NovemberThis is such hogwash bull. Absolute blasphemy. Miki knows this is being exaggerated, and there’s nothing she can do to stop it. The way her family functions… she wonders t herself…. It’s a bunch of pious claptrap.Those are the thoughts floating inside of Miki Miya’s head as she slides her thin body into the leather seat of her dad's hired gatekeeper for her. Seriously! The audacity that people with money have. Miki scoffs, slamming the door closed as she puts her knees together and puts her school bag onto her lap. Rio scolds her for slamming the door. She ignores him in favor of staring ahead for a second, silence as she pouts. More like seethes. She could seriously punch something right now.When she got home from staying the night at Brookes, her mother confiscated her phone and put her on lock down. Camilla said that she needs to learn one way or another."How was your day?" Rio interrupts her anger with a knowing smile, the dark haired, dark skinned, darkly dressed man who is supposed to chauffeur from school and back everyday. He also stays at their home most of the time, Rio happens to be her younger sibling's babysitter. Guess he’s Miki’s babysitter now too. Just great! Anywhere she goes, he goes. To and from school. If Miki is told to grocery shop, if Miki is told to clean, if Miki is told to do absolutely anything; he must supervise. It isn't like she's a convicted murderer, Jesus Christ. She feels pathetic.Miki's own blue eyes flit to meet his own with a snarl just itching to break out on her face. He smirks, almost looks amused, as he knows just how much Miki hates this. His eyes are more cloudy; almost looks as though he's going blind, a milky filmed over look to them. In contrast, Miki's eyes reflect more of the sky, where as Rio's seem to breathe crystal ice from Antarctica. It's a nice contrast with his dark skin. He’s a nice man, has a good sense of humor. On a normal day, they are practically friends, she’s known him for years. At least since the twins were around five or so. He doesn’t have a family of his own, so he spends most of his time at the Miya residence.She forcefully shuns him and turns to stare forward, glowering while not moving her eyes to even look in his direction. He just laughs with amusement as he pulls onto the road to start driving back to Downersgrove. It was at least an hour and a half of a drive. She normally took the bus. Being on house arrest sucked. Miki just wants to be cuddled up to Brooke and have her girlfriend run her hand down her back in a petting motion. Miki clicks her tongue in frustration at the thought, only wanting to see Brooke more now. She lulls her head to look out the window beside her instead of in front. A restricted feeling of unfairness tightens around her lungs and chest. She frowns."Oh yeah," The man says out of nowhere, breaking the silence that was somewhat comfortable, Miki almost turns to look at him but catches her movement and stops it. She tenses her neck and jaw, immaturely refusing to look at him, "Your sister is at home right now."Miki rolls her eyes. She could care less where her sister resides. She thinks it’s stupid that her mom sends Ena to stay at her grandparents house anyways. Putting her elbow on the armrest attached to the door, she leans on her hand and stares further out the window with narrowed eyes. Miki stares at the passing scenery with disinterest, wishing she could open the car door and hurl herself out of the moving vehicle. She chuckles a little at the dark thought. Not in a suicidal way, though."Your mother will be taking miss Susie out with her for their business trip over the weekend." He continues, this makes Miki turn to look at him, skeptic showing through her squinted eyes and raised eyebrow. She wants to roll her eyes at the way he calls her ‘miss Susie’. "So what? Just get to the point." She spits out, confused and irritated. She just wants to go home and lay in bed."So you'll be watching Flynn."Miki blanches, all her air runs out of her lungs in evacuation as she huffs. "Isn't that YOUR job?" Her voice raised a couple of octaves but Rio, having been working for the family for a good seven or so years, isn't phased by her shrill."Well, Miki," he says, giving her a passing side glance as he turns his turn signal on at the light. The clicking indicator echoes around them through the tense air, "your mother wants you to gain a sense of responsibility."“What the hell.” Miki grumbles to herself. She grinds her teeth together and throws herself back against the seat and into the door, pushing herself against it as if she was trying to escape and just glares out the window. Man, she was starting to itch for a smoke.. ⁺ ˖ ☆⁺ ˖The girl rushes up to her room once they get back home with no time to spare, Miki ignores her mother's beckoning from the sitting area. She closes her door roughly, not slamming, and locks it behind her as if it was a statement- not that anyone was around to hear it. She throws her backpack on the floor, moving into her bathroom and flicking the light on as soon as she enters. She makes a beeline for the walk in closet that’s attached to the bathroom, she peels open a huddle of clothes hanging on the bar from hangers, the plastic clinks together as she swats the few scattered boxes of cigarettes out of the way and grabs the borrowed cell phone from Felix off the hidden shelf nailed into the wall, it sits above the already built shelf- you need to move clothes to make it visible. Miki was mischievous.She unlocks the screen and immediately opens her text messages with Brooke. There's five notifications, Miki softly smiles before she even opens the texts to read. Her face feels warm as she stands in the dark of her closet, still, the only light softly pouring in through the bathroom. She’s using an app that generates a fake phone number for you, since her actual phone was taken away and also has her sim card in it. She frowns at that thought.-------
-today 9:30am-
-brookiebaby-hi! gm!
