"𝑂ℎ, 𝐼- 𝐼 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑔𝑒𝑡 ℎ𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝐼'𝑚 𝑠𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑦"

"𝐼𝑓 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑖𝑡 𝑖𝑠, 𝑖𝑠 𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠,
𝑊ℎ𝑦 𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑡 𝑠𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑎𝑦"

Juniper grabbed her setting spray and went to drown her face in it because she was not going to let forty minutes of doing her makeup to go to waste. She was finally finished with putting on her costume when she heard Maddox yelling for her. The Yun girl put down the heels she was about to put on in favor of going go to her girlfriend's aid. The siblings and Juniper decided to get ready at their apartment so they could all go to the party together and so Juniper could help them with their costumes which considering Maddox was yelling for her, was the right call.

"Hey can you help me, this wig is not being very cooperative," Maddox huffed as she tried fixing her bun she tied her hair into under the wig.

Juniper giggled at her girlfriend before swatting her hands away so she can put the wig on for her, "You excited for the party?"

Maddox smiled up to her, "Yeah, we are not really party people so it would be nice to see how normal teens live."

"Hey we are normal-ish teens," Juniper replied as she went to lean against the wall while Maddox put some lipstick on.

Maddox turned away from the mirror to look at her girlfriend, "Piper we are theater kids, we are far from normal teens."

Juniper shrugged, kinda agreeing with her consider all of their friends personalities, not to mention their's. Maddox laughed with Juniper joining before she stood up to wrap her arms around Juniper.

"Wow I'm really lucky to be your girlfriend cause you are so gorgeous, like all the time but damn, this 80's look is really working for you," Maddox said in almost a whisper as she started leaning closer to Juniper's face.

Juniper felt her face heat up at her girlfriend's words. It didn't matter how long they were together, Juniper thinks Maddox will always have the ability to make her blush with the smallest words, "I think I'm the lucky one here since I'm dating the Beautiful Maddox."

"Oh really," Maddox whispered as her lips were practically touching Juniper's.

"Yep," Juniper couldn't keep up with the banter as the want to kiss Maddox fully took over all her senses.

Both girls smiled into the kiss as Juniper pulled at Maddox's waist to bring her closer which she giggled at. Juniper took advantage of Maddox's giggle to deepen the kiss as she felt the wall press into her back. They were to focused on each other that they didn't hear Jett walk in the room until they heard him scream.

Maddox pulled away first to look to the side to find out why her brother was screaming only to see him covering his eyes like a little kid who saw his parents making out. Juniper looked back at Maddox to see her rolling her eyes at her brother's dramatics and laughed at the two.

"You two couldn't have put a sock on the door! Or even closed the door if you were gonna make out, there are other people living here you know," Jett groaned as if seeing his sister and best friend together was traumatizing to him.

Maddox rolled her eyes again, "Yeah and we were in my room idiot, you were the one you barged in here! Get out!"

"Oh no! I am not going to walk out of here so you can keep kissing my best friend idiot!Anyways we are late because of you two hormone driven teenagers, let's go before I have a niece or nephew to take care of," Jett swiftly turned on his heel to walk out, determined to have the last word.

Maddox looked over to Juniper giving her a look that screamed, 'is he serious', "That's not how it even remotely works you dumbass!"

They could see him throwing up his middle finger at them before walking outside of the apartment. Maddox huffed before grabbing Juniper's hand after Juniper grab her heels and followed Jett out. Juniper'd used to the siblings arguing over stupid stuff just laughed at the whole situation before allowing her girlfriend to drag her out of the apartment.

...

The three of them walked up the stairs to Gina's room all with excited smiles on their faces, "Happy Halloween!"

"Whats up," Jett yelled following after Maddox.

"Hey guys," Juniper spoke up after joining their little group of Gina, Carlos, and Ashlyn.

"Wow you guys look great," Ashlyn said as Juniper gave her a smile.

Carlos pointed in Ashlyn's direction to agree with her, "Yeah you really do, Juniper love the dress, but um what are you guys?"

The three looked to each other confused, not sure how their friends wouldn't get their costumes or at least get the siblings costumes, "Have you not seen Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings?"

