Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The world consisted of circumferences and gravity. And Eden too, but that had always been a given. For example: the swell of the cushion Charlotte was leaning her back against – a circumference. The heaviness of her thumbs as they fell on the screen of her phone - gravity. And Eden, the person she was texting.

Trying to, at the very least, but her thumbs didn't exactly land the way she wanted them too. Her eyes were mostly deciphering texts Eden sent back rather than focusing on trying to form her own.

Eden <3: I think I might be catching a cold.

Charlotte frowned a sick Eden was always bad, it meant less time hanging out and a crankier Eden to hang out with. There was something tugging at the back of her mind, however, this cold… it was exceptionally bad because they had… a thing happening tomorrow. Something Eden wouldn't want to miss, and though she couldn't remember what exactly that was, she wanted to write her back and give Eden advice for how to remain healthy and good: 

Mae ur radiatoris wrk ans aso drink eta

Eden <3: Are you drunk?

Eden <3: We have school tomorrow, Charlotte.

Eden <3: I've already drank tea with lemon, I'm hoping it'll work.

„We have school tomorrow?“ said Charlotte to the girl sitting to her right, whose face she couldn't see due to the darkness of the room. Though here and there through flashing pink light she could distinguish white complexion, a sharp nose and full lips. The girl screwed on a frown and put her ear closer to Charlotte's mouth, „School? Tomorrow?“

The girl backed away and nodded, she took a sip of her beer, „I'm Gen“

Charlotte smiled at her. Gen’s lips, full and hot pink, were indeed another circumference. Her phone buzzed in her phone as she replied „Charlotte“

Eden <3: Do you need a ride? Or a place to stay?

Charlotte turned back to the girl, her name escaping her as soon as she turned her head, „What time is it?“

The girl frowned at her again, „I don't…“ the song was playing loudly, „… phone“ She shrugged and stood up. Probably to walk off to somewhere else, maybe outside. It was a shit party, you could tell because-

noones dancung

wajt wgat tome its???

Eden <3: It's 2:41 AM, if you're asking for time.

Eden <3: Charlotte, do you need a ride, or a place to stay at?

Eden <3: I'm going to try and sleep soon, so let me know.

Charlotte laughed at her phone. Eden never slept, she had the face to prove it too. Her eyes were always half closed and her eyebags always colored in.

Charlotte began to search for something, her fingers opened the gallery of gifs but the purpose escaped her like the girl’s name had before. As if pressured by gravity, ideas fell out of her head and bounce, bounce, bounced off into the distance.

„What's so funny?“, someone asked and Charlotte laughed even as she tried to explain.

„My ideas, they bounce in circumferences“, she made her point finger draw it out in the air between them, she started giggling halfway through, „My name is Charlotte and you're watching Disney channel.“

Other girl laughed with her, she had a cute septum piercing above her lips, it caught onto the flashing lights every now and then, „I'm Crystal“ she takes a pause before saying, „I've never liked Disney channel“

Charlotte raised her eyebrows at her, „Which show?“

„What?“

Charlotte repeated her question, „Which show made you hate the Disney Channel?“

„Every. Single. One“, the girl, Crystal, deadpanned and rolled her eyes. Charlotte felt her meanness catch like a hook onto her chest and tug. She leaned towards Crystal, of course she did.

„Bullshit“

Crystal raised her eyebrow, and like someone else already has, she stood up. She turned her head to look above her shoulder, her eyes settled on Charlottes and the hook tugged once more. Charlotte followed her deeper into the house, pocketing her phone as she stood up. „That'd just mean you've seen every single one, wouldn’t it?“ Charlotte explained as the two of them entered the smoke filled kitchen.

The kitchen is well lit and half empty. There are some smokers here, a useless open window and the wooden shank where all the alcohol sat. Crystal scooped the bottles all on one side, making enough space to hoist herself up „Every time I’ve seen a Disney show or a film or - whatever, I’ve been nothing but -”, her nose ring is very cute and in this light Charlotte gets a chance to acknowledge the rest of her isn't that bad either,  “- disappointed.“

Charlotte leaned her head onto her shoulder, in order to look at Crystal from an angle, „What year are you?“ she asked. The music wasn't so loud that she needed to shout, her voice had been growing a bit of a rasp. She hoped Crystal would find it hot rather than lame.

“Junior, you?” Her makeup was vibrant, purple eyeshadow with neon pink accents. It suited her brown eyes pretty well and matched the purple ends of her hair.

“An American?” Charlotte exclaimed as if her accent hadn’t given her up from the beginning.

When Crystal rolled her eyes Charlotte went on to explain, “Year like - when were you born, yeah?”She put her hands on her chest, “ O-six ” Charlotte’s hands dropped next to Crystal’s thighs as she leaned slightly forwards. Not touching but not exactly caging, she hoped.

Crystal leaned in as well, “That’s dumb” she said, Charlotte sensed cigarette smoke on her breath, “You know I’m a senior, can’t you assume” she tilted her head as she spoke, her mouth was in a scowl. God, that damn hook kept tugging. 

Charlotte shrugged but didn't say anything. She knew, absentmindedly, that she was grinning like an idiot but she was also pretty sure she couldn’t control it. So why bother worrying about it? 

“Fine.” Crystal relented, she paused and let Charlotte acknowledge her really smooth brown skin, “2007”

Charlotte raised her eyebrows at her. Crystal, who had a very expressive face (something Charlotte started suspecting was a thing for her), raised an inquisitive eyebrow at her back. Charlotte reminded herself not to stare, her gaze slid to the bottle of stock. From her peripheral vision she saw Crystal smile at her small victory.

She pushed herself off of the kitchen shank, and did a little twirl while on her way to the fridge, “How about stock and coke, yeah?” She said turning around her shoulder while her hands opened the fridge door and took a two liter bottle of coke. She took two glasses from a cabinet and made herself the drink before hearing Crystal’s answer.

“There’s barely enough there for you”, Crystal complained, she turned her whole body so it faced Charlotte.

“That’s because you’re not thinking outside of the box, are you?”

Crystal looked unimpressed and stole Charlotte’s glass right under her nose. Charlotte laughed it off and turned around to rummage for another fizzy drink. Her eyes settled on Pepsi. She waved her reward at Crystal.

 “Ugh” she took a sip of her own (well Charlotte's) drink, “You prefer Pepsi over Cola?”

Charlotte made a point of huffing louder, “ Ugh ,I prefer better debates then that one.” However, she remembered Eden’s take on the whole thing, “but if I have to choose - coke, I guess.”

Crystal nodded, “Correct choice, and I’m American. We argue over stupid debates, yeah ” she attempted a horrible imitation of Charlotte’s accent, it made Charlotte giggle as she mixed Pepsi with stock, “ I just moved here this summer”

Charlotte hummed as she took a sip, “How long are you staying?” 

Crystal shrugged her shoulders, her legs were swinging back and forth, the backs of her shoes leaving little mud trails on the cabinet beneath the shank. It made Charlotte ask, “D’you know whose house this is?”

“Umm” Crystal looked around herself. Charlotte downed her Pepsi-Stock mix and mentally agreed with Eden on CocaCola’s superiority, “No clue” Crystal finally concluded. Her boots were tapping the cabinet in rhythm with the song blasting in the other room. “I was supposed to go to the Devlin’s house, something about a goodbye to summer party? Could this be it?”

Charlotte followed her gaze and looked around the kitchen, to the three girls huddled in the corner smoking and talking about something in low whispers, it seemed important, “Devlin is a bitch and a half, but she knows how to throw a better party.” She moved her head in order to peek back into the living room where, from what she could see, no one danced, “D’you hear the lack of singing, yeah? An offence, federal! If you ask Devlin.”

Crystal gulped her drink, “Devlin girl?”, Charlotte nodded, her head going a bit too low and her chin clumsily falling on her chest. She loved gravity. When she went to take another sip she found her glass empty. Crystal had jumped off of the counter.

“I came here with a friend, I’m thinking of finding her and ditching this place. Wanna come?”

“Sure”

Crystal smiled at her and Charlotte liked being just sober enough to recognize the butterflies in her stomach and just drunk enough to not recognize why they should concern her, “I’m a bloody genius for booze” She said as Crystal motioned for her to follow. They zigzagged around the house, Crystal’s hand gently curled around Charlotte’s wrist and her eyes searching for whoever it was she was trying to find. Charlotte didn’t bother to ask for the other girl's description but she did try to recognize and remember the faces she saw around them anyway. Which girl was kissing which boy, which people played beer pong together or - whose phone she recognized being carelessly left on the side of the carpet.

It was the phone. An iPhone, with its cracked screen, discarded next to sunglasses, with a bent left handle. It made Charlotte sober up a bit. She recognized them so well she gagged on reflex.

“Crystal, slow down I might throw up” Charlotte said and internally cursed Pavlov three times over.

Crystal dropped her wrist quickly, Charlotte frowned. She brought her hand to her mouth to conceal it though. “Kidding, look -” she said now that she had her attention, “I’m sorry you can’t find your friend but like I have to go, yeah?”

Crystal frowned back, looking even cuter than she did when smiling, “But uh,” the expression made Charlotte say, “We could hang out sometime, you have insta?”

Crystal nodded,” Give me your phone,” Her hand was extended and waiting. Charlotte laughed and complied.

“Such a European thing, not asking for someone’s number” Crystal complained while she typed something out. As far as Charlotte could tell there was a lot of frustration clicking on delete key.

“Can’t say I’d mind getting that too”

Crystal looked at her through her lashes and Charlotte was sure no amount of alcohol could make the heat in her stomach feel normal at that look. She couldn’t stop her grin widening while she looked at Crystal’s fingers swiping across her phone screen to add her number in as well. She looked up at Charlotte, “Call me when you get home safe”

“Sure thing” she replied, like an idiot. She must've been a cute idiot because Crystal rolled her eyes in a cute way and smiled before leaving Charlotte alone in the middle of the living room.

Charlotte needed only a second to remember who she was avoiding. She looked around the room quickly just to be safe and then bolted for the exit as fast as her heavy limbs would allow her to. She was amazed at her luck, spotting the broken phone, getting Crystal’s insta and escaping successfully. It was the start of a good year. She swung the door open and was hit with chilly air like a slap to her face.

It helped sharpen her mind. Maybe. It felt like it when her steps became confident as she walked towards her bike. She had her phone and her keys in her pockets. Everything was going just fine-

-and then she heard the shout from behind her.

“Hey Rowlands!”

Charlotte saw a red filter switch on in front of her eyes. Chill air cleared her mind before, right? Charlotte took a deep breath to keep herself from turning around. She was the bigger person. She unlocked her bike and breathed. 

“Rowlands! Why you running away, huh? Oh wait let me guess you have to run back to your chick, don’t you?”

“Fuck off Simone” she shouted at her bike and wrapped the chain around the metal handle. The bigger person breathes . 

“Think I figured it out, the reason Payne likes you so much is cus you’re a huge pussy, innit? Her dyke just jumps out, don’t it?”

—

Charlotte sat on the pavement with her head in her hands while she waited for Eden. Her head was heavy, it lolled from right to left. Her eyelids were made out of steel, it hurt to keep them not-closed. She should close them… why wasn’t she closing them?

Right. Eden. 

She didn’t get much sleep, what with the party and the incident, having to then drive, while tipsy, all the way to her home. She was glad her parents didn’t catch her sneaking in, though she couldn't avoid an argument for why she insisted on showering in the morning. 

It was the first day of school and she was too superstitious to begin the year with a canceling of plans, so she woke up, thirty minutes early, and came to Eden’s house. Charlotte needed Eden’s insomniatic knowledge if she was to survive the day. Eden always knew how to keep herself sane and awake. 

She almost sat up when the door of Eden’s house opened up and she saw the other girl lock up, she decided against it, though and waited for Eden to come to her. 

“Good morning” Eden greeted through a sigh, Charlotte could feel her eyes inspecting her appearance.  

“Morning” Charlotte yawned halfway through the word and hadn’t bothered to cover her mouth. Eden stood above her for a second before extending her hand to Charlotte. She gratefully took it to pull herself up and dusted off her trousers. She could feel Eden’s disapproving look on her. 

“Come on you can’t be mad at me, I came early and all”

“You look like you lost a fight with a cat”

Charlotte shrugged. She still patted her box braids making sure they’re still as tight as they were when she last looked in the mirror, “Simone got herself acrylic nails this summer.”

Eden’s face changed from shock to worry in the funniest way, Charlotte chuckled as she moved to stand her bike up from the ground. 

“You’ve fought with Simone? Over what?” Eden’s voice was high pitched, and her eyes were wide open. 

Charlotte pouted, “Wasn’t a fight-fight though, just scratches, yeah” they began walking towards school with Charlotte dragging her bike along. 

“I do not need your protection, especially when you're at the Devlins and so drunk you cannot even look at the time on your phone”

Charlotte gave Eden a look, “I wasn’t that drunk and besides,” she cracked her neck from left to right, “How’d you know I was protecting you, maybe she was just being a cunt in general”

Eden scoffed, Charlotte didn’t need to look at the other girl to know she was playing with her bracelet, “ When’s Simone not a cunt. You aren’t badly hurt are you?”

Charlotte shakes her head, “Nah, a little bit of pushing maybe a bit of scratching. Lots of yelling though. I’ve got to say mate she has not become creative at all”  Charlotte laughed at her joke as Eden worried her bracelet away. 

Charlotte pulled out her phone with one hand and asked for permission to play music, hoping to distract Eden with it. Eden rolled her eyes at the asking and Charlotte cackled as she pulled up her new favorite playlist, she needed something with enough beat to wake her up. 

“What happened with your cold?” She asked. Charlotte had read over all of their messages from last night. She always made sure to read through whatever she wrote while drunk, especially when it came to texts for Eden. 

“Nothing, why? Do I look sick?” she turned her head towards Charlotte who stopped briefly to inspect her. Eden's eyes were clear, impossible white against grey irises that currently reflected more green than blue. She had her usual eyebags and her lips were chapped. She looked like her normal self with her beautiful skin, a product of a very convoluted skincare routine Charlotte was too lazy and broke to ever replicate. 

Charlotte continued walking, “Nah. Your hair’s pretty though, your own work?”

Eden felt up her fish braid with her one hand, “No, actually it was the ghost I live with, Charlotte” 

“I thought maybe Charlie…?”

Charlotte didn’t have to look at Eden to know she must've rolled her eyes. Charlie wasn’t exactly known for being the most present legal guardian. “Are you sure simone didn’t give you a concussion?”

Charlotte knocked on her skull as she grinned, “Nah too hard headed for that” 

They talked about professors and their expectations for the subjects this year. It was their final year in high school meaning that pressure was heavy on their chests. By the time they reached their school building they were surrounded by similarly stressed out students all around them, buzzing and zig zagging around all way too eager to get to their first class. 

“You’d think people wouldn’t be so excited about school”

“Their brains reset every year, it’ll wear off in about…” Eden shook her head left to right while she thought her bet through, “ four hours”

“I'm giving it three.  On a velvet cupcake” Charlotte offered and Eden accepted the bet. They shook hands on it and entered their final year of highschool.

Chapter Text

Eden and Charlotte dragged themselves alongside the throng of students into the big gymnasium. Charlotte never liked being at big school events, they were always required to wear uniforms and something about the similarity of all of their clothes just put Charlotte off rhythm. Her mother told her she should be grateful she got to choose between wearing pants and skirts, but Charlotte couldn’t find it in herself. 

She hugged her patched up coat around her tighter, she could always fake a cold, she was sure her exhaustion would help her sell it. 

Charlotte rolled her eyes in sync with Eden as the principal came on the makeshift stage to deliver his quick speech. It began like any old man's academic speech, with the Old Man expressing how proud he is of every single student and how their school is the Best School, filled with the Best Students… yada yada yada. His hands were resting on the podium, like a presidential candidate. Charlotte couldn’t imagine how he mustered the passion for this every single year. She muted his words out and looked around the auditorium, many people have kept their jackets on in sign of individuality. Charlotte sweated with them in solidarity when she heard Eden gasp next to her. 

Her head snapped towards her so quickly it almost gave her whiplash, “What?” she whispered to Eden who looked deliciously shocked. Her jaw dropped and her eyes were opened wide. She was clearly going over whatever upsetting her on her phone again, her fingers scrolled rapidly at the screen. “Eden?” Charlotte hissed, lightly she pressed her shoulder against Eden’s. 

Eden looked at her with pure horror, “We don’t share any classes”

Charlotte almost burst out laughing. She honestly didn’t know how Eden managed to miss it, “This is funny to you?” Eden hissed with her eyebrows raised, a couple annoyed heads turned their way but surely Eden’s little crash out was more entertaining to them then whatever bollocks the principal was talking about, so they couldn’t be that annoyed. Charlotte shot them quick dirty looks just to be sure. 

Eden didn’t mind the attention at all, she was looking at Charlotte like a deer in the headlights. Big grey eyes that made Charlotte’s heart melt, she tried to soften the blow, “I mean mate you basically choose all AP classes, I told you I’m not doing that”

Eden frowned harder, “Our lunches aren’t even synched up, I thought we’d at least share Phys Ed.” She groaned.

“Oh what are we going to do? School’s the only place where we ever interact, it's not like we walk here together or that we go home together!” Charlotte whispers-whined but Eden was as always prepared with a retort. 

“Not anymore, our schedules are so out of synch we never finish at the same time,” Charlotte loudly snorted and Eden expertly ignored her immaturity, “I mean I start like an hour before yo- How are we going to work on the newspaper?” She looks blankly at some point far away coincidentally at the exact same moment that the students are all dismissed to their respective classrooms. Charlotte lightly patted Eden on the back and helped dragg her towards the exit. By the time they were in the main school hallway Eden had her frowning face back on and her head was bent towards her phone screen. 

“Where am I leading you to?”Charlotte asked as she linked their arms together, so that Eden wouldn’t bump into someone while she wasn't looking. 

“C-2, though you have physics in Phys so I’ll be dropping you off”, finally she dropped her phone into her pocket. Eden waited for Charlotte to say something and when Charlotte didn’t, Eden took it as a free pass to rant, “It's not as if we don't share any classes we’re both in AP physics and we are in the same extracurricular activity. I mean they want us to do extracurriculars to the point that it's mandatory” as if Eden wouldn’t lead the school's newspaper had it not been required, “ but then they mess the schedule up so much it's practically impossible for us to do the extracurricular.”

“I understand your rage completely,” Charlotte began, even though she had warned her this would happen during the summer, “but there’s a lot of students, maybe they simply overlooked the little two of us?”

They started climbing the stairs to the second floor where the physics classroom was. Eden ignored her, “It is going to be absolutely impossible to produce one issue a month between the two of us!”

They reached Charlotte’s classroom and the bell rang loudly, the students around them started to walk faster. Charlotte turned fully towards Eden who looked positively miserable, it made Charlotte smile. She put her hands on Eden’s shoulders, “Come on, we’re going to be fine. You know schedules always change by the time the first big exam comes along we’re going to be sitting next to each other. Don’t worry.” Charlotte took a couple of big breaths just for measure and saw worry drop slowly from Eden's face. Her jaw was still a bit tense, though. “Hey, text me if it becomes too insufferable” Eden scoffed at that, they both know Eden doesnt text during class. 

Eden gave her a quick hug and then sprinted off to her own classroom, trailing after another late student. Charlotte turned towards her own classroom. Thankfully the professor still hasn’t arrived and as Charlotte scanned the classroom quickly she couldn't spot any of the people she didn’t like but quite a few faces she considered herself friendly with. She picked herself a  seat in the back row, right next to the widow and started a quick conversation with a guy she used to hate on the music teacher with, way back when they were 12th years. It was the usual bragging about summer shenanigans conversation she has had with everyone but Eden for the past two weeks. They gave each other the universal look for we’ll continue later when professor Kashi entered the classroom. 

He started to go over the curriculum and the monologue started to go over Charlotte's head. It's not that she wasn’t upset over her and Eden not sharing any classes, but Charlotte has been realistic about their chances. She has been slowly forcing herself to be fine with it. She knew next year wasn’t going to be any easier, they were applying to different colleges, none of which were even in the same city. Anxiety climbed up her torso and briefly squeezed its fingers around her jaw but she pushed it down with a few deep breaths. 

She checked the time on her phone. Only ten minutes have passed. The teacher was still talking about the curriculum. Fuck Charlotte . 

It wasn’t bothering her. Like she told Eden, school wasn’t the only place where they saw each other. Last year Charlotte basically lived at Eden’s house, they had sleepovers, they hung out, went for drinks, bought clothes together. They were best mates, they'd be fine. Sure they might have spent less time together this summer than usual, Charlotte had gotten herself a job and she had to help out her mother with the chores around the house. Eden had gotten busy too, her therapist had made her attend group therapy and Charlie got herself a vacation during which she wanted to bond alone with her niece. They still saw each other, there wasn’t any awkward silence that stretched out their conversations or weird tension. There was a weight pulling on Charlotte’s intestines and making her mouth dry. But the weight notwithstanding they were still best mates.  

She checked the time on her phone. Only eleven minutes have passed. The teacher was still talking about the curriculum. You have to be kidding . 

She was bored out of her mind which is probably why she started thinking about Eden like this. Her fingers fidgeted with her necklace as she willed herself to think about something less anxiety inducing. She looked around the classroom in search of something, anything to save her from her boredom. One of the girls in class has painted her hair purple over the summer, though it already looked almost  washed out of her otherwise blonde hair. The purple reminded Charlotte of some other cute girl with purple hair. Though that girl had curly hair and brown skin and the prettiest smile Charlotte had seen in a while. 

Charlotte had followed through with her word and actually texted Crystal when she came home. 

She hadn’t gotten a message back yet. It was only about 3 hours since she sent the message, though. Charlotte spent the rest of Prof. Kashi’s monologue convincing herself the American expected a message around 4, didn’t get it and was so heartbroken she must’ve turned her iphone off. It was a nonsensical explanation, even in the short amount of time Charlotte had gotten to talk with Crystal she struck her as a no nonsense type of person. 

Charlotte clicked on her phone again, twenty minutes left. Oh god professor Kashi was asking the future nepo babies about how they spent their summer . Charlotte scooted her chair a bit to the right and hunched her shoulders so that she wouldn’t be in his point of view. She tried refreshing her instagram page hoping against hope she’d get a notification.

To Charlotte’s bewilderment a message had been sent through and it was from Crystal. Charlotte practically groaned, she couldn’t open that message now she had to wait… what was it that Maren told her 2n +2? Was that the golden formula for playing hard to get? Double the time it took them to reply and then add two more hours of torture? Or was Maren’s tactic only effective on guys which Crystal seemed not to be. 

Charlotte opened up Crystal’s instagram profile and scrolled through it to pass her time (all seventeen more minutes of it). She seemed to be incredibly popular in America, most of her pictures were colored with club lights, blurred from motion or stilted from posing in front of a mirror. Her makeup was always on point and her hair framing her face, though the purple seemed to be a more recent development, as was the septum. 

“Rowland, how about you?”

Charlotte’s head shot up and she quickly covered her phone with her pencil case. Professor Kashi looked at her expectantly, a couple of heads also turned her way. When it became clear to all of them she had no idea what exactly was expected of her, Rashid whispered, “He’s asking how was your summer” 

“Oh umm” she leaned back on her chair, “Nothing special. Mostly soccer practice, hanging out with friends, I did get a summer job,though, my first one.”

Professor nodded at her, his hands holding themselves in front of him like in prayer, “And how did that work out for you?”

Charlotte shrugged, “I worked at McDonalds, It was a good experience I guess. Made me prepared for adult life?” She answered as if she was trying to figure out what words would get her out of talking in the least amount of time. She must’ve struck gold because the professor soon went on to monologue about how the Youth should use as many opportunities as they can to prepare themselves for adulthood. Charlotte tried hard not to roll her eyes as she went to check the time once again. 

Fifteen minutes left. Time wasn’t real.  

–

The bell finally rang as Charlotte skimmed the soccer practice schedule she got. She smiled to herself as she forwarded the photo to Eden. If Eden was willing to sit through Charlotte’s practices they could still walk home together two times a week. She packed her things into her rucksack and typed out a text

thur and fri? 

Charlotte exited the classroom and headed for her next class. Her brain was a bit dull from the last class but she still managed to start a conversation with one of her teammates. They compared their schedules and made plans to sit together on math since they shared the subject. Charlotte asked about her summer and the girl started telling her about her family's exotic trip to India.

Charlotte tried really hard to politely smile at it all but when her phone buzzed in her pocket her hands were quicker than her manners. The other girl didn’t seem to mind, she continued to talk about all the street food vendors she saw. 

Eden <3: Tell Coach Mick he’s the only reasonable faculty member.

Eden <3: I’m thinking of writing an issue on this schedule. While the evidence is unreliable my bets are that Pattinson is the culprit. 

Charlotte chuckled at her phone, she glanced quickly at her teammate to reassure her she was still listening even though she had no idea how or why the other girl had begun talking about Mean Girls the Musical the Movie. Charlotte wrote a quick reply

mick for a new principle!! so you’d stay? for my practices?

Eden <3: Yes, of course.

aces :)

“Say hi to Eden for me” her teammate, Melissa, said. Charlotte looked up, caught red handed. She nervously chuckled and pocketed her phone. 

“Sorry. I was listening though I swear” She even repeated her teammate’s last critique, Melissa just rolled her eyes but she was smiling too. All of her teammates knew Charlotte and Eden were joined at the hip, she even overheard some of them genuinely betting on whether or not Eden will be watching practice from the bleachers, waitting for Charlotte. Their knowing of how close they were reassured a bit of Charlotte’s anxiety, their defending of Eden in front of Simone reassured the rest of it. 

Charlotte's apology was cut short when the new professor walked into class. The lecture was boring, another going over curriculum except unlike prof. Kashi, this professor also wanted to scare their students shitless so she kept talking about tests Charlotte’s gonna cram for the night before and all of the projects she’ll beg Eden to help her with. It's boring, all of it.

45 minutes passed, the bell rang, Charlotte walked to the new classroom, she started new conversations, she laughed, she suffered, another class passed (biology the biggest enemy of them all). And then she repeated it all over again

Charlotte was brain dead. She had one more class to go and she had been praying for the past thirty minutes that the professor simply lets them go home.

Charlotte was sitting on the floor in front of the classroom waiting for prof. Pattinson to show up and hopefully dismiss them, while half listening to two of her guy friends debate the last night's game. Mostly though she was closely looking at and comparing her and Eden’s schedules again. She had already memorized her own but was inspecting Eden’s now a bit closer. None of their classrooms were even remotely close to each other and because their school was massive it meant they couldn’t really hang out during any of the breaks. This was not something that Charlotte had anticipated during the summer. She had thought she’d at the very least get her hourly dose of Eden, but turns out that no, she wouldn’t.

“What got you looking so glum?” Travis asked her

“Dude she’s in school, we’re all looking glum”

James just made a face at him but went to sit next to Charlotte who scooted a bit to the right. She knew he had a crush on her last year and wasn’t completely sure whether or not it feigned out during the summer. 

“So Rowland, don’t tell me you’re a Sharks fan?”, it was the name of the american football team that had won yesterday.

