I'm pretty sure that quote is inspirational?? Not 100% sure tho...
Oh well

>Rain<
____________________

Needless to say Floyd was not happy about the nachos, truly you weren't either, but it was a lot less important the more you thought about it. You'd just officially met the turtle, Leo, who'd been saving your ass non stop since the fall ball hosted by the Ashmores.

Speaking of, now that you knew Henry was in your class you actually started sitting next to him during lectures and labs. You figured it wasn't such a bad idea since you had no friends in that school, in fact the closest friend you had there until late was the janitor you talked with after class when everyone else had already left. So it was nice, and you both became relatively close school friends and would text each other if either needed help on a project or something. It was very handy to have your phone back without having to buy a new one.

In fact, ever since you had gotten your phone back there were a lot of unopened text messages, some from friends back home, your parental figures and Roy... God there were a lot from Roy. Most of the messages were bad memes.

But on the bright side this meant Leo didn't go snooping through your phone since they were all unopened.

However, a few days after officially meeting Leo, you had happened to be aimlessly swiping through your phone until an odd notification popped up, a notification from your Candy Crush game. You were pretty sure you muted it's notifications as to not be caught in class when you didn't have the motivation to pay attention.

As you curiously opened the app you immediately realized that your high score had gotten arouND A THOUSAND TIMES BETTER THEN YOU LEFT IT WHAT THE FUCKK??!?

You clutched your phone tighter as you looked over how far you'd traveled, kindling an intense fire beginning to burn in your stomach. There sat your icon in the middle of Cupcake Circus, knowing full well the last time you were on it you had just gotten past Salty Canyon.

Betrayal.

That was all you felt. Your supposed 'hero' had gone on your phone and decided to completely derail your personal Candy Crush adventure.

Was him saving you even worth it if this was the outcome?!

Is there no God to prevent such injustice?!!

There was a knock at your bedroom door which set the bombs off in your head, it was easy thanks to your intense aggravation. "WHAT?!!?!" You blew up, screaming at the door while you automatically threw your alarm clock at the door making a loud cracking sound throughout your room.

Floyd's surprised, voice could be heard from the other side of your door. "Oh shit!" He must've gotten quite the fright because he took a while before talking again, and his voice was very small compared to the usual confident Floyd. "Hey, uh... can I come in?"

You took a moment, trying to calm yourself down despite this new found treachery. Soon enough the red behind your eyes melted away and your anger subsided to a normal amount. "Yeah sure, come in."

Floyd poked his head inside and looked at you then to your alarm clocks remains smashed to pieces on the floor. "Uh, is this a bad time?" He asked looking back at you.

"No, no It's fine. Just Candy Crush stuff."

He nodded hesitantly, not completely understanding but letting it go anyway. "Okay..." He stepped over the broken machine then hopped onto onto your bed with you. You didn't miss the little grin playing on his face, despite your little psychotic episode.

Intrigued, you grinned at his contagious mood. "What's got you so smiley?"

Floyd simply grinned wider. "Oh nothing..." He trailed off looking away, making you raise a brow at him, wearing a small smirk. He couldn't seem to to contain his joy as he blurted out "... Besides landing a date with a total swoon worthy babe!"

You gasped and he gave a fake serious look. "Y/n, Chill... I didn't even tell you the best part... This babe's name is Polly!" He said as his grin broke out even wider than before.

"Oh my god! Floyd! Congratulations on finding total wife material!!" You cheered happily and he let out a girlish squee.

You both burst into more joyfully giddy laughter. "Floyd! I'm so proud of you! Name the baby Y/n!"

He laughed at your eager words. "What if it's a boy though?"

"Y/n-o, of course."

Both of you were unable to contain yourselves. Floyd had been single ever since you met him and was very consistent with being vocal about it. Even when you barely knew each other he'd complain about being single to you at least twice weekly.

On this happy note you figured he wouldn't enquire very much into anything you tell him, because right now he's over the fucking moon. He would let close to anything slide when he's like this. "Okay, okay! I've got a confession."

