Aria felt lost for the summer. She doesn’t have a family or a home to go to, so she was just expecting to spend a month in Gallagher then fly out to Berlin, but when she told Aspen of her dream to go to California, and she suggested driving all the way down there, she knew she was the girl of her dreams.
The actual drive took about a week, with lots of stops for sightseeing, making out, random photoshoots, weird shops, and road mishaps (that one flat tire neither of them knew how to fix, bc GAY). It was the time of their lives, and the best Summer Aria has had, even better than the time she went to Disneyland at 10 and met her favorite princess, Aurora.
They went to the beach a lot. Aspen got perfectly tan, Aria looked like a lobster the entire time, but Aspen was nice about rubbing aloe at nights.
None of them got arrested, luckily so, though many times as they passed through a state, they wondered if they were doing something illegal by smoking weed too much. And of course they just laughed a lot about it.
Aria had her first in n out burger, and she was underwhelmed, but she loved the fries.
Also... she got to drive and show off what Bobby taught her through the semester, so like... go Aria for not being a totally useless gay anymore!!
Anyway, her and Aspen are very gay, very cute and they lived their best lives.
After weeks lost, Toffee climbed back into the same window he requested to be left open. He seemed stressed, though and needing out again. Leo decided to follow his cat all the way to a little shed hidden somewhere in the woods. It looked like once upon a time it had belonged to some dog.
To his surprise, the little shed was not empty, but instead had four tiny new born kittens inside, which Toffee seemed to be very protective of. Leo didn’t know what to do for the moment being, but then got to action and took a quick trip to town to see a vet, have all them kitties checked on, and that’s when he found out Toffee was not a boy, but a girl, and she hadn’t gained weight– she had been pregnant.
He is desperate. He has no idea what day it is or what time it is other than night, and even then, he lost track of when the sun went down. This was a mistake. He shouldn’t have come here, he should have stayed at Gallagher, keeping himself sober, clean, but all he wanted was to get some money to spend during the Berlin internship. And yet, every single penny he had ‘earned’ (his way, of course), had gone down the drain in pills, rocks, cheap vodka, cigarettes, joints– fuck, even lighters. He had lost three so far. Who knew addicts could be so careless about something indispensable for them.
Jai’s hands shake as he digs into his pockets, and yet, he can’t find anything. Did he really ran out this fast? Was he consuming this much, this fast? Was it happening so quickly? Would he even make it to Berlin at this point? His phone vibrates inside his pocket. It’s Cyrus, he doesn’t even have to check. It’s always Cyrus– fuck, he’s the only one who cares, and Jai thinks he shouldn’t. He’s fine. He will be fine as soon as he gets his next fix. He takes out the phone and turns it off, leaves it on the counter as he asks for another bottle of vodka, the smallest one please, he doesn’t have much money. Jai wipes his nose– fuck, he hates some of the effects, smiles and drops ten bucks, then leaves without picking up his phone. There’s no point.
How did he get there? Loneliness? Fear? Or was it just the bad habits that were hard to get rid of? Not even Jai could answer, but he was sure he felt it all. Every single feeling in his heart was there, taking space, making it hurt. And there was love, there was hope, faith– and yet the vacuum of what his life had become since age thirteen followed him. He was a criminal, a drug addict, an alcoholic, and there was no way to escape his record. His classmates would go out to get jobs at the CIA, the FBI, other private agencies, and what would he do if not going back to the street rat life?
Time, distance. Nothing matters. Jai is living his life as if he was reading some sort of comic book, except he always skips the last drawing before turning pages. It should drive him insane, and yet... he keeps on going.
“You know what to give me.” Jai said, his voice emotionless until he’s told the price and realized that with his phone, he left his last couple bills. He has no money, and lots of needs. The tremor in his hands or the sweat in his upper lip are the biggest telltales. Fuck, he needs a shower. And a warm bed.
“No money, no goods. You know the rules.”
Jai looks down, pats his body looking for anything, bills, coins, but a five doesn’t cover much, and he knows it’s only a matter of an hour or two before it gets bad– Linda Blair bad, and he doesn’t have anywhere to go. He can’t go back to Charles Graves’ place like that, so he needs to fix this.
Jai moves his eyes up to meet the other man’s. There’s something in them, a hidden language that he mastered years ago when he was still in New York. It was universal, really. And effortless for a man like him, but he could already feel the weight of his heart after this, of the silence, of his lost phone, of the missing calls and endless voicemails he had ignored in the past couple days.
♦ ♦ ♦
The motel doesn’t seem as scary by dusk than it seemed in the middle of the night, as he got off a car of someone who’s real name he didn’t know. Jai sighs, looking up as he takes a long swig from the bottle of vodka he managed to keep with him through the night. The day seems promising, only a couple clouds in the sky over the peach and lavender tones of the sun rising, and he wishes he didn’t feel the way he was feeling. Sure, there was a part of him that felt relieved, his palms weren’t sweating anymore, the visions had left, his heart was pumping blood at a reasonable pace and yet he felt heavy, incredibly sore, dirty. Fuck, he had left this life before. Moving to Chicago, becoming a part of the Graves’ family and going to Gallagher and all that were supposed to change him, help him get a better life than before, and yet, here he is, feeling him in every step he took, wishing this was just a couple weeks back, and HIM had a different name.
