─── ∙ ~εïз~ ∙ ───
"it's bad, isn't it? like irreversible bad?" amerie asked them.
darren had called their two girl friends to meet them at one of the rooftops near their diner because apparently, they were planning on giving amerie waida a haircut. of course, daisy rushed over at the mention of her name. so now the girl was sitting in a shopping trolley, her long-time crush on the other side.
"nah, i shaved off both my eyebrows and they grew back." darren reassured her. "yeah, way less shit."
"more like heaps less shit, thanks." amerie smiled at the mirror.
"yeah, you look beautiful." daisy even couldn't help herself.
quinni and darren shared a look, uneasy about amerie's reply. when it seemed like the girl wasn't going to say anything, darren quickly spoke up. "you'll have to forgive her, she just talks—"
"no, no." amerie shook her head, glancing up at the girl. "thank you, i appreciate it."
daisy blushed.
"why did harper punch you in the face?" quinni asked out of the blue.
"i don't really know."
"well, you must have done something." darren told her.
"we went to a music festival last week. and after that, she just went ghost." amerie explained to them.
"did you get into a fight?"
"yeah, but i can't remember what it was about. we always fight." amerie shrugged.
"when's harper's birthday?"
"november twenty first." amerie said.
"uh-huh. scorpio." darren sighed, "unsubscribe."
"what's yours?" quinni asked the girl.
"i'm a virgo."
"mmm. i'm an aquarius. quinni's a libra. daisy—" darren started.
"are we compatible?" amerie cut them off.
"not all queer people are astrology experts." darren spoke with a serious face, placing a gummy from their pick and mix in daisy's mouth.
"oh. sorry." amerie frowned.
"i'm kidding, i'm kidding. we are." darren smiled. "but you're most compatible with a taurus or a capricorn."
"well, what are you?" amerie asked the third member of their trio.
"a taurus." the girl replied, glaring daggers into darren, who knew exactly what they were doing.
"perfect!" amerie grinned, placing a hand on her knee. "we're most compatible."
"yeah." daisy nodded, nervously. the mere feeling of amerie's fingers on her bare knees was enough to make her nervous. the girl bit her lip and rested her head back, looking up.
"but i'n going to need your time of birth because if you are a leo moon. i'm not messing with you." darren joked, but amerie didn't smile.
"do you feel sad?" quinni asked her.
"yeah." the girl frowned.
"what do feel saddest about? the fact that you were really popular, and now your not? the fact that harper doesn't want to be your friend anymore or the fact that everyone knows you did the map, the fact that we're all currently in sex prison because of you or the fact—"
"mhm, quinni!" darren sang out to interrupt her.
"you should try scream therapy!" quinni suggested, climbing out of her trolly. "you scream your frustrations to the moon."
amerie scrunched up her nose and shook her head. "no..."
"yes! i think you should. it's helped me before." quinni ordered. "come on, let's go!"
darren grabbed the handle of the two girl's trolley and pushed them over to the edge of the building.
"okay we're doing it." amerie chuckled.
they got out of the trolley and leaned against the fence. amerie took a deep breath.
"my best friend dumped me!" she yelled. "damn, that actually felt good."
"told you."
"oh, um... i'm a reject!" darren screamed.
"i think i hate all men!" daisy shouted, making darren laugh.
"i have a lazy kebab vagina!" quinni hollered.
"right. i'm really sorry about that." amerie apologised. "i should never have put it on the map. "spider's a lying dick."
"oh. it's okay." quinni shook her head. "i'm not upset about it anymore. i just wanted to know if my flaps were too big."
"i don't think can't be too big."
"that's my research led me to believe so too." quinni nodded.
"i'll still look at them if you want me to." amerie offered.
"nah, i'm good." quinni shook her head, "daise already took a peak."
amerie glanced at the girl, who saluted her.
"you know, i used to think you were a real bitch. i mean daisy always tried to convince me otherwise." darren spoke. "but getting knocked off your high horse really suits you."
"make the most of it." amerie smiled, "i'm definitely changing schools."
darren gasped. "no, you can't just quit."
"everyone hates me." amerie reminded them.
"we don't hate you." quinni took her hand.
"wait, what's the cemetery thing?" darren asked, thinking back to the sluts class.
"it's where everyone hangs out when our parents are home." the girl explained.
"let's go."
"no way." amerie shook her head.
"why not? you just need to strut out there and own your shit!" darren explained. "oh come on, you've got both your eyebrows, a non-shit fringe. what else do you need?" they turned to the fence. "let's get mad!" they screamed.
