Here For You | ✓

chapter six | the one with the hell week

• C H A P T E R S I X •

the one with
the hell week

Danielle and Veronica were procrastinators. And when two procrastinators under pressure were put in the same room - things tended to turn ugly.

Chloe walked inside the living room and planted the white bored right before the group, blocking the television, disrupting their peaceful evening of lying on the couch eating chips and drinking beer. Ethan's jaw dropped in annoyance.

"C'mon!"

"You have your own TV," Chloe snapped. She sharply extended the steeled pointer, Bilal's head dropping, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose.

"This is exactly why I don't want to come here anymore," He shot Ethan an I told you so look. Ethan's eyes rolled while Allen was wildly confused.

"-As you know, tomorrow is Monday, the first day of Hell week." She pointed the stick at the whiteboard, where 'HELL WEEK' was written in bold letters in the center, and under it were two empty schedules with Veronica and Danielle's respective names written atop each. Veronica frowned, Danielle proceeding to chew loudly to get Chloe to willingly leave.

"I want both of you to fill out your courses and I need you to organize this schedule by midnight today. I do not want tardiness, I do not want laziness, I do not want excuses. Today, you're getting all your stupid colorful pens and a stack of notebooks to use whenever you 'need a fresh start', I will monitor your breaks and watch both of you like a damn hawk. Studying stops at twelve." She sharply clacked the stick against 12 a.m., "And starts at eight." She repeated the movement. "I even volunteer to kick you out of bed at seven and spoon feed you your breakfast. Any questions?" She folded her hands before her, watching them expectantly.

After a moment of silence, Veronica broke the silence when she realized Chloe was serious. "...What are you doing?"

"I am preventing history from repeating itself," Chloe calmly stated, despite her tone dripping with venom and eyes holding the darkest glare.

"What history?" Danielle spoke with a mouth full, earning a dagger.

"Were you seriously working on this presentation all afternoon?" Ethan's head tilted distractingly as he tried to watch TV.

"Do you not remember last year's Hell Week?" Chloe's eyebrows shot up.

Ethan's eyes widened. "We do not talk about last year's Hell Week."

"There was a Hell Week?" Veronica frowned, snatching the chips bag from Danielle, reaching in only to find it was empty.

She threw it back at her, the latter dodged it as her eyebrows furrowed. "What is even Hell Week?"

"Your reading period!" Chloe's jaw tightened as she recalled the entire disastrous week of Veronica and Danielle's reading period before their finals. "But of course, to you, it's just 'Week.'"

"It is Hell when you breathe down our necks all the time," Said Danielle robotically, folding the chips bag and lifting in front of her opened mouth to eat the crumbs.

"I'm sorry... what happened in last year's 'Hell Week'?" Allen quoted with his fingers, sounding so innocent in contrast to everyone's terse, ready to attack at the slightest trigger mood.

Chloe faced him to explain, "Ron and Dan turned this entire apartment into a fucking circus-"

Danielle gasped, "What are these wild accusations-"

"We all suffered," Bilal interjected as he shot Danielle a glare. Veronica's jaw dropped.

"Excuse me, I remember it was a blast, don't you?" Veronica turned to Danielle for confirmation. The latter eagerly nodded.

"Yeah! Remember, we did all-nighters and kept ordering food?"

"God bless the E-Market and his deliveries - saved my life."

"And that delivery guy who you ran after because you thought he robbed you when you accidentally swapped the receipt with an old one?"

"Oh my God!" They both burst out laughing, interrupted by Chloe's repeated slam of the stick against the board.

"Whew," Danielle breathed. "I have never cried and laughed that much in my life-"

"Yeah, that's not happening this semester," Snapped Chloe, both girls rolling their eyes.

"I also remember you didn't live here," Veronica added with a tight smile, palms resting on her stomach as she leaned back.

"No, no, no, no - that's not happening again," cut in Ethan.

Chloe couldn't handle their fits of stress when they left everything till the last minute, so she was forced to move out and live with Ethan, which drove both of them insane.

Chloe couldn't handle his chaotic habits and he couldn't handle her strict rules. It got to the point where he tried to arrange an empty apartment for her to stay the week and he even offered to pay for it himself. Natasha thought he was joking...but he wasn't. Chloe almost sued him for using her shredder to ruin a stack of files she left "unattended" as payback for throwing all his stash of condoms away to stop him from bringing girls.

"Can someone fill me in?" Allen asked.

"Chloe almost sued Ethan and Ethan was cockblocked," Danielle spoke with the knowledge of how ridiculous it sounded.

"You sued him?"

"Well, I tried persuading Bilal to be my lawyer, but he refused."

"Are you... are you surprised?" Allen questioned.

"At first I thought it was because he'd have to go up against Ethan-"

"It was because she was being a lunatic and he didn't want to look like a clown in front of the judge." Ethan smiled tightly. Allen looked at Bilal to check if it was true, Bilal's stern look on his face was enough indication.