Charlotte scoffed, “I think its an insult that you call that american bullock football at all”

“Oh I’m sorry, forgot you’re a soccer chick innit” the guy faked a Scouse accent on top of his Londoner one. 

“Shut your mouth up,” Charlotte said and pocketed her phone once again. Professor Pattinson  came and let them into the classroom. 

The cycle of doom began anew and Charlotte begged for relief. Thankfully she managed to score the seat in the back row. So, once again, Charlotte scrolled her minutes away until she finally allowed herself to click on Crystal’s message. 

crystal.: Glad to hear it

crystal.: Do you happen to know a good coffee place, one that’s open today at two pm preferably?

Charlotte grinned to herself, she spared a glance to the professor. His back was turned as he was writing something probably unimportant on the blackboard. She typed the message out carefully and checked twice before she hit send.

might have something in mind, but a magician never reveals her secrets

To Charlotte’s genuine surprise the message had instantly been marked as seen. She stared expectantly at her phone screen and sure enough a couple of seconds later she got the notification that Crystal was typing something up. 

crystal.: What about a one to one show? 

Charlotte could hear her heart as it quickened its pace. She knew somewhere in the back of her mind that all of her blood was likely rushing to her cheeks and that she was grinning like an idiot. Before she could remember to be cool and nonchalant her fingers typed up a message:

Sold

She sent the message while holding her breath. It has definitely been too long since her last proper crush, she feels like she is far too gone way too quickly, but also isn't that what all of the u-haul lesbians always talk about? Surely it also applies to slightly repressed bisexuals. The message got liked, a little pink heart hanging off of its left corner. Charlotte couldn't break her gaze away from it. She has always been slightly afraid of heights and surely cloud nine must be pretty high up in the stratosphere. So high she bets she can't even see her school, or the cafe where she is supposed to take Crystal out. God where to take her? Truth be told Charlotte didn’t have a particular place in mind but she did know many good hangout spots. Were any good enough for a first date though?

Charlotte exited her chat with Crystal and went straight to Eden’s profile. Furiously her fingers tapped out:

met agirl yesterday taking jer out on a date today, r their any good cafes????

She paused before hitting send. Charlotte read the message over again, not bothering to correct any spelling mistakes. Still, something in her paused, stilled and well…

It’s not like Eden would check her phone during class, maybe during the break in order to frown at their schedules a bit more, and Charlotte needed an answer now, not later. This was her final class and Eden, if memory served Charlotte right, had one more. They weren't going to go home together anyways, and Eden hadn’t asked Charlotte to wait for her. She thought about it some more. Her thumb didn’t hover over the send button, and a tiny voice in her asked even bother with pondering. 

“Miss Rowland.”

Her head snapped up and the world came back into motion. Her professor stood right in front of her desk, hands crossed on his chest with a disappointing look in his eyes. Charlotte swallowed and tried to subtly leave her phone on the desk. 

“This is a new record for you isn’t it?” The professor extended his hand, and before Charlotte could attempt an apology he said, “Phone, now.”

“I’m so sorry” she said but handed it willingly. Teachers were more forgiving if they thought you were deeply remorseful and ashamed of your actions. She felt other people’s eyes pittingly attached to her person as the teacher returned to his place in front of the blackboards. The sting of embarrassment didn’t chip away at the joy she had been feeling, though. Charlotte kept her gaze down at her notebook and took rigorous notes as the professor explained to them the grading system. 

After twenty minutes the bell rang and Charlotte put her stuff in her bag as fast as she possibly could, she managed to catch professor Pattinson just before he zoomed out of the hallway. For some reason he always seemed to run away from his classes. 

“Mr. Pattinson!” she called and he turned to her with disappointment. His head was bowed slightly and shaking in a gesture of equal sorry and ‘nothing I can do about it’, but in his hand was Charlotte's phone and he was clearly extending it for her to take. She did just that bowing her head and smiling in the process, “Thank you, professor” 

She pocketed the phone and only then looked up at the same disappointed and slight pity in tight pressed lips. Charlotte exhaled, “I’m very sorry, professor. I promise it won’t happen again”

“It better not. Though…” he drawled, “please do forward this anecdote to miss Payne, if it were not for her strongly worded email which I’ve received a mere two hours into the new school year that , “ he pointed to her pocket, “ would've been in the principal's office and I’m afraid we’d need at least one non-minor to retrieve it back to its owner.”

Charlotte swallowed again, trying to not imagine what her father picking up her phone from the school would look like. She tried to smile at the professor again. Somehow it worked and Pattinson’s features soften a bit, “But since both you and Miss Payne are breaking records, who am I to stop you in your journey towards the guinness” 

“Has she actually sent you an email, professor?” 

“Oh yes, about the hardships of leading a newspaper during these tiring schedules. Please do save me from writing a reply.” He paused and looked around the school, his humor helped Charlotte loosen up a bit. Patty continued: “We’ve had a couple of new students enroll this year, not the freshmen, I wouldn’t burden you so. Though I have assigned two juniors to your little club. I do hope the help will be appreciated.”

Charlotte rather liked Pattinson, and Eden’s rivalry with him had a sort of a charm to it, “Won’t be appreciated if she shoots the messenger now will it?”, she couldn’t wait to hear her complain about the new arrivals to their two member club.

Pattinson chuckled at her and Charlotte once again nodded before politely bidding him goodbye. Charlotte took her phone out. Quickly she went to check on whether or not Patty accidentally sent the message to Eden. There was no more hesitation in her, she had decided against telling it to Eden. She’ll tell her later how the date went, right after she figures out where exactly she was supposed to pick Crystal up. 

Someone suddenly seized Charlotte’s arm. She quickly turned around, half afraid Patty got her again but discovered it was just Eden. Charlotte’s phone dropped from her hands and she rushed for it before Eden could pick it up.

Charlotte laughed nervously and pocketed her phone as fast as she could as she took a step back. Eden frowned at her and tilted her head to the right. 

“I was just messaging you! Had Patty for fourth period he decided to assign some enrolls to the our club,” Eden’s eyes comically widened and Charlottes’ nervousness seeped right out of her, “ Something about being encouraged by a strongly,- ” Charlotte scrunched her eyebrows, Eden’s face was pure comedy, “- worded ,-” Eden closed her eyes and took a deep inhale, “ - e- mail? ” Charlotte finished and barely held herself from giggling as she said, “ but you wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you?” 

Eden’s lips were pursed in clear rage, “I can not believe he just assigned us some random enrolls who most likely have no passion for the craft, (“none”, Charlotte shook her head,) enthusiasm for the work or knowledge of the means. Oh!” her mouth was wide open and her eyes were roaming the student filled hallway as if she was searching for an angel to help her, “Oh! We’ll have to teach them everything!”

Charlotte felt herself bouncing on the balls of her feet and so she put a comforting hand around Eden’s shoulder to calm herself a bit. The other girl turned her head so that they were face to face. Eden’s face was full of that shallow misery, the kind that Charlotte knew wasn’t actually real but that she was happy to comfort Eden about anyways. Watching as her face smoothed out and the cogs started to turn in her brain. Usually she even got a couple of “Thank you Charlotte”’s and “Oh that's brilliant Charlotte”’s and that  was always nice on her ever growing ego. 

 Eden’s not as quick to relax as Charlotte had thought however. After a couple of seconds she untangled herself from Charlotte’s hold. 

“You’re all finished for today, right?” 

“Yep!” Charlotte said and popped the ‘p’ in an annoying way, her messages with Crystal flash before her eyes, “I was thinking of just going home, haven’t slept well last night, remember”

Eden nodded encouragingly, “Right, I have two more periods, “ the bell rang but Eden didn’t so much as flinch, “Have you managed to get the names of the new members?”

Charlotte shook her head, she glanced quickly at her phone to check the time, 13:30. “I could ask Patty tomorrow?”

“Or I could just write him an…” Eden began but when Charlotte kept shaking her head ‘no’ Eden’s sentence lost its words and she surrendered, “Fine, no email, you ask him.”

“I’ll call you later?” Charlotte asked and Eden nodded. 

“Of course we’ll have to schedule the newspaper meetups, and have a strict organization now that there are more of us this year.”

Charlotte brought two fingers to her temple in a mock salute, “Yes ma’am, we’ll be a unified front ma’am. Now aren’t you late for class?”Eden drew in a breath and looked at the watch on her wrist while Charlotte added, “ My god, Eden Payne skipping class on the first day?”

“Shut up” Eden says but there's a slight smile on her face, and perhaps even a flush in her cheeks. Charlotte craned her neck in order to get a better look but Eden was turning her face away before she could, she did turn back once more before disappearing down the hallway, “I’ll call you” she half whispered and then disappeared around the corner. 

Charlotte stood in the same place for a while, looking at the corner. Their conversation replayed itself in her head because surely nothing that she just said was worth making Eden straight-face-during-sex-ed Payne blush. She did the lookaround the hallway, searching for an imagined camera man in the reality tv show of her life, in order to make the audience understand she was just as bewildered as they were. 

She expected, of course, to see nothing. There was a girl to her left, however. With her curly hair let down, in an eccentric but pretty coat whose color matched the tips of her purple curls. Her brown skin looked much smoother in the natural light coming from the windows of the hallway and her septum piercing almost shined against the sunlight. 

It took Charlotte a moment to switch her brain back on from the shock. She didn’t like having this many surprises in a row, even though this was a particularly pleasant one. Charlotte exhaled a nervous sigh as she relaxed her shoulders and tried to nonchalantly walk over to waiting Crystal.

Chapter Text

“Are you stalking me, magician?” Crystal asked when Charlotte neared her enough to hear her. She barely contained her smile at the potential future nickname. 

“I could ask you the same question, as far as I know I was here first, though?” Charlotte leaned on the wall next to them, she liked the way she was taller then Crystal, not enough to quite tower over her but enough for a cute height difference. The other girl, most likely an enroll about to join the newspaper club, looked up at her. 

“ Nah mate, I was born in Britain innit? ” tried Crystal. 

Charlotte chuckled, “How is your desperate attempt at an accent better when you’re drunk then when you’re sober?” 

Crystal shrugged her shoulders, “I think it’s pretty good”, she said while switching back to her crisp american. 

Charlotte squinted her eyes at her in what she hoped was an attractive gesture and didn’t make her look short sighted, “Don't know, I like your American much better”

Crystal smiled with her head tipped towards her right shoulder, she looked at Charlotte through thick black eyelashes. Shit this was most probably a first date, wasn’t it? With Crystal. She swallowed her excitement and nerves down and decided quickly in her head which cafe she’s about to bring them to. 

“Well magicians gotta give her show, “ she tried not to cringe too much when she realized she just talked about herself in third person. Hopefully she walked it off with confidence. She eyed the bag that hung off of Crystal’s shoulder before she continued,  “Though I have to warn you. It's a long walk and that bag looks quite heavy, don’t it?”

Crystal laughed softly as the two of them headed towards the exit of the hallway, “Well I don’t mind if you do” she said and handed the bag over to Charlotte who gladly took it. She fidgeted a bit with it before she figured out how to wear two backpacks at once and still look cool.

“So how’re you liking London?” she asked Crystal. She had decided on going to Three Whisks. It was a nice enough caffe with great lattes and frappuccinos. Eden swore her life on their espressos, so Charlotte figured her sleepiness problem would be solved as well. 

“Well the city is beautiful, the nightlife, the backpack carrying gentleman. But I must say I do miss the sun”

“What’s that?” Charlotte asked as she opened the door for Crystal.

“Oh it’s this big fire in the sky, it’s amazing I wish you could see it!” Crystal overdramatized.

Charlotte scrunched her nose, “I don’t know, sounds a bit scary. Have you experienced a good London rain yet?”

Crystal’s eyes widened, “If you call three straight days of water pouring from the sky then yeah, I have. Though I certainly wouldn’t call it,” she raised her fingers in mock quotes, “good”

“Well you’ll just have to get used to it I guess, they do get more charming in the summer time though.”

Crystal’s smile dropped a bit as she said, “Can’t wait to see it.”, something about her response warranted the next couple minutes of their walk to be spent in silence. Charlotte made a mental note that American teenager Crystal probably wasn’t stoked to be switching not just schools but literal continents. She tried to come up with some better but not too cliche conversation starters. She was just about to ask Crystal what music she listened to when the other girl beat her to it with: 

“So, last time I saw you, you had significantly less scratches on your face” 

“Oh,” Charlotte scratched the back of her neck, she had completely forgotten about that, “There was this asshole when I was going home” she chuckled nervously, last time she saw herself in the mirror it didn’t look that bad, then again Eden had said she looked like she lost a fight with a street cat “Honestly, so much has happened today I kinda forgot about it”, and no one but Eden had really commented on it the whole day she was in school. 

“What did he do to earn the asshole name?” 

“Well it was a ‘she’, first of all” Charlotte said easily enough, the ‘second of all’ was a lot harder to conjure up. She never found it hard to start a fight with Simone, what with the sort of things Simone said and did. Charlotte always looked at her reactions as rational, but when she had to explain it to others her words would get jumbled up. Something would get lost in translation and no one ever seemed to quite understand the harm Simone was capable of. Charlotte usually didn’t mind it, the adults and authorities’ lack of understanding, her peer’s were another thing.

“I mean I get it” Crystal added quickly, “, sometimes people are dicks”

Charlotte, hypocritically, frowned at that. As Eden would say people are always dicks. 

“She’s my teammate. I’m a part of the football team. But she can be a bit of a… homophobic asshole”

Crystal’s eyebrows rose, “ A girl football player?”

Charlotte snorted, “ I know right? D’you know what’s even better, or not better but kind of funnier?”Crystal nodded in encouragement so Charlotte continued, “ She’s not even that homophobic towards me and I’m like openly bisexual. No, all her - assholery - is targeted at someone who's straight!”

Crystal scrunched her eyebrows, “Weird, sounds like projection to me” 

Charlotte made up a face while trying to consider the implication of Simone having a crush on Eden. “No, don’t even suggest that” , she laughed while trying to banish the thought out of her mind.

They both laughed, but panic creeped up on Charlotte. Openly bi might’ve been pushing it, people knew, sure, she talked about it of course, but it was different saying it now. Telling Crystal I’m bi , asking her to look at her face and tell her whether she still found it pretty, knowing what Charlotte just told her. 

It would be immensely awkward if Crystal was just straight all along and this was a friend date and not a date date- 

“Did you win? The fight?”

Charlotte shrugged her shoulders, “Seeing her face? Yeah I’d say so”

“Good.” Crystal said and spared Charlotte a smile. She stared ahead of her for a few seconds before continuing, “ I’ve been known to put a bitch in her place more than once, too. And for much more petty reasons than homophobia.” she looked at Charlotte in a weird way. Not flirtatious or lighthearted, not even mean. 

Charlotte nodded but didn’t comment on the situation further. 

Finally, she got to ask Crystal about her music taste. Pop music, playing it safe but Charlotte supposed some things were popular for a reason. They kept chatting until they reached the cafe. 

Charlotte showed Crystal the way to what she knew was the best spot. On the therase against a corner of a brick wall. Two chairs on each side of the metal table, sitting  in permanent shade and outside of the range of falling leaves. Flower decorations were to either side in a way that didn’t overcrowd the space but brought a welcome pop of color. They had a good view of the rest of the cafe and yet there was a certain privacy to sitting in the corner. 

Charlotte laid their backpacks on the ground as a waiter took their orders. She was deeply satisfied with how the date had gone so far. The butterflies in her stomach hadn’t felt the same contentment. 

Crystal looked around and let out a low whistle, “This is a cute spot” she said. The butterflies didn’t matter that much in the grand scheme of things

“Yeah, they also have these cheesy events on fridays. Pub trivia quizzes. I go with my best friend  all the time, they’re aces.” 

Crystal raised an eyebrow, “Like, nerd trivia?”

“I mean if you want to call it that, sure. Doesn't mean it’s not fun just ‘cus you insult it, now does it? You should join us next time”

Charlotte could swear that Crystal blushed, her eyes avoided Charlotte’s and looked instead at the waiter bringing their drinks, “Thank you” she said as he laid them down. 

Charlotte echoed her mannerisms and took a sip of her cappuccino, waiting for Crystal to meet her gaze. When those beautiful brown eyes did Charlotte felt her heart skip a beat, she got her cup back down on the table, “You’re on, Rowland” 

Looks like Charlotte wasn’t the only one who had instagram scrolled. She bit down in this observation, choosing to complement Crystal’s hair instead, she was after all a gentleman. 

“Thank you” Crystal smiled genuinely. Crystal’s hands went to her hair, “I got it dyed this summer but it’s almost washed out by now, it used to be heliotrope purple.”

“Are you going to dye it again?” 

Crystal nodded, “Yeah. I like it, pretty girls give me compliments. Win-win. Speaking of, I’m sure your shoulders must have been falling off from carrying my backpack all this way”

“Nah, honestly I could have used the workout”

“Still” Crystal doubled down, “I feel like I should thank you in some way, so let me pay for your coffee”

Charlotte was delighted at this suggestion. She half wondered how her cheeks hadn't started to hurt from all of the grinning she was doing. She played up being coy about it even as the voice inside her head screamed date date date .

__

Charlotte had to repeat to herself several times that it was no big deal. Crystal was definitely stressing a lot more than Charlotte was and with good reason too. Even if the other girl looked fairly relaxed. “Okay, how are you not freaking out right now?”

Crystal shrugged her shoulders, “I mean I’m not proud but this isn’t the first time it happened”

Charlotte didn’t know how to handle that piece of information, she decided to not think about it too much, “So, what, you just drop your wallet and keys on the daily?”

“It’s not like I carry my passport with me wherever I go” Crystal answered, tone still far too relaxed for someone who went to pay and came up empty handed.

“So where do you carry it?” Charlotte felt as if at least one of them had to be panicking about this, at least a little. Charlotte took it upon herself to panic a lot.

“I mean I have my fake ID” Crystal said with a not at all subtle roll of her eyes, which Charlotte didn’t think was needed but which she also found incredibly cute, “just not my real one, it’s in my room.” 

“And your keys?” 

Crystal who had suddenly switched from relaxed to annoyed only clicked with her tongue and Charlotte took it as a sign to shut up. They were nearing the school anyway, thanks to their rapid walking tempo becoming faster as the silence stretched on. Charlotte thought that the lack of sleep might have been straining against her nerves for some time now. She tried to reassure herself, Crystal had asked her to come with her back to school, Eden should have finished her last class thirty minutes ago. 

Charlotte needed to sleep and drink some tea, she’d be fine after that. 

Had she not known better Charlotte would have made a joke about how terrible it was that they were back in school so soon. She shut her mouth though and just followed behind Crystal as the other girl skirted around classrooms. It was after five minutes of taking the strangest turns and not going into any classrooms, that Charlotte realized Crystal probably didn’t know her way around the building. 

“Just tell me what classroom we’re heading to”, she tried to not be too gentlemanly as before. Cool, friendly and normal, not offering to help just wanting to be helpful. 

“I’m pretty sure I left it in chem” Crystal bristled, she crossed her arms over her chest. Charlotte nodded, she pointed behind her back, “That’s there”

She led them in silence through the mostly empty hallways. A couple of students who were unfortunate enough to have their extracurriculars on the first day were scattered around in small huddles. They were all mostly calm and tired, Charlotte heard a couple of plans being hatched for a party tonight. 

She presented the door to the Chemistry lab to Crystal with little gusto and didn’t follow the girl when she went in. 

Charlotte didn’t understand what exactly happened between their coffee date and their coming to school. Charlotte quickly decided she’d just say her goodbyes to the girl and pretend as if nothing happened the next time she saw her. Which is going to be soon considering Patterson put all enrolls into the newspaper club. 

Charlotte hadn’t been looking anywhere in particular, just vaguely in front of her. She expected to see nothing but familiar faces moving in a familiar but non descript way. Then, her eyes focused because Eden was coming out of a classroom and her face was desperately trying to dampen down a growing frown. Her braid wasn’t as neat as it was in the morning, but what really puzzled Charlotte was the question of why was Eden even here? She was supposed to be home by now which is why Charlotte agreed to come back to school with Crystal in the first place. Unless she decided to reorganize their newspaper-making space? But that was in the library and Eden was exiting classroom 3b and… Their eyes met. Like they tend to do.  

Eden has an expressive face, she could truly be an actress or a mime, and it was funny at moments charming at others, Charlotte loved her for it. 

It was also horrible, because it allowed Charlotte to read each and every emotion on Eden’s face. The initial shock and surprise followed by her cheeks reddening in embarrassment, and then the inquisitive furrow of brows and her head was slightly tipped to the right. 

Charlotte waved awkwardly at her, forcing her lips into a smile as she glanced into the chemistry lab, praying to God she’ll begin to believe in as long as Crystal doesn’t come out of the lab in the next couple of moments. Eden walked towards Charlotte, her steps were infuriating, they weren’t as confident as Charlotte knew Eden’s to be and they were so anxiety inducingly slow. Their last conversation repeated itself for the fourth time in Charlotte’s head when Eden finally reached her.

The little creature living inside of Charlotte's head blurted out, “I’ve forgotten my keys somewhere and I’m hoping I'll be able to find them here” she tried really hard to make the lie sound like a statement and not a question. Charlotte knew how to lie just not to Eden. 

“D’you want me to help you look for them then?” Eden asked and immediately looked around her as if they would just be here, somewhere on the floor.

“I found them!” Crystal triumphed from inside of the chemistry lab and Charlotte could have probably taken the keys out of Crystal's hands and put them through her eyes right then and there. Crystal exited the chemistry lab, she had a beautiful smile on her face but Charlotte’s eyes kept cutting to Eden’s shocked confusion. 

“Those aren’t your keys, Charlotte” Eden commented which made Crystal turn towards her. 

Crystal scoffed and raised her eyebrows, “I see you're still not over your need to point out the obvious”, her voice was full of poison, the smile quickly wiped off of her face. 

Eden pursed her lips, “Of course just my luck. Let me guess you’re the new enroll Pattinson assigned to my club”, she crossed her arms over her chest and looked Crystal from her feet to her head. 

“ You run the newspaper club?” Crystal exclaimed, and Charlotte felt her mind scratch because wait - she made a point to interrupt Crystal before she could retort back to Eden.

“Wait, Crystal, what do you mean still? Do you two know each other?”

Eden pushed her chin up with indifference,”We’re familiar, as I see are you two” 

And somehow it wasn’t Eden being haughty and arrogant but Eden hugging herself in the middle of the hallway with her eyes reddening at the corners. 

Crystal huffed, “Whatever, I have to get home anyway, “ she turned to Charlotte, “I had a great time. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Charlotte nodded at her and then Crystal was off. Charlotte and Eden stood in the hallway. Eden frowned as she looked at Crystal’s disappearing back. Charlotte watched the lines smoothen her forehead feeling like she could say nothing to explain herself. 

Eden’s eyes eventually turned their heavy gaze on Charlotte, her frown stayed intact. Charlotte liked to think of herself as just a competent of a journalist as Eden was, which meant that not too many things were lost on her. Charlotte had memorized their schedule, she had no clue what Eden was doing here. She could see the same thoughts echoed in her best friend's posture, in the twist of her fingers as they played with the bracelet Charlotte had gotten her three Christmases ago. They had both met Crystal at some point, neither mentioned her. She felt Eden’s eyes on her person too, probably inspecting some nervous tick Charlotte was subconsciously displaying, unaware of how it gave her up. 

Eden sighed, and the deepness of her breath made Charlotte giggle. Eden rolled her eyes, “I owe you a cupcake, d’you want it today or tomorrow?” she offered in lieu of a white flag.

“Today. You’ll conveniently forget about it tomorrow, won’t you?”

“Goodness, no” Eden said too seriously, it made Charlotte smile. Tension seeped out of their shoulders. 

Eden paid for Charlotte's reward in their favorite bakery and Charlotte told her all about how Pattinson almost took away her phone on their way to their favorite bench in a nearby park. She rumbled about how petty he was in between bites of red velvet dough, Eden agreed with her trashing the professor and conveniently ignoring her emails and all the trouble she caused the faculty staff last year. 

Their bench was half burnt and half painted in blue graffiti, elevated on a bit of a higher ground and sitting in the half shade of a beautiful oak tree. Each settled down on her respective ends with Charlotte turned fully towards Eden, so that the sun which easily penetrated the half naked branches wouldn’t go into her eyes. It was also part of their routine.

A strong gust of wind blew a couple of yellow leaves from the tree’s branches. The birds flew above their heads and Eden sighed again.

“Boundaries,”she started off experimentally, in that tone of voice that told Charlotte she was trying hard to channel her therapist, “- are quite important in relationships, all kinds of relationships. They should always be known and expressed and respected.”

Charlotte swallowed the last bite of her cupcake, she brought one of her knees to rest her chin on it. She looked at Eden’s profile, listened to her voice as it lost and found itself again in the wind, “Charlotte, if there’s something that you don’t want me to know - that's fine. Just tell me to stay out of it, I don't - It's fine if we don’t share everything.”

“I know”

Eden nodded. “There are two enrolls though. I do wonder what the other one is like. I hope they have some useful skills.”

“Crystal has useful skills.” Charlotte retorted she leaned her side on the bench, settling herself. She’ll sleep when she’s dead anyways.

Eden looked at her briefly, “I’m glad you're not as scarred as I am, though I am sorry for the disappointment that awaits you”

Charlotte laughed, it spread onto Eden too. Charlotte laughed and it made Eden chuckle, look at the sky as she leaned on the back rest fully, kick her legs out and stretch them out so that Charlotte could see her pink socks in the space between her sneakers and the hem of her pants. The wind fought furiously with the unruly hairs sticking out of her fish braid. It was going to be a good year.

Chapter Text

Charlotte briefly debated lighting a cigarette before she convinced herself it was stupid. She was stupid, everything was stupid. She was on one of the benches in front of the school waiting for Crystal and Eden to join her, her foot lightly tapping the rhythm of a song playing through one of her earbuds. She twirled the packet of cigarettes in her hand. Considering she had fewer classes then the other two girls, Charlotte had used the spare time to buy herself something to eat and a pack of cigarettes for Eden as a little apology. 

Sure, Eden had done the whole spiel about boundaries yesterday but Charlotte still felt guilty about lying to her. And besides, Eden always smiled when Charlotte bought her cigarettes. 

They had agreed to do the newspaper meeting as soon as possible. Eden didn't trust the new members to show up if she let them relax for too long. You have to tighten the leash while you're putting it on , Charlotte imagined her saying. She didn’t mind the impromptu meeting, though. It gave her a reason to text Crystal about it, which gave her an excuse to talk to Crystal. It was great really. 

Charlotte doesn’t think that Eden would mind if one of the cigarettes from the pack went missing. She reminded herself that her lungs would. She was noticeably slower during last Sunday's mock scrimmage. She checked the time on her phone. Crystal should meet her soon.

Charlotte didn’t know why she wanted to keep Crystal away from Eden. Especially now that it was obvious Crystal and Eden not only knew each other but will keep knowing each other, in close quarters with Charlotte in the middle as a peacemaker if yesterday was any inclination. Still there was something holding her back, an acidic feeling in the bottom of her stomach making her dread whatever interactions happened in the next couple of hours. 

