painting her in technicolour

“not a batman fan, huh?” he quipped, amusement obvious on his face. “see i thought i’d be an indoor cat, then i remembered the aristocats, and they had a ball when they let the house.” a completely ridiculous statement, but those were his forte. there wasn’t a lot of things he took seriously, and himself was definitely not something he took seriously. he always wanted to make people laugh, and he didn’t mind making himself the joke in order to do that. “are you saying he’d only come back for food, and not because he loves me?” he asked, making sure to sound offended. he would have thrown his hand over his heart, but that wasn’t feasible considering his hands were currently full. “i do like ares - seems like an ares to me, don’t you think?”

“ is anyone actually a fan of batman? like, actually? ” shiloh queried in response and though she was smiling as she said it, she did sort of mean it. the only version of batman she’d ever liked was joe walker in holy musical b@tman, and that hardly counted. “ true, true, that’s a good point, ” she allowed, “ but don’t they end up back in a house at the end of the movie? ” she added, but she wasn’t totally sure. it had been a long time since she’d seen that movie. she couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped at his offence, assuming it was playful and not genuine. but with intention of playing along she pressed her lips together to stop it. “ i mean, obviously he loves you, but like, if someone else started feeding him? ” she sucked her teeth “ dunno, dude, he might not visit as much. ” she said, lifting shoulders in an innocent shrug as cheeky smile returned to features. then she nodded in agreement. “ total ares, ‘cause he’s so tough, obviously, ” she grinned, posing in a bit of a ‘tough’ pose but it didn’t look all that intimidating when you looked like a cabbage patch kid.

In the time between Shiloh’s threats of self-immolation and when she finally came barreling familiarly up the stairs and through his bedroom door, Anthony got a couple things done. For one, he sent her a succinct reply of ‘chhyyyeah’—not really crisis counselor material—and then he made nachos. Or well, he nuked a ton of quote-unquote Mexican Style shredded cheese on a plate of tortilla chips and jalapenos and called it a day. So maybe not chef material either, but he wasn’t losing any sleep over it. He had just dropped the soggy paper plate onto his crowded desk when Shiloh threw herself onto his unmade bed. He gave her a second to whine and sigh and glare up at the years old glow in the dark stars stuck in the shape of a pair of boobs on his ceiling, then sat in his squeaky office chair. “Yikes,” he said amiably, greetings customarily foregone. The chair eeeeek’d ominously as he spun to face her. His stepdad had handed it down to him when he got one of those state-of-the-art ergonomic ones that like, adjusted to temperature changes or something and offered the lumbar support he wouldn’t shut up about. It cost about a thousand bucks, so Anthony figured it must’ve jacked him off too.

He leaned back (the chair creaked), folded his hands over his stomach, and hummed thoughtfully. It was performative, which was probably obvious, because Anthony didn’t want to give much thought to the picture she painted at all. Emmett Gardener: Human Sadsack  wasn’t someone Anthony wanted to give up much brain space for. His lumbering rain cloud of grief in school classrooms was a bummer enough; he wasn’t desperate to pick apart the guy’s brain or Shiloh’s stumbling, misguided attempts at supposed comfort. He heard Magnus’ distant voice from the kitchen call out ‘keep that door open, Tones!’ so he made a fart sound with his mouth and kicked it closed entirely. “You want an obvious piece of advice for the future?” He started and pulled the plate onto his lap. He picked up a chip and admired the cheese pull; added an extra jalapeno on the bite; and popped it into his mouth. There wasn’t much he could do when Shiloh wound herself into a tangle but wait it out. Mouth full, he continued: “Don’t bang on the glass at the gorilla enclosure. You’re either just gonna get a buncha monosyllabic grunts or a face full of shit.” He swallowed and grabbed another chip, then tried to recall if his ashtray was still on the bed she just flopped onto. “Hey, roll over real quick. I gotta check something.”

