"A three-day weekend all to ourselves," Kian stretches as they exit the school after the last bell. "Whatever shall we do? Wherever shall we go? The beach?"
"What, right now?" Lucy asked with her arm around his waist.
"Well, I mean we have to go home and get our stuff, but-"
"I can't...right now," Lucy hesitated. "My parents want me to try and bond with Ty."
"I know he was kinda innocent and all but he's still creepy."
"He is," Lucy agreed. "But I have to do what I have to do and get it over with. I should be home around 9. Why don't you sneak onto my balcony again and spend the night?"
"What about your parents," he smirked.
"When did that ever stop you?" She kissed him.
He hummed. "Okay...you got me."
"I know," she winked. "I'll see you then."
Kian watches Lucy walk away for a bit, shaking his head and biting his lip. Then he rides off on his skateboard. Lucy waves to Cameron from afar before getting in her car. She reaches in the backseat and pulls out a teddy bear holding a 'Get Well Soon' plush heart.
. . . . .
Lucy eases her way into Nate's room, seeing he's asleep. The nurse was already in there, situating all the flowers. Lucy had been visiting Nate every single day...without Kian knowing.
"How's he doing," Lucy whispered to the nurse.
"He's only been able to wiggle his toes," the nurse answered quietly. "No response yet from his legs in general. There's one wound near his ribcage that got infected, it's taking a little longer to heal but nothing too serious. He's responding well to the pain medication. It's good he has a strong support system."
"Yeah," Lucy nodded. "His parents are great people."
"I was talking about you," the nurse smiled sweetly, patting Lucy's shoulder before leaving the room.
Lucy looked at all of the flowers, walking over to smell each of them. She had no idea where to place the bear.
Nate groaned and Lucy gasped as she turned around, keeping the bear behind her.
"You scared?" Nate asked in a raspy voice, waking up.
"Are you?"
"I don't know," he looked down a bit. "What you got there?"
"Oh." Lucy presents the bear to him. "It's not flowers but-"
"It's cute."
Lucy hands him the bear and he seats it on top of his chest. She takes a seat in the chair next to his hospital bed.
"I had a dream about you," he said while looking at the bear.
"Oh yeah? A good one?"
"A dream with you in it is always good," he softly chuckled.
"Nate," Lucy rolled her eyes. "I'm still with Kian."
"Are you sure?"
"What do you mean am I sure," Lucy laughed.
"You come to see me everyday and I get the feeling Kian doesn't know." Nate looks at her through the side of his eyes. Turning his neck would hurt too much.
Out of bad habit, Lucy begins to bite her nails. "That doesn't change anything," she said quietly.
"If you say so, lil mama."
"Really," she chuckled. "You haven't called me that since we...anyway. Let's see what's on the TV."
Lucy reaches for the remote and clicks through the channels as Nate grins to himself.
. . . . .
"Melvin says he has an idea who it might be," Derek angrily told Nadia.
They were hanging out at his apartment and Nadia dragged Kali along with her. Kali kept her attention on her phone. She joked and said she's only tagging along to make sure Derek doesn't kidnap her and sell her for drug money. But Derek was virtually harmless. His face was still scratched up and he wore a sling to support the gunshot wound on his shoulder. Not to mention he was stoned out of his mind. The apartment was hazy and Kali felt she was about to get contact high.
"Yeah well," Nadia began. "You let Melvin handle it, you need to stay put and heal."
"Just seein' Nate like that," Derek shook his head. "I remember seein' him slumped over in the car. I thought he was gone, Nadia. Do you have any idea how traumatizing that could be?"
Nadia shushed him and hugged him tightly. Just then, there was a knock on the front door. Derek answered and it was Sammy and Stass.
"Yo," Sammy said as he entered the apartment.
"Any news?" Derek asked.
"I saw him yesterday," Sammy answered. "He's getting discharged in 3 days."
Kali squinted at Sammy and Stass, wondering why they showed up together.
