Chapter 4: THE ENDGAME WILL ALWAYS BE KYLE:
"Sometimes the heart loves what the mind knows it can't have, and it's in those moments that we truly understand the depth of unrequited love."~Anon.
Kayden, Hudson and Kyle: 15
Derrick: 13
Nathan, Gabriel, Shane and Rex: 16
"Ethan has just turned eighteen and starts experimenting with sex and drugs. One day, he invites Lexi, his girlfriend, to his room for a sleepover. Ethan takes drugs prior to his girlfriend's arrival. Upon Lexi's arrival, he starts to make certain sexual advances towards her. Unfortunately, the effects to the drugs kick in, in the process and he starts having hallucinations. Believing he's being attacked by snakes, Ethan takes a knife and widely stabs the 'snakes' before him. It later transpires that he stabbed and killed Lexi. He is charged with murder. Assess his criminal liability." Kayden took a long pause after reading their group question. Each group had been tasked with a question which they were expected to solve in strictly sixty minutes so here they were, "What do you think?" He asked his partner.
When the silence extended for long, he nudged Derrick who's attention was on something or rather someone. Following Derrick's gaze, he exhaled in frustration. Derrick's eyes were on Kyle. Again "You're staring. Again." He accused.
"No I'm not."
Kayden fixed him with a gaze of disbelief. This was their usual trend. Derrick would be caught staring, Kayden would call him out for it then Derrick would deny it. A few times when Kayden had aggressively insisted on his accusations,he had ended up at Dario's office with a broken nose courtesy of Derrick.
The two had become close friends ever since Derrick's first assault. After all friends who punched each other stayed together.
Their friendship dynamic was uniquely sweet... Kyle always said that.
"Yes you were."
"No..."
".. before you continue with your mindless denial, tell me what I said last." Kayden interrupted.
"You were reading a question."
"...and?" He prompted.
"We are supposed to solve it?"
"Okay you're right but I was also right about the staring thing. If you continue with that, Kyle will soon realize it then I wouldn't be able to defend you."
"First, you are wrong...again. Secondly, what are you defending me from?"
"Accusations of sexual assault? You do know that eye-fucking is sexual assault though, right?" Derrick gave him an unimpressed look laced with a promise of violence before changing the subject, "It's a specific intent crime."
"No, sexual harassment ain't..."
"For God's sake Kay, can you stop with this sexual harassment thing. It's really fucking creepy." Kayden opened his mouth probably to say something along the lines 'but you staring is not creepy' but Derrick's hand motion stopped him, "and I was referring to murder. Murder is a specific intent crime."
"What?"
"Why are you looking clueless? Did you forget about the question you read?" Maybe. For a minute there, Kayden had forgotten about the task at hand. Could you blame him though? He was a sucker for Derrick's frustrated face. When Derrick was mad, his face would flush, adding colour to his slightly pale skin...and then he would bite his lips probably to keep in the snarky remarks. Kayden found this hot and most of the time, he would get too lost in his crush's face to register the incoming punch. As a result, he would end up in Dario's office with a broken nose.
"No." He quickly defended, "can't understand why we need to classify the crime though." Thinking he had diffused the situation, he finally looked up only to be greated with someone's flaring nose. "Did I miss something?" He murmured innocently. The silence threateningly extended and just when he was bracing himself for Derrick's wrath, he felt a someone wrapping his arms around his shoulders.
"No sweetie, you didn't miss anything. He's mad for nothing. I mean it's not your fault that you didn't know that classification is important since not all defenses apply to General intent crimes. Like intoxication. It doesn't apply to General intent crimes. Am I blabbering? No I don't think so. Anyway, my point is not everyone knows that. Even me I didn't know until Shane told me. Right Shane.." Rex paused, turning to look at Shane.
Kayden also turned, regarding the latter who was looking at his best friend with worry. Rex was dumb sometimes. He never missed an opportunity to jump into the crossfire anytime someone was mad. Most of the time , it was just when Derrick was mad. Which was everytime.
Kayden could swear that the rate at which Derrick got mad was higher than the rate at which Rex was annoying. And Rex was annoying almost all the time. Except when he was trying to prevent a fight, then he just looked cutely dumb.
It's like he took it upon himself to always diffuse these situations, which was stupid. Most of the time, ended up with him being the damsel awaiting his knight. Even then, Shane was already on his feet, ready to keep his best friend away from Derrick's fist. Kayden smiled at the two. He found their friendship cute. Almost as cute as Hudson and Kyle's.
Luckily, he was not the only one who was touched by their relationship. Derrick was also warmly staring at them, Kayden noticed. It was so innocent but Kayden couldn't help feeling something. If whipped was a person, then he would be the perfect face. Almost everything Derrick did amazed him and got him giddy inside and tugged at his fragile heart and made him want to smile and....He was just so smitten but there was Kyle. Just thinking about the 5'3 feet redhead brought him back to reality. Derrick was never going to be his. Not because he was 'straight' and homophobic but because Kyle was already a part of his world. He was either playing dumb or had not realized it yet. Either way, the end game was Kyle. So he was just going to be the supportive best friend. It was better than nothing anyway.
"Ohh so it's a specific intent crime." He said, abruptly changing the topic.
Derrick must have caught on his dropping mood because the next thing he did was asking whether he was okay. Derrick's concern, instead of warming his heart, only ended up hurting him.
