You, John Egbert, have just punched your best friend in the face.

All you remember is walking outside and seeing Dave and Terezi making out against the stucco brick wall of the Rosewood Hilton. Now he's staggering backwards, his hands over his face. Your arm is sticking out in front of Terezi, who is screaming her lungs out. Your fingers are sore from colliding with your friend's face. Everything between those two moments is a complete blank for you.

You still can't believe what you just saw.

Dave slips, still dazed from your attack, and collapses onto the pavement. Terezi is still shrieking, her blank, unseeing red eyes staring at you. "John! Stop it! What are you doing?"

She must be able to smell that it's you. Her hands lash out and grab you by the wrist. "What is wrong with you?"

"Me?" you mumble, your eyes flickering back and forth between her and Dave, who's on the ground and struggling to sit up. "What's wrong with me?" you repeat, anger building in your voice. You wrench your arm out of Terezi's grasp. "I think you're asking the wrong person!"

Dave finally manages to push himself upright. Your punch had knocked his shades off of his face. He's holding them in his hand, staring up at you with the bright red eyes that he never lets anyone see. Not even you. "John..." he murmurs. "I-It's not what you think-"

"Oh really?" you snap, stepping away from Terezi to look condescendingly down on him. "So I didn't just walk out here and see you making out with Karkat's ex? While your prom date, who also happens to be your actual girlfriend, is inside, all by herself? Is that what you're saying, Dave?"

"No, wait, you don't understand."

"Oh, I think I understand completely." You turn back to Terezi to shoot her a sharp, disapproving glare. Her face goes teal and she turns shamefully away. You look back at Dave. "Or at least I understand enough. What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Dave stares up at you, his blood-red eyes wide and frightened. "John... please... just let me explain..."

"I don't want to hear it!" you roar at him. He cringes at the anger in your voice. "What the hell is wrong with you? What are you doing out here? You have a date. You have a fucking girlfriend, Dave. Not to mention a best friend who's been looking forward to tonight for weeks, only to get everything ruined by...by..." You flick your hand around, gesturing at your surroundings. "...whatever this bullshit is!"

Dave sighs and drops his gaze to the ground. He slips his shades back over his eyes and pushes himself to his feet. "Please, John," he begs, looking past his dark glasses into your eyes. "Don't do this. Please. I can explain, if you'd just-"

"No." You hold up a hand. Dave falls silent, his mouth frozen open in mid-sentence. Your eyes are stinging, as though a swarm of tiny bees is trying to escape your tear ducts. "I don't want to hear it. You've done enough for one night."

"J-John, I'm so sorry."

"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to, Dave," you say coldly. "Save it for someone who actually cares." Before he can respond, you've already turned around and walked away. You push the door open and head back inside.

You take back everything you said at the beginning of this chapter. Dave Strider is no longer your best friend. Not anymore.

You, Karkat Vantas, have never been more surprised in your life.

The last time you checked, Jade Harley was one of the happiest, most saccharine-sweet, aggressively nicest people you know. She would never be caught dead sitting alone in a sad little emo corner (let alone yours) moping her life away. Yet there she is, all alone, fluffy white ears lying flat against her perfect hair, with the poutiest expression you have ever seen her make plastered onto her pretty face.

You glance over your shoulder. Your idiot moirail is still out in the crowd, dancing like a possessed stoner and honking his brains out over the music. You turn away and pick your way through the crowd back to your moping post. Jade doesn't even see you.

"Jade?"

Her eyes lift lazily at the sound of her name. She stared blankly up at you for a second, her face still stuck in that depressed pout. "Hey, Karkat," she mumbles. You can barely hear her over the blasting music.

"Are you okay?" you shout at her, not sure what else to say.

"Why do you care?" she shoots back. You bite your lip. Wow, she is really upset.

"Gamzee, uh... he told me about what happened. With Dave."

She sighs so heavily you can almost hear her over the bass shaking the room. "Oh."

