APHRODITE'S DAUGHTER

To say Leo was in a foul mood was an understatement, and judging by her appearance – a grossly oversized sweatshirt that once belonged to her brother, old basketball shorts, and her glasses – it was safe to say she didn’t expect to run into anyone either. She was on her way to Flo’s room to pick up a copy of a book she had asked to borrow a while back in an attempt to distract herself from the day’s events. Eventually reaching his room and rapping on the door curtly, Leo only waited for a second or two before turning the knob. To her pleasant surprise, the entrance was unlocked, and she’d hopefully be able to get in and retrieve the novel and get out. So, when she found Anita perched on Flo’s bed, a startled gasp left her. “Jesus, fuck, do you just live here now?” Taking a moment and feeling immediate guilt for the unwarranted outburst, Leo realized that, in hindsight, Anita was likely way more freaked out to see Leo than Leo was to see her, and she took off her glasses, rubbing her eyes before apologizing. “I – that was rude, sorry. Just came by to steal a book is all.” @anitangel​

With her boyfriend away to Germany for at least a couple more days, Anita was not expecting company. At Leo’s outburst then, she nearly fell off the edge of the bed, the book she had been reading falling with a smack against the skin of her thighs. She looked up at her friend in shock, eyebrows dancing high on her forehead. “What the fuck? Have you been possessed by a demon or some shit?” After a pause that she took to recollect herself, she crossed her arms, face changing from shock to genuine curiosity. “Uh-huh. Okay. What the fuck is wrong with you? Like, I mean this in the friendliest of ways. You’ve never been the rude type.” Leaning back on her elbows, she patted the spot on the bed next to her. “Who hurt you? I’ll kill them.”

Darby was groggy. She was still in bed, half-asleep, aimlessly scrolling through her phone as she avoided getting out out bed. Her plain white comforter ay strewn around the girl-half-kicked off in her slumber. And then her door was being kicked open. She groaned, sitting up as she tried to process what Anita was saying. “Wait…. Slow down,” she said, her brain working only partially still, although as Anita continued talking, she felt her adrenaline pick up, stomach flipping. “Wait, is that seriously the question you have for me? As we’re being fucking blackmailed?” Darby asked hopping out of bed. “Um…. I don’t know. And fuck. Anita, how much do they want?” For the first time, her life was going relatively smoothly. She was sober. Something was starting with Ellie. And now this. “Fucking… fucking hell… how the fuck do they know?”

“So.. you’re a lesbian? Yes or no?” Despite the impending doom of blackmail, Anita managed to quirk an eyebrow and smirk as she perched herself on the edge of Darby’s bed. It was scary, really, how regular these kinds of situations had become to Anita. They (almost) didn’t faze her. Leg bouncing up and down, she shrugged. “A lot of money. But, like. Everyone we know is rich. We’ll be fine. My problem is...” She sighed, let the air she blew out of her mouth send her bangs flying in all directions. “ Like.. they have this info. We could give them money and they could still expose us. Plus, they fucking gossip blog knows. Fuck. Is this a a bad Netflix drama?” Hand rubbing her temple, she tried to think but could come up with nothing but a frustrated groan. “I hate it here. Why did we fucking do that. Is this what guilt feels like? Because I don’t like it.” 

“Jeez, Anita, tell me what you really think about him,” Darby huffed out sarcastically, feeling somewhat embarrassed now for her involvement with the boy. “He has some good qualities.” She felt like a petulant teenager, arguing with her mother about a boy she didn’t like. But mom, I like him. Not that he wanted her now, anyways. The mention of King made her groan, flopping down onto her back, hair tickling Anita’s face as she hid her head in her hands, her wine glass abandoned now. “Why, are you gonna fuck him right after me again?” She asked, moving her fingers aside to tilt her head and look over at the girl, letting out a small chuckle after teasing her. “Um, we kinda hooked up at the masquerade. It was nothing. I was like, cry drunk. He was just there…” Se brushed off, propping herself up on her elbows. “Speaking of Flo. Are you guys gonna get married or what?”

