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𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗞

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
and it's hard to be at a party
when I feel like an open wound,
it's hard to be anywhere these
days when all I want is you

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REAL LIFE

LUNA HAYES' NIGHT has been a whirlwind so far, and apparently, it wasn't about to end.

Not only did Tina know how to throw an awesome party, not only was there the most mismatched group of people at the house ever, not only did Noah tell her oh-so casually that he would marry her in a heartbeat (which was the closest she'd come to her heart exploding, by the way), but she hadn't seen Mary Jane in a while.

Luna supposed she shouldn't have been too worried. Mary Jane was more than capable of taking care of herself. Yet, this seemed . . . different. It was like radio silence. Throughout the party, Luna had seen glimpses of her best friend in the house and outside, but now, she was nowhere to be found.

That thought kept itself in the back of her head, along with that large confession Noah had said to her earlier, keeping her a bit sober and grounded despite the alcohol she had drank. Currently, she was talking to Quackity, catching up on things since she hadn't spoken or seen him in a while.

"Quackity, no, I'm not breaking up with Noah so he can be with you," Luna insisted.

"Why not?" Quackity complained, looking playfully annoyed. "I even made him a Valentine's Day dinner!"

"Yeah, while I was in the room. That dinner looked . . . imaginative, but inedible, at best."

"Oh, like you could do any better."

Luna shook her head. "I could, actually." She took another sip of her drink. "We should do a cooking stream together and see who does better."

Quackity then laughed, his eyes squinting slightly. "That's such a terrible idea, because I will lose."

She giggled along with him. "That's what'll make it so good."

Luna suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder, making her focus switch from her conversation with Quackity. She looked up, only to see it was Ellum. Luna gave him a small smile in greeting, but it quickly melted away, along with her laughter dying. Ellum looked . . . concerned, almost panicked in a way, which was extremely different from his usually happy-go-lucky expression. He never looked that way, which is why it shook Luna to her core.

"Sorry to intrude," Ellum began.

"Yeah, we're actually having a very important meeting right now," Quackity replied.

"Q, shut up," Luna told him absentmindedly, still looking towards Ellum in confusion and concern of her own. "You're fine. What's up?"

"Have you seen Mary Jane?" Ellum asked.

That sentence was enough to make Luna's heart sink. "No, I haven't. Why?"

Ellum sighed deeply, his eyes turning a bit sad. "Can I talk to you?"

Luna nodded in agreement. "Yeah." She grabbed onto Ellum's wrist and glanced at Quackity for a moment as she started to pull him away. "I'll be back in a few."

"I'll steal Foolish while you're gone!" Quackity yelled after her.

"You can try, it won't work!" Luna called back.

She dragged Ellum through the crowds of people, which wasn't exactly hard to do, because people tended to move out of the way when a man who stood at six-five was trying to get through. She took him to a more secluded corner that had little to no people, and was able to drown out the sound of Risk playing from the kitchen (why her own song was playing, she didn't know.) Luna let go of Ellum, crossing her arms across her chest as she watched him lean against the wall, staring blankly ahead.

Luna stared at him. "What's going on? Is everything okay?"

"I don't know," Ellum answered. "So much just happened."

Her eyes trailed across his face, but her eyes caught on something on the corner of his mouth — it was small, but it was red. "Why do you have red on your mouth?" However, once she said it, her eyes instantly widened. She knew that shade of red, arguably better than anyone else. "Wait — hold on a second . . . Ellum—"

Ellum reached up, removing the remaining red lipstick from his mouth (even though he didn't necessarily want to.) "Yeah."

"Did you—?"

"We did."

"So why are you acting so strange about it?" Luna continued, straightening up slightly. "What happened?"

"I don't know," Ellum admitted. "One second, we were talking on the steps, then the next she kissed me all of the sudden, and then the next she ran away, and I have no clue where she went."

"Wait, so she kissed you, then pulled away, started to panic, and ran off?" Luna questioned.

Ellum nodded. "Yeah."

Luna paused, thinking it over. "God, she's just like me for real."

