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blancheharlow · 8 years ago

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And, Even More Surprisingly, Nobody Got Grounded || AJ & Blanche (Chatzy)

Backdate: June 4th

Blanche learns the after effects of Alcohol: AKA the HANGOVER. AJ saves her ass.

Blanche felt her head was splitting. That was her first realization, other than the giant fluffy mass on her neck and her Granny lecturing her the second she let out a groan. Her head was killing her-- what the hell had happened last night?! Did she even-- Blanche hissed as she opened her eyes, shoving Nutmeg off her with a grumpy growl and wrenching her blankets over her head to block out the light. 'Don't you start that with me! I cannot BELIEVE you, young lady! Getting drunk and then spending the night with a boy! I cannot-' It all came rushing back to her. Prom- Logan- the punch... By the time Granny warned her the punch was spiked she had already had way too many glasses, favoring chugging more of the punch whenever she was caught talking to herself. The perky little popular girl hadn't helped, always offering her another one. That had to have been on purpose. And--" Blanche glowered at Granny, wanting to sink lower into her covers. "... Boy? What?!" And then she remembered AJ. "Oh my god!" Blanche loudly moaned, pulling the blanket over her splitting head. She was going to be sick. Poor AJ had been forced to drive her home. 'Don't you do that, he's still here! Missy! I don't care if you're hung over you-' Blanche bolted out of bed with a loud thump, hurriedly realizing she was still in her prom outfit from the night before. But she was dizzy, and she stumbled slightly trying to grab one of her giant sweatshirts to yank over her head. "Was- going on... Ugh.." Blanche groaned rubbing her face and taking a look in her mirror. The pretty curls she had styled last night were now a rats nest. "What the hell did I DO last night?" she groaned rubbing her head as she flat out sat on her bedroom floor. "Owww."

AJ couldn't sleep. Blame it on the lack of an actual bed, the cat he had woken up to crushing his sternum, or just the general uncomfortable feeling he got when he slept anywhere but at his house. Something about it made him feel unprotected. It was not a feeling he was a big fan of. Since the locker incident, AJ had been smart enough to pack a change of clothes and keep it in a bag stuffed behind the seat of his truck. He had changed from his button up shirt and dress pants into a plain black tshirt and gym shorts before crashing on the couch. When he woke up the next morning he was completely covered in cat fur with a cat resting right on his chest, purring deeply against him. He nudged the cat off of him and sat up, unsure if the right thing to do would be to leave before Blanche woke up or stick around to make sure she was actually alive. He eventually decided for the latter, pulling his laptop from his bag and booting up, sitting cross legged on the couch while he finished up some homework. A few hours had to have passed by the time he heard a thud from upstairs and knew that Blanche had either finally woken up or rolled off the bed.

‘He's still here!' Granny hissed at Blanche, as she finally started to fumble to check the time. How late was it? How early was it? Blanche eventually gave up and she sntached a pair of pajama shorts, tucgged the skirt of her dress off, and those on. 'Too short! Those shorts are too short!' "Granny I love you, but can it!" Blanche hissed. "Where is he?" She was going to be sick, that was a definite possibility. But she wouldn't do it with AJ in her house. Would he have snooped? In horror, Blanche realized her open diary was on her desk-- did she do that? And the equation she had graphed that angrily sent the swear out to the world. 'Down stairs. Fix your hair, you look awful.' Granny then decided to fuck off for a bit, having enough of her attitude. Blanche blinked some of the dizzyness out of eyes and groaned quietly as she pulled her hair back into a bun. Everything made her head hurt. Everything. Blanche started ever so slowly moving out of her room and towards the stairs. She wasn't sure if she believed Granny, and she glanced around for her. "... Hello?" Blanche's hoarse voice called, quietly.

The cat had snuggled back up against AJ while he worked on his laptop. His parents had never had a pet, they both loved travelling too much to have the time to take care of one. AJ had never had a problem with pets, but it wasn't exactly something he had a desire for either. He could appreciate a dog or cat for being cute or whatever, but he mostly liked to do that from afar without the actual responsibility of owning one. He glanced up at the ceiling when he finally heard a door creak open and he set the laptop aside and standing up and heading towards the kitchen, the staring at him as if he was some kind of traitor for abandoning them on the couch. He grabbed for a glass and started to fill it with water, then carried it back into the living room and dug into his back for some of his tylenol. "Are you talking to me or is this more practice for your job interview?" AJ laughed to himself and set the water and tylenol down on the coffee table, "Confidence is key!"

Blanche grimaced slightly as she slide from the darkened hallway into the living room. Stairs had been a trip-- almost literally. But she had clung to the railing, and entered the living room hesitantly. Blanche never had friends over, and most people at school never saw a hair out of place on her either. She made a face when he joked about her job interview, and she glanced him up and down. He was covered in cat fur, and Wilco was glowering at him like the traitor he was. Nutmeg flew past her feet in a white blurr and into the kitchen. "Confidence is overrated and so is that job interview," She mumbled, holding her head slightly as she inched to the couch. He was being nice to her. At least that was a good thing. But Blanche felt awfully grumpy, slowly going for the tylenol and water he set on the coffee table. She could apologize for being rude later. She sniffed. "You... uh. Took us all home, right? I don't... Really remember." Blanche frowned, her face twisting as she was realizing most of the night was merged together. "Thanks... Though." 'BLANCHE! You have a problem.' Blanche had to fight not to let out a groan as her Granny appeared back, turning to stare as she phased through the wall, mildly unimpressed. She looked panicked. "Did you sleep on the couch?"

AJ: "You know, I was this close to saying I was your conscience? Couldn't decide which one would make the better joke." AJ pinched his fingers together for show and dropped back onto the couch. He grabbed for his laptop and pulled it back onto his lap, unsure if her being up and alive meant that it was time for him to leave. Maybe he could head home and get some actual sleep. "You? Don't remember? I'm shocked. You seemed so well adjusted." Last night had been the most time he had spent with anyone outside of school in close to two years. Most of it had been an awfully loud and obnoxious experience that he would rather chug bleach than repeat. Side note made, if he did somehow make real friends in the future either drink with them or avoid them drinking at all costs. "Yeah. With your cat." He added grumpily, "On a scale of one to ten, how much like shit do you feel?"

Blanche ignored her Granny, looked at him dryly. “Yeah, well, in case you couldn’t tell, I don’t drink.” Blanche took the Tylenol and sipped at the water. God, she was nauseous, but hopefully the Tylenol would help her head not feel like it was being pound in with a hammer. “I can’t believe I didn’t know there was any alcohol in that punch.” She added, just as grumpily. She looked over at him, and Wilco seemed to be content snuggling up to him. There was another white blur, and Nutmeg popped up onto the armrest, looking at his computer curiously. She snorted. Traitors. “I couldn’t tell—I thought you just naturally covered yourself in white hair to add to your whole black aesthetic.” Blanche muttered, before feeling a fresh wave a nausea hit her. She dropped her head in her hands, rubbing her temples as she cussed as she folded herself over on the couch. “Is: ‘I’m never drinking again’ on that scale? Because if it is: It’s an 11.” Granny was hissing in her ear about her parents, but she waved her off.

