Author's Note:Hey Everyone. Here's chapter 8. It's actually basically a filler chapter, there is some swearing, a little more than usual, but nothing too horrible, but just a heads up about it anyways.


Chapter Eight

I didn't get to go into school with Mia today due to the fact that my Chemistry final started freakishly early and if I took Mia's limo to school at the usual time of 7:45 I'd actually be late for it, so instead I grudgingly took the subway. Only be told, when I got to school, that the Chem final starting time had been pushed back to the time that all the rest of the finals were starting from, meaning I had gotten up early for nothing!

It was sort of boring, sitting around waiting for the rest of the school to arrive.

Normally I wouldn't mind it, since I'd just sit with Felix, Paul and Jude and talk with them until Mia arrived, but since none of them are actually talking to each other that can't be the case. And if I try to sit with one of them, the other two might take it as me picking sides and get all pissed off at me too.

I just can't win.

So instead, I just hung around in one of the empty computer labs, finding out more information for Mia to give to her mom.

I was in there longer then I thought (or wanted to be), because the first bell for class rang while I was still in there. Dammit.

And even though I knew I was going to make myself late for my Chem final, I headed for Mia's Algebra classroom anyway.

The first thing I noticed when I got there was the fact that Mia looked like she had just had a fight with Lana or at least Lana had been mean towards her. Neither of which are a particularly good idea, given the times that Lana has made Mia angry or at least upset, Mia's response has been either to stab her with a Nutty Royale ice cream or smash her mobile into tiny, little pieces.

Both times, of course, Mia was the one who got into trouble and Lana got off scot-free, but at least these events had made Lana steer clear of Mia for a couple of weeks.

But I didn't think that this time was like those times.

Mia looked more upset then angry, but still I didn't want her to land herself in detention simply because she couldn't control her temper, even when her temper is directed at Lana and the fact that Lana deserves whatever Mia might do to her.

So before anything like Mia stabbing her with her pencil or crushing her phone could happen, I intervened.

I walked over to where she was sitting behind Weinberger (honestly Mr G, seriously? I mean, yeah I get that seat placement is suppose to last for the whole year, but come on, with these two, I'm sure you could have made an exception to the rule and just move them to opposite sides of the classroom when you first saw how badly they react to one another, like any other sane teacher would have.).

She looked up at me with a grin, clearly completely forgetting about whatever Weinberger had upset her about.

"Hey." She greeted me, then frowned, "Haven't you got a final on, like now?" she asked, sounding worried that I might be making myself late for it simply because I was visiting her.

"Hey. And nah, it's a bit later; they decided to change the times on us without actually telling us that they had."

She looked as annoyed as I felt about the whole thing.

"Anyway," I said changing the subject and handing her the bunch of paper I had printed out off the Internet about the dangers of dehydration in pregnant women, "to give to your mom." I added when she looked momentarily confused.

"Oh. Cool, thanks." She looked from the stack of papers up at me and smiled.

I smiled back before giving her a quick kiss on her cheek, yeah, yeah, in front of everyone in her Algebra class.

"See ya, Mr G." I said as I gave him a wave as I left his classroom.

"Bye Michael." He's given up trying to tell me with his eyes that I'm not supposed to be doing what I'm doing, which is visiting his step-daughter during class time. But since I don't stay long and I'm not really disturbing anyone else while I am popping in to visit Mia, he's more or less has accepted my coming and goings.

The Chem final was fairly easy, simply regurgitating everything that we've heard in class this year. I was out of room that we were taking the final in within two hours of it three and half hour length. I tried hard to ignore the death glare that Jude sent me as I left the room.


I spent lunch with Mia, managing to talk her into eating somewhere else instead of with her friends in the caff, so instead we headed out into one of the AEHS courtyards, to one of the bench tables that they had set out there, but were so rarely ever used.

There were a few kids out here, but none of them paid us (or Lars, though he got a more than quick look over by a couple of girls sitting off to one side of the yard.) any mind as went and sat at the furthest bench in the yard.

"How was your final?" Mia asked as we sat down on top of the table and started eating our lunches.

