VICTOIRE CALVERT-EGERTON'S FOURTEENTH birthday was a monumental event. And for the newly-turned adults in the house, there was a deeper meaning behind all of it. It felt like the end of an era, and she supposed it was. It was the closing of this chapter of life, everyone accepting that those summers at Briarville were part of history, going off to universities and to embrace their lives. Their own independent lives, away from family and old friends since infanthood and leaving their own comfort zone.

But of course, the main spotlight was still on the little girl who stole everyone's hearts with a single smile.

"Look who's turning older," Livia cooed over the little blonde, messing up her hair with a wide grin on her face. "Fourteen, you little baby."

Victoire swatted her hand away. "You're ruining my hairdo!"

"It'll be fine," Livia told her, "you look absolutely perfect. Even more perfect with your hair slightly messed up by my hands."

Victoire narrowed her eyes at her. "What gift have you brought me?"

"Seriously?" Livia asked, shaking her head in disbelief. "That's what you care about."

Victoire replied, "You're being annoying."

Livia huffed. "Whatever. I got you a very nice and excellent gift, Victoire Calvert-Egerton. I think you'll like it."

"And what is it?"

"I started preparing months in advance," Livia sighed, "brought my gifts all the way from Hong Kong, you know. I even picked up some stuff from when I went to Shanghai during Christmas."

"Well," Victoire demanded, "what is it?"

Livia reached behind her, showing her a bag. "It's in here. You might want to wait until everyone else is here though, before opening it all up?" The Wongs had arrived at the Calvert-Egerton house since they were right next door anyways. Livia's mum said she wanted to help out. Nai nai was just bored.

Victoire sighed. "That's fair enough, I suppose." She still took it, though, setting it on an empty table that was likely reserved for gifts. "Here we go. I'll open it later. I won't forget."

"If you forget, I'd be concerned and gravely offended," Livia told her. "I'll hunt you down."

"Spooky," Victoire muttered. "But whatever. Leave me alone now, Livia. I need to go fix my hair."

Just for good measure, Livia gave Victoire another good patting on the head before humming a tune while she skipped into the kitchen. She was already hungry, and there was probably something in here she could take a bite of. Refreshments for later she could take a piece of that nobody would notice or blame her for.

Livia's mum wasn't here. Only a few catering staff were working away. There was a large cake on the kitchen island, and Livia admired it momentarily before snatching a banana off the counter and leaving with it. It was the most convenient thing she could grab without disturbing the staff.

She wasn't sure where Amphion and Zeth were, or Aurelius, for the matter. They'd all disappeared somewhere while she was chatting with Victoire. A few minutes later she located her sister in the living room, chatting with Aurelius. There was another boy there too—Shane, Livia remembered, from that time they bumped into him.

"Livia," Aurelius greeted.

"Hello, Aurelius. You're Shane, right?" The boy nodded in response, and Livia flashed a grin. "Nice to see you again. Pam, where's mum and dad? Or like, anyone else for that matter?"

Pamela shrugged. "Mum's probably in the backyard helping set things up. Dad too. Nai nai's been arranged a very nice chair by the pool."

"Ah, the VIP treatment."

Dryly, Pamela replied, "I think it's more because they're scared she'll accidentally fall and hurt herself, but sure. Whatever you want to call it, Livia."

"Where are your brothers?" Livia asked, nudging her chin at Aurelius.

"In their rooms," Aurelius replied. "Mum told them to screw off but with nicer language when they tried to help. We all remember what happened two years ago."

Livia winced. The two boys had managed to drop an entire jar of fresh lemonade. It had gotten everywhere on the carpet, and was one of the many times she wondered why the British were so in love with their carpets. They were ridiculously difficult to clean, full of germs, and not even all that comfortable. Was it for the cold? Perhaps it was. But she was never here during the winter, so she'd have no clue about that.

"It was a good thing," Pamela snickered, "they never asked any of us to help with anything after that. I think they realised we'd just make things worse."

"That's not something to be proud of," Livia sighed.

Shane shrugged. "Seems like a good way to be lazy."

"Kids," Livia muttered, shaking her head. "I'll go find the boys."

Aurelius eyed her for a moment. "You're all friends again, yeah?"