AJ thought about telling her about the punch, but he didn't actually have any real knowledge that he could fill her in on. All he knew was that something had made all of those kids at prom last night trashed, but it had tasted nothing like alcohol. If he had not first hand witnessed the flask being emptied into the punch bowl he would have gone as far as to theorize the bowl had been drugged. But it had definitely been something liquid. AJ had never liked giving half a story when he himself didn't know all the facts, so for now he kept it to himself. "This is exactly what I do every morning. I don't have cats so I usually use an over sized white fluffy pillow to get the coverage I need. Your cats are... cuddly." He glanced around at the two of them snuggling on either side of him and wished that he had worn anything other than black. Would all of this fur even wash off when he did laundry? "I've actually heard the never drinking again thing, and as far as my experience goes it doesn't really stick. But an eleven, that fucking sucks.”

Blanche turned her head slightly to look at him with her two cats. Nutmeg and Wilco seemed perfectly content to snuggle with AJ instead of their cranky and hurting master. “That’s quite the image. White fluffy body pillow to fill your aesthetic. You should start a paid Instagram.” Blanche muttered, sitting up slightly and pulling her legs up onto the couch. “They sure are, and they like you. Last time someone came over Nutmeg bit them.” Then again, they were in the fifth grade, and she was pretty sure that that girl had pulled her tail. Blanche let out a sigh leaning back. “I think I might mean it—unless this is the gateway drug you were talking about before. Unfortunately, I don’t have any bath bombs for us to snort.” She grumbled. “Incase you couldn’t tell, I, uh… had a lot of punch last night. Good distraction from actually talking to anyone—And I mean I couldn’t say no to perky little what’s-her-name behind the punch table… Ugh.” ’YOUR PARENTS ARE COMING!’ Granny finally hollered, causing the TV to jolt on and the all the lamps in the room to flicker. The light hurt her eyes and she felt like she was going to be sick—but— Wait what? Blanche’s head snapped up. “Son of a bitch!” Blanche cursed, turning. ’They just pulled in! You would have had time if you listened to me!’ Blanche ignored the dig from her Granny, stumbling to try and stand. “Look like you’re doing… uh… homework!” And that he didn’t just spend the night. Blanche winced slightly as she heard the front door open, her parents voices flooding in. “I’m going to be sick.” She groaned, hopping off the couch to her backpack that she discarded that Friday and wrenched her biology textbook and notebook and flung it haphazardly at the coffee table.

AJ let out a laugh. A paid instagram, that was a laughable thought. "I don't know if I could handle all the negative comments from the popular kids. Those mean comments, they really get to me." AJ stuck out his bottom lip into a pout and used his index finger to trace a single tear from his eye down his cheek. AJ couldn't decide if he should consider himself lucky that Blanche's cats liked him or not. He didn't necessarily mind them, but he wasn't exactly crazy about the idea of them following him around rubbing their fur all over his clothing either. "Wow I feel so honored." He made a foolish attempt at picking some of the cat fur off of his shirt. He could spend the rest of the day picking at fur and still only clean off his sleeve. “Smart choice. If I had to talk to those asshats I would have been chugging the punch too. Lucky me they were all too busy trying to kiss ass so that I would take some decent pictures of them.” He paused for a long second after the lights flickered and the TV turned itself on, looking over at Blanche to see if she was going to have any weird reaction to it. When she didn't, he shrugged to himself and went back to his computer. Power surge? Maybe. AJ was getting the feeling that there was something else going on. Then Blanche hopped up from the couch, rather impressively considering how sick she must feel. “I am doing homework?” He held up his hands, confused by her sudden burst of energy. Seconds later, he heard the front door opening. Oh. That makes sense. How the hell had she known that was going to happen? Was it her parents walking through the door? “Right. Getting sick wouldn’t be obvious at all. Just stay cool.” He whispered to avoid the people walking through the door from hearing him.

“I am cool!” Blanche whispered back, even if she was anything but. She clambered back over the couch, ignoring the sick feeling in her stomach. Maybe if she ignored it, it would go away—She slammed open her biology text book just as her mom and dad walked through the door. Blanche looked up at them, trying not to look like a deer in the headlights. “Hi mom, hi dad.” Blanche put a smile on her face, hoping it didn’t look like she was in pain. Her parents stopped, staring at the two of them, confusion clearly on their faces. Their daughter had someone over? A boy? Without them home? Her dad frowned slightly. “I hope your medical conference went well!” Blanche continued before they could start. “This is AJ, he’s my friend from school. We have a big biology lab report to do. Right? Because we’re lab partners. I told you about that before you left, remember?” Play it cool- she was totally cool. This was cool, she was cool, AJ was cool, Granny was cool, everyone was cool. Nutmeg let out a loud meow before hopping down to go great them. Blanche really felt ill now. Hopefully, they would buy it. Blanche was generally a good child, minus the tattoo incident a couple months ago, and they usually didn’t listen when she spoke anyway. They had forgotten things she’s told them before. “… Right.” Her mother broke their silence, looking her daughter up and down. ‘Your hairs a mess, you’re wearing penguin pajama shorts in front of company, and a UMAINE Sweatshirt that’s big enough to be a dress. They’re suspicious.’ Blanche didn’t need Granny’s help right now, as her mother stepped forward first, eyes trained on AJ. “Well, hello dear.” Her mother was barely taller than Blanche, and had the same blonde hair. She held out her hand. “I see the cats got to you. I’m Diane, it’s a pleasure. And so nice to see Blanche invited someone over, you never do that, Blanche.” Her father cleared his throat. “Biology, hm? Quite the interesting subject. Nice to meet you AJ... Sorry, what was your last name?” Blanche sank into the couch, unsure whether she was going to vomit or just drop dead from mortification.

Blanche was sinking. She clearly had no experience with lying to parents about the boys sitting on their living room couch. AJ figured that with all the lying she did on a daily basis defending herself against the onslaught of cruel teenagers that she would be a little bit better at it by now. She clearly needed some work. AJ could only imagine what her parents must be thinking right now about the two being alone in their home the night after prom. Blanche looked like she had just spent the entire night partying and AJ had clearly been there long enough to amass the insane amount of cat fur that he had. AJ needed to do some damage control. Fast. He practically tossed the laptop aside and jumped up with a certain pep in his step that no other high school student had probably seen from him since maybe freshman year. Her father's face looked entirely unamused and her mom seemed incredibly apprehensive when introducing herself to him. He shook her hand eagerly before moving over to shake her father's. "AJ Ricci ma'am. I think your cats love me. It's so nice to meet you guys! You know, I am great at writing lab reports and everything but I just can't for the life of me figure out how to graph the results. My boyfriend told me how good Blanche was at math and I gotta tell you she's been a complete lifesaver!" He laughed a little too excitedly and clapped his hands together, "Blanche is a genius!" He glanced back at Blanche, his face hidden from her parents and gave a smug smile aimed towards her. "My boyfriend and I keep trying to tell Blanche the same thing. We have been trying to get her to invite us over for what feels like forever. Who knew all it took was getting assigned lab partners!" Another fake laugh. Real AJ had never been a huge hit with any parents. They found his fascination with horror and mystery to be a bit unnerving and the fact that he had a bad tendency to snoop through others belongings did not help the matter. But AJ had quickly learned that he could figure out what a parent wanted in a potential friend for their child quite easily. Then it was just a matter of crafting that alter ego and plastering it onto him like a mask. He could play whatever part he needed to. "I was actually just trying to convince her to go out to breakfast with me."

