& beauty + brains.

Ava know that something happened between her sister and Beth. She didn’t know what exactly happened but she knew enough to know that it was bad. It’s why they hadn’t seen each other for a while. Ava wanted to be there for her sister and offer her support but she also knew that Aurora needed some time to cone to terms with everything and she was willing to give her that. “That would be great”, she smiled. “I just need to sign a few things but that will only take a few minutes then I’m all yours.” Maybe she would finally figure out what happened.

“Where would you want to go? It’s your choice,” Aurora spoke. It was the least she could do considering how distant she had been from her older sister. The blonde felt awful about it, even though she knew that Ava understood her reasonings on being so closed up regarding her own emotions and her relationship with Bethany. “No rush, just let me know when you’re ready? I have the rest of the day free so take your time,” she shook her head.

Alison was relieved upon noticing it was Aurora. She really didn’t need a stranger to see her in the sensitive state she was in. Hell, she wasn’t sure she really wanted Aurora to see her like this, but would rather her than a stranger. “Yeah – something like that.” Alison said. The truth was, Alison had a lot of pent up emotions of anger, sadness, happiness, and none of them collided well with one another. She didn’t exactly know how to feel about them and was hoping putting them into lyrics would make her feel better. “I don’t really know where I’m going with it though.”

The blonde walked further up onto the stage, taking a seat next to her old friend. She really couldn’t remember the last time that she had seen or hung out with her. Her mind had been so jumbled lately that she hadn’t been the best friend to the people in her life. Aurora could only hope that people would understand why she’d been so distant. “Well, from what I heard it sounds really good,” she spoke. “How have you been though? I could tell that you were really getting into the music,” the girl admitted, glancing over at Alison. She completely understood how song writing and music could get her emotional, it’s hot she felt when it came to books and literature. 

Alison had been really sad lately, but she covered it up well. Her career made it really easy to do that, she spent a lot of time perfecting the fake smile for the cameras, so it made it easy to do it to other people. Her life had changed so much in the past year. All she could do was reflect back on it. There was a whirlwind of a romance with someone she thought she loved, but seeing him leave her before the birth of their twins showed his true colors. Really, she could think back on all of the fights the two of them shared, fights that she hid so easily and made everyone around her think their relationship was perfect.

But now, Alison was raising her twins alone and she was just sad. She wanted to be happy. She had released an album before the twins birth, an album that was doing very well, she had two beautiful babies and an energetic six year old. She had the best group of friends she could ask for, but inside the pop star was still struggling with the emotions she felt.

Alison sat on the theater stage, there was no one there. Just her and her guitar. Alison hoped doing what she loved – playing music – something she hadn’t done much of since the twins were born would make her feel a bit better. The girl strummed her guitar and let her voice fill the room with a song she had been working on since she got to the theater.

Distance, timing, breakdown, fighting, silence, the train runs right off it’s tracks.Kiss me, try to fix it. Could you just try to listen? Hang up, give up for the life of us we can’t get back.

Alison felt warm tears streaming down her face as she sang. This wasn’t exactly working the way she planned. Then she glanced up, seeing someone standing in the theater. She hadn’t heard anyone come in. “Oh, I’m sorry.” The pop star said, quickly wiping her face of any remaining tears. “Did you need the theater? I can go.”

RENT had been an interesting experience so far. After watching Rocketman, Aurora had been interested in possibly doing a musical. She was still a bit shocked that she had been chosen to be apart of the cast but she was so excited to try something new. The blonde hadn’t been expecting to see Alison in the threater that afternoon. Stopping in her tracks, she glanced over at her. “Oh no, I was just picking up something that I forgot here from practice the other day. I was just about to leave,” Rora spoke. “Is that a new song you were working on?”

Ava didn’t make it a habit to brush her teeth in one of the bathrooms at Pen & Paper Press. She had a perfectly functioning bathroom at home but Christoph was up all night with an upset stomach and only managed to get some sleep at four in the morning. Ava dozed off as well and ended up sleeping through her alarm. By the time she woke up, Ava was so late that she only managed to get dressed in the first clothes she found and quickly put some of the toiletries in her bag before making her way to the office. Washing her face and brushing her teeth in the bathroom at work made sense to her at the time but now she was having second thoughts considering someone had just walked in and was looking at her like she had two heads. “What? Have you never seen someone brushing their teeth before?” she snapped. 

“Of course I have,” Aurora snickered at her older sister as she made her way into the bathroom. The blonde had been having a rather difficult time trying to deal with everything that had gone down with Beth, that she hadn’t been spending much time with her sibling and nephew. The teacher couldn’t help but feel guilty, even though she was trying her best to keep her own head afloat and mental health in check. “I decided to stop by and see if you wanted to get lunch or something? I took a half day at work so I’m free now?”