I shrugged.

"Usual."

"You just whizzed through it, didn't you?" Mia said, giving me a look that almost rival one of Jude's unimpressed looks.

I felt my ears grow warm.

"I just knew the stuff." I said, feeling embarrassed.

"Some people have all the luck." She grumbled, sounding somewhat mournfully.

I elbowed her playfully.

"Yeah, but I couldn't write a short story for my English final. Instead I had to write something about how the internet affect today's urban youth, rotting our brains out and so on."

"You would have still got marks for it."

"Oh, I did, but I got marked down because it wasn't a short story."

Mia pulled a face at that before asking how things were going with SkinnerBx, asking if things between Paul and Felix had been solved yet.

I shook my head and said nope.

She looked worried at that.

"It'll be fine; they'll figure it out in the end." I reassured her quickly.

"You don't really believe that, though, do you?" she said with raised eyebrows.

I gave her a dry look.

"Aren't I supposed to be the pessimistic one?" I teased her and she grinned.

"Maybe Grandmere attitude is finally getting to me." She replied and I stared at her in horror as

I pulled her into my arms.

"God, I hope not." I mumbled into her hair as I hugged her closer to me. The thought of Mia loosing her warmth and kindness and becoming as cold-heated and stone-faced as her grandmother was a terrifying, horrible thought and something that I prayed would never happened.

She giggled at my reaction.

"As if." She said as she kissed me lightly on the cheek.

"Good." I said, releasing her slightly from my death grip on her, but still keeping one arm around her waist, holding her close to me, as we finished eating our lunch.


So much for having a quiet afternoon, simply spending it with Mia.

G&T, I had hoped, would be quiet and uneventful, which it had looked that way, since Lil hadn't made an appearance for it, but no such luck.

It seemed that as soon as Mia and I had sat down, we were suddenly being ushered into the teacher's lounge across the hall to see something on the TV in there.

There's a strike. The hotel-workers union has apparently joined the busboys in their strike and the restaurant union is also expected to follow suit shortly. Meaning that basically that no one is working in the restaurants or the hotels of New York City.

Beside me, I could hear Mia muttering something about the financial loss of tourism and conventions because of this strike could well be in the billions. She also muttered something about how one little hairless dog could cause so much damage.

Anyway, I was drawn away from Mia's muttering when I saw something that had my mouth drop while thinking BUSTED!

Because there, on New York One, was my sister. And I might add that this is a live broadcast, so I guess I now know why she isn't in G&T right at this very moment. It's because she standing off to the left of the podium where the heads of the hotel and restaurant unions are standing, holding up this huge sign that read LIVING WAGES FOR LIVING BEINGS, with Jangbu by her side.

Oh yeah, she is so completely busted! I mean, she knows that Mom and Dad watch New York One and that they'll probably see her, but has she made any effort to hide? No, none whatsoever.

And not only is she most likely busted by Mom and Dad, she's so completely busted here at school too. She has unexcused absence for the day. Gupta is so going to be ringing home tonight because of this.

And I was going to get an earful about this from Mom and Dad too. Damn!

I shook my head in disgust.

Look, I'm fully on the side of the busboys. Seriously I am, they SHOULD be paid a living wage. I'm just not on side with Lilly's real reason of being there or why she's putting so much effort in to this.

I got even more peeved with her when the reporter started speaking to her and her replying with stuff like she has always been interested in the welfare of busboys (which is crap, she barely paid them any heed until attention until a couple of days ago) and that her heart has always gone out to the plight of immigrants coming to our country in search of a new start.

I snorted.

"Yeah, I'm sure." I started and turned to Mia, "you know that her interests in the welfare of busboys has more to do with her interest in Jangbu than the plight of the immigrants of this country."

Mia looked mildly amused for a moment before looking sad, as her eyes glanced back towards the TV, or rather who was sitting beside the TV.

When I saw who it was, I groaned.

Nicely done, Moscovitz, I silently chided myself because despite his apparent attention being complete on the TV, I was (and Mia was too) pretty sure that he had heard me.