Floyd shook his head proudly "Sorry Y/n, you had your chance with me and you blew it!" He said half jokingly. Half.

You shook your head. "Oh no, I don't romantically associate myself with peasants."

He frowned, but nothing could really bring down his mood. "Y/n, My parents are Uber rich."

A stale look dawned on your face. "Yeah, your parents. You reuse Mr noodles styrofoam cups."

He nodded, raising his hands in defeat. "Fair enough, fair enough. So what's this confession then?"

You took a subtle breath, now totally about to lie to him, someone you'd stayed honest with more often then probably anyone. "Uh, its about the turtle."

He slouched a bit, this obviously put a slight damper on his mood. "This again?"

"No! No, I just wanted to tell you that, I lied about him. He was supposed to prank, but the stakes to actually bullshit my way into finding evidence from this imaginary turtle was sort of not something I could afford. Plus I figured this prank was going stale." You said as naturally as possible, even if it was on the verge of rambling and sounded slightly robotic.

Floyd eyed you warily. "I- Are you sure?"

You nodded affirmatively. "Absolutely positive."

His eyes thinned at you suspiciously. "So you're gonna stop this crazy witch hunt?"

It sort of irked you that he called it a 'crazy witch hunt', but you mentally waved that off before pulling a struggled grin onto your face. "Yes. I am."

He once again gave a strange look but seemed to settle for that. "Alright, well I'm in too good a mood to doubt you so," He clapped his hand on your shoulder with a bright smile. "That, is great! Now you won't have to spend all that money on therapy!"

You sighed and looked down with a small real smile. "Yeah, and now I can't embarrass the crap out of you in front of your parents." You said, sort of disappointed.

Floyd shook his head. "I'm glad that's never going to happen. Because I'm pretty sure if you did what you were planning my parents would find a way to legally get you executed." He said through an amused laugh.

It wasn't all that amusing to you though, because by the stories you'd heard about his parents they may have actually been able to do that. "Ha. Ha. Ha. Haaa..." You forced out before slowly standing up off your bed. "Okay well... Now to break it to the guys." You muttered under your breath as Floyd stood up beside you.

"What?" He tilted his head, not quite catching what you'd mumbled to yourself.

"I'm just gonna go out." You said with a stretch.

He laughed. "To do what?"

You decided to ignore the teasing nature of his question. "Maybe buy a Gucci belt, maybe shoot some heroin, I don't know, anything could happen, so I'll just see where the day takes me."

With that you strut out of your room with Floyd trailing along behind then split off to the kitchen table as you grabbed your bag and sweater. "See you in a few hours or something." You called to him over your shoulder.

He waved his hand passively. "Cool cool. Have fun expirementing with hard drugs!"

"Ayyyyyyee!" You pointed finger guns at him and he returned the gesture. "Ayyyyyee!"

With that you walked out, followed by Floyd's slightly concerned voice calling after you. "But don't actually do hard drugs please!!"

"Don't tell me how to live my life!! If I want cocaine then dammit I'm gonna have some!" You called back, then swung your body the other way dramatically, like a rag doll. In that moment you noticed a new young family you didn't recognize from your building, the best part was they had two kids (they couldn't have been older then 9) and were with your land lord standing at the top of the apartment steps, just in time to hear that whole exchange.

Embarrassed, you felt your face heat up like an oven "Oh! Uh Janet!" Her elderly face wrinkled angrily.

There was a sudden uncontrollable burst of laughter from inside your apartment.

"I was just kidding!" You said frantically trying to fix the situation. The dad of the family attempted to laugh at it, but you could tell he was just being polite since it was super forced.

"Okay, well... It's was nice to meet you guys..." You began scooting past them and it was painfully awkward. "Uh welcome to the building... Hope you guys like your new home, super spacious for the price of the flat." As you successfully made it around them (without failing to notice the way the mother firmly clamped onto her children's shoulders, pulling them away from me.) you sped down the stairs, trying to cover your face out of pure humiliation.

.•° .•° .•°

"Yeah so, I've got something to tell you guys."

