"Gem." Cance rests her hand on my shoulder and I hand her phone. She quickly puts it into her back pocket and envelops me in a tight hug.

I manage to not soak her shirt with my tears, but I know how badly I want to.

I wanna sit on the floor and never get up. I just want to cry my way through the pain. And crying makes people feel better, I know that, but crying isn't going to help the situation.

"First it was the breakup that never happened, and then it was my dad trying to take me. Gem, we keep getting hit with obstacles but I know we'll make it through this. I swear on my life, nobody is going to hurt you." Cor says, resting his hand on the small of my back.

I could feel the uncertainty in his voice. The way his strong façade fell like dominos. He was scared.

I nod and let go of Cance.

She offers me a small smile in which I nod back.

"Please, like you could help her." Aris says, snorting. "You can't protect anyone. Not even yourself."

Cor nods calmly, too calmly. He looks at Aris and shrugs. "What? Like you protected Leona? Like you kept your best friend from getting himself killed. Like you—"

Aris takes a step forward, glaring at Cor. "You just love pissing me off. Arius basically killed himself for her. Arius has jumped into freezing water to save her. He—"

"Im not Arius!" Cor yells, his whole body shaking with rage. "You think I don't know that!? You think it doesn't kill me every day I see her, knowing that our love is as dangerous as letting a baby play with venomous snakes? You don't think I realize that Arius has done everything for her!?" He looks at me with sad eyes and tears threaten to fall down his perfect face. "I know that better than anyone. I love Gem, Aris. I'd die a painful death everyday if it meant she'd be okay. She's my sanity, the reason life makes sense."

Aris points to me. "Obviously you don't care that much about her. You're still holding her like she's safe with you. You're getting her killed. If you left her alone, she'd be okay. Her and Minley's life are safe. But she's not anymore!"

To my surprise, Aria punches Aris hard in the face, making him look up with shock.

His nose bled and looked broken from the angle I was looking at it.

"Shut up, Aris! We know! Arius is just so great! But this," she gestures to all of us. "This yelling and screaming isn't doing anything to help the situation! You're only yelling at Cor when you haven't realized something, Gem is just as stupid as him. It takes two to tango. And as much as I hate it, Cor has a point too. How can you sit here and call him out on the things he's done when you've done the exact same things!"

Aris spits out a wad of blood onto the track floor. "Screw you, Aria."

Sage steps up, and glares at Aris. "Say one more Elder damned thing about my girlfriend, and you'll have a lot more than just a broken nose."

Someone clears their throat, and we all look at Li who was assessing the situation. "We should all just relax. Let's stop calling each other out, okay?" He asks calmly. "I vote we all sit down, and figure out a way to fix all of this. We're a smart group of kids, right? We can figure it so we can save Ginny, Gem, Cor, and Leona. Instead of hurting each other."

Aris scoffs. "Little Li over here, trying to save the day. Not everything has an answer, Li."

Li sighs. "It's hard to fix a problem when you're in the middle of it." He blinks slowly and lets his cool and calm persona show off.

I nod and take a deep breath. "Li's right, let's all just take a deep breath and solve this like algebra. One problem at a time."

Li smiles at me. "One problem at a time." He repeats.

Cance frowns at her phone, baking her head. "Taria says that she's trying to hear a location. Gem, she has a reason to hate you, and I feel like if you two sat down and talked it out, you'd actually become good friends." She sounds more hopeful than anybody in this room.

Behind those tears is an ocean of feelings. She's hopeful, and bright.

I shrug. "I don't know about all that, but I do want to know why she hates me."

My eyes meet Cor's and where there once was a wall in front of his emotions, it was now just a window.

His face had fallen, his eyes were red and puffy. His hair was a mess, and everything about him seemed to droop.

I walk up and rest my hand on his cheek. "I'm here. I'm still here."

He wraps his arms around me and holds me like I'm about to leave forever. "Gem. I love you. I can't ever explain how much I love you."

I nod. "You don't need to." I pull back to look at his deep brown eyes. "I can tell."

He nods. "You always could."

I wipe away the tears on his cheek and kiss his nose. "We'll be fine."

