I wanted to turn around and throw my arms around him, I really did. I wanted to explain to him that Philip knew that we were together.

But I couldn't. Because then Philip would really know that I was with Cor.

I swear I could hear both our hearts break as he said my name in the most broken way I could imagine.

After everything he's been through, I ignored him.

I found myself at home, laying next to my phone, wanting to call him. But I couldn't, it was only safe to assume our calls were being monitored.

"Cheer up, Gem. Aris told me Cor almost beat the living daylight out of him for talking to you so..." Aria trailed off, chuckling. "I like him that much more now." She squeezed her thumb and pointer finger together.

I couldn't help but laugh. Aria always made things easier. "So... what's up with you and Sage?" I asked, perking up and not so smoothly changing the subject.

Her face blushed a million shades of red and then she flopped backwards on my bed. "He's a sweetheart and I hate that I love it."

I pushed her lightly, flopping down next to her. "Why would you hate that!? That's adorable. I saw him tie your shoe earlier."

She nodded. "Exactly. If anyone tried to come up to me and tie my shoe, or randomly bring me flowers and chocolate, I'd probably be suspicious. But with him? It just... it feels right." Her eyes turned glassy as she remembered some happy memory, some moment in time where everything was perfect.

I understood. I understood exactly. "Okay, but why would you hate it?"

She sighed heavily. "I guess it makes me feel weak? Vulnerable? I hate knowing that in a second if he chose to leave it would crush my world. That he holds the power to make me cry." She sat up and ran a hand through her hair, tapping her foot. "Anyways, I actually came over for something else..."

Something in her voice made my stomach turn, made my head search for every situation that ended badly. It was like ice in winter, cold and harsh. And it scared me.

"Yeah?" I asked skeptically.

She looked, dare I say, nervous. And that made me even more anxious.

"If I don't make it and Sage does... can you watch him for me? Make sure he's okay?" She asked, not being able to meet my eyes.

I nodded. "Of course, but Aria, they'll take you. They have too."

She closed her eyes, taking deep breaths. "Fifteen," she paused to collect herself. "Only fifteen are leaving. I almost hope I don't make it. To be a part of that. It's just wrong."

It's just how things are.

I had no choice. Both Geminis made it in. Me and Minley both.

"What if you make it? And he doesn't?" I ask, dreading any answer at all.

She shrugged half-heartedly. "I don't wanna think about it. Have you heard from Leona?"

"No, Lucas wants me dead. There's no way he'd let me talk to his daughter." I scoffed, shuddering at the thought.

She pursed her lips, glaring at the ground like it was the cause of all our problems, her brown tinted red eyes practically melting the floor. "My Dad put a stop to it."

I raised one eyebrow. "You think he'll listen to your father, Aria?"

"I don't want to think about what would happen if he didn't." She admitted, looking humbly up at me. "We should go to the bar." She adds randomly.

I widened my eyes and shook my head wildly. "No! No we shouldn't!"

She laughed, for the first time in a while I could tell, and then tried to pull me off the bed. My fingers grappled for the sheets, trying to stay on but eventually I hit the floor with a thud.

"Yes! Come on, Gem!" She dragged me to the the door, chuckling. "Come on, it'll be fun!"

I swatted her hands, standing and stomping my foot. "That's what you always say! I'm not going."

She rolled her eyes. "Gem! Please." She pouted, something she had never done in front of me.

I huffed out and sat on the floor, reluctantly putting on my shoes, muttering out hateful words.

She smiled. "Okay, Good."

I wasn't sure what she meant but I didn't really care what she meant. I just wanted to stay home and sulk, but I guess she wasn't okay with that.

"We're taking your car by the way." She grabbed my car keys off the table and I quickly snatched them from her hands.

"Hell. No. Nobody is allowed to drive my car, Fire zodiacs especially." I gripped the keys tightly and walked out of my dorm, locking it behind me.

Aria beat me too the car, running down the steps, and sliding on the frozen blacktop to get inside.

I hopped in the front seat and turned on the heater, waiting for the car to warm up a bit. "Wait... which bar did you want to go?" I asked, already thinking I knew the answer.

"Liah's bar, of course." She answered, giving me a wicked smile.

I sighed. Of course she wanted to go there. "Why!? Right now isn't a good time—"

"To see the love of your life? He's gunna be a waiter or something, nobody will suspect anything. Plus, do you really think Philip will be there?" She rubbed her hands together in front of the heater, her breath frozen in the air.

