style | p.parker

xiv

"hey, look, i- uh," peter steps in front of her making her pause. "i- i just wanted to apologize. about the whole decathlon thing-"

"it's fine," she shakes her head.

i don't think you actually think it's fine, peter thinks.

"last week, decathlon was the most important thing," liz stares at the trophy case in front of the pair.

"no, i- i- uh i-" peter stutters out. "i just mean that," he swallows and pauses. "it was not cool, especially... because... i like you."

"i know," liz simply says.

peter opens and closes his mouth like a fish a few times. "you do?"

"you're terrible at keeping secrets."

ahh the irony, peter thinks.

"yeah, you'd be surprised," peter looks around. "i got- i gotta get to class, but um... i- i'd say we should hang out, but im gonna be in detention... forever, but um, i guess you already have a date to homecoming."

peter swears he is holding his breath.

"actually, i was so busy planning it, i never really got around to that part, so..." she leaves her sentence unfinished and peters heart picks up its pace even more.

"do you wanna," a deep breath. "go with me?"

liz smiles, "yeah. sure."

"really? i mean- great, yeah cool."

"cool."

"i'm actually going that way," peter realizes as he was trying to walk the wrong way through the entire interaction.

as he walks past her he wonders, how in the world did i manage to do that? then he breaks out in a smile.

"𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗖𝗔!" aristyn gapes, turning to look at her friend sitting in her bathroom on the floor.

"what?" she asks, pausing her eyeshadow. "i'm just asking a question!"

"yeah, a stupid one!" tilly exclaims. she is sitting on aristyn's bathroom counter putting blush on.

all the girls (bar maddie) are at aristyn's house getting ready before they go out to dinner. 

"everyone shut up i'm doing my eyeliner!" cece shouts while staring at herself in aristyn's floor length mirror that hangs on the back of her door.

aristyn laughs under her breath. there is a moment of silence before her phone rings. it's from her mom.

well, that's weird, aristyn thinks. the last time her mom had even spoke to her was months ago. she excuses herself to the hallway as her friends continue talking.

"hello?" aristyn says, although it comes out like a question.

"hello, sweetie," her moms honey-like voice replies. aristyn could not even remember the last time her mother had called her 'sweetie'.

"um- mom? why are you calling?"

"cant i just call my favorite daughter to see how she is doing? how is basketball going?"

aristyn scoffs, "i don't play basketball, i play volleyball."

there's silence on the other line.

"why did you call me?" aristyn repeats.

"well, honey, you see, you're father and i got into a bit of trouble. you probably won't see us for a while."

"wha- what, why?" she splutters.

"we... got into a bad deal and can't get out. we're fleeing the country and this is probably the last time we'll talk," aristyn's mothers voice is sweet and silky and aristyn can recall all the times she used that tone. it was always used to tell her and flash, 'oh, honey, we're so sorry, we can't make it to your event tonight, something came up at work,' then they would always be gone for months.

"oh," aristyn did not know how to feel. on one hand, nothing would really be changing, it it not like her parents were around much anyways. but also, she may never see them again. she swallows down the lump in her throat and lies between her teeth, "well, we'll miss you. have you told eugene yet?"

"honey, we haven't quite...got the time. we called you hoping that you could tell him. this is our only phone call we can get."

"what, so you're making me tell him because neither of you can handle telling both your children that they might never see you again? i mean, it's not like we really do anyways."

"sorry, darling, we have to go, we love you..." aristyn scoffs. "...bye now."

aristyn drops her hand from where it was by her ear, "what the fuck."

𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗥𝗚𝗜𝗥𝗟 𝗦𝗣𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗦!
i'm really excited to write aristyns own plot line for act two 🤭🤭