It was about halfway through the meeting and you'd been rattling your brain, trying to find a way to tell them the turtles didn't exist while also avoiding being seen as a liar.

Frankie immediately gave you his full attention, probably not realizing how on edge that put you all of a sudden. Shane stopped spinning in his chair as the rest simply looked towards you expectantly.

An ice lump found its way into your throat. The room felt as though it had no floor and you're just free falling, it had an unpleasant chill as your stomach dropped.

Hey, it's fine, it's cool, you've lied thousand times before. You've got this, just be out with it and it's over.

But, that's just small little white lies that help with days off and to get into VIP tables at bars!

Pah! You lied to your rich grandma about having a serious boyfriend so she didn't cut you out of her will. You've been photoshopping random rich white guys into your photos just to send to her. You even convinced your parents!

I know! But she's being completely unreasonable so I'm just matching that energy! She's living like, a hundred years in the past, It's only gotten this bad because she's stubborn!

Well you lied to Floyd, so it's easy peasy...!

That's only because he didn't believe me to begin with. A mutant turtle has never been the highlight of his week!

Shane cleared his throat loudly, snapping you back to reality and you realized that so called 'pep talk' you just had with yourself made things worse for yourself. Rip.

Frankie seemed worried at the fact that you'd just been sitting there for a good thirty seconds, staring at everyone with a creepy vacant stare. He fiddled with his clammy hands as he spoke up timidly, voice slightly crackly.

"U-Um, are you okay Y/n? Is there something wrong? Did something happen?!" The urgency in his voice seemed to rise ever so slightly (along with the octaves he was using) the more questions he asked and he began slowly standing to his feet.

Fortunately, with a simple shake of your head and a calm-ish smile you managed to settle him down. "No, no Frankie I'm fine." You scratched at the top of your wrist nervously. "Nothing has happened."

David's eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

Shane smirked, tilting back in his chair. "Boy trouble?"

This made Frankie choke and cough in surprise, as he himself curled over the table. "What?! Sh-She has a guy? That is dating her and having problems?! That's not possible! Y/n is too cool!!" He looked at you with a shocked yet determined look. "We'd never have trouble together!"

Oh wow...

The group let Frankie hear himself and they all just sort of smiled. A terrified look crossed his face and the guys chuckled at the adorably obvious friend. "Smoo-oo-oo-ooth Frankie." Jamie said while clapping slowly. The curly haired brunette sunk down and let his glasses slide down his nose.

You sighed at dork that he is then sighed, getting back on track. "No, no guy troubles, I mean, I might have some soon though."

All of them looked confused while Frankie was still slumped, his face burning up.

Taking a breath you just let it out. "The turtles I have told you all about are not real. I lied."

The room went deathly still, like time had stopped as their faces lost all their looks of amusement and traded them in with looks of intense confusion. You were stalk still, like if you were to move a bomb would go off and destroy half the city. The cool chill crawling up your nervous, shivering spine was not doing you any favours.

The group mulled over your words thoughtfully. All their expression began to shift sourly while all you could do was chew on your inner cheek and start to scratch are your neck nervously.

"So you're saying the whole thing was just a lie?" Shane grumbles with an accusing frown. You tried to swallow your guilt but each time you attempted to, the lump in your throat grew colder and seemed to be stuck where it was.

You croaked out pitifully "Yes, that is what I'm saying."

Your eyes glide over the group swiftly before locking eyes with Roy, who was completely confused. "Wait, so then... What was all that goo you gave me. What was all that stuff I'd been slaving over for days on end, trying to study?" He countered boldly, as if trying to prove you wrong in your confession.

"I-It was just a few test chemicals that I had obtained from my university. I'm sorry." Every lie that you were cranking out grated along your closing up throat. The blonde looked hurt at this revelation and frowned down at his hands that sat limp in his lap.

Jamie spoke up and by the way his jaw was set you could tell his temper was growing short with everything he was hearing. "What was the point of lying to us about something like this? Why are you even here?!"

Before you could answer, or reluctantly push out more lies Frankie's small voice sounded. "Was hanging out with us just... some kind of cruel prank?"