"Hey Sam," Kali spoke with a quizzical brow. "Where's Serenity?"
"It's her mom's birthday," Sammy replied sternly. He knew what Kali was implying.
"Uh huh." Kali rolled her eyes.
"What's up with her?" Stass asked quietly.
"Who knows." Sammy took a seat on the couch and grabbed the bong on the coffee table. "Everyone just needs a good smoke."
"I hear that," Derek agrees taking a seat between Kali and Sammy. Kali tries to scoot further away from Derek. Nadia gives her a look that says to 'relax' but Kali just rolls her eyes.
Kali gets up & moves to the other couch; Stass sits next to her. She couldn't catch a break.
"Why so glum, chum?" Stass asked Kali.
"Nothing you can help with," Kali side-eyed her.
"Try me."
Kali took a deep breath. "Fine. I need a job so I can make money so that I can move out as soon as I graduate. My parents have all this money but unlike most Beverly Hills young people, I don't get a ridiculous amount of it to splurge on expensive cars and shoes I don't need."
Stass doesn't reply, she just smiles while staring deep into Kali's eyes.
"What?"
"Have you had a job before?" Stass finally spoke.
"The Peach Pit last year," Kali shrugged. "And I do some office work for the church sometimes."
"Perfect," Stass smiled. She reached forward and took a permanent marker off the coffee table; she proceeds to write a number on Kali's forearm. "This is the number to Village Ink down on Tharp Avenue. Ask for Austin Carlile, he owns it. Tell him Anastasia referred you. They need a receptionist badly, they're dying to fire the one they have now. She's always late and is rude to the customers. But...I have a feeling you'll do great."
Stass still holds onto Kali's arm and Kali is lost.
"Thanks but why are you helping me?"
Sammy passes the bong and the lighter to Stass. "Don't overthink things, it'll ruin you." She lights it up and takes a hit. While holding the smoke in, she places the bong on the table and grabs hold of Kali's jacket, pulling her in toward her. She blows a stream of smoke into Kali's mouth and ends up kissing her.
Kali began to overthink again, trying to process what exactly was happening. She had never been kissed by a girl before but she's not sure if she exactly hates it. Nadia, Sammy, and Derek all look surprised. Even Sammy felt a little jealous.
"Don't overthink it," Stass repeated quietly, placing her index finger on Kali's lips.
. . . . .
Tiffany enters Nate's hospital room and sees Lucy is still there but asleep.
"Hey," Tiffany speaks quietly, waking Lucy up.
"Oh shit, what time is it." Lucy seemed slightly disorientated.
"6:30," Tiffany answered. "How's he doing?"
"Sedated right now," Lucy shook her head. "Everytime they try to ease him off a high dosage, he complains about the pain."
"Oh. I just thought I'd stop by for a bit. I'm really supposed to be running an errand for work...not like I want to anyway."
"What's the big deal about it?" Lucy sat up in her chair, fixing her sweatshirt and reaching for her bag on the floor.
"My boss sent me to find a gift for some lady that works in our office named Violet."
"And the problem is you don't know what to get?"
"That...and it's another woman. I'm lowkey jealous he sent me to get this gift. I thought we...nevermind. I don't even know who she is." Tiffany folded her arms.
"Wait a minute," Lucy grinned. "Are you and Mr. Howell having a thing?"
"Not really but sometimes a girl just knows when there's more than that."
Lucy gasps, sprouting out of her chair. She takes Tiffany by the arm and leads her out the room.
"Tiffany Kelly, you little minx. An older man? ...Ew," Lucy laughed.
"Shut up," Tiffany chuckled. "He's like 49...I mean, I'm 18, it's totally legal."
"And you're still in high school, there has to be some sort of taboo to this. But so interesting. Have you guys ever kissed?"
"No! No, it's nothing like that. But there's subtle flirting and...he bought me an expensive gift which I couldn't accept."
Lucy scoffed. "This is L.A., it's your civil duty to accept expensive gifts. Anyway, what's Violet's last name?"
