Chapter 7
With a newfound bounce in her step, Starr let herself into Schuyler's room early the next morning. She had just discovered a new benefit to Langston knowing the truth; her friend could now cover for her whenever she wanted to see Schuyler, making it so much easier to get out of the house. Good timing for this to happen, too, because Jack, still hating her because of Todd's absence, seemed determined to find something he could use against Starr, and the last thing she needed was to slip up one night and have her little brother discover the truth.
There was no sign of him, and Starr realized as she quickly glanced at the clock that he was probably still in bed, taking advantage of the weekend to sleep in. Starr quietly crept to his bedside and grinned at the sight of him sleeping with the pillow she always used when she was here hugged to his chest. Starr managed to slide onto the bed without making a sound and affectionately ran her fingers through his messy hair, before leaning down and lightly brushing her lips across his.
As she pulled back, Schuyler's eyes fluttered open, and he smiled softly when he saw her, wordlessly taking her hand and pulling her down to him, causing Starr to giggle as she cuddled against his chest, pushing her pillow out of the way.
"Nice way to wake up," he murmured, voice tired but happy.
"I'll have to do it more often, then."
"Looking forward to it," he chuckled as he tossed the pillow aside. "How'd that get here?" he muttered to himself.
"Schuyler, just admit that you hug my pillow and cry on the nights I'm not here, it's okay."
"My sobs lull me to sleep," he deadpanned. Starr giggled. "What are you doing here so early?"
"Uh, there's something I kind of need to talk to you about."
"Uh-oh; that's not a good tone. What have I told you about bad news before ten in the morning?"
"Not bad news," she laughed reassuringly. "Big, but not bad. Um…okay, I'm just going to say it- Langston found out about us."
"What? Schuyler asked, now fully awake. "How did that happen?"
"Sadly, my stealth skills failed me for once; she overheard me talking to you on the phone."
"Is everything okay? What happened?"
"Everything's fine," she reassured him. "Trust me, I would have shown up here last night freaking out if it wasn't. Her reaction was…not good, at first. She kept insisting I really wanted Cole," Starr told him reluctantly. She could feel Schuyler stiffen uncomfortably, and flinched; well at least now his discomfort was something like jealousy, not a suspicion that Langston was right like it would have been once, she considered that an improvement. "And then she stormed out, and for a second, I seriously that she and I were just…done, and I was upset, to say the least."
"Oh, Starr," he murmured sympathetically, rubbing light circles on her back, "Why didn't you call me?"
"I was so upset, I just didn't even think to," she lied smoothly. "But it's all okay now, because when she left, she and Markko had a talk- you weren't brought up- and he saved me by knocking some sense into her. She came back to apologize and actually listen, and, very long story short, she's cool now. She's over the Cole thing, and she's behind us one hundred percent. Sooo…yay!" she said simply, giving an adorably dorky fist pump to emphasize, that was quite possibly one of the cutest things Schuyler had ever seen. "Oh, and because we've got her support, she has now offered to cover for me anytime I need it, meaning I can get out a lot more now, so prepared to get very sick of me."
"Never going to happen," he promised.
"You think that now," she laughed, shaking her head.
To her surprise, Schuyler, usually the one to hold back, suddenly rolled her over so she was pinned underneath him and kissed her passionately, keeping himself up with one hand as he ran the other down her waist agonizingly slowly, until he pressed his hand to the bare skin of her back underneath her shirt, causing Starr to shiver into his kiss.
Starr just gazed up at him with dazed, starry eyes when he pulled away, barely remembering to breathe, and Schuyler just chuckled, quickly pressing one more kiss to her lips.
"Now have I convinced you?"
"Nope," she lied playfully. "I think you still need to make a believer out of me."
Starr grabbed him by the shoulders and forcefully pulled him back down to her, kissing him eagerly, and Schuyler responded with renewed fervor. He ran his hand from her back, down her thigh, and suddenly hitched her leg over his waist, causing Starr to moan low in her throat, reflexively pushing herself even closer against him as she pressed her tongue to his lips.
Starr was just thinking this might finally be the day she lucked out when moments later, Schuyler, unfortunately, seemed to come to his senses, and he abruptly pulled back from the kiss and rolled off of her, apparently having decided that was far enough; if she didn't know that she needed to ask him something else, Starr would have pushed it, but she just let it go for now, pausing a moment to regain her breath before speaking.
