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[img]https://i.imgur.com/nBgFWKd.gif[/img]

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwLzuOMpkFw][color=teal][i]I am selfish, I am wrong.
I am right, I swear I'm right
Swear I knew it all along and
I am flawed, but I am cleaning up so well.[/i][/color][/url][/center] [hr][/indent][/indent]

[indent][indent]Despite the Palm Beach Police Department being, in fact, a police department of a city that was highly regarded as the kind of city that catered to a high level of quality than most cities in South Florida, their jail cell wasn’t exactly up to code. When Kavi got there and was booked on bullshit charges (his words, not the cops), he was placed in a holding cell. And this was all after he tried to call his parents, but either they weren’t answering or they weren’t awake. Either way, Kavi had to spend the night in jail. As one might be able to surmise, that was just a [i]fun[/i] experience.

As he sat there in the cold, somewhat damp cell, the only thing that crossed his mind and the only thing that would ever cross his mind in the almost five hours he wandered around the cramped cell, was how he landed himself in this position. His mind went everywhere from how he snuck his father’s prized, if not somewhat-hideous, Ferrari away from the garage and picked up April. Maybe he made the mistake of not choosing a more lowkey car from the collection. Or maybe Kavi’s biggest mistake was indulging in the need for speed and nearly getting away from the cop. 

He kept going it over for multiple hours. Kavi was a point of actual confusion, but more to the point, he wondered why his parents didn’t answer when they did. It was a Saturday and he knew them to be up rather late on the weekends since neither of them had to work. Knowing both of his parents as he did, Kavi knew something was up. 

That particular thought stuck with him even after he went over everything about last night’s dance in his mind. Every point during the night from when he danced with April (and had watched her leave) and his brief conversation with both Nadia and Ariel led him back to the exact moment he felt like maybe he had fucked up. A single moment when he had dated not one, but [i]two[/i] girls in the same gap period of twenty-four hours without telling them. 

[i]That[/i] was his downfall. It was why Kavi had a makeshift nose cast on his face. It was why he had to get the cast in the first place. It wasn’t why he was currently sitting in a jail cell, but Kavi was certain the domino effect was how he landed in the predicament he was in. With no safety net, he knew it was his own fault. He knew the blame didn’t fall on anyone. It didn’t fall on his father for not taking extra precautions to prevent his car from being stolen by his own son nor was it April’s fault for appearing to egg him on during the car chase. It wasn’t Ariel or Nadia’s fault for how they fell for his charm.

This was none of their faults. He was the only one to blame and the only one who could truly know that he did this to himself.

“Salvador!”

Kavi didn’t hear it the first or even second and third time, but a fourth time was enough to bring the young man to turn his head towards the cell. He saw a single cop of middle age standing in front of it with keys that were turning inside the lock that separated Kavi from the freedom.

“Your parents are here. Let’s go!”

And in the deepest regions of his stomach, Kavi felt something was twisting it. Even as he walked side-by-side and he reached the front of the police station, Kavi knew his troubles were only getting started. Whatever waited for him, he knew with his mom’s usual temper always flaring at him and his father never really being anything but all smiles, when he saw both of their disappointed faces, Kavi Salvador knew whatever waited for him was nothing but trouble for him.

[color=teal]“Mom, Dad, I--”[/color]

[color=orange]“Not a single word. Now let’s go.”[/color] His mother’s cold tone hit him harder than Ariel’s fist did.

He wanted to say something, but there was nothing he could say that would make any of this better. So he didn’t. Kavi, for the first time, had felt the same fear that most, if not all, of the weaker kids he picked on felt when he tortured them. It wasn’t that she was his bully, but if anyone could strike the fear of God into him, it was Veronica Salvador.

And like he had known her for all his life, as soon as they were away from the police station and inside the family SUV, she began to unleash a known anger-led fury on him.

[color=orange]“I don’t know where to start with you, Kavi! We raised you better than this!”[/color] Vivi began, looking him dead in the eye as Kai drove. [color=orange]“We tried to understand you. From you constantly picking on those weaker than you, we knew you were just doing it to get attention or maybe to test us. And we’ve tried to do everything we could to give you space. But maybe that was our fault. Maybe you just needed a firmer hand. Honestly, though Kavi? I don’t even know where to begin!”[/color]

[color=teal]“You don’t have to--”[/color]

[color=orange]“Did I say you could talk!?”[/color] 

Whatever breath Kavi was about to take, it had been broken by his mother’s sharp tongue that could cut steel and make it appear like it was butter.