Juniper shook her head in disappointment at their friend's silence, "Oh you dorks need to get out more, it's a Marvel movie c'mon."

"Yeah, we're gonna need to fix that because Michelle Yeoh, and Juniper is clearly in a 80's costume," Maddox added.

"Wait why the 80's," Gina turned to her friend.

Juniper shrugged, "I kinda forgot about getting a costume and the only fabrics that I could buy at the store so close to halloween were these, sort of punch you in the face bright colors so 80's it was."

Gina nodded and Maddox and Juniper turned to Ashlyn, "Oh Hot Eleanor Rosevelt!"

"Did you guys just say that at the same time? That was creepy," Carlos took at step back from his friends as if they were cursed.

Jett rolled his eyes as he turned to reply to Carlos, "Tell me about it."

Maddox turned to give her brother a slight push as Juniper slapped his arm. Jett glared at the both of then before everyone's attention turned to Ricky who blew a whistle as he walked into the room.

"Let's get this starty parted! No, let me come in again," Ricky shook his head and he walked back down the stairs.

Juniper pinched the bridge of her nose at her friend, "What is wrong with that boy?"

The Yun girl shook her head as she heard her friends make their own comments as she watched Ricky do some weird walk up to them. Ricky put his arm against Juniper's shoulder as if he was out of breathe from doing his little entrance once be got to everyone.

"Dude if that made you out of breath, we need to get you a gym membership, because that's just horrible," Juniper muttered to Ricky.

Ricky turned to her and took off his arm that was resting on her shoulder to flick her head, "Shut it Yun."

Juniper and Ricky looked up from their little exchange to Gina in alarm when she squealed at the doorbell ringing as she grabbed the candy bowl for the assumed trick or treater. Ricky and Juniper looked to each other and just shrugged before looking towards the stairs, where Gina had stopped to greet the trick or treater. Juniper had a small smile but just as everyone else's it quickly turned into a hesitant one as the weirdly tall trick or treater kept walking into the room after they got their candy and not out of it.

     "Hey little tall guy, where's your candy bag," Ricky turned to the guy that was walking towards Carlos with Juniper moving to be in front of Maddox, "Buddy? Are you lost?"

     Juniper turned to Maddox who was behind her and mouth 'what the fuck' but Maddox only gave a wide eyed shrug back before turning to look at the weird guy again so Juniper turned back too, "Or sane?"

     Juniper and Maddox took a step towards Caros to pat his shoulder after he said he was scared once the weird trick or treater left. The group of friends just decided to shake off whatever Halloween weirdness that was and went back to talking and enjoying the party.

...

     Juniper stuck her tongue out as she posed for the picture with Gina and Maddox before Gina rushed away to go talk to Ricky. Juniper and Maddox looked at the secret couple then back to each other before laughing at the two who were kinda horrible at keeping their relationship completely secret. (Seriously how did no one else know) Juniper grabbed her drink after refilling it and stuck her hand out for Maddox to hold as they walked back to their group.

     The party so far was nice, Juniper got to hang out with her favorite people without the pressure of the movie or the musical and just got to laugh and talk and be happy. Besides the times she and Maddox get to be alone together, The Yun girl does not get many moments where she is just happy and calm. So this was probably one of her favorite nights ever.

Kourtney had shown up just a little bit ago so now their friend group was complete and after her Kourtney were done talking about how Juniper made her costume Ashlyn called out to everyone saying she was gonna do a card reading so one by one everyone went to sit on the floor in front of Ashlyn. Juniper went and took a spot on the floor next to Carlos and tried for a nonchalant look to not give away something was up since she knew that Maddox was setting up for her prank right then while everyone else was distracted by Ashlyn.

Everyone was having a good time and ready to listen to whatever reading Ashlyn was gonna give but then Dani walked in and sorta crashed Gina's party. Looking around, Juniper saw her friends having mixed reactions about the girl but Juniper was quick to put her focus on Gina and Ricky as Dani was coming up quite close to him.

Juniper turned back to hurriedly whisper to Ashlyn, trying to diffuse the tension as quick as she could, "Hey Ash maybe we should start before someone decides to start handing out bitch slaps!"

"Let's began," Ashlyn nodded to Juniper and gave her a quick thumbs up after she got everyone's attention.

