chapter seventeen

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━━ CHAPTER SEVENTEEN / perfumeepisode two, part six

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━━ CHAPTER SEVENTEEN / perfume
episode two, part six.

The sun shone brightly on Demi and her goggles rested over her eyes as she fiddled with her newest prototype. The tall window's chiffon curtains had been pulled back and the midday sun was warming her back but her body left the table in front of her in shadow, just how she wanted it. The iron always reflected into her eyes if she wasn't in shadow.

But it was fine right now and the sun was helping lessen her back ache. The warmth seemed to distract her mind from the sensation and the painkillers she had taken probably did too. When she had first heard the others come back, they talked briefly before she headed back upstairs with a fresh glass of water and two ibuprofen.

And now she was tinkering, working on a new prototype. She hadn't even got to test the last few but they didn't even seem to work how they should meaning it would have been pointless. So, she was trying again and just hoping that she got it right.

The boxes that filled the space under her bed were filled with failed prototypes that she hoped she'd be able to reuse at some point. But it didn't seem like she would. They were all varying degrees of burnt or exploded or just moulded into a shape that would be more pain than it was worth to undo. Which meant that for now they would stay hidden underneath the cream duvet that hung off the edge of her bed.

"Demi?" Lucy asked as she gently knocked on the door. The brunette's head lifted from her work and she turned to look at the door. It was ajar - how she liked it - and it gently nudged open a little further at Lucy's touch.

"Everything okay?" Demi asked as she pushed the goggles up onto her forehead. The red lines that the goggles had left under her eyes were prominent but Lucy didn't even notice them as she stepped fully into the room. She pushed the door ajar again and dropped onto the edge of Demi's bed. From the look on her face alone, Demi knew that something was wrong. She pulled the goggles completely off and dropped them beside the plastic cylinder before she swivelled around on the chair to face her, "What happened?" Lucy let out a frustrated sigh.

"They're being dickheads." It was blunt and not entirely unsurprising. Demi grabbed a bobble from the side and tied her hair up into a ponytail before she got off the chair. She walked past her monstera plant at the foot of her bed to drop on the bed beside Lucy.

"What did they say?" Demi asked. Lucy ran her fingers across her face before she turned completely on her side, crossing her legs as she faced Demi.

"Lockwood went on TV," Lucy began and Demi's face morphed from confusion to annoyance in a second. She could already imagine where this was going, "And I asked him to keep my name out of everything. Stuff happened back home and I didn't- I don't like people talking about me. He went on about how talented I am because he wants the publicity for the stupid Annabel case. And he just-" Lucy was finding it hard to put her annoyance into words. It was morphing into hurt and the word asset seemed to swirl around her mind in a dizzying hurricane.

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