Nya's POV

"Make sure you have find my friends on. I want to make sure I know where you are, so I can pick you up if something goes wrong," Jay tells me as I'm changing into my outfit in my closet. I can imagine him, sprawled out across my bed, fidgeting with something he found.

Yesterday, I had to talk to him eventually, which happened to be lunch. I didn't confront him about the new girl, since that's none of my business. I decided that it would be best for me to ignore it. There's a reason he didn't tell me, and I need to respect that. I was initially going to ignore Jay for the entire day since I didn't know how I'd react to seeing him, but I decided against it. I wasn't going to let my unreciprocated feelings get in between my best friend and me.

When I mentioned the date to Jay, he already knew, saying that it's the number one talking piece of the entire school. He told me that he wasn't super comfortable with me going out alone with Cole, but that if I wanted to he'd support my choice. We both decided that just to be safe, Jay should know where I am in case he needs to pick me up.

"It's already on," I reassure him.

When I said yes to Cole, there were two thoughts going through my mind. The first was that I really had nothing to loose. The guy I like doesn't feel the same way, and Cole genuinely seems off of the drugs. He had a traumatic experience, which can change a person. Maybe he could end up being changed after all.

The second was that it is a chance to make Jay jealous. I know it's dumb, but maybe if he sees me with someone else, he'll realize he likes me. However, if things go well with Cole and Jay does realize he has feelings for me, he most likely won't say anything to avoid conflict.

"Do you know where you guys are going?" he asks. I slip my jeans up over my hips before fastening them with a belt.

"Yeah, there's an old diner we used to go to. He thought it would be symbolic to start this new chapter at a place that belonged to the old," I walk out of my closet. "How do I look?" My hair is thrown up in a messy bun on the top of my head since wearing my hair down isn't functional, but freshman year me always wore a high ponytail. My legs are covered with black skinny jeans, and on top I have on a grey sweater.

"You look great," he gives me a small smile. It looks like he has more to say, but he keeps his lips sealed near me for the first time in forever.

"Do you think it's not fancy enough?" I look down at my casual outfit.

"No, no, no, no, no, it's perfect," he answers quickly. "Kai isn't going to be mad I'm here, right? Considering you're about to go on a date with his best friend."

"He's not here. He's picking up some of the girls in their friend group to go to some party," to my surprise, I was informed by Kai that Cole hasn't gone to a party since he passed out. Kai says it makes parties less fun, but it's worth it in return for Cole's health.

"Why did you want to go with him to school yesterday? I'm not upset, just curious," he lies on my bed, his head turned so he can see me.

"I got upset for some stupid reason. It's nothing," I attempt to brush it off.

His face suddenly gets really concerned,"Was it with me?"

"It was stupid," I admit. He sits up, swinging his legs over the side of my bed.

"It's not stupid if it was able to upset you," his blue eyes are filled with concern.

In my pocket, I feel my phone buzz. When I look down, I see a text from Cole that he's here. "Cole is here," I announce to Jay in order to change the subject.

He stands up, and before I know it, his arms are wrapped around me. I hug him back. "Good luck on your date," he rests his chin on the top of my head since he's so much taller than me. After a couple of seconds, he pulls back enough to make eye contact with me. "I'm sorry about whatever I did to upset you, Nya." In this moment, there's nothing I want to do more than to lean forward and press my lips against his, but I don't. It's wrong for me to be thinking like this, considering my date is waiting outside for me, and Jay doesn't even like me back.

"It's alright, Jay," I tell him, grudgingly pulling away. "Stay inside for a bit. I don't want Cole seeing you. Here's a spare key for when you leave," I place a key in his hand. With one last smile, I walk out of the room and towards the front door. I open it, and I'm met with Cole. He looks the same as usual, except he's switched his black t shirt out for a grey one, coincidentally, so he's matching me.

"You look beautiful," he smiles as he sees me. He also hands me yet another bouquet of roses, which I set inside.

"Thank you. You look very handsome," I tell the truth. I do find Cole attractive, but at this point in time, I'm not attracted to him. There's a difference. You can tell if someone is attractive or not, but if you don't feel something towards them there's no attraction. However, I want to give Cole the chance to spark things with us again, so I'm trying to keep an open mind.

