𝑇𝐻𝑅𝐸𝐸 𝐷𝐸𝑀𝑂𝑁𝑆

x 41 x

x DIOR x

After Laura's mother came to the park and picked up her younger sister, thoroughly embarrassing the girl, we decided we had experienced enough of parks for the day. We resorted to heading back to my crib and chilling in my bedroom. Maybe we should've did that in the first place.

"Anybody talked to Syn's parents?" Laura asked, laying across my bed. It was weird seeing her there, well, with us in general. I hate to think this way, but she really was starting to feel like Syn's replacement. Although, Laura was far different from the energetic 17 year old Synara had been, they were too similar in a lot of ways.

"No. I didn't even see them at the hospital yesterday. I'm sure they came later on after everyone left or maybe they were being questioned. Who knows," I shrug, playing with a pencil in my hands.

"I can't believe all of this happened though," Demon stated, our eyes meeting randomly. She was the first to look away, shame heavy in her gaze. I made her believe this was all her fault, when that wasn't true. Asshole Award of the Year should go to me.

"We should talk to them first then if we wanna do a balloon release. They might not even want that," Laura suggested. "And will the funeral be open to the public or not? Redwillow is a small town, but judging by all the online attention Synara's death is getting, that might not be what they're going for."

"It just angers me to see so many people speaking about her the way that they are," I frown.

"Synara wasn't no saint," Laura started, "but no one deserves that, either way."

"It always bothered me how people felt like it was okay to trample through the deceased's business and belongings. I just don't get how Syn can be just another hashtag to some people but to us she was so real. So alive. She was alive. She isn't just a picture floating around from when she was little holding a ball. She had a life. She was just as real as any of us."

"A billion years from now, people are gonna be rooting through the ground finding our old tampons, our old phones, our old clothes. Looking through our messages, if they can, looking through our diaries. Dissecting our lives as if we weren't alive and living like them. That doesn't make things any more right, but...there's obviously a lot about Synara we didn't know," I gesture to Demon, "Especially her obsession with you."

"Towards the...end of her life," Laura said slowly, "and," she rose up her hands in defense, "obviously my words might not mean much because I didn't know you guys for that long but...towards the end of her life the signs of her obsession with Khloe seemed to be more obvious, looking back on things. The way she seemed to be all over you, overprotective to you, always trying to relate herself to you. Things like that."

"I agree," I say, turning to look at Demon.

"So what are you proposing? I feel like you're tryna get at something here," Demon says, looking back at me.

"We should look through her room. Learn more about who she really was. I can't rest until I know all of her, or at least enough of what she left behind. She left the world and gave us a big mystery, whether that was unintentional or not. I'll never know if she loved me back, but I should be able to know about what lead her to her death. About who the girl I loved was."

"So what, you wanna do the very thing that we're both against? Looking through her things without her permission, even if she's dead?" Laura asks. "If we asked, I'm sure her parents or the cops would be more than willing to tell us what evidence or whatever they found in her room. We shouldn't do that."

"I don't wanna chance it," I stand up. "Tonight I'm looking. I'm not messing with anything. I just...need something good to remember her by besides seeing her floating in a tub." A blank gaze crossed Laura's face for probably not more than a few seconds before panic flooded her eyes and she tried to look around in an unnoticeable way.

Both Khloe and I were staring at her though.

"What- Are you okay?" I ask carefully.

"Yeah," she blushed, holding her hand over her heart. She shakily stood up, "Um, where's your bathroom?"

"Laura," Demon stood up too, walking after her.

"I'm fine. Just...need a moment," she gasped a little, opening my bathroom door and closing it gently in Demon's face. "Let her calm down. Then ask questions," I tell Khloe, grabbing her arm and pulling her away from the doorway. That unintentionally pulled her closer to me and a faraway part of me tingled in excitement. Her closeness and the scent of her cologne turned me on low key. My arm slipped off her forearm as she fixed a firm grip on my neck and stared down at me, her eyes still faded versions of themselves.

I felt myself falling backwards on the bed, but I stared up at Khloe, wondering what she was going to do. Wondering what I even wanted her to do with me? Wondering if Syn was watching us right now?

Demon took in a shaky breath, and let her thumb trace my thigh. The ends of my shorts exposed my boxers slightly. She rubbed my inner thigh a little bit more, gazing intently at it before bringing her gaze back up to mine. "I don't know wha- who I want anymore," she whispered.

I heard the water in the bathroom shut off and Demon flinched back as she heard the bathroom door opening. I pretended to be staring up at the ceiling and Demon looked down at her feet, standing away from me as I laid across the bed.

"Hey," Laura said awkwardly, rubbing her damp hands down the sides of her pants and giving us each a weak smile. "What happened?" Demon demanded and I shot her a look, trying to tell her to tone it down.

"I had...I guess like a flashback from yesterday," she sighed, scratching her head. "I keep having those," she admitted, a hint of defeat in her voice.

"When do you have them?" I ask curiously, sitting up and pulling my shorts down some more. Demon's eyes lingered on my action, but I ignored her.

"Whenever something or someone reminds me of Syn or what happened with her," she said bitterly, "I've kind of summed things up to this being my personal punishment concerning Synara."

"I know how you feel," Demon muttered.

"Did you tell your mom? Or your sisters?"

Laura flinched at the mention of her family.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to bring them up," I mumble.

"It's fine," she said softly. "But no. As you can probably already tell, we have enough going on in our lives."

"Well, whenever you have them, you can talk to us about it," I saved the conversation, shooting Demon  an amused smile. She was horrible at offering comfort, but hopefully Laura realized that she cared as much as I did.

"Thanks," Laura looked at us both. "And the next time y'all plan on fucking, don't do it while I'm here."

Demon and I both bust out laughing, blushing hard.

"Y'all are sooo obvious," Laura rolled her eyes.