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 Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 12:13 pm
These Old Bones
Jokes then.
"Psh please. Y'know part of being a slut means you have to get people to want to sleep with you," she told him sagely.
She pointed down the street. "There's a music shop down there. C'mon I'll show you."
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Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 2:00 pm
Fracture
"Maybe if you quit ******** venting s**t on me—"
"Venting? You're the giant piss baby here," Jack accused with a glare from across the cafeteria table. "You don't think I see how you look at her? Be a man about it instead of being a ******** jealous wuss, but don't blame me if you can't step up—"
They'd been arguing for a while now. Next to Jack, Lina was intensely studying her food, her arms pulled in. Was she supposed to speak up or let him go off? She didn't even know if sitting by him was a good idea now.
"Are you sure you're okay?" she meekly put in. "You've been," weird, scary, unacceptable, distant, "different lately."
"I'm fine," he snapped. "I'd be better if you quit checking up on me all the damn time, Mother."
James stepped in, perhaps eager to switch the topic off of him. "That's the sort of s**t I'm talking about right there! We're concerned about you, man, but you keep shutting us out."
"I said I'm fine, Jesus Christ, just lay off." He made to pick up his tray and move, though where exactly he didn't know.
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Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 2:06 pm
Fractured
Chel was only a few tables away and all participants were being loud as ******** it was Stormy she elected to slide in beside, even throwing her arm around the smaller girl. While the beefheads argued, she offered Stormy her basket of french fries (disgusting high school french fries). She basically looked like a person with popcorn at the movies.
"What's the story today?" Always here for drama, Chelsea Craft.
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Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 2:32 pm
Fracture
Something sank in her as Chel took a seat, but she obliged and took a fry. "He's just been having a few bad weeks," Lina replied. (Excused, hoped.) "Probably lots of tests."
James studiously and maybe a touch vigorously stabbed and ate his food.
"How's your day going?"
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Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 4:45 pm
Fracture
"Who James? Dude no wonder. You see he got his face socked in the other day?" she continued eating her fries and made no mention of how she was doing. Instead her face fixated on James and Jack, wondering if her comment would spark something.
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Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 5:07 pm
Fracture
Jack, still midway into leaving the table, shot her a look. Lina chuckled awkwardly. James chewed slowly, slowly....and swallowed.
"Just a few punches between friends, no big," he said.
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Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 5:19 pm
Fracture
"About what?" Chel lived for this kind of s**t.
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Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 9:46 pm
Fracture
"About none of your damn business," Jack growled.
James made a small motion at Chel, somewhere between a shrug and an agreement, as Tall Snark and Broody began to walk away with his tray. "He's on his period again." A half-hearted and limping defense despite the heated argument.
Lina continued to be small and tense and condensed, but she didn't speak up. In truth she was used to that sort of charged atmosphere now; better to duck one's head than to try and look up at the thunderclouds to avoid getting struck.
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Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 9:51 pm
Fracture
Chel wasn't a thundercloud, she was a goddamn bolt of lightning.
She unhooked her arm from Lina and set her fries on the table, instead leaning forward, involving herself in the drama. "Then why the hell aren't you getting him chocolate like the little b***h you is?" She couldn't place why she was inclined to defend Jack in this situation. Maybe because amongst the three of them, he was the only one close to being a friend.
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Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 10:00 pm
Fracture
James snickered humorlessly. "Pot and kettle right here. Why don't you?" he shot back. "Seeing as you go to his house all the damn time? More than his own parents practically."
"He doesn't like candy," Lina mumbled practically to herself, as if the soft volume would somehow diffuse them or at the very least blunt the conversation's sharpness. "Funny for a Halloween kid."
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Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 10:05 pm
Fracture
"Aww, you jealous you ain't getta ride your favorite d**k anymore?" she cooed back, making crying motions with her hands besides her eyes.
She leaned on her hand and said, "It's none of your business why I'm over there."
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Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 10:19 pm
Fracture
"More like you're jealous you aren't."
Lina shifted. "Guys, can we just let it go?"
"Or maybe you did?" James posed anyway. "He's been acting shady as hell lately, even to you," he added with a glance towards Lina. "School whore's really climbing up the ladder here if she's already climbed the beanstalk."
"James!" Lina's hands curled into useless fists but shook with a nervous energy. "Stop it."
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Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 10:34 pm
Fracture
Chel opened her mouth to retort, but close it. Deliberation. She could- no, no. She'd made her decision.
