you better be ready

Though Beau wasn’t really the person that liked to work out, she had been in a groove of at least showing up to the gym once a week to pretend like she knew what she was doing. Since her job kept her cramped up in a cockpit for hours on end throughout the week, it was her attempt to not completely let her body deteriorate over time. After looking up the gyms in the area that were within walking distance of her apartment, Beau left and made her way over to the nearest one so she could see about signing up for a membership. Or, really, to see if it was the kind of place that she could just walk in every so often to workout without getting stopped. 

After stopping at the front desk and listening to the whole spiel about membership options, the girl offered to go grab one of their trainers to give her a tour and help her find what she needed. Beau rolled her eyes, sure it was just a ploy to try to sell her on an upgraded training membership. Leaning back against the front desk to wait, Beau was vaguely watching people go about their workouts before she heard the returning footfall of the entirely too eager front desk girl. The cadence of the other footsteps felt hauntingly familiar as well, her teeth gritting together when she turned back around to confirm that it was indeed Chloe. Of course. It would be just her luck that she would stumble right into Chloe’s path again in just a matter of a few days of being in town. “I can just show myself around. Or leave.” 

WHERE: record scratch

WITH: @beauregardj​.

In spite of the fact that much of the music she consumed came in a digital form, thanks to the ease of downloading and streaming, Sanem still thoroughly liked collecting vinyls. There was also something a little different about the atmosphere of putting on a record while cooking, cleaning or any activity really, rather than shouting at Alexa to start up a playlist. She made the trip over to Record Scratch to add a couple new selections to her expanding library, no particular choice in mind since just about every genre interested her and she was always open to hearing out something different. Thus far in her arm was a limited edition Amy Whinehouse and Naïka’s Lost in Paradise, meandering passed few rows till another title caught her eye, moving to pluck it form the bunch. ❝ Sorry, can I just grab this really quick, ❞ Speaking to the person who’d been standing just beside her in the section, however with a double take and brows furrowing the dancer realized this was no stranger. ❝ Wait, Beau ? ❞ Verifying with obvious surprise in her tone. ❝ Holy shit, when did you get to King’s Head ? ❞

.

Music was one of the few things that Beau still enjoyed in life. She’d played guitar her entire life and music was a passion of hers that had never faded, even as her zeal for most other things faded. Without much else to do with her time between flights, Beau had decided to wander around town a bit and see what there was to offer. Luckily, she found herself a good spot to lose herself for awhile at the Record Scratch. Walking up to one of the rows, Beau went to shift through the stack, lip curling to an irate expression when someone came in asking to get where she was. Beau went to snap, her eyes blinking when she looked up and saw Sanem there. Beau vaguely remembered that Sanem’s new address had shifted to somewhere around here, but it had been awhile since she’d sent the woman any postcards. “What the fuck, dude, hi,” she replied back, still a bit stunned to see her friend there. Friend. Not a word that she was able to use very much anymore, but a word that would always ring true with Sanem. “I just got here. Work or whatever has me based out of here for now.”

Kai set his books onto the table in front of them and clasped his hands between his legs, eagerly waiting for advice. Everybody liked dogs! He was ready to do everything in his power to be a good dog dad to his new son. Could he even call Bart his son if the relationship had no labels? “I,,,hey,” his brows furrowed. “You can say whatever you want about me, but my– this dog?” Kai brushed his faded red hair back out of his eyes, “Don’t talk about poisonin’ or hurtin’ him. It’s fucked up, man.” 

.

The downturn of Kai’s smile brought a pleased smirk to Beau’s lips. Finally he was starting to get the clue that Beau wasn’t eager to sit there in a conversation with him. “Yeah? It’s also not cool to talk to people when they’re obviously busy. Especially at a library,” Beau stressed back, making her point more impactful with hand motions to match. “Most people learn that when they’re kids, but I take it you never grew past that phase of your life. There’s a whole aisle back there full of books on basic manners, though, so maybe go check those out on your way out of my space.”