“He’s a basic white dude who is juggling like, half of the white girls at Yates. There are no redeeming qualities there, bitch, I’m telling you.” Anita rolled her eyes impatiently. More than anything, she wanted her best friend to find some happiness, had grown tired of watching someone she loved be tossed through so many turbulent relationships. “Jesus, Darbs. It’s like all the ain’t shit men on this campus are tossing you around like a hot potato. You ever think, like...” Her eyebrows furrowed pensively, the bottle of wine she’d consumed slowing her thought process a considerable bit. “Darbs. You are a baked potato. With all the good toppings. Even the bacon bits. So you’re, like, a lot to handle. But you’re also? Delicious? Scrumptious.” Her words came out in a slur, mixed with a giggle she could no repress. At the mention of marriage she froze, her mouth closing into a tight line. There wasn’t even a ring yet, or any plans, and she felt strange talking about it. It was private, between her and Florian, at least for the foreseeable future. “Uh, married? No. What? Why? Do you wanna play bridesmaid?”

A blood curdling scream made its way from the Andromeda cabin, and from what Jade could tell from the lit up windows, only one silhouette was shown. Barging her way into the cabin, Jade made eye contact with a frazzled Anita, who was only in a t-shirt and yelling at something she couldn’t see. She squinted, seeing cobwebs but then looked further – a spider crawling its way up Anita’s stomach. “Anita! Stay calm!” Jade warned, taking a random book from someone’s bed and waving it in anticipation. “Just… stay still. It’s okay.” Without a warning, she wacked the book to Anita’s side, successfully getting the spider off of her body but also recoiling her arm to hit Anita on the side of her face. She covered her mouth to muffle a laugh. “Fuck! I’m so sorry!” @anitangel​

This was the second time in her life that Anita had wanted to scalp Jade. Her heart rate remained erratic, no time for her to calm down in the small span of time between the spider invading her space and Jade smacking her. “Are you fucking demented?” Her body jumped back after the hit to the side of her face, and she pressed a hand against her cheek. In truth, it wasn’t even swelling, only a little red, but she nonetheless let out a high-pitched sound akin to that of a wounded chihuahua. Backing up until she was against the bunk she was sharing with Flo, Anita leaned behind her and grabbed a pillow, flinging it in the direction of Jade’s head. “Stop laughing! You need a fucking exorcism. And, like, a shower. Jesus.” 

Tanner watched on as his team practiced for the volleyball tournament. Though not his decision ultimately, he had hinted that his services would be better provided in this instance from the sidelines. Call him a cheerleader of sorts. For now, another had joined him: Anita. Stood next to her, he was silent as he watch the volley go back and forth and back and forth, up until someone spiked it into the sand. “I feel like you’d be good at this,” Tanner commented. He didn’t know why he’d said it, perhaps just an inkling that Anita could throw a solid smack at someone or something in this case. “Are you playing in it?” @anitangel​

Though she hated to admit it, Anita was strangely good at most sports. Maybe it was being raised in a country so completely obsessed with soccer, or her own love of competition that sparked this gift, she really didn’t have a clue. All she knew was though she looked like the kind of girl who wouldn’t dare break a sweat in athletic activities, it was not the case at all. In fact, she’d been something of a neighborhood soccer celebrity in her formative years. Looking at Tanner now, she raised a single brow, cocked her head. “I’m fucking great at it, actually. Don’t tell anyone that though--” She shook her head, gestured dramatically at the team practicing. “I don’t even need to practice. They just suck.” Fully turning towards him now, she crossed her arms. “You better not say shit. I’m acting on the element of surprise. Okay?”

