No Dogs Allowed

The Loneliest Leaf Falls Most Freely

(ty for reading! happy very late thanksgiving, if you all celebrate. i'm thankful for all of you :) enjoy and the little star is grateful for your presence, too!)

H2O2

Hydrogen peroxide.

Antiseptic. Pale blue liquid, slightly viscous. Used as an oxidizer; a mild antiseptic used to clean wounds, relieve minor irritation, remove mucus, and prevent serious infection. Avoid eye contact; can cause permanent damage to the eyes.

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November, if you'd believe me, passed like a river drying from a drought: too quickly for comfort, but too slow to miss it.

Kane and I had only escaped the consequences of The Eclipse for the night, escaping away to the bathroom to clean our wounds and bind our cuts. Kane pressed an ice pack to my ribs and I winced. Kane bound his knuckles and pasted lidocaine over his shoulder. He had bruises across his throat. I had a matching set. When he looked at me, it was with an infinite sadness, a frustration that cut me to my organs, an anger that was as deserved as it was gut-wrenching. Maybe he saw Luan, in some way or another. When you're scared of beasts, all you see are beasts.

I couldn't blame him for finding mine.

"Your jacket," I said.

"Keep it," he replied. "And trash those clothes."

I did.

But there were enough eyewitnesses to go around at Aster's party, and the news struck Corvus the very next day, with none other than a team meeting to show for it.

Coach threw her phone down on the coffee table. She stabbed her finger at the headline. VIOLENCE IN PARADISE, KNIVES AND KNUCKLES: KANE KING AND LUAN ZHANG BRAWL IT OUT AT THE ECLIPSE. With over fifty thousand views.

"A knife," she roared. "A knife. Are you out of your mind? Are you truly out of your goddamn mind? You really sat there and thought that pulling a knife on somebody was the way to have a damn party?"

We ought to bring a knife on that damn track.

Kane sat with his elbows on his knees, his head hanging. He didn't speak. Corvus stared dumbfounded between him and the phone.

Zahir raked fingers through his hair. "Jesus Christ, King," he muttered. "You pulled a knife on him?"

"Good riddance," Diego said. "If he hadn't, someone would've."

"I don't give two shits who else would've," Coach snapped. "I give a shit that you did. Are you an idiot? Are you really an idiot?"

"Coach," Meredith tried.

"He could have you charged for aggravated assault." Coach pinched the bridge of her nose, her fingers shaking. "You could be suspended from school. You could be expelled from Corvus."

Corvus shot to their feet.

"Expelled?" Zoe breathed. "They wouldn't. He's captain."

"He also had a drink and pulled a goddamn knife on someone," Coach snapped. "Do you have any idea what this looks like to people? Zhang doesn't have a bad mark to his name, not to the public, but you? You're barely a year out of probation, what does that look like to them?"