"Are you ready to go?" he asks. I nod. He reaches out, but pauses an inch from my hand, letting me choose if I want to hold his hand or not. After a moment of hesitation, I take his hand, intertwining our fingers. His face lights up. We walk out to his car before we hop in and drive off, leaving Jay at my house.

---

Harumi's POV

Lloyd and I hop into the van and drive away, hearts pounding. Our hands are holding the bags full of stuff we took from the abandoned cabin. Since Garmadon wanted to hang out with Lloyd tomorrow, we had to move our little heist to today. I don't mind, except for the fact that I'm going to miss the first half of a party, but Lloyd is more fun to be around anyways.

"I'll never not have fun doing that," I admit, looking out the window. There's a thrill that comes with our little heists that is unmatchable.

"Same here," Lloyd says, but even though he has a smile on his face, something is bothering him.

"Can we stop by Starbucks on the way to my place?" I ask. "I'm really craving a vanilla bean frappuccino."

"Of course," he keeps his eyes on the road. I pull out my phone, typing Starbucks into my GPS. It quickly gives us the route to the nearest Starbucks. Since we don't want to leave all of our items in the car unattended, we decide to just go through the drive through.

"Welcome to Starbucks. Order when you're ready," the unenthusiastic lady says through the speaker.

"Can we have one grande vanilla bean?" Lloyd places our order. I look at him, confused when he doesn't say anything more.

"Don't you want a cotton candy?" I ask him quietly. He shakes his head.

"Is that all?" the woman asks.

"Yep."

"We'll get your total at the next window," we continue to drive. He pays the woman, and at the following  window, we pick up my frappuccino. Even though he doesn't have a drink, Lloyd still parks the car. Usually, we both get one, so he needs to park to drink it.

"Spill," I order him, taking a sip of my drink afterwards.

"What do you mean?" he acts clueless. I can tell he's upset, but I can't tell what it's about.

"You're obviously upset. Plus, you didn't even order a cotton candy."

"I just didn't think my dad would be thrilled about me ordering a bright pink  frappuccino from Starbucks when I'm supposed to be dark," he shrugs.

I sigh, looking over him. When I first met Lloyd, I thought he was super super tough, thick skinned gang leader who was ruthless and didn't care about anything. Now, I see that he's a sweet guy who will do anything for those he cares for and just wants to impress his dad.

"First of all, your dad would never know if you got one," I start. "Second of all, screw your dad. If he's not proud of you, that's his loss."

"He's been so disappointed in me. He loves me, and it's clear that he does, but he wants better from me. He wants me to live up to him, and I don't know if I can do that. I just want to impress him," he looks at me before leaning his forehead against the steering wheel, his blonde hair messy on the top of his head.

"Lloyd, you're never going to be your dad," I tell him. When I take a pause, he looks up at me, confused. "You're going to be so much better than him. You have a gift with people. You're charismatic. People want to follow you. You can lead something great, something bigger than the Sons of Garmadon, something that helps people. You're going to make a bigger impact on this world than your father even will."

"People only followed me because I was their leader's son," he sighs.

I look over his face. His bright green eyes are filled with insecurity. Every feature on his face is filled with it, but he still manages to look gorgeous.

Ever since I first saw Lloyd, I knew he was gorgeous. Even back when he was a freshman, I found him attractive, heck I even asked him out just because of it, but now that I really know him, I've found out that there's so much more to him than just that. He cares. He cares about people who put their faith in him, and he'll fight for them. He tries to make the people around him better. He tries to unify people. He's the light in a sea of darkness.

He can't see it though. I couldn't notice it as much when his dad was locked up, but now that he's out, all of Lloyd's insecurities are front and center. He just sees himself as the inferior, washed down version of his dad. He can't see how wonderful he is, and I hate it.

"Lloyd," I put my hands on his shoulders, looking at him in his eyes. "People followed you because you helped unify them, because you gave them direction. You helped them. You..." I trail off when I catch Lloyd staring at my lips. My breath hitches in my throat, my heart starting to race. Slowly, the two of us start leaning in. When our lips finally touch, it's as if everything clicks, everything feeling right.

I know I said that the thrill that comes with our heists is unmatchable, but that was before I kissed Lloyd Garmadon. His breath is sweet, like candy, and his lips are soft. His arms are around me as my arms rest atop his shoulders. Kissing him is so new, like a place I haven't been before, and I never want to leave.