Blanche was going to be sick. She watched in horror and amusement as AJ started to charm her parents immediately. Granny was roaring with laughter. 'I knew I liked that boy!!! Clever devil, he has your mother wrapped his finger– oh dear. Not so much Jean, though. He always was a hard ass'. Blanche looked to her parents faces. Granny was right. Her mother was absolutely delighted to see her daughter had actually made a nice friend- while her parents worked long hours her mother did try to keep up. Her father... Well... He didn't look too impressed with AJ's song and dance. He always was serious, and she was pretty sure he still hadn't forgiven her for getting a tattoo. Lord knows what he was thinking. His eyes were darting between the two suspiciously, even after AJ mentioned his supposed boyfriend. But before he could open his mouth, her mom started hovering, instantly doting over AJ. "Oh how sweet!! Our little Blanche has always excelled in math— she'll be on the medical track soon enough like her father!! Oh and Honey, you should have invited the both of them over sooner than the end of the year! Goodness, it's early too. I'll have to have you both over for dinner when Jean and I aren't working—" her mother was off on a tangent, and Blanche was really starting to feel ill, especially at AJ's smug grin. Her father looked from his wife to AJ, carefully sizing him up. "I've heard the name before..." He muttered, as if trying to remember. Blanche froze, and Granny let out a word she didn't even know that the old ghost knew. "You said he was your lab partner? You must have said over dinner." Blanche nodded, stiffening slightly. "Have fun at breakfast." Maybe it was just to get her mother to stop her dinner plans, but she had permission to leave the house. "We'll go unpack. Have fun." He said, stiffly leaving the room. Her mother tutted. "I'm very sorry, he's just cranky from the plane ride- you know he pretends he just hates the service but he's terrified of flying. Ridiculous, right!" Her mother laughed, looking Blanche over. "I see your making quite the fashion statement, Blanche." Curse her penguin pajama bottoms. "And you, AJ, are always welcome! Maybe next year you can drag her to the prom— she was so insistent on not going, the silly girl. I loved my prom- oh! He's already upstairs. Have fun at breakfast. You should head to Flopped, I think Blanche gets a discount. oh and Blanche keeps a lint roller in her car, if you want to do something about that cat hair." Her mother smiled kindly, patted AJ on the shoulder, and then gave her daughter a stiff hug, before disappearing off up the stairs. 'Well that wasn't that much of a disaster. Really, my grandson can be quite hard sometimes, he certainly didn't get that from MY side of the family.' By now, Blanche looked positively green, and she was pretty sure her head was actually splitting in two. She was silent for a moment, before she looked at AJ. He probably wasn't prepared for the verbal onslaught that was her mother or whatever her father was trying to do. And now he knew that she hadn't told her parents she was attending prom in the first place. "Thank you," she said, softly. He just saved her ass. But Blanche shut her mouth, the feeling in her stomach preventing her from continuing. They had to leave now— Blanche pointed to the door, before rushing for the pair of flip flops by the door and grabbing her purse. "What are we actually doing?" Blanche asked, highly doubting the two of them were actually going to breakfast. She wouldn't be able to keep anything down anyway.

AJ gave Blanche a knowing look at the comment about medical school. Soon after Blanche’s mom mentioned AJ bringing his boyfriend over to have dinner with them and without missing a beat AJ clapped excitedly, “That’s an amazing idea. I’ll just have to see if I can get home to come over. He’s completely vegan so finding something for him to eat is like finding a matching outfit at a flea market.” Fuck. Most likely AJ would never see Blanche outside of school again, but in the unlikely chance that he did he would have to find himself a fake boyfriend. A vegan fake boyfriend. That was made even harder by the fact that he didn’t even have any friends. It was clear that her father was not as big of a fan of AJ as her mother was. He only paused slightly at the comment made about his last name. He had grown used to people recognizing his father’s name. If her dad worked at the hospital it was possible that he had handled some of the cases of the victims. Wait. If her dad worked at the hospital it was possible that he had handled some of the cases. At the very least he had access to medical records and files. Things that AJ needed. Maybe AJ had just found his reason to come back over to the house. He had definitely just found a reason why Blanche could be a useful ally. AJ was playing the game strong, laughing at her jokes and smiling widely. His dad had always taken a few times to warm up to AJ’s friends also. But maybe that was because all of his friends had been pieces of shit though. “I tried to convince her to come with me and my boyfriend but she just would not budge. Don’t worry next year she will be going even if I have to escort her arm in arm myself.” Her mom eventually left to go unpack and Blanche turned to thank AJ before asking where the two were heading off to. Meanwhile AJ had started shoving everything back into his book bag and dug his truck keys out of the side pocket, swinging it around his index finger. “Don’t worry I’m just going to add it to the list of all the other shit you owe me from last night.” He smiled at her, but it wasn’t the fake one that he used for her parents. It was less friendly and a hell of a lot more sarcastic. But it was surprisingly genuine. “I thought you might want to go get your car. But considering you didn’t even go to prom I’m a little confused what it’s doing parked at the school.”

AJ had definitely picked up on the fact that her mother hadn't known where she was at all last night. She did almost snort at AJ's promise to bring him herself, but her face did eventually slide into a frown. The frown didn't leave Blanche's face, even as AJ gave her that sarcastic little grin. 'Your mother loves him.! Oh she always was the doting type- I knew she would. Jean will warm up to him, probably.’ Blanche stared at Granny, before moving back to AJ at his question about prom. "I owe you big time," she confessed. "Sorry about my parents. Mom's a bit... Much. And dad's kind of a... Well, he hasn't forgiven me for getting a tattoo." Her voice had lowered, but she had almost forgotten about her car. "Shit! My car! Thank god you didn't let me drive home last night holy shit-" Blanche said, her eyes going wide. She dug sunglasses out of her purse. "Uh—" Blanche didn't have a useful excuse as to why she was at prom without her parents knowing. She grimaced slightly as she opened the front door, holding back a groan at the daylight and fresh air. "Ugh." Blanche inched out. All she wanted to do was crawl back under covers and die. "It's parked at the school because I went to prom last minute as a favor to someone," she explained once they were out of the house, still talking lowly. "I, uh, took advantage of them not being home to... Sneak in. Looks like I paid for it by drinking my weights worth in punch." She mumbled looking away from him and fussing with her purse. She stopped. "Wait, do you have my keys?"

