8 : Sunday

Step Eight: Leave all your bad qualities at home, and don't let them peek out! Now, we said "be yourself," but show more good than bad! Everyone is better than they are bad, but in some people, it takes more to bring it out! Show him your best version of yourself!

"This step is so contradicting the other ones. Also, they're basically saying that you're a terrible person, but you should shove that part of yourself in a box and hide it," Blake comments the next morning. "Anyway, we're late. Put on your pink turtleneck. Let's hit the road, Mister Toad."

I gape up at him from my warm cocoon on the bed. "Why the pink one?"

"Russell told me that Jason says you look amazing and cuddle-able in it," he smirks at me. Instead of sighing, like one would expect me to, I groan.

"You and Russell have grown pretty close," I point out.

Blake's eyes flash with some indecipherable emotion. I know he has a thing for Russell... but that look is different. Somehow sad, as if there's something he wants to tell me but can't. I want to reach out and hug him, but the look fades away quickly. Blake pastes on a smile.

"Yeah, I know. He just can't resist my delectable booty; what can I say?"

"Blake—" he stares at me blankly, and I resist the urge to sigh once more. Oh, well. "Let's just go. Give me a minute alone to get ready, will you?"

Blake obliges and leaves, standing right outside my bedroom door. "One, two, three, four, five..."

I find my pink turtleneck and slip it on, then put ripped jeans on, even though it's January, and my legs will freeze. I shove on my white sneakers and get out of my room just as Blake reaches "... fifty six." He's surprised by me slamming the door open, mostly because it hits his nose. He touches the area gently and whines, "Lix, I think my nose is broken."

I have no sympathy for him, so I pinch it and move it side to side. "Nah, it's still intact. You should feel lucky; it's even connected." He scowls at me and picks up the box of cookies I bought yesterday, but not before I notice something funny.

Not funny.

Not funny at all, actually.

Quite scandalous.

"Blake, there's a cookie missing."

He grins at me sheepishly. "I, uh, um, I just... yeah."

I shake my head disapprovingly at him, not saying a word.