"Uh...Hansen, I think."
Lucy takes her phone out of her pocket and types away. Tiffany tries to peek at what's going on. Moments later, Lucy shows Tiffany a picture of an old woman donning a wide smile.
"Violet Hansen, 67 years old. Doesn't exactly work for him but helps finance company. Descendant of Hollywood royalty. Married for 45 years with 3 kids, 5 grandkids, and her birthday is coming up, hence the gift. I don't think you have anything to worry about."
Tiffany took a sigh of relief. "Here I was thinking I was a bad employee for not knowing my co-workers. But shit...how do I shop for a senior citizen?"
"Let me go tell Nate I'm leaving and we're gonna go hit up the mall."
. . .
Night has fallen and the crickets are beginning to make their nightly noise. But Vanessa's mansion is fully illuminated and quiet as usual. Gilinsky knocks four times on the front door. It takes a while, but Vanessa soon answers. Her eyes are puffy and red, she tried to hide it but it was no use.
"Hey," Gilinsky said, speaking in a tone as if he were walking on eggshells. Vanessa just looked at him. "Uh...I brought your sunglasses. I was cleaning my room, finally, and found them."
"Thanks," she sniffled, taking the glasses from him.
"Is everything okay?"
Vanessa hesitated but she shook her head.
"What's wrong?"
"I, uh," Vanessa scoffed to herself. "Kalin and I broke up."
A wave of electricity tingled through Jack's body. "I'm sorry," was all he managed to say. Deep down, he wanted to jump for joy.
But he continued to tread water carefully, patting her on the shoulder instead of going for a full-blown hug. He wasn't sure how fragile she was right now.
"Did he hurt you," Gilinsky's jaw flexed.
"The other way around actually," Vanessa looked at the ground.
"Why?"
"I told him it just wasn't working out. He felt I was leading him on and he thought I was the most beautiful girl in the world. And after he gave me that compliment...he told me that I'm a horrible person. I-I know he was talking out of heartache but...I kinda do feel like a horrible person."
"You're not, though." Gilinsky wiped a tear and Vanessa eased back a little. Perhaps she was more fragile than he thought.
"I'll be okay, I just need to finish studying and then sleep on all the bullshit." Vanessa wipes her eyes and fingercombs through her newly-dyed brunette hair.
"Okay," his eyes lowered. "Well you have a goodnight, I'll see you in school."
Vanessa nods. "See ya," she whispered.
Jack heads back to his car near the end of the roundabout driveway.
"Wait," Vanessa shouts, making him pause after opening the car door. "That wasn't it!"
"What wasn't it?" He shouted back.
"About Kalin and I...I broke up with him because of you!" Her breathing was becoming more shallow. The emotions swelled up again. She couldn't let him get away, not this time.
"Because of me?" Jack closed the car door, his keys jingled by his side.
"I never got over you and I thought I could. And I know you don't think so but I am a horrible person for using Kalin like that, he didn't deserve it. But I can't help how I feel."
Jack finally headed back to her, his hands immediately found her waist.
"So you're saying..." he trailed off.
"Yes," she nodded.
"Just us? No Kalin, no Madison. Just Vanessa and Jack..."
"Yes."
Jack smiled. "Come here."
They finally kissed. Not as friends, not as curious & confused individuals, but finally as boyfriend and girlfriend.
Kian abruptly interrupts them. "Gross. Move," he said, pushing past them with his skateboard in tow.
"Where are you going?" Vanessa asked.
"I'm off to do way more gross things with my girlfriend." Kian wiggled his eyebrows before skating off down the street.
________________________________
Author's Note:
Sorry for the very spread out updates! I promise things will get back to normal the second week of March ;)
But yes!
Does anyone sense a triangle with Nate, Lucy, and Kian? Or will she ultimately choose Kian?
Stass and Kali? Interesting combo...I promise it gets more complicated.
More will develop with Tiffany and Mr. Howell, much more.
And...where the hell is Swazz? You'll see in the future :)
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