Finding Yourself

Chapter Twenty: Scandalous!

(No video because I'm lazy)


Nick came back when the sun rose the next day. Dakota knew because he heard Nick enter the house when he woke up early enough to get a drink and go back to bed. Dakota tried to get a good look at Nick's face; he wanted to question his mother-like father on his feelings, his previous whereabouts, his reluctance to punch Xavier. He wanted to tell Nick to forget Xavier, leave or do something. But it was too early in the morning for Dakota to have the energy for any social interaction, let alone interaction with a probably equally tired Nick.

He would save it for after school.

Yes, he was officially not suspended. It was back to school; back to Soap and Ethan; and back to seeing Devin's disgusting face every single day until graduation.

Dakota had a plan to ignore Devin- for as long as Devin ignored him. Instead, his major focus that Monday was to address Ethan's sad behavior as of late...and also tell his two best- and only- friends about Nick and Xavier's fight to see if they had any advice.

Oh, not to mention, Dakota's recently acquired boyfriend. He was a little shakey about that part, but he knew they would (most likely) understand.

Dakota realized it was going to be a shock for them both when he told them about Lucas. He didn't really know how he was going to approach the topic, but he figured he could just get it over with right out of the gate. He was used to being straightforward and blunt, why change that strategy now?

After an awkwardly silent morning in which none of his family members talked, including Nick, Dakota was driven to school. He walked into homeroom, only to see Soap and Ethan talking seemingly somberly to each other.

Dakota could tell by the serious yet almost saddened look on Soap's face as they replied to whatever Ethan said. He could assume that they were talking about something extremely horrible.

Soap was hardly ever sad. Angry? Yes. Sad? Absolutely not.

"-So they are testing her again just to make sure," Ethan was saying when Dakota approached, "But I think she has it again." Dakota sat his stuff down at his table. When he made his attendance obvious, Soap switched from somber to sassy almost immediately.

"Hi there, Slugger," Soap scoffed at him, despite their participation in the fight, "Now that you are back in our presence, and since you don't respond to any of our texts at all, can you please explain what the hell has been going on with you this past week?"

"Yeah, you cut yourself off for a couple of days, and then all of the sudden your lunging with throwing fists of fury at Devin Carter?" Ethan started.

"I mean, not like I blame you-" Soap started.

"- But it was really irresponsible!" Ethan finished, eyes wide, "You could have gotten killed! Or maimed!"

"He did deserve it though," Soap added, nodding, "I'm just pissed that whenever I want to fight Devin, you tell me to stop and hold me back. But when you want to fight Devin? It's suddenly totally okay to put yourself in danger! It's not because I'm biologically a woman, is it?"

"Absolutely not!" Ethan basically shouted, "You could plow my *ss if you wanted to!"

"I know!" Soap spread her arms out in question, "So, what the hell?"

"It's just-" Ethan started, blushing slightly from his loud declaration.

"Can I just explain?" Dakota snapped suddenly, causing both of them to shut up and give him their attention, "Last week was just crazy, okay? And the truth is...I've been keeping secrets from you guys."