*I just got so happy when I got my reminder to post this. I've been wanting to post it for days but I have a schedule to keep to. Anyway. Since the last title was chosen in advance, there's no shout out for this chapter. I tagged Pushing 20 by Sabrina Carpenter because I love her and I am also pushing 20.

There's a teeny announcement at the end so make sure to read that.*

(2370 words)

May 9th

7:26 am

katiehatesyou: text your fucking boyfriend back. he's blowing me up

leggylance: i don't care

katiehatesyou:

katiehatesyou: do it for me. he won't give up until you talk to him. which means he won't stop texting me until you talk to him

leggylance: ugh fine. only for you

katiehatesyou: thank you!

*switching to texts with keith*

leggylance: let me make one thing very clear. i'm only texting you back because pidge begged me to so you would leave her alone.

kmskeith: so will you meet me before school?

leggylance: only if you are serious about telling me everything

kmskeith: cross my heart and hope to die, if i'm lying stick a needle in my eye

leggylance: don't tempt me

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

Lance walked up to the bench Keith was sitting on, the same place they had fought the day before, "If you don't tell me I really will stick a needle in your eye."

Keith looked up at him with a frown, "Sit down."

Lance sat down next to him, "So, what is going on?"

Keith handed Lance his phone to show him the screenshot of the post that had been made when his account was hacked, "This happened two days ago, I deleted it before you could see it."

"Who do you blame? I blame you," Lance read it out loud before handing Keith his phone back.

"Yeah," Keith put his phone back in his pocket, "And the day before that we got a third card. This time with our mail. It said "You love him? What do you know of love?". I've already given in to Detective Anderson."

"Why didn't you just tell me?" Lance crossed his arms, "Look, I'm not even the slightest bit anxious right now."

Keith sighed, "Because these definitely aren't pranks. I didn't know if you'd be able to recover from a second attack. Besides, they're directed at me specifically. I wanted to leave you out of it."

Lance's arms fell, "Oh..."

Keith nodded, "Yeah... Whoever is doing this is harassing me, not us."

"Does it have anything to do with why you ran out of the lunchroom yesterday?"

"No," Keith lied. He knew the person he was talking to the day before was the one doing everything else, "I was only so freaked out because it was someone I hadn't thought about in a very long time... My ex... He just... He wasn't good to me. He got me roped into some very bad things. He never hit me or anything like that, but he wasn't good to me," he wasn't lying about that.

Lance nodded, "That's why you said it was someone you'd rather leave in the past..." he reached over and held Keith's hand, "Zack never hit me either, but that doesn't mean he wasn't abusive towards me. Don't devalidate what this guy did to you just because he never hit you."

Keith chuckled a bit, "That's not a word, but thank you."

Lance frowned, "I'm serious Keith, real word or not. People can abuse you in many more ways than hitting you."

Keith sighed, "I wouldn't call Carson abusive. More of a bad influence and shitty boyfriend. And he was very manipulative. He was more so someone I had sex with than an actual boyfriend... I was already drinking when I got placed in the new foster home that got me enrolled in his school. But he and his friends, Cleo and Seamus, got me into drugs... I told you my coping mechanisms in the past weren't exactly healthy, but I got clean at my next foster home. Anyway, things started to get really bad. I don't want to go into detail... It was just really bad, and I separated myself from them. When I did, Carson freaked out. We got in this big fight, we were both drunk. I said some pretty nasty things and he tried to hit me, but I dodged it. I had gotten pretty good at it after dealing with my dad beating me up for the first 13 years of my life. After he tried to hit me I never spoke to them again. Not long after, I got sent to a different foster home. I thought they were behind me forever. But when I got those messages yesterday... I freaked out," He didn't lie, but he didn't tell the whole truth.

Lance sighed and pulled Keith into a hug, "I would've freaked out too. And I understand why you didn't want to tell me about him, bad memories are hard to talk about."

Keith hugged him back tightly, "All I care about right now is that you're not mad at me anymore."