With the holiday season came new specials that came into play. Aless was carefully reading the menu to figure out certain ingredients as he knew some of his employees had allergy restrictions. It’d be a slow morning in the shop and when he had looked behind him no one had been there and he thought he was good to go, especially as the person at the register kindly told him to take his time as they waited for him to settle on the items. He hadn’t heard the woman approaching, if anything he was blissfully unaware of much that was until her bitter voice perked into his ears, causing him to look away from the menu. Her words were angry, the attitude definitely directed at him and he could tell the person at the register was less than eager to deal with the woman next. “Well, that is something I’m trying to do, but they’ve got a lot of new items. Pardon me for being thorough,” He began. She huffed and it looked as if she was about to place his hands on him to move him away. “Don’t even try it because I will just push you back.” 

.

It was an extensive menu, but not so vast that it required that much time and attention to mull over. At that point, Beau figured you would just get a taste of everything and run with it rather than wasting the time of everyone else in line. Which, admittedly, was just her now. “Just get a grab bag and call it good, dude. It’s not that serious,” Beau replied back with a biting tone to her voice. Without even realizing it she’d taken an aggressive step forward, eyes rolling when he commented that he would push back. Beau was a confrontational person, but not one that was ever looking to get into any physical altercations. She was a classic all bark and no bite, happy to get loud and be an asshole, but just as happy to back off when it came to blows. “I would love to see it, fuckhead. Hurry up and get your shit so I can order.” Beau didn’t step back at all, but she certainly wasn’t about to take a step forward on a guy that was far taller and far larger than she was. She was stupid, yes, but she wasn’t that stupid.

~

It wouldn’t work. Chloe knew that, and she had to wonder if Beau knew it too. Even if she truly hated Chloe with every fiber of her being, there was no avoiding each other forever in a town this small. People would notice her, people would learn who she was. Even if they never saw each other face to face again, it would be impossible to avoid the mention of the other. But, why bother arguing? Beau was too stubborn to listen to reason, anyway. It would be like talking to a wall trying to convince her of that. It wasn’t even clear how long it would take Beau to work her way out of town as she so put it.

The first instinct Chloe has when told to avoid an entire part of the city is to pick another fight. But, the look on Beau’s face stops her short, a pang of the guilt she had toward causing this for someone she used to love so deeply preventing her from starting something else. She took a deep breath, and started again, the anger subsiding a bit. Instead, she was left with something much more empty and angry, for that matter. 

“I work downtown,” Chloe deadpanned. Not only that, but her best friend lived and worked downtown, she had places she frequented downtown, other friends she would want to visit at some point or another. It wasn’t plausible for her to just avoid an entire part of town until Beau left. If Beau ever left. The insistence that she would work her way out of town with no explanation on her job left Chloe wondering just how possible it was for her to follow through on that promise. 

“I can’t rearrange my entire life to avoid bumping into you at the grocery store. You know that’s not possible.” The words didn’t have nearly as much bite as they did before. They were flat, Chloe trying to ignore the way that having this conversation at all made her chest tighten. She placed the glass she had down on the bar, forgotten and unwanted at this point. “Can’t not talking be good enough? Do we really need to have some custody battle over parts of town?” A town Beau clearly hated, and wanted nothing to do with anyway. Quite the opposite of Chloe who found it a safe haven.

.

Being angry was easier to handle for Beau. It made sense to her, she could focus her attention on the rage rather than confronting any other feelings that may have been bubbling up under the surface. The hollowness that had taken the place of her initial surge of anger was a different beast, leaving Beau feeling completely and utterly sapped of energy. Even the drinks in front of her lost their appeal, though she still planned to take the shots down before she wandered back to her apartment for the night. At least if she could drown her numbness with a more pleasant, alcohol-filled version of it she might get some sleep later.

Biting at her lip, Beau let her brows furrow in her forehead. Of course Chloe would work downtown. It would have been too easy, too simple to just be able to split up the town and stay away from each other. Even if it was a very small town, Beau had still had some small flicker of hope that perhaps that could have worked and she could have just pretended that Chloe wasn’t living right around the corner somewhere. “Great, okay. You work downtown, that’s...great,” Beau mumbled back, biting back the question of where Chloe worked, what she was doing now with her life. Did she go back to school? Was she successful? Was she happy?

