Thank you for patiently waiting for me to finish Social Problems before coming back to this. I must admit, Social Problems and this sequel have quickly become main projects in a way. This next chapter is going tie many threads together across the Redhead path of Relationship Problems and Social Problems.

Lastly, there's a new poll up on my profile. Please feel free to vote for the pairing you would most like to see! Beli and Kyanna are the main girls because they came first in the last side story poll I held. Anyway, let us begin this chapter!

Painful Truth

The Bar and Lounge – something of a premier location within Glenberry to say the least. Usually there was a long line to get in at this time in the evening. However, a certain cheerleader was friends with the owner's daughter – one of the benefits that came with being cheer squad captain. However, to say there wasn't a reason for all of this would have been quite the monumental dishonesty. This was far beyond a casual meeting.

Three girls, three very different personalities, and not to mention three very different sets of aspirations to match. They sat together in the furthest corner of the establishment, their table illuminated by the whimsical flicker of a scented candle. They looked calm and relaxed enough.

Looks were misleading.

Tiffany sat beside Nikki on high alert; a protective cat guarding her kitten.

Tension. It consumed what should have been a nice evening.

"So… I asked you both here tonight because I think there's something we have to talk out..."

Just the sound of Tiffany's voice was cause enough to make Nikki flinch.

"What is this all about?" The gamer girl twiddled her thumbs between a reserved sip of her beer. "I should be questing in Neon Gods by now…. They've just released a new expansion pack…."

"Yeah, Tiff," Audrey;s the group's rouge firecracker barrelled in last, her uptight postire falling to the wayside as she downed what must've been her third daiquiri by now. "Dragging us out here like this but not giving us a damn word about why…. C'mon, girl… spill."

This was the moment of truth. The pinnacle, and definitely most dangerous point of the gathering. The cheerleader felt butterflies in her tummy. The queasy kind.

'No... there's no backing out now, Tiffany…. You have to do this… for the sake of everyone….'

"Raise your hand if you've dated, or been involved with Mike Winters over the past six months."

"Shit… you called me out here just for that," Audrey raised her hand first with a frustrated bark. "I don't see why we needed this meetup. You know how I feel about him… the slimy fucker…."

Miss Maye raised her hand next – a grim shudder of recollection serving as the reminder of all she'd was promised. Broken promises, almost all of them.

"Everything should be out in the open. The three of us keep avoiding the subject... It's making hanging out together difficult."

Two girls of the trio stood committed to the question with raised hands.

"I guess you're waiting for me, huh?" Nikki uttered, finally joining them, halfway holding up her hand.

"WHAAAT?" Audrey sprung up from the table in a crimson eruption – slamming her palms against the wood with eyes trained in sharpened fury, "You too, Nikk? No… FUCK THIS SHIT!"

Tiffany felt the glares of near enough every patron burned into her back after Audrey's outburst. All she could do was move to defuse the situation, quickly.

"We need to talk about this," she levelled with the burning fury of her bestie, "It's true… he's played all three of us…."

It certainly was a sight, watching Audrey slide back into her seat. Her hands shook, crawling around the length of another daiquiri-filled glass, "Y-you're fucking with me, right? Please…."

The desperate, almost begging glance the party girl gave a frightened Nikki was painful. Tiffany felt her heart ache. After all, in their own very different ways she and the redhead always protected Nikki. She was the gentle one. Naive and locked almost every day inside her room.

'Honesty is the best policy. We can't keep going on pretending this didn't happen.'

Nikki was silent. Too silent even for Ann-Marie standards. Razor tension sliced the air.

"I… I guess." A desperate sputter from the gamer girl. "He promised me so much shit… I really started to feel something, and then one day…."

She pulled a strange phone from the pocket of her shorts, a fancy smartphone with a heart-shaped power button and a glittery pink screen. "He sends me this…."

'Nikki, it's me…. If I don't do this now I won't have the strength to push ahead and say what needs to be said. I finally think I've gotten everything straightened out in my life. Well, I feel as though I know the best way forward. I can't deal with having a relationship right now. God knows, they've caused me my fair share of crap lately. So, I think it's best we stop meeting up. I'm not gonna drag you down the same path as me, not when I know you're a special lady with a lot to give to someone out there. Thank you for everything, and… I'm thankful we met that night.'

Mikey had been up to his old tricks again. He'd lied about not making contact anymore. Tiffany frowned.

'I saw him delete her number the night we met at the bar…. He gave me his word….'

"Bastard... he thinks he's something really special, doesn't he? Well... FUCK HIM!" Audrey, boomed. She got up, burning red hot. She fiddled with her purse, producing her own, battered phone and slinging it into the midde of the table, "Take a look at this, Nikki."

