Riding with Erica behind the wheel was a very bad life decision; she was a speed demon, running red lights and shit, just to get to Haven Demoness faster. Then again, she might've always driven that way, so, again, it was a very bad life decision to agree that she was the designated driver. A brief glimpse at Chrysanthemum revealed she agreed with my inner thoughts, based on the terrified expression on her face.

Throughout the ride, girly pop songs roared; she had horrible taste in music, unsurprisingly. With it, Erica's continuous gossip about Constantine's dick blasted; she gave us far too many details about her sex life with him. I'd have blown my brains out if Chrysanthemum wasn't there, being tortured with me.

I learnt that Chrysanthemum was still going to the dance with Magnus, despite his newfound relationship with Kenji; I assume they wanted that information hidden from those outside our friend group, which I could understand since not everyone was accepting of boy on boy action. Erica "teased" her about it without mercy, asking if she was "super into threesomes". Chrysanthemum didn't answer; I don't blame her.

Haven Demoness was a bigger city than I initially thought. Thankfully, Erica and Chrysanthemum knew where everything was, so no precious time of mine was wasted, at least not right away. Erica drove us directly to the store they had in mind; hopefully, it'd be the only store we went to.

Semi-formal was the dress code, apparently. Why? I don't know; I don't give a damn about dances. I assume the school staff doesn't want students looking too plain or too formal, but why the fuck would they care about that? Just make a rule, it's that simple; no showing off your junk or boobs. Problem sorted. No specific dress code required.

Erica flipped her shit when she learnt I had never gone to a dance. Chrysanthemum wasn't surprised, like at all; she knew me so well, as a best-friend should. Erica asked about past boyfriends; I never wanted one, back then, so therefore, I never had one. She called me a virgin, like it was such a massive insult; rude ass bitch. Chrysanthemum purposely placed herself in the spotlight, revealing her own purity. I definitely owed her one for that.

Unfortunately, Erica turned her attention back to me, after a few minutes of peace. To my dismay, she pointed out that I had said yes to morp with Scout. I immediately shut that shit down, revealing that his declaration came out of left field, basically, and I just answered without thinking, and, then, he just ninja vanished outta there when I tried to correct myself.

Erica laughed at my obvious misery. Chrysanthemum was sympathetic to my troubles.

The conversations stopped there, at least for a little while. Silently, I reluctantly watched as Erica and Chrysanthemum browsed through the available dresses. They tried on many things; Erica looked ugly no matter what because I hated her and Chrysanthemum, while beautiful in anything, couldn't find something that really matched her. Like, she just wasn't clicking with the dresses.

Eventually, they found the dresses they'd been searching for. Thank fuck for that; I'd been dying of boredom. Erica's chosen little piece was an off-shoulder, laced dress of redness that barely covered her thighs. It wasn't a surprising choice, considering her personality. As for what Chrysanthemum had chosen, it was, like, fancy but not too fancy, like the dress code wanted; it was like a very long collared white shirt, which was buttoned, and over it was a black…vest like attachment. Kind of reminded me of one of the dresses from The Little Mermaid, sort of. It was surprisingly pretty, so maybe not all dresses looked terrible. Maybe I'd wear one, someday, if it matched with my personality.

Just when I happily thought that the shopping was over, they started searching for shoes that would match with their shit, alongside some jewelry. I was about to lose my mind, I swear I was.

As soon as Erica ditched us to look at necklaces and shit, Chrysanthemum started a conversation with me, one that was very irrelevant to the topic of dances and shopping, and was quite relevant to the lust-love I deeply felt for Maverick, my soulmate. "You know, it all makes sense now, why the Soren Phoenix siblings are never in school when the weather is decent enough for sunlight."

I lightly "teased" her, in a kind of mean way if I'm being honest but she hadn't seemed to care, so. "I thought that was one of the things you realized was weird about them in the first place, Flower Angel."

She rolled her eyes playfully, a hint of a smile on her face. "It was, yes, but back then, I thought I was just imagining things, like I told you on the phone. It still just seems…so bizarre, but I know the reasoning behind it now, unlike before. So, you'll have to excuse my "slowness", Unicorn; all of this is still kind of difficult to comprehend."

It's not difficult for me, I thought but didn't say aloud. "Fair enough." The conversation of shortness ended there.