"Mi amor por ti es mayor que las estrellas," Lance pulled away just enough to kiss him, "I could never stay mad at you. No matter how much you piss me off."

Keith smiled, "I love you."

"I love you too," Lance kept hugging him, nuzzling his head into Keith's neck.

Keith sighed, feeling glad he had told Lance some of it, but guilty because he didn't tell him the rest. He let Lance go, "Let's get inside. It's our last day of high school. Let's make the most of it."

Lance smiled, nodding, "We finally get to see Pidge's project, and you guys get to see her new hair."

Keith looked confused, "Her new hair?"

"Yeah, she cut her hair last night. It's really short but she likes it," Lance shrugged, "She did it herself, most likely very impulsively due to all the stress going around," he sighed.

The warning bell rang, they heard it from where they sat but it was very muffled.

Keith held Lance's hand, "I'll walk you to homeroom."

Lance smiled, "Okay."

The two grabbed their bags and walked into the school building, hand in hand.

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

11:58 am

leggylance: where are you?

kmskeith: i'll be there in a minute, just got held up

leggylance: okay, we're eating lunch outside today

kmskeith: i left my textbook in my last class, i'll be there after i get it and put it in my locker

leggylance: okay ♡

Keith set his phone on the top shelf of his locker as he looked inside a paper bag, someone had broken into his locker and left it. Inside was nothing but pills, a variety of them. And another card.

ad te quoque reprehendo

nunc reddere pretium

Keith quickly grabbed his phone to translate both sides of the card.

you are also to blame

now pay the price

Keith ran to the nearest trashcan in a panic and threw the bag away, his breathing heavy. He began to understand how Lance felt before a panic attack. He did one of the breathing exercises he'd walked Lance through so many times to calm himself down. Once he was calm he walked back to his locker, closed it, and made his way to the cafeteria to meet his friends.

He got himself some food before walking to where they sat outside, sitting next to Lance, "Sorry I'm late."

Lance smiled, "It's okay," he took a tater tot off Keith's tray and giggled a bit.

Keith chuckled and kissed his cheek.

Pidge threw a tater tot at them, "Get a room."

Lance laughed and turned back to his food, continuing to eat.

Keith smiled, pretending everything was fine.

Once everyone was done eating, Pidge stood up, "Okay, who wants to see my project? We have 15 minutes until the bell rings."

Everyone smiled, Lance stood up, "Lead the way, m'lady."

Pidge giggled and grabbed Lance's hand, leading everyone to the AV room. On the main table, there was an object covered by a tarp. She walked up to it, "Okay, it won't look like much until I turn it on," she pulled the tarp off, revealing a pyramid-shaped object, "I call it Rover," She lifted the back panel, flipped a switch, then put the panel back in place. The object lit up and started flying.

"Woah! How did you get it to fly like that?" Lance asked.

Pidge shrugged, "Several months of studying aerodynamics."

"Aerowhatics?" Keith asked.

Pidge chuckled, "The study of how air moves and how you can use it to make things fly."

Lance nodded, looking it over. He saw the three little mechanical propellors on the bottom causing it to fly, "That's so cool."

"What does it do, exactly?" Shiro asked.

Pidge sighed, "Well, right now it only flies. I haven't added any additional programming yet. But I'll be able to do that from my laptop. When it's finished, it'll assist me in collecting and storing information."

Hunk chuckled, "It'll help you in hacking, you mean."

Pidge shrugged, "You can call it that."

Allura smiled, "I think that it's amazing"

"Thank you," Pidge opened the panel again to shut Rover off, the propellers slowing down for a smooth landing back on the table.

The bell rang and they all groaned, none of them wanted to go back to class. None of them had their next class together.