Audrey glanced Tiffany's way. "Sorry, girl…. You've seen this one before…."

Miss Maye could only watch as Nikki's eyes widened behind her spectacles. A picture of Mike, barely clothed, asleep in Audrey's bed.

"I feel like such a fool for trusting him... for wanting to give him a chance. I should've known better… but he seemed so… kind at heart." Nikki's reaction was much how the blonde felt when the revelation was first cast upon her – pained and uncertain. Her sapphire eyes gave it away.

"Hmph!" Audrey pulled the phone back between her fingers, sliding it away within the confines of her bag. "We need to do something about him…. I mean, he thinks he's fucking Romeo or something, but you know what sitting through that boring-ass play in school taught me?"

"You mean Shakespeare?" Nikki chimed in with an innocent tilt of the head. "I liked it. There's an RPG for that one in PC n-"

"Shut up, Nikki. I'm trying to make a point! Romeo didn't get a happy ending…. You guys saw it too, right, the modern version where they had guns 'n shit? My point here's still the fucking same…. You really think I'm gonna let that bastard get away with it? He treated us like crap, trampled those shiny shoes all over us like fucking doormats!"

Tiffany pulled her thoughts back from her time watching the modern movie adaption of the Shakespeare classic in high school literature class. "But if we try getting back at him… are we any better than him? You know what they say about packback..."

Morals. The things setting her apart protecting her from the blackened doings of her less than sparkly mother.

Ironic. Mike Winters and Jessica Maye seemed to have an awful lot in common at this point in time.

"I have to agree with Tiffany." Nikki clutched the bizzare phone in her hand as she chimed in. "Some people you can't save from themselves…. Wouldn't it be better to…well... let him fall apart on his own?"

"WHAT IN THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU TWO?" Audrey flew up from her space at table with a finger of accusation.

"You," Tiffany flinched. She was first to receive the raging torrent of the angry redhead, "You wanna be straight about this? FINE! I'll give you some home truth! Are you forgetting how that FUCKER almost ripped our friendship apart? Have you really forgotten so damn quick that we didn't talk for WEEKS after we first found out?"

"Audrey…. I never he-"

"Then there's you, Ann-Marie." Audrey had already turned her guns to fire on the next target, "I don't like that look you have in your eyes…. When I mentioned him a second ago it felt like you were defending him!"

Tiffany felt Nikki cling to her arm with terror in her quivering blue eyes, "Y-you're wrong. I'm just saying that… maybe… we shouldn't let a guy like him ruin our lives…. He's not worth it…."

"Alright!" There was no stopping Audrey when she burned up like this. She threw a handful of bills on the table to pay for her drinks. "If you two aren't going to do anything then I'll make damn sure he doesn't have the chance to play games with us again…."

"Nobody hurts me and my friends and gets away with it... and I'm done being treated like his little fuckhole."

The redhead slung her purse over her shoulder. "I'll see you later…. Don't call for a couple of days; I'll be busy, especially since I'm the only one with some fucking backbone….."

Tiffany didn't dare to turn her back and look out to the sea of patrons when Audrey stormed out. The chatter circulating between tables was almost deafening. "I have a really bad feeling about all this Nikki. How about you?"

Nikki wasn't paying attention. She was glued to her... phone? Pink with heart-buttons? Was it custom made?

"Hey…. Ann-Marie?" Tiffany spoke up. "That 'thing' in your hand… it is a phone, right? I've never seen a model like it before…."

Nikki sighed sadly, and yanked her gaze from the glowing LED screen, "It's called a Huniebee… I got it from a friend. She said it was important… and that I needed it for... well- "Forget it, you wouldn't believe me if I told you…."

Tiffany took that as her cue to be quiet. She slumped, defeated with her head in her hands and let a tiny little whimper escape from her lips, "It wasn't supposed to go like this…."

'It isn't just a mess, Tiffany…. It's a complete and total disaster….'

the apartment was as clean as it was going to get on such short notice. Mike sat sprawled across the couch in a pair of casual jeans and an unbuttoned shirt, his thoughts sat at a cool drift amidst the quiet.

"Weird…. I didn't expect Kyu to take off so suddenly, but I guess if she had to cover another client on short notice there's nothing I can do." His eyes wandered toward the television as his channel flicking finger settled upon the news, "It's close to seven-thirty…. I wonder if Lillian is coming af-"

*ThudThudThud*

"Yoooooo! Cuz! Like, open the door or something, I'm like, freezing stood out in this hallway."

A nervous smile Mike got up. Such a long drawl of a voice, one so light yet bratty at the same time could only be one person. A person he hadn't seen in more than a year at the very least.

