“Lacey there ain’t enough makeup in the fuckin’ world ta make ya look pretty, so stop hoggin’ the fuckin’ bathroom!” Sonny Cernis yelled to his older sister as he banged on the bathroom door. They only had one fucking bathroom in this apartment and this bitch decides she needs the mirror in there to put her face on for an hour. “Just put a fuckin’ bag over your head an’ get the fuck out!”

“Oh shuddup, bitch!” There was a snarly, unapologetic, and authoritative woman’s voice on the other side of the door.

“I’ll shut up when ya get your flabby ass out of the can!”

“Oyyy…” Came the tired groan from Zion’s side of the pullout couch in the living room. The three of them were packed into this tiny one bedroom apartment at Lost Souls like the Curtis boys from The Outsiders, Lacey having called the bedroom and Zion and Sonny sharing the queen sized pullout. None of them wanted to live alone, but Zion knew Sonny would never admit that it was mostly his fearfully tight grasp that kept them all from getting their own units. While Zion certainly didn’t get warm feelings at the thought of their inevitable separate living arrangements, not leaving Sonny alone with his own thoughts had the biggest gravitational pull on the trio. Thinking in silence just revved the younger Cernis up more and had him either climbing the walls or just plain yelling at them, and it only pissed him off more when the cracked paint didn’t respond. At least when they were all together Lacey yelled back and Sonny would shut up for a while once she’d cowed him. It seemed a bit less crazy that way… right? “What’s up? Why’re we screamin’ now?”

“Oh good mornin’ sleepin’ beauty! Took too many Xanny’s last night durin’ the storm, huh? Feelin’ groggy?” Sonny greeted with a quirk of his eyebrow, temporarily ceasing his knocking.

“Fuck off Sonny, y’know I hate storms,” Zion replied through a yawn before wiping at his eyes. Just to be petty, he took the foam bed divider that laid between their halves of the bed and tossed it onto Sonny’s neatly made side. His older brother flipped him off while he himself sent the other a shit-eating grin as he got out of bed and left his own side undone. He scratched at the back of his head and yawned again before heading to the fridge. Before he even bothered opening it he asked. “Anythin’ ta eat?”

“Yeah, totally!” Sonny called back to him with a sarcastic smile. “We found time between the storm and wakin' up this mornin’ ta head out for all the essentials!”

“Could’a just said no, jackass.”

“No, jackass,” Sonny deadpanned before he went back to banging on the bathroom door. “I’ve needed ta piss for half an hour ya bitch, come the fuck on!!”

“Who’s fault is that?!” Lacey growled, annoyed at her ill tempered brother. “You know when I get ready for work you twat. Next time get up when the sun fuckin’ rises or ev’n better since you got a dick: PEE OUTSIDE!” She let the damn idiot wait another two minutes, giving no fucks about his bladder. Once she was satisfied with his agony, she threw the door open glowering at him, “I ain't tryna’ look pretty, dumbass, that’s your job. Prissy ass jailbait motherfuckin’ lookin’ ass. Now fuck outta’ my way.” She shoulder-checked her brother and marched to the small dining room table to grab her purse. With a few heated curses, Sonny righted himself and slammed the bathroom door closed behind him.

Grumbling to herself, it was too early for Sonny to be a little bitch, but sadly, he was always a little bitch, she took out some cash for Zion. In between her fingers was a stack of tens. One hand waited for him to take the cash, the other hand dug in her bag to look for her phone. “Get yourself a sandwich and some ice cream, on me, and I needs you to get the essentials,” she instructed and soon after added, purposely yelling so the man in the bathroom could hear her, “Since Sunny D a LAZY MOFUCKA!”

“FUCK OFF! I’ve had a job since I was ten, the fuck is that lazy?!” Sonny's irritated response filtered through the bathroom walls.

“A’ight mama, thanks,” Zion cut in before another screaming match could start between the Cernis siblings, grabbing the cash from her and stuffing it in his pocket as he moved over to the kitchen counter. He grabbed her phone, which he’d put on the charger last night after she’d passed out, knowing it would have died before she woke otherwise. Tate always had a lot of jobs for her, and sometimes she was too tired when she got home to do more than drop her purse on the folding table in the kitchen and drop onto her bed. Sonny too, as the Carlisle crew captain, always forgot to charge his cell when he schlepped through the door, typically in the dark hours of the morning. Zion always made a point to check both Cernis siblings’ phones and put them on their chargers before he went to sleep himself. He could never sleep until he knew they were both home safe anyways. He handed the fully charged device over to Lacey and asked, “Need any more smokes?”

“Aw baby, what would I do without you?” Lacey’s demeanor changed when Zion was beside her with her charged phone in hand. Peeling it from his gentle grasp, she gave him a kiss on the forehead before going back to her purse to check how many cigarettes she had left. Half a pack. Quickly calculating the one hundred and thirty she gave him and what they needed, she shook her head, “Nah, I’m good. This should last me for two more days. Focus on toiletries and meats.”

While she did get paid fairly decent for a serpent, she chose to stash most of her money in the floorboard of her bedroom for emergencies and for Zion’s college savings, if he wanted to get a higher education. She probably should open a bank account for him but she hated walking into that ritzy place. At least here she knew where her money was, though there was still the risk of the apartment catching on fire or them being forcibly evicted. She could only hope nothing happened to them and their small home. She’d be so pissed if all her hard earned money went to waste. That was for her beloved Shy Boy. “Oh, and when you go, try to make a friend, you hear? You need more than just that Pang Pang big boobah girl.”

“Hey, there’s nothin’ wrong with Pangerz,” Zion defended his best friend lightly before laughing a little, knowing that Lacey meant nothing bad by it and taking no real offense. Likewise, she knew he wouldn’t be upset by her saying he needs more friends. He didn’t call her mama for nothing, and Lacey Cernis has made it very clear how she views Zion. And sometimes, like just then when she kissed his forehead, he could close his eyes and remember how it felt for his ma to do the same thing for him before she disappeared. Sometimes he wonders if his ma is still out there, or if she’s passed on to be with his late friends Conan and Danny. And yeah, one way he’d never respond to Lacey’s needling for him to get more friends is to mention that well he used to have more. “But I’ll do my best, just for you mama.”

“Gag me with a fuckin’ spoon!” Sonny’s voice called out through the thin walls before they heard him turn on the faucet.

Zion rolled his eyes and smiled at Lacey before hesitating for only a second. He caught her by surprise with a tight hug and a kiss to her cheek before he detached himself and disappeared out the apartment door with a quick, “Be back later!” thrown over his shoulder.

“Call me if you need me!” And as he walked out, Lacey was back to cheekily teasing and yelling at her dimwitted brother, “Sunny, haven’t you heard? Choking is my speciality! Don’t get my hopes up, prick!”

Sitting on a chair by one of the pastel garden tables outside of the ice cream parlor, in a cutesy get up (hating it mind you), Autumn watched her ex’s Instagram story gritting her teeth. She still hadn’t told her dad she needed a new phone so she was using Carrie’s to stalk. Carrie advised against it, but of course, she was a sweetheart and knew if she didn’t give her phone up, Autumn was going to walk from the parlor to his pinned location on snapchat to key his car and choose violence instead of kindness. She chewed on some almonds, barely paying attention to her surroundings. Her daily stalking routine was interrupted by a phone call from her brother. Sighing to herself, she picked up the phone and answered, “What? You better make this quick. I only got five minutes left of my fifteen.” Leaning back in her chair, she watched a familiar face pass by her. “Might make it ten. Not like we’re busy right now. When are you coming home anyways? Dad’s worried.”

Zion walked up to the ice cream shop with grocery bags in his hand and shoved into his tattered backpack, having made sure this was his last stop so that the ice cream didn’t melt while he tried to shop. If he’d just been getting some for himself it wouldn’t matter, but he wanted to make sure to get Lacey and Sonny a pint each of their favorite while he was here. As he headed to the door, he took a moment to glance back at the scowling brunette at one of the picnic tables, running his eyes up and down her outfit and submitting the beautiful picture to his memory before he shouldered his way through the entrance only to land eyes on yet another beautiful face that he always loves another glimpse of.

Rocking her cute pink outfit, Caroline twirled on her heel when she heard the bell ring and pranced to the ice cream display. With bubbly enthusiasm, she beamed at their new guest and gave their token greeting in the most warm and welcoming of ways, “Welcome to Delicate Delicacies! Home of the sweetest little things, like me! How may I serve you?” Honestly, some of her favorite moments at work were when she was alone behind the counter because she could be her best winsome self without her boss, Vivian, outshining her and without grumpy Autumn being such a vibe killer. Thankfully, Autie was on break and Viv was in the back making fresh cookies and cream ice cream.

When she registered who had entered the parlor, her smile grew wider as she said her classmate’s name in her adorable sing-song voice, “Ziiiiiiionnnnnnnnn!” she let out a little giggle and chirped, “Long time no see. How’s your summer been? Oh you must try our peanut and butter jelly flavor. I insist! Guess what it tastes like?!” Carrie was already preparing a small sample for her peer to taste.

“‘S been fine, just been workin’. An’ I dunno, like a PB ‘n’ J?” Zion asked with a playful smile for the bubbly blonde, accepting the sample spoon from her. Her bright smile always seemed to pull one out of him as well, and he liked how such a simple action always seemed to light up the space around her. “Or were ya gonna say that it’s one’a the things here as sweet as you?” He quickly sampled the flavor and threw the small spoon into its designated trash bin before setting his groceries down at his feet.

“Oh shucks,” Carrie giggled and simpered at the compliment, “Flattery will get you free ice cream.” Her voice went from high to low real quick, as she cupped her hand around her lips like she was telling the boy a secret, “But I won’t tell anyone if you don’t.” There was an instant she glanced to the back room to make sure her boss was in her own world and jams. When the coast was clear, she was back smiling at her classmate, “I mean it. Pick a flavor and I’ll give you a pint for free.”

“Never say no ta free shit,” Zion replied, ever the southsider and former street kid, eyes going back to hers from where they had been watching her soft pink lips flirt while being half shielded by her dainty hand. Her bright blue eyes stuck out against the yellow eyeshadow, meticulously chosen to compliment her uniform. He leaned on the counter, getting a little closer to her face as he smirked. “Ya wouldn’t happen ta be one’a the flavors I can take home, would ya?”

There was a delicate sweetness that washed over the blonde Sinclair. Her smile never faded as her blushing flowered, her cheeks now the color of pink champagne. She didn’t want to lose any cool points even though this was unusual territory for her. All the boys flirted with Autumn, not her. Coyly brushing a strand of hair behind her ear, hiding her racing heart and inability to focus on anything other than the boy in front of her, Zion Yakovich, Carrie leaned forward, getting herself closer to his face. Resting herself on the counter, she batted her eyelashes flirtatiously and asked, “Depends. You free this Saturday?” Biting the bottom of her lip, getting lost in his green-light-in-a-dark-night eyes, Carrie saw him and only him.

"I can be persuaded," Zion encouraged, the smirk shifting into a flirtatious grin as he leaned against the counter to mirror her. He hid his surprise at Carrie's suddenly eager participation, considering he'd been flirting with her for a couple years now and she never seemed to reciprocate. He was honestly starting to think about shelving the flirting with her so she didn't feel harassed, and then here she goes asking him if he's free! He found himself straying from her eyes, blue as a clear sunny day on the north side, back down to her softly bitten lip and staying there for a moment before asking, "Why, got somethin' in mind for me?"

“Pool party,” an agitated voice appeared into the ice cream parlor, along with the resounding bell to make her presence known. With Autumn back inside, Carrie was quick to lean up, as if she didn’t just flirt hardcore with her classmate. “You should come. We don’t want to be pretentious asswipes and exclude Southies.” Returning behind the counter, the ornery soon-to-be Queen Clover put Carrie’s phone under the register. With a resting bitch face, she unintentionally glared at the boy as she headed to the bathroom to wash her hands before having to deal with ice cream.

Carrie pouted while she watched her twin come and go with a dark cloud over her head. “Sorry about Autumn. She just went through a bad break up. Derrick cheated on her which led to them fighting in his car, he left her stranded at the gas station and she almost got hurt by this sicko but three boys with unique nicknames helped her out! It’s all very raw especially since he’s acting like she meant nothing to him on social media. But she’ll be okay. That’s part of the reason I gave her the idea of the pool party. It’ll be a nice summer thing before school starts! Also Derrick can suck it and see how much fun she’s having.” Caroline nodded, hoping a little booze and some fun games could set her sister’s mind right.

"Yeah fuck Derrick! Also, that was nice'a ya, y’all must be close," the serpent replied, eyes on the bathroom door that covered the retreat of the hot-tempered Autumn. He knew she had been dating that jackass jockstrap Derrick Miller on and off since the end of sophomore year, but it had never stopped Zion from flirting with her every free chance he got. Both of these girls had a very special place in his heart already, but somewhere along the line his heart started to beat for them too. He was still staring at the door when the other part of Carrie's explanation filtered through, but when it did his head snapped back to her so fast he felt his neck crack. The Carlisle crew group chat flashed across his mind, having been very active last night as Ran and Tov explained their shenanigans early yesterday morning.

"Wait, Autumn's the one that TNT wrenched a fucker's face for?" This is where names would be nice in the boys' stories, but unfortunately they'd simply referred to the girl as 'the Doctor's daughter'- and later daughters when they got to the Doc's house- and Zion is content enough living his life without knowing every little thing about his classmates, so he hadn't even known that she was the Doc's daughter, or even that she had a sister. "Ran said she drives like a fuckin' demon!"

“Oh yes, that’s kind of her thing. Niles taught her everything she knows. People don’t believe it when we say Niles knows his cars and races for our uncle but one day, one day they’ll see,” Carrie talked as if everyone knew her brother, though truth be told if it wasn’t for his class, up until recently he would’ve been invisible. It was his whole courting period with Cece that inspired him to be active on social media suddenly and now locals realized that Hector’s son was hot. Carrie rolled her eyes at the thought before disclosing, “You know, and this is between you and me. He’d be so upset if I told you, but eh, I don’t care. Have you heard of Pink Slip? I don’t know how much you keep tabs on the racing scene.”

"Cars were always more'a Decky an’ Danny's thing," he answered honestly with a small shrug. His mother knew her way around a car, and she always raved that his father had been a genius with them. But aside from that and the toy Volvo V70 R his mom had given him as a child, saying his father drove one like it, he was not so sad to say he didn't have much clue. "Most time I spend in a car is on shifts at work. But if he's got a hard enough name ta be recognized by those in the know then I don't doubt his skills. But anyways, we're off track an’ I got groceries. There was talk of a party an’ a free pint of ice cream, both from a beautiful chick."

Carrie had almost forgotten to serve him. At her job! What poor customer service. “Oh whoospie, what flavor do you want? And as for the party—”

“We’ll drop you the deetz.” Once again, Autumn had abruptly made her appearance back in the main room and this time situated herself behind the register, officially back from her break. Crossing her arms, she scanned Zion up and down and firmly suggested, “You should come, it's going to be our first party—”

“Like ever! Since we’re finally seniors and can make our mark.”

“Yeah, and we want things to be… interesting,” Autumn challenged the southie boy, by not so subtly checking him out with her sharp eyes and smirking. Flipping her hair back, the cheer captain teased, putting her anger toward her ex on the back burner to focus on this boy in her class that she’s talked to but not really talked to, “You look fun. Are you?”

“Oh and ice cream????” Carrie excitedly asked, still needing to make his pint, unsure of what flavor.

“Ice cream. That too.”

"Oh I'm fuckin' barrels’a fun, just wait 'n' see," Zion challenged back, smirk firmly back in place and showing just a flash of teeth. The fucking luck he had to have both of these girls in front of him, finally interacting back and even inviting him to a party! He could probably die happy now. He shook his head slightly to get himself back on track, trying to be mindful of the perishables he had to get home. He also had to get to work soon, but if he could choose to, he would stay in this moment all day. "An’ I'm gettin' three, actually. Butter Pecan for my mama, Neapolitan for my brother and some Raspberry Chocolate Chip for me. How much?"

“Don’t worry about it, Zion!” Carrie exclaimed, starting to make his pints with the grace and speed of a girl who's been doing this for a couple years now. Too long for a girl who didn’t really need the job.

Autumn agreed, “Seriously, don’t.”

In unison, the twins said together, Carrie’s voice higher pitched than Autie’s but both complementing one another like a symphony: "It's on us."

When he leaves they’d make sure to pay for his pints so Vivian doesn’t have a conniption. It wasn't like this was a lot of money for them anyways. He was a friend after all. Helping Carrie bag the pints, the girls simultaneously reached over the counter to give Zion his bags with all the goodies.

“Sweet things for a sweet thang!”

“Really, Carrie?”

“Whattt? I thought it was cute because of our store greeting.” Carrie defended her honor and her dorky comment. There was no way Zion didn’t like it, especially not after their shared moment from earlier. “Anyways see you Saturday, maybe?”

“In a bathing suit, I hope,” Autumn candidly added.

Zion did his best to keep functioning at full capacity after the full blown fantasy that was created by the two of them talking in unison. While they always seemed to come as a pair, he hadn’t really thought of the possibility that his flirting with both of them might end in both of them returning the favor. He certainly hadn’t expected it to happen on the same day at the same time. Now his brain was giving him scenarios that he honestly didn’t have the time to start entertaining.

“Y’all are the best!” He finally said as he came back down to earth, accepting the bags from their hands and bending down to pick up his other groceries, as well as give himself a chance to take a deep breath and compose himself. When he had everything, he straightened back up and threw them both a thousand-watt grin. “I’ll be there Saturday, with some swim trunks. Until then, I have the memory of your beautiful faces,” he couldn’t resist one last flirtatious comment before he headed out the door to return home, calling out. “See ya later!”

And all Lacey had wanted was for him to try and make a friend. Wait until he tells her this!

In the early hours of the morning, the Italian girl from Scott Street replayed scenes of the evening's events over and over in her head. The previous night had been something straight out of those sappy, sultry movies she loved to bash on. As experienced as Natalia considered herself to be in the art of loving, Mitena managed to exceed expectations that hadn't even been set yet by taking her to heights she hadn't reached before under the blanket of stars. The woman's hungry lips on her lips and skin, so plump and luscious and soft, had set her athletic body ablaze with desire. Her touch was gentle but deliberate, as if determined to explore, find and target all the places that made her squirm. Her tongue… God, her tongue… So perfectly skilled it made her legs shake and brought her to tears. And throughout it all, there were those breathtaking brown eyes deadlocked on hers, with the same drunken lust Tal was sure was mirrored on her own-- taking in her every expression as affirmation to continue working her magic.

Their outdoor escapade eventually led them back to the barn, where Natalia proceeded to give her newest lover the same unforgettable experience she had just been presented with. Nestled in the privacy of Mitena's bedroom, the sun-kissed skin had been like warm velvet under Tal's fingertips, her beautiful locks of silk tangled in between her fingers as they kissed fervently. The sounds emanating from the Native girl's lips had been sweeter than any melody she could ever sing, and her taste of honey was an intoxicating nectar she couldn't get enough of. Once Tal had fulfilled her quest and exhaustion had claimed them, the two girls had laid in each other's arms for hours on end. Between the exchange of soft kisses and gentle caresses, they spoke and learned more about one another before inevitably drifting off into a peaceful sleep… Until now.

While the sun rose over the horizon to illuminate the luscious greenery of the Blue Hill Reservation, a war was raging inside the head of Natalia Belmonte. When she had first accepted the invitation to join Poppy, Mordechai and Jade in their quest to find Mitena, Tal had done so in the sole interest of self-preservation. Her purpose for seeking out this long-lost sister of Charlie’s wasn't to get to know her or make sure she was safe from whatever threat the Southies thought she was under. Quite frankly, she hadn’t cared about that. Her only goal had been to inquire what she knew about the Belmonte and Strongbow ties to consequently control the narrative based on the information she obtained. Then, when she became aware of the existence of letters exchanged between Tena and Charlie, Tal’s plans had expanded to include the search, confiscation and potential destruction of the potentially incriminating letters. But as she laid face-up in Mitena’s bed, staring blankly at the ceiling while the most beautiful girl snuggled closely beside her slept peacefully, Natalia knew that the pursuit of these ulterior motives had gone to hell the second hers and Tena’s eyes met in the longhouse bathroom the night before.

The young woman's gaze turned to Mitena, and she instantly felt guilt bubbling up in her stomach at her budding feelings towards Charlie’s sister, her actions with her of the night before and her previous self-centered selfishness. The more they had spoken, the more Natalia had wanted to know about Tena. Their conversations had revealed a woman who was not only sweet and kind, but charming, intelligent, intuitive, and highly perceptive. She instilled in Tal a feeling of safety and comfort-- that she could tell her absolutely anything without feeling judged or criticized. They purposely avoided the topic of Charlie and anything related to him, but even then there was plenty of conversation to be had. She'd told Tena about her time at school. About her mother. About her regrets with Danny and all the time they missed. About her dreams, aspirations, and fears. About deep things she hadn't voiced aloud to anybody else before. And throughout it all, the native girl had been a source of helpful insight, good advice and words of encouragement. Even if her beautiful features had been the ones to pull her in, it had been Tena's essence what had truly captivated Natalia. All she could hope for was that this wouldn't be the first and last moments they shared.

Tena had learned very early on in her life that hiding your true self can only lead down dark yet well traveled paths. From the stories of her father, to seeing how Forrest and Illara parents' lives went and especially considering what happened to her brother. It was for this reason that she always said what she felt, it was for this reason that she held no secrets and told no lies. When her eyes first locked onto the brunette running through the bar she was intrigued. Then when Tena walked into that bathroom and her eyes met Natalia’s lost galaxies of green, she knew what she wanted and she wouldn’t lie, she wanted Natalia. As she nestled herself in the embrace of her Italian lover, warm skin pressed against one another, her arm draped around the Eden girls waist, Mitena would by lying to herself if she said that she wanted it to end.

Their time together had been short: twelve hours at the most. And much of that time, Tena had spent exploring Natalia’s body with her lips and tongue, caressing every contour, tracing every freckle with her fingertips. Mitena and Natalia’s spirits danced as their bare bodies played and became one. Yet she knew there was more to it-- more to her. Their physical attraction to one another was a no brainer but what kept Mitena coming back was Tal’s soul. In between kisses, whispered words of thought and feeling, seeing glimpses of the real girl with stars in her eyes, that was stronger than any drug or science. The songstress knew she wanted more, but she was scared. If she opened her eyes now, would that be the end?

When she reluctantly opened her eyes to accept the world, all of Tena’s fears fell away as she groggily saw the infinite galaxies that she had fallen in love with the night before gazing back at her. A smile crept up across her lips as she leaned upwards, her hand tracing up from Natalia’s waist, brushing her breast before settling in a hold within the offcomers luscious dark locks. “Morning, Stargirl.” She spoke softly before capturing Tal’s bottom lip between her own. She moaned in content with the thought that if the world ended whilst they stayed in that bed, she could die happy.

Whatever guilt Natalia had been feeling faded away the second Mitena's eyes fluttered open and she smiled at her. While the feeling that she was insulting or mocking Charlie's memory with what she was doing still nagged at her, the Native woman seemed to know the perfect way to get Tal to push those thoughts aside to focus on the present. Within seconds, her soft touch was causing goosebumps on her bare, pale skin. Her hand had moved to grasp Tal's curly dark locks in that dominant way that drove her wild. And after a brief greeting, the two women were locked in a kiss.

The moan in her mouth made her shiver with growing desire. Natalia, completely entranced by Mitena's love spell, had wasted no time in laying on her side, wrapping her arms around her lover, and pulling her as close as she could to her body. "Good morning, pretty girl," she mumbled unintelligibly without breaking the kiss, her words muffled by Tena's lips. She let her own hands freely explore the woman's enthralling body as they kissed deeply, savoring every second of her and her company. Only after she was breathless did Tal pull away from Tena.

"I don't know if we'll ever get out of bed if we keep messing around like this…" the Italian girl teased with a smile before pulling Tena into another heated kiss.

Mitena pulled Natalia’s leg around her waist, locking them even closer together as their tongues danced in a ballet of tantalizing lust and want. She had never experienced drugs beyond her aunt's weed or alcohol but the native girl could only imagine this is what it was like to be an addict. From the second their skin touched for the first time the previous evening, Tena knew she just had to have more of Tal. She needed to be with her in body and spirit and every conceivable way. Her heart was on fire and her brain was screaming, her body was aching and she was completely and utterly lost in this strange girl that walked into her life one night at the longhouse.

Moving her lips to Natalia’s neck and collarbone, Tena began to speak breathlessly in between soft sensual kisses. “I could stay here forever with you.” She moaned as she playfully bit the bottom of Tal’s chin. The reality of the situation was that they did need to get out of bed because the Great Spirit had sent Natalia here on a quest not for love and not alone. Mitena had promised that she would talk with the Italian girl's friends about her brother and what she knew. It seemed that even in death, Charlie Jay was causing problems for the people he loved. It seemed that was the Strongbow way.

Tena leaned upwards and pressed her forehead to Natalia’s, the warmth of their bodies radiating against one another in an inferno. She stared into her lover's green eyes and smiled. “What are you doing to me?” She whispered.

Her inquiry made the Eden girl smile at the idea that they were both asking themselves the same question. She'd been attracted at first sight to others before, but not to the depth or the level that she was experiencing with Mitena. "I could ask you the same thing," Natalia murmured back with a small laugh, running her fingers through Tena's dark hair, giving her a soft, fleeting kiss.

Mitena had never felt like this before. Had her mother sent her someone to give her heart to? Was it her father? Maybe it was Charlie? Maybe he had sent Natalia into Tena’s embrace as a way of seeking forgiveness. Whomever or whatever sent the Stargirl to the singer, they were not of this world. “Tell me to go make breakfast otherwise you’re stuck here.”

Getting stuck with Tena in bed for an undisclosed period of time sounded like absolute bliss to Natalia, but she knew it would have to end at some point. The rest of the Southies were relying on her for transportation back home, and their agreement had been that it would be an overnight visit. They probably had other things to do back home, too.

But that didn't mean they needed to leave the house just yet…

"How aboutttt… we eat each other for breakfast instead?" the Italian girl proposed with a suggestive smirk, followed up by a wink.

“Don’t threaten me with a good time.” Mitena giggled as she rolled forward and on top of Natalia. Hovering her face over the off-comer's, the indigenous girl pressed her body against Tal’s, raising her hands and locking her fingers in the ringlets of the pale, freckled girl's dark hair. She didn’t want to move. In that moment and every moment that would follow her heart and her body craved more time with Natalia. Yet she knew it could not last, she knew that outside of the barn there was a world waiting for them, people waiting. She pressed her mouth down against her lover’s, savoring the taste from Natalia’s lips like she was the last breath of a perfect dream that Tena did not want to wake up from. “Breakfast tastes amazing.” She teased as she kissed Tal again.

Natalia let out a moan of approval. The very limited resolve she had to get off the bed and out of the bedroom was thrown out the window the second Mitena rolled on top of her and took control of her body with a deep kiss. Her hands explored her smooth back again a few times before firmly settling below it, never once pulling apart from the passionate kiss she was in. In normal circumstances, weak was not a word that Natalia would use to describe herself. She was strong, in charge and in control of the situations around her (most times, at least). But with Mitena, the Italian girl felt just like that: weak, and unable to resist the supernatural pull that had brought them together in the first place. The reins she usually held so tightly had been surrendered to Tena, allowing herself to submit to the native girl's tantalizing bidding. It was nice to follow someone else’s lead for once.

The more they kissed, the more Tal felt that familiar sentiment of desire starting to overwhelm her. There was something she was craving right now; much more than any breakfast, lunch or meal she could have… "Let me taste you again, sweetheart…" Tal pleaded in a whisper with a hint of desperation in Tena's ear, peppering her neck with kisses and gentle nibbles to sway her decision.

Within Natalia’s scintillating words and full luscious lips, Tena found her body becoming weaker. This was not from a pain or an aggravation but from a hunger waiting to be satiated and the only way to do so would be to once again give herself to the all encompassing supernova that was her Stargirl. She felt her spine quake and shudder beneath Tal’s neck kisses as she moaned into the pillow. Mitena could feel the smooth steel that sat pierced in Natalia’s chest pushed firmly against her own and it drove her further into the early morning madness.

With magic and electricity circling the room, Tena pressed her forehead against her pale lover’s. Thank you, Charlie. The whisper of a thought gleaming across her mind for a fleeting moment. Her big brother had done wicked things, caused shame and pain and set fire to almost everything he touched. Yet she knew that somehow, some way, he had plucked a star from the sky and handed it to Tena herself, so that she could care for it, so that she could feel its warmth and light fill up her life. Charlie stole a star from heaven so Mitena could love it: a star called Natalia.

She shared her breath with the offcomer, lips hovering over lips and bodies deeply entwined with one another in the throws of tantric sorcery and untamed hearts. “Now now.” Tena’s words danced across the air. “I know you’re hungry but so am I.” The radiant indigenous girl descended beneath the duvet slowly, her lips tracing every contour of Natalia’s body on the way down.

Time to feast.

---

Some time later, Mitena’s bike pulled up outside Adora’s home. She had always been one for the finer things despite the usual rustic living of Reservation life. After their own private breakfast, Tena had offered Tal her choice of clothes from her wardrobe. Whether her items fit her or if her style of apparel was up to snuff for the obviously fashionable Stargirl wasn’t something Mitena had concerned herself over. She was instead basking in the feeling that had overflown in her heart and mind.

Once they had stopped off at Resi’s truck for some food to bring with them, Tena had been hit with a very sobering feeling of what was about to transpire. She was about to meet all the people that her brother loved so much, the people that shared the fears and loves of his very soul. They knew him better than anyone. As they ascended the steps to Adora’s home, the raven haired songstress gripped onto Natalia’s hand tightly. Was she even ready for this? She had spent a long time putting to rest the soul of a boy she didn’t really know but loved so dearly. By putting their five pieces of his heart together, would this tempt the Great Spirit to bring him back?

There was a shift in the vibe surrounding Mitena as the two women made their way to the front door of Adora Diamondheart’s home. Whereas before she had been starry-eyed, cheerful and chatty, she was now quiet, reserved, and even hesitant to some degree. If the change in demeanor wasn’t proof enough that something was weighing on her heart, then the way her grasp on Tal’s hand grew tighter with every step they took confirmed it. So instead of allowing themselves inside as soon as they had reached the front door, Natalia turned to Tena with eyes full of concern. Considering the circumstances, she could only guess what was the cause of her mood swing, but she preferred to get a straight answer rather than assume anything.

"Hey. Are you okay?" she asked her, tucking a dark strand of hair behind her ear and caressing her cheek. She wanted to make sure the woman knew that, much like she had been the night before, Tal was also a safe space to confide in. "We don't have to talk about anything you don't want to or anything you're not ready for."

“I think that’s the problem.” Tena turned to face the beautiful stranger. “I want to talk about everything. I think the reality has finally hit that you, your friends, you all are a part of my brother's story in a way that I can barely fathom.” She looked into Natalia’s green eyes in hopes of getting lost, in finding comfort in the embrace of the neon eternity. “I met Charlie only once. We only talked in letters. When he did what he did, I wouldn’t say it was easy, but it was less difficult I think for me to push past it and move forward. You were there. You lived it. And now that I’m about to have access to his world, is it wrong for me to be absolutely terrified?”

In the last twelve hours, Mitena had shared more of herself with Natalia than with anyone before her. This wasn’t because she was guarded, if anything she was a massively open book when it came to even the most taboo of subjects, this included Charlie. Yet there was something, something mystical that happened when the last living Strongbow looked into the eyes of the Stargirl. She couldn’t lie. She couldn’t hide herself. Natalia saw her and everything that she was. Her gaze filled her up with warmth and lightened even the darkest of spots.

Leaning in, Tena captured Tal’s cheeks between her palms before she stole a kiss from her thick, soft lips and took in her addictive taste. “Normally I’d ask the Spirit to send me courage. Instead, it sent me you and you’re all I need or want right now.”

Natalia swallowed hard and put on her bravest face, letting a fresh wave or guilt wash over her. As honest as she was being about wanting to provide support to Tena and as warm as it made her feel that her mere presence was giving the other girl courage, a part of Tal was secretly hoping that she would change her mind about discussing anything related to Charlie. It was a pointless wish, though, as she could see that the determination in Mitena to get a glimpse at her brother's world was absolute. So with her best attempt at a reassuring smile in the face of potential adversities, Tal returned Tena's kiss and led them to the inside of Adora's house.

“I don’t even know where to start.”

Tena nervously laughed as she professed her trepidation. Her doe eyes looked around the picnic bench, assorted breakfast snacks such as fry bread, breakfast burritos and clustered granola cakes sat on paper plates having freshly cooked by the one and only Forrest Proudstar. She glanced at the collected group from Edenridge, Massachusetts that had travelled to the rolling fields of the Blue Hill Reservation in order to protect her. Each person sat at that table meant something to a very particular boy that was no longer of this plain and Earth. He was a boy of deep trouble and hard times, broken promises and words. He was an urban poet bequeathed the soul of a wordsmith by a higher power. He was a troubled boy.

Charlie Decker; they were all pieces of the heart of Charlie Decker.

Mitena reached beneath the table for Natalia’s hand. She hadn’t known the Italian girl any longer than a day but the comfort she felt in her presence was soothing; borderline intoxicating, like the rest of her had been during their night together. It was telling of her brother's choice in friends that these kids journeyed all the way to the Rez to try and help a girl they didn’t even know existed. Charlie seemed to choose the people in his life well.

“I guess I should just start from the beginning?” The raven haired singer picked up her iced tea and had a quick sip before continuing. She could feel her heart racing. Why was she so nervous? “I didn’t know Charlie even existed until he sent me a letter when I was….fourteen? Maybe fifteen? Apparently he found me during some class project you guys had about family trees. We share a father, James, but I gather you already know that. Charlie and I only ever met in person once. Everything else was through the letters.”

"I remember that project." Jade found herself saying out loud, almost like it was an impulse or something like that. She could remember that project clearly because she remembered where her head was at during that time. Her uncle had helped her fill in her own tree to make up for the gaps that were left because she refused to add her parents to it.

But as she looked around the table, her gaze went in a circle from Tena and Natalia to the two that sat opposite of her: Key and Poppy. She wondered what was going through their minds. What could they be thinking? Even more importantly, was it right for Jade to be the first one to speak? She didn't feel like she had any. For the last month, she was a ghost to those closest to her and she still felt like a grim cold chill even as she sat nestled between them. Yesterday she felt like she took a lot of the right steps forward, but there was still this underlying feeling deep inside her, like the ripple effect of what she did not just last month, but on that night.

Now that she was face to face with Tena, Charlie’s long lost sister, she couldn’t help but have that one night on her mind. Those thoughts never went away. They were never resolved nor addressed. Jade ran away, sank herself in pills, whiskey, and whatever she could to not feel for a whole month. She knew she couldn’t do that anymore. Her moment with Natalia and again with Key, knowing just how much she truly missed out on (either by her design or the design of her pain), there was a clarity moment she was having right now and it was staring her into the face with the same features Charlie had. “So…in the letters he sent you, did he ever mention a night at a Carlisle house party. December of 2016, did he ever say anything about that night?” As she asked, her blue-green eyes side-glanced at Poppy and Key. She understood what this potentially could bring up but she needed to ask. She needed to know and it was the only way she knew at this moment to even start to address what she tried to leave behind her.

“You mean the night that Allison Davies died? Yeah he mentioned it a lot.” Mitena’s eyes fell upon the packed table of food. Indeed Charlie had talked about that evening as the night that everything went wrong. That was the night that he was labelled a murderer and his descent into the embrace of the withered hands of the craven tribe truly began. “Especially towards the end.” Seeking comfort, the indigenous singer moved the hand of Natalia’s she was holding under the table into her lap. She exhaled, trying to keep her composure. “I think that night created in Charlie a well of guilt. But not just for what happened to Allison, even though he most certainly blamed himself for that. He was sad because he had made promises to all of you and he failed to keep them.”

The faces staring back at her were somewhat terrifying despite their sincere and understanding looks. “Though that’s as much detail as he goes into in his letters. You sort of put more pieces of the puzzle together when you read his book. Like how he really just wanted to spend the day with you, Poppy.” Mitena looked towards the ethereal girl on the edge of the bench before drifting her gaze to Decky. “Or about how he let you down Mordechai because he was taking care of your patch.” The girl turned to face Jade, who had started off the line of questioning. “He especially held a lot of guilt for you and how you were forced to see something you shouldn’t. That one really hurt him-- or at least that’s what I took from his words. I don’t know how true it is.”

While Mitena spoke, it took everything in Jade to not show just how high her emotions were. Tena didn’t know it, but when she mentioned how jade witnessed something she shouldn’t have, that made her heart swell. The whole time she was blaming herself for it. Blaming herself for how this weight lingered on her shoulder because of that night, she never knew how Charlie felt about it. “I…never knew he felt that way about it.” She couldn’t bring herself to mention it specifically. It was too painful to speak about it, but she felt she had some form of closure.

She looked down at the picnic table, looking at the food but not reaching for any of it. “I don’t think you have any reason to not believe it. It seems he trusted you a lot, Tena. And I can see why. To find out you have a sister, maybe he just wanted to know what that felt like.” As she spoke, Jade’s gaze went to Poppy and gave her sister a soft smile before returning it to Tena. “I like to think that he found safety in you in whatever way he could.”