“Okay, yeah, whatever. It doesn’t bother me, I won’t have a problem with ignoring you,” Beau agreed, relenting on the matter. In a bigger town it might have been possible to just split things up and stay in different parts of town, but not here. Whether they liked it or not, they would run into each other at some point. They would socialize with the same people, go to the same grocery store, and apparently end up at the same bar some nights, but it didn’t have to matter. Beau could turn it off, not care, and just ignore the fact that they had ever known each other entirely.

Reaching to grab the last shot that she had ordered, Beau tipped it back to finish it off, relishing in the momentary burn in her throat. That at least allowed her to feel something while everything else just felt dead inside. Fist closing around the glass in her hand, Beau let out a last, weary sigh. “So, yeah, I guess we just...go back to our lives and forget this ever happened then,” she nodded, nose wrinkling a bit as she said it. Getting up from the bar, Beau tossed her card down to pay for her drinks so she could get out of there, deciding already that she would just stop by a liquor store somewhere on the walk back to her apartment instead.

~

Chloe opened her mouth, any argument dying on her tongue. There was no rebuttal to that as far as Chloe could tell. There was a part of her that wondered what life would have looked like had she been stronger than her vices or had Beau and her found a way to tackle things as a team. But, it felt selfish to wonder those kinds of things when she had been the major part of the reason they came to be. Their entire relationship crumbled before her very eyes, and Chloe watched it happened, unable to do anything to pull it back together despite the part of her soul that screamed so loudly to do something. Anything.

It was deathly silent now, that part that wanted to cling to Beau all those years ago. Stunned into silence, perhaps, by the anger that was pouring off of her in waves. Chloe studied her eyes, searching for the answer that seemed to die on her tongue, but she couldn’t read them. There was nothing to give away the thoughts or feelings like there might have been at once point. 

The number of onlookers was growing, but Chloe could only find herself focused on Beau, a dark spot in a troubled past that she was quick to remind her of. The glass in her hand was sweating, her grip on it less stable than it had been before as she felt the heat of anger and embarrassment climbing the back of her neck at the rant that left Beau’s mouth. It was fair, to not want it to be her problem, but Chloe couldn’t help the heat of anger that swelled in her as Beau called out everything she had done in a bad spot in front of a room full of perfect strangers. Specifics or not, it wasn’t something Chloe enjoyed having out in the open.

Counterarguments of the fact that she was clean, she was learning to be better, she wasn’t the same person she was four years ago all died on the tongue as Chloe searched for a response. It wouldn’t make it better. In fact, it would only make matters worse. The fact that she was better now, learning now, and not when Beau had begged her to heal would only cause the rift between them to widen. There would never be enough words to explain it to her, if Beau would even give her the ear to listen in the first place. “Fine,” Chloe snapped, “Fucking fine, we can make like strangers. We’ll see how long it lasts.”

.

Strangers. It was exactly what Beau had wanted the second she saw Chloe, what she had just spent the last few minutes arguing with the woman for. Yet, when Chloe said it, there was a clench of pain in her chest. It was better this way, though, and Beau knew that. The last few years of her life spent avoiding people and relationships and the ghost of Chloe had been...fine. From the outside looking in she had a career, she had a plan, she had a roof over her head, she had to be doing better than before.

Teeth biting down harshly, Beau let the silence stretch for a moment before responding with a curt nod. They could do that, they could be in the same town and just act like nothing had ever happened between them. They’d had years to grow used to the fact that they no longer meant anything to each other, a long stretch of time to move on. And Beau had moved on. It had taken time, a lot of time, but she’d finally gotten to the point where Chloe wasn’t her first thought when she woke up and her last thought as she drifted off into sleep. 

“It’ll last long enough for me to work my way out of this shithole of a town,” Beau promised, a conviction in her voice that didn’t entirely match how she really felt. As the initial wave of anger started to subside, it was harder to keep up the harshness in her face, harder to spit words out at Chloe with disgust. As the anger fizzled out, Beau was left feeling just hollow, empty. It was a familiar feeling for her, a place she spent a lot of her time nowadays. A long sigh escaped her lips then, a tiredness overtaking her as she stepped back to sit down at the bar. 

