"Oh my god." Alaska gapped, laughed, and spoke in disbelief at Wyatt. She was under Eli's arm, leaned up against him, different woman Beth knew coming into the Lee's beach house that was close to the ocean.

"Is that why he was avoiding us all day?" Eli nodded his head.

"Did you go all the way?" Alaska kept on.

"In Moons parents bed?" Eli gapped.

"Did you use a condom?" the Lee girl nodded.

"Jesus, both of you, stop." Wyatt gave them a crazy look with a wave of his hands. "We just kissed, a lot, nothing else. Jesus, who hooks up at someone else's house?"

The couple shared a look before pulling their eyes away from each other.

"Does this make me, like, a child of an affair?" Alaska whispered with a grin. "This is like American House Wives of The Karate War."

"What?" Wyatt asked in disbelief. "What do you even-"

"We should have known Demetri was also into guys." Eli nodded his head. "He had a pretty intense Fred Wesley phase."

"You're his Fred Wesley now." Alaska pointed Wyatt's way with a grin. "Why are you freaking out? This is a good thing. You've liked him since January."

"Alaska, he cheated on his girlfriend. And I helped." Wyatt dropped his voice to a whisper with a crazy look. "Also, is clearly still in the closet, also potentially ruined our friendship. This is why I need advice."

"From us? We don't know anything about cheating." Alaska shook his head.

"Well, not technically cheating. I did try to kiss Alaska when I was with Moon but we didn't." Eli pointed out, catching the side eye look. "I'd never cheat, i'd get the penis eating STD Zane keeps telling me about. And, obviously, love my lady."

"Not the cheating. The kissing your best friend thing." Wyatt huffed as he leaned onto the round table more. "Demetri has seriously became one of my closest friends, you know? He gets me, in a weird way, and I love that. I don't wanna ruin it over a kiss."

"Well, Demetri wouldn't have kissed you back if he didn't like you. He's not the type to just kiss people." Eli pointed out with a nod of his head, arm tightening around Alaskas shoulders. "What happened after?"

"We heard a loud knock and it kinda brought us back to reality." Wyatt said back, missing Eli's guilty look. "Then he was all talking about Yasmine and talking about how he doesn't have time for a sexuality crisis, and then he ran, hit the wall, then out the door."

Alaska nodded. "Sounds like our guy."

"What do I do?" Wyatt pouted, hitting his head on the table.

"Well, don't get brain damaged, for one thing." Alaska gave a judgement look. "Have you tried calling him?"

"No." Wyatt said back.

"Try going to his house?" Eli asked.

"No." Wyatt said back.

"Fight each other with sexual tension?" Alaska rose her brows.

Wyatt looked in disbelief. "What? No."

"Lead him on and make him think you hooked up with someone else?" Eli rose his brows as well.

"What the fuck? No." Wyatt whispered.

Alaska shrugged. "Well, that sums up all we know, Wy. Meat will come around, he's gonna fold and come talk to you."

"Yeah, he gets emotionally attached." Eli agreed with a nod. "Is he coming?"

"He said he might." the Lee girl said back.

"If you didn't noticed, we are the only two dudes here." Wyatt gave a knowing look, eyes going around the beach house living room and kitchen to the many woman Beth knew, all setting up little foods.

"Which is weird. If I was a guy, i'd still love cucumber sandwich's and looking at the little socks everyone gets." Alaska agreed with a smile. "When I have a baby shower, i'm gonna make Sensei Lawrence come."

"Alaska, do not plan a baby shower anytime soon." Wyatt held a hand to his forehead.

"Why?" Alaska got to her feet, putting a hand on her stomach. "I'd look so hot pregnant."

"Alaska, do not get pregnant." Wyatt squeezed the bridge of his nose.

"You would look hot pregnant." Eli nodded his head as he looked her way. "What would you name our kids?"

"Something gender neutral incase they come out to us as trans. Then, with a gender neutral name, they wouldn't have to stress about finding a new one if they didn't want to." Alaska shrugged her shoulders as she thought about it. "Maybe....Guac."