It wasn’t like Charlotte was still in the closet to Eden. Hell, Eden was the first person Charlotte had come out to. 

They had been sixteen and Charlotte had dragged Eden to a party an older girl was throwing for the beginning of summer. At some point during the party Charlotte somehow caught herself in a game of Seven Minutes of Heaven. She couldn’t remember every round she was in, she remembered she kissed only one person though, Molly Travina. A goth, mean as fuck on every other occasion, really pretty senior. She had been nice to Charlotte in the closet, asking her if she ever wanted to kiss a girl. 

After the kiss Charlotte ran as fast as she could to find Eden. 

When Charlotte found her she had taken Eden by the wrist and kept pulling her away until they were giggling under the lampposts in front of Eden’s house, long away from the party. 

“I kissed Molly” Charlotte had muttered into Eden’s ear, afraid that anyone else might catch the words but her, “I liked it a lot” 

Eden, beautiful, kind and very drunk Eden, had knocked the air out of Charlotte's lungs with the force of her hug as she said, way too loudly but also not loudly enough, “I support and love you no matter what. I love you, Charlotte even if you're gay, especially because…No wait, Charlotte I watched a video about this,” she had paused, “I support you and I love you- oh Charlotte, Molly ?”

Ever since then Eden had been supportive of Charlotte’s sexuality and Charlotte had never been ashamed of it in front of her. Eden watched all the sapphic popular movies with her, listened to Charlotte as she grumbled and rumbled about some celebrities she thought were dating. Eden understood so… why was it any different with Crystal? 

Speaking of the wolf here it comes a-howling just as Charlotte decided once and for all: no cigarettes. 

Crystal looked even better today. She had a white tank top and high waisted baggy pants with differently colored patchwork that seemed modern, her hair was pulled into a messy bun and on top of her head rested pink sunglasses.

“Hi” Charlotte greeted, like a lame person. 

“Hey” Crystal answered, sounding a little flirty which made Charlotte smile, Crystal pointed towards the cigarette packet that Charlotte had been clutching in her hands beside her thighs, “You smoke?”

“Oh, no they’re not for me,” Charlotte shook her head as she pocketed the packet, “ Eden”

Crystal’s face dropped into a frown at once, “Right, she’s tense” she put a weird emphasis on the last word that Charlotte wasn’t a big fan of. 

“How do you two know each other?” she asked. 

“Right back at you”

Charlotte tipped her head towards the side, “I asked first”

“And I’ll answer last”

Charlotte chuckled with the stupidity of the response, “We’re best mates. I met her in fourth grade on a playground and it stuck, I guess. I fell really hard on the ground, like bloody knees and ripped pants fell. Eden stayed with me until my mom came to pick me up.” She pointed an accusing finger at Crystal, “Your turn”

“Best friends, huh?” Crystal crossed her arms slowly across her chest. 

Charlotte smiled and nodded. She took out her necklace with the curved letter E which usually rested against the skin of her collarbone, “Yep” she said while showing it to Crystal,”I even got a necklace to prove it”, she put the pendant back on its place. As much as Eden mocked her for it Charlotte couldn’t shake off the fear that the sun might damage the cheap metal, “When’d you meet?” She asked, again.

“June” Crystal answered and Charlotte nodded. 

Eden’s therapist had recommended Eden try out a support group therapy of sorts last April but Eden hadn’t relented until June. During the couple of times Charlotte saw her right after therapy Eden had always been annoyed and in a bad mood, grumbling about the company she submitted herself to. But then in August Eden stopped complaining about it so much. She even seemed to look forward to it a bit, carefully picking stray baby hairs and tucking them into neat braids before each session. Charlotte suspected she either really started to like the therapist or someone had quit and Eden wanted to make up for all the bad behavior Charlotte didn’t doubt she had desplaid. 

“You don’t have any more questions?” Crystal questioned her. 

“A journalist is not known for her quantity but quality. The less the better, that way the masses have to fill in the blanks themselves.”

“Don’t tell me you're here willingly?” Crystal looked truly disturbed and Charlotte had to laugh. 

“The newspaper was my idea actually”

“So you’re the one I have to blame for this torture”

“Nah, that’s Patty’s fault I fear”

Crystal frowned, “Who the fuck is that?”

“Pattinson,” Charlotte said with a smirk and welcomed the warm feeling blossoming in her chest as Crystal smiled. They started walking back towards the school to the library where the newspaper club usually met up. Mostly because Eden really liked the quiet of the library. “And I promise, you’ll learn to like it. It’s fun”

“I somehow seriously doubt that”, Crystal huffed, “What with Miss. Stuck-Up breathing on my neck”

Charlotte grimaced but still managed to politely greet the librarian and got Crystal to their spot. 

“Look I know Eden can be a bit…”

“Of an asshole?” Crystal supplied but Charlotte sent her a look.

“-Rough around the edges.” Charlotte corrected, “She's still my best friend, yeah? You just have to get to know her a bit better and you’ll see she’s actually an aces person. But, this club does mean a lot to her, so as long as you don’t fuck that up you’re good”

“Yeah, she sounds real aces.” Crystal rolled her eyes.

“She is . She’s smart and funny. You just have to get her going about something she doesn’t like. I’d say, she might even run you for your money”

“Excuse me?” Crystal answered with a raised eyebrow.

“Well you’re both mean, aren’t you?”

Crystal wasn’t impressed with the flirting, she gave Charlotte a dirty look, “Yeah, no thank you. As far as I’ve been told everyone but you agrees she’s more of a bitch then me” 

Charlotte bit at her tongue. “You should know something about Eden…”, it was a weird thing to say out loud, weird to acknowledge that someone didn’t already know about it because everyone knew. It had completely escaped Charlotte that Crystal wasn’t from here and therefore wasn’t everyone. 

Crystal raised her eyebrows in waiting for Charlotte to finish.

“I’m only telling you this because everyone else already knows and Eden’s pretty um” she searches for a word that would fit Eden’s relationship with her trauma the best, “ Open? About it. And anyways I think it’s better that you know like this then that some asshole tells you to wrong version ”

“Okay, what is it?” Crystal asked curtly. 

“It’s just…Eden’s been through a lot. Her parents were murdered, everyone in the school knows it, she was really young, some burglars came into her house. It was…. horrible.” 

Crystal nodded slowly, “She mentioned some of it in ‘group, I don’t know the details.” she said in a quiet tone, almost as an apology. 

Charlotte felt the muscles of her jaw clench, “Yeah, well some people give her shit for it in school, ‘bout the way she copes with it. I know you met her, but a lot of people say she’s a bitch just because of- stuff she can’t control. I hope your not gaining your impression of her from those assholes, is all” 

When Charlotte finished Crystal nodded again. She opened her mouth to say something but stopped once they heard Eden’s voice greet the librarian. Charlotte sent Crystal a look that she hoped told the other girl to drop it. Crystal gave her a short nod. 

Eden strolled to their table looking as smug as ever. Instead of a greeting she wiggled a pair of keys in front of her, Charlotte grinned as soon as she saw them.

“I'll be damned, Payne.” she said as she knocked all of the books she had just unpacked back into her backpack, “For the whole year?”

Eden looked up and shrugged her shoulders, she rocked her weight back and forth in place so that her long skirt swayed to the motion. She looked very proud of how humble she was being.

“What’s going on?” Crystal asked while she hesitantly stood up alongside a much more enthusiastic Charlotte. 

“I’ve got a cabinet all to ourselves. We no longer need to whisper in here like the film club”, she then shook the keys once again showcasing a small glimpse of the amount of noise they’ll be allowed to make in their own cabinet, “These are the keys. Now let’s go there”

Crystal bristled but picked her backpack up, “You couldn’t have made this a text?”

Eden didn’t dignify that with a response as she turned to exit the library. Charlotte caught up with her, “This is brills Eden, how’d you do it?” 

Eden shrugged her shoulders again, “I made a point to the right person about the right issue. Nothing too hard” her lips ticked up as she gave Charlotte another ‘humble’ look. 

“Not for Eden Payne, was it?” Charlotte grinned. Eden passed her the keys for inspection as she led the way. Crystal was significantly behind them and Charlotte slowed down her tempo in order to get all three of them walking at the same speed. 

The cabinet wasn’t far from the library. A simple wooden door with a 203 number plate and a metal knob. Charlotte used the keys to unlock it and dramatically opened it to the new Newspapers club meeting space.  

It wasn't as spacious as a classroom, but it had a large desk that could sit at the very least ten people, a rotating whiteboard and a couple of pin boards hanging on the walls. There was a large wardrobe on the far end of the cabinet right next to a window overlooking the football field. Five chairs arranged on the table. Other than that the cabinet was pretty empty, no books or papers anywhere in sight. 

“Well we’ll have to fill this space up” She said as she circled around the large desk in the middle, running her fingers along its clean surface. 

Eden nodded and opened the wardrobe’s doors to inspect its many empty shelves. Crystal placed her backpack on the huge desk and then propped herself up on it. Still Charlotte could see a semblance of appreciation on her face as she looked around the classroom.

Charlotte turned her head back to Eden who narrowed her eyes at the wardrobe, no doubt already calculating whether the library printer would fit inside. This was huge for them, Charlotte used to dream of them having their own space inside of the school, undisturbed by the labrarien or filmbros or Simone. And now they did

“Are we the only club to get a cabinet?” She asked Eden in an attempt to stroke her ego just a bit more. Eden closed the wardrobe doors.

“Us and the Greeks.” 

“The Greeks?” Crystal asked with semi disgust.

“The inferior version of the Classics club every other highschool has. They’re obsessed with Homer, the lot of them couldn’t spell Antigones if you held a gun to their head” Eden rattled off in her usual matter of fact voice, Charlotte couldn’t help but join in on the trash talk. 

“How could I forget about Simone’s daddy - The Professor, bet there’s smoke coming out of her pig ears right now because she’ll have to share cabinet privileges with us” 

Eden pulled herself a chair and took her journal out of her backpack, “Right. Well the important thing-”

“Wait, is Simone the same girl you jumped the other night” Crystal cut her off. 

“Jumped me” Charlotte corrected her. 

Eden’s eyes briefly skirted from Crystal to Charlotte and she said “We’ll make a journalist of you yet, Crystal, won't we? Now.”, she opened her journal and clicked her pen, “ Do you know where the other enroll is?” 

Crystal nodded, “ Niko said she’s sick. But she should be back in school next week?” When neither Eden nor Charlotte answered, Crystal shrugged her shoulders once again, “I don’t know, we don’t talk that much, she's like a really dry texter.”

Eden sighed at this, her right hand toying with her bracelet, “She better come in soon, not only for the club but missing the first week..” 

“Right, I have no idea what I’d do if I had to miss one more rich girl telling me how she got drunk and fucked her boyfriends brother or what not” Crystal said sarcastically, Charlotte chuckled on principle and Eden just rolled her eyes. 

“I think we should start discussing the newspaper.” Charlotte said. She sat herself on the big table right next to Eden’s journal so that she could see what the other girl was writing at all times.

Eden had pulled out one of the blue gel pens that Charlotte gifted her for her birthday last January and that miraculously still hadn’t run out (maybe because Charlotte bought about two hundred of them, maybe because of some divine intervention). She scribbled the date on the right corner and then made a big “Newspaper club” headline as Crystal scooted closer to the two of them. Eden scribbled down Charlotte’s and her own name. She wrote ‘Crystal’ and then paused, looking up at the girl. 

“Do you mind rattling it off?” 

Crystal pursed her lips and gave Eden the finger, “Crystal Palace-Surname von Hovercraft.”

Eden rolled her eyes and continued to write, Charlotte felt like the moment should have been appreciated a little bit more, “Wait your surname - one of your surnames, is Surname”

“Yes it is, ye who row to land” Crystal answered in a matter of tone that made Eden’s lips purse and told Charlotte to stop it with the jokes. 

“Right” Eden broke the silence with another one of her sighs, her shoulders steeled as she turned to look at Crystal, “ Our first order of business: Are you serious about this?” 

Crystal’s eyes visibly widened, ”Excuse me?”

“You did not sign up to be in this club. Pattinson assigned you and he can be rather careless when it comes to his student’s spending of free time. It is completely reasonable if you see this club as nothing but a chore.”, Crystal opened her mouth but Eden raised a hand to make it clear to the other girl she wanted to finish first, “ The newspaper means a great deal to me and Charlotte, we will not applaud or allow a job half done which you are very likely to do if you do not want to be here.”

Charlotte nodded in her show of support and said “Had we been in your shoes and someone assigned us film…”

She let Eden finish with her usual tone full of disgust for the club, “- We wouldn’t have bothered with a single meeting. Which is why it is perfectly understandable if you want to quit.”

Charlotte added,  “We won’t snitch on the teachers or bother you with club activities if you do”, she met Eden’s eye for a moment before they both turned their attention towards Crystal. 

“But”, Charlotte started, “Help is always appreciated. Eden and I were spent thin the last year and there's always room for improvement and different perspectives. So if you are interested, well you're already a member of the club aren’t you?” Charlotte ended her statement with a smile she hoped would inspire Crystal. 

She completely agreed with everything Eden said: having someone on the team who wasn’t as passionate or serious would definitely lead to many fights. Especially considering the temper she had already seen from Eden and Crystal. Charlotte didn’t want her potential relationship with Crystal to be put on strain because of Pattinson's stupid revenge plan against a seventeen year old. 

Then there was also the fact that last year spent them transparent, not thin. They were absolutely not letting Crystal (or Niko) quit, so the smile better do a lot of inspiring.

Crystal pursed her lips, her eyes went from Eden to Charlotte and back. At last she said, “Oh I’m serious about this. I checked a couple of your last year's issues. Your photos are all terrible. I have a good camera at home and I sometimes photograph in my free time. I’ve been wanting to get more into it.” she swung her backpack into her lap and from within it she pulled out many papers which she unceremoniously dropped to the table. 

It took Charlotte a couple of seconds to realize she was watching the cutouts of their newspaper issues. All of the photos she and Eden had attempted to take with their phones.

Charlotte and Eden shared a look in between the two of them as Crystal pointed at a particularly blurry photo. (It had been raining and Charlotte was laughing way too hard to keep her phone steady.)

Eden pursed her lips, “Point taken. I have seen the photos on your instagram, are they all yours?”

“You stalked me on insta?”

“I’m a journalist” Eden bristled and Charlotte shrugged one shoulder when Crystal glanced at her. 

“They are some mint photos,” Charlotte admitted. 

“All mine” Crystal took the credit with a smile. She raised her eyebrows at Eden in a challenge. 

“And all in color” Eden reprimanded, ruining some of Crystal’s winning glow.

“So?” Crystal asked, she crossed her arms over her chest.

“We don’t have the kind of budget needed to mass print in color. Can you work in black and white?”

Crystal frowned, “Budget’s not a problem, mine are loaded”

“We’re not to use personal finances though, just what the school gives us” said Charlotte, “That way all clubs are supposedly on equal footing”

“Even if some have three members and some thirty three” Eden said with a roll of her eyes, Charlotte laughed. 

“And if someone's daddy works with the school and chooses which clubs get finances. The systems rigged innit’” She nudged at Eden’s shoulder but to Charlotte's surprise Eden doesnt take the bait. Her attention is once more on Crystal. 

“Will the black and white be a problem for you or not?” 

“Nope, your photos will be award worthy.” 

Eden rolled her eyes and huffed loudly, “Well, now that that's cleared up lets go over other points of business”

—

Two hours later Charlotte was rushing home, she frantically put all her notebooks and pencils into her backpack. Crystal had dipped already and Eden was unlocking Charlotte's bicycle. The time had definitely not passed fast but it still somehow managed to slip Charlotte's mind that she was supposed to be home early. She had promised her mother to help with the window cleaning. 

She sprinted out of the classroom and was met with Eden bringing her her bike and tossing her the keys to the locket. It reminded Charlotte of the pack of cigarettes she had bought earlier so she fished them out of her coat pocket and tossed them to Eden as an exchange. 

“Thank you” Eden said as she caught them.

“D’you need a ride?” Charlotte asked while climbing on her bike.

“No need” Eden smiled at her nervously and shook her head. She opened the packet and eyed the cigarettes carefully. Charlotte’s hurried limbs froze for some reason as she watched Eden choose whether to light or not. Her fingers danced briefly in the air before they ended up curling around a cigarette, her other hand searched for the lighter in the pockets of her skirt. 

“Aren’t you going to be late?” Eden asked just before she put the cigarette in between her lips. Charlotte wondered at her own lingering as well, she watched Eden palm the flame and light the cigarette, but came up short of an answer. 

“You sure you don’t want a ride?” Charlotte asked, finally putting one of her feet on the pedals.

“I’m sure, I’ll text you later?” 

Charlotte grinned at her and nodded. “Okay. Bye, love you” 

“Love you back” Charlotte heard Eden say. She tried to peddle as fast as she could as she rode away.

Chapter Text

When the phone lit up with the unmistakable text notification Charlotte didn’t rush to open it, she’s polite like that. She was sitting on Eden’s bed, with her hands wrapped around a giant teddy bear she had won Eden last year at the summer fair. She was reviewing the other girls' possible school outfits for tomorrow. She owed it to Eden to inspect each fit with critical eyes and not with half of her attention (okey more than half) being glued to Crystal’s dimpled face on her profile picture. 

Eden came out of the closet, her hands clenched and unclenched around nothing, raised halfway to her neck. She was wearing a skirt on which they had both agreed easily enough earlier and a white button down shirt. Parts of their schools mandated uniforms: dark green pants or skirts (as long as they covered the knees), a white button up shirt and a matching green tie. 

Eden’s chest rose and fell as she looked at Charlotte expectantly, “ Will it pass?” she asked.

The offending green tie was wrapped around Charlotte’s hands and not Eden’s neck. Charlotte tightened it around her knuckles like a boxer might. Eden’s collar was open, two buttons unbuttoned and exposing her ‘ sensual’ collar bone. Charlotte looked her over, trying to entertain the possibility that the old prude of Eden’s mathematics professor wouldn't see this as a pornograffy ad. 

“Can you breathe?” Charlotte asked instead. Despite the loose collar Charlotte knew Eden usually left the area of her neck much more exposed then this, especially during the summer. 

Eden nodded curtly but turned herself towards the mirror before Charlotte could ask her again. Her hands fidgeted with the collar a bit as a frown pulled down at her features. Charlotte wrapped the tie around her knuckles, she could punch Mrs. Mages. 

“What about that off-white shirt? It suited you fine last year, didn’t it?” Charlotte asked. Last year Eden had washed the shirt every single Sunday and Wednesday in preparation for her Maths class. The shirt was too big on her meaning she could button it up properly without the fabric agitating her neck. Still Charlotte knew it wasn’t a perfect solution, she saw the way Eden’s hand shook slightly before and after Maths, the occasional off stare she’d get while the professor explained the material. Eden would still unbutton the upper button when the bell rang. 

Eden sighed, she started to say something but cut herself off. Her hands undid the bun on the back of her head. Dark brown hair fell over her shoulders and she scooped all of it up to rest on her chest, “I’ve lost it somewhere” she quickly said before turning to Charlotte for another inspection. 

Charlotte just raised her eyebrows at her, she heard and ignored another text notification, “Does the hair help?”

“Jennie said it might… Yes, it helps, I’ve been trying it out during the summer, “ as she talked Eden’s left hand curled around a strand, her fingers going over and under the silky brown, “ I think this might be fine, it’s coveredge right?” 

Charlotte stood up for a proper inspection. The hair had helped but she wasn’t sure if Mrs. Sexy Kneecaps would think of it the same way. She had many fetishes, shoulders, ankles and getting her smartest student kicked out of class for breaking the supposed dress code. 

Charlotte inspected Eden’s chest, she could feel the other girl's worried eyes burn a hole on her scalp, “ I think it’s good, mate” Charlotte unfurled the tie between her fingers, she motioned for Eden to come closer.

Eden’s shoulders relaxed, “Let’s just hope she has another child this year” she said and Charlotte laughed at the comment. She put the tie loosely around Eden’s shoulders, she tied a very loose knot on the girl's chest then backed off to admire her handiwork. 

The knot rested low on Eden’s chest but it didn’t seem to bother the other girl, so Charlotte was happy. Charlotte turned her hand showing Eden that she should look into the mirror. Eden followed her lead. 

“My God, Charlotte! “ She fidgeted with the knot, “This is not how you tie a tie!” She lectured and Charlotte couldn’t help herself but giggle. She came up behind Eden and rearranged her hair so that more of it would be on her back rather than on her chest. 

“But mate, you look hot! All the boys will be enamoured, believe me” Eden had looked hot, especially with her fair skin turning pink at the comment, her grey eyes looked almost blue.

“You’re starting to sound like Mages now. Stop it.” 

Charlotte dramatically brought her hands to her heart, “Ouch, you really know how to insult a girl, don’t you?”

Eden rolled her eyes. Once she succeeded in untangling the tie she looked herself once more over in the mirror. “This’ll have to do” she said defiantly before she walked back over to her closet to change into her home clothes.

“It will do” Charlotte said, she made her voice a little bit louder as she continued, “But honestly you should talk to Charlie about this. I know she’s not the most present aunt but, mate we both know she has a sword for a tongue. She’d shame Mages to hell and back wouldn’t she?”

When Eden walked out of her closet she was wearing her usual sweats and a big collared shirt, her hair was back in a bun. Her features in her regular disapproving frown, “That will not be needed, considering that the shirt will work. And even if it doesn't, the off white shirt has worked before, so I just need to find it and we will all be perfect” Eden smiled to Charlotte in an attempt to reassure the both of them. 

Charlotte put her hands in the air, “Okey mate, I was just trying to help” she said. “Brownies?”

Eden nodded and turned around to head down for the kitchen, grabbing a pack of cigarettes from her desk on the way. Charlotte felt her phone vibrate in her pocket but she ignored it.  

“Do you want music on?” Eden asked once they got to the kitchen. 

Charlotte sent her a do-you-know-who-i-am look and Eden nodded in satisfaction, the motion making her hair slip around her shoulders and collect on her chest. Charlotte knocked their hips as she took her phone out of her pocket to search for a good spotify playlist. Almost without her own consent as if they belonged to someone else her fingers also opened the messages Crystal had sent her. 

crystal.: I have THE story of the week

crystal.: call your girl

crystal.: are you free rn?

crystal.: The story’s about Esther

Charlotte glanced towards Eden who had taken out two plastic bowls and was currently rummaging in her storage. Charlotte typed up a quick reply to Crystal.

at Edens rn I’ll tell her 

She returned to spotify and clicked on her favorite playlist, turned the sound on her phone off and put it on the cabinet hoping that it would improve the acoustics. The playlist she had put on was her favorite because it was full of songs that she knew Eden liked. She remembered the spring sleepover when they had made the playlist. Charlotte had played Eden every single punk song she knew and then analyzed Eden’s reactions to them in order to guess whether the other girl liked them or not. 

The playlist kept evolving throughout their friendship. With songs being painfully deleted and joyfully added. Charlotte liked the process of it, she liked playing the playlist to Eden and seeing in real time as Eden learned more and more lyrics, as her body moved minutely to the rhythm, the little bounces in her shoulders or shaked of her head. The way she’d hum the melody while doing something else, with Charlotte. 

Like she was doing now. She poured the flour in the bowl and Charlotte went to get the eggs,

yelling out the lyrics of the Dead Kennedys song as she did so. Once she was back beside Eden’s side she attempted to crack the eggs on beat but failed miserably. Eden scoffed at her but the sound failed to be stern because of the way her lips were tugging upwards into a smile. A bit of the egg crack got into the yolk and Eden washed her hands before her nimble fingers expertly took the crust out. 

“Ugh I can hear my manager yelling about food contamination” Charlotte complained as she watched Eden wipe her fingers off on a kitchen cloth. 

“If you actually do still hear him, I have a great therapist for that” Eden joked, Charlotte took the bowl and swirled the contents together while Eden added milk. 

“For contaminated brownies?”

Eden rolled her eyes. Charlotte pulled herself up on the kitchen counter, she felt Eden’s eyes on her hands as she swireled the contents. 

“All food you eat in this house is contaminated then. Unless you want us to wash the brownies w+once we make them?” she tipped her head to the right and raised one eyebrow in challenge. 

“Nah mate” Charlotte laughed, “I’ll somehow stomach your germs” 

Eden made a mocking grimace at her and Charlotte was about to comment on it but a song she really likes suddenly started to play and Charlotte’s whole mind went blank as she yelled the first line out. Eden shook her head in mock disappointment as she went to fetch more ingredients. 

Left alone Charlotte decided that she’ll tell Eden about Crystal's Story of the week once the girl gets back. She liked that Crystal seemed to actually like the newspaper club and even with all the bickering Eden and Crystal were doing they both seemed to share a certain respect for how dedicated the other was about the club. Charlotte thought they might even become friends soon.

Eden entered the kitchen with the dark cooking chocolate and Charlotte was about to tell her about Crystal, the news was on the tip of her tongue truly, but then the next song started playing.

Charlotte recognized it immediately and she twisted her neck as fast as she could towards Eden, whose eyes lit up as the cords started playing. Charlotte put the bowl down and turned on the volume on her phone, she watched Eden smile with her teeth and mouth the lyrics. Charlotte joined her, hopping of the counter and taking the cooking chocolate out of Eden’s hands and putting them somewhere away. Eden complained and danced to the rhythm on the kitchen floor. 

Even if Eden’s dancing wasn’t as energetic as the song might’ve demanded she was still mouthing in sync with the singer, bobbing her head in a way that made her hair sway around her face. She was relaxed in her movements, free in a way that made Charlotte immeasurably happy. 

She had missed this over the summer.

When the next song started playing Eden was still mouthing the lyrics but more in remembering the previous song then love for the current one. She returned to the brownie mix with ease as if nothing unusual had happened. 

Charlotte reached for her phone and watched Eden’s face for the frown she caught once she lowered the volume. Eden quickly schooled her features into a passive expression but Charlotte saw it. Her mission to make Eden into a proper rebel girl might have been progressing slowly, but it was progressing and it will succeed, eventually. 

A couple more songs played as the two of them struck up a half hearted rant about their shared biology professor. Once the brownie mix was ready they put it into the oven and Charlotte completely lowered the volume so that they could talk. 

She’d been a coward for long enough. 

Charlotte cleared enough space on the counter to sit on it comfortably. “So” she began, “ Crystal texted me, she said she has ‘the story of the week’, even though we do monthly issues?”

Eden stiffened at the mention of Crystal which Charlotte would usually think a bit dramatic. To Eden’s luck there was irrational anxiety swirling in her own stomach, so she couldn’t really blame Eden, could she?

“What’s it about?” Eden asked while she leaned on the fridge opposite of where Charlotte was sitting.

Charlotte shrugged, she opened her phone but there were no new messages, “Don’t know, she mentioned something about Esther?”

Eden wrinkled her nose, “We’ll have to check with Monty then” 

“You know people in our school barely read the newspaper.” Charlotte rolled her eyes. Sometime last winter Eden had stumbled upon Montgomery Flinch, their principal's daughter. They must've clicked really fast because suddenly Montana was just everywhere and the articles about her dramatic mother were supposed to be proofread and morally correct. 

