Guns n' Roses

“Fuck yeah. Like one of those fucking…. goddesses. Aphrodite and shit.” She is probably still pretty when the fog clears up but everything feels heightened to him in this state. When people reprimand him he’ll get angrier if people are nice to him then they look exactly like angels to the stoned guy. “School is shit, the system is fucking rigged and only the clean cut students get worshipped. Grades don’t determine how we function when all of those educational books are stripped away from us. I left that hell a long time ago and has been doing peachy ever since.” Not really. Look at him now. “Congrats, though. We should celebrate or sumthin’.” 

“That’s-” Carmen shook her head, deciding against protesting. She was going to tell him that a goddess was a bit of a stretch, but she took the compliment anyway. “Thanks, man.” Her body was beginning to feel lighter, and she couldn’t help but smile. It wasn’t quite the high she wanted yet, but she was beginning to feel good. “You’re right! Y’know, fuck it. Fuck school.” She didn’t mean it, but with the weed setting in, she felt careless, like she could do anything. “Celebrate? Like, how?” She looked towards him, smiling. “Give me another hit.”

“Oh like a zoo keeper? That sounds interesting. I’ve always wondered what it would be like working at a zoo. I feel like it would be cool working with exotic animals all day everyday.” He nodded his head in agreement that, that would be a good fit. “I totally forgot. I’m Keegan by the way. You can join me if you want. I’m all by my lonesome here.” 

“Working with monkeys and shit would be awesome. It’ll take me a long time to get there though.” It wasn’t something she daydreamed about often, but now that the topic was brought up, she thought of what life would be like getting to see animals like that. Exotic animals were the best types. She had a dog at home, and did always love them. “I’m Carmen.” She nodded, collected her belongings and stood, sitting at the table across from the other. “Thanks.”

“Are you in university for a sciences degree?” Finn asked, taking a seat at the young woman’s table and setting his coffee down. “I got my degree in philosophy… fuck, uh, 6 years ago? It feels like a long time ago. But I loved the sciences too.” He took a sip of his coffee and began looking at some of the papers on the table. “Not that I use much of it in my day to day anyway…” He muttered a little softer. After a moment he looked up with an apologetic crease forming between his brows. “I’m so sorry. I should’ve introduced myself. I’m Finnegan. You are?”

“Yeah, specifically biology.” Carmen watched him as he sat across from her, smiling. She didn’t particularly want the company, but she wasn’t completely opposed to it. “Philosophy. Isn’t that really hard?” She perked a brow, though she wasn’t very curious. She was just trying to be polite, make conversation with the other. “Why’d you take it then?” She had heard multiple times by other people who had attended regular school that they wouldn’t need half of the things that they learned, but she didn’t understand it. Maybe this is what they meant. “Oh, I’m Carmen. It’s no problem.” She chuckled. “Nice ta meet you.”

“Biology. Shit, you can go anywhere you want with that, the possibilities are fuckin’ endless. You might be one of those badass scientists that cures cancer,” the male enthused with a genuine grin. It was no secret that neither brother considered post-secondary education as worthy of their time with the way the job system worked these days, but he did think it was necessary for degrees in science and mathematics. Liberal arts degrees, not so much. People had as much of a shot at making it with no education at all if they put their mind to it and dedicated themselves to their craft, in his opinion, or they could learn them in trade schools. As always, Carmen’s words about Maddox brought a smirk to his face, if only because he could relate at least a little. “Every day, twice a day, is too fuckin’ far, I will say that– every day until some time has passed until they get used to the fuckin’ separation is… alright, not unreasonable, but only once. But hey, don’t shit on boyfriends, we’re not all like that. I call my wife every day when I’m on tour and we can’t be together, and I guess I can be a lil’ clingy, but… we’re in love. Trust me, you’d feel different if you were in love– about your boyfriend anyway, not your fuckin’ brother. If a guy is callin’ you all the time, he probably just wants to smash… word of advice. Know you’re a bad bitch enough to ignore that shit, though.” To be fair, Cyrek had been his own independent from an extremely young age, and love had seldom been a word he could associate positively; he thought he could get a free pass on that part of it. Receiving genuine love from someone softened his rougher edges, soothed his often unpredictable temperament. “But, y’know, I come from a way different life… I never really had parents around all the time and shit. Guess I see it from that perspective,” he mused, momentarily wondering if he would have felt the same had his mother been able to be present in his childhood rather than out struggling to bring home groceries and pay for the lights. Laughing softly, Cyrek flipped his phone over on the table and unlocked it, pulling up a photo of Coraline from their wedding, sliding it over. “Coraline. Our daughter’s name is Mazikeen… She’s a ball of fuckin’ energy like me, but I promise she’s a well-mannered four. No terrible two’s.” His voice was gentle, leaning his head in his hand, a smirk naturally forming. The memories had, perhaps, been soured for him with time due to Kora’s behavior; Cyrek was never good with positivity, deep down. Pierced eyebrow quirking up with interest, he inquired, “Just moved, huh? I lived here on and off for a long fuckin’ time… you want me to show you the good shit? Like the best doughnut shoppe in all of NYC?”