"Uh, before you so rudely distracted me," she laughed nervously, smoothing down her hair. "I needed to ask you something else; Langston wants to know if she can tell Markko about you and me," she said, glancing at him with a clear question in her eyes.
"That's totally up to you, Starr," he replied.
"What?" she asked, startled. "But, I mean, it affects you way more than me. If somebody were to slip up and spill something, you have so much more to lose than I do." Schuyler paused for a moment, and then simply smiled, shrugging.
"I don't care."
"You…don't care?" Starr repeated slowly, her eyes wide with disbelief. "You don't care about the possibility of your entire career being destroyed?"
"Starr, of course I care, I love teaching, but I don't want you to feel like you have to lie to your friends and hide things from them because of me. I want you to tell whatever you want to whoever you want, and if something does end up slipping, I'll deal with it; everything will be fine. It's up to you," he repeated. Starr smiled softly as Schuyler lightly stroked her hair.
"Okay; then I'm gonna tell her it's alright. Langston will probably be less likely to accidentally spill something if she can talk to someone anyway," Starr laughed. "Besides, Markko can keep a secret, nobody will find out anything from him. My friends are good that way, it's just my family that's the problem." Schuyler laughed, but Starr looked up at him with wide eyes. "Uh, I'm not being funny, Schuy. If my dad ever found out…" Starr trailed off, shuddering.
"That bad?"
"Worse than anything you're imagining, I can pretty much guarantee that," she sighed, anxiety rushing through her blood just thinking about it. "He's tried to kill Cole- and I'm not exaggerating, literally, hands around the throat, trying to beat him to death, kill- more than once. When Langston and Markko tried to cover for us once, and he caught them, my dad also beat up Markko and hit Langston. And one of those times with Cole when I was pregnant, and he just gets so lost in his anger that he doesn't know what's going on, and when I tried to stop him, he pushed me down a flight of stairs before he even seemed to realize what he was doing."
"Son of a bitch," Schuyler reflexively spat without even thinking, anger gripping him tightly over the thought of anybody, let alone her own father, ever doing something to hurt Starr. She just sighed sadly, drawing his attention away from that fury and back to her.
"Pretty good description of him. And, keep in mind, Cole was a teenage boy, while you are a grown man, so everything he did to Cole, you should probably double. Yes, somehow double attempted murder," Starr muttered, worry clouding her eyes as she buried her head in her hands. "Oh, God, I probably should have given you this warning about my dad before we got involved, huh?" she asked miserably, her good mood having been killed by thoughts of her father. Starr felt a twist of guilt as she imagined it. What if something went wrong, and her dad found out, and Schuyler didn't just lose his job, but got seriously hurt? How would she ever be able to live with herself?
"It wouldn't have mattered to me," Schuyler said softly, prying her hands from her face and tilting her head so she was looking him in the eyes. "I wouldn't have done anything differently."
"Maybe you should have," Starr said weakly, unable to shake the mental image she now had of her dad 'confronting' Schuyler. The thought of not being with Schuyler hurt more than almost anything, but that 'almost' just so happened to be because the thought of him hurt was worse.
"Hey, Starr, where is this coming from?" Schuyler asked gently. "Everything is fine. Your dad doesn't know, and odds are, he's not going to find out. And even if he does, it'll be okay- I can handle your dad," he told her with a reassuring smile. "Everything's going to be okay, I promise."
"And everything I just said really doesn't bother you, or freak you out?" Starr asked cautiously. Schuyler smiled, shaking his head.
"Remember what I said to you that first night? 'Being with you is worth anything.' I mean that. I love you, Starr."
Starr smiled brightly, the warm rush of happiness she felt quickly erasing her fears, and with a peaceful sigh, she just rested her forehead against Schuyler's, shutting her eyes.
"I love you too."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Absent mindedly humming to herself, Langston continued to people gaze as she waited for Markko to get off work, eager to tell him about Starr and Schuyler now that Starr had given her the okay; this was way too big and exciting for her to keep to herself.
A moment later, Langston's attention was drawn away from the couple across the room as somebody slid into the booth across from her, and she startled for a second before seeing it was Cole, and laughed at herself.
"Hey, Cole, what's…" Langston, who had just been about to congratulate him on being released, slowly trailed off, her stomach clenching as Cole turned to face her; his eyes were cold and hard, he seemed edgy and frantic, and she knew instantly what that meant. God he'd been out of rehab for a day, and after seeming like he was on the path to getting better, he'd already gotten high; how the hell had she ever believed Starr could save him from himself?
