innocence lost

weirder things have been seen these days. weirder than penelope park: classmate, arlo’s cousin, and her own future cousin by association walking a bunch of goats. yes, she has more information on the other girl than the typical teenage supernatural drama. because, penelope suddenly breaking up again with josie saltzman while simultaneously becoming a vampire was obviously a hot gossip around class. her background however is clean -- cleaner than arlo’s believe it or not. at least in spade’s eyes. ( it’s not like victoria has any clean background -- but her tracks are covered well enough ) she didn’t have many words to say to the other girl managing to walk around with five GOATS of all things.( crazy animals, she’d say. ) aside from the possible snarky comment. that was until CRAZY GOAT NUMBER 4 -- reached close enough in her direction to try and chew on her bag. “don’t.” she exhaled, pulling away the bag from its reach before he managed to get a bite. “this is GUCCI.” as if that would stop the goat. or as if she wouldn’t be able to buy six more of those in a second. she finally looks over at penelope. “making new friends, i see.” 

“some people just DYE their hair a different color, you know?” it’s mildly a joke -- eliza’s business is her own, and its not like victoria has been the best of friends in a while. funny how things changed, situations, circumstances, FACES.  there are several reasons why she thinks she’s making the best choices -- or lack of them. she’s aware that one slight movement in the dynamic of their group and the ripple reaches everyone. it’s only a matter of seeing how or when. she watches as the wine is poured, she never says no that either. “the CEO looks suits you.” it wasn’t a lie, though this face didn’t necessarily scream early twenties anymore. she hears a scratching somewhere. HOPES its not another baby raccoon that her friend will decide to adopt. it stops. victoria makes a mental note for later. “--what pushed the change?” 

“so what we’ve been doing— or, well, TRYING to do, is make sure we have all the supplies accounted for. keeping count of the number of beds, patients, people— trying to stay on top of things. which is my segway into asking if you want to help.” 

“aren’t you FUNNY?” there was mocking on her tone. should she be acting this way towards the school’s counselor? no. but only a few conversations here and there with him and it was pretty noticeable he was a walking trash can on fire. “tell me, do i look like the type of person to do CHARITY?” granted, throwing a couple grands here and there to several causes with her name branded on those cheques  would be considered charity, but there was always an ulterior motive. “pass.” 

‘STUPID. FUCKING. SNOW.’ she’d heard the driver slam his hands against the steering wheel as if that would somehow make it stop. thankfully, the hospital wasn’t such a bad place to be stranded. victoria wasn’t an optimist  -- but for starters, it was SO MUCH BETTER being here than being stuck with her parents. ( not like it would make a big difference, she knew they could roam around without seeing each other in a place that big, but it was the thought that counted. ) she would’ve LOVED to think she was surrounded by strangers -- joke was truly on her when after a moment not only did she notice dear ex-fiancé was there as well, but the NEW ONE came through the doors on vibrator mode.   “NO -- you might just have that MUCH shit luck.”  

she had clearly lied to him-- the only way out of this was DEATH. ( as proved by past events. ) whose? that’d be up to debate. victoria wasn’t sure which of the four names sounded less... undesirable. if either arlo or his father died, spades would simply find another replacement. while victoria knew that wouldn’t be an option for arlo, she was also acting on her own self-interests anyway-- she knew there could be WORSE people than arlo. if her own father died, she could easily do whatever she wanted. but that also meant EVERYTHING would fall on her. which only left the final piece... HER. food for thought. betrayal would also be an option, but it all circled back to square one. of course, she wouldn’t tell arlo that-- there was no point to it. still, she could let him TRY and taste the defeat for himself. days and weeks passed, if she were any kind of optimist, she would’ve even thought he had ACHIEVED it. 

“i never said you were stupid.” and yes, he really didn’t. he said the words you have bad luck when thinking and you know— the other didn’t even pick up on it at first. not until there was shaded laughter and then his hands were screwing around the fabric of nico’s shirt and shoving him into the railing. “i’ll show you stupid.” he said and maybe nico shouldn’t have LAUGHED as hard as he did. “you already are.” maybe he wasn’t helping his situation but it was still nice to see the guy’s face go that type of special blue. 

for a rather patient person, victoria NEVER LIKED being kept waiting. so when the giant brute that was the driver took his sweet time doing lord knows what. she got off the car-- what was the worst thing the other could do? shoot her?  a sigh left her lips as she rounded the corner where she could hear the FAMILIAR voices coming from and saw exactly the reason on why she’s been parked for at least five minutes. “how about you BOTH shake hands-on being stupid and call it a day?” were they both twelve? “ricardo, back off.”  the driver took a moment-- probably pondering on what to do. swallowing his pride seemed to win and with a grunt, he shoved nico back into the wall before he left back to the car mumbling something under his breath. “answer me something, nico-- do you really have a brick for a brain?”