#kat hernandez x oc!

[artyandink]

the girl that kindness forgot | 4

I CAN’T CONTROL WHAT’S PASSED ME BY

Quote of the chapter: “UNO reverse.”

…

I opened the door to my dining room, spotting my relatives at the table. A wide grin split my face, sitting down next to Turstin, who ruffled my hair. 

“How was your sleep, dear?” My mother, Marianne, asked me from across the table. Every detail of hers was the same, from the little glint of happiness in her silver eyes, the quirky curve of her nose to the small dimple she had on her left cheek when she smiled. It was all the same. Her mother was always regarded as beautiful, with her long, silky black hair and large silver eyes, but she was also kind. Kinder than almost any human being I knew.

“I slept really well, Mum.” I replied while our butler, Alfred, served me my breakfast. “You have no idea.” 

“Then you’ll be able to train well with Turstin, eh?” My father, Alistair, added with a chuckle. His blue eyes glinted and his brown hair was brushed neatly, tinged with streaks of blonde. He was the CEO of SP3CTR, a well-respected man who was regarded as influential by many. He was serious in business, but at home he was the man that made me smile. Apart from Turstin. 

“Alistair!” Mum gasped. “She just woke up.” 

“I know, Marianne, I’m just joking. You know I believe in equal work and play.” He soothed. 

“Could I interest you in your usual, Miss Hernandez?” Alfred asked, holding a mug of my favourite coffee.

“Of course, Alfred, that would be lovely.” I thanked him before he left, turning back to my mum and dad, who were excited. 

“I’ve been hearing about this Anthony Lockwood boy from Turstin. Tell me, is he a keeper?” Mum pumped her eyebrows twice, smirking. I punched Turstin’s shoulder, gasping. 

“You didn’t.” 

“I did.” He teased. “Come on, I had to.” 

“You didn’t have to, and mum, dad, he’s no one. Just a co-student. Nothing really important.” 

“Is he hot?” Dad asked, pretending like he was stroking a non-existent beard. 

“He’s stubborn-“ 

“Hot?” 

“- kind -“ 

“Hot?” 

“- smart -“

”Hot?” We blinked at each other, until the whole table started laughing. 

“Yeah, he’s hot. Really hot. We just work together, it’s nothing spec-“ 

“ARTEMIS!” My mother gasped, dropping her glass and standing up. My father did too, fumbling for his rapier, and that’s when I realised.

A spirit was reflected in my cup, and it was holding Satan’s dagger to my throat.

•´¨*•.¸¸.•*´¨•.¸¸.•´¨*•.¸¸.•*•´¨•.¸¸.•´¨`•.¸•´¨*•.¸¸.•*´¨•.¸¸.•´¨*•.¸¸.•*•´¨•.¸¸.•´¨`•.¸

I flew up to a sitting position, clutching my forehead. It was slightly damp, sweat beading at the top in delicate little teardrops. 

“Bloody hell…” I fumbled for my phone, checking it. 

5:56. 

I didn’t know what I just saw. It resembled the day Turstin and I lost our family to a ghost lock. I didn’t remember what exactly happened. I remembered the void-like eyes of whatever came that day, feeling weak and the next thing I knew, I was in DEPRAC on life support, told that I somehow survived the touch of a ghost and launched headfirst into managing SP3CTR a few weeks after. 

Even better? 

I almost died again in that few weeks timespan and the cause was blamed on me by none other than Anthony… John… Lockwood. 

I yanked on some black tracksuit bottoms, pulling on a tank top over it and tying my hair up, picking up my earphones and jogging lightly down the stairs to try and not wake George and Lucy up. 

But who do I meet on the landing? 

Anthony bloody Lockwood, fresh from a shower, shirtless and rubbing his hair with a towel. I’m telling y’all, there was one thing that was almost as hot as seeing me in my crop tops. 

Anthony Lockwood shirtless. 

Puberty really was on his side; he had toned muscles from training to be an agent, and he didn’t have any acne. The lines of his Adonis-style muscles were evidently visible, so I inwardly resisted- 

Snap out of it, Hernandez. 

Seems like he was having the same thoughts as I was, raking his eyes down my figure with a very well-disguised smirk. He rubbed his hair, masking it successfully and looking me up and down with a look that borderlines disgust. “What are you doing up so early?” 

“Going on my daily run. What are you doing up?” 

“Getting ready for a shower, who’s asking?” 

“Who’s asking on your end?” I retorted wittily. 

“I asked first.” He sneered, stepping forward in a manner meant to be threatening, but I didn’t budge. 

“Since when have I ever given a damn?” I jeered, stepping forward as well. Right by now, we were almost nose to nose, brown trying to throw blue off with equally piercing stares. “You should know better than anyone, Lockwood, that I have never given a damn about who’s first in line. Why stop now?” 

“You’re insufferable.” He spat, jaw set in that familiar way whenever he was furious about something. I loved it, making him angry. It always has that insatiable satisfaction.

“UNO reverse.” I pulled an UNO reverse card from my tracksuit bottoms pocket, holding it up triumphantly. What? I always had one handy in each of my articles of clothing which contain pockets. And if they didn’t have any pockets? 

I never had to worry about that situation. 

“It’s like you’re made to ruin my life. I can’t believe I even asked you to be here. What was I thinking?” He muttered as he tried to walk away, but stopped in his tracks when he heard me, turning around again.

“Because you need me to help you. And you may think that I’m ruining your life, Lockwood, but no.” I gave him a venomous stare, one so poisonous he showed fear for a second. “You ruined mine long ago. And you are so lucky that I haven’t come back for revenge, because I would tear your life apart bit by bit until you’re left in the mud, scrabbling around for even the tiniest case to keep you standing.” A grin split on my face, all my vengeance coming out in this one moment. “And you would beg me for mercy, but I wouldn’t give it to you. After all…” I lowered my voice a little, “I know you did this. I know this is your fault, and you should take the fall for it. Shame that people like you don’t own up to their own mistakes. Life would be so much easier if you did.” I put my earphones in, blasting music and jogging out the front door. As ‘River’ by Bishop Briggs pounded against my ears, I contemplated that day. The day everyone left me and everything fell apart. 

“YOU PUT OUR LIVES IN DANGER, AND YOU HAVE THE AUDACITY TO BLAME IT ON ME!” 

“I WOULDN’T FALSELY ACCUSE YOU! WHAT KIND OF PERSON DO YOU TAKE ME FOR?!” 

Clearly, I’d misjudged his character. I reflected back and hatred rose up inside me. How could I be so naive? So hopelessly ignorant, so ignorant that I missed the parts where he revealed his true colours. The moments where he showed his cards but I turned a blind eye. All because he meant so much to me. Anthony Lockwood only cared about himself, making him famous, splashing his name on the front page of the newspaper. It never was about his friends, was it? He hadto have the spotlight.

I still remembered how he was so kind, so helpful. Until he became the best alongside me and that became his whole personality. 

I didn’t even know where I was going, where my feet were taking me, until I stopped at the place my father was buried. He died shortly after being ghost locked, but my mother was still alive. I stared at his tombstone, a tear falling from my eye as I sank to my knees. 

HERE LIES ALISTAIR HERNANDEZ

FATHER, SON, BROTHER AND SAVIOUR 

“LIFE IS AN OBSTACLE, BUT HOW YOU OVERCOME IT IS UP TO YOU.”

He said that to me on the day I started cracking from the pressure of doing all my grades. From that day, I was never afraid to tackle a problem. It was advice I took to heart. 

“I’m so sorry, Dad.” I wept, tears falling thick and fast. A hand laid on my shoulder, warming it. 

“You don’t have to be. None of this is your fault.” I turned to see my father’s spirit beside me, and I swear my heart skipped a beat. 

“Dad?” 

“Yes, sweetheart, it’s me.” He hugged me, the warmth from his pure spirit radiating off him. 

“But h-how?” 

“You survived the Ghost Touch. It imbued you with powers that allow you to summon us from the spirit realm. The extent of your powers I’m still unaware of, but that doesn’t matter. You’re doing beautifully, and that’s all that matters.” His twinkly grin made me feel calmer, as if everything was going to be ok after all.

"What about Lockwood?"

"Admittedly, I'm quite angry at that boy, but give him time and he will come round to the truth. We all do eventually. I have to go, darling, and remember, we're always protecting you." He disappeared off, leaving me to kneel on the mud. 

I wanted my old life back, but I knew I could never have it.

•´¨*•.¸¸.•*´¨•.¸¸.•´¨*•.¸¸.•*•´¨•.¸¸.•´¨`•.¸•´¨*•.¸¸.•*´¨•.¸¸.•´¨*•.¸¸.•*•´¨•.¸¸.•´¨`•.¸

"You were out for a while." Lockwood coughed when I came back. 

"Runs don't last for 30 seconds." I retorted, going upstairs.

”I’m aware of that!” I heard him yell in response, making me snort in disapproval. I changed into my next business outfit, pinning back my hair and swiping some blush across my cheek and applying some gloss to make a natural makeup look. I jogged downstairs to find Lockwood blinking at me in disapproval. 

“You take your sweet time.” 

“I only took 5 minutes.” 

“Exactly, too long.” 

“And you took 1 hour to get to my office.” I snapped, sitting down and taking breakfast. 

“She has you served, Lockwood.” George shrugged. 

“You stay out of it!” Lockwood growled, eyes aflame. 

“Ooh, he’s getting angry.” Lucy smirked, clearly enjoying it. However, our anger was punctured by a knock on the door. 

“I’ll get it.” Lockwood grumbled before opening the door. “Oh, it’s you. Come on in, then.” My head whipped around to see Turstin, taking his jacket off and hanging it carefully; it was manners we’d retained from living in a mansion. 

“Turstin!” I gasped, hugging him around his middle. Lucy and George stood up, accompanying me to the hall. 

“Turstin, you’ve grown up.” George grinned. 

“You’re… taller.” Lockwood sniffed. 

“Nice to meet you too.” Turstin nodded, letting go of me and inclining his head towards Lucy. “Who’s this lovely lady?” 

“Lucy.” She blushed, “Lucy Carlyle.” I raised an eyebrow as I saw Turstin wink at her, making her look like a tomato. Oh my, I know what’s happening here. You seventeen year old son of a gun- 

“Nice to meet you, Lucy Carlyle.” Turstin flirted, adding a little extra on her name. George pretended to vomit in the corner while Lockwood just generally looked disdainful. 

Nothing new, I see. 

“What are you doing here, Turstin?” Lockwood asked, looking the taller boy up and down. 

“Very hospitable, I see.” Turstin chuckled. “I was called here due to a disturbance that happened last night. Went by the name of Annabel Ward.”

•´¨*•.¸¸.•*´¨•.¸¸.•´¨*•.¸¸.•*•´¨•.¸¸.•´¨`•.¸•´¨*•.¸¸.•*´¨•.¸¸.•´¨*•.¸¸.•*•´¨•.¸¸.•´¨`•.¸

“Artemis!” I woke up suddenly, almost about to slap the person who did it, but found it was Lucy, who looked scared. I shook my head, sitting up. 

“What’s going on?” 

“Annabel Ward’s ghost is here, she almost touched me.” I snapped out of my laggy state, grabbing my rapier from the side of my bed and standing up, disregarding the fact that I went to bed in a sports bra and sleep shorts because the house was way too stuffy. 

“I thought we contained her source!” 

“I don’t think we did.” I shot out of bed, grabbing my spare flare holster from my bedside drawer and slinging it over my shoulders, tightening it.

“Alright, wake up Lockwood and George, I’ll locate Annabel.” We went our separate ways, me to Lucy’s bedroom and Lucy to Lockwood. I opened the door, finding the pale figure of Annabel. 

“Hey, Annabel. I’m Artemis, and I know you won’t be able to talk to me but-“ 

“I can talk to you.” She gasped, floating forward and morphing into that young woman. “I know your father. I met him. He told me how determined you are to help people.” 

“That’s right. I know you’ve been murdered, Annabel. I just need a name.” I stepped forward, my rapier in a standby position. 

“I’ve been warned not to say. He’s so terrifying, and his voice chilled me to my core. He forced us to do what he wants. I need your help, Artemis. I can’t do this alone.” Annabel sounded desperate, transparent tears forming in her eyes. 

“Of course, I’ll help you.” I smiled, nodding. But a flare was thrown across the room, hitting Annabel, and as I whipped around I found that Lockwood threw it. 

“What are you doing, Hernandez?! You’re face to face with a Type 2!” He tackled me as Annabel shrieked and dove for us, angered. “Lucy, if you have an idea what her source is, you need to tell us now!” 

“I’m starting to have an idea of what it is.” Lucy stammered, just as I dove out of the way. 

“We’re not under pressure or anything, take your sweet time.” George snivelled. Then something clicked in my head. I’d taken a look at Annabel before and after the silver net was put on it. One thing was there before and gone after. 

“The ring, Lucy, where is it?” I asked, chucking a flare nimbly. 

“I-It was in my hand when I was asleep, maybe it’s in the bed?” She fretted. “I don’t know!” 

“Alright boys, you hold her off, I’ll go with Lucy.” I pulled Lucy with me, searching her bed. 

“I’m so sorry, Artemis.” 

“No problem-“ I saw the ring, “Found it!” I reached in my pocket, finding a small necklace made of silver glass, an emergency container for small sources, and clamped it inside. 

“OH, BLOODY- thank god.”