Sometime this summer Eden had met Crystal. Though their relationship seemed to be the polar opposite of her and Monty’s. 

“How’d you meet Crystal?” 

“Group therapy, remember I went back in June” Eden crossed her arms over her chest.

“You don't like her,” Charlotte observed. 

Eden chewed on her lips, she looked at Charlotte, “And you do.” it's not one, but Charlotte heard it like an accusation. Eden looked at her apologetically, “ You’re quite obvious I’m afraid” 

Charlotte laughed, then groaned. She threw her head back to stare at Eden’s ceiling, wanting to say something. Horrible slimy fingers curled around her tongue and kept her jaw shut tight. Her chin felt so heavy it tipped back down and she looked at Eden head on. The other girl just stared at her, a worry-frown on her face, wrinkling the skin between her eyebrows and pulling her lips down. Charlotte mourned the rebel girl in making of before, the carefree quips and jokes. 

Eden broke eye contact first, and then Charlotte mourned that too “She’s pretty” Eden tried after staring at their growing brownie for a couple of seconds. “ Her hair especially, and I guess the septum piercing could be charming, “ When Eden glanced at Charlotte for reassurance on whether or not she was being a good friend, Charlotte forced a smile on her face. 

“Yeah, she’s really pretty,” Charlotte agreed. She tried to summon her usual Crystal-butterflies.

Eden nodded “Not nearly enough to account for her personality though.”, she tried to joke. She cleared her throat, “ Do you think-?” 

Charlotte's text notification broke her off and Eden motioned for Charlotte to check the message.

crystal.: can you ask her if i can come over?

Charlotte sighed as she dropped the phone on her lap without answering, “Are you fine with this?” It was only once the words were out of her mouth that she recognized they were wrongly arranged. She couldn’t think of a good way to paraphrase it before Eden answered. 

“What? Why wouldn’t I be?” Eden asked, her fingers fidgeted with her bracelet, her eyes hadn’t met Charlotte’s.

Charlotte shrugged her shoulders, her phone beeped in her lap, “You don’t like her” 

Eden eyed their brownie. She looked tense, but then with a deep sigh all of it seemed to leave her body. Charlotte huffed a laugh, nothing like a good Eden Payne sigh. 

“Just because I don’t like someone doesn’t mean you can’t like them. Crystal… is way too good for you, but you shouldn’t feel bad for having a crush on her just because the two of us… argue here and there.”

Charlotte laughed, she felt the tension seep out of her shoulders too, the Eden Payne sigh was contagious apparently, “ Here and there? ” 

Eden pursed her lips, “I haven’t a slightest idea what you’re aiming at” 

Charlotte laughed at the joke, Eden’s lips quirked up a bit too. “So what was the message about, just the story?”

Charlotte debated whether or not to pass along Crystal’s question. Eden didn’t like people knowing where she lived. She was already tense about her Maths class tomorrow, but she was also soft. In Charlotte's stolen sweats and a shirt that Charlotte was pretty sure used to belong to Eden’s father. As much as she liked Crystal she didn’t want to intrude on that. 

Her phone vibrated in her hands not with an incoming text but a call. Eden raised her eyebrows at it as Charlotte checked the caller ID. “We’ve summoned her,” She said, bewildered.

“Answer it!” she urged and then politely turned towards the oven in order to grant Charlotte fake privacy. 

“Hey”

“Don’t leave me on read”, Crystal bristles into the phone.

“I was just talking it over with Eden” Charlotte said, she heard Crystal intake a seemingly anxious breath. 

“And? Can I?” 

Charlotte furrowed her brow, “Um, sorry but it's kind of a special dinner-night, it’s her aunt's birthday” Charlie is about four hours of a car ride away but it was the first lie Charlotte could think of. 

“Oh” Crystal said, “Are you - when will you be free?” she sounded distressed, Charlotte couldn't remember if she ever heard Crystal stutter like that. 

“Crystal, are you okay?” 

“Yeah, “ her voice cracked in a weird way, “Yeah I - no, “ Charlotte heard something like a laugh even if it lacked mirth, “Um, I just broke up with my boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend” 

“Oh”

“Yeah um, I guess I’m not really handling it the best” another laugh, “ Would you  - anyways I’ll,” she mumbled something and Charlotte thought it might’ve ended with a sniff, “I'll see you later.”

She hung up.

The oven’s bell dinged and Eden pulled out the brownies. They looked good even if Charlotte had no notion of an appetite anymore. Eden took the kitchen knife and cut the brownie up in square pieces. She did all of this in silence as Charlotte watched her hands work. 

“Do you want to choose the movie?” Eden asked. Charlotte toyed with her phone. 

“Crystal broke up with her boyfriend” Eden’s jaw dropped in shock and the expression made Charlotte feel a bit better, “ and she asked if she could come over” 

“You lied about Charlie” Eden observed, she had a far off look in her eyes. She put the kitchen knife down. Her fingers toyed with her bracelet. “Can I have your phone?” she asked.

“Yeah?” Charlotte's brow furrowed.She watched as Eden unlocked the phone and tapped on Crystal’s contact number. Charlotte frowned at her harder as Eden brought the phone to her ear. 

She did another Payne sigh, she heard the other line connect, “Crystal” Eden said and Charlotte backed off a bit to give them a semblance of privacy. “Do you need to come over?” Eden asked into the phone. She waited in silence, Charlotte heard some mumbling on the other line. “Don’t pretend to be cool, Charlotte will text you the address” Eden waited on the phone a bit longer and then she brought the phone down. She passed it over to Charlotte, “Could you text Crystal the address?”

Charlotte stared at Eden, she accepted her phone but her fingers were frozen. Eden inspected their brownie, “Do you think we have enough for three people?”

“Why did you invite her?” 

Eden remained with her back to Charlotte, “I don't want to throw any of the brownie away -”

“Eden”

“We met in a therapy group, Charlotte. If she needs you right now, if she needs anyone then…”, Eden swallowed, “ And I think it’d be good, for me”, Eden moved her hands in a vague ‘everything’ motion. Charlotte let Eden take her breaths and collect her words. Eden continued in her therapy voice, “ I want to have more people over, I want to be comfortable with inviting more people over, and your crush on her is painfully obvious so I should probably get over my dislike of her soon” 

Charlotte doesn’t laugh at the awkwardly added joke. She walked over so that she could see Eden’s face, she reached out tentatively for Eden’s forearm, “Are you sure?” 

Eden sighed again, “If I survive Crystal, inviting Monty will be as easy as breathing” 

Charlotte doesn’t know how to reply.

“Could you text her the address?” Eden asked and Charlotte nodded. 

Charlotte took out her phone as Eden took their food to the living room. She  typed up her address and texted it to Crystal alongside a quick lie about Charlie having some kind of a hot date as a treat to herself or whatever. When Crystal’s reply came through there was no more warm feeling in the pit of Charlotte's stomach.

Charlotte swallowed thickly around the lump in her throat. She made herself drink some water but still felt her chest press harder onto her lungs. Still Charlotte thought her anxiety was pretty justifiable. 

“Charlotte, can you help me for a tick?” Eden called her from the hallway and Charlotte scrambled to help her. They pulled two additional blankets and three more pillows from the closet for Crystal. They searched the pantry for more snacks so that all three of them could eat. It was not lost on Charlotte that Eden played with her bracelet the entire time, her fingers fidgeting nervously over the beads. 

She disliked this idea more and more the more prepping they got done, so much so she nearly texted Crystal a last minute raincheck when Eden’s doorbell dinged and both of them flinched at the noise. Eden took a shaky breath, closed her eyes for a moment and straightened her posture. Her hands dropped to her side, she gave Charlotte a what's-got-you-so-nervous look. Charlotte kept her stare are-you-sure-you-want this ?

Eden nodded and motioned for Charlotte to follow her as she went to the door, they stopped in front of it neither one reaching for the locks. “Call her,” Eden said and Charlotte complaid. 

They heard the faint ringing sound from the other side of the door before Crystal picked up. 

“Hey, um, I’m at the front door?” Charlotte heard Crystal clearly through the phone but also the mumble coming from the other side of the door.

“Okey, um wait just a tick” she said and Eden started unlocking the locks. It took her a couple of seconds but then the door was swinging open to reveal Crystal. 

Crystal’s mascara was smudged under her reddened puffy eyes, still she smiled weakly at them, her hands wrapped around herself. 

Eden ushered her in and then shut the door behind her loudly. She started locking it up and Charlotte saw Crystal’s eyes take in the half dozen locks on the door. “You’ve made it!” Charlotte said just in case Crystal thought about commenting on it. 

“We have brownies, popcorn and we were about to choose a movie, d’you have any suggestions? We’re kinda pulling up blank” She said and forced a smile on her face. She reassured herself that once in motion an object can not stop itself, and this was already happening so why worry about it starting.

Crystal nodded, “D’you like horror?”

“No”, Eden said firmly once she was done checking the locks. She smoothed out her sweatpants before she continued,  “Ground rules: no open windows; if you're feeling as if the air is stale tell me and I’ll turn on the air purifier, do not take anything or move anything out of place without my explicit permission, and if you could not lose anything in my house that would be ideal as well. As for the movies” Eden raised her eyebrows, and pointed to herself, “no horror,” and then to Charlotte, " no biopics,” and then to Crystal, “No docus.”

Crystal looked from Eden to Charlotte, clearly too emotionally exhausted from her breakup to deal with Eden the way she usually would’ve. “But I’m a cheerleader?” 

Charlotte’s grin came easier to her now. Eden accepted the offer with a nod, “I’ll go put it on, Charlotte you're on popcorn duty, oh and Crystal” Eden took a look at Crystal from down to up, “Take your shoes of, if you need slippers ask Charlotte, you can bring your jacket to the living room”, and then she was off.

Crystal nodded again and followed the instructions. 

“So… slippers?” Charlotte asked just to say something. She was a little bit hurt from the fact that all this time she had thought her and Crystal had been flirting. Crystal, however, had been in a relationship with someone else. Still, Crystal clearly needed someone and she had come to Charlotte, she wanted to be there for her as a good friend if nothing else. 

Crystal shook her head while she unbuckled her platforms. She crossed her arms around herself and refused to look Charlotte in the eye. Charlotte bit the bullet once again, asking to carry her jacket. Crystal handed it over without making eye contact. Charlotte guided her to the living room. 

She was glad to see Eden had already found the movie online. 

“You want me to turn on the AC?” Charlotte asked her in hopes Eden would take it as the invite to smoke that it was. Eden shook her head however, and offered Charlotte a tight lipped smile.

 Crystal has settled herself in the middle of the couch. 

“Please make yourself at home”, Eden half grumbled as she impolitely nudged some of the brownie into Crystal’s arms. 

Crystal scowled at her, “We all know im here on a pity invite Eden, just start the damn movie”

Eden snorted but she pushed play without another word. 

—

The movie had been beyond awkward. Nobody talked, which sucked because it was one of those movies that Charlotte had watched so many times she knew it by heart. Eden also knew it by heart and usually the two of them would speak over the characters, Charlotte would make terrible Melanie Lynskey jokes, they’d cheer the final cheer together. But with Crystal here it shook the dynamic in between them. 

Eden had become antsy, she kept fiddling with her bracelet and glancing towards Crystal anxiously. Halfway through the movie she stood up and went to check all the windows in the house. Crystal shot her a look but quickly returned to staring at the movie, they didn’t address it when Eden came back. 

Crystal ate two portions of brownies, Eden’s and Charlottes were on the coffee table sitting untouched. The credits rolled and Eden went to unplug her laptop. The silence was noticeable.

Eden rose to her full height, she looked at Charlotte and at Crystal, her hands fidgeting in front of her stomach, she took a deep sigh and said, “Well, what was this story that you wanted to report to us?” 

Crystal swallowed a couple of times and straightened her posture as she rearranged herself on the couch.

“So” Crystal breathed out, her eyes anxiously went from Charlotte to Eden. She rearranged the hair on her shoulder, “ You’re both familiar with principal Esther right?”

Charlotte and Eden both nodded. 

“Well, so,” Crystal took another breath, Eden rolled her eyes,”You guys know Mary Annsaught? The really smart physics chick?” Charlotte nodded, “ So last year she had that really bad mental breakdown because she wasn’t accepted to the next level of the physics competition. Well turns out it was Esther’s fault she forgot to send the notice to the board and Mary got disqualified.”

“Evidence?” Eden asked, her hands had stilled themselves and she narrowed her eyes at Crystal. Charlotte tried to hide her smirk with her hand. 

Crystal looked away, “Marry told me”

Eden clocked her head to the right, “ So?”

“Look, it's real alright. Last year the school received extra funding from the mayor as a bonus for all the sports medals and as a part of the mayor's campaign. Esther is close with the mayor, they follow each other on facebook and had a bunch of brunches last year in May. So the mayor followed through with the funding except that I don’t know if you noticed but nothing about the school changed - what did change was that Mary’s two siblings suddenly got fully paid intuition. Mary’s a senior this year and if you’ve been put into any class with her you’ll know she’s been bragging about going to Cambridge. She’s good in physics, sure but I doubt it’s enough for a fully paid scholarship, especially without the credits from those competitions.”

When Crystal finished she leaned back on Eden’s couch clearly satisfied with herself. 

Charlotte looked away just quickly enough to catch the little smirk on Eden’s face, “So?” 

Crystal’s satisfaction disappeared immediately, “So? It’s a great fucking story ”

“ So , what are we going to do with it? Write about it in plain sight? Do you plan on writing an expos é on the principal getting us all expelled and shutting down the newspaper?” She paused and crossed her arms across her chest, looking at Crystal with a challenge. Charlotte grinned as she realized where Eden was going with this.

“Sasaki won the literature contest at her middle school three years in a row. She specializes in prose and her tiktok suggests that she has a pretty active Ao3 account.” Charlotte noted and Eden nodded at her with appreciation. The two of them turned to Crystal. 

“She said she doesn’t want to be in the club”, Crystal protested, frowning. 

Eden shrugged her shoulders, “Make her want to join then”

“What happened to not wanting people to half ass the newspaper?” Crystal scowled at the two of them. 

“Yeah, we wouldn’t have actually accepted no as an answer when we asked you earlier. A good journalist has to be annoying innit?” 

“That's disgusting” 

“Sure it is,” Eden agreed, “so is the story that you brought us about Mrs. Finch and Mary. Now, we could introduce a new segment in our paper that is a thinly veiled satire of the principal and her incompetence, or we could talk about American politics and Greta Thundberg. We could just print issue after issue about stuff everyone knows and repeat the same takes and thoughts over and over again. Or we could be original, darring and a bit disgusting.” Eden smiled to herself, “ Pattinson assigned you to me because I need more hands on deck. I annoyed him enough to break him, I can break the two of you as well.”

Charlotte couldn’t blame Crystal for not responding, she herself could do little else but grin in awe at her best friend. Eden could be vicious when she wanted to, witty and confident in a way that made it hard not to bend under her will. Crystal faltered under it.

“Well, I also have a fun idea for this month's issue.”Charlotte announced, in hopes she’d break the tension of the moment a bit, “I think we should get rid of horoscopes” 

Eden’s head snapped towards her, “Absolutely not, that's one of the only things people actually read” 

“It’s repetitive though. Same old stuff shuffled into their noses again and again.”

This seemed to bring Crystal back from her pouting, she looked at Charlotte quizzically, “You don’t believe in astrology?” 

“No and neither does Eden”

Crystal calculated before saying, “Taurus” 

“What?” 

“I guessed right, didn't I?” 

Charlotte had no clue what Crystal was talking about except for the fact she had a self satisfied little smile on her face, she sneaked a glance towards Eden who nodded in confirmation. Apparently it was a yes to the thesaurus. 

“Wait, if neither of you believe in it then how do you write it?”

“Monty writes it for us” Eden answered, “She’s the head of the astrology club in our school”

Charlotte snorted, “That’s cus she’s the only one on it”, Eden shot her a dirty look but Charlotte only shrugged. 

Crystal frowned, “Monty as in Montgamery Finch? Esther's daughter?” 

“Yes, she’s a close friend” Eden said and Charlotte couldn’t keep her eyes from rolling away at the comment. Montana was an okayish friend at best, always too lost in the clouds and stars to notice that her raging unrequited crush on Eden was anything but cute. 

“So we have an in for the Esther story, you could ask her if she knows anything” Crystal said excitedly, she leaned on her knees a bit, a smile growing as she looked from Eden to Charlotte. Charlotte was glad Eden invited her. 

Eden raised her eyebrows at Crystal, “If you want to question Monty you’re free to do it whenever you want”

“If I want to?” Crystal's smile fell but her eyes narrowed, she looked at Charlotte for backup but Charlotte could only shrug her shoulders. She felt like she was participating in one of those brutal TV show initiation rituals. It was kind of fun. Crystal continued on, “I thought I was doing the photos?”

“Yeah but we’re a bit understaffed…” Charlotte began.

“Especially without Sasaki here” Eden interjected and Charlotte nodded. 

“...We can’t really afford to not be fluid in our jobs, d’you know what I mean? And since the Esther story was your idea…”

“We’ll leave it to you to take care of” Eden finished.

“Fine!” she exclaimed finally, “Fine I’ll get Niko to join and write the story, I’ll find the evidence and I’ll figure out how to print black and white photos. That enough?” She looked at Eden as she raised the challenge. Charlotte’s view of things might’ve been slightly biased but she thought Crystal might think this was fun as well. Especially with the way her head tipped to the right and her eyes stared Eden down in challenge she was ready to win.

Eden pursed her lips, “For now” the comment made Charlotte chuckle. 

It also closed the conversation, Charlotte looked around the room as if a new topic might fall from the ceiling, lamely she ended up saying. 

“So, anyone in a mood for another movie?” 

Eden shot her a look that said she had chosen maybe the worst thing to say at the moment and Crystal let out a sigh. 

“No it’s late, “She took her phone out of her pocket and quickly typed something out, “I’ve crashed your evening enough as it is. I should be going home.”

Eden nodded at her and went to the hallway. 

“What no I mean you’re not crashing anything it was fun to have you here, we should maybe do it again sometime?” Charlotte said as she watched Crystal get up from the couch.

Crystal smiled at her, “Sure yeah, we could”

Which was more than enough to make Charlotte's heart skip a couple of beats. She walked behind Crystal as they entered the hallway and watched in silence as Crystal buttoned up her platforms and slipped her jacket on. 

“Thank you so much for coming” Eden said with so little enthusiasm it just managed to be funny and not insulting. Charlotte smiled at Crystal. 

“Thank you for having me” Crystal said with a lot more sincerity and it maybe melted a bit of Charlotte's heart away. Crystal looked at her hesitantly and then went in for a short goodbye hug, lingering in her arms just enough for Charlotte to get a sniff of her lilac perfume. When Crystal stepped away she briefly eyed Eden.

“How are you getting home?” 

“My dad’s picking me up, I told him to get to the corner shop at the end of the street” 

Eden thought about it then nodded, she unlocked the door “Thank you” 

Crystal nodded, she waved goodbye at Charlotte one more time and then the doors were shut behind her. 

–

Two hours later and Charlotte had still been replaying the scene in her mind. Eden found it immeasurably annoying. 

“You're being homophobic” Charlotte accused her halfheartedly when Eden groaned at the fifth time Charlotte had mentioned Crystal’s septum piercing. 

“I just want to go to sleep, and you should want to as well” Eden rolled on her side, with her back to Charlotte for emphasis. Charlotte found that to be no issue as she raised herself up and climbed over Eden’s body so she was nearly falling off of the bed until Eden was forced to scooch back. This way they were looking at each other's faces. 

“So as I was saying she smelled like-” Eden groaned loudly at Charlotte's words and put her head into her pillow, “-Lilac. But not fresh-flowers lilacs, but like store-bought lilac perfume, you know?” 

“I do not know Charlotte as I have not smelt her”  

Charlotte scrunched her nose at the mental picture that conjured up, Eden hugging Crystal and smelling her. Weird. 

“I fancy her, you have to let me be gushy “ Charlotte accused and Eden just shook her head, her eyes closed. It was like the floodgates had opened, Eden had found out about Charlotte’s crush on Crystal and everything that Charlotte hadn’t told her in the last week just kept coming out, “Yes you do mate, I’m afraid thats what best friends do” 

“What, listen to you” she yawned right into Charlotte's face, her hands too slow to catch it, “ embarrass yourself over a hug?”

“Yes!” Charlotte exclaimed, she folded her knees a bit and they clinked against Eden’s under the duvet. “I’m pretty sure it’s right there in the contract” 

Eden hummed and furrowed her head into the softness of her pillows, “Written in small font?” 

Charlotte chuckled, “The smallest” 

Eden hummed again into her pillow but didn’t answer. Her shoulder fell and rose with her breathing, her eyelashes rested against her skin, illuminated by the streetlamps from outside. Charlotte watched her in silence until sleep came for her too. 

Chapter Text

Someone was inside the house.

 Eden could hear their breaths as they neared the bed. Two people, one was panting, he had been running. Running up the steps, and was now panting. Loud scratching of cold air, into his lungs. And out. They stood above the bed. Breathing, and Eden shouldn’t move, but she was shaking. Something inside of her kicking her skin from where it lay against her muscles. They saw it. The breathing, the hands, the loud and wet gasp, the shriek of her mother. 

She heard the croak of the door and she shut her eyes tighter, he knew she was awake. He knew, he knew, he knew . He had a gun. He liked this. The hover of the gun above Eden’s head, waiting for her to break. Waiting, his breath quickening in his excitement. He loomed over her, his breathing so loud, his waiting , and so fast, and Eden pushed her head farther into her pillow but it only made him push his heavy hand onto her chest. The door creaked, more people entered, with knives, with rope and with their heavy steps. They echoed in Eden’s ear and their breaths all merged when they neared her bed one by one. 

Eden needed to remain still, pretend to sleep, to sleep, to dream . But her eyes twitched and her muscles jumped and she pushed her head farther into the pillow and- the wetness of their breaths, their slimy hands on her neck forcing every horrible thing she kept inside of her out. All the doors were swinging open and shut. Her mother was screaming and her father begged them to stop. 

They were touching her, a hot hand gripped her shoulder and - they knew her name. Her name, because her father begged them “not Eden- please not Eden!”

Her eyes were shut tight, the pillow wet. Something was in her mouth, something which scraped against her teeth and was going to be pushed in, “Eden? Eden!”, until she choked on it, “Eden” with their hands squeezing her throat, her lungs aching, she needed to breathe. She needed to- They were going to kill her. 

“Eden breathe -” 

She choked, her breaths stumbled over her sobs and her lungs moved in a frantic way she could not control. Her chest spasmed. She was so loud.

“Big breath in, big breath out” 

Eden’s eyes opened, Charlotte was in front of her, a warm hand on her forearm. “You’re safe” she said and Eden barely heard her over all of her noise . “You’re safe Eden, you’re in your bed-” Eden’s hand stopped Charlotte’s words. She pressed against Charlotte’s mouth and shook her head. 

“Quiet” she whispered, bringing her lips to her own knuckles, she needed to see the understanding in Charlotte’s eye. “Please, please we have to be quiet” 

Something was around Eden’s wrists, one of the men they were going to drag her away, “Charlotte!” she couldn't say through her sobs, through the horrible stomping of air in her throat. Her hand was hanging in the air, Charlotte was going to speak again. 

Eden fought against him, to get her hand back on Charlotte’s mouth, “Shh shh” she managed to push through the shaking of her damned lips. Eden brought her other hand to her own mouth, she heard footsteps thrum in her ears. 

She brought her knees to her chest and managed to get her breaths to a steady thrum of in-out-in-out. He pushed against her palm. She couldn’t hear them. Slowly, she lifted her hand from Charlotte’s mouth and brought it to her own jaw. Shutting harder, pressing, she needed quiet, she needed to hear .

“Bathroom” Charlotte whispered. Bathroom. Eden nodded, she looked at the closed door, they were going to hear it when it creaked. Charlotte put a hand on Eden’s forearm and they walked over to it, their steps silent, but the door . The hinges. Eden had to warn Charlotte, she stopped in her tracks. Shaking her head, they were going to be heard. 

Charlotte watched her for a long, horrible, moment when everything was quiet . 

Eden felt her legs give out beneath her. She couldn’t hear them in the quiet, they are going to be able to hear her now. She felt her body rise and fall without her control. Felt the horrible coldness and firmness of the floor as it slapped against her limbs. Charlotte tried to hold her and Eden yelled at her to run, her fathers voice coming out of her mouth, the horrible screams of her mother. 

It was all so loud.

No one came. 

-

She played with the bracelet in her lap. When Charlotte climbed into the bathtub Eden brought her legs close to her chest, making space. She rested her wrists on the wobbly bones of her knees, keeping the beads eye level.

“You should go to sleep”, her voice was hoarse. Fingers trailed the curve of the letter C. 

“You should too, mate” 

Eden stayed quiet. She didn’t look at Charlotte.

“Do you want to talk about it?” 

If she closed her eyes for long enough the men came back. 

“Are you sure he’s not here?”

“How’d he get here mate? Your alarm didn’t go off, all the windows are closed, all the doors are locked. Not just the front door but the hallway door leading to the staircase, your bedroom door and the bathroom door. “ Charlotte had explained this to her already. Eden nodded while the words fell into the puzzle of her mind.

Charlotte nudged Eden’s foot with her own, “Do you want to call Jenny?”

Eden shook her head, “It’s the middle of the night.” Her fingers went over each bead once again, “Later” she leaned on the side of her bathtub, feeling it’s cold spread over her back. “Can you delete the text?” she asked, her eyes trained on her nails.

“Yeah, do you want me to go now?”

Eden nodded. Charlotte came back quickly. ”Done” 

Silence.

“Eden? Do you want me to check the windows and the doors?” 

Eden raised her head. 

A choke escaped her and her shoulders drew themselves forward, she had closed her eyes for too long, “What if you get hurt?” it was so quiet, she could hear Charlotte’s intake of breath. 

“Eden…” she said softly, her voice so impossibly close.

Chapter Text

Eden hated being early to places. Charlotte would always bitch at her and ask her if she’d rather be late. It was then that Eden would’ve rolled her eyes and lied just to be polite, she’d say “Of course not, it’s best to always be right on time”. She guessed she’s been lying to Charlotte for quite a long time. 

She was sitting under the bleachers, on her jacket in order not to dirty her skirt, with half of the buttons on her shirt unbuttoned and her hair down. She doubted anyone would creep up on her, especially what with all of the bugs and rodents crawling all over the place. Eden considered herself more than a little pathetic, the smoke curling in her lungs and being exhaled in front of her face did very little to make her feel cool. 

She checked the time on her phone again, surprise surprise it hadn’t changed much in the past 15 seconds. Behind her was a cardboard wall of sorts, it didn’t look moldy, didn’t leave anything on her palm when Eden tested it for sturdiness so she leaned her weight on it as she changed one cigarette for the next one. She knew chain smoking was bad for her, she was anxious not stupid. Her hands stopped shaking after having received a purpose, though. 

Eden waited in the loud silence of herself, the wind and the buzzing bugs. She waited and waited and cursed Mages for making her wait more than she should have. It was the Maths professor's fault she was here right now, bringing her knees high to her chess and hugging them with one of her hands. Endlessly waiting and feeling like she might die out of boredom or anticipation or loneliness. 