"What?"

"I did the same thing when I first kissed Noah, we're too alike — but that's besides the point."

"I just — I don't understand why she just freaked out all of the sudden," Ellum said. "What went wrong? It was all so good and then she just — she just spiraled."

Luna's eyes softened. "Oh, Ellum. You are just so lovably dumb."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"No, I'm serious. It's quite endearing." She gave him a small smile. "As our resident MJ expert, it's quite clear to me what's going on here, yet it's not exactly my place to say anything. I think that's more so a conversation for you two to have, if she ever comes out of hiding." Luna glanced over her shoulder for a moment, as if Mary Jane would magically appear, but she didn't. "But I can tell you some things. MJ puts on a very tough exterior, we all know that — but in reality, underneath all of her confidence, she's actually quite vulnerable. When she tends to get scared of something, she just . . . runs."

Ellum's face fell. "You're saying she's scared of me?"

"Not you," Luna replied. "Her feelings for you. Relationships are scary sometimes."

"But I don't want her to be scared."

"I know you don't." Luna sighed for a moment. "Tell her I told you this, and you're fucking dead. But, I have never, and I mean never, seen MJ so smitten over a guy before. Whenever she's liked a guy, she's always been so calm and confident — or, at least she tries to be. Yet, with you, it's like all of that flies out the window. Whenever she's around you, she stammers over her words, she laughs more, her face turns red, her hands shake . . . you're just different for her. It's like all of those walls fall down, because you make her nervous. That's why she ran away. She's just scared about what this all means, and she's scared of losing you." Her voice dropped to something more quiet. "Whatever you do, please . . . please don't crush her, Josh."

"Would telling her I liked her back crush her?" Ellum inquired.

Luna blinked. "No. In fact, that would make her entire life if you did that." She then smirked slightly. "See, I knew you liked her. Was that really so hard to admit to me?"

His cheeks flushed a light shade of red. "Shut up, Lunes." Ellum then pushed himself off of the wall. "How much you want to bet she's hiding in Tina's room?"

"She is probably there, honestly."

Ellum let out a deep breath. "I have to talk to her."

"I agree, but hold on, lover boy," Luna protested, stepping in his way to stop him and looking up at him, her eyes pleading. "Just . . . let me go to her first. No offense, but you might be the last person she wants to see right now. I think out of everyone, I might be able to knock some sense into her. Girl talk, you know? If she comes back upstairs, I succeeded. If she doesn't, well . . ." Luna then saw the pained expression on Ellum's face. "But she's going to come back upstairs. Come on, have some faith in me."

He nodded slowly. "I'll try."

Luna then reached out and squeezed his arm. "It's all going to work out, Josh. Trust."

She gave him a small smile before turning around and walking away in the direction of Tina's room, leaving both Ellum and the party behind. Luna remembered how badly she panicked after she kissed Noah for the first time and how she hadn't left her room, doing nothing but cry under her covers. Mary Jane had been the only one to get her out, talking some sense into her. Luna had a very strong feeling she would be doing the exact same thing.

＊*•♥̩͙•̩̩͙*˚˚*•♥̩͙•̩̩͙*˚＊＊*•̩̩͙♥̩͙•̩̩͙*˚˚*•̩̩͙♥•̩̩͙*˚＊

REAL LIFE

"MARY JANE?"

THE girl in question picked her head up from her knees at the sound of her best friend's voice. She wasn't sure how long she had been in Tina's room sitting against the door. It felt like an eternity, yet it still didn't feel easier to breathe whatsoever, and silent tears had streamed down her face for the entirety of it. Basically, she was just beating herself up, her mind nothing short of a mess.

"Yeah?" Mary Jane replied, her voice hoarse.

"Can I come in?" Luna said.

Mary Jane paused for a moment. Truth be told, there truly was nobody else that she wanted to see right now than Luna. Luna knew her better than anyone, and knowing her, she would understand. Yet, the other part of Mary Jane knew that she would have to talk about what happened, and that thought scared her more than anything. She was such a coward, wasn't she? Running away from the boy she liked and overthinking talking to her best friend? How stupid.