"Do you know where he might have gone?" you shout, trying to get her to talk again. "I mean, he's your date. He would have at least told you-"

"Well he didn't," Jade snaps. "He disappeared right after we got here. And I haven't heard from him since." She shuts her mouth and goes back to moping as hard as she possibly can.

That's when John shows up. And the look on his face is an almost exact copy of Jade's.

Of course, you couldn't give less of a shit if you tried. But that's certainly not the case with Jade. The second her hooded green eyes register her paradox brother's heartbroken face in the crowd, her ears perk up and she shouts his name over the music.

"John?"

He turns around and sees the two of you standing up against the wall. At first, he just stands there, a blank expression replacing the sad one. Then the sad one comes back and somehow gets even sadder. You're not even sure how that's possible, but apparently it is.

"John!" Jade shouts again. She reaches out into the cloud of dancers, grabs John by the sleeve and tugs him onto the sidelines with you. "Hey," she says a little more softly. "I haven't seen you in ages. What's going on?"

John bites his lip with his oversized front teeth and looks away. Jade's formerly mopey face takes on a look of concern. She gently squeezes his arm. "John? What's wrong?"

John takes a deep, shaky breath. "I'm so sorry," he murmurs. Then he shakes Jade's hand away, pushes past you and disappears into the crowd.

Prom has been in session for a whole hour. You are Eridan Ampora, and you still refuse to have a good time.

Up until this point, you have spent the entire prom sitting in the table arrangement (alone), occasionally wandering over to the refreshments (alone), and watching everyone else having the time of their lives while you are stuck here, completely and utterly... do you even have to say it? ALONE.

You have your eyes fixed on three particular students- specifically troll students- in the pulsating crowd, standing out against the backdrop of the normal human students. At least they stand out to you. Especially Feferi. You can't stop watching her. You hate yourself for admitting it, but it's true. You miss her.

You find yourself thinking back to your breakup. It was four months ago, before spring had even thawed out this woodsy little Washington town. You loved her. You had given her everything. And she had given you up for... for...

You feel your throat starting to tighten up. The thought of what Sollux Captor must have been doing with your princess for the past few months makes you want to vomit.

You shake the thought away and continue resentfully watching your sadly-ex-matesprit having the time of her perfect life with Sollux and Aradia. You have to admit, even though you have basically made it your goal to be miserable all night, you still wish that you could be having that much fun. Your thoughts, no matter how hard you try to control them, end up drifting back to Feferi. Gog, you miss her so much. You don't know why she'd wanted to break up with you. She said things had changed between the two of you. You had no idea what she meant by that. You still don't.

You let slip a wistful sigh. The two of you used to be best friends. Even before you'd begun waxing red for her, she'd still been the center of your world. And you had been so sure she had felt the same way about you.

You push your chair away from the table and stand up. You wonder if she still cares about you. There's only one way to find out. You walk away from your table of misery, gather your courage and head towards the dance floor to join them.

The second Feferi sees you standing at the edge of the crowd, a smile spreads across her perfect face. "Eridan!" she squeals.

At the sound of her happy-shrieking, Sollux and Aradia turn to face you. Suddenly you aren't so sure if coming out here was such a good idea. The music seems too loud. The lights are too bright and flashing too fast. You can feel a hot purple blush burning your face. You feel a hand on your arm. A voice is shouting at you over the music.

"Finally decided to join the party, huh, ED?"

It's Sollux. His fingers tighten on your arm as he drags you through the crowd, laughing with a music-drunk smile on his face. The blush on your face grows even hotter. She chose him. Him, of all people, over you. You have no idea what she saw in him. What the hell was she thinking?

But before you can go into another mental rant, Aradia takes your other hand and the three of them pull you into a circle. Bass shakes the room, and you find yourself being swayed to the time of the music, your friends pulling your hands and forcing you to move to the beat. You reluctantly let them. The hands holding yours captive lift towards the ceiling, raising your arms above your head. Then the hands are gone. The music is starting to get to you. The noise in the crowd pushes away the dismal thoughts clouding your head. Before you know it, you're clawing at the air and shaking your shoulders along with the rest of the crowd. You've been dragged down with them.

