Chapter 3: Isolation

For the rest of the evening, Sydni tried not to overthink the Alejandro situation.

So, naturally, her mind went into overdrive about the ordeal.

She felt bad for leaving him on read, but she did what she had to do for Caitlin… or, at least, what she felt was right concerning Caitlin. She hated to belabor the point, but the idea of her gleefully texting Alejandro after obtaining his number through unfortunate circumstances made her feel like a hollow, shitty friend.

And it stung because she wanted him. She wanted a no-stress, no-pressure, low-risk-of-heartbreak fling for the summer. She wanted someone to vibe with. She wanted kisses and comfort and dates that set her heart aglow. He was supposed to the summerboy who could give these things to her before the air grew stale and brisk for the fall. She wanted him to be those things.

However, she recalled the time a few weeks ago where she wanted to impress her mom with her blog for the sake of proving herself as a writer, ultimately upsetting her new friends in the process. From that, she learned not to let what she desired stand in the way of her friends' feelings.

Since she didn't have Caitlin's say-so regarding Alejandro, until she saw that Caitlin was in a consistently better mindset—not just laughing here and there before returning to a state of wistfulness about Benj—she wouldn't make any moves on him. Caitlin had been there during Sydni's first interaction with Alejandro and pushed Sydni to go for him, so it was only right to wait for Caitlin to give her the go-ahead.

Yeah, I'm gonna wait 'til she's feeling better. I think—

Jen and Caitlin's giggling pulled Sydni outside her own mind.

While happy that Jen could fill Caitlin with joy again, it didn't detract from the fact that Sydni felt lonesome amongst the two of them. Since Nikki left the room already—albeit to talk to her boyfriend—Sydni decided she'd leave, too. She'd step into the hallway and relax on her phone, given that Jen and Caitlin wouldn't notice her disappearance. It was better to be in isolation by herself than be isolated amongst company, she figured.

Thus, with her mind made up, she slipped outside the room.


Now that Wyatt was onboard with "Operation: Get the Game Back So We Can Finally Play It," Jude strolled over to Robbie and Diego, standing beside the television instead of in front of it so he wouldn't totally obstruct their view. Plus, he wanted to marvel at the game up close if he was being honest with himself.

Jude looked onward, transfixed as the details of the game's jungle flora and fauna reflected in his blue irises. His mouth hung agape as he gazed onward. A mesmerized whoaaaaa dripped from his lips like drool.

Before he knew it, a technicolor pause screen filled his view.

"Dude, stop drooling on the carpet," Diego admonished with his face contorted into a sneer. "Shit's nasty."

He blinked hard and fell from his game-induced Cloud Nine, landing back in the Masterson-Garcias' living room, finding Wyatt beside him and Jonesy's brothers in front of him.

He laughed a dumb chuckle (that made Wyatt further believe he was still blazed as hell) and said, "Oops, my bad."

"What do you two even want?" Diego asked, cutting his eyes at them.

Wyatt opened his mouth, unsure of what would come out of it, but, luckily, Jude took over.

"We just wanted to—y'know—see what the game looked like, maybe even play it for a bit and see what's up."

"Yeah, uh huh, no," Diego said.

"Get lost, dorks," Robbie added.

"Bummer." Jude let his shoulders grow heavy and sink. "Well, we gave it a shot."

As Jude turned around and began walking away, Wyatt halted him in his tracks. His brow furrowed as he stared Jude in the face. "Jude, what are you doing?"

"Going back upstairs. We tried, bro."

That surely was a half-assed try. "That's it? That's how you were going to try and get the game back? What happened to WWJD?" he asked with air quotes. "That's not what Jonesy would've done." He huffed. "You had me thinking we were gonna really fight for it."

Jude pondered Wyatt's rant, really latching onto his words for the first time today. They spurred a sense of disappointment in him, yet also a swell of determination. "Y'know what? You're right, man. We've gotta fight for it. You gotta ask for permission, then ask for forgiveness."

Wyatt raised a finger as he noted, "I think it's 'ask for forgiveness, not permission.'"

"Yeah, what you just said."

After a long silence wherein he thought Jude was going to speak again—but instead they just gawked at one another, waiting for someone to talk—he asked, "So… are we gonna give this another try or what?"

"We're gonna give it another try, dude!"

Without even turning his head away from his game with Diego, Robbie asked, "Why are you two losers still down here?" from across the room, reminding the guys that they were merely feet away from their targets.

Jude and Wyatt glanced at each other and smirked, confirming nonverbally that they were going to give their operation a second go. Both of them stalked across the living room and blocked the game display.

