A/N: I don't own Twilight or like... anything else.

So here is chapter 84. You guys, we're getting so close to the end, it doesn't even feel real. We've almost made it. All four of us. I feel like it's still summer and I'm busting out three chapters a week. God, I fucking wish. This chapter is a bit short, like the last one. I still have to get used to the fact that sometimes, shorter chapters are okay. I usually don't feel like I've done a decent job until the chapter is 3000+ words long, and maybe that's true, but if I don't have a lot to say in the moment, then I just don't have a lot to say.

This chapter is really calm. I could have merged it with the next chapter, but I chose not to for flow reasons, as well as the fact that I like the number 88. So here's a short little chapter featuring Leah x Kim. If you really don't care for them, it's fine. I'll likely be updating soon, anyway.

By the way, I changed the cover of the story. Again. I think it's the best one yet - I wish this was the cover the entire time, I love it so much. Peep how glitchy it is.

Enjoy.

LXXXIV.

am i wrong for wanting us to make it?

It was just after twelve thirty in the morning when Leah and Kim quietly returned to their condo. As Kim slipped off her shoes, Leah locked the door behind them. In the entryway, neither of them had turned on the light yet. Maybe if they stayed in the dark, stayed quiet, and went to sleep, then they would wake up and realize that this was all one bad dream.

But they had to turn on the light. They had to stay awake.

They went to the couch, but they didn't turn on the TV as comforting background noise.

"Does Charlie know?" Kim asked Leah. They had just gotten back from the police station, as well as the hospital. Everything had happened so fast. Bella had killed herself, Paul had been pronounced dead at the hospital, and Quil had confessed to murdering Jasper all in an incredibly short time span. Leah had gotten to talk to Charlie in that time span and tell him everything that he wanted to know, but it hadn't been easy for her. Of course, it hadn't been easy for him.

Leah nodded solemnly. Her eyes were red from all the crying and the fact that she was completely exhausted. "Yeah," she said. "I told him just about everything. It was hard, Bambi. So hard."

"Did you tell him she was pregnant?"

Leah nodded again. "That was the worst part. He was…" She just shook her head. "He was shocked. And, God, he was so upset. He kept asking me why she didn't tell him she was pregnant or engaged. He was so upset. I haven't seen him that upset since… well, since my dad died."

"God," Kim sighed. "This is all so messed up."

"I can't even put into words how messed up this is," Leah agreed. She peered down, and Kim's phone was blowing up. "What's going on?" she asked.

"People are asking if I'm alright," she said with a slight roll of her eyes. "As if that means anything."

"It could have been any of us," Leah replied.

"But it was Paul. Then it was Bella."

Leah closed her eyes. Bella blowing her own brains out constantly replayed in her head. Even now, Leah didn't think that she would ever get over it. It was so unreal and so crazy that it seemed almost made up, except it wasn't. It wasn't, and that was where Leah was getting all torn up. Paul and Bella were gone. Dead. They had been perfectly fine just four hours ago, and now they were both dead. Their unborn child was dead, too. They might as well have never even existed.

"La Push isn't even trending on Twitter," Kim said, still on her phone, "but Delinquent V is."

"Why, do people think he's the one who died?"

"No. White girls are mad that he bailed on his show in Port Angeles, though."

"You can't be serious."

"I don't see why I'd lie."

Kim handed Leah her phone, and Leah began to scroll through the multitudes of tweets about Delinquent V. There were no mentions of the murders or suicide that had occurred at First Beach, but plenty of people were overly upset about Quil cancelling his show due to his arrest.

"'Free Delinquent V'?" Leah read, a disgusted look upon her face. "They're trippin'."

Kim just shook her head. "See, we never get shit," she said. "Jasper Cullen got the whole nation crying about him and his family doing interviews on TV for months. Jasper Cullen got 'hashtag-pray-for-Forks' and 'hashtag-stay-strong-Forks.' Where the fuck is the 'pray for La Push' hashtag? Do they even give a fuck about anything or anyone here except some D-list rapper?"

By the time she was finished, there were hot tears in her big eyes, just about to start flooding out. It made Leah want to cry, too (because they shared emotions just like they shared everything else), and she almost did, but she stopped herself. If she started crying, she just might never stop.