I panted, turning to Lucy. She looked terrified, so I hugged her. “I talked to her, Luce. She needs our help and we’re the only ones who understood.” 

“We can’t do it alone.” 

“Exactly.” 

‘Sup?’ 

“Yeah, Turstin, can you drop by tomorrow?” 

‘What’s the problem?’ 

“I told you about Annabel Ward’s ghost, yes? Well, she came back just now. And we had a conversation. Don’t mention it to the boys when you get here, it’s just… we need to help her. She’s a victim of brutal murder.” 

‘Yeah, I get you. I’ll come after your run is over, yeah?’ 

“Cool.” I cut the call, turning to Lucy. “We’re not doing this alone.” 

•´¨*•.¸¸.•*´¨•.¸¸.•´¨*•.¸¸.•*•´¨•.¸¸.•´¨`•.¸•´¨*•.¸¸.•*´¨•.¸¸.•´¨*•.¸¸.•*•´¨•.¸¸.•´¨`•.¸

“This is it? Her source?” Turstin asked, examining the ring inside the silver box. 

“Yeah. We don’t know where it came from, but it has a significant meaning in her life, maybe a lover.” George shrugged.

”That seems about right, 5 stars to you, George.” 

“Why are we even letting him examine this?” Lockwood asked, annoyed. 

“Turstin is one of the best at SP3CTR, he’s had special training to examine this stuff.” 

“Why don’t we just get DEPRAC then?” He sulked. 

“DEPRAC is nothing next to SP3CTR. Only reasons why SP3CTR isn’t the leading company for agent control are 1: my father didn’t want SP3CTR to become a law enforcing company and 2: DEPRAC takes loans from SP3CTR instead of swapping the companies because of the fact that people don’t want things to change.” I smiled in a way that I knew would annoy Lockwood, looking back at Turstin. “Continue.” 

“We need someone to connect with this. Figure out what really happened.” Turstin looked at Lucy pointedly, sparking anxiety in Lockwood, who jumped in immediately. 

“No. It’s too dangerous.” He refused. 

“Do you have another option?” I retorted. 

“Yeah. You could do it.” 

“I mean, I could do it, I think I can.” Lucy shrugged. 

“No, let’s hear what Lockwood has to say.” I dismissed, glaring at him and standing up at the same time as he did. 

“If you’re so determined to do it, let’s see what you can do.” He walked closer to me, teeth gritted.

“You’ll be surprised.” I smirked, taking another step closer so we were nose to nose again.

“Highly unlikely.” 

“How about this?” Turstin piped up, eager to disperse the tension. “Lucy will try first and if she can’t connect to Annabel then we’ll move onto Artemis. We all good with that plan?” 

“Yeah, good. Very good.” George quickly agreed, Lucy nodding frantically. 

“Don’t talk to me like that again. You’re part of my company.” Lockwood murmured. 

“How many times do I have to tell you? I… don’t… work… for… you.” I shoved his chest, winking. Turstin flapped his shirt, breathing out harshly, while George and Lucy giggled loudly. 

“Alright, Lucy, are you ready?” Turstin handed her the ring, which she held in her fingers. Lucy closed her eyes, and a moment later, hissed and dropped the ring. 

“I-I had a connection for a moment but something pushed me out.” She stammered, so I put my hand out. 

“Let me try.” My fingers closed around the ring, and I instantly saw through Annabel’s eyes. I couldn’t recognise the man in front of me due to his face being blurred, but the rest of the room was clear. A sweet operatic song was playing in the background, my Annabel’s hand extending.

“There’s a song playing in the room.” I informed, eyebrows furrowing a little. 

“Dance with me.” 

“I’m not in the mood.” 

“She loves it.” I felt a smile break out on my face, But I focused more on the scene. 

“But it’s our song, come on.”

”It’s their song.” 

“Who’s they? Annabel and…” I held a finger up, silencing Lockwood. 

“She’s so happy.” I felt her joy, love and affection; it filled my veins and made my nerves tingle. I’d never felt emotion like it. “She loves him.” 

“Go on. I’ll watch.”

”If you insist.” My line of vision started moving, feeling so free. As if I was unchained. 

“She’s dancing to the song. He’s watching her.”

Suddenly, the mood changed. It was very swift, as if it was a blank slate in the middle of time. “Are you honest?” 

“My Lord…” 

“Have you told him where to go?” 

“No…”

“He wants her, but it’s just…” I could feel panic and pressure building up, looking into a vintage mirror on the wall and finding myself, dressed in a flowing black dress, the white streaks in my hair glowing. I even looked so innocent. It reminded me of the time I went on my first study date with Lockwood. God, I was so naive. 

“I said I’d give…” I felt a large impact on the side of my head, and for a split second, I saw that my hair was red. A gasp escaped from my mouth as I fell to the ground both in the memory and in real life, chairs scraping from around me.

”What is it?” I heard Lockwood beside me, another familiar stature my brother. 

“I did nothing…” 

“You’re lying to me.” 

“He’s- he’s angry.” I gasped, breathing heavily and desperately. I was drowning in a sea of grief, tears and pain. Annabel was treated cruelly in this one moment, and I felt everything she did. It was horrible. I felt alone. Isolated. No one there to hear my screams for help. 

“I swear. Let me go!” 

“Jealous.” 

“You’re lying.” 

“I swear, let me go.” 

“She’s afraid.” And so was I. 

“You know this.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, my love.” My hands clasped his, but we’re brutally thrown off. 

“Don’t call me your love! You toyed with what isn’t yours. You are mine, Annabel, and it isn’t your place to commit such atrocities!” 

“I’m yours, I admit, but please believe me, My Lord! You know me, I have been faithful to you only.” 

“Lies! You’re lying to me, Annabel!”

“I’m not.”

”It’s all right.” 

“I swear.” The line between memory and reality blurred together until I could see Lockwood in the man’s place, standing in front of me and genuinely looking concerned. I felt a small bit of hope. That somewhere he’d have it in him to forgive me. Right? I love him and he loves me. This will all be over soon. 

“He loves me.” I looked straight into his chocolate eyes, smiling hopefully. My love. “You love me, don’t you?” I held his arm lovingly, my hand tentatively reaching up to cup his cheek. “You gave me the ring. You’d never… he’d never hurt me.” 

"This needs to stop." Lockwood finally decided, but Turstin stopped him. 

"She's my sister, but we're almost there." 

Lockwood stared, mesmerised, as my hand gently caressed his cheek, a warm, comforting smile gracing my lips. “You’d never hurt me, right? You’re my love. Do you love me too?” My thumb lightly stroked his bottom lip, and he let out a sharp sigh, hand flying up to remove mine without using any force. Something closed around my throat, fully pulling me back into the memory to find that the man was strangling me, hands clamped around my throat in a fit of rage, jealousy and spite. I fought to stay alive, coughing and wheezing out pleas to let me go. 

“I-I can’t breathe…” I choked, the life draining out of me as my desperate actions to pry his fingers from my throat became weaker, losing my breath and my vision blurring and fully blacking out. 

•´¨*•.¸¸.•*´¨•.¸¸.•´¨*•.¸¸.•*•´¨•.¸¸.•´¨`•.¸•´¨*•.¸¸.•*´¨•.¸¸.•´¨*•.¸¸.•*•´¨•.¸¸.•´¨`•.¸

“So, you’re interested in chess too?” Lockwood asked, his head resting on his hand. 

“How could you tell?” I asked, intrigued, playing with the hem of my white dress. 

“I saw you in your dorm with Turstin. You were playing chess.” He smiled, flicking through his book absent-mindedly.

”Yeah, I do. It’s so…” 

“Interesting?” We both grinned, laughing. 

“Exactly.” 

“Isn’t interesting to Kipps. He called us nerds.” 

“Since when have I given a damn about what Kipps thinks?” We exchanged an affectionate look, and Lockwood’s fingers brushed mine. 

“There’s no one really like you, Artemis.” I was about to drop a compliment, but my eyes widened when I saw the same skull-like ghost, rapidly approaching with Satan’s dagger.

•´¨*•.¸¸.•*´¨•.¸¸.•´¨*•.¸¸.•*•´¨•.¸¸.•´¨`•.¸•´¨*•.¸¸.•*´¨•.¸¸.•´¨*•.¸¸.•*•´¨•.¸¸.•´¨`•.¸

“Artemis!” I opened my eyes, sitting up with a jerk and feeling my throat, but I found no bruises or cuts. Turstin was in front of me, Lucy and George on either side of… my bed.  

I was in my room. 

Lockwood was at the door, looking emotional, as far as I could tell- 

HEADACHE. BIG PIERCING HEADACHE.

“What happened?” I groaned, rubbing my forehead before pinching the bridge of my eyebrows. 

“You were so immersed in Annabel’s memory that you simulated her death. Aka you blacked out.” George explained matter-of-factly. 

“We were really worried.” Lucy added. “It seemed really intense.” 

“Nah, it was just a new experience. I’d never tried putting myself in the victim’s memory before.” I reassured, “Wait. Annabel.” 

“Yeah?” Lockwood asked, finally interested. 

“She was strangled to death.” 

“The ring stays in the basement until we take it to the furnaces.” Lockwood ordered, pointedly looking at me for some reason. Everyone had a problem with it, of course.

“What? Why would we stop when we’ve come this far?” George protested. This was a sudden shutdown. There’s something going on.

“No more pet projects. There’s bills to pay.” Bingo. 

“Uh, what bills?” Lockwood took out a letter and handed it to George, who was outraged. 

“£60,000?!” 

“What?” Lucy gasped, taking the letter. I snatched it myself, reading it.

“In two weeks? DEPRAC must be blooming mad.” I added. “You’ll never get together that kind of money.” I looked up with a disapproving stare, eyebrows raised. “Why didn’t you tell anyone?” 

“Because it’s my name on the door.” He replied. 

“Of course. You’re at it again. Acting as if the world’s problems rest on your shoulders alone.” 

“Because right now, this problem is my responsibility.” 

“We’re here to help, at least.” 

“How about a loan? This place must be worth a fortune.” Lucy pitched quickly.

“This place is all that’s left of my parents.” Lockwood explained solemnly to her. 

“I’m sorry, I had no idea.” While everyone was devising plans, I crept upstairs and dialled a number, holding it to my ear. 

“This is Artemis Hernandez. I need to speak to Inspector Barnes.” 

•´¨*•.¸¸.•*´¨•.¸¸.•´¨*•.¸¸.•*•´¨•.¸¸.•´¨`•.¸•´¨*•.¸¸.•*´¨•.¸¸.•´¨*•.¸¸.•*•´¨•.¸¸.•´¨`•.¸

“Yeah, cheers, mate.” I cut the call, just in time for Turstin to arrive at the aisle I was in at the library. 

“They’re on a roll downstairs. If you don’t wanna be left out, you should come down now.” He nudged, shrugging. 

“Do you have a thing for Lucy?” I asked abruptly, putting my phone in my pocket. 

“M-Maybe. She’s cute-“ 

“She’s got a thing for you, so get the PDA over and done with.” I started travelling downstairs with him, silently, which was a change. 

“Who were you on the phone with?” 

“Laila. More business stuff.” 

“Do you ever take a break?” We paused at the landing of the stairs, the first floor one flight below. “I get it, you’re the CEO of a huge company, but even CEOs need a break, right?” 

I sighed, looking up at my brother. “I don’t feel like I can take a break. It’s like I have to be checking in, making sure everything is ok or something definitely will go wrong. I don’t know how to ditch the habit, I really don’t.” 

“I get it, mum and dad did a real number on you. But you’re perfectly capable of leaving something for a bit just to have a rest.” 

“I’ll try.” I soothed, “But we have an investigation to get back to.” I went down to the first floor, where everyone was working, “How are you philistines, sans George, doing?”

”Perfectly fine without you.” Lockwood commented, but got a smack from Lucy. “What? We were doing great until she cursed everyone with her presence.” 

“Well, here’s some info. I did some digging and Annabel played Ophelia in Hamlet. Explains why you were taking a fully-clothed bath, Lucy.” I explained nonchalantly, sitting down. 

“Oh, and the daisies! Ophelia drowned herself with daisies because of how Hamlet treated her! Ophelia and Hamlet. Annabel and her abusive lover.” 

“But Annabel didn’t kill herself.” Lockwood contradicted. 

I clicked my tongue in disapproval, shaking my head. “Oh, Lockwood. Poor, unobservant Lockwood. The part she played and her life started mirroring one another.” 

“Which means that whoever played Hamlet did it.” Lockwood took a quick second of research, “Here. Hugo Blake.” 

“That’s our guy.” I smirked, winking. 

“My sister is the BEST!” Turstin whooped. 

“Nice one, Lockwood. Not bad for a philistine.” George praised, cautiously feeding Lockwood’s ego.

"Thank you, George, for actually praising the right person." Lockwood smirked. 

“Well done, Tony.” Quill Kipps was approaching us, clapping. “Actually doing research before a job this time.” 

“Oh, shut up, Kipps, you know no one likes you here.” I spat, standing up at the same time as Lockwood. 

“Artemis Hernandez. The great CEO of SP3CTR. Never imagined that you’d hang around Anthony Lockwood after what happened two years ago.” He turned to Lockwood, “Is it Anthony? Or is it Andrew now?” 

“Keep it down, Kipps.” Lucy snapped. “This is a gallery, not a braying gallery for bellends.” 

“This must be the new assistant.” He smirked. 

“Colleague. And you’re Quill Kipps. I’ve read about you. Haven’t you got the highest mortality rate of any team leader?” That’s my girl. 

