bad idea

Chapter 21

"Of course." I shrugged.

"So tell me, how are things with Grande?"

"Good, except we spend so much time doing shit like this, we never actually get to do anything together." I huffed.

Madison stopped, looking at me. "Really, why haven't you taken her to the waterfall?"

Victoria's Pov

I told both Dalton and Ariana I was gonna grab some Lemonade from the fridge, but in reality, I hoped they would slip up about something. I still didn't trust them, even if Kai did. Kneeling beside the kitchen entrance, I listened in on Ariana and Dalton, without them knowing.

I thank Dad and Uncle Ryan for teaching me how to eavesdrop.

"We should tell her, Ari," Dalton whispered to Ariana, "Just incase Lauren tries to plot against her as well."

"Why would she? It's not like Courtney and Victoria have anything going on, Lauren would have no reason to plot against her." Ariana told him.

"Well, what if Lauren tries something?"

"Victoria's obviously gonna tell Kai, and it's only gonna fuck everything up. Either, they'll go confront her and she'll be more careful, or Kai's gonna break up with me for doing this behind her back and accusing one of her best friends."

"You guys aren't even official."

"That's not the point."

"Fine, we won't tell her."

I stood up from the side entrance, collecting my thoughts.

- Dalton and Ariana suspected Lauren of something

- Lauren's potentially plotting against me

- Whatever it is, I would immediately tell Kai

I figured this was either about Max's shooter or something about The Page. I just don't get why they were focused on it when for one, The Page hadn't made any posts in a while, and two, we had no service. So unless they were gonna write fucking letters, we weren't gonna hear from them. I decided I was gonna get answers myself before I told Kai. I didn't wanna set any false alarms.

I walked back into the living room, as the two recollected themselves as if they weren't just whispering to each other.

"Charlie must've drunk all the Lemonade," I said, realizing I forgot to grab some.

"Probably, you know how he is," Dalton chuckled.

"Should we start getting ready for the bonfire? It's like five now," Ariana asked, checking her phone. "I probably should go find Kai and tell her,"

Fuck, it was getting dark and Kai was still out with Zayn, I thought. "Don't worry I'll go get her, you guys should start getting ready," I reassured.

Dalton shrugged, "It's not a problem, we wanted to see the trails anyways."

"We just need cousin time, if that's fine. I recently broke up with Charlie, so yeah..." I trailed off, it wasn't a complete lie but I needed something to get them off of our backs.

"Oh shit. I should probably go check on Charlie then." Dalton sighed, grabbing his jacket. "See you guys later."

Dalton's eyes sent Ari a look before he left. I figured was probably reminding her to make up a reason so she could come.

"Vic, I can skip the bonfire if you need me to." Ariana frowned, embracing me in a hug.

"No, it's fine. Kai and I meet up with you and Courtney at the bonfire, yeah?"

"Sounds good," She smiled.

I immediately dashed out of the room, looking for Lauren specifically, but I found Niall instead.

"Niall..." I said, drawing his attention. "Hi,"

"Hey, you're Kai's cousin, right? Nice to get to talk to you," He chuckled, "Is there anything I can do, you look a bit worried."

"Do you know where Lauren is?"

"She's in our cabin, I can walk you if you'd like. It's dark and the woods are big," He reasoned, grabbing his coat from the table it rested on.

"Yeah, that would be great,"

"So," Niall said, as we started walking. "Is Kai single? I-I... I wanna ask her on a date."

"Well, she's not dating Ariana officially, but yeah." I shrugged. "But I do know she thinks you're cool,"

Niall smiled with a small blush on his cheeks, "Absolutely, great,"

Niall and I talked a bit more before we made it to the cabin, and Kai was right, he was a cool person.

Once we made it to the cabin, Harry was just leaving out. "Nialler, have you gone mad? Wrong cousin," Harry joked, "Victoria, it's nice to see you."

"Hi, Harry," I chuckled.

"Actually Harry, she wants to see Lauren,"

"Oh, she's in her room then. We were just talking." He shrugged.

"Thank you,"

"Upstairs, far left!" The boys shouted as I walked into the cabin.

I followed their instructions, and sure enough, Lauren opened the door after a few knocks.

"Definitely weird seeing the other cousin, but hi," She chuckled, gesturing for me to come in.

I sat on her bed as she continued to fix her hair in the mirror for the bonfire.

"Lauren, what the fuck are you up to?" I blurted, wasting no time in getting straight to the point.

"Excuse me? What are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb, you wouldn't want to ruin your relationship with Kai," I knew that was her soft spot, and by the look on her face, I wasn't wrong.

"How did you find out?" Lauren sighed, running a hand through her hair.

What the hell did Lauren do?

"Does that really matter?" I asked, standing up.

Lauren examined me for a minute. "Yes, I know who shot Max... I just didn't say anything so it wouldn't blow up. We were gonna take care of it all... but now you know."

"Who shot Max, Lauren?"

Lauren's eyes went big once she realized, I was completely clueless. "Where's Kai?"

"With Zayn, probably,"

"Kai's with him."

a/n: just a heads up, pov's don't prove someone is innocent. yes we've seen kai's, ariana's and victoria's but that doesn't mean they're innocent. accuse everyone👀 and i'll make sure to put everyone's pov, if you're interested. just request a character.

west side just came on, and it gave me a idea about chapter 22.