That's when you felt unable to speak anymore and you just shook your head and managed a silent and whispy 'no'. You took a timid step towards him but he shot to his feet and sent you a venomous glare that planted you were you were.

"Are we a just a stupid joke to you?!" He growled, enraged as his eyes flooded.

This was a mistake, but it was a little late to back out of it now that the damage was done. The hurt in Frankie's eyes and the sensitivity he had towards this suggested this was a familiar sting.

"N-No! I wouldn't-!" You scratched out, but you couldn't manage anymore.

Frankie waited for you to speak, but nothing more could fall out of the raw vocal chords. He looked away, a deep and humiliated frown creasing his face.

The air was thing a quiet as Shane put a hand on Frankie's shoulder and glared. It sent awful and unruly stings of dread up your spine, "But you did." He stated firmly.

The whole groups anger and betrayal radiated off of them and crashed down on your in unrelenting waves.

You held your tears as best as you could, but you knew you couldn't avoid the inevitable and placed your sleeves under your eye, strategically making it look like you were resting your head in your hand.

Finally David stood to his feet, making himself known. He'd been quiet the whole time. "I don't believe you." He stated casually with his hands stuffed in his zip up hoodie's pockets.

Everyone in attendance looked at him surprised, even you, and a small bit of hope bloomed. That was until you realized that you didn't know what Leo would do to protect his existence.

Sure, he saved you a bunch of times and seems nice enough to not do that, but you really didn't know the guy at all.

"What?!" Jamie snapped, bewildered at what his friend just said. "You can't be serious! We're the easiest target when it comes to stuff like this and she played us like—! Like an idiot oboe!!!"

Shane nodded along with Jamie. "I'm with snowflake on this one, she straight up said 'I lied.'"

The quiet kid shook his head. "No."

"... David, You can't just say 'No' to something like this!" Shane cried out, flailing an arm around at him.

David cast a bored look in Shane's direction and blinked slowly. "Yes I can." He then walked over and stood beside you, looking at the other four guys.

Yes! David, Thank you! Oh my god please save my ass!

"Remember when she got here? She didn't want anything to do with us."

...Not off to a stellar start there buddy.

"But once she learned that Roy could analyze the goo on that spoon she was carting around all protectively, she gave this conspiracy club deal a chance."

The eyes of everyone seemed to thin out a bit with eyes still scrutinizing except for Roy, whos eyes went wide with surprise. What David was saying began to line up in his head, you could almost see the gears turning. "Right! She didn't give a crap about us until she figured out we could help her!" Roy chimed in.

Oh wow... I-Is this helping me? Because I don't know if this is or not...

Shifting around on your feet you timidly watched the ground, every once and a while you stole a glance up at Shane, Jaime and Frankie.

David nodded at Roy. "Yeah, exactly." He turned his casual gaze to the group as he gestured to you. "So why would someone who was out to prank us want to leave so badly until some genuinely strange questions of hers could be answered."

Frankie frowned at you harshly. "It was probably just an elaborate trick." Jamie nodded in agreement and leaned back in his chair.

"Do you really think Y/n's all that elaborate though? This is the same person that tried to make a paper snowflake by crumpling a piece of paper into a ball... She called it origami!" David wasn't even fazed as he shot back, you couldn't help feel he was simmering on that one for a while.

Jamie's angry stare seemed to subside slightly while Shane sort of smirked bitterly. Utterly unconvinced. Frankie though? He was just lost, mulling the new points around in his mind.

"Plus," David continued. "She talks a lot more formal and started scratching herself when she started to lie."

Roy was convinced and nodded enthusiastically along with David. "So the only question is why she lied about lying." The big blonde concluded with vigor.

This whole exchange that was going made you unsure if coming clean would help the situation or worsen it. Only a portion of them were on board with this new revelation and the other part were still pissed and confused. Not a stellar combo.

However, when all of their gazes were on you, you felt the ice in your blood return in sharp chunks. If you told the the truth, what would happen to you if Leo found out about them knowing he existed?