So they all grabbed their bags and headed their separate ways. It was halfway through the class that Keith got another message

1:24 pm

mortemsirenis: i feel a bit bad for you, you always complained about how history class was such a bore. but at least you have that little gift we left for you.

kmskeith: how the fuck do you know my schedule? and my locker number?

mortemsirenis: i guess you forgot how good Seamus is at hacking. he got into the school's system and got your schedule and locker number. we waited until you were in a class on the other side of the school before having Carson break into your locker and leave you that little surprise. don't you remember how we would always break into abandoned buildings and party?

kmskeith: i'm not that person anymore. i'm clean.

mortemsirenis: do your friends know about who you used to be? does lance?

kmskeith: lance does know actually. i told him about the drinking and the drugs this morning

mortemsirenis: but did you tell him what other dirty deeds you took part in? don't deny it. you played just as big of a role as we did. even if you did leave us before the grand finale

kmskeith: you call his death the grand finale? that's really fucked up. just proves what kind of people you are.

mortemsirenis: you used to be one of us keith. don't forget that

Keith powered his phone off and put it back in his bag, biting his lip. He knew these three were loose canons and what they did next was impossible to predict. He had no idea they had already made their next move. And he wouldn't find out until he turned his phone back on.

2:13 pm

ayellura: have you guys seen this yet??

ayellura:

katiehatesyou: yeah! I just finished reading the article. why the hell would someone tag us in this shit???

hunkinthetrunk: the article is a couple years old too. that's weird as hell

shirogone: what does the article say?

katiehatesyou: apparently this kid Cyrin killed himself a couple years ago because 4 kids were bullying him

ayellura: 3 of the kids, Cleo, Seamus, and Carter, ended up going to juvy for 1 year after his family took them to court. The 4th kid is unnamed. apparently he separated himself from the group when the bullying became physical. he was just expelled and sent to a different foster home

leggylance: keith isnt tagged...

hunkinthetrunk: that's weird. i didn't notice that. where is keith anyway?? he always answers the group chat

leggylance: guys i really want to be wrong about this

shirogone: wrong about what???

leggylance: i think keith is that 4th kid

ayellura: what?? that's insane!

hunkinthetrunk: how could you think keith could do something like that?? i get you guys are fighting but still!

leggylance: we're not fighting anymore. we made up when he told me why he ran out at lunch yesterday. two of his old friends and his ex had reached out to him and he freaked out because he "wanted to leave them in the past". cleo, seamus, and carter

katiehatesyou: the same kids from the article...

leggylance: he said things had started to get really bad, he didn't want to get into detail and i didn't push him to. but he said he broke up with carter because of it and stopped talking to them. he was soon after moved to a new foster home

shirogone: the keith i know wouldn't bully a kid until they commited suicide

leggylance: the keith you know isn't drinking and on drugs. he told me those three got him into drugs and he got clean at his next foster home. and if he is the 4th kid, the article said he separated himself when the bullying got physical. that's probably when he got in a fight with carter and broke up with him. when things got "really bad"

hunkinthetrunk: if they could get him into drugs they probably could've gotten him into other stuff too...

katiehatesyou: like verbally bullying someone...

leggylance: there's more than that. anybody notice how the username of who tagged us in that is in latin? mortemsirenis. death of a siren. i think whoever tagged us in this is the same person who has been leaving those cards and hacked keith's facebook. it's probably cleo, seamus, and carson behind it all. keith did say they reached out to him

ayellura: this is a lot to take in...

kmskeith: guys... i didn't want you to find out... especially not like this...

shirogone: so it's all true?

kmskeith: yes.

leggylance: we have a lot to talk about

kmskeith: can we all meet up after school? i'll tell you guys everything you want to know

ayellura: we can all meet up at my place

*Sorry for the cliff hanger, didn't want to reveal too much in one chapter. Keith will spill all the tea at the very beginning of the next chapter.

Okay, now the mini announcement. I can't stretch this plotline to 30 chapters like 'Level Up' (the only reason it was so long was that the first 12 chapters were only 300 words instead of 3000 lol). So this book will probably be half the length. And then there will be a short third book (Respawn) to tell you all about their happy endings. All the characters. It's gonna be even shorter than this and probably won't be an angst fic. Unless I come up with an idea before I get to it.*