The plan for that day was, after shopping, we'd go to a Thai restaurant for dinner, which I was looking forward to because that was some good eating right there; thai food was just so, so yummy. Unfortunately, after the dress shopping, which hadn't lasted as long as I thought it would, Erica decided that we'd all go for a little stroll around town together, except I managed to run off, claiming I needed a book for research, while Chrysanthemum was reluctantly dragged off to her doom, of having to listen to Erica gossip about…me, probably. I'm assuming, of course; I wasn't there, plus Chrysanthemum never mentioned it, so maybe the gossip was just about Constantine's dick again.

Surprisingly, without any directions, I happened upon a bookstore, completely by accident. I didn't go inside; I didn't need to, I wasn't actually searching for a book. Ultimately, I just stared at the windows like a creeper for a minute before moving on. I had no sense of direction still, so I just roamed and hoped for the best. I even texted Chrysanthemum an apology for ditching her; she forgave me immediately. Because I have main character syndrome and everyone's just automatically gonna forgive me for shit, no matter what it is. Wink, wink, girly giggle.

I strutted down the sidewalks, looking like a supermodel. I was just hoping for the best of the best by that point since I still had no clue as to where I was heading. Nothing else was on my mind. Nothing at all. For seriously. But, then, I saw a Subaru and was nearly bawling my eyes out; I missed my Maverick.

I walked here and there; I went everywhere. I was lost. Very lost.

It was through very unfortunate circumstances, such as my being lost by my own accord, that I ran into a group of men; there were four of them, they looked like high school dropouts, and they might've been tipsy, maybe. They seemed to be having the time of their lives, just chatting up a storm together. I kept my distance. I even ignored them when they greeted me simultaneously.

I kept a steady walking pace, until I turned the corner; they were calling after me and, by the sounds of it, had turned around and began following me as well. Stranger danger! Stranger danger!

I continued moving fast; stopping for even a second would help those dudes catch up to me. As I aimed to get away, to get to safety somehow, my mind went to a stereotype; was it because of what I was wearing? I was in my favorite attire, but without my jacket of epicness that I left behind at home that day for some reason, which was stupid because I was starting to shiver. Nah, I told myself. I'm in an isolated area, with no cars, no other people, and near darkness; they think I'm vulnerable enough to harm. If it came to it, I would do my best to kick their asses, even if they were physically stronger than me; I could, at least, take out one of them.

I snuck a peek behind me; only two of them were following me. I had no clue where the other two had gone, but I had a very sinking feeling that all of them knew their way around town, so the missing guys were likely gonna pop outta nowhere in front of me, at some point. They were planning to corner me; I just knew it. I would have dodged that bullet if I knew the layout of the town, too. Unfortunately, I didn't.

I kind of hoped they were just thieves looking to steal some money, but I didn't have any on me and, if that was what they wanted, they were gonna be very disappointed. But something told me, something called common sense, that four dudes, who just split up, weren't looking for money. No, they were after some different kind of booty. And I wasn't gonna give it to them.

I repeated myself, you say? Are you sure about that? Because I say I didn't. Bitch.

The cat and mouse chase lasted far longer than I expected, but ended the way I assumed it would; the men behind me drove me into a more isolated area and the other two dudes appeared in front of me, almost out of nowhere. They cornered me. And they believed that they'd won.

HOWEVER!

Like a bat outta hell, Maverick's Subaru appeared suddenly and headed right for us. Before he reached us, he ran over somebody, who'd been standing nearby with friends of theirs (I'm assuming); said friends shouted "Oh my god, he killed Kenny!" and "You bastard!" before they just walked away without a care, so that was…an experience. Anyway, he stopped his vehicle before he ran over us, too.

The window of the passenger's side was down. I nearly lost my breath, seeing Maverick again. He grunted, shifting his head to the side slightly; I took that as "get the fuck in the vehicle, now!", so I did.

Dark as shit in there, it was; I could hardly see his handsome face of near constant indifference. I giggled hysterically when he turned the vehicle around and nearly ran over the rapists; I'm not saying potential in front of that because they'd definitely pulled that stunt before and had absolutely gotten away with it. Not that time, though; I had my soulmate protecting me.

