Lucien entered the main kitchen on Saturday morning after a restless night of sleep, and a tense week of school wherein he spent most of his time between classes sitting and reading in the library. Word had, apparently, spread that he was to be left alone — and while that fact still annoyed him in a strange way, he was eventually grateful to simply be ignored. Not even Jason and his thugs picked a fight with him, though he’d caught the polo captain sneering in his direction more than once.

From what he’d been able to discern, Tiberius had thoroughly torn into his teammates for not protecting Lucien, and called them several unflattering things — the most polite of which was ‘two-faced dishonourable shitbags’ if rumours were to be believed. It seemed as if the entire school was afraid of angering their star quarterback, and more than once Lucien thought he’d seen some of the more tolerable members of Ty’s swim and football teams shadowing him. It wasn’t until he realised they were making sure nobody messed with him that he stopped paying attention to it.

The first night he’d returned home with a split lip, black eye, and swollen marks from being hit Vanessa and later Leonidas had been in a fury. Both of them had to be talked down from pressing charges, after correctly guessing it was Jason — the perennial problem — that had inflicted Lucien’s injuries. Lucien and Tiberius had temporarily slid into the usual tag-team when talking down their guardians, and had pointed out the reality of how much worse things would get if they interfered.

In spite of their grudging agreement to do nothing, Lucien suspected at least a few private conversations had been had with the school superintendent and senior faculty, because he noticed that he never left a class or travelled to another location on the school grounds without at least one member of the staff within earshot of him. Vanessa’s maternal instincts, which he was absolutely certain were responsible, warmed him in spite of the embarrassment he felt at essentially being babysat — but given it was only for four days, he’d weathered it without complaint; thankful that she’d cared enough to lean on them in the first place.

Thus he found himself settling in beside Tiberius at the kitchen bench on Saturday morning, serving himself some coco puffs and milk, and taking a moment to gather his thoughts. His friend had patiently let him be for the week, leaving him to work through his anger and embarrassment alone and until he was ready to speak. It was a wisdom and understanding of his nature that Lucien was grateful for, in a way he’d never fully be able to express to the other boy.

“Sorry for going crazy at you.” He said after a long moment of staring at his cereal, drawing Ty’s attention from his own breakfast. “I don’t regret what I said about your team or about Harper, but I’m sorry for attacking you, man. I didn’t really mean what I said.”

“It’s cool, dude. Shit happens.” Tiberius replied calmly, turning back to his cereal.

“No man, I mean it.” Lucien said instead, reaching out to touch the other boy’s shoulder and bring his attention back. “You’re my brother, Tiberius. No matter what. You’re my brother, and you didn’t deserve that. I was just… I dunno, man, Harper doing that just… It fucked with me. Badly. I never thought she’d help Jason weaponize my mother against me that way.”

Tiberius listened to him quietly as he spoke, and frowned by the end, though Lucien could sense it wasn’t in rejection of his apology. “Look bro, I appreciate that. I do, and I mean it, it’s fine. I’m not holding any grudges. Once I figured out what Jason had done… Well, I didn’t go after him, but I was sorely fucking tempted. Your mom was my godmother, man. I loved her too. That piece of shit would’ve deserved to be pissing into a bag for a few weeks.”

Lucien raised his eyebrow at his best friend’s rare show of vitriol, but didn’t interrupt as Ty continued.

“The thing is, though… I kinda knew that I needed to back off. I didn’t really realise how much me helicoptering has been bothering you, and yes, I know you’re not ungrateful.”

Lucien smiled wryly as Ty cut him off midway to opening his mouth to reassure him of exactly that, and motioned for the other boy to continue.

“It’s just hard to see you so isolated, dude. You’re my best friend. You’re the smartest, most loyal dude I know. I get that you’ve got the acne thing and you’re not the stereotypical ‘jock’, but you’re funny as shit and you’re a legitimately good dude. It just pisses me off that people don’t see that. I just want other people to know you the way I do, yanno?”

