(Party Poison’s POV)
My whole being feels disgusting, like I’ve been on a drinking binge and hadn’t showered in weeks. I feel like shit. I sit on the floor of Dr. Death Defying’s home, head in my hands, tears still running down my face. I fucked up and hit Neon Sun, the only girl that’s ever meant anything to me. She still hasn’t let me into the bedroom to see her but I can’t exactly blame her for that. Had I shoved her a little bit harder, had she landed differently…she could be dead right now. Another round of sobs wrack through my body. From my spot I can hear Sun and Defying talking quietly.

“Sun!” I call out, knowing that she can hear me. “Sun, I’m so sorry!”

“Go to hell!”

Her words cut like a knife, but I know I deserve nothing less. I’d torn her apart, basically hold her that I thought she was a slut and then hit her not once, but multiple times.

As I start crying again the door is pushed open; Fun Ghoul, Kobra Kid and Atomic Bomb walking in. My little brothers eyes are glued to me, he looks concerned.

“What happened?” Atomic asks. Her voice is low even though she’s sitting right next to me. Her hands, calloused from days out in the desert, gently pry mine away from my tear-streaked face. “Party, please talk to me.”

Turning, I look at the female instructor, “I hit her.” Once again I’m a sobbing wreck. How could I have been so fucking stupid?

“You did what?!” That’s Fun Ghoul. I can hear the edge in his voice, the anger.

“Fuck you!” I spit back, turning to look at him. “You’re the reason this whole thing happened. You couldn’t just let her go. Instead you had to go and kiss her.”

Fun Ghoul scoff, “It wasn’t like I was going to sleep with her, I just wanted to get a rise out of her. Maybe if you hadn’t of run away from the situation like you always do you would’ve seen that she pulled away.”

I stand up, ready to hit him but both Atomic Bomb and Kobra Kid stand in my way, blocking my path to the dark haired man. He’s lucky they’re here. If it had just been us I would’ve taken it upon myself to beat him within and inch of his life.

“This is all your fault!” I yell at him before throwing myself down on the couch.

“I didn’t make you hit her!”

“Ghoul!” Atomic Bomb turns to him, laying a hard slap across his face. “You need to leave. Now.”

Although she’s only about five feet tall, Atomic Bomb has a strong personality. Most everyone knows not to fuck with her. Fun Ghoul, who’s usually one to argue, turns and walks out the front door.

Golden eyes flick to me, “You hitting Neon Sun is no one’s fault but your own, Party Poison. Was what Fun Ghoul did wrong? Hell yes, but that’s not an excuse. As soon as Sun is ready to see you I want you to march your sorry ass into that bedroom and get down on you knees and grovel until you can’t anymore. And by God, if that girl is kind enough to give you another chance, you better never fuck up again.”

I nod, glancing over at my brother. He eyes me with a look of pure disappointment. A few more tears spill down my face. I never thought I’d be that guy. I beat up guys that hit their girlfriends. I feel sick to my stomach.

“I’m going to go see if Neon wants to talk to you,” Atomic announces before walking across the room and disappearing down a back hallway.

Getting up I pace back and forth, biting on the nail of my thumb. My head whips around when I hear footsteps against the wood floor. Atomic Bomb frowns at me, shaking her head.

I let out a groan.

“You’re lucky I made Ghoul leave before he had a chance to go see her. You’d be dead right now Party.”

My eyes widen, “It’s that bad?”

“Well it isn’t good, that’s for sure.”

“Forget this!” I grumble before pushing past Atomic and heading towards the back room. Just as I reach the door I hear the lock lick “Sun, please, please let me see you! I’m so sorry! Please open the door Sunnie.”

After a few more seconds I hear the lock click again and the door swings open. I walk over towards the bed slowly, not wanting to frighten Neon. Dr. Death Defying wheels himself into the corner, but doesn’t leave.

“Sunnie, hey,” I say gently, standing by the edge of the bed. She’s got her back to me; thin white blanket pulled up to her ears. I gently lay my hand on her back, my heart breaking into a million more pieces as she tenses up under my touch. “Sun, let me look at you.”

She rolls over slowly. There is a gash cutting across her forehead, a little blood still oozing from it. Her cheek is red and puffy, eye swollen and a slight tint of blue has started to form. Her lip is also busted open.