She made a quick note to herself to talk about this with her therapist, Jenny, later. She also checked the phone again, in three minutes the current class will end. Worst case scenario Eden is looking at fifteen more minutes of solitude.

She had been halfway through her second cigarette when she heard very loud footsteps followed by a string of curses. Eden turned her head to the left just to make sure it wasn't some boy about to catch her with her skirt up and shirt unbuttoned. 

“Waited long for me, did ya?” Simone greeted. Eden imagined she was trying to sound charming and smooth but she also nearly twisted her ankle on a patch of wet grass. 

“Mages threw me out” Eden said, she brought her knees down and rearranged her skirt just to be polite while Simone straightened herself from the awkward and embarrassing fall, “You didn’t twist it, did you?” Eden asked while eyeing the girls grey socks with disdain. 

“I’d throw you out too since you're such a cunt” Simone grunted, she inspected the ground on which Eden’s jacket lay, clearly hesitant to dirty her own. Her eyes didn't stay on the ground long however.  After all, Eden had half of her shirt unbuttoned and Simone was a neanderthal. “To be honest I'm not sure I'm on your side here, those really are distracting.”

Eden wanted to punch the smirk off of her face, “Right, because I arrived to maths, like this”

Simone shrugged her shoulders as she finally threw her jacket beside Edens. “I mean I for one am not opposed to it” 

Eden cringed away from her presence, “Do you even hear the sort of stuff you say or do you just hear the voice of the porn cameraman over your own? “

Simone got red in the face, she grimaced at Eden, “How could I forget you can’t not be a cunt for even three seconds” and then with a significant pause she added hesitantly with a whisper, “Whore” 

Eden laughed. Simone blushed at her furiously, with her head bowed down and eyes sneaking glances at what Eden won’t let be turned into a manic episode. Her therapist had said that she couldn't have manic episodes since she wasn’t bipolar but Eden hadn’t been that convinced, there had been a lot of these sudden bursts of laughter around Simone. She tried to catch her breath. 

“Shut up” Simone told her in the same way which made Eden laugh, she managed to suppress it then, letting out only a giggle before finally composing herself.. She could admit to herself that Simone looked a bit cute while tripping over her own insults. It was a lot more preferable to Simone trying to be suave. 

They sat in silence for a bit after that. Just as it started becoming unbearable to both of them Simone asked her, “You good, for today?” 

Leave it to Simone to always ruin everything.

“Yes, I am fine. I told you Mages threw me out. I wouldn't have waited here for an hour if I wasn’t fine, now would I?” She said around the pinch in her stomach, she eyed the clumsy jackets on the ground and crawled closer to Simone. 

“Just checking” Simone answered her with the same sort of annoyance and an additional eye roll, her hands fell clumsily on Eden’s waist as Eden climbed her way into Simone’s lap. Eden always hated this part, the closer she got to it the more she despised everything about their arrangement. She found that this was a pattern, she hated her body for how stiff and awkward and composed of bones it was and she hated Simone’s body even more for all the ways hard muscle refused to bend like a cushion under Eden’s touch. She hated Simone’s eyes and clumsy hands and she hated being under the bleachers with more bugs than she could ever count. 

Simone’s eyes were annoyingly glued to Eden’s lips, they always were, which was probably for the better. Eden doubted Simone would proceed if she saw the disgust in Eden’s eyes. Despite how much she hated every single second of this - well, ‘this’ didn’t last that long in retrospect. Thankfully, it never did.

Simone kissed her soon enough, always fast, impulsive and messy. Like she didn’t quite know how to kiss and was determined on just winging it as she went along. Eden was embarrassed to admit to herself how endearing she found it. She was addicted to the ever present learning curve of it, the way that stiff and rigid and uptight Simone turned lazy under Eden’s touch. Every kiss felt like the first one, the same push and pull. Eden pushed Simone’s chin in order to get a better angle to lick into her mouth and the soft moans she got were better than any cigarette Eden had ever smoked. They burned her lungs and spread their wisps of smoke further down. She could get high on the emotions, on how desperate Simone was to have her. Eden felt like she might explode where Simone’s hands gripped her waist and pulled Eden in closer. 

Eden kissed down Simone’s jaw, hearing all the little gasps and pants she got as a reward for her hard work on Simone’s beautiful neck. She had refused to ever label one spot as her favorite, the ways that she often read leads in trashy romance novellas do. Eden kissed all over, she unbuttoned the first button of Simone's collar in order to sneak her kisses further down and felt the other girl's grip on her waist tighten. Eden straightened her posture and went for Simone’s mouth again. She was met halfway there.

This was worth it, worth sitting under the moist bleachers for an hour, worth skipping shitty group therapy for, worth lying and sneaking around the school for. It was addicting, Simone’s mouth where it met Eden’s and Simones hands as they sneaked downwards to grip Eden’s ass. A jolt of excitement that zapped her through her spine. Simone kissed over Eden’s jaw and this was worth all of the stuff that happened before it.  Eden started to unbutton the remaining buttons on her shirt but the way Simone started sucking on her lower lip distracted her fingers for a long time. She felt Simone’s hand trail Eden’s side, the light pressure of her fingers leaving her shivering.Simones hand curled around Eden’s forearm and slid downwards. 

She took Eden’s wrists-

Her father, begging them to spare their child. Her knees scraped on the hardwood as the man carried her away, she cried and tried to turn around but it’s no good, they tied her up already- 

“Ede - Eden are you okay? Fuck” Rope around her wrists, tightly wound around them, she tried to set free but the friction made her skin tear“Eden? Eden, what can you touch? Eden?”, it hurt so much where the fiber cut into her flesh, the blood, warm and red and dripping on the floor. The man slapped her to stop crying. He would slap Simone too, to quiet them down. So that Eden could hear her mother better. 

Simone’s voice is so loud though, so loud it picks at Eden’s brain how she hasn’t been punished for it yet. Her noise  doesn’t fit the scene happening in front of Eden’s eyes so she tries to find where it’s coming from, “Touch Eden? Or, hear, what can you hear?” 

“Myself” Eden whispered, cursed at that fact. She heard her heart racing, she heard the scraping on her wrists, “Dad?” her voice cracked and the break snapped like wood in her ears. 

“Ede-. no try again please three things you can hear” Loud so loud. 

Eden breathed in shakily, trying hard to understand what exactly was being asked of her, why was she asked to speak when she should be quiet?  “You” she said again, “My - breathing”

“One more thing, Eden?” Simone said. Simone, because Eden was 17  and not at home but under the fucking bleachers and there were bugs here. 

“Buzzing, the insects” she blinked rapidly, Simone was nodding at her, her skin wrinkled in ugly lines of worry. Her hands were nowhere near Eden’s body.

“Okey, that’s great, three things you can see”

Eden breathed, “You” she said and her head fell down, “My skirt, your jacket” she breathed in and went to move herself off of Simone’s lap. The other girl flinched briefly but quickly abandoned whatever action she had started. 

“Three things you can touch?”

“Smell”  Eden corrected and leaned her back on the wall behind her, she pulled her knees to her chest, “My perfume, the mud, how moist it is in here” 

Simone frowned in confusion, her mouth agape. She looked a dumb fish. After a steadying breath Eden explained, “You did it in the wrong order, sight then hearing then smell then touch” her hands were still shaking lightly. Simone nodded as she took in the knowledge, was’tt even insulted about the fact Eden just insulted her. Not even bothering to double check or doubt the blatant lie Eden just spit out of her mouth.

Eden took out another cigarette out of her packet, these were going to kill her very soon. 

As she smoked she felt Simone’s eyes on her, when she went to meet them the other girl looked away. 

“What?” Eden attacked, this was worse than everything that happened in the lead up to the kissing, this was the thing she hated more than anything. 

“I didn’t - I thought I was being careful about where my hands were?” 

Eden thought about it a bit. Her wrists. As if Simone hadn’t touched them before. Eden was held by her wrists before by friends, by classmates, by Charlie when she was young and not visiting a therapist. Eden almost didn't want to tell Simone what it was, to add her wrists to the annoying list of DONTs that Simone kept on her phone. One time in August after making out Simone held her wrist, her thumb on Eden’s pulse point and her lips trying to beatbox to the beat. Moronic, incredibly dumb, the stupidest thing Eden had ever seen and now Simone wanted to have a talk that will end in her decision never to touch Eden's wrists again. 

Simone looked at her anxiously but didn’t prod further which was making Eden forget the uncomfortability of her skin and made her temper flare, “ Who taught you the three’s thing?” 

“What?”

“Three things you can see and so forth. You were terrible at it, did you get it from a show?” 

“My moms a shrink, I asked her how to help during a panic attack” she buttoned up what little Eden managed to unruffle. Eden took it for what it was, Simone saying she was about to focus on Eden's mental breakdown. Eden scoffed, she had waited for an hour under the bleachers.

Eden buttoned up her shirt until it was decent, meaning Mages would have called her a pornstar. “Does anyone have practice right now?” 

Simone thought about it, “I don’t think so?” she wanted to say more, probably to talk about why Eden froze up when Simone didn’t do any of her written down DONTS. Eden tried to talk as fast as she could, maybe Simone would forget then. 

“Let's go up then, if I start to smell because I hung out here too much I will tell your dad everything” she threatened and would see Simone flinch a bit. Good. She thought. When Simone didn’t fire back but just mimicked Eden’s movements Eden’s temper flared up again. Her jaw clenched against saying more and the two of them made their way up the bleachers silently. 

Simone took out her latin textbook and buried her nose in their homework. They shared latin and the professor had sat them together. During class when they sat at the same desk in the back row a lot of people gave them looks, knowing the way they fought and generally didn't get on well. Their thighs had been pressed together during the whole class. Eden considered smoking a new cigarette. 

It was better on the bleachers than under them, the wind against Eden’s skin helped her think and settle enough that she noticed Simone hadn’t actually written anything. Eden scoffed at her and Simone finally responded.

“Will it actually kill you if you start behaving like a decent person?”

“And what does a decent person do?” 

Simone spluttered around her words, her shoulders rose to her ears and her hands moved in the air, “Talk about why they had an episode in the middle of kissing, tell their - whatever- that they're not in the right mind.” Simone’s nerves were clearly on edge, “What the hell Eden, we said we’d talk about shit like this when it happens” 

“Is that what a decent person does? Yell at someone? Wow, Simone you sure are setting a mint example” 

“I am not yelling,” Simone said as she lowered her volume,“ and you're getting off point. Can’t you just tell me what it was?” 

“Maybe it was Mages kicking me out and you calling me whore later.” Eden snarled.

“Oh fuck off, I’m trying to help” Simone said and returned to her textbook. Eden turned her face away and looked out to the football field. 

Eden hated this. Simone called it aftercare, their mandatory thirty minutes together after every make out. Mandatory because Simone refused to make out with Eden unless Eden stayed for half an hour after, and Eden refused to stop making out with Simone because of something so silly.  So they had ‘aftercare’ but not the aftercare that was defined on google, firstly because they don’t have sex and secondly because most of it is Simone talking about some of her interests and Eden listening to her.

It was especially bad after Eden had an episode. When they started this thing Eden had made it clear to Simone not to touch her neck, it was pure logic: Eden can't stand most fabric on her neck, can't handle necklaces so why would she be able to sustain flesh? She had told Simone and Simone had listened for the most part but then she pulled Eden’s hair by accident and -

Then, Simone mandated the aftercare. As if Eden was dumb enough not to know who these thirty minutes were for. 

The list went: No neck, no hair touching, no being pushed against the wall, no pressing of weight on Eden. 

Eden pursed her lips, she was looking at the carefully trimmed grass, “It was the wrists, you’ve touched my wrists, apparently they had too” Had Eden’s head been angled a bit differently she would’ve seen Simone pull her posture straight and nod solemnly, but Eden’s focus wasn’t on Simone, it was on the grass. They had painted it green, there was no way grass could just be that green naturally. 

“Do not put it on your list. I’m fine with the wrist touching, usually. I must’ve been antsy the whole day so it built up” 

“Okay,” Simone said in a way that told Eden she absolutely had put it on her mental list, “, will you tell me next time? If you’ve been ‘antsy’?” There’s an almost mocking tone to it which made something loose in her chest, Eden looked towards Simone and squinted her eyes at her. “I'm waiting for an answer, Payne” 

Eden rolled her eyes and took a look at Simone’s homework, “Well these are all wrong” she said and it distracted Simone enough that she dropped the conversation. She frowned at her text book. 

“No they're not” 

“Does this look like akkusativ of second declaration to you?” 

“No, it looks like genitiv because thats what its supposed to be”

Eden smiled at her, “Sure it is” 

Simone bickered at her, she was saying nonsense and displaying her clear misunderstanding of the language, somehow, she started talking about Greek and how it has infested her brain like a fungus infection. At least that was the meaning Eden gleaned from whatever lies Simone was spewing. 

She suddenly cut Eden in the middle of her rebuttal, “Shit, wait let me give you your shirt back before I forget it”

Eden sighed, “At least you know how to stop an argument you're losing” 

“Oh sod off Payne” Simone said and swatted at her hands. Eden leaned back on her arms and looked at Simone while the other girl did her homework. She studied Simone’s face, her arms, which even under her shirt looked big and muscular - Eden wondered what Simone will look like in college once her gym membership pays off and all the shallow lines on her back gain their depth. Once she prefects her curly hair routine and finally starts listening to Eden’s quips about skin care. Simone was pretty in that silent way where it takes you by surprise and leaves you asking why. Eden was asking, gazing and studying, if despite her lack of drawing skills she could draw a perfect portret just from memory. 

She used to set an alarm in the beginning, she used to take all of her things and storm out when the thirty minutes ran out. She felt too lazy for it now, she didn’t like her ringtone anyways, and the sun was so beautiful on its way down. Her house could wait. 

Simone glanced up at her briefly and turned a lovely shade of red, it made something light up in Eden's stomach and her shoulders loosen. Then Simones eyes went a little bit to the left, “Oh holy mother of fucks” 

Eden frowned and glanced back but turned around frantically as soon as she had spotted them, “I’ve been tutoring you in latin” she made up the lie on the spot. 

“ You’ve been tutoring me ?” Simone responded with her shrill of a voice high and face even redder. 

“When you learn your conjunctions we’ll flip the scenario,” Eden checked for her buttons again with one hand as the other played with her bracelet. 

Simone started packing her stuff in her bag, but briefly she handed Eden her off white shirt,”Here, they’re coming, and I know my fucking conjunctions. I'm basically fluent in Greek”
Eden frantically wanted to return the off white shirt into Simone’s hand, “Latin and Greek are not the same language” ,she had told Charlotte she lost it she was not about to just have “How can you be this stupid?”

She could feel Charlotte getting closer so she just stuffed it messily into her bag.

Simone hissed at her “Hey! I folded that nicely”

“Shut up”

“Do you know how hard that shit is to iron?”

“It is literally mine and shut up”

“Eden! Is everything alright here?” 

“See you both later” Simone said and then stomped off so suddenly Charlotte and Eden both just stared at her back as she went down the bleachers. Her back was broader than usual for a girl.

Eden schooled her features and pointedly looked at Charlotte, “My knight in shining armor” she eyed the approaching Crystal behind Charlotte's back, “And her lackey” 

“Was that Simone?” Crystal said as she stared after her, “ she jumped you?” she said to Charlotte who seemed to ignore her in lieu of asking Eden.

“What was she doing, mate?” Charlotte’s brows were furrowed, her eyes kept going from Simone to Eden, no doubt calculating whether or not she could still catch the girl.  

Eden tried hard to keep her eyes on Charlotte in order to properly convince her “Nothing” she swung her backpack onto her shoulders and climbed down the bleachers so that they could all be level, “We were sat together in Latin and the professor gave us a project to do pairs”

“Wait, who do you have in Latin, Gansley? Because he is such an asshole-” said Crystal and before she could continue her rant Eden added.

“I should really go home, it’s getting late” 

Charlotte had completely abandoned looking at Simone. She crossed her arms over her chest. “Is Charlie home?” she asked, worry still clear on her face, the setting sun gave it a bronze tint. 

“No, but she's coming tomorrow along with the Sensizes so I should clean up” Eden lied. Charlotte’s eyes danced, probably roaming over Eden’s face, sensing the lie and trying to conceal the hurt. They were the same color as the earring dangling from her ear. 

“Want me to help you? I was giving Crystal the tour of the school but I'm free for the rest of the day” Charlotte said, she stepped closer to Eden and uncrossed her arms over her chest. Charlotte’s arms were bare and Eden could see the stick and poke rose Charlotte had done during the summer as the girl extended her hand to rest on Eden's arm. A show of worry, a show of care, A silent question, do you need me? As if the answer was ever anything other than a yes. 

Eden shot her a tight lipped smile, “No, please enjoy your little outing, and Crystal, “ she turned to the other girl before Charlotte could set her mouth into a pout, “if you could get into contact with Sasaki that would be aces”

“I’ve been trying but she isn’t answering her phone like at all” 

“Well try harder, one can not become a decent journalist if they're too polite to become annoying,” Eden turned back to Charlotte who was squinting at her with her trained eyes, Eden felt a rush of thrill shoot up her spine at the thought that Charlotte was about to figure her out, every lie Eden had told her and every secret she had kept. “Enjoy the rest of your…” she didn’t want to say date, “ outing” 

—

Not even three hours later Charlotte was in Eden’s living room, laying on her back in the middle of Eden’s softest carpet. Her hair was splayed like a dark halo around her head, a saint painted on glasses of Eden’s cathedral. Her eyes were closed in peace, arms sinking in the fiber of the carpet. Maybe not the painting but a model of an old master. Eden set down their two cups of cappuccino on the floor and carefully laid her body next to Charlottes. Putting enough distances that their clothes wouldn’t touch, she laid down silently hoping to not alert Charlotte. Eden settled her hand over her stomach and stared at her white, uneventful ceiling. 

“Have you had fun with Crystal?”, when Charlotte announced she wanted to come over they made polite small talk, they went over it again when Charlotte showed up on her front door, but between the awkward run in on the football field and now there hasn’t been anything meaningful exchanged between them. 

“Yeah” Charlotte smiled as she answered, Eden didn’t even have to look at her to know it. She could hear the warmness in her words, “Yeah, turns out her ex’s a real prick, she’s been thinking about breaking up with him for months.” 

Eden nodded and waited for Charlotte to continue talking but an awkward pause spread between them before Charlotte continued, “ How’d maths go?”

“I lasted fifteen minutes,” she heard Charlotte intake an angry breath so she added on quickly, “Could we talk about something else. I’ll handle Mages later.”

Charlotte seemed to agree, she heard the other girl shift her body and she felt her eyes on her face, “Can’t believe Preston sat you next to Simone”, she heard more dragging of limbs on the carpet and then the soft pressure of knees on the side of her thigh. Eden pressed her thigh on the ground, not knowing whether it’d be better to flinch away or lean in. 

Eden wanted to bite her tongue out so she may not need to speak, thankfully (or not) Charlotte didn’t need anyones permission to continue, “By the by you won’t believe what happened during practice yesterday. Simone came up to me and attempted to apologize. I mean, mate, it was a bad apology just like totally bombed it, you know what I mean? But she did it in front of literally the whole team and the coach so that I’d end up like the bad guy if I didn’t accept it.” She knew Charlotte was still smiling. She felt Charlotte’s fingers trace circles into the sleeve of Eden’s arms. 

Eden swallowed, she attempted to focus on the spider building his web in the corner of her living room, “What did she say?” 

Charlotte snorted, “Oh, she was mental, said she’d been drinking, in-front-of-the-coach! Said,” Charlotte made her voice a bit deeper and slurred her accent in a whiny Simone imitation Eden used to love, “ I was so drunk , and she was, a drunkard you know? I was so drunk and -” Eden turned her head to the side and met Charlotte’s stare, she looked worked up about this, “she was like woke about it, yeah? Said how being drunk’s not an excuse and how she’s really sorry ‘bout what’d she said. ,” she huffed and rolled her eyes, “Had she actually wanted to apologise she’d do it in private, wouldn’t she? I mean in front of the coach? Talking ‘bout drinking?” 

Eden nodded, guilt curling around her stomach. Simone had been punished with running laps for the rest of the practise, Eden knew this because she had received a voice message from a very panting Simone about it. She mentally pushed against the memory and the warmth it brought to her stomach.

Charlotte was looking at her, very obviously waiting for Eden to give her input on the situation. Her eyebrows drawn together in worry. Her whole body curled and wanting for Eden to be fine. Eden knew this was bigger than Simone, bigger than anything that could happen in a single 24 hours. Charlotte’s fingers still traced figures into Eden’s forearms and her lips twitched as if ready to pull into a smile if Eden needed it. Ready to comfort, begging for Eden to be fine and relax, for her leg to lean against Charlottes. Eden turned on her side, their knees clicked together and Charlotte’s fingers fell on the carpet in the space between them, Eden looked at them as they stretched like branches. Maybe they yearned to touch, they pointed to Eden’s neck, she returned her eyes to Charlotte’s. 

“I don’t know Charlotte, she seemed decent during Latin maybe she’s grown over the summer.” Eden said, trying to sound calm and composed.  

“Hasn’t grown much if she hassled me first thing she saw me” Charlotte scoffed, she drew her hands to rest next to her own thighs, Eden felt the phantom touch of the back of her hands on her sweatpants. 

Eden shrugged one shoulder, “ She really could have been drunk- but that's beside the point”

“So what is the point?” Charlotte asked, “Because it’s starting to sound quite a lot like you’re about to defend Simone” 

Eden opened her mouth but Charlotte cut in before she could say anything, “The same homophobic Simone that bullied you all of last year?” 

“We were arguing a lot, that is true but-”

“Arguing? Eden, she got her whole friend group to trash your locker, she almost got you expelled!”

Eden breathed because apparently it was her turn to say something, she looked away from Charlotte’s demanding eyes and instead at their legs where they stood close. The space between them felt like proof of infinity. “The point ” she started, “ is that all of that was between me and Simone. She apologised to me too, it was… a lot nicer and more private.” 

“When was this?” 

“End of last year” Eden said, for a second she was ready to tell Charlotte everything. To confess about every lie she told and feeling she suppressed in Charlotte’s presence, then the second passed and a cold hand gripped at Eden’s throat as it forced words out of her mouth “And the first day of school too, we talked right before I ran into you and Crystal, “ something scratched against her wrists but Eden was too focused on her words and on ignoring the furrow of Charlotte’s eyebrows to really mind, “she apologised and I informed her that in that specific instance I am not the person who she should seek forgiveness from, I told her to apologise to you”

Charlotte raised herself up into the sitting position. Her eyebrows were drawn together, “You forgave her?” 

Eden followed her, she didn’t want to be looked down at. “I know that she was a cunt, she still is. I am not at all saying that you should accept her apology. But I do not want to have her as an enemy for the rest of highschool. Last year was exhausting, Charlotte, and if she’s willing to bend over backwards to forget it I’ll indulge her.”  Eden looked down when she felt Charlotte’s fingers settle around her wrist, she’d been fidgeting with her bracelet again. 

There was no episode at the touch, because they always came in the worst moments. Eden took her hand away, “She gave me the key to the cabinet.”

Charlotte’s eyes widened, she opened her mouth but nothing came out, so Eden continued. 

“As an apology for yelling at you. Again, it is completely understandable if you do not forgive her yourself.” she almost caught herself saying more, admitting that Simone was bad at apologies. That she went all red in her face as she stumbled around the words, too stubborn about doing the apology right. But Eden didn’t want Charlotte to know that.  

Charlotte's face was scrunched up in a frown, the expression made Eden cringe into herself. She didn’t know how to offer comfort, but she awkwardly tried to. She placed her hand on Charlotte's forearm and offered her what she hoped was a soft smile.

“So… you’re friends now?” Charlotte tried with a huff of fake laughter. 

“We’re not friends” Eden said, it felt like a lie.  

Charlotte chuckled, she awkwardly reached out for her cup of cappuccino, “Good.” 

-

Charlotte came up behind Eden as the water in the kettle boiled, “I’m staying the night” She announced, her arm grazed Eden’s as she added another teaspoon of sugar to her cup. 

Eden breathed in deep, her shoulders loosening, “Thank you” 

-

Charlotte fell asleep first, her arms were outstretched towards Eden, as if reaching. Eden let herself stare, in the quiet dark of her room, hidden from Charlotte’s eyes, she admired the lines of Charlotte’s almost wanting arms and let herself imagine. 

-

Sleep was taking her step by step, making her limbs heavy and surroundings fuzzy. Everything blurred under the moon’s light. Charlotte’s face tempted her like a statue, precise and well sculpted. Eden had let their knees touch under the duvet. She fought against her eyelids, as she prayed the night's prayer. Let me watch a bit more, imagine in her head a thousand things which were never to happen, words said from Charlotte’s lips that now ringled around her head. Her eyelids were heavy, her heart tired and her God so cruel to make someone so perfect and put them right outside of Eden’s reach. 

-

Charlotte’s groan woke her up, her arms flinched in front of her chest,”...Eden?”

“Mhhmm?” she said, in haste to open her eyes , she was rising to a sitting position but Charlotte’s hand on her shoulder brought her down. 

“Did I wake you?” Charlotte groggled, Eden’s head had come down into her pillow hard, her eyes closing as if they were glued at the waterline. She shook her head into her pillow, her shoulder fell on the mattress and she was laying on her stomach. “Okey” Charlotte murmured, her hand slid from Eden’s shoulder to her back and she pressed their bodies closer together. 

“This fine?” Charlotte asked. 

Eden’s eyes remained closed despite her best efforts, she rolled back on her side trying to rearrange her body despite sleep’s best effort to keep her down. Her back curved again’t Charlotte’s chest as a warm hand rested on her hip. “Perfect” she tried to say but her mouth was already slack against the pillow. Charlotte might have hugged her tighter, Eden might have dreamt it. She smiled against her pillow, with Charlotte here and holding her safe… 

-

Her alarm rang.

Chapter Text

Crystal was waving her phone in the air as she explained her odyssey towards one Niko Sasaki. She sat on the table with her boots rocking a chair beneath her. Eden eyed the wooden chair anxiously, preparing herself for the moment Crystal in her enthusiasm, inevitably, upset its balance and made it clatter on the floor. Charlotte didn’t seem as worried as Eden, probably due to the fact she was too busy ogling. Out of solidarity to Charlotte, Eden tried not to frown too hard. The chair kept rocking. 

“And then I found one of her tumblr blogs. So I messaged her and - I admit I got too ahead of myself and rushed into messaging her,” Charlotte smiled at Crystal, “ so she might have blocked me but!” Crystal exclaimed with a satisfied, and rather arrogant, smirk, “ I created a new blog account, researched the hell out of this one show I think she’s really into-” 

Eden might’ve been failing her mission. If this is what Charlotte found ‘cute’... Eden couldn’t handle it any longer, “Could you get to the point?” she said. Ten minutes ago when Eden walked into the newspaper cabinet, Crystal had been telling Charlotte about Niko Sasaki and now, without ever reverting back to whatever the start of the tale was (Eden was split on whether to consider that rude or kind), she was still talking about Niko Sasaki. 

