𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐓𝐇 𝐨𝐫 𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐄 | 𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐭 | 𝐄𝐔𝐏𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐀

𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐎𝐍𝐄

𝐭𝐫𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐨𝐫

Jules was procrastinating getting ready for the New Year's Eve party she agreed to go to with Kat. She'd barely spoken to anybody since coming home, but she wasn't worried about most people. Rue might be at the party, and when she thought about that, her stomach dropped. So instead of doing her makeup and picking out an outfit, Jules took a walk. It wasn't really cold out, so she crossed town in the dark and wound up at Fezco's convenience store. Through the windows, under the fluorescent lights, Lucy Jackson sat cross-legged on the counter paging through a magazine. Jules went inside.

Lucy did a double take when she saw Jules. "Hey, didn't you, like, disappear?" she said, tossing her magazine to the side. It was Better Homes and Gardens- anything Jules had to say would be more interesting than that.

Jules wavered in the doorway and gave Lucy a nervous smile. "Ahh, yeah. Yeah, did Rue tell you that?"

Lucy shrugged. She couldn't remember who told her anything. "Probably. Where'd you go?"

"I was just visiting a friend in the city," said Jules. She turned toward the drink coolers and scanned the selection.

She liked Lucy. She was one of the first people who had been nice to Jules when she moved to East Highland. They'd met through Rue, and they'd never gotten close, but they were the kind of friends who waved to each other in the hall and said hello if they ran into one another in the school bathroom. Plus, Lucy worked at the convenience store, and Jules was pretty sure she'd given her a discount once or twice.

The lights flickered for a second. They'd been doing that a lot. Lucy made a mental note to let Fezco know. She swung her legs off of the counter and watched Jules pick a drink. She'd been bored all day. Fez and Ashtray hadn't been around much, and she was low on drugs. She wouldn't steal from Fez. But secretly, she knew exactly how she could.

She was snapped out of her thoughts when Jules set a drink on the counter and rummaged through her purse for spare change. Lucy hopped down from the counter to ring her up. "Two-fifty," she said. "Any big New Year's plans?"

"Oh, there's some party I'm going to- Apparently, like, basically everyone's gonna be there," said Jules. She scrutinized Lucy for a second. Rue knew Lucy better than she did- they hung out from time to time. She'd seen her around at parties, but Lucy mostly stuck with Fezco or the other stoners, on the fringes. But Lucy seemed like the kind of person who could have fun, and that's what Jules needed that night. Fun without having to care about all the other bullshit. "Do you wanna go with me?"

Lucy smiled and dropped Jules's change into her hand. "No thanks," she said. "I think I'm just going home after this. You know, trying to get as much sleep as possible before the end of winter break."