PERFECT PIECES {18+}

♡Taylor♡

2 WEEKS LATER

I walked through the halls of my high school, my boys' arms around me. Niko had his arm along my shoulders, and Pierce had his around my waist. We were together.

Sofia's reign of terror had ended with her getting shipped off to Boarding School.

Her apology and Brooke's had been accepted by the board, I had received a formal apology from them. As well as the principal getting a warning- that was an added bonus I hadn't been expecting.

It felt like after everything, I could finally relax.

It was a strange concept, especially considering walking the halls before had been anything but relaxing.

But now the entire dynamic had shifted. No more avoiding Pierce and his annoying tendency to piss me off, no more avoiding Niko because that meant watching him with Sofia and no more avoiding Brooke because she was a total bitch.

Now Brooke was different. She avoided us all. When we walked passed, she looked away and the wide berth she gave us made me hold my guys tighter.

We had survived them both. Not unscathed though.

I still felt the pain of what Niko had gone through, heard the whispers and comments of what had gone up on the internet. Even now, as I walked the halls, I knew the students were talking. The difference was, I didn't care.

They couldn't do anything about it and I was done doing what was expected or right just because society told me I should.

I loved Niko and I loved Pierce. Both of them were pieces of me. And I was a piece of them. It was what worked for us and I had never been happier.

Pierce, he was getting used to his Aunt being some ruthless mafia Queen, and trying to deal with the trauma that came with that. He got dark sometimes but never for long. He was my light, my sun, the warm part of me that made everything seem like it couldn't be bad for long because I had him.

Niko was the other side of that. He was reconnecting with his family after hiding what was going on for so long but also trying to let Emma have a life that seemed more and more geared towards Colin. He wasn't happy about it but he was trying. That meant he was moody and in his head a lot but he had always been that guy. And his music was all the better for it. He was my darkness, my vulnerable sufferer in silent type that lived in the dark and relied on me for the light.

I didn't know how it worked but it did and I would be their balance as long as they needed me to be.

Having a survival instinct that rested on the men I was dating was probably not a healthy coping mechanism but it made me happy and until it didn't, I wasn't going to change it.

I went to class with them, we went home together, we fucked, we went on dates. It was a bliss I had never thought I would find.

Now when I went up to my roof at the shitty apartment block, I didn't cry. I laughed.

My apartment even had furniture in it now. Like a bed base. A TV. And a dining table. Usually I was the meal but that was better than anything I had planned for it.

I was even training again. I ran in the mornings, in between classes, after school. I was determined to beat my track time. If I could, I had a real shot at getting into a good college with a scholarship.

I needed it if I wanted to get into physical therapy- in particular sports injuries.

Pierce steered us towards the track, squeezing my waist as I tried to keep my heart steady. Yesterday I had almost beat it. I was so damn close which made me even more determined for today to be the day.