Said Niko Sasaki was nowhere to be found. Eden was going to get prof. Pattinson fired. 

Crystal flipped her off, like the mature person she was, “I was just doing that, Eden ”, she rolled her eyes but managed to get to the point, “ Anyways I got her to message me back” 

“That’s brills Crystal!” Charlotte complimented her and spared Eden a look which communicated she was being too cruel to young blood. Eden bristled but reverted her eyes to her hands. “How’s the Esther story going?” 

 “I’m working on it, but I’m not going to get it done by the end of the month,” Crystal answered.

“That’s fine,” Charlotte reassured her. Eden started sharpening her pencils, “ Me and Eden already prepared some material for the first couple of issues throughout the summer, funny comics, stuff like that. We just have to get a couple of interviews relevant to the start of the year, don’t we? And we’re all set for the first issue.” Charlotte packed all of her books into her backpack and slid it onto her shoulders, she had practice in ten minutes and was seriously risking being late to it in order to chat with Crystal. “I’ll leave the two of you to figure it out,” Charlotte said and winked at Crystal.

Eden’s pencil came out of the sharpener without the graphite tip. She slammed the metal furiously on the table in order to get the graphite unstuck from the two tightly pressed blades. 

Crystal smiled back at Charlotte as she bid them goodbye and closed the doors of their Newspaper cabinet. Eden slammed her sharpener again against the table, thankfully this time the graphite tip did come out. She heard Crystal scoff.

 Eden gave her a tight lipped smile. Crystal gave her a finger. 

“We’re getting nowhere with these… pleasantries. Have you figured out photo printing?” asked Eden. 

Crystal nodded and took a camera out of her bag, she handled the camera very carefully setting it lightly on the table as she zipped her rucksack back up, “I’ve tried to make the photos have high contrast so that they still look good when printed but honestly I haven’t tried it out yet, Charlotte was supposed to show me last week but then we lost track of time.”

“Right,” Eden stood up and smoothed over the folds in her pants, “ …well the printer is here.” She walked over to the big wooden closet and tried her hardest to dramatise the opening of the doors. Crystal didn’t gasp and Eden mourned Charlotte’s absence.

She had managed to bribe Simone into helping her carry the printer from the library to the cabinet. They had done it early in the morning before the rest of the student body arrived, though a couple of cleaning ladies who had an ear for gossip commented on how nicely the two of them were getting along now. Eden might have kissed Simone against the table once they were done, not that she thought too much about it. 

“Printer!” she presented to Crystal, returning to the present. “Do you conceive of a way to link your camera to it?” 

Crystal eyed the printer wearily, she shrugged her shoulders. “We’re about to” She started to examine the cord attached to the printer and her camera.

“There are more cords in the drawer if that helps?” Eden asked as she headed for the snake's den of a drawer. Crystal accompanied her briefly but shook her head in a negative when Eden tried to untangle a red line from some green and blue ones. 

“Okay google says that… there’s no connection” She looked at Eden with a sort of helpless face that Eden didn’t quite know what to do with. Simone was good with informatics. 

“The school’s wifi is horrendous. We used to link the printer to a laptop. There should be some spare laptops in the library, if you can figure out how to send them from there,” she pointed to the camera,” to the laptop.”

“Sure” Crystal sighed as she led the way to the library. Eden let her, thinking the poor girl was probably very proud and willing to showcase her newly-found skills of navigating through the school.

-

The librarian spat them back out, apparently the film club was having a meeting. 

Eden paced their cabinet back and forth, “Can you believe them, they’ve shut down the library” her hands were up into the air, “The Library is supposed to be open to the entire student body - oh except! For every day one to four because they have to talk about moving pictures! Warhol's Empire state building! I mean you Americans!” she pointed her finger at Crystal who raised her eyebrows in surprise at being addressed, “You call it movies, do you not?” 

“Um yeah we do. Why?”

“That is the most stupid name I have ever heard in my entire life. Movies because they’re pictures that movie move! And there’s a club dedicated to that! Kill me twice and dance over my grave, I mean I watch films all the time, it is not something to make a club about!” 

“Okay, there's clearly a lot of rage here” Crystal gave her a tight lipped smile, “Why not write a column about it? We could do a schedule of which rooms are occupied when for dumb reasons. Make a couple of dumb jokes about vaping in girls bathrooms and jerking off in boys locker room” 

Eden thought about it, she settled on the soles of her feet, “That could be a good idea with a right writer,”, she added on, “I’m afraid I’m not the best with humor however. But perhaps a table of sorts with a club sometimes real, sometimes fake, say your stereotypical athletes corresponding to the room they are using and for the dumb reason they're isolating it from the people.” 

Crystal seemed to light up, “And people tend to feel offended when they can’t go somewhere, we’ll make half of it a joke a bit offensive but lighthearted and the other ones real shit. like how we can’t enter the bio classroom during breaks” 

“That is actually brilliant, Crystal” Eden admitted, she opened her journal and scribbled the idea down quickly, she motioned with her other hand for Crystal to continue. 

“Thanks” Crystal said and then once she translated Eden’s gesture added on, “I don’t have anything else though.”

Eden nodded, “It’ll come to you. So far for the first issue, we have; a quick glance over for all the school events, a comic, a sign up for the school extracurriculars, we should probably write a column on the school drama club, your table, a couple of Charlotte’s interviews, the job sheet and horoscope!” Eden tapped her pencil against the paper of her journal, she looked at Crystal, “I’m not missing anything am I?”

Crystal opened her mouth to say something but came up short. Eden interjected, “It’ll come to us” she closed her journal and glanced at the clock on the wall. Quarter to three, “I told Montgamery to meet me here around three, she gives us the horoscope readings for the month.” She returned to her usual unpleasant demeanor, ”I will not serve as your spy, but I have prepared her by telling her that you might want to do a column or two on her mother”

“Why would you do that?” Crystal frowned.

Eden shrugged her shoulders, “She’s a friend. Mind if I smoke?” 

“No. You haven’t been acting like someone who’d respect a friend, so I’m surprised, is all.” 

Eden opened the window, she pulled out one of her cigarettes, “I’ve invited you to my house, I’ve given you compliments when they were warranted. ”

“Give me one” Crystal said motioning for the cigarettes and Eden raised her an eyebrow before closing the package. 

“No,” she replied with a smile. Smoke filled her lungs and she turned her head to exhale outside, she returned to the topic of Monty. “You had the Esther idea, you should lead the investigation. It’s the ritual of initiation” 

“And Niko’ll have to go through it as well?” 

Eden shrugged her shoulders, “If she has a good idea, sure. If not, she could help you with…,” she nodded towards the printer,”Photos.” Eden eyed Crystal, “You could show them to me, so that we don’t waste paper on something that is not of quality” 

Crystal scowled,”Yeah, sure whatever” she approached Eden with her camera and angled it in a way that let Eden peer at the little screen. Crystal went through the photos of their school, the backyard and the couple of classrooms which got renovated during the summer. There were a couple of photos of other students lingering by the hallways. 

“That one” Eden pointed at the camera screen, motioning for Crystal to stop scrolling through the pictures. It was the picture of the soccer field, the boy and girl soccer teams caught mid practice while a couple of people did homework on the bleachers. Eden could make out Charlotte caught mid jump with triumph written all over her face. 

“Really?”

“Yes. It’s good, great focus and composition”, It had a feeling to it, a sort of calm joy that spread from the photograph onto the person observing it.

“Right…” Crystal said. She stole the cigarette from Eden’s fingers and took a long drag. Eden frowned at her as Crystal coughed all of the good smoke out. 

“You’re wasting it.” She stole her cigarette back and quickly took a drag before adding on, “I am not one of your friends I do not think you less cool for not poisoning yourself”

Crystal scowled, she crossed her arms over her chest, “Really?”

“These will kill you” Eden commented before Crystal could finish her groaning, “They’re terrible for your lungs. Charlotte decided to quit because it’s messing with her running time”

Crystal pouted at her, “And you smoke them not to live but to die huh?” she said, full of mocking. Eden decided to be the bigger person

“They help me with stress.” She took another drag and put the packet into her pocket. “I am not going to mention therapy-stuff if you don’t. I’ve a certain respect for Jennie and I do not mean to cross the therapist patient confidentially"

“Could’ve fooled me” Crystal muttered in a way that was obviously supposed to be heard. “And if you did respect Jennie then you could’ve stuck with us a bit longer.” Crystal tipped her head to the right. “Not that Charlotte seems to know anything about that”

Eden swallowed her brief discomfort, “I do not see a point to a bribe if I’m already willing to keep my mouth shut.”

Crystal  watched her with a poisonous stare.

 “Fine” Eden said and took out a new cigarette from her pack.

Crystal lighted it with comical smugness, as if it marked her victory. Eden watched her, she felt her mouth curl into a frown, “Do you not feel disgusted with yourself? Bargaining with these sorts of chips?”

Crystal laughed, the cigarette wasting away in her fingers, unfamiliar to the taste of her mouth. “Okay! Do you not feel disgusted lying to someone who adores you?” The mocking pout was back on her face, she looked at Eden as if explaining to a child that stealing was bad. 

Eden swallowed the acidic taste in her mouth, “I do not owe it to Charlotte to tell her everything, just as she doesn’t owe me anything in return. We have a healthy friendship, I understand if you can’t seem to comprehend what that is.” She managed to smile at Crystal, the other girl opened her mouth but Eden stopped her, “Fighting with me will not get you an easy out out of this club” 

“Not everything is about your stupid club, Eden” Crystal bit out. 

“Of course it’s not Crystal, I am not stupid. I did not invite you to my house last week because of your unique ability to question a high school principal's bad decisions. I did it because of your breakup with that abusive ex of yours, you will notice however that I have not  told Charlotte about just how horrible your taste in men is when she inquired. That is because I am a decent person and do not need to sink as low as bribing -” There was a knock on the door that stopped Eden in her tracks, her head snapped towards its direction but it remained closed. The other person patiently waited for a response. 

Eden took in a couple of breaths, “Must be Monty” she said to Crystal. “I hope we will not need to finish this conversation.” She didn’t wait for a response from the other girl but headed to open the door. 

“Hi!!” Monty greeted with a dimpled smile on her face. She walked into the cabinet and dropped a thin file onto the table. “ Wow girls! This really is something!” Monty awed as she turned to look around the room. Once her eyes landed on Crystal, Monty’s smile brightened and she waved, “Hi! I’m Monty! I help with the horoscope reading and a little bit with some art if it is needed” 

“And we are all very thankful for your participation” Eden said, she took Monty’s file into her hands to inspect its contents. “If you ever want to take credit for anything you’re more than supported to do so” 

Monty smiled at her but quickly averted her eyes, she tucked some of her bangs behind her right ear, “Oh it’s nothing seriously, I could never be a journalist like you guys!” she turned back towards Crystal and Crystal seemed to finally get the memo. 

“I’m Crystal. Why were you given a choice on the manner?” She took a performative drag of her cigarette. 

“Monty is already in another extracurricular” Eden said, her fingers traced some of the drawings of the star constellation. There was too much conversation going on for her to properly concentrate on reading the texts Monty wrote out for her. 

“Astrology!” Monty exclaimed. Her hands did a bit of a jazz movement before she burst into giggles. Eden smiled at her, Monty was really good at lighting up the mood, which Eden never failed to appreciate. “I mean I love what you girls do with the newspaper but I can not juggle more than one extracurricular.”

“You’re an American?” 

“Yeah. But I think I’m slowly picking up an accent? What do you think, Eden?” She turned at Eden with hopeful eyes.

Eden tried her hardest to put kindness into shaking her head. “I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing. You’re just as eloquent as anyone could be” Eden spread the star chart for taurus and virgo on the table. “These are very neatly done.” she commented as she traced her hand over the illustrations of a bull. 

“Yeah” Monty neared the place where Eden was standing, “ I did it digitally, that's why the lineart is more precise than usual” 

When Eden looked up at Monty, the other girl quickly looked at Crystal and then back at Eden. Most likely asking whether they were going to ask Crystal to accompany them to their coffee hang out. Eden didn’t think she could handle any more of Crystal for the day. 

Eden checked the time on her phone performatively, “It’s half past three already, Charlotte’s practice must be nearly done” 

“I thought you were waiting for Monty” Crystal added, she snubbed the butt of her cigarette against the windowsill. 

Eden spared Crystal a tight smile, “I was. Would you mind locking up? I don’t trust some of the cleaning ladies with these” she motioned to the horoscope papers. She chose to put virgo and taurus into her backpack but left the rest on a shelf in the closet. She’ll go over them some other day. 

“You still think Mrs. Doll has it out for you” Monty asked through a laugh, she turned towards Crystal, “ Last April one of the cleaning ladies accidentally spilt bleach over a stack of newspaper issues.” she explained. 

“It was not an accident. The issue of the previous month had been about her horrible treatment of the freshman. She was angry and she took revenge that I know has not yet satiated her. “

Monty laughed and Crystal rolled her eyes. Eden frowned, she swung her backpack onto her shoulders and said to Monty, “We should get going anyways.” 

Monty nodded and waved once again to Crystal, “It was nice meeting you!”

—

Charlotte’s lungs burned with every breath she took, “Arms up Rowland!” She heard Maren yell behind her, she swore that the latest promotion to captain made her more bitchy. Charlotte still obeyed, raising her arms above her head and closing her eyes, did her body sway with the wind? Maybe, possibly. She took big breaths in and out. Her arms swung up and down as the world around her became more real.

Someone clasped her on the shoulder, “Goddamn Rowland you played like the devil” Mel said with clear admiration in her voice. The poor girl’s face was as red as a tomato due to her fair complexion. 

Charlotte would’ve grinned, “I wasn’t too bad” she started walking with Mel towards Coach Mick where the other girls were also headed. 

“Sure, three goals, but not that bad huh?” Mel mocked while pushing Charlotte’s shoulder in her usual teammate comradery. Charlotte chuckled once she got the breath for it. 

The two of them lamely jogged to the heart of the gathering group. 

“Rowland! Finally quit smoking did you?” Mari shouted as soon as she saw the two of them approaching. 

“Can’t quit if you never started, isn’t that right coach?” She yelled back, completely overlooking Mari and giving a high five to the sophomore midfielder, Sophie who did an exceptional job today as well, “Your passes were aces mate” she told her as she dropped down beside the girl to stretch her legs out. Melissa joined in with them. 

“Both of you were so good, what the hell have you done over the summer?” 

“What did you?”Sophie answered back. Charlotte would’ve thought she was being mean but she knew the two of them were good friends and Mellisa took the question as a way to brag about all the ways she had postponed practice. 

Charlotte laughed while the tendons in the back of her legs ached, and made little comments here and there when she thought appropriate. From the corner of her eyes she followed Simone however. The goalkeeper was sitting outside of her usual friend group. She was practically staring at Charlotte. 

Charlotte tried to breathe through her inflexibility, but it was like her tongue kept swelling. She looked at Simone directly only once, the other girl using it as an opportunity to nod at her almost immediately. Five minutes later when Coach Mick asked them all to quiet down in order for him to talk Charlotte was ecstatic for an opportunity to have her attention stolen by someone else. 

“Girls, the school year has started, meaning that you can no longer spend your free time lounging on your back but lunging on your opponents on the field.”Simone still kept looking at Charlotte.  “As you no doubt all know we have some seniors in our team as well, the scouts will come around May but whether or not they come at all will depend on your performance all year round. Rowland, Simone, Ella I’m looking at you three in particular when I say this, do not take these guys as a joke. You are not here for nothing, what you do here matters and could get you to so many good places.”

“As if anyone recruiting would ever look at St. Hilarion's ?” 

“They might girls, they might. Especially with Ella’s and Rowland's excellent striker work and Simone’s trusty goalkeeping. You never know. Now all of you, you’re dismissed. Practice’s in two days and I’ll be expecting a lot more running power, Mellissa” Coach finished off and Charlotte heard Melissa groan behind her. 

Charlotte clasped her back as they all stood up to go to the locker rooms, “Come on you’re gonna get used to it in no time”

Mel scowled, “Laps as punishment? Never. I should’ve joined a sport with less running, like table tennis’”

“You and what hand to eye coordination?” Sophie asked her.

Melissa made her face into a mocking grimace, she turned to Charlotte, “Sophie will force me to jog with her on weekends now. Wanna join us?” 

“That depends, what route are you running?” 

“We go around the bridges, clockwise two times, a break, and then counter clockwise next two laps” Sophie, a fucking marine aperently, explained. 

“We do?” Melissa asked, surprised. The bridges were five miles apart from each other, making the whole route 10 miles in one circle.

Sophie continued as if she hadn’t heard Mel, “We start at six, the meeting place is at Loch cafe, you know where that is?”

“Yeah but I think I’m gonna pass this one, does the invitation still extend to the time where my ego finally fails me?” Charlotte asked, she didn’t think she needed Sophie’s draconic schedule, yet. But a run here or there in the future might be a fun hanging out excuse. And she would need them later, if Coach was right about the scouts coming in. 

The three of them talked as they entered the locker room. Charlotte left them to their bickering and went to fill up her water bottle. She took slow sips and waited for the locker room to empty out before she went back to her bag with clothes. 

“Is Eden waiting for you?” Sophie asked, she was fully dressed and was adjusting her bun in the mirror. 

“Uhm no, not today.” Charlotte answered as she started to undress herself, she always preferred to undress last. 

Sophie made a disappointed face..

“Don’t tell me you started betting already” Charlotte tried to act like she was insulted but her lips didn't behave the way she wanted them to. She hid her face as she slid a new shirt over her shoulders. 

“Yep” Sophie replied, “lost me five pounds. You want me to wait for you?” 

“Nah, see you later!”

“Bye” Sophie said as she exited the locker room leaving Charlotte alone to undress in silence. Charlotte quickly switched her shorts for proper jeans and her knee high socks for regular ones. She checked her hair in the mirror and made a mental note to wash it that night. 

By the time she had exited the locker room herself it was already twenty minutes after the practise ended so Charlotte expected not to see anyone on her way to the bike. To her misfortune she was wrong. 

She had to take a deep breath in and out, reminding herself that she was the bigger person. She walked over to her bike, her eyes not meeting Simone’s once. 

And then Simone spoke up, “Rowland, I want to talk to you” 

“Too bad” Charlotte says as she unlocked her bike lock, calm and collected. She swung her backpack and put it into her bike’s basket, “Nice talk” 

“No wait, really- I was an ass,  I shouldn’t have apologised in front of the whole team”

Charlotte sat on her bike, her left foot ready on the peddle, should’ve started going really, however, she paused. Her jaw locked tight, she remembered the way Eden had talked about Simone the other night. Full of forgiveness. Charlotte couldn’t let the two of them sort it out solely between themselves. She wanted Simone and Eden to talk to her about their fight and their peace treaty so that she could know when the farce finally fails and Simone decides to hurt Eden again. So she sat on her bike and stared knives at Simone in hoping it’ll be enough to beckon for the girl to explain herself onwards. 

Simone took a deep breath, she looked away from Charlotte, “Look I’m sorry I was an asshole. And a bully and yeah terrible. I’m hosting a party this saturday though, mine are out of town and I have booze. You should come” 

Charlotte raised her eyebrow.

“Look I’m trying to turn a new leaf, the whole team is coming. I’m not an asshole anymore.”

“Sure” Charlotte said, somehow managing to unlock the muscles in her jaw. She kept staring at Simone if only because she found it a bit funny how the other girl couldn’t seem to keep eye contact. She kept fidgeting with her hands as well. 

“Bring over whoever you like, Payne’s invited too. You could also bring along that Monty girl?”

“Why would we invite the principal's daughter?” Charlotte scowled while she asked. Monty was well liked by Eden but not by many people. Mostly because of who her mother and brother were. Simone inviting Monty was almost as shocking as her inviting Charlotte and Eden.

“Because I'm not an asshole. Isn’t Payne, like, close with her?” 

Charlotte swallowed her scowl, Eden and Monty hung out here and there, Charlotte doubted they were so close the whole school knew of their friendship. “I’m running late,” she said to Simone. 

“Fine” Simone said and turned around to walk off somewhere into her goblin hole. Charlotte started to peddle on her bike. 

She put one earbud into her ear and hoped that the angry notes would silence the anxiety brewing in her stomach. She was tired from practise and her stomach felt heavy from the acid threatening to rise up her mouth. She didn’t know what sort of religious conversion Simone had had over the summer but if Charlotte knew anything for sure it was that a sudden shift of mood meant danger. She didn’t want to test out Simone’s generosity or to dismiss it. Didn’t know if Simone would get bored with the charade sooner if Eden and Charlotte kept distance or if they indulged her in the performance. 

Charlotte turned a sharp corner on her way to home, the wind attacked her from the behind pushing some of her baby hairs into her face. She swerved with her bike to the side so that she wouldn’t bother the other riders as she stopped to take her phone out of her backpack. 

She felt like throwing up. She had skipped her lunch so that she could hang out with Crystal in the newspaper cabinet and then she was running so late to the practice she hadn't had time to buy herself anything to eat. Her body was now punishing her for the negligence. She turned off her bluetooth and brought her phone to her ear as the call dialed. 

“Charlotte?” Eden picked up on the other line. 

“Hey, are you free now?” Charlotte asked, she bit her lower lip as she waited for Eden to tell her it was fine for Charlotte to come over. 

“I’m with Monty at the Park. While the weather’s still nice.”

Charlotte felt the hungry black hole in her stomach widen itself, “Oh, yeah it really is nice outside innit?”

“Yes it is, do you want to join us? We just started discussing that show you’ve recommended Monty” 

“Yeah it’s aces, innit ?” Monty’s voice spoke up from the background. Charlotte knew that Eden would never put any call on loudspeaker, which meant that Monty had most likely rudely shoved her head next to Eden’s and yelled at Eden’s ear. Charlotte scoffed. 

“Charlotte?” Eden asked again, and Charlotte remembered the invitation to join them. The park they were in was only about ten minutes from where she was now. “Are you nearby?” 

“Yeah, mind if I join you? It’d take me about ten minutes but I have to grab something to eat first, I’m starving” 

“I have a spare sandwich  if you want, I accidentally made two this morning,” Eden said. Charlotte felt her shoulders loosen as she turned her bike left to head towards the park. 

“How do you accidentally make two, mate?” She straightened her back and balanced riding without using her arms on the steer of the wheel.

“You rely too much on muscle memory and get too entranced into an interesting video essay” Eden answered on the other line. Charlotte chuckled, Eden added, “See you in ten?”

“See you” she said as she hung up. 

-

Charlotte’s never been a fan of Monty. Well maybe once, near the beginning, when Monty was shy and didn’t say much and annoyed  Eden as much as she had annoyed Charlotte. But ever since then? Never. 

It was Monty’s idea, surely, to lie down on the grass and stare up at the sky, because Eden would never do something that ridiculous otherwise. 

She was doing so now, she had her and Monties jacket on the grass and was laying on them. (Monty was just laying on the grass, Charlotte cringed at the sight.) Eden was looking at the sky, a hint of a smile tugged at her lips and the skin around her eyes was wrinkled as she squinted at the clouds. Her hair cascaded around her head, providing a Snow White like image, her lips spread into a full smile when Monty told her something, their red tint fulfilling the fairytale. 

Charlotte dropped her bike unceremoniously next to the nearest bench, she halfheartedly tied the lock around one tire and the leg of the bench making sure to produce as much noise as she could. When she glanced towards the two girls, Eden had herself propped up on her elbows, she smiled at Charlotte once their eyes met and raised herself to a fully sitting position. She started fiddling with her backpack as Charlotte walked over. 

“Charlotte!” Monty gritted through a smile, where like a hyena, she showed all of her teeth. 

Charlotte tried for a smile, “Hey!” Eden made place for her on her jacket and Charlotte sat next to her. 

“Here” Eden handed her a sandwich and Charlotte took it with a grateful smile. She crossed her legs in front of her and rested her weight on her hands. “How was practice?” 

“Aces mate, I absolutely killed it, yeah? Scored three goals!”

“That’s amazing Charlotte!” Eden said with a little nod, Charlotte leaned her weight against Eden's shoulder.

“What were you two doing?”  Charlotte asked.

Eden looked towards Monty, “We were discussing the horoscope, Monty has made some beautiful drawings for this month's issue.”

Charlotte left it to the two of them to keep discussing the horoscope, and then a book they both read recently and then some guys in Monty’s class that Eden was familiar with. She rested her chin on Eden’s shoulder once she was finished with the sandwich. She was so tired, she felt her bones drag the tempo of her breathing. Charlotte managed to catch every second sentence that Eden said and every third ugly look from Monty. Mostly she just watched people pass them by, the silver C resting against Eden’s wrist. She had to watch Montana too here and there, not for too long less she barf at the puppy eyes she was making at Eden, just enough to pretend as if she was listening. 

Eden’s shoulder moved as she spoke and Charlotte felt it against the bottom of her jaw. Sometimes exhaustion caught Charlotte off guard, deep and insistent, like her father laying on the couch unmoving. She appreciated Eden’s pillar on which she could lean on. 

When a brief silence symbolised a clear end of a conversation topic Charlotte asked, “Do you need a ride home?” she turned her head to Eden, in case anyone got any wrong ideas. 

“I thought about just walking, it’s not that far from here” Eden said and straightened her posture which made Charlotte unhook her chin from the crook of Eden’s shoulder. 

“I should probably head back too. Subway” Monty said when no one asked her. Charlotte spared her a glance before she returned to watching Eden check for her keys inside of her backpack. 

Charlotte and Eden stood up and began to shake the grass from Eden’s jacket, Charlotte merely tossed Monty’s in front of her feet. 

“My train should arrive in about fifteen minutes.” Monty battled for attention as she reached for her own jacket. Charlotte saw where this was going and glanced at Eden to see what she’d choose.

“Do you want us to wait with you?” Eden asked and Charlotte groaned, internally. She closed her eyes and opened them. 

“Yeah I could use a quick stop to the subway bakery, no offense to your sandwich, Eden” She said through a hopefully believable smile. 

“No need honestly and the bakery is awful there, didn’t you find a cockroach in your sandwich this summer?” Monty asked. 

“Yeah, Eden told you about that?”  Charlotte commented, she stuffed her hands into her pockets.

“I had to warn her, I should have warned the health inspector as well. I can’t believe they still allow that place to run” Eden replied, eyebrows furrowed in distaste. 

“So you’re good?” Charlotte turned back to Monty. 

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll see you guys around?”, Monty said. Charlotte waved at her in hopes it would discourage the American from going in on a goodbye hug with Eden. She saw the want in her eyes. 

Thankfully Miley Cyrus had some semblance of self control. She waved back at the two of them and turned in the other direction. Charlotte went to unlock her bike and was glad to see Eden following behind her. 

“Was the practice tiring?” Eden asked her when the lock clicked.

“Yeah mate,” Charlotte laughed, her shoulders slumped and her back curled in on herself, she let the back of her hands hit the earth “ I’m spent” maybe she could lay down on the pavement? As a joke. She wondered if Eden would smile and lay down with her, the way she had with Monty. 

Eden narrowed her eyes, she glanced towards Charlotte’s bike. Charlotte followed her line of sight and briefly she saw the interior of her living room. She straightened up and  took a huge breath before asking, “Could I walk you to your house?”

