The moment Nico came up behind me and leaned against the locker next to mine, half-smile breathtaking and a little nervous, eyes green and infinite, and midnight hair a beautiful, beautiful mess, I was torn between stepping into his embrace for a warm hug and restraining myself. The other students had enough to talk about my breakup with Faust and my coming to the dance with Nico as my date, and it had prompted a lot of gossip and rumors over the weekend. Though I usually wouldn't care, I didn't want to give them more reason to stare and whisper about Nico and I by fanning the flames this soon.

I closed my locker and turned to face him with a smile of my own. "Hey."

Nico stared at me. "Hi."

I raised an eyebrow. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

Shoving his hand inside his pockets, he cleared his throat and swallowed hard. "We're good, right?"

Slowly, I nodded. "Yes."

Nico bit his lip. "You're not...you're not having second thoughts, are you?"

Ah. I stepped closer, keeping my arms tucked around myself and my gaze locked with his. Nico's eyes searched my expression intently. "I'm not going to change my mind," I reassured him softly. "You're stuck with me. Hopefully for a long time."

His mouth stretched into a wide grin. "Okay. Come on, let's get—"

The rest of his sentence was cut off by a loud howl, followed by a heavy body crashing itself onto Nico's back that almost hit me in the process. With a grunt, Nico pushed me out of the way, and I could see blonde waves and hands mussing up Nico's hair as he tackled him with a boisterous laugh. "Dude!" JJ yelled, pushing him once more with a wide grin. "Is it official now? Has it finally happened? Am I going to hear the end of your whines?"

"Shut the fuck up," Nico snapped, mood souring in an instant as he used one arm to smack his friend behind the head, to which the blonde yelped in surprise and pain and put his hands up in surrender. "You're so reckless, you almost—"

"I'm just so happy for you, man, there's no need to consult Google anymore about your romance queries—"

My lips pulled up to a smile, finding the revelation endearing and amusing at the same time.

"You piece of—come here."

Nico had JJ in a headlock all the way to the cafeteria until the curly-haired boy had to apologize profusely with his palms in the air. While they made a beeline towards our usual lunch table, I headed for the line and grabbed a tray. Some eyes fleeted in my direction.

Paula breezed past me and took one for herself, giving me a blinding smile. "Heard the news from JJ. Is it true?"

I adjusted the strap of my bag on my shoulder and peeked at the food choices. "Could you be more specific, please?"

Paula placed a hand on her hip. "Well, turns out you and Faust broke up way before state championships because it wasn't working out, and then Nico finally grew some balls, and you made your own choice and decided to be with him."

"That's about it, yes."

"The rumors are different."

"They're rumors, Paula. Plus, I don't really care," I muttered, stepping forward as the line moved.

The cheerleader tossed her ponytail over her shoulder. "Well, I do, and people need to start minding their own fucking business!" she yelled suddenly, voice echoing across the room. Immediately, everyone looking at me in astonishment, disgust and curiosity turned away and transferred their gazes elsewhere. Paula turned back to me with a grin. "The fudge brownies are good, we should try them."

I agreed, mouth still open in shock. We each placed a plate of chicken cordon bleu on our trays together with the dessert before making our way towards our table. JJ gave Paula a high-five. "Knew that cheering voice was good for something else."

She rolled her eyes. "Where's Faust?"

"He said he had to handle something," Nico answered. "Don't worry about him."

The boys then grabbed their own food, and we ate lunch with conversations full of laughter.

Later, Paula and JJ rushed off to the opposite building for next period, and Nico insisted to walk me to history.

"So...JJ knew?"

He cleared his throat. "He only found out when he recognized my scarf."

I grinned. "For someone who claims to have liked me for years, you had some nerve throwing that in my face."

Nico groaned and hung his head. "Let that go, please? I was an asshole. I couldn't give it the way a normal person would. End of story."

His statement made me laugh. Under all of that horrible temper and emotional constipation, Nico was actually just a shy fluff ball. "You're so cute."

"Not cute," he mumbled, looking away. "I'm big and scary."

"Yeah, okay—"

A hand grabbed my wrist. I turned around sharply and found Sutton staring back at me with wide eyes. "Behind the gym," she said, panting for air, "Theo and Faust. I have to go, but you guys need to fix up their mess before it gets any worse."