"She's here…." A couple of tense footsteps in the direction of the doorway. Mikey stopped and took a breath to calm his nerves. "Alright, keep it steady. It's been a while but there's nothing to worry about.

The moment of truth. A stiff hand clutching the handle, Mike pulled the door open with a sharp tug.

His heart jumped in an instant as two blue eyes met with green. The little red organ in his chest thumped as his brain ran in overtime to connect the dots.

"Lillian?" Who the hell was this girl? Sure, she had the same pasty white complexion and dark hair he remembered, but where had those curves arose from, such a well-endowed chest, a developed figure… not to mention the tattoos… and a lip piercing?

"Cuz… You're like, totally messing with me, right? Mike?" Lillian had the same dumbfounded stare to match his. "Like, what happened to your hair? Peroxide blond? You've been... working out as well? For reeeeal? Oh-my-gaaaawd."

Her hands slid down to her hips and she give a snort of laughter, "Who is this alien and like… what the heck happened to the guy I grew up with?"

'A fairy happened, Lillian. She swooped in, fixed my life, built me up and then I tore myself back down again. Now here I am, somewhere between a person I know and a total stranger... Still, I'm stunned by the size of those b-'

"Hey! Earth calling Mike! Like, wake the hell up, man! C'mon… Are you gonna like, let me stand here all night?"

"Oh, sorry!" Reality crashed back to free Mike from the confines of his thoughts. With a fragile smile, he took a step back. "Come in and make yourself at home. It might be a little messy, but hey, I've been busy recently."

A single invite was all the gothic stranger, almost like a vampire given her sense of dress, needed. She romped in, kicking off her shoes and launching herself upon the couch, long pigtails skewed.

"Wow, like… not a bad place you've got here." Lillian looked the place over as Mike brought in her suitcase and sat it beside her, "I can totally see why you didn't come home after finishing college…. The music biz must be treating you good..."

Man, this was so awkward. Mike sat on the arm of the couch. Had he really fallen so far out of touch with the girl he'd been raised with?

The sound of a lighter snapped him back – and just like that, with the sight of his younger cousin lighting up a cigarette, he woke up. The last think he wanted was an ash burn on the lether. "Let me get the ashtray from my room."

"I didn't know you smoked," Lillian commented, taking a drag."

"I don't, but it looks like you haven't slowed down any since I last saw you."

'Okay… so that's one habbit she hasn't broken. Seems like Uncle James' lecutres didn't help her ease back on the smoking at all…. Considering our age difference… how did she get people to buy them for her when she first started?'

Shaking his head, the elder Winters went to grab the ashtray from his room – coming back to slide it on the lounge coffee table before taking his perch again. "So," he continued nervously, the need to make some form of conversation looming more than ever, "Do I need to address the elephant in the room?"

"Ohhh shit," Lillian batted at the ashtray like a cat with yarn until she leaned close enough take it in her fingers, bringing it to rest upon her exposed tummy, "You're gonna ask why I got kicked out of college, aren't you?"

She rolled her eyes, looking pretty damn uninterested in talking about the whole affair, sitting halfway upright, "What-ever…. Fine…. I guess I'll tell you the story… it's pretty short."

Mike nodded.

"Well... It is the reason you're here after all, and considering you won't talk to your dad about it... I figure you can at least give me the details, right?"

It was strange – just moments before everything felt so cold, almost frozen, yet it took but mere minutes from Lillian's return for things to thaw, almost like she never went away. Just like that he was back to being the older cousin again, the one to always lend a hand when his younger charge did stupid shit to damage her prospects.

Some things never changed in life.

Lillian slid one of her legs over the side of the couch – spread unladylike. To say she looked 'picturesque' right now was one way of putting it, especially with her legs wide and her well-endowed chest almost spilling from her tight, strapless top.

"So there's this bitch, right?" The moody girl started before taking another hit of nicotine. "We've been like, arguing for what must be like… forever. I listened to my music after dark, she bitched… I had my friend over in my dorn, she complained cuz I was like, two doors down the hall from her and I was a little loud..."

Mikey could only begin to wonder where in the world all of this was going. He felt more like an elder sibling than a cousin right now.

"So… it gets to this point where she's sick of seeing me, right? I know, like, what-ever…. How in the world could someone get tired of having me around? I've got some great taste in music, awesome fashion sense, but apparently this skanky little bitch thinks I'm 'too dark and moody' for her. You ever had one of those days when you just think 'fuck my life?' Yeah we all have those…."

Lillian let out a grumpy growl before firing up another cigarette.

"So what if the world pisses me off sometimes? Life can be like, really shitty! But like, yeaaaaah. So, I'm totally listening to The Cure after class, and she comes slamming into my room and drags me out into the hall… says something about how she's 'tired' and she 'needs sleep' because she's seeing some guy later tonight."