The letters. The book. The broken promises. Penelope James held onto her fork as she stared at her plate of fruit and some biscuits. Untouched, as expected of her. Only a couple hours ago she and Mordechai had talked to one another about being kinder to themselves and keeping each other afloat. They were just kids. They all were just kids. She was grateful Jade took the lead. Without her, this table’s silence would cut like an excruciating sharp knife.

Poppy had thought she was prepared for this, she really convinced herself for a moment that she was ready. After hearing everything, she knew she didn’t want to hear any of this. She didn’t want to hear any of this from Mitena Strongbow. She wanted to hear this from Charlie Strongbow-Decker. It was all infuriating and to add salt to her wounds that she keeps trying to close up, Jade gave her a tender look, emphasising that the people at this table here were family. Their family. Jade, her sister. Mordechai, her brother. Charlie…

The last thing Poppy wanted to do was offend her. Instead, she bit her tongue and kept quiet. Her eyes searched the table only to catch the sight of Tena and Natalia holding hands under the table. It was subtle but Poppy could tell. That was fast. She was starting to think she’d need to up her dosage with her antidepressants and anxiety meds. The sensations were overwhelming her and she could feel a ball in her throat everytime she swallowed. Trying to keep her mind off the raging storm within her, she brought her fork to a cut piece of strawberry and pierced it. She nibbled on it as she sat in silence. It wasn’t her time to talk. This was Jade’s moment.

“I appreciate that.” Mitena said sweetly as Jade mentioned Charlie’s wish to be safe. It dawned on her that she had been her brother's keeper without even realising it. She had been a stranger to carry his secrets so that he didn’t have to burden his friends, at least in his mind she imagined. It was sad to think that the Charlie she knew through their letters could not share parts of himself with the people he was closest to. If she was a betting girl, Tena would say that this inability to communicate, to carry a load and not share it, was her big brother's downfall. “I guess my next question is…well, what do you guys need from me? I wanna help you in any way I can.”

‘What a loaded question,’ Mordechai thought as the conversation came to a gentle pause. What did they need from her? Mordechai didn’t even know she existed until this trip was already set in motion by Poppy. On top of that, finding out that this whole thing wouldn’t have even happened if it weren’t for that fucking project had him stewing in his own emotions. He remembered it of course because of how it made him feel not being able to complete it. He’d spent hours staring at the blank page of the assignment, not even feeling comfortable putting Benjamin and Alana’s names down and graphing his and Danny’s branches back onto the tree that they had fallen out of so willingly and with feverish haste. He'd gone to Mr. Beau with far more attitude than the kind and patient man deserved and asked if the report was some sick joke for those that didn't get to know anything about their roots, and instead of failing him or giving him detention, Beau had just told him to write about his real family. The one he and Danny chose. While it helped for the assignment and his mental well-being at the time, Mordechai had never lost that bitter feeling in his chest when he thinks about the fact that he knows absolutely nothing about his blood relatives, or whether or not they were just like his parents.

And here Charlie had found a sister before he'd taken Danny away. A sister who he'd confided in in a way unlike he had with anyone else. 'With any of us…' he finally shifted his gaze from where it had been looking over Tena's shoulder instead of at her, and took in his two best friends. How were they feeling about what Charlie had told Tena? He'd just wanted Poppy that day, he'd wished Jade never had to see him and ReyRey that night, those were both understandable statements when it came to Charlie, but what Tena seemed to learn about Mordechai sounded more like his own words to Charlie all those years ago. He'd said he was disappointed, and while he never once thought that Charlie had laced the shit Allison took on purpose, it didn't stop him from treating the tall native boy like he had. He never called him a murderer, never said anything to him that he didn't believe, but he literally greeted Charlie physically for the first time in a year and a half with a right hook to his jaw.

He made promises to all of you and he failed to keep them. Mordechai and Danny never made promises, even when asked to. The word was too strong of a contract that was far too easily broken in the world they lived in. Charlie hadn't had such reservations over the term, and more often than not he absolutely followed through on his promises, especially within their little group. But what about all the shit Mordechai did that had him failing at being a good friend? All the punishments at ReyRey's command, not even asking for Charlie's side before going off on him, and all the snarky comments he could have kept to himself. All the things that slowly broke Charlie until he returned the favor tenfold by tearing asunder the lives of those that wronged him, and even those that never did.

And Decky threw the first punch, every time.

Well, they're already here and Tena somehow has the most answers out of all of them, might as well ask the important questions while he still had a will to do so, right?

"Did he hate me?" Mordechai finally asked as his dark eyes dropped to the ground beneath his feet while he hung his head, hands clasping each other tightly and arms resting on his legs. His hair covered the shame on his face as he asked the questions he knew he had to, even when he'd convinced himself of his own answers just so that he could keep moving every day, keep living. "I treated him like shit and nothin' was even his fault, and I knew that. But I always followed ReyRey's orders and punishments, no questions asked. I had ta start his jump out junior year or ReyRey would've withheld my own. Once I'd focused on gettin' me and Danny out it's like nothin' else much mattered at the time, even my friendships," he admitted in a small yet harsh voice, not daring to look beside him at two of the people he loved as he spoke, and all his anger in his tone very clearly directed inwards. "So, did he hate me? Did he ever talk about my little brother Danny? Did I make him hate us both?"

“I don’t think I’m the one to answer that, Decky.” This was a lot more sombre than Tena expected. It seemed her words were doing more harm than good to the people Charlie cherished more than anything. Who was her brother? Really? The words on his pages seemed either to not represent the man at all or the part of him that he offered to these people was so hidden…or even perhaps lost. “All I can answer is that I think you all meant something different and special to him. You were all a piece of him but I don’t really know. I knew Charlie through letters over a brief time. You knew him up until the day he did what he did. You knew him.” Mitena could feel her eyes slightly begin to water. She really thought she had made peace with everything that the beautiful departed was and could’ve been. Yet the more she talked with people, the more she realised she didn’t know him at all. Who was he? “Tell me about him? Who was Charlie Jay to you guys? Who was my brother?”

“A stranger, apparently,” Penelope muttered under her breath as she carried a heavy weight on her shoulders. Dejected and lost, she gazed at her plate with empty eyes. She knew Tena was an innocent party to everything that was Charlie but this whole experience was like being repeatedly stabbed in the heart. Over and over again. She could barely see beyond her pain. She could barely see those around her. She could barely see.

“I don’t understand,” Poppy shook her head in disbelief, not making eye contact with anyone. “I don’t understand why I know so little.” Balling her fists until they turn white, Poppy could feel her teeth jittering, knowing a panic attack was not too far off from happening. She swallowed hard, holding back any tears she felt like shedding. Tired of crying. “Yesterday alone I found out Charlie knew the most popular girl in our grade and he also has a sister. I… I don’t understand why he didn’t trust me enough…” She hated this. Why was she the one forced to save the day? Keep her friends together? To help others heal and be happy? She could barely save herself. Poppy was no hero. She was no one. She was nothing. Everything she ever did, it was all for nought because clearly at the end of the day she could never be enough for him. She was never enough for Charlie. She would never be enough.

“All I’m hearing is,” Penelope glanced up at her friends and the two girls she barely knew, a single tear trailing down her cheek. All her pain hit its peak in her tone, yet it was nothing more than a whisper. “I was a waste of space,” she uttered, her pale fists hitting her lap in frustration, “I’m nothing to him. I never was anything to him. I don’t want to hear this from you. I want to hear this from Charlie. I’m sorry,” Poppy pushed her chair back and stood up, covering her mouth with the back of her wrist, clear signs of her breathing drastically picking up, “I need to take a walk.” Before anyone could stop her, making sure if someone tried to grab her she’d slip out of their reach, Poppy was rushing away, “D-don’t follow me, please.” And in seconds, she was gone.

Natalia had remained a silent spectator for the entirety of the conversation, listening closely and taking in everything that was being said. The conversation began with the night of Allison Davies' death: one of the many events that had negatively impacted their lives in different ways, and the one that marked the beginning of Charlie’s downward spiral. Contrary to her peers, her experience at the party had been a positive one. She'd spent most of that December night messing around and getting to know the new boy at the time, Mika. It was what happened after, though unrelated to Charlie Decker at the time, what led the Queen Bee and the Native gentleman to cross paths for the first time. Looking back on it, Tal never would've imagined that losing her virginity to her former best friend Niles Sinclair that night would snowball into her sitting at this kitchen table at the Blue Hill Reservation, surrounded by Charlie's friends and sister and carrying a secret in danger of being exposed.

By the time she zoned back into the conversation, Mitena was asking the visitors to share who was Charlie to them. As Natalia would have expected, Poppy James was the first to speak up. But instead of elaborating on the many things Tal knew she could say about her forever love, she watched the distraught Penelope crumble to pieces in front of them before storming away from the table in tears.

Immediately, Natalia felt her body tense up, but Mitena's hold on her hand and the presence of Mordechai and Jade meant she was forced to suppress her own rising panic. All of her doubts and fears about coming clean or sharing her secret were confirmed by Penelope with this display of emotions. If the knowledge of Charlie having a secret sister and the fact that he and Tal acknowledged each other’s existence had elicited this gut-wrenching, visceral reaction from Poppy, she couldn’t imagine what would happen if the true nature of their relationship came out. There was no way in hell that she would be opening her mouth anytime soon.

Tena was frozen and in tears. She didn’t want to hurt anyone. These kids came to her looking for something, looking for someone lost to them and all she could offer were words on old yellow pages that probably weren’t even true. She watched with her soft doe eyes as Poppy ran off. It was just like Charlie had said in his book; the girl with the flowered name was as precious as any jewel or great work of art.

She looked up at Natalia for reassurance but could see that she was hurting just as much as the others but in a different way. Poppy’s words rang out in her head. They didn’t know Natalia but Charlie did. She wasn’t part of their world but she was in his. God that must sting. He had hurt them all in so many ways and seeing her, hearing her talk, they probably thought Tena was his ghost come from wherever to torment them further. “I’m really sorry,” She tried to say assuringly but her confidence was an awful mask that wasn’t doing its job. “Maybe I should just leave and let you go back home? The storm should be over now and the roads clear. You can leave the memory of me behind and the pain I’m causing.”

Jade felt almost completely helpless. Not particularly frozen, but her gaze was on her soul sister as her pain was shared with everyone. She wanted to defy her when she left and follow her, but that would only do more harm than not. The month that left a gap in her communication with the two closest to her had more ripples than she thought there’d be. Even if she did go, how much worse would that make things?

As much as it hurt her to stay, there was something else Jade felt she was needed for - maybe even more than part of her hear wanting to get up after Poppy. She looked at Mitena. Throughout all of this, she was the most removed from the effects of Charlie’s life and actions on that day. “You have nothing to apologize for, Mitena.” Jade finally spoke up, focusing her undivided attention on the Native girl. Maybe for the first time, she was seeing the raw pain on her face. “This isn’t easy for any of us. Charlie was our world. I’m sure if you were to ask any of us, we’d have different answers as to what that meant. For me, he was someone I could be myself around. He could be an idiot sometimes, but that’s what I loved about him.” As she thought about Charlie, in that moment, she remembered back to that night of the game. Before everything went to hell, she remembered their conversation and she smiled. “You meant enough to Charlie that maybe he wanted to keep that for himself. Or maybe if things had gone differently, he would have told us about you, or introduced you to us at some point. Whatever the case, that means you’re family. So there’s no way in hell I or anyone at this table wants to forget about you.”

"She's right, we’re not ditchin’ ya," Mordechai spoke lowly while still glaring at the ground, voice gruff with his swirling turmoil. He'd stayed silent and tried to hide his flinch when Tena addressed him so casually by the name his brother had given him. He knew she didn't know anything else, he used to hate his full name and would demand anyone he didn't know well call him Boaz or Boa. He couldn't blame her for not knowing that that name died with Danny. His hands had gone from grasping each other to gripping tightly high on his forearms, fingernails digging into the scarred skin there as he desperately tried to hold himself together. 'Still no answers,' he thought dejectedly as his tears hit the carpet. 'Honestly, the fuck was I expectin'?' He had answers for her, though. He couldn't get his but he could make sure she doesn't leave this conversation without some of her own. Who was Charlie to him?

"When I first started school, the only other person I knew was Sonny, my neighbour and…well aside from Danny, my everythin' at the time. Poppy and Charlie were the first ones ta talk ta me, and me and Jade connected a little later. He…he was like my brother. We were all so aware of reality while also tryin'a escape it. Most'a the good literature I know is thanks ta him, and all the fuckin' quotes," he tried to finish that with a laugh, but it seemed to come out as more of a choked off sob as he shoved the palms of his hands against his eyes to try and stave off the breakdown he knew was on it's way faster than Poppy’s exit from the room. "Fuck man, I liked comics and poems but Charlie opened so many new worlds for me an- and for Danny. He was the strongest and softest guy I knew at the same time. He helped me raise my little bro just like Pops and J and I just fuckin' betrayed him. I put my shit above him time after time and I just-" the sobs finally broke his sentence off and he quickly bit his tongue to make them stop.

With sharp and jerky movements, Mordechai shot to his feet and managed to choke out, "I'm sorry, I can't, I can't," before making a beeline for the stairs and his room. The second he closed the door the tears began burning his face again as a cry like a wounded animal clawed its way out of his torn throat.

"FUCK!"

He turned around and put his fist through the wall right beside the door, leaving it there as he dropped his forehead to the door and let himself truly cry out of the sight of others. When he was done, he'd grab the patch and repair kit that he’d brought to Adora’s one year, half as an apology and half as a gag gift- and honestly, it's seen so much use that it's less of a gag now- and fix the wall like he always did. But for now, for now he was actually going to let it all out. He was going to cry for himself and what he lost, but also for those that can't cry anymore. He cried for Danny, but he also cried for Charlie.

"I'm sorry man, I'm so fuckin' sorry."

A week before finals and Danny was royally screwed. He only had a weekend to study for all the subjects he hated and all he could do was think about beating Rye in a stupid love game. Love… sex… same thing. They were both equally stubborn so neither were going to tap out just yet. The end of this coming summer would be the end of their game. They had made their bets at the winter formal when Rye sarcastically joked his fuck list — pardon the language — was larger than Danny’s. Danny took that personally.

Now he was sitting at a picnic table with his team, the legacies of the Elite, surveying prospects while the rest of them complained about school. If they got lower than a B that would mean they’d be put on probation from the team. None of them wanted probation. They loved basketball, it's what kept them going since most of them absolutely hated school. In Danny’s case it wasn’t school per say, it was the fact that he had to do homework and study. Homework sucked. Studying sucked. Okay, school sucked too. If he could, he'd skip highschool just to pursue basketball professionally. Unfortunately, his parents said he needed an education. How lame was that?

As he closely observed all the pretty girls, his mischievous gaze trailed from a cheerleader’s backside to her tight jean wearing, emo looking boyfriend’s booty. They weren’t facing him so he couldn’t make out who they were but the guy’s plump toosh was distracting as hell. Before he could get caught staring for too long, he brought his attention to his brothers-in-arms only for him to be rewarded with quite a disgusting sight.

Danny went from being turned on to disgusted in a matter of seconds. River Jansen, #33, junior and Clayton’s Power Forward legacy, was sucking face with his girl, primitively and without a care in the world who was watching. His girl? Side piece? Friends with benefits? Whatever they were, they needed to chill. He didn’t understand why River couldn’t wait until after school. Lunch was about to end too. If they really needed to release stress they could just go to the janitor’s room and do a quickie. Goodness, Danny hated PDA.

Rolling his eyes in annoyance, he noticed Mika too wasn’t pleased with the sight. Mikhail Zima was the late David’s legacy and he took this borderline porno in the courtyard as his opportunity to bounce. Smart move. Outstanding even. Why didn’t Danny think of that first? Tapping his pen on a notebook with unanswered math problems, Danny watched his bro pack his belongings. Mika explained how he didn’t need to get an earful from Mr. Beau for being late again. Danny could understand that. Mr. Beau was kind to a point. Poke the bear too much though? Then the gavel dropped.

Just like that, the team was saved by the bell and River was up from the bench, after he left a hickey where the cheerleader’s cleavage was. Once he gave Danny a high five, he disappeared with his girl. Out of sight, out of mind. Soon after, the rest of the Legacies said their goodbyes and strode to class. For a moment, Danny did find himself frowning as he tried to get a read on Mika, his biggest competitor. It was still unreal that David was dead and he wondered how badly that impacted Zima. Before Mika went inside, Danny called out, “Fourteen! Sunday morning, let's start our week right. You, me, Lyon Park.” When Danny wanted to meet at the park court that meant he wasn’t looking for a fair game nor was he looking to play by professional standards. He wanted to play some streetball, have fun, and best Mika. All things that would start Finals week right.

“Yeah, I’ll be there Twenty-Seven!” Mika halfheartedly waved with his back to the reigning captain, arm raised high over his head.

About the same time that Mikhail had disappeared with a crowd of people, another equal-in-height, fair-skinned boy by the name of Marco Brady had been secretly half-eavesdropping at the table nearby. Marco wasn’t intentionally listening in. He had honestly been trying to work up the courage to approach. For ten minutes, but all he could do was just sit as normally as he possibly could, listening to the banter between the Elites. River Jensen and his girlfriend, Mikhail being grossed out by it but not being as vocal as Danny was.

Marco was at the table next to them for a few reasons. He had actually ate lunch at the table, so it was just the perfect cover, but for a while now, Marco has been hardcore crushing on Danny Belmonte. He has been for close to a year now. Ever since the Carlisle house party, it’s only become stronger. More intense. He’s tried to date people here and there. Friends would set him up with girls, but Marco always blew them off (politely, mind you) because his heart was taken by another. Danny just didn’t know it.

But now that the coast was clear, Marco made his move, walking up to the table. “Hey Danny!” He greeted the Italian boy with a bright smile and a wave that made his stomach tighter than wearing his clothes from junior high. It was so awkward and he wasn’t sure what else to say. “Hope I didn’t catch you at a bad time! Just saw ya and thought I’d say hey..”

Marco Brady wasn’t someone Danny usually hung out with but since the party that Allison tragically died at they were more amicable with each other in the halls. They didn’t really hangout much outside of school but if Danny had to kill time in between classes or before practice and Marco happened to be there, why wouldn’t he talk to him? He was finding it oddly enjoyable, in a needed distraction kind of way, to listen to the soccer boy’s passions for Rock Lee and the sorts.

Honestly, prior to Marco, Danny didn’t do anything but live and breathe basketball. Well that was a lie, sorta. When he did have downtime, he carved wood in his dad’s man shed, planted flowers with his mother, played paintball with the boys, or watched films, usually of the spy or action-thriller variant. The Italian Stallion wasn’t a complicated boy, he knew what he liked and kept to it like clockwork. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t intrigued with the geek world, especially with how Marco talked about his interests.

He was so full of life, with an infectious smile. Excitable, like a hyperactive puppy. Undoubtedly and unapologetically himself, Marco made the young Captain of the Edenridge Celtics want to get into hobbies absolutely foreign to him. He even convinced Danny he could do more than just be a kitchen assistant. He made Danny believe he could actually cook a good meal. Marco would be a good salesman if he really wanted to. “Nah Pup,” Danny rested his chin on his palm, his elbow on his math notebook, as he glanced up to meet his unlikely friend’s gaze, “I got a free period now, so I’m just going to die here and try to study so my dad doesn’t kill me. How ‘bout you? Things been aiiight?”

Marco had partially frowned when he noticed how negatively Danny sounded when he spoke about studying. It was somewhat of a foreign concept to him because he did rather well with most subjects. English was one that he half-struggled with. “Anything I can do to help?” He asked, taking a seat opposite of Danny. “I got a free period too. I was originally gonna run a few laps. Coach Rojas said I could, but that can wait.” And there he went rambling on again. Marco really had the bad habit, especially when he didn’t know what point he didn’t want to get across. “I can help..if you want it!”

“I don’t even know where to start!” Danny dramatically complained as he looked down at his poor note taking and his study guides. “Like first of all, quizzes and tests should not exist. And secondly, why do I gotta’ get good grades to play basketball?” Whimpering like a big guard dog with a soft center, the thicker jock rested his head on his math notebook and lamented, “Just plan my funeral right now. Danny Belmonte. Death by school. Why live?” Maybe he should bug Rye to come over this weekend and help him study but the idea of studying and convincing himself to do just that was the initial problem. Danny did not want to study. At all. It wasn’t fun and quite frankly, it was a waste of time. Why was the world so cruel?

“There will be no dying today!” Marco protested with a smile and his usual positive outlook. He didn’t blame Danny for feeling like this about math. It was a hard subject. Geometry was hard if you didn’t understand the basics. He wasn’t doubting that Danny did, but stuff on the finals, or at least what Marco was assuming, was more advanced than what they had covered at the top of the year. “You have my sword!” Marco professed. He felt a need to stand up, but he settled for a slamming of his fist on the table in a dramatic way.

In faux amusement, Danny drawled, “Wooooo…” He was already exhausted from studying and all they did was plan to study together. “How about this,” Danny closed his notebook and gave the soccer jock a mischievous grin, “Why don’t you put your sword away, for now, and this weekend come over to my place and we go into battle, one subject at a time. Crash course it up! Studying like there is no tomorrow! But, for now…” Danny swiped all his things unceremoniously into his backpack, got up from the table, threw it over his shoulder, and gestured for Marco to follow him, “Wanna see something cool?”

Like the nerd that he was, Marco made a motion with his arms as though he was sheathing the invisible sword. His curiosity was piqued when Danny gestured to him. “Do I ever!” The usual optimism and high energy that Marco Brady embodied all day, every day, carried him into a brisk walk beside Danny.

“Do you like scary stories?” Danny walked through the courtyard and to the football field. There was no one there which made this journey quite blissful on this beautiful June day. As they walked through the field, heading straight to an area gated off, with unruly bushes, a couple of trees with creeping mildew, and leaves curled unhealthily, Danny strolled down the field, right in the center, making his way to this foreboding, off-limits, cut off section that was away from the rest of the world. A neglected part of the school grounds that could be a garden oasis if someone took the time to maintain it. “Do you know anything about the Unlucky Clover curse?”

“I grew up on Courage the Cowardly Dog, so that was pretty scary to endure through - but I loved it too!” It may not have been what everyone thought of first when the topic of scary stories came up, but it was the first thing he could think of as they walked across the football field. There was a lot of horrifying imagery that made a little Marco shit his pants one too many times, yet he never stopped watching it. Despite everything, it was one of his favorites. Even the King Ramses episode, which apparently everyone hated for a myriad of reasons. Shockingly, that was one of the few Marco didn’t get traumatized by.

As they reached their destination, Marco saw a lackluster section. He never saw nor heard of the part of school. He didn’t know it existed, but Danny Belmonte apparently knew a lot more than the Edenite of three years did. “Unlucky Clovers?” He repeated so he could think about it. The cheerleaders were clovers, right? Maybe it had something to do with that? No that couldn’t be it. “Well I know four-leaf clovers are lucky, so what is it like a five-leaf clover is bad luck?” Marco truly didn’t know -- at least, what he suspected he didn’t have enough confidence to put his guess out there. “Why? What are they? Where exactly are we, Danny?”

“1953. Karen Nowinski,” Danny began, as he forced the slit, cut by a student many years ago, of the chain link gate to open more. Gesturing for Marco to go into the thick of it first and to follow the faded gravel path, Danny watched the other boy carefully as he embarked on a storytime journey, “She was popular, pretty, and full of promise. AND she was the cheer captain of our Clovers, just like Allison was. The queen of the castle.”

In time, Danny was taking the lead again. The deeper they went into this forbidden overgrown garden, the creeper it got. It was quiet. Too quiet. All that could be heard was their footsteps on the ground and their soft breathing. “Someone like that could get anyone she wanted and she did. She was perfect. Why wouldn’t she? She sat on her throne, leading the Clovers to victory, and most importantly, she was seen. All she ever wanted was to be seen.” He paused, with fast reflexes he pulled Marco to him, catching his friend from almost tripping over a branch.

Whether it was the story that had his attention or he just didn’t see that branch, but Marco was falling forward. Thank god for the sturdy safety net in the form of Danny Belmonte. Chuckling as he collected himself, he said, “Thanks for that.” Marco wasn’t clumsy, but easily distracted, so he may as well be.

Danny continued.

“There was this one particular boy, shy and unassuming, Gregory Mooney was his name. Her boy next door loved her dearly.” He stopped in his tracks, seeing the apple tree that marked they were almost there. Almost to his spot, that wasn’t all bad once you went inside. “You know this place used to be beautiful. Back then Edenridge’s garden club took their job very seriously. Nowadays not so much. Under this apple tree here, Greg spilled his heart, telling her all his life he loved her and only her, and you know what? She liked him back. Loved him, she said. Of course… this isn’t a love story.”

Could have fooled me. But Marco was aware that this wasn’t a love story…despite everything being told. Danny said this was a scary story, so there was bound to be a plot twist somewhere. What could it be? Marco wondered as he looked at Danny with his undivided attention on the Italian jock.

Turning around to face Marco, Danny crossed his arms and sighed, really speaking passionately of his knowledge on this tale, “Her friends showed up and laughed at him. Laughed at him like he was a joke. A fool. And not good enough for Edenridge’s sweetheart. Karen didn’t, no couldn’t, lose face. If she did, she’d fall from grace. Be at the bottom. She couldn’t risk that. She couldn’t risk being ridiculed. She couldn’t risk being invisible. And so, she broke his heart. Shattered it. Setting her fate in stone.”

“How cruel,” he mouthed out loud. It didn’t anger him per se. He had to imagine things back then were different than they were now. People were more accepting of how their friends felt for someone else, or at least that’s what Marco liked to believe. His stomach tightened up. What was it he felt? Empathy pains? Yeah that’s probably it. Though maybe deep down, a sense of relation passed through him. Could that be his future with Danny? God he hoped not.

Finally, Danny led his friend to their final destination. A small building, disused and abandoned. An old girls bathroom, with nature taking over it. Over the years it became a safe place and sanctuary for teens. Whether they were burners or loners, or kids just needing to get away, this bathroom was here, ready to provide them shelter. Doesn’t change the fact that it was cursed. Haunted with dead cheerleaders, the story gods say. “This is the place Greg was found and arrested for the murder of Karen Nowinski. On the night of the annual basketball charity game, Celtics versus Monarchs, he drowned her in the lake cursing the Clovers for brainwashing her and blaming them for taking everything he ever loved away from him. All the best cheerleaders from that point on would be accompanied by misery and every so often a cheerleader just like her - popular, pretty, and full of promise - would see her… wet and with his hand marks around her neck… moments before they…” Dramatically Danny pretended he had a noose around his own neck, crossed his eyes and stuck his tongue out. To add to the theatrics, he made a sound like he was choking before he finished with a whisper, “…died.”

Marco jumped at that final word. The shock of the tale lingered for a few minutes, but the immediate reaction that he had with Danny’s choice of theatrics was a slight nudge of the larger boy’s shoulder. Of course, Marco being so tiny in comparison, it didn’t do much but the spirit of the act was there and couldn’t be denied.

As he took the next few moments to collect and run back everything Danny told him, his first thought was about how that story made him feel. His best friend was a cheerleader. He knew others, too, that were cheerleaders. At some point, he wondered, did they come to know this knowledge? Was it like a rite of passage for them? He could be jumping the gun. It’s not like he actually knew what it was like to be a Clover.

But holy heavenly spirit, this really wasn’t what Marco had expected. And now he couldn’t help but look around. Curiosity killed the cat, but the only animal around was the hunk with a morbid grin on his face and Marco, so they were safe. He started to walk around and examine the building and then the bathroom. He walked ahead, slowly but with the intent to explore, he stumbled upon a part of the building with a myriad of initials. “What’s all this?” He asked, turning his head and glancing at Danny, his right index finger of a half-bent wrist pointing to it.

“History,” Danny nodded as he stepped forward and traced his hand on the initials that decorated this wall. “As cursed as this place is said to be, the school deciding it should be put to rest, abandoned, just like the dead are, kids still found a way to it… a hideaway, an escape, a lover’s den,” Unintentionally, Danny glanced over at Marco when he said that last part: a lover’s den. His eyes fixated on the other boy’s gaze, before he smiled, “This is like sixty something years of kids making their mark.”

Stepping closer to Marco, leaning towards him, Danny’s chest brushed against the smaller boy’s side as he insisted, “Check this out.” He pointed to a SJ x SL. “That’s Officer James and Mrs. Ramsey, Mei’s mom, or well Miss Ling when she was younger. They were highschool sweethearts. Oh!” Danny shifted himself to where he was behind Marco and pointed to a cluster of signatures above them. RL, WR, JSW, SC, JC. “The Gallows. Jericho, the guy at the record store, says they were short lived but the music they produced makes you feel like… those that are meant to be, will be. Souls bound together connected by music. Connected by love. Connected by… fate.” He paused again, looking down at the boy following his hands with intrigue. There was a short instant where he felt like he was looking too long, so he brought his eyes back up to the signatures, keeping his mind distracted, for good reasons, “Sadly, all good things come to an end and they are now gold dust in Edenridge history. Pretty cool, huh?”

Danny wasn’t looking at Marco at this point. Whether he was standing close intentionally or not was hard to tell, but he made sure to keep his attention on the names and not the boy that was inches away from him. Danny hadn’t written his initials yet. It felt silly to do it alone, at least for him. But seeing all these kids of Edenridge’s past find sanctuary in a bathroom, writing their initials to engrave their presence, made him hopeful that though there was so much hurt and so much pain, there was still good in the world. David’s death hit home for him but he didn’t want to fail his memory, Coach’s legacy, or the Elite. He wanted to make them proud in the only way he knew how. He wanted to shine, just like them. All these souls, whether friends or lovers or perfect strangers, found each other and found this place. Souls bound. Soulmates. Souls turned stories. Beautiful, really, how all these alumni found their chosen family. Found home.

“Yeah..Pretty cool…” Marco spoke in a barely audible whisper-like tone, now realizing that Danny was behind him and so close that he could feel the significantly stockier boy’s voice on his skin, making it tingle to the point where Marco felt his arms and knees grow weak.

Focus, Marco. C’mon you gotta f-o-c-u-

But focus he didn’t. All his mind could think about, all Marco could allow himself to obsess over was his scent. Something about it was familiar. Sweet. Spicy. Intoxicating. His senses were blinded and caught off guard. He went forward, but as he tripped over what he thought was maybe a loose step was just air. It didn’t matter, though. As he tripped over something invisible, Marco fell back, feeling the backside of his shoulder blades hit Danny’s firm chest. He lost all sense of balance as he made a sound of panic. Words came but none of them were known to any recorded human language.

Breaking the fall with, well, with himself, Danny held Marco in his arms, steadying him and the soccer jock’s suddenly weak legs. He was surprised to see that Marco, even with his athletic build, was light as a feather and he assumed, easy to pick up. Leaning his head forward to get a better look at Marco’s face, Danny intently gazed into the other boy’s dreamy, hopeful eyes and asked, “Are you alright?” Concern was written on his face. He didn’t even realize how tightly he was holding onto Marco but what he was aware of was how gorgeous Marco’s eyes were, like a perfect spring sky. There was something about the way he smiled and how his face radiated warmth like the gentle sun that made it hard for Danny to pull away. He liked looking at Marco. “Do you need water?”

As he found himself in his crush’s strong, muscular, yet soft arms, Marco was in heaven. He felt lightheaded by whatever was happening at this very moment, but make no mistake: whether God was a man, woman, or some ambiguous, androgynous being, he was in their kingdom and had been transported by the Italian hunk who had the most compassionate eyes. Like a meadow under a sunset sky.

Wait what did he say again?

Marco blanked for a solid half minute before he heard it like it was a delayed reaction. “Huh? Oh, yeah I’m fine. I just lost my footing is all--” And got lost in that intoxicating aroma you wear.

As he was coming to his senses, Marco didn’t even entertain the thought of addressing the position they were in. This was his best case scenario come true and he’d be a fool if he was going to do anything to ruin that.

Relieved, Danny gave a winsome smile and muttered, “Glad, great.” There was a moment where he just stood in that position, holding Marco, in a stupor. Marco wasn’t the only one being lured by charm and an addictive scent. Even with Danny going through the motions of their shared moment, his expression was unreadable. The only thing that could be read was from the glint in his eyes, the heat behind his stare, and how he looked at the other jock with adoration. He could feel a natural pull while his gaze fell on Marco’s lips.

Unfortunately for Marco, all good things don’t last forever. The warning bell, while faint and distant, seeing how they were in a small abandoned building a way away, brought Danny back. Quickly evaluating his predicament, he gently stood Marco up and released him, stepping away. Hiding any sort of embarrassment behind his cool stature and strong physique, Danny rubbed his neck and gestured to the exit that led back toward the school, “We should probably get going. But yeah, I hope you liked..” he gestured around him to the old and unsupervised bathroom. “… this.” He hoped Marco also enjoyed the time they spent together. It wasn’t a lot, but each time they did he looked forward to seeing him again. Seeing that big, goofy grin. One could hope.

Marco was left feeling conflicted. As the subtle sound of the warning bell had snapped him out of the heavenly state he was in, he still couldn’t peel his eyes away from Danny’s. He was slowly collecting himself. He didn’t want this to end, but sadly Father Time didn’t wait for anyone, much less a crushing Marco. Danny motioned towards the exit and Marco’s legs started to move on their own. “Yeah! I loved it.” Marco was on autopilot. “It was…an interesting experience. This place has a…I don’t know what to call it, but I like it. A lot!” Of course, the main reason for that was because Marco came here with Danny and it was just the two of them. Even if Danny didn’t actually know how he felt, just being here with him was enough for him.

“Oh yeah!” Danny had just remembered as he turned around on his heel, only to realize it might’ve been too sudden for his comrade. The clumsy boy that was Marco Brady went straight into his chest and once again Danny was steadying his friend within an embrace. He chuckled this time, finding Marco’s accident prone trait endearing and adorable. “Sorry… I should’ve warned you. But yeah, quick question,” Danny cleared his throat, watching Marco with a soft, yet careful gaze, “My place or your’s?”

As he once again found himself blessed with a face-first full of Danny’s toned chest, something he wished he could stay in forever, Marco grasped onto whatever willpower remained and only had pulled away for a short moment, though not by much as he didn’t have that much willpower. He met Danny’s eyes. Maybe it was just him and this moment that he was creating a different version of in his head, but when Danny just randomly asked his place or Marco’s, his mind went alive, scribbling any and all possibilities. He didn’t want to assume. He didn’t want to but he also couldn't stop himself from entertaining the possible scenario that Danny wanted…to go to his place and be…alone.

No, he’s not like that. At least, I don’t think he is.

Looking up at him, Marco went the safer way and said, “I’m sorry? My place or yours?” He asked with as minimal hope as he could show on his face, yet a very small part of him was hopeful and more terrified than he was willing to admit that Danny was asking him out on a date…

This reaction was rewarded with confusion as the muscular jock asked, “For studying?” Danny knew if he failed finals his life was over but maybe Marco didn’t like this whole gesture to get him to be more comfortable with him as a friend. Danny thought if he showed a side of him to Marco that he hadn’t seen before — the one intrigued by local stories and secrets, the one who had his own sanctuary at school, and the one who wasn’t all testerone and did care about more things than basketball — then he wouldn’t regret helping him out. Did he get ahead of himself? Did he assume Marco liked him as a friend but really was just being polite? Did he force himself onto Marco and now he was left with no choice but to say yes he’d help him? Was this all selfish of him and Marco wasn’t getting anything in return? “If you don’t want to, I understand. I don’t want you to do anything you don’t want… or is there something you want? I can… sweeten the pot?”

Briefly, Marco could see another side of Danny. The side that thinks more than he gives off. A side full of self doubt as if one wrong move he makes, he’d upset someone. In Danny’s case, that would be his father. The man that expected him to do his best. Always his best. Danny didn’t want to lose his chance to have a study buddy but at the same time he didn’t want to force someone to do something they didn’t want solely because he was being desperate right now. Still, there could be the off chance that Marco actually wanted to help him. That Marco liked him beyond the obvious fact that Danny was a dumb jock. Or was he getting his hopes up on something that wasn’t true? Did Marco only like him because he was popular and hot? Did Marco even like him?

Almost immediately, he shook his head, waving his arms slightly. “Oh no no! I do I do! I just wasn’t sure what you meant is all!” He had to clear his head of all impure thoughts, all distractions and focus on what Danny asked. Before they came here, Marco offered to help him study. That’s what this was about. Marco’s initial offer to help Danny out. “We can go to your place if you want! I don’t think there’ll be any peaceful quiet at mine - not with my younger sister and brother.” Marco had a half-grimacing expression on his face. It wasn’t so much that they would bother Marco, but Marcella and Emiliano loved to have their own screaming matches. Sometimes it was about nothing. Actually, ninety percent of the time, it was about nothing worth all that energy, but those two were like Madara and Hashirama: always fighting no matter the circumstances. And of course, that led to Ma doing the same with them. Hardly what one might call ideal studying zen zone.

“Great, yeah, awesome!” Danny’s demeanor changed once more, relieved that Marco seemed to want to help him. All his worry was inside his head. He was doing the most by making up problems. Marco liked him. “I mean my house can get pretty loud too but we can drown out the noise with music. And,” he eagerly added, “My mom will definitely cook something big for dinner if she knows you’re coming.”