The shots sitting there waiting for her looked all the more appealing after everything else that had just gone on. Her head flicked once more towards Chloe, her eyes now full of hurt rather than anger. “I live downtown, so just...avoid there,” she offered vaguely, figuring that if they could just split the town up a bit it would make it easier. If they didn’t run into each other, they didn’t have to think about it. And if they didn’t have to think about it, Beau could focus on getting out and moving far, far away. 

Kai laughed before apologizing, causing another outburst from the librarian. It was clear that he didn’t frequent this place often. “Sorry, sorry!” eyes widened as the librarian smacked his hands. “I don’t–” he brought it down to a whisper, finally, “I don’t think dogs like libraries. They can’t read,” he reminded the woman with a roll of his eyes. Sitting next to her, he thumbed through the pages of his book, searching for a dog that looked similar to Bart. 

“I’ll be honest, I forget what kinda dog he is,” he mumbled, “but he’s so cool. First time I met him, I brought him a container of beef and chicken. I guess I’m just wonderin’ if I should keep buyin’ him stuff or if he’ll like me if I just take him for walks and to the park and shit…” Kai looked at Beau for advice, clearly not reading the room. “I gotta know what kinda people food they can eat too. I’m big on sharin’ and I don’t want to poison my pal,” he added.

.

This was the exact kind of person that reminded Beau exactly why she preferred to live her life alone. Her eyes were glowering, lip set just slightly up with irritation. Beau would have thought that it was entirely clear from her body language that she wanted nothing to do with a conversation, but there he was barreling through what he was saying with no regard for what she was in the middle of. One hand twitched irritably into a fist as he rolled his eyes and came to sit right next to her. 

Closing her eyes, Beau pressed her fingers to her temples, a headache settling in almost immediately. Whether it was from him actually talking or her blood pressure starting to skyrocket out of irritation, she wasn’t sure. “I’m going to go ahead and guess that it would be a mercy to poison him just so he doesn’t have to listen to you anymore, so there’s my advice,” Beau replied dully, jaw clenched as she hissed the reply back in a whisper. She, at least, could be polite in a library, a fact that brought a smugness to her face.

“You broke up with me.” Like she needed to be reminded of how things had turned out between them. It was just as volatile and angry as this moment together in the bar. Chloe felt as if she was twenty-three again, standing in a tiny, dimly lit kitchen, feeling the ache in her chest as Beau ended things. It was her right, Chloe wouldn’t have been able to stop her if she wanted to, because she knew her struggles were heavy for anyone to deal with, especially after losing a mutual friend. That didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt like hell. “I mean, you chose to end things, and now you’re mad at me for, what, not calling? Texting? What did you want from me?”

She could feel the eyes of other patrons starting to focus in on them, and Chloe wanted to scream. What were they looking at? Did they get some sick satisfaction over seeing two women at each others throats? A few pointed glares later, and Chloe was refocused on Beau who was leaned against the bar, dark curls shrouding her face in a makeshift curtain. This was going at about as well as Chloe had ever imagined it could. Stunted and buried emotions all fighting their way to the surface at once.

The guilt that Chloe held over the downfall of their relationship made Chloe feel as if she didn’t have the right to be nearly as upset as she felt. Though, one thing that had not changed in Chloe was how strongly she felt things. There was no halfway point with Chloe, she experienced emotions for their full worth, and it was to her detriment. Especially in moments like this.

Beau seemed so much more embittered than Chloe remembered. Was that all because of what she had done? Things had not ended well, and much of it was on Chloe, but did Beau even know how it had effected her? The lonely nights, the solitude she forced herself into. After all these years, Chloe was starting to feel as if she had recovered from everything that had happened four years prior. And now, here the past was, standing right in front of her. Yet, Beau just wanted to ignore it. “Well, I can’t do that, okay? I’m not nearly as good at repressing my emotions as you, apparently.”

.