yikes. yikes, indeed. it truly was the only way to describe the situation shiloh had managed to insert herself into. so she hummed in agreement. well– half hummed, half groaned for she knew it was true. she closed her eyes, arms extended out to her sides as her legs hung off the edge of the bed. maybe if she tried hard enough she could just sink into tony’s quilt and become a part of the mattress below it and not have exist outside of his messy room ever again. definitely not at school tomorrow when she would surely see stupid emmett gardener, as much as she’d like to believe he’d already forgotten about it she didn’t think she’d be so lucky. she’d used all her luck up, she thought. 

she was pulled from her thoughts sound of tony’s step father yelling across the house and subsequent fart sound from her friend. it earned a small smile, but one that she pushed back down into dramatic frown when she turned her head and opened her eyes to hear the advice he had for her. “ yes, please. clearly i need it, ” she said, wishing he’d been with her at the time so he could have given her the so-called obvious piece of advice before she’d walked into the lion’s den and danced around like a tasty piece of meat. she sighed again at his advice. it was indeed, obvious. her eyes going back to the glow in the dark stars on the ceiling, oh what she would give to be the age she’d been when they went up again. do the last handful of her teenage years over again. “ i feel like i got both, ” she said “ nonsensical grunts and a face full of shit. double whammy. ” she extended her fingers in a quick pow motion of her face. “ the worst part was that he was listening to some shitty music and i said it was good, i sacrificed my artistic integrity for fucking gorilla boy’s ego– what is wrong with me? ” she groaned again, she was the kind of bitch that liked the regrettes and beach bunny and tessa violet not – god she didn’t even remember the name of whatever sad boy shit he’d been listening to. “ don’t answer that. ” she piped up, lifting her head a little for a moment before she let it hit quilt again. if anyone could diagnose exactly what was wrong with her, and why she did the things she did, tony would be the best bet. even if his answer would come out in the form of some horrible impersonation.

when asked to roll over she did, of course giving another sigh as she did. now on her stomach she pulled phone from her pocket, clicking it to see if she’d recieved any notifications. part of her was relieved to see empty screen, the other part of her didn’t like it at all. she locked it again, instead turning her attention to the plate of make-shift nachos not even considering what he would need to check that would require to roll over. in fact she’d almost forgotten that he’d asked her to at all, too caught up in her own bullshit. “ can i have some? ” she asked, reaching a hand out for the plate of nuked terror. 

“you know that i haven’t watched an actual show on netflix in so long, right? like, for some reason i can’t get myself to like, watch full shows anymore. last time i did that i didn’t move out of my bed the entire weekend. it was bad. i didn’t reply to a single text message for two whole days.” natalia let out a laugh, shaking her head at the memory. she had been asked a lot of questions that weekend, mainly regarding her own sanity as she had buried herself into a tv show. “but, i have made my way through a pretty good chunk of the terrible movies that netflix offers. every time they release another netflix original movie, i’m all over it, no matter how terrible the plot is. it’s become one of my favorite pass times when i need mind-numbing entertainment these days.”

“ dude, if it takes you that long to get through a show on netflix you’re doing it all wrong, ” shiloh teased, even though she’d certainly done something very, very similar when she’d binged all of grey’s anatomy last summer. “ at least a season a day, more if they’re short seasons. that’s how you gotta do it. ”  she said with a smile. and then she sighed again, less dramatically but it was near impossible for shiloh to do something without at least a little drama. “ name one good netflix original movie besides to all the boys i’ve loved before, just one. ” she challenged, “ i can’t even think of another netflix orginal movie, much less any good ones. ”

long furby but worse [ delivered 5:48pm ] : are u home?? long furby but worse [ delivered 5:48pm ] : i’m coming over to kill myself in ur bathroom long furby but worse [ delivered 5:49pm ] : make sure ur mom doesn’t find me first xx

certainly not the most eloquent of texts shiloh had ever sent, but tony had received far worse from her. hell, he’d probably received far worse from her that very day. but shiloh was feeling especially dramatic after possibly one of the worst and most awkward encounters of her life. it even beat her first kiss in the crestview middle school band room when seth hastings had tried to bring tongue into the equation and shiloh had panicked and bit him in response. and as you might imagine, that was a terribly tough thing to top on the list of shiloh’s worst, most awkward, and most embarrassing moments. but somehow, it felt as thought walking up to emmett gardener– who was in his car bothering literally no one, for the record– and talking to him about shitty sad boy music and her fucking job was worse. 