“Oh my God,” I mumble, completely shocked by what I’d done. More tears begin to run down my face as I reach out to touch her head wound. This can’t be real. This is a bad dream. Any minute Neon Sun is going to roll over in our bed back in block J and kiss my cheek, pulling me from this miserable dream. As my fingers make contact with the blood, the realization that this isn’t a dream floods over me. I’m disgusted with myself. “I did that to you.”

“Party.” Neon growls out. “Don’t touch me. You lost that privilege.”

All I can do is shift my gaze between the girl I love and my bloodied fingers. “I did that.”

“Thanks for repeating the obvious. I thought the magical fucking unicorns did it. You hurt me Party Poison, not just physical, but emotionally too.”

Her sarcasm flips a switch and suddenly I’m angry, remembering the actions that led up to this moment.

“At least I’m not saying another man’s name in my dreams at night. How do you think that makes me feel?” I bark the words at her. The feeling of needing to hit something is long gone but I’m still upset about everything. She didn’t have to stay in the room with Fun Ghoul. She doesn’t constantly need to be throwing snarky comments at him. “Like a piece of crud that can’t keep my girlfriend happy.”

“You are a piece of crud.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“You’re right; it’s the understatement of the century, and an insult to crap. You’re a bully who hurts girls. And you’re right; I don’t let anybody get to close to me. If I get taken again, I don’t want them to have something to use against me. Getting close to me is dangerous.”

“What if I don’t actually care how dangerous it is?” The anger has washed away and I’m left, once again, feeling like the worst human being on the planet. Neon Sun pushes people away for the most unselfish reasons ever. I can’t believe I did this to her.

“You just don’t actually care at all. You don’t even give me a second thought.”

“That’s not true,” I answer, falling to my knees and clasping her hand between mine. “I’m so sorry Sunnie. I took things too far back there. I didn’t mean a word of what I said. You aren’t a whore. You’ve slept with two guys, and you usually don’t give in to my begging. You are by no means a whore. You are beautiful. You are loved.”

“You are right though,” she interrupts my groveling. “I have no confidence in myself. Sure, I’m a superhuman fighting machine, but it makes me a freak. Ten years ago, I’d be put on television, have scientists begging for my DNA. I’m a freak. I spontaneously change my eye color.”

“You aren’t a freak, Scarlet,” I answer back quickly, kissing over every one of her knuckles. “You know I love you right?”

“Yeah. I guess,” she answers and I can feel my heart sink. She’s going to leave me. She isn’t going to accept my apology. I’m going to lose her because I’m a dumbass who can’t keep his temper under control.

“That’s why...” I start but once again she cuts me off.

“You’re breaking up with me.” she finish for me, rambling on. “It’s not you, it’s me. I don’t trust myself around you, we’re too different to be together, and I want to be just friends….”

I scrunch up my nose at her. She’s a silly girl. She always thinks I’m going to leave her. That isn’t what I want at all. I’d sit here all night on my knees begging for her forgiveness if it meant not losing her. She’s everything. She brought me out of such a dark place. I don’t know how to function anymore without her. “I want you to accept my apology, but, if you want to break up, I can accept that. I’ll just ask that you not crawl all over Frank in front of me. I don’t think I could handle that.”

“Gee, baby,” she says gently, her thumb rubbing over the top of my hand. “I’d love for us to stay together. I need some time to think on it though.”

I feel warm inside, a little bubble of hope beginning to form, “I’ll let you take all the time you need.”

As I go to say more Atomic Bomb walks in, “Ghoul is here, he wants to talk.”

The little anger monster inside of me claws at my throat, trying to get me to say something mean but I swallow it down, “Remember, I love you. I always will.”

“I love you too Poison,” Sun whispers back to me before squeezing my hand and dropping it.

As I walk back towards the living room I pass Fun Ghoul. He keeps his eyes forward, completely ignoring me. He really needs an attitude adjustment; one I’d be more than happy to give him.

I don’t leave the hall. Instead, I pace quietly back and forth, wondering what Ghoul and Sun could be talking about. If he tries to use her broken state to get back with her I’ll lose it. I’ll run straight to the blonde he’s been talking to and make sure that she hates his guts so that when he fucks up again he has no one to run to. Hell, I might kill him. Or better yet, I’ll hook up with that pretty little blonde, hurt both of them at the same time. It isn’t like you can kick out the founder of the Academy.

“Neon,” that’s Fun Ghoul, raising his voice like he always does when he’s frustrated. “He hit you and you’re just going to give him another chance. You aren’t even going to weigh the option of us being together again?”

