"It was a good night," Frank said, with a towel wrapped around his waist and water droplets sliding down his well-built physique.
"If you say so," Everett replied, dropping his towel and standing completely naked in front of his locker. His white, purple, and blue hair was still dripping wet across his forehead. "Frank, can I ask for advice? I'm talking about advice regarding women."
"Are you seriously asking me?" Frank chuckled, dropping his towel as well, “I'm the only one who's never had a girlfriend. The only thing I had was a first kiss and then BOOM quite literally."
Everett glanced over his shoulder, his eyes quickly flicking to the metal plates on Frank's back, buzzing and soaked, gleaming.
"Well, Finn isn't best person to talk about women," Everett said, chuckling a little. "And out of all of us, you seem most friendly with humans."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Frank whispered, pulling up his neon green boxers and black shorts over his bionic legs. He tried very hard not to turn to see Everett, because the last time he did, something in him activated, something that he knew was in his heart and mind all along but was afraid to admit.
Frank never knew where those strange feelings came from, and no, they were definitely not directed towards the big guy. It was only him who made him realise that what he felt was true.
Frank was once in love with Evie, and perhaps he still was.
Frank currently liked Jade, and that was a bit confusing.
But Frank also had feelings, or so he believed, for someone with whom his dream of a 'traditional family' could not be fulfilled.
Of course, because wanting to be with two women and another person and have children with each and every one, adopted or biological, was the whole Sitcom Life stereotype, right? Sarcasm.
Frank grew up watching Sitcoms at home with his brothers, mum and dad, and always knew that he wanted to have that one day, and when he met Evie, he knew she was the one.
Things didn't go well though.
He wanted to be the family guy who had married a sweet woman and had had many children with her, live in the suburbs, have a family van, friendly neighbours, all that.
But now he wanted to have not one, not two, but three partners and start a huge family in the suburbs.
But what if one of those life partners was not the same as the other two?
Monogamy was a lie, Zeth once told him, and Draco said that it was better to love many people with their consent than to do it behind their backs, and Alex? Well, he had had many girlfriends, all at the same time who knew each other, and he said that was the best option for him and for all of them, but where were they now? If that was such a good idea, then why did his poly relationships end?
Frank wanted his Sitcom Life, but the thought of having to choose just one person to live happily ever after stressed him out because he knew deep down that he still loved Evie, that he was interested in dating Jade and that his feelings for this third person was, perhaps, platonic.
Frank was the type of person who always worked hard to get what he wanted, but having more than one partner seemed immoral, those were not the values that were instilled in him from a young age by his narcissistic parents.
But wasn't love also a fundamental value?
Maybe Frank was overthinking as usual.
Maybe he just had to accept that monogamy was not for him, and that his sitcom life could be fulfilled alongside Evie, Jade and...
"It easy for you to talk to humans," Everett told Frank, taking a white tank top with blue and purple stripes from his locker, dropping them on a bench. Frank shook his head to get out of his jumbled thoughts, "How do you do it?"
"I just... I don't know. I think that being sociable is something that you are born with. But that's more Draco or Alex or Zeth's style. I'm too socially awkward. Where did you get the idea that I'm the friendliest to humans? That would be Alex."
"Alex is flirtatious, not social," Everett replied, "Zeth is very bossy and dominant, and Draco is disastrous." He grabbed a pair of blue boxers and blue sweatpants from his locker. As he got dressed, Frank watched him with a raised eyebrow and a goofy smirk on his face, “Sometimes I think I'm too socially stupid to understand human relationships. And now I'm in dilemma because I doubt sincerity of my own feelings.”
"You like her," Frank wiggled his eyebrows, his arms crossed over his chest. "Jade. You like her, right?"
This wasn't a question Everett was expecting, much less a locker room conversation, but there was no use in denying it.
Frank already knew.
There was something about Jade that had Everett, like an idiot, thinking about her. Maybe it was her somehow familiar eyes or the way she walked with her arms held close to her chest. Maybe it was just how nice everything about her seemed to be.
"Do you think she... Wants to mate with me?" Everett asked with a low voice, "Because she already knows I do."
The thought had been on his mind for hours now, and he hadn't told anyone. For a moment, Everett thought that if he didn't say what was on his mind, it would go away.
But it didn't.
A girl was on his mind.
And now Jade was too.
"Every girl has a crush on us," Frank sat down on the bench and looked up at Everett, "Like it or not. You are one of the favourites in fact."
