i'm am officially on the road for my vacation! so! if i do not answer y'all's lovely comments you know why🥰
happy readings and stay safe besties! -salem🤍
TW: swearing, mentions of alcohol consumption, anxious thoughts, stalking
word count: 3372
•
Aaron: "Everything you can imagine is real." Pablo Picasso.
"You have everything? You're ready?" Emily asked and looked through Carrie's backpack. Emily was semi panicking as she raced around the apartment. It was endearing for JJ to see her so worried for Carrie's first day of school.
"Can you calm her down please? I'm going to school, not to war," Carrie said and rolled her eyes. JJ chuckled as she walked up to Emily and grabbed her head, kissing her cheek sweetly. That seemed to do the trick. Emily immediately calmed down.
"Relax, Prentiss. She'll do fine," Clara said and ruffled Carrie's hair. Carrie rolled her eyes as she smoothed out her hair again.
"Plus, she has all of us behind her," Penelope said and patted the teenager's back. "She'll be fine, Em."
"Okay fine. Can I at least walk you to the train station?" Emily asked and crossed her arms. Carrie rolled her eyes as she nodded her head. Emily happily grabbed Carrie's lunch bag. She wanted to be helpful. All four women made their way to the subway station.
"Do you remember how to get there?" JJ asked and walked down the stairs right by Carrie's side.
"Two stops then walk to the left," Carrie said and nodded her head. Emily was stressed out, she didn't know how parents did this on a yearly basis.
Ring. Ring. Ring.
Carrie's eyes widened as she saw Trevor's contact name pop up on her phone. Emily's eyes fell to the teenager's phone as she rushed the decline the call.
"Is that the Trevor from the gelato place?" Emily asked and wiggled her eyebrows. Carrie was at a lost for words as she looked around at all of the women surrounding her.
"I told you momma bear was going to find out eventually," Clara said and gestured to Emily. A woman crashed right into Clara at that exact moment. "Watch where you're fucking going, bitch!"
"It's painfully obvious sometimes that you were born and raised in New York," Emily said and shook her head. Clara simply shrugged her shoulders.
"This is why I didn't want you guys to come down to the station with me," Carrie said and rolled her eyes. Emily grabbed onto Carrie's shoulder and took one long look at Carrie before embracing her in a tight hug. "Emily. Too. Tight."
"Shit! Sorry," Emily said and pulled away. Her eyes watered as she looked Carrie. "You have a great first day at school, Carrie. Be careful. Don't talk back to your teachers. And we all took the day off today so if there's an emergency, you can reach us at any time."
"I got it," Carrie said and nodded her head. She waved and said her goodbyes to everyone before turning and heading towards the train doors. She stopped for a second before turning and running back into Emily's arms. The raven-haired woman embraced her in a tight hug once again. "Thank you for everything."
"Of course. Go make me proud," Emily said and patted the teenager's back as they broke away from each other. Carrie nodded her head and ran into the train. "Make good choices!"
"No promises!" Carrie yelled back as the train doors closed. Emily stood there and watched Carrie as the train took off.
"How do you feel?" Penelope asked and placed her hand gently on Emily's back. The raven-haired woman's bottom lip quivered.
"I miss her already," Emily said and stood still as all three women hugged her tightly. "Oh God! How am I going to be when she goes off to college! I'm going to move with her."
"Don't do that. She'll have zero social life and live with you until she's thirty-five. Don't do that," Clara said and shook her head. "Let the birdy spread her wings or whatever. Find a stick or two. Maybe a worm."
"I hate that your stupid metaphor is right," Emily said and rolled her eyes. All four of the women made their way back to the stairs of the subway. JJ's hands protectively wrapped around Emily as she felt eyes on all of them. Emily noticed this and turned her attention towards JJ. "You okay?"
"Yeah. I just felt eyes on us," JJ said and looked back. The entire subway was practically facing forward. Blue eyes scanned the entire crowd. Nothing. "Forget about it. The girls want some mimosas and so do I. You need to distract yourself from Carrie's first day."
"Yes ma'am," Emily said jokingly. The four of them headed up the stairs. JJ would turn her head back every couple of steps. She still had that feeling of all of them being watched.
