The shower Buttercup took was probably the most unpleasant in her life thus far. Her muscles were sore and tender, and the scrapes that riddled her skin from skidding on the concrete stung under the water. Buttercup staggered back into the room, wearing one of Butch's t-shirts as pajamas. She felt heavy and slightly disoriented, and couldn't tell if her head was light from the steam, or the revelation that the drop in her Chemical X levels were actually beginning to physically manifest. Butch rolled over in his sleep upon her entry, which immediately caused her to stop in her tracks.

Buttercup gazed at the large lump under the sheets. He looked like a meaty dumpling, tucked tightly into bed. Butch's hair stuck up in a disarray and the small hum of his snoring gave her a small feeling of much needed comfort. She decided to hide her wounds from him, and went looking through his drawers for an oversized long sleeve. The old floorboards creaked under her feet as she moved. Buttercup cursed under her breath. If only it was winter time. The house was so old and rickety that the icy air from the outside always came in from the gaps between the dingy windows, and the thin walls. But in the summertime, it was the complete opposite. Heat rose into Butch's second story room, and the thin roof shillings did nothing in preventing the overbearing warmth from accumulating. Sleeping in a long sleeve during a night in August was going to be absolutely killer for Buttercup.

"No, no, no," she grumbled under her breath as she shifted through the collection of their belongings. The only clean, long-sleeved items she could find were sweaters.

"Fuck my life…" she whined. She took a second to compare the density of all the sweaters, choosing the one that felt like it would be the lightest and the most breathable. It was a cable knit sweater with alternating light and dark green stripes. Buttercup already felt sticky from the heat, and pulling on the sweater made her feel even yuckier, but she had no choice.

She closed the drawers up before turning and stepping towards the bed, which squeaked ever so lightly as she lay down into it. In response to her, Butch eyes opened for just a split second before closing shut as he buried his face deeper into the pillow. Buttercup let out a small sigh, turning off the lamp on the nightstand before letting the softness of the bed envelop her. It would have been perfect if she was not sweating profusely. The dim light of the firefly lights strung around the walls of the room illuminated the area. Butch's blinds were bent erratically from him roughly closing and opening them, and she stole glances at the moon which was visible between two of the broken slats.

She felt heavy, but empty at the same time. She felt numb, but everything all at once. Who was she if not powerful and strong? She didn't care about herself. She wanted to prove that she was still good enough. Buttercup didn't care if she got hurt. In fact, a part of her wanted to get hurt. She felt as if she deserved it as a form of punishment. Her mind began spiraling as she sank deeper and deeper into the mattress.

She hated herself more than anything. Her eyes stung.

Fuck, my brain is getting bad again, she thought.

She lay silently, her brain yelling all sorts of mean, and horrible things at her. Buttercup went back and forth with herself until she was tired. Physically, and emotionally. Soon, everything grew small until there was nothing.


Fire. The smell of smoke. Running. My legs are tired from all this running, she thought, maybe I should stop running. Maybe it's okay to give up. I tried, and I'm tired. Everything was on fire, glowing a bright orange. The fire burned, the heat was overbearing, but there was a slight comfort to it. She stopped running.

Buttercup's body violently rattled awake as she opened her eyes. She was breathing heavily, her heartbeat echoing in her ears. It was just a dream. The bright sun blinded her from the same gap in the blinds where she watched the moon before she fell asleep. Buttercup lay back down, the cool air on her skin was so relieving. Similar to the first gulp of ice cold water once coming home after skating on a hot day. But then she realized. She only felt cool because her bare arms were out.

Terrified, Buttercup's eyes slowly rose. Oh no.

Her eyes met with deep, forest green ones, staring at her wildly. His eyes were open wide, like staring into a grassy meadow. Except grassy meadows were welcoming and calming, but his eyes were crazed. In his shaky hands was the cable knit sweater.

"What. The. Fuck." Butch exclaimed as his eyes darted erratically all over her body. It seemed as if everywhere he placed his gaze there was a huge splotch of black, blue, and red. Deep bruising colored her skin like a plum, scrapes littered all over her arms, dry and crusty with dark red scabs. His stomach dropped. This was completely his fault.

"Why did you take my sweater off?" she cried out, pulling the blanket to cover herself.

