* 𝙸𝙽𝙵𝙻𝚄𝙴𝙽𝙲𝙴𝚁 ₓ

luna and monet are going to kill her. still, she smiles.

   “ pretty high. this is the place to be, after all. especially if you’re rich, ” she points out with a soft laugh. “ but feel free to tell me why this is so miraculous. i’m all ears. ” she leans back on her hands, head tilted, waiting for an answer. 

      “ i know. ” she seems to spend all her time saying that these days. that and also, “ i’m so sorry, zee, i got in my head and i went crazy. i should have talked to you. i’ve spent years talking to you- about all the things i can’t tell anyone else. i should have trusted you with this too. zoya jane. can you forgive me? ”

      seeing audrey across the courtyard, julien hops to her feet and hurries over to her, reaching out to pull her into a tight hug. “ hey, ” she greeted quietly. “ i heard about your mom, are you okay? ” she’d been so caught up in her own revenge scheme that she’d missed something awful happening to her best friend and she was about to start making up for that right now. 

     “ they’ve made a mistake. because we play to win. and we always get what we want. ” that’s not quite true, but julien is going to ignore that in favour of her own statement. “ maybe the question we should be asking is what are they trying to win? what’s the prize for them? other than ruining our lives and our friendships? ”

     that wasn’t quite a fair comment, he’d been a good friend to her for a long time now, she couldn’t dispute that. “ what about you? what do you want? we all know i want to be famous, but you’re an international man of mystery. ”

     julien opens her mouth to respond and then closes it again. where to begin with what’s wrong? she doesn’t know, and she hates feeling like she might even have to censor herself. so she doesn’t bother. “ well my boyfriend dumped me, i might have ruined my sister’s life and we have a psycho stalker who is publishing all our worst secrets on the internet. so, yeah, i’m bothered, lu. ” she sighs, deeply. “ i was looking forward to coming back here and getting back to normal and- now i have chaos. ” 

     it’s not as inspiring as he wants it to be. “ from the top? ” she queries, raising an eyebrow. “ i mean, maybe it’s the obie talking but it’s not like i started with nothing, is it? we all started with a lot more than most people. ” now that’s definitely the obie talking. her nose wrinkles slightly. “ definitely the obie talking. ” there’s a soft laugh on her lips, which she guesses means max’s plan to cheer her up (if that’s what he was doing) has at least had some effect. but not for long. “ i don’t think luna and monet are going to be thrilled. ”