28✨
WAS IT cloud nine? paradise? heaven?
every moment since saturday night felt surreal.
come monday everything had just become easier: she had an a in calculus, everyone in her classes at long last call her by her name, the kid next to her in biology had finally decided to take a shower, the lunch food was still ass but at least she had friends
she barely paid attention to whatever they were talking about during lunch, she was too busy trying to finish her homework so that when she got home, her and leo could go out but she couldn't help but pick her head up at their current conversation
"mrs. winchester looks so depressed you guys, i feel bad," youth said with a frown sadness did not go well with the darkskin beauty
"i'm surprised she showed up to school today" mike added, munching on his chips
"what happened to her?" everyone but ruby stared at kim in surprise, ruby sighs saying,
"her dad was murdered yesterday"
kim's eyes shift to mrs. winchester, who had just entered the cafeteria, she looked terrible.
her ponytail brought attention to the features on her face; her eyes were light red and watery, her mascara was slightly smudged and her lips looked dry from licking them so much
"murdered?" kim repeats, eyes still on her principal who went to grab an apple from the lunch line while avoiding everyone's eyes, "mhm. what makes it worse, she's the one who found him bleeding out."
kim glances over at ruby in shock before she looks back at her principal; cici's eyes meet hers and kim freezes
but winchester breaks their eye contact once she leaves the cafeteria.
kim was distracted as she walked into the girls locker room after school for soccer practice:
almost all the members of the team were there, getting changed for the arduous hours ahead of them
kim was dressing when she noticed that some girls were either whispering or side-eyeing her; harryelle giggles to grace after their eyes meet
what was going on?
kim, now fully dressed in her practice attire, shut her locker forcefully and turned around to face them
"ayo, what's up?" kim announces loudly, earning herself silence from everyone else. kim laughs humorlessly, "oh so now y'all quiet?"
leyla, who was the nicest person on the team in kim's opinion, steps up
"you don't know?" she asks softly
kim crosses her arms. "know what?"
right then georgia bursts in with a red face and tight knuckles, marching her way through the room until she was face to face with kimberly
"so how does it feel knowing that you've been chosen for the spot i wanted?"
"what?"
"coach hudson chose you as head captain next year kim, we thought he told you already." leyla explains as kim's whole body goes numb.
"oh my god..."
her brown eyes are on leyla then to the floor before they shift up to georgia's green irises, georgia blinks twice, "what does everyone love about you so much?"
a tear rolls down georgia's cheekbone,
"it must be your voodoo hex magic."
after a second tear falls, georgia leaves to go over to her locker. kim frowns initially at the derogatory statement but she tells herself that someone as dramatic as georgia was a blanket to her bright mood. kim heads to the field with a wide smile on her face, trapped in bliss. life could not get better.
"i don't get it,"
kim giggles as she pushes the shopping cart forward, turning into the cereal aisle "what's not to get?"
leo stares at the contraption in his hand with judgmental eyes as he followed her hopelessly around the store
"this basically implies that the longer you run from the cops the more money you get, and that no matter how many times you get caught you'll always have another chance, AND if you make one wrong move a friggin' TRAIN can hit you in the face and you'll survive without a SCRATCH—"
"that was a lot of observation for just subway surfers"
"but how is it in any way realistic?"
"its not made to be; its a kids game"
"back then we had—"
kim turns and gently takes the phone from his hands and puts it in her pocket. "oooo-kay, that's enough from you, old man."
leo glowers down at her, "i'm not old"
kim stops rolling the cart to embrace the boy she's in love with,
"and i'm not sorry for sayin it"
leo's hands grab her ass "its like you want me to fu—"
"leo?"
kim and leo look away from each other to face towards the direction of the voice; their hearts skip a beat, that voice sounded all too familiar to the both of them
his possessive grip on kim loosens. his eyes widen "do i know you?" leo attempts to lie, but all cici winchester did was come closer to the both of them, she hadn't noticed kim
"leo don't lie, i know you—how?"
her mouth is agape "i thought you were dead"
as much as he didn't want her to, kim pulls away from him "babe..."
"babe?"
kim ignores cici and keeps her eyes on leo, sighing. "you need to talk to her,"
"babe, ion know her,"
"leo..."
winchester starts crying now. "can someone please tell me what's going on?!" she's practically screaming this, leo rolls his eyes at her dramatics, waving his hand towards her "this hoe still hasn't changed"
after more convincing, kim got leo and cici to talk while she stayed a short distance away, she glances at a couple of stuff in the aisle as she pretended not to listen; leo sucks his teeth and crosses his arms
"talk."
cici smiles, hopeful. "its actually you...i, i thought you were dead" leo gives her a false smile, "just on the inside."
cici ignores his negativity before taking a couple of steps toward him; arms out "lee, i missed you" leo frowns before moving out the way cici was headed, eyes narrowed "female do you not remember what you did to me?"
cici puts her head down "i remember everything, and i regret everything too—i should've never done half of the things i did during high school or college. i was such a bitch." leo says nothing because he's waiting for her to say it, but she doesn't, so he speaks up
"well thanks to you i never got to finish high school or go to college, i never got to see the world, i never got a job, i couldn't get married or have kids—the only reason why i'm choosin' to talk to you is because if you hadn't done what you did, i wouldn't have met her."
"wait," multiple tears are falling down her face when she looks back up at him again, "what did i do?" right about now leo's looking at her like she's crazy, "the day i died! you told your dad that i..." leo pauses, shutting his eyes.
cici's face goes slack when she realizes it, her hands go numb. "he killed you?"
she hadn't known
she looks back down at the floor
"i...i'm sorry."
and she leaves without another word.