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alexei watches her like a blood starved beast . there is something so inhuman about his glare , something so disconnected from the normal human experience that it's hard to completely place . his glare is small , and for a long time he allows an uncomfortable silence to hang between them as he steps towards her , unimpressed by her words on the surface but something more dangerous bubbled beneath . fear . ❛ i won't hold my breath . ❜ the words eventually break the silence and the grandiose confidence and bile behind them does well to hide the trickle of concern that had begun to seep down his spine . in another moment , his face shifts again , the smirk reappearing in place of the abject disgust as he turns on his heels . ❛ see you around , groupie . ❜ are the words he chooses to throw over his shoulder in nonchalance before disappearing around the corner .

" you should look in a mirror before talking about someone's ego, alexei, " his name leaves her lips like a dart in his direction. from the moment they met, rosa had never called him by that. it had always been nicknames, but now she had drawn the line on that. she was sure it didn't mean anything to him, but for her, it was a big step in wanting to stop the control he had over her even still. she takes a step towards him, arms crossed still in front of her and her eyes are trained on his, mustering all of her strength to not crumble or show any more weakness. " unfortunately for you, you made me good to a certain point … and i refined everything you taught me, " she smiles but it doesn't reach her eyes and she sighs, " and if you think slut shaming me will get me out, it won't. i like my boys and my band. " " and now, proving you wrong. "

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starter.               kaiser howell and yasmin bergmann.

kaiser found himself in a strange way since archie's death . the rage was still there , as red hot and violent as ever , but sometimes it felt ... off . every so often , he would stare at his bloodied knuckles after a fight and feel the pain . he would walk into the changing room after a match and his ears would ring . of course this confusion only made him angrier because it had made him feel stupid , which is why he was running now , too . he liked to say it was pure coincidence that these new runs took him directly past yasmin's dorm . that he didn't purposefully slow down in the area in the hope of bumping into her . he didn't know how to approach her , he didn't know what to say , and he knew that the last thing archie would've wanted was for him to spend any time alone with her , so he lied . to himself and everyone else . and that inability to do what he really wanted is probably what led him to stop outside the building for once , staring at the architecture as if he was interested in anything but her .

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starter.               stefan archibald and alondra brait.

ever since the meeting with nando and his band , stefan had one , repetitive thought that he couldn't escape from . sleep had evaded him for three whole nights before he finally succumbed to it during a morning meeting – thankfully , it hadn't been important , but it made him realise that the not knowing was eating him alive . that avoiding the problem was only making it worse . that there was a very real chance that alondra could be here . he walked into the temporary office space they'd rented in the city for the admin side of things and waved to the people he already knew , approaching the closest person he recognised with a grin that refused to betray the horrific pit he felt forming in his stomach . ❛ megan ! hey , you doing alright ? you got everything you need ? ❜ for a few minutes he made small talk , even taking out his phone to note down a couple of things megan had mentioned they might need in the next city , before casually dropping the atomic bomb question he had been dreading . ❛ speaking of legal , do you happen to know if there's a woman called alondra brait working for us ? ❜

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he chuckles , though doesn't make any sort of effort to look in her direction . ❛ those vapid ways of life have provided me endless hours of entertainment . i can't say the same for depth . depth is boring , stale . gives people those annoying holier than thou attitudes . ❜ he moves opposite to her , further away as he begins to do a mirrored lap of the space . the room of the gallery they're in is largely empty , though , so even with the increased distance the sound still finds itself able to bounce off the walls . people were more interested in some modern art piece in the other room that made his lip curl . ❛ buy it . maybe you could throw it out in six months when you get bored of it . ❜

fingers daintily move a strand of hair behind her shoulder before her face turns in his direction and back to the painting, heart beating faster at the mere thought of another conversation with matteo. " you have become too used to the vapid ways of life, " says not to offend him, but just a general comment of things she had seen since she returned and is sure he'd agree with her even in the state of their connection. head tilts to take in more of the painting standing in front of them, " it reminds me of you, this painting, " it could have been a throwaway comment, but instead she adds pointing to show him what she means, resembling one of their memories together in their visit to the louvre. " the colors are dark but the strokes the artist used made them almost soft, as if the darkness is just a shield to what they are hiding, " she lets her hand fall to her side again, " maybe i will buy it, " and walks to the painting next to it.