Nodding, I immediately made a run towards the gym without question, and Nico was right behind me. A million thoughts raced to my head as we ran past all the other students, and all I could pray for was that no one had gotten hurt badly yet. At least not until Nico can stop it.

But I'd hoped for too much. The scene that greeted us was this: face and body beaten, Faust laid lifelessly on the ground with his arms limp, not even trying to defend himself. My brother hovered above him, mouth pulled to an angry snarl as his fists grabbed the front of Faust's shirt.

"I don't know how you think," Theo was saying, voice dropping to a hiss full of rage, "that everything's fine and dandy between us just because you need my help, Carter. Maybe you need to check your memory about what you've done to Thea. Remember what you've done to Anya while you're at it, too."

Nico took the first step forward. "Get up and fucking talk like adults. The hell is going on?"

"Nah, think I'm good right here," Theo answered mockingly, not taking his eyes off the co-captain. "Right, Carter?"

"Theo," I said, and my voice immediately caught his attention, and for a second, the fury in his eyes diminished. "Enough."

He didn't move.

Nico cursed loudly and bent down to pull him away from Faust.

"Touch me and you're fuckin' dead, Romero," Theo warned. "I'll swing at you, too."

"Have a fucking go at it," Nico growled, touching him anyway. Theo was quick to yank his arm away as he moved to stand up with a glare. "Think I'm scared of you? Think you're all high and mighty when your opponent's literally bleeding on the ground?"

My brother pushed Nico's chest roughly, but the latter didn't even budge. "Get out of our business."

"Make me," Nico said, voice equally as murderous as he curled his hands into fists.

"Stop it," I snapped, finally willing my feet to move. I took Theo's wrist and tugged on it. "What's gotten into you?"

He breathed harshly, chest rising and falling rapidly. "Carter apparently thinks we can go back to exchanging high-fives in the hallway. Even after what he'd done to you and Anya."

"Watch it," Nico sneered, helping Faust sit up. He grunted in pain. "Faust wasn't responsible for anything that happened to Anya."

My brother's head twisted to glare at him. "I wasn't talking about the crime itself. It wouldn't have led to that if Carter just—"

"Oh, yes," Faust choked out. "Is this the part where I found out you were just using Anya to get to me? That you messed with my head for the captaincy? Isn't that the reason I left the party in the first damn place?"

"Okay." My voice shook, and I tried again with a much steadier tone. "Okay. I think we should all cool down for a second—"

"I wasn't doing shit for the captaincy, you idiot!" Theo snarled, running his hands through his hair angrily. "We were friends. I was friends with Anya, she kissed me, not the other way around!"

Faust pushed his tongue against the inside of his cheek, and his hand reached up to wipe the blood off his lip. He didn't say anything in response.

Theo's jaw clenched. "If you'd just trusted me before, maybe you would've seen sense. Maybe you would've seen that Anya was hurting because you always put basketball before her."

"And look where my trust led me," the other boy said with a mocking laugh. "When Paula texted me that you two headed upstairs, I wasn't going to come. Because I trusted you both. Fuck you for ruining that."

"You should've let me explain!" Theo yelled, and his voice was heartbreakingly painful. "You should've listened to me!"

"I was crushed," Faust argued through gritted teeth, looking up at him with narrowed eyes. "You can't blame me for leaving. How was I supposed to know what was going to happen?"

Theo took a deep breath and returned his question with a question of his own. "How was I supposed to know Anya would be missing, huh? You think I'm genius enough to let someone bring her to that alley and then have Beau there in perfect time for the police to catch him? You think I'm too good of an actor to act panicked while I was scrambling to call you and Romero? None of you even answered me, the hell was I supposed to do?"

"My phone was missing at that time," Nico spoke up, gaze hard. "Paula gave it back to me the next morning. And you really couldn't expect Faust to answer. As much as I hate to admit it, calling Beau was the right choice."

My brother scoffed. "What good did that do except for Carter to think I'm capable of framing his brother for attempted murder?"

"He found her while she was still alive," I answered softly. "Even though the police caught him in the scene of the crime."

Faust switched his gaze to me, mouth pressing to a thin line. "Alive but unwell. Merely surviving."

I inhaled deeply. A thought came to me. "Sullivan was the one who took Anya to the alley and framed Beau. That's what he told me before. He's being blackmailed into keeping his mouth shut."

Nico clicked his tongue. "Knew the bastard had something to do with it. He was at the party with us."