One thing at a time. AJ had learned that from his father. Once seven year old AJ had expressed an interest in doing what his father did, Giovanni Ricci had taken it upon himself to begin teaching him everything he knew. It was some sort of pride thing, plus the idea that AJ could be some sort of police academy prodigy if he was a genius on the subject before graduating high school. One of the lessons that his dad would teach him time and time again was that patience was key. AJ had always had some problems getting ahead of himself, especially when he was younger. Patience had never been his strongest attribute and his confidence never helped him. His dad had embarrassed AJ a lot as a kid to prove to him that he couldn’t get what he wanted immediately every time no matter how smart he thought he was. There was no point to get ahead of himself, so AJ just held himself back and asked a single question, “Your parents are fine. They both work at the hospital here in town?” Then, follow up with some more friendly conversation as if he was never gathering evidence in the first place. “You got a tattoo without your parent’s permission? I never knew you were such a badass. I haven’t even done that.” Not that he would really need his mom’s permission to do much of anything. “Right. Wouldn’t want to miss the date with that illusive prom date of yours.” He had taken pictures of people the entire night, including some great ones of Blanche avoiding the cameras and downing copious amounts of punch. None of them had captured any picture of her with a date. He could tell that she was going to go on some tangent about her date that was unbelievable like the rest of her lies and just stuck his hand up in protest. “You don’t owe me some bullshit excuse. It’s not any of my business plus lying about it wastes both of our times anyways.” He dug her set of keys that he stole from her out of his bag and shook them as proof. “Of course I have your keys. Who do you think I am?” He scoffed at her and when she reached for them he pulled them away from her, “That doesn’t mean I trust you to drive home yourself yet. The jury is still out on that.”

Blanche nodded. “Yeah, mom’s a nurse in the pediatric wing. Dad’s a surgeon,” she said, pausing as she felt a wave of dizziness hit her. There wasn’t any way they could just, shut off the sun, was there? Blanche glanced at him, pushing her sunglasses up her nose and patted her ribs. “Yeah, right here. I, um… Wouldn’t call it badass though. It hurt like hell and I might have cried. Not that there’s no proof.” She wasn’t sure how to describe why she needed to get a tattoo. Blanche didn’t think he would particularly judge her, but there wasn’t any need to tell him that it was really an anti-possession tattoo. “I’m getting another one. Once, uh, I turn 18 later this month.” That officer has said she needed more than one to prevent possession. It really scared her, her little gift always had freaked her out. She hated seeing ghosts, even if Granny had been a great part of her life. They were scary, and a lot of them were angry. Seeing them, especially when they were bloody and massacred (especially when they were bloodied and massacred), horrified her. And she hated it when they asked her to pass on messages when she obviously couldn’t do that. The thought made her stomach churn and she rubbed her head, glancing over at him. “My date? Uh—“ He cut her off, telling her she owed him no explanation. No one had ever told he that before. Blanche hadn’t realized she had tensed up before she relaxed. “Well gosh, that’s a different point of view than most of the people at school who seem to think everything is there business. Color me surprised.” Or green. Either one. She shrugged though, reaching for her lanyard. “Ah- hey.” She frowned at him, but he was right. She relented. “Let’s see how motion sick I get on the ride there—unless you actually want breakfast, I’ll buy.” But she hoped he didn’t expect her to eat anything. If she even looked at a pancake she’d probably die.

Blanche stated at him innocently. "What embarrassing crying story?" She asked, shrugging slightly. "The next one's not going on my ribs, I learned my lesson." They reached his truck, and Blanche glanced at him as he decided to give her more advice— right. Granny had said he was just like that. Granny was the same way, it was uncanny how much he reminded her of the ghost. But she didn't think he'd appreciate being compared to an old woman. Granny was nodding approvingly. 'That's what I keep telling her! Getting even every once and a while never hurt anyone who didn't deserve it.' Blanche grimaced slightly. "It's easier making excuses to let them laugh at you." She shrugged again, hopping into the passenger seat and buckling her seatbelt. She had vague memories of Lea, Dustin, and Quinn, but it had all eventually run together, not being able to pinpoint a distinct memory. Blanche paused slightly, before glancing over to him. "You get even often? What'd you do after they decided to Carrie you?" She hadn't heard anything, from her Granny or otherwise. She hoped they got what was coming. "Since clearly the administration didn't do anything about it." Blanche had to resist pulling her legs up, the sun beating through the window made her want to double over and die. She looked at him again, unsure if that meant he was an avid drinker or something else. He was right, her stomach lurched at the thought and she sunk in her seat. "Is that word of advice number 3? Or did you skip a few numbers? I'll try something greasy, but I make absolutely 0 promises not to get sick." She paused. "But I will promise not to get sick in your truck."

“I thought about getting one.” AJ interjected. To make conversation? Not really his thing, but then again hanging out with anybody was not really his thing. “Not sure what I would get. What are you getting?” He supposed he could try it out. “Your favorite subject is math. I didn’t figure you to be the type to go for the easy route.” Math was not a particularly challenging subject for AJ but he knew how difficult it could get. Plus, as much as he hated to admit it, Blanche crushed him when it came to mathematics. AJ had peaked at her record, more out of curiosity than anything else. Her math scores blew everyone else’s out of the water. “I make people second guess screwing with me.” Even might not be the most accurate term for AJ. When people got even the score was settled, practically null and void. It opened the floor for future pranks or jokes or something crueler. To truly get them to leave him alone he had to go above and beyond their pathetic schemes. After that they would always think twice before as much as making eye contact with him. “In your boring ass terms, I prefer greater than to equal signs. But to answer your question, not yet. I haven’t had time to figure out who it was yet.” He had taken the tapes from the office, but hadn’t actually gotten around to watching them yet. “But I’ll figure out soon and then I’m start my evil scheming.” He pulled the truck away from the curb and started driving down the road, glancing over at Blanche to make sure the drive wasn’t going to push her stomach over the edge. “Ha ha. Very funny. Speaking of, word of advice number four, don’t make promises that you can’t keep.” He pointed between the window and the crank to roll it down, “Puke out the window if you have to.”

Blanche glanced at him, unsure how to offer advice on tattoos. Hers was for necessity—really, everyone should get anti-possession tattoo. Maybe more. “What I did was I found something I felt needed to be there. That was helpful for picking one.” Blanche said, shrugging slightly. “But, uh, probably an equation on my back—like the quadratic or something similar. Nothing with pi though, I’m so sick of pi.” It was a lie, and she wasn’t sure how good it was, but maybe he would believe her considering her seemed to pick up on her favorite subject. Not that she particularly made it a secret. Honestly, after years and years of harassment, easy was a better way to go. And the excuses liked to spawn different rumors. Blanche shrugged slightly. “I like solving equations, not high school,” she said, dryly. She wondered if she was supposed to be alarmed by what he was telling her, but Granny had already filled her in on his little blackmailing scheme, even if she didn’t know specifics. Blanche wondered if she would be next, but he hadn’t bought anything up yet, but her head whipped to him. “Boring ass terms?!” She mock frowned at him. “I’ll have you know, I was a big fan of ‘the alligator eats the bigger number’ rather than ‘Greater than’ for a long time, thank you. That’s not boring.” Especially when you drew teeth on sign. “Evil scheming sounds like you’re going to poison them—not that I’d blame you.” Blanche winced slightly as the truck started to move, staring straight ahead. She was okay, for the moment. “You, uh, have a book for all these word of advices? I’ll start losing track soon and I’ll need to study.” Blanche carefully snaked her hand to the window crank, just in case. “Have I mentioned that I’m never drinking again?”