"Because you were fucking sweating so much that I thought you pissed yourself!" he said defensively, shooting up from the bed. The sweater remained in his grip, swinging as he stood. All Buttercup had on was her shorts and a small lace bralette. But they both knew it was not her attire that she was worried about, but her wounded flesh.

"You can't just undress me, fuckwad."

Butch frowned, turning on his heels to look at. With complete seriousness, and no intent on fucking around, he opened his mouth, "Did I do that to you?" he asked, ignoring her previous statement.

Buttercup's mouth quivered, "N-no, I-" she clamped her mouth, not knowing what to say. The last thing she wanted was Butch to feel at fault. But secondly, she did not want Butch to see her as weak, though it was difficult, because the answer was yes. But she had wanted to spar with him, the way they always did, and she knew it was never his intention to hurt her by any means, "I didn't know." she quickly said, looking away.

"Didn't know what?" he pressed.

"That this would happen," she said hastily, wrapping the blanket tighter around her.

"For fuck's sake, Buttercup." he groaned, tossing the sweater to the side in frustration. Her eyes followed the piece of clothing, a loud commotion erupted when it landed on his desk, recklessly toppling things over. This instantly made her frown.

With unnecessary aggression, Butch rummaged through his top drawer for a bit before pulling out a joint. He slammed the drawer shut with a bit too much force before moving towards the window, lifting it open with a loud thud. Butch lit the joint before taking a long, exasperated pull of smoke into his lungs. He held it between his lips, placing both his hands on the windowsill as he leaned out with his head down.

Butch stared hard at his feet. He wasn't used to feeling so many strong emotions, especially all at once. He was angry, irritated, annoyed, and disappointed. Of course, none of these emotions were directed at Buttercup, but at himself. He slowly shook his head, closing his eyes for some relief from the sun. Butch silently scolded himself. He shouldn't have sparred with her. He should be doing a better job in making sure that she wasn't getting hurt. He should be making sure nothing ever happened to her, and here he was, fucking it all up. He had made a promise to keep her safe, but instead, he had been the one to cause her harm.

The silence that grew was awful. There was nothing either of them could say to fix the situation, and they both knew it. Buttercup could see that he was twitching and trying to hide it. Instead of letting himself lose it, Butch was rocking his head back and forth, shuffling his weight from his left to right leg, over, and over. She couldn't tell if Butch was mad at her, or mad at the situation. Still, she took it personally.

"I'm fine," she insisted. Her voice had a touch of sourness in it, and her tone sounded a tad meaner than she had intended. "This is nothing, it doesn't even hurt. I don't understand why you're upset."

As she spoke, she could tell he was getting increasingly agitated as his twitches became more and more visible, but she couldn't help but continue, "I can fight just the same. All this is dumb. I don't care what the Professor said."

Suddenly, Butch ripped the joint from his mouth and squashed it into the nearby ashtray before his towering figure approached her. The ground shook underneath his crazed footsteps. He leaned into her face, eyes frenzied with emotion. The hostility in his movements startled her, but she refused to budge.

"Listen to me," he spat as he slammed his hands to the side of her arms as if to lock her in place, his face neared hers, "no more sparring, no more fighting, no more missions, no nothing. I see you out there in combat, I'm taking you home my fucking self," his head tilted at her sideways. "Got it?"

He removed his grip from her but remained just as close as Buttercup's eyes narrowed at him. There was a long pause. "Are you… threatening me?"

Butch's eyes rolled as he stepped away from her before turning his back to her. He took a deep breath, trying to collect himself before spinning back around and looking straight at her,"If that's what you take me trying to protect you as," he said slowly, "then yeah," he finished with a shrug.

Buttercup felt a familiar heat rise from her chest, "Oh fuck off, I don't need you treating me like a little bitch."

Almost immediately, Butch's eyes rolled into the back of his head, "Buttercup," he said tiredly, running his hands through his hair in a distressed manner. Butch's eyes locked with hers, "I'm scared." His words were strong, not skipping a single beat. The two words felt like an announcement, a declaration of sorts as he stood there, his chest bare with his arms limp, palms wide and open as he faced her. She had seen this before, plenty of times. It was a position that she'd often seen when enemies were near defeat. The two of them stood there silently, as if they both couldn't believe what they'd just heard. Butch? Scared?