Fantastic, I thought as I watched Boris, with his heavily bandaged head, kept lifting his hand to the TV and tracing out Lil features every time she appeared on the screen.

I rolled my eyes at this, more because Lil didn't deserve his continued devotion towards her, then his actions.

God, why can't he just see already that Tina is gaga about him already? They're way more suited for each other than he and Lil ever were.


I was sort of hoping that my day would end without any dramas. You know, there were weeks, months even when I could just go through a day knowing exactly how it was going to turn out. Nowadays, I have a hard enough time predicting what's going to happen before lunch.

So when I went into the changing rooms for Gym, even though I wasn't expecting what I did find there, I, at least, knew to expect something.

The yelling was the first give away.

The second give away was the nonsense that was being spewed out by one of the yellers.

Oh, damn.

I sped up. That was pothead nonsense. Well it'd probably be more correct in saying that it was Felix's pothead nonsense yelling that he makes only when he's high… very high. I don't think I've ever heard him so high during school hours.

"Are you insane?" I heard Paul bellow when I came to the boy's change room doors.

"Says you, who only knows how it is."

"WHAT?"

I bolted into the change room, finding Felix and Paul having a face off, of sorts. And I take it back about Felix being high; he was drunk as well… Fantastic.

"Paul." I said and they both looked around at me, as well as all the other guys who were watching the scene, obviously waiting for fists to break out.

"Just leave, ok." I said as I took some cautious steps towards Felix, who was glaring at me somewhat lopsidedly.

I fought the desire to roll my eyes at him.

"What?"

"Just leave. If fist break out, you know whose going to win, even in his drunken, high state."

"HA! See, he knows how great I am." Felix bellowed loudly, swaying dangerously where he stood.

"Felix, SHUT UP!" I snapped at him over his bellows.

Oddly enough, he actually listened to me, though for some strange reason he always does whenever he's in one of these states. Though it's been awhile since the last time he allowed himself to get this bad. I was going to kill the person who set him off (well, maybe not if it was Paul or Jude, but anyone else, they are so dead.) and/or whoever gave him the drugs and alcohol as well.

"Look, everyone just leave, NOW!" I added when I saw that Richter and his gang weren't going to both easily.

"Yeah, whatever. C'mon, let's go." Richter said unexpectedly, suddenly looking bored as he headed out of the change room with his cronies on his tail.

Paul hesitated as the last of the guys in our class left the changing room, watching as I walked up to Felix, shoving down upon his shoulders hard so that he'd sit down on one of the changing benches. I gave him a hard thump over the back of the head for being such an idiot while I was at it.

"Are you sure you'll be ok with…" he trailed off as Mr Wheeton came charging into the change room. He stopped short when he saw what a mess Felix was, before rolling his eyes.

"Moscovitz," he started and I sighed, waiting for him to start yelling at me, because somehow, this would be all my fault in his eyes, "Take care of him and try not to let anyone see him like this, ok." He sounded completely exasperated, looking even more so, when he saw that both Paul and my mouths were hanging open at him.

"What? You think I want this," he jerked his thumb at Felix, "on my record, in the last weeks that I'm stuck with you lot? I mean it, Moscovitz, if you make sure he doesn't get seen by any of the staff and the students here, and I'll give you a passing grade for this class, forgetting to mention all the times that I caught you reading during class when I'm writing up your final report for this class. And I'll even write you a special recommendation or whatever they call it these days. Deal?"

"OK." because seriously, whose going to turn that down? He must seriously be desperate to keep this whole Felix thing quiet and away from the oversensitive ears of other teachers of the school. I wonder why. If Felix wasn't so off his rocket right now, he'd probably ferret out the reason for this sudden need for secrecy and then use against Wheeton as blackmail.

"Good, glad we could come this understanding. You," he jerked is thumb at Paul, "get your skinny ass out there."

Paul shot me an apologetic look, which you know for a guy who had been moments away from being beaten to a pulp by one of his best friends; he didn't look as shaken up as you would think he would be.

I sighed heavily as they both left, turning my attention to Felix who had been strangely silent up until now.

"I'm moron." He informed me with a slur.

