I look at myself in the mirror and smile. I hear my phone ringing so I wipe my face and get out of the washroom. (Incoming call from Chloe) I let go of a long sigh, embracing myself for what's about to come. I pick it up

"OHH MYY GOOD!!! Bestie.... just got laid!!!!"

"You're not mad?"

"What?! Why would I be mad?"

"I thought, you were not sure about Liam."

"Yeah I wasn't. But then, last night I saw you guys at Jasper's and honestly I didn't think I'd say this but he looked really happy, I mean, I know that you have always wanted to be with him but everytime he held your hand or looked at you was- it was clear, that that's all he wanted. Like the way Joey looked at his food. Like there's nothing else that is better than you in this world."

"Ohhh myy myy.... That's- poetic...." I chuckle, she chuckles too "you've no idea how good this makes me feel."

"You ready?"

"Almost, a little makeup and I'll be downstairs."

"Cool, I'll wait outside my place." I hang up, quickly apply a little make and hop downstairs to grab my lunch. I look around for mom, she's not here in the dining room, I peep into the kitchen she's not there either. So I walk towards her room and find her door locked from inside.

I knock on the door. Once, twice. She doesn't answer. "Mom!"

"Yes honey?" She opens the door. She has her phone in her hand "were you knocking? I thought I heard I was on the balcony. Watching this hilarious tiktok."

"Since when do you watch tiktok? You always say tiktoks are fake." She absolutely hates spending time on her phone. Unless it's really important. She looks at me thinking of an explanation when I decide to leave her up to her job. "Anyways, I'll be back a little late, we have Jasper's return party."

"Yes, I remember. When will you be back?"

"Don't know... maybe 9 or 10, not more than that." I wave her bye and leave. She's been acting weird lately. The last time Steve was here, she kept interrupting him from saying something to me. She was on her phone that day too.

I don't like asking her much about what's going on with her life. She eventually starts to question mine. And for god's sake I don't want her to start talking about how Liam's gonna rob us. She could've told me what's really going on, instead she chose to tell me a ridiculous lie.

"Evelyn. Evelyn!" I turn around and see Chloe walking towards me. Oh shit I crossed her place. "Hey, what's up? You kept walking past my place."

"Yeah... uh, it's my mom, she's been weird lately.... She keeps talking to someone on her phone, she's been using her phone so much more than before. Just before I left she told me she was watching tik-toks."

"Didn't she used to say that those are fake?"

"Yeah exactly! She was using her phone and she came in such a hurry that she couldn't think of a proper lie. I don't know... something's going on."

"She's probably having an affair. Well, not an affair since she's not married but like- she's probably dating" I don't know why that didn't surprise me. In Fact it's actually the most logical explanation. The first few months of dating are extraordinary.

"That does make sense actually." We reach school after a good 12 minutes walk and 20 minutes of bus ride. Leo's waiting for us at the gate. I see Liam when we enter the hallway he's waiting near my locker. I hear Chloe making 'excited' noises. I blush and I pinch her in the arms.

I try to make eye contact but it's too hard now. I keep imagining him naked. Even before I completely reach my locker Liam takes a few big steps to reach me. He bends down, wraps his hand around my waist and picks me up to kiss me in the lips.

Wow, this is so much better than me standing on my tippy toes and him just bending down. When my feet touch the ground again I bury my face in his chest before looking over to Leo, but I hear him saying "did they?" lowly.

Now when I finally look at him I see his mouth already covered by his palm. "I'm trying my best to not scream" he says from behind his hands. "We are celebrating this too, at today's party." There's still some time left before the class starts so we discuss about the party.

Leo's responsible for all the food. Chloe, Jasper and I are decorating. Liam's taking care of the invitations and drinks. The bell finally rings for the class and we leave the hallway to enter the classroom.

As soon as we enter the class I realize who has the first class. The students had already taken out their geography notebooks. We make our way to the seats and within the next few minutes Hyde walks in.

I try my best not to pay attention to his face, and keep looking at my notebook taking notes. I feel Liam's hand on my thighs. He probably noticed that I'm worried. He slowly holds my hand beneath the table and rubs it with his thumb back and forth.

He drags the notebook from my side to his, flips all the pages and starts to write something. Once he's done he passes it back to me, 'I love you'. The power these words hold when it's from the right person. I try to hide my blush but fail.

Once the bells ring and the class comes to an end. I get up and leave the class before anyone notices me. I told Liam that I need to pee before the bell. I decide to follow Hyde to his chamber to talk to him about Jasper.

