let's cause a little trouble

“Nah, I think I’m good where I’m at,” she replied, finishing off the rest of her cigarette before throwing it onto the ground and stomping it out using her worn out vans. She contemplated taking out another one from her pack, but she’d wait at least a couple minutes. All she wanted was some peace and damn quiet, an opportunity to put a dent in the current book she was reading. 

“I prefer guys who have more than two brain cells and aren’t mangy like the bulldogs,” she added on, her hazel orbs rolling in annoyance as she glanced down to her book, trying to focus on that.

“and yet you say I’m not your type.” 

he rolled his eyes, adjusting his spot in the grass to cross his legs. he was finishing up a panel, adding color along the lines to make them pop more. at least the river was working, kind of. he pulled the joint from atop his ear and placed it between his lips, lighting up. 

if he was gonna have to deal with her, he couldn’t do it sober. 

“why do you even come here?”

she didn’t wait a second before grabbing a bag of powdered donuts, carelessly opening it and shoving one in her mouth with a satisfied groan. she licked the powder off her fingers before chuckling, wiping her face as well.

“ how else are you supposed to sneak in in the middle of the night? through the crawlspace full of raccoons and possums. ”

she stuck out her tongue at him and ate another donut happily, rolling back onto her back so she could rest the bag on her chest.

“ you should know by now my trust doesn’t come EASY, stav. ”

“by opening the window from the outside, you shit.” 

he laughed, reaching over to take a donut from the bag, popping it in his mouth. he didn’t understand some of jb’s habits, but he could feel himself already sweating underneath all these blankets. it was a wonder how jb hadn’t passed out from hyperthermia yet. 

“Oh, I know. that’s why I brought a back-up plan.” 

he smirked, reaching into his back pocket under the blanket and pulling out the little bag.

she shivered as he pulled the covers back, curling up a little bit more and rolling on her side to face him. it was good to have someone she could casually just lay with, someone that isn’t afraid to climb into her bed for a nice cuddle session.

“ you know, most creatures that hibernate are covered in FUR, dumbass. ”

jb laughed, nudging him gently and craning her neck to search for the bag of snacks. can you blame her? she’s a jones, afterall.

“ you said you brought snacks, i need proof. ”

“and most creatures find someplace warm and don’t leave a window open all through winter,” 

he shot back, propping his head up with his elbow. at her next question, though, he rolled her eyes and reached behind him, grabbing the back of junk food as well as the ice cream. it took a couple rounds of lifting, but eventually he got it all on the bed. 

“do you really think I’d lie about snacks in a time like this? do you even know me at all?”

“ i’m already villainized enough by your neighbors. ”

the best thing about tending the bar was the free drinks. especially now that fp wasn’t the sheriff anymore. toni never got DRUNK on the job, but occasionally she’d share a drink or two with her patrons. she grabbed a bottle for herself, opening it and taking a drink before setting it aside.

“ just a gut feeling. good to know i was right. ”

“yeah, but they’re also the kind of people assuming that I’m going to grow up to steal their class B jobs.” he scoffed, shaking his head. “I think you’d make a great villain, fighting for the good in a bad way. like robin hood.”

he watched as she took a drink, matching his own. he nodded in approval, setting his own drink on a coaster off to the side to make sure that it’s not too close to his tablet. couldn’t replace that, either. 

“will I ever get so lucky to have you help make my dreams come true?” he teased.

“ i better not be the villain. ”

she tsked, now kneeling down and grabbing a bottle of the cheapest beer they had; it was the one thing she could give out without being scolded, and the last thing she needed was an angry, jobless, midlife-crisis fp on her ass. she loosened the cap before hitting the bottle against the edge of the bar, popping the cap off and setting it in front of him.

“ in your dreams, pretty boy. ”

“Why not? Villains are hot.” 

he nodded a thank you, glancing around before taking a drink. beer wasn’t always the best, but it was something he could get in public, and as of right now, he was getting it for free. he couldn’t exactly complain. besides.. it meant getting to hang around longer, technically. and hanging around longer meant talking to toni longer. 

“how’d you know you show up there?”

“ if you’re thinking about putting me in that comic of yours, i better get paid. ”

she joked, looking at the rather expensive tablet and turning around to set the empty glass on the shelf behind her. she turned back around, crossing her arms before taking a deep breath.

“ i’m gonna need to see an id, or some cash. your choice. ”

“once I start getting paid, that’s when you’ll get yours,”

his voice was light; playful. he started sketching out the next part of the panel, doing rough line work. he was still working out the characters, but.. he certainly wouldn’t mind having toni as a muse for one.  “you and I both know I don’t have either. but... I do have something better you might be interested in.” He smirked, wagging an eyebrow. 

he backed up onto the sidewalk, arms up in a surrender position. the dilaurentis house had been almost a staple in the riverwood area anonymous forums; stavo wanted to get a closer look. he didn’t know jason was still living there; hell, he lived on the other side of town. he didn’t even know that alison had a brother. 

he just wanted inspiration. 