With an irritated click of his tongue, Butch looked away, staring hard out the window.

Buttercup sat there, dumbfounded, not knowing how to respond. Butch in all his god-like, reckless, rage-filled glory had not once in the entirety of their friendship ever spoken of anything like fear. Before she could think of a response, Butch had turned back to her.

"Because this," he continued, raising a shaky hand as he gestured to her bruised body, the other hand gently pulling the blanket off of her, "I never want to see this, okay? This is fucked up. The thought of you getting hurt, like, really hurt…" he shook his head, "I-I can't. Okay? I can't."

Buttercup felt a wave of guilt wash over her. I'm stupid, she thought. I'm fighting with him and all he is doing is caringhe cares about me, her eyes started to sting, And I'm fighting with him over it. The sting was overbearing, it was like having to piss and forcing yourself to hold it in. Buttercup grunted, looking away, fighting back the tears that were begging to fall.

On the other hand, Butch mistook her silence for disagreement. He sighed, sitting beside her. Butch spoke, looking straight ahead at the closet and not at her, "I'm not letting you fight until we figure out what's going on with you and fix it. If you wanna get mad at me, I don't care. If you start to hate me for it, I don't care. So be it."

"I could never hate you, Butch." she muttered, not turning to look at him. Buttercup stood up. Her body felt so heavy, which was funny, because her heart felt hollowed out. She had to leave. It hurt too much and she felt like she didn't deserve to be around him.

I'm awful, she thought repeatedly.

Butch silently watched her pull on her pants and sluggishly throw her items into her tote bag. It kind of hurt his feelings that she was leaving, but he chose not to provoke her any further.

"Buttercup…"

She'd have heard her name if her brain wasn't hurling all sorts of insults at her. Bad, weak, not good enough, not good at all.

The entire time she had gathered her belongings, she had refused to look at him. But it would be flat-out weird if she shuffled out of his room with her back turned the entire time. So, she decided to suck it up. "I have to go," she muttered lamely as she slipped through the door.

Butch shot up, "Buttercup!"

He followed her for a few steps but then froze up. Suddenly, Butch grunted as he grasped both sides of his head as he began to spasm uncontrollably, fighting to control it. He had known that his twitches were triggered when he was overwhelmed with rage or excitement, but now he was realizing that it was just if he was overwhelmed in general.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled as she hustled down the hallway, her small frame staggering clumsily away before turning the corner.


When Buttercup arrived home, a familiar black car was parked outside. Pink flame decals covered the sides of the doors, and fuzzy dice hung from the rearview mirror. Yup, she knew exactly who was paying a visit. No other car was outside the home, indicating that it was otherwise vacant. She figured one of them must have let them in before they left. As Buttercup approached the house from the lawn, she saw her window wide open. Maybe not.

When Butterup stepped inside the house, laughter and the low vibrations of a bass playing shook the otherwise quiet home.

Before Buttercup entered her room, she did her best to wipe her face and look normal.

Once she opened the door, the loudness of the bass, the voices, and the music erupted in the halls. Mandy sat on her desk chair, Buttercup's bass in hand. Her short, platinum blonde hair sat elegantly under her ears. Black painted lip upturned into a smile. The amp was plugged in and turned on, a rare luxury that Buttercup ever got to experience due to her sisters always being home. Marie lay on the bed, facing the ceiling. Her blue hair lay crazily. Marie's brown eyes opened widely as she caught her first glimpse of Buttercup, her smudged black eyeliner emphasizing her shocked facial expression.

"Damn, what happened to you?" Marie exclaimed, momentarily twisting to look at her upright.

"Don't really wanna talk about it." Buttercup shrugged before tossing her stuff on the floor, quickly pulling on a long sleeve to hide her body from being further examined. Thankfully they were human, and lacked the ability to quickly scan and assess in the same way as her super siblings and the boys. She scratched at her head before plopping down into her bed, draping her legs over Marie.

"You look fucked" Mandy commented. It was a harsh, blunt statement, but it came from a place of concern. For someone who didn't have a heart, Mandy cared immensely about Buttercup, "You don't have to explain anything, but are you okay?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it." Buttercup said lamely, avoiding looking either of the girls in the eye.