"Alaska, do not name your kid Guac." Wyatt gave an insane look her way.

"Short for Guacamole." she gave a dumb look. Eli grinned his way at her words. "Or Alex."

"How are you gonna go from Guac to-" Wyatt began, stopping as she headed off. "How do you deal with her? And since kindergarten? I'm struggling and i've only known her for a few months."

Eli shook his head. "The things I do for love, Wy. The things I do."

"I wish I had what you guys had." Wyatt sighed as he leaned on his elbow, looking at him. "Im just stuck pinning after a guy that's got a girlfriend."

"Did Alaska ever tell you about Moon?" Eli sighed, leaning forward to ask.

"The girl you use to date? Yeah." he shrugged.

"There was always this thing with me and Al. It was weird, like, it was always a little more then platonic. Kinda like how you and Demetri are starting to get." Eli nodded as Wyatt paid close attention, because Eli was a lot better at going into detail then Alaska was. "And when I got with Moon, it finally made me realize that I'd just wanted Alaska the entire time. It took forever to accept it and actually come to the conclusion that I literally thought about her every time I was with Moon, but I did. You know, Demetri could be in that stage. I know you don't realize it, but the two of you have a very similar story going on."

"So, when do we start being healthy and happy?" Wyatt rolled his eyes.

"Depends, do you plan on treating him like shit and being a complete asshole? Because that's how I was to her, and we broke up, we didn't even talk for months." Eli shook his head, and that was something Wyatt didn't know. "How we are now is still new for us too, we've never been like this before. There was always something that was gonna make us argue, or split us up. If you can stop any of that from happening, you and Demetri have a better chance then we did."

Wyatt went to open his mouth, stopping as his eyes fell behind him. "If we survive long enough to see it happening."

Eli turned, following Wyatt's eye as it fell onto Robby and Tory walking into the beach house. Wyatt looked over, seeing Alaska already looking at them. Her feet were walking over in no time, leaving the two boys behind. Alaska scanned over the two. "What the hell?"

"Beth invited me." Robby said back with a raise of his eyebrows, the Lee girl stood before the pair. "Figured that meant a plus one."

Alaska looked toward Tory, seeing her give a sarcastic smile. She found Robbys eyes again. "So, you showed up to play baby games and eat fruit cut out into shapes?"

"Sure." Tory mocked her in the slightest. "We won't be long."

Alaska didn't know what either of them were planning, but quite frankly, she didn't know how to reacted to the two of them right infront of her. She could handle Robby alone, as she could Tory, but together was difficult. She thanked god for her dad showing up. "Robby."

He turned to find Zane nodded at him, keeping a straight face. "Tory. It's nice to see the two of you."

Alaska looked over her shoulder toward Eli, who had moved on the other side of the table to sit with next to Wyatt. Zane nodded at the three. "I'm gonna trust that all of you can keep it together for Beth's sake?"

"Of course." Robby gave a forced smile. "I'm here for Beth. The only person in your family that ever actually made me feel like I fit in."

He stormed off with Tory by his side, finding an empty table across the room. Zane sighed as Alaska looked his way. "Ignore him. You and Mom did a lot more for him then anyone else would, he's just mad and gonna say whatever to get a reaction."

"I know." Zane said back, giving her a guilty look. "I know I shouldn't say this after Eli, because I love that kid, but-"

"But it's Robby." she cut him off with a nod. "I know, you don't have to say anything."

Zane held her shoulders with a nod. "I know he'll come around again."

"Yeah, he will." Alaska confirmed with a tight lipped smile. "Tory too. I just wish it would have happened before what happened with Eli. I wouldn't be so angry then."

"Well, you head over and sit with him." Zane nodded to Eli, who looked extremely uncomfortable. "I'll speed this up some."

"Thanks." Alaska smiled, getting a wink as she headed back toward her friend and boyfriend.

"Oh my god!" Beth gushed over the present as she opened it, grinned at the bear in a karate gi. "Shut up, this is so cute!"