"No." I muttered, pulling out of the driveway, careful not to slip on the dangerous icy road.

She nodded and pushed me lightly. "See!? Let's just go, and we'll invite a couple people. It'll be fun. That's just what we need right now."

I scoff, rolling my head. "Fun? Half of us—"

"Are going to the bar with us tonight. Don't bring up bad vibes, Gem. You're normally the happy one, c'mon!" She smiles at me, and I felt some of my sadness edge away.

"You're right. Let's just... go have fun." I forced myself to say and locked down the dreaded feeling that something bad was going to happen.

Because what could go wrong? What could possibly make my situation worse?

***

I sat at the bar, watching the waiter walk around in his half-tuxedo half-casual uniform. His dark hair reflected light and his eyes still wandered around the room, settling over nothing and completely skipping over me.

Sure Leo, the boy who partied and prided himself in all his good looks, was aesthetic. Nobody is wrong when they say Arius has these eyes that could melt your will and bend your heart. But anyone who says that Cor isn't good-looking has clearly never seen him with white sleeves tucked up. One look at him and it's like Leo suddenly doesn't have any sort of beauty to him, and Arius is all flaws.

Or at least for me, anyways.

"I came here to get your thoughts away from him and yet again, Cor beats me without even trying." Aria says, laughing as she tried to get the bartender to serve her a beer. "C'mon, just one beer."

The bartender shook her head, her virgo-emerald eyes rolling. "No I can't serve you beer. You're underage. Ask for like... chicken tenders or something non-alcoholic."

I peeked up at the sound of Chicken Tenders. "Is Liah making them?" I asked, hopeful.

The bartender nodded at me. "Yeah, she is. She always makes them. Gem, right?" The girl asks, and I nod. "I recognize you."

That's right. She served me and Cor when we came here all that time ago. "Pfft, I'm pretty recognizable." I said, winking at her. "Luckily I don't have to be 21 to buy Chicken Tenders, I'll take a plate."

She nodded. "Alright then."

I looked back to Aria who had an evil glint to her. Well that couldn't be good. Little miss Aries over here has an evil glint in her eyes. Wonder how much trouble I'll get into with whatever she's thinking.

"Have you realized that Cor hasn't made a single attempt to talk to you tonight?" Aria asked, raising her eyebrows.

I shrugged. "I mean this is public."

Aria rolled her red-flecked eyes. "So? When has that ever stopped him before?"

Never... but I do know that it made me ignore him earlier today at school because Philip knew. Maybe he was doing the same thing?

"Since Philip knew." I responded.

"Knew what?" My heart jumped as a cold yet burning hot voice came from behind me, causing my heart to hammer in my chest in the best way possible.

I couldn't keep a smile buried as I spun in the bar chair to the familiar dark brown eyes. "Knew that I had a little secret."

Cor smirked, sending me wild. "And what secret is that?" He asked, chuckling lowly.

I tilted my head at him. "Oh come on, you know."

He raised one eyebrow, teasing and testing me, pulling me ten directions. "No really I don't."

Aria pulled on my arm. "Gem, c'mon let's just. We need to—."

Something about him, his attitude, it irked me. But I played along with the joke. I interrupted Aria, but she was right. This is the first we've talked all day. "Ohhh.... ya know. The laws we break when we kiss." I whisper in his ear.

He pulled back. "Ooh, you mean that secret." He laughed.

I smacked his shoulder lightly. "Shh." I winked.

"Yeah about that..." he scratched the back of his head, looking down. "I'm done." Was all he said.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "What do you mean?" I asked, scooting closer to him. "Done what? Working?"

He shook his head. "With you."

I scooted back and the stool wobbled under me, but Aria pulled me off the stool before it tumbled down in a loud bang in the quiet bar.

Cor picked it up, smiling at me. "I've had my fun. Now we're over." He started to walk away but I clenched his arm, spinning him around to face me.

I didn't believe what he was saying. It was like some cruel joke that he was starting to play. There was no sincerity to his words, no pain, no calmness. Just... laughter.

"That's not funny." I said, shaking my head at him.

"No. It's not." He got serious for a moment, and the seriousness scared me more than any laugh he could bellow. "It's serious."