Grinning from ear to ear, Danny was now completely ecstatic at the possibility of not tanking his finals. He surveyed his study buddy, wondering already how he could properly thank him when this weekend was all said and done. Glancing at his wrist watch, he yelped in surprise, “Oh snap! We’re late. We better get going.” Instead of leaving right away, Danny gleamed at the boy, looking straight into his eyes with joyous admiration. Gently, he ruffled Marco’s hair and expressed his gratitude, “Thank you. This means a lot to me, and if you need anything, anything, I want you to know I’m just a phone call away.”

Under normal circumstances, Marco’s instinctual response might’ve been to push Danny’s hand aside, but never in a million years would he do that. Not with him. With a smile, he nodded. “I’ll hold you to that!” In a rare showing, Marco teased the hulking jock as he took the charge. As the Winger of the soccer team, Marco was fast. Haste might’ve been his motivator because they were late, but something in Marco came alive. Seeing the way Danny was looking at him lit a fire under him. How long that might last remained to be seen, but he was going to ride the storm for as long as the universe allowed him to.

Jamie was a mess.

The last twenty four hours had been nothing short of absolute chaos in her mind. As lightning flashed and thunder crashed all around her, the younger sister of The Duke, Davey O’Hara, found herself staring out across the town of Edenridge from her childhood bedroom that she once shared with her beautifully departed twin. When she wasn’t crying, Jamie was screaming at the top of her lungs, howling through the window pane at a metropolis and its people that had so swiftly turned their backs on the very family that founded the damn place. Whenever her parents tried to intervene, they were met by boiling hot rage and items launched across the room. For them, all the work Jamie had done to temper her problems over the years had vanished along with the daytime sun.

That Monday had been so full of triggers for the younger O’Hara twin. It all started with that dreaded letter and her meeting with her former boyfriend and Elite compatriot Clay. Even just imagining the pressure that he was under caused Jamie to feel it too; she had always been hyper empathetic which didn’t help her own mental state and keeping it level. Then there was the meeting with the Royal Flush Gang. Yana was always as supportive as she always was but Reagan, God nothing ever changed with her. Even as adults everything was always about superiority and control for the Supreme.

As she walked the town through the humid daylight, Jamie could feel the sting, like a thousand pinpricks across her skin as the glares and judging eyes of the townsfolk fell upon the fragile glass ballerina. She thought she had found the briefest quiet and solace when she walked into Swerve Arcana and into the welcoming embrace of Avery Kaine. God Avery, their fleeting moment had been filling her mind since it had happened. Jamie was married, the ring a golden shackle but the girl in the comic book store had seen her, truly seen her in a way that Russell never did.

There was a golden moment amongst the darkness when Jamie came across Sofi Belmonte amongst the oncoming storm. The young girl reminded the teacher so much of herself, she was a fragile bird trapped in a cage of circumstance. This positive mood was shattered after another row with Russell about their situation which was then swiftly followed by a video sent by Bronagh Milligan. Jamie only knew Bron through Lamb and some Scott Street gatherings so she was slightly taken aback to have been sent something from her. She was even further surprised when she realised the video was of Bron herself kissing Avery. What was this? A dare? A prank? Petty revenge for some reason that Jamie wasn’t aware of? Whatever the reason, it was but another dagger in a heart already filled with them. Why did she even care?

This sent the ethereal educator into a spiral; a spirit which resulted in her kicking Russ out of the house in the midst of a hurricane and locking herself in her bedroom, pouring over childhood musings and the memory of the only person that she knew unequivocally was hers; her big brother, Davey. With the storm over, Jamie tried to return to normal and move forward. As she edged closer towards Cafe Rochambeau, she wondered if Beau, the wisest person she knew, could hold a secret in his textured pages of old that might help her on her path. Calling ahead with her order, when the graceful young woman entered she was greeted by Beau’s warm smile and dulcet tones.

“Good morning, mon cheri,” The former English teacher greeted her with his usual exuberance despite having spent the entire evening at the shop and not going home. He thought better than to risk journeying to his home in a torrential downpour, thinking best just to wait it out with Ricky Osso and his dog Nduja, who had sought shelter. As soon as the rain subsided and the first light of day peeked up from beyond the lake, Beau took the child home and then swiftly returned to the cafe, ready for his first customers of the day. “Just finishing my first bakes and I’ll be right with you.”

Jamie smiled, brushing a single strand of her thick hair behind her ear. She loved Beau. Even though she never got the full experience of him as a teacher before she left Edenridge for private school, she could tell just how much he truly cared about the kids in his charge. He was the reason she wanted to become an educator herself. “No rush.”

The cafe bell rang announcing another presence. With an orange beanie on, a hoodie and jeans, Avery shuffled to the counter. When she noticed the woman waiting to be served, she felt her heart sink. This would be her luck. Jamie Lord would be at the cafe at the same time as her. As much as it pained her to see her forever crush, who rejected her yesterday and got an embarrassing video that may ruin Aves’ chances of even friendship, a Kaine never lets their emotions get the better of them nor do they let the war inside of them burden others.

This had nothing to do with Jamie and everything to do with her thinking Jamie was her perfect fit, her missing puzzle piece. A selfish desire, entirely of her doing. It was made abundantly clear that this was all just a fantasy and that maybe she was just like every person that ever said they loved Jamie. She was no different and Jamie could see that. Jamie was everybody’s dream girl and maybe Avery’s love was just like theirs. Part of the trend. Part of the herd. Nothing special.

Instead of making her pain clear, she covered her self-loathing and sleep deprivation behind a tender smile, even giving a small wave when the other girl looked to see who entered. When the storm lightened up Avery, Oz, and Bron made sure all the kids got to their homes safely. Avery proceeded to give Rosie the next day off. None of them really got sleep and as her manager, it was the right thing to do. Rosie was still a kid after all. Afterwards, she quickly freshened up and was now aiming to get her fix before going back to Swerve. Clay still hadn’t texted her which was worrisome to say the least.

There were many things out of Avery’s hands that she had to let be and hope the worst won’t come from her overthinking. Avery didn’t like worrying, she was good at tempering her mind, but she was also human and yesterday hit her like a train. “Hey Poppins,” Avery leaned up on the counter beside her, her eyes still full of kindness and adoration. Her feelings still hadn’t changed. Even after all this time, she loved this woman.

God, she was such a simp.

Her gaze rested on the soft complexion and demeanour of her former classmate. As she took in the sight, Aves could tell immediately Jamie was going through a rough patch. Whether it was the energy or the red around her eyes from all the crying, Avery could see Jamie, as she always did. She saw her in all her shades and still found so many reasons to adore her. This whole David O’Hara bullshit was hurting all the people Avery loved and that made the comic book store manager annoyed and hurt. Silently and to herself, since Aves wasn’t one to ruin the vibes. Still, Avery hated seeing Clay and Jame relive the past. She hated not being able to help them through this. She hated being useless.

Before furthering any conversation with Jamie, Avery greeted the best English teacher the world had to offer, “Heyo, Beau. Gooooooooood morning. Hope you slept a little? Though I can’t say the same for myself. But that’s whatever. I’m used to it. Smells good. Whatcha serving today?” Avery tried to peer around the counter to see if she could catch sight of the fresh bakes but at last, she would have to jump over it to get a better glance of inside the kitchen. The cafe always smelt the best first thing in the morning.

“I was stuck here with a kid and dog all night, I didn’t get a minute but I’ve been through worse.” Beau’s tone was jovial, as always. He loved to bring people warmth even if sometimes he just wanted to give it all up. That was the role he had chosen, to be the pillar for those that needed holding up. He wanted to bring them a steady foundation to build upon. “Today my beautiful young ladies I have…dramatic drum roll please?”

Jamie glanced over at Avery, of course it was her that had to be there. Why wouldn’t it be? She wasn’t mad about it. In fact she was far from. The best part of Jamie’s precious day had been sharing that charged moment with the comic book girl in her store. For the briefest whisper of a word, she thought that the fog had cleared and she had found clarity. It was Avery that had done that. She smiled sweetly at her fellow customer and began to drum her fingers on the counter, giving the teacher the audience he desired. Simultaneously, she was joined by the bronde haired, quirky geek in the concert of drums, taking part in the fun-loving spirit of their shared morning with Beau.

The jolly cafe proprietor reached into his oven and pulled out a tray of delicious sweet treats. He slid the collected goodness into a dedicated section on his counter before discarding the piping hot tray. “So we got some healthy blueberry soft bake biscuits, the English kind, some Pastel de Nata, straight outta Portugal and we have everybody's favourite..” Beau hurried into the small back room where he kept his deep fried and then returned another with a plate which he rested in front of the girls. “Beignets like my Momma used to make in the French quarter.” He sprinkled some powdered sugar all over the tantalising breakfast bites before his chocolate eyes sprang upwards towards the girls. He had been a teacher for many years, a police officer longer than that. He had seen the sort of thick tension that Jamie and Avery carried with them before. It was as obvious to him as a neon sign on a dark street. “Ain’t no problem, a sweet meal at breakfast time can’t fix.”

Jamie’s tastebuds began to water at the mere idea of some of Beau’s morning bakes. She raised her hand to cover her mouth as her soft eyes drifted to Avery. “Let me get your order, Avery. Anything you want.”

“You sure?” Avery dumbfoundedly blinked at the woman beside her. She didn’t know what Jamie’s motive was nor did she feel right to ask. After the video was sent to the O’Hara girl last night, Avery believed this was the end of any friendship they could’ve had. Certainly Jamie wouldn’t want to be standing this close to her, let alone buy her food. They were being cordial. Professional. Adults. Anything beyond that was likely ruined yesterday. Not only did Avery shoot her shot and get rejected, but she was seen making out with a big boob Milligan. “It’s okay, really, I can pay for myself, Jamie... you don’t owe me anything,” Avery averted her eyes and focused her attention on their former teacher, “Medium coffee, the house blend, one sugar and some oat milk. Please and thank you. And uh, I’ll take some beignets. To go.” The sooner she left the better they both would be. The sooner she left the faster she’d be able to move on. “It looks delicious, by the way, Beau.”

“Of course I’m sure!” Jamie smiled with her puffy eyes and tired face. She wasn’t going to take no for an answer in this instance. Reaching into the back of her jeans, the younger O’Hara twin pulled out a few dollars and placed them on the counter top. Money had never been any problem for Jamie; she was a Foundling. Beyond that, her father was a beloved and successful coach of athletics and her mothers side of the family basically ran youth hockey in New England. It was funny, in her job as a teacher, she probably made less money than the monthly allowance of some other Scott Street babies. “I’ll have my usual Mister Beau, this should cover us both,” She turned to look at Avery and smiled the brightest of smiles, a sheer contradiction to her obviously weathered eyes. “Just gonna head to the bathroom real quick, I’ll be back.” Without pause for response, Jamie hurried off towards the back of the store and out of sight.

Beau cocked an eyebrow at the two young ladies as he began to tamper down the coffee grinds he would use in their morning hit of roasted goodness. He was still getting used to the new routine. Usually Roddy Callahan was his first customer of the day but he had left town, leaving his two current customers as his go to morning money makers. “Well well.” He began, showing Avery a knowing glance. “‘Bout time you made your move Miss Kaine.”

Shrugging at the burly man, Aves mumbled, “Eh,” before absentmindedly tapping her fingers on the counter, her gaze following Jamie as she left. “Not like she’ll reciprocate.” Having not heard from Clay since yesterday with that brief text when she shared the video of Cat dancing didn’t help her spirits. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum balanced each other, especially in regards to emotion. Truth be told, both her and McDungus were great at hiding how they felt behind a smile. That’s why they connected so fast. He would’ve gotten her out of her head in no time but unfortunately, something was up and she didn’t know what. “Even if she did, which she doesn’t,” Avery explained, noticing Beau slide her coffee in front of her, as she continued, “She’s married. And I’m just an ass to interfere with that.” Graciously, she grabbed her coffee and rested it in both of her hands. “Plus, look at her, she has enough going on.” Jamie's eyes were so red, Avery knew she couldn’t have been the only one to notice. And on top of that, Jamie always had a lot going on. Getting a chance to talk to her, like Avery did the past two days, was near impossible for someone like her and it didn’t help that the beautiful O’Hara transferred and her twin died. Jamie was out of her league and had enough to worry about than some nerd. This whole experience just solidified why Avery was stupid for waiting. She lost her opportunity a long time ago, why did she think she’d have another chance?

Beau let out a hearty chuckle, as he often did before doling out his advice. “I have been with my Colleen for thirty years. Thirty years of strife and pain but also joy, pure unbiased joy. I got beautiful babies with that lady and I love them with everything that I am,” The former English teacher began to bag up Avery’s pastry’s in a brown greaseproof bag before continuing. “Now I ain’t no expert on love, nor anything else for that matter might I say but I know people. I know tells and I know flaws. Miss Kaine, the way you two look at each other, now that ain’t something worth giving up on.” Rolling the top of the bag to seal it, Beau held his hand out to pass the food over to the befreckled girl. “Now I ain’t telling you to break up a marriage but what I am saying is that you got cards in this game. You cannot lose if you do not play but you can’t win either. Miss O’Hara, she seems like something worth playing for no?”

“She’s someone worth earning,” Avery earnestly answered as she grabbed the bag of treats with her free hand. “Call me a fool for love but I don’t want to be like everyone else. She can get anyone. Literally anyone. And like, she focuses on everyone else until it drains her. She’s so tender and loving, and I don’t know if she always sees that about herself. I’m not here to win some game. I don’t want her to compromise herself for me. I don’t want or expect anything from her. I just… iunno,” Avery sighed, taking a sip of her coffee and cycling through all her memories of why she couldn’t get over Jamie even if she tried, “I want her to know I’ll never grow tired of her and whatever she wants, whatever she needs, I’ll be for her, but I probably fucked that all up in one day.” Taking another sip of her coffee, Avery grumbled under her breath, “Fuck me, right?”

Jamie listened to the conversation between the former teacher and student for a few moments longer before emerging into the open space of the cafe. She and a thousand million thoughts running through her mind already and Avery’s deep confession only added to them. Wearing her famous smile like a mask, she picked up her own to-go coffee. “Smells delicious as always Mister Beau.”

“I’ll be sure to pray to my mama tonight and let her know that you girls enjoyed her recipe,” Beau’s chestnut coloured eyes fell upon Avery and Jamie. He could feel the tension between them and he may be old but he wasn’t that old. He still remembered the days that he would bring in Miss Kaine’s textbooks and they would be scribbled upon with scenes of two girls together, unicorns for some reason and Avery O’Hara scrawled across the front page. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the girl wasn’t talking about David. “Now y’all go off and have a bright day you hear me? And if you need any sweet Joe black, you know where to find us.”

“Thanks,” Avery met her old professor’s gaze. They looked at each other knowingly. Sometimes you don't need to say anything to get a message across. She was grateful after all these years she still found comfort in his presence. She wasn’t one of the students that needed his words of wisdom much, if anything she bothered him simply to bother him and talk about what she was reading. Simple talk but it’s what opened their friendship to the days she needed to talk to him about her worry for all those that came to Swerve seeking her light. Days where she knew Clay wasn’t being genuine and was hiding the pain of his loneliness behind a mask. Days when she just needed to talk because sometimes the person that everyone goes to needs someone to go to. Beau was that for her. No matter how big or small the topic was, she could always count on him to be there for her. She wondered if Colleen was that for him. His outlet. The town loved him and that must’ve been heavy to carry at times. There were many broken pieces in Edenridge. That’s why it was so important to have pillars, like Beau, to pick them up. Turning on her heel, she waved her right hand that still held her to-go up and said her goodbyes, “See ya same time tomorrow, Beau.”

Jamie too waved at the older man with a bright smile. Even in the darkest of dark times in Edenridge, Beau seemed to possess an inner light that always obliterated that black shroud. He was a positive energy, a pillar, a good man. Those were definitely few and far between in a town like Edenridge. Clutching her coffee in both hands, Jamie walked out of Rochambeau beside Avery, a million and one thoughts buzzing around her head like a hive of bees. Her mind was cloudy, like the port before a misted rain. She could not see the wood for the trees and she could not see clearly beyond the gilded trouble at her door. She looked towards the befreckled midnighter, her face a flush with heat and her heart beating fast. “Do you remember Clay’s thirteenth birthday party?”

“How could I forget?” Avery thought back to a time that felt like yesterday. A time that was simple for her and her class before highschool started to pull them in directions beyond their control. “It was that party that separated our class from the rest. Clay’s birthday falling at the end of September was always the perfect excuse for Allison to do something big to mark a new year. Hell, we were only in Eighth grade and she had highschoolers showing up.” Taking a sip of her coffee and adjusting the brown bag in her other hand, she reminisced, her eyes clouding as she led the way, “It was a perfect storm. Clay’s parents weren’t around, leaving the whole house to him. Mayor Winslow was throwing an adult-only soiree to celebrate his wife’s 50th at the community center so that’s where most of the adults were, especially the parents of Scott Street.”

Stopping at the crosswalk, waiting for the signal to give her the greenlight to walk, Avery continued, all the while smiling, “Leave it to our class to somehow fill Clay’s entire house with soapy foam. I don’t even remember how we did it but I do remember Cat coming in, only immediately having to distract the cops patrolling and when she was able to shoo them away Clay pulled her into the soapy abyss. The boys were rowdy as hell. David and Francis were riding a mattress down the stairs. Russ surprisingly got Rhett to not have a stick up his ass and have fun. They were going up against Viv and Allison in a nerf gun fight. The most vivid thing for me, though?”

Lost in a memory, Avery didn’t notice the signal shift to green. Turning her head, she caught Jamie’s eyes, an ethereal blue that wasn’t of water but hot fire, and admitted, “You.” When they met years ago, small, naive, and at the playground, Aves hadn’t realized that blue could burn until then. She met Jamie O’Hara whose passion transformed the blue in her eyes into something warm and deep. Something that brings the heat to the heart and the soul. Pure, unadulterated, raw energy. Impossible to contain, no matter how much Coach tried to. “I found you twirling at the center of it all, with Lamb not too far off, just in your own world. It was kind of like you were dancing on clouds.” Avery gazed at her, in a way that was a promise of protection. She always looked at Jamie this way. In the way that said: I’ll be here when you need me. I’ll be here waiting. I’ll be your home. Forgetting about her own insecurities, letting her memory drive her, Avery complimented her dream girl, unable to restrain her love and adoration, “You’re so beautiful.” She saw Jamie then, she saw Jamie now. She saw her and that would never change. No matter how hard she tried… she’d always see her.

Jamie remembered that day. David had dragged her along to Clay’s party. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to go because she’d always liked and more recently at the time crushed on Clay but she had been feeling so many different things at that time. Whenever she walked the street itself she felt like electricity was buzzing across her skin. Mrs. Ramsey called it a Dependent Personality Disorder with underlying anxiety and schizotypal tendencies. Jamie was in a low way the day of Clay’s thirteenth. When she arrived at the party, the birthday boy was too wrapped up in Sabrina Aviles to notice the freshly baked cookies she had made and the maroon dress she had bought for that special occasion.

David assured her everything would be ok and of course Jamie believed. She always did. Davey would never lie to her. After a while, the O’Hara girl became lost in the party. She swayed and moved to the music and hadn’t even realised that the house had been filled with thick white bubbles. When she opened her eyes for the first time in what felt like hours, the room was filled to the brim with liquid foam, dancing teens and the dulcet tones of Michael Buble singing about not meeting his lover yet. Jamie’s gaze met the sight of Avery Kaine staring back at her. She didn’t know the girl beyond a cordial hello in the hallway but in that moment amongst a sea of bubbles and a crowd of hormones, Little Miss O’Hara realised that she liked girls as well but not just any, she liked Avery.

Jamie didn’t know how to express what she had felt but by the time she had figured it out she had been shipped away from Edenridge to a school for people like her. Crazies. The lingering time she spent in memory shared with Avery, the more the teacher felt a familiar warmth fill her body. She replayed their shared gaze at Clayton’s birthday over and over in her head. She recalled the charged moment between them not twenty four hours ago in the stalls of Swerve Arcana. Images flashed in her brain of Bronagh Milligan, of David and flower petals on prom night, of Clay and Laura and the Royals. Jamie’s heart began to beat faster and faster as the fire took hold of her heart. Throwing her coffee cup to the ground, the girl turned and pinned Avery to the wall of a nearby building. Cupping the girl's befreckled face in her palm, Jamie leaned forward and intoxicated by chaos, pressed her lips to the beautiful strangers with a fervent want.

Waaaaaaah?

Eyes widened, Avery found herself forcibly pushed against the building wall (partly the glass window) of Main Street Music, at the corner of Main and Central. She spent all night and morning thinking Jamie would’ve hated her after the video with Bron but now here she was, the girl Avery had crushed on for years, sensually pressing her chest up against her and reigniting the primal desire that lay dormant for years. Was this a fever dream? A practical joke? A mistake? Jamie was married for fuck’s sake!

With a million and ten thoughts crossing her mind, veiled by a cloudy haze, Avery couldn’t, no wouldn’t, contain herself. This was her first fucking kiss with Jamie O’Hara. Every curve, every inch, every strand of hair… every part of her, Avery loved. Even the timbre of her voice shook the befreckled lesbian to her very core. Soaking in this unreal, frantic caress, feeling her lips — soft like silk, pillowy even — and tasting coffee and blueberries, Avery was on cloud nine. It became ten times worse when Jamie started to react to her touch. Parting the brunette’s lips slightly, Avery allowed her tongue to slip in, before tossing her own coffee to the side and dropping Beau’s delicious treats to the ground. There was no way in hell she’d let food get in between her and this passionate embrace with the hottest girl alive.

Eagerly, Avery grabbed onto her beloved’s waist and with surprising ease, switched their positions where Jamie was up against the window and she, the raging lesbian, was taking the lead. Feeling the thud of their combined heartbeat, fingers carding through Jamie’s hair, Avery intently stared into the other woman’s half closed eyes and embraced her — every curve, every inch, and every strand. God, she embraced her, overcome by ecstasy. Pure ecstasy.

Jamie gave herself to Avery in every way. As the far more confident girl took control of her body, she raised her skirted leg to encompass the comic book girls svelte hip. Her hands and fingers became wrapped in ringlets of soft dirty blonde hair as moans of pleasure and joy, bottled for a decade rose up through her chest and out of her mouth. Jamie had kissed girls before, she had experimented in school and college but what she was feeling now was not an experiment. It was not a flight of fancy or impulsivity that she was known for giving in to. This was her truth. This was who she was and who she wanted.

It wasn’t until Avery looked past Jamie to see Jericho on the other side, inside of MSM, covering his mouth with his right hand in astonishment that she was brought back to reality. She didn’t want to pull away, she didn’t want this to end, she didn’t want Jamie to slip from her grasp… but she needed to. It was the right thing to do. After pulling Jamie’s bottom lip and releasing her tight grip on her, Aves muttered to herself, “Fuck, I…” she was lost for words. She didn’t understand how she got in this predicament but here she was standing in front of Jamie, heated and bewildered.

The breaking of their kiss allowed the fresh air to flow into the O’Hara girl’s chest and wash away the fog of desire that had engulfed them. Jamie’s hands drifted from Avery’s hair to her freckled cheeks and that’s when she saw it. The golden noose wrapped around her second left finger. The reality of her situation was beginning to take a hold of the teacher as she heard the distant sirens of a patrol car. The blue eyes Jamie shared with her beautifully departed brother stung from the breeze. She had cried and cried and cried herself out. She would not cry now, even though she wanted to.

The kiss was everything she had hoped for and more and her soul was screaming at her to pull Avery back into her embrace but Jamie knew better. The day before she had asked to be told a story and Avery had replied about making one together. She wanted that, God did Jamie want that right now. Yet as the distant sirens grew closer and her puffy red eyes drank in the beauty of Clayton’s best friend, the glass ballerina knew this wasn’t how her story was supposed to end. There was still another act to take place.

She placed her hand on Avery’s mouth to pause her from speaking and to stop herself from kissing the girl again. “I…I need,” Jamie’s lips quivered and her voice stumbled. “I need you to…” She searched for the words that could make it all ok. The words she needed to justify what she was doing. “Know…this wasn’t a mistake. You are so beautiful and so brilliant…Avery and I want this. I want this.” Her hand drifted to Avery’s chest and her racing heart. “Please don’t hate me.” Unable to stay without losing control, Jamie pushed past Aves and took off running down Main Street towards Scott Street. She couldn’t look back. If she did, everything would’ve been a waste. Such a waste.

Stunned in place, Avery couldn’t compute, she was beyond the point of malfunctioning. If she were a computer, she’d have the blue screen of death. What just happened? Jamie wanted this. She wanted… her? Leaning up against the wall, covering her beet red face, Aves tried to regain herself. It wasn’t until she heard a male’s voice, startling her, that she could think past the kiss, Jamie’s words, and the possibility that she would finally get what she wanted. She’d finally get Jamie. “Huh?” Avery dropped her hands to her side, turning her head and seeing JP waiting for her. He held the door open to the record store, a temporary oasis for the geek queen.

“I can… clean up for you.” JP surveyed the front of his family’s business at the two dropped coffees and the bag of desserts. Thankfully none of Beau’s beignets had gotten out. “Why don’t you take a seat? I can get you a cup of water, put on some Gallows, yeah… and if you want, we can talk? Or you can just chill. Whatever works!” Anxiously, JP scanned the area to make sure no one witnessed what had happened, afraid his friend would get heat for kissing a married woman. It seemed like the coast was clear. Then again, this was Edenridge, a town that thrived off of secrets. He hoped this wouldn’t be one of them.

“Ah, okay…” the woman stumbled.

Avery Kaine was one of the kindest people in this town. She didn’t deserve the scrutiny that can happen from giving into your deepest desires. He knew she loved Jamie all her life, he and her had connected awhile back since she was one of his loyal customers. They’d trade comics for records, records for comics. It was a sweet deal they had. During their blossoming friendship, he saw Avery get with some of the hottest girls in the area, Antonia Cortez, Sonya Rossi, Han-Na Kang, Bella Joseph, and that’s only listing a few. He and her? They were whores in highschool - it was a silent respect they had for one another. She was two years older than him and he couldn’t help but admire her game. She was a total badass. Unapologetically Avery.

Things changed when her twenty-first birthday came around. He saw it on her face when she stared into the candles of her cake. He knew that look. It was just like him. She didn’t want to live like that anymore. Her heart belonged to one person and one person only. His dream had been right beside him the moment the Shomers moved to town. For Avery, her dream was always out of reach and light years away. A fantasy. Something that seemed unattainable. Her wonderland.

Guess dreams do come true.

Moments like these made him believe magic does exist. His friend. A goofy ass nerd with freckles and the cutest french bob. Finally, she finally got her unicorn.

JP couldn’t be more proud.

With his folded arms against his bare chest, Cameron watched the strawberry blonde breathe gently in between her dreams. She lay on her front, her back uncovered by the duvet and illuminated by the morning sun; a sleeping angel.

Their night had gone very much like the Devil had planned even in spite of the raging storm. Hyde and JJ propped up the VIP section of the Afterlife. Money was no object as he still had much left over from the savings he had left over from before his imprisonment. Plus there was the added bonus at Jessie was a Scott Street baby; they always had more money than what they knew what to with. They sank drink after drink, exploring each other's lives with words and reconnecting after a lifetime apart. Selling her on all the bullshit was so terribly easy that Cameron never really had to try. He was working in international construction and hated social media, she took the bait hook line and sinker. He was upfront with Blue about not all cut some of his time spent at the leisure of the Massachusetts correctional office; she didn’t care. Perfect.

Soon they found themselves on the dance floor, moving together so slinkily and sexy. Cameron didn’t care that all eyes were on him, waiting for him to fuck up, in fact he thrived on it. The more eyes that were on him the better. It was all a part of the plan. The plan that he had concocted sharing a jail cell with Charlie Taylor. The night drew closer and closer to its end and so did the storm. With a reprieve from the downpour, Hyde suggested to Blue that she come to his place. No one had ever set foot there except for Aleyda but that was by design. Everything that the Devil was doing was by design. JJ was eating out of the palm of his hand; as expected.

When they had reached McMahon Woodwork, they barely uttered a word to each other before Cameron and Jessie were tearing each other's wet clothes off and throwing them around the shop. The sex was fantastic and they went at it multiple times. As expected, everything had worked out to Cameron’s plans. There was an idea, an illusion that many people believed. Most subscribed to the thought that Hyde was a wild animal that had luck on his side. The reality was that, yes, he was a prisoner of his more basic instinct, that much one only had to ask Jessie James about from their evening together. Yet he was also calculated and a lot smarter than they think. Cameron was a beast with the mind of a scientist.

He reached down for the hot coffee he had brewed as JJ began to stir. “Morning Blue.”

Between the warmth of the sun that hit her and had encouraged the wild blonde to open her eyes, a small groan following, JJ was blessed by the sight of her dream man and holding a cup of coffee as soon as she woke up. How considerate. She was so lucky. After that perfect night back, even before he came up to her at the bar, JJ spent it with Lamb and Sonya, enjoying company, but the fun didn’t get started until she finally met up with her longtime crush, Cameron.

And what a night that was. Dancing and drinking, feeling his arms around her. Taking control when he needed to and letting her guide him when she needed to. All of those times spent with just letter correspondence, it had finally happened in real life. How long had she yearned to be in his arms? She had imagined it so many times and no amount of men or women at college (and some a bit older) could completely satisfy what Cameron did in a single night. All of her wildest fantasies that she cooked up for so all those years in her college days had come true last night and now she was reaping the benefits of that perfect night. “It is a good morning, isn’t it?” She grinned, although sheepishly, as she took the first sip of her coffee. Bitter with a note of cinnamon and hazelnut creamer. With a wider smile that still showed signs of her exhaustion, she said, “You remembered how I liked my coffee. I only mentioned it a few times in our letters.” A small laugh left her rosy lips as her eyes started to slowly center and fixate on her man.

“I never forget” Cameron’s blue eyes drifted across JJ’s body as he watched her wake up to the day's new world. And it was true, he never forgot anything. It was this volcanic memory, constantly spewing lava into his brain that often caused his violent rage. Even last night, when he had Blue pinned to the door by her throat, their lips dancing in chaos together, he could’ve squeezed tighter, he wanted to squeeze tighter because she reminded him of everything he was not supposed to have, everything that he had been told would never belong to him. Though that was going to change. Cameron was going to take everything that belonged to him and his family and that was going to start with JJ.

Making his way over to the bed, the Devil sat down on its edge before shuffling closer to the Scott Street blonde. He reached forward with his hand, taking a handful of Blue’s hair in between his fingertips and pulled her lips to his. She tasted like coffee, God he fucking hated coffee. Pushing down the urge to smash her head off of the wall, Cameron let his tongue weave a story of wanting. When he finally broke the kiss, he eased himself backwards, allowing her space but not before resting his hand on her thigh firmly. “If you want, when you’ve finished your coffee I was thinking we could go out to breakfast?”

As soon as that visceral kiss had come, it had retuned to where it originated. JJ, in normal circumstances, was a woman who held her ground firm and stood it with a playful confidence, but ever since last night -- no, ever since they had started talking via the letters -- she’s felt different. WIth him, for the longest time, Jessie James felt like he had this control over her that she absolutely loved. It wasn’t the bad kind but something that she longed to have in her life long before this moment. He knew exactly what she liked from how the right combination of aggression and tenderness made her puddy in his hands.

And when he proposed breakfast, as she took a large swig of her coffee, she let her rosy lips curl into a smile. “Breakfast sounds amazing right about now. I know we both have worked up an appetite.” Bluejay yawned slightly as she took another sip from her cinnamon and hazelnut coffee. The taste was heaven but not as heavenly as Cameron’s hand on her thigh. “I could go for a full spread right now. You know I’ve got the appetite of a lumberjane, right?” If last night was any indication, he’d know exactly how hungry she could become if the circumstances were right.

Cameron grinned as he noted the playful look in JJ’s eye. She really was quite fun but she was also oh so easy to toy with. “Well, if you’ll indulge me.” He placed his own coffee down on the bedside table and shuffled closer to the blonde. He moved himself forward and began planting soft, gentle kisses on her neck and shoulder, caressing her skin with his lips and gently nipping at her ear. “I’d like to take you out, we’ll grab some food from wherever you’d like then from there we head down to Collins Port, jump on my little boat I have moored down there and we head out onto the water to enjoy our food with the sunrise”

The Devil’s hands were not idle playthings as his free hand came up to hold onto Jessie’s neck. She was so supple, delicate, enticing…fragile. The monster’s blue eyes followed her rosy cheeks until they met with her own, enthralled green ones. It wouldn’t take much pressure to snap her neck like a twig but that wasn’t Hyde’s game, at least not today. “How does that sound, my Blue?”

The way he said it - his blue, it made every touch before that hold a deeper meaning for JJ. Her heart was pacing like an anxious-ridden man going back and forth in their apartment, those steps rattling as her heart fluttered. The kisses, the way his long finger gripped on her neck. No man has ever been able to do that without some resistance from Blue, but Cameron Hyde was different. He had a way about him that just made everything so natural. He could throw her against the wall and she might just let him.

“That sounds wonderful!” She looked deep into those dangerous eyes of his. Dangerous because she felt so vulnerable anytime she met that emerald gaze of his. Literal puddy in his hands. “You’ve mentioned the boat so many times but to actually see it…” For so long, she had dreamed of it. To see it and be on it with him had kept her awake some nights and now that dream was going to be made into a reality. “Then let’s not waste any time..”

“Well let’s waste a little time.” Cameron grinned as he stole a taste from JJ’s lips. The truth of the matter was the boat that she had longed to see was even Hyde’s at all. Before his incarceration, the demon spawn of April McMahon was working a bank job with an older crew in Boston. Needless to say it didn’t end well and one of them tried to make off with Cameron’s cut, thinking he was just a rookie kid. Big mistake. When the criminal returned home that weekend, his wife was in the ICU and his dog had been gutted. Cameron lay in wait in the chaos before dragging him out and drowning him in the lake. The boat was his consolation prize. “Before we go, I want to show you a little bit of my world, you didn’t really get the chance to see it last night”

Taking a hold of JJ’s hand, Hyde gently pulled her up from the bed. The duvet dropping off to the floor showed her amazing body and he just had to soak it in. She was outstanding. He brushed her sternum and chest with his hand before reaching down like a gentleman and handing her one of his shirts. “Here, meet me out the front when you’re ready. Don’t keep me waiting.” Cam tickled her nose with a kiss before departing the small bedroom. This was all so easy.

Show me part of his world?

Bluejay stood bare in front of her sapphire-eyed Prince Charming, looking at him. No smile. No half-grin like she typical had expressed on her face. She just gazed at him. Silence commanded the room much like the two of them did whenever they separately walked into one, but right now Cameron Hyde was steering this ride. Her attention was all his as he tossed a shirt of his to her. It was a simple dark-colored shirt. Nothing too fancy. Her Cameron wasn’t a fancy man but she was his.

When he left, she spent only a minute thinking about what he meant by his world? In the times they’ve communicated in their letters, while she came to be entranced by his poetic words and hilarious wit, she couldn’t even fathom what he meant by that, yet the wild northsider was intrigued in him even more than she had ever been before. As she slipped on the shirt and looked around the room for any sort of bottoms, JJ was casually investigating the dressers. She struck good luck and found a pair of jeans that seemed to be suited more for someone of a feminine body type. Still a little snug, but the fit was there. A dark, almost black shirt with blue jeans. Pair that with a pair of shoes she found in the closet and she was as ready as she ever was gonna be. JJ spent only a few extra minutes getting her hair somewhat presentable and brushed her teeth.

“As good as I’ll ever be.” She finally left the room, the mystery of what Cameron meant still hanging in her mind even as she came down the stairs, meeting her prince charming waiting by the door and her being like a street version of Cinderella as she came down the stairs. She immediately kissed him. “So you mentioned something about showing me your world?” She asked, that half-grin on her face returning to its rightful home. She was dying to know what he meant by it.

She was wearing his clothes. Well well. It didn’t take Jesse James long to make herself comfortable. Cameron began to count in his mind as he tapped his fingers together. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. He exhaled deeply before answering her, as if he was breathing out all the rage and anger just so that he could get through their moment together. “I did.” Hyde began. “Let me tell you a story.” He reached forward and interlocked his fingers with Blue’s before leading her into the central area of the shop.

McMahon Woodwork had two floors; the main shop filled with unfinished works by Cameron’s grandfather and a balcony which housed the living area. “You know our families have more ties than you think? If my understanding of history is right, the Milligans and the McMahons arrived together on the same boat at Collins Port back in the 17th century.” Hyde led the girl to the centre of the room before positioning himself behind her and wrapping his arms over her chest tightly. “Your family built buildings. Mine built the roads and everything else. Yet we don’t get Foundling status. A crime if ever there was one.” The handsome devil placed his head on JJ’s shoulder, kissing her neck as he held her close. “This was my grandfather's shop. You go in any house in town and you’ll find something with the McMahon symbol of excellence…even yours. Next time you are at your home, check any old wooden bits you have in there. You’ll see our sigil.” With his arms, Cam moved Bluejay without releasing her from his grasp, aiming her gaze at an unfinished bust carving on the far side of the room.

“When my grandfather died, he left this place to my Mom. She didn’t have it in her to step inside, so it sat vacant. All these unfinished projects. When I got back from my work abroad, I asked her for her keys. I can’t finish what he started but I can continue his legacy. I want to build roads. I want to build a future. Maybe you can help me do that.”

