Gaia had come to the Howard's the night before the appointment for emotional support. Cassie had told Gaia when her abortion appointment, which was in two days. She completely sobered up for Cassie so she could be there for her.

" Just think of me as your personal emotional support pet. I would like to personally be considered a peacock because they are fucking beautiful. " Gaia joked, making Cassie and Lexi laugh. Cassie appreciated Gaia and how much she was there for her. She always wanted to be closer to her and was glad that something good would come out of this.

Cassie and Gaia shared a bed since Cassie was scared shitless. They faced each other, talking lowly as Lexi slept across the bed.

" Did it hurt? You know the miscarriage?" Cassie whispered. She felt terrible asking Gaia about something traumatic but knowing she was not the only person to experience it was the only thing making her feel better.

" Physically? It wasn't bad. The doctors told me that I got lucky. Mine was like a mild period cramp, but sometimes they could feel like a contraction," Gaia explained, and Cassie nodded.

A moment of silence went by, and then Cassie asked another question" What about emotionally?"

Gaia lay there for a minute, thinking hard about the question.

" Do you want the nice version or the truth?" Gaia asked back.

" Truth," Cassie replied

" It still fucking hurts to this day, but I'm surviving," Gaia answered truthfully.

"I'm so scared, GG. I don't want to do it, but it's the right thing to do." Cassie started to cry. Gaia got up, got some tissue from the bathroom, and wiped her face.

" I understand, Cas. I know " Gaia pulled her friend into a close embrace, letting tears fall from her face.

" Listen, you may think you can't move on from this, but you will. You have your mom and Lexi to help you. Lexi helped me through my situation. And if she was there for me like that, she definitely going above and beyond for her sister. " Gaia reassured Cassie. Cassie smiled at the thought of Gaia and her sister's relationship. She was jealous of how close they were sometimes.

" Can I ask you one more question? I'm sorry," Cassie apologized.

Gaia shook her head in disagreement " It's cool. What did you want to ask?"

Cassie paused for a moment before asking, " did you want to keep it?"

Gaia stopped and thought about her answer.

" When I first found out about the pregnancy, I was obviously scared out of my mind. " Gaia chuckled and continued, " however, when I thought about it more, I thought...maybe the baby could have been a good thing, you know. I know having one at 15 is crazy, but I don't know; my heart told me to keep it...But the universe didn't have it in the cards for me. "

Cassie moved towards Gaia and wrapped her arms around her. The two sat in silence for a moment and just held each other. Both held back tears over their crushed dreams of having a family.

It was the next day, and all four of them went to the clinic. Gaia waited in the waiting room with Lexi, Suze, and Cassie until Cassie's name was called.

" Why isn't Mckay here again?" Gaia asked Cassie.

" He had to focus and study for finals," Cassie stated, trying to defend him.

" Maybe if he focused and studied better methods of pulling out, we wouldn't be here. " Gaia shaded.

Lexi stifled a laugh while Cassie was too nervous to fire back.

" Gaia, stop it!" Suze warned. Gaia pretended to lock her lips and throw away the key.

They finally called Cassie's name for the procedure. Cassie took a deep breath, held her mother's hand, and then went to the back while Gaia and Lexi stayed in the front.

" Do you think she'll be okay?" Lexi asked Gaia.

" In all honesty. She wanted the child, so that will be more emotionally challenging to get over than if she didn't." Gaia answered.

Lexi nodded and let out an exhausted sigh.

" All we can do is be there for her," Gaia added.

Lexi laid her head on Gaia's shoulder for comfort while they waited for Cassie to be done.

Gaia was currently cheering during the championship game. Her hand had healed up, so she was cleared to cheer. Maddy, Cassie, and Gaia stood in a formation, doing a cheer for the team.

The game was in the fourth quarter, and it was so close. The team sucked. The team had no coordination, and it was apparent that Nate had no control over them. Nate would throw perfect passes, and a wide receiver would fuck it up. Gaia was praying that east highland won since the team they were going against was led by Harvey.

FUCK HARVEY JOHNSON!

Gaia rolled her eyes at how trash the team was playing. She leaned over to Cassie and started talking shit.

" They fucking suck. I never thought I said this, but I feel bad for Nate. How can you miss that pass? Fucking idiots!" Gaia cursed. Gaia had taken an edible halfway through to get through this shitty game.

Gaia looked back and accidentally made eye contact with Sam, who immediately looked away.

Gaia felt like shit about how she had hurt Samantha. She was so blinded by hurt over her and Sam's failed relationship and the thought of losing Fez that she returned to how ruthless she was in her sophomore year.

Another pass throw, and this time the receiver caught it just to get tackled to the ground. The whole crowd groaned in frustration.