"Uh huh. What else is new?" I asked as I sat down beside him.

"What happened?" I asked after a moment. "Felix, seriously, what happened? I haven't seen you this bad since you were trying to prove to your step-brother that you were just as bad-ass as him and that was three years ago? Please tell me that you two aren't at it again, are you?"

"Kinda…"

"What? But I thought you guys, were you know, getting along. Well, the version of getting along that you two live by."

He shrugged, before smacking his head against the tiled, changing room wall behind him.

"Come on. Let's go and get some Pizza in you or something." I sighed as I grabbed his arm and started pulling him to his feet. He gave me a confused look.

"But what about Princess?" he slurred out in confusion.

"Huh?"

"The Princess. Your princess. Won't she be expecting you or something?" he slurred.

I admit I am slightly disturbed by how well I can understand his drunken, high speech. I really have been friends with him way too long.

"Mia?" I asked and he nodded his head enthusiastically, "she'll be fine. She has a princess lesson today, so I can take care of you without worrying her, ok." He didn't look overly pleased by that before sighing, muttering something that sounded like moron, though if he was calling me a moron or himself, it was hard to tell.

I was glad I didn't need to grab anything major from my locker and that I had my school bag with me (as well as Felix's, I managed to grab it before we left the change room) because I didn't bother taking him anywhere but straight back to mine (I know, I know, but I don't have a key to his. Ok, yeah I do know that he does, have a key to his house I mean, but you've never met his Dad, who is in the Navy and wants Felix to follow in his footsteps too (not bloody likely, which I think the Admiral has finally realise and is now giving Felix an even harder time about it) and his step-mom who is the Admiral's trophy wife and her lovely boys (can you hear the sarcasm?). Seriously taking him back to mine was the best thing I could possibly do for him), where I ordered Pizza (and paid with his money. Hey, the guy seriously owes me big for this!).

Once we got the pizza and some water into him, he started settling down. Clearly he hadn't taken as much as I thought he had (or his resilience for the amount of whatever he took is higher than I originally thought… yeah, not so good and I'm praying that that isn't the case) because he settled down surprisingly quickly and was almost back to his usual self after about six hours of my getting him to my house.

I thank the high heavens that this was the night that everyone, besides Maya, who took one look at Felix when we came through the front door and simply shook her head, leaving us to it, were out tonight.

My parents are pretty good about a lot of things, seriously they are. I mean, I know they'd kill both Lil and I if we ever did drugs and/or became alcoholics, but if it's someone else, they're surprisingly good about it. But that's not why I'm worried about them finding out that Felix is here, I'm more worried that they'll ring up Felix's Dad to tell him that Felix is here.

And even though I know they wouldn't tell the Admiral that Felix was here drunk and high, they'd still probably give the Admiral an earful for allowing Felix to get into this state, since it really is all his fault, what with all the pressure about joining the Navy, that he's been putting on Felix since he was like fourteen is what drove Felix to first taking drugs and getting high.

And god only knows what Lil would do if she so happened to see Felix during one of his high and drunken episodes.

I sighed, figuring, even without the parental unit and annoying, psycho little sister around, tonight was going to be a long night.


"Oh god." Felix said, quite randomly from where he had been passed out on my bed for the last four and something hours, while I've spent my time playing DOOM on my computer. I not going to admit that hearing him suddenly speak after hours of silence made me almost jump out of my skin. No, I'm not going to admit to that at all.

"I'm sorry to say mate, but I highly doubt any religion would take you. Even Scientology." I said, not turning around since I was up against one of DOOM's bosses and I was being murdered. I just keep dying; have been doing so for the last flipping hour!

WAIT, now where the hell did he fucking go…

"They have aliens, not gods, moron." He grumbled back as he pegged a pillow at my head. It hit me in the back of the head, causing me to blink and miss my chance to kill the Cyberdemon… ok so more like get a shot in before he killed me… again.

"Still." I groaned as I watched myself die, yet again.

Just give up already, a voice in the back of my head said and with another groan, I twisted on my computer chair to instead face Felix. At least with him, I know I'm not going to be shot out with fire rockets… though I'm not going to put that in his brain, just in any case.