As Cameron told his tale, the story of his life and what this place was, some of it had seemed familiar. What he said about her family was the truth. Her mother Siobhan had told her many things about what contributions the Milligans had made to Edenridge over the years. Buildings that were still up and running today (though under new owners), yet the Foundling status were out of her family’s grasp and out of the McMahon’s grasp. It seemed like a shame because those who seemed to give greater efforts to what Edenridge was now compared to those who were simply given foundling status because they were part of those original settlers was a pity. The Milligans were connected to the Cleary’s through marriage.

She felt his anger towards some things. Others she didn’t understand, but Bluejay was sympathetic to it, at least. As she gazed upon the unfinished projects Cameron was speaking about, she looked at him, almost like she was hearing things. Almost like he hadn’t said what he just said. But in all the time she had known him from letters to the past twelve hours, Jessie James had come to know one thing about the man that stood behind her: he never said anything that he didn’t mean.

She melted in his touch and everything in her felt relaxed. At ease. “You said it best. Our families built the foundation of this town. Yours with the roads and mine with the buildings. It’s like…I don’t know if I’d call it this, but fate is a nice way to sum this up, no?” JJ was a believer in many things. Massages to help you relax, whiskey with a giant ice cube was better than going neat, and even some oxy with hard liquor went hard on the right days - but fate and destiny and anything that seemed too good to be true? She was skeptical,. Again, right circumstances converted nonbelievers - or at least that’s what her mother always used to say to her.

She turned around to face her Prince Charming, looking him into his eyes, holding his hands, and she kissed him. And once more that went deeper. “Together we can make this place into what it was meant to be. Milligan and McMahon. Together, there isn’t anything we can’t accomplish.” She kissed him again, putting feeling into it. “I do have a degree in engineering, after all. My time at college wasn’t wasted nor will our time here be wasted.”

As Hyde held her face in his hands, looking into JJ’s beautiful green eyes, he knew. The warmth of her skin beneath his fingertips, the dazed and content look on her face. With the words she declared of fate and with every kiss she planted on his lips. He had seen it so many times at this point. She was his. Blue had reached that stage of wanting and desire that was optimal for him. All Cameron had to do was keep her that way and life would be easy from then. He gained nothing for feeling for her but he gained everything if Blue felt for him.

He was going to destroy her.

Cameron took both sides of JJ’s face into hands and held her there, wordless staring and beckoning her into this thrall further. She was putty in his hands. “We are going to take everything back.” The devil spoke softly as he gently caressed her cheek; ignoring every urge to gouge out her pretty eyes. “You and me, Jessie. We are taking the world and everything in it.”

As she became lost in those eyes again, she found herself smiling almost to the point of permanently having that expression on her face with how warm he was making her feel. Touching her cheek like she was the only person in the world that mattered to him. The way he said her name. In both letters and real life, Cameron Hyde was as eloquent as his gestures were grand. A poet with the body of a model. And she was his as he was hers. No words could convey just how truly happy she was right now, how wanted he made her feel, and how part of her wanted to forget about the boat, but she was excited to see the morning with him on it.

“You lead and I will follow. Always.” She breathed as she kissed him deeply. Something she has become quite addicted to in the short amount of time spent with him. Jessie James never was known for her subtlety in expressing how she felt. Physical touch was one of her top love languages, after all.

And there in her words he saw it. Devotion. JJ was his now, his property to do with as he pleased. It was all going according to the plan. Edenridge would be burned to cinders by the time he was done and he was going to start at Scott Street. “You better.” She would hear the threat as a joke, they always did. They never could read between the words like he could; it was because he was smarter than them. So privileged, so soft, so easy to break.

The frequent kisses from his new “beloved” did nothing to mask the strawberry blonde's intentions. That was fine. Cameron had learned from his time with the viper Aleyda Gonzalez. He had to give a little, just a little to keep the wheels in motion and train barrelling onward. He wanted to show her off, show the world that Cameron Hyde was a changed man and that if a princess from that god forsaken cul de sac could see past his history then so too could they. If they did, they would be playing his game now, not theirs.

“I guess breakfast and the boat can wait a little while longer.” Cameron twisted JJ around before pushing her forward towards the counter top. He came up behind her and with one hand began to unbutton the front of the stolen jeans she had claimed as her own. As he pushed down her trousers, the Devil’s free hand rose up and wrapped itself like a claw from hell around her pretty little throat and began to squeeze. Hyde pressed his mouth to her ear and nibbled lightly before hissing his vitriol deep into the soul of his new prey;

“I’m going to ruin you.”

Indira couldn’t deny it, but the best thing following an impromptu pizza party evening was waking up to cold pizza for breakfast. Sitting on the dining table while feasting on her morning breakfast with one hand, the other busy scrolling through her Instagram feed with practiced ease. Some familiar faces showed up often: Bronagh Milligan, Amity Lyon and Gigi Blake; her sisters from other misters, besties and thottie social media collaborators. Indie showed her support for her girls with likes and comments with an obnoxious amount of heart eye and drooling emojis, no doubt swept away amongst the many other thirsty comments under their beautifully risque pictures.

The pizza and mindless social media scrolling could only distract her thoughts for so long before her mind would return last night’s call with Vivia. She was relieved that Bella had been able to take her in, but the fact that Vivia’s mental health was left unchecked for so long was a no go. Perhaps it was a bit of her own guilt talking, having not reached out to the Belmonte bombshell in a while herself, but the least she could do was be there for her now.

Indie switched over to her messaging app, not having to hunt for Bella’s name as it was her last chat she’d had before passing out from the pizza coma she’d gone into thanks to Ely.

girlie, i’ll bring some beaubucks soon, any requests? xx
_Delivered.

She stared at the phone intently, as though trying to manifest a response from Bella. She had been so preoccupied with her phone and manifesting that Indie had missed the sound of the bedroom door opening.

Owen preferred not to sleep at home. There were too many Quinn’s, not enough rooms and a whole lot of crazy. Sometimes he did wonder if he may have been secretly adopted considering just how different he was to his siblings and father. The Quinn’s were a harras of wild stallions, galloping across the open Irish moor, unbowed and unafraid of what hardships may come their way. Owen did not feel like them in many ways. He wanted to rise above his station, the right way. He wanted to graft, work hard and provide a life for those he loved in an honest fashion. Yet he spent most of his time pulling his siblings out of fires and covering up their mistakes through his own duress.

The brightest spot in his clouded life sat munching on cold pizza on top of the dining table. Indie sat there, sun illuminating her in all her glory and Owen had to force his jaw closed so it didn’t hit the floor. He had loved her from the moment he first saw her but he had her to make a move, if he ever would. He wasn’t good enough for a girl like her. He was a Quinn, he was born scum and would die scum. Still, when he was with Indira, he felt like the king of a golden castle. She made him feel that way, like he was the most important person in the room. Her heart shined bright and made everyone around her do the same.

With a smile on his face, the boxer gently closed the door behind him before taking a step deeper into the kitchen. “Am I still dreaming cos I see an Angel eating the last of my meat lovers?”

“What can I say, this angel loves her some meat.” The innuendo did not get lost amongst the friends. The longer she hung out with the thottie gang, the more comfortable she felt flirting with people around her. Owen was the easiest to flirt with, making her feel like some kind of Casanova capable of sweeping him off his feet. Not that she would, he was too good for her. Too sweet. She had baggage she had to unpack and she couldn't expect Owen to fix her. No matter what her Bollywood movies told her.

“I've left you a slice, and made some coffee for you.” She slid the mug gently across the table top in Owen’s direction. “Just so I can still claim that angelic status.”

“I’ll never claim you’re anything but an angel.” Owen reached out for the plain black coffee that his Indira had made for him. She knew better than to destroy the deep dark flavor of his morning nectar. The fighter found out very early that he liked his coffee to punch him in the face. He needed to be alert all the time, he never knew when he’d get a call to go bust one of the Quinn’s out of a jail of their own making.

Owen’s gaze drifted up and around Indie sat on her perch. The morning post storm light that came beaming through the windows only illuminated the beauty that had enthralled him from a young age. With her soft exotic features, those deep brown eyes and gentle kindness that one felt instantly in their soul, how could he not be crazy about her? Like he said, Quinn’s had a habit of making their own jails. Owen’s trapped in a prison of fear and of cowardice. He could take a beating, he could go twelve rounds and he could fight tooth and nail to get what he wanted yet he couldn’t find that same strength and intestinal fortitude to tell Indira Rossi that he had been madly in love with her ever since he first met her gaze.

After taking a sip from his coffee, Owen placed both hands onto the mug, sliding his body towards and briefly pressing against Indie’s. “Have you spoken to your family? Dani and Sonya stay out of the storm?”

“Yeah, thankfully. Both ma and didi were at work so they skipped the worst of it. Hm, I should make some dinner plans with them soon, it’s been a while since I’ve made ma’s carbonara. Oh, speaking of her carbonara, we’re out of eggs. And cheese. We- I, should tell Els that before I forget-” She raised her phone again to look for Ely’s name in her text messaging history before shooting off a quick reminder. It was mostly for Indie’s benefit, there were way too many times she’d forgotten to tell Ely that their eggs or milk had gone off in the fridge only to complain to Ely about it that very evening.

After a pause, Indie faced Owen, her eyes lingering on Owen’s grip on his mug. “Have you-” She cleared her throat, her voice pitched higher than she had expected. Must be the pizza. “Have you got any plans today?”

Owen’s eyes tried to hide the fact that he was drinking in his friend's beauty with every passing second. At this point his deep feeling for her was an open secret to everyone but Indira herself. The boxer just never knew the right time and place to admit to her how he felt. To look at them in their element, always touching, always together, to anyone not a stranger they would appear as any normal loving couple. He tried to focus on her question. Did he have any plans today? He wasn’t working at the cleaning place today and he wasn’t in training for the squared circle at the present time so, realistically the quietest Quinn was free as a bird like in that Skynyrd song his father loved so much. And he would most definitely jump at the chance to spend the day with Indie.

“Nah I’m free. My next shift with Navarro isn’t until tomorrow. What do you got in mind?”

If there was a constant with Owen, it was his intensity. There was always a look in his eyes, his mind always seemingly running with some thought or the other. Indira always found his expressions fascinating to watch. The storm in his dark, ocean eyes always held back by his calm demeanor. It reminded her of Maxine, both being the grounding rock in Indira’s life. Neither allowing her to stray too far from the ground.

Truth be told, it was akin to addiction whenever Owen would direct that intensity towards her. The look in his eyes set the blood beneath her skin on fire. She never wanted to lose that feeling. If it made her a terrible person, so be it. She was never one to share what was hers.

“The plan today is to check up on Viv and Bella. Viv didn’t look really well on Facetime last night and I don’t like it.” When Indira’s phone buzzed with a response from the dark haired beauty, her screen lighting up with a picture of herself, Owen and Ely, she lifted her screen to show the notification to Owen. “Got an order for some Beaubucks first we gotta pick up if you’re down to join me?”

“I mean you need my van so of course I’ll join you.” Owen could feel Indie’s eyes on him and it made his heart race like a greyhound. He raised his coffee to his lips and downed some more of the black tar. He didn’t know Viv or Bella that well if at all really. Scott Street was not really his scene behind the fact he cleaned most of their pools on a Thursday afternoon. He did, however, know the late Allison Davies. A sore spot whenever brought up. She was one of the few to reach out to the Southie boy when he turned up to be their slave for the day. Many had pondered on the nature of their friendship and Owen had always professed not innocence but privacy. He did not want to speak for the dead when he barely struggled to string words together for himself. “When do you wanna leave?”

Indie barely looked down at her (watchless) wrist when she chirped, “How ‘bout now?” With the crust of the pizza forgotten - a feat on par with Indie, she slid out of her seat and stretched her muscles. She was already dressed for the day, having taken a selfie in the morning light and posting it to her Instagram story first thing after getting dressed to take advantage of the early glow rising through the apartment window. “No time to waste. Seize the day. Capra diem. Hasta la vista? Chop chop! You get the gist!” She stood by him, rocking on the balls of her feet from excitement.

She was so adorable when she was excited and Indie found excitement in even the most mundane of things, like a coffee run to Rochambeau. Owen wished that he could see the word the same way as his beloved but despite the struggles her family faced, and face them they did, they weren’t Southies. They weren’t borderline destitute and taking on short cons and resorting to petty crimes just to keep a roof over their heads. Owen was striving, swimming against the tide of his worse self and trying to be better than that. He was trying to be a good man, a man that Indira deserved.

Indie looked summery in her yellow dress. It seemed to be her super power to make the easiest of items look amazing…or maybe she just looked amazing? Either way, Owen suffered the same problem that he always did, he couldn’t keep his eyes off of her. He lifted his mug to lips and polished off his half full cup of coffee very quickly before putting the empty beaker in the sink. After slipping his feet into the shoes that sat nearby, Owen picked up the keys to his van from the loop by the door and wiggled them to signify his readiness. “Your chariot awaits princess.”

Princess, she liked that nickname very much. It was one she’d see often enough on her Instagram feed, but it never felt impactful by any means. Hell, it would only take her a few minutes to find an uncle from rural India to be wowed by her beauty enough to call her a Rajasthani rani. Would the uncle be correct? Yes, of course. But that still wouldn’t make her feel as giggly and flustered as when Owen would call her a princess.

As she walked past Owen, she mimicked the motion of blowing him a kiss, adding a wink on top just to sweeten the deal. “I’ve also updated my playlist so I hope you’re ready to blast some more Rico Nunez. My hot girl summer playlist was seriously lacking ‘til I found him.”

Fuck Rico. That guy had been everywhere over the last twelve months. Every station in New England was carrying his songs. The first time Owen heard the Latin Lothario’s soft jams, he was into it. Then they played again, and again, and again. Still, if Indie was a fan then for all intents and purposes, so was he. Hell, he would be his number one fan if it meant more time with Indira. ”I mean I can’t lie, Sur del Cielo is a fucking bop.” Owen placed his hand on the small of his beloved's back as he guided her out of the apartments. He wasn’t sure what the brand new day would bring for him and Indie but if they were together, then no matter the good or bad, they could seize it.

”Another day in paradise.”

A bright morning at the Grimm manor, which meant the haunting eerie sounds, the ominous aura, and the lingering emptiness of lost memories were masked by sunlight streaming through the large windows. Since it was a work week her father was already gone, going about his business, preparing for his announcement among other things, like the arrival of her cousins. Celine, her step mom, was likely having breakfast with Mrs. Cortez and the other gossip moms of Scott Street trying too hard to be part of the ruling social group.

Unfortunately for her father’s Babydoll, Celine’s age didn’t meet the prerequisites of being a milf nor did she have children of her own so getting the acknowledgement and respect of Felícia was a losing battle. The mothers did entertain her though. Kylee knew that game all too well. String along, give them a glimpse of hope, a taste of opportunity, manipulate and use them for all their worth and then when you are tired of them, throw them away like the worthless garbage they are.

As much as Kylee wanted to believe she was turning over a new leaf, she knew if she needed to, she would resort to methods that her and her siblings have mastered solely to be in control of their own kingdom. Kylee’s resource was information, and as her father has told her time and time again, information was liberating. Beauty might be dangerous but intelligence was lethal. Kylee was a smart girl, creative too, and her father saw more in her than she ever did which is why his words weighed so heavily on her. She hated disappointing him. She needed his approval.

Tiptoeing into the backdoor of her house, Kylee led Adam to the music room where she’d leave him for a little bit to get changed. Slipping in the Grimm manor without getting noticed was the easy part but knowing who was here and where? Now that was tricky. If she opened the garage to see what vehicles were here that would loudly announce her arrival and she didn't want that. All Kylee wanted was to go in, put some fresh clothes on, and get out.

She wanted Adam to wait at someone else’s house or a block or two away but he was adamant of coming with her, especially now that they were boyfriend and girlfriend. Instead of bringing him to her room, she thought it would be best to leave him in the room that is rarely frequented. The music room. She wouldn’t be caught dead being alone in her bedroom with a boy. Her dad would surely find out and want to interrogate him right then and there!

This was risky business but she knew her family would find out one way or another. This town was small and everyone talked. At least this way her father would know she wasn’t ashamed of Adam, not like she was when she was with Wes. She would properly introduce Adam as her boyfriend which was unlike the others. The only other lover Kylee introduced to her father was Pierce and something in her knew he knew it wouldn’t last. Her father was good at judging people like that but Adam was different. Adam was her forever and she would make sure to fight for him even if it meant going head to head with her father. In time Kylee disappeared down the hall and Adam was left in the grand room with classical instruments that likely cost a fortune.

There have always been stories about Grimm Manor. Adam remembered days gone by where he and his cousin Roddy would look out from a cross Scott Street at the old rustic place, back when it was Carlisle house and wonder what hellish evil lurked within its walls. It was said that it was built from the frame of The Judge Nathaniel Carlisle’s vessel when he decided he was going to stay and “save” Edenridge. Apparently several slaves and natives died in its construction atop of the hill. It was oft said that in the basement, The Judge would hold suspected witches in chains and drain them of as much blood as possible without killing them before sending them to be hanged. The blood would then be used in fertilizer to help crops grow. Nathaniel was the biggest boogeyman that Eden had to offer and it was believed that his body was buried in the grounds of the manor.


Adam had heard the nursery rhyme all his life and now he found himself inside Nathaniel’s palace, waiting for his girlfriend. That was still a weird thing to think about; Kylee Grimm was his girlfriend. He hadn’t even considered the idea of when he first came back to town. If anything he didn’t think she’d want to see him again after disappearing like he did but there he was. After a night of passion, of giving themselves to one another completely, it seemed that childhood dreams had come true. Now, standing in the music room of a house built of broken dreams, he wondered if nightmares did too.

Turning on his heels, Adam nearly stumbled into the piano as he took a step backwards. In the doorway, stood two men, identical save for their colored shirts. One in pink and one in navy. Their stances were exactly the same, legs a few inches apart, hands in their pockets and their heads tilted either side. It was like a WASP version of the twins from the Shining. The Callahan knew exactly who the men were but that didn’t stop him from being surprised to see them. “Kennedy. Lincoln.” He greeted with a gulp.

Lincoln was the older of the twins, Mayor Grimm’s oldest child and a psychopath, if rumors were to be believed. He was a genius, nobody could deny it. He was an MIT student, MENSA member, his brain was basically a computer which for many, meant that he did not feel the same way that others did. Adam liked to think that if Link was a computer, then he definitely had a virus. Kennedy was the younger of the two and the most of the Grimm brood like Teddy. He was charming, affable, and cunning. He was also a suspected racist, rapist, manipulator and true advocate of white privilege. Nobody had a bad word to say about Kennedy because if they did try, he’d likely put them so deep in the ground that the worms couldn’t find the body.

“Well,” — “Well.”

“What do we have here brother?”

“I smell Irish. Shaggy hair? Buck teeth, we’ve got ourselves a Callahan!”

Coming from the kitchen with a large East of Eden band shirt on and nothing else, her wet blue hair draping down her shoulders, and a bowl of Lucky Charms, Hailey followed the voices of her brothers and grinned when she heard the other boy’s voice. Her sister was silly to think she and her boyfriend would go unnoticed in this house. On top of Hailey’s bedroom having the best view of the backyard, Link bugged the entire premise with cameras. There was no privacy here. That was simply what the Grimms did. Everyone knew everyone’s business, whether they liked it or not. It was the only way they could protect one another, after all.

“Be nice you two,” Hailstorm batted her eyes at her big brothers before slipping in between them to see the newest prey of the collective. Taking a spoonful of cereal in her luscious lips, she took in the Callahan’s handsome features, like his face and his muscles. Adam wasn’t little anymore. Sauntering inside, breaching Adam’s space, closing the distance with little to no care that she was practically wearing nothing, Hailey curiously tilted her head, “Long time no see, Adam. When did you get into town?”

“Erm? Ugh….” Adam kept his green eyes locked upon the twins. Hailey was always a lot and the fact she was basically naked was not lost in him but he had to respect Kylee. He had wanted the youngest Grimm for so long and he wasn’t going to do anything to risk what he finally had. “About a month ago. It’s good to see you Hails.” Hailey had always carried a different energy to her siblings. She was rock and roll when they were classical but she was still a Grimm in the way she behaved, the way she spoke. There was darkness in her, just like the rest of them.

“Twenty seven days to be exact.” Lincoln was on his phone, typing with both thumbs blindly as his gaze never left his sister's “guest”. Hailey would toy with the boy a while but get bored. That’s just how she was. It did nothing to protect the family. “Came in on the greyhound and signed the lease for his apartment on the third of last month. Funnily enough he has not been using a credit or debit card at all, this entire time.” Link finally shifted his look to his two. A clear signal for Kennedy to tag in.

Ken gently brushed the corner of his mouth with his fingertips as he took a step into the room. “Cash only, Adam? I must say that doesn’t seem….savory.” He stopped behind his younger sister for a second and untucked a clump of her blue hair from the back of her shirt before moving beyond the pair and sitting at the piano. “You hiding? You can tell us we’re all family here.” Kennedy was a smooth operator, he always knew exactly how to work a person or a room. “You wanna be with Kylee Rose we come as her baggage. What’s yours?” His voice trailed off slightly, a technique he had learned from watching his father glad hand with voters and businessmen. “What’s your big secret, Callahan? You can tell me…or I can have Link find out.”

“Quite frankly, it’s none of your business,” Kylee was out of breath by the door having changed so quickly she could’ve been part of a triathlon. The fact that she was able to throw together a cute outfit was also quite impressive. She hadn’t dressed this cute in months. Hailey shifted her body to scan her sister up and down before a smirk fell on her face. “Can’t we just do this like a normal family over dinner with daddy?” Kylee pleaded, hating when her siblings cornered her lovers or friends like this. Although Kylee wanted to lean on the rim of the door to gather herself, not one to run unless she absolutely must, she hated running, she stood tall and hid her heavy breathing behind a gentle smile. This place was too damn big.

“Oh! So you’re planning on introducing him to dad, huh? That’s a big step for you, Kylee Rose,” Hailey teased, stepping back, closer to the harp, so Kylee could make her way to her boyfriend. “You know we only tease, we just want…” she paused to think of the right words before putting another spoonful in her mouth, “... you to be happy. Your track record isn’t the best, you know?”

“I’m aware of my track record, thank you very much,” Kylee went beside Adam and latched onto his arm protectively.

“Let’s run through the list shall we.” Kennedy hit one of the piano keys with his finger. “Adam Callahan. Ran away.” He struck another key. “Pierce Mercer. Very gay. Very dead.” The eldest Grimm shot a look to his twin and the two shared the same damned smirk. “Mei Ramsey. Whore. Nowhere near good enough for you.” As Kennedy tapped another sound out of the ivory, he stood up to his full height. “Natalia Belmonte. If I recall you left her for…what was it, Link?”

“Feelings of inadequacy,” Lincoln responded.

“That’s right.” Ken clapped his hands together. “Feelings of inadequacy. Story of your life, right Kylee Rose? Comparing yourself to everybody else.”

Lincoln finally took a stride into the music room. He placed his hands in his sister's bowl and took out a fistful of lucky charms, pushing them into his mouth and disregarding the dripping wet milk now staining the old wooden floors. “Don’t forget Wesley!” He spoke with his mouthful. “Not even cold in the ground that relationship and now she’s with the karate kid here.”

Adam’s posture changed. Standing upright and firm, he clenched his fists and stared at the siblings. “Enough. I’m not scared of any of you. You’re just some sad little rich kids that grew up on haunted hill and whose daddy fucked them up. Newsflash! That’s the same story as anyone else who grew up on this damned street.” He didn’t want to invite a fight into the world but if it boiled down to it, Adam was pretty confident he could take the brothers down.

“Would you look at that?” Kennedy moved himself to the other side of Hailey so the three Grimm’s were standing in a row. “He says he isn’t afraid of us. What do you think, Lincoln?”

“He should be. Oh God he should be.”

As much as Kylee wanted to fight back, her whole demeanor had deflated. All she could think about was Adam not wanting to be with her because of all her exes, especially the one she had broken up with not too long ago. She could feel her lips quivering. Why was she so weak in comparison to them? Why did they have to bring her down? Weren’t they supposed to be a family? Weren’t they supposed to lift each other up?

No.

Kylee Rose Grimm. Don’t you dare cry. Clenching her teeth, her eyes darkening as she met each of their gaze one by one, Kylee released Adam from her grasp and stepped forward, confronting them. “It’s funny, really, how high and mighty you three act when you hardly have your shit together and haven’t impressed dad in years.” Kylee clenched her fists, meeting her siblings’ gazes as she directly spoke to them, “Link, you're too busy being obsessed with your old classmate, a cute native girl that works for the police, to do anything remarkable. She would rather see you dead than alive and boy, that’s got to hurt.” Her eyes went from one brother to the next. “Kennedy, don’t even get me started with you and all the allegations that dad had to cover up, all because you can’t keep your dick in your pants and you think roofing a girl is the easiest way to get them to like you. At least I’m not afraid to ask someone out the right way.”

Lastly, she caught her sister’s undivided attention who seemed finished with her cereal; Hailey’s true emotions hidden behind a cheshire grin. “And Hailey, fuck you,” Kylee spat in annoyance. “You can’t even keep a friend because you’re too busy pushing them to commit suicide or turn to drugs. You're fake. You’re all fucking fake. I know how to make real authentic bonds, what do you guys know how to do besides being total assholes with no heart!”

Before any of the siblings could retort back a man from the hallway cleared his voice. He was an older man in a suit. Ghastly looking and scrawny. Even with his wrinkles, he did carry himself in a rather dashing manner. People forget that this man is always here and came with the grounds, having a small guest house to call his own out back. “Lincoln. Kennedy. Didn’t you promise Mister Grimm you’d pick up Miss Amaranth and Aster Harding? They should be landing soon. It takes an hour to get to the airport.”

“Cyril,” Kennedy glanced back at the short older man. He was part of the furniture in the old manor. When their father bought the place, Cyril came with it, apparently he had worked “for the house” for over sixty years. He was around five foot five with pure white hair and a beard. He dressed in a fine black suit from Osprey’s that Mayor Grimm had gotten him, which he adorned with a red scarf with a crest on it. “We will finish this conversation later.” He hissed towards Kylee and her boyfriend. Ken had always been the leader of the Grimm children, it came with the territory of being the oldest. He had no real power over Lincoln and Hailey but they knew when to listen to their big brother. “Come Lincoln, let’s go get our beloved cousins.” As Kennedy moved beyond Cyril, Lincoln pointed his finger in a gun towards Adam and Ky and silently pulled the trigger before following his twin.

“Hailey?” Cyril looked at the blue haired poison pixie with his hands folded behind his back. “I do believe that you're going to be late for your hair appointment at tresses. I’m already prepping the car.”

“Just a moment, Cyril,” Hailey softened her approach, wearing a warm disposition in the presence of the butler. Glancing over the lovers once more, Hailey chuckled, “Oh Kylee, you should know better than to talk back to us like that. Let's see how long this one lasts… a month? Just like the last one. When did you break up with Wesley anyways? I wonder. It was only a couple days ago you were out getting coffee with him. Oh isn’t this fun? My sister sure loves to find love in all the wrong places. Jumping from one to the next. How sweet.” The more she spoke, the more she patronized her little sister. Turning around and prancing out of the music room, she looked over her shoulder and blew them a kiss, holding her bowl in one hand, “Until next time, Kylee Rose and… Adam.” That awful grin reappeared on her sister’s face before she went off to her bedroom.

Cyril cleared his throat again, covering his mouth as he did. He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a napkin to dry off his hands as he looked upon Adam and Kylee. He did not say another word before placing the handkerchief back into his pocket and taking hold of the handles of the old wooden doors and dragging them backwards, closing the door before him and allowing the lovers some privacy.

Adam’s green eyes danced from the door over to Ky. She was obviously shaken and frustrated and downright pissed off at her siblings acting like a pack of hyenas circling him like prey. He placed his hands on either side of her beautiful face and pulled her body close to his. “I didn’t know you had a butler.” He joked with that goofy grin covering his chin. “I don’t know what’s going on in your head right now but I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt what is going on in my heart.” He leaned forward and kissed the bridge of Ky’s nose and held his face against hers. “They are not going to scare me away from you, Kylee. You’re my girl.”

“You still want to be with me?” Kylee dumbfoundedly asked, puzzled and doe-eyed. “After all that? You’re not even going to ask about Wes? You’re not going to think you’re a rebound or something? I didn’t know you were coming back. I didn’t know you still thought about me. I didn’t even know if you were still alive,” Kylee pouted, her eyes beginning to water. “I’m sorry for not waiting, I just have a terrible need for validation. My brothers were right… I’m so useless, pathetic, and inadequate. I don’t know why anyone would ever want to be with me.” Her words were coming out faster than her thought process, as she panicked at the fear of losing Adam over this. “I’m sorry I’m not good enough… I’ll do better, I’ll do better I promise.”

Adam pulled Kylee’s face forward and kissed her deeply. He swept her up in his arms and almost picked her up off the ground. When satiated, he placed her back down onto the floor gently and released her from his grip. Taking a step back, still with that grin across his face, he placed his hands into the pockets of his hoodie. “Shut up, Kylee. Don’t ever speak like that in front of me again. You’re worth the world.” He glanced at the door which he believed wholeheartedly, that on the other side of it, the spirits of the Judge and Hell itself were busy at work corrupting the souls of the Grimms. He hoped, no he knew, that he could save Kylee’s. He returned his gaze to his girlfriend and tilted his head. “You look really hot, by the way.”

There was a delicate sweetness in her big, brown eyes as she looked up at Adam with adoration. A raw, deep emotion that reflected in her cheeks, flowering into a vulnerable, rosy-colored blush. “Stahp…” she bashfully responded, her heart fluttering with his every word. Even if there weren’t any eyes on them, she could feel incredibly seen and that was embarrassing for her. “We should get going. Talking to me like that while I’m all emotional is just going to get me horny.” She grabbed the ends of her jean jacket and swayed in place. Antsy and feeling like this was the first time she ever felt this way before, like everyday with Adam was like a first date, or a forever honeymoon, Kylee bit her bottom lip. There was so much spark and chemistry between them and she found herself absolutely captivated by him. Heart, body, soul. Every detail, every moment they shared, she wanted to savor it and make it last. “And maybe the sooner we get this case solved, the sooner we can go back to your place…”

God, he really couldn’t believe his luck. So many people spend their entire lives trying to meet the person they’re supposed to be with. Sometimes, hell most of the time they never actually find them in one lifetime. After his entrapment and escape, Adam felt like he had lived two lives already and the only thing that got him through was the thought of Kylee. Now there she was. His. His dream girl. Taking a hold of the brunette's hand, he kissed her fingers delicately.

“Let’s go solve a mystery then.”

It hadn’t even been a full week since Mika was last in New York. The last time he was here, he had come of his own volition. He had sought out Boa because of the months that went by since he had seen his brother and occasional fuck buddy (not so much anymore). He spent the night with him, Bambs, and little Viva. They lit the menorah in Danny’s honor and Mika had dinner with them, caught up on lost time, and spent the first night since before the shooting with his brother and in a state of temporary bliss.

But ever since that day, ever since he came back out here, there was a black cloud lingering over Honey Badger. This black cloud was cast before he left Brooklyn. It reached out to him.

There she went again. Another panic attack. Was this trip worth all the pain? Why did she think she’d get some clarity from visiting a place that was part of Charlie’s past? Part of who he was? All she did was cause unnecessary distress for her friends and Charlie’s sister. All she did was lose her balance, time and time again, never able to hold herself together. Keep it together. How could she support herself when she felt so unsteady all the time? How could she save Charlie’s sister when she was the one that needed saving?

Back outside with her converse shoelaces untied and just a sundress on, Poppy wrapped her arms around her stomach, closed her eyes, and leaned forward, gasping for air. She could feel it in her throat. Everything was closing in, she couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t think, and she couldn’t stop the ache in her chest. If only she could keep herself whole so her friends could watch her thrive instead of rip at the seams but it was moments like these she was so desperate for someone to hold her. To tell her they’d never let her go. To pull her in and erase the insurmountable damage from her mind and make her feel alive again.

You put the pieces together when you read his book. Like how he really just wanted to spend the day with you, Poppy.

Covering her face, sobbing uncontrollably, Penelope choked into her hands, “Why then? Why did he let me go?” If he loved her, really loved her, he wouldn’t have left her the way he did. He wouldn’t have left her with all these unanswered questions. He wouldn’t have left her on a tightrope to walk the line by herself. How could she try? How could she keep fighting? When all she could think about is how he gave up on her, gave up on himself, gave up on all the pieces to the puzzle that made him liberated, happy and boundless; all the people he loved the most. Everything she thought she knew was turning out to be a lie and the Charlie she thought she loved, really loved, was a complete stranger.

Stop it.

STOP IT!

Straightening herself, controlling her breathing to the best of her capabilities, Poppy wiped her tears. She wasn’t weak no matter how many times that voice inside her head told her she was. Still, when she thought she was out, there were always more tears to cry. Like a waterfall, the unbearable hurt kept coming, until her soul couldn’t take the pain anymore, submerging itself in the rushing current. She could feel herself drift away to only God knows where.

All I can answer is that I think you all meant something different and special to him. You were all pieces of him…

Sniffling and grabbing the sides of her dress, Poppy focused on the road ahead of her, the dirt and gravel, as she slowed down her breathing. Calmer than she was seconds ago, she whispered, “Take a walk, Penelope James.” She needed to clear her mind and let the overflowing sadness run its course so when she returned she could apologize to Mitena. A walk with fresh air, nature, and the beauty of the reservation. Just what the doctor ordered.

Taking the first step forward, her red eyes noticed her shoelaces were untied. Swiftly, Poppy kneeled down and tied them both before she took another step and ventured onward to places unexplored (for her, at least). She liked Blue Hill. Simply taking a walk through it could remind her that she was exactly where she needed to be and why. She just needed to keep fighting. She had to keep fighting, keep going, for no one else but herself. She had no choice. This was her decision in the first place and she was sick and tired of wallowing in self pity while living in this constant unhealthy cycle of grief and insecurity. She wanted to do better. No, she needed to do better.

Much of the Blue Hill Reservation was open space. In a tribe and a community such as theirs, everyone was welcomed everywhere. The Coldwind ranch was much smaller in comparison to some of the others that surrounded their land like the Silverheels. They simply bred and took care of a few horses at a time and then sold them off to good homes. The ranch had been in Christian’s family for generations but he knew that he was likely the last Coldwind that would run it. No other member of his kin had any interest in pursuing that kind of excellence.

“Grandpaaaaaaaa,” Ryan sat on the fence of the corral, her bare legs and feet dangling inside the enclosure. She had just woken up after a hard days night and was only dressed in the big Nirvana t-shirt she wore to bed. The grunge girl took a sip from the coffee her step-grandma had so lovingly prepared for the cowboys and ranch hands that morning before pointing at something in the distance. “I think we done got ourselves a stray white girl in our midst.” The bottled blonde put on her best southern accent before tipped the brim of her fake Stetson.

Chris moved to the corral and leaned against the post next to his grandchild and narrowed his dark eyes. He recognised the shuffle coming towards them down the dirt road that led from Adora’s and as the sun fell back behind the trees, his suspicions of the figure being one Penelope James were confirmed. He raised his hand in welcoming as soon as the small girl was in clear view. “Poppy-like-the-flower!” He called out over the noise of the single horse currently galloping around the corral. “What brings you out this way?”

At the sound of the chief's call, the horse stopped galloping and came to a halt. The young man riding it took off his hat and wiped the sweat from his brow as he watched the outsider walk towards them. His face was dirty, and stubbled and in his eyes he carried a tiredness most definitely beyond his youthful years. Jumping off of the pale dotted horse, he patted it several times to keep the old boy calm before bowing his head in welcome.

Oh. People. Poppy didn’t expect to come across a crowd so soon. Even so, she had to be polite. Her parents raised her right. Hiding her grief behind a smile, her eyes rimmed with red, and puffy, she gave a small, shy wave back as she approached the chief, the one she felt the safest around. “Just taking a morning walk. Seeing the area, since I’ve never been,” she coyly replied. It wasn’t like she was lying.

Poppy did want to see the reservation, she wanted to embrace the culture and be part of it because so far it’s only made her feel good and inspired her to want to do better but she wasn’t telling the complete truth either. This walk was more to clear her mind and convince her that she was fine. The beautiful reservation was a plus. “I don’t really know where I’m going, I’m just kind of following the path to wherever…” she admitted, as her green eyes looked from face to face. “I’m Poppy… Penelope,” she formally introduced herself to the chief’s granddaughter and the cowboy stranger.

“Kerry,” The cowboy nodded as he jumped back onto the horse. He soothed him again, stroking his greyish-white mane and whispering into his ear. The man obviously was very good at handling animals. “I’ll take old Jack here back down to the pens, boss. Then I promised Winnie and Ten I’d take their Momma up the Pronghorn Trail, get some fresh air in her lungs and hopefully clear her head you know?”

The Chief offered the ranch hand a thumbs up. “You go do your thing, Ker. Sending the twins my love.” As the horse and cowboy rode off further down the ranch, Christian reached down to the small table set up nearby and picked up a thermos. He poured in some piping hot coffee just in time for when Poppy reached him. “Here, freshly brewed. Should keep you going on your spirit walk.” He offered it to the pale young woman as he glanced up at his granddaughter swinging her legs as she sat on the fence. “You remember my granddaughter Ryan? Who is currently very hungover.”

“Listen.” Ryan held her hands up as if trying to prevent herself from vomiting. “It is not my fault that the bar you own serves minors….” Before she could continue, the Chief fired a glare at the young woman and she backtracked immediately. She likes to joke around but she would never endure to upset her grandfather, she loved him more than anything. “What I meant to say was, it’s not my fault that people kept slipping me drinks when you weren’t looking.”

