That evening, being a Sunday, the original plan had been for Kole and Crista to both return to their own homes for their next week of school. Of course, that plan had been made before either of them knew about their new ‘condition.’ So when it came time to leave the Vargas home, Kole offered Crista a ride, but they both just sat there in his little red sports car for several minutes, neither really seeming in a hurry to return to the lives that seemed so foreign to them now.

“Are we really just supposed to go back home to our horrible parents and pretend everything is the same?” Crista asked Kole with a sigh.

“Didn’t Sky and Star spend seventeen whole years with their parents pretending everything was normal?” Kole returned her sigh.

“Yeah but they had their weird time stop sex games to keep them sane, and happy” Crista added.

Kole just allowed a mischievous smile, “we’ve gotta get them to teach us that one.”

“The random storm chasing off assholes was damn cool too. But yeah, that one seems even better” Crista agreed with her own wistful sigh.

Kole grinned and nodded his agreement before finally making himself start the engine and back out of the driveway. After making their way to the intersection near Sky’s and Star’s house, Kole attempted to make conversation. After all, he and Crista sort of skipped most of the getting to know each other part of their friendship and went straight to the sex part. But, as Sky would say, ‘extenuating circumstances.’

“So, what’s so horrible about your parents?” he asked, lighting a cigarette as he waited on the light to change.

Crista just let out a sound of annoyance at the thought, “they’re the type that only admit to even having one perfect daughter and spending all their time and energy on her; while ignoring the one who dresses like a demon-possessed barbie doll.”

Kole had to let out a laugh, “did you coin that term?”

“No”she scoffed, “that was all them, or maybe Cassie. Maybe they came up with it together for all I know” she shook her head.

“Cassie? The sister?” Kole offered as the light finally turned.

“The one and only” Crista grumbled.

“Well, at least if they spend all their time on her, they have less time to keep track of when you are being a naughty little doll” Kole teased as he glanced at all the glitter and pastel mixed in with her spikes and chains.

Crista couldn’t help giggling, then her fourteen year old self-doubt reared it’s head, and made her ask, “so you liked it then? Even with the condom?” she added.

“I used condoms most of my life” Kole shook his head, trying to bite back memories of the one time he had ignored that precaution and paid more dearly than he could ever imagine. He then took a breath to push that memory away, “but this week Star and Sky did just spoil me a bit. But it’s not like I don’t enjoy sex with a condom” he smirked, “it just... takes longer. And the longer I’m in there, the more chance you have of cardiac arrest I think” he had to tease.

“Shut up! It was only my second time!” she defended with a giggle, “and those piercings are fucking intense!” she had to add.

“Yeah I’m beginning to get that” Kole chuckled again. “Imagine if I had let them finish the whole ladder.”

“Ladder?” Crista asked as she looked back at him.

“Google it” Kole smirked.

Crista then grinned over at him again as they turned onto the next street, “well after those assholes got rained out” she smirked again, “I have my own pretty little pill case. So I can start spoiling you too” she flirted.

Kole bit back another grin at her blatant offer, but had to add, “aren’t you supposed to wait a week or something, just to be safe?”

Crista rolled her eyes under all the bright pink glitter eye shadow, “supposedly it works quicker if you start taking it the week before... something.”

“I think we’ll stick with the week to be safe theory” he shook his head back at her, though still wore the smile, “considering, birthday of doom approaching? Alien DNA? Just guessing it’s a bad time to take any unnecessary risks right now” he warned, though held his smile.

“You know what we should do?” she stated suddenly as they approached the next intersection.

“Did you hear me mention not taking any more risks this week?” he scolded her playfully.

“Other than that” she snickered, “I’m not ready to go home yet. Mall?”

“Mall?”

“I need more blue dye. Brown roots are neither cute nor gothy” she stated with a slight pout.

“I guess I could have a look at their selection and see what color I shall give a go next month” he agreed as he turned onto the highway that went toward the mall instead of the street that went to Crista’s neighborhood.

“You mean you’re not always pretty in purple?”

“I usually waver in my preferences from one month to another” he smirked, “and change my hair color a lot too” he added.

After their trip to the one ‘alternative fashion’ store in the county, the two were making their way through the mall about an hour before the stores would start closing. Crista then looked up at him as he stopped to get a soda from a nearby machine.

“So, going back to black this month?” she asked, referring to his choice of dyes at the store.

“Well this month is Halloween; figured I’d embrace the darkness. Cause you know I’m normally so bright and happy” he chuckled as he couldn’t help playfully running a hand through Crista’s long pastel blue locks before opening his drink. “Plus, my eighteenth birthday is three days after Halloween, so I figured I’d pretend to placate colleges and employers with non-neon locks this month. I’m sure I’ll get tired of that quick though” he smirked.

“November third?” she looked up at him questioningly, as he stood a good eight inches taller than she and Star both, at six foot.

“That would be three days after Halloween” he teased, “guess the teachers at this school have at least taught their students how to read a calendar properly; if nothing else” he returned smartly as he offered her a sip of his soda.