Even if Beau had been the one to put the final nail in the coffin of their relationship, she refused to admit that she’d played any part in the destruction of something that had, at one point in time, been everything to her. It didn’t matter that Chloe was right and that there was a fair share of the blame on Beau and her inability to handle everything that they had been dealing with, Beau didn’t want to put any of that on herself. It was easier to just put all of the fault on Chloe. “You didn’t leave me much of a fucking choice,” Beau stressed, her voice raising a few octaves. There was already enough attention on them from the rest of the bar, but Beau had tunnel vision, her anger with Chloe the only thing that she could focus on.

Hands curling together angrily, Beau shot back off from the bar, taking a few steps forward towards Chloe, her voice lowering to a hiss. “I wanted you to -” she stopped short, a thousand things threatening to pour out of her mouth. She wanted Chloe to fight for them, to try harder, to not let her vices crumble apart the best thing that had ever happened to Beau. But, she couldn’t say that, wouldn’t let herself go down that road. It didn’t matter what she’d wanted back then, right now what she wanted was to forget. “Nothing, Chloe. I didn’t want anything from you then and I don’t want anything to do with you now.” 

It was easy to say it now, easy to be mad and hateful. She’d had years to let the emotions simmer inside her, years of closing herself off to anyone and everyone around her in a way that kept her bitter to the world. Maybe things would have been differently earlier on, maybe there would have been some small shred of compassion still in her, but not anymore. This version of Beau was different, bitter and angry and spiteful in a way that she’d never been before. 

The part of her that had once been deeply in love with Chloe felt a small twinge of regret, a bit of guilt over the way she was acting. But, for her own sake, she had to stick to her guns. She couldn’t just mend the bridges that were burned and let Chloe back into her orbit. The distance was easier, pretending that things were fine was less painful. If she could just avoid the woman and ignore that they were in the same place, she could keep her head down and not slip, not let her emotions back in. “That sounds like your fucking problem, then. Figure it out, leave, spiral out of control again, I don’t really care. You’re not going to make this my problem, I can’t. Not again.”

Clad in an oversized sweatshirt and an old pair of pajama pants, Beau had lazily wandered her way from her apartment downtown to the closest breakfast bakery to find something to eat. She was hungover, she was pissed off, and her thin temper was ready to snap at the first person to look at her funny. Her arms were folded in front of her as she got into line, mind already set that she was going to order a big box full of carbs to take back to her apartment and scarf down while watching movies for the day alone. Her foot started tapping as the guy in front of her took his time looking over the menu, Beau’s patience not lasting long enough to keep her from causing a scene. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me, dude, it’s not that hard to pick something. A bagel, a muffin, fucking figure it out,” she huffed out, just about ready to push in front of him to put her own order in.

Location: Kingston Library 

@beauregardj

Kai never had any type of pet aside from fish growing up. He liked animals, and always enjoyed playing with his friends pets, but it was never in the cards for his family. Now that he was becoming closer with Chloe, that meant he needed to learn about dogs; Bart deserved a decent male role model. Or just a second person to pick up his droppings. 

There was a ridiculous amount of books on dogs at the library. Like…books that had been written in the past year! Kai had assumed that once humans figured out dogs as a species, that was it– there was nothing more to figure out. Instead, he found himself checking out five books about breeds and how to bond with them. 

“Hey,” he called to the person sitting in the lounge area, prompting a quick shush from the librarian, “you. You got a dog or any experience? I got a dog that likes me, but I wanna keep makin’ sure he likes me.”

.

After years of living on little more than a shoestring budget, Beau had a good sense of how to find as much free stuff as she could. In any city she’d ever been in, the library was always one of her go to places. It was quiet and it had everything she needed to research any stupid topic that she had in mind. Or, barring that, at least access to wi-fi that she could sit around and watch stupid videos on the internet in a climate controlled place for a few hours. 

She’d been there at the library for a few hours by that point, an atlas in her lap as she scribbled down notes for a few upcoming flights that she would be piloting in the next few weeks. The apartment she was renting was dingy and the wi-fi barely functional, so the library had been the next best bet. 