Eden raised her eyebrows slightly, “ Sure.” Her eyebrows came down again, “Though, I could… drive you?” she tested out. 

Charlotte felt laughter loosen her shoulders. “You’re on Payne”.  Eden gave her a smug smirk and Charlotte flipped her backpack so that it rested against her chest. She saw Eden mount her bike, both of her feet on the ground and her hands rested as far on the handle bars as they could go. 

Charlotte climbed herself onto the bars, her backpack in her lap, each hand sandwiched in between her thigh and Eden’s hand. She felt Eden’s chin lightly rest on Charlotte’s shoulder, if she moved her head just a tad to the left their cheeks would touch. As Eden started peddling Charlotte felt the raising of Eden’s chest against her back. She let the exhaustion wear her down and against Eden, until her skin burned against the other girls and the wind made her eyes tear up, the laughter bubbling from her mouth while Eden brought her home.

–

Of course Charlotte found herself on Eden’s couch with her math textbook resting against her pulled up knees an hour and a half later. Eden was humming a tune to her left, her lips pulled into a pout. Charlotte watched her flip the dictionary pages and highlight some passages. Charlotte waited for the moment when her lips would tug into a smile and the skin of her forehead would smoothen, when the solution would finally come and the humming of her song would be replaced with the scribbling of the pencil against the paper, Charlotte let herself watch the cycle again. 

Charlotte had put her phone to charge right after she had texted her mom that she will be staying at Eden’s. They worked in relative silence since Charlotte couldn’t play her own music and would rather go deaf than listen to Monty’s pop playlist. For a painfully yearning lesbian she had a pretty basic music taste.  

Charlotte twirled her pencil in between her fingers. A part of her pitied Monty, being rejected by a straight girl wasn’t easy. Being rejected by Eden… Charlotte could imagine it. The widening of Eden’s eyes as the realization hit her, the way her fingers probably would have fiddled with her bracelet and the soft tones of her voice as she apologised for not feeling the same way. She imagined Eden’s shoulders probably fell in on themselves, that she tried for one of her soft smiles, for an awkward hug. A part of Charlotte respected Monty for not breaking down after that sort of rejection, she imagined she herself would have been wrecked  

Eden tilted her head to the right, she scowled at her textbook and fiddled with her notebook. Charlotte remembered how upset Eden had been over it when she told Charlotte.

“It could be a typo” Charlotte noted, she had seen Eden furiously go back to the same paragraph three times, “Mine are full of them” she motioned to her neglected textbook. 

“Or it could be that I can’t do this anymore” she demonstratively closed her books and leaned on the back of her arms. Charlotte followed her straight A student behavior. She bit the inside of her lips, almost taunting herself over whether or not she’ll say it. 

“Should we watch something?” Eden asked.

“Yeah” Charlotte said, they put their books on two neat separate piles and moved over to the couch. Charlotte watched Eden roll down the blinds and search for the remote. 

“You know Simone’s attempts at being nice freak me out a little” Charlotte said as she remained unhelpful and lazy on the couch. She folded her legs in front of herself and leaned against the pillow. 

Eden stopped in her search, briefly. Charlotte felt the need to elaborate, “ I mean she keeps apologising, she even invited me, well us, to her party this weekend. It’s just weird I’m still wired to go all defense on her, do you know what I mean?”

Eden shrugged, she managed to find the remote, “ She mentioned the party to me too,” Charlotte could see the cogs turn behind Eden’s eyes. She sighed as she let her body sink into the pillows next to Charlotte, “Honestly it annoys me a little, how civil she’s being. I mean, I… prefer it to her insults but I sometimes think she’s being too… in her head about it.”

“Exactly mate! Like today, yeah,  she stuttered while she was talking to me. Honestly, are we sure that’s Simone? That it isn't some kind of an alien abduction, is it?”

Eden smirked, “Or a cloning case” but her eyes grew distant again, and she chewed her lower lip about it. She said tentatively, “ I do… “, then abandoned her words with a shallow laugh, threw her head back, “ I don’t know. Sometimes I think maybe we could be friends” 

“You and Simone?” Charlotte exclaimed with surprise. Their phones both sound off with a chime of a notification, making Eden’s head twitch, but Charlotte returns them to the ludicrous statement just made, “Mate, I get that you’re all for forgive and forget and spreading that Christian love, yeah? And okay she’s civil for now, but friends? With Simone?” 

Eden reverted into herself at the words, drew her knees to her chest and laid her fingers near her bracelet. Charlotte had to continue, “ I mean I’m just trying to look out for you, mate. Simone used to be viscous.”

Eden nodded, “Yeah, I know.”

Their phones chimed again and Charlotte barely contained her scowl, “I mean if you want we could go to the party, try out the waters you know?” She tried to sound joyful and not as worried as she was. “We could invite Monty as well,” Charlotte tried. 

Eden looked at her from the corner of her eyes, she scowled, “And Crystal” 

Charlotte pushed at her forearms jokingly, “Oh, come on,” she said through a laugh, ” that is not the same.”

“Mmm” Eden didn’t agree. Her head twitched again when their phones chimed. ”I mean they are both girls. I like Monty, you like Crystal. And vice versa doesn’t work too well.” 

“Mate,” Charlotte said she nudged at Eden again, trying to get her to look at Charlotte and not up the ceiling, “We do not like them in the same way” 

Eden did straighten her posture at that, “Unfortunately” she said and was then interrupted by another chime. Eden rolled her eyes in annoyance which made Charlotte giggle, “Could you go see what it is?” she asked her. 

Charlotte rose to her feet but still complained in good nature, “Too lazy to get our own phone, are we?” 

“Too unbothered, more like,” she heard Eden answer behind her back. She took both of their phones back to the couch. “I bet it’s Crystal” Eden said and Charlotte rolled her eyes even if she knew it was Crystal. 

Eden had leaned over Charlotte’s shoulder to look at the messages. All of them were from the Newspaper group chat. “Told you” Eden said, her voice low next to Charlotte's cheek. Charlotte shuffled on the couch so that they could settle in more comfortably.

“Okay, yeah you told me” she turned her head slightly, just enough to try and see the smirk of Eden’s lips. “But! No bet, no get” Eden’s eyes went from Charlotte’s phone to her eyes. 

The light caught on them, Eden’s eyes. Often Charlotte found herself coming up short on how to describe them, she had never seen anything adorned with the same shade of light gray. Like fog on an early winter morning maybe but so much clearer and more warm. And annoyed as well, with her cheeks coloring pink.

The phone chimed again and Eden cleared her throat in a polite reminder to Charlotte to open the groupchat. 

crystal.palace has added NIKOSWORLD to this groupchat

crystal.: Hi Niko! This is the official groupchat for the St. Hilarion’s Newspaper Club! Mr. Pattinson has appointed you to this club and Eden Payne, Charlotte Rowlands and myself are very glad to welcome you ! Meetings are every Tuesday and Friday in the cabinet 203 unless we agree otherwise in this groupchat. Welcome!! :) 

NIKOSWORLD left this groupchat

crystal.palace has added NIKOSWORLD to this groupchat

crystal.: Hi again, Niko! Participation in this club is mandatory as our highschool’s rules clearly state. You’ve already missed a couple of meetings. I hope your cold has passed because there is a lot of work in order for us to maintain the tiring issue per month schedule. 

Eden scoffed next to Charlotte, “She hasn’t even been in the club long enough for one issue publication”

Charlotte smirked, “She’s saying the truth though, isn’t she?”

NIKOSWORLD left this groupchat

crystal.palace has added NIKOSWORLD to this groupchat

NIKOSWORLD left this groupchat

crystal.: Niko, you are a part of this club. Please respond to my messages. 

crystal.palace has added NIKOSWORLD to this groupchat

NIKOSWORLD left this groupchat

crystal.: O my god she actually BLOCKED ME

crystal.: bsffr this fucking girl

crystal.:@e.payne can you fucking belive her? Like I was all professional and civil and 

crystal.: “welcome :)” and ALL

crystal.:Eden u can’t be mad at me she’s obv unimaginably difficult to work with

crystal.:@lot_lands07 ive sent you her insta can u add her 

crystal.: cus like

crystal.: she blocked me

Charlotte raised her eyebrows at the messages. She looked towards Eden. “I mean you have to give it to her she’s not giving up” 

Eden pursed her lips, she glanced at Charlotte, “I’m not giving it to her as long as Niko’s not in the groupchat.” 

Charlotte laughed as her phone chimed in her hands, “Harsh, mate” 

crystal.: Charlotte I can see youve read the messages

crystal.:add her. 

crystal.: @e.payne ur girls been slacking off

Eden scoffed at the last message, Charlotte feigned hurt. She started typing. 

okey ouch.

didn’t know you had that in you, palace 

lot_lands07 added NIKOSWORLD to the groupchat

Charlotte sighed, she looked at Eden, “Any ideas for what I should say?” 

Eden adjusted herself against the pillow taking her weight off of Charlotte. “Something that will make her feel accepted?”

“Got it mate” Charlotte rushed to type before Niko could remove herself from the groupchat again. 

Hi Niko! We’re so happy to have you on the team! Can’t wait to see your input!!

Charlotte got a notification from Crystal in their private chat.

crystal.:Wheres eden?

crystal.:I thought the newspaper was her lifes long work

“And she’s funny too,” Eden deadpanned. She motioned for her own phone and opened instagram with a certain sort of dreadful misery. 

NIKOSWORLD left this groupchat

“Come on mate, you have to admit it is a bit out of character for you not to reply innit?” Charlotte replied while she typed a message to Crystal.

dont worry about Eden

keep up tge good work with niko tho

She got a predictable notification on her phone, Charlotte switched back to the groupchat and typed. 

niko blocked me 2  

Eden chuckled into her phone. 

“You as well?” Charlotte asked, and Eden nodded. She looked up at Charlotte, her eyes glistened with mirth. “You regret giving her to Crystal, don't you?” Charlotte teased. 

Eden looked away briefly and then back to Charlotte, confirmation enough “I like this Niko. She’s stubborn and catches on fairly quickly.”

Charlotte hummed, “All characteristics of a good journalist, innit?” She watched Eden smirk. Eden typed something out on her phone, “D’you think Crystal will get her to join?” Charlotte asked. 

“I do.” Eden closed her phone and set it down next to her thighs on the couch. “She is making good progress so far” 

Charlotte didn’t want to seem so sappy. Her best friend approved of the girl Charlotte wanted to date, it wasn’t a big deal but her lips didn’t really receive the memo and she found it hard to wipe the grin off of her face. She saw Eden roll eyes before focusing her attention on the TV and the remote. Charlotte left her own phone on the couch and tried to hide her grin with the back of her hand. She still couldn’t get rid of the excitement for a long time into the episode.

Chapter Text

JULY

Eden stubbed the butt of her cigarette on the concrete with her heel. She took a deep breath and regretted, she could have smoked for at least a 20 seconds more before the ember truly reached the filter. Her head hung low, eyes on the packet in her hand. She checked the time on her phone. Group therapy had started already. It had started five minutes after Eden had arrived at the youth center, four minutes after she decided she would not wait around for her therapist, Jenny, to show up and start the introduction segment and a whole two minutes before she had decided to light up a cigarette. 

Jenny had told her she needed to meet new people all the way back in October. People who wouldn’t judge her because of how plentifully they themselves were judged. Eden hadn’t budged for a while, pointing to Charlotte and Monty and one boy from her cello classes whom she still talked to in her free time. Friends, she had said, pitying the pride that sneaked into her voice because of a single letter S. 

Then she got another S involved in her life. An S that burned in her stomach and mouth, made her drunk and giddy with want and left her hungover in disgust in the morning. Simone had kissed her and Eden had furiously kissed her back. On a bathroom floor, Charlotte danced with a boy who had a crush on her. His hands big on her waist and her smile as free with him as it was with Eden. Charlotte, so used to having people love her Eden thought she didn’t even notice when jealousy curled their mouths into devil’s grimace. So Simone was a relief, a disgusting relief that made her rage, made her fist at her hair and shirt. Pull her closer so that with more force she could push her away, away into a wall, into a mattress. Until she was gasping at Eden’s fingers and laughing and crying. The paint peels off in the heat, revealing the metal it tried to decorate.

It rusts and deteriorates. 

Eden took her phone out again. She opened her chat with Simone. They had met up exactly once in the two weeks that had passed since the party. Met up once and argued, sat in silence, argued more. With Simone threatening Eden to stay silent and Eden being disappointed in the way all her hurt turned into a knife she felt thrust more and more into the soft belly of Simone's fear. 

Are you free tonight?  

She typed and sent the message before she could think it over. She was fiddling with her bracelet, again, and she took the lovely thing off of her wrist and into her pocket, she didn’t want to break it, again. Eden took a couple more deep breathes, feeling the exposure of her neck, centering herself back to the here and now. 

And then she heard her.  

“Just like come pick me up in an hour or so” 

Eden groaned before she was aware of the noise she was making. She abandoned her overthinking and walked out of her hiding spot to meet the American brat of the year.  

“It lasts a fucking hour? Crystal,” a horrible, horrendous new american accent joined her. It slurred his words in a way that Eden guessed could indicate New York or maybe Alabama., “Baby, I'm here for only like a month and you wanna spend that time talking about your feelings with not-me for an hour?”

Eden was a couple of meters away from them. Crystal’s back turned to her and the guy she was talking to, too focused on his precious Sweetheart to really notice Eden at all. She had not felt bad for eavesdropping. 

“Look I have to go to these, okay? Otherwise my folks will-” right, Crystal’s beautiful ‘folks’, her ‘olds’ her ‘bitch of a mother’ and ‘cuck of a father’, who neglected their poor Honeybun believing in the old wives tale that honey can’t go bad. But look at Crystal who has- Oh no! Gone rotten! “-cut me off my allowance. And like I’m really-”

“Babe!” The guy screamed, “I’m here for a month!” Eden was glad for her distance, she was sure he smelled of vodka and stale beans. 

“I know but-”

“And instead of hanging out with me! You go with” he raised his eyes now, probably in order to get a better look at the youth center but his eyes spotted Eden instead, “With people like her?” 

Crystal turned briefly, her scowl deepened when she saw Eden. Then she turned back to the man.

“Are you fucking cheating on me with her’ ” the man said, or yelled more like “ Crystal?!”

“No! Oh my god, no, she just goes to the same group as me, look I’ll literally be there for like an hour and then we can go-”

“Am I not fucked up enough for you? Huh? You think youre the most fucked up thing that happened to me?” 

Eden stepped closer while he yelled until she was right next to Crystal, she had not been a terrible fan of his tone or the direction his words were going in.

“Crystal, you’re late” Eden said as she turned to the people’s princess. 

Crystal’s eye twitched, she swallowed something and pursed her lips, “Can’t you see I’m in the middle of something? Tell Jenny I’ll be there in a second” 

“No, Crystal!” both of their heads snapped towards the man at the raise in his tone, “You’re not gonna be there in a second” he had made his voice a horrible girlish shrill before continuing to whine at them, “ I fucking come all the way here for you, you dumb bitch and you think you can just piss me off to hang out with some lunatics?”

Eden raised her eyebrows at him. 

And then, quiet. 

She turned towards Crystal. The girl was looking at the guy, her lips pressed tight and her eyebrows furrowed in an ugly crease on her forehead. Eden glanced at her hands where they hid themselves in her pockets, it’s always the hands isn’t it? Eden grabbed Crystal’s wrist, the other girl flinched at the contact and continued the movement as if to let her arm free. 

“What do you think you’re doing?” the guy demanded. 

“I’m getting her to therapy,” she told him and then turned back to Crystal who still tried to wriggle out of her grip, “Come on, we’re both late” 

“Let go of me,” Crystal tried and the guy stepped up closer to them, too close to Eden for her comfort.

“Yeah let the fuck go of her” he put his hand on Eden’s forearm as if to shove her away, “What the fuck is wrong with you?” Eden’s grip remained tight on Crystal’s wrist and Crystal’s other hand found itself somehow gripping at Eden not to let go, her legs following Eden as she tried to get them away from the guy despite all of his yelling and insults and threats. 

“She said she doesn’t want to fucking go!” He yelled so close to her Eden could almost hear someone else's screams on top of his. She exploded. 

-

“So, Eden” Jenny started and Eden straightened her posture in the time it took her therapist to decide on a question, “how did it feel?”

“I felt scared. Not so much of him as of the possibility of a bigger panic attack” she took a deep breath focusing her attention on Jenny, only, “And so as soon as I felt it, I let it out. And now I feel better” she didn’t. 

Crystal frowned at her from the other end of the circle. Realistically speaking they shouldn’t have been sitting like this. They were both late, and the chairs were always filled one after another. You sit with who you come with was the repeated slogan of their weekly meetings. But when Eden screamed it was really loud and a lot of people were really conccerned. 

“And the people? Rushing in, how did that feel?” Jenny asked. 

Jenny asked a lot of really dumb questions which made Eden like her. Most of Jenny’s questions were feeling based because she hasn’t been a therapist for a long time and Eden liked having more experience than her. She liked knowing she could have asked better follow up questions, knowing she knew herself better than Jenny did and that Jenny won’t be able to break her like a lock. Charlie and she had had many fights about choosing to stick with such a bad therapist but Eden persisted. 

“Not great. But it wasn’t a big attack, so not terrible either.” Eden slid her gaze from Jenny to Crystal, hoping that the therapist would understand she didn’t want to talk about it any longer. 

“Okay, well I’d now like us to go through the circle and say what has been on our mind this week since our previous meeting”, Jenny never knew how to push an issue when it was a group session. Eden knew she would have to go over her little incident with Jenny privately later but she was glad for the momentary rest. Crystal still watched her, her arms crossed over her chest in an amazing imitation of a toddler. 

Eden crossed her arms at her back. The American scoffed and averted her puffy eyes. Crystal hadn’t known how to deal with a screaming Eden. Neither had her ‘just a friend’, he had taken off after Jenny had arrived and Crystal allegedly still sat next to Eden on a pavement, waiting for Eden to name the three things she could smell. Crystal fortunately wore a lousy lilac perfume that practically acted as a smelling salt to Eden’s sinuses. 

It was Crystal’s turn, “Um” she drawled and rubbed at her eyes with the sleeve of her jacket, it was summer no one needed jackets. “ I had been thinking about school I guess. Apparently I am staying here long enough to be enrolled in a British high school. “ she continued on, about her friends which Eden doubted she missed, about not being sure she’d like the new people or if they were going to like her. She continued and continued, cracking herself open and Eden watched her. Lips moving, the sound didn’t really come to Eden the right way however. 

The first time Crystal Palace von a very long surname surname had spoken in the group she had introduced herself and the reason she was here, as was custom in Jennies sessions. You can call me Crystal for short though and uhm I wish my parents were dead.

Eden rose from her chair. She excused herself and left the room. Checked her phone, a new message from Simone. 

simone: Yes

simone: u know where I live right? come at 6 

–

Simone’s house was empty, safe for themselves. Simone had motioned for Eden to sit on the couch, her hair was pulled into a ponytail, she was wearing shorts that exposed her thighs and a pink t-shirt. Eden couldn’t decide if she looked like she put effort into her presentation or if she just rolled out of bed looking like this. She decided on something in between. 

Silence stretched so taught you could feel it in the air. Eden looked around herself, her mouth shut and a million thoughts swirling in her head. Finally she spoke up with a sigh. 

“I want an apology.” She began, the other girl stayed silent and a coward, “ I want an apology for all of the horrible things you've said and done to me these last two years. And not only to me but to Charlotte too.”

Simone scoffed at the mention of Charlotte, “Not my problem, she's been sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong now is it?”

“You’ve fought with her on multiple occasions” 

“Petty cat fights she called them, and besides she started it every single time” Simone said as she shook her head, she wasn’t looking at Eden either her eyes strayed every which way, “I don’t see why we need to include her in this conversation”

“She’s my best friend”

Simone cackled, her eyes huge and unblinking as they settled on Eden. “Right, best mates” 

“You’re ugly when you’re jealous”

Simone’s face twisted in anger, “And yet you’re here” she said her eyes dropped to Eden’s exposed collarbones. A scowl seemed to etch itself into the skin around her mouth. “So which one of us is more pathetic huh?” 

Me , Eden thought. She continued watching Simone, who wasn’t sitting straight but twisted into an almost ball, her eyes were angry and impossible brown. Eden swallowed, “ Don’t touch my neck” 

Simone’s eyebrows were raised in curiosity. She put her leg down and straightened her back. 

Eden continued, “My neck and maybe my hair. I won’t tell anyone about this if you don’t” 

“If you tell anyone about this Payne I will fucking kill you” Simone threatened but Eden had already stood up and was walking towards Simone’s end of the couch and was already climbing to straddle her thighs. Eden’s hands angled Simone’s jaw upwards and their lips met in the middle. 

Eden had hoped it wouldn’t feel as good now that they were both sober. Simone was her first real kiss, the first one with tongue, and Eden had desperately clung to the thought that the excitement of doing something, excelling at something on your first try simply overtook her and colored her memories in a rosy tint. That the adrenaline of the party had gotten the better of her, the arrogance in knowing Simone wanted her. 

Simone whimpered under Eden’s lips, her hands trailed the line of Eden’s spine on her back pulling Eden deeper into her, Eden positioned herself so that she was  closer to Simone’s abdomen, her knees knocking into the back of the couch. She heard the delicious gasps Simone let out. Simone wanted her now , it had not been the alcohol, or the adrenaline of a party. Eden’s other hand cradled the pulse point on Simone’s neck, faintly she timed the thump thump thumping of the other girl's heart. She could get high on the excitement Simone was feeling. 

Eden stopped the kiss, catching her breath while she stared at the blown out irises against a brown background. Her own heart was thumping in her chest as Simone tried to chase Eden’s lips and failed. Eden laughed in the distance, in the absence, in Simone’s hands.  She saw embarrassment and then anger flash on Simone’s face and it made Eden want to kiss her again. She bit at Simone’s bottom lip and opened her mouth with her thumb, kissed the other girl until Simone’s hands were clutching at the material of Eden’s shirt and her ears were colored red. 

“Eden” she whispered into Eden’s mouth. Eden nearly groaned at the sound, her fingers still where they rested on Simone’s jaw. She separated their mouths again but kept close. Resting her forehead against Simone's.  Eyes blown wide, irises practically swallowing all color around them.  Beautiful long lashes, Eden moved before she could warn Simone to blink, reflexes somehow aligned themselves just right. She kissed Simone’s eyelids, left and then right, before she resumed her previous position. Foreheads pressed in just the right way that allowed her to see pink coloring the other girls cheeks. 

She saw Simone come back to her reasoned mind in real time, watched as the irises subsided, her eyes going left-right-left-right as fast as the light moved. Her mouth was still gasping for air, her hands stilled and let go of Eden’s shirt, then slid down Eden’s stomach to rest on her thighs. Eden felt chills slide down her spine at the weight of them. 

She bit at her lips before she said, “I still want my apology”  

Simone exhaled a long sigh, “Could you get off me first?” 

Eden straightened her posture and got herself off of Simone. Her thighs burned where Simone’s hands used to be. She sat back on the couch, closer now than she was before. She saw Simone searching for words but interrupted her before she could get any of them out, “ I go to group therapy,” she started because she partially blamed Crystal for the position she now found herself in, “One of the other girls has an abusive boyfriend.”

“We are not together!” Simone exclaimed in a hurry and performative disgust.  

“Of course not. The sentiment is still the same. You’ve hurt me and…” she swallowed, “ I get it.” 

“You-” Simone began but then stopped herself. She inhaled the air separating them and then laughed while looking to the side. “Charlotte, of course” poison dripped from her lips, Eden wanted to lick it. 

“Charlotte” she confirmed as if it was needed. She looked at Simone, at her angry eyes and scowling mouth and reveled in how beautiful she was as she wore her envy. Simone had thorns poking out of her skin, impaling through her organs and growing around her tongue making her words ugly and hurtful. Simone was dripping in her shame and her anger, her hands wielding knives that seemed to spring in whichever way she breathed. Simone had wanted Eden so much and for so long, wanted her in a way that felt deeply familiar to Eden, these knives which seemed made to be thrown and hurt the object of their desires. These knives were glued to Eden’s hands and formed stigmatas on her wrists as she clenched her fists in attempts to control herself. 

Charlotte. 

Except Simone wore her resentment with grace. At least she did now, in Eden’s eyes, as understanding wrapped around them and pulled them closer.  

“I’m sorry” Simone said, her eyes burned into Eden’s skin. She smirked with contempt, “What are you going to do now?” 

Eden chewed on her lips as she thought, “I’m going to stop attending group therapy, for one thing.” she breathed, “ I’ll get over Charlotte during the summer”, silence while she thought the next bullet point over. She felt Simone hanging on her every word, or maybe not. Maybe Simone wanted to get to revert back to anger and abandon hope. It was easier to use the knives than to try and find the roses. “Do you have any vacation plans?”

Simone laughed, “Uh not any that I’m aware of, I’m here all year round. But… my parents aren’t” she bit on the inside of her cheek, “You could come over, sometime”

Simone’s eyes went from and returned to Eden again and again. Eden wanted to see them up close again. wanted to watch as the irises expanded. 

“Depends on whether or not that's the best apology you’ve got” Eden rose to her feet as Simone laughed again. It sounded sweeter than it had before. Simone rose to her feet as well, ready to see Eden out. 

“I’ll try my best” 

They got to the front door, Simone craned her neck to look at the empty street and then lightly her hand appeared on Eden’s waist pulling her in for a goodbye kiss. Short, no tongue or little Simone whimpers and yet Eden never wanted for it to end. Then it did, Simone walked back into her house.

Chapter Text

Charlotte knew that there were certain things in life that simply had to be done, no matter how afraid or disgusted you might be at the prospect of doing them. Applying her eyeliner to her waterline, for example. Unfortunately, she had it on a pretty good account that she looked hotter with black smudged around her eyes, so she had to persevere. Even if the sight of thin veins underneath pink tissue excited only her gag reflex.Thankfully Crystal was right next to her, giving her compliments which definitely helped. 

“How does it look?” Charlotte asked after she had finished up her left eye. She brought her hands down, giving herself a little time to mentally prepare for the right eye. She was committing now, no going back. 

“You look amazing!” Crystal said with a smile that made Charlotte’s stomach turn for a different reason. 

“You too, that eyeliner is really good on you” Charlotte hoped to return the compliment.

Crystal smiled at her and then promptly returned to the mirror in order to finish up filling in her eyebrows. Charlotte felt her smile drop a bit, she quickly brought a finger to her right cheek in order to stretch out the skin there. She liked complimenting Crystal because Crystal was obviously someone who deserved to be complimented. Somehow tonight more than ever before. Her straightened hair fell over her shoulders and back in a way that made something inside of Charlotte want to pull at it, calling her fingers to mess it up.

The two of them were getting ready in Crystal’s enormous bathroom. The whole room, likely, twice as big as Charlotte's bedroom and from what Charlotte was able to pick up from her earlier conversation with Crystal, this was only one of many bathrooms in the Palace’s palace. 