[color=orange]“I’m so disappointed in you and angry with you, Kavi. I know this isn’t you. The boy I--”[/color] Kai coughed, [color=orange]”--[i]we[/i] raised isn’t like this. You aren’t this person. The person who bullies others, the person who steals and lies to us isn’t the son we raised. I just--”[/color]

Kavi went to speak, but in the time it took for his mother’s anger to be unleashed on him, they were already home. He was hoping to speak to his mother, but before the garage door even closed behind them, she left. She didn’t bother saying a single word. The only sound even remotely related to her was the sound of the passenger side door slamming and Veronica jetting into the house.

And if Kavi wasn’t feeling like a turd left in the desert, then he certainly was feeling that way right now. It was such a shock to him that he had not moved for a few minutes. Even after his father got out, his father who, for all of the disappointment he was feeling, was the gentler one of his two parents. This was proven to be a fact when Kai hopped in the back seat, next to Kavi, causing the teen to look at him.

[color=teal]“Dad, I--”[/color]

[color=20b2aa]“Let me stop you right there. I’m still plenty angry with you, Kavi. You lied to us and used my car without asking. You know I would have given you permission, but you didn’t bother asking.”[/color] Kai tried not to let his ire show, but it was clear he had a difficult time doing that. [color=20b2aa]“But I can see you are beating yourself up over it, so I won’t do more to you than you have yourself. Let me just say this: there’s going to be some changes from here on out.”[/color] Kai told Kavi, getting ready to exit the SUV.

[color=teal]“What kind of changes?”[/color] Kavi asked, a strange fear in his voice. It was almost as though he was afraid to know the answer, which was a rare feeling for him.

[color=20b2aa]“We’ll talk about it Later. For now, get some rest. I’ve got to work, but your mother will be here all day.”[/color] Before Kai closed the door, he looked to his son. [color=20b2aa]“And it should go without saying, you are grounded!”[/color]
[hr]
So, this was Kavi’s new normal now. The reality of his past crimes firmly taking a stance. He may or may not have a criminal record and was going to be under the watchful eye of his two parents. As bad as everything that happened to him and that was said to him, none of it came close to how he was feeling. It wasn’t just the prospect of facing a judge at some point in the future or being grounded or even having a broken nose, it had everything to do with Kavi Salvador finally realizing the things he thought were harmless acts and what he thought was “no big deal” was, in fact, a very big deal. 

He hurt people. And it wasn’t just random people he hurt. He hurt everyone who had known him up until a year ago when he started acting out. Because of Jason. Because Aiden moved away. Because everything that happened around the same time, Kavi became a jerk. He developed the terrible habit of inflicting the pain on others that he secretly felt himself. Oh, how he hated the way it made him feel, but moreover, Kavi hated that his actions drove away from the friends that he knew that thought he was their friend. People like Marisol, his cousin through the complex web of relation-by-marriage. People like Jun Wang who was a close acquaintance of Kavi’s before he became such an asshole.

Everyone became alienated from him because of some insecurities Kavi kept secret. But none of that was so prevalent than the one person who he treated the worst. 

Ariel Gray. 

From the get-go, unlike everyone else in his life, she sort of just stuck around. Whether it was because of her crush on him that was more obvious than Archer being gay or Stella being a klutz or her just being a genuinely good person, Kavi took advantage of that. Not only by using whatever feelings she had for him to further his womanizing agenda but when he had gotten what he wanted from her, he threw her aside without even telling her.

[color=teal]“Good going, right? Cause you’re just [i]so[/i] great! Right?”[/color] Kavi said to himself as though he was looking at someone he barely recognized, someone he hated. The reminder that he needed was staring right back him. His broken nose, which was aligned to be healed, served as the proof that he was wrong.

[color=fdc68a]“That’s quite the shiner you got there, dum dum!”[/color]

And if he wasn’t feeling bad, his kid sister always knew how to make it worse. [color=teal]“Isn’t it a little early for you to be up, Nikki?”[/color] Kavi didn’t bother to face her.

[color=fdc68a]“So what if it is? Not like it compares to the shit storm you’ve created for yourself,”[/color] she pointed out.

Rolling his eyes, he walked past her and she followed him, causing Kavi to stop. [color=teal]“Is there something you need?”[/color] He asked her point-blank. He might be hating himself right now, but his patience for his sister's teasing was decreasing the more time ticked away.

She simply shrugged. [color=fdc68a]“I just thought you’d be happy to know that, despite your royal screw-up, not everyone has joined the ‘I Hate Kavi Salvador Club’.”[/color]

He really hated his sister’s vague implications. She was never helpful and always had something clever to say. A clear indication she was truly the daughter of Veronica Salvador. 

As he shrugged his mild annoyances brought on by his kid sister off, Kavi returned to his room, grabbing his phone from his dresser that was just a few feet from the door. He saw it was barely past ten and he yawned. Almost as soon as he opened his eyes up, sitting on his bed was the last person he thought he’d ever see, let alone in his room. 

[color=teal]“Ariel? What are you doing here?”[/color]

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