"Oookay," Marie said slowly. Mandy knew nothing good came out of pushing Buttercup for answers, or anything for that matter. So she accepted the lie and sat down with the rest of them.

"Also, if you missed all our calls because you were sleeping, your sleeping schedule is fucked." Mandy said, intentionally changing the subject.

"Not as bad as Marie's," Buttercup teased, shooting the girl a glance.

Marie looked up at her from the gaps in her bangs with a small cackle, "You got that right."

"But yeah… I was." Buttercup added.

"Yeah she was up kissing Butch all night." Marie teased, shooting her sly look.

"Ugh, Marie!" Buttercup moaned, jolting upright, "Shut the fuck up before I toss you out the window." she added, before smacking her with a pillow.

"What!" Marie exclaimed in between laughs, "You guys spend a weird amount of time around each other for people that aren't fucking." she said matter-of-factly, throwing her hands up.

Buttercup smashed her hand over Marie's lips, cherry colored chapstick greasing her fingertips as she clutched Marie's mouth close. But Marie leaned back, laughing at Buttercups' obvious discomfort. Buttercup groaned, falling back into her pile of pillows. As she lay with her head nestled in the soft mounds, the image of Butch, eyes as wide as cherry pies, clutching the sweater to his chest appeared in her mind.

"By the way," Mandy exclaimed coolly, cutting through Buttercup's thoughts as a small smile appeared upon her black-painted lips, "Mitch is throwing a party tonight."

"A party?" Buttercup asked, raising an eyebrow. She lifted her head to look at the two, dumbfounded, "It's Sunday."

Mandy sat with her legs crossed, hands clasped across her lap as she delivered the invitation. She was always displaying a sort of serious demeanor. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Marie lay with her blue hair sprawled over her face and sheets. Legs kicked up and bouncing around with all her pent up energy as she mindlessly chewed on her fingernails.

"And the first day of school is tomorrow," Marie added with a laugh, as if the date wasn't already absurd enough.

"Oh fuck," Buttercup grimaced, she had totally forgotten about that in the midst of everything. Fuck.

"Yup, think of it as a celebration before the start of our last year." Mandy shrugged, "Sounded like a lot of free booze…" she trailed off, shooting a suggestive look at the rest of the girls.

Marie and Buttercup exchanged a mischievous little glance at one another. Marie was sold, but Buttercup was not.

"Hm," the room was silent for a few seconds too long as Buttercup thought, "I don't know… Do you think Butch is gonna be there?" Buttercup asked, fidgeting with the corner of her duvet.

"Uh," Marie began, shooting a questionable look at Mandy as Buttercup's gaze was aimed elsewhere, "No? I don't know. Don't they hate each other?" Marie laughed mindlessly.

Mandy wanted to just cut to the chase, "Why? Did something happen?"

"No," Buttercup replied quickly, "Things are just… Awkward." Buttercup shrugged, leaning back into her pillows. Little strings were starting to stick out of the duvet from her picking at it so fervently.

"He sucks anyway," Mandy said before joining the other two on the bed. She landed next to Buttercup, strands of her near-white platinum blonde hair scattered. "Let's just go," she pressed with a devilish smile.

"We'll have so much fun," Marie added, "Plus, there's no fucking way Butch is going to pull up to a party at Mitch's house."

Buttercup looked away. Nothing in that moment sounded better than dancing, laughing, and jumping around with her friends under dingy fluorescent lights in Mitch's kitchen, arm wrestling the football players, and kicking dirt at the shoes of the popular girls. It would be nice to see all of their other friends as well. A last little hoorah before the dreaded senior year.

"Was that what you said earlier?" Buttercup grinned, "Free booze? Mm…" Buttercup smirked, "Let's go.."


Excitedly, the girls had begun getting ready together. Music played on Buttercup's speaker as the girls laughed loudly and pranced around each other. They twirled and danced, feeling full of euphoria despite their silly little dance moves. Marie touched up her eyeliner while Buttercup showed them a new bassline she'd created the other night. An orange tinge began filling the room as the sun slowly crept down.

When no one was looking, Buttercup glanced at her phone, but she had no notifications.