I felt tears prickle behind my eyes but I wasn't going to give him the obvious satisfaction he was getting from doing this. I held them back and shrugged. "Is this because of Philip because—"

"No, GEM! It's not because of Philip. Have you ever realized that maybe you're the problem? I have enough on my plate without having to deal with some little girl." He snarled, ripping his arm from my tight grasp, glaring at me with nothing but distaste and anger.

He walked away once more but I wasn't going to let him off that easy.

I grabbed his shoulder and spun him around to face me, and I saw it then. I saw the raw emotion he held back in front of me. But I didn't really care.

My hand flew faster than I'm sure either of us thought, and it almost made an echoing sound as it slapped against his cheek, a sting firing up my hand like hot flames.

He just let his cheek redden, not bothering to rub it or fix it. I saw the pain, I felt the pain, I felt my heart shout out for something. But if he wanted to end it like this because he was scared, then so be it. Not like I could force him to stay with me.

"Just know that I know this isn't you." I said, sounding weaker than I wanted to.

His eyes flashed with something along the lines of regret, but he covered it up when he walked through the kitchen doors, and came out with a tray in his hand like nothing happened.

He brushed past me, giving me the cold shoulder.

I turned and Aria was glaring at his retreating form, her hands balled to fists at her side. "Let's go before I make a decision we'll both regret." She didn't wait for a reply as she left the bar, the door shutting quietly behind her.

I followed her out, each step heavier and more painful than the last.

I stepped into her car, and then I broke like the Hoover dam, waterfalls of pain flowing out of me in tears and sobs. It was as if the door shutting was my cue to cry.

Warm hands wrapped around as Aria hugged me tightly. "I know, Gem." She whispered into my hair as I cried into her shoulder. "It's Okay."

"No it's not." I said as brokenly as I felt, my whole body shuddering and aching like I broke every bone. Every nerve was collapsing. I could feel my agony in my chest.

"He... Gem he's just... he cares about you." Aria festered out, stumbling over her words, trying to console me.

But there were no words that could be said. There were no actions that could be made. I was in pain and nothing could fix that.

I didn't even respond, just left the safe grasp of her arms and laid my head against the window. "If he did... if he does... then that makes this situation ten times worse." I said between labored breaths.

Aria started the car, looking behind her as she pulled out. "And why's that?"

"Because... that means that even though he cares about me... he still left. What does that say about him?" I muttered against the frosty window, watching snow pass by below us as we drove to wherever Aria had in mind.

She sighed heavily, the heater in her car was fixed but it still wasn't the best. I shivered but the cold was welcomed.

"Gem... that means he'll come back." She said, her eyes looking forward at the road. "Just... he's probably going through things. Scorpios cut people off—"

"Enough with the stupid Zodiac signs!" I yelled, surprising the both of us. "Who the hell cares!? Congrats! Some stars and some old people have defined our personalities! Whoopty doo!" I threw my hands up. "Cor comes to me when things get rough. He has been. So if something changed he'd tell me and we'd work it out."

"HEY! You can be upset, cry all you want. But don't yell at me in my car when all I'm trying to do is help." She said angrily, her face glaring at the road.

"Sorry." I apologized, feeling bad. "Just..."

"Going through somethings? Yeah. I know. Cor probably is too. Just give him a little time and he'll come crawling back." Aria said exhaustedly. "Two options, I have a friend about thirty minutes away that can get us beer, my goal of the night. Option two, we can go back to the dorms and go to bed."

Both sounded fabulous. "Option one." Because yeah sleep sounded great, but somehow I knew I'd see him there.

If I got drunk I probably wouldn't see anyone anywhere.

"Okay, rule number one... you can't drink." Aria said, giving me a deadly gaze. "No alcohol for you. I know how you get."

"Then just take me home." I'll deal with the dreams. I'll deal with the nightmares. I'd rather deal with the imaginary lies than the real truths.

Cor Reynolds had just dumped me. Not for some little plan. Not for some backup in case someone asked if we were together.

But for the sake of self preservation.

"Fine, whatever. Figured you could give me a ride home since it's winter and I'll be drunk." She muttered, talking the wheel.

I slowly turned to face her. "You really want to pull that up right now?"

She shrugs. "Figured I could remind you of something worse than a boy dumping you."

I shook my head. "Nothing is worse than losing half your heart."

She but her lip. "Little over dramatic... but I'll bite."

I wanted Leona. I wanted my life back. I wanted the Elders to mysteriously disappear. I wanted things to be different. Sad thing was... they would be. In a week. When we finally became elders.