"Let's put on some TV, okay?" she asked, reaching for the remote control. "I bet the news is all over it."

Leah turned on the TV and went to the first news channel, which was broadcasting apparently breaking news in Port Angeles. The segment was titled, Local Rapper Delinquent V Arrested; Debut Port Angeles Concert Cancelled. Of course, the first thing Leah and Kim saw on TV was the long line of upset people outside of the Metta Room, where Quil was supposed to play before he turned himself in.

A reporter stood somewhere in the line next to a gaggle of girls who looked like they were in high school. Leah didn't catch what the reporter had asked them, but she caught the answer from one of the girls, a blonde with black mascara running down her cheeks.

"I think it's just really devastating," she said into a microphone, to the reporter. "You know, so many people came out to see Delinquent V tonight, even for his first gig. Like, I came all the way from Seattle, and it sucks that this happened. It would have been an amazing show."

A younger man who looked absolutely wasted suddenly appeared in the shot and took the microphone from the girl being interviewed. "Stream 98350!" he hollered. "Free my boy, Delinquent!"

The camera suddenly cut to a crowd of people pumping their fists and chanting, "Free Delinquent V" repeatedly. Somewhere in the background, someone was bumping one of the tracks from 98350 from their car speakers.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Leah asked. "Quil isn't locked up because he had weed, he's locked up because he literally killed somebody."

"They don't give a fuck about us," Kim said. "They never have."

Leah couldn't do anything but agree. Life in the badlands wasn't fair. It had never been fair, and by the looks of it, it would never change. The badlands was a beacon, burning hot and bright, but it wasn't a beacon of hope. It was a constant reminder that life would always be destructive and hopeless, and it wouldn't stop until it got enough. And the worst part about it was that it would never, ever get enough. Leah and Kim had been wrong the entire time—they had never been the saviors of the badlands. They hadn't been anything but victims with huge hearts and a considerable amount of patience.

"'Free Delinquent V' is really trending on Twitter right now," Kim said. "Like, in reality. After three people died tonight at the beach."

"To be fair, though," Leah replied, "I don't think the public knows that Quil killed somebody. They just know he was arrested."

"That doesn't even matter."

"I know that, Kim. I'm just saying. He might lose fans when they found out what really happened. I'm not defending him or what he did."

"I wasn't accusing you of anything."

Leah just rolled her eyes out of routine. "Okay, except you were."

"I'm not arguing with you right now," Kim said sternly.

"Who the hell said we were arguing?" Leah asked. "We're on the same page. We always are."

Kim just sighed. "Well, Lee, maybe we don't always have to be on the same page."

Leah wanted to let her win—she really should have let her win—but once she got going, she couldn't bring herself to stop. They shared just about everything, including the need to win. "You're trippin'," she said.

"What, so you think we have to always agree with each other?" Kim asked.

"I never said that," Leah told her. "I'd just rather get along with my roommate." She refrained from saying girlfriend even though it was partially true (as well as partially unclear), and she tried to not make it obvious, but Kim noticed everything.

And Kim was a nice girl, after all, so she let Leah win. As much as they were equals (or as close as they could be to equals), Leah always won.

"I love you," Leah blurted out. She meant what she said, but she didn't mean to say it now. It wasn't like it would fix everything. Kim had a kind heart, but she didn't fuck around when it came to her feelings because she was so in touch with them.

So Kim left her feelings behind for a moment. She had too many of them, especially now.

"I'm gonna make some coffee," she told Leah. "Okay?"

Leah nodded. "Okay. I'm gonna call Jacob."

"Okay."

A/N: Next time on Static: we're gonna check in on Jacob. Naturally, there will be more feelings. Also, I'd like to apologize to those who had the impression that Paul wasn't actually dead before this chapter. It would have been sooooo Romeo and Juliet if he turned out to be alive. That would have been excruciatingly painful for everyone involved, tbh.

Oh, and a small update: I kind of lied. Next chapter starts with Leah x Kim so if you don't like them then I'd just skip to the middle of the chapter, lol. ALSO, I'm thinking of updating Wednesdays and Saturdays, so I can finish this one out February 1st. Sound good?

Thanks as always and stay tuned,

HS