“I’m the top supervisor at the country’s top agency.” Kipps boasted, but Turstin came up behind him. 

“I’m pretty sure that I’m the top supervisor. Made legal even at seventeen, a real bite in the butt, eh?” Turstin winked, hands nonchalantly in his pockets. 

“And to boot, I get the best jobs because of how good I am."

"False advertising. You're no better at ghost hunting than a dung beetle." I sneered, which made Kipp's draw his rapier, and like dominoes, so did we. 

"Wrong move." Lockwood tutted. "We can take on any of your beefcakes. Hernandez, wanna show them how it's done?" 

"Gladly." I started to address Kipps, "You'll need a ladder."

"What?" 

I quickly and elegantly flicked my rapier around and up, lodging his in the ceiling. "I warned you." We turned around, meaning to leave. 

"You'll leave him eventually." I turned around, vaguely interested. "Everyone does in the end." 

Lucy grabbed my arm, scoffing at Kipps. "You really can't bloody walk away and accept defeat, can you? Come on, Artemis." We walked away, but it got me thinking. 

Everyone does leave Lockwood in the end.

Even...

Me.

•´¨*•.¸¸.•*´¨•.¸¸.•´¨*•.¸¸.•*•´¨•.¸¸.•´¨`•.¸•´¨*•.¸¸.•*´¨•.¸¸.•´¨*•.¸¸.•*•´¨•.¸¸.•´¨`•.¸

"Hey, Lockwood?" George asked as he was cleaning the table. "What did you say to Arty when she was investigating Annabel?" 

"I didn't say anything." 

"No, you whispered something. I know you did."

"That was gibberish, I was just overwhelmed by the situation." Lockwood brushed off the comment, trying to busy himself in something else. "You know, the great Artemis Hernandez was clutching onto me desperately... it's quite an intense situation-" 

"I know you, Lockwood, so I can tell when you have a secret. So tell me the truth, what did you whisper when she said 'you're my love'?" 

"I said 'always'."

TAGLIST:

@superpositvecloudshipper

[genuinerio]

CHAPTER I. SAME OLD LOVE, SAME OLD BULLSHIT EXCUSE.

PAIRINGS: Rue Bennett x OC! (romantic), Fezco x OC! (platonic, siblings), Maddy Perez x OC! (platonic, best friends), Cassie Howard x OC! (platonic, best friends), Kat Hernandez x OC! (platonic, best friends)

WORDS: 2,124.

NOTES: I apologize for taking forever to write this fully, I just was thinking of how I would write this but I hope you all enjoy and happy New Year’s Eve! I had decided to change my OC’s name to Jackie and she’s now, Maddy’s sister so I hope that’s alright with everyone. Also, the text in italics is Jackie’s thoughts.

TAGLIST: @shycollectionwolfstuff

AS JACKIE STAYED LAYING IN THE EMPTY BEDROOM THAT BELONGED to her girlfriend, Rue Bennett, hoping that she wasn’t hurt while abusing drugs or worse, dead of a drug overdose. Getting up from the bed, Jackie began to pace back and forth, in constant worry. Eventually, the brown eyed brunette began to pray, she didn’t believe in god but she wanted to have hope that Rue would eventually be alive.

This is it, Jackie. You cannot do this to yourself!

The girl knew that she had to end it then and there, she was not going to keep believing that she could help Rue and that she’ll get her the help her girlfriend needs, that their relationship would be okay again. Throughout every unsuccessful fight, every ultimatum, Jackie knew that it would never work and as her best successful way to avoid fights, Jackie began to distance herself with hanging out with her best friends and sister that were Cassie, Maddy and Kat than preferring to hangout with Rue.

And unfortunately, Rue did at times notice the distance, she could tell that Jackie was pulling apart from her and she feared of losing her, losing Jackie would be Rue’s definite downfall considering how much she loved her and the strong influence she was on her.

The caring brunette was tired of this, the consistent lying, the fighting, screaming matches and having to beg for her to get better which only caused a distance of the two since Jackie wanted to no longer have to watch her girlfriend do that to herself in such a self destructive manner which led to an ultimatum that if she didn’t get her shit together, they were ultimately over.

Everyone including Rue, herself knew how much of a strong influence that Jackie was to her. Despite Jackie’s nature of being a party girl and enjoying to smoke weed at times, she never did that in front of Rue knowing that it would cause her to abuse more drugs but she never did hard drugs.

In spite of the fact that Jackie refused to see Rue for a couple weeks or days especially with her drug addiction being the only barrier standing between them and which caused her to distance herself further. It was the fact of the effects that drugs can really do to change a person, especially in personality.

Rue began to lie and become more secretive, lying to her about her whereabouts, believing her drug abuse wasn’t as big of a problem than it truly was and had no issues with not coming home until the next morning which caused Jackie to be worried sick, despite her not being religious but more spiritual, she would pray that Rue wasn’t found dead somewhere.

Jackie starting to begin to notice the time on her iPhone which was now midnight, she hated the fact that she was finally over this; with thinking and having the decision that this was it, it’s time to end their relationship. For quite awhile now, the girl refused to admit it but truthfully, could feel that their relationship was as if it was hanging on by a thread, she thought that it would be the decision and with good intentions that her deciding to finally put her foot down, a breakup was the best thing to do. Maybe in this way, Rue could finally get herself the help she needed.

With taking into consideration that the relationship was beginning to truly get toxic, the constant fighting and screaming got Jackie to pull away and become distant, avoiding Rue oftentimes to not have a argument and the fact that she felt their relationship was no longer having the love for one another like it once had but instead the two often butting heads and at odds, consistently over Rue’s substance use.

Not realising that she was playing with fingers, a habit that she held since she was a child when in times of nervousness, she hadn’t noticed that the door was finally open.

It’s finally the time, the thought of breaking up with Rue had been floating in her mind for weeks, she didn’t want to have to think of life without Rue in her life. She loved Rue, she’s so in love with her but Jackie was so over the fighting, false hopes and promises.

With tears falling down from her eyes, Jackie confronted her. “Rue, we need to talk.”

“Oh hey, gorgeous.” Rue wrapped her arms around Jackie’s waist in a loving embrace while initiating a lazy kiss, it was clear to her that she was slightly intoxicated.

The two sharing a passionate kiss which Jackie cut off a minute later had caused suspicions to Rue, “Rue, I’m serious. We have to talk.”

“Okay, then, what do we need to talk about?” A huff left Jackie’s lips as she was puzzled on where exactly to start with the conversation, the silence echoing throughout the room was very loud. “I. I don’t know where to start.”

“Just say it, babe.” Rue encouraged as she cuddled her but Jackie moved away sitting on the bed to which Rue followed, “I don’t think it’s working anymore.”

“What? What’s not working?” Rue’s voice broke at the thought of it being their relationship, “Us. Our relationship, it isn’t working.”

“What are you talking about? We’re fine.”

“We had a really explosive fight just last night. It was really bad, Rue and we can’t go on like that anymore.”

Taking Rue’s hands in her own, she confessed, “I think it’s best for us that we end this.”

Tears began to fall down Rue’s cheeks as she pleaded, “Please, don’t do this. Don’t leave me. I need you!”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’ll change, I promise. I’ll get help, I’ll go to more rehab sessions.”

“Rue, don’t say things that aren’t going to be true. You say this and then, you don’t mean it.” Jackie commented as she added, “Then, we’re back where we once started with constant fighting. And I don’t want that for us.”

“This time. I mean it though, I’ll get help.” Rue began but Jackie cut her off before she could go on, “I don’t want you to change for me, Rue. I want you to change for yourself.”

“At least think about it for your mom, for Gia.” Jackie got up with continuing, “Gia adores you, profoundly and she shouldn’t have to see you in such a tragic way.”

“And ultimately, think about it for your future. You deserve the chance of living and growing old just like everyone else and it would be awful for you to suffer such an unfortunate fate because of this drug use.” The girl stuttered as she watched Rue continue to fall apart.

A knock on the door had interrupted their conversation as Gia wanted to let Rue know that they arrived back, “Oh hey Jackie.”

“Hi Gia.” Gia felt that she could sense the intensity regarding tension in the room since it was very heavy, “Sorry, was I interrupting anything?”

“Oh no. Actually, I was just leaving.” Grabbing her purse and iPhone, Jackie wiped the tears out from her eyes while providing a quick glance to Rue who was staring back, “Goodbye Rue.”

With saying her goodbyes, Jackie rushed out of the Bennett household in hopes of hiding her teary eyed face, the girl was someone that didn’t like to show emotions much and rather preferred bottling them up but she couldn’t hide it this time. She shared such strong and intense feelings for Rue and that was very hard.

Jackie couldn’t help the fact that she had bawled her eyes out for over ten minutes while sitting alone in her car at an unknown parking spot. She hadn’t noticed that her phone was ringing off like crazy.

Her sister, Maddy was concerned with worry if she was okay but despite numerous messages and failed unanswered calls, as much as she appreciated her sister and friends’s concern, she rather preferred to be alone for a bit.

The girl began to get lost in her head, overwhelmed with overthinking thoughts regarding if breaking up with Rue was the best decision or not. It was true that she was tired of the fighting and she knew that Rue’s false promises wouldn’t change anything nor lead them anywhere else but she still felt awful about the whole ordeal.

For weeks prior, Jackie had contemplated the idea and had been interested in opinions regarding it with ultimately, seeking for Cassie and Lexi’s mother, Suze’s as well as Maddy and her therapist’s advice.

And like her therapist told her, she could love Rue all she wanted but that doesn’t always mean that Rue would get herself the help she needed so it would be the best choice to see how things play out first.

Stay strong, Jackie. This would be good for you both; hopefully, Rue will realize that she needs to get clean and she will.

After an hour of driving around East Highland engrossed into her mind, she finally arrived at her home with noticing her father sitting on the couch enjoying his beer, her mother and Maddy talking as they noticed her tears.

They could tell that whatever happened, it was clearly deeply painful. “What’s wrong, Jackie? What happened? Did you and Rue get into a fight?”

In noticing this, their mother and Maddy asked a various amount of questions and possibilities considering they deeply cared for her but Jackie didn’t want this whole interrogation, “It’s nothing.”

Turning away, she walked towards her bedroom, “I just want to be alone right now. That’s all.” As much as both were curious what exactly happened especially Maddy because they told each other everything but she understood that whatever happened clearly hurt Jackie and that when the time was right, Jackie would confide in her but not to push it.

Jackie spent hours laying down in her bed alone heartbroken over the breakup, she feared for Rue considering that at times of their many breakups, she’d abuse more drugs to cope.

Eventually, the girl got up and sat next to her desk, pulling out fashion sketches that she had created and drawn out, a hobby she began during the summer. A soft knock was heard considering that her desk was next to her bedroom door, she knew it was Maddy.

“Hey.” The two exchanged hellos, as Maddy sat close by, “How are you feeling?”

“Like shit.” Jackie spoke, Maddy was surprised at her words, “What do you mean?”

“We broke up.” Everyone who knew Jackie and Rue knew of their tumultuous relationship and despite their many differences, they always assumed that they would go back to one another, “For real this time.” Jackie continued.

The words caused Maddy to give her sister comfort, “I’m really sorry, Jackie.”

“Well, yeah. I just feel like such a heartless bitch now.” Maddy was heartbroken at the way that Jackie referred to herself, “I mean.” Huffing as she explained in further detail, “What if she overdoses and it’s fatal? I’ll never be able to forgive myself for that.”

“Because, I know that I caused that. And it’s a definite possibility, it could happen.”

“Don’t say that, Jackie. It would not be your fault nor would anyone believe it is either.” The two embraced in a very sisterly comforting hug.

“Hey, you know what? Why don’t you come with us to the party tonight. It’ll be fun and take your mind off of things?” Maddy mentioned, Jackie was known for being a party girl but understandably, she wasn’t up for it tonight, “No thanks, I think I just want to be alone.”

Maddy left as she respected Jackie’s wish of wanting to be alone. Within hours however, word has spread across East Highland at the news that Jackie and Rue had broken up, peers were curious if this was finally it or just a break like normal times. In fact, her friends, Cassie, Kat and Lexi were leaving calls and messages asking if she was okay and that they were there for her at times of need.

Glancing through her window, the sun went down as it became dark in the night sky. The girl had been working on fashion designs for hours by this moment and as she was about to clean up, Jackie received a call. Her eyes widened when noticing the caller ID, Rue.

As much as she wanted to pick up the phone and answer the call as well as make up with her, she knew deep down that it wasn’t the right decision. However, she also knew that Rue was most likely in a deep crisis since even at times where they were fighting or “on the outs” of their relationship, Rue would call her to confide in when in need of comfort. But this time, Jackie put her ringer on and ignored the calls despite how badly it pained her.

While the days went by, Jackie tried her best to distract herself from the heartbreak and mostly succeeded in doing so but was also consistently reminded in the numerous times that Rue had tried to contact her. Despite the two’s heartbreaking breakup, Rue still saw Jackie as her emotional support even as friends. And without Jackie and the good influence she is on Rue, it was no surprise that Rue had abused more drugs as a way to cope without her.

Furthermore, when overhearing the upsetting news that Rue had overdosed over the summer, it caused Jackie to spend numerous sessions in therapy to get through on such guilt and blame that was by no means her fault.