At one point, Mandy had found herself at Buttercup's window. She'd strategically placed a fan to blow at her direction, out the window, as she quietly puffed on the joint she'd packed in her purse. The sound of Marie and Buttercup laughing and yelling in the background drowned out all other sounds. Mandy usually hated the sound of people enjoying themselves, but the sound of her two best friends was a sweet one. Suddenly, a familiar pair of headlights that she'd taught herself to identify from afar shined in the distance.

"Shit," Mandy muttered, throwing her cigarette back into a rectangular tin before shoving it in her bag. She twirled around and motioned at the girls. Buttercup had already heard the engine from a mile away, and was already desperately spraying the air with the perfume Bubbles had given her on their last birthday.

By the time Blossom and Bubbles had sauntered in, any sign of smoke had been hidden. The door swung open and the two girls came stumbling in. Bubbles jumped onto the bed, joining the other girls while Blossom stood stoically, nose scrunching with suspicion as she took one too many sniffs for it to be a coincidence. Her pink eyes narrowed and shot over to Buttercup, who had given herself away by being caught already staring at her, semi-wide eyed.

In an attempt to distract Blossom from asking about the lingering scent of Mandy's joint, Marie spoke up. "So, are we all going tonight?" she said with a smile, throwing her hands up in a display of excitement.

"Mitch's?" Bubbles asked, she'd rolled over onto her back, her feet kicking wildly in the air. A fingertip tapped mindlessly as Bubbles scrolled through her phone.

Choosing not to interrogate her sisters and spoil the mood, Blossom set her book bag down onto the floor before descending gracefully to sit on a cushion on the floor. Her long, ginger hair draped over her body and onto the floor.

"Yeah, you heard?" Buttercup chimed in with relief, sensing that Blossom had disengaged.

"Mhm," Bubbles cooed, showing her phone screen to them. On display was a party flier that Mitch had sent out to their whole class. It was a collage of random photos ranging from punk bands, to psychedelic imagery, and film photos of their friends. DIY stickers plastered all over it, skulls, little creatures, and stars. On top of it wrote, "From dusk 'til dawn. Have a DD. BYOB Seniors Only."

"I'll be DD." Blossom said from her spot on the floor.

"Okay, sick!" Bubbles exclaimed enthusiastically, clasping her hands together in an exaggerated manner.

"Blossy, I didn't take you as someone who'd attend a rager." Marie commented with a curious grin.

Blossom frowned in response, "I know how to have fun." she said defensively.

"I'm sure." Mandy replied.

The sound of a large thump erupted in the room as a spur of blue jolted out, "I'm changing right now!" Bubbles yelled down the hall as she ran, followed by the enthusiastic shutting of her door.

Blossom stood up and strung her book bag back over her shoulder before smoothing her blouse out with the palm of her hand. "Ready when everyone else is."


Every single seat in Blossom's car had a girl in it. Bubbles sat in the passenger side, taking playlist requests and ignoring Blossom's pleas for her to stop putting her feet up on the dashboard. Mandy, Buttercup, and Marie sat in the backseat, shoulder to shoulder. Every turn caused them to crash into one another, but they didn't mind. The car ride was full of laughter and erratic movements as the girls danced to the tunes. Bubbles stuck her hand out of the window, feeling the wind on her palm. Marie lay her cheek against the car door as the air hit her forehead. She closed her eyes as the cool summer air passed over her as the car zoomed through the night.

Before they turned to drive down the street, they could already hear the music blaring. Blossom murmured to herself as she struggled to find parking since the block was full.

"Oh, right there!" Bubbles exclaimed excitedly, "Behind Boomer's van!"

Blossom shot her a look of fear. She was terrible at parallel parking.

Buttercup felt a little pang in her stomach. If Boomer was there, Brick definitely was, and that meant Butch probably was too. But Butch and Mitch hated each other, so maybe not? As she sat and pondered this, she caught Mandy's eye in the rearview mirror. In response, Mandy closed her compact mirror and put her black lipstick away before gently patting Buttercup's back.

"Aaaand, stop!" Bubbles called from outside.

Buttercup looked to see Bubbles navigating Blossom into the tight spot behind Boomer's beat up family van, lovingly decorated with a badly spray painted "Can of Worms" branding.