Mike rolled his eyes. A shallow complaint. Music was supposed to be loud. "Carry on…. You've peaked my interest at this point."

"Yeah, I know, right?" Lillian laid back against the side of the leather. "So I'm stood there and I'm thinking to myself about what kind desperate shithead would go jamming his junk in her dirty snatch, and the next thing I know she's getting crazy abusive, so I turn to walk away... Freaking bitch shoves on the floor!"

So that was how the fight started? The good bit was right around the corner, it sounded. Drink time. "Hold that thought for a moment while I grab a malt."

Mike slid across to the kitchen area and reached for a shot glass and a bottle of the Firewater.. "Continue… I've needed one all day."

"Okay, so," Lillian spoke up again, her feminine assets damn near hanging out out of her shirt at this point. She didn't seem to care. "After that I end up seeing red…. This hoe never like shut her damn mouth. I'd plain had enough. So I jumped back up and smacked her… right in the piggy nose. Didn't break it… but I was close, I think…."

"Damn," Mike took a mouthful of alcohol and sat the half empty glass come back to the lounge, sitting his glass on the coffee table. "No wonder they kicked you out? Violence in university…. No offence here Lili, but that kind of thing doesn't fly outside highschool…."

"Oh gawwwd," she rolled her eyes and frowned, "Are you going to lecture me now, too, Mike? You sounded just like dad for a second…. It's okay for you… nice place, doing well for yourself…. Mister Perfect gonna cast judgement? Like, for reeeal?"

"Look... I'm not trying to pick on you… God knows, I'm not perfect either… but how long have we known eachother, Lili? C'mon, you're a smart girl, smart enough to know you don't start conflict like that…."

"Bitch had it coming…. You know what? Fuck all of that…. I'm done talking about it." Lillian jammed her stub of a cigarette out, moving aside the ashtray to shift a little closer to Mike, "I don't believe you. I haven't seen you in so long, and the first thing I get is a lecture….."

"All I want is to help you…."

Lillian narrowed her eyes of blue, hands sliding down to rest upon her curvy hips, "Hey… I'm happy you gave me a place to stay. That's great and all, but… you have no idea how hard shit is for me… so don't…. just don't…."

Lillian's life was hard? How in the world did she reach that conclusion. Mike sighed.

"No idea how you can think that. Uncle James poured a ton of money from one of his music stores into putting you through college. He always looks out for you…."

"Let's just drop it, okay?" The goth brat retreated, crawling across the couch and hugging her knees toward her chest. "It's been a long, shitty day packing my stuff in a damn suitcase…. Can we go eat before I pass out?"

"Sure thing," Mikey finished up with his drink. "Where do you feel like going? There's the Bar and Lounge across town. They still have a dinner menu this late if you're eating inside."

"How about Indian food?" Lillian peaked out from her protective ball. "I'm craving spicy stuff."

"Nope… you know I'm not a fan of Indian cuisine." Mike shook his head. "Anything else you might want?

"Italian?"

Pasta sounded like a good idea.

"I'd be game for that. Give me give me a few minutes and we'll head out."

Mike swept past his cousin, on the way to his room to get changed. "Oh, and Lillian? It's nice to have you around…. Makes me feel like I'm at home all over again."

"Ewwww, you can like, quit being all sappy on me, damn…."

"Fine," he shrugged, "That's my quota for being a helpful cousin reached for the day."

Mike went into his bedroom, stalling in front of the mirror before kicking the door shut. "She's going to be a handful… living here with me."

"Lilli's gotten worse... No wonder Uncle James asked for my help. Still... is there much I can do to help her?"

'I have enough problems of my own right now... speaking of that..."

The Huniebee on the bedside draw hadn't rang in days. "I wonder why Audrey stopped coming over..."

Enough dwelling on it. "Life's easier this way... hurts less..."

Things were fine as they were, right? Keeping things casual was the way forward.

"Commitment hasn't been great for me."

That very same logic made him ask a question. "Then what in the world is going on with me and Kyu right now?"

She'd been back over a month - the contract was signed. Was that not a form of commitment?

"Fuck it... I'm done thinking about it right now." The words from Mike's mouth brought about a dark chuckle, "Damn... I sound just like Lillian..."

To be continued….

You have my thanks once again for all support. I'm very happy to share my writing with others! Please feel welcome to leave me some feedback if you like, and I will see you in the next chapter of the Problems Series! Keep on supporting Huniepop and Huniecam Studio!

IMPORTANT NOTICE – My chapter updates might be a little slower over the next few weeks as I have a lot going on. I'm just letting you know in advance. Your patience is appreciated!