"Langston, I need your help," he sighed, sounding irritated. Langston just stared at Cole in disbelief; these pills were invasion of the body snatchers material. When he was high, Cole was a completely different person, he was unrecognizable, and she couldn't believe this stranger expected her help.
"With what?" she snapped, making it clear she didn't want to help.
"With Starr. I've been trying to see her ever since I got out yesterday, but she hasn't returned any of my calls!"
"So?" Langston asked shortly. Cole looked frustrated that she didn't get it.
"And I need to see her."
"Why? What could possibly be so important?" she asked; Cole got downright obsessive about Starr when he was high, and after last night, she didn't find it romantic, like she used to, but just plain creepy. She couldn't believe she'd ever found it anything but that.
Cole shook his head as he realized Langston wasn't exactly being receptive to what he had to say, gazing at her as if she'd betrayed him.
"So you're not going to help me, right? That's all you need to say."
"No, I'm not. You know why, Cole?" Langston hissed. "Because you've been out of rehab for a day, and you're already right back on the pills; I don't want someone like that anywhere near my friend. She tried to have faith in you, Cole, we all tried to have faith in you, and this, right here, ruins it, and we're just done."
"I haven't done anything wrong!" he shouted, digging his fingers into his hair. "It's not like I hurt anyone!"
"I'm not even going to debate this with you, Cole! It doesn't even matter if that part's true or not. Just leave Starr alone, okay?"
"I thought you were on my side!"
"No, Cole, I never was!" she shouted right back, that hitting a nerve. "I've always been on hers! I thought being on Starr's side meant supporting you, but I was completely wrong about that. She's with someone else, Cole, okay? That's why the drugs aren't even what matter anymore."
"Who?" he demanded suspiciously, almost looking as if he was daring her to say it.
"Nobody you know," Langston shot back smoothly. "And it doesn't matter who he is. She loves him, and he loves her, and they're happy, and if you keep trying to get in the way, I think Starr's going to give up on being your friend and you're gonna lose her completely. And y'know what? You'll lose me too, because if you can't let go then I'm going to have to think you don't really care about her and I will be damned if I'm friends with someone who doesn't care about my BFF, got it?"
"I love her, Langston," he pressed desperately. She sighed.
"No you don't, Cole."
"Don't tell me how I feel!" Cole exploded, jumping to his feet. Langston's eyes widened as she gazed at him, reactively shrinking back in her seat.
"Cole, I told you to leave!"
Langston sighed in relief as she heard Markko's upset voice and he appeared at her side a moment later, staring Cole down evenly.
"What do you even want now?"
"Like it matters," he hissed, glaring at both of them. "Your girlfriend's about as helpful as you are."
Cole turned, storming out of the café, and Langston and Markko both released a breath, exchanging a wide eyed, nervous look.
"Hey, you okay?" Markko asked, squeezing her arm. Langston sighed and stood up, quickly hugging and kissing her boyfriend.
"Yeah, I'm fine. He's just not thrilled about the fact that the talk you and I had last night brought me to my senses. You said you told him to leave before? Why, what did he want from you?"
"A urine sample," he scoffed, rolling his eyes. "He's freaking out, thinks he's gonna have to take another drug test soon. I don't know why the hell he thinks I'd want to help him stay on drugs."
"I don't know why the hell Cole does any of the crap he does these days," Langston snorted in frustration, shaking her head. "You ready to go?"
"Yeah. So, what did you need to talk to me about that was so important?" he asked, chuckling as he recalled her hysterical, shrieking phone call earlier.
"Oh my gosh!" she gasped, hands flying to her mouth; the incident with Cole had momentarily distracted her from her reason for coming here in the first place. "Come on, I have to tell you!"
Langston quickly tugged Markko out the front door, looking around to see if anybody was standing nearby. Seeing that the street was completely empty, Langston tugged Markko off to the side, too eager to tell someone about this huge news to wait.
"Okay, so, last night, when I told you about me and Starr's fight, I left some stuff out. Um, okay, I don't really know how to start, here, so I'll just say it; the whole reason the fight started is because I found out that…Starr is dating Mr. J," she whispered dramatically.
"She's what?! Is she insane?!" Markko cried.
"Shh! Look, don't freak out," Langston ordered urgently, looking around frantically. She sighed in relief- there was still nobody around. "That was my reaction at first too, but…this is good for her, Markko, it really is. She's my best friend, so I can read her like a book, and I can see how happy she is; and that's all I want for her. She told me everything about how they got together, and what it's been like since, and he sounds like a really great guy, Markko, honestly, and like he's been really great to her."
