High Tensions

It's sickening really. How he thinks that he can just message me and think that everything will be fine again. Like how he genuinely believes that I'll just go running back to him whenever he wants me to. Granted, I did still make it seem that way. I'm not going to let go of the opportunity to make him feel how I felt. He will pay, and I'll make sure of it. I'm sorry Knox and Keita, but you're just going to have to put up with him and I for just a bit longer.

"Alina!" My mother shouts from the top of the stairs. "You're friends are here again!"

"Coming!" I shout back. Well, looks like they will end up getting an explanation after all. Which is good, it'll make everything easier.

I sprint up the steps, trying not to trip over Cerberus and open the front door. I'm immediately greeted with a pissed off Keita, a heartbroken Knox, and a shocked Afia. Damn, and it's even all three of them again.

"Let's take your dog for a walk," Keita says plainly, clearly showing that they need to talk to me. I wonder what it's about. There's no way in hell that word has already spread about me and Zack again. If so then that might be a new record. The gossipers are certainly getting better at their sharing skills then.

I latch a leash onto Cerberus' collar and he barrels out of the door, I'm nearly flying behind him down the steps as he drags me. Luckily the sidewalks have been salted so I won't have to worry about slipping and breaking my skull open on the ice. That wouldn't really be a way of going out that I would be too proud of.

I hand Afia the leash and we continue to walk down the street. I can feel the tension coming off of all of them, is it really that big of a deal? Oh who am I kidding? Of course it is! They literally got suspended for me, they had to put up with me and to only find out that I hung out with Zack again. I would be pissed too. Hell, I probably wouldn't even want to speak to that person ever again.

Keita finally speaks up once it seems that we've gotten far enough away from my place, "Zack." I turn to him, almost shocked at the anger in his voice. "What were you doing with him?"

"I-" I almost start but immediately get cut off.

"Don't say that you weren't because I know you were," He says again, glaring halfway at me. First off, I wasn't going to deny anything you ass. He exhales and speaks more calmly, but there's still a hint of frustration in his expression, "I saw you two together."

"I can show you the messages if you want," I give him a grin as I hold up my phone in front of him. "Then I'll explain everything that happened."

They all glanced at each other for a moment, for once Cerberus was calm and not pulling.

"Fine," Keita snatches the phone and unlocks it with my password. They all know my password, and I've never bothered to change it because I never really saw a point. I trust them and if there's a time that they need to go through my phone then I'm sure that it's for the best.

After a few minutes of them looking through the messages and discussing while I play with Cerberus in the snow, Keita finally tosses me my phone. Still looking absolutely pissed but about 0.1% less than before. So, progress I guess.

"Now explain what happened," He crosses his arms and raises an eyebrow at me.

"Damn is this an interrogation?" I joke and throw some snow at Cerberus and he starts spinning around like a tornado.

"Explain," He orders again, not looking away from my eyes.

"We met up and hung out for a bit, he kept on apologizing and promising that he'll do better. Although, every few minutes he would sneak in a little remark about you guys, it seemed kind of like he was trying to make me hate you both." Keita rolls his eyes and Knox stares at me solemnly. Afia takes a seat next to me in the snow as I continue to summarize everything that happened. "I kept on telling him to leave me alone and to stop talking shit but then he would give me those bullshit puppy dog eyes that never even work then say shit like 'I just want to look out for you.' 'You should watch out for guys like that.' 'Didn't you love the time we've spent together? Didn't you love me?'"

"Asshat," Afia mumbles just loud enough for me to hear.

Cerberus finally stops spinning and sits by my feet, practically begging for attention. So, both Afia and I pet him as I continue.

"After we finished hanging out he offered to walk me home. By that point I've already had enough and told him to fuck off but he didn't." I breathe on my hands to warm them up then go back to petting Cerberus. "He insisted and even when I just decided to ignore him and walk away he just started following me. The entire way home he would tell me how amazing I am and how much he loves me, it was so fucking annoying."

"But you were smiling when I saw you both together after he dropped you off," Keita growled, almost looking defeated.

"I was smiling because my mom was inside and I didn't want her getting involved," They all nod, immediately understanding.

"So you two aren't going out again, right?" Knox finally speaks. He sounds weak, like a sickened little boy still with a faint spark of joy in him.

"No, of course not," I roll my eyes, not at him but at the very mention of Zack and I being together again.

"You were tempted though," Keita adds dully, like he was reading my mind.

"I-" I glance at all three of them, then stare blankly at Cerberus. "Why does that matter? I made the right choice didn't I?"

"Yeah I guess that's true," Afia nods, scratching Cerberus behind the ears.

Keita is still glaring at me though, like my decision to push him away still wasn't enough for him. Knox, however, looks like he's just trying to register everything that he's been told.

"You can't expect me to control my emotions like how I can control my decisions," I glare back at him. They all looked shocked for a moment as Keita and I didn't break our eye contact. "That's like getting mad at a person for being hungry, they can't control that. But they can control if they eat or not."

"Yeah whatever," Keita waves his hand in the air as if he were dismissing me.

"Watch it!" Knox shouted into Keita's ear. "She's right! She made the right choice and we have no reason to be upset!"

Keita pushes Knox to the ground, "Then why the fuck do you sound so fucking upset huh?" Here we go again.

Afia and I glance at each other and roll our eyes and we walk over to the two fighting brothers. Afia grabs Keita by the collar and I do the same to Knox. They're swinging at each other as we pull them away like two dogs trying to express dominance.

"Get the fuck off of each other!" I shout and they both immediately shut up. A group of teenagers on the other side of a park look over at us and start to laugh a bit. Luckily they don't go to our school, I can tell because they have uniforms.

Keita breaks himself loose from Afia's grip, but he doesn't attack again, "Whatever." He snarls and walks off with his hands in his pockets.

We all stand together in silence for a few moments, Knox's collar is still tight in my hands.

"I-" Afia starts, looking between us and Keita. "I'll go make sure that he doesn't destroy anything." With that, she's gone and it's just Cerberus, Knox and I alone together.

Cerberus is lying in the snow in front of us after we've taken a seat. We sit in silence for what feels like an eternity. I can hear his struggling breaths as we stare at the snow, not uttering a word.

"We good?" I finally ask him, the words just barely leave my mouth.

He nods slowly, "Of course, I trust you."

That makes me nearly cry, and I hide my face in his shoulder as we pull each other in for a nice, comforting side hug.

"Make sure to come over first when he messages you again," He nearly whispers in my ear, making me feel warm again. "That way we can laugh about it as he bullshits about being better."

Holding him tighter, I whisper, "Thank you."