I DON'T MEAN TO BUT I LOVE YOU

twenty-three.

Starfox evens out his breathing and turns to the crowd. "Alright everyone, my sincerest apologies on behalf of Omega Psi Phi—we niggas. And sometimes niggas just gotta nig." He grins when the crowd chuckles—some of them more or less nervous. "I have to go do some damage control. Freddy will be your point of contact for the rest of tonight—if you really need me, please do not hesitate to call me or send Stevie upstairs. I'll have the DJ turn back up this music and y'all can get as lit as you want. Feel free to stay here if you need to! Thank you all."

As if on cue, the DJ throws in a few scratches and then the music resumes, Saweetie busting through the speakers to get the twerk fest back up.

From upstairs in Starfox's bedroom, AJ heard the slam of Jarstin's bedroom door. He rolled his eyes, the pain in his cheek still throbbing, and he looked at himself in the mirror to see a large, purple bruise starting to form under his left eye. Fuck. The music starts back up a few moments later as AJ sits on the foot of the bed, rubbing at his head guiltily and trying to think of the right words to apologize to Starfox with. His boyfriend always knows exactly what to say and how to say it, and AJ isn't much of a talker.

As the music starts back up and ass starts getting thrown, Eden is about to jump back out there, but Emmett grabs him by the collar to stop him.

Eden yanks out of his grab. "Aye, nigga, you gone stretch out my favorite shirt!"

"We need to go check on Gabe." Emmett says.

"Man, he'll be—" Eden starts to say, but then Emmett gives him a look that says 'would we really be his LBs if we didn't go and check on him when he feeling down or be there for him in his time of need?' Eden sighs, taking one last look at all of that ass, and then nodding his head. "Alright, come on, let's go. Maybe I can get Gabe to throw some ass when we get there or sumn."

After the crowd clears, most people go back inside to party, and once Starfox is outside with the few people lingering to smoke, he just lets out another deep breath and tips his gaze to the stars. A lot of things that've been boiling under the surface just overflowed and he feels like he's the only one who brought a roll of paper towels. He sends out a text to Gabe.

The Omega slides his phone back into his pocket and makes his way into the house. Thankfully, the party wasn't ruined by the spectacle, everybody seems to be resuming their festivities, Troublemaker is making a new bucket of Que Oil, it should be lit for everyone else enjoying their night. Starfox is done with the partying for tonight.

He heads upstairs to his room with a frozen pack of peas that Freddy sharpie labeled 'ICE PACK PEAS', knocks on the door softly with a knuckle to alert AJ of his presence before heading inside. Closing the door behind him, he offers AJ a soft smile and sits on the bed next to him.

"How are you feeling, Mayweather?"

-- -- --

Laying in his bed, staring up at the ceiling, Gabe just lays a hand on his bare chest. He's tried closing his eyes, he's tried watching tv, but nothing can erase the sight of Jarstin fucking somebody else from his mind. He's not stupid. He knows he wasn't Jarstin's only one, they weren't exclusive by any means, but he felt like they should've been tonight at least. Hell, Jarstin practically asked him out on a date.

His phone buzzes next to him with a new text message, and he secretly hopes it's an apology message from Jarstin. Then, he pushes that to the back of his mind, because of course it's fucking not—might as well not get his hopes up. He sees it's a message from Starfox, and as he reads it he finds himself being comforted and getting angry at the same time.

Fuck Jarstin for putting him in this predicament. Fuck himself for putting himself in this predicament. Fuck life in general. How does AJ, who wasn't any better than that no good nigga Jarstin, end up with a Starfox? You know what? Fuck AJ too with his 'I told you so' ass pep talk.