tori: "you sure you don't want to come sleep in my room for a couple of days?" she offers one more time, masterfully maneuvering a mascara wand over her extra dark lashes in the passenger's side mirror. they've been sitting for less than ten, more than five minutes parked underneath the maple tree outside of her parent's house. and after all the chaos of the night prior she's certain this is the last place either of them want to be, but her mother made chicken adobo, which means if a fire were to keep her from showing up she better have died in it. she eyes her features with a subtle dissatisfaction, as she twists one long dark tendril out of her face, feels a certain pressure to look amazing, rosy cheeked, and bright-eyed, and positively glowing. not only to appease her parent's superficiality, but to show them that she was making it, all on her own. and perhaps, in small part, this was her way of stalling for an extra minute or two, savoring the moments before a face to face reunion that could go either way.