He let’s out a small huff of laughter, “you kind of are, aren’t you” he replies, the words surprisingly easy. Flo remembers a conversation he had with Romeo, before ibiza, where somehow, marriage was brought up—at the time it had scared him more than anything, admittedly, that fear is still there, but in general he realises that he and Anita have kind of grown in to one, he feels like he can’t really move through life without her, so why not sanctify the relationship, it just seems right - and fun. They haven’t discussed the logistics though, in fact, the looming nature of it has left them in this bubble of lightness, nothing has felt bad for a while. He eyes the food, then averts his gaze back to her, this immense feeling of love was ebbing through him, he felt overwhelmed by it, “I am flattered - I don’t really know what I did to deserve this”

As soon as he finishes his sentence his shirt is being guided off his body and he laughs at the surprise of it. He listens as she speaks, humming in remembrance as she brings up the memory, and as she gets to his briefs, he takes a moment to swallow down the lump in his throat. The moment was charged and his body couldn’t help but react accordingly. “you don’t need to make it up to me” he interjects softly, before adding “but I’m not  stopping you” it was too good of a moment to miss. He turns to her as her lips part away from his shoulder and watches as she de-robes. He was familiar with every part of her body, but here, while the sun was setting, amongst the soft green hues of the treeline behind her, it was kind of breath taking, He stands frozen for a moment before he can even react, and then he’s smiling. “no, no not obvious at all— actually funny you say that, I wanted to kiss you too,” he takes a step towards her, holds his hand out towards her and waits. 

“Fiaaaanceee,” she sang under her breath, grabbing the hand he had extended and leading him into the water, purposefully keeping a decent amount of space between their bodies. The water that nipped at Anita’s ankles was pleasantly lukewarm despite the setting sun, and she smiled in relief. “Oh, did you? I had no idea.” Though she raised her eyebrows playfully, the sarcasm in her voice was more of an act than anything. She hadn’t actually known he wanted to kiss her, had been so busy repressing her own feelings towards Flo that she didn’t dare assume he had felt the same. In hindsight, her stupidity and blindness was astounding. The lingering touches, quickly averted gazes, and the fact that he was always there was only noticeable to her now, so much later. So she grinned, waist deep in the water, looked at him like he was the gravity that centered her. 

She brought his hand to her lips, pressed a kissed to his palm. And then, without a second thought, her laugh echoing across the water, she jumped into his open arms. Legs locked around his waist, arms meeting at the back of his neck, Anita hovered her face dangerously close to Florian’s. “We should--” she started to speak, but the adoration she had for him in that moment was eating her alive. Instead, she pressed her lips to his, an open mouth kiss that was so full of force it knocked the breath out of her lungs. Breathless, she pulled back for a single moment, only to continue her thought. “Go to Vegas.” And as quickly as she had pulled away, she was kissing him again, hands cupping his face.

Bottle of pink wine clutched in her hand, Darby was refilling both of their glasses, the girls looking like Elle Woods tanning on the Harvard quad in a pink lounger as they lay sprawled out by the water. she was in a surprisingly good mood, the sun doing wonders for her psyche. That was until they were getting checked out by younger boys, rolling her eyes as Anita scared them off. “I’m going to kill all men. Even the hot ones,” she complained, waving off a bug that was by Anita’s face, nearly smacking her as she did so. She looked over the girl, lowering her sunglasses as she handed her a glass of wine. “Hm, a little bit. Maybe take the straps off,” she suggested, clinking their glasses together. “I’m trying to fucking enjoy this but the universe doesn’t want me to. Did I tell you I got stuck in a cabin with Harry? I’m thinking of dragged his mattress out into the lake.”

“I’ll kill all men. Except Flo, I mean. Duh.” She nodded and pulled down the straps of her bikini, adjusting herself back into an upright position on the blanket. One elbow propping her up, the other hand occupied with her wine glass, this was about as luxurious as her trip was going to get. “I’ll help you. I don’t like him.. he gives me, like, American Psycho vibes.” Anita took a long sip of her wine, cocked her head to the side. “I think we’d be doing a favor to society by killing him off. Kill him before he kills all of us. It’s a mercy killing, when you think about it.” Finishing off her wine, she tossed the glass to the side and lay flat on the grass now, hiding her head in the crook of her arm. “So what’s going on with you and King? I thought that was long dead.” 