as she walked away from now cursed cvs parking lot, she tried to drown out constant replay of stupid shit she’d said with the loudest songs mom jeans could supply. also sending a text to her parents letting them know she was going to tony’s and that they shouldn’t worry about dinner for her, finished off by of course a ‘love you!’ in classic shiloh fashion. despite promise of offing herself, when she made it to the goldstein home, she did not head straight for the bathroom of eldest son. instead choosing to collapse on his bed, throwing her bag to the side so she didn’t crush her belongings in the process. 

there was no hello, no how are you. there was no reason for it between them, and there was no way shiloh could pause her dramatics long enough to entertain them. “ i just had the worst conversation of my life, ” she announced, obvious whine to her voice “ fucking emmett gardener was sitting in his stupid car listening to stupid toxic sad boy music really loudly, ” she continued, still staring at the ceiling as she waved her hands around to emphasise her points on how stupid and sad the 6 foot whatever quarterback was “ so i went up to ask if he was okay– because i’m a fucking idiot, and i don’t know, i didn’t know how to leave so i just – fucking kept talking to him. like an idiot! ” she strangled the air above her with gritted teeth, imagining her own neck in her hands before she let them fall back on the bed with loud sigh. “ like, i’m a good person, i was being a good person, ” the first part of that statement, definitely not true and she knew it, second part was dubious at best “ why does the world have to punishment like this, like, couldn’t i have just walked into a pole and got a concussion instead? then i could have taken a day off school or something for it, this is just fucked. ”

Seriously? They were going to have a conversation? Well, fuck it. It wasn’t like he was doing anything serious anyways. Emmett let out a little sigh, turning to his touchscreen stereo to read what was currently playing. “Uhh, it’s called Without You. From some dude named Spooky Black.” Just some shit he found on Soundcloud that he really vibed with. He turned back to… fuck, what was her name again? Rather than asking her, Emmett couldn’t help but take notice of the bright pink shirt the chick was sporting. “Um… you like, really like Baskin Robbins or something or..?” Was it supposed to be ironic? Like a good thrift find or some shit?

couldn’t he just tell her to fuck off already? speed this whole thing up? god, she almost kind of missed hayden. at least that interaction would be over quickly and not dragged out for a horrifically long eternity. “ cool. it’s cool, ” she said, pressing her lips together as she gave a quick nod. in truth, she did not like the music. not a bit. but if you were to learn anything about shiloh from this interaction, she was sometimes painfully polite. when he mentioned her work, but didn’t seem to realise it was where she worked, she was confused. brows furrowing a little as she glanced down at the shirt and back up again. “ i mean, i work for them so i think i legally have to say yeah if i wanna keep my job, ” it was a joke, and her lips perked up a little as she told it, but it was terribly hard to be enthusiastic in front of emmett. 

@ohshilchs​

Reid shoved a Twizzler into his mouth as he wandered out of a small convenience store and onto the sidewalk out front, spotting Shiloh in the shade, “Hey- dude,” okay so talking to teenagers wasn’t Reid’s strong suit but he was trying and that was more than he could say for plenty of adults in town, especially following recent events. “You need a ride home? I’m parked around the corner,” he offered with a smile, assuming Shiloh was on her way home from school on foot unless she was waiting for a parent in the store that he’d managed to miss running into, “My civi car, not my squad car,” he added for good measure, knowing that now wasn’t really a good time for Shiloh to be seen in a police car, evening in the passenger seat. 

