Song for chapter- Break Up in a Small Town by Sam Hunt

As soon as Cor drops me off, I climb the couple flights of stairs up to my dorm.

I unlock my door and throw my keys on the small desk. Loud laughs and giggles come from the back room.

"Aquaria! I'm home! I don't want to see anything!" I yell, my voice echoing through the house.

I have walked in on her doing some rather... Precarious... things. I don't want a rerun of it. My eyes wouldn't be able to take it.

"Oh, it's okay. We were just talking." She yells back.

I stifle a laugh and walk to the kitchen, opening it. Luckily, Aquaria goes grocery shopping once a week. If she didn't, I don't know how we would make it. I would die of starvation.

I close the fridge. I'm not even hungry, just bored. And what happens when I'm bored? I eat. I cook. I might even clean, but only on the rarest of occasions.

I like my things organized, I just don't like the effort it takes to organize it. I've come to a great paradox in my life.

"Sure." I yell back sarcastically. If it was Li who yelled that back, I might have believed him. But this was Aquaria we were talking about.

More giggles erupt from the bedroom. "I'm coming back, better not see any funny business!"

She may act like a mom sometimes, but Aquaria is no perfect noodle. Aquarians can be quite the rebels. Aquaria is a perfect example.

I walk back, stepping over clothes on the ground. I reach the back and sitting on my bed is Minley. Opposite of him is Aquaria.

Oh no. This messes with everything.

"Please don't tell me you dumped Li." I really hope this isn't a new couple.

I can't deal hanging around another Gemini. We're cool and all, but even I can admit we're a little annoying.

Minley most of all. He puts the argument in argumentative. You could say the sky is blue and he would have his own opinion. I argue frequently to, but he just gets on my every nerve.

"Oh hey, Gem." He says.

I give him a smile that doesn't quite reach my eyes. "Hey, Minley. What's up?" I don't really care, but he'll eventually get bored and continue talking to Aquaria.

Minley shrugs. "Nothing much, you?"

I shake my head, grabbing the cord to my phone charger. "Same here, same here."

This is the only reason I would ever consider hanging out with Minley, he hates the awkward silences just as much, if not more, than I do.

He clears his throat. "Did you hear that Virginia broke her leg? Ric is going to be catering to her every need."

"No, I didn't hear. That's interesting. I'm just gonna leave you guys to it, I think I'm going downstairs... Go hang out with Leona." I point to the door when I suddenly hear a bark come from the bathroom.

No. No. No. No.

I spin on my heels to Aquaria. "Is there a dog in the bathroom?" I ask.

She nods and widens her smile. "Minley brought me a puppy!"

I love dogs, don't get me wrong, but who's gonna take care of it? Aquaria? She can't even take care of the dead plant on our porch, I have to do it. If you notice, I said dead plant... I'm not doing to good taking care of it.

And she got a dog.

"Yay." I say, emotionless, and sarcastic.

She frowns. "He felt bad because Li dumped me."

My laughter is hysterical. "Nice one!" I continue laughing, almost as hard as when I was with Cor. "He dumped you, that's funny."

She frowns. "I'm serious, Gem. Isn't that where you just were? Hanging out with him?"

This couldn't get any better. My stomach hurt from how much I've laughed today. I've laughed so much I should get abs. "No! I was with... A friend. But it wasn't Li. Why did he dump you? I'm with Arius and he's not changing that." He might not be able to change that, and the one person I wish could wouldn't.

Nobody wants the death sentence for trying to run away with the wrong sign.

Leona and Leo got lucky.

"I don't even know, really. To go after you perhaps." She says, shrugging.

Oh, her sense of humor is great. "You are quite the jokester today. Li has hated me ever since I confronted him about how much I would never ever try with him, back when I really really liked Arius. I messed up three times."

They seem confused.

"Three times? What?" Minley asks.

"Oh! When we studied Libra's this year I realized why he was so offended when I treated him like that. Libra's hate rude people, confrontations, and when someone says "I don't want you"... I did all three in like, two minutes."

Minley laughs. "I knew you were a bitch, but that's just plain mean."

I stick my tongue out at him and open the bathroom door. "You're the same sign, shut up."

That hit a button. Minley glares at me, clenching his jaw.

A lab with a coat of orange and black runs to me, jumping up and barely reaching my shin with his paws. "Hello little puppy!"

I pick up the dog and cuddle it.

He's so soft, and small, and adorable. He has floppy ears which makes me believe he isn't just lab, maybe part hound.

He licks my hands and face, making me smile and giggles escape me.

"He's so cute! What's his name?" I look back to Aquaria and Minley who don't seem mad anymore.

"That's Halo. He's hound and lab. Found him in a box in front of your guys' dorm complex. Someone left a litter." Minley says.

"There's more!?" I run outside, almost tripping down the stairs, because it's dark, to a box on the side of the road.

A sign says "free puppies. Lab/Hound mixes". I look in the box to see three more puppies.

