As the week progresses, Brielle, Julie, and Flynn finally take their exams. Brielle finishes her drawing the day it's due, since the entire final is just the drawing and they have an hour and a half to spend in the class. The calculus exam all three girls have ends up being similar to the practice worksheet they were required to do, which pleases all of them, since they all did so well on the practice worksheet. Dance is similar, although their group dances with the soccer team—which is even worse than their lacrosse team—don't end up being perfect, but they're good for a bunch of uncoordinated guys. Their English classes are all different, but each girl ends up acing the exam they're required to take to finish off the class.
Music class is a different thing entirely. Julie, being a part of a well-known band, has already secured her spot for the next semester. Flynn ends up performing a cool jazzy trumpet solo for the class, which everyone, including Carrie, likes. Carrie decides to take a step back from her pop group, Dirty Candy, to perform something a little closer to home.
"Why do I feel like
I'm running in circles?
With no way out,
With no destination
I need to see what my life's about
Whether I need to change
Or somehow reroute
I have always seen the good side of things
But when it comes to this, I'm no good at anything
Peel off the layers
The mask I built
Break all the pieces
Of the life I've built
It's not fair to anyone
To see what I've become
When I won't look in the mirror myself
In the mirror myself
Every choice I've made
Just to satisfy
This piece of mind
That I hold inside
I'm running in circles
No destination
Running to a place
For my restoration
I have always seen the good side of things
But when it comes to this, I'm no good at anything
Peel off the layers
The mask I built
Break all the pieces
Of the life I've built
It's not fair to anyone
To see what I've become
When I won't look in the mirror myself
In the mirror myself
I have always seen the good side of things
But when it comes to this, I'm no good at anything"
Let's just say, Carrie's audition/final exam blew everyone away.
Brielle, being extremely nervous about her performance for music since it replaces their audition for the next term, barely makes it through her performance without too many mistakes and hopes for the best when it comes to making it into the program next term. And finally, after another few stressful exams, the weekend comes. They don't have a gig this weekend, but that was on purpose. Flynn claims it's to "give them a break after finals". Not that they're arguing because having a gig each week gets tiring.
"So, are you two ever going to date?" Flynn bugs Reggie and Julie again, hoping for a yes. Julie looks to Reggie, who gives a slight nod, telling her she can break the news of them dating for over a month.
"We are." Julie's smile grows as Flynn looks between the two of them with awe.
"So, have you two kissed?" Flynn looks at the two of them, trying to wrap her head around the idea that they're actually dating. Reggie blushes furiously as Julie nods, and Flynn shrieks. "And you just decided not to tell me?"
"We've been dating in secret for about a month Flynn." Flynn grabs her best friend's arms, dragging her to make their faces nearly touch.
"I might have to declare Brielle my new best friend." Flynn threatens, before letting go of Julie's arms. "I thought we promised no more secrets."
"We did, but Reggie and I agreed that as long as there was no kissing, telling everyone we were dating wouldn't be fair to us. Like we'd be pressured to do it before we wanted to." Flynn thinks for a moment before agreeing with their thought process.
"I've been asking every day for the last TWO MONTHS. When did you guys kiss, exactly?"
"Last night." Reggie answers, breaking the silence he's held since the beginning of the conversation. Usually, he's this perky person with no ability to shut up, but when it comes to telling Flynn about all of this, he doesn't know what to say.
"Okay, I want to know all of the details." Reggie gets up and goes to talk to Luke, who is with Brielle.
The night before, Reggie and Julie were in her room, hanging out and watching something on her phone, door open per Ray's request, before he tells her he has a surprise for her.
He's been planning this date since they started dating, the perfect date. She's told him all about what she thinks is the perfect date, so after a month of planning, everything fell into place. Bringing her to the beach, she is told to close her eyes, and promise not to open them.
She feels the sand start to slip into her sandals, but doesn't really know what's going on yet.
And as soon as she opens her eyes, she sees everything she's dreamed about as a perfect date. Candles surrounding a picnic blanket with her favorite foods, pasta and chocolate, and pizza, of course, for Reggie. The beach is empty, since no one can go in the water after sundown, so it's just the two of them under the stars.
