"what happened last night?" ava asked groggily, walking into the kitchen.
"you were drugged." max shrugged nonchalantly.
"could you have been any more blunt?" joji shook his head.
ava stood confused.
"vincent drugged you last night so we brought you home." joji spoke softly.
ava stood still, trying to process what happened.
"i'm gonna beat the shit out of him." max huffed under his breath.
"we're going to talk to him in a bit, what he did was completely disgusting and totally out of line." joji spoke calmly.
"i'm gonna go shower." ava spoke, slowly walking up the steps.
"we'll be back soon." joji smiled weakly.
+
"we need to talk." joji scoffed, pushing through vincent into his house, followed by max and ian.
"why are you such a cunt?" joji laughed coldly.
"i did nothing." vincent smirked.
"why did you drug ava?" max spoke up, raising his voice.
"well, i mean she's way out of your league. what is a hot piece of ass doing with someone like you." vincent ranted, making eye contact with joji.
joji stood still, staring back speechless. many images ran through his mind of his hands around vincent's neck as his blood started to boil.
"don't talk about her like that." max spoke angrily, now getting in vincent's face.
"i hope she enjoyed the drugs." vincent laughed, pushing max.
"fuck this." joji mumbled before tackling vincent to the ground.
"joji, calm down." ian pleaded as he tried to pull joji away.
"we need to leave right now." max spoke, pulling the other two boys out of the door.
+
"what just happened?" joji asked as he stared blankly out of the window.
"let's hope he doesn't call the cops, you hit him pretty hard, man" ian spoke, keeping his eyes on the road.
"the last thing i remember was my fist hitting his face, then i think i blacked out." joji spoke slowly, looking down at his purple and red knuckles.
"you should've been a boxer." max spoke up, trying to lighten the mood.
+
"what the hell happened, i thought you were just gonna talk?" ava asked as the bruised boy walked through the door.
"it's nothing, really." joji shrugged the whole situation off, not wanting to explain what happened.
"your hands are fucked up." ava pointed out.
"joji beat that cunt to a pulp." max stated proudly.
"let me see your hands." ava demanded, putting her hands out.
joji hesitantly placed his hands on ava's, flinching as she ran her fingers over his purple knuckles.
"i'll get some frozen peas." ava sighed, walking to the fridge.
"why did you let him fight?" ava whisper yelled, smacking ian's arm.
"there was no controlling that." ian whispered back.
joji would often get violent. he used to pick fights with complete strangers, just to see if they would retaliate. that all changed when he met ava, she became the soft, non-violent part of him.
ava returned to joji with the frozen bag of peas, gently placing them on his hands.
"don't ever hit someone because of me again, okay?" ava spoke, joji still avoiding eye contact.
after a few moments joji slowly nodded, bringing his head up to meet his eyes with hers.
+
"you guys will never believe who contacted me." ian spoke with genuine enthusiasm for once.
"who?" max replied.
"the people from vidcon said they are willing to pay for a flight and hotel room if we come to the convention." ian continued to smile.
joji, ava, and max all nodded approvingly.
"looks like we're going to vidcon, boys!" max yelled, his accent thick.
