all our stars, bench trio

chapter eighteen

"Yeah, that is a lot." Niki sits down beside me, an ankle crossed over her knee. "Do you want to talk about any of it? I know you don't know me very well, but I'm here to listen if you're okay with it and you think it'll help."

So, I spill my guts to Niki in the dimmed lights on her cracked leather sofa 4 hours after meeting her. I tell her everything — how we met, how her family expected her to be this golden child and the toll it took on her, how different it was at my house than it was hers, how her fear sent me to the reject bin, the months after we broke up, how my heart dropped when I saw her again — everything.

I laugh hollowly. "I probably shouldn'tve told you all of that."

Niki cocks her head to the side in consideration. "Do you regret it?"

The question catches me somewhat off guard

"No."

She smiles. "If you happen to change your mind, I'm always ready to forget about it."

"Selective memory loss. Sweet."

Niki laughs hard at this. Everyone moves into here eventually, and we play a tournament of Mario Kart. Tommy and Jack attempt to strangle each other multiple times. I turn out to be really good at the forest-y map. Wilbur and Giulia nearly tie four times. Jack is rather odd playing Mario Kart He mostly just spouts fatherly wisdom — unless, it's Tommy, in which case — as I said, he tries to assassinate. After a particularly loud match between Giulia and Tommy, Gules scoots over to me and lays her head on my shoulder.

"I'd stay off Twitter for awhile, June," she says.

"I saw Sam's tweet," I say. "Is there bad backlash?"

"I don't know. Probably."

"I'm honestly more worried for her," I admit. Giulia sucks her teeth.

"I'd probably avoid checking your hashtag and mentions for a week or two," They advise.

"A week or two?" I gasp. I can't help myself. "Do you really think it'll be that bad?"

"Honestly? I have no idea." We both sigh.

"Tell me why I downloaded Twitter again?"

She shakes her head.

"Hey," I grab her hand. "I love you."

She doesn't say anything. They don't need to. She just takes my hand and lets me rest my head on top of hers.

"This is a nice night," she says.

"It is."

I know I said I would avoid Twitter, but I really wanted to know.

I open my feed first.

missing: gender | @indienotpurple

this is getting really out of hand guys. it's actually really disappointing. it's horrendously impolite to hound either party about their personal life and a blatant ignorance of boundaries and human decency. the girl just shared something really personal and everyone's audacity to respond with the level of hate and harassment that they've both been sent is absolutely disgusting. i'm so ashamed of everyone's reaction. i'm so sorry for the both of you.

❤️ 1,503

cal la lovejoy | @bessietru_ther

what the hell is wrong with all these people. feeling like throwing up right now.

❤️ 846