"We wanted to do something kinda personal." Alaska smiled, holding Eli's hand, speaking in "we" rather than "I".

"We got Aiden one too for when he comes for his weekend visit." Eli nodded as Beth gushed over at the pair.

"I hate you both." she huffed, leaning to hug them both tightly. "I love it."

"I also hate you both." Wyatt gave a glare toward the happy couple.

"Beth, here." Amanda handed a large box over. "I picked it out but Sam and Daniel wanted their name on it too."

Beth laughed, grasping it. Alaska saw her Dad looking rather angry at his phone, talking to Gina. Alaska gave Eli a small smile, walking over to the two in the corner. "Momma, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, it's okay." she gave a forced smile, seeing the look of disbelief from Alaska. "Beth's ex was here earlier."

"What?" she looked in shock.

"I had a few of the dealers come get him before he could come in but they couldn't find him." Zane sighed, Alaska biting at the inside of her mouth. "I'm trying to activate the cameras but it's taking a while to come up since we haven't used them since summer."

"Do you think it'll run faster on the computer?" Alaska asked with a questionable look.

"It might." Gina nodded as her and Zane shared a look, both looking to their daughter again. "You just keep Beth calm, don't let anyone think anything is wrong until we can figure out if he's still somewhere around here."

Alaska nodded quickly, letting her parents walk away. She headed back to the group, looking around for a head count before realizing she'd been missing one. She gave a confused look, walking to Wyatt. "Where'd Tory go?"

Wyatt looked back. "She walked outside about three minutes ago, seemed like an important phone call."

He saw the look across her face. "What's wrong?"

"Keep everyone in here, i'm gonna go find her." Alaska gave a serious look, leaving the beach house doors as she looked around outside. It was up pretty high, painted a green color, the stairs plenty of feet from the ground. Alaska leaned over the side, looking down at Tory at the bottom, talking on the phone. "Tory!"

She couldn't hear her though, Alaska going down the stairs in hopes of getting to her quickly. Her heart was racing, because she didn't know what Beth's ex was capable of. But, no matter how angry she was, the last thing she was about to do was let Tory get hurt by a man non of them even knew. Alaska got to the bottom. "Tory."

There was a smell, a strong, choking worthy smell that they had been use to after living in The Valley.

The brunette turned, hanging up her phone. "Jesus, I just had to make a call to check on my brother."

"We have to go back inside, my dad s-" Alaska began, stopping as she saw Tory's eyes looking upwards. Alaska turned around, looking up at the high staircase, seeing a man at the top of the balcony, something dropping from his hand.

Neither realized that a match was falling, a lit match, until Alaska pieces the puzzle together. The match. Him. The smell.

The smell was gasoline.

Looking down, Alaska realized they'd been standing next to Beth's car, it drenched in gasoline, puddled at their feet. Alaskas body filled the chills. "Tory, move!"

Before the Nicholes girl had the chance too, Alaska had tackled her, the pair falling backwards as the match hit the car, fire flooding the drive way immediately. Alaska and Tory landed into the grass, Tory under the Lee girl as Alaska looked back, getting them out of the way just before either of them would flood with fire, as did Beth's car, as did most of the driveway.

Tory held Alaskas arms with heavy breaths, the other girl frozen in fear as the flames lit up her eyes.

"Alaska! Tory!"

The pair looked at each other, the sound of an ambulance flooded their ears, Zane running down the stairs, jumping over the ones he could, all while Wyatt, Eli, and Robby yelled for them from above, following after.

"Are you okay?" Tory asked Alaska, squeezing her forearms, because the way she'd been ontop of her, she could have easily been burned. Thankfully, Alaskas broken hand was on Tory's stomach, and didn't land under them, while her sprained one hurt, but was healed for the most part.

"Yeah, are you?" Alaska nodded in a panic. Tory laid back on the sand, Alaska going with her by default, her head on her shoulder, the pair slowly coming down from shock and fear together.

•

kylie speaks

i will never not miss
alory.

just y'all wait to know
who's been working with
beth's crazy ex🙄