“I just wanted to look at the house.”

@jcasoon​

if there was one thing toni hated MORE than northies, it was northies who didn’t know their place. sure, this past year the worm has seen a lot more northsiders than normal, but that didn’t necessarily mean they were all welcome visitors; cheryl was welcome, more than welcome actually. stavo, however, was a new face. toni needed to be sure he had no ill intentions before she even thought of serving him a drink.

cleaning an empty glass, toni raised an eyebrow as the other leaned over her bar.

“ aren’t you on the wrong side of the tracks, northie? ”

he shrugged, tapping the end of his stylus against the table gently. he didn’t want to break it; it was a $100 stylus. couldn’t just replace it like that. he wasn’t shocked to have toni talking to him like that; he was an outsider here. it wasn’t like school (even though, ironically, he was an outsider there, too), where they could talk openly. 

“I suppose you could say that,” he paused a moment, clicking on his iPad and going to his drawing app. various boxes of comic panels appeared on screen; he scrolled down to the first open one. “I needed a change of scenery.”

Sweetwater River was Aurora Lancaster’s spot. Point blank, period. It was the place she went to when she needed alone time for whatever reason. She had been there a few nights ago to grieve and sulk. Now? She was in a bit of a better mood and just wanted to spend the sunny, clear afternoon there. She sat on the ground, the book she was currently reading in her hand, a cigarette in the other. She wasn’t expecting company, let alone Stavo. “In case you haven’t already noticed, this is my favorite spot in town. So yeah, I’m here a lot,” she pointed out. Setting down her book for a moment, she looked up and drew the cigarette to her lips. Exhaling the smoke, she locked eyes with the boy. “You’re not really my type,” she added on dryly. 

“it’s a big ass river. find another spot.” 

he had been going there since he moved. it just happened to be the times that she wasn’t there, he would be. maybe that’s why they hadn’t run into each other prior to the day she was day drinking. noting her cigarette, he scoffed -- he really shouldn’t be surprised by anything at this point. he probably should’ve been more surprised that she was reading an actual book instead of something on her phone or a tablet. 

“And what is your type, then? Got an eye on some blonde-haired, blue-eyed quarterback to sweep you off your feet, Juliet?”

the whyte worm was that change of pace that he knew he’d enjoy, it was just risky. he knew how the serpents felt about northsiders entering their territory, and while he wasn’t really afraid of some gang, that didn’t mean that the idea of them all ganging (no pun intended) up on him didn’t spook him at least a little bit. 

“how much do I have to bribe you to give me a drink?” 

he asked toni, leaning over the bar a little bit. his ipad was spread out in front of him, stylus idly sitting halfway on it, halfway on the table. he looked 21, right? 

@pinketteisms​

he just wanted to work on his comic in peace. sweetwater river seemed to be the place he ended up the most; the place with the best way to drown out the outside world without having to use headphones and worry about slamming into someone. not to mention, it was one of the few places where he could actually smoke without his dad going off the handle half the time. he had a joint already rolled and tucked behind his ear, but he definitely wasn’t expecting for fucking aurora to show up again. 

“are you like, obsessed with me or something?”

@riverwoodaurora​

while jellybean wasn’t close with the serpents who were killed, she was still affected by it. albeit, she wasn’t affected the same way as everyone else. while they mourned about the deaths. she had nightmares about the way they were killed. though she deleted the message from her phone, the gif was still fresh in her mind, like a horror movie playing in her head.

and she really did need someone; she needed someone to keep a bottle from her hands so she could process this, so she could TRY to grieve properly. but … then came the guilt. why should she run to someone for help when so many other people need it more than her? she would just be wasting their time; but just because someone is in a full-bodied cast does not mean your broken arm doesn’t hurt, right?

the familiar voice at the door brought a smile to her face, yet she didn’t move from her bed - she was far too comfortable under five blankets and a pile of her own laundry. so, from her bed, she shouted;

“ come in! ”

he made his way into her room, walking right over to the bed and setting the bag of snacks down. without a second thought he pulled back the blankets and kicked off his shoes, settling in the bed next to her. He may have had to nudge her over a little bit to make room, but soon enough he was tucked under the mountain of blankets, on his side, facing jb. 

“you know, most creatures who hibernate don’t even have blankets. let alone enough to keep a small family warm for the winter.” 

his voice was light; joking. he wasn’t good at the whole “comfort” thing, but man, if he wasn’t going to try his best. he didn’t like seeing jb so... defeated. 

Don’t say something you’ll regret is what Aurora was currently thinking when she noticed the boy appear. Sweetwater River was huge, it’s shore stretching for what seemed like a million miles. Why did this dude feel the need to come to her spot? And say shit like this? It was beyond her.

Aurora continued to look straight at the water, glancing down at the last of the contents of the wine bottle. “Don’t you have something better to do than pester someone who clearly just wants to, I don’t know, be fuckin’ left alone?” she snapped back at him. She wasn’t in the mood for this bullshit.