When we pull apart, I'm breathless, looking up at him. He looks a bit shocked, either with me, himself, or both, but he also looks happy.

"Looks like my dad was right about one thing," he laughs, more to himself than me. I give him a confused look. "My dad assumed I liked you by how much I talked about you. I didn't realize I did, since I just thought all the feelings were because of our friendship, but..." he drifts off,"I just got the urge to kiss you, and it felt so right."

"It was so right," I hum, intertwining his fingers with mine.

"But it also was wrong," he sighs. My heart drops.

"What?"

"The only reason you even developed feelings for me was because I kept you from being with Kai. I..." he starts.

"No, I developed feelings for you because you're you," I assure him, taking my other hand and cupping his face so one of his cheeks and half his chin is resting in my hand.

"I don't want to keep you from the perfect high school experience you always wanted. If you want to be with Kai, I'm not stopping you," he sighs, closing his eyes.

"What about the other Sons of Garmado..."

"I never told them about that. It was my own thing I used to see if you were committed, but I really didn't want to take it off, because the thought of you with Kai made me feel gross. It still does," he admits. There's a part of me that wants to be mad at him, but I can't be. The rest of me finds it adorable.

"I'm not attracted to Kai like I am to you. Maybe I was at one point, but not now," I tell him

"But you still want that perfect high school experience, and he represents that."

"What if I could have both?" I wonder out loud.

"How could that happen?" he asks. My mind ponders all the possible options.

"There's only one way I can think of, but if you're not okay with it, I won't do it," I debrief him beforehand.

"Go on."

"I'd stay with you. All of my feelings would be towards you and real," I start.

"But?"

"But I'd also get back together with him, no feelings attached. I'd stay with him until homecoming, and then break up with him right after to be with just you," I explain.

"And you'd have to pretend to have feelings towards him, since he won't get back together with you if he thinks nothing is there?" he checks. I nod. "It's not my favorite idea, but if it makes it so you can fulfill your dreams, I'll go along with it."

"Thank you," I smile at him. "Does this mean we're a thing now? Boyfriend and girlfriend?"

"Do you want to be?" he asks me. I nod. "Well in that case, Harumi Jade, will you be my girlfriend?"

"Of course," I smile, leaning in to give him another kiss. Even though I have a party to go to, I never want to leave this boy's arms.

---

Cole's POV

I sit at the table of my favorite dinner, the most beautiful girl in the world sitting across from me. She's a bit distant, as expected, but it's even progress to have her on a date with me. We were actually able to pull of my plan, and soon, Nya is going to be my girlfriend again.

"What do you plan on getting? The sliders?" I ask her. When we used to come here, I would always get the jumbo burger while Nya got their kids sliders, since she thought everything on the adult menu was way too large.

"I'm a vegetarian now," she tells me, not looking up from the menu she's examining.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know," I quickly apologize, putting a little smile on her face.

"It's fine. There was no reason for you to know," she puts her menu down. "I'm going to get the garden salad."

"If you don't mind me asking, what drove that decision?" I ask her.

"To get the salad?" she jokes, raising an eyebrow.

"No, to become a vegetarian."

"Well, when I had no one to talk to, I had a lot of spare time. I did some research on the environment, and I found out that meat farming accounts for a large portion of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Individually, me not eating meat won't make a difference, but if you also compound all the other vegetarians, it's starting to make a difference," she explains passionately, making me smile.

"Don't you have a club that helps the environment?" I ask, referring to the posters I saw around school.

"I have a volunteer work club. Jay and I are the only members though, since Harumi put it on the 'do not join group'," I flinch at Jay's name, but she doesn't notice.

"Mind if I join? Considering I don't have football anymore, I can't think of a better way to spend my time," I ask her.

"Depends on how the rest of the night goes," she gets a little smirk on her lips before she takes a sip of water.

"Rosemarie still works here," I smile, looking at the old waitress. When Nya and I used to come here at least weekly, Rosemarie would always be the one to greet us at the door, seat us, and serve us. She was beyond sweet, and she still it. The smile she gave us when we walked in the door was priceless.

"I saw. She still looks the exact same," she looks over her shoulder, a cute smile on her face. "Remember that one time after the game that determined that you guys won league, when we told her, she gave us a whole chocolate cake to split?"