I was going to talk to him eventually, but I thought the talking needs to be done as soon as possible. Yesterday after we came back from the hospital, everyone ate the ramen I had made and it was time to leave.

Liam and Austin were at the gate waiting for me at the door, I came upstairs to see if Chloe was alright. If she wants me to do anything before I leave. I slowly opened the door to Jasper's room so that I wouldn't wake Jasper up. When I hear her crying.

I stood there for a whole 2 minutes and her intensity kept going high. Jasper was awake of course. He kept asking her to calm down but she was terrified. She kept saying "he's gonna do this again. What would happen if none of us had found out!?" I didn't keep standing there. I came back downstairs and left.

I see him enter his room and I follow him too. "Sir, I'd like to talk to you"

"Evelyn! How are you?" He looks at me "How's... your friend?" He better not be talking shit about Leo. "What's the name... ah! Jasper" I press my teeth together. I'd kill him if I get a chance.

I take a deep breath and step forward inside his room. "Sir." I look at him. In his eyes "Please, stop this. We're kids, I don't know if you have your own. But please. I know.... I know.... You're upset about Leo- and you- but, this happens to a lot of us doesn't it? We all fall in love with the wrong person. You can't go on a hunting spree for that. It's not like Jasper or any of us asked Leo to not-" I feel my voice shaking "Please.... Please. Stop this."

I don't break eye contact, he doesn't break eye contact. He drags his chair from behind and gives it to me, takes one for himself and gestures to me to take a seat. "That.... Was.... heart touching. I have to give you that." Maybe I did talk some sense into him. "About Jasper, I wasn't really intending to do that to him. I was going to do it to Liam." My ears almost go off. Every other sound around me starts to blur out even imagining what would've happened if that happened to Liam. He tilts his head and smirks at me "remember him?" Then his smile grows bigger "of course you do." But he didn't do it to Liam. "I was almost near him when this woman arrived" He lifts his hand in anger "I fucking slipped! Trying to step back."

My heart's racing like crazy. I might just even have a heart attack right here "and?"

"And then I bolted. Obviously! I was on my way to the first floor and I saw Jasper running up in a hurry. I remember him.... I may be late to this school but I did my research. He's your best friend's boyfriend! So I thought all this effort of mine mustn't go to waste." He leans towards me, and I make a fist to land it on his face. "You know some people are just a little too unfortunate. And that happens to be your friend. I know you care about that best friend of yours and she.... Cares about that blonde idiot."

The fact that I came in here with the thought of solving everything. And I'll be leaving his room with even more trauma is just what I should've known. But the idiot that I am, I thought that the bastard could listen to me and put an end to this nightmare once and for all.

So he's not gonna stop this until he gets what he wants. Meaning Leo. And none of us know how to get him to stop. If we call the police, he'll leak all of Leo's pictures, but if he gets arrested how will he do it, unless he has other people working for him. And then, there's Liam. What Hyde said about Liam is something I don't wanna believe.

Hyde walks past me leaving me alone in his office. He walks out in the hallway, and I wanna get out of here. As soon as I can. But I can't move. All these thoughts are weighing so much. My head feels heavy, I can feel it's gonna start aching soon. I feel physically, mentally unwell. Every. Single. Thing. Every single person is close to me. I can't let anything happen to Leo, or Chloe or anyone else in this group. Or myself.

He was with a woman. Liam was with a woman. He didn't tell me about it. But I promised him I'll give him time to fix things. I promised him that I'd trust him. I slowly turn around and walk out of Hyde's office. I walk straight towards the girls washroom. Once I'm inside I close the door. The main door. I need lots of space to panic. I walk back and forth with my hands on my head. It's not that warm in here, but my hands are sweating.

Leo's not safe yet, Hyde would hurt anyone, maybe everyone. And Liam. I don't even know what's going on with Liam. I remember him calling me on the fundraiser, about Hyde, to see if I'm okay. He texted me later that night, but he never once mentioned anything about any woman.

I knew there's a girl and I promised to give him time to prove himself. But hearing about her again and again from different people. And the fact that she was here in school that day and Liam was still worried about me called me and texted me to see if I was okay. It's all really confusing.

I keep walking with my hands on my stomach now. I can't stop brainstorming about everything that Hyde mentioned. That's when I pause, a woman? Not a girl. A woman?! Fundraiser starts to come to me in bits and pieces. Something about money, they were talking about money! It wasn't 'they' it was Liam. It was him that I heard!

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A/N

Thank you for reading <3 

Next chapter coming up soon!