Flo was hopeful that life post-rehab, despite how short the stint had been, would be in one way or another different— and it is, but the jury’s still out on whether that difference has resulted in any good. The main change is mostly that Flo has too much time for thinking, and this proves dangerous for someone who notoriously doesn’t use their brain. He feels constantly in and out, unsure of himself, his emotions, it’s been so long since he’s considered his thoughts, what he wants, who he is. Cliché— but it’s the train of thought he finds himself concerned with all afternoon. Having lost Anita at some point during the day (clearly intentionally judging from her text,) and finding a shaded spot under a wide oak, chain-smoking through his entire pack. The heat of the summer leaving a sticky sheen of sweat over his entire body. He did at least, for once, feel some clarity. He was relearning how to sit with himself. Six hours in the same spot though, frankly, he was itching to see her.

He wasn’t sure what to expect. Though the sight of the picnic she had prepared was a pleasant surprise. He watches her from back here, his walk slowing to a snails pace. His life has turned in to something so strange. The amount of effort she shows for him makes him giddy and anxious, and happy— so happy, all at once. He knows she’s unsure of herself before he even gets to her.  She confirms it when she turns to him, and floats the possibility of him hating it. He  comes to stand in front of her. Bashful smile worn on his face and hands in his pockets, he’s flattered, almost flustered by the entirety of the act. “shutup” he reassures her softly. Raising a brow as she reveals a shoulder. Still standing over her, he reaches a hand out to run through her hair, “you are the best girlfriend” the word reminds him of a previous conversation they had. He still stands behind what he had asked her the night of the party. “And pray tell, why are you naked?—” he turns back to look at the lake behind him, “we’re skinny-dipping aren’t we?”

“Or am I your fiancee now?” It came out playfully, a rhetorical question, but in truth Anita had been thinking about their conversation incessantly. It was a thought that actually brought her great comfort, which was strange in itself. She would’ve thought, surely, that the mere proposition of marriage for someone like her-- for people like them-- would drive her up the wall. Instead, she felt fully peaceful for the first time in a while. Especially now that Flo was here and not laughing at her like she’d initially feared. She shrugged off the other side of the robe, both shoulders exposed now and her cleavage one wrong move from popping out completely. “Yes. We are. And I cooked. I don’t even cook for myself, so you should feel extremely flattered right now.” It was true, and most people assumed Anita didn’t know how to cook at all. In reality, like most Latin American women, she was excellent at it. But she hated labor, and wasn’t a big fan of eating, either. 

She got up, pulled at the hem of his shirt to help guide it off his body. As soon as it came off, she wasted no time moving to his shorts. “I was thinking about, like, that time that we went swimming and got in that huge fight because I was being jealous and, uh, you know, refused to tell you I was being jealous. So--” Her fingers pulled at the elastic of his briefs, pulled those down too. “You know, I figured we deserved a moment to make up for that.” When she finished, she placed a kiss on his shoulder blade before taking a step back to unfasten her robe. “Also, I really wanted to kiss you that day. Was it obvious?” 

There was no time to overthink, though, because as she chewed on the inside of her cheek worriedly, nearby footsteps caused her to jolt upright. And there he was, bringing a wave of relief over her body. “Babe.” She gestured to the set up in front of her, shrugged off the robe so one of her shoulders was exposed. “If you hate it we can forget this happened. But you aren’t allowed to say I’m not an amazing girlfriend. Also. I’m naked. So.” @sighflorian​

( + 1 notification from Instagram ) @anita4real gonna sit on his face so hard :) RIP everyone else in our cabin

↳ tagged @flofr

❤ 423 ✐ VIEW ALL 12 COMMENTS

@jackjones56: that should be me by justin bieber on repeat x 

@flofr: i mean yes. but ANITA

@orpheusr: hey siri how do i delete something from my brain

ANDROMEDA CABIN  ↳  PLAYLIST