"I wasn't being a lunatic. You threw away months of my hard work!"

"And you threw away a week of me getting laid, we're even."

"Wanna go to E-Market to get some snacks?" Danielle addressed Veronica through the ruckus.

"We could just order."

"My Chloe-dose reached its peak."

"I want to see how long it will last," Veronica's eyebrows shot up and down in anticipation.

"Anyway! Fill your schedules!"

"I told you," Danielle hissed at Veronica who winced.

"What's the big deal? I sincerely don't think we were that bad. From what I gather, you were the problem," Veronica argued.

"You released a giant beetle in the living room." Chloe's jaw tightened.

"We were testing his ability to fly," Veronica mimicked her stern tone like it was a perfectly plausible argument.

"And his name was Geralt, God rest his soul," Danielle loudly defended with a deep frown.

"Is this... a real conversation?" Muttered Allen, addressing the guys.

"Aren't you scared of beetles, Ronnie?" Ethan gave her a look.

Veronica's eyes widened innocently. "I was covered in a plastic suit."

"Where did you get a plastic suit from?" Allen questioned, his confusion reaching higher peaks with each additional information.

"Halloween costume... Dan dressed as Hannibal," Veronica pointed at Danielle who smiled proudly.

Chloe groaned, "You had an exam in twelve hours, the only testing you should do is your brain's ability to fucking function, which it clearly didn't."

"Language," Danielle mumbled.

"Alright, be reasonable, do you really believe having us fill a schedule will help us avoid 'Hell Week'?" Veronica quoted sarcastically, her voice deepening in mockery of the word.

"If I'm watching your every move it will."

"Mom tried for years," Danielle added. "You know it never works!"

"Alright then, I have a plan B."

Bilal turned to Ethan. "Do we have to stay for this-"

"Yes." Ethan didn't even have to look back to know he was going to murder him.

"When you two study together, it never works. Separately, it does. So, Ron, you're staying at Ethan's this whole week."

"Absolutely not." Veronica shook her head the same time Ethan jerked in his seat.

"Hell no!" He looked at Chloe in disbelief. "How does that solve anything? I do not want to be included in Hell Week. I want to be left alone," he spoke like he was dictating to a child.

Danielle rolled her eyes and turned to Veronica again. "Wanna go now?"

"Yes, please." Both girls stood, dusted their clothes from chips crumbles, and were right about to leave before Chloe's stick blocked them.

"You're cleaning this up," she threatened, ushering at the mess. "And you're staying until this issue is resolved."

"There is no issue to resolve," Danielle batted the stick away.

"Give me plan C," Ethan spoke.

"One of them has to study in a cafe."

"Not an option," Danielle firmly rejected the plan.

Veronica nodded her head. "My ass needs to stay on my bed."

"Then you either glue it to your bed or you find another place to keep it on."

"I have a special place for yours," muttered Danielle in annoyance.

"What is this? Prison?" Veronica put her hand on her waist.

The four relatives continued their banter, the argument becoming more heated as Chloe stood her grounds and the girls rejected every plan she got, Ethan continuously reminding them to leave him out of this. Bilal dramatically sighed, desperate for the earth to swallow him whole while Allen watched the interaction with an idea stuck in his throat but he was hesitant to suggest.

As Bilal's impatience brewed the surface, Allen wiped a hand across his face.

"Uhm..." He tried to catch their attention, slightly failing as the group's argument grew worse. "Guys..." His throat cleared. "Guys-"

"Listen up!" Everyone twisted around when Bilal's voice rose, startling Ethan who'd been sitting right next to him.

"What?" Chloe huffed, watching Bilal expectantly, who gestured to Allen to take the floor.

Allen blinked at Bilal after his outburst, slowly turning back to face the girls as they waited for him to talk. "One of you can come study at my place," He shrugged.

Veronica's body stilled, nerves visibly tensing. Allen held her gaze for a split second before he averted them away.

"Super!" Chloe bumped Veronica's shoulder to push her forward, "Veronica?"

Her jaw tightened as she turned to glare at her.

"What, and I get stuck with you?" Danielle interjected.

"You've been stuck with me for twenty-four years, get the hell over it."

"I mean..." Allen trailed as he looked back at Veronica. "I'm at work all day and come back late, so I won't be bothering you. You can stay as long as you want, you don't have to sleep over-"

"Damn right," Ethan snapped. Allen gave him a look, slightly guilty.

"Yeah, okay," Veronica shrugged, suppressing her turbulence in a coat of nonchalance. "I'm warning you, though, you're gonna see an ungraceful side of me." Allen smiled, nodding his head.

Chloe's eyes flickered between the two with the wicked grin back on her lips, corner of her eyes wrinkled from all the malice. "So, we good?"

"Whoa, hey, I did not agree to this," Ethan interjected.

"I'm sorry, are you asking to be included?" Chloe snapped. He blinked.

"Get the fuck over it." Bilal bumped his fist against Ethan's shoulder with a tight smile.