“Hey, now that is something I could work towards. Maybe a bit of a stretch.” Carmen still wasn’t worried about it. She had a few years to go before she had to figure out what she was going to do. Right now, she wanted to focus on getting good grades, so that she could go into something even bigger. It wasn’t exactly important to make it incredibly big anywhere. She already had the fact that she was apart of a famous crime syndicate. Nobody would ever know her as an individual, but as a group, her family name would be known. She began to roll her eyes as Cyrek began to speak about her brother, but she stopped herself. Their first meeting in years wasn’t about to be soured. Maybe he wasn’t trying to lecture her, but to Carmen, it felt like one. He was right, though. She could ask Maddox to tone it down, even just a little bit. “He’s just worried I’m gonna get into trouble or somethin’. He hasn’t been away from me since I was born, aside from like, showering. He’s always been there. It’s weird for him.” She tried to give her brother the benefit of the doubt. This was weird for both of them, and even if he was being quite overbearing, he had reasons. Her parents still checked up on her, but only through email, and maybe once a month or so. Carmen tried to reason it. It was better than not having any family to talk to at all. At least he cared. “Yeah. We’ve had our parents. Half the time they were so busy though that he just taught me everything. The first word I learned wasn’t momma or dada. It was brother, and then Maddox. He pretty much taught me how to walk. I love my parents, and it wasn’t their fault it had to be that way, but he just had to do way too much. It’s not much different than a parent checking up on their kid.” Maddox had taught Carmen so much in life. How to walk, talk, eat. He was the reason she was even allowed to begin helping out her family. He taught her how to shoot a gun, how to kill someone. He taught her love. Being sheltered her entire life, he was all that she had, for everything. Although in the beginning she had complained, she now felt like she had to stick up for Maddox a little bit. His intentions were good, at the very least. Her face softened as he showed her the pictures, a small ‘Aww’ slipping out as she looked them over. “I need to meet this little one.” As he suggested showing her around, she was quick to nod, collecting her things and shoving them into her backpack. “Uh, yes! I need a breather from this work.”

A small smile produced at the corners of his lips, seeming appreciative. He had been a little more vibrant when they had known each other, filled with a tad extra life, before it had been sapped away by an incident that had caused the brothers to flee their residency in the United Kingdom. Unfortunate circumstance was no stranger to the Pallas-Dexicos family, Kora included. It knocked at their door often, reminding them their place was permanently, as it was said working in the casinos, behind eight ball. Unlucky. Cursed. A family of the ace of spades; the card of misery. Seeing Carmen again reignited that spark, which was absolutely what he needed right now on his self-journey to find that flame he’d always been missing. Carmen was a comfortable familiarity; though she presented herself a bit hard, like Kora, she was gentle with him, but not overbearingly so. “I will be… I’m apprenticing right now. They say I’m doing well, if I continue, I can manage to attain my license sooner. If you ever have time, I’m happy to slip you my card and I would love to fit you in,” Orion told her, sincerity lacing his words and warmth seeping into typically achromatic emerald eyes. Now that he had managed to jog fragile, unreliable memories, coalescing bits and pieces, he took in the younger woman’s appearance. “You and Kora look like you could be sisters.” The comment was soft, tentative, assuming she wouldn’t be one to look on the past– no one had heard from their stormy sister in well over a month and he could see the worry brewing in his eyes, practically smell the guilt beginning to ravage at his insides. Cyrek was difficult to predict; he merely hoped that his unstable older half would be able to hold himself together while no confirmation of life or death existed, for his family. Carmen Astra. His smile was sincere now, a rarity from the mum artist, leaning across the table to encase her in a brief, firm hug, murmuring, “We missed you terribly. I apologize we fell out of touch… A few incidents happened and… you know how it goes.” Settling back in his seat, his eyes assessed her papers, digesting the information with a default neutral expression. Too deep into it. Now, the Pallas-Dexicos brothers weren’t shallow, they had always suspected something had been going on; whether it was drugs, gangs, or any other kind of problematic environment, they preferred to avoid it, already residing in the worst area of Manchester. Besides, Kora had been deep into her addiction already, and their primary focus had always been on her in London rather than anyone else’s business. “That’s too bad… It can be… difficult to pull away from family. Nothing is simple with blood ties,” Orion said wisely, careful to refrain from prying, folding his hands together.