The four women made their way towards DC nHarvest for brunch. All of them sat at the table and immediately started to look through the menu. Clara and Penelope looked over to the other before turning towards JJ and Emily, and then back to each other.
"Are we going to address the elephant in the room?" Clara asked and set down her menu. JJ and Emily furrowed their eyebrows. "Oh, come on."
"What?" Emily asked and shrugged her shoulders. Clara rolled her eyes at the two women.
"Penelope and I were nice and avoided asking you in front of Carrie, but now that Carrie is gone we can ask," Clara said and nudged Penelope. The blonde woman nodded her head and smiled over at Clara.
"Okay?" JJ said and set down her menu. "What's up?"
"Oh, good Lord. Spill it! We want the details! Are the two of you together? Are you just friend? What's Carrie saying about this? What's going to happen to JJ's apartment? What is actually going on between the two of you?" Penelope asked and slammed her hand down on the table in front of her. "The anticipation is killing us!"
Emily and JJ turned towards the other. Both gestured for the other to speak. JJ sighed as Emily squinted her eyes at her.
"We are together," JJ said and finally wrapped her arm around Emily's. The two women leaned into the other's touch.
"Yes! Finally!" Penelope said and threw her head back. She stuck her hand out making Clara groan. The brunette woman rolled her eyes as she placed a twenty down on Penelope's hand.
"You guys couldn't wait another week?" Clara asked and shook her head. "I figured Prentiss would be a chicken for the millionth time it seemed."
"Hey!" Emily said and furrowed her eyebrows. "I have you know I made the first move."
"Mmm, did you?" JJ asked and squinted her eyes. Emily's jaw dropped.
"I did! I asked you out!" Emily said and turned her attention towards JJ. Penelope and Clara both wished for a drink to down at this moment. "I asked you right when you asked what we were."
"Yeah, but I started that conversation," JJ said proudly. Emily rolled her eyes.
"Well, this was cute. I'm going to go throw up now," Clara said and propped up her menu to find anything to disappear from this conversation.
"Good morning, ladies. My name is Kayla and I'm going to be your server this afternoon. What can I get you all to drink this afternoon?" Kayla asked and pulled out the small notebook pad.
"Mimiosas," Emily said and smiled widely at the waitress.
"Make mine double the strength please," Clara said and placed her hand on the server's arm. The server laughed as she nodded her head. Emily looked down at her watch. Penelope reached her hand over for it. The raven-haired woman furrowed her eyebrows.
"What?" Emily asked and held onto her watch tighter.
"You're watching the clock to see what class Carrie is in. Now, give it," Penelope said and beckoned Emily to hand her the watch. The raven-haired woman's jaw dropped.
"How dare you accuse me of doing something I wasn't consciously aware I was doing!" Emily said and moved her wrist away from Penelope's grasp.
"Carrie is fine, Emily. Stop being in mom mode for like five seconds. She's probably having the time of her life right now. If not, I'll be drinking for the both of us," Clara said and gestured to the mimosas that were being placed down in front of them.
Emily sighed. She was worried that Carrie was having a horrible day.
Carrie, in actuality, was having a great day so far. She found her locker relatively easy and made her way to her first class, English. They were reading Hamlet, a story that Carrie just so happened to finish reading for her other school. She was already a pro in making an impression on her new teachers by answering all their questions.
Next, Carrie made her way to algebra. She kept to herself for most of the class. This was a new topic that they were learning. Carrie was lost in the first half, but eventually she had gotten the hang of it.
Her third period was psychology. Carrie had opted to take an elective that was easy for her. Emily and JJ both knew the subject of psychology like the back of their hands. She wouldn't struggle at all in this class, especially since her teacher was the basketball coach. He wasn't necessarily thorough with the subject.
Fourth period was a drag, yet went by easy for Carrie. It was AP Spanish. The teenager was a bit out of her element with her Spanish and she wanted to get back into it.
Carrie had made her way back to her locker after all her morning classes. She was placing all of her books in when she felt someone lean against the locker next to hers. "Hi."