Juniper turned her head when she heard Carlos speaking to the weird masked guy again, "Hi, I'm sorry do you go to North High or something?"

"Or are you so weird grown man trying to crash some teenagers party, because I will pepper spray you if that's the case," Juniper added as she grabbed her pepper spray out of her pocket to put it in her lap to be ready if the guy decides to do something.

All she got back was the guy shaking his head at her before he turned back to Ashlyn, "Wow that cleared everything up."

With her words Carlos scooted himself closer to her and farther away from mysterious mask guy. Everyone took a second to stare at him to see if he was gonna say anything but they got nothing so they turned back to Ashlyn.

"Okay! These tarot cards are very special, they were a gift from the Madam Stephanie. My psychic and life coach, who is currently accepting new clients! She asked me to tell you that," Ashlyn started with as she held up the tarot card box for everyone to see.

Kourtney scoffed at Ashlyn's words and turned to mutter something to Carlos and Juniper, "Ugh if I hear that lady's name, one. more. time."

"Eh I might take a card for fun, new experiences right," Juniper shrugged at her.

"No don't because Daniel, my telepath, said she's a joke show," Carlos replied but Kourtney and Juniper looked to each other confused at why their friend would even have a telepath in the first place. (Another point to add in the case that none of them were normal teens.)

Ashlyn cut into their little side conversation, "Are we all here? Well uh hang on where's Maddox? Juniper?"

"Uh I don't know, she said she was going to check the fuse box right Jett," Juniper said her line as she looked to Jett to finish the set up.

Jett pointed to her and he nodded his head, "Oh right yeah, she was talking about seeing a light flickering."

"Oh uh I hope not, the fuse box is really old," Gina replied a worried look crossing over her face but Jett and Juniper just sent each other a smirk and Gina unknowingly adding a finishing touch to the prank.

Just then all the lights went out as they heard Maddox scream. Juniper was about to laugh at the prank going so well but then Carlos jumped on her out of fear and Juniper fell back on the floor. The Yun girl pushed herself up with Carlos still holding on to her as she patted his head with a huff while she rolled her eye at him. Ashlyn was trying to calm everyone down once the lights came back on but then everyone turned around to see a swaying Maddox when they heard Carlos yell her name in fear.

"Oh my god! What do we do," Ricky yelled out as Juniper stood up with Carlos letting go of her hand out of shock.

Ashlyn walked up to the crowd that was forming around Maddox, freaked out, "Call an ambulance! Juniper go do mouth the mouth!"

Juniper unsure of what to do since she didn't know when exactly when Maddox was going to end the prank, started walking to her. But then Maddox turned her head to the group and yelled out 'boo' as everyone groaned and laughed at the realization.

"Wow that- that was good one," Ricky said as Maddox started to stand up.

Carlos laughed, "Yeah, the Woman in the Woods could never!"

Maddox laughed with a giddy smile on her face since she was successfully able to scare everyone, as she went to Juniper's side, "I felt like I owed you all a good scare after the legend of Susan Fine kinda crashed and burned! And I got to give a thanks to my prank accomplices, Jett and my wonderful Juniper!"

Jett and Juniper took playful bows as their friends laughed at three before taking Ashlyn's lead to go back to the card reading once everyone fully calmed down. Jett reached out his hand to give Maddox a high five as they all sat down. Juniper laughed at the two before grabbing Maddox's hand to hold before resting it in her lap. Maddox gave her a small smile as she kissed her cheek before looking back to Ashlyn.

"Okay, please remember I am new at this and its just for fun," Ashlyn went to remind everyone before grabbing a card, "Ooo, this first card is... Death!"

Carlos nodded his head, "Present."

"Actually, the death card means something in one's life is ending," Ashlyn corrected.

Juniper put her head down as she muttered to Maddox, "Well that's depressing."

Maddox nodded as she heard Juniper's mutter but Carlos sighed at the correction, "Okay you don't have to hit me over the head with it! Seb and I are over."

Juniper's frown was still present as she reached over to squeeze Carlos's shoulder in comfort, "Well although Gina and I haven't officially declared what we are yet, there's definitely something special happening here!"