"I hope it's right. I wanted to give you your perfect date and well, I couldn't remember everything you had said when we started dating. There's pizza, pasta, and those chocolates you love—" Julie cuts him off with a kiss on the cheek.
"It's perfect." Julie smiles, sitting on the picnic blanket, sees the pasta and knows it's her favorite kind, the little bowties with marinara sauce. When she and Flynn were little, they'd act like they were real bowties, putting them up to the base of their necks, put their dirty fingers under their noses to mimic mustaches, and talk like they were businessmen, having formal conversations about politics and things they didn't know anything about.
"In my opinion, there's just one thing missing." Reggie says, blood creeping up to flush his cheeks into a shade resembling the color of the pepperoni on the pizza.
"And what would that be?" Julie turns towards her boyfriend, trying to figure out what's going on in that crazy mind of his.
"This." Placing on hand on her neck, he leans in for a kiss, which happens to be her first, but everything feels right.
"You were right. It was missing that." Julie says once they pull away from each other, the biggest grin covering her face.
"That is the cutest thing ever." Brielle says, before looking to her own boyfriend. "Hint, hint."
"I heard none of that conversation, so I'm no help." Luke holds his hands up defensively, before sliding behind her and giving her a hug, but she feels these oddly sensitive spots on her ribs, and winces. Pulling his arms away from her, she tries to figure out what she's done in the last few days that would cause this, but can't think of a thing. "Are you okay?"
"It just hurts right there for some reason." Immediately, Luke starts thinking the worst, even though the worst isn't possible because her parents are locked up.
"Did someone hit you?" Luke climbs out from behind her as the rest of the group, aside from Alex who is off somewhere else, stops everything they were doing.
"No. I probably just hit it on something and didn't remember." She shrugs.
"Are you sure?" Julie confirms, knowing how many excuses she came up with while she was being abused.
"I'm absolutely sure. I haven't seen my parents in months and Aliyah is the best sister in the world. I promise I would tell you guys if something was up." Brielle finally gets through to them that the bruise is nothing and they drop the subject.
Alex, on the other hand, is walking around Los Angeles, trying to clear his mind of his anxiety and heartbreak that he still hasn't gotten over even though it's been over two months. Two months since he's seen any ghosts at all, although he is starting to think he sees things when people randomly show up in the streets every once in a while and disappear without a trace.
As he continues to try to subdue the thoughts in his head, he hears someone on a skateboard and thinks for a moment it might be Willie before they slam straight into him.
"I'm so sorry. I was trying to swerve and... it didn't work." The guy looks at Alex, feeling his stomach do a little flip at how cute this guy is. Slightly wavy light brown hair falls over his faded blue eyes, showing him the emotions that the guy was hoping to hide from Alex, but Alex dismisses the thought that he could possibly be gay, no matter how much he is developing a crush on him.
"It's- it's alright." Alex looks up and all of his thoughts of Willie go out the door.
"I'm so sorry for running into you." The guy picks himself up off the ground, dusting his faded jeans, and holds out a hand for Alex.
"Seriously, I'm not even hurt. I'm Alex, by the way." Alex stands up with his help, feeling like he might have the ability to get over Willie, finally.
"I'm Josh." Josh extends his hand, knowing how he feels towards Alex isn't something to ignore. Alex just doesn't want to break his heart because of another skater, but can't deny what he's feeling as it is. "So, you want to hang out by the beach? It's one of my favorite places around here."
"It's one of my favorites, too." Alex agrees, running after Josh as he takes off on his board, finally truly happy for the first time since becoming a lifer again.
Author's Note: As promised, this chapter is quite a bit longer, but I'm annoyed at myself for writing in a lifer love interest for Alex. I didn't want Alex to have a love interest and turns out, that's exactly what I ended up doing. It's not like they're not cute or anything, so we'll see what happens with them in the future. Especially with everything going on... Let me know if you guys have any ideas on what I should write in the future and hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Please vote, comment, do whatever, just let me know you guys enjoyed reading this as much as I loved writing it.
The song, by the way, is mine, so please don't copy it or steal it because I think it works so well for Carrie as she realizes how much of her life is shallow.
Loves,
mistyrider921
~𝄞~