Lost in her thoughts, Beau didn’t realize someone was talking to her until the loud shush of the librarian jolted her out of her concentration spell. Her head lifted with an unamused scowl, a breath huffing out of her lips as she leaned forward. “Well, for starters, no one likes a fuckwad that causes a ruckus in a library, so maybe consider fixing that first,” she pointed out, the eyes of several onlookers now all subtly looking over their books to watch.

The image of Beau would be etched into Chloe’s mind forever. She had spent too many years studying every line of the woman’s face to ever really forget. And, on the worst nights, the sight of her crestfallen features as she ended their relationship would haunt her to the end of time. It had been Chloe that had done the majority of the damage, and she knew that. Truly, Beau owed her next to nothing, let alone acknowledgement. But, the shock of seeing her again, in this tiny little town, was too much for her to just ignore it like it seemed Beau wanted to.

The choices Chloe had made in learning to cope with a death were not ones she was proud of. It had been so long since she had felt like there was a hole in her chest, her heart still in a moment of heartbreak. But, standing in front of Beau again, Chloe felt like that twenty-three year old, young and stupid and heartbroken in so many ways. Her skin crawled and itched in a way it hadn’t in years, all by the sight of her, and the sound of her voice sharp and angry.

That old version of Chloe had half the mind to agree. She could have pretended that Beau was a perfect stranger, but the town was small. Every time Chloe passed her on the street, ended up in the same little restaurant, it would chip away at her until she imploded. The only way Chloe knew how to handle that was to run, and that wasn’t an option now. She had too much to lose this time. The only thing Chloe could see to do was stand her ground.

“You’re here, in Kings Head, of all places, and I don’t get to ask questions?” The words came out much more biting than Chloe wanted them to, inflamed by emotions she was finally letting herself feel after all these years. She could feel her hands shaking, her knuckles turning white around the glass in her hand as she tried to keep her emotions in check as much as she could. There wasn’t much she could get out of a fight like this, but she couldn’t pretend like this wasn’t happening. That much she knew for sure. “I’m sure you’ve gathered this town isn’t very big, it won’t be as simple as ignoring each other.” 

.

Beau didn’t feel like she owed Chloe anything. Not an explanation, not a moment of her time, not anything. Standing there shell shocked at seeing the woman again after so many years, the only thing she felt was anger and resentment. Losing Chloe hadn’t just been an easy, clean break like she’d hoped it would be, it had been the start of her life spiraling back out of her control. She’d lost Chloe, she’d lost the gang, and worst of all she’d lost herself. Packing her shit and running back to her parents with her tail between her legs had taken every last bit of spark that Beau had managed to build up in the years she’d been with Chloe and the others. 

Now, the only spark she felt was ire. The biting tone from Chloe merited another surge of irritation from Beau, her hands curling into tight fists, shoulders set forward aggressively. “You know what, no, fuck you. You don’t get to ask questions, you lost that chance a long fuckin’ time ago,” Beau tossed back, practically spitting the words out with venom seeped into them. Taking a step back into the bar, Beau pressed her back against it, looking for something stable to hold onto when it felt like her whole little world was starting to crumble back around her again. She wasn’t okay, she hadn’t been for years, but she’d at least been in a state of reliable numbness. Beau didn’t want to feel anything and here Chloe was bringing back years of pent up emotions that Beau had been actively avoiding.

Grabbing one of the shot glasses from behind her, Beau tossed it back, closing her eyes as the burn slid down her throat. That, at least, was a feeling she could take solace in. Hand curling tightly around the shot glass, Beau let her hand drop, taking a slow breath to try and calm herself. The last thing she wanted was to pop off and start a real fight in the middle of the bar, something that wasn’t entirely out of the question when it came to her. 