"How are you feeling?" I asked in an overly bright, loud voice.

He groaned, pressing a spare pillow to his face before suddenly, after a moment, he sat up looking around wildly, saying, "Oh god, I killed Paul."

"No, you didn't. You didn't kill Kenny either, if that's any…" he pegged another pillow at me.

"Stop that."

"Stop being a smart arse." He replied, pressing a hand to, I'm guessing, his throbbing head.

I pointed to some painkillers and water that I had set out for him on my bedside table for when he woke up.

"Were you really as bad as you looked? Or were you acting some of it?" I asked suspiciously, because beside from his obviously throbbing head, he looked and sounded like his old self again.

He sent me a sour look as he took the painkillers and drank from the glass deeply, draining it almost completely of water.

"I'm just better at getting over it these days." He replied and I pulled a face.

"That's not exactly something that you should be getting better at." I commented quietly and he sent me another sour look.

"Don't start."

"Don't start?" I quoted suddenly feeling angry. "You almost beat Paul to a pulp!"

"I hit him?" he asked, going, I was pleased to see, visibly paler.

"No," I admitted grudgingly, "but you were close to. You were just insulting him in Felix High/Drunken Language when I came across you two in the change rooms."

"Oh… but I didn't hit him or anything, right?"

"No, you might have, if I hadn't come in just then. Richter and his gang weren't going to stop you."

"Thanks."

"Uh huh."

"Look, I am sorry ok. I just lost it."

"Clearly."

"You know, you really are a smart arse when you want to be." Felix snapped, suddenly looking angry again. "Especially about things you don't understand and never will understand because you're so much better than the rest of us."

"I am not." I snapped back at him.

"Oh, like you don't think it." He shot back and I rolled my eyes at him.

"I don't and you know I don't. Would you just relax already, getting pissed off at me isn't going to help."

"Yeah, but it'd make me feel better." He growled.

"Are you actually angry at me? Or are you just looking to vent at someone? Because if either of those are the case and you hit me, you know that I can hit you back right? And I can promise you, I will break your nose and happily." he scowled angrily at my floor for awhile.

"I hate when you're like this." he finally growled and I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah and how do you think I feel when you're like this and I have keep you from fighting one of our friends and having to sneak you out of school and to my place? Like what?" he decided to ignore the first part of what I said and instead answered the second part.

"All logical and calm-like, like you're an adult instead of being three months younger than me."

"Would you rather I yell and scream at you?" I asked dryly.

He scowled half-heartedly at me.

"No, but I'd rather be talking to the guy who've I've known and been best friends with for eight years and watched, with amusement mind you, having more trouble asking out his girlfriend then I ever thought humanly possible, then someone who's acting the part of his psychoanalyst parents." I cringed a little as he said that final bit.

"Sorry."

"Yeah, well," he sighed heavily, "I am too. A lot." He leant back against my bed's head board, staring up at the glow-and-the- dark stars that I have stuck all over my ceiling. "Picking a fight with Paul…" he whistled slowly. "Shit."

"He didn't seem too bothered, once you both calmed down some." I reassured him, moving a little closer to him once I was sure he wasn't going to blow up at me again and possibly even punch me. I was relieved to see that Pavlov was curled up in his bed, watching us very closely mind, on the other side of my room, far out of harms way.

"Yeah, well," he sighed. "Shit."

"What happen?" I asked cautiously, still mindful of the fact that he could still loose it.

"I don't know." He replied slowly, "everything I guess. School, graduation, where I'm going to go and do afterwards, the Admiral," his face darken momentarily at the mention of his Dad, "Jude." He added her name lightly on to his list of problems, but you could hear the pain behind it more than with the others.

"You really like her don't you?" I asked.

"Uh huh," he said with a nod of his head, "and that's why I'm giving up."

"Huh?" I gagged out. "You're what?"

"I'm giving up. On her. Seriously, dude, you have to admit, she deserves someone way, way better than someone like me."