Your gaze darts around, shifting from each one of your friends to the next. Okay, you have to admit, this is pretty fun. You're actually kind of- dare you say it- glad they dragged you out here.

One second, you're back to back with Feferi, waving your arms and swaying your hips to the music. The next, Aradia's pulled you into some mirror dance that you can't remember learning, but she seems to think you know. She turns away towards Feferi and continues the dance with her. Someone grabs your arms from behind. You look over your shoulder. It's Sollux. You feel a smile tugging at the corners of your mouth. Yes, you are definitely glad they dragged you out on the floor.

You're caught up in the dance, the heat of the crowd, the noise and the music. It's drowning out everything else. You're completely consumed by it. So consumed, in fact, that you almost don't notice Sollux pushing past you, or when he draws close to Feferi. You come down from the clouds as he takes her hands in his. Then they move to her waist. Your trance has all but disappeared. Jealousy bubbles up in the back of your mind.

Everything that had kept you confined to the tables for an hour comes rushing back.

Your name is Nepeta Leijon, and you are completely burned out.

You had no idea how much energy you could spend on dancing alone. You've been going nonstop since you walked in. You're pretty sure it was all the excitement that got you so worked up. Your prom-rush didn't wear off until a few minutes ago. You figure that you could probably just hang out on the sidelines for a little while, maybe get something to eat, and get back out on the dance floor once you've caught your breath.

You somehow find yourself standing at the refreshment table. You're staring down at a certain object that has been featured at pretty much every prom ever held and has built itself quite the reputation in the meantime. It is, in fact, the very object that your moirail had told you several times to avoid at all costs.

You, Nepeta Leijon, are standing right in front of the punch bowl.

You know that you shouldn't be here. You've been warned about taking drinks from the punch bowl at prom more times than you would have liked. Equius has told you at least thirty separate times about the dangers of drinks served out of open containers. And you said you wouldn't. You promised. Come on. You can't back out on him now.

But you are closer to dying of dehydration than you have ever been in your life. And you don't see anything else out on the refreshment tables. Unless there are coolers under the table where you can't see them. You guess you could take a look...

"Nepetaaaaaaaa!"

Someone's saying your name. You know that voice. You glance over your shoulder. A tall figure in a huge, sweeping dress is traipsing towards you. You see two slender, mismatched horns silhouetted against the flashing rainbow of strobelights.

Vriska Serket has arrived.

You are Gamzee Makara, and you have spent the last hour in a trance.

You actually have no motherfucking idea how long you've been out on the dance floor. But you guess it's somewhere around an hour. And holy hell, has it been motherfucking fun. You haven't even been paying much attention to what your body was doing. You were too caught up in the music. You're pretty sure that you look like some kind of demonically possessed candy raver at this point. You've been going at it so hard that you can barely even breathe. You guess it's high time you take a motherfucking break.

You give yourself a minute to let your trance ride itself out before slipping out of the crowd and sinking on the floor. You fold your legs into a lotus position and lean back against the wall. Your stoner smile is still plastered onto your face. You laugh quietly to yourself. You guess prom wasn't such a bad idea after all.

Even though Tavros is here.

You were hanging out with him for a good deal of the time you spent dragging each of your friends out on the dance floor one by one. You guess he must not have known what else to do. He'd gone to prom with Vriska, though you have no idea why. They'd been broken up for almost a year and a half, and from what you've heard, she pretty much abandoned him the minute the doors opened. You guess that's what happens when your matesprit breaks up with you because you "bored them."

Then you broke up with him back in November.

Thinking back to that whole disaster makes you shiver. You push the thoughts away and try to forget ever bringing it up. You want to be happy tonight. Not... whatever that was.

You let your thoughts wander for a minute, and your eyes wind up wandering as well. They end up picking out a tall, edgy-looking troll in a corseted dress standing by the refreshment table. Now that you mention it, Vriska has been standing around over there pretty much all night. It makes you wonder exactly what she's doing over there all by herself.

And if she misses Tavros as much as you do now.

You're pretty motherfucking sure that the answer is no.