“I mean, you’re a Scorpio.”

“Thank you, I knew that” he teased back.

Crista laughed up at him again as she handed his drink back, “it just makes sense” she grinned again.

“Dare I ask?” he returned with narrowed green eyes under his own dark black eye makeup.

“I mean,” she began again, “that that explains why you are really, really incredible in bed” she began as he almost choked on his soda before she continued, “and also why you’re cool with pulling knives on people.”

Kole took pause at that, wearing another awkward smile, “I would say thanks” he began slowly, “but I’m pretty sure at least half of that shouldn’t be considered a compliment.”

“And also why you don’t mind pain” Crista added, pointedly looking at his crotch in the tight black chain and zipper-covered pants beneath the matching mesh shirt he wore under a long red and black velvet coat that night.

“Again, not quite sure if that’s a compliment or not” he replied, though his smirk remained.

“But it’s all true, isn’t it?” Crista smiled up at him knowingly.

“Darn, all my mystery, laid bare” he smirked down at her again.

She then bit her lip mischievously as she moved in close to him, wrapping her arms around his waist as she pressed her body close in a way that made it obvious the two were now officially lovers, “what about laid, and bare?” she teased.

“Fuck” Kole breathed as she pressed her hips close. “You are aware that waiting a week would be the prudent choice? Condoms can break after all” he then shook his head down at her, “and you are aware that I still have to be able to concentrate enough to get the naughty little doll home to her parents and perfect sister?” he teased, though he nonetheless easily wrapped his arms around her shoulders then and placed a small kiss on her forehead as she smiled up at him.

Crista did finally give him a little bit of relief and moved back from the embrace at last. She then looked around the mall, then smiled back up at him, “well, we’ve done our shopping, and the stores are closing soon. So if you weren’t planning on spending the rest of the night trying to help me get used to those piercings” she smirked, “then you don’t appear to be in much of a hurry to get home to the manufacturers of your original DNA either” another smile back at him, “so, what’s their story?”

“My parents?” he scoffed as he took another sip. “Well I have no siblings to deflect their attention, so they get to expend all their energy on hating the one child they have” he answered, trying to sound apathetic, though there was obvious pain there.

“They have issues with your fashion sense?” Crista offered.

“If only that was all they had issues with” he mumbled as he moved to the railing to look down at the few shoppers still moving around on the lower level of the mall.

“Well, if you don’t have any perfect siblings for them to wish you were more like, and it’s not just about the hotness that is you” she smirked as she couldn’t help her brownish gray eyes moving over his behind as he propped his velvet-clad elbows on the railing, “then what’s their ish?”

Kole took a breath, “well it was never great between me and them. But for a while, it was bearable” he sighed slightly, “then something happened a couple years ago” he swallowed a bit of a lump as this was obviously not a comfortable subject for him, “and I’m the easiest person for them to blame, since I’m the one who’s right in front of them, still.”

“Wow, that’s very... vague” she furrowed a brow as she looked at him questioningly.

Kole didn’t look back though as he allowed a slightly shakier sigh, “they liked the girl I was dating then better than they liked me. And since she’s not around anymore...” he just shook his head.

“So, why did you guys end up breaking up? Was it actually your fault, or do they just think it was?” Crista asked innocently.

“We didn’t break up” was all he said as he took another sip of his drink to try and distract himself, as well as to distract her from noting the pain in his expression then.

“But she’s not around anymore? She moved? They blame you for her moving?” she asked with further confusion.

“She died” he said a bit shortly.

Crista was thrown a bit by that for more than a moment before shakily asking, “how?”

Another breath, another sip, “killed herself” he whispered.

“Fuck” Crista said as she looked away, thrown even more then.

“Sounds about right” Kole mumbled, “I guess we should go, right?” he said just as shortly as he pushed himself away from the railing and moved to toss his drink into the nearby trash can.

“I’m sorry Kole. I didn’t know” Crista said with a sad worry, hoping her questions hadn’t somehow made him like her any less.

“Yeah not exactly a conversation I try to have too often” he stated quietly as they moved toward the escalator.

Halfway down the slow moving metal stairs, Crista spoke again, “was that the Sammi girl that you and Alana were talking about the other day?” she dared, not wanting to push him away, but also desperately wanting to understand what the whole story was.

“Yeah” he stated as he kept his eyes on the moving metal plates below them.

“Curt did something to her? Something really bad, I’m guessing?” Crista asked in a near whisper.

“Hardly surprising when it comes to that prick, is it?” Kole returned bitterly.

“No wonder you pulled a knife on him” Crista stated as if it suddenly made a lot more sense to her.

“Not just because I’m a Scorpio?” he forced a smirk as he finally looked back at her as they stepped off the escalator onto the lower level.

“Actually, in light of that, it’s really surprising you didn’t actually kill him” she stated thoughtfully.

“Yeah, well, the night is young” he replied with ice in his tone as his cat green eyes then moved to catch sight of the subject of their conversation at the other side of the mall.