His heart stops, his lungs stop, his entire body stop working and Jai has to drag himself to the next ally because he is sure this is how he dies. This is the moment where it’s all over, and even though there’s some relief, he’s never felt this pain before. And all he thinks about is Cyrus, and Milena, and Scott, and Emmett, and Maia, and Berlin and suddenly he’s sobbing. The pain stops but he can’t stop crying. All of this, for what? For fucking nothing! NOTHING.
“I fucked up. I fucked up. I fucked up.” He repeats to himself with his head between his knees until he can feel the tremble in his hands come back. It is getting dark again, and he somehow managed to lose track of yet another fucking day.
With his legs wobbly and weak, Jai manages to get back on his feet. Were this another night like the one before, he would be making his way back to that corner store, right where the fluorescents don’t shine as bright anymore. But today is different. Today he pulls himself out, and he promises to himself this is the real deal. Because he can’t fail them. Any of the people in his life. So he asks for help.
It’s a new group, one he hasn’t met up with before and that makes him feel safe and unashamed to tell his story. He gets a sponsor right away, an old man who relates to Jai’s story the second he opens his mouth, and volunteers to get him through his worst days. He only has two weeks, he explains, two weeks and then he’ll go after the best year of his life. And even though the old man laughs at him and makes him swear he’ll find a way to keep his head held high, he assures him he’s strong enough to get through this and more. How long has it been since he had a paternal figure? Did he ever have one in the first place? Jai doesn’t know this kind of love or at least he doesn’t remember, and every day after that he goes to bed and thanks every single God out there for this one opportunity, because he deserves better, he wants better. And Jai Reginald Mitchell is a stubborn one, and he will get better.
After one full semester of tension, and secretly seeing each other, and then not so secretly ignoring each other for thinking it was for the best, Ella decided not to throw her once shot away.
The morning after the party, right after the witness protection students were escorted back to Georgetown, Ella decided to leave everything and go after Matt, surprising him right outside his dorm. She knew they only had a few days before Matt left the country so they decided to make the best of it.
They rented a van and simply drove aimlessly, crossing small towns and states with no direction for the next ten days or so. They ate too much food, swam at sea, overslept and laughed a lot and overall had the week they deserved after one full semester of death, threats and panic attacks.
Ella then went back to New York, a little sad but satisfied, but was happy to know a few of her friends would actually come over for a day or two, a week even. Some of them lived in New York, so her summer wasn’t as miserable as she thought. She got to hang out with Jerome ( @jrzimmerman ) a lot, who dragged her to Broadway shows and fancy dinners to help him escape his family reality. She watched a lot of Netflix, practiced some ballet here and there, and just chilled until the time to go to Berlin came.
She couldn’t WAIT. She said she hated the spy life once upon a time, but now she’s realized she really can’t live without it. I’d like to call that development.
After the arson, Sophie received her new set of orders, and she was determined to carry them out and obtain every bit of information the prince on her watch might possess. Whatever means necessary. Traipsing to the Tulach house, Sophie quickly sprung through the main staircase that connected to the rooms, soon rapping on the door that had been assigned to the royal she was responsible for. This wasn’t a social call, the man had to know that, and, if he decided he wished to be cooperative, it was all for the best, she considered as she stood outside.
The fire had consumed practically all of the pirates over the past few days, their attention focusing on the destruction that had been caused. It was only a matter of time before people started asking questions and accusations were started to be made. So Celestine was far from surprised when Madison had called her into her villa to talk, she doubted it would be to caught up like they used to before the island. Granted it helped that she atleast knew her, even if she was a pirate Celestine still held some trust and faith in the brunette. Whether that faith was returned, well she could only assume she was about to find out. Sitting of the chairs in the main living space, a small sigh passed from her lips as she looked over at the other. “Madison, I’ve told you already, I don’t know anything about the fire or what happened that night.”
Flynn got the orders that were relayed from Belle. Question Tatiana about the fire. It was something the navigator knew needed doing, but… The possibility didn’t necessarily sit well with him. How was he actually going to do a good job at that when he knew nothing about fires? Well, not large-scale ones anyway – he knew how to start one for a bonfire, for example –, and there was also the fact that he wasn’t the one with the best people skills to make something like that happen as it was supposed to. Those were all details that, were it any other situation, Flynn would have easily disregarded, but, right now, they had him pacing the floor of his villa, hammering inside his head until he heard the familiar sound of the door opening and his eyes traveled to it.
Orders had been clear. Crystal. Question them. Find out what happened. Judah figured it would eventually lead this way. As soon as he looked out his villa window and saw the orange hue glowing above the rooftops he figured that they’d have to figure out how and who.
His ego figured it would be him to figure it out.
The other pirates would question their wards. Judah would question his. Why -- oh why -- did his ward have to be who his ward was. Stubborn. Bull-headed. Entitled. The pirate prayed that her intelligence was more powerful than her pride.
He had his doubts though.
"I figure you’re smart enough to know why I got you here, right?”
Judah sat at the table within his villa. It would’ve been the first time Veronica had been inside. Not many had been inside. The pirate shared enough space when aboard the Black Trident. This? This was his own little slice of heaven. His own, private little Idaho in the tropics. Judah, remembering their time down at the spring pool, pulled out a lit a blunt before he offered it to the woman.
“So please tell me you’re smart enough to have left all fire bug tendencies in your rebellious teenage years. Please.”