Carmen nodded, appreciative of his offer. She had a very hard time finding anyone to trust with something like a tattoo. It would be on her for the rest of her life. Who better to trust with something as such than one of the people she had practically grown up with. Almost. “That would be absolutely awesome, man. How could I say no to something like that? I trust ya won’t fuck it up.” She reached over the table, giving him a light, playful tap on the arm. This was so nice. She had almost forgotten about the work that this had been started over. Never did she think that biology homework would bring her back to one of her best friends from her younger years. It was odd how things worked like that. Carmen’s eyebrows raised almost as high as they could at the mention of Kora. How could she forget about that girl? If it hadn’t been for her, she would have never even met Orion. All of the things they had done together as kids- it was wild. There were so many memories flashing through Carmen’s mind, it was almost overwhelming. She had always wanted a sister. Having a big brother was fun and all, but there was so much more you could do with a sister, someone she would have more in common with. She thought of all the things she had probably missed out on, not having a sister: shopping together, mani-pedis, general girl’s days out. Those were never things she had done with Maddox, though, she could have convinced him. She laughed aloud at her thoughts, shaking her head. “It’s not your fault.” She remembered how it went. When she was just too busy with all of the work that her family was putting on her, there was no time for friends anymore. So, they stopped talking. There must have been something in his own life, too. Of course, Carmen couldn’t take the whole responsibility, but she knew she was apart of the reason, and she began to feel slightly guilty about that fact. How life always gets in the way. As he reached out for a hug, she stood herself, wrapping her arms around the man. It was so nice to have some human contact. “I missed you guys too. But hey, we can’t take back the past. I mean, least we can talk to each other now, right? We’ve got a lot of catching up to do. But maybe after this,” she suggested, motioning towards the school work in front of her that she had only just remembered about. “It isn’t, but I’m nineteen now. They can’t stop me. I mean, unless Mad follows. In which case, I don’t know where to hide.” She laughed, to make her comment seem like more of a joke than it was. She doubted he would, considering he did talk to her every day to see what she was doing, but she knew there was some truth to it. He’d done it before, so what would stop him from doing it again? 

he was attempting to soothe his hangover with a cup of hot coffee, sunglasses veiling his sensitive orbs and beanie pulled over his head to muffle sounds. spencer cocked a brow when the girl skirted her papers across the floor, giving a shrug of his shoulders, “hey, i’m not disagreeing. i didn’t even PASS biology.” he brought the juul he’d stolen from some hipster up to his lips, ingesting in before giving a shrug of his shoulders, “i don’t know…stage 2?”

Carmen laughed softly as she collected the papers and sat back in her seat. “High school biology, or...? Because this is uni.” She shrugged. Maybe that was supposed to help her feel better, and maybe it did a little bit, but not quite. “What is that?” she asked, inspecting the juul. It was something she was unfamiliar with. Carmen smirked, writing down the answer and hoping he was right. “Thanks.”

A grin large on his face, Elias hands the joint to her happily and feels appreciative of how accepting she was. Hasn’t got a weed buddy in awhile and she’s fucking cute as a button so it’s kind of a win/win situation for him. “Damn, you’re pretty.” He comments idly when he hears her giggle it’s obvious his medicated mind is making him more honest then usual. “Nothin’ much… Just getting high. Escaping responsibility. You know all that fun shit. I wanna wake up next year and feel totally weightless, you know.” He shrugs. “What aboiut you?” 

Carmen perked a brow at his comment, but just broke out into laughter as she laid on the grass beside him. The high that began to build was a familiar feeling, one that she missed. Though this time, she didn’t have to sneak it. There was nobody here to stop them. “Oh, yeah?” She rolled over to her stomach, running her fingers through the grass. “Yeah. Pretty much. I just finished an exam. So I don’t have too much to worry about for a bit, but... Not sure how well I did.”