"Good afternoon Aurora." Max, her neighbour yelled from across the street as the girl got out of her friend's car.
"Afternoon Max!" She shouted back with a grin, knowing that he was trying to not be grumpy around her for one day of his life. This however, did not stop him from entering his house straight after her greeting to avoid further conversation. So antisocial, she thought as her smile widened.
Aurora opened the front door to her house, turning around to wave back to Noel who then sped off in his car. She was exhausted from the day of school she just had to endure and was in dire need of a nap.
The hollow silence of the Jenkins house had become unsurprising to the teenager. She hadn't seen her parents in about a month now, the only contact they had was to a weekly message to make sure the housekeeper had come.
So the blonde ran up to her room without a care and jumped onto her bed, not bothering to change. Her eyes fluttered shut as she controlled her breathing, willing sleep to take over.
But it never did.
An hour had passed, but Aurora was still in the same position, the only reason she sat up was to reach her phone. Her screen lit up as she saw a message that made her grin.
Yo, I'm in town,
you wanna hang?
-Eric
Eric Kahn was the blueprint of Noel. With the added bonus's of him owning a legal ID and getting her into all the college parties her heart desired. Aurora used to have a major crush on him (not that she ever told anyone) but now she knew him, he was more of a low maintenance older brother. 'Hanging out' with Eric was code for smoking a joint together.
Yeah, I'm down.
Pick me up in 15?
-Aurora
She skipped over to her vanity and made sure her make up wasn't too smudged, sighing in content when she noticed that it had somehow stayed in an acceptable state. The blonde then changed into a matching set of sweats, anticipating the high she was about to get.
Before she knew it Eric was outside and she had climbed in to the passenger seat. The radio was on full volume as they both sang along to the lyrics of a random Usher song. They arrived at there designated smoking spot in the woods and Eric shut off the engine.
While Eric gracefully got out of the drivers seat, into the back of the car; Aurora clambered into the back seat, not bothered about her muddy shoes getting on the car seats.
"Alright," she said, resting a blunt in between her lips, "Light me up." Eric brought the lighter up to meet the blunt, but before she could inhale, he snatched it away from her mouth. "Hey!" She tried to grab it back, but he held it out of her reach.
"You can have it back once you've answer one question." Aurora only raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. "How are you dealing with everything? And don't you dare try and lie to me.'
The words 'I'm fine' lingered on her lips, yet something stopped her from repeating the same words she'd been speaking all day. "I'm doing as well as I can you know." Her words were soft and airy, if Eric hadn't been watching her every move in concern, he probably would have missed them. "Alison was like family to me and now that she's gone, I feel so alone."
"Rory..." The brunette started.
"I answered your question, now pass me the blunt." She refused to make direct eye contact with him. He passed it over to her with a heavy sigh, letting her inhale a few times before taking it back for himself.
Aurora jumped at the sound of her phone going off, reaching into her bag to find a message that she instantly regretted reading.
Poor little princess Aurora,
did your beloved Alison
know who used to sit in
that back seat instead of
Eric Kahn? -A
Fear struck her mind at the sight of the text, the reminder of her biggest secret caused waves of anxiety to come crashing down on her, as the memory of the night it all started came back to her in vivid picture.
2009
Tears were streaming down the blonde's face as she weaved her way down the stairs of some frat house. Her skin was on fire, handprints of a stranger tattooed all over with invisible ink. Her mind was hazy and overrun with countless thoughts.
Aurora had never been this drunk before. The world around her was spinning, her head pounding from the loud music. She was currently searching through the busy crowds, desperate to find her best friend. Her emotions were running wild, the overwhelming rush of panic mixed in with alcohol was causing her breathing to speed up, she needed to find Ali.
Grabbing her phone out of her bag, she called Alison for the third time, leaving her yet another voicemail. "Ali, please pick up, I can't find anyone right now and I just really need my best friend okay?" Her voice kept wavering throughout the message, still shaken up from the past three hours of her life.
The front door was in sight now, a sigh of relief escaped Aurora's mouth as she hastily made her way out the house, staring at her phone to see if Alison had replied.
She hadn't.
Before an awful sinking feeling could settle into her stomach, she walked straight into another body, "Shit, I'm sorry." A deep voice said as he helped kept her upright.
"No it was my faul-" Her words came to an abrupt hold as she gazed up into the eyes of Eric Kahn.
"You're Aurora Jenkins, right?" Eric said in a casual tone, he remained close to her, realising that she was a drunk mess who could barely keep herself upright. "Aren't you a little young to be at one of these parties?"
The blonde girl was speechless. Eric Kahn knew who she was! "I- Uh- yeah, I guess." She stammered out, feeling immensely embarrassed at how idiotic she must look in this moment. "I'm here with my friend Alison though."