Lucien laughed at what Ty said, though it was a laugh of affection, and he patted the other boy on the shoulder. “I appreciate that man, but I’m good. Seriously. I’m happy with just you and me against the world. Ride or die, et cetera. I don’t need anyone’s approval or friendship.”

Ty smiled at the words, relaxing tension he’d been holding in spite of the nature of the conversation. “Gravy?” He asked while extending his right hand in a fist, hearkening back to a childhood saying of theirs.

“Yeah, Ty. We’re Gravy.” Lucien reassured him, bumping his offered fist firmly.

“Sweet.” Tiberius hesitated. “Though, there is one other thing, and I think you may not like it…”

Lucien raised his eyebrows and then sighed, gesturing with his right hand for Ty to continue while turning back to begin spooning his breakfast into his mouth.

“I talked to Harper about everything afterwards, man, and I don’t think she actually told Jason shit.”

Lucien paused at Tiberius’ words, schooling the flare of rage and punching it back down into his subconscious. Ty wasn’t the enemy, even if he’d been played by her. He had to stay cool. “How do you figure?” He asked, maintaining as lackadaisical manner as he could.

“Well, she seemed pretty shaken up about the whole thing. Said she’s never seen you like that before, and… Man, she was straight up holding back tears. It was wild.”

Lucien felt a flash of guilt at Ty’s words, but smothered it almost immediately, waiting for him to continue.

“So I asked her why she did it, and bro she swore up and down she didn’t. She insisted it was all some big misunderstanding, and that you had to be wrong. She said she’s never said a word to Jason about the birthday ritual, and that she’d never betray your mom like that. She said she loved her too, and that it wasn’t something she’d ever be okay with.”

Lucien remained silent as Ty finished, his right hand slowly swirling his cereal with his spoon as he considered his god-brother’s words. Harper had claimed innocence, had she? That was all well and good, and the words sounded right, but then how had Jason found out? The only other person who could have told him was Ty, and Ty despised Jason almost as much as Lucien did. Hope and pessimism warred in him as he found himself torn between wanting to believe that the Harper he’d known still existed, while worrying that the Harper she’d become was the true face of the girl that ruled First High’s social circles.

“Shit.” He said simply, sighing low and staring at his cereal. “Look Ty, I’m not saying what you’re saying isn’t true, but… Well, what other explanation is there? Look at this logically: Harper knew, Jason is dating Harper, Jason knew.”

“I get that, but—!”

“Believe me Ty, I’d love to believe I was wrong and go apologise to Harper… but let’s be honest, you’re not exactly great at seeing the worst in people. You’re a great guy, and you give people the benefit of the doubt.”

“Are you implying I’m being titty-blinded?” Ty asked, an edge of annoyance in his voice.

“No dude, I’m saying that Harper is the queen bee of First High and she didn’t get there by being sunshine and rainbows. The chick is a certifiable genius, and that means she knows exactly how to play people. I’m not saying you’re anything, I’m saying that there’s no real way to tell if she’s being genuine, no matter what.”

“Then how do we proceed?”

The fact Tiberius asked the question as if it was a foregone conclusion Lucien’s decision would be their joint decision made the shorter boy smile, and consider how his choice would have to be weighed on how it impacted Ty, not just himself. He knew that if he decided to label Harper as the scheming female villain, Tiberius would stand with that decision even if he disagreed with it — and that loyalty made Lucien hesitate to do anything that could jeopardise his friend’s social norms. Ty didn’t deserve unnecessary drama.

“Life goes on. Whether she did it or not, all we know is that Jason found out and the laws of reason dictate he must have found out through Harper, one way or another. Hell, she might have said some shit in her sleep. I dunno.” He waved a hand. “Point is, we continue as we did before, except I plan on ignoring her completely.”

“Then I will too.” Ty said simply.

“Nah dude, you can’t. Harper’s the girl version of you, in terms of school politics. You know that ignoring her will divide the entire grade, and cause all sorts of shit for your teams with their girlfriends; especially the ones in The Squad or looking to be part of it.” Lucien shook his head. “You gotta just play it normal. This is my issue. I know that you don’t like hearing that, but it is what it is. I got this one bro, just do you. I promise I won’t escalate anything or fly off the rails or any of that shit.”