"Stop! Bloss- Stop! I SAID STOP!" Bubbles yelled frantically, arms flailing upwards.

The car jolted as Blossom love tapped Boomer's car. Mandy's phone shot out of her hand as Marie's head whipped forward. Buttercup, being a super, was unphased by the impact.

"Oh my God." Blossom whimpered with defeat.

Groups of people from their grade had been walking past, and sounds of laughter accompanied by some gasps erupted in the street as they collectively witnessed the petty crime that just occurred.

"Nice one!" Someone called from the sidewalk.

"Oh my God." Blossom grew red and covered her face with her hands as she sank into her seat.

Bubbles ran around to the driver's side to reach out to rub Blossom's shoulder, "It's okay Blossy, Boomer won't care."

With a frown, Blossom forced herself out of the driver's seat despite her embarrassment. As she stepped out, her blood red patent leather square heels hit the pavement with a sharp noise as she straightened out and tossed her hair behind her shoulder.

Buttercup and Marie were stifling their laughter while Mandy stared forward, picking her phone off the car floor after it had flung out of her hand.

One by one, the girls climbed out of the cramped car and made their way down the street. The sky was starting to grow warm with hues of pink and purple as the sun began to set. The street lamps were beginning to turn on, and the music that awaited them grew louder and louder.

Eventually they reached a house that was already riddled in teepee. People swarmed the rooftop, red cups lay littered across the front lawn all around the ping pong table that was being used for drinking games. Girls and boys erupted in fits of howling as ping pong balls either skipped across the table top or landed in cups. The garage door was wide open with heavy metal guitar riffs and nasty drums blaring out into the street. Judging by the darkness and intensity of the music, it was definitely Mitch's band.

"Nice," Mandy said, almost to herself.

"Bubba!" A familiar voice called out from the sea of people.

The girls turned to see a tornado of blue as Boomer swept Bubbles up who giggled and wrapped herself around him.

"Ladies." Boomer greeted the rest of them, still holding Bubbles up in the air. She utilized the height to people watch, scanning the crowd. Brick had spotted her blonde little head pop up and was already making his way to them. She smiled and waved at him, and he waved back as he pushed past the people in his way. Bubble's eyes narrowed as she tried to find the last brother. She was curious to know if he'd show up despite his personal vendetta with Mitch. Her eyes flickered wildly around before she spotted a tall, dark figure shrouded by the leaves of an overhead weeping willow, tucked away in the corner by the backyard. A cigarette held tightly in his fingers as he gazed upwards at the sky, blowing the smoke up into the nothingness.

"Huh…" Bubbles thought to herself. Something felt amiss. Perhaps he was annoyed to be at Mitch's, but the solemn look on his face and the inhales he took that were longer than usual told her that it must be deeper than that. Bubbles was just then hit with the realization that Buttercup had the same expression on her face that day.

Bubbles sighed. The greens always made it so hard for themselves. Bubbles looked down at the raven haired girl who seemed to be doing the same thing, her head rotating right and left as she scanned the crowd herself.

"Buttercu-" she started, but was interrupted by Boomer tossing her up into the air before setting her down back into the crowd. The ribbons that laced her pigtails bobbed upwards into the sky as she watched Butch disappear back behind the swarm of bodies. Bubbles descended gracefully onto her feet before turning to look up, meeting the warmest pair of eyes.

"Mandy and I are gonna set up for our set," Boomer explained before giving her a quick kiss on the lips. He squeezed her hands gently before pulling away.

"Okay," Bubbles smiled warmly before looking at the rest of them. In response to being summoned by her lead singer to the make-shift stage, Mandy gave a small nod before turning to leave with Boomer.

At that moment, Bubbles turned with the intention of convincing Buttercup to find Butch, but the moment she parted her lips and caught the eyes of her sister, Brick emerged with Craig and Robin. A sturdy hand wrapped around the small of Blossom's waist as Brick pulled her into the curve of his torso.

"Hey guys!" Craig chimed with a huge, toothy smile. Him and Robin were flushed as if someone had slapped them in the face repeatedly, or thrown a cherry pie in their face. A literal warmth radiated off of their bodies and Robin's ankle rolled ever so slightly as they walked up. Yup, they were definitely buzzed.