[pleasejustfuckinghugme]

Forever

episode two pt. one (word count: 1,195)

jacobs!oc x fezco

warnings: language, sexual references, probably some typos

Nancy never got a car like her brother. Now, you may think that’s really fucked up because, yeah, they’re twins, but Nancy didn’t want a car. She wanted a bike. On the twins’ sixteenth birthday, Nate pulled up to the school in his brand new, fucking ginormous silver truck, and trailing behind him was Nancy on a fucking bike. I asked her, “Why the hell did Nate get a car and not you?” And she just shrugged her shoulders, locking her shiny yellow bicycle to the rack, “Bikes are just more fun.”

“I need a new fucking bike,” Nancy mumbled to herself as she rolled her ride up to the side of the school. After she secured the rusting yellow bike to the rack, she let out a puff of air and brushed out her white pleated tennis skirt. Throwing her backpack over her shoulder, she made her way into the school.

“Nancy!” a voice called, causing her to whip around. “Thank God you’re alive!” Maddy teased, pulling the girl against her. 

Nancy giggled as the two continued walking. “Yeah, sorry I had to leave early the other night.”

Maddy’s eyes grew as she looked at her friend, “Bitch, you disappeared for the rest of the weekend! Remind me to never let you drink again.”

Nancy scoffed, rolling her eyes before she noticed BB and Cassie up ahead of them. As her and Maddy caught up to them, Rue passed the four, holding hands with another girl. She was tall, almost as pale as paper, and her blonde hair faded into a light pink. Nancy gave them a small wave, but neither noticed as they sauntered by.

“Oh shit! That’s the girl that tried to commit suicide at Mckay’s,” BB exclaimed.

“Wait, what?” Cassie and Maddy, asked simultaneously as Nancy gave the girl a shocked look. “Oh yeah, I forgot you guys both was fuckin,” BB slurred, causing Maddy to stop walking abruptly. 

She threw her head back and groaned in exasperation, “Why does everybody think we fucked?”

“Come on,” Nancy giggled, pulling her friend along as the four continued to walk down the hall.

“Yeah, at least you didn’t disappear,” Cassie chimed in, giving a pointed look to Nancy.

“Shut up,” Nancy scoffed. “I was sick!”

BB and Cassie giggled, “No one heard from you for a whole day,” Cassie teased.

“Look, maybe alcohol just isn’t for me,” Nancy defended herself.

“Yeah, alcohol is not good for me,” Maddy agreed.

“So you did fuck him,” BB grinned, turning to the girl.

“Honestly, I think I blacked out,” Maddy replied.

“For real,” the other three girls looked at her with concern.

Cassie said her name softly as Nancy pulled her into a quick hug.

“Hello,” Kat interrupted, joining the girls.

“Oh look, it’s our new sexpert,” BB announced, and Maddy and Cassie went to hug her as the four girls cheered, giggling.

Nancy found herself quite lonely during the first few days of school. Now that Kat had lost her virginity, Nancy felt as if there was a pressure on her now. And as Maddy complained about Nate being a dick, Cassie gushed about Mckay, and Kat caught the eye of the boy across the cafeteria, Nancy began to wonder if maybe something was wrong with her. 

But boys were not the only thing that plagued her mind. There was Rue too. As she watched Rue giggle with the new girl across the cafeteria, it looked as if the two had been friends for years. Nancy felt stupid for longing for Rue, but God, she missed her so much. Their late night bike rides where they would blast old rock music, screaming the lyrics at the top of their lungs. Their sleepovers where they would vent about all the shit going on in their lives and then raid the pantry for snacks to eat as they binged Love Island. Nancy had tried many times to reach out to Rue, and every time she either heard nothing back or Rue was already with Jules. She understood though, she never reached out to Rue while she was in rehab, and Rue had no obligation to hang out with her. Still, there was a pain in Nancy’s chest when she thought about it.

So when Rue popped up behind her as she grabbed her bike, she was surprised to say the least.

“Hey,” the curly-haired girl chirped, grabbing her shoulder. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you.”

A smile began to form on Nancy’s face, “Really?”

“Yeah,” Rue chuckled, shifting her feet. “You said we needed to hang out the other day before the party.” It was a statement, but the words seemed to come out like a question.

Nancy nodded, “Of course.”

“I was thinking we could hang tonight? Catch up?”

“Sure! Yeah,” Nancy gushed. Excitement bubbled in her chest. Before this, she was sure that Rue didn’t want to hang out with her, really. That she was just being polite the other night before the party.

“Alright,” Rue smirked. She glanced behind Nancy, looking at someone. “Well, I’ll text you where, okay?” she called, hopping on her bike.

“Sounds good,” Nancy smiled.

Nancy began to lose hope at 9:30, but when it was almost 11:00, she was sure that Rue had just forgotten about her. Sighing, she picked herself off of the couch, where she had been watching reruns of The Bachelor, and shuffled upstairs to her room. Nate had never come home, so the house was quiet as Nancy changed into her pajamas and got ready for bed. Just as she was climbing into bed, she heard her phone buzz on her nightstand. Her brows furrowed when there was just an address in the message, then her phone pinged again.

Rue B: meet me here. i’ve got some stuff up then we can go get some burgers or something. 

Nancy sent a quick thumbs up, before climbing out of bed and throwing on some sneakers and a raincoat. She hurried down the stairs and opened up the door.

“Hey, where you headed?” her dad called after her.

“I’m just going out to eat with a friend,” she replied, pausing to look at her dad at the top of the steps.

“Alright, be careful in that rain, kid.”

She nodded, smiling stiffly, and turned to leave.

The rain that fell around her felt almost refreshing, and excitement built in her chest as she drew closer to her destination. It had been a fucking long time since her and Rue had hung out.

When Nancy pulled up to an apartment complex, she was confused. But she had checked the address, and she was in the right spot. Not wanting to stand out in the rain, she propped up her bike and found the door. Ringing the bell, she heard yelling before the door swung open.

She was about to ask for Rue, but when she saw who stood in front of her, her voice caught in her throat and her stomach did somersaults.

The ginger’s eyes furrowed as he looked at the girl who was in front of him. 

“The hell are you doin’ here?”

[madebyleftovermuses]

https://www.wattpad.com/801317667

Started at Euphoria fic with @prettygirl23 check it out!

[marianiswriting]

𝕄𝕆ℝ𝕋𝔸𝕃 ℙℝ𝕆𝕁𝔼ℂ𝕋𝕀𝕆ℕ𝕊 // Ｊｏｅ Ｋｅｅｒｙ

Joe Keery x OC 

This is a story in which Joe Keery, an upcoming actor that got his landing job in a new Netflix series encounters the girl he broke in high school 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What happens when you get to your dream stage in life, but a reminder of your dark past shows up?

Ally got the job of her dreams, but there is certain someone who might just ruin that for her.

O will he?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cast here 

First chapter here 

[sl-ut]

i wanna be your girlfriend

PART THREE

pairing: rue bennett x reader, rue bennett x jules vaughn, piper (oc) x reader, maddy perez x reader (platonic), cassie howard x reader (platonic), kat hernandez x reader (platonic)

description: y/n learns what really happened while she was gone and confronts rue at the carnival.

warnings: canonical warnings– drug/substance abuse, swearing, sexual content, mention of suicidal thoughts

words: 3K

date posted: 18/01/22

masterlist

previous | next

Jules came into my life the very same night that Y/n had left it. In fact, there were only a couple of minutes between my conversation with Y/n and Nate and Jules’s confrontation in the kitchen.

I haven’t spoken to Y/n since that night at McKay’s. I’d seen her around school plenty, and surprisingly, even more so outside of it. Sometimes she would catch my eye from down the hall, or from her seat in one of the several fucking classes we had together, or I would notice her car easily speeding passed me on my bike after school. But it seemed that every time, Jules was with me. I could see how it looked from her perspective; I’d traded her in for Jules, and I guess that she wasn’t entirely wrong to assume such a thing.

I hadn’t gotten that text from Y/n until later the next morning. After Jules had lost her shit with Nate, I had gone home with her. She was nice, and to be entirely honest, the thing that drew me to her in the first place was the exact same thing that had enticed me about befriending Y/n. In some way, it comforted me, but there were also so many differences between the two.

Jules was boy crazy in a very similar way that Y/n was girl crazy, but Jules had made a habit of bragging and occasionally making me feel like shit, though I’m sure it wasn’t her intention. When Y/n would climb through my window after a late night hookup, she would tell me about it like any best friend would, and then, after that one night over the summer, we would make out for a while. Jules was also naive when it came to boys, especially after she started talking to ShyGuy118. Y/n was never serious about any of the girls she hooked up with, and would only count two of the girls she’s been with to be official ex-girlfriends.

They were so similar in many ways, but Jules was no Y/n, she never would be.

It was kind of stupid of me to expect that they wouldn’t cross paths. Jules had transferred into the same advanced art class that Y/n was in, but even then, it seemed plausible that they weren’t going to interact directly.

“What’s up with her?” Jules nodded in Y/n’s direction, catching the side-eyed glare that had been thrown their way as she joined Maddy and Kat at a different lunch table.

“What do you mean?” Rue played dumb.

“Oh, come on, Rue. I see you guys looking at each other all the time,” Jules smirked, “Do you like her? She’s really pretty. You should go talk to her.”

“No,” Rue shook her head quickly, “Definitely not.”

Jules frowned, “Why not? She looks at you, too, you know. And, every time I’ve bumped into her, she’s given me a really dirty look. I think she’s jealous.”

I knew Jules wouldn’t leave it alone, so I gave her the edited version of the story. I told her about how Y/n was my best friend, that there was a pattern of self-sabotage throughout my life, and how it ended because I caught feelings. It was selfish of me to leave out the key details; Y/n’s mom, how she didn’t know about my own addiction, and the fact that I had not simply caught feelings for my best friend, I was in fucking love with her. Jules seemed pleased with the story, and I trusted that she wouldn’t bring it up again out of compassion for me.

That was my first mistake.

Y/n huffed in frustration as blue flakes of paint dusted over her head, the direct result of someone leaving the bottle open overnight. After shrugging out of her smock, she rushed to the bathroom, where she was greeted with the unwelcomed sight of the mess that had become of her hair. Carefully, she began plucking the sharp pieces of dried acrylic paint out of her hair, grimacing at the residue that was left behind.

Her eyes flicked sideways as the bathroom door creaked open, then subtly rolled as she recognized the smiling face that appeared. Jules eyed Y/n for a moment, leaning against the sink as her hands fidgeted with one another anxiously.

“Do you need any help?” Jules offered quietly, motioning to the back of Y/n’s hair, “There’s a bunch like, in the back.”

Y/n watched her through the mirror pensively before she silently nodded, allowing Jules to stand behind her in the mirror and start pulling at her locks.

The tension was thick in the bathroom, a mixture of Y/n’s disinterest in interaction with Jules and Jules desperately trying to find the best way to approach the situation.

“I, uh,” Jules cleared her throat, “I got it all, but there's still some blue in there. Maybe you should put it up or something.”

“Thanks,” Y/n muttered.

“You know,” Jules began, “Rue told me about what happened between you guys. She misses you. I think it would be nice if you could talk to her.”

Y/n met the taller girl’s stare, for real this time rather than through the reflective surface of the mirror, letting out a humourless scoff, “Sorry, I’m just trying to find the nicest way to tell you that it really isn’t any of your fucking business.”

Jules appeared shocked at her outburst, “It is, actually. Rue is my best friend, and she’s seriously upset. And with everything that Rue’s been through, I feel like you owe it to her.”

“I don’t know who you think you are,” Y/n sneered as she shoved passed the blonde, “But I don’t owe her shit.”

“So what, Rue catches feelings and goes to rehab and suddenly you’re too good for her or something?”

Y/n froze in her place, twirling around to face her with glossy eyes, “What?”

In hindsight, the short time that I knew Jules had taught me that she couldn’t keep a fucking secret to save her own life. After the situation in the bathroom, Jules texted me to let me know what she had done, and after a brief case of cardiac arrest, I ditched. Between that, and her obsession with Tyler, I had just about had my fill of Jules for one afternoon.

The carnival was that night, and I knew that the odds of me seeing Y/n there was pretty high. She always seemed to have a sense of exactly where I was at all times, even when I tried my hardest to avoid her. Thankfully, the carnival was a much better place to stay out of her sight than I had hoped; A real-life game of Where’s Waldo.

Y/n peered over the heads of literally hundreds of people in search of Rue, taking advantage of how high up the ferris wheel had brought her. Her bottom lip was tucked between her teeth, knee bouncing up and down anxiously.

After her discussion with Jules in the bathroom earlier that day, Y/n’s entire body had gone numb. She had gone through the final few periods of the school day on autopilot, save for unblocking Rue’s number and asking her if they could talk. Rue, of course, did not respond.

A warm hand grasped Y/n’s knee, halting it’s erratic motions. She glanced over, meeting the heavily-glittered gaze of Piper, who watched her with a tilted head.

“You okay, babe?” She asked, thumb massaging comforting circles onto the bare flesh of her knee, “You’re shaking the entire cart.”

Y/n smiled softly, “Yeah, I’m fine. Just… heights, I guess.”

“Aw,” Piper cooed, laying her arm across her shoulders and tugging her to sit closer, “I got you.”

“I know,” Y/n tucked her head into the crook of Piper’s neck, nuzzling her pulse point before leaving a pink, lip-shaped stain on her throat.

Although Y/n wouldn’t admit it, she had genuinely started to like Piper somewhere down the line. They began hanging out every other day after McKay’s party, which typically consisted of meeting in an empty parking lot around midnight to screw each other's brains out.

