forum Private w/ @Jacks347

Started December 29, 2021 by @Dirt

tune

@Jacks347

Kai had found himself back in town freshman year of high school. It had been tough being the new kid. Well as new as an old face could be.
And since that day he'd done just about everything he could to make people forget the reason he'd left in the first place.
His real mom had actually been trying to gain custody of him again. And when she saw just how much work a kid was, sent him right back to the Six's. It had been embarrassing, almost like a dog being sent back to a shelter.
Frankly Kai didn't mind anymore. At the time he'd been all moppie about it, but now things where great. Better then they'd ever been before.
He wasn't a star student, especially not in his senior year. Infact he was barely squeaking by to stay in sports, and most days found himself skipping to hangout with his girlfriend and best friend.
His adoptive parents didn't seem to care to much as long as Kai kept out of trouble, and made sure he had everything he needed to graduate. Again, he didn't care.
The Six's where kind and all, but as far as Kai had ever been concerned, they weren't his real parents, and thus forth couldn't tell him what to do with his life.
Hell, even if his birth mom had been the one telling him to stay in school, he still wouldn't listen. And that wasn't just the abandonment issues talking.

"Kai," Lauren snapped her fingers in his face. He had been zoned standing infrount of his locker. "The bell rung, are you gonna skip or something?" She sounded annoyed with him.
"What?" He looked over at her, a little confused. "Oh shit no sorry. I will see you at lunch, I love you bye." Kai slammed his locker door shut, kissed her on the cheek and booked it.
It was rare he got to school early enough to actually go to his locker, heck, he'd thought he might actually be on time today. But apparently it just wasn't in Kai's nature.

Lily fixed her ponytail for the third time that morning. "I've really gotta get some new hair ties." She muttered under her breath, glancing up when the door opened and just as quickly looking away when she saw who entered it, licking her lips in an attempt to rid her tongue of the sour taste that appeared on it.

Kai Six. The boy she had known her entire life and her best friend. Or at least, he used to be. Up until last summer when she showed up. Lauren, a troublemaker with an eternal goal of making Lily's life miserable. She wasn't sure why exactly Lauren hated her so much but she wasn't really in the place to find out.
Besides, she didn't want to know. That girl stole her best friend and turned him. Turned him from the Kai she knew and kind of had a crush on to the Kai that skipped class, got in trouble and sat back and laughed while Lauren bullied and belittled her every day. It made Lily sick to her stomach.

Kai lucked out with only a glare from the teacher. She was probably just as tired of his shit as all the others. Or maybe she thought it was a miracle he'd even bothered to show up.
Either way Kai shrugged it off and sat in his desk. He sat behind his childhood best friend, Lily.
In all honesty he didn't know why they weren't friends anymore. Maybe it was the fact every teacher loved her and hated him, or that for some reason she always had a fight to pick with Lauren.
He didn't know why the two insisted on hating eachother. If anything he'd have thought the two would get along.
"Lily," he whispered. Maybe one of these days he'd be able to get her to skip with them. Maybe then she'd see just how much fun they could all have again.

Lily took a breath and shot an icy glare over her shoulder at Kai. "I thought I told you never to speak to me again. Or isn't there enough space in your empty head to remember?"

There'd been a huge fight at the end of that summer. One that Kai clearly didn't remember. Either that or he had just gotten over it. Regardless, Lily remembered. Lily had spent the entire summer being Lauren's scapegoat and when she confronted Kai about it, asking why he took a backseat when it came to Lauren's treatment of her, he blew up in her face. The confrontation had turned into a screaming match where Lily had ended up slapping Kai across the face, ordering him to never talk to her again and storming off.

Kai cringed inwardly. "I remember pretty well, you hit hard enough to join the wrestling team." Though he knew slapping people was probably off limits. Before he could open his mouth to speak again, their Teach spoke up.
"Kai Six, I know you don't care enough about your own education, but for heavens sake leave Lily out of your shenanigans. I will not have a star pupil be dragged down by you." Again, Kai cringed.
He didn't really consider himself a bad example, just a guy trying to have fun his senior year with his friends.
Class was unfortunately one of the only times he ever got to talk to Lily. She'd blocked his number, and anytime he tried to catch her outside of class only ended in an argument. He'd tried showing up at her house once, only to have the door slammed in his face. "Yes ma'am." He responded before putting his head down.
Homeroom was hardly a class. Most of the time the teacher lectured the class on things they'd learned the previous year. It was rather repetitive. And while the class dragged on Kai though of ways he might be able to talk to his old friend. Maybe convince her to sit down and talk.
Ethan had told him to just let her go already, but it was so hard to just let go of someone who'd been such a big part of his life.