My heart crushes. It's winter and these poor souls are sitting outside?

I grab the box and walk back upstairs.

I set the box in the middle of the living room and slowly let them out of the box.

Every puppy has different colored fur. One looks more lab, while another looks more hound, and the other looks like a combo.

Halo plays around with one of them, the one who looks the most like a hound.

Oh, I love puppies.

"Angel, Demon, Ghost." Minley says, walking into the living room with his car keys.

I look up at him in question.

"The names." He says. "Demon." He points to the one Halo is playing with. He's a little orange and red, a black bottom. He growls, playing, quite the energetic one. "Ghost." He points at me.

But I feel little paws climb up my back. I spin and a light brown, grey, and black puppy looks up at me smiling.

"And Angel. I was going to name the one Aquarius has, Angel but this one is the Laziest making her the calmest and sweetest." Minley picks Angel up and cradles her.

She instantly falls asleep in his arms.

"You should take her, Minley." I suggest.

He pets the dog and shrugs. "You're right, huh."

Woah! Someone get a voice recorder. "Did you just agree with me?" I'm shocked, I really am.

He smirks. "Enjoy the moment, Gem. It's never happening again."

Who cares. This is a revelation. He actually agreed with me!

"I'll see you guys later." He leaves with Angel in his arms.

I spin to glare at Aquaria. "What the hell are you thinking?"

She sighs. "You have to dump Arius now, huh?"

I nod. "Basically. You going with Minley messes with me, Libby, and Arius. I'll end up with Li. Arius will end up with Libby."

She uses her tongue to pick something out of her teeth. "I'll call it off."

I shake my head. "No. That's selfish of me. I don't even consider Arius boyfriend material anyways."

She smiles brightly. "Really?"

I have no choice. It's either things stay the same, or we move around. One person's love life affects all of ours almost. Can you imagine if two people switched at once?

My phone vibrates in my pocket. I smile when I see Leona's ID come up.

"Hola Señorita!" I greet her with Spanish.

"YOU HAVE TO COME QUICK!" She screams into my phone.

I pull my cell away from my ear. "Woah, calm down. What happened?"

She yelps into the phone. "Aris asked me out on a date!"

No. No more couples. My brain can't comprehend it. But this is still big news.

I hang up on her and look to Aquaria. "Honestly, whatever you do is your decision and I support you fully, but right now I gotta go down to Leona's. See ya."

I sprint to the front door and almost trip going down the stairs. Again. You would think it's because I was running in the dark but no, I probably still would have almost fallen if I was walking in broad daylight. The joys of being me.

I open her door not bothering to knock and find her in her closet. "Tell me everything."

I feel like I ran the mile, no joke. Where is that speed at the end of one of my long distance races? Where does it hide when I'm running late for school because I woke up an hour late and only have three minutes to get ready?

She huffs, pouting. "I was just making pasta when my phone rang. I answered it like a normal person and he said, "Hey, Leona I know we don't really hang out but I know this great restaurant. Pick you up at seven."

I look at her clock, it's six forty five. "Well get dressed!" I yell.

She throws a shirt at me. "I'm trying!" She yells. Then in a calmer voice she says, "There's nothing to wear."

I point to a dresser in her closet, the shelf holding jeans with shoes underneath it, and a rack circling us filled with shirts. This is all hers. She gets her own room, because her dad helped pay for half the school or something like that. Lucky duck.

She gives me a sad look. "I can't just pick."

I groan, scavenging through her clothes. "That's exactly what you do!" I bring out a white cashmere sweater, a pair of black leggings and a pair of uggs. "Here."

She looks at the outfit with a hint of satisfaction. "It isn't good enough."

Deep breathes, Gem. Deep breaths.

A grab a pair of dark blue jeans, a white shirt, and white converse. "This?"

She shakes her head. "You can always go naked." I offer.

"Hand me the converse, give me that black leather jacket and ripped jeans. White T-shirt." I do as she says and she pulls on her outfit.

Why did I even come? She didn't take my opinion.

"Hair look okay?" She asks, sweeping her blonde hair to the side.

I nod and the doorbell rings. She literally pushes me to the ground and runs to the door.

I don't get up. The ground is comfy from this position. Plus, I don't want Aris to know I'm here.

"I didn't know what your favorite flowers were, but these match your eyes." I could see from my spot on the floor that he handed her a bouquet of purple flowers and my heart melted.

Arius bought me flowers once... I think it was back in fourth grade, the year we found out that we had a choice between two people to marry. Fun, right?

"Awe, thank you. I wish I would have got you something, but it was such short notice and... Thank you." She shuts herself up before she started blabbering.

He nods. "Shall we?" And he holds out one arm for her to take.

She does and they leave, shutting the door behind them.

I finally found a country song I can relate to the chapter, lol. I rarely listen to country but this is one of those songs I actually like. Hope you enjoyed this chapter along with your day and...

As always, stay happy, stay gold
-Dani_Kail