“Sounds cool” AJ spoke absent mindedly. Equations weren’t his thing, but if that was what she wanted tattooed onto her body he was not going to try to stop her. He wouldn’t have cared if she got a giant butterfly tattooed on her lower back. He knew that he couldn’t think of anything that needed to be inked permanently onto his skin, but that thought would do little to stop him. Once he had an idea in his head the only thing that could change his mind was if a better idea was brought to his attention. “I don’t think high school is a solvable equation. I just call it survival.” AJ dealt fine with the pranks and the harsh words the students reserved for AJ daily. It hadn’t even bothered AJ when he had been jumped a few weeks back by Bruno and a group his friends. AJ instinctively brought a hand up to his lip at the thought of it. The bruised cheek and cut on his forehead had finally went away and now the only evidence anything at all had happened to him could only be felt in the slightly swollen area where his lip had been busted from someone’s fist. He had moved on from that. Eventually someone, whether it was one of the kids he went to school with or a parent of the deceased would decide that the ultimate revenge against the man who murdered their friend or family member was to kill his son. AJ didn’t let that thought get to him often, he considered fear a useless distraction. He ignored her defense against math terminology in hopes that she had been speaking sarcastically. For whatever reason, the comment about poisoning the students actually got to AJ. When people made similar comments at school he flipped them off, stared at the ground and walked off towards class. He knew that Blanche had not meant it literally. He knew it was a joke. “I’m not a murderer” He said it like he was joking with her. He thought he was. “I’ll fill out a notebook for you. What happens when someone spikes the punch next year? Are you going to drink then?”

Blanche nodded once, refraining from letting out a sigh of relief. At least he bought it, she didn’t have the mind capacity to start thinking of any better excuses. “There are very few unsolvable equations.” She mumbled, glancing at him. “I like to call my answer to survival: Graduation and going to school not in Maine or in a town that’s trying to kill us every other week.” Blanche thought she was just fine at school. Most people took to talking behind her back, and the people that did heckle her usually got bored once she started off on one of her tangents. It wasn’t a bad life, even if her Granny was always hounding her to make friends. They all thought she was weird or schizophrenic. AJ had it worse anyway— People held real hatred for him after what his father did. Pigs blood and she was pretty sure he was the one that got jumped a few weeks ago. Blanche would be lying if she said she hadn’t googled the cases before, along with her Granny. It wasn’t AJ’s fault, and really, it wasn’t any of Blanche’s business to either way- maybe he deserved to blackmail some of those students after the way they treated him. Blanche snorted. “No, but if you wanna know where Henry McAllister’s paint cannon got stashed after it ‘accidentally’ backfired, I’ll let you know.” The one time someone really tried to fuck with her other than rumors had been last year. Granny really saved her ass from getting covered in bright orange paint. But she shook her head, trying to ignore the dizzy feeling. “I’m not going to prom next year— dances really aren’t my thing,” Blanche shrugged slightly. She remembered having a decent time dancing with everyone, no matter who it was, but she had a feeling once she got the will to check her phone, there would be some pretty nasty snapchats of her. It would break her mother’s heart, but she’d get over it. “’Sides, they’ll probably cancel next years prom after this year’s catastrophe--- but a better answer to that question is: I don't drink alcohol often- if ever. Last night was the first time I had more than a sip."

AJ realized the similarities between their plans for the future and laughed, “Mine too. I’m apparently just a bigger dick in the present.” He couldn’t argue that Blanche’s way to survive probably made her a better person, scratch that, definitely made her a better person. He was also pretty confident that after everything was all said and done and the two had finally escaped this hell hole, Blanche would escape rather unharmed by her high school experience. She didn’t seem to let the assholes get to her. Like ignoring them or whatever was a possibility. Sometimes AJ wondered if he truly didn’t care what the other’s thought or if his constant desire to get greater than even came from some place deep down where he actually did give a fuck what they thought. “A paint gun, huh? I will make sure that I keep it in mind.” He had heard about the incident, even had the satisfaction of watching good old Henry being escorted through the front office post malfunction. He had not seen where the gun had been taken, though he probably had a key to the room. “You are most definitely going to prom next year. Did you hear your mom in there? She would kill me if you didn’t go.” He couldn’t give less a fuck if she actually went to prom next year, chances were he was going to find a way out of it unless his teacher blackmails him into going again. He just liked fucking with her, “Plus, didn’t you read my guide book? I don’t make promises that I can’t keep.” The idea of prom being cancelled was almost laughable. The popular kids would throw a fit, which meant their rich parents would throw and even bigger fit. “People died at prom a few years ago and it didn’t stop them. Some spiked punch isn’t going to either.” AJ wasn’t a big drinker anymore either. He had a short stretch, right after the cops showed up at AJ’s door and he found out that his father had left. He went through alcohol, cigarettes, and weed. The things he could get ahold of without too much hassle. When his mom started doing the same thing AJ learned that alcohol was not the kind of thing he should be messing with. Plus, AJ had some control issues. He never liked the feeling of being out of control.

Blanche laughed too, smoothing her sweatshirt down. “The farther away I get is better. All the Maine colleges I keep visiting are just places to collect another overpriced sweatshirt.” That, and she had to avoid some way of majoring in pre-med for an under graduate career. That whole problem was another can of worms entirely. Where to go and what to do… Her father would be livid and her mother would be so disappointed… Blanche was damn good at ignoring things when she really needed too. Insults from school, responsibilities, ghosts—Well, not so much the latter. Granny was sitting between the two of them, staring at Blanche expectantly and Blanche was starting to get mildly uncomfortable with her just looking at her like that. “Complete with bright orange paint, yeah. Someone, uh, tipped me it was supposed to be aimed at me. Looks like he didn’t know how to work it.” Or Granny did some of her ghost-magic and shoved a blonde bobby pin in it to make it backfire in his face. She grinned at the memory, until he mentioned prom. She looked at him making a face at him. “Well I sure hope you’re ready to come over for pictures, then.” Blanche said dryly. “Because if I have to go and suffer, so do you. Oh, and by the way, she wasn’t joking about cooking you dinner—so unless you want to dodge my mother for the next year, which is very hard too do, you’d better scrounge up a vegan boyfriend or come up with an elaborate breakup story.” She was laughing. He was right though, there was no way they were going to cancel prom after all those kids died. But Blanche suddenly started—Logan! Blanche didn’t see him at all after she was carted out by AJ. She’d have to seek him out, she wasn’t really a good date for his prom experience. “I still can’t believe they didn’t catch that the punch got spiked until the King and Queen were stumbling all over themselves. I wonder what the punishment for being caught drunk at the dance is going to be? Suspension?”

AJ couldn’t agree more. Get him the hell out of this state. “I don’t know if I want to even apply to a college unless it’s at least five hundred miles away from the border.” He specifically had nothing against Maine as a state, but there were just too many bad memories and too many people that knew about those bad memories. He would suffer through his last year of high school and he would stay just long enough to prove his dad’s innocence. Then he was gone. “What a nice Samaritan” AJ thought of Dustin, coming to help him out after the pig’s blood incident. He wondered who had been kind enough to actually go and warn Blanche about the paint gun before it actually happened. “Woah, woah, woah. Prom thing aside, why do you just assume I was lying about the boyfriend thing? Do you really find me that unapproachable?” It would not actually be a problem anyways, AJ could not imagine any scenario where AJ and Blanche were still talking to each other a year from now. Prom shouldn’t be an issue. He still had yet to mention that the spiked punch from last night had not tasted spiked in the slightest. Yet somehow it had made everyone drunk as fuck in just a few hours’ time. “Yeah weird.” He offered casually, “I don’t see anything super bad happening. They are going to try to do something to them, they will all collectively claim that they never drank anything but the punch. The administration will then start asking for people to start pointing a finger and blame them."

