October always arrived quietly.
The trees outside Scarlett's bedroom window had only just begun turning shades of amber and crimson, leaves drifting lazily across the pavement as rain tapped softly against the glass. Her room was lit almost entirely by pink LED lights wrapped around shelves overflowing with CDs, plushies, and stacks of fashion magazines she'd collected over the years.
Scarlett tossed her bubblegum-pink hair into a messy claw clip before collapsing into her gaming chair.
"You're ignoring me."
The voice crackled through her headset.
"I am not," Scarlett laughed.
"You left me on delivered for six hours."
"I was asleep."
"You slept six hours?"
"I like my beauty sleep."
A groan came from the other end.
"You are impossible."
Scarlett smiled.
The person complaining wasn't new.
She'd met Ivy almost four years ago through an online art server, and somehow the two girls had become inseparable despite living hundreds of miles apart.
Scarlett's aesthetic screamed early-2000s.
Baby tees.
Low-rise jeans.
Chunky platforms.
Pink lip gloss.
Tiny handbags.
Everything she owned looked like it had been stolen straight from an old pop music video.
Ivy...
Ivy looked like midnight.
Her dyed red hair framed pale skin covered in silver jewelry. A small hoop rested through one nostril, while a perfectly shaved slit cut through one eyebrow. Black eyeliner surrounded tired emerald eyes, oversized hoodies hid tattooed arms, and every profile picture somehow included smoke curling lazily around her.
She was almost always high.
Not enough to be reckless.
Just enough to be... Ivy.
Scarlett had long since stopped questioning why every third sentence from her best friend started with:
"Dude..."
"Dude," Ivy said now.
"There it is."
"I'm serious."
"What?"
"I met someone."
Scarlett gasped dramatically.
"No way."
"I know."
"You?"
"Rude."
"You literally hate talking to people."
"I don't hate people."
"You absolutely hate people."
"...Okay maybe."
Scarlett spun slowly in her chair.
"So who is it?"
"I don't know."
Scarlett blinked.
"...You don't know?"
YOU ARE READING
Smoke in between us
RomanceSometimes the best love stories begin with a single message. When Scarlett decides she's had enough of watching her fiercely independent best friend, Ivy, spend every night alone, she takes matters into her own hands. One impulsive message to a stra...
