── 𝟐𝟎 . * .°・( 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲 / 𝘁𝘄𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 )
❝︎ 𝗂𝗇𝗌𝗈𝗆𝗇𝗂𝖺𝖼𝗌 ❞︎
──
Aurora Park nibbled on her bottom lip in nothing but pure frustration. The poor girl had been slaving away at her kitchen table, a blank Google document sitting in front of her. The assignment had required her to pick a topic she was passionate about and preach her side of the intended controversial issue.
Passionate?
What the hell was she passionate about?
Fingers busy twirling a strand of her boringly brown hair, a grunt left her. A long forgotten bowl of salt and vinegar chips rested a foot away from her shaking left hand, witnessing the sole agony within the streamer.
"Ugh!" Her fist came down onto the table, a sign of her inevitably thinning patience.
Chocolate orbs fell to her phone, the very device she had been kicking herself for picking up every other ten seconds. Eager hands swooped it up into a caring embrace, tongue poking her pale cheek as her thumb tapped on the threatening blue bird app. She was met with the newly released dark mode Twitter offered, her timeline a glorious shade of black and white.
Humming out of boredom, Rory composed a tweet to amuse both herself and her followers.
──
certified dumbass™︎ ┊︎ @roary
do u think colleges accept resignations at 4am?
↺︎ 12K ┊︎ ♡︎ 302K
↳︎ user1 ┊︎ @user1
bestie why are u awake??????
↳︎ user2 ┊︎ @user2
GO TO SLEEP SWEATY
↳︎ user3 ┊︎ @user3
i dropped out at 2am so maybe
↳︎ user4 ┊︎ @user4
BRUH R U OK @user3 ??!?!?!!
↳︎ user5 ┊︎ @user5
if she drops out there's no hope for the rest of us 😐
↳︎ certified dumbass™︎ ┊︎ @roary
tf is that supposed to mean 🤨 @user5
↳︎ user6 ┊︎ @user6
drop out n become my housewife <3
↳︎ certified dumbass™︎ ┊︎ @roary
INSPIRATION HAS STRUCK EVERYBODY SHUT UP
──
"User6, you fucking genius! Mwah!" Rory kissed her phone screen, momentarily neglecting just how disgusting that truly was.
Her fingers immediately got to work on the keyboard of her rinky-dink MacBook—a purchase she regretted, personally.
Anyways...
What else was she passionate about if not for feminist ideals? What else would the resident CEO of feminism write about other than feminism? Preposterous!
She was only about half a page in when her phone buzzed. Brows furrowing, she picked her phone back up to see the notification. She figured no one else would still be up...
Corpse_Husband replied:
You're awake?
A small smile graced her unknowing lips, index finger hovering over his name. However, her screen faded to a smooth gray as it began to vibrate.
Corpse :) is calling...
Shock wracking her poor body, her hand spasmed and the phone landed on the floor of her kitchen. She squeaked, falling out of her chair onto her hands and knees in search of the black device. Ducking her head under the wooden table, she spotted the little devil and stretched her body to reach it.
So close...
The mere tips of her fingers made contact, but it was enough to slide it back toward her. A rather large breath finally released from her lungs, one she hadn't even noticed she had been holding.
Composing herself the best she could on the tiled floor of her kitchen, she answered the call while trying to steady her breathing.
"Hello?"
"Rors?"
"That's me, haha..." She chuckled, hand resting on her chest as if it could level the rapid beating of her heart.
"Why do you sound so out of breath?"
God dammit.
Quick, Rory think!
"I was just out on a job—jog."
He paused. "At 4 in the morning?"
"Uh, yeah! It's very peaceful, actually."
"You went jogging... At 4 AM... In California..."
That experience would be anything but peaceful. She knew that.
"You'd be surprised!"
"Right." He replied, uneasy.
"Anyways!" She cleared her throat. "What's up?"
"I saw your tweet. Why are you still awake?"
Rory took the moment to slide back onto her chair, eyes briefly making contact with the essay awaiting her next move before averting the document entirely. "I'm working on this paper for school and it's kicking my ass."
"Oh." He hummed, unsure of how to keep a steady conversation going. "Uh, what's it about?"
She sighed. "Well, it wasn't about anything until about ten minutes ago."
"What's it about now?"
"Men are trash."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"Okay."
"Mhm."
"Interesting."
"I'm not being serious."
"Yeah, I know."
"Okay, good." She laughed softly. "For real though, it's about feminism and all that jazz."
"Ah, alright." He nodded, although she couldn't see. Corpse stood from his desk and began to wander around his apartment, one hand relaxing in his pocket as the other held his phone to his ear.
"I just had to pick a topic I'm passionate about. Sounds easier than it was... I've been putting this assignment off for two weeks. It's due tomorrow—well, actually—it's due tonight technically, considering it's almost 5 in the morning."
"Rors..." He scolded.
"I know, I know." She brushed him off. "Procrastinating is bad, blah blah blah."
"I don't sound like that."