“It’s nice to actually get a chance to talk to you, Ryan,” Penelope gave a tiny smile as she watched the cowboy walk away. Kerry was his name and he seemed to be in his element. One with the horses. After a moment or two of staring, she graciously accepted the offer of coffee from Christian, holding it close to her face and feeling the warmth radiate from the cup. After taking a leisure sip, she complimented, “You were awesome last night. The whole band, I mean. Red Wolf Road. It was really nice to watch you all pure your hearts out on stage.” Her tired eyes scanned Ryan’s face, falling on the other girl’s drunk grin, before looking up at the Chief who was watching her silently.

“Yeah we fucking rock!” Ryan threw up the Devil’s horns with her free hand and stuck her tongue out in her most bodacious Gene Simmon’s impression yet. Mid scream, she ended up covering her mouth like she was going to throw up. All the booze was finally catching up to the tiny native woman as she could feel it sloshing around in her stomach and rising up into her chest and throat with a very unpleasant burn. The young girl jumped down off of the fence and sprinted with her bare feet towards the house, creating a dust trail like she was the Road Runner behind her speedy frame.

The chief laughed as he placed his hands on his hips and watched his granddaughter disappear behind the old oak door. “My apologies for Leotie…sorry Ryan.” He corrected himself. Chris remembered that she hated using her first name. It reminded her too much of her parents. “She’s in a weird phase of her life. You know actually, she’ll be going to Edenridge High this coming semester. We’re giving her a change of scenery. Maybe you’ll run into her from time to time?”

“I’m sure we will,” Poppy took another sip of the strong coffee, like this bitterness was punching her in the face, kind of strong coffee, and deeply sighed, “It’s really nice here.” Taking in the gentle breeze and the beaming sunlight, the pale James girl breathed in and breathed out, basking in the great outdoors. “This is the longest I’ve been outside in a good while. I don’t go out much, not anymore at least. I lost a lot of myself… over the years, so I’m learning how to walk again,” she genuinely admitted, feeling the warmth and comfort of the man standing beside her. He reminded her so much of Mr. Beau. It made it easy to talk to him honestly and with an open mind and heart. “I’ll try my best to help Ryan navigate the ups and downs of Edenridge but I can’t promise I’ll be able to protect her. My hometown is… well, it’s a mess.”

Christian smiled as he adoringly looked at the small stranger. She was very sweet and kind; she reminded him a lot of Ko. “Well I suppose Miss Poppy-like-the-flower you better keep on going if your walk is to help you heal.” His dark eyes fell upon the vast open plains he called home and he sighed with contentment. There was something magical that drifted through Blue Hill, something that made the world just a little brighter. “You take that path there.” He pointed to a dusty trail leading into some trees. “That’ll take you straight into town, about ten minutes easy.” Sucking on his bottom lip, the leader of the tribe lost himself in thought for a moment before picking up a pen and paper from his morning picnic table and scribbling down his number. He handed it to Poppy with a smile. “If ever you need a stranger, me or my wife or any of the tribe will be here to listen.”

Surprised, Poppy placed the thermo lid on the table and grabbed the paper from Chief. She stared at his handwriting and smiled, “Thank you…” He was so kind. If only Edenrdige welcomed people with open arms like this. She could feel a little water building in her eyes which was her cue to walk. “Thank you,” she repeated, smiling widely. The saddest people usually have the biggest, brightest smiles. “I’ll see you later, Chief. Oh and the coffee was good!” Waving goodbye, Poppy followed his instruction and went down the dirt path that led into town.

Aiyana Summerhill had transferred the last of the wood Pavati chopped this morning to their organized pile. After rinsing her hands off from the old western water pump, she made her way to her other sisters. Pavati had already left for the day, likely taking a stop to eat breakfast with her friend before driving to Edenridge National Laboratory. They all had their own routine they followed. That’s just how they functioned as a unit. Chores, breakfast with each other or with their friends, and then their own personal day-to-day tasks.

Yana wore khaki shorts, a white tank tucked, and ankle working combat boots. Most of the time, she didn’t work until the sun was setting so she used her free time helping where she could or visiting Edenridge to see the Ossos or Jamie, or if Reagan and Riri were in town, the whole Royal Flush Gang. She kept herself busy but that’s because she knew if she didn’t, she’d get severely depressed. That’s how she’s always been. A curious, energetic and smart girl who could never sit still. Pavati would get frustrated trying to braid her hair when they were little. Reagan had to forcibly instill patience in her wandering brain. It’s been an ongoing battle even to this day. Really, Jamie was the most understanding when it came to her wanderlust and even showed her ways to explore it, like through stories and art.

Approaching the patio of her father’s cabin, where Cheyenne and Odina sat, who were finished with their morning chores too, Yana stretched, reaching as high as she could to the blaring sun peeking through the branches and leaves. This small retreat, in between the ranches and the heart of the reservation, was their little slice of heaven they called home. Sadly more often than not, their father was never around. He was a restless soul, who lived by the seat of his pants, which meant his four daughters had to turn to others like their uncle, Chief Coldwind, for guidance.

Even with her small victories, like becoming the manager at Blue Sun’s Hotel & Gambling Hall, Yana wasn’t satisfied with her life. To be honest, she believed she’d never be satisfied in this life. If she spoke what was true in her soul, it was painfully obvious she was mind boggling bored, lost without a compass and empty as a bird’s nest in December on the inside. At least to her sisters, they believed, no they knew she was meant for something more. That the reservation, as much as they all loved it, was holding her back from her true purpose. Pouring herself a jar of freshly squeezed lemonade, thanks to Odina, she sat on the available rocking chair and took a ginger sip. Holding her jar in both hands, she smiled, inserting herself in her siblings’ conversation, “Dad’s coming home today.”

“How much do you want to bet we’ll be seeing a surprise when he does?” Cheyenne responded coarsely. Her father was just that: a parent in blood only. Chief Coldwind was a better father than Big Bear ever could be to her or her sisters. She dropped herself beside Yana, on her lap was her discarded textbook on loan from Astrid McCarthy and her firm. Cheyenne, for as long as she could remember, wanted to pursue law. Perhaps she was inspired by the plights her people faced their whole lives; wanting to offer them a stage to use their voice. Perhaps she was moved by the struggles her people endured during their entire lives and wanted to provide them a platform to express themselves. Maybe it was the financial benefits that came with such a career. Most likely, it was both. She was only going into her first year at law school now, but that never stopped her from working as a desk clerk then moving onto an assistant position with Astrid in preparation for her application to Boston University School of Law. “It’s been a while since he’s surprised us.” She looked at Odina, unable to hide her teasing smile.

“Hardy har har.” Odina leaned back in her chair and glanced out at the woods laid out before them. She was the youngest Summerhill…that they knew of. She was at least the youngest that Big Bear had brought home from his many adventures. “Let’s be honest, he probably doesn’t even have it in him any more.” She said in quiet hope. Odina probably shared the least of her father’s visage. She was definitely more like her mother, sharing most of her Hawaiian features and was also bigger in more ways than one in comparison to the rest of her siblings who all looked like supermodels. Fixing the straps of her sweet summer dress, Odina let out a small yawn. She had left the Longhouse early after the band had finished its set. Unlike her bandmates, she preferred a quiet night in. “Maybe we should surprise him?” The youngest Bear Cub mused. “Let’s change our name to Coldwind!”

“Our surname is just a word. A word that only has meaning because we give it value,” Aiyana rocked in her chair with her eyes closed, listening to the birds and the bees, and all the things that made their home serene and peaceful. Pavati didn’t have the same plight as they did. Pava’s mother, Matoaka, was still around as a nurse practitioner, trying to encourage the younger folks to get employment outside the reservation. Sustaining a stable life on the Res was not easy. There was a 50 to 70 percent unemployment rate in most reservations, which was one of many problems Native Americans faced.

Regardless of their hardships, while Matoaka was still around, Pava was more her child than his, which is why she was a Huaman and not a Summerhill. Though, the elder woman wasn’t the malevolent type and did give her daughter the option when she was a teen to change it. Pava chose to keep her name as is, likely because deep down, their eldest sister was a hopeless romantic and if she ever found her special someone, her surname would become his.

Summerhill was just a word.

A word they associated with their father.

“When is his boat getting here anyway? I wonder if I should greet him…” Aiyana was speaking to the air mostly as she rocked back and forth. Unlike Odina and Chey, Yana wasn’t angry at her father. She missed him, sure, but she felt like she understood where he was coming from and why he needed to leave, time and time again. Maybe life was easier to deal with if she didn’t hate her father. Who knows. She still loved him. She just wished he was here more. They all wished he was here more.

“Let me check.” Odina lifted her phone off of the nearby table and scrolled through the messages. Tena preaching about the girl she slept with. Ryan’s drunk speech was always hilarious. Heather trying to bite back on the venom on her tongue. Then she got to her last message from their father. “Here it is.” Her deep chocolate eyes scanned its contents before reading it verbatim to her siblings. “Storm delaying us. Should dock in the morning around nine or ten in the AM. Love all you girls. Tell Uncle Chris to do a beer run. Captain Costigan confiscated my liquor.” She placed the phone back down onto the table and sighed. “If you do want to greet him, you should try and catch Pava. She’ll be heading to Eden soon.”

If not Summerhill, what would she be? Cheyenne’s mind started wandering as she considered Odina and Yana’s conversation. The thought to change her name never crossed her mind, believing the name being her only connection to the reservation. Her and Yana’s birth mother had abandoned them shortly after Cheyenne was born, leaving the babes at the mercy of the Chief while Big Bear explored to his heart’s content, so choosing her mother’s name was out of the question. Really, Pava was more of a mother than her birth mother ever was. “I guess I’ll go see him too, gotta remind the old man what his daughters look like sometimes.” Cheyenne said with no heat behind her words, only the corner of her lips upturned like she’d made a funny joke.

Yana’s eyes shot open when she heard a branch crack. She searched the trees until she caught sight of a pale girl with a summer dress on, strolling down the dirt path that led to town. She looked familiar. “…Penelope? Penelope James, is that you?” She called out, not caring if the girl wanted to socialize or not.

Holding the sides of her dress, scrunching it in her hands, Poppy diverted from the path to approach the girl that was calling her. It was one of Reagan’s friends. Aiyana. Hard to not know her face when Reagan was the Supreme after Allison’s passing. Aiyana was near the top of the school pyramid because of Mei’s sister. Popular. “Hi, yeah… it’s me,” she stumbled on her words as she surveyed the other girls she was less familiar with.

“What brings you to Blue Hill? This is a first,” Yana sat up, placing her lemonade on the table near her.

Brushing her long dark hair behind her ear, the thin James girl replied, “I, uh, needed to meet someone.”

“Mitena, I’m assuming,” Yana bluntly assumed, before explaining, “I saw you briefly last night when I picked Odina up from the Longhouse. This is Odina, by the way, and Cheyenne,” Aiyana pointed to each girl as she said their names. “My sisters.”

Cheyenne raised her hand in a lazy wave as she regarded Poppy with part curiosity, and part pity. The girl’s life had been dragged through the mud by Charlie’s final act of despair; it was hard not to know of her even if Chey herself had never met the girl. “You know Mitena?” Cheyenne asked.

When introduced by her sister, Odina offered the stranger a bright Island smile and a delicate wave. Unlike her siblings, beyond their fathers port of return, the youngest Bear cub didn’t have any connection to Edenridge. Like Mitena, the girl her sisters were discussing, Odina got her education in Salem. She had only ever visited Eden when her father left or returned from yet another adventure.

Gazing at the pale, ghostly spirit that emerged from the woods, she couldn’t help but note just how small she was. Odina was two of Penelope James put together and then some. This brought her back to her previous thought of changing her name. It had become commonplace to refer to the Summerhill girls as the most beautiful women on the Rez, it was just a fact. Yet Odina never felt that way, she never felt like her sisters. In truth, Summerhill shouldn’t even be their name. Summerhill was where they were, the very cabin they now sat in; that was Summerhill. Bear took its name when he built it before his first great adventure and the birth of Pava. He always said, he didn’t know what lay in his future but he knew that whatever it was could shame their respected family. Thus Bear Coldwind became Bear Summerhill. Maybe he had the right idea?

Snapping back from her daze, Odina returned her attention to the newcomer. She looked like the legends always described Esther Carlisle, especially her emerald eyes. For a moment, she wondered if the ghostlike girl really was a ghost.

“Barely,” Poppy admitted, twiddling with her fingers as she observed the other girls enjoying their morning breakfast. “I came here to find her, to get some questions answered but I ended up…” The white girl diverted her gaze and looked toward her feet, ashamed of how she acted at the picnic table earlier today. “I need to clear my head so I can have a proper conversation with her not clouded by emotion.”

“Hm, I see,” Yana grabbed an empty jar off the table, as well as the pitcher, and poured a glass. When it was filled, she lifted it up and beckoned Penelope, “Freshly squeezed, if you want some.” Aiyana wasn’t one to pry, if Poppy wanted to talk she’d let her bridge the conversation or let her sisters take the lead but it sounded like she needed kindness more than anything right now. Her visage, as beautiful as it is, was dressed in hopelessness, self doubt, and pain. Poppy had a darkness hovering over her. A shadow that never left her side. A ghost. “I promise it isn’t poisoned,” she teased.

“If you don’t mind?” Poppy hesitated to walk up the stairs to the porch.

“We don’t,” Aiyana answered for the three of them before offering, “Once you’re done with that, we can walk with you. We need to go that way anyways.”

It was typical of Yana to take charge when Pava wasn’t around. She was the second oldest after all and despite her claims otherwise, she was not a shy wallflower. The group she associated herself with in Edenridge, the Royal Flush Gang she called them, were anything but shy from what Odina had heard. “Yeah; you see the thing about Rez life is that we all rise at like 5am, do our chores and then go off to whatever town we work in to actually make a living. Chey has to drive into Boston! What a trooper!” She always worshiped her older sister's drive and ambition. “Did you just walk down from Uncle Chris’ ranch?”

Poppy nodded, answering through action and word, “I did. The Chief has been very kind to me since I’ve been here. I’m actually staying at Adora’s place with a couple of friends. Mordechai’s been here way back when, when his brother was alive, and that’s where he usually stays,” Poppy bit her cheek when her honesty came out with ease, feeling like this wasn’t the time or place to talk about Decky’s dead brother. Taking a sip of the lemonade, she smiled to herself. It was refreshing and perfectly balanced. Very good on this warm summer morning. “Uncle, you said?” Poppy had registered what Odina had mentioned. These girls — including Aiyana, one of Reagan’s closest confidants — were the Chief’s nieces. That was pretty neat to be related to the person who keeps the village going and running smoothly.

Ryan, Aiyana, Chey, Odina.

The Chief had such a beautiful family and Poppy knew she was lucky to have made their acquaintance. Naturally kind people. Something that’s hard to decrypt in her hometown where half of the population have a secret they’d do savory things to protect, where there were just as many bad people as there were good, and where nothing was as it seems. Unless you had innate instincts and were in tune spiritually, an empath one might say, navigating through the many faces of Edenridge was like solving a complicated puzzle where every piece had a motive. Edenridge aside, the Chief’s family were ridiculously attractive. Maybe Poppy had a type.

“Mm, Big Bear - our father - is the Chief's brother. I wouldn't believe it either with how flighty Dad is when Uncle Chris is so... grounded? Complete and total opposites.” The Chief had always been a warm figure in the Summerhill children's lives, always offering a comforting smile and a terrible dad joke to lift their spirits when things would get too hard. “At least they both share a wonderful talent for telling stories. Can't help but hang on to every word they speak.” Where Big Bear's stories were often about his travels, feeding Yana's wanderlust, Chief Chris always had the perfect parable to help you see sense.

Odina’s guilty pleasure had always been listening to her father. She knew that in his own way, Bear loved his girls, in spite of her teasing the contrary. Unfortunately, he could not satiate his desire for adventure by asking about the boys and girls his kids were dating and the mundane careers they had chosen. He needed a journey, the destination never really mattered as long as the open ocean or road lay before him. Odina missed her Dad but she had accepted that his love was with them but his heart was not.

“If you’re going to catch up with Pava, you better get a move on. She’ll be leaving soon and then you’ll miss Dad.”

“Yes!” Aiyana hopped up off the rocking chair, leaving her drink behind. The excitement showed, like a little girl waiting for her father to come back from the military. Yana was always a daddy’s girl, even if he wasn’t present for most of her and her sisters’ lives. “Chey you still coming? And Odina, will you clean up, pwease?” The free-spirited one of the three had already left their side, not waiting for a response, and was standing on the dirt path, being as impatient as ever.

“Penelope, maybe one day you’ll meet our father! He really is full of stories, I’m sure you’d love them.” She watched the white girl in a playful manner, which only caused Poppy to smile. Aiyana was childish, which wasn’t something Poppy expected. All Poppy saw was how intimidating the Royal Flush Gang was as a unit but to see Yana in her element, fully comfortable and at peace, surrounded by family, that was admirable. That warmed her heart.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming. Someone needs to be there to make dad sweat.” Where Yana was the sweet puppy waiting for their father to get home and Odina sweet but tolerating, Cheyenne often welcomed Big Bear back with grief. Cheyenne stood up from her seat, resisting the urge to groan as the weight of the textbook on her lap was lifted, leaving a sore mark on her skin where the spine of the book had dug into her flesh by the hem of her shorts.

Cheyenne turned to face the ghostly girl, raising a hand in a lazy wave as the other held the textbook beneath her armpit. “We’re going to find Pavati and head to the docks. You should join us, Penelope. I hope maybe you’ll find what it is you're looking for.” It was obvious to even the blind that darkness plagued the girl, and Cheyenne wanted nothing more than to see it gone for Poppy's own sake. Peace, such a thing to fight for. Cheyenne soon joined Yana on the dirt path, ready to go meet their father again. Was she a little bit excited? Maybe. Would she ever admit it? Never.

”Oh it’s fine. You girls go have fun, I’ll just keep the cabin clean. Not like there’s any scary monsters or wild animals lurking in these woods.” Odina rolled her eyes playfully as she watched her sisters get up to join the stranger on her walk. “Fat kid always dies first in these movies.” She blew a kiss from her full lips towards her siblings. The reality was Odina was still lagging on some chores and sometimes the peace and quiet away from her sisters was a bit of a blessing. She turned her gaze towards Poppy and offered her a bright smile. “Let the Great Spirit guide you across open waters and lead you to the land you seek… God, I’m starting to sound like uncle Chris. Go. Now. All of you before I start making Dad jokes.”

Penelope frowned when the beautiful girl called herself fat. Her sisters seemed to barely notice, which meant this was a normal occurrence for them, hearing their littlest sister talk ill about herself. “Okay, thanks. Until we meet again?” Poppy’s gaze softened as she met Odina's dark brown eyes in a hopeful manner. The reservation was something she never knew she needed but here she was walking from destination to destination meeting all kinds of people. Kind people. She really liked this place. If only Charlie had told her about it, or Mordechai even… then she would’ve found it sooner.

“Come on, Pavati is a woman on a mission, like all the time. The moment she finishes her sandwich with Fallon, she books it.”

Cheyenne almost groaned at the reminder of how boring Pava leads her life. There was a difference between working to live and living to work. Pava did nothing but live and breathe her work. As much as Chey loved her sister’s passion for… work, it was boring. “A woman on a mission straight to her death bed, no stops for anything except work. At least dad has fun on his travels, Pava just works.” Cheyenne complained. “She should take notes from Adora and get some good dicking down, maybe then she’ll be like how she used to be back in high school.”

“Well in highschool, she did have someone,” Yana looked around as if she could feel her older sister’s eyes glaring at her even if she was nowhere near them. “Maybe a good dick is just what she needs! Which might be easy for her to get, if she took a break.”

Poppy watched as the two girls talked about their eldest sister getting laid. She was given a glimpse of the day to day life of the Summerhill girls and was amused by their banter and natural exchange. Unfortunately, she didn’t remember who Pavati was or if she ever met her in Edenridge but she couldn’t wait to meet her. Everyone so far at the reservation was interesting, vibrant, and full of life.

It was refreshing to say the least.

She liked being here.

The air was heavy with a crippling anticipation that Mika could feel in his bones and in his soul. Between narrowly escaping many of the residents on Scott Street, who no doubt heard his truck leave the cul-de-sac portion of the gated community. If he wasn’t the talk of the neighborhood, then he’d be a little disappointed, but whatever the case, he went home to his apartment. As much as he would have loved to catch a few extra hours of sleep, that’d have to wait for later in the day. Because there was something else he had to take care of. Something that, among everything that happened in just the past 24 hours alone, seemed small but it was everything but.

Mika made a beeline for his mother’s apartment. After yesterday and after the tense meeting with Coach, something happened that neither Mika nor Mary were ready for when he told her what was happening. Since then, both had been mentally preparing themselves for what was happening shortly. Since yesterday she had been preparing the perfect breakfast. Mary-Anne couldn’t leave her apartment, but she could have Mika pick up some things.

And that’s what he did. Everything that she had told him to get. Mika had to go to a few places yesterday and again this morning. Most of the ingredients he could find at the Darling Farm and others he had to go into Boston to find. Eventually, he found everything and while Mika had been dealing with everything he was yesterday, especially with Cece, Danny, and then Anya, MAry was hard at work. Slaving over everything to make sure it was perfect.

Mika had been in his mother’s apartment for an hour now, the smell of everything from the beans, which had been baking in the oven since he arrived, the sausage and black pudding, which wasn’t something Mika was an exceptional fan of but it was a taste of simpler times and this was what that was all about.

As he sat on the couch, sounds from the kitchen, Mika felt his phone go off. He answered it. “Yeah?” It was one of the Fallen Angel prospects who were on guard duty at the entrance of Lost Souls. They told him that his guest was there. “Alright, I’ll be there in a few.”

Standing up, Mika looked over at his mother. “Be back in a few, mom. He’s here.”

“Okie Doke!” She replied with a cheerful tone.

Mika knew what that meant. Outside she was all smiles and optimism overload, but inside, she was almost boiling over with anxiety. Like mother like son, huh?

In a matter of minutes, Mika had made it to ground level, and as he walked towards the entrance, there he saw him, standing in the entrance, two Angels keeping him at bay. This was the moment that yesterday’s game settled. Mika couldn’t tell if Coach was as nervous as he was or if Mika was hoping he was so it wouldn’t be as painfully awkward. He had no idea of knowing how this would go only that it was happening and there was no turning back now. “You’re early, Coach. But you never did like to make anyone wait.” Mika laughed, giving the two young Angels a nod as they stepped aside, letting John O’Hara through.

“Well like my Daddy used to say, it’s always better to be early than late.” Coach passes the biker goons to reach his former player, student….nephew. There was a lot to unpack there and hopefully that particular bag would be empty by the end of the following meeting. Lord knew that John O’Hara didn’t need any more stress right now.

Fear was something that the Coach had tried to force out of his life at every turn. As a young boy, John O’Hara was fearless, brazen even. Then he spent a summer at Camp Eden and everything changed. The noose around his neck, the scar of which was still visible was a constant reminder of fear. The letters flying around town, painting his David’s name with a new brush, that caused fear. When he stretched every morning and felt the wound on his stomach from Charlie Decker’s shotgun burn like hell, that instilled fear. John hearing Jamie weep for hours every night? Yeah that brought fear into his life too. The pair of big bastards trying to stop him from meeting the sister that left him behind? That was easy.

John had opted for a civilian attire on this bright morning, a rarity for the Celtic coach. He lived and breathed for that team but today wasn’t about that, today was about being an O’Hara: so a t-shirt and jeans would suffice instead of a team branded windbreaker and khakis. With his hands on his hips. John looked up at the building that stood before him, the Lost Souls. “You know I remember when this place was just a field of grass? I hope there’s an elevator in here because my legs ain’t what they used to be.” It was pure banter as everyone knew that Coach O’Hara’s fitness regime was insane for a man of his age. “Lead the way, kiddo.”

Mika let out an involuntary chuckle at Coach’s elevator comment. The trek inside Lost Souls felt like a short one. Uncle and nephew spent most of it talking. Talking about Mary. About the state of basketball and what chances the Celtics had this season, but when they ran out of things to talk about, when they were halfway up to the top floor, silence claimed them. It became apparent to Mika and somewhere in his mind, he wondered if the same had became the same for Coach…Uncle John, that when the high of their mutual love for the sport faded, there was still an intense awkwardness that lingered int he air and had been left there since the shooting. Everything between that and David, Mika felt the knot in his stomach increase.

And when they got to his mother’s apartment, Mika stopped in front of the door. He didn’t knock and only hesitated because…well he didn’t know what to call it. It wasn’t dread, but rather a deep apprehension for his mother. But he knew he had to swallow it. Well here goes nothing.

Knock knock! Knock knock!

As the door opened, the weight on Mika’s shoulders at that moment intensified. Mary answered with a smile, wearing an outfit that almost mirrored Coach’s: a T shirt that was green in color and dark blue jeans. She had her hair tied up in a somewhat loose single ponytail. As she smiled at both her big brother and son, she swallowed the high emotion in her heart.“John…” There was a tenseness in Mary-Anne’s voice, like she was forcing herself to speak lest her voice betray her. She wanted to say so much right now. So many things consumed her mind that it was crippling her ability to think straight. “I..Please come in.” She stepped to the side, doing the only thing she could stomach right now and that was to invite her brother inside her apartment.

“Mary.” John didn’t really know what to say as he entered the apartment at his sister's request. He looked upon her, aged but barely, she looked so much like their mother, a look that David and Jamie had both inherited with their combination of pale skin, thick lips and dark hair. John liked to think he had a good memory and one of his most cherished was the day that his mother and father brought home Mary Anne. She had the same hair as their father but she carried the hazel eyes of their mother. When he first held her, Mary Anne cried and cried and cried until he took her out into the garden in Scott Street. Gazing upon his younger sister, John couldn’t help but see his youngest child. The way they carried themselves, it was a mirror reflecting time. “You look well. Beautiful as always.”

It was a lot. Having her big brother - her protector - here. It was surreal because for so many years, before she came back to Edenridge (against her husband..ex-husband’s advice) she had dreamed of this moment. She entertained the moment they’d be able to stand opposite of each other. Be face to face again. Mary never imagined the first time after decades of not seeing her big brother would be on one of the worst days to curse her hometown. For nearly two years after that moment, Mary had almost lost hope of having a redo of that.

At least, that was until Mika came to her yesterday, telling her she would get exactly that. A redo. A second chance to build a new bridge to the one person who she felt she disappointed the most.

Smiling at him, she couldn’t control the waterfall that started to rain down her porcelain cheeks. She took a moment for herself, taking deep breaths like she had been practicing, and found herself in the middle of a half-laugh, half-wheezing fit. Emotions were so high already. “And you haven’t changed a bit.” She took another moment to look at her son. He stood beside John. At that moment, she swore she couldn’t tell them apart. Mika had his father’s eyes, of course, but she swore she was looking at her brother and the younger version of her brother with lighter hair and blue eyes. That alone was able to quell the pain of regret in her heart and fill it with a respite. “Well, I guess except for the lack of your favorite jersey.” Mary laughed again, memories of their childhood coming to the forefront of her mind. Remembering her big brother’s fondness for jerseys.

John was doing his best out of respect for Mika to try and work through his frustrations silently. He didn’t want the conversation to devolve into an argument and the doctors were already worried about his blood pressure. Now that she was there, standing before him, the Coach still felt a level of disdain and sadness gazing upon his younger sister. She had abandoned the family, the family that had given her everything her girl could desire and chose danger and a life unbecoming of a girl from Scott Street. He wanted to be open about it, he wanted to just support her in her decisions but John struggled to find that within himself that thought Mary rubbing off with Ivan was a good idea.

“I’m not allowed to wear it out of the house anymore, Lizzy says it makes me look like an old man trying to relive his youth.” All he could do was answer questions honestly and try to maintain a rational train of thought. He did promise that he would try, for Mika. “Smells amazing in here, full English just like dad used to make.” John commented. The patriarch of the clan O’Hara was a hard but fair man. Like John, Mary, David and Jamie, he was born, raised and died in that old house on Scott Street. He knew the pressures of the name, of their status and did what he could to equip his children with the tools to manage what it meant to be an O’Hara in Edenridge.

John took off his cap and stuffed it into the back of his pants pocket before looking around the obviously well lived-in apartment. Mary had obviously been in town for a while, hidden away from the world and the coach could only assume that was due in part to her wretch of a husband. Reaching out, Coach put his hands on Mika’s shoulder with a firm but comforting grip. “You okay son?”

The easy answer would to just say no, but for all he knew that could ruin what felt like a moment of peace between his mother and Coach. She seemed optimistic, as Mary-Anne O’Hara always had been. She liked to see the brighter side of things. At least, whenever Mika was around, she never seemed sad until the situation became so dire that she couldn’t fake it anymore. Mika looked at Coach, giving the older man a small nod. “Just tired. It’s been a long couple of days and I’ve barely had a chance to catch a proper night’s sleep.” He truly felt exhausted in more ways than just sleep. Mentally done because of…everything that he’s had to tackle in just the past twenty-four hours.

Mary looked between the two. She knew her Mika and knew there was something he wasn’t saying. Showing concern on her face, she turned her attention to her brother. “Ah yes, well when Mika told me yesterday that..well this was happening, I wanted to make it special…” Mary was trying so desperately to not fall into those old habits of hers. She wasn’t so removed from reality to acknowledge the truth of the matter and that was between her and John, there was a lot to unpack. She knew she had to choose her words carefully and tread with care so she didn’t bring up a wound that was not ready to be healed. “I hope I made the beans just like daddy used to make them. It’s been a long time since I attempted it.”

“You can’t really go wrong with beans, Mary-Anne. You stick them in a pan for a few minutes…” Coach stopped himself, realizing the sharpness of his words. He was trying to hold off on his anger and really push forward, for Mika. There had been such space between him and his sister, such a black hole of gravity that even looking at her now, despite her looking the same as she always had, John struggled to see his baby sibling. “Sorry.” The Coach placed his hands upon his hips and glanced over at his nephew again. He needed to keep in his heart why he was doing this in the first place. Lizette had been oh so supporting of this endeavor and Jamie, well he just didn’t know. She seemed happy for John to rekindle his relationship with god sister but something in her eyes, the same eyes she shared with Mary-Anne, something was off. “You know he’s a good boy, hard headed but a good boy.”

“Like someone else I know.” She smiled sweetly at her big brother. It was true, Mika and Johnny were essentially the same. She didn’t know everything that went on in her son’s life. He tried to tell her as much as he could, that much she knew, but he was his own man with his own life. Plus it was safer for her, or at least that’s what she told herself. She understood that certain dangers would come her way if she didn’t keep to this apartment. Mika, her baby, was carrying such a load of that alone and his father. Both of the men in this apartment carried such weights and both seemed to keep it bottled up to a point.

Mary-Anne stepped towards the kitchen, giving the finishing touches to the assortment of food. The silence had caught the air around them and it was about a minute before Mary-Anne opted to do something about it. “Mika!” She turned around, facing her son. It took him a few seconds to look her way, so clear that Johnny was right about something being off. “You want to help set up the table?” She asked him, looking at Johnny’s way too. “Maybe you can help him? It’s almost done.”

He exchanged a glance with his uncle. Not sure what really to say at this moment. Exhaustion aside, Mika had been stuck in his head for a few minutes now. As he tried not to think about it, being here with Coach and his mother, he couldn’t help but think about when he had gone to New York just a couple of years ago. The first time since he was sent away, he saw his father and had a meal with him. Maybe it was the weight of everything that happened yesterday, but as Mika walked silently over to the cupboards to the left of the oven, he grabbed three plates, three knives (worn out as they were, they did their job), and three forks. Right over a bit more to the left was a small table. It wasn't much but it was something. Three chairs because usually it was Mika, but when Boa came around last month sometime, Mika bought another chair.

“Sorry it’s not much. I’ve been meaning to buy her a new table, so it seemed more like a home.” He said in a low but audible tone to Coach as he handed him a plate.

“We can’t all be born on Scott Street, Mika” It was a loaded sentence. John hated seeing his sister living in a place like this though he was aware of the fact it was her choice. He was under no illusion of his own wealth either and had tried his hardest not to be the type of man that flaunted it. The house high in the hill in Scott Street where he raised his children, where he lives now, it was the same house his father lived in, the same one his grandfather lived in. And it was most definitely the same one Mary-Anne grew up in. Despite the modern decor of most, Scott Street was one of the oldest territories in Edenridge and its homes built specifically for Foundlings, though few remained in their ancestral estate in the present day.

John helped Mika set the table and although he was enjoying himself, if that was the right word, there was still palpable tension in the air. Mary had abandoned them all. Chosen a life that twisted her into knots, put the family at risk and now here she was, crawling back and hoping that everything could go back to the way it was more than twenty years ago? The big brother in him wanted to let the past lie dead. The father in him wanted to tell her to turn the other way and not look back. He already lost one child and the other was an Angel dancing precariously on a pinhead.

“It’s never about money kiddo, no matter how much you have. Home is where you leave your heart.”

Coach gave Mika a lot to digest, but even as he thought about it himself, he thought about his mother. No matter how dark things were, she never forgot where her home was. Mika was too young to understand when she would talk about her hometown, but now he understood exactly what she was telling him. He glanced at Coach, almost giving his uncle a small smile. “Maybe you’re right, Coach…Uncle John. Maybe that’s why she couldn’t stay away any longer. It’s like you said, no amount of wealth could strip away where home was.”

Mika was looking at his mother now, who was making the final touches to the pots and pans that had the array of food on them, getting them ready to serve. One day, Mika hoped they could all sit around a table with all of them: Aunt Liz, Jamie, his mother, his sisters…Maybe a lot to ask for, given the state of his life and the ever present danger of The Devil lurking on every corner, but it was something Mika yearned for desperately.

Like he was on queue or she was psychic, Mary-Anne clapped her hands in a rather loud way, grinning so much that she was hoping they didn’t see the level of exhaustion on her face. “It’s finally done!” In a way, that was a weight lifted off of her shoulders. She spent an entire day making sure everything was perfect and as she glanced at it all, the eggs, the sausages, black pudding, beans, and toast -- it brought her back to home. Growing up as the youngest O’Hara, sometimes in the shadow that Johnny cast, so many complicated feelings were tied to her memories of her younger years but what balanced everything (and more importantly made this moment possible) were the days spent around the table, eating good food that their father made and perfected and being happy and thankful by just being surrounded by family.

It wasn’t perfect yet. It wasn’t even close to being like it was then. Mary-Anne had no illusion that it ever would be, but this was the first step in making that possible. Maybe next time her girls could meet their uncle. Maybe even they could be out in her hometown without any worry of being in danger.

John took his seat at the table, opposite his sister and next to his nephew. Things were changing. As he looked upon the family he thought forgotten, the Coach couldn’t help but think of the family he still had. His mind drifted to his children; his son, God his son, every rain drop that fell the previous day during the storm could not fill the space left in his heart that belonged to David. Jamie, his dearest Jamie; named for his and Mary-Anne’s father James. She was so gentle, so fragile, so filled with a desperate need to love and be loved. He could see the sparkle in Mika’s eyes; the hope that the O’Hara’s could be whole again. John knew that could never be true.

But breakfast was a start.

“I don’t know why we’re bothering to do this, Davey.”

Clayton dragged his feet as he followed closely behind his best friend and his twin as they walked down the old wooden dock on Collins Port. “I’ve got a date with that Pinehurst chick and you’ve got a party to go to and a girl to rescue!” The sky was a deep navy by this point as the bite of winter nipped at the heels of those brave enough to be outside. Clay had done this walk so many times in his young life. He knew every signature creak that broke from the boards beneath his feet, especially the long stretch towards his father’s boat.

“Because your dad needs to know, bud.” David’s hands were pressed against the back of his curly haired head as he strolled cool as a cucumber, fingers interlocked and a shit-eating grin crossing his face towards the yacht. “You can’t win the State title with the most badass group of Celtics that ever did exist and not to tell your old man! Who! I might add, should’ve been there anyway to support, but was too busy doing what? Tinkering with his boat? Nah, dude. We’re giving the Captain a piece of our mind.”

Jamie wrapped herself around Clay’s free arm as his other one carried the trophy that the team had won having pried it away from Francis. “You know, Clay, that family is everything. It has to be. Family is something we should do anything and everything for. It’s something we should never let die. I know I never could.” The glass ballerina’s O’Hara blues fell upon her older brother leading the charge to confront the Captain. The adoration she had for her twin was unquestioned and un-measurable. “I know your mom and dad and Lamby are different to us, I know that and we’re not trying to change that. We just want you to be happy. Despite what you say, I don’t think you ever really have been, have you?”

With Jamie’s final words the trio stopped as they arrived at their destination; the yacht belonging to Clay’s father. Looking up towards the upper deck, Clayton could see a light on and his fathers silhouette moving around the captain's cabin. With an O’Hara twin standing either side of him, God’s favourite idiot stood mouth agape, just looking at the pride and joy of his family. He remembered stories of his father’s days as a member of the legendary Gallows. It was hard to even believe that the man that raised him was the same man who raised hell with his friends. Though Clay did not wonder what changed for him, it was surely family. Was it family that killed the Captain’s dream? Was that why he didn’t care? Was that why he spent more time out in the ocean than with his kids?