Chel was quiet, clearly ashamed, yet fiercely truthful. "He tutors me 'cause I'm dyslexic." It was very quiet, eyes shifting to the rest of the cafeteria. Who had heard? No they needed to hear. "I go to his house on Tuesday's 'cause I get F's on every test 'cause I can't read the problems and this shitty school decided he might be able to help."
Now she turned to Lina and stuck a single finger in her chest. "And you- ******** you. I never ******** Jack, but ******** I wish I had. Stick up for him and yourself. You don't do s**t and then cry when things go south. ******** do something."
She was in no place to be saying these things to either of them, and in no place to be Jack's protectorate. Yet even in her most base personality, she felt it right to take on the blame, to be the slut, to be the problem child. His reputation was most important to him and hers was already tarnished. There were other friends she could have. There were other tutors and there were other drinks to chug.
Chel walked away and found a seat at Chris' table amongst the other outcasts. They shared a momentary conversation in which Chris looked up at James and Stormy glaring daggers before pulling Chel into something else and providing escape from the previous interaction.
---
A Ghost Isn't Seen
Chel didn't show up that Tuesday or the next Tuesday or the Tuesday after that. In fact, she seemed scarcely present at all; she skipped a few days (Chris dutifully delivered a note "from their parents," written and signed by him posing as her father, declaring she was sick for a few days. When questioned he provided a shrug), she sat on the opposite end of the classroom and talked to different people (sometimes sneaking a glance at Jack before returned to her absorbed conversation). Always gone by lunchtime and the source of rumors at this party or that party. Sleeping around again (Bored of Jack? What a skank.) and getting in no one's way.
In fact the only real sign of their communication was one day when Jack would find a test in his Tutor's cubby, wherein Chel had gotten a C-. It was almost like payment, or more formally, a pink slip.
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Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 11:29 pm
Fracture
And that would always be her problem, regardless of the universe she stood in: those legs were never quite enough to carry two. Sometimes, honestly, barely enough for one even.
"Knew it," James muttered.
- - -
A Ghost Isn't Seen
For a guy who liked his space, he wasn't enjoying it now. He wasn't enjoying much of anything these days. Being alone bothered him, and so did being around people. Being at home pissed him off, and so did aimlessly wandering around. Even graveyard visiting, frozen in his seat with a warm cup of coffee to defrost his hands, didn't seem to alleviate this strange itch under his skin.
Lina might as well have been a ghost haunting him; there and then not, fleeting touches, texts with no voice (I'm here if you need me, like it bears repeating, like he needs the reminder, like she isn't something flimsy herself). And Chel was literally avoiding him. It was like the s**t stack was piling higher and higher to the point that not even Jack could reach the top of it now.
The day he saw her C- was the day he received a D of his own, and it was just so funny, wasn't it? Maybe she'd stolen some of his drive in her get away; maybe that was why he was growing apathetic. (Be like me an' just stop givin' a s**t~) Would either of his parents notice? One didn't even stay at the house anymore. Eomma would freak if she saw proof that the separation was affecting him, but maybe she deserved the stress. Maybe he really should stop caring.
It was easier to when there wasn't Tuesday afternoon to look forward to now.
So it was that Jack invaded her group's space the day afterwards, returning the test with a brisk air. "Good job," was all he said as he turned to leave.
(You do not ask more questions than you need, you do not assume, you plan only with sourced information, and you do not linger.)
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Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 11:49 pm
A Ghost Isn't Seen
Chel said nothing. She let him walk. The test was shoved in her bag and all were witness to the awkward teen drama.
It wasn't until she was at home that she pulled the test out again, noticing a small slip of paper requesting her presence at a graveyard.
She looked to the clock; 7pm. s**t.
---
The Undead Don't Sleep
It was 8pm by the time she got there, bundled in several jackets due to the chill of night setting in. It was sometime in spring, but the dark always brought a chill to the land. That, and it was <******** Michigan meaning it was always fifty degrees too cold for her Tenneessee a**.
"s**t, s**t, s**t," she muttered, checking her phone for a "where the ******** are you" text (still none) before hopping the fence. It was difficult to navigate by only her phone's light (the flashlight app hadn't been invented yet), even worse fumbling over gravestones looking for the right one.
But he was there, dedicated a*****e that he was. Chel's expression remained obscured by a scarf, but there was an urgency in her steps that brought her to the gravestone slightly out of breath and bent over her knees.
"It better be good!" she told him, "It's ******** late." As though that was his fault.
The guitar didn't go unnoticed, but she chose to let him explain.
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