"I think I definitely ate a lot more of that cake than you did," I laugh, thinking back to how Nya has a single slice and I ate the rest.

"You always did love cake. However, you couldn't bake one to save your life."

"Hey, that was one time!" I defend myself, making her laugh.

"Yeah, but you nearly burnt down my house," she shakes her head.

"I'll let you know, I haven't tried baking after that experience," I inform her.

"Hi kiddos," a voice breaks us out of our conversation. We look up, and Rosemarie is standing there, her greying, curly hair hiding under her hat. Her dark eyes are still covered in glasses, and she still has the same warm smile.

"Rosemarie," we both smile at her.

"I was worried you two forgot about me. It's been what, two years?" she laughs, pulling out her notepad. "Why didn't you guys ever stop by?"

"We broke up," Nya says, and Rosemarie's face drops.

"That's sad to hear. Are you two back together?"

"Hopefully after tonight," I answer.

"That's great. What do you two want to eat?" she pulls out her pencil, ready to jot down our orders.

"Can I have your garden salad please?"

"Still polite as ever," she smiles.

"Can I have the pot pie please?"

"So one pot pie and one garden salad?" she checks. Both of us nod. "I'll get that out to you guys in just a few minutes."

---

"I forgot how good the food here was," I admit, taking a bite from my pot pie. Nya nods.

"This place is completely underrated. I honestly forgot about it," she agrees, taking a bite of her salad.

"Has Kai ever been here?" I ask. Nya shakes her head.

"This place was always 'our place', so I never let Kai come. I want to come here more often though, so I might have him drive me, either him or Jay, since I can't drive here myself considering  Kai won't let me use the truck," she mini rants before taking a bite of salad.

"Or I could drive you," I offer. Nya smiles a little.

"That would be fun." I'm startled when there's a buzz in my pants. I feel my pockets and pull out my phone.

"Griffin says there's an emergency and that I have to get there ASAP," I sigh, not wanting to stop our meal.

"We can take our food to go," Nya suggests. She waves over Rosemarie, who brings us boxes to put our food in.

"I was going to bring this out later, but I boxed up a chocolate cake for you two, on the house," she gives us a smile. I grab the cake box and go to reach for my wallet, but Nya is already handing her the money.

"You payed for all of our dates before. I can at least pay for this one," she sees the salty look on my face. She then grabs her salad box, and the two of us walk to my car. We put the boxes in the back before hopping in.

"Can I have the address to type into the GPS?" she asks. I send it to her, after she unblocks me, and she proceeds to type it into her GPS.

She navigates me to the rich part of town, down plenty of twisty roads. When we're finally at our destination, I see that we're at a full blown party. The music is blaring, and the smoke and alcohol can be smelt from out here. Both Nya and I look terrified but for very different reasons.

To add to our nerves, there are some sketchy guys who are obviously super high wandering around where everyone parked. "Let's go inside, find Griffin, and get out of here."

The two of us walk up to the giant mansion that's overflowing with people. I'm aware that all of my friends are here, but I'm not here to party, just to help Griffin.

As we push through the people, looking for Griffin, the scents of smoke and alcohol flood me. They're drowning me, begging me to cave in. It's so hard to not, but the though of the already poor state or my body as well as Nya manage to hold me together.

Nya is actually shaking next to me. It's the first time she's been to a party, excluding any Kai has thrown at their house, since what happened, and she's not taking it well. She's petrified.

"I'm gonna be sick," Nya says next to me. Before I know it, she's pushing through the crowd to get out. I go to follow her, but then I spot Griffin's floofed hair outside. Quickly, I push through everyone to get to him. He's standing outside with Morro and two others guys.

"What happened?" I ask him, worriedly.

"Dareth here questioned your beer pong abilities. He claimed he was the king, and I said you were the king, and he said he wanted to challenge the king," Griffin partially slurs.

I roll my eyes. "You pulled me away from my date with Nya because some doofus challenged me in beer pong?"

"Looks like someone is a chicken," the man in all brown, Dareth I'm guessing, starts imitating a chicken, walking around and making the sounds. Even though it's a childish act, it still gets on my nerves.

"I'm no chicken," I tell him.

"Prove it."

---

Nya's POV

The smells, the sights, the sounds, all of it was too powerful. I had to get out of there, and now here I am, throwing up. I don't know how long I've been here, but the nausea is finally subsiding.