-------
-today 9:31am-
-brookiebaby-i hope you slept well and have a good day<3
-------
-today 11:58am-
-brookiebaby-[brookiebaby sent an image]
------
-today 11:59am-
-brookiebaby-look!!!! theyre hiring!!!!!!!!!!!! omg should i apply?
-------
-today 12:24pm-
-brookiebaby-i applied im so nervous
-------Miki's eyes widen as she taps on the image to open it, there's a picture of a window from the cafe. THEIR cafe. She immediately notices Brooke in the reflection, she's wearing a big puffy coat and a scarf wrapped snugly around her neck, her false blue hair tucked neatly inside; it was becoming winter now after all. It's been a month of Miki being grounded. Around three weeks and two days- bringing them to the middle of November, the two texted all the time and Brooke sometimes snuck over; if it was needed to be hidden in secret Miki would climb down the roof; which Brooke would scold her for every single time. She almost sprained her ankle last time, since she jumped off the last ledge of the roof trying to show off, typical Miki.There was a little snow from last night, the thinnest line of it under the window and in the shade safe from the warm threatening sun. Inside the window, was a sign that says 'Now hiring! Looking for part time workers!’ and a bunch of smaller written information under, that the phone camera didn’t focus on, making it unreadable.She texts back a reply in excitement, her hands shaking in adrenaline.
Miki's grin widens, her heart swelling as her eyes crinkle. She looks up from her phone and lets out a puff of air in a slight laugh. She’s so happy for her girlfriend. Miki wishes she could crush her in a big tight hug and pepper kisses all over her face.-------
-today 4:29pm-
-miki-I'm so proud of you <3 <3 <3 <3
-------The moment, however, is short lived. Miki drops the phone right after she hits send, startling in place as her breath chokes her for a second. Her mother is pounding on her bedroom door, Miki breathes, irritation pulling on her lips. She kicks the phone further into the closet and under a non-folded pile of clothes on the floor. Luckily the walk in closet is carpeted. Felix would be pissed off if she broke the phone he’s letting her borrow."Why the hell is your door locked, Miki?!" Her mother's angry muffled voice is heard. Miki ran out of her closet and bathroom, closing the door quietly and then moving to her bed."What do you want?" Miki voices, a little loud so it can be heard through the door. The reply is instant; "Open this door right now or I’ll have your father take it off completely!"Miki sighs at the demand and moves to open the door. She barely turned the knob before her mother shoved the door open in a rush. The door smacks onto Miki's bicep and the handle hits her elbow as she couldn't take a step back in time. The girl hisses as the impact, sharp pain shooting through her bone. She glares at her mother who's rushing in and brings a hand up to cradle her arm. "What?" Miki barks out, annoyed with her mother already."I presume Rio has already told you?" The woman questions with a sniff while ignoring her disobedient child's tone, standing straight and her voice terse. Her mother’s arms are crossed, her weight planted onto her right side. Miki huffs, walking over to sit on the edge of her bed."Don't start an attitude with me, young lady!"Miki crosses one leg over her other leg’s knee and looks at Camilla, the woman's face is tense on disapproval and irritation; just by looking at her own daughter. Miki sighs and drops her gaze and clenching her fist in her lap, "Yes, he told me.""Good." Camilla drops her arms to her side, bringing one up to gesture. "We'll be leaving in an hour." Miki just nods, looking at the side of her bookshelf and tracing the pattern of the wood with her eyes."Flynn needs to finish his homework before dinner, if he doesn't finish he doesn't get dinner." Miki nods again, well familiar with the rules. Although she thinks it’s messed up to not feed a child over not doing their homework. She’s had it done to her before, only a few times. Miki’s good at most of her subjects, surprisingly, so homework isn’t that much of a challenge. Sometimes Felix will copy off of her and vice versa if she’s ever forgotten."You will be in charge of making dinner." Camilla starts listing, Miki snaps her gaze up to her mother and opens her mouth to start protesting that she sucks at cooking but her mother puts a hand up to silence her before she starts. Miki grits her teeth and feels her sharp nails dig into the palm of her hand. She takes a big intake of breath and puffs it out."Dinner will be chicken, with a side of vegetables of your choice, along with scalloped potatoes. Nothing more. He will not be getting desert tonight for how he treated our guests earlier today." Her mother pinches the bridge of her nose at the memory of earlier. Miki lets out a snort at that statement, “What’d he do to the guests?” but Camilla ignores her and continues speaking on.Miki deflates, starting to tone out her mother. Flynn's already a nightmare as it is. He just turned twelve a few weeks ago. His teenage hormones completely taking over. A boy that expects everything spoon fed to him. You're not allowed to tell that kid no, hell, even if you do he'll find a way to get what he wants. He's a brat. Miki and him do not get along most of the time. If they worked together, they'd make quite the intimidating team. Too bad Flynn see’s how their mother treats Miki and mirrors it."Ena will be coming with me and your father, and I don't want you coming downstairs until we've left. You're still grounded." She states with a curt sniff in disinterest and turns around to leave the room, "His bed time is no later than nine-thirty. You know this."Miki glares at the carpet and her mother pauses at the door, her freshly painted French-tipped nails tapping on the white wood,"Rio will not be helping you." Camilla isn't looking over at her, "If you don't screw this up, you might lessen your punishment as it stands now."The door closes and Miki throws