“I dunno, man…” Tiberius said hesitantly, loyalty warring with reason on his features. “Feels like I’m abandoning you.”

“It’s fine, dude. Seriously.” Lucien reassured him, waving his spoon at the other boy imperiously. “I got this. Besides, you’ve got team solidarity to think about. I may not play, but I still give a shit about football. If you guys lose to the Third High Celtics because of some dumb Squad drama, your Dad will lose his mind and so will I.”

Ty laughed at that, grinning to himself. “Dad would go mental.” He agreed, before sighing in resignation. “Ahhh fine. Alright, you win Luc. This one’s all yours, I’m Switzerland or whatever.”

Lucien grinned appreciatively. “That’s the spirit. Now eat your breakfast, we’ve got party planning to do.”

That had the intended effect, and Tiberius’ face lit up. “Fuck yeah we do.”

Breakfast wrapped up quickly after that, and the pair retreated to the expansive study they shared on the second floor to begin planning out the party. It was a process of back and forth that went through everything from confirming that the idea of a theme was stupid to how many cups to buy and whether or not Vanessa and Leonidas would murder them when they found out how much alcohol had been quietly prepared by various elements of the student body.

Tiberius argued that Lucien’s ‘cake’ moment had to be the party’s crescendo, while Lucien wanted to skip it and the happy birthday song all-together. In the end they settled simply on agreeing to bring out a cake, put on an appropriate song, and cut it without the singing — though Ty insisted on the cheers.

Hours passed as they planned, with infrequent stop-ins from both adults as they checked in to see what sort of madness the boys were planning. Promises not to return until at least three in the morning were extracted from both exasperated parents, and in return both boys promised not to let anyone go above the ground floor or into the basement.

By time five o’clock in the afternoon chimed throughout the house, Lucien and Tiberius were fully dressed and ready. Ty had chosen a simple ensemble of his captain’s blazer, white and red dress shirt, a pair of dark jeans and some white canvas shoes. Lucien had chosen a white tee with ‘HYPERION’ in gold lettering beneath a silhouette of the hero, a pair of denim blue jeans, his Golden League-edition converse sneakers, and an unzipped hoodie with rolled up sleeves.

“Dude, you look like you’re going out for a burger.” Ty said when he saw him, frowning.

“It’s not like I’m trying to impress anyone.” Lucien responded with a shrug. “Besides, I’ll just come off looking like a try-hard if I dress up. This is what people expect of me.”

“Isn’t the point to throw those expectations on their heads?” Tiberius asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Ty…”

“Luc.”

“Ty!”

“Luc!”

“You’re an asshole.” Lucien said, turning on his heel to change.

“But a stylish one.” Ty shot back as Lucien retreated. “Also, don’t forget to style your hair!”

Upon returning to his room Lucien opted to keep his shirt, but replaced the hoodie with a black-trimmed white blazer Vanessa had bought him a few months prior, during one of her shopping sprees. The jeans he exchanged for a pair that was made of far better material, with a more popping shade of blue. Finally he changed out his shoes for a pair of similarly black-trimmed laceless white canvas high-tops that Vanessa had bought to go with the jacket. A slight smile ticked up his lips as he examined himself in the mirror, and he paused in consideration. A moment later, he hurried into his attached bathroom and bent down to wet his hair in the sink, towelling it off a moment later and unscrewing a jar of product.

He hesitated one last time before grumbling to himself and reminding his rebellious instincts that Ty had a point about trying to change his image, even if he doubted it would work. His palms rubbed together and he quickly applied the product to his jet black hair, styling it across the top and letting a few bangs fall towards his eyes, creating a messy-neat appearance that suited his features.

There was nothing he could do about the angry red acne around his lower face and cheeks, but the rest… Well, Lucien had to admit he actually looked better than he normally considered possible. “Alright.” He said to himself evenly. “Let’s just get through tonight, and then it’s six weeks of surfing, games, and books. You got this.”

With a final smile to inspire confidence he didn’t really feel, he departed to rejoin Ty.