking at each other with irate snarls carved into their faces.

“You know she’s my girlfriend! How could you sneak around behind my back!? Are you the one giving her those mysterious bruises?!” Vic shouted, still struggling with his little brother.

“I’d never hurt Phoenix, asshole!” Tony spat while trying to push away from Jaime.

“You’ll deny the bruises but not the secret relationship?” Vic inquired gruffly.

Tony glanced over at me.

“Don’t look at her!” Vic snapped. “I swear to god if you’ve touched her—if you’ve done anything with her I will beat your motherfucking ass!”

“It’s not my place to confirm or deny anything that could affect your relationship,” Tony stated plainly, still looking at me.

Something I didn’t think was possible followed Tony’s statement. Vic became angrier.

“I’ll kill you!” he bit back. Vic’s struggle against his brother became more frantic.

“Vic,” Mike pleaded, holding his ground.

“Tone—Tony! Calm down!” Jaime demanded, fighting to the maintain his grip on the angry teen.

“STOP!” I shouted over the chaos.

Vic stopped struggling and turned to me concernedly but his gaze quickly froze over and he glared at me.

“Now you want to speak?” he asked harshly. I noticed slight discoloration on his cheek and and blood dripping out of Tony’s nose. I’d rather address their wounds before getting into this.

“Vic please,” I begged, approaching him slowly.

“Don’t touch me,” he ordered coldly, snatching his face away from the pad of my fingers.

The tears I was holding back finally fell and I felt my bottom lip tremble.

“This is my entire fault!” I admitted more to myself than anyone.

Vic looked at me with an expression of shock, “S-So you did ch-cheat on me?”

Tony had cooled down and he was now staring at me with sad, pained eyes.

“No!” I bellowed. “I’d never cheat on you!”

Jaime spoke up, “Tell him, Phoenix.”

I looked over at Jaime and silently shook my head, my eyes large and pleading.

“Tell me what?” Vic asked, trying hide the panic in his voice.

“That has nothing to do with this,” I reasoned meekly.

“Tell him Phoenix!” Jaime urged callously.

“Wait what are you talking about Jaime?” Tony spoke warily.

“…Fine,” I whispered.

“Vic I…Tony and I kissed—

“You said you didn’t cheat on me,” Vic interrupted harshly, his eyes narrowed.

“Because I didn’t!”

“Which is it?!” He demanded miserably.

“I didn’t! We—Tony and I kissed before we were official!”

“…And how come I’m the last to know? I am your boyfriend.”

“I…I know its just that I didn’t think it meant anything—

“Didn’t mean anything?” Tony cut in. He tried to make his tone cruel but you could hear the tinge of hurt in his voice.

“That’s not what I meant—

“Then what did you mean?” Vic snapped. “Because we can’t be in a relationship if you have feelings for another guy.”

“I will always have a crush on Tony!” I screamed. I hadn’t been able to finish a single sentence and it was pissing me off.

Tony looked up from the ground and at me.

“But…I love you, Vic.”

Vic was stunned into silence and Tony looked as if I just punched him in his stomach.

“I had a crush on Tony all through high school and we will always be attracted to each other but…Vic you were there before him. And it’s not a ‘first come first serve’ thing either. The bond I share with you, Vic, is something I can feel in my soul,” I explained, my tears still falling.

“Do I love Tony? Yes. But I’m not in love with him. Did I feel anything when he kissed me? Yes, but it wasn’t as strong as what I experience when we kiss.”

Vic’s stunned gaze soon turned stoic and that worried me. I walked up to him and tried to hug him but he shrugged away from me.

“Explain the bruises.”

“What?” I asked, trying to ignore the throb of rejection.

“Explain the damn bruises,” Vic repeated sternly.

This seemed to peak everyone’s interest; Jaime looked away from the cream colored walls immediately and at me and Mike abandoned his interest in his feet and rested his eyes on my shaking frame expectantly.

“I…Well…I can’t,” I whispered stupidly.

Did I really think they’d let it go like that? Wow.

“PHOENIX!” They all shouted with exasperation.

I jumped at the sound of their unyielding voices and felt two inches tall.

“Tell us,” Mike pleaded gently.

“I can’t!” I sobbed. “She could still hurt you and I don’t want to take the chance! I don’t want to
reignite the fire I just fucking put out!”

“She? What makes you think we’d make the situation worse?” Jaime proded.

“B-Because once I tell you everything you will go after her. I know you boys like the back of my hand.”

“I’m breaking up with you,” Vic announced suddenly.

My chest caved and I felt my knees buckle.

“W-What?”

“If you don’t tell me right now we are over, Phoenix. There are a shit load of secrets being kept on your part and if you don’t tell me what’s going on we can’t be together. I need to be able to trust you for us to work,” he spoke seriously.

“I c-can’t tell you right now!”

Vic’s usually brown eyes turned hard and flashed down at me, “Tell me right now or we are over. And when I say over I mean no talking, no hanging out, no tutoring, and no relationship. -- Not even to a platonic degree. I’m done with the secrets. And if you don’t explain the injuries I’m done with you.”

Notes

Wow that's a lot of dialogue. Any-who, I've had this version of the chapter typed for nearly a month but I wasn't sure if I wanted Vic to be furious or not. I chose to have him be all super sayan because he's been patient, and kind and (at one point he was cold but never just lost his shit) I felt that it was about time he just started bumping some heads to get the answers he's wanted for months. I feel his frustration boiling over and turning him to this boyfriend that just feels so betrayed was more realistic than the typical, passive Victor I usually have him portray and I feel it's a good climax in terms of his character development. He's simply done with everyone's shit and I love it. ANYWAYS, Vote, Rate, Comment, Subscribe and all that jazz~~ Sorry for any errors, you guys should know by now that I never have the time to edit v___v

---

QOTD: Do you agree with my decision to make Vic all macho man? What do you think of Tony and Phoenix's part in all this? Comment!