though shiloh had tried to avoid it since ana’s passing, she was often walking around town by herself. she didn’t really mind it, she just didn’t want to be seen as the kid with no friends. she knew that wasn’t a good look, not in her current situation. but today it had been unavoidable, her very small group of friends all already occupied and not able to wait around for her to finish with a yearbook meeting. but thankful thing about a small town, she only made it a couple blocks from school before she ran into someone she knew. warm smile spread on her features, pulling headphones from her ears as she greeted “ hey yourself, ” a little of a chuckle on her voice. if ever she felt bad about her own awkward nature, uncle did always make feel significantly better about it. initially the offer made her want to say no, uncle or not, passenger seat or behind grill, she didn’t want to be seen in a cop car. but it seemed he read her hesitance easily and she breathed out. “ yeah, please, that’d be great. ” she said, shoving headphone wires into her pocket. “ treat yourself kinda day? ” she asked, pointing to the twizzlers, frankly waiting to be offered one.

For a moment Rissa thought she might be able to blame it on some faulty Allen genes, as though their was gene factor to simply not be willing to try beef, but then she remembered that Shiloh had voluntarily not eating beef and that theory went out the window. Damn, it looked like she just had a stubborn kid. “I tried the not pushing beef thing but she didn’t seem to notice, if anything she was happy not to be having a fight over dinner once a week.” Marissa was happy to not have a fight over dinner every week, but eventually she would have to bite the bullet and just force Paisley to at least try it. “I wouldn’t even mean if she hates it, I just want her to try it, you know?” Shiloh probably wasn’t the best person to be giving any advice visa vie child rearing, but her niece had decided to come with her so unfortunately part of the deal was listening to her menial dilemmas. “At least she’ll eat for you,” Although that might have more to do with Marissa leaving pizza money every time she needed a babysitter. She wasn’t about to make a dinner before having a night of freedom, she wanted those nights to start off on a good foot and slaving in the kitchen was not a head start on relaxation. “Have you thought anymore about babysitting? Now that she’s older she’s really not that hard to entertain. And I’m sure your uncle would be happy to drive you home after. “ Since letting Hayden go, she’d had to cancel all her plans that involved leaving Paisley alone and she was desperate to have a sitter she could call on.

maybe it was because she could remember being paisley’s age, and couldn’t even begin to imagine her life at marissa’s, but shiloh did sort of side with her cousin with this one. she wouldn’t say it aloud though, thinking it would come off as sort of rude, or pretentious simply because she wasn’t a beef eater. “ what if you combined it with things she likes then? like, if she wants pasta, go for a beef spaghetti, or beef tacos or, you know, whatever, ” she suggested instead. “ bit of a compromise, meet in the middle, ” she said, she thought eight was old enough to understand that, right? she smiled a little at the compliment, if it was meant to be a compliment at all. either way it brought her joy. “ i’m starting to think that has more to do with us both avoiding beef, ” she mused with a chuckle, probably also that it was always takeaway. 

then the babysitting job came up. the thing was, under different circumstances she wouldn’t have even needed to think about it. it would have been an instant yes. she loved paisley, and she loved helping out her relatives. but things were unfortunately complicated, hence why she’d taken a couple of days to thinking about it. she felt a tiny bit bad about taking a job from hayden, a tiny tiny bit. mostly she felt bad that she’d probably get shoved in a locker for it. but she needed the money, she needed to look better than hayden, if she could be seen getting support from her cop uncle that would only be a good thing. if she had to take a beating for that to happen, well, that would just have to happen. “ uh, yeah. yeah, i have. ” she started, “ you know, like, i kind of have to prioritise baskins but i’m not usually on the late shifts, so like, it shouldn’t really be an issue. so, yeah, if you need me, i should be able to help out. easily. ” she finished with a smile, it’s not like baskins was giving her any more than the scrap shifts in the past six months. but she still couldn’t lose it, she needed it for appearances if nothing else.