"Hey, come on, it's just me," Luna encouraged. "MJ."

She sighed, scooting away from the door a bit. Mary Jane reached up and opened the door just a smidge, enough for Luna to get through. Luna stepped through the door, and once her eyes set on Mary Jane — sitting on the floor, mascara underneath her eyes, looking quite sad — they softened. She shut the door behind her and sat down on the floor next to Mary Jane. Mary Jane stared at her, sniffling slightly.

"What're you crying for?" Luna asked. "It's TinaCon. There should be no tears."

Mary Jane let out an incredulous laugh, one devoid of any humor. "Oh, that's even better. I fucked everything up during Tina's party." She pushed some of her hair away from her face. "God, what have I done?"

"I know what you've done." Luna tilted her head slightly at the sight of Mary Jane's eyes widening. "You think he wouldn't come find me after you disappeared? Come on. Also, I saw your lipstick on his mouth. It wasn't exactly the most discreet thing."

Mary Jane put her hands to her temples. "Oh my God."

"Nope, none of that," Luna argued lightly, taking Mary Jane's hands and holding them in hers. "You've done enough spiraling already. Let's talk this through for a second."

"Josh came to you?"

"He's confused," Luna explained. "And concerned. All he wants is a bit of an explanation." She squeezed her hands. "Which, I want one, too. I have an inkling of what it could be, but I would like a confirmation."

"I . . ." Mary Jane trailed off, trying to get her thoughts in order. "I just . . . I feel like I ruined everything because I wasn't thinking. I don't even know what came over me. One second we were talking, the next I was kissing him. It was like I was possessed. And . . . I don't know, I just lost it." She wiped away another tear that managed to fall. "Because I felt as if I should've talked to him first about how I felt, which is a whole thing in itself. I know I keep saying this, but this is the first time I've felt like this for a guy. He makes me feel so . . . different. It's like I can't control myself when I'm around him, and my mind gets all messy. I just did it all wrong, and his whole thing is terrifying."

Luna nodded in understanding. "It is terrifying. But it's also beautiful. MJ, this can go somewhere. All you have to do is talk to him, which I know is scary, but Ellum will listen. And this won't have a bad outcome, I know it won't."

"I think I really want this," Mary Jane admitted quietly. "I'm not even kidding."

"Then go for it. Put on your MJ confidence and do it." Luna let go of one of her hands and poked her right in the forehead. "Mary Jane, don't Bingle it."

She rolled her eyes, yet she laughed a little. "Please don't use Bingle as a verb."

Luna shrugged happily. "I can't. It's just a natural part of my vocabulary at this point."

Mary Jane laughed a little more, wiping away a remaining tear. "God, I'm such a mess right now."

"Okay, here's what you're going to do," Luna told her, standing up from the floor and walking over to where Mary Jane kept her stuff, rummaging around for a minute. "You're going to fix your makeup." She walked back, holding her makeup bag and extending it out to her. "Then you're going to go back upstairs with your chin up, march up to him, and kiss him stupid. Only after you talk to him, though. That's important."

Mary Jane hesitated for a second, her eyes flickering from Luna's face to the makeup bag. As scary as it was, she had to do this. No more running away and pretending the problem didn't exist anymore. No more pretending that her feelings weren't there, that something wasn't there, because there was. No more anything. Ellum was a priority right now, and by leaving him hanging, she was hurting him more, which was the last thing she wanted to do. She did make that deal with Meena, after all. It could be bad, but she wanted to find out.

And, without a second thought in her mind, her eyes narrowed in determination, and she grabbed the makeup bag to get herself ready.

-ˏˋ ✩✩✩ ˊˎ-

accidentally caught myself saying "type shit" the other day and had to go reevaluate my life choices . . . I'm in too deep I fear

"young and he fine and he tall and he handsome" applies to ellum btw . . . okay maybe not the young part (it also applies to foolish)

but next chapter is HUUUUUUUGE is everybody readyyyyyy