─── ∙ ~εïз~ ∙ ───
"and so that's why i'm never drinking beer again." phoebe finalised, taking another sip of her beer.
the three boys just blinked, and glanced at each other before glancing at their friend. they had been silently listening to ten minutes of her talking nonsense. see bee was a lightweight. after three shots of tequila at dustin's house for pre-drinks and this bottle of beer, she was already slurring her words.
"okayyy." spider grabbed the brown bottle from her hand. he finished the beverage himself and placed the empty glass on the ground.
"hey!" phoebe groaned.
"look, you're clearly already drunk despite having plans to 'never have beer again'." spider pointed out. "so why don't you ease up on the drinks and try not to slip onto someone's dick tonight?"
"you know better than anyone that those rumours aren't true." phoebe shook her head.
spider shrugged. "sure is fun pretending they are though."
"hey, cunt." a voice greeted. malakai had made his way over, his eyes on the only girl.
"you what?" spider asked in her defence as ant straightened up in surprise at his insult. dusty just raised his eyebrow.
"did you just call me a cunt?" the girl questioned, her voice soft.
"no, it's just that you called me a cunt in that class so... i just—" the boy was growing stressed and the three boys' intimidating stares weren't helping. "i'm—i'm malakai."
"bee." the girl introduced, the three boys behind her making a buzzing noise like an actual bee would. "seems i've got myself a theme song." malakai smiled at that. "and i wasn't calling you a cunt, i said spider was a dog cunt."
"now that's just horrible." spider shook his head.
"love ya." bee smiled before she pulled malakai away. "it's hard to talk to cute boys when they're stood there like my bodyguards."
malakai laughed. "they were definitely threatening me."
"don't be, they're all bark no bite." bee reassured him.
"wait... you think i'm cute?" the boy tilted his head to the side as he smirked at her.
"that's the alcohol talking." bee shook her head, his attempt at flirting being undetected by her.
"well you're the one drinking it." malakai shrugged.
"anyways!" phoebe turned back to the boys, pointing at them. "that's ant, spider and dusty. people weirdly refer to us as the insect club. i kinda like it though... insect, not incest. don't be confused with that stupid map."
"so you're a bee, they're a spider and an ant... but what's dusty supposed to be?" malakai questioned.
"oh he's actually like a—a dustbin." phoebe explained. "since like... most insects are attracted to trash."
"right." malakai nodded, trying to repress his laugh at the stupidity of it.
"he came up with it himself." phoebe chuckled. "it's okay, he's kinda an egg short of a dozen. at least that's what daisy says."
malakai gave her a toothy grin. "i got it. she really doesn't beat around the bush does she?"
"never." phoebe shook her head. "that's what i like about her, she—she's brutally honest. we're kind of good cop, bad cop." phoebe paused. "wait, you've met her already?"
"yeah." malakai nodded. "after the assembly. she was singing your praise."
phoebe facepalmed. "you'll have to ignore that, she—"
"no it was sweet." malakai interrupted her. "she talks about you like you're an angel sent directly from heaven."
"she actually said that?" phoebe giggled.
"no, i interpreted it that way." malakai shrugged. "so did it hurt?"
"huh?" phoebe questioned, checking her bare arms and legs for any injury she may have gotten while intoxicated. "did what hurt?"
"when you fell from heaven."
"yeah... i'm not doing this." phoebe shook her head as she smiled, she took the beer bottle from malakai's hand and strode away from him. "get back to me when you're less corny!"
malakai grinned, watching her stumble away from him and into a group of girls. he moved over to the cooler and grabbed another two beers, having seen more people he was acquainted with.
"hey daisy." the boy jogged over to group of four with two beers in his hands. darren and quinni walked off, wanting to do their own thing.
"hey." daisy gave him a smile. "amerie, this is malakai."
"we've met." the boy spoke. "don't think she likes me very much."
"sorry about that." the girl sighed, taking the beer bottle he offered, "i've been having a difficult time."
"yeah." malakai chuckled, "that's been hard to miss."
"i feel like everyone is staring at me." amerie frowned. she wasn't wrong. "um..."
"no! no, they're staring at me." malakai backed up onto the platform and began to weirdly move around. "what are you talking about?"
daisy and amerie looked at each other and laughed. people began to join in and dance with the boy so quinni made her way over to them and pulled them over.
"come on!"
eventually, everyone was dancing together and daisy watched as malakai gravitated towards bee. the girl gave him two thumbs up and returned to her friends.
"i return in peace." the boy spoke, his hands up in defence.
"and without the jokes i hope." phoebe smiled.
"don't act like you weren't laughing." malakai reminded her.