Theo stared at me incredulously. "Sullivan? Will Sullivan? You were talking to him?"

Slowly, I nodded. "He said he needed my help to find this guy. He told me because he wanted to put an end to it—he's willing to confess to conspiring with him, but only if Anya's attacker is going behind bars as well."

Faust drew his eyebrows together. "Has he spoken to you since?"

I shook my head. "No. He hasn't contacted me after that."

"We need to talk to Sullivan. We need to figure out who this asshole is."

My brother stepped backwards until his back hit the wall. Leaning against it, he hung his head and shut his eyes—as if he knew it was going to come down to this but hoped it didn't. "Despite what you may think," he said, features hardening, "I didn't want anything to happen to Anya. Why do you think I needed to reach out to Beau?"

Faust looked at Theo, and an unreadable expression crossed his face. "I didn't want anything to happen to Anya, either."

Theo let out a humorless chuckle. "And yet, you still went for my sister after you swore you'd take someone from me."

Faust shook his head. "What Thea and I had wasn't because of that."

"Yeah? You cheated on her."

"My heart had always belonged to Anya," Faust argued, standing to his feet. I couldn't tell if it was pain, anger, or regret clouding the irises in his eyes. "And I didn't realize that until after I saw her again. It was a mistake on my part to continue what Thea and I had, but I was miserably confused."

"Confused," Theo mused with a nod. "Okay."

"I went to Theo to ask if we could be civil for Anya's sake because I need his help," Faust said, looking at me. "I need your help. Anya's mind is suppressing the memories of that night at the alley. She recalls going to the alley with someone and then nothing afterwards. She doesn't even remember Sullivan because she was wasted as hell. But." Faust paused, curling his fingers deeper into his palms. "She does remember Beau. His was the only face she saw at the alley."

"How do you know?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

"Just yesterday, Beau and I visited her at the townhouse," Faust answered lowly. "She recognized him and started screaming. Anya doesn't even know that her attacker and Beau are different. She didn't even see the damn tattoo."

"What do you want us to do with that information?" Theo drawled, crossing his arms over his chest. "What kind of help could we possibly give?"

To my surprise, Nico said, "Anya and her family are pressing charges against Beau. Your mother is the prosecutor for the case."

I blinked. "I'm sorry, what?"

My brother laughed loudly. "That's absurd. Beau clearly doesn't have the tattoo, how can she even—"

Faust shook his head. "Screw the tattoo. Anya and her family are insistent, and your mother is going to dig up anything to get Beau behind bars. She's never lost a case, and something tells me she's not starting now."

I had the same feeling. Stealing a glance at Theo, I knew he was thinking the same thing as well. He shuffled on his feet, clearly uncomfortable. "Thea and I are out of this. We're not helping."

Faust's eyes darkened. "Some part of you still cares about Anya."

"I care about Thea more."

"The reason why they came back here," I mumbled, "is because Anya wanted to reopen the case."

Faust nodded. "I thought they were staying for a few weeks just because she and I are in good terms again. Because she wanted to see me regularly for a while. It was a bad idea to bring Beau. I was stupid for even thinking it."

Theo cocked his head to the side. "You're even more stupid now that you think Thea and I want to have anything to do with this. Let my mother and the adults handle this. They won't find any evidence against Beau if he's really not guilty—"

"I want to help," I spoke up. All three boys looked at me with surprise. "Beau doesn't deserve to go behind bars, and you know Mom. She's going to do anything and everything to win."

When my brother couldn't argue, he clenched his jaw and turned away.

"Then we have to help find this guy," Nico murmured, glancing at his best friend. "How much time do we have?"

Faust shook his head with a sigh. "Not much."

"I'm going back to class," Theo announced, pushing himself off the wall. "I'm agreeing only because I want to make sure Thea is safe."

My brother turned around and started to walk.

"Theo," Faust called.

He stopped.

"I never once thought you framed Beau."

Theo faced his co-captain again. "Like I'd believe that now."

The blue in his eyes dimmed. "You won't believe anything I say?"

"You don't believe me, either."

"I'm sorry."

Theo hands curled into fists. "No, you're not. You're sorry for what happened to Anya."

Faust shook his head. "I'm sorry for what happened between us, too. We were friends."

My brother laughed, but there was no humor in it. "Yeah. We were."

He left.