& tied together with a smile

Quentin had been MIA since prom, mostly keeping to himself in his secret hide outs. School was officially over which meant no more need for his foster dad to be careful with the bruises. It was something Quentin had become used to over the years, and usually he played it off pretty cool. It wasn’t like he could do much about it, his foster dad was a lawyer and had friends in high places. So, it was either take the blunt of it in place of his younger foster brother, or let him endure the pain and humiliation. Walking into the local Starbucks for a pick me up, sporting a freshly swollen black eye. He didn’t even notice his classmate standing in line in front of him waiting for their order. Trying to play it cool, he offered them a smile as they looked over at him. “Hey, what’s up? How’s your summer going so far?” he asked. Dropping his head down and hoping that his questions would keep the conversation off of his bruised face.

“Uh, nothing much,” she admitted with a soft smile on her face. “Just picking up a mocha green latte for myself and gonna run some errands. Nothing too exciting,” she added on, “My summer has been pretty good so far, how about yourself?” She asked the boy, trying to ignore the fact that his face was in rough shape. 

Lane had spent the majority of his day hanging out on the beach. It would only be a few weeks before football practice started up again. So, he figured he might as well soak it up and relax while he could. The sun was just starting to go down and he figured he should probably head back into town for a bite to eat. He started to walk down the beach toward his truck, as he started to put his t-shirt back on. Pulling it over his head before bumping right into someone. “Oh shit.. I’m sorry about that. Are you okay?” he asked, as he finished pulling his shirt down over his body.

Aurora wasn’t exactly expecting somebody to bump into her while in the middle of her jog by the beach. Almost loosing her balance, she let out a laugh when she realized who it was. “Oh hey,” she said to him. “It’s cool Lane, honestly.”

Noelle went overzealous with baking last night, knowing full well that her family couldn’t possibly eat them all before they got stale she decided to bring some in and share with people at lunchtime at the local park. Turning to the person next to her she simply said “Cupcake?”

“Uh, sure? What flavor are these? They look delicious!” Aurora told the other girl. 

“But you aren’t.” Georgie pointed out. She hated when people did that, saying if it had happened to them what they would do. “It didn’t happen to you, it happened to me and you have no idea what I want because we’re very different people. Which is pretty clear considering I don’t go around fucking other peoples’ boyfriends.”

“You are right,” Aurora replied. “I don’t know what you want, and I’m not you.  Yes, I did have sex with your ex-boyfriend and I can’t take it back and I regret it. I can defiantly just go fuck off and you can go wallow around in self-pity, your choice. Arguing with me isn’t going to make your situation any better though.”

“I was being facetious, fuck.” Georgie rolled her eyes in annoyance as she turned her back on the other girl. “I’m obviously not about to kill anybody even if I’m currently daydreaming of ripping them apart.” Turning back to Aurora, she gave her an expectant look, she had to want something, right? “Was there anything else?”

“Anything else? What do you mean? I was just trying to see if you were alright. I understand if you’re not in the mood to talk and if you just want to be left alone, just thought it would be the right thing to do. I know I’d probably want the same thing to happen to me if I was in your position right now.”

“Well, someone else is doing it pretty successfully so maybe we should all be considering becoming serial killers since no one is doing anything about it.” Not that Georgie could ever actually kill someone even though right now it seemed like something she was highly capable of.

“Well, just because somebody is killing innocent people in our town right now doesn’t mean you should think murder should be the right punishment for whoever did this to you and everybody else on court,” She tried to explain herself to the upset girl.

Having known the paint was coming, Kaleb had prepared themselves for it as much as one could. What they hadn’t been prepared for was winning two titles. Holding the princess crown in their hand, they moved to place it back on their head ignoring the stickiness of the paint still present in their hair. “What a night, huh? Two crowns. I didnt know you fuckers loved me so much.”

“I couldn’t have thought of anybody else who deserved two crowns than you, Kaleb,” She told her bestfriend, offering a kind smile. It was awesome seeing them win two different categories, but she wasn’t expecting everybody who won to have sticky, red paint poured all over them and their outfits. “I...I am sorry some asshole thought it would be funny to ruin your dress and flower crown though,” she added on.

“Am I alright? Take a guess.” Georgie said, her tone flat. Her dress was ruined as was her hair and probably her skin. She was going to need at least ten facials to clean the paint out of her pores. “I’m going to kill whoever did this.”

“I think anybody can assume that you aren’t,” Aurora looked over at Georgie, trying her best to pick the right words to say to her. She knew that she probably wasn’t the person that the other girl wanted to see, due to their complicated connection. “Killing somebody might not be the best option, just saying.”