level up ❇ klance trilogy

28

*N -  O spells NO and Anna is a fat booty hoe!! Anyway, I noticed there were two Friday's in the last chapter but let's just ignore it and pretend everything is fine :) I'd have to rewrite half the chapter to fix it so...*

*Edit: I went back and fixed it*

Keith had brought Lance inside, their friends and Lance's family following them. Lance was still crying but not as bad. Everyone sat in the living room, watching Lance rub his eyes. He was sitting between Keith and Isa.

"Lance, walnut, what's wrong? Talk to us.. We're all here for you...." Keith whispered, his voice shaking, "I know it's been hard for you this week.. That fight on Monday.. Then you didn't sleep Monday night and that affected you Tuesday.. Then the panic attack Wednesday.. But why did you lock yourself away after that? Why didn't you let us help you, Lancey?"

Lance sat silent for a moment, debating on whether or not to tell the truth. They were all here, his family and friends. Everyone Anna had threatened. What would she be able to do if they were together? He decided it was safe to come clean about everything, "Sh-She told me to... She made me do a lot of things.." he looked down, sniffling softly.

"Who..?" Isa asked, rubbing Lance's shoulder, "Who made you stay in your room?"

"A-Anna. She started messaging me on Monday..." he rubbed his eyes, he was starting to tear up again.

Keith's eyes widened, "The girl who outed us to Susan? You knew her this whole time?"

Lance's tears started falling again as he nodded, "She paid Mike to beat me up.. Then she messaged me Monday night saying she wanted to play a g-game.. She said I had to play by her rules or she'd hurt one of you guys... I was going to block her, thinking it was a prank.. But then she sent m-me a picture.. She was in Keith's bedroom, he was asleep. She said she'd hurt him.. So I said I'd play her game, so he'd be safe.." he wiped his tears away but they just kept falling.

Keith didn't really know how to react to learning this. He just hugged Lance close, kissing the top of his head.

"What else did she do, Lance?" Pidge asked softly.

Lance sniffled and tried to wipe his tears away but they were immediately replaced with new ones, "She said to stay up all night or she'd hurt Keith.. So I did.. That was the first challenge.. Challenge two was to tell him that I'm feeling suicidal again, the penalty for not completing the challenge would be Pidge getting hurt.. S-So I did it.. I asked her why, she said because her objective in the game is to get me to kill myself. She was setting the st-stage for that.... I didn't wanna lie to Keith.. But if I didn't then Pidge.. She would've.. I couldn't let that happen!" he put his face in his hands and kept crying.

Keith pulled him closer and rocked him a bit, "Shhh... It's okay, baby.. You made the right decision.... One little lie to save Pidge is nothing to be sorry for.. You were protecting her, and the lie didn't cause any harm.. It made me worry, but nothing bad happened because of it.." he tried his hardest to comfort him and reassure him.

Pidge came over and sat in front of him, putting her hand on his knee, "You protected me.. Don't apologize for that..."

Lance showed his face again and rubbed his eyes, "Challenge 3 was to s-start a fight with you guys at school and make you hate me.. She didn't say what the penalty was but I knew it'd be harm to one of you g-guys.. I tried to ignore you... I knew that'd make you m-mad.. And it did.. Pidge yelled at me.... It hurt to know that you guys would hate me after the challenge was completed, and I guess Pidge saw that hurt because she calmed down and asked me what was actually wrong.. I tried yelling back but I ended up crying. So I r-ran to the bathroom. Then you guys found me and said you'd never hate me, that you love me.. I panicked.. I didn't want anyone to get hurt. Anna gave me half a penalty for th-that.. She outed us to Susan while I was in the hospital, harming Keith in a non-physical way.."

"It was never paranoia that made you think we'd get hurt.." Hunk thought out loud, the pieces clicking together in his head.

Lance nodded, sniffling still, "I really didn't remember a lot of what happened during the attack, but I was able to figure out what happened with the information you have me.. And the memory of it has cleared up a lot over the past few days.. After I said you'd get hurt is when I really started to freak out, one of the rules is that I can't tell anyone. I thought I'd get penalized for saying too much... Luckily I wasn't.."

"Did she make you stay in your room with a challenge?" Allura asked.

Lance nodded again, "The challenge was to ignore all my friends and get mama to let me stay home from school for as long as possible or Allura would be hurt this time.. So I locked myself in my room and ignored everyone like she said..."

Isa rubbed Lance's shoulder, "Did she tell you it was okay to talk to them again?"

Lance nodded, "She said the challenge was complete and I immediately ran out to Keith... I ran out the second I saw her text.. It was so hard... I wanted to call him so bad.. I wanted to hug him.. I just wanted him. But I couldn't have him.. I spent most of the day just laying in bed and reading his texts... So I'd least have something close to him.."

Keith kissed Lance's head and held him closer, "You have me now and I'm not leaving your side.. Not until this is worked out.."

Pidge sighed, "Can I see your phone, Lance? I'd like to see the messages.."

Lance nodded and pulled it out of his pocket. He opened up the thread for Anna before handing it to her.

Pidge read over them quickly, just skimming them. She had a frown planted on her face, "I don't want this to be true, but there's nothing we can do about her.. The police don't take cases like this seriously, saying that it's just teen cyberbullying and they can't control teens on the internet.. I don't know what we can do on our own.."

*before I get hate for that, police do tend to react that way to cyberbullying in my experience. it's realistic for them to just shove this problem aside, that's why pidge thinks it's not even worth it to go to them about it. that's all, carry on*

Miguel, who had stayed silent this whole time, spoke up finally, "Bull shit! This crazy chick hired someone to beat him up and has been harassing him to the point he was afraid to leave his bedroom with her permission! We have to do something! I'm not going to just sit here while my brother gets hurt like this!"

"Mijo, calm down.." Val said, putting her hand on his shoulder.

Pidge bit her lip, "I'm sure there is something we can do.. We can't really stop her since we don't know her. But we can counteract her. We never go out alone, we all block her, we turn off location sharing on our phones, stuff like that."

Everyone nodded, accepting the idea. Lance took his phone back from Pidge, typing a message.

leggylance: this game is over. you lose.

He then blocked her and turned off his location sharing. "I-I did it..." Anyone with a brain could see how nervous he was now. No. Terrified.

Keith kept hugging him, rocking him slightly again as he kissed the side of his head, "I'll stay with you at all times.. We'll be safe together... It'll be okay..."

Lance nodded, nuzzling up against him softly, "O-Okay.."

Isa stood up,  "You've barely eaten, Lance.. You must be starving, I'll get you something.." she turned to his friends, "Are you guys hungry? It's lunchtime anyway, I was going to have to cook either way. I can make extra."

They all sorta nodded, all saying they'd like some food. Isa nodded before walking to the kitchen.

Angelo pat Lance's shoulder, "We'll get this worked out, mijo.." he sighed before leaving the room with Val.

Miguel decided to leave too, taking Maria with him. They all thought Lance might want some time alone with his friends since they were the ones he had to ignore for so long.

Pidge got off the floor and sat next to Lance, where Isa was before, "Thank you for telling us.. I know you must've been very scared to come out about it..." she rubbed his arm softly, "But you're safe now, we all are.."

Lance nodded softly, "Just stay with m-me.."

They all nodded immediately, "We're not going anywhere, buddy." Hunk said with a smile.

*shorter because I'm feeling a bit sick and slept all day. I didn't have much time to write.*