"That's because they don't know me," Everett crossed his arms, “Only woman who really knows me is..." He widened his eyes and blushed. No. Frank was the least likely person to know about this, so Everett decided not to say anything, "Forget it. I can't say it out loud, not to you."
"I'm not going to get jealous because Jade knows you well, Everett. You can tell me about it. I am glad she now knows you're a kind-hearted brute," Frank smiled and shook his head.
"Jade doesn't know me at all," Everett growled, "That's why I doubt my feelings for her are sincere or if it's something about her, like Alex's pheromones, that drive people crazy. Do you think Jade is interested in me? Or someone other than Zeth?"
"You got me there. I'm a little worried that I'm already imagining a life with her that maybe she doesn't want with me. But I know she would rather date Zeth, or you, than me."
"She can be with all of us, Zeth said so," Everett said and Frank didn't seem amused by the idea as he put on a green tank top and a black studded jacket, "Maybe I should buy her gift again? At home, you showed love by fighting to death with other Yeti. Here you have to buy flowers and chocolates."
Frank shifted his shoulders.
"Women find gifts appealing, but I've heard they also like things you make yourself and..."
Everett could no longer bear this pain in his chest.
“Frank, I'm in love," Everett interrupted him.
"You already said it, in love with Jade."
"Not Jade," Everett whispered, "But I'm worried that if you find out who I desperately love, you'll be mad at me and we won't be friends anymore."
"Wait... Don't tell me you're in love with me!" Frank's eyes widened, "I mean, I wouldn't be mad if that were the case, believe me, but you and I..."
"I like Jade, but I'm in love with another girl," Everett whispered, "But do you think she'll be mad at me if I want to be with Jade too?"
"Does this girl know you love her? Have you already told her how you feel about her? Does she know you like Jade too?" Frank asked.
"She knows, I told her night we met Jade, but I'm not sure if she thought it was dream because she fell asleep in my truck and woke up asking if it was real."
"Did you meet with a girl behind our backs?" Frank asked and Everett nodded, "And you two... You know."
"No, there was no sex, no kiss, no anything. Just confession on my part." Everett looked down, "And I don't know if she's as in love with me as I am with her. But Frank! If I'm in love, how come I have eyes for another woman too?!"
"Monogamy is a myth according to Zeth," Frank shifted his shoulders.
"And you think Jade and girl I love would be mad at me?"
“It depends. Who is she? Do I know her?" Frank asked, but then his bionic eye buzzed and lit up, "Shit!" His bionic hand suddenly trembled, opened and closed on its own, and sparked, "I... I have a bit of a problem here!" Everett wasn't paying attention, and just stared into space as Frank struggled with his bionic hand, which was slapping him and pulling his hair. “Everett! Help! It hurts! Ouch! Everett! My hand is squeezing my... Ouch! Fuck my dream of having kids I guess.... Ouch! Everett! Help me!"
“What is wrong with me?” Everett whispered, ignoring how Frank's hand spanked him repeatedly, “Why am I so confused? Why am I thinking about Jade if I'm already in love with another woman? Is it because I'm dumb? This makes no sense.” He had never been attracted to any girl in his entire life, and suddenly, this mysterious girl appeared, and he found himself looking into her beautiful brown eyes every time he saw her.
But then Jade showed up, and everything Everett believed in fell like a house of cards in a hurricane.
It didn't make sense.
But Everett couldn't shake off the feelings, and he was starting to get sick of them.
He had to get over this before he did anything stupid.
But from the moment he saw Jade, some sort of fire melted his frozen heart, and he was unable to stop thinking about her.
But the other girl he already loved madly... What did Jade do to him?! Why was he so confused?!
How could a simple sight cause such a complicated thing?
He wanted nothing more than to kiss Jade, and he hated that feeling of being too afraid to try because he was a monster, cold and hard, and she was fragile, small, weak.
He knew he shouldn't let himself fall in love with her, especially since he knew that he already loved someone else.
But he just couldn't help himself.
He liked her.
Jade was driving him crazy.
All he could think about was touching her smooth skin, taking her sweet, small body between his arms.
But he wondered...
Would she love him even though she already loved Zeth?
Or would it just be a contract that she would sign to be with the leader of the band?
Would it be better to forget about Jade and love the brown-eyed girl that Everett had always loved with the intensity of a thousand suns in summer?
"I'll wait for you outside," Everett said and grabbed a furry vest from his locker, still unaware that Frank's hand was slamming his locker door into his face over and over again.