Livia nodded and gave no other answer. She didn't want any more questions about that. It was complicated, that was the simplest way to put it.

She located the two boys in Amphion's room, sat at the same desk. She squinted. They were gaming.

She strolled forward. "Seriously? You're playing a game now?"

"It's a solo," Zeth explained, not looking up. She watched for a moment as his champion narrowly dodged an ability from Amphion's champion.

"Nice sidestep," she commented.

"Dodging's kind of my thing." Which was true, and why Livia despised playing against him. All her champions were heavily skill-shot based, and Zeth somehow had the ability to dodge everything when he put his mind to it. His reaction speed was insane.

When Amphion missed another skillshot, Livia wrinkled her nose. "What the hell is that?"

Amphion scowled. "You said it himself, he's the dodging god."

"Nah, you just completely aimed that at the wrong place," Livia scoffed.

"Shut up," he shot back. "Don't you have something else to be doing?"

"Nope," Livia replied, settling on the floor behind them. "I'm bored as all hell. Maybe I should bring my laptop and mouse over too."

Zeth finally took a glance at her before turning right back to his screen. "You can play on my laptop after this if you want. I'm hungry."

"I have a banana," Livia said, showing it, "but it's just for me. There's a few more in the kitchen." She started peeling her banana as well, because she was starving and didn't feel like holding it around forever.

"I'll do that whenever this game ends," he promised. "You can use my laptop."

"Do you even have my champions?" Livia asked, frowning.

"I have some of them," Zeth huffed. "We've all played for years, Livia. It's not that difficult to unlock all the champions."

"Fair enough." Livia munched on her banana as she whipped out her phone, periodically glancing up to see how the game was going for the twins. Zeth was one kill up so far, but it hadn't given him too much of an advantage, since he was behind in farming. Amphion had almost twenty minions on him, which was just ridiculous, all things considered. But then again, whatever talent had been instilled in him for his dodging had not extended to his farming. It wasn't all that surprising, she had to admit.

It was another three minutes before Amphion finally managed to get one kill on Zeth, thus tying the score.

"This is going to take forever," Livia commented. "Like, literally years."

"First tower," Amphion promised. "Whoever gets first tower wins."

"I'm not saying you need to hurry up," Livia said, "I'm just saying you're going to be there for a while. We have time to kill anyways, take your time." She'd finished her banana and carefully tossed it into the bin underneath the desk.

"What time is it?" Zeth asked with a frown. "Can't be that long before the party starts."

"We have three hours," Livia said. "Party starts at six. It's just past three right now. Like, we actually have so much time to kill I'm tempted to go back home."

"Your mum will drag you back kicking and screaming."

"Precisely why I haven't done it yet," Livia sighed. "That, and no one's there anyways so there's no point. Might as well just stay with you idiots."

"Oh, we're touched." But then Zeth stopped talking, because Amphion's champion had leapt on his. Livia watched for a moment as they engaged in a vicious battle that ended with Zeth dying first, quickly followed by Amphion's champion.

"Wow." There wasn't much else for Livia to say except that.

Amphion scowled, glancing at her. "You're distracting us."

Livia shut her mouth. He wasn't precisely wrong. Zeth might have been able to react faster and survive that if she hadn't been talking to him. But then again, they could just choose to ignore her if they didn't want to be distracted. It wasn't that difficult.

But of course, they didn't.

Livia watched as they finished off the game. Zeth emerged victorious, though it wasn't precisely surprising. Zeth's champion was far quicker at destroying towers than Amphion's was, so it was only expected. It had nothing to do with Amphion playing badly, Livia thought.

"All yours," Zeth announced with a mock bow, gesturing to his laptop. "Just don't download any viruses."

Livia rolled her eyes at him, but didn't protest as she took his seat and glanced through his champions. He did have most of her own champions. That was nice to see.

"Another 1v1?" She asked Amphion.

"Yeah, why not? If the parents come knocking, we don't want to be in the middle of a game we can't quit."

"Sounds fair enough." Amphion created a custom game, quickly inviting her into it. A moment later, they'd selected their champions.

"Been a while since we did this," he mused.

"Last time, you crushed me," she commented.

"You were first-timing a champion," Amphion laughed, "I think it was hardly fair."