herself backwards, sprawling onto her back on her bed and slamming her fists into the comforter below her. She throws a silent tantrum. Her blue eyes stare furrowed at the ceiling that mocks her from above. Her eyes focus on the glow stars that are stuck up there and is reminded of Brooke. She grunts low back in throat, eyes softening as her body relaxes. She stares for a little bit longer in silence.The tension in her chest eases a little at the thought of her sweet and beautiful girlfriend. Miki sits up with a grin, and runs back into her closet to pick up the abandoned phone laying on the floor in the dark. She shoves it into her pocket as she grabs an open pack of cigarettes along with her see through neon green lighter from the covered shelf and goes back to her room. She opens her window and lifts her leg over and out to step down onto the lower slanted roof that is like a platform beneath the window. She plants her feet hard to lay flat against the roof tiles, since it’s slanted slightly she doesn’t want to slip and fall. Her shoes scrape against it as she turns to shut the window behind her; leaving it cracked less than an inch so there’s room for her to stick her fingers under and open it back up. Miki takes a few steps to the left and then plops herself down on the flatter part of the roof, one leg outstretched and the other bent up. She leans her elbow on the knee that's propped and fishes a cigarette out of the red and white box, lighting it swiftly as she takes a drag. Relief fills her veins and lungs as she breathes out, relaxing against the wall.Miki then pulls out the phone from her pocket and dials a number she knows by heart. Automatically her fingers move on their own without even having to think about it and press the call button, she brings the phone to her ear and waits for the ringing to cut off with a soft 'hey Miki'. The moment those words are uttered, Miki blows out another puff of smoke through her curving lips,"Hi." Miki breathes bashfully, smiling at the sound of Brooke's voice, "Wanna come over?". ⁺ ☽˖ . ☆⁺ ˖Brooke shows up with roller skates in tow, just like Miki requested. She had forgotten her roller skates at Brooke’s house at one of the times she snuck out to see her.Convincing Rio to let Brooke stay over was hard. Eventually he just stopped replying to Miki's pleas, so the girl took that as a yes. It wasn’t like she heard a no. She had already invited Brooke over anyways, so the girl was coming whether Rio liked it or not. It was six o'clock in the evening, and Miki was cooking dinner. Miki flips the pieces of chicken in the pan that's placed on top of the burning stove and puts the lid back over it, the sound is clunky and it mixes in with the other sounds of cooking ambiance; like sizzling chicken. She figured today she would make the dinner she was told to make, screw tomorrow. Her mother didn’t specify if she had to do both nights.Flynn was sitting on a bar stool at the mantel bar that sits all the way to the right of their kitchen, connected to a dining room. He was doing his homework, finally being quiet. Miki ruffled her hand through her own hair as she leaned against the counter and crossed her arms, lazily staring at the boy who was completely focused on answering whatever questions were printed onto his paper."Are you almost done?" Miki questions, looking at the food that's nearly done; a bowl of cooked broccoli, seasoned of course, covered by a plate to keep the baby trees warm. The boy doesn't answer her, she knows he heard her. She internally groans."Flynn." Miki states out his name, it floats in the air and he looks up at her through his bangs and then straight back to his work. Miki puffs a breath and scoffs, irritation laces her voice and the question comes out impatiently with a high note on the back of her vocal box, "Are you almost done?”He doesn't answer, and she throws her arms down in a fit as she clicks her tongue in irritation. Miki sees the corner of his mouth quirk up, causing her own mouth to quirk down. Now she knows he only messes with her to get under her skin.
"Brat." Miki spits, turning her attention back to the stove as she hears the front door open and Brooke yells out; she didn't bother to knock as per Miki's instructions. Her parents weren’t home so who cares?. Brooke just walked in like she was coming home from a stressful day at work. Miki stops sneering at Flynn to smile at the thought while she turns off the stove, "I'm not going to feed you now, you get none of this.""Are you starving kids now?" Brooke asks, her voice half a breathless laugh. Miki's irritation dwindles to nothing as she can’t fight the amused grin pulling her face, she throws her head over her shoulder to look at Brooke who's walking up next to her."That's no kid, that's a nuisance."Miki looks at Flynn from the corner of her eye, the boy is glaring at her while staring at the both of them in distaste when Brooke presses a kiss to Miki's cheek, "A nuisance at best." His voice is nasal and clipped as he straightens his posture and fixes his papers to be straight, "At least I'm not a problem child who causes problems for everyone."Miki furrows her eyebrows, "You're a shit head, that's what you are.""I'm telling, I am also going to tell mom you had Brooke over." Flynn nods at his threat, opening his binder now to put his papers away and tossing his pens into his pencil bag."And that you starved me." His voice is finality. Miki's nose scrunches as she turns her body to face his direction with a snarl, top teeth showing,"I didn't fucking starve you, your dinner is right here!" She gestures to the pan by hitting it with the pair of tongs in her hand, the pan clinks loudly and slides off the burner it was sitting on. Brooke frowns at the action. “Not to mention, Mom told me not to feed you if you didn’t do your work. So I personally don’t think she’ll care.”Flynn just shrugs as he slides his backpack over his shoulder, and hops off the bar stool, getting ready to put his school things away. He shoves the chair back