"Alright, game's over," Wyatt declared, doing his best impression of Jonesy whenever he talked down to his brothers.

"Says who?" Diego asked, cocking an eyebrow and wondering if they were for real.

"Me and Wyatt, that's who, mini-dudes," Jude said, crossing his arms, also trying to look tough.

After Diego and Robbie tossed their controllers aside and stood up, Diego retorted, "Well, if you pussies are really 'bout it, you're gonna have to try and fight us for it."

Despite reeling at such crude language coming from a fifteen-year-old—Jonesy really taught him everything he knows, I see—Wyatt said, "Then let's go."


As Jen chatted with Caitlin, her eyes looked above the top of Caitlin's blonde head to find Sydni striding out of her bedroom.

She instantly wanted to facepalm herself. In the process of trying to life Caitlin's spirits before the end of the night, she may have dampened Sydni's, realizing that she had no one to talk to since Nikki left the room.

Huh. I know Nikki said she was gonna talk to Jonesy, but she hasn't been back in a while. Hmm… Anyways—focus, Jen. You've got to go talk to Sydni.

She didn't want to sour Sydni's first sleepover with the gang by leaving her out, mainly because she made a mental note weeks ago to make her feel more included within the gang.

"Jen… are you okay?" Caitlin asked with her brows furrowing slightly, trying to discern what her best friend was thinking.

"Oh, yeah," she replied, "I'm fine. I just have to go do something real quick." She stood up and said, "I'll be right back," before heading for her bedroom door.

Once she stepped into the hallway, she looked to her left, finding Sydni sitting on the floor with her head buried in her cellphone.

"Hey."

Sydni turned her head, meeting her eyes with an expression that Jen couldn't quite figure out. It looked like discontent, but her tone didn't betray it when she said, "Hey. What's up?"

Jen sat on the carpet next to her, saying, "I just wanted to apologize for leaving you out earlier. I got so caught up in trying to help Cait feel better that I didn't realize that I was ignoring you in the process."

"Don't worry about it. It is what it is."

"You don't have to shrug it off. You can be disappointed in being left out. I'm not gonna judge you for it."

Sydni averted her eyes, pondering Jen's statement. She sighed. "Maybe I am a bit disappointed, especially since I wanna be there for Caitlin, too. I get that you two were friends long before I came along, but I felt kinda like a nonfactor."

"I'm sorry we made you feel that way."

"You don't have to keep apologizing." She offered a ghost of a grin. "I forgive you."

Jen smiled back. "Good."

After they stood up, the two of them hugged, but they quickly retreated when a muffled moan from Jonesy's bedroom sliced through the air.

Jen and Sydni stared at each other with eyes widened.

"Was that…?" Jen asked without daring to say her best friend's name.

Sydni slowly nodded. "Uh huh."

Neither of them could believe that they got caught in the crossfire of whatever was transpiring in Jonesy's room.

"So… sounds like they're… yeah," Sydni said.

Jen's head spun. Just being within earshot of her stepbrother and her best friend made her feel awkward. Even with the hallway walls and his bedroom door hiding their activities from the naked eye, she felt like a voyeur by proximity. "I can't even process this right now."

"Wanna head back to your room?" Sydni asked.

"Yeah… let's do that."

Before they could make their way back, a couple staggered thuds from downstairs grabbed their attention.

"Are we gonna be hearing noises all over the house all night?" Sydni asked, noticing a trend.

Jen huffed. "I hope not." Unlike the way she quickly brushed off the intimate sounds that crept into the hallway, her curiosity got the best of her regarding the noises downstairs. She had a lurking suspicion as to which friends were involved… "Come on,"—she motioned in Sydni's direction—"let's go investigate."

She followed Jen down the stairs, sliding her hand down the dark wood railing as she walked.

"What the hell?" Jen asked as she stepped into the living room, finding Wyatt and Jude sprawled on one side of the living room and her stepbrothers playing video games on the other side, seemingly unbothered. "What happened?"

"Tried to fight Jonesy's bros in the name of Fortwatch," Jude croaked, cradling his abdomen as he laid on his back. "Didn't go so well."

Wyatt groaned as he rested on his side. "Savages, both of them."

"Uh, duh," Jen said. "Jonesy and his brothers wrestle and fight all the time; plus, they try to drag me into it. Of course they're mindless savages."

"I'm never doin' this again. Next time they take somethin' I really want, they can keep it," Jude said before facepalming himself. "Aw, man, now I gotta buy another copy of the game."

"Let me know when you get it, so we can play it anywhere but here," Wyatt said.