“who needs to be batman, when you can be cat-guy?” he asked, once his instantaneous laughter had calmed down a little. “some like staying indoors. i think naturally they’d all like to go out, but if they didn’t when they were kittens, some of them are okay staying indoors since.. that’s all they know. and that way there’s people around to give them treats instead of them having to work for it and hunt them down. seems like a pretty good deal.” he joked. “mythology names are always cool - who doesn’t like it, at least a little?”

she chuckled with him, “ batman’s an asshole, cat-guy sounds way, way better, ” she played along, not even minding that how he pointed out how ridiculous what she’d said was. it didn’t feel like a jab at her, just a joke. “ yeah, i’d totally be an indoor cat, ” she mused. oh how she would love to be a big fluffy cat, lazing on the carpet in a warm spot of sun from the window. “ but this guy doesn’t look much like a kitten, ” she referenced the cat in his arms, looking down at it with warm smile. “ so he’d probably be okay with being outside, it would just be making sure he knew you were going to feed him so he comes back. ” she said, as if she had any experience. she’d tried feeding a stray cat or two, even a pigeon once, but it never seemed to make her the snow white disney princes she wanted to be. “ yeah, like– ” she paused to think, having only thought up hermes on the spot. “ zeus, apollo, mars, ares, artemis, there’s a whole heap of good names in just greek and roman gods, ” and she solely had rick riordan and the percy jackson series to thank for her knowledge of them. “ any of those sound like the right fit? ”

Tap, tap. Emmett sat up, turning his head toward the noise with a frown. The hell was that? Upon closer inspection, he recognized the person on the other side of the glass as Ana’s old tutor. S-something. He wasn’t sure of her name, just that she taught Ana math. Some band chick. Total nerd.

He sighed, turning down the volume of his music before he lowered the passenger’s side window with the help of the controls on his side’s door. The quiet wrrrr as the glass descended between the both of them was awkward as hell. Far too awkward for Emmett at least, but it wasn’t like holding down the button harder made shit go any faster. 

“Yeah?” He asked the moment it the window had sunk down a reasonable amount. The question made him roll his eyes a little. “I’m good,” he responded, maybe coming off a bit brusque. He didn’t mean to radiate asshole, he just hated that question because he’s been asked it far too much given recent events.

“You good?” He turned the question to her. Because he didn’t know a lot of people who knocked on the passenger side of a car when the only person in it occupied the driver’s side. Must have been a geek thing. They weren’t socialized enough or whatever to understand how society worked or some shit.

whoever that bitch was that thought it was a good idea to approach stupid emmett’s stupid car, shiloh didn’t know her. she felt like she’d never seen a car window move so slowly, was he doing it on purpose? like a gag? like stan barber’s car in i am not okay with this? if it was, she wasn’t in on it. and his response to her did nothing to make her think this had actually been a good idea after all. god, couldn’t her moral compass just allow her to be a good person to her friends? fuck everyone else. she wasn’t even sure if emmett knew her name. he had to, she thought, but it didn’t mean he actually did. 

“ me? ” she asked, though clearly. she was just surprised to have the question turned back on her. “ yeah– yeah, i’m good. ” it was a lie but she’d quickly realised his question hadn’t been asked in the same empathetic nature shiloh had asked her’s. even if it had been, would she have told emmett any sort of truth? fuck no. 

the worst part of all this? now that she’d walked willingly into the situation, she didn’t know how to walk away. like, cool, was just checking you weren’t about to off yourself in a cvs parking lot because that would be super sad, but seeing as you’re good, i’ll be off now, pip pip cheerio– obviously she couldn’t say anything like that. so, she grabbed her fucking shovel, and dug herself deeper into the hole. “ what are you listening to? ”

luci laughed, grinning at the girl, “yikes, that embarrassing, huh?” he nodded then, mocking a deep frown, “wow shiloh… i can’t believe you’d wound me like this! i am so hurt!” he put a hand over his heart. lucius was well-aware that he was maybe overdoing it a little bit, but he really would miss all of them. he had hated high school when he was in, only really growing into himself in college, but now he nearly teared up at the thought of his seniors leaving, “guess i’ll just have to spend the whole of graduation in the bathroom crying to myself- don’t need you disrespecting me!” 