in and the metal on the legs scrape against the tiled floor. He stands up straight, looking to his side at Miki with a smug expression."Maybe I'll just out you."Miki halts, her breath catching and shoulders tensing on the sheer adrenaline from panic that jolts down her spine. Brooke is immediately putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder to maybe lessen the fire that’s burning a little, "Don't you fucking dare, you fucking weasel." Miki’s teeth are grit, eyes dark as she glares at him through the wall window of the bar. Rio walks into the kitchen from the opposite door in the room, the one that leads into the backyard."What the hell is going on?" He questions, Miki doesn't move her gaze and neither does Flynn. Brooke lets her hand fall and sighs, throwing a look of disapproval Flynn's way before she turns to face Rio with a light-hearted shrug."Oh, you know them."Rio crosses his arms, "It's barely been an hour, Miki." the tone is disappointed, and tired. She's so sick of everyone in this house regarding her with that tone. That she's such a fuck up. She didn’t even do anything wrong here, Flynn is the one instigating.At the sound of her name she snaps her head into Rio's direction, she can see Brooke turning to look at her with underlying hints of concern in her expression, but Miki just glares daggers in Rio's direction."He fucking started it!" She yells like a child, throwing the pair of tongs that were clenched in her fingers, pressed so tightly into her hand it leaves an imprint against her skin, against the floor. It bounces off and hits one of the bottom cupboards, flying off that and scattering across the floor. So much for keeping it cool for the night. Brooke immediately grabs Miki's wrist before she can move to do anything else, Miki struggles against the hold for a second but just lets it be. Brooke moves her hand to intertwine their fingers. 'I'm here', is what the action says, 'you aren't alone.'Flynn scoffs a laugh, and shakes his head in amusement, "Wow," he laughs louder, "Aren't you supposed to be the adult here?" he turns and starts leaving the room, Rio demands for him to stay so he can hear the whole story of why these two are once again screaming at each other. Well, Miki was doing the screaming. Flynn knew just how to get under her skin by keeping it cool.Adult? No! She wasn't. Miki seethes, staring at the back of his head, at his hair; hair that looks similar to her own, if only a little more on the orange side."I wish you were never born you pathetic runt!" Miki yells in frustration, she didn’t necessarily mean it- she just says horrible things when shes wound up with negative emotions. She hears her own voice echo back from the mostly empty dining area right outside the kitchen. "Hey!" Rio scolds her, glaring at her, "You don't say that shit to your family."“Tell that to him!” She starts "He's not my family." Miki says quiet with finality, accompanied with an eye roll, turning to look back at the food that's ready to be dished up on the stove. Rio makes noise of irritation, "Of course he is. He's your bro-""So Brooke, can I get you anything?" Miki talks over him, wanting to move on from the topic, turning to look at Brooke with a smile, "We have broccoli, chicken." Miki gestures her free hand at the food on the counter and stove in offering as she pulls Brooke closer over. Brooke feels a smile pulling at her face as Rio exclaims 'hey!' behind them."I didn't even say you could have her over!" He says in disbelief, as if he’s only just now realized her presence. Miki turns to look at him with a frown, "Well she's here now, so."Rio huffs, "Seriously?" he asks, disbelief again, "And don't think you're off the hook for this little episode, you're supposed to be taking care of him and learning responsibility." Brooke lets go of Miki's hand to go look at the food and Rio starts to make his way to go after Flynn and talk to him,"Like I care what happens to mister 'golden boy'." Miki drawls out her mockery. Rio throws her one last disapproving glare as he leaves the room. “I’m only fucking sixteen.” Miki grumbles.
There's a beat of silence, Brooke observing the food quietly and already taking down two plates from the dish cupboard, the ceramic disks clink against the counter twice as she places them down. Miki turns to observe what she's doing. Chicken and vegetables plated, Miki realizes she never made potatoes, she almost feels like crying."Should I make a plate for Flynn and go take it to him?" Brooke offers genuinely. Miki's scoff is undignified, "NO!" She shouts, halting Brooke from getting another plate with the grab of her hand."What?" Brooke looks at her with confusion, "Why?""He just threatened to out me!" Miki snaps at Brooke, some spit flying out and landing on Brooke's cheek. The other girl glares at Miki for getting in her face. Miki’s expression eases at the look, knowing she’s being over the top. She adds quietly, “Threatened to out us.”"He won't do that, he's known about us for a while and hasn't." Brooke says, clipped and rational and she wipes her cheek with her shoulder. "Come on." She pushes. Miki lets go of Brooke's hand and grumbles as she flips herself around to lean her back against the counter and cross her arms, looking away from Brooke."Whatever." Miki still has a gut feeling, but knows Brooke is just being her kind and caring motherly self. “I’ll do it, give me a plate.”Brooke sighs at Miki's stubbornness, but smiles at the capitulation. They make a plate for Flynn and Miki trudges up to his room, stomping every step of the way. When she opens the door, Rio is sitting on the edge of the boy’s bed and talking to him. Flynn is sitting in the middle of it, knees pulled up. Both males turn to stare at Miki, who just purses her lips and then walks in to place the plate onto the boy’s dresser. Rio doesn’t look mad at her anymore, so Miki can only hope Flynn told the truth about what he said.“Eat it before it gets cold.” Miki mutters, barely looking at him. She turns to quickly leave the room but as soon as she gets out he calls out for her attention. Miki halts and looks back at him.