Faking It [REWORKING '23]

chapter o8

chapter eight
mischief
- vocalpeter

i'm not sure what this is, but okay
there are a lot of time skips, so fair warning

uhm... feedback.

•••

[Third Person]

Evie and Brody had easily fallen in routine to keep out of each other's paths. He thought that once he had her under his spell, she'd be death-defyingly evil. Instead, all he got was death, death and more death. She kept throwing anything at him, scissors, pencils, pens, and even the broken leg of a chair.

So, he undid his spell and left her and her friends alone; going back to the warehouse where all his real friends were at. And, of course, that eased, Carlos' nerves. But what had Carlos tense and cautious was that Jay had cut him off.

The tall Lost boy had cancelled all their plans for the weekend, instead hitting Audrey up with dates and studies. Carlos snorted at that. Neither of them studied, he knew it was sex. All four of the VK kids had missed that the most from the Isle, but Jay seemed to be just as greedy and desperate for it as ever.

However his league of absence had caused Carlos' stress levels to rise immensely. And, with Mal and Evie always together, Carlos had no one to help him against himself. Granted, only Evie knew of his dark past, but it had gradually taken over his mind all together.

And it went right back to before everything. How it was before Jay came in to save Carlos. Before Mal had taken him under her (metaphorical) wing. And, before Evie had come to help him with his emotions.

However, he instead focused on his engineering class and band, he dropped Tourney, Aziz and Taylor always teaming up on him to get a hard check in that often bruised his shoulder; even caused it to dislocate once.

Jay regretted leaving Carlos, but what could he do? He found himself being Ben's best friend now. Hanging out with him instead of Mal and Evie listening to Audrey whine and Chad laugh to him and Aziz. The ex-thief found himself finding his new crowd to be not at all that bad.

Ben was either talking to Audrey about their family problems, or Chad laughing to Doug about this kid he picked on. Jay, of course, never bothered asking about what anyone was doing on the weekends, already knowing Lonnie would drag him along. The girl had a crush on him, which he admired, but he just couldn't get his mind off the blonde haired boy who always sat up in a tree at lunch.

He'd have one knee up, the other dangling down and rocking the branch gently, the leaves fluttering around in the air. He had been more isolated, crawling higher and away from people who passed by. Soon enough, Jay found himself watching Carlos climb up the roof of the school, really disappearing from everyone. That alone concerned him deeply.

But, as he was snapped back to focus by Audrey, who was sat in his lap just for comfort, he put his head back in the discussion. He told Chad he'd get the coach to pull some cards for the both of them, and Jane, who just sat down timid as usual, he'd ask Mal to do the spell again.

Anything to make his friends happy.

***

After weeks had gone by, Carlos and Jay's room was no longer theirs. More so, just Jay's dorm as he was moved to a new room a floor down. He had seen the request from FGM on the door, his stuff was already packed, all he had to do was drag it all downstairs. It was merely just clothes Evie had made for him.