“Funny. I could say the same thing to you.” 

While the river was huge, this area was where most of the water crashed against each other. hitting the rocks just right, it created enough of a white noise to where it didn’t take long for the outside world to be completely blocked out. and that’s what he was hoping for until he stumbled upon another annoying riverwood local. 

“and yet, you’re still pulling the stupid move of drinking alone with this shit going on. clearly you’ve never seen a scary movie. it’s like you’re asking to die.” 

he uncapped his stylus, clicking on the ipad and going to his drawing app. if he was going to have to make some sort of conversation with this chick, the last thing he needed was to not be able to keep himself busy. 

Honestly, he wasn’t sure. 

Nevertheless, there he stood, outside the Jones’ home, with a bag of ice cream in one hand, various junk foods in the other, and an eighth in his back pocket to be hidden from FP. That was the last thing he needed. Once he was let in by said man and was able to walk freely in the house, he made his way to JB’s room. She needed someone, even if she wasn’t a serpent anymore. 

“Ding dong, I brought snacks.” 

@beaniebabysister​

toni was shattered, broken, the thousand-yard stare in effect as she sat ALONE on the bleachers. despite her clear shock and grief, she was still asked to take photos of the scene, to which she denied vehemently. this didn’t need to happen, peaches and joaquin didn’t NEED to die to prove their innocence, but they did. they were gone.

her phone was sat in front of her, opened to snapchat where she had saved memories upon memories of times she shared with peaches. while they hadn’t known eachother for too long … toni looked up to peaches - they were best friends.

she hadn’t changed from her uniform, but someone had brought her her jacket so she wouldn’t freeze, that and a pair of sweatpants to wear underneath her skirt. earlier, she looked amazing; sparkling eyes and a bright smile, perfectly curled locks of hair braided together to keep her bases from pulling it when she came down. now, the only remnants of her perfect game-day makeup were trailing down her face and neck in the form of mascara and glitter tears.

this isn’t fair, she kept thinking to herself, they didn’t deserve to die.

when everyone had scattered after the game, stavo couldn’t help but return to the scene. he was curious; wanted to see the how and the why what happened, happened. he wasn’t expecting anyone to still be there; at least, not looking like they hadn’t left in the first place. 

“I thought this place would be empty.” 

his voice was steady, but it sounded loud enough against the quiet clangs of wind against the bleachers that it felt like a siren going off. even to him, it almost seemed too loud. 

with a sigh he walked up the bleachers, taking a seat not too far away from toni, but not a great distance away, either. 

“are you okay?”

Aurora couldn’t believe this was happening. Being a South Sider meant that were always exposed to hard times and what not. It was just a way of life on that part of town. But death? Death was something that the young girl still didn’t know how to deal with. First it was her step father. It had been over a year since his own murder and the brunette was still far from getting over it. Nobody knew who ended up killing him, his case still being a complete mystery. One person in her life was gone, but she at least had the rest of her family and her fellow Serpents. Wrong. Yet again, more people within her life were being plucked away from her. Two of her own. Two from her own pack. 

She should have gone to the Worm. That’s what pretty much everyone else was going. She should have been there for the others in the group. After everything at the game, how could she? Seeing Peaches and Joaquin like that sent her spiraling and unable to think, let alone breath.

She knew she one place in town that could perhaps bring her some comfort. Sweetwater River. It was her favorite place in all of Riverwood. It was her thinking place and the location in the small town where she spend lots of time with her father.  This might be a perfect place where she could do the one thing she was good at the most: running away from her emotions and drinking them out. 

It was the next morning and the young girl was still wearing her attire from the previous night.  She hadn’t slept a wink. Her makeup was smeared all over her face and her clothing was dirty. All in all, she looked like a mess. Staring straight at the water, she was sipping on the last of the large bottle of wine she had acquired. She was just about to lit a cigarette when she heard footsteps approaching her. 

“If you came looking for me, congrats. You got your fuckin’ wish,” she slurred slightly, not turning back to the person. 

Whoever had stumbled upon this part of town had to knew this was the one place she would be at. This was Aurora Lancaster’s spot. 

he didn’t give a flying fuck who this girl was, he just wanted some quiet. murders this, murders that, murders everywhere and it was like it was all anyone wanted to talk about. didn’t anyone have anything else to talk about? like, sports? aren’t old fucks supposed to be obsessed with golf or something? so why were they all talking about the same damn thing? he didn’t understand. he wasn’t even upset. just annoyed. 

“wasn’t looking for you actually, but glad to know how conceited half the people here are.” 

he’d been in riverwood for two years give or take, and the amount of things he still witnessed newly every day baffled him. he popped a seat on a rock not far from her, pulling his ipad out of his bag. 

“don’t you have anything better to do than stare at a fuckin’ river like some lost soul in a sappy romcom? or are you still waiting for your white horse to pick you up?”