I kept thinking Cole would come after me, but he never did. I didn't need him, but it would've been nice to have someone here. Hopefully he found Griffin, so we can get out of here as soon as possible.

"You can do it Nya. You can go find Cole and leave this stupid party," I hype myself up. Before I exit the bathroom, I look down at my phone. I've been in here for over an hour.

As soon as I open the door, all of the sounds and smells amplify. My heart starts racing again, feeling as if it is about to burst out of my chest. Everything inside of me wants to run out of here, but Cole is my ride, and there's a possibility that something really bad happened to Griffin. It would be cruel for me to leave, so I walk into the main room with my head held high.

I manage to make my way into the main room, but I freeze once I see the devil herself, Harumi, walks through the door. Suddenly, the room feels smaller. There are people within inches of me in every direction. Everything feels like it's closing in.

"Long time no see, Nya, wasn't that it?" I'm terrified when I look up and see the same long beard as two years ago.

"M-Mason," I'm wordless. His eyes are still soulless. His beard is even longer than last time.

"I thought I'd never see you again, considering you haven't gone to a party in almost two years," he smirks, taking a long sip of his beer afterwards.

"Get away from me," I try to tell him strongly, but I'm shaking.

"Oh come on, Nya, lighten up. We can go for round two. You're so much hotter now, even if you don't wear that little uniform of yours," he looks me up and down, licking his lips. He tries to put his hands on my hips, but I squirm away. My anger flares up inside of me.

With all my might, I slap him across the face, "That's for being a disgusting pervert who prays on underaged girls." Next, I ram the heel of my hand into his nose. "That's for not listening to the word no." Finally, I knee him between his legs. "That's for having the audacity to talk to me after what happened." I walk away, leaving Mason lying on the ground.

The more I look for Cole, the more my high from hitting Mason fades and the more my nervousness builds again. When I finally find Cole, my heart drops.

He's standing next to Griffin, a beer in his hand. When he takes a huge sip, I feel nauseous. Intoxicated Cole is the worst Cole. Although I just hurt Mason, I don't think I'm strong enough to to escape from Cole, especially when he's drunk. I'd be helpless.

"What the hell are you doing?" I spit, looking at Cole. When he sees me, a smile gets on his face.

"Nyaaaa, baby," he slurs, walking over to my. With each step closer, my throats feels like it's closing up more and more. When he finally gets close enough, he grabs my hips, pulling me into him, and leans in for a kiss. I slap him across the face.

"You're an asshole. I never should've believed that you could change. You've been begging for me to try again for two years just to give it up just for a round of beer pong? I don't want anything to do with you ever again," I snap on him. As soon as the words leave my mouth, his face falls and is replaced with anger.

"What did you say to me?" he grits. Harshly grabbing my shoulders, he slams me against the nearest wall, holding me there. A yelp of pain escapes my lips, sharpness flooding through my body.

As I try to wiggle away, Griffin and a few other guys rush over and pry Cole off of me. After a few seconds, I drop to the ground in front of Cole, landing with all of my pressure on my ankle that's twisted under me, resulting in a cracking sound. My ankle is immediately flooded with pain, making me wince.

When I look up, I only see a monster. Tears, whether from the physical pain or psychological pain, are rolling down my face. However, I'm not going to let him see me cry. 

I stand up and limp towards the house, tears pouring down my face. Its excruciating to walk, but I keep pushing through in order to escape. A sharpness fills me, my ankle throbbing and my back stinging. When I finally reach the front of the house, I slide down the wall, turning into a crying ball.

Everything that could go wrong went wrong. Cole got drunk. I ran into Mason. Harumi showed up. Even the stench of alcohol and smoke now adds to my tears.

Knowing what I need to do, I pull out my phone and text my best friend.

I need you to pick me up.

A/N This chapter is finally finished. So far, it's the longest chapter in the book, being 4,600+ words. The second longest is chapter 14 with 4,100 words.

This chapter took a lot of time, so I hope you guys liked it.

Originally, Jay and Nya were supposed to be kind of upset with each other during this chapter, but then I realized that Nya isn't the type of girl who would do that, so I made the first part of the chapter that I liked a lot better

Thoughts on this chapter?

I really appreciate and you guys and thank you for the comments and votes they mean a lot to me