"Oh, sorry. Let me make my voice deeper." Clearing her throat, she continued. "Procrastinating is bad, blah blah blah."
"I hate you."
"Not true."
"Unfortunately."
"Anyways, why'd you call?" Rory questioned, figuring it must have been important.
Corpse shrugged, but quickly remembered she couldn't see and proceeded to mentally kick himself. "I don't know. Just saw your Tweet and wanted to make sure everything was okay."
Oh...
She nibbled on her bottom lip as nerves riddled her stomach. It was a simple sentence, nothing that was meant to pull a reaction like that out of her... Why was she fiddling with the hem of her shirt, then?
Brows furrowed, she climbed to her feet and approached the window of her apartment, gazing out into the dimly lit streets down below. "Everything's fine. I'm not actually going to drop out... At least, not yet."
"Right..." He trailed off, steadily facing the topic of conversation he so badly wanted to bring up. "How about... Other things?"
"Other things?"
"Yeah, like... Friends..."
Val.
Realization smacked her square in the face. "Oh." Eyes wide and full of alarm, "No updates on that, but Rae invited me to stay with her and Poki for a few days... Just to get my mind off of it and kinda... escape the loneliness, you know?"
Corpse leaned his waist against the windowsill of his own apartment, peeking through the drawn curtains to get a view of the night sky. The moon illuminated his light features, gracing the stars with the view of a smitten man.
"Are you going to go?"
Rory's gaze lifted to the moon as well, hand raising to loop a finger around the necklace resting on her chest. Another bad habit of hers—playing with jewelry. She slid the heart-shaped charm up and down the silver chain, humming in thought. "Yeah, I think I will... After I submit the rest of my work for the semester and pre-record some videos for my channel."
He was glad, honestly. He knew Rory had been suffering within the solitary walls of her home; a sleepover with two of her best friends was exactly what she needed. The moment she had confided in him about her panic attacks, Corpse had reached out to Rae and asked her to spend a little time with the Park girl. Call him overprotective, but he couldn't bare to watch Rory suffer through the same thing every single day.
Maybe he overstepped, but both Rory and Corpse needed this; Rory for the comfort, and Corpse for the peace of mind.
"Good. I think that's a good idea."
She let out a low hum in agreement, unaware of how to keep the conversation flowing.
"Do you want to Facetime?"
That'll do it.
──
If one were to fast forward twenty minutes, they would immediately spot Aurora Park typing away at her keyboard again with her phone propped up against a salt-shaker with nothing but a black screen on it. What one wouldn't spot was the man on the other end of the Facetime call, face hovering over his own phone and scanning every minute detail of girl face depicted on his screen.
Rory's brown locks were falling out of the half-assed bun dangling from her head, lip tugged between her front teeth as her fingers aggressively smacked against the keys donning the computer on her kitchen table. Makeup smudged, her brows knitted and met in the center, a trait that presented itself when the girl was concentrating. She looked like an absolute train wreck, but Corpse couldn't help but stare in nothing but pure admiration.
With a satisfied huff, she threw herself back in her chair and cracked her sore knuckles. Head rolling to release the tension in her neck, a defeated chuckle passed her chapped lips. "Finally." Met with a surplus of silence and quiet cricket noises from the bushes outside her apartment building, she raised her head to look into the camera on her phone. "Corpse, you still there?"
He blinked, snapping himself back into some form of reality. "Yeah."
She figured he must've fallen asleep, but the sudden greeting of his deep voice stunned her frail body into a pathetic jump. "Fuck-"
He laughed softly. "Sorry."
"Jeez." She grunted, hand resting over her heart as she tried to steady her erratic heart.
"Did you finish?"
She nodded, popping a Cheeto into her mouth. "Only took fifty years."
"Dramatic."
"And?"
"I expected nothing less." He chuckled, watching with intrigue as she munched quietly.
Her jawline was so sharp...
She swallowed and Corpse averted his eyes to the lamp beside his couch, an attempt to get himself together. If she could see how avidly he was watching her do homework, she'd think he was a freak...
She wasn't a television show he could watch for hours on end without pause, but why did it feel like it? He could never grow bored when she was around, that was a fact he had begun to learn. Hell, she just spent twenty minutes writing an essay in pure silence (with the occasional humming of a Disney song), but he sat on the edge of his seat like she was some sort of prophet delivering his fate.
"Do you want to play a game?" She asked, breaking him from his self-deprecating train of thought.
"A game?"
"Yeah, for a video or something."
He paused, eying the clock on his oven. "Rors, it's almost 6 in the morning."
"...Your point?"
A smile graced his lips. "What game?"
──
author's ramblings !
Free Palestine! 🇵🇸
please educate yourselves on what's going on, we can't ignore this (twitter is not a credible source, don't trust everything you read there). donate if you are able to and spread awareness regardless. ignorance is unacceptable.
please stay safe and healthy! drink plenty of water and don't skip meals!
i care about you all, please take care of yourselves :)
i love you <3
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