"I might go to California," Blanche mused. "I like the sun and not the cold. But, uh, I'll probably end up in Massachusetts attending my dad's old school." She grimaced slightly, but shook it off. Major in Pre-med or nursing and then continue on for a masters.... Not what she wanted. Blanche rubbed her temples. Even the thought of it made her headache at least ten times worse. Granny cackled. 'There are benefits to being dead, boy. You'll find that out one day-- if you become like me.' Blanche shot her a look from behind her sunglasses. She didn't like it when she talked like that. "Yeah, I owe them one," Blanche said carefully, before fully turning to look at him at the mention of the boyfriend. Granny hadn't said anything about him having one and she was fairly sure most of the people at school would be throwing even worse insults at him than they already did if that were the case. "I assumed from the sweet little innocent song and dance you put on for my parents, but if you do have a vegan boyfriend I can text my mom right now to set up dinner. Does Friday work for you both?" Blanche said innocently, pretending to start digging her phone out of her purse. "Or should we do Saturday? " Blanche couldn't imagine AJ actually showing up to dinner like that, let alone with someone to pretend to be his vegan boyfriend. "Mom will make food especially for him." But her head tilted slightly, frowning at that. "I wonder who spiked it...." She muttered. "And I wonder who it'll be they blame." That was a concern. She wasn't supposed to be there, and while she tried her best to dodge out of the way of pictures, there was bound to be proof she was there. They could easily start pointing fingers at her.

AJ had considered California. He was almost positive that he could get into Stanford, the main question being whether he could get enough aid and scholarships to be able afford Stanford. If not, there were plenty of other schools in California or around the coast that he could go to. He enjoyed the beach, or at least enjoyed looking at the beach. From afar. “Your dad’s old school? That sounds stupid.” When AJ was not putting on an act to get something, he could be a tad blunt. Blanche tried joking around about AJ’s obviously fake vegan boyfriend, going as far as digging into her purse and pulling out her phone to feign a phone call to her mother. “Very funny. I was kind of hoping that the vegan thing would stop your mom from inviting us over for dinner. It was the first thing that came to mind on short notice okay?” He didn’t have any friends to play the part and most certainly didn’t have a real boyfriend. Dustin and Quinn both owed him after last night, maybe he could convince one of them to play the part. AJ didn’t mention that he had a picture of who spiked the punch, even if his back had been turned from his camera it wouldn’t be too hard to pick the dude out from AJ’s other photos. “If I had one guess who their scapegoat would be.” He held up his middle finger and tapped it against his temple as if contemplating his options. He had this happen to him far too often. Granted, some of the times that kids blamed him for something it was actually his fault, not that they had proof.

Blanche let out a laugh at AJ's bluntness, her head starting to spin. She winced. "Tufts University in Boston for Pre-Med. Not exactly what I have I mind. What about you? Do you have a plan other than '500 miles out of Maine'." But Blanche gave a weak grin at his defensiveness. Clearly he didn't understand her mother at all. "Oh nooooo, that just gives her more of an excuse to make my father wear a tie, put on something other than unicorn scrubs on it, and look up vegan recipes. She's probably sitting at home online googling." The sad part was that Blanche wasn't joking. She was grimacing. "But it was a good excuse, you won her over easily, if you couldn't tell. I won't stop hearing about you for years- I'll be 30 and she'll be like 'Oh! How's that boy that so totally obviously didn't spend the night on our couch? The one with the vegan boyfriend? You talk to him lately?!' Just fake sick repeatedly or fake a breakup— she might make lava cakes then and we'll all end up happy." Blanche looked ahead, her eyes focusing on the road. Honestly sometimes she couldn't believe that Granny was related to her father and not her mother. But her eyes went wide when she figured out what AJ was insinuating and she looked at him, alarmed. "They wouldn't blame you, would they? You wouldn't spike the punch." Blanche scoffed at the idea. "Not like there's any proof either."

AJ shook his head at Blanche in response to her question, “Not a specific school, no. I was thinking maybe journalism or pre-law maybe.” Something that fit into the skill sets that had been drilled into AJ’s head from a young age. He had been specifically trained for criminal justice or law enforcement, but something about it all left a bad taste in his mouth now. “What you have sounds less like a plan and more like a very carefully constructed path laid by your parents.” His dad had always wanted him to go into law enforcement, but the difference was that up until a couple of years ago AJ also wanted to go into law enforcement. It was pretty clear that Blanche had no interest in pre-med. “That’s what I get for being so damn likable. I swear it’s a curse.” His acting was too damn good, even his parents had been impressed in a terrified sort of parent way. That kind that said they were proud but afraid of the monster they had created. “I guess if you need me to pop up and be your token gay best friend again I could. I’ll con someone into fake dating me or I’ll come up with the most emotional breakup of all time. Very Romeo and Juliet style.” He found it almost laughable that she would find it hard to believe that they would blame him for something going wrong at the school. Whether they did it just to spite AJ or because they actually thought he had done, he was probably the first that would come to their minds. “They would totally blame me. I’ll just have to find proof that I didn’t do it.” Since they seemed to operate on a guilty until proven innocent basis. He was surprised to hear her say that AJ wouldn’t spike the punch, shocked to hear it for once. He probably wouldn’t. Too many people that he had nothing against. He pulled into a fast food drive thru and turned towards her, “What do you want?”

Blanche nodded. “Those sound like things you’d be good at.” Was that a weird thing to say? Maybe. But from what her Granny had told her, both of those sounded like damn good options for him. She made a face at his comment about her carefully crafted path. “Really? What makes you say that? Was it my dad mentioning it to a total stranger covered in cat hair or the Tufts merch on the mantle.” The diploma, photos, everything was on there trying to appeal to her. She put on a grin though. “I’ll end up off the path somewhere—probably after some dramatic confrontation where we all cry at the end. Probably.” Blanche shrugged, glancing out the window. It wasn’t that big of a deal, right? She laughed out right. “You’ll put Romeo and Juliet to shame—and hey, maybe you’ll totally convince my dad and he won’t awkwardly try to talk to me about boys this summer.” Blanche wrinkled her nose at the thought. It was easier for her and her dad to remain at arms length and to just not get involved. Blanche looked at him, frowning slightly. “I’m sure they’ll find the right person to blame. I doubt you’d have anything to gain by making everyone have a killer hangover.” As he pulled into the drive thru, Blanche sank in her seat. She knew that greasy things would make her feel at least a little better, but the thought of food made her stomach clench and twist. She took a glance at the menu, suddenly thanking the fact that he didn’t go to a real restaurant and make her go out looking how she did. “Ugh… Number 3 looks greasy enough for me, with the hashbrown and a… water. You can get what you want too, I’ve got it.”

