women want to be loved like roses. they spend hours perfecting their eyebrows and toes and inventing irresistible curls that fall by accident down the back of their necks from otherwise austere hair-dos. they want their lover to remember the way they held a glass. they want to haunt.
— EVE BABITZ
and god knows the only mistake
that a man can make
is trying to make a woman change
and trade her violets for roses
CARMEN FLORES IS THE PRIME EXAMPLE of a sinner.
She has each of the seven sins wrapped around her perfectly manicured fingers, collecting them like trophies to showcase as a token of her worth. Once personified, she views her sins as her own, ensuring to tend to them with utmost care to maintain her power. It's immoral to pick favourites, she knows that from experience, but that doesn't stop her.
Vanity is Carmen's most cherished sin, and she'll do anything to preserve it.
Appearances are a drug to her — she's admittedly an addict, and she holds no shame in that statement. Carmen loves looking good, equally she loves being around people who look good. Personality matters less than perfect perception; she'll only speak to a fraction of the people she'll encounter in her lifetime, so better to leave a memorable first impression than to wait to awe them.
Through her tough exterior of flaunted riches and a rather frightening natural scowl, Carmen Flores has become feared. The crowds of the Kook Academy hallways part whenever she walks through them, as if she's a biblical figure designed for worship. When it comes to her, respect blurs with cower, as anyone who knows of the Flores name knows the repercussions that come with double crossing it.
Every perfect girl comes with suppressed flaws, and it was fair to say Carmen has skeletons piling up in her closet, hidden neatly amongst her surplus of clothing. Be it the mystery of where she disappears to after every meal, the source of the Flores family wealth, or the whereabouts of her father — Caesar Flores.
One sudden night, the white-picket family of four became three, when Caesar faded to an unmentioned name on Figure Eight and his wife was left with the heavy weight of her two daughters. As if he didn't hold an intense reputation beforehand, the name he left for his family reached new levels, and no one dared to shoot in the direction of the Flores'. Any bullet that came even an inch close to their facade would ricochet, deflecting right back to the shooter and harming them in return.
Caesar, Selina, and later Carmen are ones to steer clear of, because anyone who attempts to damage them is swiftly dealt with. No one knows how, and no one wanted to know. After Caesar's leave, Selina became the orchestrator of all Flores matters, and managed to succeed to her husband's cunning tactics. Similarly, Carmen took up her own lessons of game play, and became the Queen of Hearts of the Outer Banks.
She has a collection of hearts all gathered on her cardigan sleeve, each belonging to the sons of Caesar's suspected accomplices. Flores Accounting is a known and respected family business but, with the label 'family', it somehow wasn't expected for their eldest daughter to interfere just yet.
Carmen always has an ulterior motive; always. Love is a lie when it comes from her glossed lips, and her victims fall for it every time. She isn't an infamous manipulator in ways that extend further than being known for her conquests, but simply has people aware that her partners escape with broken hearts and that she remains entirely unscathed.
Whether she is emotionless or unlovable, it doesn't pose a care to the boys she pursues. They love to be seen with her; a pretty face with pretty pennies in her pocket, what more could they ask for? And, boys don't cry, so they would typically keep their mouths shut in mention of their inevitable breakup.
Carmen's exes never release the secret of her games, but all mutually pity whatever boy would be next. Caesar's warnings are passed down from his place of hiding through his daughter, and are less of a warning to her future casualties and more to their fathers.
Carmen Flores has eyes everywhere, and it has to be a matter of time before at least one starts wandering.
zión moreno . . . CARMEN FLORES
SOMETIMES, I IGNORE YOU, SO I FEEL IN CONTROL . . .
. . . 'CAUSE REALLY, I ADORE YOU, AND I CAN'T LEAVE YOU ALONE!
+
rudy pankow . . . JJ MAYBANK
ester expósito . . . LOLA DEL CAMPO
kelvin harrison jr . . . JASON REED
fernanda urrejola . . . SELINA FLORES
mark consuelos . . . CAESAR FLORES
keilani arellanes . . . STEFFIE FLORES
gillian anderson . . . DR. ANITA FRASER
olivia dejonge . . . GRACE CONNOLLY
WARNINGS — foul language, sexual content, manipulation, crime, alcohol and drug use, violence, detail of injury, eating disorders (specifically bulimia), mentions of abuse, fertility struggles, difficult family dynamics, and others. there will not be content warnings at the start of each chapter, so this is your first and final warning.
DISCLAIMER — no part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without direct consultation from me. translations are accepted, again under the condition that it is discussed and approved beforehand. this book is a work of fiction. names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of my imagination or are used fictitiously. any resemblance to actual events is unintended and entirely coincidental. this is excluding the links to the netflix show 'outer banks', to which all credit goes to the pate brothers. the original plot and its details are mine in entirety. credit for the psd used on gifs/graphics goes to zerocolorings on deviantart.
AUTHOR'S NOTE — i'm choosing to clear this up before the book has even started, but remember that carmen is not a character whose actions should be praised nor glorified. she isn't an objectively bad person, as all her actions towards are deflections of trauma, but she's also not someone to idolise. carmen's character on a whole is very complex and, though she may have darker moments, she is not entirely evil. this is once again a reminder that people are never fully good or bad, and there are flaws and upsides to every person. this ties in with her and jj's relationship, which also shouldn't be romanticised. there i'll obviously be sweeter moments between the pair, but don't let that overshadow the obvious toxicity. this book is directed to mature audiences, and any immaturity in comments and such will be removed.