Before Kayden could answer, someone slumped on the seat next to him. Seconds later, a bottle of strawberry milkshake was being put in front of him. He could already tell who that was. If the Woody-scented smell of his shampoo didn't give him away, then his almost vannila natural body scent did. If either didn't, the the strawberry milkshake did. Since Derrick's first punch, Nathan had taken it upon himself to always hand him a bottle of milkshake anytime he was feeling down. Nathan was a good leader and Kayden never failed to appreciate these meaningful gestures. "Thanks Nathan. You're a great leader." He gave him a tight smile, looking away immediately. If he had stared at him for a second longer, he would have caught on Nathan's frown. Derrick didn't miss it though. He didn't comment about it either.
"You okay?" Nathan asked. Looking up again, Kayden nodded.
"Was just having problems with this question."
"Ohh." It was a lie. Nathan noticed but he let it slide. " I can help if you don't mind."
"No. We're good." This was Derrick. Kayden and Nathan looked at him with mixed expressions.
He looked grumpy and Kayden almost, hopefully, guessed it was jealousy but he knew better. Nodding in understanding, Nathan rose to leave the two alone.
"Kay?" Nathan called. Kayden turned his attention to him, "wanna step out of Seven Rings afterwards. For some fresh air that is. Kinda need company to help me shop for some little girls who would be joining us."
"Yes please." It was a quiet plea... almost like a prayer. Nathan closed his eyes, inhaling deeply before quickly leaving. A minute later, Kayden's phone beeped.
™
Nate: See you at three.
™
"If you keep looking at your phone, we'll be late." Derrick pointed out. He was seemingly in a bad mood.
"No. We're already done." Kayden, equally in a snarky mood, rebutted. " I think it's clear Ethan is not criminally liable. Even though there is actus reus, mens rea is missing. He lacked capacity to commit murder. Here, we'll use Queen v M'Naghten to prove that Ethan was so deranged that he did not know the nature or quality of his actions or if he knew, then he did not know that what he was doing was wrong. This is because the drugs temporarily impaired his reasoning. Whether it was voluntary or involuntary intoxication does not matter since this is a specific intent crime. Intoxication as a defense is available to him. Actus reus without mens rea equals manslaughter. Anything else?" Derrick was looking at him in awe, probably wondering how he figured all that in a minute. For a moment there, he found Kayden attractive. To him knowledge was attractive, a turn on. Realizing what he was thinking, he snapped the thoughts away.
"No."
"Okay. I'm gonna type it out in my room then send it to you for review before we submit."
"No it's okay. You figured all that shit out, the best I can do is type out the work."
It was fair. Kayden decided. "I guess you can submit the work then."
"You don't need to review?"
"Not really. I trust you." He walked away, thinking about his last words only to realize that they were deeper than he intended. At least to him.
~
"You do realize that it is only few minutes past two." Nathan stopped fixing his shirt to spare the intruder a quick glance. Gabriel was looking at him smugly and Nathan realized he was about to be teased.
"What's your point?" He was short. Maybe from nervousness. Gabriel noticed all these, but couldn't tell the reason behind his nervousness.
"I didn't know you were too excited to go shopping with me." Only after he had said this, did Nathan realize he failed to cancel his initial plans with Gabriel. Before, his plan was to have Gabriel accompany him until Kayden and his crestfallen and pouty face happened.
"Change of plans."
"Lemme guess. You going with Kayden."
"How did..." Nathan stopped when he saw that creepy smile on Gabriel. He called it creepy because it was always there anytime he taunted him. "Please don't say anything."
"Hey I wasn't planning to say anything. For the first time, I didn't even plan on mentioning the absurd amount of strawberry milkshake bottles you've got in your room."
"Hey I said..."
"No Nate. Is this even healthy? Whatever it is you're doing is past obsession. Your bathroom is filled with first aid kits, it's like you're waiting for Derrick to punch him. Let's not even get started on your closet. Closet is meant for clothes and not for boxes of milkshakes. But I wouldn't blame you now that there's no space in your fridge. This is not healthy. Right now, you're dressed an hour before your date...the guy may have already forgotten about your arrangement. I mean Kayden don't think straight anytime Derrick is near. Can you tone it down a little?"
Nathan slowly seized him, not in a rude way though, before letting out a soft snicker. "Can I borrow your watch?" He asked, abruptly changing the topic.
When Gabriel groaned in frustration, he laughed loudly. This was rare and probably a mockery to his (uptight leader )image.
"You're overthinking. It's like your mind is always made up that I have an unhealthy infatuation. Trust you me, I feel nothing for him. My closet has my clothes," Gabriel have him a pointed look, "okay. There's also milkshakes there but it's only one box. I hid them because Rex would not let any chance to steal the drinks slide. For the kits, the two fight alot. It is my obligations as a leader to restock them. You know I have also stocked packets of chocolates in my drawer because Rex loves them but you don't claim that I love him now, do you? I am just a good leader."
Before Gabriel could say anything, his phone buzzed with a notification. Probably a message. Letting out a wide nervous smile, he filled his mate on the ongoing. "Seemingly, my early preparations paid off. Laura is in labor. Dario texted."
"Is it like seven months or something?"
"Huh? Anyway we need to tell others so we can go keep them company."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
sugainmytea
sugainmytea @foreversuga.
"Alivyonipenda, " a Swahili song by O.B is so relatable to this. It is written alongside the idea that people we love may not always love us back.
Person A loves you but you love person B, who's in love with person C who don't also love them.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone