21

irl, messages, phone call

this is the last week of school before spring break and the birthday trip to la. james hasn't necessarily been mistreating kaia, but he just doesn't seem to put in as much effort or try as much over the weeks of their relationship progress.

nick, matt, and chris have all been in contact with kristina. they made a groupchat together to talk about everything.

the plan was to have kristina secretly fly out to la for kaia's birthday and confront james. but, they had to do it in a way that ensures kaia gets hurts the least.

the boys thought kaia would understand why they weren't telling her. kristina has also made sure to have the least amount of contact with james as possible, she refrained from ever hanging out with him since she found out, out of respect for kaia.

nick and chris have been keeping matt out of the house so kaia and james can come over as much as possible, they want to observe his behaviour to see if they can catch him slipping up or not.

nick has seen him walk away to the bathroom with his phone many times. plan a is taking kristina to la. plan b is catching james before the trip, so he doesn't have to go with them.

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nickyhey girlmatt is out of town rn with justin if you wanna come over with jamesi wanna play mario kart with you guys

kaiayou positive he won't be back?

nickyhe won't be home until tomorrow night

kaiaok fine

nickyhave you made your mind up about matt and your birthday?

kaiaik it'll be awkward but i'll have james there and i don't want matt to be the only one that doesn't go

nickyok girlme and chris will try to help it go by smoothlyi can't wait for you to meet all our la friends

kaiame too i'm dying to meet madi

nickyyou are gonna love her

kaiai'm sure i will

nickyalright girl you two come over whenever

kaiaalr we'll be over soon

nickysee u soonread 3:56pm

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james is at kaia's house watching tv. she tells him matt is out of town and nick wants to hangout, james agrees and they pack up and head over.

they decided to take kaia's car because james has been "tired" all day and didn't want to do anything.

every few minutes, she glances over and sees his phone in the reflection of the window. she can see that he's texting someone, but she doesn't know who.

her mind races and thinks of every possibility, but she tries to ignore it. they arrive at the triplet's house and nick and chris greet them at the door.

"i missed you." chris hugs kaia, then nick does.

"how are you, james?" nick asks.

"pretty good." he nods.

they all sit in the living room around the tv and nick loads up mario kart. chris sits on the end of the couch, kaia in the middle, james on the other end, and nick on the chair.

they start playing and obviously nick is winning.

"ha! fuck you!" nick shouts as he passes chris last second.

"nick!" jimmy shouts from the other room.

"sorry, dad!" nick shouts back.

they play several rounds for almost 2 hours. eventually, chris gets sick of losing and quits, so does kaia.

everyone is now just sitting around on their phones and everytime kaia tries to talk to james, he doesn't seem to pay attention or really answer her.

he gets up to go to the bathroom and kaia looks at nick and chris.

"you okay, kaia?" nick asks.

"yeah." she responds.

"that wasn't very convincing." chris laughs.

"i don't know. james has been acting weird and i have no idea why." she huffs, slumping back in the couch.

"acting weird how? has he been hiding things from you?" chris asks.

"i don't even know. i saw his phone a few days ago and he got a message from someone named kristina and i haven't stopped thinking about it." she admits.

nick and chris look at eachother and try to have a silent conversation through only facial expressions.

"what are you guys doing?" kaia asks.

"nothing. so about this kristina.." nick starts.

"what about her? do you know something i don't?" kaia asks, sitting up to pay more attention.

"not really. is her name kristina coleman?" nick asks.

"i have no idea. wait, so you do know her?" she questions.

chris looks at nick nervously and chris looks like he's about to say something.

"chris!" nick cuts him off.

"nick!" kaia turns entirely towards nick.

"what?!" nick throws his hands up in defense.

"chris, tell me." kaia looks sternly at him.

"i don't know anything!" chris shouts.

"christopher. i'll buy you a case of pepsi!" she taunts him.

"he can buy his own pepsi." nick interrupts.

"why are you defending him? what the fuck are you guys hiding from me?" kaia asks again.

"kaia. calm down." nick tries to comfort her.

"no, i can't calm down until you guys tell me what's going on." kaia crosses her arms.

"nothing is going on, we just can't talk about it right now." nick answers.

"it's something about this kristina girl. and james. does matt know?" she asks.

"we already said we don't really know her." nick says.

"okay, but you know her a little bit?" she questions.

"yes." chris replies, nick slaps his arm.

"i knew it!" kaia stands up and shouts.

"knew what? what's going on?" james asks, leaving the bathroom.

"nothing." nick stands up from his seat.

kaia whips her head around and looks at james.

"what's going on?" kaia asks james.

"huh? what are you talking about?" james asks.

"who is kristina?" kaia asks him.

a look of guilt washes over james' face and he swallows the lump in his throat.

"hello? answer me." kaia snaps at him.

"she- i just know her from my old school." james eventually replies.

"bullshit. nick, chris, you guys are supposed to be my friends. why are you guys all lying to me?" kaia shouts.

everyone looks around, the room is silent.

"if you won't tell me, matt will." she storms into the bathroom and slams the door, locking it immediately.

nick, chris, and james all run to the bathroom door.

"kaia, open the door. just talk to me." james begs.

"fuck you." she says back.

kaia quickly opens her messaging app and unblocks matt's number. before thinking it through, she presses call.

it rings three times before he picks up the phone.______________________________________

kai? chris, do you have her phone?

no, matt. it's me. i need you to be honest with me.

oh, fuck. kaia? why are you calling me? when did you unblock me?

right now. do you know who kristina is?

holy shit. are nick and chris there? where's james?

i locked myself in the bathroom. they're all lying to me. please tell me the truth

about what? i'm so confused

not you too.

what?

matt, please tell me

i will. just tell me what

who is kristina?

oh, god. he told you?

no! they won't tell me!

it's james' ex. we've been talking to her to get rid of him.

get rid of him? you guys have been plotting against me?

no! kaia, he's cheating on you. she's actually really nice and has been ignoring him to be fair to you, she's on our side, i swear.

are you telling the truth?

yes, kai. i would never lie to you. i'm sorry. i knew hiding it from you wasn't a good plan.

when were you planning on telling me?

your birthday. we were gonna fly kristina out and have both of you yell at him and leave him stranded there.

that would've been fun but now everything is fucked up. you wanted this! you just wanted to do anything you could so i wouldn't be with him.

no i didn't! if that was the case i would've found out sooner. do you know how hard it was watching you two together when i knew he was like this?

not that you ever cared about anything other than yourself.

that's not true, i was trying to protect you. i wanted to wait to tell you until we had more proof, that's all!

i don't care, matt.

please, listen to me. ask nick and chris!

why would i bother?

i'm coming back to somerville early, we can talk about it.

no! i'm running on adrenaline right now, i can't believe i even called you. i can't talk to you.

i understand that, but please just let me explain. you don't even have to say anything back.

we'll figure it out later.

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1478 words