Juniper immediately looked up to Matt at those words, confused and ready to bite his head off considering he was unknowingly messing with her favorite couple and best friends. But the Yun girl stopped herself when she saw the frustration clear as day on Gina face and just became confused at the situation.

"Sorry, what now," Ricky cut in with a glare pointed at Matt.

Matt continued to look calm and snarky, "Just check my Tik Tok at midnight to see what's up."

"What- what is this? Some kind of Halloween prank," Ricky looked at Gina for an explanation.

Gina still not sure what to say decides to just take the out, "Yeah! Lets go with that, yeah."

Maddox tapped Juniper's shoulder wanting to know if she knew knew more than her but Juniper just shrugged as she mouthed "I don't know ethier'.

"Well, I'll tell you what's not a prank. I am thrilled to be stepping into the role of Gabriella in East High's production of HSM3 alongside my forever Zac Effron, Ricky with the Good hair," Dani decided to randomly stand up thinking this was her moment or something to go and talk like she was the main character.

Juniper rolled her eyes at Dani already having been annoyed with the girl since they met because of the girl's clear arrogance, "Okay seriously who invited her because I know for sure Gina, the host, didn't?"

"Yeah what," Carlos added just as annoyed and confused as Juniper was.

Juniper watched as Ricky stood up to, to talk to Dani and blocked out what Ashlyn was saying in favor of watching the drama go down.

"I'm kicked out of the show," Gina asked Ricky, confused and hurt.

Ricky turned back to Gina quickly trying to make this whole situation sound better, "No, no this was supposed to be a favor! I- I wanted to talk to you in private, but it's a good thing!"

"How is it a good thing to be fired from a show," Gina scoffed at his half-assed explanation.

"She has a point," Dani butted in.

Juniper completely annoyed at this point by the girl and upset for Gina stood up next to Dani, "I will literally kick you out of this room if you don't shut up!"

Dani gasped offended as she took a step back and Ricky turned to her taking Juniper's lead, "Yeah please, just stay out of this."

Ricky turned back to Gina trying to explain himself again before he turned to argument back on her. Juniper was half listening as she continued to glare daggers at Dani who took another step back from her. The Yun girl flashed her a fake smile in response but she turned at the sound of Kourtney cutting in.

"Okay, okay look, Im the queen of functional anxiety and even I think you guys are taking this a little to far. Troy and Gabriella are characters, not a real couple," At that the three in the room who know about Ricky and Gina kinda looked anywhere else in the room.

"Well," Ricky started as Gina went to hold his hand, "We are a couple! And I don't really wanna hide anymore because we know we can get through anything. Right Ricky?"

Ricky nodded at his girlfriend and he went in to steal a kiss from her as Juniper pushed aside Dani completely in excitement for her friends so she could add jazz hands next to the kissing couple as if they were on a game show and she was presenting them. All of the friends started squealing at the sight and laughing at Juniper when Jett let out a sigh.

"I am so glad this is out in the open. It was getting exhausting," Jett said in relief as Juniper and Maddox laughed in agreement.

While everyone was laughing Dani rolled her eyes as she strolled up next to Juniper, "This party- this party sucks!"

"Then leave," Juniper groaned ready to escort the girl out of the house herself.

But of course when everything was going good, something bad had to happen. And the bad thing was in the form of Gina's mom coming into the room and Ricky finding out that Gina hasn't told her mom about them and wasn't exactly planning on telling her anytime soon. Ricky ended up taking off after that and soon people started leaving to seeing as the uncomfortable tension that Ricky and Gina kind of created was not really leaving. After most of everyone left Juniper went up to hug Gina and told her she could stay over if she needed it but Gina said she just needed to be alone. So with that Juniper joined Maddox and Jett downstairs so they could drive back to the apartment.

...

     Once the three made it back Jett announced that all the socializing from the party drained him so he was gonna go crash. The couple nodded at him before making their way to Maddox and Jett's little kitchen.

     "So you wanna stay over? Maybe binge some ice cream while watching some horror movies," Maddox asked at she leaned on the counter next to Juniper.

     "Yeah, sounds perfect baby," Juniper replied as she reached to squeeze Maddox's hand.