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the frustration begins to uncharacteristically well in her eyes , both at the situation and the conversation , before she makes an attempt to shake it off . ❛ no , rome , you don't ... you're not getting it . ❜ her voice comes ever so slightly weaker now , fearful at the idea of worrying beth or ren with her sudden mental block or , worse , her brothers . preferably she had wanted to deal with this on her own , having pushed herself almost to breaking point prior to this interaction in hopes of fixing the problem herself , but nothing seemed to work . ❛ i can't write . i can't write anything . ❜ she stares at him briefly so he understands that she's serious , before pulling her guitar over her head and kneeling in front of the case to start putting it away . ❛ i haven't written a single thing since we left . not a word , not a note , not one fucking tune . ❜ she pulled one of her easily identifiable notebooks from the case , adorned with a comical amount of cute stickers and glitter , and held it up towards him , encouraging him to take it with a pointed nod . ❛ it's blank . ❜

head tilts to the side, tongue licking the corner of his lips as he watches her. maybe the pretty de angelis' face was something people think they could fool ; hell, romeo used it to his advantage more than he could count on both hands, but never with his friends. instead, he shrugs looking over at the horizon of what will be filled with people cheering and chanting for them in the next few days. " well, it's bigger than what we are used to, " he shrugs and looks back at her and chuckles, " but it is not that what is putting you off your game. " walking towards her, he watches her and scratches the back of his head. " look, i'm not going to force it out of you. my family is not one to kumbaya around a fireplace and share feelings, you know that, " he sighs and cross his arms now, " but you should talk to someone. if not me or beth or ren … maybe your brothers, " he shrugs again, " or maybe … write a song to vent. it doesn't need to be good, just to put you into the groove again. "

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starter.               cooper dewitt and francesca sinclair.

cooper thought he'd be the only one in the office this late . he thought he could get a head start on the mountains of paperwork his boss had given him in an effort to enjoy the weekend ahead – surely no one else was in on a thursday night , right ? wrong . as he walked in , he saw the unmistakeable glow of a small lamp radiating from francesca's desk , and the unmistakeable sound of her tapping away on her keyboard . that was typical , wasn't it ? besides him , she was always the first to arrive and the last to leave – and she was very obviously his biggest competition in an office full of underachievers . ❛ just got a call from maintenance , they're about to shut this office for the weekend to do some repairs so you should probably leave . something about super poisonous mould or something ? i don't know but it sounds super dangerous . ❜

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starter.               cooper dewitt and jett walsh.

❛ bye tori . ❜ cooper grinned widely , watching as the girl gave jett a kiss on the cheek before she walked off to head to her classes . cooper let a silence fill the air for a moment , before he turned to jett with that same grin , only somehow even wider than it was before . ❛ you guys are getting pretty serious now , huh ? ❜ did he enjoy trying to make his best friend squirm ? of course he did , he was only human after all ! but making him blush over his infatuations was even more fun . ❛ is it true love ? do i need to prepare a speech for the wedding ? ❜

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❛ what the fuck are you talking about ? ❜ the air seems to drop in temperature by at least five degrees . whereas before there was a mildly entertained chatter filling the room , now there sat only an uncomfortable silence that stefan was commanding . not only did he not want to hear her name , he certainly didn't want to hear it coming out of nando's mouth . ❛ you want a reaction ? you that small of a man you need to bring her into it , you wanna remind me and everyone in this room that you fucked her behind my back when you were supposed to be my brother ? ❜ stefan gestures to nando's bandmates and then to the tour reps on his side of the room before tapping a heavy finger on the table . ❛ let me cut the bullshit then . you're here to make money . for yourself , for me , whoever . i don't really fucking care . if you don't want to be here , leave . ❜ he stands up from his seat . ❛ if you want to be here , there's the copy you can take to your lawyer . i'm not your errand boy . ❜ stef didn't care that he hadn't kept his cool , he didn't care that he wore his heart on his sleeve , all he cared about now was verifying this bizarre rumour that nando had planted in his head . ❛ you'll excuse me for thinking you were human enough to make it through one conversation . i won't make the same mistake again , you can deal with someone from my team from now on . we done here ? ❜

nando chuckles under his breath at stefan's stance, eyebrows raised momentarily before he starts talking about the contracts that were on the folder before him. scratching his beard, tongue licks his lower lip, and squints his eyes in good fun while reaching for the documents in the middle of the table and starting to run his eyes through it. " wow, the wording is so ... uptight, " the singer chuckles, moving his attention to the other page. " ooooh, now things are starting to make sense, " he looks at stefan another chuckle escaping his mouth as he stops reading, " did alondra write this ?? is she involved in this little project of yours ?? i saw her earlier today around the vicinity ... " and just like that, nando starts his newfound project to be a pain in the ass to stefan. not that he wasn't before, but now the stakes are higher and it's starting to get a little more fun from his point of view. " anyway, you know i can't sign this without my lawyer checking. why don't you send them a copy and we will talk. "

