To say that Audrey and I's dinner party was a bust was probably the understatement of the year. After the guests had left Kiki went off on Audrey describing what had happened as 'emotional waterboarding' and she asked why Audrey would do that to her. I stood in the kitchen cleaning as they had a screaming match at each other and at the end, Kiki went back to sleep much to Audrey's annoyance.
"Do I look alright?" JC asked as she and Zoya stood outside the entrance of the costume contest, I had decided on Mariah Carey for my New York legend at the very last minute
"Are we going in?" Zoya asked since no one had moved an inch
"You can't go in without Obie," I told her "It just wouldn't be right especially with all those rumors about you being with someone else circling around anyway, I'm gonna go in" I walked in the doors and waved to all the cameras before looking for Aki and Audrey
"Hey Aki" I found him by the bar, he was staring at Max "we need to do something about them" I sniffed
"You know?" he asked surprised
"Yeah, I heard them in Rafa's office one day," I told him "it's a disgusting memory"
"But do we confront him now?" Aki frowned "I don't want to cause a huge scene"
"It's better than during the school day where we could accidentally get Max into trouble as well as Rafa," I told him
Aki nodded to me and I walked over to Max with him "Instead of following my dick appointments around town, get some of your own" Max smirked "or is that against Audrey's rules"
"Yesterday I was worried about you being together but after talking to Rafa I realized he's just bad," Aki said
"You know I'm on top right? Nagging does not turn me on"
"We're not nagging you" I spat and Max looked a little taken at back by my tone "we're trying to be good friends and to do that we're telling you that Rafa is a bad person"
"Whatever you think, you don't know what I've seen" Aki insisted "At least not yet, we just don't want you to get hurt, we care about you"
"Rafa cares about me," Max told us "You know nothing about him"
"That's what he wants you to think" I groaned
"He's had a hard life, his family disowned him, he's got no one and I wanna fill the void" Max cried
I folded my arms "everyone has a sob story, it doesn't give them a right to be an asshole"
"I just want to fill that void" Max repeated "now if you two don't mind" he slid past us and walked away
"That did not work what so ever" I frowned
"Yeah no shit" Aki turned around and Audrey sighed dramatically before she walked away. Their relationship was a struggle and what had just happened with Max did not help at all
"Can you believe it!" I heard JC yell, I had followed Audrey to see if she was alright but clearly, JC wasn't alright "Pippa and Bianca disparaging our costumes somebody told them"
"Well, what are we going to do?" Zoya asked
"Guys it's just a party, alright," Obie said
"Wait, I have an idea" I announced "Pippa and Bianca are Serena and Blair so just pretend that you've planed a costume with them this whole time and dress up as Chuck and Dan"
"Yes" JCs face light up "Take off your clothes" she pointed at Obie
"Excuse me?" He looked very shocked but where did he think we would get the man clothes?
"We need Aki too," I told them "we need your clothes so that they can dress up as guys"
"You know" Audrey spoke up "I came here to tell all of you that I might be leaving all of this very soon, but I guess that can wait, ok, cool"
"Can you get Aki in here?" JC asked me, I nodded and went off to find him. I found him just listening to the music while sitting at a table, I dragged him into the room where he gave Zoya his clothes.
"They're next in line, hurry" Luna hissed, Pippa and Bianca, were up to get their costumes pictured
"Go, go" I whisper shouted as Zoya and JC walked over as fast as possible. Luna and I walked over to Monet who was glaring at the scene before her
"What's gotten into you?" Luna asked her "so, fine, they won't win but look at how cute they are"
"Cute doesn't get you on the cover of Vogue" Monet spat "you'd be lucky if it got you on pop sugar"
"Then they would be nowhere," Luna said
"Maybe they deserve to be" Monet raised an eyebrow and I slapped her arm
"How could you say something like that?" I snapped, she huffed and walked away
"Cat!" I turned around to see Aki walking up to me urgently "I found something" he handed me his phone, there was a picture of Rafa with a bunch of people, his family
"Wait" I frowned "didn't his family disown him"
"That's what Max said but that picture says otherwise" we began to walk over to where Max and Rafa were standing "we have to confront him"
"Agreed" I nodded and handed him his phone back
"Sorry to interrupt," Aki said "but I came across something I thought you might like" he shoved the phone at Max
"That's a photo from just last year," I told Max while glaring at Rafa
"Look at that" Rafa scoffed "photos from the family reunion my cousins invited me to, my parents didn't speak one word to me and made a big show of leaving right after I arrived, thanks for that memory"
"No problem" I gave him a fake smile
"Max, wanna dance?" Rafa asked as Aki walked away
"You know what," I said "that's it" I knew that I said things I didn't mean while I was mad but right now I didn't care what I said "I'm so sorry that you actually have friends that care about you, Max, I'm sorry that you're so lost that you hooked up with this dick, I'm sorry that after tonight you won't have any friends left, I'm sorry that I ever dated you, and you know what I'm most sorry for? I'm sorry that you screwed up your parent's marriage just like you screw up everything else. Good luck handling your shit because I won't be there to support you when you realize what a huge mistake you've made"
"Fuck you" Max spat "you weren't even that good in bed"
"That's not the point of this conversation" I seethed "you can rot in hell for all I care" I stormed away but my anger instantly faded when I saw my friends gather by the door looking around frantically "JC" I called "what's going on"
"Somethings wrong with Kiki," She told me "Audrey is already on her way to the hospital" we all ran out and got in our cars, I was driving with JC and Zoya, he told the driver to get to the hospital as fast as possible and he got there in record time. I was scared for Kiki what Audrey and I did had messed her up and it was all my fault, I came up with the idea for the dinner party. My phone chimed and I almost burst into tears, now was not the time for a fucking gossip girl post
You thought I went somewhere? Well, I'm back and better than ever, yes, maybe I'd begun to wonder if I was abusing my considerable power when I realized, you're the ones who do that, not me
I rushed into Audrey's arms when we stepped out of the elevator, she sobbed into my shoulder as the rest of our friend group joined the hug
I'm not your parent, your teacher, or your friend. I'm your mirror, I show you your bad parents, your absent teachers, your errant friends, but if there's one thing this moment of reflection has shown me it's that this isn't a place for you to speak, I'm turning off the comments from now on, Mine is the only voice you need to listen to anyway
I felt another person wrap their arms around me and I knew exactly who it was. Max softly pressed a kiss to the top of my head before resting his head on mine, all our friends were there, everything was like it was supposed to be
because if you were kinder, more honest to one and other if you had the hard face-to-face conversations, you wouldn't need me, but you don't. You bring a gun to school, you cheat on your boyfriend, you hide behind your phones, so keep your masks on all year if you want to, but know, I'll be here, keeping count, keeping you in check
Xoxo- Gossip Girl