 “ mmhmm, ” shiloh hummed in response, nodding her head as she pursed her lips in attempt to hide her smile. though that only lasted a moment, the second the dramatics were turned on pursed smile turned to wide grin as chuckle escaped her.  “ someone had to say it, or else you’d be living in a lie, ” she defended, holding her hands up in surrender but not managing to make smile disappear from her features to make it believable. “ what? no! you can’t do that, sir, ” she protested, though another chuckle escaped. “ what if someone finds you in there? then you’re not only crying at graduation, you’re crying in the bathroom at graduation, that’s totally worse, ” 

Marissa didn’t really have time to spend all day at the grocery store. Her daughter needed picked up from school in a hour, then she’d promised she would call into a client’s house to touch up her roots before she had to rush home to put dinner in the oven. Dinner that currently hadn’t been bought and was either going to be beef or chicken from the options in her hand. “Paisley is refusing to eat beef. She won’t even try it,” She complained, sighing as she stared down the package of food the eight year old would no doubt push around her plate for twenty minutes before switching her gaze to the safer option, “Which means I should probably buy it, right? I should encourage her to try new things.” But was it really worth the argument, apparently she’d passed on the stubborn genes and it was panning out to be a long day.

shiloh thought on it for a moment, hands shoved in jacket pockets, pulling it a little tighter around her while they stood in refrigerated isle of the grocery store. “ i don’t eat beef, and i turned out okay, ” she said aloud, though that was her choice ( one that she had only made within the past year ) and she was an eighteen year old and not an eight year old. fairly large difference in what is needed nutrition wise between the two. “ but, i mean, maybe it would be easier to do it, like, reverse psychology style? ” she suggested, “ like if you do what she wants, no beef, maybe she’ll decide that she wants it since she doesn’t get it anymore? ” was that how children worked? shiloh truly had no idea. she thought it would be far easier than an argument with an eight year old over food though.

                  it's quiet now, 

                                      i doubt if any thoughts will ever come again,                                     but there's a sense of some lone consequence

“so i could seem like cats love me? i do like that plan.” tilting his head upwards as if truly pondering the idea, he shrugged at the question. “kinda thought it’d be up to the cat if they wanted to go out or not. they do not have a name yet though, any ideas? cause i want to avoid all those cliche ones. they’re too cool to be stuck with a name that had no thought put into it.”

shiloh grinned, “ you could be, like, the cat-guy, ” that sounded like more of a compliment in her head than it did when she said it aloud but she continued anyway “ have a little crew of cats following you around, like something out of a cartoon, ” she enthused, totally sure that addition had saved it. “ maybe, i don’t really know, i’ve never had a cat, ” she explained, “ i thought they all wanted to go outside, at least a little bit. ” but perhaps that was because she’d only interacted with strays and ones in pet shop windows. she hummed for a second as she thought on a name. of course the first to come to her head were all very cliche cat names. “ would you ever go for, like, a mythology kinda name? like, hermes is really cool for a cat, i think. ”

It was no secret that Remi was accident prone. He was one of those people who had bad luck no matter what he did, and he had mostly come to terms with this. Unfortunately, sometimes other people got caught in the crossfire, like right now. Why wouldn’t there be somebody around when he tripped on thin air and almost took them out in the process? Of course there had to be someone there, otherwise it would be too easy to pretend that it hadn’t happened. “I’m so sorry, are you okay?”

there was a reason shiloh had always done drama over dance, and it wasn’t that she didn’t like dance. she’d always liked the idea of dancing but unfortunately she just wasn’t a person that had a body that moved in any sort of graceful manner, having to settle for living vicariously through dance moms marathons instead. so when someone came unexpectedly tumbling into her, her focus on her phone and not on staying upright, she tried to dodge them. but it did not end there, oh no. she lost her balance, and fell back too. landing on the ground with an “ ooft. ” she reached for dropped phone first, checking it for damage. it didn’t look any more cracked than it had been before she dropped it, hopefully the touch screen was still working. “ yeah, yeah, i’m okay, it’s okay, ” she assured quickly, pushing herself up from the ground and dusting herself off. noticing light grazing on her palm but ignoring it. she’d clean it when she got home. “ are you alright? ” she asked, looking up to the other, then down again but not seeing what might have caused all the cufuffle  “ what did you trip on? ”