“But, don’t worry, I won’t be here for long. Turns out the people here aren’t really up my alley,” Beau grumbled back, keeping herself at a closed off distance as best as she could. The physical distance helped, made it feel like she was observing everything from the outside looking in and that maybe this wasn’t her problem that she had to deal with. But, she would. If she wanted to keep her job, she didn’t have a lot of options. She would have to stay there, walking around in the same town with the ghosts of her past right there waiting to jump out around every corner. What had already felt like a punishment being sent there now felt like her own personal hell. “It is as simple as just ignoring each other. You do your shit, I do mine. Shouldn’t be that hard to pretend you don’t exist, I’ve been doing it for years.”

status: closed ( @beauregardj​ ) location: bar on outskirts of town

Chloe usually went to the bar outside of town to drown her sorrows. It was secluded enough that no well intentioned, but unwelcome friends would run into her, and attempt to make things ‘better’. It was just out of the way enough that most people in Kings Head didn’t frequent it, and worked well for her over the Summer when things were not going well. Now, however, she wasn’t there to drown any sorrows. On the contrary, life was going good for her for the first time in a long time. There were no more unruly fights, her best friend was the happiest she had seen him in all her years of knowing him, and she had found some new, pseudo-relationship that made her feel things she hadn’t in years. Life was good, and there was no end to that in sight. Chloe figured that fact earned her a celebratory drink, and to reclaim a spot as something positive. 

A glass in hand, Chloe turned to claim a usual spot in the bar. The furthest corner, tucked to the side where she used to sulk in peace. But, she stopped short, the face of a ghost from her past appearing in the doorway. It wasn’t possible, there was no way it was possible. Not after all these years, not in Kings Head of all places. 

“Beau?” The sound of her name felt foreign to her ears even if she had used it in passing with Aless. Chloe hoped this was all some case of mistaken identity. Because why would Beau be in Kings Head? But, at the sign of recognition, Chloe felt the color drain from her face. It was Beau. After all these years, they were in the same room again. And Chloe didn’t know what to say. All she could do was feel all the blood rush to her head as she tried to make sense of what was happening. “What are you doing here?”

.

Beau did not want to be in Kingshead Harbor for anything. It was small, it was quiet, it was stupid, and she already hated it from the few days that she had been there getting settled in. Having a job didn’t suit Beau, but she didn’t really know what else to do with herself. Not having a job had ended poorly for her, though she wasn’t entirely convinced that switching it up was going any better. Now, here she was stuck in some shitty town, a company slave to the new job that she’d managed to wrangle mostly just due to her father’s connections. Beau wasn’t exactly winning anyone over in an interview.

Deciding after a few days of staying holed up in her apartment with a case of beer and a bad attitude that it was time to venture out, Beau had found the lowest rated bar on Google and set off walking in that direction. It took awhile, she didn’t drive anymore, but she got there eventually, a glum look about her as she barged on in through the door. It was dimly lit and full of shady looking characters, the exact type of bar that she would have wanted for the night. No one was likely to try and talk to her, she could sit there with a beer and wait out the night for awhile before she wandered back to her apartment for the night. 

Walking towards the front of the bar, Beau froze when she heard her name being called in a voice that even years later was entirely too familiar. Ice shuddered through her veins, cold sweats already breaking out from the stress. It took her a moment to peel her eyes from the floor to face Chloe, the sight of the woman only making the pressure mounting in her chest worse. Beau was pretty sure she’d never had a heart attack before, but this could definitely be the start of the first. “I don’t know a Beau, you must have the wrong person,” she mumbled vaguely, convincing no one, not even herself. She turned to walk right up to the bar, her initial inclination to order a beer very quickly changing to a flight of shots. 

Fingers drumming against the counter, Beau could only last a few short moments before she spun back around with a look of ire rising in her eyes. It didn’t matter that it had been years since things with Chloe had gone up in flames, the anger was still there. Beau had never dealt with the fallout of her emotions and it was rearing it’s ugly head as she took a few angry steps forward. “You don’t get to ask me questions. You don’t,” she huffed out, her voice rattling a bit as she spoke, tone heavy with emotions. “I would like to sit here at this shitty bar and drink this garbage liquor and pretend that this never happened and that you don’t exist in my world anymore.” 

&& the basics

full name: beauregard lionette jones

gender: cisfemale

age: 28

birth date: december 7th

hometown: no hometown, she’s a woman of the world

occupation: pilot

sexuality: n/a chloe ruined her forever she hates everyone