𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐤𝐢𝐬𝐬

Chapter Twenty.

   

     THE INAUGURATION FOR school captain was the next morning, everyone gathering together as Romeo just stood there, staring in one spot. "Cake?" Enya offers as she and Stevie walk up to him now. "Yeah. Thanks." He says quietly but he doesn't even eat it. "Romeo." His sister speaks first and he looks at her. "There's nothing you could have done to prevent that. It's just who Spider is." She says as words of consolation to her brother.

"Yeah, but honestly... if--if I had said yes, do either of you think he really would've dropped out of the race?" He asked them now. "No." Stevie answered just as Enya said, "yes." The couple instantly look at one another. "Enya, that's crazy to think that Spider would have actually dropped out of the race. He wouldn't have. His outburst was proof that Spider is always gonna be who he is. There's no changing that guy." Stevie says the last part, looking right at Romeo who frowned.

"Yeah, but I'd like to think that maybe... he would have." Enya said softly, then looked at Romeo who looks at her right away. "It's not really my place to say, Ro... but if I'm being really honest, I don't think I've ever seen Spider look at anyone the way he looks at you." She says and Romeo just took a deep breath.

"I'll be right back." He says quietly, walking away. Stevie frowns, looking at Enya and softly shaking her head. "Romeo deserves better than that shit, you know it, Enya." She says and Enya looks at her girlfriend. "I know... but come on, Spider was actually being tolerable lately. Is it crazy to think Romeo actually had anything do with that? That... maybe he really could have been able to change Spider?" The Castillo girl suggested to the Miller girl.

"If anyone were to do it, I wouldn't be surprised if he was able to." Enya added, giving a sheepish shrug as Stevie just glanced away, over to where Spider was with the other CUMLORDS. "Yeah... maybe I interfered with it." She says, sounding a little guilty as she looked at Enya with a frown on her face. "Yeah, maybe. But just remember you were just trying to protect your best friend. Don't feel bad." Enya now tells her and Stevie nods softly.

After Romeo returned, that's when the inauguration began, Woodsy standing up in front of everyone gathered together. "And whoever made that pavlova, a very famous dessert from New Zealand, as you all know..." Principal Woods says. "As if!" Stevie says and Romeo nudged her in the side gently.

"Really knocked it out of the park." Woodsy goes on, ignoring her. "So, thank you for just this marvelous spread of all these delicious cakes and treats. With the proceeds of this bake sale, we will be able to provide our buddies in the Woodwork Department some wood." She says, smiling widely. "So, that's good, isn't it?" Only Jojo claps her hands.

"Thank you, Jojo." Woodsy says, glancing away. "Okay, and now the moment that you all have been waiting for." She says and Romeo glanced over at Sasha. "Good luck, Sash," he says quietly to the girl who smiled his way. "You too, Romeo." She replies as Stevie grabs onto Enya's arm in anticipation.

"Who will be... Hartley High's new school captain? Drumroll, please." She says and chuckles as everyone began clapping their hands onto their legs. "Right, and the winner is Quinn Gallagher-Jones." Her voice trails off confused as she announced. "What?" Romeo exclaimed loudly. "Quinni!" A girl in the crowd yells. "Woohoo!" Cash excitedly cheered, his arms in the air. "She wasn't even running!" Spider yells angrily.

"Okay, we'll take a few minutes to sort this out."

"She didn't even run!" Missy shouted. "Stop the steal!" Voss shouted. "Okay, everyone. Can everyone just settle down, please?" Woodsy tries to calm down the crowd. "Stop the steal!" Voss began chanting. "Stop the steal. Stop the steal." Then the man threw the dessert in his hands, the cake goes flying in the air as everyone just watched it.

The cake hits Woodsy in her face, making everyone gasp and begin laughing. Miss Woods looks right at Timothy Voss who's just awkwardly standing there, when Spider walks over and tore the cake in his hands in half. "Food fight!" He shouted, and everyone went crazy, grabbing cake from the tables.

"No, not a food fight!" Woodsy's words do nothing to stop them, everyone throwing food at one another. Missy throws two cakes over both Malakai and Romeo's heads who turn to her, the girl just laughing at their reactions. Clearly they both get the same idea, tackling her and rubbing the icing on her clothes.

Romeo runs over to the nearby table and grabbed a cake, pushing it into the girl's face and laughing at her reaction. "I'm gonna kill you, Romeo!" She chased after the boy who's running around. After she had gotten him, she shoved cake all over the front of his shirt and he got away, looking around as he laughs, grabbing a cake off one of the tables.

He slowly began backing up, looking all around in search for Missy or Malakai. He bumps into someone so he stopped and turned around, holding up the cake defensively but stopped when he saw Spider standing there, also holding up a piece of cake in his hands, which he doesn't throw at Romeo.

"I hate to say I told you so." Stevie says from beside him. "Shut up!" He said and pushed the cake into her face instead as she just gasped, "Romeo!" She shouted at him, picking up the rest of the cake and chasing him around with pieces of the cake in her hands.

Afterwards, Romeo, Enya and Stevie now all stand together with all the cake and icing all over their faces, "I'm sorry for all I said earlier... I got into your head about it, didn't I?" Stevie said and Romeo shook his head. "No, you were right... Spencer was never truly gonna change, I mean, not for himself anyway." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, just to get a bunch of icing out of his tangled curls.

"Whatever. I'm done with him." He shrugs his shoulders and Stevie snorts. "You said that last time and you went through it all over again..." Enya says, rolling her eyes and Romeo just sighs. "I don't know. I'm kind of tired being the one chasing after him, I want him to tell me himself what he really wants from me. Not because I want him to tell me." He said, looking away and Stevie nodded.

"Still... sorry. Maybe he really would have dropped the race and his votes would have actually went to you." She shrugs and he just shakes his head. "Maybe. But Quinni still deserved to win, whether or not she was running. She's the perfect school captain." He says and Enya smiles softly.

"We should go and get cleaned up. We all look so disgusting." She tells them and Romeo nods. "Yeah, I'll see you guys later." He said, walking away from the couple. On his way to the bathroom, he passed by Cash and walked in to see Darren was in there. "Oh, hey." He greeted the Rivers who quickly turned away. "Hey Romeo." They sniffled before looking over and giving him a small smile.

"How'd it go with that guy?" They ask and Romeo shrugs. "Just like you said... he ended up humiliating me." He says, running the water and washing his hands. "Well... if you really like him, try and work it out. Don't let him go." They say and Romeo just softly nods. "Okay... thanks for the advice, Darren." He says quietly and Darren gave a small smile.

"See you around, Romeo."

authors note
the way i'll be so sad finishing this fic.
it was rly fun writing it, this and the other hbh fic i wrote too 🥲🥲🥲

+ updating these chapters pretty late bc i was busy after work today. and the office i work at is rly busy on mondays so i got rly stressed out by work today and just remembered that i had to update my fics lol.