Y/n like Piper’s consistency above all else.

Piper was actively trying to impress Y/n. She texted her daily, and always made sure to respond within minutes. She offered her rides to school in the morning and would treat her to Starbucks, brought her little baked goods from her dad’s bakery every day at lunch, and above all else, she actively spent time getting to know her. For the first time since she had come out, Y/n was the one being chased instead of doing the chasing, and it felt good.

After a week of simple hook-ups, Piper finally asked Y/n to hang out for real. They went roller skating, and then got pizza. Y/n had agreed, expecting to go do something for an hour before they got down to their usual business, but after getting dropped off with a simple kiss, Y/n came to realise that Piper was in it for the long haul.

Before she knew it, they were doing couple-y things together. They held hands in the hallway, Y/n wore Piper’s basketball jersey around school on game days, they met each other’s parents, and Y/n had nearly jumped Piper’s bones when she suggested that they wore corresponding pink outfits to the carnival. Piper was stability, something that Y/n hadn’t had before, especially not with me.

“You guys look so fucking cute,” Maddy drawled as she snapped several photos of the two girls, motioning for them to alternate between their cosy poses.

Y/n glanced over her shoulder at the camera, a wide grin across her face as she hugged Piper’s waist tightly, eyes blinking shut at the harsh flash.

“That’s really cute,” Cassie mewled as she watched over Maddy’s shoulder, swiping through the series of photos that she had taken, “You should post that one.”

“Aw, I love those,” Piper pressed her palm to the small of Y/n’s back as they observed the pictures, making comments about how certain ones were super cute or how ‘my hair looks so weird in that one!’

“Ugh,” Maddy groaned as she glanced at her watch, “I’ve gotta go meet Nate. Wish me luck.”

Y/n rolled her eyes, taking her phone back from the girl as she sauntered off in search of her abusive boyfriend. Cassie smiled gingerly at the girls as she excused herself with the same reason, leaving the two girls alone.

“So, what do you wanna do now?” Piper grinned at her, “The gravitron line looks kinda short now, or if you’re not in the mood for rides, we could go find somewhere more private…”

Y/n craned her neck to face her, accepting the soft kiss she pressed to her lips. Her eyes narrowed, gaze over the taller girl’s shoulder catching sight of a familiar head of curly brown hair rushing in the opposite direction.

“Uh, would you mind grabbing me some water or something?” She asked, glancing back up at Piper, “I have to go to the bathroom, but I’ll meet you back here in a few.”

Piper nodded, ghosting her fingertips along Y/n’s spine as she moved towards the concession stand. Y/n eyed her for a moment, making sure that she didn’t notice her speeding off in the opposite direction of the porta potties in pursuit of Rue.

It didn’t take long for Y/n to spot her in the crowd, especially with Jules by her side. The girl stood out like a sore thumb in her bright outfit and glamorous makeup amongst the others, most of whom tried to catch as little attention as possible.

“Rue!” She hollered, easily catching the attention of Jules, who nudged the brunette and nodded in Y/n’s direction. Any attempt that she could have made to escape would have been completely fruitless.

“Now’s not a really good time, Y/n.” Rue sighed.

“Yeah, well when is it ever?”

“No, seriously. I can’t find Gia anywhere.”

“I’m gonna…” Jules glanced around, “I’m gonna check out by the ferris wheel, see if she’s over there.”

“We need to talk, Rue.”

“I just told you–”

Y/n shook her head, “I don’t mean now, you obviously need to find Gia first. Do you need help?”

“Wait,” Rue stared at her, “For real?”

“Yeah,” Y/n crossed her arms across her chest, “Why would I be fucking with you?”

“Well, I mean–” Rue stammered, unsure of how to respond.

“I never stopped being your friend, Rue.”

Literally nothing has made me feel shittier than Y/n did in that moment, but she wasn’t entirely wrong. I did some bad things, a lot of bad things, actually, and as angry and hurt as she was, Y/n had never retaliated or done anything to me since. Maybe there still was a chance.

“Okay, yeah.” Rue nodded, allowing Y/n to fall into step beside her as she started across the carnival grounds. “Uh, Jules is looking by the rides, so I guess that we can look by the food trucks.”

The two girls meandered through the crowd, mumbling apologies to one another as they occasionally bumped shoulders. Rue stiffened at the closeness between herself and the girl who’d once been her best friend and closest confidant, but had spoken to more in the last twenty minutes than she had in weeks.

“Hey,” Y/n grasped her arm gently, tugging her back and pointing with her free hand to the two cars parked side by side just outside of the fence, the dark figures of several people visible, “You think she could be there?”

Rue scanned the group, but didn’t immediately recognize any of them, but caught sight of a familiar girl trying to sneak past, “Emma, yo.”

Emma, the petite blonde girl froze. Her face was quite flushed, and her eyes were glossy and rimmed with red, clearly under the influence of something, “Yo Rue, what up?”

“Have you seen Gia?”

“Yeah,” she shrugged, nodding in no particular direction, “Like, over there.”

“And where’s that?” Y/n pressed.

“You know, like, the gravitron.”

“Is she in the gravitron?” Rue asked, growing impatient and increasingly worried with her sister’s friend as she continued to avoid giving a straight answer.

“No, she’s just like, by it.” Emma mumbled, “I… I really have to pee.”

Y/n craned her neck to watch the girl rush away, a sinking feeling growing in the pit of her stomach. Her phone vibrated in her palm, and though it had been the first time that she had felt it, there were various texts from Piper.

“Shit.”

“You good?”

“Yeah,” Y/n sighed, “I just forgot, I was supposed to meet up with someone.”

Rue shrugged, “It’s good. You go, don’t give up your plans for me.”

“Okay, but uh,” Y/n glanced up at her, “We really do need to talk. For real this time. Without you avoiding me or me blowing up at you.”

“Yeah. I guess we do.”

Y/n’s phone buzzed again, “Okay, I gotta go. Uh, do you think you could meet me at the playground behind my house later?”

“Uh, I have to have Gia home by ten,” Rue glanced at the time, “So like ten-thirty?”

“Yeah, that works,” Y/n smiled at Rue for the first time in over two months, “I’ll text you.”

Being so near to Y/n after so long felt strange, but in a good way. Frankly, I haven’t felt that good since the fentanyl incident.

Y/n made it easier to stay clean, to genuinely want to stay clean. It was different than when I was with Jules. When I was around Jules, I was always fighting with myself; What do I want more, Jules or drugs? While Y/n was around, there was no choice to be made.

Even before my OD, the withdrawals were easier to manage when I was with her, and smaller doses were more influential. A part of me gave credit for my overdose to her. Well, more to her absence, and that stupid fucking text.

Y/n was a drug. The way she called me out on my shit, how her body curled into mine each time we had sleepovers, and God, the way she fucking smelled was like crack to me. It had occurred to me on several occasions that drugs were the only thing keeping me from killing myself, but with her, I didn’t even think about either. Y/n was the drug that made me not want to do drugs, as fucked up as that may be.

The soles of Rue’s sneakers squeaked loudly against the dewy grass as she shuffled across the park, eyes trained on the hooded figure sitting atop the monkey bars, legs swinging aimlessly through the air.

There were a variety of events that had Rue yearning for some sort of high over the past few days, but since Fezco had essentially cut her off, she did the best she could with what she had. For a while, Jules seemed like she may have been a stable anchor for Rue, as Y/n had once been, but it quickly became clear that Rue would never be Jules’s top priority, and often left her texts unanswered for hours (or in some cases, days) or spent more time talking about ShyGuy118 than anything else. In fact, that’s where she was as Rue arrived at the park, despite Rue explicitly asking her not to.

She finally stopped, feet quickly sinking into the sand beneath the monkey bars as she stared up at the figure.

“Yo, Rue-Rue.”

MY WORK IS, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE, TO BE REPOSTED OR SHARED WITHOUT MY PERMISSION. I HAVE NEVER GIVEN CONSENT TO MY WORK BEING SHARED, SO IF YOU SEE ANOTHER ACCOUNT POSTING MY CONTENT PLS LET ME KNOW.

tags:@ariianelle @charliesdaze

(willing to tag anyone else in this series, but i will not be maintaining any major taglists for the rest of my work)

[cloveroctobers]

lightbeamers — Maddy x OC

A/N: just a little something something! A little more of Maddy x Valli, you’re welcome 🥳 this turned out lengthier than expected!!! For no reason at all except I was unsure how to end it? Anyways it’s the month of love so why not? Hope you like this one!

✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭

New year? Same messy shit.

Valli should’ve expected that Maddy was ticked off with her after what went down at the New Year’s Eve party but? Valli just figured Maddy would get over it. It wasn’t a secret how valli felt about Nate jacobs and if she didn’t dip with her brothers…then what did they say about Valli’s loyalty?

The Persian girl knew deep down that maddy was aware of this—Valli was going to ride for Fez like she knew he would for her. Valli didn’t owe shit to Nate besides maybe chopping his head off and leaving it in a boiling pot of water in his parent’s front yard but nah a nice severe beating by the hands of her brother will do for now. However Maddy didn’t see it that way, yeah it seemed like things may be over with her and Nate—yet she had history with the dude…she wasn’t going to leave him there like that.

Valli was open to talk it out, trying to catch Maddy in the hallways just to be ignored with apologetic expressions from mainly Cassie—Kat just shrugged her shoulders following the shorter girl, to skipping class to wait for Maddy’s to be over with—after three failed attempts to talk to her, Valli decided to back off since that was the type of energy she was receiving. No amount of texts or approaches seemed to get Maddy to break and if she felt like valli needed to do some huge grand gesture just for Maddy to speak to her, then she was surely mistaken.

Valli wasn’t on some Nate jacobs shit. She didn’t need to buy maddy’s attention, yeah Maddy could be extreme at times but valli knew when to give her the space she wanted.

How well do you think that went over? Maddy wasn’t having that and even called Valli to demand that she come over to the house she was babysitting at. Valli told her she was busy and she really was…

“Oh, so you’re really not gonna come over here, Val?”

“Sorry, I’m working.”

“Um, So am I?!” Maddy rolled her eyes as she paced the living room, phone on speaker, silk top flowing behind her with each step.

“Then we can do this at a later time then?” Valli asked, scrubbing the blood off her hands.

“You know what? Byeee! I’m done.”

That pissed Maddy off for a little until Nate asked if he could see her.

Kat reached out to Valli a couple of days later through text along the lines of: hey valli, if u want to make it up to maddie u shld show up to the girls celebration we’re having for her bday at Cassie’s! U know if you’re not busy or anything…🙃

Valli laughed easily picking up on the shade. She knew Maddy and Kat tended to be the main ones that vented to each other and allowed each other to go on rants about anything…so she expected this kind of text from Kat Hernandez.

To: kat — wouldn’t miss the celebration of my girl’s life for the world! 😊 See you then kat.

And valli knew that would get underneath kat’s skin just a little. Valli didn’t know what it was but it seemed like kat had a love and hate relationship with her, she didn’t focus too much on that since that sounded like a personal problem.

Kat also found it weird how Valli didn’t ask for the time of the festivities, she even asked Cassie and BB if they already spoken to Valli and the both of them confirmed her suspicions…that they didn’t.

BB told them on the day of Maddy’s birthday that she didn’t even have Valli’s number since she may or may not have been poking around a little too much in her business, “hey I was faded! I don’t know why she took me so seriously!” Was her argument.

“What’re you guys talking about?” Maddy asked, exiting the bathroom, heading over to Cassie’s full length mirror to check out her ass in her black and white dress.

“Nothing!” Kat and Cassie answered in unison.

While BB said, “Valli.”

Maddy whipped her head around at that, “why are any of you running your mouth about her?”

“Damn. Sheesh.” BB slouched further against the foot of Cassie’s bed, vape clenched in between her fingers.

No one had anything else to say about that and thankfully Lexi came knocking on the door, telling the rest of the girls they could come downstairs now. Maddy side eyed them all for a brief moment before Cassie linked her arm with her’s and bounced on her toes.

“You’re gonna love this.” Cassie told her.

Once they got downstairs, Maddy could hear the beat of a Tay Money track rattling off the home’s walls. On their way to the dining room, Maddy smiled at the decorations of metallic streamers and balloons in the living room before taking a seat on one of the most decorated chairs in the room.

BB went to place a party hat on the birthday girl but Maddy gripped her wrist, “don’t even try it bitch. I don’t need no frizz from that cheap ass hat, especially when I didn’t get my pictures for insta.”

“Fine by me.” BB muttered, placing the hat on herself and leaving the girl be.

Kat sat by her smiling while Lexi was already recording for her own story; panning the view, in hopes of a certain someone would be watching…since she pulled the first move on following him first.

“Here little lex, take a quick few of me and Kat. And then we all need to take a group one on the steps or something later.” Maddy explained while lexi nodded, reaching over the table to grab her phone, to take a few pictures of the two.

Maddy gave her stamp of approval as Suze and Cassie entered the room. Suze started it off carrying a special cake while Cassie followed behind her, carrying her own gift.

“Happy birthday to you…” Suze sung off-key with the girls shortly following in after.

Maddy felt like her cheeks were so tight at how happy she was surrounded by her favorite people. Her mouth was held ajar as she looked at the photo of herself on her cake, dressed in her cheer uniform surrounded by eighteen candles. She loved her birthday and didn’t understand how anyone can hate their own. It was a day dedicated to you so who wouldn’t love that?