" If we lose, im kicking their asses," Gaia joked, making everyone laugh on the squad besides Maddy. She wasn't in the mood since the argument with Nate, and he grabbed her again.

Nate's mind was racing. It was the championship. They were up against the school Harvey played for. Harvey kept making remarks about Gaia, which started to chip away at his anger control. He wanted to win more than anything in his life. But just like everything in his life, everyone around him was fucking up.

Nate was in a huddle, listening to his coach say some bullshit. He looked at the other team to see Harvey smirking across the field. Nate followed Harvey's eye line to the cheerleaders for East Highland. He was unabashedly looking at Gaia, biting his lips in lust. Luckily Gaia was too busy with Cassie to pay attention. Then Harvey's eyes panned towards Nate and winked at him. Nate felt a level of wrath he had never felt before.

The teams lined up, and Harvey and Nate faced each other, getting into position.

" When I win the game, I was thinking of asking Gaia out. Maybe rekindle the old flame, you know?" Harvey cackled out loud.

Nate was too focused to react to his comment. He only had one goal on his mind; winning this fucking game.

"Blue 36! Blue 36! Hut!" Nate screamed. The team gets in position for the next play. Nate makes the call and looks out to see who to throw the ball to.

Nate decided to take it into his own hands and run the play himself. He runs down the field, dodging the opponents and scoring a touchdown.

The whole crowd goes crazy and cheers. Gaia scanned the crowd when her eyes landed on her mom, who had come to the game. They have barely interacted since that day. She quickly moved her eyes and landed on Cal, sitting down, with his face hosting an unimpressed expression. Gaia scrunched her face up in confusion and turned back to the field.

The East Highland football team eventually won the state championship. Harvey looked over at the opposition side with a confusing smirk on his face. You would think he would be sad about losing, but he wasn't fazed. He looked at Gaia and Nate before gathering his things to go home.

Everyone was on the field, celebrating. Gaia watched as Cal walked over to Nate and whispered something to him. Nate's face went from happy to piss off. Gaia moved out of the way and went over to the fence, collecting her bag to go home.

" Gaia," She heard someone call out.

Gaia turns around to see her mom, Martha, Cal, and Nate all standing together. Monique waved her daughter over towards the group.

" I should have pretended not to see them. FUCK! " Gaia thought to herself.

Gaia folded her arms and walked apprehensively toward the group. The parents were smiling at Gaia, while Nate had a stoic face.

Gaia had been ignoring Nate's texts. He kept texting her, wanting to have a conversation, but Gaia blocked him.

" Hey Gaia, you were great tonight. The squad was on fire," Martha greeted. She gave Gaia a hug and kiss on both cheeks.

" I agree. You were on fire. You know how to lead a team well," Cal chuckled. He was shading Nate subtly, which only Gaia and Nate picked up on. Gaia looked over to Nate, whose fist and jaw were clenched tightly at his dad's words.

" Thank you. My squad is always on 10. And I'm lucky to have teammates that pull their weight. I personally think Nate did a better job than me today because he was literally out there by himself." Gaia looked over to Nate. She hated being around Nate and Cal because she always felt like she had to play captain save a hoe for Nate. Even though she hated him, there was something about Cal picking on Nate that irked her soul. Fuck Cal for making her stick up for Nate.

Cal looked at Gaia with a patronizing look" Well, a good leader brings out the best in their teammates and brings them to their full potential." Even though he hated being challenged, he always respected Gaia for sticking up for her opinion.

"Well, that's true...If your teammates don't suck," Gaia retorted truthfully.

Martha and Monique laughed while Cal gave an expression of amusement. Nate's eyes were locked on Gaia. His face was neutral and unreadable.

On the inside, He couldn't believe she was defending him after everything. He fucking hated himself for the shitty things he did to her this semester. He hated that he took the blackmail from Harvey and used it. He hated that he had accidentally physically hurt her. And most importantly, he hated that he believed Harvey over Gaia in the first place.

" Oh, GG, that's not nice," Martha said, slightly chuckling.

" Is it nice? No. But is it the truth? Yea. Nate was passing perfect passes, and the receivers would fumble it or get tackled 2 seconds after grabbing the ball. If I was Nate, I would've done it sooner. " Gaia defended.

Cal put his hands up jokingly. "Okay! You got me."

All the parents laughed and continued to talk while Nate and Gaia's focus was elsewhere. Gaia drifted off because of the edible, thinking about all this shit that came crashing down on her. She was close to folding and texting Fez, but she knew she wasn't over him breaking up with her like that. Nate was watching her, still memorized by her all these years later.

After the conversation, Gaia and her mom started going to the parking lot. Many people had already left, so only a couple of cars were still there.

" GG! " Nate jogged towards them.

"Excuse me, but can I talk to Gaia, please ?" Nate asked politely.

