The science presentation was finally finished. Demetri had wanted to fix some details, to change the places of some dinosaurs and add a couple of more trees, but at last, he seemed to be content with the results.

Sky was sitting on the floor, staring at the wonder they had created, a wide smile on her face.

"It's so cool!" She said, clapping her hands like a child. "I'm so excited!"

"This should get us an A," Demetri agreed, observing his work. Tentatively, he pressed on the hadrosaur egg, and the volcano started releasing smoke as the dinosaurs roared. Sky couldn't hide her excitement - she giggled and repeated the act a couple of more times just for the fun of it.

"I don't even care about the A," she laughed. "This is great! And I've had so much fun doing this with you."

"If only Yasmine was here to see this—" Demetri said wistfully.

"She'll see it tomorrow," Sky reassured. "And I know she's gonna be impressed."

"You think so?" Demetri looked up from the Legos, a faint blush on his high cheekbones.

"I know so. She's gonna get an A, thanks to you - which means she'll want to do more projects with you in the future." Sky flashed him a grin. "Oh, and before I forget - you should buy her a bottle of Miss Dior for Christmas."

Demetri frowned in confusion. "Miss Dior? Is that a drink?"

"No! Idiot! It's her favorite perfume! And I guarantee she'll fucking love that present."

Swiftly Demetri pulled his phone from his pocket and started typing, his brow falling into a frown. "Miss Dior? I'd better write that down—"

"You'd better." Sky said with a laugh. "You wouldn't want to buy her the wrong perfume, would you?"

"But Christmas is so far away, it's not even Halloween yet. Maybe I should buy it for her already? As a 'thank you' for participating in the project—"

"No, don't. You'll look desperate."

"I am desperate." Demetri said with a sigh, stuffing his phone back into the pocket of his jeans.

"Well, Yes. But you don't want her to know that."

"Oh, I think she knows that,"

Demetri let out another longing sigh, his mind still clearly filled with Yasmine and the depressing lack of progress he had made in getting her to like him. Silently he started tossing some of the extra Lego pieces into a cardboard box, to get them off the floor. Sky started helping him, scooping a couple of handfuls of green and brown Legos from the carpet, and dropping them in the box. For a couple of minutes, they worked in silence. The smile lingered on Sky's lips - seeing the finished project had made her forget how tired she had been, and she was almost sorry she had to start leaving.

"I guess I should get going," Sky said, once the floor was cleaned and Demetri covered the volcano and the dinosaurs with a sheet. "It's getting late and I promised Dad I'd be home for dinner."

Demetri's face fell, his smile disappeared.

"What?" Sky asked, baffled by this sudden change in the atmosphere. "What is it? What did I do?"

"No, no you don't do anything—" Demetri quickly replied, running a nervous hand through his dark hair. "It's just that... I kinda need to talk to you about something."

Sky frowned. "What do you mean? I've been here for two hours."

"I know, and trust me, I've spent at least an hour and a half wondering if I should say anything about this—"

"About what?"

Sky was beginning to feel nervous. A lump was forming in her gut, a cold lump of ice, because whatever Demetri was trying to get out of his mouth, Sky knew it couldn't have been anything good. There were anxious, red spots on Demetri's cheekbones, and he was avoiding Sky's eyes in a way that made her very uncomfortable.

"Demetri, you're freaking me out," She stated, leaning closer to her friend. "What the fuck is going on?"

Demetri let out a resigned sigh.

"It's Eli."

"What about him? Spit it out!"

Sky's heart lurched to her stomach. It almost stopped beating, and it didn't help a bit that she noticed how tense and agitated Demetri was.

"Did you, by any chance, happen to... I don't know, to hook up with him in school today?"

Sky was mortified. Whatever she had been expecting, it sure hadn't been this.

"What? How— How did you know?"

"Shit. I'm so sorry, Sky. Eli was... kind of bragging about it, to his friends. In the bathroom. And I just happened to overhear them."

Bragging about it to his friends?

Sky felt like she was punched in the gut. The joy She had felt about the science project was gone, it was destroyed. She felt like she would throw up, the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches Demetri's mom had made for snack were climbing up her throat and she would puke them all over the science presentation.

"Oh my God," Sky groaned, trying to keep the contents of her stomach down. "Oh Fuck. Who— who was he talking to?"

"I didn't really see them. Some guys from Cobra Kai, I guess."

"What did he tell them?" Sky asked, her voice trembling. "Jesus, Demetri, just tell me—"

"I'm really not comfortable repeating that stuff, Sky—"

"Please, I have to know."

"Okay, okay - just remember, these are not my words. I'm just the messenger. He... he talked about your... attributes. And how you, you know, did it in the janitor's closet. That he "fucked you real good". And stuff like that."

Sky started crying. She couldn't help it. The shame and the hurt were suddenly sharp, crushing her lungs, making tears spill to her cheeks, unwarned. She never would have thought that Hawk would talk about her like that. It tainted everything that had happened between them, it turned that sweet, hot moment into something dirty, it turned her into something dirty too.