"You guys need to catch up to us." Robin said eagerly, pointing at the rest of them.

"He's already gotten started." Craig added, cocking his head towards Brick as they clinked their beers.

"We just got here," Bubbles laughed brightly, excited to be outside with everyone celebrating their last day of summer.

"Nope, I'm DD." Blossom said matter-of-factly.

"I'm sure the chemical X makes it astoundingly hard to get drunk," Brick retorted.

"No thanks. It's the principal." Blossom replied sternly.

Brick shrugged, "Suit yourself my little cherry blossom."

"Boring!" Bubbles and Robin teased.

Blossom, Bubbles, Robin, and Craig continued going back and forth with their friendly banter as Brick stood there taking sporadic sips of his beer. In an effort to avoid conversation, sometimes he just rested the glass lip of the bottle against his mouth and let it linger for a second without taking a sip. Brick's eyes would occasionally scan the horizon and the rest of the party before moving back to Blossom. It seemed like he was always on the lookout.

"Psst." A small voice called.

Buttercup's eyes turned towards the sound.

"Psst." Marie repeated, her pursed lips aimed towards her.

"Drinks." she said in a small voice, a mischievous flash of light in her eyes.

Oh yeah, Buttercup grinned. In an effort to remove herself, Buttercup began taking small steps backwards towards the front door of Mitch's house. From the open doorway, she could already see the craziness that ensued inside.

"Alright, folks! We're heading in." Buttercup exclaimed, turning on her heels with Marie in tow. "Catch ya inside!"


It was her party trick. Buttercup could almost always out drink every motherfucker in the room. She's beaten every single varsity football team member, wrestler, punk rocker, and degenerate at school with ease. The cold liquid raced down her throat, finishing with a warm explosion in her stomach.

"Chemical X, baby." she smiled slyly as she downed her final shot. In response, her opponent, Kevin, had fallen over.

The room erupted in a fit of laughter and celebratory cheer as Buttercup slammed her red solo cup onto the kitchen counter and wiped her mouth with her sleeve in an almost barbaric fashion. The kitchen was riddled with balloons, rainbow disco lights dancing across the walls. The floor was littered with streamers, dirtied with the footprints of everyone's shoes. People placed themselves where they could, whether it be on the kitchen counters or piled shoulder to shoulder on the tile.

"Woo!" Marie cheered louder than everyone else as she swayed wildly. Double D clutched her tightly to keep her from falling off the table.

"And the winner is… Buttercup!" Craig screamed out, raising her hand high. The pained groans of her opponent were hidden in the sounds that erupted from the crowd.

Buttercup laughed loudly, belching a few burps as people gave her fist bumps and high fives all around. A disapproving Blossom stood across the room, but in an effort to chime into the experience, clapped with disdain. Her fiery redhead counterpart, however, stood next to her holding up an enthusiastic thumbs up.

"Smile!" Bubbles popped into view, followed by an obnoxious flash of light which caused Buttercup to wince and step back.

Electronic beeps pierced through the air as Bubbles flipped the digital camera over in her hands to view the photo, "Mm…" she muttered after a pause, "again… Brick, can you smile please?" she whined, and held up the camera once more.

This time, Craig, Double D, and Marie jumped in. Brick and Blossom stood behind Craig, who had wrapped his arm around Buttercup's shoulder. Marie reached around Buttercup's other shoulder as Double D squatted below them and threw up peace signs. Buttercup raised her middle fingers as Bubbles pressed down to take the photo. Blossom smiled sweetly as Brick held his third beer of the night in front of his face. He hated photos.

"Cute!" Bubbles exclaimed, flipping through the camera once more. The group piled behind her to see the photo in the small pixelated rectangle of her camera.

"Aw," Blossom cooed, a smile spreading across her cherry red lips.

"Haha, fuck yeah!" Marie chimed, holding her bangs back so she could get a better look.

"Cameras are so fascinating." Double D commented.

Buttercup laughed, and glanced at the others as Bubbles began to flip through the camera to show them the other pictures she had taken that night. Just then, she caught a glimpse of a familiar figure passing by the living room through the kitchen doorway.

As the others were preoccupied, Buttercup slipped away. Brick watched her small frame vanish as she turned and tumbled through the door, noticing uncharacteristic clumsiness in her movements.