“Thank you girlies!” Maddy grinned, clasping her fingers together before she closed her eyes shut to make a wish, then she blew out the candles.

Shortly after with Suze running around in search of a knife to cut the cake, Cassie handed over her gift.

“We all chipped in for the cake!” Kat added as Maddy took what appeared to be a book, “It’s Chocoflan, your favorite.”

“Thank you,” Maddy said again as she opened the book and clasped her chest, “Bitch, you made me a collage?”

“So that you can always have something that reminds you of our friendship and how loved you are.” Cassie smiled, in which Maddy held her arms up to bring Cassie into a tight embrace.

This was exactly what Maddy wanted to cherish but Maddy couldn’t help but to feel like this party was missing something. Or someone. She buried that feeling down as they all received a slice of Maddy’s cake and fell into laughter and chatter. Her parents took her out to a early dinner around 3:45ish (which only her mother paid for) since her mother had to get back to the spa and tend to her clients…and her father had to get back to keeping the couch warm. So being here at The Howard’s felt more worthwhile, despite being with the two adults that should have made her eighteenth birthday a bigger deal.

Soon they all made their way into the living room to dance that cake off: from watching Suze attempt to twerk, to her allowing them all to “safely” drink in her home as long as they all agreed to spend the night, to recording and snapping pictures for the night.

Nate showed up, led into the house by a confused Lexi who led him to Maddy who met him halfway in the hallway giving him a embrace?

“Um…why the fuck is he here?” Kat pointed behind her, asking Lexi who simply shrugged.

The three girls in the room glanced at the Ex-couple who seemed pretty friendly with each other as Nate placed a necklace on Maddy’s neck. Lexi searched around the area for her sister as Kat went towards the stairs, fingers rapidly flying over her keyboard as she attempted to text someone.

Her head snapped up just in time to see Cassie strutting around in a hot pink bathing suit. Kat widened her eyes as she watched Cassie made her way down the steps by her, eyes only set on Maddy and Nate as she sipped on the contents in her red cup.

“Anyone want to get into the jacuzzi?” Cassie continued on her way innocently, knowing Nate’s eyes were now on her body.

While Maddy sent a look to Kat who tried to send her a convincing smile. Maddy squeezed Nate’s wrist before making her way over to Kat muttering, “what’s up with cassie? Trying to show out on my birthday?”

“I don’t know. What’s up with Nate?” Kat asked as the both of them went back upstairs.

“What do you mean?” Maddy questioned getting undressed, “Nate’s never missed a birthday since we’ve been together.”

“But…are you together?”

Maddy shrugged, “why is Nate being here bothering you? It’s my birthday.”

“Valli said she was going to be here tonight.” Kat exhaled, body tensing as she awaited Maddy’s response.

It was quiet much too long for Kat’s liking so she did the honors of turning around to see Maddy transforming her low ponytail to a high bun.

“Fine.” Maddy shrugged her shoulders.

“Fine?” Kat followed Maddy as she pulled on the bedroom door, ready to head out into the backyard.

“Yeah, whatever. You just ruined the surprise, thanks by the way.”

“It wasn’t…Did you invite Nate here or was that supposed to be a surprise too?”

“Did you mean to surprise me with Valli?”

“No. She knew before I even tried to convince her to make things right.” Kat answered.

Maddy smirked to herself. Of course Valli already did, there were many things she seemed to know before they happened or if someone else brought the situation up, valli already knew. She was great at keeping secrets or rather keeping things to herself, especially if it did not have anything to do with her.

The two girls made their way out to the backyard to see Valli leaning against the Jacuzzi in a navy blue attire, a wrap around top and satin jaggers with tiny earrings in her ears. Nate appeared very annoyed, very clenched jaw like a bad jaw implant gone wrong! Shout-out to handsome squidward! By her appearance, while Valli appeared unbothered.

“Happy birthday, Maddy Mads!” Valli stepped to Maddy who pressed her tongue into her cheek, trying to hide the smile that threatened to appear.

Maddy shook her head, “so you can show up unexpectedly to my birthday but not when I call you?”

“I wouldn’t dare miss your birthday.” Valli pressed a kiss to her cheek.

Maddy huffed as she then leaned into the girl’s embrace, hands slipping around her waist as she slightly melted into her frame, “yeah you know better, I wouldn’t let you hear the end of it.”

“Well last time that I checked, you told me you were done talking to me.”

Maddy shushed Valli with a roll of her fingertips, who laughed pulling back and looking at the dark haired girl as if she wanted to kiss her, right in front of Nate and she would have done it too if Maddy didn’t pull herself from her grasp quickly.

It went like this: Maddy, Valli, and Kat sat on one side while Cassie slouched into the water beside Nate. The conversation turned humorous to Valli once the topic focused on Maddy and Nate with Nate confirming that he and Maddy were no longer an item.

“See I was going to say no—but why do you sound so definitive about it?”

“I wasn’t being definitive,” Nate argued, “I was just answering the question.”

“But you didn’t have to though,” Maddy rolled her eyes, “I mean, why don't you just say, ‘We're working it out.’”

“You literally just said you were gonna say no.” Nate reminded the girl, trying to make it seem like he was in the right.

Valli sighed as she reached behind her for her own red cup.

Maddy continued, “Right, but that's me. When I say it, it means something totally different than when you say it.”

“Why does it matter anyways?” Nate asked, “aren’t you fucking valli now?”

Maddy’s shook her head while Valli tilted her head to the side at Maddy who shifted her glance, “don’t sit here next to me on my motherfucking birthday Nate and try to deflect the issue here. We’re talking about you and I.”

“But are you?” Cassie pressed with a hiccup, making Maddy turn her heated stare to her.

If she was, Cassie would be the first to know.

Before Maddy could say anything Valli added, “It seems like too many people are pointing fingers when they should be making sure their own hands are clean.”

Cassie’s eyes went wide while Nate’s jaw seemed to tighten again. There was no way Valli could have known what was going on between Nate and Cassie right? However with the look in her right eye made Nate think otherwise.

“You’re such a gaslighter Nate.” Maddy clapped her hands, irritated and got his attention again,” You see, this is why I don't believe you when you make all these promises, and you're like, ‘Oh, let's get back together. You're the only person in the world I care about. You're a Goddess, and it's my fault for not treating you like a Goddess. I promise, Maddy. I'll change. I'll grow. I'll be better. I don't deserve you. But I love you. Please, when I go to college, move with me. Marry me. Have my babies.’”

That’s when Cassie upchucked right into the tub which proved Valli’s thoughts. She hasn’t been here long but it evident Cassie was the drunkest here in her riskiest outfit on Maddy’s birthday with her eyes locked on Nate the entire time. They were sleeping together and it wasn’t much of a secret as they thought it was, Valli wondered if Maddy was piecing this together yet? It didn’t take long for valli to figure it out as they all climbed out the hot tub with Suze coming to Cassie’s sobbing aid and valli helping a gagging Maddy out of the water.

“I’m so sorry Maddy! Maddy! I’m sorry!”

“Yuck,” Valli commented, “girl’s gotta hold her liquor better.”

Maddy hummed as she remained doubled over. Valli knew Maddy had a thing with vomit due to a small list of her childhood trauma so she coached her to breathe through it while Nate came back with a towel. Valli reached forward and snatched it from the much taller teen to wrap around the birthday girl.

“Is she always like this when she drinks?” Nate asked, peering over his shoulder in search of the girl who he could still hear crying over the music.

“Yeah.” Maddy exhaled.

Valli fanned her hand, “why don’t you be a good boy and go see if they need any help? We know how thoughtful you can be.”

Nate felt his eye twitch, almost tauntingly stepping into Valli’s space but she didn’t back down even if she had to crane her neck. He just grinned down at her, scanning her frame up and down disgustingly so. Valli was daring him to try something, she was ready to fight if she had to.

“Oh-Kay, this right here has to stop.” Maddy stepped in between the two, her fingers pushing against Nate’s torso while she looked back at Valli who had no emotion in her large eyes, it was scary but also kinda hot?

“I’m not doing anything,” Nate continued to smile, “just taking in your bestie’s suggestions.”

“Oh fuck outta here nate, I don’t even know why you’re here? You’re not important enough to be.” Valli walked off in search of her lighter.

Nate replied, “I think I’m pretty damn important if Maddy wanted me here and invited me.” Which made Valli shake her head in disbelief, “You only seem to come around as a second option. Maybe that’s all you’ll ever be.”

“Shut the fuck up, nate! Stop being such a cunt. You don’t get to talk to her like that!” Maddy hissed while Nate huffed out a laugh.

“Just admit it Maddy, you play for the other team now huh? I always knew there was something between you two when we were together.” Nate said, “you’ll never be happy with her. She won’t fuck you right. She’s no better than me.”

Maddy suddenly yanked the necklace around her throat off and tossed it into Nate���s face, “don’t ever tell me who I can and can’t be happy with. I know for sure I might have loved you but I was never happy with you. You’re not what I want so if you’re wondering, we are officially over. So go. Fuck off!”

“I already said we were.” Nate laughed.

“Uh uh. I make the decisions here.” Maddy waved her finger, “It’s over.” She shoved at his chest hard, that he actually tripped backwards a bit.

Smugly Valli gave him a peace sign while Nate sucked in his cheeks before bending down to pick up the broken necklace. “You’re not worth this anyway, I’ll give it to someone who actually loves me.”

“Fuck you nate, you know I loved you! If I didn’t I wouldn’t have dealt with your shit for so long!” Maddy yelled before spinning to put her back to the tall brunette.

Nate stepped forward to kiss the back of Maddy’s head in which she clenched her eyes shut in response to. Valli then moved, blunt in between her matte lips and fingers on her lighter.

“Didn’t she just say to fuck off?”

Nate let out a another laugh and began walking backwards sending two middle fingers at the girls, “Whatever. You’ll be back.”

Maddy chose not to waste her breath on him any longer as Valli kept her eyes trained on Nate as he made his way into the Howard household. That boy was nothing but trouble and Valli knew it from the moment she witnessed Maddy and Nate become a thing. Her eyes shifted back to Maddy who was chewing down on her bottom lip hard. Valli rested her hands on top of Maddy’s towel covered arms and gently rubbed them.

“Forget about him, it’s your birthday. Don’t let that walking bag of shit ruin it for you,” Valli told Maddy who lifted her slightly slumped shoulders, “we’ll go in the other way and party until midnight or at least until the sun comes up.”

Maddy deeply inhaled multiple times, “you’ll stay?”

“Yes.” Valli said, peered into her doll-like eyes, “always.”

With that Maddy linked her fingers with the bronze skinned girl, leading her back into the house through another door.

Lexi came up with the idea of playing card games (before kat could bring up fuck, marry, kill) after they all became exhausted with dancing, BB made her exit to be elsewhere which valli was thankful for, so that only left Maddy, Valli, and Kat.

“Ah, what the hell else is there to do?” Kat sighed, laying on the living room floor stretched out on her side.

Cassie was across from her, drunk and sleeping on her back. She seemed to snap out of her naps every fifteen minutes (reminding lexi of their mother very much so in these moments) but this time she maybe out for the count as a snore escaped her lips. Lexi could see Maddy shaking her head in annoyance at the girl and hid the broken necklace underneath the pillow Cassie rested on.

They first played UNO and for each 1 and 8 any of them tossed down into the pile, you’d have to drink. That was all Valli’s idea to at least make this exciting as they all started to slow down for the night. After three rounds of UNO, they decided to call it quits and staggered upstairs to change into their PJS and wipe off any makeup.

“Have you guys heard of, we’re not really strangers? There’s like a friendship edition.” Kat asked, phone held up in the air with her glasses on as she rested on a pallet beside Lexi’s bed.

Cassie groaned as Maddy forced her onto her side, facing the bucket on the floor. She then put her back to Cassie, hands folded underneath her cheek as she checked in on Valli who was sitting up on her own pallet beside the blonde’s bed.

“I’ve heard of the game. I heard it can be pretty heavy depending on the edition. I always wanted to buy it but…didn’t have anyone to discuss it with.” Lexi said into the night.

That was sad.

“Well…now you do little lex.” Maddy stated, making the girl smile into the dim room.

“How did you get the questions, kat? If you didn’t buy them? You didn’t buy it right?” Lexi quizzed.

Kat snorted, “no. I have connections that sent me the PDF.”

“That sounds pretty legal.” Lexi had full sarcasm in her voice with wide doe eyes as the other three girls laughed.

Kat continued, “So everyone wants to try it out until we eventually fall asleep?”

“…Yeah.” Maddy yawned.

Kat was quiet for a moment, her eyes scanning her screen as the suspense was creeping on…until Maddy had something to say about it.

“Uh hello?! I just felt my tits drop to my hips waiting for you to start this shit, kat.” Maddy snapped her fingers.

“Jesus Christ, give me a second.”

“I don’t actually think that’s something you can feel.” Lexi mumbled.

Kat rolled her eyes at the two before she cleared her throat, “there’s some warnings before we start but the last one sounds the most meaningful to us. It says: friendships teach us what healthy love can look like. Invest in your friendships as much as you do your romantic relationships.”

“I’m a good friend right?” Maddy quickly sat up after Kat finished reading.

Cassie sighed, “the best.”

Lexi was confused on how she kept appearing into the conversation every now and then since she was completely shit faced.

