as you wish

21

irl, messages, phone call

this is the last week of school before spring break and the birthday trip to la. james hasn't necessarily been mistreating kaia, but he just doesn't seem to put in as much effort or try as much over the weeks of their relationship progress.

nick, matt, and chris have all been in contact with kristina. they made a groupchat together to talk about everything.

the plan was to have kristina secretly fly out to la for kaia's birthday and confront james. but, they had to do it in a way that ensures kaia gets hurts the least.

the boys thought kaia would understand why they weren't telling her. kristina has also made sure to have the least amount of contact with james as possible, she refrained from ever hanging out with him since she found out, out of respect for kaia.

nick and chris have been keeping matt out of the house so kaia and james can come over as much as possible, they want to observe his behaviour to see if they can catch him slipping up or not.

nick has seen him walk away to the bathroom with his phone many times. plan a is taking kristina to la. plan b is catching james before the trip, so he doesn't have to go with them.

______________________________________

nicky
hey girl
matt is out of town rn with justin if you wanna come over with james
i wanna play mario kart with you guys

kaia
you positive he won't be back?

nicky
he won't be home until tomorrow night

kaia
ok fine

nicky
have you made your mind up about matt and your birthday?

kaia
ik it'll be awkward but i'll have james there and i don't want matt to be the only one that doesn't go

nicky
ok girl
me and chris will try to help it go by smoothly
i can't wait for you to meet all our la friends

kaia
me too i'm dying to meet madi

nicky
you are gonna love her

kaia
i'm sure i will

nicky
alright girl you two come over whenever

kaia
alr we'll be over soon

nicky
see u soon
read 3:56pm

______________________________________

james is at kaia's house watching tv. she tells him matt is out of town and nick wants to hangout, james agrees and they pack up and head over.

they decided to take kaia's car because james has been "tired" all day and didn't want to do anything.

every few minutes, she glances over and sees his phone in the reflection of the window. she can see that he's texting someone, but she doesn't know who.

her mind races and thinks of every possibility, but she tries to ignore it. they arrive at the triplet's house and nick and chris greet them at the door.