Blaire's Body

DEUX

dedicated to xreiireiix because she puts up with my shit and nagging and half-drunk snapchats. ily.

YEAR: 2016

"YOU LOOK LIKE you've seen a ghost," Greyson laughs, smiling at the group of five that she used to be a proud member of. She looks at them and she decides that really, nothing has changed. Kadence still looks like the alpha bitch, and crazy Xienna is still, well, crazy. Maverick and Braxton are still best friends, and Orianna is still their baby sister.

But there are two people missing - Blaire, and herself. If this were last year, Blaire would be placed beside Maverick, their fingers intertwined. She would be facing Greyson, laughing at something she said. Braxton would complain about the lack of boys in their little clique, and his sister would remind him that she's practically a man, anyway. Kadence would be reading her AP Chemistry textbook, and Xienna would be arguing about something stupid with Maverick. She remembers everything clearly. She remembers what it was like when Blaire was still alive, and when she was one of the girls to be. She remembers when everything was at it should be - with the bottom feeders and the high-fliers.

Nothing has changed.

But she intends to change just that.

- - -

"What the fuck is Greyson Alyssa Chandler doing here?" Kadence hisses. "And, more importantly, why did no one know?"

Xienna looks at her best friend and she raises an eyebrow. Kadence is known for her usual calmness - something sharply contrasting Xienna's temper, but when Kadence Gaardner gets mad, she gets mad. Luckily, she's not the object of her best friend's wrath.

Instead, her wrath is directed to her little Kadence wannabes. She glares at them, and they lower their heads in shame.

"Take a chill pill, Kade," Xienna drawls, looking up lazily from her magazine.

"A chill pill?" she hisses. Kadence closes her eyes, regaining her poise. "How did I not know that Greyson would show up today, girls?"

None of her minions reply. Xienna wonders what it's like to be them - scared of the big bad Queen who can make or break their social life.

She decides she doesn't really care.

Kadence holds up a hand. "You know what? Get out of my sight."

The girls stand up simultaneously and scamper off, none of them daring to look at Kadence. Xienna casts a look at her best friend and grabs her pack of Lucky Strikes. Xienna doesn't smoke, but Kadence does - heavily, in fact. Wordlessly, Kadence takes one and puts it between her lips, and lights it with simple expertise.

Kadence glares at the sky wordlessly, taking puff after puff of her cigarette. The two girls sit in comfortable silence, and soon, Kadence has finished her third cigarette.

"Shit," she mutters, "Fuck."

Xienna glances at her, and decides it's safe to ask. "What's up?"

Kadence throws her pack of cigarettes on the floor, joining the leftover dirt on the bleacher floor. "I ran out of cigarettes," she hisses, running a hand through her hair.