Somehow, within the span of a week or two, this Dave Strider had wormed his way into the infamous duo. He didn't seem to mind that this automatically deemed him as an outcast as well, but it still confused the hell out of Karkat. From all the stories he would tell, about where he lived back in Texas, he was kind of a big deal. It made him a little suspicious. But, as usual, he couldn't find any reason to act on his suspicion. Terezi informed him, when he voiced his irritation, that it was probably his aversion to things changing. And, as usual, Karkat knew she was right. While he didn't mind having the laid back Southern kid hanging around, it just kind of… didn't fit. It had always just been him and Rezi. Not him, Rezi and the Strider.

But Terezi insisted on keeping him around. She claimed it was due to the delicious red he always wore, but Karkat knew it was most likely due to the fact that she was lonely. He wasn't stupid. He knew that she craved having friends and lots of people around her. Like her older sister, Laluta, seemed to have. And so, he kept his big mouth shut, accepting Dave's insertion into their group.

He wasn't all bad, either, once you got passed the idiotic shades and the blaring dance beats always screaming from his headphones. Aside from all that, he was a pretty fun guy to be around. He always liked to make jokes or poke fun at things that seemed to get Karkat or Terezi down. And while he appreciated it, Karkat knew it would be a long time before he would ever consider the blonde haired kid to be a true friend.

"Okay, that seriously just looks like a giant dick." Dave had leaned over, to inspect one of Terezi's latest drawings, the three of them seated around a table in the cafeteria. Karkat sent him a little glare, always annoyed when he would say rude things about her art.

"Maybe that's what I'm drawing, Dave," she replied, eyebrows waggling as she ignored him, continuing to draw... whatever the hell it was actually supposed to be. In fact, the more Karkat looked at it, the more he had to admit it kind of did look like a giant dick. He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing.

"Knew it." Dave leaned back in his seat, seeming satisfied by her snarky reply. That was another thing he would never understand. Sure, Terezi and himself tended to make fun of each other from time to time, but that hadn't come until a year into their friendship. But suddenly Strider comes along and it's all name calling and insults, like they had known each other their whole lives. While he would never admit it, it made him a bit jealous.

There was a short silence that fell between them, save for the sound of Terezi's pencil scratching across the paper, Dave's beats pumping from his headphones and the occasional sound of a page turning as Karkat distractedly flipped a page. It was their usual symphony; the orchestra to a strange mash of people in a friendship. The symphony was broken, however, by the sound of Dave's voice once more.

"Hey, TZ, you wanna go to a party tomorrow night?"

Her head shot up, drawing forgotten as she stared in his general direction, eyebrows raised. A few blinks later and a wide grin had spread across her features, displaying her pearly white teeth.

"A party? Uh, hell yes!"

Karkat's eyes had shot up as well, but instead of being focused on Dave, they were focused on Terezi. Wait, what? She had said yes? She hadn't gone to a party in the entire time that he had known her. Ever.

"What the fuck?" He said, a little bit more aggressively than he had planned.

Dave's shade covered gaze moved towards him, eyebrows raising from behind the sunglasses. "You can come too, Karkat, I just kind of assumed you weren't into those kind of things." If Karkat actually cared enough to put more energy into being annoyed with Dave's presence, the little shrug of his shoulders might have resulted in a punch square to that annoyingly perfect nose of his.

But instead, he shot a quick glare to the albino, before returning his gaze to his best friend. "You're actually going?" He wasn't sure why he was surprised, really. Why wouldn't she jump at the chance to hang out with more awesome people? She obviously enjoyed Dave's company and he was sure the thing would be crawling with people just like him. But Karkat was very much aware that he was possessive of Terezi, even if he had no reason to be. Aside from having a bigger than life crush on her, he was also her best friend. And that meant protecting her. They had just met this kid, for fuck sake! He could be a drug dealer or an ex-con or some kind of axe murderer!

Alright, so maybe the last two were a little outlandish, but he sure as hell wasn't about to let his best friend waltz off to a party with some douchehead they had just met two weeks ago. No way in hell.

Terezi turned her head, a light frown gracing her features. "What's wrong, Karkles?"

His eye twitched at the ridiculous nickname but he sucked in a deep breath, ignoring the urge to call her out on it. Besides, he secretly liked the fact that they had nicknames for each other. It was annoyingly cute.

"It just... doesn't seem like your kind of scene, you know?"

"C'mon! It'll be fun. If you don't want to go, that's fine. We'll watch a movie on Saturday or something, okay?"

As much as he wanted to scream and shout and tell her exactly what had just been running through his head, he chickened out. Terezi wasn't his property. She was her own person. And if she wanted to make new friends, who was he to say something? He was well aware that telling her not to go would make him seem like a bigger dickface than Strider. So he used all his efforts to shrug, curling back up with his book and pretending like he wouldn't be worried sick for the next day and a half.