"Seatbelt," he demanded of me. He noticed I was swaying rapidly in the seat, thanks to the dangerous speeds he was going. I blushed deeply, not from embarrassment but from the sound of authority in his tone. It was so hot, my goodness. I put on the seatbelt, just like he wanted; awww, he wanted me entirely safe. It totally wasn't because I'd fly out the window, bleed to death, and tempt him into eating me in a not-so-fun way. That totally wasn't why at all.

He sped through a few lights, maybe. I don't actually know; I was too busy staring at him.

Despite the obvious danger I was in, because of his unnecessary speeding (like, how did he not crash into several buildings and some vehicles? That's insanely unreal; I must be remembering incorrectly or something), I just felt like nothing bad could possibly happen to me whilst I was with him. Crazy, I know, but it was how I felt. I still feel it. Maybe I wouldn't be dying right now if I had stayed by his side twenty-four seven. Just a random thought; I'm allowed those.

I was too mesmerized by his handsome sexiness to say anything about what just happened.

I don't know how long I stared. I just know that I snapped back into reality when the vehicle slammed into a motionless state. I would've flown out the windshield if I hadn't put on my seatbelt. I glanced out the passenger's window, which was still down, by the way, and saw that he was parked somewhere in the town (city? I don't fucking know which one Haven Demoness is).

"You aight?" he asked after another moment of silence.

I took a moment to answer. The gravity of the situation that happened was recollected in my brain. "Am I alright after nearly getting gang banged against my will?" I rhetorically asked back. "Fuck no, I'm not alright! Who would be after that shit?! A crazy person, that's who; a crazy person with a lot of brain damage!"

"Could've just said no," he stated.

I stared blankly at him. "No, I'm not alright, but I will be, eventually." Eventually as in two seconds later; shit almost happened to me but it didn't, so I choose not to dwell on the maybe. People respond differently to what they've experienced. "Are you okay?"

"No," he answered without hesitation. "I am…struggling right now. Rant about something else." He paused briefly. "Please."

Awww, he said please; he's so polite, I thought. "Scout Lockwood has been falsely claiming that I agreed to a morp date with him. He asked out of nowhere, while I was distracted, and I just said whatever, wanting him to go, but then I realized what he said and tried to clarify that I hadn't been answering his question but was just saying something to make him shoo, but he walked off before I could. So, yeah, he's claiming we're going to that together, which we aren't because I don't like that shit. And now I've got Heather hating my ass for no reason because she wants to be the one riding his dick at morp like the white girl stereotype she is." I vented a lot. Scout and Heather's existences annoyed the fuck outta me. I'd celebrate if they died.

He snorted, though it was a bit delayed, as if he had to process my words. To be fair, I had been speaking fast. "Ah, yes, that."

"Heard about it, huh?" I quizzed.

"Hard not to; everyone's so loud," he stated.

I nodded shortly. "I get it."

"No, you don't," he disagreed, frowning.

I sighed. "Still "struggling"?" I was the one that got attacked minutes ago, not you; why are you affected by it so much more than me? Damn, I thought. Yeah, I thought that. I tend to think negatively about him, as you've noticed. But it's totally okay because I still love-lust him. It's absolutely healthy, not at all but I'm choosing this pathway of romance, not you.

He glared at me briefly before staring out the window, again, like he'd been doing, which I hadn't mentioned until now. "If you haven't noticed, Iris, I have anger issues. And it's taking… everything in me to avoid turning around and kil-... crippling those… lowlifes."

"Uh huh. Well, we've already won that fight, so just…forget about it or whatever; I'm fine now, thanks to you." I half-smiled, feeling slightly uncomfortable, to be honest, but that tends to happen when I'm around him and I wasn't gonna let his many flaws ruin my attraction to him.

Awkward silence happened.

I decided to check the time on my phone; yes, I still had my phone, somehow, after that bullshit earlier. Yes, I was surprised I hadn't lost it. As I looked at my phone's clock, I noticed I missed a text; Chrysanthemum was wondering where I was, as she and Bitchy were at the restaurant. "Chrysanthemum and Erica are waiting for me at a Thai place. I'm, uh, running a little late, apparently. …Whoops." Without a doubt in my mind, Erica was probably already eating and might've pressured Chrysanthemum into ordering some food without me, too. That bitch.