David nudged your side, getting your attention back to the now. "Well? Why did you lie about lying?"

A cold sweat ran down your back as your brain finally let out your word vomit. "I'd got to the turtle by chasing him across a building and almost dying!" You cried desperately, but didn't stop for the shocked expressions painting their faces. "His name is Leo and he told me nobody could know about him, so he said I had to cover it up! I didn't want to but I was scared because he's a really fast turtle with swords and knows how to slice and dice!" You concluded the ramble panicked and slightly embarrassed.

David nodded then pointed at you while looking at everyone. "See? That's the truth right there."

Shane seemed to be the only one still offstandish about the whole thing, while Jamie just shit a brick from how excited he got. "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!!?!" He yelled out in a mix of pure joy and unbridled rage.

"No It's true!" You quickly replied, still quite jumpy from the very real fear of them kicking you to the curb.

His conflicted face landed on a relieved and extremely delighted expression as he plopped his hands on top of his short, snow white hair. "You met this turtle dude?! AND HE TALKED TO YOU?!?"

The way he said this made you think he was going to weep tears of joy.

What a 180° turn...

Keeping in time with the relief of the group, Frankie timidly met your eyes. "So... you were just doing as you were told?"

An involuntary cringe made its way onto your face at thought of you simply bending to the will of some dude because he was a ninja turtle, or simply because of the way Frankie worded it. But you felt as though you were still on thin ice and played it off in a shrug. "Yeah I guess so, If that's the way you want to put it."

Jamie all of a sudden flung his arm over your shoulder. "So, what was he like? What did he look like? I need the deets!"

Roy crowded you in interest too and while Frankie and Shane sort of awkwardly looked in another direction or picked at something on the table. Either way, you told them the whole incident in detail, Jamie and Roy ate it up and urged you to talk with Leo again. But based on all the other reasons you'd actually gotten to him, you didn't think you would see him anytime soon. You weren't exactly partial to being in imminent danger all the time just to find him again.

After the meeting Frankie had apologized with a long winded ramble. The look on his face as he spoke made you think he was about to cry or something. So, mercifully, you quickly waved it off with a smile. "No harm done, I kinda brought it on myself."

Shane was not so quick to get friendly again, but you didn't hold it against him.

Packing up your stuff was kind of just you shoving random shit in your bag while saying a quick and awkward goodbye to the group. You sprinted off, hoping to catch David before he slipped away like he always did.

"David!" You called out as he made it to the top of the wide stairs. He turned back with his classic indifferent look, waiting for you to reach the top. As you got up next to him, both of you walked out the doors together. You said. "How did you figure all that stuff out?"

He shrugged casually while pushing the buildings double doors open for both of you. "I don't know, I guess I'm just good at watching people, y'know, since I can't really interact with them without someone getting uncomfortable." He cracked a little smile. "Because I'm a loner that looks like Hot Topic threw up on me."

You laughed light-heartedly along with him and looked up to the beautiful sunny day. A quiet moment passed and you both stopped a few paces from the door, facing each other. "Well, thank you for helping me out back there. I honestly thought you didn't like me."

David shook his head quickly. "No no!... Well, I mean I didn't like you to begin with, but your crazy shenanigans really livened the place up... I uh... I kinda look forward to what you bring to the meetings." He said, rather enthusiastically for him. Your heart swelled in releif and thankfullness that he not only tolerated you, but actively liked you being there.

"Wait..." You thought for a moment. "If you didn't like going to the meeting before I got there, then why would you keep showing up?"

Suddenly, David's face started to look a little flustered at your words right as the doors opened again, letting the rest of the group meet the sunshine. The black haired boy you were just talking with looked over at them then quickly averted his gaze as Shane made his way over.

A sly smirk pulled its way onto your face. "Ohhh.... That makes sense." You muttered so only David could hear. His face went hot as he stuffed his head down into the neck of his hoodie.

"Y/n! Y/n, you have to call Leo by the name DiCaprio! Trust! Just call him DiCaprio." Jamie enthused, chortling along with Roy like it was the joke of the century.