AJ just nodded his head. They were things that he was good at. Both required a certain degree of people skills that AJ would have to learn to fake. He used to be so good with socialization. Now he spent so much time being weary and untrusting of everyone who talked to him that he never really had time to get to know people on a personal level. By the time he would have had the chance they usually thought he was a nosy douche anyways. They were sort of right. “That plus you hate biology. Kind of important to pre-med.” He wondered if she was serious about telling her parents to stick it sometime down the road. “Maybe before you get your doctorate? No offense, but judging from your Biology grade I would not want you cutting me open.” He laughed about her dad giving the sex talk and tried imagining either of his parents trying to do the same thing. “I didn’t even want to be there.” Which would mean that people could argue he had a reason to want to spike the juice. Being forced to go to the prom against his will could be seen as motivation enough. He ordered for Blanche and then started pulling around, “I’m not hungry.” Or he didn’t like the idea of owing someone else money. He passed the food over to Blanche and pulled back onto the road. “This is either going to make you feel better now or make you throw up and you’ll feel better after that.”

He’s a strange boy.’ Granny pipped up. Blanche was surprised that she hadn’t interrupted before now. ’Be his friend, Blanche. You never know how you could benefit from it. I like him. She had to hold in a snort at that. Of course Granny liked him—not that Blanche didn’t. AJ seemed like a good person, thought she did wonder what he was doing blackmailing people. Granny hadn’t exactly figured out what she wanted yet. “OH really? I thought you needed gym.” Blanche widened her eyes, pretending to be surprised. “My bio grade isn’t as bad as Kelsey McNabb’s—trust me, she used to be my old lab partner. Also, no offense, I wouldn’t want to cut you up. Mostly because 1. That thought particularly makes me feel sick at the moment and 2. I almost passed out when we dissected frogs in December.” If Blanche was remembering correctly, she had been even greener than, and the teacher just pointed and she ran to the nurse. Blanche looked at him. “You were taking pictures for the paper, right? I’m sure you got some great ones.” Blanche said, glancing into the bag. The smell of grease and egg and sausge hit her nose and she immediately turned her nose away and she cranked the window down a little to get some non-fast food air in the truck. ’Oh please, I’ve seen you eat three hamburgers in one sitting and THAT makes you feel ill?’ “We’ll find out.” Blanche grumbled, fishing out the hash brown so she could start munching on it.

It was unlikely for anybody to excel in every single subject, unless they were geniuses. Even then, most geniuses excelled in certain subject areas and simply passed the others. AJ was lucky in that he had always learned and retained information easily. Part of which he most likely owed father, who had taught him from a young age how to observe everything and remember all of the information. “Don’t worry I’ve seen her grade too. Believe it or not you have a better grade than a lot of the kids in the class.” He was pretty sure that Blanche would be halfway decent at the subject if someone besides their teacher could explain it to her in better terms. Still, no matter how good someone was at a subject, if they didn’t like it the shouldn’t make it into a career. “I’m not telling you how to live your life because it’s none of my business, but the longer you wait to tell them you don’t want to be a doctor the worse it’s going to be. I’d rip the bandaid.” He wanted to give her a break from life talks and advice so she could attempt to eat. She already had enough reason to puke.

Blanche looked at him, nibbling on her hash brown. “How did you see all of our grades?” Not that she particularly cared, but she was curious. ’He works in the office, doesn’t he?[/I]’ Granny quipped, and Blanche glanced at her. ’Remember dear, it’s impolite to puke in front of boys!’ Blanche wished Granny would stop trying to be helpful. She finished her hash brown and stuffed the wrapper back in the bag and took a sip of her water. Now AJ was trying to help—Blanche glanced at him. He wasn’t wrong, but the earlier she told them, the more she would have to live with their disappointment and that sucked. As she started on her sandwich, they fell into a fairly comfortable silence and Blanche settled into her seat. At least, until a giant wave of nausea hit her and her head felt like it was cracking itself open. Granny’s voice felt like nails on a chalkboard. ’Blanche… I know that look.’. She gulped the bite of her sandwich and calmly put it back in the bag. Very calmly, Blanche turned to AJ. “Pull over right now. Please.” Everything was calm, she was calm, Granny was calm, AJ was calm, everything was calm.

AJ considered himself pretty resourceful and capable of getting his hands on just about anything that he put his mind to. But even he couldn’t manage getting the password of every teacher who had a student AJ disliked. Online grades were surprisingly well protected, with each teacher having their own username and password. Those grades are for their eyes only, other teachers can’t even see their own students grades from another class and only a few members of administration have access to an entire student’s GPA. Each student had their own username and password that gave access to their grades in each class as well as grades on individual assignments. Student access was typically easier, the usernames all used the same setup, first letter of first name, first five letters of last name followed by the year of birth. Most of the students had generic passwords also. But that only showed individual student’s grades. AJ had found that the easiest way to figure it out was by classroom on a teacher’s laptop. “The teacher was distracted. I got a glimpse of them on his computer screen.” Distracted being code for, AJ made something up to get them into the hallway and a glimpse being code for took a picture on his phone. Just in case they would ever come in handy. He practically slammed on his breaks when Blanche told him to pull over and immediately steered off into the grass. Lucky for both of them there were no cars on the road yet. He sat waiting in the driver’s seat. “You okay?”

Blanche was jerked forward a bit as AJ all but slammed on the breaks and pulled over. Grimacing, Blanche ignored him as she snapped her seatbelt off, snatched the bottle of water, threw open her door, and nosedived out of the truck. She rushed for the coverage of a tree, hoping AJ would just wait patiently. Granny followed, hollering at her. ’HONESTLY! Blanche, dear, you couldn’t have waited ten minutes before he got back to the school! This is quite embarrassing oh—oh dear, honey…’ Granny looked concerned as Blanche doubled over and emptied her lunch out behind the tree. ’Oh dear, if I get my ghostly hands on whoever spiked that punch I will do some very bad things to them! I’m sure AJ doesn’t mind, dear, it’s not like—‘ Blanche cussed, her head whipping to Granny. “Can it, Gran.” she snapped, only lowering her voice a little. Granny huffed loudly, but seemed to take the hint. Blanche breathed in, and out, leaning against the tree for just a second to settle her stomach and to wash her mouth out. Grabbing the water was a good move. Good job, self. “I told you I wasn’t going to get sick in your truck!” Blanche called to AJ, irritably. But he wasn’t wrong. She did feel a bit better, at least.

Not knowing whether or not Blanche needed help from AJ or would rather be alone, he eventually decided to just sit in the car while she ran off towards the tree line. He heard her shout something while by the trees that he didn’t catch, but could only tell that it had not been directed at him. He only knew this because when she had spoken to him a minute or two later her voice had been louder and more articulated. “I appreciate it. I’ve already cleaned puke off of the seats once.” Or twice. Or three times. He had lost count. The first couple of months post arrest warrant had been rough. He sat waiting in the car until Blanche eventually came back towards the truck. “Good now?” He asked, paying little attention to her the way he figured she would want. If he had just puked he wouldn’t want someone making a big deal about it. Once she had climbed back into the seat and was buckled in, AJ switched the car back into drive but kept his foot planted on the brake, “You ready to go?”

Blanche clambered back to the truck and was already digging in her purse for the mint gum she kept back in there. Unwrapping a piece, she popped it in her mouth and glowered at her forgotten sandwich like it was the sandwiches fault for all of this. “You did? It wasn’t any of ours from last night, right? I don’t remember that.” Blanche said, thought she relaxed slightly once AJ seemed not to mention anything or be patronizing or was hovering over her. ’Good boy!’ Granny cheered, approvingly. Blanche almost rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I’m good. Thanks. I think I feel a bit better too.” She’d likely nap in the back of her car before she went anywhere now. “Does they jury say I can drive home now?”