Before Gaia could say anything, her mom responded," I'll be waiting in the car. Have a good night, Nate!"

" Good night, Ms. Williams," Nate replied. Gaia's mom gave her a look before she turned to walk to the car.

Gaia watched her mom as she walked away. She let out a big sigh before she turned her attention to Nate.

" What do you want?" Gaia folded her arms. She didn't understand what Nate could possibly want to talk about.

" It's about Harvey" Nate looked down at Gaia.

" What? Did he give you more shit on me?" Gaia laughed bitterly.

"Jesus fucking christ! Just fucking listen. " Nate sighed. He ran his head through his head in frustration. He knew he deserved this treatment from her, but he just needed to know the truth.

Gaia rolled her eyes but gestured for him to continue.

" Listen. We can't talk about it here, but-" Nate is cut off by a familiar voice.

Harvey was striding up to the pair with a shit-eating grin on his face. " Awe! Well, would you look at these two? Seeing you together brings back memories of my sophomore year."

Nate looked at him with disgust and disdain. He couldn't believe he had let his anger towards Gaia cloud his mind to the obvious snake he was.

Gaia, on the other hand, was petrified. Harvey honestly frightened her to her core. She thought she escaped him after freshman year when he transferred, but Harvey was always in the Shadows, waiting for her to become happy again to crush her dreams.

She subtly stood behind Nate, using him as a barrier between her and Harvey. Nate and Harvey picked up on her movement. Harvey revealed that he had affected her, and she would never forget him.

" What the fuck do you want?" Nate spat.

" Just saw two old friends across the parking lot and wanted to catch up," Harvey answered insincerely.

" We are in the middle of talking, so could you fuck off?" Nate ordered. He was trying to keep his cool in the parking lot since they weren't alone.

Harvey put his hand up and pretended to be taken aback," Woah, Where is all this hostility coming from? I thought we were cool, Nate. Especially after I helped you out."

Nate stomped towards him, getting angrier each time his foot touched the ground.

" I think you should shut your mouth, or things will end badly for you," Nate spoke quietly. His voice was calm but frightening. Harvey was lucky they were in public, or Nate would beat him with his bare hands, worse than Tyler.

" Oh really? So that video I gave you didn't help you stay out of jail? "

Nate got closer to Harvey's face, breathing through his nostrils like an angry bull.

" Don't fucking push it!" Nate said through clenched teeth.

" Sorry, I'm not trying to get on your bad side. I saw what you can do."

Harvey poked his head to the side to look Gaia in her face and asked, " How's your hand doing?"

Nate instantly grabbed Harvey by his jersey and pushed him against a car. Gaia moved towards them, trying to stop a full-blown fight from happening.

" Ah Ah Ah, I wouldn't do that if I were you. You know the carnival was a busy day for me. I saw and recorded A LOT of things that day that I don't think I was meant to see. Maybe even closed problems can be opened up with new video evidence." Harvey expressed.

" Holy Shit! Did he record Nate choking Maddy!?" Gaia thought.

Nate looked at Harvey in his face, checking to see if he was bluffing about what he was alluding to. Harvey's face stayed the same unnerving artificial smirk he always had.

" So if someone doesn't want the police to open up the Maddy Perez assault case again, they should think about their next move," Harvey smugly suggested.

" Just let it go, Nate," Gaia pleaded. She saw that some people left in the parking lot started looking at the trio.

Nate held on to Harvey for a couple more seconds before releasing his jersey. It took every ounce of self-will to stop him from destroying him.

"Good boy. " Harvey chuckled and continued, " So what that, I'm going to leave you two to go back to your conversation I interrupted. Sorry about that."

Harvey gave Nate a sickeningly sweet smile before walking towards Gaia. Before he left, Harvey grabbed Gaia's arm in a patronizingly friendly manner and said, " Goodbye, Gaia." Gaia adverted her gaze from the boy, wanting to crawl out of her skin after being touched by him.

Harvey left the pair to deal with the aftermath of the bombshell he threw. Not only did he have blackmail on Gaia, but he also had blackmail on Nate. He had screwed them over yet again.

Gaia was frozen, unable to think of anything to say after being involved in a verbal hit-and-run between her two tormentors. She tried to walk towards Nate, but her feet were glued to the spot.

Nate was standing there as still as a statue. He couldn't believe that he was so blind that he didn't see this coming. Harvey had something over him besides Gaia. His usual Pokerface has been shattered, and Gaia could see how blindsided by Harvey he was. His mind was immediately planning his next move.

" Nate?" Gaia called out to Nate, concerned.

Nate finally returns to reality as soon as he hears Gaia's voice. He walked over to her and said, " The day after the dance, come to my house. We REALLY need to talk ." Before Gaia could answer, Nate was already walking towards his truck.