-- got a pretty lil' 𝓱𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓽

      ever since she spoke to cole about her arrangement with matt and their “date” was officially reported to the media with their companies sending out statements confirming their relationship status, it was safe to say that hayat was losing her mind. she hadn’t even gotten a chance to speak to her best friend about it ( since she was out of the country ) before she found herself calling youngjae, in hopes of seeking comfort. pulling the door open, she flashes her ex-boyfriend a strained smile, “  hey -- thanks so much for coming over.  ”

     with their comeback coming up, the girl group spent most of their time rehearsing. whether it was in the studio singing their lungs out or dancing till they couldn’t feel their limbs. so when xander asks to catch up, she doesn’t hesitate to take him up on the offer.  “  would drinking bubble tea mean cheating on my diet ?  ”  she asks as the two waltz into the quaint shop.

      “ i feel like shit .  thanks for noticing . ”  gabe shook his head , a short chuckle escaping him as toni entered his place .  where to begin ?  winnie , donnie ?  him being not over her ? he was sure that toni was gonna have a string of opinions .  at the mention of the beer , gabestared at the case for a moment , before ultimately shrugging . sober gabe had no issue turning down drinks .  “ i’m good .  kombucha has yet to do me dirty . ”  he laughed , lifting his bottle to his lips .  he hadn’t shared the gory details of his sobriety with toni yet , and didn’t plan to .  the last thing he needed was to have another intense conversation .  “ well … ”  he sighed , making way toward the couch and inevitably taking a seat .  “ i kissed winnie . ”  gabe braced himself , making a bit of a face . “ right after she kissed donnie … you hungry ? ”  

     “  what are friends for ?  ”  toni bites his tongue for a millisecond when he’s reminded that the male doesn’t drink anymore.  “  my bad bro. as nasty as kombucha is, don’t let me stop you,  ”  he remarks with a chuckle, pulling out a bottle. considering he’s been here a few too many times, he knew where everything was. he doesn’t bother asking for permission when he pulls out the bottle opener from one of the drawers to twist off the cap. with a long swig of the alcoholic beverage, he purses his lips in discontentment over his confession.  “  yeah, mads told me about that ... what the fuck ?  ”  he blurts incredulously towards the end, clearly not understanding how gabe could get himself involved with her again.  “  donnie ? is that the same kid that went to high school with us, right ? ” he asks with slight confusion before speaking up again.  “  you ordering takeout ?  ”

          he began dishing up plates as she spoke , ultimately opting to lick the sauce from his fingers as he did . placing a plate in front of her , a small smile lifted the corners of his lips .  she made him so terribly , uncomfortably happy . so happy , in fact , that he couldn’t quite wrap his thoughts around it .  it was like his entire life was just lying in wait , waiting for her .  cole , in all his might , wouldn’t be able to shake himself from hayat and her charms … nor did he want to . at her words , he gently lifted her hand to his lips .  he could tell something was on her mind , and whatever it was , he wanted to be there for her . “ you mean the world to me , too ... ”  his voice trailed off .  one hand grasping her fingers , the other reaching for his fork . she continued , and he was only half paying attention .  that is … until he heard her say it .  suddenly , it was like cole’s chest was about to cave in , instinctively releasing her hand and retracting his own .  “ what ? ”  was the room spinning for her too ?  he felt faint .  “ babe , that’s not funny . ”  he tried , hoping she might just be joking .  how was this supposed to work ?  both him and his girlfriend in fake relationships to appease the public … cole called bullshit immediately .  “ n— you’re serious ? no .  no … what the fuck ? ” he leaned back in his seat , brows creasing together from his anger .  he’d kill matt .  he’d kill matt’s agent .  “ what the fuck , hayat ? ”

     this was the harder than having to memorize a script last minute. what she would’ve loved to do was divulge in the meal and the romantic atmosphere he’d created for her, but she knew that the longer she’d put this off, the more problematic it would become. and the last thing she wanted was for him to find out through any news outlet. as soon as he pulls his hand away from hers, she feels as if someone pulled the rug from under her feet.  “  i - i wish i was ...  ”  she mutters, unable to meet his gaze.  “  i should’ve consulted with you first -- i know ... it’s just, everything happened so fast -- it just felt like there was nothing we could do at the time ...  ”  she tries to explain, eyes darting towards him for a brief moment to find him enraged by the entire thing. for the first time in a while, hayat regrets a decision she’s made. regardless of the fact that he’s also in a similar situation as her, she feels as if she’s wronged him. and what makes things worse is that she feels as if her relationship with cole is about to slip through the cracks due to the amount of complexities. it hits her all at once.  “  oh god, i’m so sorry,  ”  she tells him with a strained voice, bringing her hands to cover her face when tears glaze over her hues,  “ i don’t wanna lose you, cole.  ”