"Gotcha." Jude's eyes looked up and met Jen's. He smiled and lifted his arms in the air. "Can ya give me a little help, bra?"

Jen grabbed him and helped him onto his feet, prompting Sydni to follow her lead and do the same for Wyatt.

After Wyatt brushed residual lint and debris off his clothes, he asked, "So… what now?"

"You can always hang with us in my room," Jen offered. "We're just watching movies and talking. Cait also mentioned something about wanting to do some clay masks on everyone."

"Oooh, I'm down for that," Jude said. "I wanna see if it'll get rid of these blackheads I've been gettin'."

She shrugged. "It might. Cait swears by it now. She says it's 'a miracle in a jar.'"

"Awesome."


The four of them made their way upstairs (with Jude looking like an eager puppy at the prospect of the clay masks). After they all settled into Jen's bedroom, Sydni approached Caitlin as she rummaged through her baby-pink duffle.

"Hey, Cait, mind if I talk to you for a sec?"

"Not at all! Let me just find the clay jar really quick." After a few short moments, she pulled her hand out of the bag with a "Got it!" She handed the alleged miracle jar to Jen, then asked Sydni, "So, what's up?"

She ushered Caitlin to follow her to a more secluded corner of Jen's bedroom. Once there, she fidgeted with the dainty silver bracelet around her wrist and said, "I've got to come clean about yesterday."

Caitlin's brows furrowed out of concern. "What about it?"

"Well, after Nikki and I went back outside after helping you, Alejandro saw me, and so we kinda started talking, and then he flirted with me, and then he asked for my number. I was just so…"—she trailed off, trying to grasp at the right word—"so swept away in the moment that I couldn't think of anything else. Then I remembered how you were sitting up here all heartbroken because of you know who and I've been feeling so bad about it ever since, Caitlin." She averted her gaze to the carpet; Caitlin's emerald eyes felt too scalding after the admission she just made. Upon realizing that all she did was incoherently ramble for a minute or two, she clarified, "Basically, what I'm getting at is if you don't want me to text Alejandro because of how I got his number, I'm willing to leave him alone if that means we're okay."

Caitlin gaped at her. "OMG, you got his number?"

Sydni's eyebrows shot up (albeit concealed by her bangs). She sounded more excited than she anticipated. To think she expected Caitlin to be disappointed this whole time. "Wait, you're not upset?"

"Of course not! You've been into him since the summer started; I'm so happy for you." And, judging by the way she beamed, that last sentence rung true.

"So," she started, finding the courage to look Caitlin in the eye again, "you don't mind if I start talking to him?"

"Go for it!" She smiled a little more wistfully. "Something good might as well happen after yesterday."

"You sure? After all, I can put everything on hold until—"

Caitlin put her hands on Sydni's shoulders, cutting her off. "The only thing I want you to do is text him and give me all the details. I'm just gonna live vicariously through you until I find another guy," she said with a giggle punctuating her sentence.

Although feeling silly for making the issue bigger in her head, Sydni giggled too, feeling more at ease now that she talked to Caitlin. "Fair enough," she replied with a grin.


Nikki couldn't help the way her eyes shut and mouth widened beneath Jonesy. Amid the sounds that poured from her open mouth like honey—sweet and rich and languid—she could feel the way his eyes burned her skin in suspended disbelief. After all, this was the first time she ever moaned and moved like that in his presence.

As she blinked and met reality once more, her suspicions were confirmed true. He looked dumbfounded.

"Did you just…?"

Her eyes became less dazed; she smiled and met his fascinated gaze. "Yeah."

"Wow. That… That was hot."

"Isn't that what you say about everything?"

He shook his head. "Nah, not everything. Certain things may be hot, but you're gorgeous."

Oh, how this boy delighted and pleasantly surprised her with the things that rolled off his tongue. She would have turned red if her face wasn't already flushed. "You charming bastard."

"That's my middle name."

"Huh, I thought it was Ric—"

He shut her up with a tender kiss against her lips—warm, slow, and intimate. She smirked the whole time.

That was too easy, she thought.

When they parted, she ran her fingers through his hair, further mussing what was already a mess of blue-black. "Tonight's been really fun, Jonesy. I'm really glad we got to… talk."

"Yeah," he said as he delighted in the way she played with his hair, "that was a great talk. Definitely took my mind off Fortwatch."

She chuckled. "Glad I could distract you from something sci-fi for once." She reveled in the moment before wondering, "So… since—you know—you did that for me, should I do the same for you?"