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❛ i know you better than anyone else ? ❜ peri laughs in disbelief , ❛ wow , could've fooled me ! because the serena i know would've never left town without so much as a goddamn goodbye . ❜ every conversation peri had with her former best friend was more infuriating than the last . the dodged questions , the vague answers , that constant ... look on serena's face . maybe it wasn't pity , but it sure felt a hell of a lot like it , and if there was anything peri hated it was being pitied . ❛ and stop looking at me like that ! it makes me sick . ❜ she throws her hands up in the air and walks a few steps away from serena , attributing it to her dramatic personality but in reality it was to put space between her and the other's gaze . something about the look in serena's eyes ... it made peri feel weak , so she steeled herself before she turned around again . ❛ you still haven't answered my question – what do you WANT ? ❜

" because i didn't want to go in the first place, " serena blurted out, in an octave higher than her usual sweet voice is accustomed to being heard in. although many things in her life are complicated right now, the one thing she wanted to fix the minute she got back in new york was her friendship with peri. she believed she could, she and peri had been through so many things together and their bond should have been unshakable at this point ; but the more serena had to beg to talk to her, the more she still had to hide from her best friend … the more she knew how that statement was coming to a point of no return. " you know me better than anyone else, peri, you really think i would have left if i didn't have a good reason to ?? do you really think i would leave when you are going through something like that if i didn't absolutely have to ?? " her eyes begged for the woman in front of her to see reason, to believe in the best of serena and not any broken vision she had of her from the resentment that loomed into peri's heart for the past few months.

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❛ what ? ❜ dilan had no poker face , she never really needed one , and the shock was written all over her typically unbothered features . she abruptly sat up properly , so that her and isla were truly eye to eye , before she continued . ❛ you didn't mess up her life , that fucking dog of a man played you both for fools , got it ? ❜ but dilan wasn't stupid . she knew that isla's conflict with lola , and the subsequent nuclear fallout from it , had been perhaps one of the most major defining points of her best friend's life . they weren't just sisters , they were ... well , at some points they had been all the other had . ❛ where did you see her ? what did she say ? ... she's doing pr ? ❜ if she was honest , there were a million and one more questions dangling from the tip of dilan's tongue and she was working overtime to reel them in . her own family was ... unique , to say the least , but they were the sort of imperfect , messy people that ended up having more nonsensical conflicts than serious ones . this was serious , which meant it was something dilan was not used to .

hand finds the brunette mane but the moves are faint, not the usual soothing ones that isla was known by her bandmates and friends. one that she had learned to mimic from her older sister and had longed for in the quietness of her heart for the past months without her ; longing even more now that she had seen her just mere feet from her. the young singer wanted to cry, for once she wanted to be a man to be acceptable to punch an wall out of hurt and anger and sadness mixed together. she wanted the warm embrace of her sister, the arms she would always run to when she needed a sense of home and belonging. glassy eyes meet her best friends' ones, not letting a single teardrop or the shakiness she felt in her vocal cords come out. " lola is here, " she chuckles as if it is the funniest joke that ever left her smushed lips, " she is a pr or something like that to nico and bowie's band or whatever, " she'd shake her head, still chuckling, " and i can't even be mad at her invading my turf because i fucking messed up her entire life for absolutely nothing. "

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without another word , lola breezes into the room and takes a good look around . she isn't surprised by the lavishness of it all , in fact , it makes her feel oddly at home to be in the kind of room that had been a permanent fixture in her actress days . just as the waves of nostalgia begin to crash over her , she takes a seat on the couch , smoothing out her skirt as she did so to help distract from that spine - tingling feeling . ❛ i said i was here for business , but that doesn't mean we can't have a little small talk first ... unless you're just interested in business ? in which case i can make this quick . ❜ truthfully , she definitely wasn't here on business . truthfully she knew there was one part of her life that she'd left untouched , unchanged , since leaving her hometown ... and she was trying to gauge if he was still the man who might help her with that . she was still trying to gauge why , after all this time , she got such an unfamiliar feeling in her stomach when she looked at him .

shock was easily readable on his facial features once he met with the blonde on the other side of the door. so many questions ran through his brain with her in his sight, wanting to know where she had been and what she was doing there, but he couldn’t help but be amused with the incredible fucked up timing everyone from his small town wanted to show up in the one place he thought he could have had some freedom from his ghosts. opening the door wider, he leaves space for her to walk into his room and sit on the couch in the living area of this enormous overpriced hotel room he had insisted on his contract. “ thought i would find alexei when i opened the door, but i must admit you are a much better sight, ” a chuckle to follow his don juan charismatic comment, “ and since you already answered if you are here for business or pleasure … what are the business, lauren ?? ”