JC, on the other hand, was completely on Kai's side on this. She tried to convince Lily to talk to him again, saying that she was overreacting and being mad at the wrong person. But if Lily was anything, it was stubborn.
She refused to speak to Kai until he apologized and stood up to Lauren. She told him in that fight she refused to be friends with someone who put a girl he'd just met above someone he'd known his entire life.

So for now she went back to ignoring Kai, watching the clock tick away until the bell when she'd be faced with her tormentor on her way to trig class.

It had been like this for the past month and a half, and Kai honestly didn't even know why he tried anymore. Maybe Ethan and Lauren where right.
The bell rung, and even before the teacher could finish reminding them about the homework, Kai was standing up to hopefully get a chance.
"Lily, please I just want to talk." He made his resolve. If she stormed off without so much as a second thought, he'd give up. If they talked out what happened over the summer, he'd give it another try.
He didn't want to lose the first person that'd be there for him when he'd moved back. He just needed her to understand.

Lily paused. JC's words rang through her head. Just once. Two minutes. If he can't convince you to talk, you never have to again.
She sighed, turning to face Kai. "You have two minutes to convince me to stay or I'm leaving."

Kai grinned. "Great okay, uh," he didn't actually know what to say. He never thought he'd get this far, so he'd never planned ahead.
The fight, he could start there. "Look what happened over the summer, I dont get why you two fought so much. From where I stand you both took jabs at eachother whenever the chance was there." He had no idea where he was going with this.
"and I'm sorry that you felt replaced. But Lauren is my girlfriend, and regardless of that I want us to still be friends." He'd definitely messed that up.
The fight that had happened that summer, he knew she wanted an apology, quite frankly he wanted one too. Kai was still a little upset about getting slapped, especially by someone who he'd considered his friend.
The only problem was, he didn't know what she wanted an apology about. Or atleast he couldn't fully remember.

Lily raised an indignant eyebrow at him. "Replaced? You think all of this happened because I felt replaced? Not because, oh I don't know, Lauren is a bully and whenever she picked on me you did nothing but stand back and laugh?" She spit her words like they tasted sour, her bitter anger creeping up again. "Just how dense can you be?"

Kai had wanted to talk it out, but with how high-strung Lily was, and how much he didn't like her painting Lauren as the bad guy, he couldn't help but say. "Because you teased back, you both argued whenever we all hangout. We all teased eachother, its what friends do sometimes. Is it so bad I wanted y'all to actually be friends?"

Lily's eye twitched in annoyance. That ticked her off. Severely.
"Do I really have to spell this out for you? Kai, Lauren hates my guts. Always has, always will. I wanted to be friends, I did. And believe me, I tried. But no, she just has it out for me. I'm not exactly sure why and I'm not in the place to find out but until you get your head out of the clouds and realize your perfect little princess isn't all she's cracked up to be, leave me alone. I already have one bully, I don't need two."
With that, she turned on her heel and left, blinking back tears and trying to push down the deep sense of hurt in her chest.

Kai didn't know how to respond, didn't know how to react. He was stuck between wanting to go after her and giving her space.
Before he could make up his mind Ethan came up beside him. "Told you she was a lost cause." Kai groaned. "Dude no she's not."
"I get it she was your best friend growing up, but you've both changed. Stop harassing the poor girl about rekindling your old friendship. Besides she doesn't aprove of me or Lauren." Ethan slung an arm around Kai, steering him though the halls. "You can keep going after her, but thats just gonna push those of use that actually still care about you away." Ethan was right.

The next few classes went by in a blur. Somehow they felt painfully slow but fast all at once. Lauren had sent him a text right before the lunch bell rung, asking him to meet her out by the track. She was most likely skipping the rest of the day, and asking him to join her.

Lily went through her next few classes numbly, her mind bringing up unwanted memories of her childhood with Kai. One day in particular.

It was the night before Kai was going to leave for the summer and all the kids in the neighborhood were throwing a big going away party. She could smell the bonfire, hear the music and laughter, feel the warm early summer air.

And there was one moment.

Kai had asked her to dance, it was one of the last songs of the night. There was a perfect opportunity. And she missed it. She chickened out. And now he was gone.

I should've kissed him… That thought plagued her for months after that night, especially when he came back with Lauren. And now it was tormenting her again. Maybe if she had, none of this would've happened. Or maybe it would've just happened sooner. She had no clue.

When the lunch bell rang, she left the classroom, intending to head for the track. Not many kids stayed out there so it was usually pretty quiet plus she figured the fresh air might help clear her head.