“It’s time to figure it out, Sixteen.” David’s voice rang out. As Clay turned his face to look upon his friend, the David he knew had been replaced by a drowned version of himself. Bloated with dried blood around his mouth and nose, his curly hair soaked, dead white eyes staring as water pushed itself from every orifice. Behind David, Clay could see something, he could see someone; a girl. Alone in the distance he could not make her out as she reached forward, screaming, crying, wailing for his help. He spun to look at Jamie but she too had been replaced. Clay’s dark gaze widened as he watched Jamie being dragged away by men in white. They pulled her towards a cage inside a van and she was not fighting them. Jamie stared blankly at Clayton before parting her lips. “Figure it out.”

The port side door of the yacht burst open and from within a torrent of paper and pages flew out and began striking the police officer all over. He could feel every slice as he suffered a thousand cuts. His best friend's words rang out in his ears as he tried to push forward towards the light inside. With every step Clay took he could feel something pulling back, like someone or something had a hold of his collar from behind and was yanking him. He could feel the tightness around his throat like a noose as he body began to ache. Through the light, Clay could see a figure and it was not his father. No he would recognise that figure anywhere, it was his Kitty. “Figure it out, baby.” He heard Cat say and with a final push energised from the mere sound of her voice, he charged forward into the yacht.

As the door closed behind him, Clay opened his eyes…

Anxiously running his hands through his hair, Niles walked from the dining room table where his coffee was to the closest window. Peering through the curtain, he noticed the rain had dissipated, finally. He should wake Clay up soon. When he saw Lexie trying to carry Clay on her own in the rain, he parked his bike and assisted her. He ended up leaving his bike behind and he knew it likely got towed or stolen (it was left on the Southside after all) so once Phil’s opened, he was quick to give them a call to see if they could retrieve it, if they hadn’t already. He likely offended the girl on the other end by accident, coming across far more snappy than he intended. He would have to apologise when he got the chance.

With Beau’s voice ringing in his head to do the right thing, he chose to stay up all night in case the rain did give or Clay needed more care. Lexie’s house was closer than the clinic or Scott Street and taking care of him while they waited out the storm was a smarter idea than all of them risking their lives in this weather. Pacing back to his coffee, he sat down on a chair and pulled his phone out. With his right leg bouncing up and down he went to Caitlin’s number, debating if he should call her. She hadn’t wished him goodnight and they barely talked yesterday, or the day before even.

His gaze grew distant as he peered down at her name. He could feel it. The storm inside him and what was inevitably going to happen. He wasn’t a stranger to the signs of being broken up with. He knew because time and time again he was the one that broke up with others. She had been weird ever since he got back. Not the same Cece he was into when they were apart and he was studying pre-med in Chicago. She loved Mika. He wasn’t dumb. He could see it a mile away. He could fucking feel it whenever they went on dates and that stung.

First Natalia, now Caitlin.

Mika won.

How great must he feel to have gotten the girl in the end?

Niles was stupid to think he could make any sort of relationship work. This is why he preferred no strings attached. The hurt wasn’t the same because they had low expectations — there weren’t promises of building a future together. There wasn’t anything really besides sex. Things were better when emotions weren’t involved. Laying his phone down, he rested his forehead in the palm of his hand as his elbow and arm held him up. “This is stupid,” he muttered before bringing his attention to his cousin, not by blood but by bond. “Why do we bother coming back? I mean sure, yeah, if it wasn’t for us, Clay would’ve bled out in the street. But why is that shit even happening? It’s always something in Edenridge. I fucking hate it.”

The question of 'why bother coming back' was one Alexandria had been trying to come up with an answer for for the last month and a half. When she'd voiced the idea of returning to Edenridge to her friends back in Boston, they had looked at her as if she'd grown a second head overnight. They'd read the articles. They'd seen the news segments. They'd heard her stories. Why in the world would she want to go back to the town that only saw her as the poor, little, dead queen bee's sister? To a place where death and tragedy seem to strike at any moment?

You've come so far since you left that place, Lex, they would say to her, with visible concern all over their caring faces. Why would you risk losing all of your progress by going back to the place that ruined you in the first place?

I’ve moved on past it! Lexie was always quick to counter proudly, the confidence oozing from her voice and radiating through her body. Therapy’s helped me a lot to deal with things. I have my family there, I have an amazing opportunity to work with my aunt’s boss at the hospital in town to gain experience; and after all this time away, I think I’m ready to go back.

Her optimism, it turned out, was short-lived. A few weeks before what she thought would be her triumphant return to Edenridge, pages from Charlie Decker’s journal had been delivered to everyone’s mailboxes, springing the topic of her sister’s death back to life. Instead of being greeted with interest and enthusiasm about her accomplishments, she was once again under everyone's microscope. Townies showing her pity or comparing her to the females in her family, the Scott Street gossip moms fishing for information, her parents downplaying their vigilance for any signs of an emotional relapse… And the cherry on top? ReyRey Gonzalez, the one who had made her move to Eden possible in the first place and had so brazenly welcomed her back into town with more than just open arms, had been in a relationship with Vivia Belmonte (her sister’s best friend) for years— even during the day they slept together.

Safe to say, things were not panning out like she had hoped for.

"You're telling me…" Lexie replied with a snort, cradling her own cup of coffee in her hands as she made her way from the kitchen to stand by the window beside Niles. She knew he would understand exactly what she was talking about without her having to spell it out. "I thought that coming back to Edenridge was the right choice for me after nursing school. But I’ll be honest, Niles: I've only been here a week and a half, and I’m kinda already regretting that decision.” she confessed, taking a long sip from the warm, caffeinated drink before continuing. “But it’s not me we’re going to talk about here, though. What’s up with you? Not that you’ve ever been a fan of Edenridge in the first place, but what’s got you so heated about it right now?”

Sitting up from his chair to look at his cousin, Niles casually wiped the sleep off his face and shrugged, “You know I missed that whole shitshow that was your sister’s ghost coming back to haunt us or whatever. Even if I was around, I wouldn’t have gone. This shit has always annoyed me. The fact that people absolutely need to be in everyone’s business. Every year, it’s always something new, like David O’Hara, people couldn’t stop calling him a Diddler which is part of the reason why he pushed himself to drink himself to death. And yet…” Taking a moment to himself, Niles turned to his coffee to stare into it. He could see the fading image of his mother. Her beautiful smile. The memory of her, still very much alive in his heart. His teeth clenched. “Is it weird for me to be mad that if someone dies horribly and was seen as a shining star, like Allison, or a fucking monster, like Charlie, they’d be remembered forever? But then you have my mom, who died giving birth, who wasn’t even born and raised here; is it wrong for me to be pissed at how easy people forgot her? She’s just an everyday hero, no big deal.”

“Edenridge History 101: the only way you or your loved ones will be worth remembering in this town is if your death is associated with some big, juicy scandal that can be talked or conspired about for years to come,” Lexie started with a shrug, taking another long sip from her mug. As callous as the statement was, it unfortunately defined the way a vast majority of the town's inhabitants let their morbid curiosity and thirst for gossip prevail over any potential compassion for the victims of these tragic occurrences. “Let’s use the examples you just gave me for context. People remember David O’Hara over someone like Maxine James because the thought of Coach and Lizzie’s prodigal son committing the crime he was accused of presented endless fodder for the gossip sharks in town. People remember Charlie Decker’s death over some of his own victims’ because of the Allison accusations and how fucking brutal and extensive what he did was. And people remember Allison’s death more than they’d ever remember mine if something ever happened to me simply because ‘Ally’s little sister OD’ing’ doesn’t have the same juice as the '2016 it-girl, girlfriend of the golden boy, OD’ing at a Southside party in the house of the reigning Serpent King'. Might sound like a bit of a ramble, but hopefully you see where I’m getting at.”

Niles nodded in understanding and it forced him to reflect on his own death and how no one would shed a tear if he disappeared. Something he knew was his future if he ever did give into his dark thoughts, which made it more of a reason for him to want to die. He didn’t matter. Just like his mom, he meant nothing to anyone. To make a mark, to die a legend, you had to be worth talking about. Was his mother not worth talking about? Leaning back in his seat, staring up at Lexie, he cursed in frustration, “Without my mom, some of these fuckers wouldn’t even be alive. Do people think it’s easy to rush someone to a hospital on a fucking helicopter?”

“You give the people around here too much credit, my friend,” she commented, ruffling up Niles’ hair affectionately and planting a kiss on top of his head before waltzing back bare-footed to the kitchen for a refill. Lexie had always sympathized with her cousin by association. Although the loss of her older sister had been gut-wrenching, she couldn't conceive the utter heartbreak of losing someone as important in life as a parental figure. Still, she could certainly understand where the root of his anger towards the town was coming from-- to which he was completely entitled to. In a strange way, his frustration on the topic mirrored her own. “I agree with you that it is absolute fucking bullshit that people as amazing and priceless as Auntie Noella can be so easily dismissed by others, and it's disgusting that’s the way things work around here in Edenridge. But I also believe that, as long as people like you and I who truly cared about her make sure her memory stays alive and we continue to remember her with love, then everyone else is just a tool for not realizing her worth.”

Clay’s dark eyes opened heavily when the dull ache became a sharp fleeting strike in his gut. He let out a struggled gasp, as if emerging from under deep waters before he tried to pull himself up from his prone position. His neck felt weighted and his chest, it was like something was atop him, keeping him down. With a groan, he pushed himself up from the bed using the palms of his hands. Once fully sitting upright, Clayton’s eyes adjusted and he began to take in this new, unfamiliar setting.

What happened?

He thought back through the haze to find what memory first came to him. He remembered talking to Cat, God Kitty would be so worried about him! It was daytime now and he always checks in! She must be terrified. Before he could scramble to find his phone, Clay was struck by another memory. The car. The driver attacked him. The light and roar of a bike and a woman yelling. His head felt three sizes too big and was throbbing. Clayton was no doctor but he knew what a concussion felt like. Once more he drank in his surroundings, trying to place himself. He recognised the room’s architecture, he had been in houses like this before.

He was still on the Southside.

Rolling out of the bed and onto the floor, Clay noted several bandages on his arms. Bringing his hand to his face he felt band-aids as well. Someone had patched him up. He gingerly climbed up to his feet and straightened out his back. God, everything fucking hurt. The room was sparsely decorated; it reminded him of his own place before Cat forced him to buy stuff. That meant either this person was new to the house or just hated things. Logic dictated the latter since on the walls and bedside table there were photos. Clay’s eyes narrowed as he recognised the subject of one photo that sat pride of place. “Allison?” He moved closer, reaching out to touch the face of his childhood friend, his former girlfriend, the girl that changed everything when she died. Based on the earrings she was wearing, the photo would’ve been taken in September before she passed. He knew because Francis dragged the entire crew around Boston trying to find Ally a gift. In the end they had to call Jamie and she came from her school to come help them. She was having one of her bad days and clung to David like he was the only thing keeping her afloat. Even then though, she still offered to help.

Clay’s eyes drifted to another photo; Renee and Alastair Davies. Allison’s parents. For as long as he had known that family, the young police officer had very little to do with the Davies. Renee was never home; she basically lived at her office in Boston and was always in court. When she was home, she was in her little hideaway, working on her closing argument or whatever it was that lawyers did in their spare time. Alastair was definitely more present in both his daughters' lives and he was not a big fan of Clay though he didn’t blame him for that. Most fathers were less than approving of their daughter dating someone like Clayton. Alastair probably jumped for joy when Ally brought Fran home.

With every breath of morning, the pain was becoming more manageable and his head was getting a little clearer. He glanced at the final photo on the wall. It was him. Clay was on the wall! But not alone. Allison was there, Francis' arms wrapped around her and Lexie below them. Rhett was being all stoic and badass like he always was. Russ towered over them all. God, he was big. Little Danny was on the floor in front of them. Off to the side was Jamie, smiling at David who had an arm around…Caitlin?

Caitlin!

Clay thought back to that night; the night of the state game, the night Ally died.. During the half time break when he went searching for Rhett, he saw David! He questioned what he saw and just assumed he was too exhausted. He thought it was some red headed Pinehurst girl. It was CeCe! Caitlin Cleary was the girl! Clay took a step back and placed both hands behind his head as he stared into the innocent faces of days once thought wonderful. Jamie’s face. The way she looked at David. It wasn’t just him. She was looking at Caitlin too. She knew! Jamie knew about them. Of course she did. How could he not see that? David and Jamie knew everything about each other. They were the same soul. He took another step back as the pieces began to fall into place.

Jamie knew about CeCe, the whole time. She gave him the first letter. Avery said she felt that the letters weren’t even about who was writing them but about bringing purpose. The writer wasn’t trying to out themselves but they wanted to tell the truth. If Caitlin was the one who wrote the letters, she wasn’t the one releasing them. Someone had to have them, know where they were and be able to hide them when the police raided David’s room for evidence. Someone with opportunity and motive. Lamby said it clear as day when he interviewed her. Russell would do anything for Jamie. Jamie was sensitive. Jamie only ever wanted to help. Jamie never got over David. It was Jamie. It had been her all along.

Clay moved towards the door. He had to speak to Jamie. Twisting the door knob, he wasn’t sure who he would meet on the other side but based on the photos he had seen, he had a pretty good idea. Clay pulled the door open and stepped into the living room, ignoring the pain in every part of his body and forcing the adrenaline that was now building to do all of the work.

“Yeah, I know she isn’t my usual type but I thought… Honestly, I don’t know what I thought. Caitlin just seemed sad and that drew me in.”

Niles was quick to quiet when he heard rustling in the room Clay was in, and the moment the door opened he stood up, “Clay, take it easy.” Trying to ease himself in front of the officer, knowing he probably was confused about where he was and what happened to him last night, Niles approached him. Both him and Lexie stood up the night prior to make sure their former senior didn’t die in this house. As he went beside him, scanning Clay’s bandages, Niles addressed another person who was in the kitchen making herself a second cup of coffee, “Lexie, we should look at him before we go.” And by go, he meant the hospital. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know that the two pre-med students who were related to the main doctors of Sinclair Health would want to rush the officer to get proper medical attention. At least with this reveal, Clay would know he was in good hands.

When Lexi came across a man sprawled out on the side of the road next to his vehicle the night before, she wasted no time in putting her Santa Fe in park and sprinting to action. The fact that there was a storm raging around her didn’t seem to phase her— once the adrenaline and her nursing instincts came in, there was nothing that could take her focus away from providing the care her patient needed. A closer inspection of the scene revealed the victim to be part of the local PD, and that the identity of said victim, lying beside the patrol car and showing signs of violence having been inflicted upon him, was none other than Clay Costigan.

As soon as Lexie recognized Clay, her urgency to help intensified. Throughout her years growing up in the shadow of her older sister, Clay had been one of the few people to always see her for who she was. Around him, she wasn't invisible. He acknowledged her as her own person, treated her as an individual. He had unknowingly done so much for her during her formative years-- here was the time to pay it all back.

The task of lifting a man that was eight inches taller and fifty pounds heavier in the middle of a storm proved to be more than Lexie could handle. She'd tried her best to lift him by the shoulders and carefully drag him towards the passenger side of her SUV, but the rain slicking his arms, clothes and her grip made everything harder. The Davies girl was growing increasingly more panicked when the roar of a bike brought her help in the shape of Niles. With his assistance, the two young adults were able to lift Clay onto the backseat and take him to her house, where the small guest bedroom had been appropriately set up as a clinic of sorts. After providing Clay with basic first aid for the damages they were able to treat, Niles had volunteered to stay up monitoring their patient, while Lex had showered and collapsed on the bed until morning.

"Hey buddy," Lexie softly called out to Clay as she approached him, calling him by the same nickname he used on her growing up. "How are you feeling?" she inquired while placing a gentle hand on his shoulder, knowing that it was a stupid question considering that he probably felt as shitty as he looked but that she also needed to know of any abnormalities she couldn't see in order to know what else was going on with him both inside and outside.

“Like I got beaten up by a Sasquatch and then hit by a pick up truck.” As the two younger aspiring doctors supported him, Clay scanned their faces. Niles, he knew through their shared home on Scott Street. He didn’t have any siblings Clay’s age so they had few interactions outside of their bubble world high on the hill. But he knew that Niles had a heart beneath the bluster, he had seen it in small glimpses. For all the lack of book smarts, Clay had a sense about people. Lexie, he knew a lot more. The way she was looking at him now, with those big brown eyes, she looked just like her sister but she definitely wasn’t. Lex was her own woman, with her own mind, her own heart and her own problems. Problems that Clayton could see from a mile away even when she was a kid because she shared them too. “How you doing little buddy?”

"Oh, I am just absolutely fucking peachy! So happy to be back here in town again!" Lex was quick to respond back with her signature sarcasm, winking at Clay to make sure he knew she was joking.

He let out a little laugh that hurt his chest before relieving himself of their hood and pushing forward into the room. “Thank you both.” He turned his head lightly and offered them his famous doofus grin.

Lexie shrugged her shoulders. "It's no problem! We weren't just going to leave you there, Clay. If anything, it's a good thing we were the ones who found you. Anyone else wouldn't have treated you as good as we did. If not me, who else would've known to prioritize the mane over everything else?" she joked with a chuckle.

“Oh fuck, everything’s hurts.” Clay stopped and placed his hands on his hips. He could feel the sweat forming beneath his magnificent mane of hair. He felt like he was back on the court and hearing Coach yell it him for dragging his feet during the suicide drives. “Sinclair, I need you to take me to Scott Street.” He exhaled deeply, trying to force all the pain out of his body through his mouth. “I gotta finish this.”

Niles blinked a couple times in confusion. Having been preoccupied for most of yesterday, he was unaware of the second set of letters being distributed. “What are we finishing?” He dumbly asked. As smart as he was, he had his moments where he sounded like a complete dumbass. It was part of his charm. After the moment of being bewildered came and went, Niles shook his head in disagreement, “That doesn’t matter. Clay, you need to go to the hospital.”

Even if Niles did take Clay to Scott Street, he would have to either take Lexie’s car or call a Lyft driver. He had left his bike on the side of the road after seeing a woman struggle to carry a limp body to her car. Turns out that woman was someone he considered family, Lexie, and the dead weight was their former senior, Clayton. His bike was at Phil’s, thankfully still intact. His goal, after handling this situation and making sure Clay was in good hands, was to pick it up. “Whatever you got going on can wait.”

“No, it can’t.” Clay snapped back; a rarity for the usually affable former basketball player. “I have to go and put a stop to this fucking letter business and I know exactly who is sending them. Either one of you drives me to fucking Scott Street or I’m taking your car under police jurisdiction and you will not be able to do anything about it.”

Lexie couldn’t help but snort at Clay's comment. "Really?" she drawled, crossing her arms in front of her and raising a defiant eyebrow. "You're going to take on the both of us to confiscate my car when you can't breathe without flinching? Riiiiiight. Okay, Clay."

He stopped himself and took a breath. This was cop Clay coming out and although it was his job, he knew these kids. He didn’t want to cause them stress after what they’d done for him, taking care of him the way they did. “Listen guys, I promise I will go to Clinic as soon as I’m done but I have to do this.” His voice broke and water began to fill his eyes. “I have to make this right.”

Rather than be taken aback by Clay’s passion and frustration, Niles became even more bewildered. He hadn’t checked the mail since… two days ago. He didn’t even know there was another set of letters. Who was it about this time? He had already missed the Allison chapter, unable to attend the meet at the gym to investigate how it really happened. That’s when he started dating Caitlin and spent the night in Boston by the harbor. Was he so out of the loop to not notice anyone but himself in deep distress? Who else knew? Did the whole town know? “What letters?” Did it matter? Whatever the letters were about, it made the officer lose his cool. Maybe it didn’t matter. What mattered was getting Clay where he needed to be. The sooner this was done, the sooner he could go to the hospital. Niles needed to do the right thing. “You know what? Nevermind. It doesn’t matter. If Lexie doesn’t mind loaning her car, I’ll take you but I left my bike on the street you got jumped at. I get it, you want to get this done and over with but I don’t recommend you going alone in your condition.”

As much as Lexie agreed with Niles that Clay wasn’t in any state to chase after any truths, she was also aware of the stubbornness that characterized the Costigan clan. Whatever case he was working on seemed to be one that tugged at his heartstrings, too, because the last time Lexie had ever seen Clay get this emotional was after David O’Hara's death. Knowing Clay like she did, the stubbornness and potential personal stakes meant that there would be no stopping him from doing what he needed to do in order to solve his case, which meant that he wouldn't think twice about taking risks to accomplish his goal. That, of course, was the last thing they wanted right now. So instead of swimming against the current, she decided to float with it.

The young woman took a deep breath before uncrossing her arms, placing both hands on his shoulders and locking her eyes with his, dropping the tough girl act for a moment in favor of her genuine interest in ensuring his well-being. "Clay I promise I'll take you where you need to go. But let me take care of you first, okay?" she told the man, a silent pleading visible in her eyes. Once she'd received his agreement, she rushed off in the direction of the bedroom he'd been staying at and returned shortly with a bottle of water and two pills in the palm of her hand. She offered both items to the taller man. "Here, take these oxys for the pain. They're not high dosage, but they should be enough to hold you down without making you sluggish until you get to the hospital. And you will go to the hospital after this-- even if I have to drag you in myself. Do we have a deal, big buddy?"

“Look at you.” Lexie had found confidence in herself, the assurity in her voice said as much. She had come a long way since being the little twerp that used to run around the Davies house crying for attention. “Thanks Lex.” Clay took the pills and water from the tanned girl and swiftly stuck the medication into his mouth; polishing them off with the offered water. His throat burned and it hurt to swallow but once they had finally gone, he stuck his tongue out like a child forced to take medication. “Bleh! I hate pills.”

Clay paused to take a few further deep breaths to allow time for the Oxy's to do their things. It seemed like neither Lex nor Niles knew about the latest batch of letters. He wondered if that was for the best? Especially for Niles. He was dating Caitlin and she was about to be dragged through fire if her identity got out. Hopefully Clayton could stop it before it got to that. “Now, let’s make like a tree and get out of here. I need to go to the O’Hara house.”

Clearly, this was beyond Niles’ control. He didn’t know Clay well, not like Lexie did so if anything, he was just here for the ride. Shrugging at the mutual decision to take the officer to Scott Street, Niles grabbed his keys and wallet off of Lexie’s console table and stuffed it in his pants pockets. He proceeded to grab Clay’s phone, charged by Lexie's usb charger, and offered it to the older man. ““You might want to let people know you’re okay. Your phone’s been going off all night.”

Clay hastily took a hold of his phone and began to scan his Lock Screen. He had multiple missed calls from Cat, his mother, Lamb, Avery and Kylee; messages too. Immediately he opened up his tupper-bot app and sent a DM to Cat.

To Kitty:
I’m sorry, I lost track of time dreaming of you. I’ve cracked it! I’m nearly done. It’s nearly over. I love you.

He then opened up a message from Kylee.

From Kylee:
I know who the author is! Message me ASAP!

Clayton responded to her message with another apology, he felt like he would be doing a lot of those after this was all over, as well as a request to meet him on Scott Street to finish this. He placed his phone in his back pocket and put his hand against Niles to steady himself. “I’m gonna need my gun.”

Without warning, Lexie waltzed away in the direction of the bedrooms, returning fully dressed in athleisure and carrying a large plastic ziplock bag containing the items Clay had in his pockets, including the gun in question. "That's everything you had on you and around you," she told him, handing him the bag before grabbing her purse and keys from the kitchen counter and heading towards the door. "Let's get going, then. The sooner Clay gets this done, the sooner he gets to damn hospital."

A few minutes had passed since both Poppy and Key left right after each other and all Jade could think about was how she thought she was doing the right thing. Mitena was blaming herself and Jade thought she was doing right by her - and maybe by Charlie too - by telling her it was okay. She still held firm that Charlie’s sister, the one person not tethered to any of the pain, yet at the center of it, had nothing to apologize for. Why would she? She wasn’t to blame for any of the reactions. The anger, guilt, regret - that was all part of a life that was long before they knew Charlie had a sister.

And yet, unknowingly, the reactions she saw were a direct result of the past coming full speed into the present. Jade knew as soon as Mitena addressed him by the name Decky, that was it for him. And she wanted to follow, but what could she do in this situation? Poppy flat out said not to follow her and she didn’t keep her eyes on Key long enough to know where he ran off to.

As the blonde looked at the two girls across from her, for a moment the blue-green gaze that lacked the raccoon eyeshadow that was trademark to Jade at this point fell on Natalia. Among the entire thing, she had been quiet. She came to understand the Italian girl’s reason for being here more and more. A conversation yesterday that led to Jade finding her first step forward in forever. So what could she be thinking? What was on her mind?

“I’m sorry.” Jade finally mouthed after minutes of silence, leaning forward somewhat, reaching for one of the pieces of toast and buttered it with aimless motions. She didn’t realize it until she looked down and the one piece of bread had about a fourth of a stick of butter on it. She chuckled and then felt her throat tighten up. “I’m really sorry.. To both of you. I let my mouth go too far earlier. I assumed the wrong things. Pops wasn’t ready, Key wasn’t ready.” Jade wasn’t as ready as she thought…

She kept her eyes down, feeling them start to water and she smiled at her own pathetic state. “I don’t have any right to assume what they are ready for. How could I when I shut them out for a month because I wasn’t ready to face my own demons?”

Mitena watched the blonde silently for a moment. A lot had just happened and she really wasn’t fully sure what to make of it. Everything for them was still very raw, very fresh and very real. Tena herself didn’t exist in the scope of their vision twenty-four hours ago but there she was, the lost sister of their Charlie. She didn’t know what she was expecting from the group but she certainly wasn’t expecting this. It was obvious that all four of them had been completely and utterly shattered by her brother's darkest action and they were nowhere near recovered. Taking a deep breath, Tena reached out her hand across the table and placed it on Jade’s wrist.

“I don’t think any of us are ever truly ready. How can we be when we don’t know what the turn in the next corner holds?” She spoke softly but with assuredness behind her words. “You have nothing to be sorry for. Thank you for being honest with me and showing me a piece of your heart. It was very brave of you.” Mitena leaned back, aware of Jade’s space and hoping that she hadn't encroached upon it. She was always a tactile person and the last thing she wanted was to upset the blonde even further. “The others will find me whenever they want. My door will always be open to you all. You were his family, so that makes you mine.”

Feeling Tena’s hand touch her slender wrist, even though her eyes were watery as the blonde couldn’t hide the fact that her mind had just gone to a dark place, she met the same gaze that she remembered Charlie had in him before his light slowly faded. She hadn’t doubted it since before all hell broke loose, Jade knew she was without a doubt Charlie’s sister. It wasn’t just her eyes or that familiar skin tone or the dark locks. Charlie had a way about him. It was hidden under a bunch of insecurities and uncertainty, but his heart was always there. Jade heard and saw that in Mitena.

Taking a moment for herself to wipe away the tears that had formed, Jade half-laughed. “I’m not sure how brave it is,” she half-murmured. “But thank you, Tena.” She picked up that piece of bread with all the butter on it and took a big bite out of it. Her mind still felt heavy with so much of..everything, but she needed to eat something. Swallowing part of it, she once again looked at Natalia. She wanted to say something but the look in the former supreme’s eyes was very telling. Physically she was here, but Jade suspected her mind was elsewhere.

Tena watched the blonde's gaze fall upon her lover who had remained silent throughout the entire breakfast scene. Natalia had brought the native girl such joy and warm feeling in their brief whisper together and part of that was because Mitena felt like she had known the Italian girl her whole life despite only meeting the night before. That was thanks to Charlie and his words. In her brother's manuscript and letters he described her as a sensitive and thoughtful girl, carrying a weight beyond her means. Tena knew why Tal was lost in her own feelings, she knew that her Stargirl held a very important chapter of this book in her heart. Yet she also knew that the words in Natalia’s soul were hers and hers alone to share when and if she was ever ready.

Mitena drifted her hand behind the Italian girl, slipping her fingers beneath the pale beauty’s shirt and allowing them to softly dance upon her skin. Her mind wandered and she wondered what her brother might say to his heart pieces in a moment such as this. "May the stars carry your sadness away. May the flowers fill your heart with beauty. May hope forever wipe away your tears. And, above all, may silence make you strong.” Tena quoted as she thought perhaps Charlie would have. “Chief Dan George of Tsleil-Waututh Nation.” A bright smile crossed her round face and a small chuckle escaped her throat and lips. “I’m such a dork.”

Although her glassy eyes were locked on the table, Natalia could feel the eyes of both women around the table fixated on her. As much as she wanted to be comforted by Mitena’s touch and the heartfelt, beautiful words she had used in an attempt to soothe her soul, she felt the same old guilt and intrusive thoughts starting to weigh heavily on her shoulders once again. Did she even deserve to be here? Sure, she and Charlie had been fairly close for at least two years before his passing. But that was nothing compared to the life-long ties he had from growing up alongside Mordechai, Poppy and Jade. She had known him as the thoughtful, caring, perceptive Serpent with a dark humor, a love for books and a penchant for words; who carried the crushing weight of his family’s misfortune and the disdain of the town he called home on his shoulders. The others had known him as something beyond that: the person he was before calamity struck his life again again.

Sitting at this table-- surrounded by three of the people who knew Charlie best and listening to them voice so many personal questions or experiences while contributing nothing-- made the Belmonte girl uncomfortable. Witnessing their heartbreaking reactions made it even worse. By the time Tena was praising Jade for her bravery in opening up her heart, the panicked Natalia was desperately seeking a way out of being the next one expected to bare her soul.

“Maybe we can, um, change the subject or something…” she tentatively suggested, hoping the two women were just as emotionally exhausted with the scene that had just transpired as she was and would take her up on her offer.

Over the course of the time at the picnic table, Tena had been noting all of her new lover's looks and gazes. Every subtle movement of her hands and body. She wasn’t just uncomfortable; there was so much more to it and now she knew. Tena could read Tal’s face like it was an open book. It seemed obvious now. Beyond letters and novels and words on a piece of paper. The look in those starry eyes told Mitena everything she needed to know about Natalia and her brother, about how she felt and why she had been dancing precariously on the edge of a precipice ever since his name had come up. Natalia Belmonte, the other girl in the story, had been in love with Charlie Decker, the monster at the end of the book.

Tena could feel, through Natalia’s skin, a shift in her spirit. Throughout the evening, as their words danced around a feeling, through the night as their bodies merged into one, the tribal girl felt her Stargirl’s warmth radiate like a dying supernova into her very heart. Yet there in the cold light of day, where truths lay uncovered by the shade of night, Tal’s spirit had become bashful, quiet and afraid. She didn’t want to be there anymore and it all had to do with Charlie. This brother of hers, this phantom pain, he was long buried but it seemed that the anguish he caused had seeped into the very ground, into the very soil beneath their feet.

What’s the plan, Charlie Jay? What’s next in your story?

“Sure.” Mitena, despite the weight she carried in her own heart, wanted to be able to support Natalia, to support Jade and Mordechai and Poppy. The strength they had was used to get them here, now it was time for her to use her own to help them. “Sure.” She repeated before drying her eyes with the base of her thumb. At that moment, Tena realized how the end of this conversation would come. She realized that when it was all over, they would all go home together and she would be left alone with a wound in her soul reopened. The spirit would test her on this day. “So!” She masked her voice with a wave of joy. “What’s next? You want me to take you to the corral so you can check out and maybe ride some horses? You wanna hike the Pronghorn trail? Or maybe you wanna go to the casino or longhouse and get your early morning fucked up on?”

Natalia pursed her lips together, choosing not to respond right away as she felt another stab of guilt at Mitena's wounded response to her suggestion. Although they barely knew each other and she was actively trying to hide it, she could tell that changing the subject was not something that Tena wanted to do. And it’s not like she could blame her, either. If her brother had done what Charlie had and she was presented with the opportunity to get insight and answers straight from those who knew him best, you could bet that Tal would go to any lengths necessary to get the information she wanted. If anything, she admired Tena’s tact and patience on how she was approaching this whole thing, because she wouldn't have handled the situation with half of the grace Mitena had.

Her sympathy towards the other woman, however, didn't sway Natalia’s resistance to sharing that side of her life story. Talking about her mother’s illness, her goals, aspirations and other thought-provoking topics was one thing. Telling your new lover that the reason your paths came together in the first place was all because of a tangled mess of unaddressed romantic feelings between you and her deceased brother? That wasn’t something that needed to be addressed anytime soon… If at all.

But Tena deserved answers. She deserved to have that glimpse at her late brother's life. Even if Tal didn't disclose everything, she could at least offer her some comfort by telling her the same thing she'd told Jade the day before… On a different day, when she was ready.

“I'm sorry. I… I wasn't trying to be inconsiderate or an asshole when I asked to change the subject,” the Belmonte girl apologized to both women, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and uncomfortably looking away. "It's just… Talking about Charlie isn't something I like to do. Actually, talking about any kind of feelings isn't exactly something I'm a fan of, if I'm honest.” She blurted the explanation with an awkward chuckle, momentarily shifting her eyes to Jade and then back to Mitena. They could thank the influence of Tiziano Belmonte for that one. "But if you really want me to, maybe one day I could share some of the memories I have with him-- when I’m ready." She softly told the brunette, reaching out to wipe the girl's eyes with her thumb before using it to gently caress her cheek.

There it was again; that feeling, striking at Tena’s heart like a bolt of lightning sent down from the heavens by the Thunderbird itself. She leaned her warm face into Natalia’s palm and placed her own hand atop her Stargirl’s. This offcomer girl had stolen into her life like a thief in the dead of night and had cracked the safe that kept a hold of Mitena’s heart. She could tell just how uncomfortable all of this was making Tal and the raven-haired Indian girl didn’t want to keep poking the bear out of a deep fear of upsetting her. Yet her curiosity had not fully been satiated, not even close.

She didn’t want to be curious but there was so much left unsaid. There were so many unfinished songs in her book. The tribe had done much to raise Tena following her mothers death from cancer and as progressive as some members of the community were, there were still those that clung to the old ways. Both Mitena’s father and her long-lost brother were Craven. They were the unspoken dead that dare not be uttered even in whispers. There was so much of the songstress' past that was a mystery to her, and these strangers from another land might just hold the key to that box of secrets. The problem, it seemed, was that opening that box caused nothing but pain for everyone involved, and it seemed that that pain may not be something manageable.

“I would love to know everything.” Tena began as she cupped Natalia’s hand. “But I don’t want to bring you, any of you, any pain or suffering. More so than I already have. You got to have Charlie in your life, whatever that meant to you, and that is yours to share if and when you want. I’ve been waiting for my big brother for twenty years, I can wait a little longer.”

Looking between the two dark-haired women, Jade knew that somewhere in the glances she caught going between each other that there was an obvious deep connection between them. It was profound, and rivaled one that she herself was starting to find with Anya, her Pancake. It felt like it was something personal. Something that, if anyone knew (not like they were being subtle about it), it would be uncomfortable and awkward to talk about anything with them. Jade understood what that meant. When you found that person that connected you to the world, everything was different. Your outlook on the world was different.

The golden-haired Angel Princess backed her chair out a bit, and stood up. She knew this would alarm the both of them in some manner and Jade immediately put up a hand. “Don’t worry. I think I’m going to take a walk around.” She smiled at both of them, but centered her gaze on Natalia. She didn’t say anything, but it was a mutually-understanding, empathetic expression that should tell her everything she needed to know. “Maybe I’ll steal your suggestion and go to the casino for a bit.” Jade laughed, shooting Tena a wink.

Mitena smiled. She liked Jade. It seemed, at least to her, that behind the rough leather exterior and mad bad attitude, there was a heart made of gold; just like Charlie had said. She reminded the native siren of her bandmate Ryan. “Tell them I sent you and they’ll give you some credits on the house.” She reached out and took a hold of Jade’s hand and with a genuine smile, Tena mused. “Just don’t win too much or they’ll bury you in the desert with the rest of the white folk. Things do come to the Rez to get lost after all.”

Natalia could decipher without words what the very empathetic Jade was trying to convey. She understood the bond she and Mitena shared. There was no judgment of any kind coming from her. She was offering to give them their space. For that, the Italian girl was grateful yet guilty at the same time. She hadn’t wanted her actions to make Jade uncomfortable to the point of wanting to leave the room.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel weird.” Natalia apologized in earnest, thinking about how she’d said 'sorry' more in the last two days than she ever had in all her life. She knew it was the right thing to do and say, but it didn't make her any less fond of admitting potential fault.

Tena let go of Jade’s hand and then placed her own back onto her lap, ringing her fingers together as she did. “I think this whole thing has been weird. I don’t think that’s your fault, Tal. I mean, look at this situation. Feels like some angsty teen drama.” She tried to laugh. Maybe some levity would be enough to turn the page and continue the story. “We should pitch this to a network.”

Even with the heaviness from the topic of Charlie Decker still thickly hanging in the air, Natalia couldn’t help but snort at Mitena’s comment. If any movie producer or script writer became aware of the tragic history of Edenridge, there was no doubt in Tal’s mind that they’d become billionaires in no time. “With the amount of shit that’s happened in Edenridge in the past, the present and probably the future, they’d have enough source material to last for as many seasons as Supernatural did,” she joked with a chuckle, turning to Jade again. “Isn’t that right, Jade?”

