Polix is eagerly getting his father some tea. It is cheap, due to their finance, but the older man appreciates the gesture nonetheless. The boy wanted to get a better brand but is saving up on money for the transplant. Right now, he has to try to keep his father's hands off liquor for the next six months, which is going to be an uphill battle, but he is fairly certain he will be able to do it. He has also already decided on what he is going to say to the senior Lepoul about how he got the money, and is getting ready for that now.
"Dad, I got $200,000 already. We only need $100,000 and then you can get a new liver. Just stay off the alcohol. I'll take care of the rest." His father chokes on the tea, doing a double take and sputtering it out all over his shirt. The boy quickly wipes it away. Julius Lepoul stares at his son incredulously, wondering how on earth that this is the case. He knows that the boy is intelligent but managing to raise $200,000 in such a short amount of time is something else entirely. It astonishes him to say the least, and he doesn't know what to say.
"W W What?! I mean, what the hell are you talking about, son?" Julius finally manages, looking at him. "How did you get that much money? You didn't deal drugs or anything, did you?" Polix stares at his father, hands on his hips, wearing an exasperated look on his face. Then he realises that this might be better than him suspecting the actual truth, which would be very, very embarrassing, to say the least. He can not risk his father finding out that he is sleeping with an older woman for money, but he also doesn't want him to think that he is peddling drugs either. There is no solution.
"Just get the rest you need. Don't worry about anything else. I promise I'm going to help get you a liver transplant, so no more drinking!" He wags his finger warningly before walking off to do the laundry. Today, the girls will be coming to study at his house instead of the other way around, since they insisted on getting to know him better and seeing how he really lived. He doesn't know that it is also because they are suspicious about how he got the money to pay for the surgeries his dad and grandparents needed.
Once they arrive, the trio are clearly repulsed by the state of things, despite his best efforts to clean it up. Unfortunately, his father's drunken behaviour has ruined the place too severely for him to repair all the damages. Still, it is much better than it was before, since he wants it to signal a new phase in his dad's life, where the man can transform himself. He is going to make sure that his father adopts a healthy lifestyle before getting the transplant and that will require setting up a new environment, something that will take more time but he is willing to do.
"Hi, Mr. Lepoul!" Brooke politely greets him as he smiles hesitantly at her. "I'm glad to see you well after the operation. Polix told me about it. Are you feeling good now?" Blair also expresses her concern as Anna observes Polix's reaction. It's a tactic the three teenagers agreed on, with two of them asking the older man's question while another watches the boy's reaction to their line of questioning. Anna can see him sweating slightly, as the boy is hoping this wouldn't go horribly wrong. As it is, he has already spent a lot of his luck on selling himself.
"I'm doing fine now, thank you," the portly man answers cordially, before realising something. "Are you three the friends whose parents paid for my surgery and my parents'? My son said that he convinced classmates to beg their parents to chip in and help out." Now the girls are staring at him as he gulps nervously, feeling that soon he is going to get exposed for what he did. He isn't about to go down without any fight though. Thinking quickly, he comes upon some words in his head and decides to move as fast as he can. Hopefully he won't be in deep shit yet.
"Dad, I think you should go lie down and take a nap. We're going jogging later this afternoon. It'll only be 10 minutes since you're starting out but you should still get some rest first." He quickly tries usher the older man out of the room but Julius is taking his time, still wondering why Polix is acting this way and wanting answers. "Come on, dad. The doctors all recommended plenty of rest with light exercises to keep you in good shape for the transplant. You are going to stay in good shape because that's the only way you'll get a new liver, and you need it!"
"If you need some exercise ideas, I can help. I'm an athlete," Anna offers kindly as she and her friends watch Polix take his father to his room to lie down, before coming back
"So, what the hell is going on, Polix?" Brooke immediately goes into interrogation mode. She is watching him intently, her eyes slightly dark. The truth is, she just broke up with Marcus last night. Brooke has put up with his shitty attitude for long enough and has already by now realised that she has fallen in love with Polix. That's why she is no longer trying to deny how obviously frustrated she is that he wouldn't tell her the truth about how he got the money. If Polix knows that she's dumped Marcus, he would be very happy but right now he is still under the impression that she is still dating that bastard, and therefore feels that she has no business inquiring. He is, after all, trying to move on from her.
"I don't know what you are talking about, Brooke," Polix stubbornly maintains his story. His palms are very cold as he feels his veins turn to ice. The boy struggles to keep breathing at a regular pace. Polix really wishes to avoid a scandal, having managed to go through high school without experiencing any. That might change soon, though, if he fucks up in the next few minutes.
"You told us that you got the money from working jobs but your father said you got friends to pay for it," she responds. "But that is clearly a lie, since he doesn't even know which you are talking about. He thinks it is us when we didn't pay a dollar. We would have asked our parents to support you if you asked us but you didn't, and you clearly didn't ask anyone else, because if you did, you would have introduced them to your dad so that your dad can thank them."
"That's right, and not to mention, we're the only ones you could have asked," Blair chips in. "We're the three wealthiest girls in our school whose families could afford to spend that much on a friend's relatives, and also the only friends you've got. You couldn't ask anyone else except the three of us and you didn't." She is frowning at him as Brooke glares, angry that the boy she loves is hiding something from her.
"H H Hey!" the boy stammers indignantly, giving a petulant pout. "I could have other friends too, you know? People outside school who have as much money as you do." Anna snickers at this part. "Why? You think I can't have any other friends?" He is folding his arms across his chest, staring defiantly at her and the other girls who are still looking straight into his eyes, trying to glean something from them.