Markko opened his mouth to respond, but suddenly, he was cut off by the one voice Langston was terrified to hear right now, causing her heart to plummet to her feet.
"Is that so?!"
"Oh my God," Langston uttered softly at the sound of Cole's voice, which sounded torn somewhere between fury and glee.
She turned, dread in her stomach, and saw him walking over from the side of the building, a small, now empty, little plastic baggie in hand. Well, this was just fantastic; Cole hangs around in the alley to take a hit, and she winds up letting him hear everything. Crap, it had been all of one day, and she'd let Starr's secret slip to the one person who couldn't ever know- no wonder Starr had lied to her for so long.
"Starr really is dating Joplin? She told you this herself? That's just great, that's just..wow. She's been lying to us for months- she's been lying to me," he spat, before mimicking her voice. "'I'm not with him, Cole!'"
"Starr didn't tell me anything, Cole!" Langston cried, her heart thundering wildly.
"Oh, bullshit, Langston, I just heard every word you said! Don't take a page from your friend's book and start lying to me too."
"Cole, chill out," Markko snapped, his head still spinning; he had no idea where he stood on this right now.
"Why?! My girlfriend won't take me back because she's too busy getting molested by her teacher, why the hell should I chill out?! How long has this been going on?"
Langston stammered wildly, not actually forming any real worlds, and her mouth suddenly felt extremely dry; she couldn't figure out quickly enough if it was better to continue to deny or not.
"I can't fucking believe her," Cole muttered to himself, beginning to pace around like a caged animal just waiting for someone to come close enough so he could strike. "Jesus, the night of the dance wasn't even the first time, was it? I can't believe she is still with this perv even after what it caused that night!"
"What it caused?" Markko shouted before Langston could, looking at his friend with stunned, angry eyes. "You're kidding, right, Cole? That's some kind of sick joke on your part?"
"Yeah; you were the one driving while intoxicated, Cole, how dare you blame that on Starr!"
"I feel like shit about that, okay, you know that, and I always will, but-"
"No you don't!" Langston cried. "If you felt any ounce of remorse for what you did, you wouldn't be wasting the chance you were given by getting high over and over again! You wouldn't be claiming it's all Starr's fault!"
"Isn't it?! She doesn't care who gets hurt, as long as she gets to be with that creep. Hell, including herself, obviously, since she's apparently perfectly fine with letting him take advantage of her!"
"You don't know what the hell you're talking about!"
"No, you're just blind, Langston. And if you cared about Starr at all, you would stop her before she makes any more mistakes with this guy."
"Don't you ever talk to me about caring for Starr," she hissed, clenching her fists. "I'm her best friend, Cole, and right now, you're nothing to her, I think I'm the one who knows better." Cole just shook his head, a grim smile on his face.
"Joplin is the only reason I'm nothing to her. She'll come to her senses sooner or later- you all will."
"I give up, Cole," Langston choked out; every single word that came out of his mouth was making her violently angry and yet causing a small part of her heart to break for him bcause of this state he was in, all at once, and she couldn't take it anymore. "Think whatever you want, I don't care anymore."
"Fine, I will," Cole said calmly, shrugging as he turned to leave.
"Cole!" Langston shouted after him quickly, a fresh surge of panic racing through her. "Where are you going? What do you think you're doing? Gonna run off and tell someone what you think you heard?" she asked, stressing the word in hopes that he could still be convinced he'd been hallucinating or something. "You're a drug addict with no proof, it's pointless!"
"Thought you didn't care anymore," he shot back, not slowing his step.
"Oh my God," Langston moaned, burying her head against (the still very confused) Markko's shoulder. "What is he going to do? What are we going to do?"
Cole simply smirked to himself as he continued to storm off; seemed like it was time he had a man to man talk with Schuyler Joplin.
End Chapter 7
Sorry, not much Scarr time in this one, I know; I just needed to set everything up for the next arch of the story, where, I must warn you, things get angsty again :P
Oh, and, lol randomest notes ever here; I know there's like, debate over whether or not Todd actually hit Langston in that scene, but it certainly looked like it to me, so, uh…yeah, lol. And I missed the day of the stairs incident, and can't find the clip of it on youtube, so I have no idea how it actually played out, if it was an accident on Todd's part or not, I'm just going off of what I could find in recaps.