No Lie.

Eight.

How could she focus? With everything floating around her head, there was no way Maia was gonna do well. Practice test or no, it was important to her. Once again she cursed her big mouth, as the bell rang telling her she was out of time. She slammed down her pen, getting to her feet abruptly, bag in hand, and storming out of the classroom.

"Hey, Maia!" Miguel called, having followed her out, noticing something was wrong. She stopped, turning to him. "You okay?"

"Fine." She huffed, shrugging. "Why wouldn't I be? I'm perfectly fine."

"Okay, just... the way you're saying it sounds like you're not fine at all."

"I am fine." She said again, a slight sharpness to her voice. "Convinced?"

"Yeah, totally." He shrugged. "Are you coming to the store?"

"Why would I be coming to the store?"

"Oh, we're having a party down at the canyon."

"Alcohol?"

"Yeah...?"

"I'm in, let's go."

-----

"Stop it." She sighed, watching Miguel, yet again, attempt to reach Sam. It seemed as though, the second she left school, she completely dropped off of the face of the earth. "Maybe she's busy."

"Not this busy." He huffed, and she rolled her eyes. "What, Maia?"

"Nothing-"

"Don't 'nothing' me, you've been acting so miserable today, what is the matter with you?"

"I told Eli that I loved him." She shrugged. "There, that's the big secret."

"That's what you're upset about?"

"No, Miguel. I'm just wondering if everyone gets a 'thanks' after confessing their love for someone else but whatever." She spewed.

"He said 'thanks'? Just 'thanks'?"

"Mm-hm. I said 'I love you', and he said 'thanks'." She folded her arms across her chest as she took in a breath. "I don't know, maybe I'm just over-reacting."

"No, I think I'd feel the same, I mean... something like that deserves more than just 'thanks'."

"Whatever, I don't wanna talk about it. I just wanna get this party going so I can drink until I forget."

-----

The party was crawling. It quickly started to get dark, and Maia continued to drink. She didn't care that she was probably gonna regret it in the morning. She didn't care that everyone and everything had seemed to blur together. She didn't care that the littlest thing made her laugh to the point of loss of breath. All she felt was happiness. Demitri, however, wasn't enjoying himself. He wasn't as drunk, and he just sat by the fire. Yet, the next comment he was about to make was about to spark the fuse of a bomb.

"What is it with you?" He asked Eli, narrowing his eyes at him.

"What?"

"You get a haircut and a tattoo, and suddenly you're all popular? See, I know that you're still the same old Eli."

"Oh yeah?" He turned his head to Moon, who was sat beside him, and simply kissed her. For possibly a good few minutes. "Would the old Eli do that?"

"In front of the girl of his dreams, probably not." Demitri frowned, looking off into the distance. Eli wondered what he was talking about, but when he turned his head again, his heart sunk. Even though Maia was totally out of it, it seemed her vision focused on the two, as she stood just a few feet away from the three of them.