AJ continued driving towards the school, which wasn't for away. "No. None of you guys puked thankfully." He answered, not offering any other explanation. If she had really wanted to know or pushed the subject he would admit that it had been his mother. The only reason AJ had never gotten blackout drunk and puked in his truck was because he never went anywhere to drink. No friends did that to a kid. When he would binge drink he just raided his parent's liquor cabinet and ended up spending night in the bathroom with his head hanging over the toilet. "Fried food and puking always made me feel better" He admitted to Blanche, "If you drink too much you're fucked no matter what you do, but it helps at least." The school was just around the corner now and Blanche asked about her driving her car home. AJ glanced over at her and narrowed his eyes at her as if assessing the situation. "I guess I'll let you."

Blanche looked at him curiously for a moment. ’I think some things aren’t meant to be pushed, Blanche.’ Granny’s oh so helpful voice reached out to her. “Well, that’s a relief. I hope Quinn and Dustin also didn’t have sex in your truck bed. I can’t confirm that either.” Blanche said. They were probably so grounded by now. Blanche looked at him. “You sound like you have the experience, huh?” Maybe she was the loser here. It was really embarrassing having something like this happen to her, especially with a kid from school. She didn’t really have any friends, and really, she had been content with staying pretty much anonymous until she graduated. Blanche gave him a weak grin. “If you’re guessing yourself, I’ll have you know I’m fully planning on making use of the blanket I have in my trunk and am taking a nap.”

AJ started laughing and glanced back at the bed of his truck. “Nah I don’t think so. If they did they were really fast and really quiet.” He paused, maybe they had been if they were both virgins. Plus if they were drunk they might have gotten the deed done even faster. But he found it hard to believe that Dustin was capable of doing anything quietly. Quinn maybe, he was pretty quiet in general. But drunk Dustin had constantly been jabbering. AJ couldn’t remember a time that he wasn’t saying anything besides when he was busy using his mouth to kiss Quinn or stuff food in his mouth. “I used to take care of people a lot when they were drunk. My dad was a cop so I was too afraid to get in trouble with him. But I was pretty stupid and drank myself into a stupor and threw up all over my bedroom once. Great times.” It was weird to talk about to someone other than his mother. She hadn’t had much of a reaction to it either. “A nap isn’t a bad idea.” He pulled his car onto the street that school sat and started glancing around, “Where is your car at?”

/me laughed a bit too. She felt considerably better, even if her headache hadn’t totally gone away, and she was pretty sure if she took off her sunglasses she would be blinded by the sun. “I think Lea might have murdered him if they even tried,” Blanche offered, glancing in the truck bed herself. “I do remember she was pretty cranky most of the night. But If I got stuck with a drunk sibling and his boyfriend I’d probably be cranky too.” Lea hung out with most of the popular crew that didn’t like Blanche, but Lea hadn’t said anything too awful too her. She looked at AJ as she mentioned his dad, and winced when he mentioned puking everywhere. “My parents don’t really approve of alcohol or anything like that either.” Blanche offered. “But, well, they’re kind of oblivious. They didn’t even notice my car wasn’t in the driveway.” Blanche shrugged slightly. “My car’s on the far side. Near the back entrance a ways away from the gym.” She realized how weird that must look. “I, uh, thought it would look more suspicious if I parked near the gym.”

Nodding in agreement, AJ could only imagine how aggravated he would have been if he had been the sober one in Lea’s shoes. Forced to listen to her older brother’s sex talk must have been pretty strange. “Thank god I’m an only child.” AJ blew out a whistle of relief. He really dodged a bullet there. He wasn’t sure he was prepared to be someone’s brother, especially somebody’s older brother. He would not really consider himself a picture-perfect role model. “Oblivious parents. My favorite kind.” Thanks to an oblivious parent he had been able to get away with a lot of things the last couple of years. Maybe the only upside of his father being gone. He pulled past the gym and kept driving down the road until spotting a lone car down the road away from the school. “Ah. That must be the one then.” He laughed, pulling off of the road behind the car. “You sure you’re good?”

Blanche nodded in agreement. "I don't know what I'd do with a sister or a brother." Blanche said. Honestly, Blanche couldn't think about what her parents would do with a second child. Blanche had been independent since she could start cooking for herself and was trusted enough not to leave the stove on. "I'm sure Lea's soooo pleased about everything last night. Especially the sex talk." Blanche shrugged slightly at the oblivious parent comment. "It can be really nice sometimes. I barely even have a curfew. I think my dad might be thinking about cracking down though, especially after this morning." Not that he wouldn't get distracted with work after a week or so. And he couldn't stop her from working either. AJ pulled off the road as her car came in sight. Blanche only felt slightly nauseous now, even if her head was going to split open. "Yeah, I'm alright." She decided. Granny had disappeared off god knows where-- probably the school to go talk to more ghosts. She turned to him as she unbuckled her seatbelt and paused slightly. "Hey. Um. Thanks. You know, taking all of us home and staying with me and for saving my ass with my parents. And, um. For being so nice." Blanche wasn't sure how to word that without sounding like a total spazz, but it needed to be said. "I just need my keys, and then I'm going to take the longest car nap of the century."

Lea seemed pissed enough about having to be in the presence of AJ without adult supervision or prison bars separating the two and he could only imagine that a drunk and very talkative older brother was a large factor in the bad attitude she seemed to maintain the entire night. “Yeah the absent parental figures can really work out in your favor sometimes.” AJ agreed, and he was telling the truth. Half of the shit he got away with now never would have happened if his father had still been in the picture. Granted, before his father vanished he never had much reason to do any of the shady shit he had recently gotten himself into. Still, having the freedom to do what he wanted whenever he wanted was nice and he was sure Blanche felt the same way. Every kid’s dream. Unfortunately, the absence isn’t just while you’re out trying to party or procrastinating on doing homework and chores. It’s when your car breaks down and your first prom night and all the times when you need them too. That part is the part that fucking sucks. AJ practically groaned as Blanche thanked him, “Please don’t tell anybody you’ll ruin my bad boy rep.” Maybe Blanche would keep this favor he did for her in mind when he came to her someday asking for help. Having a doctor for parents had its perks after all. AJ dug in his bag and handed the keys off to her, “Here you go, now go pass out. Your head ache will thank you.”

"Got that right." Blanche murmured. Sure she got away with a lot of shit, but there were rimes when she really wanted them to be around. Her mom would fuss about making appearances for him and then disappear back into the hospital with the sick children. Blanche coughed slightly shaking her head at his objections. "Oooh pardon me. I wouldn't want to damage your uh 'bad boy' rep, there, buddy." Blanche laughed. "Can't have everyone at school thinking that you like sugar and cotton candy or...." Blanche paused for dramatic effect. "nice!" She smiled at him but took her lanyard. "Thanks AJ. Really. Owe ya one." 'Careful who you owe favors too Blanche.' Blanche jumped slightly at the voice of her grandmother and she hopped out of the truck. She can't look like a total moron. Blanche hurried to her car, pressing the button on her keys to pop the trunk before she paused, turning back to wave at AJ. And then she turned back, pulling out the blanket, and practically diving into the backseat of her car. Time to sleep the rest of this off.

#aj #chatzy #chatzy aj #chatzy aj 1

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