"Hi?" Carrie said and furrowed her eyebrows. It was a boy with brunette hair and electric green eyes. He smiled widely at Carrie.
"I noticed you around. I've never seen you before. I would have remembered someone like you," he said and stuck out his hand. "My name is Adrian."
"Carrie," she said and shook his hand. The boy leaned against Carrie's locker. She furrowed her eyebrows as he got closer to her.
"Where are you from, Carrie?" Adrian asked and wiggled his eyebrows.
"Denver," Carrie said simply as she felt her phone ring. She pulled it out and saw it was a message from Trevor. She smiled slightly at her phone. Adrian ducked his head down to captivate Carrie's attention again. Carrie took a step back as she grabbed her lunch bag and shut her locker. "Well, this was fun. I've gotta run."
"Woah, woah, woah. Where are you running off to? I'm just trying to talk," Adrian said and smiled charmingly at Carrie. She took another step back.
"I've got to go call my boyfriend. He's off right now," Carrie said and moved to get out of Adrian's way. The boy was persistent and stood again in front of Carrie. He looked behind him to a group of boys that were watching them. Carrie noticed them and looked up at him with a glare and tilted her head. "Look, not to be a bitch. You're really not my type. I'm sure the next new girl that comes in would love to give you a chance. Not me though. Axe body spray isn't my type. Bye!"
Carrie walked away. Adrian was left speechless as he watched Carrie walk away. The boy cleared his throat and walked back towards his friends. That was a bruise to his ego.
"That was pretty cool. Don't mind Adrian, he's just a douchebag like the rest of them," a girl said as she walked right next to Carrie. The brunette teenager furrowed her eyebrows as she now had some stranger accompanying her. "I'm Fiona."
"Carrie," she said back and smiled. Fiona didn't look like the person to be friends with Carrie. The brunette teenager was very much by the book. With her parents being Hispanic, she didn't have any time to fool around with school. Before Emily, Carrie didn't have much freedom of what she could do. Meanwhile, Fiona was Carrie's polar opposite. The girl was blonde, had tattoos, was white, and didn't care much about the dress code judging by how she was dressed.
"You're that new girl that transferred here from Denver, right?" Fiona asked as she grabbed a piece of gum from her bag. She handed it to Carrie. She gladly took it and thanked her quietly for it. "Why the hell did you transfer here?"
Carrie debated for a second. She didn't know Fiona well enough to tell her the truth yet. And the last thing Carrie wanted was for people to weaponize her family's death against her. "Oh, my mom got a better job offer here. I came with her."
"This place sucks," Fiona said and laughed. Carrie pushed open the doors and saw an empty table in the cafeteria. Fiona followed after her. "You mind if I keep you company? Or do you have to go call that boyfriend of yours?"
"No, it's fine. I'll call him later and he's not my boyfriend, at least not yet. He lives back in Denver," Carrie said and smiled softly. She opened her backpack and pulled out the sketch pad that JJ had gotten her. When Carrie wasn't in class, she was working on her drawings.
"Are you taking art? Because these are too good if you're not," Fiona said and sat right next to her. "Is that a realistic heart?"
"Yeah, it took a few tries, but I finally got it. I got this new set of colored pencils, drawing pencils, and markers for Christmas. I've just been messing with it," Carrie said and nodded her head. "I'm trying water color next, but it's not going so well."
"Oh trust me, I understand," Fiona said and grabbed her bag. She pulled out a sketch pad and showed Carrie one of her drawings. It was a realistic portrait of a man in water color.
"Woah. That's amazing," Carrie said as her eyes tried to find each little detail. "You're really good at that."
"Thanks. It's taken months of practice, but I finally perfected it to my liking," Fiona said and nodded her head. "I have art next period so I might head up to the art room."
"You do? I have art next period too," Carrie said and grabbed her schedule. She unfolded the paper and looked right at the slot for fifth period. It was art.
"Well come on, I can show you around the room and we can get started on picking your seat and new project for your profilo," Fiona said and tilted her head towards the building. Carrie got up and grabbed her things before following after the girl.
