And now, the final chapter to Cress's arc, our summer arc. (The irony is that I'm reading this and it just heavily snowed).

Play It Cress-cendo: Part Ten

Once Jacin saw that Iko and Kinney got their hands and mouths off each other, he headed over. When he approached them, Iko was still sitting on the back hood of Kinney's car with her knees to her chest and he was lying beside her, scrolling through his phone. He pretended that he didn't see anything, unlocking the car since he figures they were ready to go. They certainly didn't look like they were just making out. If Jacin never noticed, he would've guessed they were just chatting as they waited for him. Stars, he hopes he didn't hallucinate all that.

"Where were you?" Iko asks. A lot of her decals have peeled or smudged over the course of the day and she has traces of glitter along her cheeks as if it were her tears. For all Jacin knows, Kinney did that in the past ten minutes.

"On the phone with Winter," Jacin responds. Not a lie. "She would've loved to come here. You two good to go?"

"Yup-" Kinney says, sliding off the hood of his car, missing the landing, and falling flat on his face.

Iko laughs. As she climbs off the car, she stumbles on her feet and Jacin catches her. She continues laughing, a simmering chuckle as she points at Kinney trying to get up.

Jacin sighs in relief that they're both drunk … or high … or both. The make-out he saw earlier makes so much more sense now. No way in the stars they'd do that sober.

Jacin puts them both in the back seat and they buckle up as he gets in. He's glad the parking lot mostly has people sitting around acting mellow so he doesn't have to worry about pulling out and needing to hit the brakes every few seconds because someone jumped out of nowhere to take some selfies.

"So, Iko," Jacin says as he drives out of the parking lot, "how much money did we make?"

Iko gasps. "Look at all our money!"

Iko grabs some bills and coins out of the bra component of her crop top. She fans some out, spilling it onto the seat between her and Kinney. Jacin glances back, not expecting that show but sees a decent amount of cash. It's definitely more than he thought they would've made.

Kinney grabs some of the bills and fans them onto Iko, making it rain on her as she dances along to non-existent music.

"You're right, you'd be an amazing stripper!" Kinney yells.

"I told you so!" Iko cheers.

Jacin focuses back on the road. This is worse than watching them make out.

-o-

Jacin was glad that drunk Iko was happy to spare some univs since they were running out of gas and he had to refill. Iko fumbled some univs to hand to him which Jacin shoved in his back pocket so he could easily pay with his card.

Jacin handled refilling the car, waiting at the semi-empty station. He watches the price on the meter go up, seeing people pull in and out in his peripheral vision. Some people straggling from the festival, still chanting as if they're still at the concert. Their hearing may still be distorted coming from booming music all day. Jacin winces since they sound even louder in the near-silent station.

Jacin expected Iko and Kinney to bust out of the car and expect dancing like idiots in the middle of the gas station or stumble into the convenience store for some late chasers. Or worse, make out again.

But they've both passed out in the back seat, lying against their windows instead of on each other's shoulders.

Jacin leaves them there as he heads into the convenience store for a bite to eat for the drive home. He glances at his phone. There are a few messages from Winter having arrived home from the beach, missed calls from his parents that he'll return before driving (they're likely asking when he'll be home), and no emails. It's not like he expected any update from the University of Artemisia.

-o-

Jacin smiles from the kitchen as he watches Iko and Kinney groan awake completely hungover.

Once they arrived at his place, he had to help both of them inside. It was easy since they both started stirring awake, mumbling things he couldn't understand. Jacin put them in his living room, on separate couches, and they were dead to the world the moment they hit the cushions. Then Jacin went upstairs, checked in with his parents and told them he hated the festival and that Iko and Kinney were asleep in the living room, and then went to sleep in his own room.

He awoke the next morning just in time to make himself breakfast … which was cereal.

"Don't you two look cute?" Jacin asks rhetorically as an inside joke to himself and to spite Iko and Kinney.

He isn't sure who makes the annoyed groans. He guesses Kinney since Iko fell off the couch the moment she tried to sit up. Jacin was grateful neither of them vomited but it's too early to cheer.

"Shut up," Kinney mumbles.

"What?" Jacin questions with a grin. "Don't want to go back to Hashtag Asteroid Belt for another day?"

"Well…" Iko says as her voice trails.

"No!" Jacin and Kinney yell.

Iko takes a breath. "I think I'm about to hurl."

"Not on my floor!" Jacin screams.

And that concludes Cress's arc! Wow, we got two arcs in a row. Good for us.

I don't have the next arc finished yet (almost done planning, though). I'm dealing with a lot in my personal life right now (school-related, don't worry) but the latest that the next arc will come out will be the story's fifth anniversary: July 29th, 2022.

Thank you to anyone who has read up to here! I will see you all soon. Until then, guess who the next arc will be named after!