“Of course you are Maddy. You always have our backs no matter what it is, even if you don’t agree—which you will definitely tell us that you don’t and make sure that we hear you.” Kat explained which made Maddy spit out a laugh, “you’re super passionate. Now that I basically just kissed your ass can I read the first question?”

“You may,” Maddy falsely sniffed with a wave of her hands.

Kat cleared her throat, bringing her phone back up to her face, “when do you feel most like yourself? Who are you with? What are you doing?”

“I feel most like myself when I don’t have to worry about the present. I don’t have to think too much about how things are but what they should be.” Maddy started, eyes shifting to the blonde beside her that went unnoticed to those in the room, “I would say I used to feel that way around a certain person but things change…it’s not Nate’s ass so don’t start. Lately these weeks I’d say the person that makes me feel like myself is Valli. When I’m with Valli. And when we can dance together on the side of the road in the middle of a thunderstorm, yes a thunderstorm, getting my hair soaked! no matter where we are to any song. I dance to put on a show but this girl? I don’t know if you guys know this but Valerie used to do ballet like—total elegant black swan shit.”

Valli smiled as she turned to Maddy who was already staring at her.

“Damn and I here I thought you would have picked me.” Kat snorted out a laugh, “but no I would’ve never guessed that you did ballet, Valli. Do tell. Was it anything like black swan?”

Valli laughed, “there’s not much to tell. I was always involved since I was young, my grandmother felt like it was a calling. She saw something in me so she signed me up. I enjoyed it and still find myself doing some of the techniques but the pressure and aftermath isn’t for me. I liked Rhythmic gymnastics more.”

‘That was vague.’ Kat thought.

“See.”

“Yeah, you’re in love with Valli and either you don’t see that or you’re trying to convince yourself that you’re not because of Nate’s toxic ass.” Lexi disclosed, making the room go silent again.

That honestly surprised Valli, she didn’t take Lexi as someone who easily spoke her mind.

Maddy threw the pillow behind her across the room in her direction, as if she was throwing one of the cheerleaders in the air, “bitch.”

“Someone had to say it.” Kat laughed.

“I don’t think you would have since you’re in the same boat as me, living a unhappy love life—yet you’re in a healthy relationship.” Maddy honestly said.

Kat sat up, “whoa what the hell was that for, Maddy? Why are you throwing jabs at me and Ethan?”

“I’m not?” Maddy blinked, “I’m just calling it like it is. Isn’t that something you just said that made me a good friend? Why do I feel like you’re about to turn this into something it’s not, kat?”

Kat scoffed, “because you’re attacking a relationship that has nothing to do with you! You should be happy that Lexi pointed out something you may or may not be oblivious to. Which also may not be a good idea.”

“Speak.” Maddy ordered.

Kat popped her lips, “I mean what do we even really know about valli? How do you know she’ll be better than Nate?”

“Is this some homophobic shit, kat? Because if it is, that’s pretty fucked up.”

“No Maddy, it’s not!” Kat yelled, highly frustrated, “I’m trying to be a good friend to you but something feels off with her. Nothing is a fairytale no matter how hard you might want it to be, sorry. I’d know.”

Valli held up a finger as her raspy voice interrupted, “did you forget that I’m right here?”

Kat harshly blinked as she focused on Valli who pulled the velour hair tie from her long highlighted hair, “I’m just saying most of us have been around since forever. We all know each other like really know each other. Maddy and I have been best friends since middle school, like all of us and you only just came into the picture freshman year.”

“So everything is timelines for you, got it.” Valli stated while Kat briefly thought about it, “I’m not trying to hide anything, you know what my brothers do—

Lexi also sat up but on her elbows at that, expecting the girl to elaborate.

“But I don’t really have to answer to you. Whatever personal issue you have with me kat, is on you. I don’t dislike you because you used to write gay fanfiction about one direction. That’s fine, your business. I don’t dislike you at all because I don’t have a reason to and I don’t know you…since I was homeschooled during middle school but you don’t know me.” Valli spoke, which earned confused glances from both Maddy and Lexi turn to a fuming Kat, “we’re all made of light in this extremely dark fucked up town and that’s what I’m focused on. I’m not worried about your friendship and since you’re so curious, I’m not trying to be Maddy’s friend either. I want to be much more and I promise it’s going to happen someday whether you like it or not.”

Kat swallowed and tossed her phone to the side, “whatever. I need to use the bathroom.”

“Kat.” Maddy called out to the girl but she just held up her hand and stumbled to one of the door’s in the bedroom.

Lexi pursed her lips, “well…I’m right then. Sorry? I’m gonna go to bed now so…goodnight.”

Maddy simply shook her head at the petite girl who plopped down, fully ready for bed this time due to the awkwardness. A minute passed before Maddy whacked Valli’s shoulder who frowned.

“Ow.”

“Did you really have to say all that? Kat’s kinda sensitive when it comes to love and friendships.” Maddy whispered.

Valli shrugged, “isn’t it healthy to be honest just like the game said in the beginning? She won’t die from me saying that ‘no she’s wrong’ about me. I’m a lone wolf so this whole circle thing is new to me but I’m not trying to prove anything to them. I’m here for you.”

‘Plus kat needs to start dedicating her time to figuring out whats going on behind closed doors between your old soulmate and Nate.’ Valli thought to herself as Maddy suddenly smiled down at her.

“Yeah?”

Valli nodded her head, “I been told you what we should be, what you’re worth to me. I’m still here, still waiting but I get it.”

Maddy moved to sit on her knees then leaned forward, gripping Valli’s shoulders and tugging her to the side of the bed. Valli’s normally wide-set eyes settled on Maddy’s Pearl skin, how her hair was almost completely out of her own hair tie and held a curl to the ends of her hair. She appeared so soft in middle of the night to Valli, as Maddy tried not to think about what could be holding her back.

Maddy trailed her fingers from Valli’s bare shoulders to cup her cheeks and placed her lips on her’s. Valli hummed as she placed her hands on Maddy’s thighs to slowly rest on her hips. Valli moved her head to the right while Maddy moved to the left and it felt like the dimness in The Howard sister’s bedroom became much brighter, beaming on only them.

It felt right, finally. Valli got her kiss and she wondered what Maddy could see with her lips on her’s but she figured she saw something as she pulled back with a gasp.

“What?” Valli asked, searching her face.

Maddy licked her lips, “I think I just c—I want our wedding in Vegas or Greece. Got that?”

“Mhm.” Valli squeezed her hips, yanking her down into her lap.

Maddy didn’t bother to cover her squeals as Valli laid back, one arm tucked behind her head while the other continued gripping Maddy’s waist.

“21st birthday plans?” Valli asked but not confirming who’s, in which Maddy didn’t hesitate to nod her head to.

Maddy held her hair back with both of her hands as she crouched forward, pausing in front of Valli’s full lips, “perfect.”

Pecking her lips multiple times, Valli didn’t stop her no matter the fact that she could feel her lips beginning to swell. She’s been waiting for this moment, to kiss Maddy Perez and to show her that she was her dream girl. And together they could be unstoppable, infinite.

Maddy found herself being the little spoon, tucked in front of Valli’s frame as they cuddled underneath the covers, ready to catch some sleep.

Kat eventually came out of the bathroom, her eyes sat on Maddy and Valli for a moment along with Cassie watching over her shoulder with a look in her eye that confused the short haired girl. She said nothing to Cassie as she continued walking by the possible new couple and moved by Lexi’s bed who lifted her head at her footsteps. Lexi also looked at the two and had a small smile on her lips, she waited for kat to get comfortable on the floor before she turned off the side lamp on her night stand.

“Happy birthday, Maddy.” Valli whispered before placing a kiss on Maddy’s ear.

The girl smiled, taking the hand that rested against her chest to place a kiss there in which Valli let a finger brush against Maddy’s dimpled cheek. Maddy snuggled back into Valli’s frame, her hair tickled against the tip of Valli’s nose but the pair were comfortable in the light that (unbeknownst to them) beamed as their aura together. 

✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭

@/itsmaddypbxch

liked by howcassandra and others

best 18th with my favs✨💋

80 comments

5 others tagged

[genuinerio]

SAME OLD LOVE ↠ 「 RUE BENNETT 」

PROLOGUE I.

PAIRINGS: Rue Bennett x OC! (romantic), Maddy Perez x OC! (platonic, siblings), Cassie Howard x OC! (platonic), Lexi Howard x OC! (platonic), Chris McKay x OC! (platonic), Nate Jacob x OC! (platonic)

WORDS: 1,414.

NOTES: It’s official! My intense and committed love for River and Martha and their relationship has inspired me to write Jackie and Rue’s relationship. Also, I decided to make some changes and so I changed my OC’s name to Jackie and wrote her as Maddy’s sibling instead.

SUMMARY: Jackie Noelle Perez is not the stereotypical party girl, everyone wants to believe she is, the beloved brunette is quite the kindest person in her town. Throughout such an uncertain environment that she and older sister, Maddy grew up in, Jackie was someone that was wary of certain people but still tried her best to be kind. Sometimes, to most people especially those who crushed on her, her kind nature could be at fault of her flirtatious personality. The girl always loved to have a good time and with her sister, they met and became friends with Cassie and her sister, Lexi. Throughout this whole ordeal however, this resulted in her meeting the infamous, Rue Bennett, someone she had no idea she would fall for let alone love and trust someone that she didn’t trust yet.

TAGLIST: @shycollectionwolfstuff

JACKIE NOELLE PEREZ, was known for being quite the passionate and artistic girl, she was one of the most well known, highly liked and popular girls at her school for exactly that. In fact, with the connections her and her sister had as well as being best friends with both Kat and Cassie, three of her best friends and apart of the popular clique in her high school, she along with her friends were considered one of the queen bees by those who would see her as so with the stereotypical movie tropes.

Despite what others would accuse especially considering she was a confident woman, Jackie had been one of the sweetest and kindest girls in town. She was very welcoming and offered comfort to every person she had met.

As a matter of fact, Jackie had been very comforting to her on-again, off-again girlfriend, Rue Bennett. Someone whom she had quite a close friendship which eventually had turned into a relationship as the two began to develop romantic feelings for one another because of this obvious closeness.

But despite how much Jackie had loved and cared for Rue, she couldn’t handle the fact that Rue had developed a drug addiction which ultimately, had caused very nasty arguments which led to numerous breakups and makeups, a relationship that her sister and best friend, Maddy had known all too well.

Drug addiction was just a real cruel tragedy to Jackie, she already had lost a loved one to drug abuse and Jackie couldn’t bear to lose Rue either to this drug abuse because if she did, she would never be able to forgive herself for what wasn’t even her fault to begin with in the first place.

And despite the fact that Jackie was no saint herself considering that she loved to smoke marijuana, drink alcohol and party, she never went overboard nor ever partook in doing harder drugs than marijuana.

The brunette knew that truly, she could love Rue all she wanted but there would be a point that even that wouldn’t do or stop anything, the troubled Rue had to change for herself.

Throughout the times in her childhood, she had witnessed substance addiction with the notion of her own father who was an alcoholic. Noticing the effect of how much that impacts a person let alone a relationship broke her heart.

Because of some past heartbreaks, Jackie couldn’t help but be fearful of being open with people she could at times be so unsure of but as she learned that not everyone is your worst enemy nor against you but rather, they care and love you and just want the best for you which helped break the emotional barrier of being so closed off and more open to certain people she was close with.

When Maddy and herself became friends and were introduced to Cassie Howard and her younger sister, Lexi that was when everything changed. The two sisters had eventually introduced the two to Lexi’s best friend, Rue Bennett. Jackie could never believe that she could be caught up and love someone else in a truly romantic way, considering that she was known for being a complete party girl who was afraid of commitment nor would be capable of being such a romantic person as people always felt that there was nobody that she loved more than herself or her family and friends.

However, with amazing highs in a relationship came also extremely amounts of lows for them, the two would have huge arguments over jealousy due to Jackie’s flirtatious personality, Rue’s drug addiction and the distance Jackie gave Rue which definitely hurt Rue considering how deeply in love she was with her.

As much as she didn’t want to break Rue’s heart, there were numerous times of noticing the immense change in personality of Rue due to how bad her drug addiction became, Jackie could not bare to see her like this which resulted in Jackie distancing herself from her girlfriend and in multiple attempts of said arguments and ultimatums, she couldn’t help but feel that the only chance they had in surviving this relationship was various breakups and breaks in the relationship which eventually, they made up in.

For what Jackie deemed as the final attempt to get Rue to receive help, she felt that breaking up was the best decision she made especially when discussing with Maddy and this she felt was the final breakup.

Jackie was going to stick to her word this time around, she’s aware how many times that she said that but then, got back together with Rue but this time, she was serious and Jackie wouldn’t consider a chance of their reconciliation until Rue would accept that she had a problem and get herself help.

The recent breakup had completely devastated Rue and had left her in a total heartbreaking state. The girl could not believe that their relationship was truly over this time around especially since it was an unwanted split and something she didn’t expect whatsoever.

As a way to try to accept such news, Rue had abused various drugs as a sort of coping mechanism in losing Jackie since she was still very much in love with the beloved redhead.

Through abusing more drugs, Rue felt that it would help but it truly only made things worse for her especially in her addiction as the thought of her no longer having her girl to stand beside her, being her refuge, it was clearly the beginning of the end for her.

With endless amount of drugs, it left Rue in such an unfortunate fate, battling whether she would live or die with the cause of a drug overdose, something Jackie couldn’t help but believe was truly her fault if she hadn’t left her, she’d still be okay.