"I'm never going out with Clara again," Emily said and held onto her head. JJ chuckled as she helped her up the last stair. The raven-haired woman lost count of how many mimosas she had. Clara was a good, yet bad influence on Emily. "I'm going to be hungover by the time Carrie comes home. She's going to want to talk her heart out, and I want to be a good guardian and listen! But I can't with my head pounding."
"One step at a time, Emily," JJ said and chuckled. The blonde woman walked the two of them into their apartment. She carefully led Emily up the stairs and into their bedroom. Emily groaned as she crashed down on the bed. JJ chuckled as Emily reached over to her bedside table and grabbed a broken pair of sunglasses she had in there. It was better than letting the sun get to her eyes, even if only one of the lens were in her glasses. "You look ridiculous."
"You sound ridiculous," Emily said and shut her eyes. The sun was too harsh of light for her to handle. "God I love and hate alcohol."
"I'll be downstairs making some tea. I know Carrie might like some of that Jasmine tea when she comes home from school," JJ said and nodded her head. "And to get the big baby some water."
"I am a grown adult," Emily said, slurring her words slightly. JJ chuckled as she kissed the top of Emily's head.
"Get some rest," JJ said and nodded her head. She had only two mimosas. The blonde woman was feeling a buzz but nowhere as much as Emily.
JJ made her way down to the kitchen. She had gotten two glasses, she filled both with ice and cold water. JJ made sure to put a metal straw in Emily's. The woman likes drinking out of straws.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
JJ furrowed her eyebrows as she walked towards the door. She looked out through the peephole and didn't see anyone. The blonde woman did see a package at the entrance of the door. JJ unlocked the door and grabbed the package. It was addressed to Emily.
"Babe! You got a package! Did you order something?" JJ shouted as she looked at the shipping label.
"What?" Emily shouted back. Her face scrunched up. That was too loud for her.
JJ shrugged her shoulders before grabbing the glass of water for Emily and the package. She made her way up the stairs and back into their bedroom.
"Here. Both of these are for you. I'll be up in a minute. I need to put my water to boil," JJ said and kissed Emily's lips softly. The two smiled as they pulled away from each other.
Emily sat up and opened the package. She didn't remember ordering anything. She moved her hand around the practically empty box. That's when she hit something. Emily furrowed her eyebrows as she pulled it out. Emily's eyes landed on a piece of paper.
Why did you leave?
Emily furrowed her eyebrows as she read the paper over and over again. The raven-haired woman flipped the paper around and saw it was blank. Emily's heart was pumping out of her chest as a million possibility took over her head. That was one way for her to sober up completely.
Carrie.
"Carrie," Emily said softly as she searched around for her phone. She immediately pulled up the text conversation between her and Carrie.
Emily: Can you call me right away?
Emily tapped her finger against the edge of her cellphone. A million nerves took over her body as she waited for Carrie to answer. Finally, her phone rang.
Carrie: I'm in class! I'm learning watercolor. I'm alright. Stop worrying.
The raven-haired woman furrowed her eyebrows. Carrie was okay. Then what did this paper mean? Why did who leave?
"JJ?" Emily shouted. The raven-haired woman didn't hear anything. Right when she was about to get up, JJ walked into the room. She had a coffee mug in her hand and was blowing on the hot tea in there.
"Yeah? You missed me that much? I was only gone for five minutes," JJ said and chuckled. She was so focused on not dropping her tea that she didn't notice the worried look on Emily's face. "So I was talking to Miss Davis next door. Apparently, there are these punk kids that are going around and leaving creepy messages around the apartment building. So, she said if the door is plastered with random drawings, to just ignore it. Teens being teens kind of thing."
"Like this?" Emily asked and furrowed her eyebrows. JJ looked over to the woman. Her eyebrows raised as she saw the paper.
"That's a little creepy. But I can't judge. I partied in an abandoned train when I was in high school," JJ said and waved off Emily. "It's fine. It's probably nothing."
"You're probably right," Emily said and nodded her head. "Just some dumb teenagers."
Penelope: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Franklin D. Roosevelt.
•
don't yall love when i have something up my sleeve 🤪🤪🤪
i'll be updating soon! -salem🤍