“Sorry.” Flynn mumbles, eyes looking everywhere but in her direction. She can see Rio smile out of the corner of her eyesight. The girl doesn’t say anything right away, stands there awkwardly frozen- and then her body relaxes.“It’s fine…” Miki turns to go back downstairs.Once Miki’s back downstairs, two eat dinner, and then Miki suggests she goes out and practices roller skating. Brooke agrees, thinking it’ll be a good way for the girl to blow off some steam. Brooke did have to admit, Miki was getting pretty good at roller skating. The Miya's had a vast backyard, a big area of the grounds covered in concrete, there was even a small fountain in the backyard. Miki had plenty of room to ride around, but she barely could skate at her own house because of her parents, who believe its a waste of time and brain power… and that it was for boys, so if Flynn wanted to skate- he could.Miki zips and zooms around her backyard, and Brooke calls out to her pointers."Make that turn sharper!""You stopped too slowly!"A loud sound echoes in the quiet backyard as Miki wipes out."-!! You stopped too fast now, are you okay?!" Brooke’s voice is laced with worry, running over to Miki’s side to see if the girl is alright. Miki fakes being in pain and Brooke lowers herself down onto the ground to see, only to be pulled further down into a kiss. Miki grins against her lips and Brooke pulls back- reaching to smack her arm.“You had me worried for real there! You’re too sneaky.” Brooke scolds her but she’s smiling.Miki ends up with a scraped elbow and bruised wrist, but being around Brooke’s presence she can't find herself to really care. It doesn’t hurt all that much anyways. It’s cute when Brooke worries for her.. ☆ ⁺ ˖ ☽ ˖ ⁺They finish roller skating, and then Brooke pulls out a joint from her bag that she dropped by the bar stools when the two come back inside, Miki grins at her and the two make their way upstairs after cleaning up the dishes. Flynn’s empty plate is down here, which is a good sign. It's cold outside so Miki grabs her blanket and helps Brooke out of her window and onto the rooftop. The two sit down in the same spot Miki sat earlier when she was smoking her cigarette, the cold bite of soon to be winter evening nipping at their cheeks, noses, and hands. Miki wraps the soft throw blanket around both of their shoulders. She snags her lighter out her pocket with nimble fingers as Brooke pulls the filled cone out of its container.Miki lights it for Brooke as the girl takes a few short puffs to get it to light properly, then one deep one. Miki plucks it from her and puts it to her own lips. Brooke was still coughing a little when Miki leaned in and pressed her lips to Brookes parted ones and blows her smoke into Brookes mouth. She wasn't expecting it so she coughs and Miki smirks as Brooke pushes her off gently and moves over. Miki brings the joint back up to her mouth, taking an actual inhale this time and holds it in, already feeling the immediate sedating effects.She blows the smoke out into the dark sky in a big puff and hands it back over to Brooke, "So you applied to that job?" Miki asks, shaking her foot a little as its outstretched with her leg. A cough accompanies the reply she gets, "Yeah."Another drag, pass."One of the workers already told me I can go in for an interview on Monday."Miki holds the burning rolled paper in between her fingers, looking at the smoke steaming off the end of it and into the cold bitter air. "Already?" Miki hums low, and then brings it up to fill her lungs. Brooke smiles and gives a 'yeah' as she leans her head back against the wall and looks up at the stars. She doesn't make a move for the drugs so Miki just brings her knee up to rest her hand with the joint on. Brooke's face looks relaxed when Miki looks at it,"You'll have money to pay me back for all those packs of gum I've bought you." Miki jests lightly with a smirk thrown in the other girls direction when Brooke brings her focus back to Miki, Miki can see her eyes already going red on the fence of being intoxicated. She’s sure her own don’t fair any better, she can feel how heavy they feel already. Brooke's lips flop into a lopsided grin, her head lulling to lean on her own shoulder and look at up Miki."Those were gifts." Brooke laughs. Miki chuckles, "If anything you owe me, I've paid for every meal that we’ve got at the cafe since like, last year." Miki's laugh deepens as she takes another drag and this time actually passes it back to Brooke. Who takes it gingerly with a smile, sitting up to take a proper smoke."Split the bill?" Miki jokingly asks as Brooke inhales, watching her chest shudder on a cough as she exhales. She can see the amusement in Brookes eyes, so she continues, she starts patting her pockets on her body, "Oh, I think I forgot my wallet though, this ones on you sweet cheeks."Brooke rolls her eyes as Miki presses sarcastic wet lips against her cheek, bringing a hand up to wipe off the slime. If she wasn’t high, she would have made a disgusted expression, she couldn’t care less right now."You don't even own a wallet." Brooke laughs, taking another drag and passing the rest of it back to Miki for the taller to finish off. Miki does so with grace, saying that she actually does own a wallet.The two finish smoking and then go back inside, there was still enough of the joint left for someone to use again, not much- but enough, so Miki put it out as gently as she can as to not ruin what’s left and puts it back in the container it came in. Miki and Brooke were now laying on Miki's bed, Brooke half on top of her with her head laying on Miki's chest and an arm and leg thrown over the scrawny girl. Miki hummed in content, bringing her arm around Brooke and her hand up to run her fingers through the dyed blue hair, black roots showing."We gotta re-dye your roots."Brooke hums back in acknowledgment drowsily, she jolts her head up to look at her girlfriend in a daze. They stare at each