Sun responds but her voice is too low for me to hear.

“He’ll wait. He always will. The fool is so in love with you he can’t even see that you’re in love with someone else.” That’s Ghoul again. I clench and unclench my fists, reminding myself that going in there and beating the crap out of Fun wouldn’t win me any points with Sun.

Once again there is a silence as Sun responds. I hear Ghoul let out a heavy sigh. Deciding not to keep my thought process to myself anymore I step into the room. Sun’s lips are pressed to my best friends. The world flashes red for a moment before I get my temper back under control.

“So this is you taking your time and figuring out what you want?” Sun pushes Ghoul off of her, eyes locked on mine. “I’ll wait Sunnie, until the end of the world if I have to but only because I know he’s going to fuck up again. He won’t be able to help himself.”

Fun Ghoul goes to say something but I don’t care. They deserve each other. Is Neon Sun really going to chose a guy who cheated on her on multiple occasions? Is she really so willing to forget that just two nights ago he was sitting out with a student? I might have hit her but at least I’d learn from my mistakes.

(Violet Tiger’s POV)
I’m outside smoking a cigarette when a car rolls back into camp. Our redheaded instructor gets out, banging his fists against the rusty paint of the hood. As Party Poison continues to beat up on his Trans Am, I motion for Venom to take the younger kids inside. They need to see a strong group of leaders in front of them, not this.

Letting out a sigh I put out my cigarette with the toe of my shoe before slowly walking over to the male. “Party…”

His head snaps in my direction, temporarily pulled from his rage. “What do you want?”

“Do you want to talk?”

He stands, towering over me by almost a foot. I cross my arms over my chest, narrowing my eyes. He can try to act intimidating if he wants. I’m not afraid of him.

“You’re a student. The matters of teachers are not discussed with students,” he almost growls.

“Alright well, it was an offer,” I answer before turning back towards the blocks. I walk slowly, waiting for him to change his mind. I’m almost all the way back to my barracks before I feel a hand on my shoulder.

Party Poison stands in front of me, tears streaming down his face…the shell of a man who knows he might have just screwed up everything. “I hit her.”

I just nod, not really knowing how to respond. Party Poison never struck me as someone who would lash out like that. Sun must have really upset him if that happened. “Why?”

“I was jus so angry and things got out of control. She hit her head on the counter in Dr. D’s house. She could have died. Frank – ” Party frowns “ - Fun Ghoul I mean, swooped right in.”

“You two fight over that girl like she’s the one who hangs the sun in the sky every morning.”

“She does,” Party answers quickly. “She’s the most incredible thing that’s ever happened to me and I fucked it up.”

I gently place my hand on his shoulder, thumb pushing on his chin a little so he’s forced to look at me instead of the sandy ground, “Party, if she was worth it, if she really loved you, she wouldn’t have jumped at a chance to get back with Fun Ghoul.”

He shakes his head, obviously angered by what I’ve just said. “You don’t know her.”

“I might not know her but I know how you act when you love someone, truly love them, and that’s not it! She can’t make up her damn mind and you are going to drive yourself insane trying to get her to!” I stalk off, frustrated by his stubbornness. Why is this girl so special? She’s immature and indecisive. She’s caused more drama around here in the few days I’ve been around than a normal person causes in their entire life.

‘Are you just upset because she’s with Ghoul now?’ a little voice in my head swirls to life. I force it down, not wanting to go there. I shouldn’t care who the teachers are with because I’m a student and no matter what I think that fact will never change.

Slamming the block door shut, I can feel a room full of eyes on me. Ignoring them, I pull my ray gun out of the basket and head back outside. I wander aimlessly for what feels like hours before stopping and blowing a few shots into a nearby cactus.

A few black spots begin to appear before my eyes but I blink them away. A few more shots are fired. More black spots appear, taking out more of the landscape. Shaking my head I try to clear my vision…it doesn’t work. Slowly, the world turns black.



(Fun Ghoul’s POV)

“Thank you for finally listening to me.” I say to Neon. She’s hidden her face back under the blanket, just her eyes, one of them almost swollen shut, peaking out at me.

“We aren’t back together just because we kissed,” she answers back.

“I understand,” I respond as she begins to trace the tattoos that cover my arms, sending a tingle down my spine. “You’ve missed ‘em haven’t you?”

She nods a little, still lost in whatever world she’s created in her head. Party really fucked her up this time. Neon’s come back from a lot but this might have been the last straw. I’m going to be here for her if she needs me, even if it’s not in a relationship way.

