"Was Flash bugging you at the party?" Claudia asked as her sister drove them home later that night. "I should have never left you and let him be alone with you."

Miles sighed, "I don't need a babysitter, Claudia, I am perfectly capable of handling myself. Just because you're older than me by like two months doesn't mean you have to be a mom friend. We were just talking, he apologized again and pulled the same "I never stopped caring about you" shit, just normal Flash activities as of late."

"Well, he was being a huge dick to Parker, but it must have hurt his ego to see his hot ass girlfriend, I just wanted to make sure he wasn't going to go and take out any stupid anger on you," the girl said with a nonchalant shrug, but he could hear the concern in his voice, "God, I cannot believe Kaelyn and Peter are dating. Of all the hot guys at Midtown, Parker?"

"Don't be mean! He has always been nice to us," the boy reasoned with a scoff, shaking his head disapprovingly, "If he has a girlfriend, good for him! He's cute, he's always been cute."

Claudia laughed, poking Miles's shoulder with a knowing expression on her face. He rolled his eyes, knowing exactly what she was about to say and he wished he could escape this particular moment in time. "You're only defending him because you had a huge crush on him before all this Flash stuff, huh? Am I wrong? You can't sit here and tell me I'm wrong!"

With a resigned sigh, he nodded, "You're not wrong, but that was a long time ago. Besides, I just think he has a nice smile and is a very good person, sue me!"

The girl simply shrugged and the car went silent. As soon as it did so, Claire from the front seat scoffed and turned up the radio where some rock song from before this century was playing. He resigned himself to looking out the window as the suburbs disappeared and they headed back into the main part of the city where Claudia lived. He had already told his parents he would be spending the night in Claudia's, which was as foolproof in case they had been drinking and Miles couldn't go home, but he wasn't nearly as drunk as he would have liked to be. He could not believe he had kissed Flash like that. He couldn't believe the boy would let him do such a thing in a place where anyone could walk in at any time. After all, someone walking in had been what absolutely ruined them in the first place. Ugh, Miles was such a fool.

"I kissed him," Miles blurted out. This was precisely why he believed himself to be a horrible liar. Even when he got away with a lie, he could never keep a secret from Claudia. When the girl looked over at him with a confused expression, he forced himself to explain further, "You totally walked in on Flash and I post makeout session and I wanna say that I hated every second of it, but I didn't."

"Miles!" Claudia exclaimed so loud he could hear it over the music which Claire, unfortunately, turned down once she realized they were speaking.

From the front seat, she nodded, "Yeah, good for you, kid. I'd say gimme five, but gotta keep both hands on the wheel."

"Gee, thanks, Claire," he spoke in a deadpan, ignoring Claudia's death glare. "You do not get to be mad at me about this! My lips, my decision!"

"Who kissed who first?"

"I kissed him first."

"Miles!" She exclaimed again, her face almost comically furious, "I swear to God, I did not go through two cartons of ice cream and an ungodly amount of nineties and early 2000s rom-coms just for you to shove your tongue right back down his throat the moment you two are alone together! What do I even do this for?"

He sighed, knowing she had a point. Of course, she was going to make this about her, though. She had a habit of doing that. Miles didn't hate her for that, he couldn't, but sometimes he simply wanted things to be about him. This was his ex-boyfriend, his mistakes, it should be about him, right? He didn't know anymore.

"You do this because you love me and you want me to be happy," he muttered, not having enough gall to say it clearly enough for her to actually hear him. When she looked confused, he cleared his throat and said, "Listen, I'm not happy about it and I know it wasn't smart, but it won't happen again. He can beg all he wants, but we're never going to seriously get back together until he works out some serious daddy issues and that's not going to change. We can push each other around and play these games all he wants, but if he keeps fucking gay-bashing the moment he's around his friends, nothing is going to change. I'm dumb, but I'm not idiotic enough to fall right back into his traps. Just trust me, okay? That's all I'm asking you for."

Clearly, something had struck the girl as she stayed silent for a moment, looking anywhere but at Miles. He didn't want his stupid Flash antics to come between him and Claudia, but if she couldn't put herself aside just to trust him with this, what was the point of them even being friends? He didn't want to be thinking like this; they had been through so much together. Hell, they were each other's first kiss before Miles realized he was gay. He did not want this of all things to be something to cause a rift between them.

After a moment too long of uncomfortable silence, she sighed and nodded, "Yeah, okay, I'm gonna trust you on this. I just can't stand to watch you get hurt again, you know? I mean, people are still bullying you over shit Flash said weeks ago, I don't want to have to watch you go through that again."

"I know, I know, thank you for understanding," but he knew she didn't really get it. She would never understand why he was doing the things he was, hell, Miles barely understood it himself. He was heading downhill and fast, but he didn't know how to stop it. He hated how he found himself trusting Claudia less and less to be there for him. It actually hurt him far more than he would care to admit.

"Yeah, dude, I'll always be there for you," the blonde girl said with a shrug and a scoff, "Sorry for getting mad at first."

It was half-assed at best, but he was sick of arguing with her. "Yeah, yeah, thanks. It's no big deal. Let's just get home and go to sleep, I'm beat."

"Yeah, me too," she nodded, but her gaze turned away from him and out the window instead. Before he could even catch his breath, the rift between them was already there -- clear as day. He sighed, hating himself more than he would care to admit. That seemed to be consistent as of late. Miles forced himself to look longingly out the window instead of at his friend who was deliberately avoiding eye contact. He wanted to blame Flash for this, but he knew this was always going to be Miles's fault and no one else's. It was always Miles.

Claudia: *shoots Miles in the chest* *looks at camera* i cant believe Flash would do this

also Claudia is meant to slowly become a more toxic friend, normally I get pissy when y'all hate on my characters (re: Heather Jacobs), but y'all can bitch and moan about Claudia all you want I wrote her that way on purpose