"You went easy on me too."

"I didn't, not really."

"Whatever. Let's just get it down with."

A few minutes later, no one had died yet. Livia was carefully staying behind the wave of minions, preventing Amphion chances from jumping on her. Her champion was ranged while his was melee, so she could logically try to avoid his engages as well as possible and simply poke him out into low health.

It was working so far. His health bar was veering towards the fifty percent category, while hers was still more or less full.

"No fair," he pouted, "your champion counters the fuck out of mine."

"Well, you should have picked better, then."

She didn't need to look up to know he was glaring at her, but then he sighed. "That's true, I guess."

She raised a brow. Highly unlike Amphion Calvert-Egerton to admit something like that. But then again, he'd changed recently in ways she didn't know how to describe or what to feel about.

They both reached level six and got their ultimate ability at the same time. Livia almost expected Amphion to immediately jump on her, but she didn't dodge quickly enough. Instantly she was stunned, and by the time she could move again she was already down to half health. Her brows creasing, she quickly rooted Amphion in place and threw everything she had at him. He managed to escape with less than a quarter of his health bar, but she was too low on health to chase him down.

Livia's eyes narrowed. "You got lucky there."

"It was planned."

"That was so not planned. You just threw away all your summoner spells. I'll get you next time."

"You don't beat me after this," Amphion pointed out. "My champion way outscales yours."

"Not if you make a mistake," Livia gritted out. "Just you wait. I've done it before, I'll do it again."

"That was years ago," he pointed out politely. "I've gotten far better since then."

"And so have I."

And so the game continued on.

Zeth finally came back after a while, glancing at the score and then at the time. "Seriously?" he asked in disbelief. "What are you doing, farming simulator?"

"I almost got him," Livia shot, "multiple times."

"But I escaped, being the genius I am."

Zeth wrinkled his nose. "Both of you are too careful with this kind of stuff."

Perhaps they were. Neither of them were particularly risk takers. They liked to stick within their own comfort zone, making sure every move was calculated even when it couldn't be calculated. Amphion might still take the jump once in a while, but Livia never would, unless she was a hundred percent sure there was something there to catch her.

Perhaps incited by Zeth's words, Amphion leapt onto her again. This time, Livia didn't manage to dodge. She was knocked up under her tower, quickly stunning him as she was free to move again, but it did not save her from his ignite. She let out a groan, but a few moments later, Amphion died as well from the tower.

"Fuck!"

"That was way too risky," Zeth winced.

"You said we were too careful!"

"I did not mean," Zeth replied carefully, "that you should try something stupid either."

Amphion just scowled at his twin. "You're annoying me. And distracting me."

"Ah, yes. Blame me for being distracting. That's mature, totally."

Livia let out a snicker. Now Amphion turned to glare at her. She gave an innocent shrug in return. "How long do we have left?" she asked.

"More than two and a half," Zeth said with a grimace. "Maybe we should watch a movie."

"Anything you particularly want to watch?" Amphion asked, leaning backwards. "Something on Netflix, maybe."

"Little Women?" Livia suggested, batting her eyelashes.

"No." The suggestion was shut down mercilessly by the other two.

"How about The Grey Man?" Zeth suggested. "I still haven't watched it."

"I have," Amphion said.

"Same," Livia replied. "But I don't mind rewatching it. It was a pretty good movie."

"Let's watch that then," Zeth grinned. "Pull the curtains, my friends. Maybe someone can get popcorn. I think I have popcorn downstairs."

"We have two packs left," Amphion agreed. "I checked this morning. Just in case someone decided to steal some."

"I'll grab it," Zeth said, standing back up. "You guys set it up. Be back in a second."

When he left, Amphion tilted his head from where he was pulling the curtains shut. "It feels just like old times again, doesn't it?"

"I can't even count the number of times we've said that statement in the past few weeks. Please don't start again."

He pouted. "It's the truth. And it's not a bad thing."

"It's not," Livia agreed. "But at the same time, it starts getting annoying when you hear the same phrase being repeated again and again. Even if it is partially true. But we're never going back."

"No," he agreed. "We're not."

