"Grey" Fezco O'Neill x black fem reader

13- The high of mania

You knew since you were both young that Rue was, in Leslie and Robert's words, "different". Meaning many things, and her spiral into mania and the investigation of the Nate and Jules situation was one of them. By investigation, you didn't mean anything regular or well calm. She wasn't gathering gossip on the latest bit of stupid teenage drama. She was investigating. Waking up at awful hours and going to sleep at worse ones, drinking coffee that was made with old coffee instead of water, and wasting all the ink in the school's printers to print hundreds of photos.

At first, you weren't going to say anything to let Rue play dress up as long as no one was getting hurt. But instead, this time, she pulled you in and gave you a three-minute-long ramble about how something was up with Jules and Nate. And honestly you felt kinda bad about how invested in it, you were after that. On top of that your dislike well now hatred for Nate Jacobs had only intensified.

After Halloween, Jules didn't go to school for a full week.  And even though I sent her about 50 text, she didn't respond. I could tell something bad had happened. And that it had something to do with Nate. Tyler Clarkson was booked for assault. But this shit wasn't adding up. And I was putting together the pieces of the puzzle. I wasn't gonna stop until I got the truth.

Rolling your eyes, you scoffed at the annoying announcement that was being made on the P.A system. It was bullshit you knew Nate wasn't innocent, everyone knew. A notification pined your phone, and before you even looked at it, you knew it was Rue.

𝚁𝚞𝚋𝚢

𝙼𝚎𝚎𝚝 𝚖𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙷𝚘𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚍 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚊𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚘𝚘𝚖

𝚂𝚝𝚘𝚙𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚜𝚔𝚒𝚙𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚌𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚜

𝙽𝚘𝚠 𝙱𝚎𝚗𝚗𝚎𝚝𝚝

Although you were reluctant, you still went to the bathroom. You greeted Lexi and throw Rue's cigarette away, only for her to pull out another one.

"Unless Jules is in love with Nate." She says, striking a match and bring it to the loosely held cigarette between her lips.

"Why would Jules be in love with Nate?" Lexi asked.

"You should listen to me."

"Bennett, the cigarettes are killing me." Lexi walks away from Rue as she approaches her, and you smile, amused that the smoke was bothering her the same way it bothered you.

"Listen the night of the carnival she said she wanted to meet up with this guy she met online okay? He's some fuckin' jock, he's from a conservative family, and they were talking and texting. They've been texting for weeks. And when I say Texting, I don't just mean regular fuckin' texting. They were sexting."

"Like Nudes." You and Lexi say.

"Yeah. Side note, very nice dick. Very clean room."

"Oh."

"EW." You mumbled.

"She never fucking saw his face."

"Never?" You said surprised.

"Never." Rue repeats.

"Yeah, so Jules was catfished."

That was it, the answer was obvious, but in this state Rue took different routines to figuring this out. Quickly she tells you both, Jules went to meet the guy she was talking to, something happened that made her sleepover in Rues bed and that he didn't look like his pictures. It was literally the definition of catfishing, just with extra steps.

"No, but you know what his nae was?"

"Nate Jacobs." Lexi Guesses.

"Not Nate Jacobs." You guess.

"Tyler."

"Like Tyler Clarkson."

"The guy who got arrested for Nate and was fucking Maddy in the pool in front of him." You spoke surprised you were surprised, somehow this was starting to make sense.

"You goddamn right." Rue looks at the two of with wide eyes, and you could almost feel things kicking up a notch.

The next time the three of you met up was at lunch. Watching Maddie and Nate play all cutesy made you sick, so you focused on the task at hand instead. Which was mostly babysitting Rue. And more than that, listening to the theory she was putting together. The Tyler catfish account was one thing, but statutory being a lighter offense than assault after everyone saw Maddy and Tyler in the pool was another. It was a loose idea, but Nate was capable of evil things, so it made sense. Some sense. Some.

But her dragging Fezco into this made none.

"Yo, you hear this shit." He calls to you and Ash from his grandma's room.

"I don't know Fez it kinda makes sense." You tell him, unaware of what she was asking of him.

"See, she sees the big picture." Rue says quickly.

"Are you serious ? I'm not pulling a gun on nobody."

"What!" You jump out of your seat and join the two in the other room. "Who's talking bout guns?"

"She is." Fezco nods to Rue. "Dumbest shit she said all fucking day."

"You don't have to fucking point it at him. You could just-- You could, like--. You could flash it." She demonstrates this by lifting her shirt slightly.

"You really have lost your fukin' mind, Rue."

"Fuck, it's a bad fucking idea, okay? I was just fucking spit balling, here."

"How you start spit balling and go straight for guns." You said to yourself.

"Fr." Fez agrees.

"I mean he fucked with me, he fucked with Jules. And I want fucking revenge. Okay? Sorry."

You both understood somewhat where she was coming from, but if Nate could get Tyler and Jules to work for him was fucking with him, really the best idea. No probably not. Fezco's phone dings with a notification.

"Fuck mouse is here."

A cold shiver of fear ran up your spine.

"The guy with--." Rue circles her face with her finger, meaning his tattoos.

"All right, so stay in here. Be quiet--"

"Fez I can't say in here. Like I'm not good with awkward silences." Rue cuts him off.

"Yes the fuck you can. Shh! Be quiet. Listen, I'm really serious right now. You just need to sit your manic ass down, and be quiet for five fucking minutes, Rue. I'm not fucking playin' with you." He tells Rue before turning to you. "Watch her and don't come out till me or Ash come back in here." He turns back to Rue. "Sit down and shut the fuck up." He says before slamming the door shut.

You left your seat from beside the bookcase and cover Fezco's grandma's chest before sitting at on the edge of her bed. Rue took the empty seat and maybe for a second she was fine, but after that she quickly left the room. And in a panic, you followed her. The conversation coming from the living room seemed tense, but right now you were too focused on getting the hell out before you or Rue was seen by Mouse.

The two of you find your way into an alley and Rue stops.

"Rue, I'm tired of shit, okay, let's just go home."

She stares at the sky but doesn't respond as she can't hear you or maybe doesn't want to. After a moment, her gaze returns to the ground, and she begins to walk with a defeated tone handing over her. It stays that way until you got home, she crawled into her bed and that was the end of it. Well, you thought it was the end of it.