The following day was finally that much dreaded eighteenth birthday of Kole’s, and a Friday as well. Though none of the four felt much like celebrating. Aside from the possible future legal ramifications of his intimacy with the still fourteen year old Crista, they were all still rather upset about the entire situation with Phoebe Spencer. And she was a girl most of them hadn’t even met at that.

When they made their usual Friday sojourn to the Vargas house, the four of them barely nodded to Brie and Connor before heading upstairs somberly. Brie then looked at her husband, “so they’re back to disappearing upstairs together, but they didn’t exactly look all that happy.”

“Was there a question in there?” Connor replied as he shook his head at Brie’s scowl and turned his attention back to the TV.

Upstairs, all four took seats, the boys on the bed, the girls on a pair of black cushions upon the floor. The boys then lit themselves each a clove cigarette and sighed as the girls echoed the sigh. “Well, hey, one good thing about this day” Kole began flatly, “I no longer have to use a fake ID, or alien mojo to buy us these. Guess we should be celebrating” he added sarcastically.

But before anyone could respond to his halfhearted attempt at humor, Crista spoke up, “I wanna help.”

“I’m guessing you’re not talking about helping me buy cigarettes?” Kole replied with confusion.

Crista just scoffed, “no, I mean help with the whole psychic vision stuff. Star made him see Caitlin and Chloe and Scott. You guys made him think there was a video of him jerking off to you two. I wanna help now.”

“Still not sure on what you’re wanting to help with” Kole returned warily.

“Eww, no, not that” she grimaced, “I mean, I wanna help with making people see things that might help us finally be rid of Curt.”

Star sighed then, “considering he’s already added attempted arson-slash-murder, and beating the shit out of his little sister to his rap sheet, I’m not sure we should be continuing much more of the psychic mind-fuck.”

“But we need to just finish it already” Crista pressed, “and maybe we can help Phoebe to help us do that.”

“Phoebe?” they all responded as they gave her a questioning look.

Crista replied, “yes, if one of us could talk to her and remind her that if he gets in trouble just one more time, he’ll be going to real jail; then maybe she won’t be afraid to admit that it was Curt who did that to her face” she pointed out.

“Talk to her?” they all looked a little shocked by that suggestion.

“I don’t mean talk to her for real” Crista attempted, “I mean, appear to her. Talk to her that way. I sure as hell don’t want any of us actually going into that house to speak to her. Come on” she assured.

They looked at one another as though pondering the idea, then Star had to reply, “I’m not even sure we could make someone see things if it’s someone we’ve never even met. Not like we’ve tried that before. Never had a reason to” she stated sadly.

“Well, I’ve met her” Crista returned.

“You have?” Star returned.

“Yeah, we went to middle school together last year. I was in eighth. She was in seventh” she reminded them.

Kole then took a deep drag, “so glad to hear that reminder from the fourteen year old I’ve been sleeping with; and on my eighteenth birthday at that” he mumbled.

“Fifteen next month!” Crista scolded him.

“Not sixteen til next year!” he chided her as she scowled again.

It wasn’t much later in the evening when Phoebe Spencer was locked in her bedroom, sniffling as she scrolled through the comments on the photo she had posted the previous day. Though she had blocked Curt from her social media, she knew it was only a matter of time before one of his friends told him about the post, and she was sure that that would be an entirely new nightmare.

She then startled more than a bit as she heard her window open, her heart racing at the sound. Her terror was soon replaced by confusion though as her eyes fell on her visitor. “Crista Sampson?” she greeted the other girl with that confusion obvious in her tone, as she wiped away a few tears.

“You remember me?” Crista smiled nervously as she closed the window behind her.

“Hard to forget someone with blue hair” Phoebe sniffled again as Crista took a seat on her bed. She then added more quietly, “even if they weren’t co-starring in the video that started all of this mess.”

Crista sighed sadly, “I never meant for that to happen. Hell, I didn’t even know him grabbing me like that was a crime til I heard about the charges being filed” she then looked down, “though I suppose it wouldn’t have started at all if it wasn’t for Curt’s arm getting broken” she admitted quietly.

“How did that happen, anyway?” Phoebe had to ask then.

“It’s a mystery” Crista deflected as she bit her lip and looked around the room, searching for more words then. “So, I saw your post.”

“Who hasn’t?” Phoebe mumbled as she turned back to her computer and clicked the window closed.

“I’m guessing Curt hasn’t” Crista dared as the slightly younger girl further tensed.

“I’m sure he will. And then...” Phoebe just looked down and sniffled again.

“Then don’t let him” Crista stated with a firm gentleness.

Phoebe just scoffed, “I blocked him from seeing it, but he’s got friends. I’m sure he’ll find out soon enough.”