    of course the first thing nick noticed was the thing over brayden’s nose . his brows furrow in both confusion and annoyance . he wanted to know what caused the injury . but another part thinks karma must have hit bray before he could . he’s surprised by how nonchalant the other male was acting . it was almost infuriating .  “ alright . ”  nick’s response was short . stuff — was there more ? was he going to go into detail as to how he so randomly ended up making out with his long time crush ? he prayed it wasn’t that . nick was already over the conversation and it hadn’t even begun .

     brayden decided that first he’d tell him about how crazy lorelai is and how she punched him ( in attempt to lessen the blow for when he’d tell him about lennon ). there’s something strange and undecipherable in the air lingering between them and nick’s clipped response was more than enough to confirm his suspicions. nonetheless, he speaks up again.  “  remember when i told you how i thought something was going on between lorelai and ajax ? well, they’ve been dating on the low. oh, and she punched me because we got into a fight. she’s bat-shit crazy, bro,  ”  he explains with a shake of his head.  “  can you believe that ? she deadass punched me.  ”

MARCELINE.

         the tight grip mars’ had on the paper crinkled the edges . she thinks that maybe if she just ripped it up , they could pretend like none of this ever happened . but she knows the damage was done . justin read his letter . he knew exactly how she felt about him . when he speaks , her gaze travels away from the letter and onto his face . she notices theanxiousness on his features while he questions the letter’s authenticity . her brows furrowand without a second thought she says ,  “ no , of course it’s not fake . ” her anxiety wastruly getting the better of her . her raw emotions on full display . obviously offended by the fact that justin would even think the letter was a prank . a million thoughts raced through her mind . but the number one question was who gave him the letter . mars thought thing scouldn’t get any worse . but then she hears another the familiar voice .  “ oh my god … ”  she sees scott park . her eyes instantly dropping to the piece of paper in his hand .   “ oh my god . oh my god … ”  she couldn’t go through this again .  so she does the one thingshe knew would get her out of the situation .  “ jus , i’m sorry . ”  she shuts her eyes and crashes her lips against justin’s . for a moment , mars thinks , ‘ at least one good thing came out of this . ’

     before he could really process what was going on , mars’ lips were connecting with his . what was happening ?  last he knew , they were faking the entire dating thing  for the sake of his parents .  now she was kissing him ?  and apologizing for it ?  his hand reached for her cheek , gently resting there for a moment before he pulled away as slow as possible . he wasn’t quite sure of what he was feeling .  frankly , he’d wanted this ; for mars to like him back … but something about it felt terribly off .  this was not at all how he’d expected it to happen .  it was safe to say  justin was confused , and it was showing . his nose lingered against her skin before he gradually turned back to scott .  “ hey , park . ”  he breathed , voice low as if he had just been punched in the gut . “ sorry … we were just … you know . ” he shrugged , reaching across the table for his own note and sliding it into his pocket .  leaning back a bit , he rested his arm across mars’ shoulder .  back to playing pretend , he guessed . “ what’s up ? you finish that ap us history quiz ? ”

     scott pries his eyes away from the two when they lock lips as soon as he announces his arrival -- okay, weird.  were they really gonna act like they didn’t kiss after he said he needed to speak to mars ? his brows furrow together slightly for a moment.  “ uhh,  ”  he drawls unintelligently, before giving him a nod to the question that slipped past his lips.  “  oh yeah, i did. almost died while taking it, but survived,  ”  he tells him, gaze darting to the piece of paper in his hand. folding it up, he shoves it into his pocket. his hues flicker in the girl’s’ direction again.  “  are you guys gonna be busy for a while ? i actually had to talk to mars about something ... kinda important,  ”  he says implicatively, hoping one of them would take the bait. if he didn’t get to talk to her about this, he was going to go crazy. he cared too much about his friends and didn’t want to mess anything up.

     he bit the inside of his cheek , walking passed her and toward the office without a secondthought .  eli was trying to keep his composure . he could practically hear the whispers fluttering through the shop as he walked , the boys were surely going to give him a fat earful once liv was gone .  since their break up , all he’d done was focused on his work .  they’d all seen him try — and ultimately fail — to get over it . “ yeah .  a while . ”  he said passively , back turned to her as he gathered a few papers from the filing cabinet in front him .  he figured that it’d fair him best to play nice , though he also knew that it was a lot easier to dislike someone than it was to care … very deeply … about them , and later end up alone and dumped .  he shook his head , turning to her with a few documents in his hands . “ how’ve you been ? ”  he hadn’t yet met her gaze , taking a seat at the desk and pulling out a pen in a few swift motions.  he began scribbling his signature and a few notes on the sheets before sliding them in her direction .  “ standard stuff . liability forms , permission to examine , etcetra … ”

     olivia’s nerves begin to get the best of her once they’re alone. she reaches for the dainty necklace hanging around her neck and begins to play with the small charm hanging from it, a habit she’d acquired whenever she’d start getting nervous. the piece of jewelry was a gift from elias from when the two were dating. it was something she loved and never had the heart to stop wearing completely. silence fills the room as she watches him move around to get whatever paperwork that was needed to get the process started. by his curt response, it was safe to assume that he hadn’t forgiven her for what she’d done. the way she broke his heart. if only he knew reason behind her actions. a small wave of hope surges through her when he speaks up, though she’s still unable to look at him properly.  “  um, i’m alright,  ”  the brunette tells him while taking a seat across from him.  “  and you ? how’ve you been ?  ” i’ve missed you. letting go of the necklace, she let’s her eyes scan the forms, reading them once before scribbling her own signature where needed.  “  is that all ? do i just leave the car here ?  ”

      this was going to end up being one sick joke , ju could feel it .  her boss was really off her rocker if she ever thought it was going to work . how to lose a guy ?  how ?  as she stood off to the side , her friends surrounding her , talking her ear off … juhi could feel the anxiety brewing in her stomach .  sure .  they made it sound so simple .  pick a guy , any guy , and go out of your way to ruin his life .  that was the kind of stuff for cheesy romcoms , not real life .  ‘ what about him ? ’  her friend’s voice snapping her from her daze , ju’s gaze lifting to that of the boy crossing the room toward her .  before she could respond , he was there , addressing herdirectly .  a small smile lifted the corners of her cheeks , “ no intrusion . ”  she dropped her eyes , lifting them slowly as they trailed across his person , “ i was about to tell you the same thing . ”

     it was humorous as to how his colleagues actually thought this would be challenging for him. and that too in ten days ? what a joke. and the girl they picked out for him was unnecessarily attractive. a chuckle rolls past his lips,  “  it’s the first time a woman has called me beautiful. thank you -- though, i suppose i’ll have to take your word for it,  ”  he jokes with a teasing lilt in his tone of voice. jesse lets a smile play across his features as he lifts his hand, offering it to her.  “  jesse baek.  ” 

      at his initial hesitation , jules felt her cheeks flush .  she assumed it to be due to her taking him by surprise .  perhaps this wasn’t so good an idea .  “ sorry , i shouldn’t have just …shown up . ”  she grimaced , looking down at her feet .  “ crappy ramen ? ”  a quick shake of her head , followed by the makings of what might be a smile lifting the corners of her lips . “ see … no .  that doesn’t work for me . ”  she laughed , slowly following him inside .  there it was again ; butterflies developing in her stomach , fluttering around as if they owned the place .  benjy had a bad habit of unintentionally making that happen .  she bit the inside of her cheek , a wash of uneasiness wafting over her .  it had been so long since she’d last been in that house .  “ wow … ”  she breathed , taking in her surroundings .  “ so weird .  it’s like so many things are the same … but at the same time so many things are different . ”  she eyed certain pictures , pieces of furniture , all bringing back memories .  “ you should see my house . ”

     “  don’t worry about it.  ”  the last thing he expected was julia to make an appearance at his house. it’s not the first time she’s been here, but its been so long since that he can barely remember the last time she did.  “  you already know i cant cook for the life of me,  ”  he chuckles, shutting the door behind her as she makes her way inside. benjy pauses to look at her, teeth grazing over his slightly fuller lip, as she takes in her surroundings. he’s unable to ignore the wave of nostalgia that washes over him as he thinks back to when she’d come over with nick, whether it was to spend time with him or aurora.  he’s pulled out of his reverie when she speaks up, a small smile touching his lips as he nods slowly.  “  yeah ... it’s been a while since you’ve been here, huh ?  ”  he quirks a brow,  “  is that an invitation from the one and only julia yoon ? ”