In the midst of Jackie’s act of grieving over their relationship ending which happened over the summer, she retreated back to her party girl and flirtatious ways, something that she had already been doing but this time went more into extreme lengths than all the other times.

The woman felt that it would be in the best idea and interest if she didn’t focus on a romantic relationship afterwards as her way was to explore and keep her options open.

In her way of thinking, dealing with a breakup with someone she still loved was as painful as if she was to accidentally toy with someone’s feelings which was something people secretly deemed to be true of her.

Jackie had been seen as someone who could make everyone fall in love with her oftentimes all in the same minute which was also thanks to her flirty nature and her genuine aura.

Despite the various times that Jackie would see her relationship with Rue to be truly over, it was clear for those who knew the truth that it so would not be. By intending to try to do so, Jackie would hookup and try to pursue other relationships with whoever she could sense was worth her time.

At the end of it, despite any relationship that they each had which was more of Jackie than Rue, they would always find their way back to each other, the two had that same old love.

DANNA PAOLA as JACKIE NOELLE PEREZ.

ARIANA GREENBLATT as YOUNG JACKIE.

EUPHORIA CAST as THEIR RESPECTIVE CHARACTERS.

[pleasejustfuckinghugme]

Forever

episode one pt. two (word count: 2,333)

jacobs!oc x fezco

warnings: mentions of abuse and attempted rape, crude language, drugs, alcohol, sexual themes

Nancy and I had been best friends since freshman year after her brother tried to finger me at the freshman formal. After she saw me running to the ladies room and heard her brother dick around with his friends, she knew something was wrong. She ran to the bathroom and refused to leave me alone for the rest of the night, eyeing her twin at all times. Later that night, she confronted him about it when they got back home, and he slapped her across the face. They didn’t acknowledge each other for an entire month after that. Nate eventually apologized. It was a shitty apology, but Nancy was nice. And way too forgiving. 

Then Nancy met Maddy after she and Nate started dating, and they became best friends. They pretty much told each other everything, so when Maddy found out about Nate hitting Nancy, she was furious. Nancy refused to let her do anything; she knew that if Maddy confronted him he would do the same thing to her. They promised they would always be there for each other instead, and so far, they had managed to keep that promise.

“Bitch, you’re coming,” Maddy scolded her from across the room. Nancy was sitting on her bed, watching as Maddy applied glitter to her eyelids. 

The girl flinched as Maddy stood up, throwing her eyeliner at her.

“Nate won’t be happy.”

“He’s not your fucking dad, so it doesn’t matter,” Maddy argued. “And this way you’ll meet the rest of the cheer team before school starts.”

“Fine,” Nancy sighed as she began to apply her eyeliner.

“Honestly, I think Nancy’s gonna catch the most dick tonight. She look hot as fuck,” BB snorted, taking a breath of her vape. 

“Yeah right,” Nancy scoffed. “If I did, it would only because Maddy’s letting me borrow her dress.” She winked at her friend through the mirror, but Maddy didn’t see as she was too preoccupied looking at her boobs.

“Do you think my areolas look weird?” she asked, turning to look at Kat and Nancy.

“No,” Kat returned, scrolling on her phone. Nancy said nothing as she chewed her bottom lip, concentrating on winging her liner.

“But, like, the edges though,” Maddy pressed.

Kat finally looked up at the girl, “Maddy, they’re fine.”

Maddy narrowed her eyes at the girl, “Fine like they’re kind of weird, or fine like nobody would ever notice what I notice?”

“Fine like shut the fuck up, Maddy,” BB called from the bathroom.

“Your boobs are wonderful,” Nancy reassured. She stood up from the bed and started slipping on her black a-line dress.

“I’m disgusting. I literally look disgusting,” Maddy rambled, looking at herself in the mirror.”

“Maddy, you need to snap the fuck out of this. You’re hot as fuck. Nate’s a loser! Who cares?” Kat whined.

Nancy plopped down next to her on the bed, grunting in agreement. “Exactly, that’s why we should just skip the whole thing.”

Maddy rolled her eyes and faced them, “No, Nancy. Besides he’s not a loser, he’s a dick.”

Nancy scoffed as Kat mumbled, “All dicks are losers, duh.”

“Look, bottom line. Y’all need to walk into this party like your pussy costs a million dollars,” BB slurred walking to Maddy’s closet.

Nancy shifted awkwardly on the bed as Maddy replied, “I’d probably settle for, like, fifty grand.”

“Fifty grand is a million dollars.”

“I’d settle for, like, four Corona Lites and some non-rapey affection,” Kat muttered. Nancy pushed her shoulder playfully as BB cringed, “That’s kind of depressing.”

“Nate just, like, totally ruins my confidence,” Maddy huffed. “You know when somebody just constantly criticizes, like, everything about you?” 

This prompted Nancy to go over to the girl, giving her a small, comforting hug and a peck on the cheek.

“Yep, that’s like every guy,” BB assured.

“You just need to catch a dick and forget about your troubles,” Kat affirmed, causing Maddy to whip around as Nancy giggled.

“Girl, you just need to catch a dick,” she accused. She lightly smacked Nancy on her cheeks. “And you’re no better either, bitch.”

Nancy rolled her eyes and flicked Maddy’s forehead. “Shut up,” she scoffed, laughing.

“Seriously, Maddy. The best thing to do after a break up is to fuck someone new and then move on.”

“Please, Kat, remind me again how many guys you fucked, and um, oh yeah, catfishing, that don’t count,” BB accused, waving the girl off. Hurt flashed in Kat’s eyes as she returned to applying her mascara.

“BB,” Nancy warned.

Maddy faced BB, scowling. “Can you not be a cunt for like fifteen seconds?” she shot, defending the girl.

A knock interrupted their conversation. The door to Maddy’s room opened and her dad began to speak.

“Dad! Stop being a pervert! We’re literally, like, all naked!” Maddy squealed. The door promptly shut again, and the four girls looked at each other before breaking out into laughter.

The small town seemed to come alive at night. Red, green, and pasty yellow lights reflected through Maddy’s car as the four girls rode to McKay’s. Nancy laid her head on the window, watching neon lights streak past as the car glided down the road. Further ahead of the car, the reflection of a golden jacket caught her eyes. Squinting, she looked at the figure walking down the road. It was a girl with long, frizzy brown hair, her caramel skin glowed under the street lights. Suddenly, realization struck her.

“Holy shit,” she breathed, jerking her head up.

“Is that?” Maddy trailed off, slowing her car down to a stop.

“Oh shit! That’s Rue!” BB gasped, taking a hit of her vape.

“Didn’t Rue, like, die?” Maddy quizzed, causing Nancy to lightly punch her shoulders, scolding her, “Don’t say that shit, Maddy.”

BB leaned back in her seat, “Oh my god, I hate ghosts.”

When the car was close enough to the girl, Nancy and Kat both stuck their heads out the window.

Nancy called out her name as Kat hollered, “Ayo, Casper!”

Rue turned towards the car.

“Wanna ride?” Kat winked.

Rue sauntered over to the car and leaned in close to Kat. A smile crept across her lips as she nodded, “Why, thank you.”

Nancy whooped in approval and swung her door open. “Bitch!” she proclaimed wrapping her arms around the tipsy teenager. Rue smiled sloppily and scooted into the car next to Nancy.

As they continued their trek to the party, Nancy thought about everything she wanted to ask Rue. How was she? How was rehab? Was her family okay? Was she okay? But she didn’t ask any of these things. Rue was already drunk; her stumbling down the road and glassy eyes made that obvious. And Nancy knew Rue well enough that if Rue was drunk and headed to a party that meant two things: rehab was not working and Rue was definitely going down a spiral. Nancy looked at her old friend, who sat staring out the window, rolling her eyes at the conversation between Kat and Maddy in front of her.

She reached her arm over and brought Rue into another embrace, “I missed you, you know?”

Rue squeezed her shoulders and gave her a tight smile, “I missed you too.”

“Maybe we can hang out sometime this week? Catch up?”

Rue’s eyes grew at the question. A hint of happiness shown through her orbs. “Yeah, I’d like that,” she grinned.

When they pulled up to the party, the whole front yard was already filled with drunk students. Red solo cups flew around the air, and the stench of alcohol and weed was almost suffocating as they walked into the house. Nancy made her way to the kitchen with her girls, and they all grabbed some beer before making their way to the living room.

Now, we all know that this night got fucking weird. So now that the four girls were all completely wasted, it was time for them to take their newfound, drunken confidence and use it to unwillingly embarrass themselves. However, luckily for Nancy, her drunk alter ego did her some favors, and while Maddy was busying herself with getting back at Nate, Kat was losing her virginity, and BB was out doing God knows what, Nancy found herself strutting towards the cute boy from that same morning. You know, the one who sold her drugs.

“Fancy seeing you again,” she jested, plopping down beside him on the couch. She kicked her feet up onto the table in front of them, showing off her Doc Martens.

“Hey, kid,” Fezco spoke, sitting up on the couch. “Shit, you come to these parties? I ain’t ever seen ya around before.”

“My first real party,” Nancy snorted, putting up jazz hands, making the man chuckle quietly.

“Word,” he affirmed. “That’s what’s up. How’s it been so far?” His eyes never left hers.

She smiled at his question, her eyes sparkling. “Fucking great,” she gushed. “I had like five shots and some beers and danced for hours.”

He laughed, shaking his head, “Good for you, kid. Jus’ stay away from those drugs, right?”

She saluted and echoed his words, “Aye, staying away from drugs.”

She watched as he took a drag of the roll tucked between his fingers. He closed his eyes and leaned back as he puffed the smoke out. Slowly, he turned back to look at her, and she met his eyes, a small smile growing on her face.

However, the serenity between the two at that moment was shortcoming as Nancy began to feel her insides twist inside her. The alcohol was starting to catch up, and the hazy, relaxed feeling in her head began to turn into a throbbing sensation. She jerked up from the couch, startling the man as she ran to find the closest bathroom. She ducked around people, running into some before she finally reached the toilet, whipping the door open. Chunky liquid left her system, and the awkward feeling of throwing up, along with the horrid stench, caused her eyes to prickle with tears.

She was startled when she felt someone pull her hair back for her, placing their other hand on her back. The palm rubbed circles as the person spoke, “Shit, kid. You drank way too much.”

When she was finally finished ridding the toxins from her body, she leaned back from the toilet. Fezco handed her some toilet paper, and she wiped off her mouth. Her makeup was totally ruined, black streaks running down her cheeks and lipstick smudged.

“Fuck,” she muttered. “I’m sorry.”

“Nah, don’t worry ‘bout me. You good?” he rubbed her back, watching her closely. She refused to look at him, too embarrassed.

“I will be. Thank you,” she whispered.

He smiled warmly at her. “Never caught ya name.”

“Nancy,” she answered, finally meeting his gaze. He was smiling at her, but it wasn’t an amused smile. It was something else.

“Right. I think I heard Nate mention you before.”

“Shit,” she muttered. “He’s gonna fucking murder me if he sees me like this.”

She began to stand up, but lost her balance. Fezco chuckled, steadying her. “You betta’ slow down. I think he’ll survive. He ain’t ya dad.”

She thinly smiled, nodding. “Right.” She laughed dryly and he gave her a questioning look. “Fuck, this is, like, really embarrassing,” she confessed.

He shook his head, “Kid, I’m so fuckin’ high who knows if I’ll remember this.”

She laughed, shaking her head. “Thank you, really.” They looked at each other quietly for a moment, eyes locked together. Nancy could feel her stomach starting to turn again, but something was different about it this time. There was more of a fluttering rather than her organs getting flipped around. She looked away, stuttering, “I should probably go home.”

Fezco nodded, “Alright. I’ll see ya around, kid.”

She let out a soft okay before turning to find Maddy in the crowd. But she ran into her brother first.

“The fuck you doing here? What happened?” Nate bellowed, looking down at her. Her hair was a frizzy mess and one of her spaghetti straps had fallen off her shoulder. Her eyes were puffy when she looked up at him. 

“Shut up,” she scowled at him. “Have you seen Maddy?”

He turned around, looking past the back window into the pool. Nancy leaned over to see around him and saw Maddy in the pool with another boy. She turned back to her twin, hesitantly grabbing his forearm to get his attention. 

“Can we just go home?” she croaked. He looked down at her, not saying anything for a moment, before slowly nodding his head.

“Come on,” he grunted, leading her out the house and to his car.

When they got home, Nate walked around the truck and opened the door for her, helping her as she stumbled out of the car.

“Can you at least look like you can fucking walk before dad sees you? Jesus,” he grumbled, helping her walk to the door.

When they got inside she pulled away, stumbling up the stairs. She whispered a goodnight to him before staggering into her room and on her bed. She groggily kicked off her shoes before pulling her comforter up. Her head was throbbing, and her eyes felt heavy as she laid on her bed, sending a quick text to Maddy letting her know she went back home.

She heard her door creak open.

“Goodnight, kiddo. You need anything?” she heard her dad whisper from across the room. She looked over at him. He was peeking his head through her door, looking at her with kind eyes. 

“Can I get some water?” she yawned. “And some Tylenol?”

She heard him chuckle, “Sure thing, kid.”

When he came back and handed her the pills she swallowed them and chugged the bottled water before plopping her head back on her pillows. She felt her father gave her a quick peck on the forehead, whispering goodnight, before sleep engulfed her.

[madebyleftovermuses]

Chapter 2 finally done!