"Sorry," he says after a while, "but we really should get going. We can put the cookies in a box and say you made them yourself if you want." I look at my little dorm kitchenette and wonder if it is any good for baking. It is, but Blake's suggestion is actually a good idea, which is weird, because Blake never has good ideas. I grab a plastic box and dump the cookies in it, then we're off for real.

~~~~~~~~

"Welcome," Russell greets us. "Come inside; it's fun inside." I almost snort at the Mickey Mouse theme song, but I catch myself. Can't be snorting around Jason, who has the cutest snort ever. I'd immediately be out-snorted.

"Jason, they're here!" Russell calls out. He smiles at me, then eyes my turtleneck. His grin changes into a smirk. Jason comes out of the kitchenette and does a double take when he sees me. He quickly looks at Russell and blushes. Russell takes Blake by the shoulder and leads him in the direction of the entrance.

There we are.

Four boys, standing in a dorm room.

I hold the box of cookies out to Jason.

He takes the box silently. Once his back is to me, he coughs slightly. "I, uh, I like your shirt, Felix."

I fidget with the hem of said shirt. "Th-thanks." Damn it, my stuttering decided to come home from Australia for a visit. Despite the cold outside, Jason and Russell's room is quite warm. I lament my poor judgement in not wearing something underneath the turtleneck, and I accept the fact that I will have to suffer being hot. Temperature-wise, I mean. Apparently, I'm only 'cute' in this turtleneck.

Jason takes the cookies and arranges them on a plate. By now, my betraying feet have carried me over to his side, and I open my mouth to say something. "Actually, did you know that I made—"

"—Are these Emily's Cookies? I love her bakery!"

My face flushes. I cough. "Uh, yeah. I love it too," I say nervously.

"So, what were you saying?"

"Ah, nothing."

Silence.

felix.exe has stopped working.

jason.exe has stopped working.

This is so embarrassing, oh my goodness. Blake runs in and yells, "Hey, Jason! Try one of the cookies that Felix made!"

I cringe and turn around as Jason gives me a quizzical look. "I didn't make the cookies, Blake. We bought them from Emily's Bakery, remember?"

Thankfully, he gets the hint. "Oh, yeah, well... come on. Russell's getting impatient, so when you two lovebirds are done over here—"

"We're not lovebirds," Jason interjects. My heart sends a wave of pain through my body.

"Let's just go," I say. Plate of cookies in hand, Jason leads us into the hallway. The Academy has some lounges in the dorms area where students can gather. We awkwardly walk to the section of the lounge where the TV is.

Lo and behold, the couch only seats three people. I'm stuck on the floor, or rather on a rug, while Russell gets to sit in between Jason and Blake. Ah, what I wouldn't give to be Russell at the moment. And not only for his blue hair. Russell Chen, right now, is living the life—sandwiched between two of the best people in the world.

Jason flips through a few channels before settling on some old cartoons. They're in a language that not a single one of us speaks, and there are no subtitles available, either, so each of us interprets it in a different way.

After fifteen minutes of munching on cookies that I did not bake, Blake leans down to whisper in my ear. "Lix, you have to use the tip of the day. You left all your bad qualities at home, now it's time to shine!" He pauses. "Wow, I sound like a life coach."

"You are my life coach, Blake," I say to him. He really is, though. Blake pats my shoulder reassuringly and gets up.

"Hey Russell, can you show me where the bathroom is?" Blake asks. Russell stands up and pulls him down the hall, and there's a solid minute of silence as we hear their footsteps fading away.

Jason gets down from the couch and sits across from me on the rug. "You know, Felix, I can grab a chair from another room if you don't want to sit on the floor."

I give him a "whatever do you mean?" look and grin at him in the silliest, goofiest, and probably gayest way I can. I lie down on my side like Cleopatra. "The floor is where I live, Jason."

He laughs and lies down next to me. I shift so that our backs are both to the ground, shoulders touching. We don't even notice as time passes—or, at least, I don't.

Ten minutes later, according to my wristwatch, Blake and Russell return. Blake's lips are swollen while his dark hair is tousled, and Russell is panting slightly. I raise an eyebrow at Blake, wondering how he managed to get Russell to make out with him. He purses his lips and shakes his head.

This means: wait until I tell you later over an ocean's worth of coffee at midnight, frantically applying neon makeup to a skunk statue because I'm high on gossip and drunk on gayness.

There's a backstory.

Anyway, Jason and I are lying side by side on the rug, and now Blake and Russell are taking up the whole couch. We start watching a movie, but I don't know what it's called. It's about this random girl who fell in love with some handsome actor on her sixteenth birthday and wished to meet him. BAM—they are suddenly married. If only my life with Jason could be that easy.

The movie finishes after the longest, yet also shortest, two hours of my life. Main Girl and Handsome Actor kiss, and the screen fades to black. I rest my chin on Jason's shoulder, since he turned to face the screen. "What're we gonna do now?"

Russell looks at his watch and nearly falls on top of me. "It's literally nine at night. We're supposed to be back in our dorm rooms now. Plus, I have to write an essay!" Blake nods, because they have Language Arts together. Ha, losers. I only have to do a 30-page math packet... holy guacamole.

"I have to do a 30-page math packet!"

Jason sighs and gets up. "Well, you guys should probably get going." I frown, not wanting to leave, but understanding that I have to.

We walk back together to the dorms and wave goodbye at the staircase when we part to our different floors "See you tomorrow, Jason! See ya later, Russell." As Blake and I head off to our rooms, he rambles on and on about his make out "sesh" with Russell.

I can't understand what he's saying, because I'm not fluent in Happy-Blake-In-Love.

Also, my mind keeps going back to Jason saying we're not lovebirds, but then to us lying down together on the rug, then back to Jason saying we're not lovebirds, then to us lying down together on the rug, and so on and so forth.

Needless to say, I don't finish my math packet tonight.