"Nah, babe, I'm good… If I'm being honest, I kinda just wanted to do something nice for you."

She gave him a tender smile.

"Besides, I'm totally gonna beat off thinking about this when everyone leaves tomorrow. Maybe even later if I can sneak it in."

Of course. "Thanks for your honesty," she deadpanned.

He winked. "Anytime."

Her eyes rolled, more so in a playful way than a way that betrayed annoyance. She pushed him on the chest gently, prompting him to get off her and instead relax on his side. She then got out of his bed. While stretching her arms—since her muscles grew taut from being beneath him in bed for so long—she said, "I think it's time to head back out and see what the gang's up to."

"Yeah, you're right," he said as he stood up alongside her. "Huh, I wonder what Jude and Wyatt did since we kicked them out."

"They probably watched TV or something."

"Yeah, probably."

The two of them walked out his room, only to hear laughter and chatter coming from across the hall.

"Wanna go see what's going on Jen's room?" Nikki asked her boyfriend, curious as to what their friends had done in their absence.

However, Jonesy's curiosity remained in a different room. "You go ahead, babe. I'll meet you guys in there soon."

She followed his eyes and, upon discovering his fixation on the bathroom, decided to toy with him. "What's wrong, Jonesy? Gotta 'go'?"

"Uh, yeah. I gotta go beat my meat like it owes me money. Screw waiting 'til tomorrow."

She snorted as her boyfriend walked to the bathroom door. "Have fun."

"Oh, I will."


About ten minutes later, Jonesy exited the bathroom, feeling significantly lighter leaving than when he entered. Nikki had no idea how she made him feel… Okay, perhaps she could make an accurate guess about how he felt—likely being able to articulate it way better than he ever could—but it didn't detract from the fact that he felt a multitude of things with her. He felt like lightning whenever she was around. Maybe that's why he felt so heavy when he set foot in the bathroom. He had to let out all the lightning amassing in his body from being around her. (That, and he desperately needed to rid himself of the pressure building in the lower half of his form.)

Nevertheless, he finished tending to himself and wanted to see what the gang was up to. Once he opened his stepsister's bedroom door, his eyebrows rose at what he found. A layer of grey-green adorned all of his friends' faces. Huh was the only word he could muster.

"We're doing clay masks! Wanna join?" Caitlin asked.

He winced. "I dunno. Aren't face masks and stuff for chicks?"

Jude raised a finger and interjected, "Skincare is gender-neutral, bro."

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Caitlin said.

"Don't act like you're above wearing a face mask, Mr. I-Worked-at-the-Mall's-Spa," Nikki teased.

As annoying as his girlfriend could be, she raised a valid point. He shrugged and took a seat between Nikki and Wyatt. "Fuck it, I'm in."

"Thought so," she said.

"Where's that clay at?" he asked, looking around the group for the jar in question.

Wyatt looked by his side and found it, passing it to Jonesy.

"Thanks," he said before noticing something reflective on Wyatt's hands as he handed the jar to him. "…Are you wearing clear nail polish, bro?"

He sighed, hoping Jonesy wouldn't tease him about it. He'd endured enough embarrassment at the hands of the Garcias today. "Yeah."

However, seeing that his homeboys had on nail polish and facial masks, he wouldn't make jokes about any of it tonight. He warmed up to the idea of doing something outside of his comfort zone tonight, especially after earlier with Nikki. "Nice," he said, giving Wyatt a thumbs up. He then turned his attention to Caitlin. "So, princess, wanna do my nails after I get this gunk on my face?"

Caitlin rapidly clapped her hands, happy to convert him into a believer of good skincare for the night. "I'd love to!"

Thus, for the remainder of the night, the gang worked on their skin (later taking goofy group photos in their masks), talked shit throughout an entire movie, listened to Jude turn a conversation about Fortwatch into an alien conspiracy, and started a pillow fight with him over said conspiracy until they tired themselves out.


A/N: Sorry it took me so long to get this last chapter up, y'all. I just started my junior year (!) of university and these profs are already trying to kick my ass. Plus, I was having a couple little health challenges, but I'm feeling better. I'm gonna try to start the next 7teen story when I find some downtime! Hope you enjoyed this story. Check out the "soundtrack" below:

"Say So" by Terror Jr (from Bop City)
"Goldmine" by Kilo Kish (from K+)
"Sexual" by NEIKED and Dyo
"Glitter" by Tyler, The Creator (from Flower Boy) [Explicit]
"Dreams" by Dua Lipa (from Dua Lipa)
"Doing It" by Charli XCX and Rita Ora (from Sucker)