Without saying anything, Maverick restarted the vehicle and, soon, we were zooming through the streets again. I still don't understand how he didn't crash. In the blink of an eye, which is an exaggeration as it took far longer than that, he drove into the parking lot of Chamomile Bistro. From the corner of my eye, I spotted Chrysanthemum reluctantly following Erica away from the entrance to the restaurant. They already ate without me, I thought. That impatient bitch, Erica; couldn't even wait ten minutes, could ya?

I quickly got out of the Subaru. Maverick followed suit; I didn't question it. I just assumed he was still in overprotective mode. I sprinted towards Chrysanthemum (and Erica but mostly Chrysanthemum because she was my real homie). "Flower Angel!" I yelled.

Chrysanthemum turned around so fast and met me halfway. "Unicorn!" she yelled back. I hated the hug she gave me but I endured, for her sake. "You made me worried! I thought something might've happened! Are you okay?!" She glanced towards Maverick. She blushed slightly and instantly calmed down. "Erm, sorry. I must be overreacting, huh…? Were you…hanging out with Maverick the entire time?"

"Yeah, Iris. Were you?" Erica questioned, sounding salty as fuck. This is my dick to ride; stick with your own, whore.

"I wandered around aimlessly and he just happened to run by," I vaguely answered. I wasn't gonna tell them about what almost happened because it was already in the past. Plus, it wasn't any of Erica's business, especially since she'd twist the narrative and tell everyone lies at school.

"I hope you don't mind me joining you," Maverick said, smiling his charming smile, using his "secret" power of…getting women wet with a smile. Yep, that was a sentence.

Chrysanthemum stared at him briefly before grinning and nodding shortly. "Alright, then."

"We ate already," Erica stated, looking smug.

I opened my mouth to speak, but Chrysanthemum spoke first. "You ate; I chose to wait for my best-friend." She moved to stand beside me. "And now that she's been found, safe and sound, I'll be dining with her and Maverick. You can just give me my stuff and go home; the crisis has been averted. See ya at school."

Very angrily, Erica got Chrysanthemum's bags outta the car and practically threw them in her face before she grumpily got into her car and left. I snorted when she was gone, amused by her poor behavior. I even fist-pounded Chrysanthemum for her epicness.

After putting Chrysanthemums's bags inside the Subaru, the three of us entered the little restaurant. It wasn't crowded because, duh, little restaurants are less appealing to rich people, so not too many people were there. The place was gonna close within the next hour, so lucky us. I might've exaggerated what the time was earlier, during my horrific encounter. It was still kind of late, though. Sort of. Still night ish, anyway. Maybe. I don't remember.

The host was male. He kept eyeing Chrysanthemum and I. He was very welcoming to us, probably because we were the opposite sex and good looking, for a "plain jane" and a "bashful" gal. Nevermind, she is actually bashful but she doesn't make it her personality, whereas I kind of make the plain jane thing my personality. I'm lying; I don't do that. I don't. Anyways. He seemed to glare whenever he looked at Maverick, so my previous statement was likely correct.

We were seated somewhere at the back, where we could have some privacy. We sat in awkward silence, which was expected. Eventually, our server came; also male. He gave Chrysanthemum and I flirtatious eyes, ignoring Maverick's presence. We were given menus and asked what we wanted as drinks; I asked for a Dr. Pepper, Chrysanthemum asked for Chamomile Tea, and Maverick asked for a Dr. Pepper, too, when the server finally gave him some acknowledgement.

"Are you feeling any better, compared to earlier?" Maverick asked me.

"I'm good," I answered quickly. "Completely okay." I glanced at Chrysanthemum; she looked worried again. "Nothing to worry about, Flower Angel. Just a…situation. It's in the past now." The very recent past, I thought.

"You're certain?" Maverick questioned.

"I'm certain," I answered, slightly annoyed. I finally looked at the menu and glanced through it before mentally deciding what I wanted. I put it down on the table and watched Chrysanthemum go through the same mental gymnastics I had just done with picking my meal.

The waiter appeared with our drinks; he made a point to ignore Maverick. We ordered our food; I asked for vegetable spring rolls and wonton soup, Chrysanthemum asked for red curry seafood and spicy stir fried (fry? Whatever it was called), and Maverick wanted nothing. Because duh. The waiter walked off, disappointed; Chrysanthemum and I weren't paying him any flirtatious attention. She and I sipped our drinks; Maverick didn't touch his. He ended up giving it to me a few minutes later; I had completely downed my own beverage.