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❛ i suppose i deserved that one for associating you with that knobhead . ❜ he gestures back over to nico , but keeps his gaze trained firmly on her the whole time . ❛ talented i'll take , though . i suppose birds of a feather flock together . ❜ despite all of his rage and insecurity and violence , alexei had always been charming . he supposed he got that from his mother , that it was maybe from the part of him that wasn't made up entirely of inky malice , so if he was being completely honest ... sometimes it was nice to embrace it . sometimes he could happily pretend it wasn't for some nefarious purpose . with a confident hand , he grabs the back of the nearby chair . ❛ can i join you ? keep you company , break the line of sight between you and that shitty ex - boyfriend . ❜ even this five minute conversation with bowie would be enough to get tongues wagging , but if he could buy her an actual drink ( especially in the dress she was wearing ) , it'd dominate the news cycle for at least a couple of days . the fact she was , objectively , a beautiful woman didn't hurt either .

a few martinis in her system always made bowie a bit more of a chatter, even when she was in an impossible bad mood of once again being met with the sight of her ex - boyfriend with a model so enthralled with each other in a booth of the hotel bar. her eyes had searched for any distraction in that dim room, but she was out of luck and the only person she could yap to was the forty - year - old bartender who seemed to be one step away from killing her if she directed any other word towards him that wasn't a new drink order. the blonde was almost counting her losses and going to her room to take off her sheer dress and change it to something more comfortable, though the thick accent and words that seemed to describe her distinctively made her turn to the man's direction. " that would be me, yes, but i think the better wording would be ' the pretty blonde with an amazing talent who is always glaring at her shitty ex - boyfriend ', " chuckling sarcastically, her index finger makes circles on the rim of her glass as she looks at alexei from head to toe and back to his eyes, " and you are the talented drummer who follows casadevall around … and in that case, yes, i am here on my own. "

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alexei's face suddenly drops . all previous humour , no matter how hollow or cold it may have been , drains from his features with an almost lightning quickness . ❛ what makes you think you're good enough ? ❜ perhaps it had been the comment about his ego . it was , after all , as fragile as glass and prone to shattering . the issue was , when alexei's ego shattered it wasn't him who was hurt by the shrapnel , it was anyone in his vicinity . even so , it was more than that . he felt that same disgust bubbling up once again that had appeared when he first heard that she was here , sharing a stage with him . sharing his stage . ❛ you should deflate that ego of yours before it hurts your feelings . ❜

she sighs with her head hanging low as she listens to his awful comments, the ones that shouldn't affect her the way they do. if it was anyone else, any other man, rosa's reaction would have been so different from the one she was displaying ; but alexei wasn't any other person. as much as she hated to admit it, he was her first love and that still had some weight in her brain and heart. looking back at him, her eyes are sad though she still stands strong enough in front of him. " if the roles were reversed, lex, i would have been proud to be sharing a stage with someone who got good enough from my teaching … not a hurt ego, " she takes a deep breath and cross her arms as some sort of armour for his next jab, " and you should leave since you don't want to maintain any closeness, as i sure don't want it either. "

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❛ a coffee and croissant is the least i can do . i know this really nice place on sixth , they've got a special deal on pastries for grovelling men right now . ❜ carter finds his laughter matching hers in an easy rhythm , suddenly feeling much lighter compared to the weight he'd felt from his previous worries . it didn't make sense , really , that almost destroying a stranger's precious belonging had already somehow brought him more joy than the last six months of his life combined . he raises his brows in flattered shock at the compliment , forever appreciative of them no matter how often they were given . ❛ wow , thank you . the outsiders is a guilty pleasure of mine , so i can only hope . ❜ the comment had intrigued him though . it wasn't indicative of someone who knew who he was . ❛ how rude of me though , basking in your compliments when i don't even know your name . ❜

her eyes lingered at the sight of the camera on the ground, heart almost breaking but for the sole reason that had been one of the most cherished gifts she had received from her sisters. instead of kneeling on the ground, the blonde sits with her feet crossed under each thigh and assesses the damage caused by the fall. a deep breath followed by a relieved sigh once the camera turns on again and there are only a few scratches on it, moving her attention to the scenery to take a photo and another sigh of relief parts her lips as there were no damages on the lens. turning to finally look at the stranger who had caused all of that, a sweet smile is now on her lips as she shakes her head. " no damage done, so you only owe me a coffee and maybe a croissant, " she chuckles turning the camera off and putting on the bag to avoid any more accidents. " and i'm joking about that, you don't owe me anything, really, " she chuckles again, her gaze fitting every trace of the man's face, " and i'm definitely being more candid than i should, but what the hell … you look like a young matt dillon. "