The house had cleared out as people began to gather outside to watch Can of Worms perform. A creaking sound followed by the slam of rusty metal informed her that the person she was following had gone into the backyard. It was funny, she still recognized that sound from when her and Mitch would hang out everyday as kids. The same house that they used to play pirates and ninja spies in was now being used to host ragers for people to play beer pong and make moves on their crushes. Funny how time passes. Things just change so fast before you even realize.

As she made her way out, Buttercup began feeling odd. She stopped in her tracks to catch her breath. The room began to sway as if she was on a boat. Her body felt light and heavy at the same time, and she couldn't really distinguish the difference between her left and right feet.

Oh shit, she thought. Am I….

Suddenly, she recalled what Brick had said about getting drunk and their Chemical X. The Chemical X that she had low levels of. The Chemical X she needed to be able to drink that way that she just did.

Shit… I'm drunk.

Buttercup took a few steps towards the back before accidentally walking into the wall. The wallpaper that had already been peeling ripped off without a fight.

"Oh shit," she muttered, and pulled herself up. But as she moved, the room moved along with her. Her shoes felt as if they were tied together, and the weight of her body suddenly felt impossible to carry.

What the fuck?

She placed her hands on her cheeks, and they were as hot as pancakes fresh off the stove.

"Hey, you." A raspy voice called from behind her.

Her head turned to look behind her, a million times slower than she wanted.

The brunette immediately laughed out loud at the sight of her, "Jesus, BC." Mitch said as he approached her with caution.

Buttercup blinked. He was walking in a straight line but his form moved from side to side and all the furniture spun around him. The television, the leather couch, the coffee table, and all the wall decor seemed to be pulsating with a life of their own.

Buttercup opened her mouth to greet him, but only a small breath escaped her lips.

"Dude, you're fucked up." Mitch laughed once more, his eyes scanning her face with curiosity. Her eyelids hung heavily halfway over her eyes, her face was puffy and red like she had been crying. Her mouth hung open despite not saying anything, and her eyes were glazed over with a certain emptiness.

"Yeah…" she laughed dryly. Buttercup was slightly embarrassed to be seen this way, but at least it was a childhood friend.

"Here," Mitch held a cup up to her lips.

"No-" she grimaced, pulling back.

"It's water." He interrupted her with a chuckle, "Trust me, I would not be trying to give you anymore to drink right now."

Buttercup smiled and took large sips of the liquid. She hadn't realized how thirsty she was until just then. She stared ahead with an empty fish gaze, observing the room wave left to right. Dang, is this what all the regular humans felt every time they drank?

"I'm about to go check around the house and make sure everything is still in-tact, how about you sit down and I'll come right back and-"

As the words tumbled out of Mitch's mouth, the sound of his voice was drained out by the piercing ringing that was escalating in Buttercup's ears. For some reason, rage made her ears ring, which is why sometimes in combat, Buttercup failed to hear Blossom ordering her to stop punching enemies after they were clearly incapacitated.

Mitch trailed off mid-sentence when he realized that she had been staring, hard, out the rectangular window on the door that led to the back porch for the past minute without blinking or breaking eye contact. The skin between her eyebrows was scrunched painfully tight as disgust filled her face. Buttercup's cheeks grew even hotter and redder as a fiery burst of anger unleashed inside her.

"One sec," she said in a low voice, handing the cup back to Mitch with enough force that half of the water inside it had sloshed up onto his shirt.

"B-Buttercup?" He called out, but it was too late, she was already storming out. Mitch looked outside to see what she had been staring at.

"Oooh." he whistled with understanding before turning on his heels and walking back into the kitchen.

Normally, she'd be able to talk herself out of causing a scene. She'd be able to tell herself, no, I'm not jealous. We're best friends. We're not dating. Don't get upset, because that's just silly. Because do best friends get mad (furious) at the sight of the other chatting it up with someone else? No. Not normally. But Buttercup was drunk, and the sitting anger in her chest was no match for any sort of attempt at logical reasoning.

The metal door swung open with a slam, and with huge, determined strides Buttercup cascaded down the steps with purpose. The tall figure straightened out, a look of surprise in his eyes.