The dull point of her eye pencil smudged against the sensitive flesh. Her shaking hands didn't seem to care about the luxury she somehow found herself in the middle of, applying make up was an equally disturbing process no matter where it occurred. Eden’s carefully scrubbed or Crystal’s enormous bathroom. 

The whole room, likely, twice as big as Charlotte's bedroom and from what Charlotte was able to pick up from her earlier conversation with Crystal, only one of many bathrooms in the Palace’s palace. 

Charlotte straightened her back and backed off of the mirror to look at her face properly from far away. It was such a thin line of black, but Charlotte thought it changed everything about her face. Eden had once told her it made her eyes brighter and more luminous and Charlotte liked that image. Eden had said she liked it too. 

 Her eyes quickly snagged onto the many shelves holding a couple of skin products behind her. Charlotte had felt awkward about coming into so much… space. Empty space too, like no amount of money could fill in the Palace residence, there were no clothes on the floor or stains a cleaner might have missed. All of it was empty, negative and shining under the fluorescent lights. 

“You can borrow anything you want, you know?” Crystal said, snapping Charlotte out of her hawkish wondering. 

“Nah mate, I’m just not used to how big this room is, am I?” Charlotte joked.

“Fine” Crystal said with a little smile, “So!” she exclaimed while uncapping her mascara, “This girl is telling me all this stuff about like her favorite anime and manga and telling me about all of these cool sites where you can watch and read for -”

“Who does she think she's talking to again?” Charlotte interjected.

Crystal waved her hand, “Some fan girl of some guy with blue hair. I didn’t do any real names this time. But, like she keeps returning to to films and anime we’ve already discussed when I was pretending to be Hailee”

“D’you think she figured you out?” Charlotte asked, she drove her hands through her hair, arranging her curls to sit just right on her shoulders. She decided to go all out for tonight, wore her best pants and a shirt with no sleeves. It hung on her in a way that let girls see her bra and stomach, where she has been building abs for the last two years. She looked fit, her arms looked amazing, and she had chains cascading on both her hips. Crystal was going to see her in her best edition, and she’ll swoon right into her arms. 

“Yes! Because it’s not just like she really likes talking about these films so she talks about them with whomever she sees. No, she is telling me all the points I told her when we talked before” Crystal started to search for something in the bathroom cabinets. “Word for word, she’s quoting my past messages” 

Then again Crystal had also invited Charlotte to get ready at her place. Charlotte had wondered at that, there was no less flirting and compliment exchanging between them still, you’re supposed to get ready for your date, not with her. Charlotte didn’t know where they sat, especially because Crystal seemed to be running after a Niko Sasaki shaped train. 

She shrugged, “Maybe you influenced her point of view, you watched and read a bunch of critics' reviews, haven’t you?”

Crystal turned expectantly with triumph in her eyes as she clutched a perfume bottle. It looked more expensive than everything Charlotte ate that week added together. “Yes, but I did that only later. I also thought, in the beginning, that maybe she just really liked what I had to say. But the first anime that we discussed, this Sherlock spin off thing, I wasn’t that prepared for. So, and if you tell this to Eden I will kill you”

Charlotte chuckled,” Can’t be that bad”

Crystal nodded, her eyes were so wide, Charlotte could barely see the purple of her eyeshadow ”No It is. It’s like the dumbest mistake you can make honestly”

Charlotte carefully propped herself up on Crystal’s washing machine, looking out for her boots not to dirty the pristine shine of its walls.“I’m waiting”

Crystal exhaled a deep sigh, “I quoted wikipedia”

Charlotte whistled,“Yeah, you’re kicked out of the club” 

“Charlotte!”

Charlotte put her arms up like it was beyond her, “It’s a federal offense! You know how seriously Eden takes her sources” 

“So don’t tell her,” Crystal said and smiled. The dress she wore looked absolutely amazing on her, black and hugging her figure in the way that complimented all of Crystal’s best features. The dress ended just above Crystal’s knee and made Charlotte understand why the schools were so concerned about those. Her silver heels definitely didn’t make her legs look worse either. She sprayed her perfume on her neck and wrists. “Do you want to?” she gestured with the perfume at Charlotte. 

Charlotte was caught at a crossroads once again. Not literally, of course, she’ll accept the perfume and spray the lilac scent on her wrists and behind her ears. She liked that the two of them smelled the same, it was the sort of stuff Eden told her happened in romance novels, when your clothes smelled of the other person simply because you were wearing their clothes. But Charlotte felt like she was cheating something at this point, taking the wrong shortcut. Maybe she missed a sign somewhere and took a stray turn that she will never be able to come back from.

“Bassically” Crystal said in the voice that let Charlotte know that they were back on the topic of Niko Sasaki, “She quoted wikipedia back at me! I mean, I got kinda scared to be honest but” Crystal stopped in order to build dramatic tension, it fondly reminded Charlotte of the way Eden sometimes stopped mid sentence just so that Charlotte could finish it.

“But” Charlotte indulged. 

“But it shows clearly that she is a brilliant journalist! Think about it, she must've poured hours going over all of our conversations across three different fake identities and found the exact critics and wikipedia articles I’ve quoted - not even mentioning the fact she probably talked to many different people so she also had to deduce who is me and who I am not!”

“And she had to ask you the right questions in order to navigate the conversation back to the exact topics she wanted to quote you on” Charlotte noted. 

“She’s playing a game with me! Leading me on!” Crystal exclaimed, she looked high on the journalist hunt. Charlotte couldn’t help but do a silent salute to Eden for recognising the diamond in the rough, ”She wants to be a part of this club! I think she likes it, you know, the cat and mouse game, playing hard to get. Otherwise she’d just block me right away like she already had on instagram.”

Charlotte grinned at Crystal, “Gross”

Crystal narrowed her eyes at her, “You know I didn’t mean it like that” her smile was mesmerizing.

Charlotte shook her head as if she didn’t know any better and the two of them dissolved into giggles. When the wave of laughter passed them Charlotte checked the time on her phone. Quarter to ten pm. She glanced at Crystal as she checked herself in the mirror. 

“I should check up on Eden” 

Eden had decided to get ready for the party with Monty instead of with Charlotte. It had hurt her a bit at first but then Eden had explained to her that this way her and Crystal could meet up somewhere before the party and could maybe bond and hang out. Charlotte had liked the idea at first even if it was a technical crossing and slight disrespect to one of Eden and Charlotte's carefully coveted traditions. They always got ready for a party together, in Eden’s room with Charlotte playing with her teddy bear on Eden’s bed. She deeply missed him.

Maybe if it was any other party Charlotte could live without the opportunity to judge Eden’s clothes as if they were on the Shopping Queen. It was Simone's party, though, and that fact was like a weight on Charlotte’s shoulders pressing her entire being into the white tiles, making shallow dents on Crystal’s bathroom floor. 

Eden had started to try and fight her boundaries lately, pushing herself more and more to let her hair down and wear buttoned up shirts. She had invited Crystal over, she had taken to tutoring Simone. Charlotte saw the effect it had on her, the thinning of her eyebags and the way her bracelet was a lot looser than before, the material giving in to the constant tugging and readjusting. Yet Eden continued, stubborn as always. But what if this stunt with Simone ends badly and instead of Charlotte by her side Eden finds herself next to Monty, or nobody, or even Simone. Eden’s episodes could be a lot. A lot to handle, a lot to understand.

Crystal was still talking about something.

“Give me just a tick, I have to call Eden” Charlotte excused herself, “Um but Crystal, when I ask Eden to pick us up, she’s going to arrive in like ten minutes it’s her superpower”

Crystal laughed, “Good thing, I’m ready for her”

Charlotte excused herself out of the bathroom and entered the cavern-like hallway. She dialed Eden’s number. While she listened to the phone ring she found herself more than a little grateful that Crystal had not asked the very rational question of why had Charlotte not taken the call while Crystal was in the bathroom. After all, they were all friends, going to the same place, being driven by the same car. Charlotte listened to the ringing and then Eden’s voice. 

“Charlotte!” She said cheerily, “How are things going with… you two?” she asked and Charlotte wanted to nail Monty to a wall. 

“We’re hot, bothered and waiting, yeah?” 

There was a slight noise of disgust from the other end of the line, Charlotte imagined Eden’s lips going from a full teeth smile into a disapproving line as she swallowed down her embarrassment. Eden cleared out her throat.

“Unfortunately Monty and I had gotten a bit carried away with the preparations but Snake is going to be driving us shortly”

“Shit, Snake agreed to give us a lift?” Charlotte felt blood rush to her face faster than the speed of light. Snake was maybe the one good thing Charlotte got out of Eden and Monty’s continuously confusing friendship. He was Monty’s older brother, 20 years old. No one knew his real name but everyone called him Snakes due to the giant snake tattoo he had curving around his neck and then onto his arm. He dressed cool, had a bunch of piercings and rarely spoke, which made every word Charlotte heard more precious. Snake wasn’t as big of a fan of Charlotte as she was of him but she knew he had a soft spot for Eden, though he’d never admit it. Charlotte practically screeched into the phone. She could imagine Eden's expression of sheer disgust. 

“Okey Charlotte, we’ll be there in … fifteen minutes” 

“Eden?’” Charlotte asked, forcing herself to push out Snake-butterflies in order to focus on the important stuff. 

“Yeah?”

“You’re not nervous? About Simone and everything?”

Eden paused on the other end of the line, she clearly gave her answer quite a lot of thought. Then, carefully, she said, “I think it’s going to be good, and if it won’t be… My house is empty. You can still fake a blackout right?” 

Charlotte grinned, “What about my reputation, Eden?”

Eden scoffed on the other end of the line, “We’ll write a good enough narrative in our newspaper, something about a noble victory in beer pong.” 

Charlotte grinned, “You’re on, Payne”

“See you in a tick, Charlotte” 

“See you, love you” Charlotte said as she hung up her phone. She felt a bit bad as she rejoined Crystal in the bathroom. She figured that Crystal was popular back in America and she had already made quite a few friends from what Charlotte could tell based on how they spent their breaks in school. She’ll be fine on her own at the party. Charlotte glanced down at her pants. It will be a shame to ruin these during her act, but she’ll do what must be done. 

-

Eden hung up the phone and turned with a grimace towards Monty. The other girl was wearing a beautiful summer dress, adorned with daffodils on a light green background, it matched beautifully with a bow she tied her half ponytail up with. She had a lot of blush on her cheeks and light eyeshadow around her eyes. 

“Charlotte is very excited about your brother giving us a ride,” Eden said with an exhale. 

Monty gave her an apologetic smile, “Have I ever told you how glad I am to have you as a friend?” She was resting on the backs of her forearms on her bed. Eden scoffed at her comment as she turned to look at herself once more in the mirror, “Now I finally have someone to agree with me about how gross my brother actually is”

Eden scrunched her eyebrows, “Abraham” she guessed. 

Monty laughed “I would never shut up about it if that was his name. I told you, it's something much more basic”

Eden narrowed her eyes at her own reflection, “Seth” 

“Nope” Monty laughed again as she shook her head, “You look fine, Narcissa”

Eden gave Monty an ugly look before she looked at her legs again. She was wearing a skirt which ended way before her fingertips did. It swished if she twirled too hard. She had protective shorts underneath and Monty had assured her multiple times that no one would be able to tell anyway unless she sat especially vulgarly. The skirt had been Eden’s idea but she planned to wear an unflattering shirt on top of it to balance it all out. To her great misfortune, Monty had sharply told her NO! and borrowed Eden one of her own crop tops. Eden frowned, the skirt was resting high on her waist and so only a sliver of skin could be seen, but she still felt weary. 

“I just don’t want to give them the wrong impression,” Eden said. Other than her issues with collarbones she usually dressed like a prude. Maybe a would-be-nun, had she had a different childhood. People usually only saw her hands, face and neck, Mages saw her cleavage because of the x-ray vision. 

“Come on half of the people there will be half naked” Monty exclaimed, she grinned at Eden, “And Charlotte won't be able to take her eyes off of you”

Eden turned back towards the mirror quickly inspecting her hair, “This is not about Charlotte, Monty”

“Right” Monty said and Eden frowned at her harder, “But honestly, I guarantee she’ll be drooling over you, I mean she’s bisexual. Everyone who likes girls can see you’re hot as fuck” 

Eden cringed at the vocabulary being used, “Monty. I’ve told you. I do not care how Charlotte feels, I am over her”

Monty gave her a sceptical look, Eden repeated herself, “I told you that I would set my mind to it and I have. I’ve moved on, we are nothing but friends now. Mutual friends,”

Monty glanced at Eden’s legs, the hilariously long stockings she pulled up to her mid thighs. “Right”

Eden pursed her lips. She knew how much it meant to Simone for the two of them to be secretive and there was no other way for her to prove just how over Charlotte she was, “I would greatly admire it if we could move on to other themes. Like whether or not your brother will be giving us a ride.”

Monty finally raised herself to her feet. “SNAKE!” she yelled at the general direction of the second floor. Principal Finch was on a weekend retreat with some friend of hers and so Monty and Snake had the house all to themselves which usually meant they were more brutal with each other than usual.

“SHUT THE FUCK UP, I’M COMING DOWN!” Snake yelled in turn at Monty who barely flinched. Eden put on her shoes as Snake came down. 

“Sup E?” He said but didn’t wait for her to reply as he zoomed past both of them and went out to the car. Eden quickly grabbed her purse and rushed out of the house. Snake has already left both Eden and Monty without a ride before simply because Monty had been getting ready for too long. Eden went right up to the driver's car window which he kept down. 

“We are, as always, incredibly grateful that you offered us a ride” Eden said, she hoped that in conversation she would buy Monty enough time to properly lock the house up. 

“Cut with the shit and get your license, how about that?” He looked angrily towards the doorstep where Monty was still locking up. Snake turned the car’s engine on with a little smirk.

Eden pursed her lips “When I do you’ll be the first to know.” She was incredibly glad she didn’t have siblings. 

Monty ran towards the car and the two of them managed to squeeze into the back seat without pulling too much on Monty’s beautiful dress. 

“Thanks so much for waiting on us, big bro” Monty said with scorn, as she handed him the keys. The Finch siblings shared a pair of keys because Snake lost his the first time he had smoked a blunt, he was too afraid (by Monty’s account) to come clean to Esther so the two have been sharing them ever since. Eden shivered at the thought of how often they left their house unlocked because of this weird arrangement. 

Snake got them on the streets after he asked for the address. They rode in the intense noise of his playlist for a while. Monty punched Eden on the forearm when she had unconsciously started to bob her head along to the song Charlotte had played her many times before. Once they got to Crystal’s house, Snake cut off the radio. Last time he had given Charlotte a ride, she was unable to stop gushing about all of the bands they both put on their playlists. Apparently, Snake had learned a lesson since then. 

Eden texted Charlotte a quick ‘Here’ text but just as she pushed send Charlotte and Crystal were running towards the car. Most likely, Charlotte had notified Crystal about the infamous impatience of Esther Finch's older son. Monty quickly got up and out of the car in order to get into the passenger's seat. Crystal rushed into the car and Charlotte was close behind her. “You said fifteen minutes” she said in lieu of a greeting to Eden. 

Eden furrowed her brows, “Would you rather be late?” she asked over Crystal as Snake began to drive like a lunatic. 

Charlotte frowned at her but could’t quite commit to the expression. Her smile broke the joke in half. Eden swallowed as she forced her eyes to look in front of her. She felt like she could throw up so she leaned on the backrest. Crystal blocked her vision of Charlotte completely. After what felt like three crossings of the red sign they finally arrived in front of Simone’s house. 

Snake cut the engine off and turned towards Monty. 

“If you get murdered, call me. If the police show up, run but if they catch you,”, he pointed a finger at Eden,”say you're her cousin, got it?” 

“And if I twist my ankle and end up paralyzed in a ditch?” Monty asked, she reversed a situation which had apparently already happened to the siblings. 

“E’ll handle it.” Snake turned to Eden, “You don’t have my number so if I get a call from an unknown number I’m gonna kill the both of you. If she gets home pregnant, I’m going to kill you even harder, understand?”

“I’m a lesbian, Snake” Monty said with an eye roll. 

Snake shook his head, “That’s why I’m not threatening you, brat. E, take care of my sister or I’ll figure out where you live”

“Low blow” Charlotte said and Eden grimaced in agreement. 

Snake simply shrugged,”Don’t care, now out of my car”

-

Charlotte sneaked one more look at the ink on Snake's neck, one part of the giant snake, or so the rumor said. Charlotte told herself she has to get tatted up as soon as she finds her own place. She didn’t know which animal she’d choose but she bet it would look sick, especially if she maintained her current body shape Charlotte got out of the car with Crystal right behind her. 

“Well he seemed rude,” Crystal commented.

“Yeah, and I live with him,” Monty said with a grimace. 

Charlotte wanted to play it cool, “Sick tatts though. Shame he claimed the snake, innit?” 

“You’ll only inflame his ego if he hears you say he owns the snake” Monty rolled her eyes with her usual distaste.

“I thought you were getting dragons tattooed” Eden said and Charlotte turned towards the sound of her voice, “Or was there a change of plans?”

Charlotte had really wanted to answer. But then her head fully turned.

 She saw Eden. 

“Damn Payne, I didn’t know you had it in you” Crystal said behind Charlotte. 

Charlotte imagined that having heard that from Crystal, Eden might react negatively. If she said any quip Charlotte didn’t hear it. If she had shown any expression of annoyance Charlotte should probably pull her eyes up to see it. Eden looked cute frowning, Charlotte had to remind herself. She usually never wanted to miss a single expression of the girl. 

But Eden also never wore skirts this short. 

“Should we head to the belly of the beast?” Monty said and Charlotte forced her head to look at the house. Her eyes finally followed suit once looking towards her side pained her in the temples. They could hear muffled music coming from inside the house. Charlotte swallowed her nerves.

“You look nice,” Eden said when she suddenly appeared on her side. Charlotte’s head turned as if commanded.

“You too” her eyes were back down without her consent, “I didn’t know you owned that top” or that skirt.  

“Monty let me borrow it. She said it matched the skirt better” 

Charlotte hated Montana for being right. She felt her mouth dry up and forced her eyes back to Eden’s face. “You look proper fit, mate.” 

Eden looked away from her and rolled her eyes. The tint of a blush on her cheeks made Charlotte want to compliment her more, just so she could see how red Eden could get. Charlotte let her gaze lower down just a bit, just to the lines of Eden’s collarbones where the skin was flushed red as well. Eden quickened her walk to get to Monty’s side and Charlotte felt like her eyes maybe had a mind of their own. Hell, her mind had a mind of its own. 

She schooled her features and quickened her pace. Slapped a grin on her face as she entered Simone’s house. Eden led the way inside, Crystal was by her side. Charlotte didn’t mind the arrangement a whole lot. Eden had two moles in what looked like the perfect halfway point between the end of her sock and the end of her skirt. Back of the right thigh. Charlotte swallowed again, she grabbed Eden’s hand. 

Eden turned towards her with her whole body, the skirt lifted up during the motion. 

“Charlotte?” Eden asked.

“I’m gonna go get something to drink” Charlotte said, she came here to get drunk after all. All of Charlotte's teammates knew of her and Simone’s rivalry and typically didn’t really talk about Simone in front of Charlotte, but still Charlotte knew Simone had good booze at her parties.

Eden nodded, she nudged her head in the direction to Charlotte’s left “I think the kitchen could be there” 

Charlotte felt her stomach acid kick up, she needed booze,” Come with me”, she tugged at Eden who, thankfully, followed her. Crystal was at their heels but quickly got lost somewhere when she saw one of her acquaintances. 

Eden ended up being right about the location of the kitchen and Charlotte’s teammates ended up being right about the alcohol. Charlotte smirked and picked herself and Eden glasses that looked really nice and expensive. Eden gave her an ugly look but didn’t say anything so Charlotte simply continued on. 

“Usual, mate?”

Eden nodded and watched Charlotte as she mixed the Cola and stock. Charlotte felt Eden’s gaze on the back of her hands, the rings of her fingers. Charlotte had hoped they’d accentuate her skin tone, she had borrowed several of them from her mother. She glanced at Eden, “What’d you think about the rings, mate?”

“They’re very pretty. Are they new?” Eden asked as she took her glass and took a sip.

“Nah my mum’s” Charlotte said while preparing herself a shot of vodka. 

“Are you planning on actually blacking out?” Eden asked while the liquor still burnt the back of Charlotte’s neck. She grinned at Eden.

“I’m not that good of an actor, am I?” She felt the alcohol settle warmly in her stomach. Her hands were more real as she prepared herself a new one.

She glanced at Eden as a warning before she shot the glass up and felt the burn slide from her throat to her stomach once more. Charlotte giggled at Eden who simply rolled her eyes while she drank her own drink down, sip by sip.

“Do you know where Monty went?” Eden asked once Charlotte properly settled herself next to Eden, leaning on the same counter she had. 

“I think we lost her, but she’s gotta be somewhere in the house,” Charlotte made her voice go low, “E” she bumped their shoulders together in a teasing joke.

“Do not remind me” Eden said and crossed her arms over that silver of her stomach showing. The bracelet Charlotte had given her years ago her only accessory. Charlotte smiled to herself. 

“D’you think he fancies you?” she asked. The lightning in the kitchen was absolutely abysmal but Charlotte could still see Eden’s eyes. Simone must have put some lightning contraption in the living room and some of its rays somehow sneaked into the kitchen. Her eyes looked pink. The skin around them wrinkled as her eyebrows shot up in disgust. 

“Snake?” She snarled, “Charlotte you have not gotten that drunk that fast”

Charlotte laughed, alcohol still burned hot in her belly, “Haven’t I?” she saw concern flash on Eden’s face, “E?” she added.

Eden shook her head slowly, she muttered more to herself then to Charlotte, “He’s repulsive”

Charlotte gazed briefly in the direction of where they came from, the song currently playing was actually decent and Charlotte hoped there would be at least some people dancing, “Mate, you have to dance with me tonight” 

Eden tilted her head, “I have to?” She asked, an eyebrow raised in question.

Charlotte nodded at her very slowly, she pushed herself off of the kitchen counter so that she could position herself in front of Eden. Eden uncrossed her hands and Charlotte took her by the wrist. 

“Rowlands you made it!” The shout had come from somewhere vaguely behind Charlotte and she was inclined not to turn around at all but Eden had pulled her wrist from Charlotte's hold and stepped to the left almost as if she was trying to see Simone. Charlotte reluctantly followed Eden's example.

“Eden,” Simone said, her breath still shallow from what Charlotte hopped was dancing in the living room.

“Simone” Eden replaid.

Charlotte glanced from Eden to Simone, who was watching Charlotte's best friend like she was a lamb on the golden platter. Charlotte wasn’t about to wait for Simone to say some dumb insult and potentially ruin Eden’s good mood. “Great party, Simone, have you seen Crystal? We lost her somewhere, haven’t we?” 

Simone looked at her with a dumb expression on her face so Charlotte repeated herself through a tight smile, “Crystal? Have you seen her?” 

“No” Simone looked at Eden again and then around her kitchen, she returned her eyes to Eden. “But um, you guys feel free to take whatever drink or food you want. So long as you don’t break into my freezer” Simone laughed at her own horrible joke, Charlotte merely scoffed and crossed her arms. She stepped a bit closer to Eden. 

“Thanks, we’ll see you around” she took Eden by the forearm in order to lead them to the living room, or any Simone-less room really.

“Have fun!” Simone shouted behind them as they left the room. Charlotte exchanged a look with Eden as soon as they turned a corner. 

“Did you hear that?” she laughed.

Eden looked just as confused as Charlotte felt, but there was a slight smirk tugging at her lips, she shook her head, “She’s so stupid”.

Charlotte tried to mimic Eden’s expression but she felt it clashed with the confusion pulling at her eyebrows. Eden had sounded almost fond. “Totally mate, I’m surprised at how sober she sounded. She’s usually a drunkard and a half” 

Edenn nodded her agreement as the two of them finally arrived at the living room. It was a spacious room, not as big as Crystal’s living room but Charlotte doubted that was a fair comparison. To Charlotte’s shame no one was dancing despite the half decent music, instead people crowded over the dining room table where a lot more alcohol was displayed alongside some snacks. People were standing in little groups talking and laughing and Charlotte knew that no amount of puppy dog eyes would be enough to convince Eden to dance with her. The two of them leaned against the wall next to an open window. 

Eden was looking around the room anxiously. Her eyes made rounds around the room, most likely noting who was talking to who. A slight frown pulled on her face. 

“Did Monty do your makeup?” Charlotte asked. Eden’s skin was almost smooth but her eyebags were covered now. And the mascara around her eyes made them pop more. 

“Do you think that lowly of me, Charlotte?” Eden spared her a glance and a disapproving tilt of her head. 

“Walked into that one, didn’t I?” Charlotte eyed the light on the corner of Eden’s eyes. It could have been highlight or it could have been just Eden’s natural face. She was always pale, easily burned in the summer sun but with an ivory complexion during the colder part of the year. Eden closed her eyes and her shoulders relaxed, Charlotte had no idea how tense the girl had been until then. She leaned into Eden’s shoulder, happy that the two of them were together in the people watching business. She doubted she’d even be able to hear Eden’s voice properly over all the noise, so she settled for studying her best friend's progress in make-up. Neither one of them was amazing at it, despite all of the youtube tutorials and begrudging Charlie advice they endured together.Still Charlotte had become a lot more confident in her ability ever since she started dressing more punk. She used to do Eden’s make up for her, she doesn’t think she’d put this much blush on her cheeks. 

Eden’s eyebrows scrunched together and she seemed to have focused in on one point. She pouted a bit and crossed her arms against her chest. Charlotte didn’t want her eyes to stay down too long, “Who’re you looking at, mate?” 

Eden looked at Charlotte with a little smirk pulling the corner of her lips, “Last year Lexie and Mel were best friends. Lexie’s ex cheated on her with Sophia and now” she looked back to where she had been looking, but Charlotte was too weakened by the alcohol to follow her line of sight, “ Mel is talking with Sophia” 

“Must be something really dramatic, innit? Might even make this whole thing worth a shot”

Eden snorted and shook her head, her hair fell from where it was held by her ear and covered a part of her face, Charlotte frowned, she reached and tugged it back into its place. The tips of her fingers brushed against Eden’s soft cheek. She saw herl swallow.

“Have you seen Crystal?” Eden said, her eyes looked around the room and she stepped a bit to her right, away from Charlotte.

“I think she’s talking to some mates of hers, she’s pretty popular, isn’t she?” Charlotte eyed the distance between their feet, the distance Eden had put there. She felt her mouth dry up and her tongue rot, “Maybe we could expand the gossip section, add a couple more pages to it. Gossip Girl,innit?” 

Eden smirked, “We could. Especially if Niko finally joins us”

“Not you too mate, believe me I got my fair share of Sasaki talk already. Crystal really seems fired up about it” Charlotte joked. 

“I am not!” Crystal said as she sneaked up on them, “And wow Rowlands, really you’re gonna talk shit behind my back like that” 

Charlotte started apologizing but Crystal swatted her attempts off and said, “Make it up to me in beer pong, I need a teammate, word is you’re pretty aces”

Charlotte smirked and nodded her agreement, she looked at Eden who shook her head. Charlotte frowned but Crystal was already dragging her by the wrist and she had to turn around.