I stared at Maverick a bit; he was wearing some formal looking clothes, for some reason. Whatever; I didn't care. He looked hot in anything, so I never really paid attention to his outfits. Much. It was usually, you know, normal shit any dude would wear, so nothing worth mentioning, until now because I've got nothing to say at the moment that's relevant enough to what led to my currently happening death. Yeah.

I spoke up, randomly, out of nowhere. "I'm not going to enter a state of shock, you know."

"A normal person, who has almost experienced sexual assault by several men, would be," he started, catching Chrysanthemum's attention. He did it on purpose. He wanted her to know. "But you're right; you're not a normal person, as you've continuously reminded me." He looked smug as he briefly glanced at Chrysanthemum. Jerk face.

"That's what happened?!" Chrysanthemum exclaimed, looking horrified. Surprisingly, no one glanced our way. "You-You-You can't just dismiss that as nothing!"

"It happened to me, so yeah, I can dismiss it if I want and I have. So should you," I answered. I, then, glared at Maverick. I observed his eyes; they were light. "Though you'd be in a decent mood, given that your eyes aren't black. And you are usually super rude when they are, but they are light now, so." Shut up; I didn't speak nonsense.

He rolled his eyes. "Again with my eyes? What, got another theory to share?"

"Always," I sweetly answered. "And I didn't have to steal from TV shows or comic books or anything else of that sort this time. You must be so proud of me for this achievement."

"We'll see," he coldly answered.

"Ummm…" Chrysanthemum awkwardly sat there, between us, at the round table. Poor girl. Oh, well; she was in too deep with me, so there was no escaping for her.

The waiter arrived with our food. He took my empty glass and returned with it; it was full of Dr. Pepper again, yay. He didn't ask Maverick if he wanted a refill or food; he just left after that. Rude bastard, he was. Anyways, Chrysanthemum and I ate our food as I told Maverick I'd tell the new "theory" in the car while Chrysanthemum was still with us; I needed him to know that she was stuck with this massive secret, too, thanks to his recklessness, which I'm sure he already knew about with his super realistic vampire powers. Yep.

Speaking of said super realistic vampire powers, he revealed it to us when I asked him. It was that easy to get the answer outta him; he could see people's thought processes. Read minds, basically, but the way I said it made it sound cooler. I shortened this experience for ya because not much was really said; just a "cool" and "nice" from Chrysanthemum and I, as we continued eating. Actually, I'm just lazy right now; give me a break, I've already told y'all a lot of shit thus far. I can shorten shit when I want to, to save time as I flashback during my death. In case you've forgotten in the last few seconds.

Anyways, we learnt from that conversation that he can't hear my thoughts and only my thoughts; he could hear everyone else's, Chrysanthemum's included, which she apologized about, actually, and he laughed a genuine laugh, saying it was "all good". He's so nice. Right, anyway, the food; it was good. I shared with Chrysanthemum and she shared with me; hers was good, too. I had several refills of Dr. Pepper; it was awesome. I love that drink. I will miss it when I die.

Towards the end of the meal, I thanked him for saving me twice. I didn't promise it wouldn't happen again because who knows, you know? He held my hand briefly, too; yay! Anyway, he revealed he followed us, like a stalker; it wigged out Chrysanthemum but I thought it was romantic and shit. I had heart eyes. He said I was special and worth the protection he had been unexpectedly giving me. Awwwww. I love him. I'll miss him so much. Maybe he'll date Chrysanthemum when I'm dead. That would be something.

Anyways, he found me because he heard the thoughts of the rapists and saw what they'd done to other women. Which, yikes; trauma. He admitted wanting to kill them, again, but with Chrysanthemum to overhear; she wigged out some more. Too bad; she was stuck in this situation with me. She'd get over it. Eventually. With time. I'm assuming. Probably not. Oh, well.

With the food finished, he paid for our meals; it was pricey. We left. We entered his Subaru. I stared at him. He stared at me. Chrysanthemum was awkward in the backseat. She was just there, to be honest, but I was glad she stuck by me, even though her presence was basically entirely irrelevant, if I'm still being honest.

We drove down the road, entered traffic.

Maverick glanced at me as he drove. "So, tell me your theory."