Jade felt obligated to let this sudden burst of laughter that came deep from her gut that it made her entire upper body hurt, Jade did so with a smile wider than any that had come before it. God, why was she laughing so hard at that? “God if we’re comparing it to SPN, then we better not have some pandering ending with whoever our Dean and Castiel equivalents are.That shit made me so irate that I’m still refusing to acknowledge it as the true ending.” In that moment, Jade just let a small bit about one of her guiltiest guilty pleasures slip, yet she wasn’t hiding from it because why would she?. “Fuck, guess I just outed myself, but I can’t help it. Sam and Dean-- woof woof! And don’t even get me started on season 3 Ruby.” Katie Cassidy did a far better job than Genevieve Padalecki ever did and that was a fact. “But with all of the tragic crap that happens to our town, I’m willing to bet there would be enough for spinoffs and prequels. Even special episodes about what life would be like if the town wasn’t cursed. Now that would be a sight to see.”

Tena struggled to contain her laughter. This was her hope. Even if she learned nothing more about Charlie, seeing the smiles on the faces of Jade and her Stargirl was enough to fill her heart. She always remembered her mother cracking jokes and making people smile. She used to say laughter worked just as well as any medicine. Tena believed that was all a con for when her Mom was jabbing some poor kid with a needle at the clinic and was trying to keep them happy as she did. Now, the songstress wasn’t so sure. Now, she wondered, if laughter really was the best medicine to heal a heart?

“Just make sure when you sell the rights that a really hot indigenous girl gets cast to play me. Even if I’m only a guest star.”

Jade laughed again, blue-green eyes going from Tena, to Natalia, then back to the Native girl. “I’m sure that won’t be a problem. I have it on good authority you’ll make main cast member status by next season. Maybe even in the last couple of episodes.”

"Are you kidding me?” Natalia playfully raised her eyebrows at Jade, a smile dancing around the corners of her lips before turning to Mitena. “The casting agents will take one look at her pretty little face and those gorgeous brown eyes, and they'll send the rest of us packing." She commented with a genuine laugh, winking at Tena before tilting her chin up and momentarily pressing her lips to hers.

Encouraged by the way her lovely features lit up brighter than the sun outside, the Belmonte girl took the hand closest to her of Mitena’s and carried on with her words, her guarded demeanor softening up. "I know it might not seem that way, but I promise that you haven't upset me, caused me pain or suffering with anything you've said or done so far. Any feelings of that sort that I may be feeling are not your fault. All you've done since we met is treat me amazing, made me feel welcome and like I can trust you with anything-- I don't do that with just anyone. Just because I'm not ready to talk about things doesn't mean that I want to take it all back and forget about you. Shit, the whole reason I came to Blue Hill in the first place was because I wanted to get to know you. And now that we met, you couldn’t pay me to ever want to forget about you-- ever. That much I can promise you.”

Mitena had to fight back the tears again. Natalia’s words were filling her up, warming her body with a feeling of want. The kiss she stole from her lips sent a current of electricity to her spirit. She didn’t want Tal to go. She wanted her to stay at Blue Hill, be with her. Raising her head, glassy-eyed, Tena drifted her gaze between the two women as she held tightly onto the Italian’s hand. In appearance, the two girls couldn’t be more different. But in spirit and soul, it seemed they shared more than even they realized-- all of the outsiders did. Charlie tethered them in ways that Tena did not yet fully understand but hopefully in time, she would. Whenever the quartet decided it was time to go home, to a land that Tena’s ancestors once called theirs, she prayed to the Spirit that it wouldn’t be the last time she saw them. There was still so much of the story she hadn’t read yet.

“Thank you.” Mitena whispered as she wiped her eyes with her free hand. “Thank you all for coming and giving me this chance to glimpse into his world, your world.”

"Thank you for letting us give it to you, sweetheart.”

The subject of her brother needed to pass, for now. It seemed that Charlie hung over them like both a ray of sunlight and a cloud of darkness simultaneously. It seemed that the two wolves of his soul now walked amongst his heart pieces, waiting to be fed. Perhaps it was best to starve them for just a little longer?

Inhaling sharply, Tena let a wide smile across her face, allowing her natural beauty to penetrate the sadness. “So!” She began. “I don’t know when you guys have to get back but you should totally try and do a few things before you go.” Her eyes sailed towards the house in the direction where Mordechai had run and where Auntie Adora was likely listening in to their entire conversation. “Jade, maybe you might wanna take Mordechai to see the wildflowers? They’re just down the way. My Auntie Jenny used to say that they had healing powers. Just breathe them in, you know?”

It wasn’t that long ago that any form of PDA made Jade’s stomach turn like she was going to throw up, but in the same way that she could see Natalia had changed in just the span of one day spent at this majestic and mysterious reservation, Jade’s own views have been changed about watching others be happy and not be ashamed of it. Mitena was to Natalia how Pancake was to Jade. With the thought of her own, Jade could only smile.

And at the mention of the wildflowers, that smile turned into a small laugh. “I swear you must be psychic or something, because we are actually going there today.” The blonde briefly remembered the subject of the wildflowers and how she wanted to go there not just to have quality time spent with Key, but to help him and herself through this self-discovery journey she found herself in the middle of.

“I’m not psychic. I’ve just got some good medicine in the bank.” Mitena returned her full attention to Natalia and her face softened. “And what about you, Stargirl? What am I gonna do with you?”

Natalia's face broke into an actual smile, green eyes sparkling with a hint of mischief. "Oh, I don't know. I mean, I'm sure we can come up with something to do…" she replied to Mitena, keeping her tone casual so as not to make Jade uncomfortable again but discreetly squeezing the hand of Tena's that she was holding to convey the double meaning of her words to her new lover.

Tena returned Natalia’s mischievous smile with one of her own as she traced the back of Tal’s hand with her fingertip, slowly making her way up her befreckled arm. She briefly looked at the table where sat a bunch of untouched food. She’d have to apologize to Resi when she saw him next. Her cousin didn’t have a lot going for him outside of his food truck and she had specifically asked for a feast for the morning and her new friends. Forrest being Forrest, he gave her everything for free. Mitena couldn’t say she wasn’t famished but the look in her Stargirl’s eyes was making her hungry for something else.

“Look over there.” Mitena pointed to the open fields and dirt roads that led down to the Reservation. She looked at Jade and then back to Tal, sliding her hand around the alabaster-skinned form of her lover and planting a soft kiss behind the girl's ear as she stared out across the pasture. “This is my world. It’s yours too now, if you want it, both of you, all of you. You’ll always be welcome here.”

The indigenous singer’s doe eyes drifted to the window, to a spot behind Natalia’s head. Sitting perched on a tree branch was a solitary raven. To most, they would simply assume that the creature was scavenging for food and the large feast was an appealing sight to it. Tena locked eyes with the avian, staring into his dark eyes with her own. In her culture, the raven symbolizes creation, transformation, knowledge, prestige as well as the complexity of nature and the subtlety of truth. He is a symbol of the unknown, of the different ways one can see the world. The raven was the keeper of secrets, the truth sought for hidden in the feathers of his wings.

For a brief moment, Tena wondered if that Raven was Charlie; watching over the pieces of his heart as they searched for his secrets; as they searched for his truth.

In another place, in any other time, a town would be dead silent but not Blue Hill. Blue Hill was a reservation that rose before the sun itself even lit its first spark to illuminate the land. On its dusty streets, the tribe which made up its inhabitants were already going about their days. Some up early to look after their cattle, others to build and others to commute to a bustling city to earn a fistful of simpoleons that would not see past the next day.

That was mornings on the Blue Hill Reservation.

Despite the footfall, the morning was always quiet, always peaceful. Fallon took a sip from her coffee cup as she sat on the edge of her patrol car, watching weary travelers move in silence and calm to wherever the Creator willed them to be. It was days like this that the beautiful young lighthorsewoman forgot she was deaf.

Iraq in the morning was nowhere near as quiet. Fallon could still remember the sounds, the cocking and loading of guns, the rumble of tanks and the screams of insurgents. She could still remember the entire reservation lined up outside Aponi’s when she got back, led by her father, her brother and her sisters. She could see them clapping, she could see their mouths moving but she couldn’t hear them. All she could hear was that morning silence. Then she saw her fathers tears. He cupped her face and pressed his head to hers and she cried too but there was still no sound. It was at that moment that Fallon realized that she’d need to learn to love the silence. It was going to be with her forever now.

“Hang on.” The black haired woman placed her finger behind her ear and dialed up the volume on her hearing aid. “Sorry, I had to turn it down because Heather was like a charging buffalo when she came home last night. Honestly, how can a girl that beautiful make such ugly sounds? What did you say, Pava?”

If it wasn’t for the breakfast sandwich (almost finished, mind you) in her hand, she’d sign while talking. Instead Pavati made sure her voice was direct and aimed at the ear aid, while giving Fallon a clear view of her lips. She leaned up against the patrol car, wearing shades to protect her eyes from the glaring sun, and embraced the warm morning. Speaking slowly and firmly, Pava finished chewing and repeated, “Boss wants me to take some time off but I don’t know what I’d do with myself. I don’t like doing nothing, you know this. Work makes me feel useful. Productive. And yeah, I heard the girls had one of their best shows last night. Then again, it was Yana who told me. She hypes everything up.”

After placing the coffee cup down on the hood of the car, Fallon tipped her wide brimmed hat up slightly. “Nah they were great but it got wild afterwards you know how they are. Anyway, pause that. Pava you need to take some time off girl and I don’t mean the nights you spend on your laptop curled up on that rich girl’s couch in town. No no.” With every word spoken, she signed with her hands. Pavati was the first person to learn ASL for Fallon and it was something she had never forgotten. “And I know, before you say, I haven’t had a vacation either but I spend my day chasing down horse thieves and Resi. You got more serious shit to deal with.”

Finishing her sandwich and pulling a napkin out of her pocket to quickly clean her fingers, Pava contemplated her friend’s words and exhaled her locked tight grievances. Fallon was one of the few people she’d listen to; deeply take in what the other woman had to say and consider her words. The other figures in her life that could move mountains with her would be her mother, Matoaka Huaman, who was the main nurse on the Res, and her uncle, Chief Coldwind. As for her father? That’s entirely dependent on what he had to say, if he was ever around to say it. After folding her napkin and sticking it back in her pocket, she swallowed what was in her mouth before signing and responding back, “Serious meaning cyber attacks, cases on child pornography, and proving, or disapproving, intellectual property threats? Then I guess you’re right, that is some serious things to deal with, but that’s more of a reason for me to keep working, don’t you think?"

“Well you may be the best at what you do Wolverine but you’re not the only one who does what you do. Don’t make me punch that pretty face and force you to have medical time off.” Fallon stroked her best friend's face tenderly before balling up her fist and throwing a mock punch which booped the computer expert's nose. She stopped midway through her second shot when she noticed some family figures walking towards them in the distance. Fallon narrowed her chestnut eyes to try and make them out through the morning haze and a bright smile swept up across her lips as she realized just who was on their way to them. “A-ho! Your sisters are here…with a very very white girl.”

There was a split second when Pavati grimaced at the sight of Cheyenne and Aiyana, the two that gave her the biggest headaches. When she saw the girl walking beside them, her eyes glistened in curiosity. She looked familiar. She definitely knew that face. The closer the stranger got, the more Pava recognized her. Officer James’ daughter. He had a picture of him, his wife, and his two girls on his desk. Penelope was her name. She worked at the cafe. Though she wasn’t wearing a face mask which was pleasant to see. Pava didn't understand why the young girl covered up such a pretty face.

With a calming, motherly spirit, Pava smiled and called out to her sisters, “So you two are going to see dad after all?" Through process of elimination and common sense, she knew Yana would’ve found her way to the harbor with or without her help. Chey on the other hand… this wasn’t usual for her. She showed disdain for their father more than the rest of them. Was she going to see him because she actually wanted to or did she have a hidden agenda? “Hey, you’re Sly’s daughter, right?" Pavati forwardly asked, as her gaze went from her sisters to the newcomer.

“Yes I am, and you are?" Penelope hesitantly inquired back, unable to recognize the woman who knew her name.

Inserting herself, Aiyana chirped with glee, “That’s our big sister, Pavati!" From there, she proceeded to gesture toward her older sister’s best friend, who was drinking her cup of joe and watching everyone else in silence. “And that’s Fallon. She’s a lighthorseman. Or woman."

“A lighthorseman?" Poppy stared puzzlingly at Fallon, while interlocking her fingers together. She had no clue of anything really about the reservation so she wanted to soak it all in. From her surroundings to the information others cared to share, Poppy knew where she was, in this moment, in the heat of summer, was exactly where she needed to be.

“The lighthorsemen are the equivalent to your police. And Fallon here is the toughest one of the lot, scares the living crap out of anyone brave enough to commit a crime around her." Cheyenne added, giving her signature lazy wave in greeting to Pava and Fallon and making sure that she enunciated enough for Fallon to understand. Chey was still yet to learn ASL, though like Mandarin it was in the pipeline for future Chey to learn.

“Dad will be back soon, and I don't have much to do today so why not pester someone else for once?" Cheyenne added, knowing it was rather surprising for her to be part of the welcoming committee. “Unless you want me to annoy my sweet, exasperating, workaholic oldest sister instead?" She asked, raising her eyebrow playfully. Not that Chey would mind, Pava was often the one that would react in a way that would entertain her the most- and if the stars aligned and Yana joined in, the two were unstoppable at giving Pava a headache.

The joys of being the younger sister.

Seeing the banter between Pava, Yana and Chey, made Fallon somewhat glad that her own siblings very much kept their lives to themselves. They were just as close as the Big Bears little girls but they tried to lead lives away from each other, not wanting to get entangled in ways that could cause harm. Tank did his thing, like he always did. Malia and Kalia were always striving, always grinding for more and Heather….well she was currently lying face down, ass up on the couch but she had a lot going on too. They didn’t always get along but Fallon felt blessed by the Creator for her family.

“Y’all are too much sometimes I swear.” The lighthorsewoman took another sip from her coffee as her soft dark eyes drifted to the pale offcomer that had seemingly begun to interfere herself within the tribe. She remembered seeing her the previous evening at the longhouse. There was no way she could forget someone that looked like that wandering around the Reservation. Pava commented on her being Sly’s daughter. Her best friend had mentioned this man before, a cop, one of the few good ones, back in that pool of evil they called Edenridge. In some ways, Fallon hated whenever Pavati or any of the other tribe members had to go there because she had a feeling, deep in the pit of her gut, that one day they just wouldn’t come back.

“Word of warning, Pale Girl. You stay your pretty little ass away from the girls that live on Summer Hill. Those bitches are crazy.” She playfully squished Chey’s cheek between her finger tips like a child. “You got cop instincts in you, you should know better.”

“That might be the case but I’m also white as heck and that alone comes with its privileges," Penelope smiled at the officer and brought her gaze to the three sisters who seemed extremely close, at least on the surface. “I don’t mind crazy," she muttered to herself as her stare grew distant when she thought back to her friends. “I’ve learned over time, the only people for me are the mad ones."

Once again, Poppy was thinking about the book Charlie loved most of his life, since he could walk and pick up a book. On the Road. That one quote came back to the forefront of her mind as she looked beyond the other girls and toward the lighthorsemen station. She raised an eyebrow at the architecture. Out of most of the other buildings in the reservation, this one seemed to be the most charming, in a ‘last through the ages’ kind of way. “When was this building built?" She unhesitantly spoke the question out loud. “It looks a little different from the rest," she thoughtfully continued.

“Jeez," Aiyana was taken aback with how interested this girl was to her current surroundings, to the reservation, and to their people. She tried to think hard on the question that Poppy had brought up. “I’m pretty sure this is our oldest building. Like after Nathanial Carlisle drove out our people from Edenridge sometime in the late 1600s. It was originally a building of ceremony, I think. Correct me if I’m wrong, Fallon.”

Fallon nodded her head. “You’re not far wrong. Edenridge didn’t become Edenridge until the land was snatched away from our tribe.” Despite centuries of distance, the stealing of Edenridge from the Indigenous was still an incredibly sore place for many on the Reservation. “This building was built in the late 1600s by the family that we would come to know as Strong-Bow, Aponi’s father. Our people used it for birthing and funeral ceremonies. Sacrifice and celebration. With the encroachment of the modern world the majority of the building was torn down and repurposed into the home of the lighthorsemen.” As she explored history with the girls, Fallon signed every word absentmindedly with her fingers. “The oldest building we have is the longhouse.”

Penelope watched Fallon in wonder and awe over the history lecture. She was truly blessed recently with how much knowledge she was being immersed in ever since she touched Blue Hill soil. Thanks to muscle memory, Poppy remembered the sessions of Max studying ASL (she was the student aide in the special ed class) and replied with her hands and voice, “Thank you. I appreciate this information." She wasn’t perfect with her ASL, not like this native woman she had only met moments ago but she was able to sign enough to show respect to the deaf community.

The further Poppy journeyed through the Res the more she realized how foolish she was earlier. Tena didn’t ask for them to come and find her, that was all them, or well, all her. The guilt washed over her as she wondered how she’d get Mitena to forgive her for being overwhelmed and rude. For taking out her frustrations on her. Charlie’s sister or not, Tena had her own pain because of this whole ordeal. Because of Charlie’s actions and her relationship being purely through letters. Poppy wasn’t the only one hurting and she needed to stop acting like she was.

Before the young James could say anymore, Pava grabbed her water bottle off of her friend’s car and stretched her long, slender body, “As much as I’d love to chat about our history, I need to go.”

“Don’t forget us!" Yana pranced to her big sister’s side and hooked herself onto her sister’s arm. “Dad’s getting in and we absolutely have to see him. We also have a whole car ride to talk about setting you up on a blind date.”

“I’ll leave you stranded here if you fucking dare," Pavati snapped. The amount of salt that oozed out of her being whenever romance was brought up was hardly something to joke about. And yet, her anger didn’t faze Aiyana. The Summerhill girls were used to their big sister’s rage and knew that it was all empty when it came to the family. Pava loved her sisters too much to leave them behind. She would never leave them, no matter how much she wanted to at times, which meant Yana could troll all she wanted.

Chey imitated Aiyana by looping her own arm through Pava’s and locking them together. “Would you reaaaally?" Cheyenne questioned in a sing-song tone, her angular face sporting a cheeky shit-eating grin. “Dad would be terribly devastated if Yana wasn't there to welcome him, y’know." Chey said. Everyone (meaning little siblings, mostly) can benefit from a little emotional blackmail amongst siblings, and because Cheyenne is aware of how family-oriented the eldest Summerhill (Huaman officially, but of Summerhill blood anyway) is, everything works out just perfectly in favour for the younger Summerhills.

No matter what crap Cheyenne would give Pava, ultimately it didn't go any farther than a younger sister aggravating their big sister. Typical middle child syndrome, even if Yana and Chey were the same age and held the middle child title. At least it explains why the two would frequently be the first to bug Pava. But at the end of the day, Chey adored her sisters and was always appreciative of Pava's efforts to maintain their family's unity. She is well aware that her oldest sister works to support their family and the reservation, taking on all of their burdens but never actually sharing her own to ease her sisters' concerns. Cheyenne just wishes that would change in the future, but until then, she would settle on pestering Pavati. A (not so) gentle reminder that life isn’t just about work.

Exasperated, Pava sighed, holding both her sisters close. These two were tweedledee and tweedledum and never failed to give her an early morning headache. She didn’t need coffee with sisters like these. “Yeah, yeah, yeah," she grumbled to Chey, before looking over her shoulder to her best friend and the lost soul. Briefly, she unlatched Aiyana’s hold on her to make a visible gesture of her departure. Waving goodbye to her friend and their welcomed visitor, she resounded, “Catch you later Fallon! And Penelope, I do hope you find what you’re looking for here. We might be a small village, but we’re mighty. Lean on us if you need to. Take time to yourself to just be. It was nice to meet you." Once the eldest Summerhill finished her spiel, the girls faded off into the distance to where she parked her car.

“They’re really nice people. You are all so kind," Penelope commented, her eyes turning to the officer who had been mostly silent for that whole sisterly exchange.

Fallon waved as the girls from the Summer Hill faded off into the morning haze and she returned her attention to the pale white stranger that seemed to be vibrating with the magic of the day. “You have to remember when you’re with the people here that we don’t have a lot.” She signed with her fingers though her words were clear. “So much was taken from us that all we ever had was each other and the land. Both are just as important here. Be kind to each other, be kind to the land and you’ll get it all back….or some other fortune cookie shit Chief teaches us.” The lighthorsewoman laughed a little just in time for her to see a very familiar face carrying a heavy looking rucksack. “Not stealing again are you Forrest?!” She called.

Resi turned his head and shook it defiantly. “No ma’am. I am reformed.” He made his way over to Fallon and drifted his almond colored gaze over to the beautiful ghost girl in the pretty summer dress. “Hello again.”

Penelope’s smile beamed and her cheeks tinted pink when she saw a familiar face. She only had a brief interaction with Forrest the previous night but she already felt safe around him, like he was home. A feeling that only Mordechai and Jade emitted right now (and her parents, but that’s different). “Hi, Resi," Poppy gleamed, her mood shifting even more in his presence. After a moment of her staring at him, she surveyed her surroundings and realized that Fallon was likely on the clock. “Oh, I’m sorry for keeping you," Poppy apologized in sign language, politely turning to the lighthorsewoman as she addressed her. “I should let you get back to work… I did enjoy this and I hope I get to meet you again.”

Fallon was deaf, not blind and the instant that Forrest Proudstar entered her field of vision she knew that her new friend had forgotten all about her. The way the girl's bright green eyes lit up in his presence, like a lantern igniting in the dark of night; that was the real magic of Blue Hill Reservation. “Stay out of trouble, you two. This one?” The officer patted Resi on his shoulder and smiled. “He has a habit of finding it.” She ruffled Forrest’s wild mane of hair and turned and walked into the lighthorsemen HQ.

Upon her leaving, a solitary raven dropped down and perched itself on Fallon’s squad car, watching as Penelope and Forrest conversed.

Resi tightened his grip on his backpack, it was heavy but when Poppy looked at him with that big smile it somehow felt lighter. “You wanna walk with me? I’ve gotta drop this stuff off back at the van. I can sweeten the deal with some fresh baked goods?”

There was no way she’d refuse spending time with someone she wanted to know more of. Poppy gracefully strolled to him, looked up into his eyes, and nodded, “I’d like that." She hadn’t noticed the glaringly obvious raven not too far off on the patrol car. Her attention was completely on Forrest. “Lead the way?"

“It’s not far. I’m parked just up by the longhouse.” Forrest swept back some of his hair before he motioned with his head for Poppy to start following up the dirt road. “You look really pretty today.” He wanted to ask whether or not the spirit girl’s mission to meet his cousin was successful but based on the small ringlets around her eyes that betrayed tears; he doubted it was as fruitful as everyone had hoped. He wouldn’t ask, that was Poppy’s story to share and no doubt Mitena would speak to him about it later. “I think this place is bringing something out of you, something you needed.”

As the pair walked off up the path, the raven hung its head for a moment before taking off into the sky once more.

As knowledgeable and versed she was in metal, punk, and rock, since that was her niche as an international music journalist, having started only at the age of fifteen when her mother somehow got an in with East of Eden, Sadie Campbell didn’t always choose to indulge in Rock & Roll. She had her own guilty pleasures that separated her from the woman that raised her. Johanna Campbell would never take interest in such music; she was a rocker girl, a motherfluffin’ Killer Queen, through and through (even if she tried to cover it up with class). Sadie, to the grief of her mother, was anything but her mother.

She spent years psychoanalyzing why Joni did the things she did, rarely ever explaining herself, and still to this day, Sadie couldn’t understand why her mother was a trainwreck of a woman. Still, she hoped by visiting Edenridge she could change that, taking matters into her own hands, one foot in front of the other, one step at a time. Sadie Campbell was not a small fry in journalism. For a twenty four year old, her name floated on the web for those that were diehard Rock & Roll fans. At fifteen, she toured with East of Eden and wrote a cover about the band on her blog. Her article got the attention of Rolling Stones who wanted to expand her interview and give exposure to her writing. From there, she and her mother were constantly on the move, her mother vicariously living through her daughter’s success while also helping Sadie navigate through the highs and lows of the music industry. One can say she was kind of a big deal.

Through all the chaos, Sadie found time to go down the rabbit hole of a variety of genres and found that while not considered ‘good music’ by her mother, she loved pop because it was fun. It made her want to dance! Oh if only she had friends to dance with but all her contacts were in an extensive network that she used only for business. She didn’t really have anyone but her mother to call a friend and dancing with her mother was fun at home, but that’s it. Her mother was getting old and had demons lurking over her shoulders. Sadie wanted friends her age and a place to call home. And she wanted to see grandpa more! Sadie was tired of running away with her mother. She didn’t even know what they were running away from.

There was so much she didn’t know about her home… there was so much normalcy she had yet to live because all she did was travel and talk to musicians. Don’t get her wrong, that was freaking cool but her heart hungered for something that her job couldn’t satiate. Her heart needed, desired, yearned for… family. Her family. At Main Street Music, Sadie, in her leather jacket, Rico Nunez t-shirt, tight, ripped black jeans, and heeled combat boots, wore headphones attached to a music player in the CD section (ancient, wow!), and listened to Moves Like Jagger by Maroon 5. She didn’t want to make Jericho and Rye’s attractive looking friend uncomfortable after witnessing the whole make out session outside so she drowned her surroundings with music and did a little jiggy. Sadie’s aim today was to kill time until Afterlife was open. She needed to meet someone and though she didn’t know if this someone was going to be working or not, it was a risk she was willing to take. She wasn’t going to wait for a miracle in order to meet those that she should’ve known a long time ago. She wasn’t going to wait on her mother to finally get over herself and face her fears. It was up to her to face her mother’s fears for her and she would do it with a smile.

No more waiting.

The time was now.

A wave of relief had washed over Lamb when her phone lit up with a message from her big brother. All through the night, in the pit of her gut she had a feeling, a bad feeling, something was wrong. When Clay had left the Afterlife that night there was a look in his eye that Laura had seen her entire life. It was a look of chaos. It was a look that her brother had whenever he was about to do something stupid. Clayton had a knack for doing stupid things. Lamby didn’t believe in twin magic; not like Jamie did. Jamie had always compared it to some great mystical quality that resided on the wrong side of the unexplained. Laura humored her, of course she did. They were friends. However there were moments that night where the Hostess couldn’t help but wonder if the pain in her stomach was that twin magic, if it was that supposed enchanted tether that bound her to the boy whom she shared a womb with, a boy she shared a life with. Clay was fine though. He texted that morning and said he was good. No magic, no chaos, probably just some dodgy late night pizza.

Lamb hadn’t even been home yet herself; the joy of her work, she had been awake for about thirty hours. That didn’t matter, she’d grab a quick power nap when she did get to her apartment but first she had some other things to do. The main one being getting her father a welcome home present; a tradition that she began as a little girl. The Captain’s boat would dock back in Edenbridge today and that filled her with joy. Lamb was a grown woman now; she hadn’t lived on Scott Street in over six years and she visited even less sometimes but on the inside, she was still that curly haired little kid waiting at the end of the dry dock for her daddy’s ship to sail in.

Looking at her one wouldn’t believe that Lamb hadn’t slept. As she strutted down Main Street in a white blazer and shorts that barely skimmed the thigh of her long legs. She wore a black loose top and a choker necklace; she looked like a million dollars. She always preferred to look classy, to exude power and dominance. It had long been said that Laura Costigan could not be controlled or tricked or made to do anything she didn’t want to do. Unlike her brother, the younger Costigan was a measured and controlled presence rather than a force of nature. She was known to be a wild woman, a free spirit not tied down by convenience or normalcy. Lamby did what she wanted, when she wanted and she did it with style.

She entered Main Street Music at the stroke of the hour. She stood out like a sore thumb amongst a sea of rock and roll. Lamby glanced over to the corner of the room where she saw an unfamiliar girl dancing with Eddie’s old headphones on. Wow she was really pretty and she was stabbing Rico Nunez with that shirt which was always a positive in Lamb’s book since he was her favorite. She moved gracefully through the record bins and began to flick through the old vinyls.

What would her Daddy like? He loved music more than anything.

Twirling around to scan the area while Maroon 5 still blasted in her ears, Sadie’s champagne eyes immediately fell on someone that she recognized in milliseconds — the sophisticated lady’s face ingrained in her mind. There was a high chance she wouldn’t be recognized because well, her existence wasn’t really a thing in Edenridge. The only remnants of her were in the houses of Eddie Campbell and Robyn Phillips-Shomer. Postcards, trinkets, and pictures from her and her mother’s constant travels.

Her gaze immediately darted to Jericho who was strumming his guitar and talking to his friend, Avery, and his boyfriend, Rye, in the instrument area. Briefly, they locked eyes with one another and in seconds, they had a silent and full conversation through facial expressions. When she was given an expressive smile of encouragement from him, and validation that she wasn’t in over her head, she took the headphones off and placed them down on the counter with the cash register.

What better time than the present?

Relaxing her shoulders and taking deep breaths, Sadie mentally thought of a few scenarios in her head before she was ready to approach the elegant dame that she wanted to meet for most of her life. When she settled on the best scenario to move forward with, Sadie strolled beside Laura and looked at the records beside her, going through them. She glanced over to see the current record Lamb was looking at. Casually, she broke the silence, “That’s a good album. My mom loves it. She said when she listened to it with her friends it was magical, like stardust was coming off of them. The best years of her life. Caroline, Roll Over Lay Down, and Forty-Five Hundred Times are basically Quo’s anthems.”

“You don’t have to tell me, my Dad loves old English rock,” Lamb responded absentmindedly as she continued to flick through the old vinyls. A few records later she realized that she may have come across as rude and raised her head to look at the girl next to her and apologize. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to...” She stopped as she gazed upon the newcomer's pretty face. It was a face that for some reason she felt like she had known her entire life. She was beautiful, no doubt about that, in a weird way she kind of looked like Clay. Same dark eyes. Same angular jaw. Laura and Clayton were not identical twins but they shared many similarities and so, apparently, did this stranger. She glanced down at her top; Rico Nunez. He was hot right now and Lamb was really down bad with his mixture of Latin soft rock and melancholic blues. “Nice shirt. Corazón de León has such a vibe.”

“Heck yes it is, I actually saw him live like a week ago,” Sadie nonchalantly and casually responded, before shrugging, “None taken, my mom listens to Status Quo when she misses him. Your dad, I mean.” She explained, while picking up an East of Eden record, The Poison Apple. This was their first album ever with some of iconic tracks like Embrace the Venom, Speed Demon, and When We Sleep. When she saw that it was their 15 anniversary cut, she gave a childish grin, like a kid at a candy store, and whispered to herself, “Today’s my lucky day.” Claiming it as her own, she held the record close and in an embrace, before her attention was pulled away from her new find and to her cousin in the back with Rye and Avery. Jericho was strumming his guitar to a track off the ghost mixtape, unnamed second album, of the Gallows.

She recognized this song.

“I don’t know if you listened to the recording of this song. I mean there’s only five mixtapes out there… Rusty composed it, James wrote the lyrics, Will enhanced it, and our parents, my mom and our dad, sang the song. Twin Flame. A song where you’re constantly running from your truth, your love. Depends on how you interpret it, I guess. Is it about love? Or about running away from a place or a person that you know is home to you. ‘I found my dreams but the moon took me away, away from her, my soul flame.’ Have you ever seen videos of them? They had such a stage presence together, it was hot. El Capitán — O Captain, my Captain! — And the Killer Queen. I mean it makes sense why they’d be the ones to sing this song…” Her voice trailed when she noticed the other woman intently staring at her.

Lightly, Sadie tapped the record cover against her head, embarrassed at her failure of introducing herself and doing her thing where she goes on and on about music, “Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry! I did an oopsies, didn’t I? I should’ve done this first. Let me formally introduce myself.” Bringing the record cover down and back to her side, she excitedly and a tad bit anxiously, beamed a bright smile at the beautiful woman who she had admired the moment her grandpa divulged that she and her were connected, bonded by fate, “I’m Sadie. Sadie Campbell.” Instead of dropping the bomb that she needed to at some point, the stranger-now-acquaintance decided to hold her tongue and see how Laura processed her rambles first.

Lamb narrowed her eyes as the girl calling herself Sadie went off into a thousand different directions with her words. Yet she noted the common theme; our dad. Laura had long held suspicions over whether or not Captain Sean Costigan had more children than just she and the doofus. She didn’t have any doubts over how much he loved their mother; one only had to look into his eyes to see it. But as Sadie had pointed out, before either of them were born he was in a very popular band and likely had sex with lots of groupies and the one female member of the group, Joni Campbell. Now, standing in front of her like a distorted mirror was a girl who looked like her and her brother, she shared their eyes and had the Campbell name. It seemed like Sean’s past was sailing into port alongside him today.

“Laura Costigan,” The brunette replied as she placed her hands on her small waist. “If you really are my sister you'd know that the best song on the ghost mix is the Hereafter of Us Being Together.” Saying that word, sister, it had crossed Lamb’s mind so many times. Clay had joked about it because that’s what he always did, make a joke when he was terrified of the truth but they both knew the reality; there had always been a big chance that their father had another child, a secret child. In her line of work, Lamb had to be prepared for anything to go wrong at a moment's notice and be able to roll with it.

This was one of those moments.

Sadie’s eyebrows raised when Lamb called her sister. She couldn’t recall if she had divulged that tidbit in her spiel but maybe she did and maybe this would pan out in a way that would end well for the both of them. Tears almost built up in her eyes at those words and the fact that she was being acknowledged for the first time as being a Costigan. She gave an innocent yet hopeful gleam, as if she waited for this moment all her life, to be seen by her siblings. “Well, duh, that was the last song they wrote together before…” Rusty died, then shortly after James.

She picked at her nails as she held the East of Eden record. The music journalist could recall the nights her mother drank herself to sleep, drowning in her guilt and sorrows while using booze to forget the pain. “That song to me felt like… a ghost, if a ghost ever did have a sound. A promise for a better tomorrow, that no matter what life threw at you, you’d still be together. You’d still find your way back home. The composition was oh so haunting. Tragic even. It made me feel sort of lonely, like life is so fragile and could easily leave your grasp if you don’t hold onto it tightly.”

Loneliness was something Sadie knew all too well. She didn’t have friends. All she had were business contacts and her mother. She barely had a relationship with her father, only seeing him once in a blue moon. She attended thousands of concerts and music events, surrounded by the most eclectic people, surrounded by noise, and surrounded by strangers. Yet in a crowd of thousands, she felt alone. Maybe that’s why she took the chance, while her mother was knocked out cold from going too hard last night, to visit Edenridge. Sadie needed change and no one was going to hand it to her. It was up to her to reach out and grab it herself.

In an instant, the loneliness flickered in her eyes as she looked at Laura before she buried it behind her music prowess and nerdiness. “The cool thing about the Gallows was they liked to try different sounds but that one song, that one song was really their vibe. It kinda’ was like Elder Tree! Their magnum opus. But the sequel! It really shows they could’ve been big if death didn’t sever their ties.” Sadie scrunched her nose when she realized how grim that last part sounded. “But yeah, sorry… I’m talking too much, aren’t I? I just, emhem,” she searched for words to say as she tapped her fingers on the back cover of Poison Apple. “I didn’t expect to find you this soon. I’ve only been in town for thirty minutes actually… honest,” she anxiously admitted, knowing well enough that she was going to use her cousin JP to help her find her way around town.

“This is the first time I’ve ever been here. Usually grandpa comes to see me.” Wherever her mother decides to park the RV for the night, the old man would make time to travel outside of Eden to be with his granddaughter. It’s just how things were. Johanna Campbell really didn’t want to come back to Edenridge. She hated this place or maybe, it just reminded her too much of good times gone by. “You’re really pretty in person,” she bashfully complimented the elegant woman, who was composed, confident, and calm. A sight to see. Her heart raced at the thought that this girl was someone that could love her unconditionally and be there in the only way a sister could be there for her. Something she so desperately wanted to have, something she so desperately sought out, and something she so desperately yearned for… a family. Her family.

Lamb maintained her calm and composed demeanor as the girl rambled and raved about music. Yet the dark eyes they shared betrayed a sense of longing and loneliness that was unbecoming of a creature so young. Yet it was the Costigan way. Clay, despite his popularity, had never found whatever it was he was searching for. Lamb too, carried loneliness in her heart. Her brother was an elite, she never wanted any part of that but the truth of the matter was that woman never found that one thing that defined her. Laura floated around the social scene, hanging with the elites Mondays, Sabrina and the goths Wednesdays and Sawyer and the weirdos on Fridays. She was a nomad just like her father and as impulsive as her mother. The question was now posed, what sort of Costigan was Sadie?

She was, this was, a lot. Laura had finished work that morning wondering if her big brother was alive and now she had found some long lost sibling who was fifty shades of crazy. This fucking town. “You’re really pretty too.” Was all Lamb could manage to say as she tried to process and plan her next move. She reached out and pushed one of Sadie’s dark tresses behind her ear, revealing more of her bright, beautiful face. There was no hiding it, she looked just like the twins. “You got anywhere to be today? Anywhere to stay?”

“Not yet,” Sadie bashfully admitted. Holding the record like it was a book and she was in highschool, she thoughtfully continued, “Truth be told this was all in the spur of the moment. My mom drank a wee bit too much. I might’ve enabled that and then I seized the moment and came to town. I was thinking maybe grandpa. He doesn’t know I’m in yet but JP did tell me he was sick so that might not be the best idea.” Looking around, thinking of her other options, she mused, “He offered his apartment but he just moved into it so there really isn’t any furniture. Still! I don’t mind sleeping on the floor.” What other options did she have? “Oh! There’s also Robbie’s house! But there’s a lot of teens there as is.” While her cousin Robyn had mostly good kids, well behaved, it still was a very crowded situation, especially since most of them had a tendency to bring friends over. “I’ll figure it out,” She rambled on. This was something Sadie did. She was a rambler. “I guess, worst case scenario, there’s the Rose motel. That would do just fine too.”