Hawk, her Hawk, her sweet and loving and caring Hawk had talked about her like she was a piece of meat and nothing more. She couldn't believe it. It wasn't something he would do, it was something Matt would do—

That memory pierced her heart like a dagger. Matt bragging to his football friends about what he had done to her. Matt showing her intimate pictures to those idiots. Pictures he had taken of her without her knowing, without her consent when she had been passed out on the couch after a party and he had taken off her panties and—

Sky couldn't breathe, that memory was like being thrown into a tank of ice water. She shoved it away with everything she had, trying to keep her head above the surface. No, she wasn't going to think about that. Not now, not ever. Matt was gone, he couldn't hurt her anymore. But Hawk—

No, no I can't believe it!

She had sent him some topless pictures, some pictures where she was on the bed, wearing nothing but her panties. Maybe Hawk was showing those to his friends too? Sky could see that in her mind clearly, how the guys would laugh at those photos, and Hawk would tell them about the times when Sky had given him a handjob, or how she had sucked his dick like a good little slut, how she was such a whore that he could fuck her whenever he wanted to, in the school, in the car, in her room when her Dad was home and she would kneel on the floor before him.

She pressed a trembling hand to her mouth, but it did nothing to stop the tears from falling, it didn't stop the pathetic whimper that left her lips.

How could I be so stupid? How could I trust him like that? Have I learned nothing—?

Demetri looked desperate. He was still sitting on the floor, on the other side of the science presentation, fingers buried in his dark hair, looking like he would rather be anywhere else than here.

"I'm so sorry—" he said, his voice getting caught in his throat. His eyes were wide and dark. "Please don't cry. You're making me freak out."

Sky didn't answer. She couldn't. There was no way to explain to Demetri why this betrayal hurt so badly - not without telling him all about what had happened with Matt, and that she couldn't do. Not now, not ever. Tears kept flowing down her face, they were burning acid at the back of her throat. She knew minutes passed, Demetri kept apologizing, he kept repeating that he was so sorry, but Sky barely heard him. She kept swaying back and forth on her knees, clutching her arms against her body as if to stop her heart from falling out through the hole in her chest.

"I shouldn't have said anything..." Demetri spoke for what felt like the thousandth time. "I'm sorry, Sky, just hit me in the face or something. Anything. I'm such a fool for bringing this up—"

Sky shook her head, wiped the tears from her cheeks but they just kept flowing. "N—no, I— I'm gla—ad that you did."

"I didn't want to make you upset."

"Y—you di-didn't," Sky's words came out broken, sobs tearing through them no matter how hard she tried to stop them. "H— he did."

Demetri frowned, deeply worried, and got to his feet, maybe to walk to Sky, to offer her a shoulder to cry on, but Sky was fast to stand up too, even if her legs were weak and strengthless. She needed to get out of here - the walls were collapsing on her, the Marvel posters and the bookshelves with their fantasy novels, they would crush her against this floor. Her heart was bleeding to the carpet.

"I— I need to go," she breathed, wiping her face. Her bag was on the floor, she picked it up and, and turned to leave.

"Sky, come on—" Demetri caught her at the door. "I can't let you go alone. Not like this."

Sky sucked in the tears best she could, took a deep breath to be able to speak. She looked up at Demetri who was standing right in front of her in his jeans and a Dungeon Lord T-shirt, noticed the worry in his eyes, the frown on his face. Sky felt horrible for ruining his night. He didn't deserve this, this complete meltdown she was going through.

She forced herself to calm down, kept breathing in and out until she didn't feel like she was choking to death anymore.

"I'm not gonna do anything stupid," she said, trying hard to keep her voice steady. "I just need some fresh air, that's all."

Demetri let out a sigh and ran his fingers through his hair. "Man, I knew I shouldn't have said anything—"

"Now stop that," Sky snapped. "You're my friend. I'm glad you told me. But now I need to be alone."

"You sure?"

"Positive," Sky said, and tiptoed to hug Demetri. She breathed in his boyish scent of cotton and fabric softener, of old comic books. His arms around her were strong, even if the hug he gave her was a bit awkward as always.

"Text me when you get home," Demetri said when Sky broke the contact between their bodies. His hand lingered on her arm. "Or call me. If you need anything."

"Don't worry, I'm gonna be fine," Sky lied, wiping the last of the tears off her cheeks. "You just make sure that science project makes it to school in one piece tomorrow, okay?"

With that, she turned to leave, rushed down the stairs as fast as she could with her stiff leg. Inside her chest something kept breaking, breaking again and again into tiny little pieces, sharp as broken glass.

She didn't know how she was still standing, how she even managed to get out of the house, but before she had walked out of Demetri's yard, she had a phone in her hand.

Hawk answered on the first ring.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

👀

💔

❤️🙏🏻