“Frank.”

“We agreed Neon,” I answer back almost out of instinct. After we’d broken up we both agreed that real names are too intimate. It was easier for the both of us to use the more formal Killjoy names.

She frowns but doesn’t protest, obviously understanding why I’d said what I had. If she wants to use my name again she can ask me to be her boyfriend. “We need to push the concert we do for the KITs back. They can’t see me this way. I’m going to have to get someone to cover my classes too.”

I nod. We can’t let anyone at the Academy know what Party Poison did. He might have told the upper and middleclassjoys that he and Neon were together but the rest of the kids don’t know and it should honestly stay that way. Who knows if things between Party and Neon will calm down or if they’ll ever want to be together again? We can’t have rumors spreading around the campus even more than I’m sure they’ll already be.

My mind wanders to Violet Tiger. I should probably apologize for my behavior eventually. I was rude to her. Damn that girl for still being in my head even when I’ve got the only one I’ve wanted for so long in front of me. I’ve talked to her three times and she’s already invading my thoughts, pulling me into this mysterious world that she seems to live in.

I let out a sigh. I want to get up and walk around but I don’t dare disturb Neon’s tracing. It seems to be keeping her calm and helping her work though things.

“Remember how you lied to Gerard and said I took slutty pictures of myself for you?” Neon says suddenly, pulling me out of my purple filled haze.

“I was drunk when I said that…and high,” I mumble back, regretting the guy I became a few months after the breakup. I was a dick and would tell my best friend just about anything to get him to break up with Neon and send her running back to me.

“Since when do you get high?” She asks incredulously.

I smile at her. “It’s recreational, every now and then. When I need a pick-me-up.”

“Hand not doing you any good anymore?”

“No, it’s doing me fine.” I say to her with a small smile.

She sticks her tongue out at me, leaving the blanket down by her chin.

“Only thing that is doing me.” I mutter under my breath. Neon catches it, and gives me a grin much like the Cheshire cat’s.

“The sexy Fun Ghoul isn’t getting any anymore?” She says in shock, hand covering her mouth.

“Nope. Haven’t since we broke up.”

“A year dry spell…? That’s gotta be harsh. I can go a while without that, but you….well…I’m sure your hand is very tired.”

“Wanna give it some rest?” I ask her.

She narrows her eyes at me, shaking her head gently. “You could always talk to that pretty blonde.”

I frown at her, “The pretty blonde has a name. It’s Violet Tiger. Neon, she’s a student. We both know she’s off limits. Besides, that pretty blonde is probably pissed at me. I’m sure she was the first person Party went to after he left here. He probably drug my name through so much dirt I’d have to shower for a year straight to clean it off.”

Neon rolls her eyes; flicking them from a blue to the purple color she’s been wearing lately, “Ghoul…you like her.”

“I hardly know her. Besides she’s a student…my student.” I’m not really in the mood to talk about my feelings with Neon. She knows that when I like someone I fall hard and fast and that it takes me a very long time to get over that person. I’m definitely not over Neon so I can’t like someone else, especially not my protégé.

“You’re too stubborn for your own good Fun Ghoul.”

“You would know,” I answer her with a smirk. “You want to head back to camp?”

Neon chews on her lip for a little, “Will you stay with me?”

I nod as she pushes back the blankets. Her fingers curl around my arm, using me as a support as she lifts herself off the bed. There is a hand shaped bruise forming on her upper arm. I swear I’m going to kill Party Poison for what he did to her. No one deserves this, no matter how angry they make you.

“I’m hungry,” Neon declares as we talk towards the living area of Dr. D’s house. “Can we stop by the mess hall?”

“Whatever you want doll,” I answer back, giving her a smile.

She crinkles up her nose, “Thank you for not trying to force me into a relationship with you. I don’t really know what I need right now. I appreciate you giving me time.”

I take her hand in mine, leading her towards the car that I drove here. Opening the door for her I wait till she looks situated before shutting it and walking around to the driver side. “Neon, I’ll give you all the time in the world if that’s what you need. Even if you decide that you just want to be my friend and continue to stay with Party I’ll be okay with it. I might not be thrilled but if it makes you happy then so be it.”

“What would make you happy?” Neon questions as I begin to drive towards the campus.

A face flashes before my eyes but I blink it away, “I’ve still gotta figure that out.”

Notes