“Absolutely fucking not.” Lamb interjected with a raised finger adorned with beautiful rings. “You are not staying in that rat infested crack den.” She rubbed her eyes lightly, a trait she and Clay shared when it came to managing the thoughts in their heads. Why was she even considering this? This was a stranger! Hell, most of the people she called friends didn’t even know where she lived and she liked it that way. Laura, you’re a fucking crazy person just like your Mom. “Listen, I just finished work and I’m about to head home. Why don’t you come stay at mine for a few hours? Get some sleep and we’ll make a plan on what you’re going to do next.”

Sadie was stunned when Laura offered her home to her. Overwhelmed with emotion and bewildered, the music journalist spoke her thoughts out loud, “Really?” This question was more rhetorical than anything. She couldn’t believe her sister was asking her to stay with her when they only met… today. She cleared her throat, debating if she should be greedy or polite. She wanted to go, she really did, but wasn’t she being incredibly imposing already? What would her mom say if she found out? Did she care? “I mean, yeah, sure that’s fine. That’s cool. Super cool.” Adorably and dorkily, she went with the flow, as if Lamb didn’t knock her off her feet with her words just now.

Lamb brushed another hair away from Sadie’s face, this time on the opposite side and smiled, “Well come on then.” She said white sternly. “I’ve got a busy day today and I can’t have you weighing me down.” She handed Sadie the record she had picked out for their father’s welcome home gift and smiled. “Go pay for that would you? You can consider it today’s rent.”

Was she lucky or did she need to take random trips to Edenridge more often?

“Okay!” Sadie agreeably said before calling out to her cousin, “JP, yo! Register.” Like an excitable little kid who just made a dream come true, the legacy to Joni Campbell pranced off to pay for two records, hurriedly. When she finished a quick exchange with Jericho, she sped-walked back to Lamb’s side. “Ready!”

“Don’t make me regret this.” Lamb clutched her bag that contained the remnants of her dress from the night before and span on her heel elegantly. “Come on then, Sadie Campbell, let’s go introduce you to your world.”

The song Mika had shown him years ago filtered out of the tinny speaker of Mordechai’s battered old phone. The one he’d had when he left Edenridge had been wrecked within the first month, and when he met Allegra and the woman noticed he was without, one of her diner coworkers gave him an old Nokia 215 that she was switching out for a newer model. It’s the same phone he’s had ever since, and it has proven time and time again that despite its screen it still remains as unbreakable as the original Nokias. Granted, there were several scuffs and dents in the actual body of it, but it still worked and that’s honestly all Mordechai really needs in a phone.

He continued his routine of patching up the hole that his fist had made in the wall by his bedroom door, eyes bloodshot and nose and cheeks red from emotional exertion. He’d finished his crying and shaking and self loathing about five minutes prior, and after rubbing the tear tracks off of his face he had slowly gotten up and grabbed the patch kit and got started on fixing up his mess. As he was securing the mesh in place, there was a soft knock on his door before it was gently opened by the very woman whose wall he was fixing.

“Hey Auntie,” Mordechai spoke up with a scratchy voice, while the freshly showered Adora stood at the doorway. “How was your jog?”



God, that Russian jackass truly had the worst taste in music.

The first time Adora Diamondheart had laid eyes on Mordechai Boaz and his brother Danny was during the winter of 2011-- nearly ten years ago. Her older sister Tama, along with the members of her Serpent family, had visited the reservation to spend the holidays with her and her mother. As they all filed out of the SUV and went on with their affectionate, enthusiastic greetings, the then seventeen year-old Adora had noticed the two unknown boys nervously exit the vehicle and remain lingering beside it. The older boy’s hardened expression seemed out of place for his young age as he had a protective arm wrapped around the younger one, who clung to him looking scared as ever.

Their hesitation, and the way the older boy’s sharp eyes burned holes into the Native teenager all afternoon, raised questions about their origins. Sometime during that first night, Adora had discreetly approached Tama, eager to know more about the apprehensive, timid new additions to this year’s festivities. Their story had left the teenager in tears. No matter how hard she tried to process it, she couldn’t wrap her head around knowing there were people out there capable of damaging their children in such a cruel, heartless way. It made her angry, sick to her stomach, and determined to show them the way they should be treated.

From that point onward, Adora had taken the Boaz boys under her wing. She became one of their many new protectors-- taking turns in playing the role of mother, older sister and aunt whenever necessary. With patience, kindness, encouragement, sympathy, attention and a listening ear, she had won Mordechai’s and Danny’s trust and their love. They had been there for her after Tama’s passing, providing her with a love and comfort she didn't know she needed. She had mourned Danny’s death like she’d lost her own child. She had worried about Mordechai’s safety since the day he left; praying for his well-being even when she wasn’t a very religious person. She’d breathed a sigh of relief when she’d heard he was back, trying to better himself. And she’d cried tears of joy when they’d finally been reunited, knowing he was safe and back where he belonged.

Mordechai, Jonie and Maliq: three young men with the future at their fingertips… But forever Adora’s little boys.

“It was good,” came Adora’s soft response, accompanied by a gentle smile and choosing to overlook the activity he was performing. She had learned very early on that bringing attention to the consequences of Mordechai’s overstimulation would only serve to make the young man sink deeper into a negative headspace. Instead, she would do what she always did: display her availability if he wished to speak about what was bothering him and provide whatever support he needed. “Can I come in?”

“‘Course,” Mordechai replied with a bob of his head, starting on the first layer of wall compound and evening out the edges with his scraper. He refused to look her in the eye until he finished his little project, but as she passed him he visibly relaxed, shoulders dropping as the swipes of the scraper went from handyman quality to a painter with a canvas. “Ya pass any’a the girls on the way up here?”

“Nope. I came in through the back,” she replied with a wink, making reference to the French door in her bedroom that led to the side of the house near the backyard that was used whenever someone needed to make a discreet exit. The last thing Adora wanted was to interrupt any emotional conversations being had by her guests, so she chose to avoid the area altogether. Having received permission from Decky to enter the room, the sun-kissed woman stepped inside, closed the door behind them and settled in the middle of the ruffled bed, crossing her legs together. “How are you holding up?”

“‘Bout as well as the wall, I guess,” He laughed emptily while nodding at all the patch marks from years- and breakdowns- gone by. He set the bucket and scraper down, brushing his hands off on his pant legs before dropping down on the bed next to her and flopping onto his back to stare at the ceiling. “Still no answers for me, for Danny. Still fuckin’ up an’ hurtin’ everyone around me, but hey,” He gave the world’s most unenthusiastic fist pump before continuing with a sarcastically sung, “At least I’m sober~!”

Adora's response was instant. “Don’t you downplay that shit!” she hissed at him, grabbing a pillow from nearby and smacking Decky in the face with it. “Getting clean and staying sober isn't for the weak. Give yourself more credit than that."

“Thanks, Auntie,” Mordechai replied to the tough love, huffing and rolling his eyes when she removed the pillow from his face, knowing that there wasn’t any reason to deny her words nor the upcoming conversation, especially since he’s the one that essentially started it.

“You’re welcome.” Adora placed the pillow beside Decky's head and laid face up on the bed beside him, resting her head on the plush surface. "Now let's break it down and talk about the rest of it. What do you want to lead with: the lack of answers or how you say you're 'hurting everyone around' you?"

He turned his head to the side to stare at Adora’s profile, taking in the same look in her eyes that both he and Poppy carried, as well as TNT back home. The look that told of the loss of a sibling, and the fact that they were never far from the forefront of the survivors’ minds.

“I’m just sick of guessin’,” He started without any warning, returning his gaze to the ceiling to think about the past two years. “I always think I’ve finally figured out why he did it ‘til I’m thrown another curveball. I can say I know why but that’ll always be a lie. I treated Charlie like shit, y’know? But Danny, he always chewed me out for it, always stuck up for the guy when I decided ta get physical. I dunno how Hard Times felt about me in the end, but I know he didn’t hate Danny. I can live with all my unanswered questions ‘cept this one.” Because that was the root of it all, wasn't it? The fact that he was here and Danny never would be again? “I just can’t accept that my baby brother died ‘cause'a some fuckin’ mistake, or ‘cause Charlie was just so fuckin’ cracked that he ain’t even cared ‘bout who he shot,” Mordechai balled his hands into fists at his sides, fingers twisting the soft bedsheet beneath them with vice-like intensity as tears of frustration once again stung at his eyes. “It was Danny, he was goin’ places, he was gonna go ta college! I never planned ta survive past 18, never really even wanted ta, and if it comes down to me or Danny, I didn’t deserve ta. But he did. What kinda failure is the reason that his own kid got shot?”

There it was. His Kid. The real bottom of his emotional iceberg, the deepest part of him that he couldn’t even admit to himself until now, in the safety and warmth of Adora’s home and heart; Danny wasn’t just a little brother to Mordechai, he had been his first dependant. His first son. He’d raised Danny, he’d kept him alive and fed when their parents wouldn’t. Danny had been his entire reason for the emancipation, for living and fighting for another day. As much as he never would have said it to the younger Boaz, Mordechai had often dreamt of seeing him graduate highschool, and go off to college, to get out of this cursed fucking town and learn what true freedom felt like. He’d dream that Danny would grow up and have a spouse that made him happy, that he had forgotten all about his horrible past, and even his big brother and the horrible darkness that haunted his every step. Mordechai would always wake up from those dreams with tears drying on his face, but a smile on his lips, refusing to tell Danny what caused the strange reaction. They were some of the only times he felt hope for the future, even if it wasn’t his own.

Sobs filled the silence following his words until, tone strangled in grief and regret, the barely stable man finished by choking out, “I just want the one answer, Auntie, why my baby boy?”

Adora pursed her lips together for a moment, feeling her own mahogany eyes well up with tears even though she tried to remain the rock that Mordechai so desperately needed at the moment. When the news of the shooting at Edenridge High had reached her ears, the native woman’s stomach had dropped to the floor. Her two nephews had already graduated, but the Boaz boys and some of her reservation sisters were still enrolled at the school. The shooter was identified to be Charlie Decker, and her heart had gone out to Mitena at the feelings she was probably experiencing regarding her half-brother. But when the deceased list was revealed and Danny Boaz’s name had been on it, any sympathy Adora had felt had been thrown out the window.

The brunette had felt the same way Mordechai was expressing when she’d heard the news. She had been heartbroken. She had been sad. She had been mad. She was back once again back on that roller coaster of grief she’d experienced at the loss of Tama, Zeti and Quintel. Why would anyone want to cause harm to little Danny, of all people? Why had he, her sister and her lovers met their demise so soon in their young lives? Why had fate decided to play this cruel card on their loved ones like that? The questions had tortured Adora for what felt like forever. But eventually, after years of growth and introspection, she had come to the conclusion that some inquiries just didn’t have any logical answers. It was a harsh reality that she wished she could change, but couldn’t.

“I wish I had the answer for you, honey, I really do.” Adora said in earnest, gently running her fingers through Mordechai’s dark locks of hair while the sobbing man turned into her and hid his face in her chest like he’d done for years. After the Boaz brothers warmed up enough to her to allow physical contact, they’d spend hours curling up to her like kittens, allowing her to shower them with affection. She was glad she was able to provide him that same comfort even now. “Tama’s been gone for ten years now, and I still find myself asking that question from time to time. It took me years to come to peace with the fact that there are things that will always be a mystery to us. But what I can tell you, though, with absolute certainty, is that Danny wouldn’t have wanted to see you give up.”

She took a moment to kiss Decky’s forehead before continuing. “It doesn’t matter whether you weren’t planning to live for as long as you have or that you feel like you didn't deserve to. I felt like I didn’t deserve to, either. After Tama died and I went off the deep end, I used to look at myself in the mirror and imagine how disappointed she would be for the decisions I ended up making in my life. But as time went on, I realized that this was no way to live. This was no way to honor my sister’s life. Instead of focusing on the negatives and what I couldn’t change, I decided to focus on the positives and what I could change. For better or for worse, you are here. You’re alive, and you’re breathing, and you’re still fighting on. The best way you can honor Danny’s memory is by living your life to the fullest and taking advantage of every opportunity that comes your way, not by drowning yourself in regrets. I promise you that there are so many of us who feel grateful and lucky to have you in their lives. I don’t ever want to lose you, too.”

“I just feel so fucking selfish. I can’t regret leavin’, ‘cause I had ta, but it fucked with so many people just ‘cause I thought I ain’t had any impact on people’s lives,” Mordechai lifted his head up to look Adora in the eyes. “I come back and then Lanie left town before I could even really think’a talkin’ ta her, I wasn’t there for Jade and Poppy and my crew, or Rye. Shit, I left Sunshine behind, and someone that… I could have had somethin’ more with, too. ‘Cause let’s be honest: me and Lanie wouldn’t'a lasted outside’a highschool even if things did go right.” He scrubbed at his eyes and took a deep breath before continuing, “I left ‘cause it was what was best for me. The first time I ever did somethin’ just for myself, and I’m strugglin’ ta gather up all the consequences before I can even try and start healin’ 'em. I’m makin’ things up with Pops and J, but Christ do I have a ways ta go,” He finally let go of Adora and rolled back onto his back, the old twinkle lights strewn across the ceiling like mock stars drawing his gaze.

“You just said it, babe: you did what was best for you at the time,” she coincided with him, validating his decision even when she’d been one of the people it had indirectly. “I understand you feel guilty about how your leaving affected other people, but you had to do what you needed to save yourself. That was a time where you had to put yourself first.”

“Y’ever hear her, Auntie,” He asked after a moment of silence of pondering her words, his voice leveling out as the tears dried from his eyes. “When you’re doin somethin’ that y’know ya shouldn’t in the big picture but you’re all tunnel vision? I swear Danny’s ghost was yellin’ at me ta turn around before his body was even in the ground. I had more of a life in Edenridge than I was ever able ta see when I was there. I know I wouldn’t’a been able ta appreciate it or even see it if I never left, but my little mental Danny was givin’ me grief the whole two years. ‘Specially when I relapsed and left my kids.”

Adora shook her head. “I can’t say I’ve ever heard her voice. But I have dreamt about her sometimes, in moments that I’ve felt like I’m at my lowest or when I’ve felt like I could use some guidance,” the brunette admitted in a confession she’d only ever really voiced to Maliq and Jonie. “They’re always the same, too. They always start with Tam wrapping me up in her arms with the same love she showed me when she was still with us. Then we sit down by the river, and she braids my hair with red velvet ribbons while we discuss whatever’s on my mind. In the dreams, Tam’s never judgemental. She gives me the same words of wisdom and encouragement as she did before. It’s as if she knows exactly what I need to hear and when I need to hear it. I know it might sound odd to some people, but I’m sure you’re one of the few who would understand.”

Mordechai nodded in response as he thought back to a dream he’d had of Danny a bit after returning to Edenridge. Danny had returned to him as a ghost, and they had gone to the southie kids’ special spot in Lyon park to wait for Poppy to show up. They’d been lying in the grass talking and Danny had thrown a counterpoint at every self-deprecating thought that fell from Mordechai’s lips, including telling him that he’d left his mark on people just as much as Danny himself had. He’d wanted Mordechai to acknowledge that he mattered outside of his little brother, he’d wanted his older brother to say ‘I wanna live, it’s not all on my shoulders, your death wasn’t my fault,’ but even in the dream, his twisted guilt wouldn’t allow him to. So Danny had just asked him to instead think about what he said, and Mordechai had ceded to that request. Then he’d woken up hungover and in the midst of his withdrawals and he promptly forgot about everything he dreamed as he spent the day curled up on the bathroom floor.

But he remembered now, and what Adora had said about her dreams with Tama had unlocked the memory for him. He’d grown a lot since the dream, but he still carried so much guilt that if his brother appeared to him in another dream now he’d give him those big sad eyes that were just a brow furrow away from being disappointed. He wanted to show Danny he could move forward, and everytime he tried something pulled him back again and it was always his fau-

Oh.

“It wasn’t my fault,” He finally admitted in a hushed whisper as he stared at the twinkle lights through the lazily rotating ceiling fan blades, mentally blaming the strobing effect it caused for the fresh tears in his eyes. He could never say it before. Never believe it enough to say it. But Danny would never blame him for it. So he had to let it go. “Danny wasn’t my fault. I couldn’t control it, Auntie, I couldn’t control anythin’ that was happenin’. I loved him, love him still, and he would be so fuckin’ pissed if he knew I blamed myself. And he’d be pissed ‘cause he always knew that it wasn’t my fault,” He looked into her eyes, tears streaming down his face again but voice steady and somber. “I have ta prove ta him that I can live for myself,” the tone tightened with a trace of fear and hysteria. “But fuck, I’ve never really done that before.”

Noting the change in Decky's demeanor from acceptance to fear, Adora tenderly wiped away his tears and resumed her stroking of his hair. She could tell that the young man had reached a breakthrough, but that he needed that little push to step across the threshold. “I know it can take some time to fully process the idea of doing something we haven’t before. And it’s totally okay to feel scared about it, too. As long as you find reasons to keep fighting for, don’t lose hope and remind yourself that you’re not alone, you’ll be able to do anything you set your mind to. I mean, you’ve already started making a change when you decided to get sober-- and I bet at one point you thought that was something you’d never do again." She pointed out, hoping that this accomplishment would help put the rest of things into perspective for him. It was important for the native woman to show the young man how capable he was and how in control of his own destiny he could be. “You’re a warrior, Mordechai. You’re so much stronger than you give yourself credit for. And when you need a little help keeping that in mind, there’s a lot of us out there ready to remind you of it.”

“Warrior,” Mordechai repeated while pulling his head back to pin her with a searching gaze, wiping the last of his tears away himself. What she said had struck a chord, and logically he knew being sober was a big thing for him, but that was still something he felt he did for others’ sakes first, so the ones he loved didn’t have such a pained look in their eyes whenever they saw fresh tracks. He let out a soft laugh and looked away. “That’s what my name means. Mordechai Oren roughly comes out as Warrior'a Ash. Makes me think Alana might’ve actually had a lil' bit’a hope when she first chose my name; by the time Danny came around, well, Daniel Amos means Bearer'a Burden and Judgement, kinda speaks for itself,” He looked back at her, face dry but eyes still a bit hazy and red as he spoke of his mother. “Makes me wonder exactly what she was on when she had both’a us. Then again, I’m always wonderin’ what she was on and what she was thinkin’ by not abortin’ if she already knew she ain’t want us.”

“Well, there’s another name I’d like to use for your mother that I’m sure fits her better than Alana, but I’ll bite my tongue out of respect for you,” Adora replied in a surprisingly sharp tone, the utter repugnance she felt for Mordechai’s mother oozing from her voice and eliciting a smile from the man she was comforting. The native woman wasn’t a hateful person by any means. Her compassionate heart held no room for grudges. That wasn’t to say, however, that there wasn’t a special place in her heart to hold a burning hatred for family members who harmed their children in any way. Those were people she would not hesitate to put her hands on if she ever came across them on the street. Alana and her equally repulsive husband were definitely on the list. “And there’s no use in torturing yourself thinking about whatever she was or wasn’t thinking about, either. If I were to guess, there probably wasn’t much thinking involved…” she trailed off, pausing for a moment to let Decky read between the lines before carrying on. “But with all of that being said, what actually matters right now is that you’re here, and you’re wanted by people that actually do care about you, who want you to be happy and who only want what's best for you. I don’t care how many times I have to say it or show it to you, but we do love you, Mordechai. We love you so very much, and we’re so glad you’re here with us.”

“Shit,” Mordechai huffed and threw his arm over his eyes and reddened face, voice choked up once more as he took in Adora’s words. “I think I’m finally startin’ ta believe it when y’all say shit like that."

“Good, because I’d rather you get sick of me saying it than ever let you forget it,” she declared, pulling Mordechai into another tight hug to ensure without a doubt that her point would be proven.

In one sensory palette, there were the trees that moved with the gentle breeze, a birdsong, and warmth coming from the beaming sun. Sunshine slipped through the leaves making them glow a bright green. Her steps were quiet, her breathing was light, and her mind was thinking about many things, and nothing at all.

Her mind was thinking of Mitena, Charlie, Mordechai, Jade, and Natalia but it was also not thinking of the dread that was this morning. She thought of the moments. She thought of where she was presently and she thought of the space in between. She didn’t think of her fears and she didn't think of where she went wrong. She simply thought of how she was happy to be alive. Her mind, in this space of nothing, seeing all the faces that meant so much to her. All the faces that told her there was so much more in store for her. So much more life to live. Her story wasn’t over yet, there was still more to be written.

As she walked beside her new friend into town, Penelope let her lungs expand. Breathing in and out. In and out. Just like her mantra when she has an anxiety attack but this time, this was solely for her to embrace the beauty of her surroundings. Momentarily, she could say without an ounce of doubt in her mind that she was at peace. That Blue Hill was exactly what she needed. Unresolved issues aside, Blue Hill was amazing. She wished she knew it existed sooner.

Her pale, porcelain skin shimmered and her eyes, those soulful, intense green eyes, looked tenderly at the trees, and the bees, and the dirt on their path. Her gaze had so much love for such a small girl. That kind of love wasn’t meant to be contained. Her inner energy flowed around her, weaving her soul with the land each step she took. As quiet as they were, she could feel Forrest staring. She didn’t mind the quiet. The quiet was nice when it was shared with a companion. It was as if she knew him all her life even if they had only met yesterday. Did he feel the same? She took a moment to turn to him, catching him lost in thought. Her eyes shone in a way that only those that yearned for happiness could bring and her cheeks were kissed pink when they locked eyes. She really hoped they could be friends. She liked him. There was something there… but no words could explain what she felt so she’d just hope for the best, that he would want her in his life just as much as she wanted him in hers.

When they entered town, the two kindred spirits came across a wishing well and an older woman sitting on the edge of it, telling a few children a tale of Wenebojo and the Wolves; an Ojibwe oral tradition. The woman’s name was Elizabeth Deere and she was the mother of Winona and Tennessee Deere-Echohawk. Tennessee happened to be sitting on the ground with a kid on his lap, as he looked up at his mother doing what she did best. Tell stories. While she was part Ojibwe, their father, the late Bright Star Echohawk, was full Pawnee. That was part of the beauty of Blue Hill. It was a home for many Native American tribes, all united and strong. Together, like a pack of wolves.

Approaching the small group, but staying at a distance, Poppy listened to the woman sew her words, like she was creating a quilt, assembling and embellishing the story into something memorable. Her culture, as were other tribes, were all about living off the land and coexisting in harmony with nature. The Ojibwe respected the animals of the land, especially those that lived for their family, like the wolf. According to this myth, it was Wenebojo’s quest to avenge his wolf brother that led to the creation of the modern world. She noticed Kerry again, from earlier, but this time he was with the woman that tended the longhouse last night. He likely fetched her before coming to get the older woman surrounded by kids. Coming to get her for their walk on a trail.

“I loved someone who told stories,” she spoke to the boy beside her, breaking the silence between them. “Tena’s brother. Your cousin. I loved him with all my heart but what he became, I had no control over it.” She found the tears building in her eyes again, all the while she watched the kids run off and the cowboy help the storyteller up from sitting on the edge of the well.

“I,” she hesitated for a moment, trying to keep the courage and strength she’s built up because of her long walk. “I didn’t expect this morning to go the way it did. Mitena said things I would’ve wished he said to me instead. I couldn’t…” she looked away from the well and toward the ground. “I couldn’t handle it. I thought I could. Why else would I come if I didn’t want to know her truth? I wanted to know but knowing really hurts.” Wiping the trail of tears that went down her cheeks, she turned to face Resi. “Sorry, I just thought you deserved to know, especially after what I put you through yesterday.”

Forrest looked back at the small girl, tightening his grip on the straps of his bag. She was so lost and so broken but the girl that stood before him now was a different one to who he had met the night before. “Put me through? Baby girl, the only thing I went through last night was near destitution because I gave away so much free shit.” He laughed as his gaze turned to Kerry walking away with the Deere-Echohawks. “You were a bonafide pleasure to talk to.” He thought back to their conversation and how sad she seemed. Her meeting with Tena may not have gone as she wanted but it had started the ball rolling, Poppy’s transformation had begun. “We need to take a shortcut to get to my van. Terrain can be a bit treacherous.” He offered out his hand for her to hold. “You like stories? I can tell you a real tearjerker.”

Rather subconsciously and without a second thought, Penelope grabbed onto his hand, letting him lead the way and give her support on their upcoming, rocky journey. She appreciated his kind words dressed in humor. He was cute with how he talked and expressed himself. “I do love stories. I’m a firm believer that the universe is made of stories, not atoms. Like you and me, we’re a story.” She smiled up at him before squeezing his hand, signaling he could share his tale with her, if he wanted to. “Make me cry. It’s not like I haven’t been crying already,” Poppy humored, intrigued if he really did have a tearjerker in store for her.

“As you wish.” Forrest curtsied with her hand in his before leading her into the nearby wood with a firm, reassuring grip. “Our tale begins with three beautiful sisters, Cheryl, Dakota and Leah Silverheel, legend has it that their family were descendants of the original Blue Hill Chief. Cheryl was a strong woman. Powerful. The youngest sister. Dakota was the smartest and Leah was the princess and the oldest. Watch your step.” He said as he guided Poppy over a small creek. Resi placed his free hand on her tiny waist as he guided her over the water and onto a steady rock perch. “Dakota went off to college, got herself a white man’s education and returned home to run the clinic. Then she met a boy, a man with darkness in his veins. Their passion was brief as death claimed the man as his own shortly thereafter.”

Still with a hold on Penelope’s hand, Forrest led her out of the short woods and onto a sloped dirt road. “Dakota was left with a child, a baby girl. Born under a bad sign. It wasn’t long after the birth of her baby that Kota got sick. She fought for ten years but eventually the sickness claimed her and death stole another soul, leaving her baby alone. You know her as Mitena. Her father James Strongbow, your Charlie’s father too.” Resi had no connection to the man who held such meaning to everyone. They may share some blood but beyond that, he was a stranger. “Cheryl was the next one claimed by the infinite. The same sickness that took her younger sister, it stole her away as well. She had a daughter too, Jadyn. When she was twenty one, Jay who had never known her own father, lost her mother and gained custody of Tena. Can you imagine? Twenty one and looking after a child?”

Resi stopped for a minute as a car passed them by. “Leah was the most beautiful of the sisters but always had the worst luck. She got hooked on hard stuff very quickly and fell in with a bad crowd, especially one guy. The tribe called him Craven, do you know what that means?”

“Coward?” Poppy searched Resi’s face as they stood in place; the car passing them by. She didn’t know this part of Charlie’s history. She wondered how much he knew. If she was on the right track with his story, with Dakota being Mitena’s mother, Cheryl being Jaydn’s mother, that would mean Leah was… Forrest’s mother. She understood the struggle of watching someone you loved gain a dependency on drugs just like Decky did, and in time, Charlie. She also understood what it meant to love a man with darkness in his veins. She loved Charlie and Charlie took the lives of many innocent people, some adults, most teens. Quite a few faces she knew and held dear, like Danny Boaz. What did Craven do? She watched Resi with curiosity.

“That’s the proper definition, yeah but here it means something else as well. Come on.” He helped her across the dirt road and up a small winding path through a more sparse set of trees. “When someone is labeled Craven in Blue Hill, they are excommunicated. Their birth name, never said, their family? Persona non grata. They can live here but they might as well be ghosts. Leah fell in love with Craven or at least his connection to heroin. They lived in a little shack in the woods with their two kids until one bad night. Craven thought that the little people, not what you think, were trying to harm him and that they lived inside of Leah. So he took a hammer and beat her to death in front of their kids. The little girl ran into town, covered in blood whilst the little boy held his dad down. The lighthorsemen arrived and they carried Craven away. The kids wound up on the Silverheel farm but despite being children, they were still the kids of Craven and certain members of the tribe refused to even acknowledge that they exist, some still do and with that, the Silverheel sisters are no more.”

He was right. This was a tearjerker. Like Charlie’s dad committing suicide and being rumored to burn a church down with orphans and people in it, Craven too was a man stuck in the dark. One moment set things in stone, put fate on its course, to the inevitable day where Charlie would let the darkness overtake him and shoot up a school. Penelope knew that was only the start but he still had time to save himself. He still had so much potential and light to offer. But then Allison died and he got blamed for it. From that point on, she knew, deep down, her Charlie would never be the same. No matter how badly he pretended to be okay. He wasn’t and he would never.

Forrest understood that isolation. That pain. That fear of succumbing to everything that people saw you becoming. He understood how Charlie felt. Resi was judged and seen as a walking curse because he was the child of a man who murdered his mother. Poppy could feel the pain in her chest condense into a deluge of rain. She stopped in her tracks and held her chest with her free hand. Her grip tightened on his hand.

What could she say?

What could she do?

She didn’t want to repeat things. She didn’t want her foundation with her new friend to be codependency. That was her and that was Charlie. So fiercely codependent on each other. She wanted something different. She wanted to be something positive in Resi’s life. As she cried and tried to gather her thoughts, she didn’t say anything. There were no words left to say because that was his truth and he shared it with her.

Instead Poppy turned him to her and pulled him into a tight and loving embrace. She wanted their souls to meet and for him to see that she saw him. She saw him and he was so strong, and so brave. Her hug told him everything that she was, and everything she wished to be. To feel every ounce of a person. To feel their breath and their warmth. To know that they, he and her, were alive. They were here. Together. And this, this feeling was real. They were real. That’s what mattered. Not their past that chases them and haunts them like ghosts and not the unanswered questions of their future. In this world, a hug was gold, food, and pure rain. A hug made the space around you slow down and showed that you were cherished. A hug connected two people and made you feel— yes, this is what home is.

Forrest was somewhat taken aback by Poppy’s sudden outburst of emotion. He held her close, realizing quickly that in her mind, she was hugging him because of the sad story of his life but the reality of it was that she was hugging him because she needed it. She needed to feel something. Resi let her stay in his embrace for a few moments more, her tiny frame enveloped by his lankiness. When he finally let her go, he took a step back, wrapping his fingers around his bag straps again. “That was…that…thanks.” Forrest had a really bright smile beneath his wild mane of hair. “The point of that story, Poppy? Truth always hurts. It always does but it also heals. More so when it’s massively uncomfortable to hear.”

Forcing the pair to move to the top of the winding path, Resi stopped at the apex with Poppy by his side. Before them sat a small shack-like house with Resi’s food truck parked outside. “This is where my family lived. Illara stays in town now or occasionally up at the Silverheel ranch just up that path.” He pointed to a nearby trek. “Tena lives there with our aunt Jadyn. I stay here so that I can be reminded every day of the truth. To remind myself of who I was, where I came from and what I’m trying to avoid.”

He made his way over to his truck and pulled open the door. Resi took off his bag and began to empty its contents into the truck for him to prepare some delicious treats. “I never met Charlie. To me, he was just a name on the screen. Mitena, she knew him or at least the part of him he would let her know. She never knew her Dad but she knew what he did. She lost her Mom and she lost her brother. She lost her aunties and she lost her home. But she never lost her truth. That’s a truth she wants to share with you. That’s a mighty gift to want to give to someone. She knows it will hurt you, the same way, I imagine, your truth will hurt her. Charlie is what bonds you but you’re not hearing his truth. What’s between you and Tena isn’t his, it’s yours.”

Penelope didn’t know how to respond to that. All she could do was keep silent, wipe her tears, and listen. Forrest was incredibly wise. So delicate with her. Kind, persistent, and thoughtful. He was a survivor. Everyone on the Reservation, she was realizing, knew their identity. She was only starting to find her’s; the person she was before she became Charlie’s Poppy. Poppy was taking baby steps. That’s all she had the strength to do at the moment. Still, baby steps were positive steps where she was moving, moving forward. All she wanted to be, needed to be, was Poppy. Just Poppy. She hoped she would get there. She hoped she would be able to keep going, to keep fighting. She hoped she would love herself just as much as she loved Charlie. She hoped.

Poppy, like the flower, with her own fragrance, her own thorns, and her own shade of petals, was beautiful and uniquely her own. She had her own truth and all she wanted to do, truly and deeply do, was sprout love to those who needed it, just like Maxine would’ve done, and grow a garden in her mind. If her smile could be the sun in someone’s life, she would mark that down as her truth. Her pain was meant to build her up and although she was a small part of the world, she could still do big things. Her truth was found in who she was, not the girl that gave too many pieces of what made her beautiful to a boy she loved. She was more than the girl that loved Charlie. She was a girl and her truth was whatever she wanted it to be.

“Thank you,” Poppy whispered and strolled to the door of the truck. Raising her voice a little but only speaking loud enough for him to hear her, she continued, “I really needed to hear that.” Peering in, she watched him unpack his groceries. Her eyes twinkled in appreciation and her face brightened. Poppy was in the moment and not trapped inside her dark place. She was here with him and she was radiating hope, peace, and joy. “I like you, Resi,” she forwardly admitted. “I hope we can become good friends and that this isn’t just one-sided. You’ve helped me so much in such a short time. I want to return the favor. I want to be there for you.”

“I like you too, Poppy.” Resi could feel his burnt caramel cheeks flushing with heat and not because of the swiftly warming summer sun. It was because he was crushing hard for this strange spirit girl. Her ghostly white features had left a mark on his mind the moment he first saw them illuminating the dark outside the longhouse. “You have my number.” He said as he now began to place his unpackaged ingredients into their rightful homes in his truck. “I come through Eden at least once or twice a week. If you ever wanna hang out or just want some decent grub for you and your friends, hit me up.” Forrest rested his phone on the counter top before washing some of his fresh fruit under a tap. “Speaking of, you want me to speak to Tena? Arrange another talk? I think you might be ready but only you can say for sure.”

He wanted to spend time with her. There was a flash of heat inside her that she didn’t quite understand but she buried it quickly and nodded in agreement. Her cheeks betrayed her, unable to hide the blossoming sensation inside her. She eagerly replied, “I’d like that! To both.” She put her hands behind her, intertwining her fingers together and looked away. “Seeing you again and talking to Tena, I mean. I’d like that.” There was a genuine sweetness to the vulnerability she was displaying that not many people got to see. Honestly, only one person saw this Poppy. And that was Charlie. “I think I’m ready!” She turned back to meet Resi’s gaze, hoping she wasn’t making a fool of herself.

“I’ll message her now.” Resi dried off his hands, not taking his eyes off of the spectral beauty that stood by him and offered her a quiet smile. She really was something special. Picking up his phone, he quickly typed out a message to his younger cousin asking if she was willing to go through everything again with Penelope. “You got this Poppy. I believe in you.” His words were sincere. He could see the change in her stunning green eyes from the night before and could tell she was ready for more. “Now, while we wait, you want something to eat? I can whip you something up real fast.”

“Oh, I was just going to eat what you already made when I got back to Adora’s,” Penelope replied, admittedly feeling bad she didn’t eat anything he labored over. “You really don’t have to. I feel really bad because I kind of…” Her blush turned a different shade, showing that she wasn’t too proud about this. Ashamed of her own personal struggle. “My therapist tells me I need to change my relationship with food. Only recently I’ve started recovering from…” She cleared her throat, looking toward the ground. “… I have a hard time eating.” Not just that. She had a hard time looking at herself in mirrors. There was a lot of self loathing she was still recovering from that only escalated after Charlie died. “I can nibble here and there.” She glanced up, strands of her hair having fallen in front of her pretty face. Her voice shook a little because of how sensitive this topic was to her. “But I still can’t eat a full meal.”

“Hm. Well.” Forrest raised his finger to pause the moment. He pulled his shutter down from his truck so that Poppy could only hear him banging around in his tiny kitchen. After a few brief moments, he emerged from the door with a big grin and his hands behind his back. He took one hand and used it to brush the hair away from her face and then with the other, presented a small plate with half a bagel on it with cream cheese and some chives. “Here you go. Half a meal. Everyone has to start somewhere and it takes as long as it takes.”

When he presented her a bagel, of all things, Poppy stared at it, the feeling of melancholy washing over her. Charlie liked salmon with his bagel and it looked like Resi preferred chives. This might’ve been silly of her to think but part of her felt Charlie’s presence near her. Part of her could hear him tell her that it was okay to feel joy, experience love, and live fully again. She didn’t want to hear the words: let go. She knew she would always love Charlie. But maybe moving on didn’t mean to let go or to forget. Maybe all it meant was to accept what happened, happened, and live.

Up until recently, all she could think about was the bagel with cream cheese and salmon. All she could think about was Charlie, her Charlie, and what he loved, what he was, what he could’ve been, and their time shared together. Today she saw a bagel with cream cheese and chives. A small shift but still the same. Maybe the right word wasn’t to move on or let go. That felt like an unscalable wall between what you knew and what was your new reality. Maybe a better way of looking at this was like Resi carrying his sack all the way to the place he had so many memories at — good and bad. His home, which reminded him of his pain and also told him every single day he was alive. There was so much more in store for him. He had so much life to live, so much love to give. Maybe grief was all about carrying on your love, your life, forward. She will be whole again, in time. Not the same, but she would certainly be whole again. Just like how you can change a bagel. She was used to salmon, now it was time to get used to chives.

Grabbing the small plate from him, she took a bigger bite than usual. She chewed silently while watching him with her appreciative green eyes. After she swallowed, she licked her lips to clean any cream cheese that might’ve gotten on it. Her eyes, her lips, and her soul, all at once smiled at Forrest.

“Thank you.”