"Oh really?" He questioned, if Aurora wasn't so drunk, she would have picked up the surprised tone of his voice.
"Yeah, I'm actually looking for her right now." She stated, "Have you seen her? She's blonde, judgemental and super pretty." This brought a small smile on to Eric's face.
"Wait." His amused expression suddenly dropped. "You're talking about Alison Dilaurentis? Jason's little sister?" The blonde nodded, her eyes filling with hope. "Shit Aurora, I saw her leave like two hours ago."
"What! But we only arrived like half an hour before that!" Her words were so rushed that they blended together, reminding the boy of how drunk she was. "I can't believe her, How am I going to get home?"
"Yo, What's up, Rory?" Noel Kahn interrupted her crisis, walking up beside her, placing a friendly hand on her shoulder.
"The moon dude." Noel decided to ignore his older brother, keeping his gaze focused on the clearly troubled girl.
"Ali ditched me!" Despair and betrayal could be heard in her voice and by this point the tears that had once come to a stop, began flowing again.
Noel couldn't stop himself from letting a tiny grin fall on his face, in a teasing tone he said, "What?!" He held out the end of the word. "That bitch!"
"I know right?" The blonde failed to pick up on his mocking tone. "She swore that she wouldn't."
"Well me and Eric were about to bounce anyway," At his words the Jenkins girl was once again filled with hope, "Do you want a ride?"
"Yes!" Her sudden change of emotion could give you whiplash "Please, oh my God!"
At her words, the Kahn Brothers led her towards a blue car that already had another passenger in the back seat, slouched against the car door.
Aurora let out a giggle as Noel opened the door to the other backseat, while fake bowing. Once she sat down she immediately melted into the seat. Her senses where invaded with the overwhelming scent of weed.
"Who's the walking cannabis tree?" She asked Eric, who was now turning on the engine as he chuckled in amusement.
But before the brunette could answer, a deep, tired voice came from beside her; "Say's the walking vodka bottle."
Something about his voice was so familiar yet so new, the mystery boy looked like the type of boy to stay away from, she felt shivers down her spine, but she refused to show it. "At least I know how to hold my liquor." This cause the brothers in the front of the car to let out noises of disagreement. "Guys!" She whispered obnoxiously to them "Don't give me away." She could see the man next to her turning red and shrunk back in fear that she had done something to make him angry.
And then he laughed.
That's when Aurora Jenkins froze. No amount of alcohol could stop her from being stone cold sober after that sound. She had heard that laugh many times before. It was much clearer when he was next to her than it had been when it was muffled through a door, but it was still recognisable either way.
That laugh belonged to Jason Dilaurentis.
Snapping out of her daydream, she looked around her surroundings, only to make eye contact with herself in the wing mirror. Images of her best friend pulling the exact same face rushed into her head, the same look of terror was reflected in her own eyes.
Before her thoughts could run any wilder, Eric shoved the blunt in her direction, having been too lost in his high to notice Aurora's panicked expression. So she did what she always ended up doing; she took the chance to forget about all of her problems and grabbed the drug.
Hours had past and Eric and Aurora were on there fourth blunt, although the girl had consumed most of the second and third as Eric knew he needed to drive them both home.
The comfortable silence was interrupted by Aurora's phone going off repeatedly. She sluggishly reached for it and read a text from her neighbour.
You should come
home -Max
Aurora rolled her eyes at the man's uninformative message.
Why?
-Aurora
It's about your
friend Alison
-Max
This caught the blonde's attention, making her immediately order Eric to drive her home. He obliged, but not without questioning her sudden behaviour, in return she only showed him the text from her neighbour. And that was all he needed to know before he began racing back to her street.
When they arrived there were sirens ringing out as the entire neighbourhood gathered around to try and catch a glimpse of what was happening. Despite their curiosity, they all moved out the way of Aurora Jenkins, who was pushing through the crowd, anticipation pumping through her body. As she finally caught a glimpse of the scene, her heart dropped.
There was a body being carried on stretcher, covered by a white sheet. Tears flooded her eyes, yet she refused to them fall. Not here. Not in front of all of these people.
A comforting hand appeared on her shoulder, she looked to her left and saw Max with a sympathetic smile on his face. She hated it. She hated all the pity she could feel from the people around her, she despised all of the suspicious glares and conspiracies she was certain she would be greeted with tomorrow. She hated herself for being too high to cope with any of it right now. She hated everything.
Her best friend was dead.
But she would not cry. Not here. Not now.
So instead she ran, ignoring Luke's calling of her name and Eric offer to keep her company.
She was so caught up in avoiding everything that she didn't notice the group of four girls that stood near the Dilaurentis house, who's eyes held some pity, hurt and suspicion of their own.
———————————————————————
Max is literally Luke from Gilmore girls. Sorry not sorry.
Word count: 2039