The curtains were pulled shut, engulfing the room in darkness. Amphion dragged it open again by the tiniest bit, allowing in a small stream of sunlight so that they could still see. Livia sat down in front of Zeth's laptop, which had the larger screen, and found the movie on Netflix, turning the volume onto the largest.

"Connect it to the speaker," Amphion said, nudging his chin at the speaker on Amphion's desk. "We can sit on the floor, put it down here." He dumped a couple cushions from Zeth's bed onto the floor. Livia wrinkled her nose.

"I don't sleep on these," he promised. "I dump them all on the floor every night anyways. Doesn't have saliva on them, I promise."

"Fine," Livia said begrudgingly. "I'll sit on it."

She took the pillow on the right, while Amphion sat down in the middle. They'd settled down in front of Amphion's bed so that they could lean on the footboard. Amphion's bed was king sized, so there was plenty of space for all of them to be cosy.

He leaned back and took out his phone, scrolling through for a moment. Livia followed suit.

But then his arm sneaked around her waist, and Livia let out a hiss. "He's going to come back any moment."

"We'll be able to hear him before that."

"This is a horrible idea."

"You don't care though." He leaned down, nuzzling her neck. "Don't ignore me."

"I'm going to ignore you."

"So rude, Livia. We both know you like this."

"I'm going to continue ignoring you, being the wise person I am."

He scowled, pulling back. "Fine."

"You do realise," she pointed out, "how horrible of an idea this really is? We're just going to get hurt."

"Right now, I don't particularly care."

"You will eventually."

"Are you going to break my heart, Livia?"

She glanced at him, then looked back at her phone, though her mind wasn't on it. His body was radiating warmth besides her, and it was far too distracting. But she pretended anyway, "I thought we'd already done that."

"Are you going to break it again?"

"I've made no promises."

"What are you so scared of?"

"You're the last person on earth who should feel the need to ask me the question."

"I won't break your heart."

Livia flexed her jaw. "Amphion. We're just going to end up hurting each other again."

"I won't if you don't."

"Amph..."

He was leaning in again, this time for her mouth rather than her neck. Livia lowered her phone, releasing a sigh. But right as Amphion was about to kiss her, the door swung open. Livia bolted upright, and Amphion slowly made his way back to a sitting position with some clear reluctance.

Zeth looked clueless. He was too busy staring at the two bags of popcorn he held in his hand. He tossed one at them. "You two can share this."

"How come we're the one sharing?" Livia asked with mock offence.

"Because I grabbed them, of course," Zeth said with a roll of his eyes, settling down on the last pillow, blissfully unaware of anything that had just happened. "Let's start the movie. Or we're just going to be interrupted midway."

Amphion silently rolled his eyes, but leaned forward and pressed start on the movie anyways.

Livia tore the bag of popcorn open, placing it in the space between her and Amphion, making sure she only grabbed it when he wasn't, trying to avoid any physical contact. The only problem with all of this right now was him. Amphion, who didn't seem to want to hide whatever this was now between them. Who Livia could sense wanted something more.

But they'd already hurt each other so much. And those words he said last year, even if he said he didn't mean them at all, Livia knew some of them had truth to them. Livia knew she hadn't been the best person. Sarah had made clear of that, and Amphion had been a victim sometimes too. Of course he wasn't all in the right either. But how could they just pretend all of that had never happened and go back to before?

It seemed wrong. It seemed so absolutely wrong.

The movie was playing. Livia's mind was half on it, half on the boy sitting next to her and what the future might bring.

If Amphion asked her to be his girlfriend, how would she reply?

She didn't know if she had it in him to turn him down. She'd pine for him all summer last year. The knowledge that he'd reciprocated those feelings, at least at one point...

She'd be lying if she said they didn't ignite something in her. Hope. Optimism. Secret longings.

But then reality washed over her again and all those dreams were dashed away. It would be so difficult between them. How would she explain it to everyone? How would everyone else react? And if they fell apart again, what would Livia do?

She didn't like to make the same mistake twice, and it felt very much like what she was doing at the moment. She was playing with fire, but she just couldn't turn him away. She just couldn't say those words, she just couldn't tell him no.

This was a recipe for disaster, but she was far too deep into it. If it was going to crash and burn...

Maybe it was time to take a risk, for once in her lifetime.