Kai didn't even know if he wanted to head to the track. Eventually if he missed enough classes he'd be kicked from the soccer team, grounded by Rollo, and probably scolded by Katie.
He went anyway.
Out by the track waiting for him already was Lauren, Ethan, and one other girl he didn't recognize. "Took you long enough." Lauren shot up from where she sat, excitedly throwing her arms around Kai.
"I heard what happened." There was a pout on her face, "im sorry about your friend. She really isn't good for you."
Kai shot a glace at Ethan. Some friend he was for going and spilling what had happened. "She's toxic you don't need her in your life." Lauren pushed some of his muddy green hair behind his ear. "So I thought we'd all go out and have a little fun?"
Kai didn't want to go out and have fun. He was still to busy thinking about what had happened with Lily in first period.
"Maybe after?"
Lauren rolled her eyes. "Gosh its like I'm not even your girlfriend sometimes. All you wanna do is rekindle some dead friendship with some awful girl. She's not the same from your childhood, and you need to get that in your thick skull."

Lily was out on the bleachers when Kai came out. She wasn't close enough for them to see her immediately but she could still hear them. And listening to Lauren made her grind her teeth.
That manipulative bitch doesn't know what she's talking about. She doesn't know Kai like I do. She huffed stubbornly. But it wasn't her fault that Kai refused to listen to reason.

"Excuse you but Lily isn't awful." A sharp voice piped up from behind Lauren and Kai. It was JC, looking for Lily and figuring she'd find her out here. "And I'd appreciate it if you didn't talk about her like you know anything about her after you burned the bridges she attempted to build that summer." She stepped up next to Kai's side and flashed him a smile. "Plus, I think it'd be good for both of them to have each other back in their lives. Maybe if you were a little more supportive and tried to help him, this would go a little easier."

Kai jumped, he hadn't even heard JC come up behind them.
"You don't know what you're talking about," Lauren snapped back. She hated the thought of Lily being anywhere near Kai. "She slapped him, incase you forgot, JC."
In Lauren's eyes she was plenty supportive of everything she approved of, and Lily just wasn't one of those things. Over the summer the two had fought so much over what Lauren had considered little things, that she wasn't very fond of Lily anymore.
The teasing had all started out in good nature, meant to be more sisterly then anything. And maybe Lauren had crossed a few lines, but to her it wasn't a big deal. She saw no fault in her actions.

"Lauren chill," he rolled his eyes at her reaction. "Thanks JC, but I dont think Lily ever wants to talk to me again."

"No, she wants you to apologize." JC chose to ignore Lauren for now. "You and I both know some of that teasing crossed a line. Sometimes multiple. And you never did anything to stop it. She's hurt, Kai. She feels like you've abandoned her and all the years you've had together for someone you just met. I can understand why she's upset."

She then turned to Lauren. "And you don't know a damn thing about Kai and Lily's relationship before you showed up. You know you went too far but your head is so far in the clouds that you have no idea how your words and actions hurt other people. Lest we forget the firework incident?"

The firework incident had happened just after Fourth of July. They were all hanging out with some friends and shooting off some late fireworks when Lauren had said something…worse than usual. She had crossed a few lines too many and Lily burst into tears. Lauren had proceeded to embarrass Lily in front of everyone until JC finally had enough and pulled Lily away from the situation.

Lauren rolled her eyes. The firework incident hadn't been that bad, atleast to her. All Lauren had done was point out how Lily was ovbously in love with her boyfriend and needed to stop. Not to mention how she'd pointed out how Kai would never like her back- it was all in good defense, and she'd taken a more joking tone with it. She'd thought they could all laugh it off, or atleast thats what she told Kai.

"Look, when Lily's ready to talk we'll all talk again, JC. Maybe we can put everything in the past and let bygones be bygones. But as things are right now I'm pretty sure Lily doesn't want anything to do with me or Lauren." He had blantently chose to ignore the comment JC made about him 'abandoning' Lily for Lauren.
Ethan and the girl Kai didn't know looked extremely uncomfortable, sharing a glance that Kai saw out of the corner of his eye.
"Now, its lunchtime and im staving, are we leaving to go eat or what? JC do you wanna join if we do?"

"Nah, I'm good. I actually came out here to look for Lily. Who seems to have been listening this entire time." JC turned to look at Lily with a smirk. "You're not slick, you know I see you."
Lily just shrugged and made her way over. "What can I say, can't blame me for waiting on a realization." She glanced over at Lauren. "After all, patience is a virtue." She then faced Kai. "Tomorrow. 3 pm. Barrons Park. You leave me waiting for more than 15 minutes and I'm leaving."