Emmett never realized just how much of his day was filled with doing shit with Ana. With her gone, there was all of this time in his twenty-four hours that felt extra unbearable. He didn’t know what to do with it. He’d milk as much hang time as he could with the boys but even with that, there was still a lot of the day and night to get rid of. What was he going to do? Hang out at home? Homework? Fuck that. He missed his girlfriend and he felt like shit. Fuck being productive when you could just sit in your car at some random parking lot and blast Joji.

to say shiloh wasn’t emmett’s biggest fan would be a severe understatement. but, she struggled to hate the guy, truly. as much as she wanted to and as much as she thought he deserved it. there were just moments, moments she just wasn’t entitled to see but she had anyway, that unfortunately for shiloh’s moral compass made him seem all that more human. moments like this one. walking home from work, stopping by cvs to buy some face mask or a candy bar as a little treat, when she saw his car. she pulled headphones from her ears by their wires, pausing beach bunny’s latest album. 

she shouldn’t approach. that would be weird, right? but he looked so sad, and as much as she didn’t like him and all his flaws and mistakes, she couldn’t help the empathetic twinge in her chest. maybe it wouldn’t be weird– they were both in very weird situations right now, would that cancel out the weirdness of her approaching? in her bright pink baskins and robbins shirt, no less. fuck it. fuck it, she’d feel bad if she didn’t. she wrapped headphone wires around her fingers, shoving them along with her phone into jacket pocket as she felt her heart rate pick up with anxiety. she went for passenger side, that felt less aggressive. rapping once on window with knuckle of her index and middle finger, again, trying to be the least weird, least confrontational she could be. oh, this was a bad idea, but she figured it was too late to think that. “ you alright? ” she asked once window was wound down. “ you looked like you were– ” about to cry? just a little bit? “ having a moment or something. ”

“theoretically speaking…” he broke off to glance at the cat in his arms. “if you brought a cat say… about this size home, do you think someone would notice or that you could keep it a secret for about a year?”

if there was one, absolutely sure fire way to get and hold shiloh’s attention: it was to be holding a fluffy animal when you spoke to her. she hummed in thought for a second while she considered the question. “ well, would you let him outside? ” she asked, probably unfairly assuming the cat’s gender. “ because then you could, like, sort of pretend he was a stray that likes you or something– and it’d probably be a little unfair to try and keep a cat hidden away in your room for a whole year, ” she reasoned, not quite scolding but maybe teasing just a little. “ does he have a name? ”

as the spring came around and reared its head at natalia and the prospect of graduation came creeping up on her, she could feel the pressure building every day. she kept herself busy, for sure, but that didn’t necessarily mean that everything she was doing to keep busy was wise. the girl had a tendency to wear herself a little thin, as her mind went a million miles a minute as she tried to keep everything straight in her head. she was exhausted, to say the least, and that was becoming increasingly evident as time went on, so much so that she hadn’t even realized until it was almost too late that the person in front of her was speaking to her. “i promise you that i have been listening to everything you’ve said,” she spoke with certainty, pushing her hair out of her face. “but, just so we’re on the same page, repeat everything you just said.”

of all the topics she could have been talking about, at least the latest things she’d watched on netflix wasn’t that hard to recount. but all the same, when interrupted she sighed dramatically and blew a raspberry at her friend in response. “ yeah, okay, very believable. i totally believe you, one thousand percent, ” she mused sarcastically, grin pulling up the corners of her lips with ease. truly not irritated by the fact that natalia pretended she’d been listening, nor that she had to repeat herself. “ i was asking if you ever watched that witcher show on netflix? ” she repeated, eyes on natalia’s this time to make sure she was actually listening. “ you know, the one with henry cavill but he has like long lucius malfoy kinda hair?  game of thrones-y but more magic? ” she said, as though the witcher ads hadn’t been all over netflix for like a solid month earlier that year. “ i need something new to watch– ” and she had actively been avoiding anything crime-y in case it came back to haunt her. “ it just seems like a lot, you know? like, very intense, i don’t know if i want that. ”