other for a moment before Miki leans down and presses her lips against Brooke’s own. She can feel the blue haired girl’s lips twitch into a smile against her own, and then Brooke’s head turns a little to deepen it. Miki uses her tongue to coax Brooke’s mouth open, who makes a noise of appreciation. The hand thrown over Miki is entangled in the girls shirt and Brooke is absentmindedly rubbing the fabric between her fingers. Miki’s hand in her hair tangles itself further. They pull apart for air and a string of saliva sticks to Miki’s lip- she doesn’t know who’s it is but she licks her lips to get it off and then grins happily at Brooke.Miki drops her head back, her face flushed and eyes half lidded. Brooke puts her head into the crook of Miki’s neck. A breeze comes from the window that they left open to get rid of as much of the smell as possible. Miki untangles her hand and starts petting through blue strands. Brooke’s hair is soft, and she smells soft. It’s comforting. Brooke shivers slightly, nudging herself closer and letting out a puff of breath before her breathing evens out lulling to sleep immediately by the motions of Miki’s hand in her hair.Just by feeling the girl on top of her she cracks another dopey smile as she lays her head back and looks at the ceiling. She looked at the glow stars, which were slightly glowing; the two were in the dark, the only light coming from the inch cracked bathroom door. Miki must have forgot to turn off the light in there, she does so often that the bulbs have died a few times.Miki breathes a puff of air into the empty space of her room around her and then moves on her side slightly to face Brooke, and embrace the girl back. Miki shoves her leg between Brookes and presses her nose to Brookes hair as she wraps her arms around her girlfriend, the familiar smell of Brooke's Pantene hair wash fills her nose and makes her more comfortable than she was before. The familiarity starts to pull her into sleep.
"If we got jobs," Miki starts through a slur, talking to no one in particular. Her throat scratchy from dry mouth, her body feels numb and tingly and all she can feel is Brooke pressed against her, the rest of the world doesn't even exist as far as she’s concerned, it’s just them. Them against the world. "we could.."Miki trails off, resting her face further against Brooke's head and sighing, she knew Brooke was asleep and there was no way she could hear her- maybe her subliminal mind could, but that didn’t matter she kept talking anyways, "We could get an apartment." Miki breathes out hazily, holding Brooke a little tighter as Miki hums again, more quiet; on the verge of slumber. Miki smiles against her hair, and rubs her hand on Brookes back.Miki falls asleep thinking of them in the future, moving into their own place of living together. Her smile follows her into her dreams that night. It’s the most content she has been in a long while.They have to sneak Brooke out in the morning though as Miki’s grandmother stops by to check on things. Playing spy for Miki’s mother. It irritated her, but they got her out without being noticed- Brooke didn’t want to jump off of the roof. She wasn’t reckless like Miki was.
Miki missed her already.. ⁺ ☽˖ . ☆⁺ ˖
JuneStart of summer break between freshman and sophomore year.The girl is grunting out in pain as her body makes impact with the pavement of her front yard. Her eyebrows furrow and she squeezes her eyes shut from the white searing that spreads through her arm which took the brunt of her fall. Okay, so she might have made a little mistake. Miki felt the skin at her elbow tear open and she winces, the sun beating down hot on everyone standing outside. Especially on Miki, she feels like there’s a heat lamp aimed right on top of her. The ground under her is scalding from the early summer temperature. She snaps her head up with wide blue eyes, her body going rigid as she tries to push herself up as soon as the shock of pain settles. She’s gotten to her knees. Her mother is yelling something, but a huge wave of nausea runs through her stomach as she gags in her mouth a little. Miki blinks the sun out of her eyes as she tries to focus on her mother, her father is standing not too far behind her with his arms crossed. She flicks her eyes and sees Flynn sitting on the steps that lead up to the porch- in the shade. Of course he’s sitting in the shade."What the fuck is wrong with you?!" Camilla screeches, her voice sounds out through the street of their perfect neighborhood with an echo. Her mother never curses. Well never is a bit of a stretch, but it’s rare. Camilla doesn’t lose her composure like this often. She never curses like this, that’s probably a better way to word it. Miki brings a shaky hand to grip her wrist, only now noticing how hard her mother had clamped down around her wrist when she dragged the teenage girl outside and threw her onto the ground."Drugs? Are you fucking kidding me?! You are fifteen, Miki! Fifteen years old!" Her mother holds the transparent baggies she found on Miki's dresser up in the air in front of everyone, the same drugs that are currently in the girl’s system. Camilla throws them to the floor in rage. The bags hit the ground hard and scatter, sliding away."They aren't mine!" Miki tries to protest,"Is it us?!" The question is screamed, drowning out Miki’s own small voice, "HUH? Do you just hate it here that bad? Do you hate us?! Is your life that fucking bad, Miki Mallory Miya!?"Miki flinches at the tone, at the use of her full name. Her trembling shoulders hunch in on themselves as she feels anxiety tug at her heart. Camilla Miya doesn't scream often, choosing to keep herself professional. You'll occasionally hear her say some awful things behind closed doors, but not out in broad day light- not loud enough to be heard from a block away. She doesn't look away, her mother's composure deflates a little and she suddenly looks so exhausted,"I'm so disappointed in you, I don't know what we did to deserve this."Miki flinches again, her eyes squinting as she feels the impact of words. ‘Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words cant hurt me.’ My ass. Her bleeding elbow doesn’t even hurt as much as this, she could have fractured it, it doesn’t hurt like this. It doesn’t sting as bad as her heart does as she knows she will never be good enough for her parents; that any respect she could gain from them is gone. Miki can say she doesn’t care about her parents, that she doesn’t care what they think- that they’re stuck in their own ways and she can’t be bothered to try and get them to see her for who she is. It’s a lie, it’s a front. Why would she consistently get good grades? Why else would she do what they tell her to do (for the most part) if she didn’t care what they thought?Ever since she was a kid, all she’s wanted from them was some little bit of approval. A little bit of hope.Just a little bit of sincerity.But maybe Miki was the one to keep fucking that up. She just keeps doing something wrong, even when she isn’t trying to."That's it." The tone is finality, making her heart drop down low into her stomach. Miki’s hands feel clammy and sticky. "You're going to stay with your grandparents for the summer. We can't do this with you anymore, and you won't work with us." Camilla stares down at her daughter in disappointment, and Miki's eyes widen at her mother's demand."You will be calling them and telling them what you did and why you need to stay with them. That should put a little shame on you." Her mother scoffs, glaring. It was probably.Miki's lip’s part on shock as her head takes at the idea of being moved to a state over, she reels. The thought of being taken away from her friends, of the familiarity of Downersgrove. Even if only for a summer, for only a couple months. She was supposed to stop being grounded right when their summer break between freshman year and sophomore year started. Miki made plans with her friends. She made plans with Brooke - her best friend. They had been getting closer recently and Miki found extreme comfort in the girl. "NO!" She yells out desperately in defiance. Miki resorts to begging- she will try anything she has to. "Please! I don't want to go-!"Her mothers heel scrapes against the driveway cement. Camilla looks down at Miki with an unreadable expression. "If you choose not to do this, I will be handing you over to the cops. I don't care if you are my daughter."Miki's throat constricts in shock at the words. She splutters as saliva pools into her mouth. Miki desperately tries not to start choking or coughing. She catches Rio's gaze from the front door, she doesn't even know when he opened it and got there. Miki stars to glower over at him, at everyone- she feels like she’s a caged animal that’s being prodded at. Her attention snaps back to her mother who has turned away, leaving her there to instead go inside. Flynn is gone from the porch, must have been ushered inside by Rio. Bentley puts his hand reassuringly on his wife’s shoulder as they go back into her home. Her family doesn’t spare her even a glance. It makes her chest ache.Miki almost whines, the choke of a sob pulling deep in her throat as she shoves herself forward and scrambles to pick up the disregarded drugs. She shoves them in her pocket, pulling the phone she got from Felix from out of her back pocket. She see’s the big crack in the screen from how hard she landed on it. Her hands tremble, bottom lip puffs out, eyes watering,"Fuck." Miki curses wetly as she sinks further onto her knees, she checks to make sure it still works. The screen turns on- so she just sighs in relief. Miki guesses it’s about time she finally cracked a cellphone, with how careless she is with the electronics, just sucks it happened to be one she was borrowing. She’s so mad, she’s so hurt. She finds herself irked that it’s her mother’s fault that the phone is damaged, she was the one who threw her on the ground.Miki supposes she should go finish this job, hoping the guy doesn't notice one of the baggies missing a little bit out of it. She sniffs roughly and wipes her nose with the back of her hand, hoping there isn’t any residue on it. Jesus, it’s so fucking hot outside. It feels like her skin is boiling from the sun, wouldn’t be surprised if she was burnt to a crisp by tomorrow.She just wanted to try it, okay? It's not like she even feels anything, she just feels awake. She feels alert, like she just had too many energy drinks. Miki barely snorted anything, just a pinch between her thumb and pointer finger. It was nothing. Her heart wont stop racing, but she just thinks it’s the adrenaline of her mother catching her in the middle of snorting snowy powder.She's been dealing out these little baggies to random strangers since winter break. She is playing gopher for Felix- who won’t give her any of her own. He says she is too young and to come back and ask him in about two years, she scoffs at him every time. Spitting the words "I'm not a child." out in his face- but she was a child. Miki doesn't know if how she's feeling is normal, but she thinks she would kind of like it if it weren't for her mother finding the baggies, walking in on her. Miki vaguely wonders if it’s like when you’re high or drunk and something serious happens so you just kind of sober up on the spot.She feels extreme nausea, her hearts racing and her hands are shaking; but that could just be from adrenaline. Miki stars to think about having to call her grandparents, having to explain that she's a fuck up. Yeah, not happening. Now she has to figure out a way to get out of that one. She pushes herself to her feet.There’s a sting on the open skin of her elbow as a breeze blows by that catches her attention, she hisses and brings her hand to cup it, blood smearing on her hand. "Fucking shit." Miki hisses out as she twists her arm over to look at her elbow, which she cant even feel anymore. It’s bloody, messy, there’s gravel in the open wound. There's blood sliding down her forearm. Miki grabs the hem of her shirt up, revealing her mid section, and stretches