Shane walked over to David with a smile. "Look at those fools, man I love them." He chuckled and pat David on the back twice as he started walking off. "Later guys!"

"Later Shane!" They chorused.

Frankie shook his head at the pair of gigglers. "No, I think DaVinci would be better. It would fit him more!"

Roy gave Frankie a strange look through his unrelenting smile. "You've never met him before. You don't even know what he looks like!"

Frankie frowned and pushed his blue glasses back up to the bridge of his nose, enhancing his nerd vibe by over 9000. "I know that! I just think it would be better since DaVinci is sort of a history maker and would be worthy of a ninja."

You shrugged, jumping into the conversation adamantly. "I think calling him DiCaprio would be pretty funny though, he wouldn't know what was going on."

Roy clapped his large hands together with a loud cracking sound, like that of a whip. "Well then it's settled, call him DiCaprio, see if your survive, then tell us all about it!"

This made Frankie groan unhappily.

You all ignored him easily and agreed on the terms, said goodbye and went your seperate ways.

.•° °•. .•° °•.

After wishing Floyd a good night you slipped out of your fire escape window and climbed up to the apartment building roof and swaddled yourself in your blanket you brought with you. By now, going up there wasn't so much of a hunting strategy as it was a habit that'd grown on you.

Looking at the murky sky was somewhat relaxing, which was sorta great since today had been somewhat of a roller coaster ride.

The smoke and dirty air swirled and squashed back and forth and the lights from below and far off made the soothing movements visible. This was something you definitely needed.

Taking in a deep breath of the air made you cough quite a bit, but you still felt emotionally refreshed in a way.

A few minutes passed peacefully as you snuggled deeper into your warm blanket in absolute bliss, listening to the sounds of the city.

However a sudden and muffled thump could be heard from behind you and pulled you from your peaceful lull. It was like someone had just landed on a mattress of marshmallows, and it freaked you the hell out as your mind immediately landed to the expectation of Leo.

Timidly looking back you found that you were bang on. There he was standing there in all his greenish, turtley glory.

"Oh shit!" You choked out fumbling everywhere, lacking any sort of grace as you fought yourself to stand. "H-Hi!" You said finally to your feet with the flailing blanket now tight around your shoulders.

He couldn't help the smile that tugged at the corners of his mouth, but it was a fleeting addition of warmth to his demeanour "Hi." He stated, back to his usual cold self.

An uncomfortable amount of silence passed between you both. It must've been affecting Leo as much as it was you, because he kept shifting around and scuffing the ground with his large —very circular— foot.

You cleared you throat and began your attempted at striking up a conversation, "So... What brings you to my neck o' th' woods?" You cringed inwardly. Not a strong start.

It was strange but it was like everything you did and said in front of him had either been stupid, uncomfortable, or both.

Leo shook his head and regained his stern confidence. "I'm sorry miss Y/n, but I'll need to you come with me."

Oh my god, this is what I've been dreading, this is how I die... No. Stand up for yourself Y/n, what the fuck you are not going anywhere! Make that clear and look menacing!!

You frowned and put your hands on your hips and trying to stand a bit taller.

Good, now intimidate with your words!!

Sadly nothing intimidating came to mind, the only thing that popped into your brain was Jamie and his stupid ideas.

Fuck it, maybe it'll work.

But instead of saying 'who the fuck you think you are, DiCaprio?!' your words got jumbled, causing you to yell with the confidence of a majestic eagle;

"Who fucked DiCaprio?!!?"

Leo blinked slowly, with a gradually widening stare as he tried to digest what you had said. You were just about as shocked as he was.

Heh, Oh my god! I can't believe you,

Your mind laughed at your slip up while you just stood there. Your posture was still as confident as before, but your face wore and expression of pure, frozen terror.

"Rose did in a car."

You looked back to Leo who was once again smiling, but this time it looked like it was staying.

Throwing yourself off the building was quickly starting to look like a really good solution to all of this.

____________

Fun times hey?? Anyway,,

Candy Crush game idea was from @samseaa