     Maddox softly laughed at her as she looked up to Juniper's eyes, "You know how I said this look was working for you earlier? Well seeing you go off on Dani just added to the hotness."

     "Oh really," Juniper quipped as Maddox stepped in front of her so Juniper put her arms around Maddox's shoulders.

     Maddox nodded with a sort of nervous look on her face as she thought that, that night, that moment felt like the right moment to say something that's been on her mind for awhile. Following Juniper's lead Maddox wrapped her arms around the Yun girl's waist as she spoke up again, "And it also just reminded me how much I love you after seeing you stick up for Ricky and Gina so quickly because that's just the kind of amazing person you are."

"Wa-wait what," Juniper stuttered out, sure she misheard her girlfriend.

"I said that I love you. Well I said other stuff in between that but that's the big picture. Everything with you is so effortless, being with you has made me happier than I have been for so long and all of these feelings has just made the realization that I love you so clear," Maddox softly laughed after her little rant before looking back up to Juniper.

Juniper was silent. She had this blank look on her face but her thoughts were going a mile a minute at Maddox's words. Of course she cares for Maddox, but does she love her? Is that was she feels? How does loving someone even feel? The happiness and the light feeling she had felt throughout the night left her so quickly as all of these confusing thoughts started to plague her just because of those three words, those eight letters. The only thing her mind could agree on was that she had to leave, she had to get out of there.

Maddox smile deflated more and more the longer Juniper didn't say anything and just blankly stared at her, "Juniper?"

"Oh, I- I really have to get home, Im sorry Maddox. You know, I forgot my mom wanted me home early for some family thing. I'll talk to you later," Juniper rushed out her reply as she stumbled to grab her purse and car keys that she threw on the counter.

Maddox looked taken back at her reply. Sure she wasn't gonna force or expect Juniper to say 'I love you' back if she wasn't ready. But Juniper completely brushing her confession off and rushing to leave her as if she couldn't stand to be around her, hurt. Not to mention the shitty excuse Juniper said was a complete lie and they both knew it and it just hurt Maddox's heart more that she was lying to get away from her.

"Piper, please," Maddox whispered as she followed Juniper to door, wanting Juniper to say something to her about it.

Juniper winced as she had her back facing Maddox and just muttered another 'sorry', not being able to face Maddox because of what she was doing before rushing out of the apartment to her car. Maddox watched Juniper start her car and drive off as tears were fighting to escape her eyes.

Juniper sped home not even caring if her parents see her upset because that might get a reaction out of them and right now that's what she needed, her parents. The Yun girl parked her car on the sidewalk and numbly walked up the driveway, to out of it to notice that her parents cars weren't there. Juniper shook off her heels by the door to put them on the rack and walked into the house.

"Mom? Dad? Are you awake," Juniper called out into the dark house before walking up to the kitchen counter seeing a note on top of it.

Juniper,

Your mother is going on a business trip and asked if I would accompany her. We will be gone for the next week if not a longer. Food is in the fridge but order in if you must. Behave while we are gone Juniper Yun.

- Your Father

It was as if the note was the last straw as Juniper's eyes welled up with tears. She sank down against the counter, falling to the floor as sobs racked her body. Juniper cried for the frustration and anger she felt at herself at leaving Maddox like that and for the emptiness that has plagued her, her whole life that the note just reminded her of. The emptiness that her parents unapologetically created without a second thought. Juniper cried because of all it. Waking up the next morning on the couch she couldn't be sure when she stopped crying that night long enough to drag herself to the couch and when the numbness hit her that left her whole body feeling exhausted and drained. How did she so effortlessly turn one of the best nights of her life in a long time into such a shitty one so quickly? All of it was her fault, she was sure of that.

this is Ri¡
......so how we doing? Im sorry.

also why tf did I make this over 4,000 words Im so sorry for the long chapter, i usually can split up the episodes but i wanted the whole i love you scene in the same chapter as the halloween scenes for some reason so sorry for the hella long chapter. i think i like how it turned out though, maybe? kinda?

and did you really think they were gonna have a easy happy relationship? nope. because Juniper's got some issues that we are gonna delve into next chapter. yay trauma! hope you've had a day your happy with cause im not because i got dance comps coming up :)))