AN: Had to tie up a lot of canon loose ends, so I really don't like this chapter, but it had to be done. Pretty much jumping into the deep end of the AU pool after this.

Warnings: Language

Disclaimer: I don't own "Skins"

Chapter Three
Precious Lie

They don't let on that anything is different, that anything has changed. They play it cool and casual. Don't they always? And no one notices anything, no one says anything. Everyone is clueless. Just the way they're supposed to be.

Except Tony keeps staring at her from across the room. And Tea keeps staring back. And if anyone had been paying even the slightest attention they would have seen the way the dynamic has shifted. The way everything has changed without changing anything at all.

"So how was your blind date?" Michelle asks with horrible, honest curiosity as she slides across from Tea. This is a friend, hers and Tony's, and they've betrayed her terribly.

"It was fine." So nonchalant, as if her date hadn't been Michelle's boyfriend. As if she hadn't slept with him.

"He try and get into your pants?"

"Yep." She doesn't mention that she let him. Hell, that she started it. Kissed him, pulled him down, told him not to stop...

"And you explained the whole liking girls thing?"

Tea kinda wishes this line of discussion would be over already so she just nods. Tries to look bored. She doesn't want to talk about her date, about Tony.

"But still, it's nice to get jumped like that sometimes, you know?" Her gaze shifts to Tony who's staring at Tea until he notices his girlfriend's attention. He redirects his eyes to the work in front of him. Michelle looks back at Tea with sad eyes. "It's been a while since Tony wanted me like that. I have to work at it. It feels like...work."

Tea knows she should say something comforting. She should tell her that she has nothing to worry about. Maybe even say that Tony loves her, even though he obviously doesn't. But then Betty's there, lips against hers, and she doesn't have to say anything at all. The kiss is neither gentle nor demanding, some sort of strange mix between the two. I'm ready to stop hiding, it says without words, are you? And Tea doesn't have the answer. She used to have them all.

"See you 'round, yeah?" And she's grabbing her things while her boyfriend just stares.

Michelle yells something at the morons still staring with disbelief. But Tea doesn't really hear because Tony's looking at her again, knowing yet confused and almost even hurt, and it's not fair because everything used to be simple and now it's not. It's supposed to be.

The bell rings, and Tea leaves, doesn't wait for her friends. Doesn't wait for Tony, though she can feel his eyes burning into her back. Her father's there, waiting beside a car she's never seen before with the darkness she hates painted on his face. He knocks on the window and it rolls down to reveal Madison and two men she knows work for the Mob, the way she knows her father does.

"Is this the guy?" He asks, voice hard. "The one that called you that name."

"Dad..."

"Is it?"

"Dad."

"I'll take care of it."

"No. Dad, no."

"You're a good person, sweetheart." He kisses her forehead and she knows that he doesn't think he is.

She walks away, hopes he does the right thing, but sort of doubts he will. And she's sitting on her bed, wishing things would just go back to the way they used to be. Where her friends were just her friends, and a one night stand only lasted one night, and father didn't do the things she knows he's doing.

But she doesn't think they'll ever be the same.

He should just let it go. He knows he should. It didn't fucking mean anything. He knows it didn't. That it can't. But the knowledge doesn't stop him from picking up his phone and dialing her number.

"Hi." She answers, quiet and hesitent in that way that says I shouldn't have even answered the phone. He hates that tone. And he especially hates it coming from her.

"Hi." It shouldn't be this hard to talk to her. She's Tea. His best friend.

"It isn't going to fly." Why not, Tea. Come on, we could be good. Those are the words he wants, but they're not the ones that come out.

"I matched you. I matched you good." It's not untrue, and he just wants her to talk to him. To realize that she can't just run away from him because he's her best friend and he'll hunt her down to the ends of the goddamned earth. That's what he does. He pushes and pushes until things happen the way he wants them to. And he wants this.

"I've got to go."

"Don't." He tries to tell her, but by the time the word have worked their way out of his mouth, Tea has already hung up on him. "Damn it."

He runs his hands over his face, wondering when everything got so completely fucked. And ignores the part of him that reminds him it was just about the time he fucked her. He doesn't want to think about that. That, maybe, probably, it's all his fault. Well, not all his fault. It's not like he was alone last night. It's not like she didn't want him to. He even fucking asked. She could have said no.

But he's glad she didn't.

No, I'm not, he corrects himself. Because if she had just said no, had just reminded him that she's a goddamned lesbian, none of this would be happening. They'd have had a laugh, had a few more drinks, and gone home with easy money. Could have kept it up, gotten paid every few weeks to hang out and drink. If they hadn't been so stupid. God, how had two people who pride themselves on their intellect done something so utterly and recklessly moronic.

Tony flops back on his bed, exhausted with himself and with Tea. He doesn't know the answers. He always knows the answers. He has a solution for everything. Except what to do when you hook-up with your gay best friend behind your girlfriend's back while working for the mob. The one answer he doesn't have, so of course, it's the one he needs.

He stifles a groan as the incredibly vivid memory of her hands on his skin overtakes him for a second. He grits his teeth and gets out of bed. He's not going to do this. He's not going to sit at home and pine, for god's sake. He's Tony fucking Synder, he doesn't pine after anyone, dammit.

"Stan?" He all but barks into his phone. "We're going out. Just the boys." He doesn't want to deal with Michelle right now, anyways.

"We are?" Stan's clueless voice questions.

"Yes, you pussy. We are." Tony is demanding and assertive because Stan will do whatever he tell him to. That's how this works. "The Cafe, twenty minutes."

"All right."

The next number.

"Abbud, stop doing whatever you're doing. And get to the Cafe, twenty minutes. Boy's night out. We''ll find some nice one night stands."

"I am so there."

"Of course you are."

And the next.

"Chris, put on your party pants, we're going to town."

"Party!"

"Damn straight."

And it's all a hollow imitation of the way things used to be. The way they should be. But Tony tells himself he doesn't care.

He almost even believes it.

Almost.