He looks at Aris. "You hate me, I get that. We don't get along, never have. But right now, we need to work together."

Aris smirks. "I love Gem like a sister. I'm just trying to keep her safe."

Aria snaps her fingers at us all and point to her phone. "Okay, Minley, do you have a report on your dad?"

Minley, who had been surprisingly quiet this whole time, shakes his head in a confused way. "No, I haven't talked to him since..." He pauses and steadies himself with a deep breath. "Why?"

Aria looks at Sage and they nod. "While you guys were arguing, Sage and I were talking about how a couple weeks ago I talked to my dad. He can help us, I'm sure of it."

I shake my head at her, remembering the letter to Chancler. "Nope. He's the one who paid Chancler to mess with me that night."

Aria tilts her head. "Care to evaluate, Gem?"

Me and Cor spend the next twenty minutes catching everyone up on what we know. Every now and then. Every once in a while, someone interrupts to ask us a question. Sometimes, Arius butts in and helps explain things we can't. But overall, everyone seems understanding.

And through the whole time, Cor is always touching me as if to make sure I'm still there. Whether it's his hand resting on my hand, or his leg casually bumping me in the middle of the conversation.

I don't even think he realized he was doing it, but I did.

"Hold on, this could still help us." Virlon says, meeting my eyes. "Minley, do you know where your dad kept his  extra set of keys to the school?"

Minley nods. "Yeah. He's not good at hiding things."

Virlon pops his fingers and points to Aria. "I could get your dad's info and we can call him, we can get him to talk. You can get him to talk."

I nod, and face Cor. "We'll get through this. Nothing is without a solution."

He nods. "Yeah." He looks downcast still, and I frown at him. "I don't know what I'd do if I lost you. This is all my fault, Gem."

I shrug and kiss his forehead. "Well... I feel like I helped at least a little."

He smirks and looks at the doors. "What if you ran, Gem?"

"They'd find me." I respond. "Right now, figuring everything out is what needs to happen."

Cor shakes his head. "Gem. We already have. There's nothing to figure out. We know my dad wants you dead. We— Arius?"

Arius looks at us and gestures to us with his chin. "What's up?"

Cor tilts his head at him. "How come you went to the hospital at the party? You didn't need too. You didn't even drink anything."

Arius sinks into himself. "This is probably a bad time, but I had surgery."

I squint my eyes. "Why?"

He looked up, hiding something. "My mom put a GPS in my wrist?" He says quickly.

We all groan as he widens his eyes. "But my mom wants Gem alive so... she's not working with Lucas."

I release a little bit of my anxiety. "Can she help us?"

He shakes his head. "I don't think that's a good idea. Because then she'll want details as to why Lucas wants you dead in the first place."

Capri clears her throat and nods to Virlon. "Let's just figure out what Aria's dad knows first. We get the keys to the school, look up his info, get a hold of him, and figure out that first. Like Gem said, one step at a time."

She's trying to redeem herself and she might be helping, but she still tried to get Leona and Leo killed.

"How do we get into the computers? They're locked." I ask.

Virlon pops his knuckles. "I'm good with computers. I can get into any one of them. I just need my USB from my dorm."

"Me, Virlon, Minley, and whoever else wants to go back to the dorms can come with me. My car only fits seven people though. The rest I guess have to go with you, Gem." Li says, pulling his keys out of his pockets.

Arius raises his hand. "I'll stay at the dorms. Don't need anyone knowing what we're doing."

Li nods to him and we all walk back into the cold air.
~~~~~
A/N published sometime in August 2017

GUYS! I REALIZED SOMETHING! BACK IN LIKE CHAPTER 26 COR DOES ASK HER TO PROM!! AND THEN ITS NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN! I DONT EVEN REMEMBER WRITING THAT CHAPTER BUT I GUESS I DID!! OH NO! IMA GO FIX THAT!

I also wanna thank random_giggly for giving me A LOT of info about zodiac signs, it's appreciated. Like REALLY appreciated.

I love every single one of you, and I love hearing from you guys. Seriously, don't be shy to comment and PM me with theories and ideas. I have like hours upon hours of free time.

Hope you all have an AMAZING day and...

As always, stay happy, stay gold,
-Dani_Kail