"bee laughs at everything." ant interrupted, slinging his arm around her shoulder.
malakai took note of how phoebe naturally leaned into him and beamed. the boy winced, daisy should've said the girl had a boyfriend before giving him false hope.
"malakai, right?" ant questioned, tilting his head to the side as he looked at him up and down.
"yeah."
"i'm ant." the boy spoke, putting his other arm out for the boy to take.
spider and dustin made their way over to them and phoebe watched as the four became fast friends. the girl slowly pushed her way out of their conversation, trying to find another person to interact with.
"daisy, my silver baby!" phoebe exclaimed as she had her arms open for the girl.
"my golden lady!" daisy smiled, accepting her embrace.
that was their thing. phoebe was obsessed with everything black and yellow, like bees. the yellow manifested itself into her love for golden jewellery. daisy adored white and yellow, like a daisy flower. but she found herself gravitating towards silver jewellery as they grew older. so they were golden lady and silver baby.
"hey, bee." darren smiled at her, "how are you?"
"i'm good thank you." bee smiled back at them.
"you reek of alcohol." daisy laughed, trying to keep the stumbling girl balanced.
"they cut amerie's bangs!" quinni exclaimed, making sure she was the next to hug the girl.
phoebe laughed, she was a sucker for physical touch. "did they?"
"i did." darren nodded, proudly. "you like?"
phoebe turned to look for the girl, but she seemed to have wandered off someplace else. "yeah, i love. when my hair grows out, i'll be outside your house begging for a retrim."
"can't wait." darren smiled.
"hey, bee?" a voice questioned. the girl turned around to see amerie now standing behind them. "can i talk to you?"
"yeah, sure." phoebe slowly nodded. the other three walked off together, probably going to get a drink. "what's up?"
"look i'm really sorry about the map. it was really stupid and immature and i hope you don't hate me." amerie sighed.
"i don't hate you." phoebe shook her head. "i just don't like how you reduced everyone to just their sexual activities. i mean, most of us are really genuine people, but now all anyone will be thinking when they look at us is like... 'oh, she slept with spider'— which i definitely did not, by the way."
amerie frowned, knowing the girl was completely right. "i'm so sorry."
"none of it's true, you know?" phoebe told her, she was very talkative and had no boundaries when she was intoxicated. "i mean, some of the other stuff kind of is. but i've only ever been with one guy."
"shit. i'm really—"
"you don't have to apologise anymore, the first one was all i actually needed." phoebe told her. "also needed to get that off my chest."
"well, i'm glad you did." amerie sighed, her eyes skimming over to harper.
phoebe turned around to see who she was looking at. "everything okay?"
"yeah." amerie frowned, "i'm gonna go."
"okay." phoebe nodded, she watched the girl sadly walk over to the trio. they exchanged a few words before waving at phoebe, who cutely waved back at them. then, amerie took daisy and quinni's hands and they exited the party.
"yeah, no he's so stupid." sasha said, making missy and harper laugh.
phoebe moved over to them. "hey harps, is everything okay with you and amerie?" harper's face fell. "i don't mean to pry, i just wanted to see if you were okay."
"oh, um..." harper took a deep breath. she pulled phoebe to the side, away from everything else. "no, she's just... not who i thought she was."
"ah." phoebe nodded. "well it sucks that you guys have fallen out, i hope you can make up soon."
"yeah, i doubt it." harper scoffed.
"well... are you okay?" phoebe asked her, tilting her head as she did.
the girl seemed to be lost in thought, not hearing the question. when phoebe repeated it, she finally paid attention. "yeah, i'm okay. thanks, bee."
"of course." bee smiled at her. "i'm always here if—"
"cops!" ant shouted. he rushed back over to the gathering, a flashing police car a few miles behind him.
everyone panicked, shouting as they grabbed their bags and started to run. sasha paused, trying to pick up all the cans and bottles from the ground but harper quickly ushered her away.
malakai seized phoebe's arm and dragged her away from the scene. together, they started to run until they reached a locked gate. spider quickly and effortlessly jumped over it, and malakai was about to as well. but he noticed bee's lack of motor control and quickly dropped to one knee.
"you proposing, already?" she asked.
the boy laughed, shaking his head and patting his knee, "come on." bee stepped on it, gently, not wanting to hurt him. the boy then placed his hands over her waist and helped her to the top.
from there, phoebe pushed herself over and spider caught her before she stumbled to the ground. "my knight in shining armour." she joke, to tick him off.
spider quickly let go of her, gently shoving her away. once malakai was over, the two held onto each other's hands and began to run again.
⎯ ❃ jania speaks!
the insect club before the boys turn into complete assholes>>>>