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❛ cocaine bear ! a girl i know used to say that it was her uncle's cocaine that the bear got into . total bullshit story , if you ask me . if you're going to lie , at least make it convincing . ❜ cherry rolls her eyes with a loud groan and takes a sip of her wine , displeased with lala's answer to her question . ❛ of course he's the whole package , all the most unattainable men are . –– you dating anyone right now ? ❜

" isn't there a movie where the bear gets so coked up that he gets even more murderous ?? " she looks at her bandmate with her head tilted and eyebrows furrowed as if she's trying to reaccess her brain for that information, but ends up waving off her hand to never mind it and chuckles at cherry's statement, " well, fortunately or not ma chérie, stefan is that hot and that intelligent. and that rich … honestly, he is a dream man. a whole package, if you will. "

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she's almost impressed when faced with how childish a man could be at his age , though she chooses to not make things any harder on her manager with a response . underneath the table , her nails are dug deep into her palms as she looks back at him , shaking her head at his smarmy smirk . he was so detached from the situation – not even theirs , but the tour , the fame , the sheer amount of freedom he had at the top . and he didn't even have the heart to pretend like he fucking cared . her brows furrow at the phone as her manager picks it up . ❛ you should spend less time reading cum stain gossip rags . that shit rots your brain . ❜ but as her manager turns it around , claudia struggles to hide the look of genuine shock from her typically sharp features . she glances up at her manager , back to the screen , then up at her manager again , briefly forgetting percy was in the room at all . take a look at how many of claudia fox's exes will be sharing a stage with her this summer . whatever . the slut shaming was normal , the invasion of privacy was normal , the false dating rumours were normal ( hendrix , really ? ) . colson's face in the article was not . she pulls it together and takes the phone , sliding it back to percy with vigour . ❛ i'm a young woman who enjoys sex , that's not a secret . if it's an issue for you though , feel free to make a complaint . ❜

his eyes raise from his phone to look at his ex sitting in front of him and then at his manager sitting by his side and then at her manager, " i thought we had agreed she wouldn't direct her vicious words at me and i wouldn't direct my very reasonable words at her. if she's not going to respect that, then maybe this reunion should be over. " his eyes move back towards claudia, a small smirk on his lips as if he got her in a ' gotcha ' moment, and then he looks back to his phone reading more of the blind gossip posts had been entertaining him for the past week to learn more about the other acts. he lets out a loud chuckle when he reads one that is supposed to be about his ex, eyes raising again from his phone when attention are all on him. " just read something funny, you can all keep going, " the words leave his mouth rather condescending, tossing his phone on the table towards the blonde, " you should get better pr to hide your shit. "

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stefan doesn't respond at first , instead his smile just lingers as he sits down and places a couple of folders on the table . boring stuff , really . a review of set lists , timings , merchandise percentages , riders . that last one was what he was interested in , and he slid his copy of their rider into the middle of the table , pointedly making eye contact with nando as he leaned back , ❛ yeah , well , that's what old friends are for . ❜ he doesn't let the words linger . nando was right , stefan was the better man , and he often allowed himself to quietly bask in that feeling as a minor consolation prize . he didn't need to gloat or peacock . he did , however , let a minor look of pity quickly move across his face before he spoke again . ❛ i just wanted to check these with you guys . it's a policy of mine to review them every couple of shows . you'll be here for a while after all , i want to make sure you're comfortable and you have what you need backstage . ❜

when nando's manager first mentioned the tour, the singer knew it would have been the best opportunity to leave the mess he made behind. of course it took some time, a little back and forth between both parties to get into a good agreement and soon enough he was on the road again with his band. everything had been good until the ghosts of his not-so-distant past started showing up. dilan was expected and at this point, it had become his pastime to get a rise out of her and her best friend whenever he could. lola was a somewhat welcoming one, the blonde was the only recurring thought on his mind ever since she left town, and having her near again made this grown-ass man want to repent for his sins. the last two were the ones he didn't expect. what he had done to alondra and stefan should keep him up at night, but running from his mistakes had the refreshing feel of not needing to fix that. however, both decided to get into their line of sight mere hours from each other, and at the cockiness his former best friend was displaying, nando couldn't help to wonder if he knew that alondra was there as well. something that he would surely let stefan know at some point … after all, that's what best friends are for !! " well stef, for the first time you got something involving the arts right. i'm proud of you, " the jab followed by a smirk and a hollow chuckle and shrug, " but yes, i've been enjoying you spending your trust fund on me and my boys. i always knew you were the better man out of the two of us. "