"But," I was still reeling at this unexpected news, "you like her… a lot! More than I think you've liked anyone else… ever!"

"Exactly and that's why I'm going give up on her, because I do like her so much. And c'mon dude, you knew that she was never going to choose me."

"She might have… might still"

"Nah, she was going to get with Paul. I mean, that's who she hung out with at the Winter Dance and he's the one she gets on with best… well, besides you, but you're another matter entirely… and taken, so yeah."

"And you decided all this when?" I asked him dryly.

"Um, probably in the moments before you stopped me from breaking his face."

"So, you don't want her to be with him?" I asked confused now.

"Of course I don't." he replied hot temperedly. "I want to be with her!" Ok, now officially confused.

"And for that reason," he continued, somewhat more calmly, "is why I'm giving up… on her"

"Huh?"

He gave me a very dead-panned look before sighing.

"It made more sense in my head when I was high… and drunk."

"Ok, let me see if I can get this straight; you want to be with her but because you want to be with her you think she should be with Paul."

"Exactly… um, kinda. Wait, what are you saying?"

"What am I saying? What are you saying?" I demanded completely confused and exasperated now.

"Look," he said sounding impatient now, "simply put; I'm bad for her. You know that, I know that, she probably knows that. Basically the whole flipping world knows that I'm bad for her and for that reason, I'm giving up on her. She deserves better than a mess up, pothead like me. She deserves someone like Paul… or you, except your taken and obviously even when you weren't, thing didn't work out between the two of you anyway." I felt my ears grow red at what he was implicating at. Of course, I had never told him about Jude and me and those times last year during November, but he's not stupid… well, not about these types of things. But anyway, for the moment I let it slide.

"That might all be so; you might be bad for her, very bad in fact." He shot me a 'not helping' look, but I ignore it and continued on, "but she is very, very good for you. I mean, besides this episode, you've been clean for months now and you've been doing better in class."

"Because I was trying to impress her, duh!"

"Yeah, and it has. She's been a good influence on you. So saying that you're bad for her when she's been such a good influence upon you is-is stupid and cowardly. That's like me saying that I can't be with Mia because she happens to be an heir to a country."

"But it's different for you and the princess. You two actually suit each other, weirdly enough. Jude and I don't and we have tried, remember special moron, those test dates? And she still can't choose who between us she wants to date and you can tell that's upsetting her like hell, so the only right thing that I can do, is make her not choose."

"Well, technically you still are. You're forcing her, by giving up on her, to choose Paul."

"Who is the better choice for her!"

"She might not think so! Did you ever think of that in your pot-headed stated?" that got him for a moment, but then he shook his head.

"No, I've made up my mind."

"How can you make up your mind about something when you made it when you were high and drunk? Heck, you probably still are!"

"Mike, what are you doing? You've said so yourself that this whole thing between the three of is becoming ridiculous, past ridiculous in fact, so why won't you let me make things right… or whatever?"

"Because you're not in the right frame of mind to be making things right. Tomorrow, you're probably not even going to remember this conversation at all." I grumbled.

"I will."

"Won't"

"Then remind me tomorrow and see then if I don't still agree with what I'm saying now."

"Fine." I replied surely causing him to snort.

"Anyone would think you liked having all this drama in your life." He teased and I scowled at him, grabbing on the pillows that he had previously pegged at me and threw it back at him, hitting him square in the face.


Author's Note: I don't know how many of you were still following the whole Jude/Felix/Paul triangle that I've been playing along in the background for the last two, going on three fics.
I hope not too many of you are upset with Felix "giving up" Jude for Paul. Actually while writing this chapter I had the strange desire to watch The Vampire Diaries because of the whole Elena/Stephan/Damon triangle and I guess I drew some parallel's between Damon and Felix's characters and their situations with the girls that they like.
Anyway, I hope you all still like Felix after this chapter, because despite how it looks, I haven't completely closed the door on the Jude/Felix/Paul triangle just yet. I think that I will bring it back in later fics.
Anyway, hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I will hear from you all soon.
Disclaimer: Obviously I don't own the rights to the game DOOM or any references or quotes from South Park.