“Not sure how many friends he still has” Crista replied, but quickly continued, “and if you’re afraid of him finding out, then why did you post it?”

“Momentary insanity?” Phoebe shrugged sadly, “I have gotten a head injury recently, after all” she added with a bitter sarcasm.

Crista sighed again, “when I said don’t let him though, what I mean is, just tell” Crista stated plainly.

“Tell?” Phoebe bit back with disbelief, “I’m sure that would go great.”

“If he gets arrested for one more thing, they’ll put him back in jail. Real jail” Crista told her with urgency, “all you have to do is tell and he’ll be outta all of our lives, at least until the trial, where he’ll hopefully then get put away permanently.”

But before their conversation could continue, there was a loud pounding at Phoebe’s door as she went even paler. Then Curt shouted through the door, “open this door you little cunt, before I break it down!”

“Fuck” Phoebe sobbed as she looked at Crista desperately for some kind of help. Of course, Crista not being there at all, was a bit limited in any sort of help she may have been able to provide at all. Hell, being there alone, even if she really was there, she doubted she could help much, even against Curt’s drawback of still having the cast on his arm. “How’d you get here?” Phoebe whispered to her urgently as he continued to pound on that door with his left arm hard enough to shake it still.

“Um...” Crista was at a loss, as she wasn’t there at all, honestly.

“Now Crista! He’s going to fucking kill me! Or worse!” she pleaded.

Struggling for any kind of help she could provide while only being a psychic vision, Crista looked back at the other girl’s pleading, tear-filled eyes, “let’s just get you outta the house. Then we’ll figure out the rest. He can’t follow us too far, right?”

“So you don’t have a ride waiting?” Phoebe asked with further terror as she made her way to the window.

“Window, now” Crista told her with just as much urgency as the younger girl moved to open it and began crawling through, leaving Crista to worriedly look after her. Once Phoebe reached the ground below, Crista called down to her, “run to the nearest house, call the cops!”

“What about you?” Phoebe asked with further worry.

“Just go!” Crista called down to her again, as the girl gave her one more worried look and did as she asked, running as quick as she could to that nearest neighbor.

And as soon as Phoebe was inside the other house, Crista disappeared, just as the door to Phoebe’s bedroom gave way, leaving Curt fuming, as well as quite confused by the previously locked, but now empty room before him.

Crista then snapped back to consciousness in Sky’s bedroom once more. As she looked more than a bit distraught, they all gave her worried looks. Sky was the first to speak, “didn’t work?”

Crista sighed worriedly, “it may have. But Curt saw her post. He came pounding on her door to do who knows what to her. She ran to the neighbors. God, I have no idea what will happen to her now if she doesn’t actually call the cops. This could be so, so bad” she whispered.

Brie and Connor were just finishing making dinner for their usual weekend house guests that evening, when a knock on the door disturbed them. They looked at each other warily and Connor went to answer the door. Much to his surprise, and concern, it was Detective Calvert and her partner.

“What happened now?” Connor asked, “he manage to try and kill someone else, even with his little ankle bracelet?” he added bitterly.

Calvert sighed, but did not give him an answer right away, “actually, we’re here to see if Crista Sampson is at your home this evening. We were directed here by her parents.”

“Crista Sampson?” he repeated with a bit of panic, his mind immediately jumping to the knowledge he had of the relationship between his two seventeen year old children, and the now eighteen year old Kole and the still fourteen year old girl a police officer was now here asking about.

“Yes. Her parents said she usually spends the weekend at your house. We’re just verifying her whereabouts” Calvert stated.

“Yes, she’s here” he offered cautiously, “did something happen?”

“We’ll need to see her” Calvert’s partner, Detective Castellanos put in.

“What is this about?” Connor asked again.

“We need to verify her safety. We got a call implying that she could have been in very real danger earlier this evening, and we need to make sure that that’s not the case. Now, are you gonna tell her to come out, or should we come in?” Castellanos replied pointedly.

“Someone thought she was in danger, here?” Connor asked worriedly.

“Mr. Vargas, can we please just see the girl?” Calvert stated with a bit more gentleness, but obvious impatience.

“Sure...” he stated, trying to keep from panicking as he stepped back inside and called up the stairs, “Crista, you need to come down here.”

Crista appeared downstairs a moment later, her expression going from confusion to terror as she saw the detectives outside. Calvert then gestured for Crista to step closer, “are you all right? Did anyone harm you in any way tonight?” she asked.

“What? Here?” Crista asked with an attempt to keep her own voice even, though that was difficult as she was not only worried for Phoebe but also her three lovers who were upstairs at that very moment.

“Phoebe Spencer was worried that her brother may have hurt you; when you were at their house earlier” Calvert stated with a pointed scolding tone as Connor paled and looked down at Crista, all of them awaiting that explanation.