“It is going to be a heck of a lot of fun. So does that mean you are in?” She questioned, raising her eyebrows curiously. But they fell the second she asked about Tik Tok, almost offended that the other had to ask her if she had a Tik Tok. “I am a social media lover. Of course I have a Tik Tok.” She raised an eyebrow, “But yes, we can make a Tik Tok together.” She told her.

“Yes, I’m in!” Aurora nodded her head. “Sorry that I asked, I know that some people just have a rather....hard opinion when it comes to the app. I think it’s so fun, but others think it’s just a rip off of Vine but I don’t think so,” the girl admitted. “Oooh, how many followers do you have? I just reached a thousand not too long ago and I can’t help but feel like a C-list celebrity.”

cillian scoffed before taking another hit. “clearly you haven’t smoked enough yet because if you had, you’d understand how great an idea this was,” he told her. “and it’s exactly like you said. this is out of character for you but you’re doing it anyway. because it’s awesome! you really gotta learn to live it up, princess. just went i thought you were starting to get cool,” he lamented, shaking his head in disappointment. it was a little mean, maybe, but it was just a bit of teasing. and if that teasing somehow convinced her to be a bit more fun was that so wrong? cillian didn’t think so. “you’re not turning back into high school aurora are you? eating lunch all by yourself with your nose buried in a fat book all day? that’d be a damn shame.”

“I think I have smoked plenty,” Aurora corrected the boy. If she wanted to take another hit or two from the blunt, she would. But for now? She just wanted to wait and see how the drugs would effect her. She was still so new to this and she just wanted to listen to her own body. “I’ve always been high school Aurora, Cillian. What’s it to you if you think I’ll change back to her? There’s nothing wrong with how I acted. I never made you feel bad for always being a lazy stoner,” she pointed out. 

“yes,” cillian replied, grinning playfully at her. it’s what he was good at. all this thinking about buying ingredients and making the brownies, and selling the brownies was starting to fuck with cillian’s high. he shook his head. “nah, it’s not fun if it’s not dangerous,” he responded, which kind of made sense. the whole idea got less fun the less involved aurora became. he didn’t know why he liked to get her into trouble so much, but he really did.

“What do you expect, Cil?” Aurora responded, finishing her hit before handing back the blunt to the boy. She wasn’t sure if she would take another hit, afraid that the aftermath of smoking would hit her in the near future. “It’s pretty out of character for me to be smoking weed outside of a 7/11, but here I am. Do you really think I’m about to say yes to making, distributing, and selling edibles to people? That could cost me my entire teaching career,” the innocent girl admitted. 

“meh,” cillian shrugged dismissively. he always felt weird when anyone tried to assure him when someone said something like that about him. superficial compliments he could take all day long but the second someone tried to tell him he was smart or that he had potential he couldn’t help but shrug it off. “it’d have to be on the dl for sure,” cillian told her. “nana can’t know or we’d definitely be busted. but it sounds like a profitable venture to me. i know a guy who could probably help us with distribution,” he mused, scratching his chin thoughtfully.

“Must you always be so stubborn and a pain in the ass?” Aurora rolled her eyes at her friend. Cillan was always just.....Cillian. There wasn’t any other way to describe it. “I mean, if you were interested in selling them, go ahead? I would probably prefer not to have them be sold out of Sweet Escapes but I can give you some ingredients in bulk for cheap? You can keep all the profits, I don’t care. Does that sound like a plan?” she suggested. 

“I can’t really say I’ve given it much thought?”

cillian snorted. “i’m smart about drugs and nothing else.” cillian knew he wasn’t all that bright, and while secretly, the compliment gave him a bit of an ego boost, he preferred that people think he was dumb. that way no one expected him to know anything. “definitely good,” he nodded, taking the joint back from her. “next we should get you some edibles to try.” cillian’s eyes lit up then like he’d just had a brilliant idea. “you have a whole fuckin’ bakery at your disposal. we should bake and sell a batch of pot brownies. probably definitely not legal, but you’d make some cash,” he mused, taking another hit.

“That’s wrong and we both know it,” she corrected him. Even if Cillian didn’t see it, Aurora didn’t consider him a complete waste, not bound to go anywhere. Yes, these two were completely different, but she tried to always see the best in others. Looking down at the joint, she went to take another hit, this time for a bit longer. “Sell....pot brownies? Uh, maybe. I’ve never even had a pot brownie before, not sure if I’d want any to sell out of Sweet Escape’s. I think my Nana would flip her absolute shit.”

“Uh, thank you....I guess?”

“I....don’t want to talk about it, okay?”