it to press down on the deep scrape. Some of the blood drips off of her arm and splatters to the pavement at the sudden movements.A huge but shaky sigh passes through her lips as she drops the clothing and gets out the phone and brings it phone to her face and scrolls her contacts to Felix's name, and hits the call button. Her thumb feels raw from moving over the crack so many times.Miki thought of calling Brooke, she thought of explaining the situation, she really did. Brooke was her number one, the person she immediately thought of going to in any situation; good or bad. She can’t though, she just can’t. She can't get Brooke involved in drugs, or get her involved with Miki's family drama. It would only hurt her, stress her, upset her. Miki wasn't one to feel shame, so she isn't embarrassed, she just has maybe a little too much pride. She can deal with this herself.During it ringing a few times, Miki looks around for her hoodie she had in her arms that she dropped. She see’s it on the porch, crumpled in a pile- looking like someone stepped on it. She scowls but pushes those thoughts away and jogs over to grab it really quick. The rings are still coming and Miki's sure he's busy and going to ignore her call but he answers on what she assumes is the last ring."Miki, did you finish the job?" He asks immediately, barely even giving the line time to connect their call, his voice slightly disinterested and distracted. He must be busy doing something. She hesitates while she bends over to snatch her neon red hoodie from the floor of the porch."Not yet, I'm on my way now," She puts the phone on speaker, setting it down onto the porch railing while she throws the clothing item over her head- the inside of the sleeve sticks to the open wound on her elbow but she doesn’t care. The girl grabs the phone and starts to walk out of her front yard. Opens her contacts to find and message the guy where to meet just as she opens the metal gate to get out onto the street. It swings shut behind her with a clang. She brings a hand up to pull her hood over her head, She mutters, "I need a place to crash."There silence on the other line and then some shuffling, some noise in the background, Miki just waits; she doesn't want to press her luck. There's an incoming call from Brooke, Miki slides decline on her. 'Sorry Brooke.' Miki thinks reluctantly to herself, her chest clenches and stomach turns. Miki eventually had took the phone off speaker and is now holding it up to her ear as she walks."You can crash at my place for a few days." Felix finally offers, his tone a little more serious. "You get caught by the cops and are on the run?" His tone changes to jest with amusement making Miki scowl. Something like that."Shut up, I'm not." She pauses and puffs a breath out as she digs in her pocket for one of her bent cigarettes from being there, luckily it didn’t snap open, and fits it to her mouth. "I mi’v need to stay for a bit w’onger..." It comes out slightly muffled through the cancer stick stuck between her lips."Well how long?" Felix asks, she can hear the slightest bit of curiosity in his voice. Miki holds the phone between her ear and shoulder for a second as she fishes her lighter out and clicks it on to light the end of the cigarette. She picked up smoking right at the start of freshman year. When she and Brooke finally got into high school they were back in the same school as Felix and his friends, the ones they knew from early middle school. Felix had picked up a ton of bad habits, more than he had in junior high. Miki sort of just clung to smoking, having sneakily stole one from Felix’s friend, Rune, to try it. It made her feel badass and less stressed- even if she only does it every now and then… whenever she can steal one or two from people around her."Maybe a couple months." She just blurts out through a cloud of smoke. She takes the phone into her hand again, and places it to her other ear. Felix lets out a haughty laugh, "You can't stay with me for months. I'd probably kill you." Miki smirks at the familiarity,"I'd kill you first."She hears the sound of air blow through the line from his side, there’s silence before Felix settles on asking; "What happened?"Miki scoffs as her face drops, "Nothing happened-""I can't help you if I don't know what happened, kid.""Don't call me kid." Miki spits as she takes a long, deep, drag and it burns her lungs. She coughs a little this time. She blames it on him making her angry. After a few seconds of contemplating she slips out, "My mom threw me out." It’s quiet, and it’s said more to the ground she's walking on than to the person on the other end of the line. Her fingers clench around the phone pressed to the side of her head. She isn’t technically lying, her mom didn’t kick her out per say. Miki sits down onto a short wall with planters hanging off of it outside of someones house, she had walked over to the next block."It's about time," Felix laughs out loud, Miki makes a noise of distaste in her mouth. She goes to yell at him about how it isn't funny, but he cuts her off before she gets the words out."I can set you up at a friends apartment, it definitely isn't the best place for you though." He lets her know, "I'm sure they'll kick you out in less than twenty-four hours." Felix chuckles,"Shut up," Miki chides, "I won't get kicked out. I bet they wouldn't even let your ugly mug stay there.""Yeah well, for this favor I'm not paying you a cut of your current job."Miki hangs up on him after those words, to think she was about to say 'thank you' too. She stares at the screen of her phone and smirks a little. She gets freedom. She gets to live away from her parents or grandparents, even if its temporary. She gets up off the wall, her skin buzzing as she weaves her way out of the neighborhoods and into town. She gets a message from Felix with an address and adrenaline fills her body. She figures she'll have to go home and get a bag of clothes and other necessary items, but for now she just heads over to Felix’s house. She decides she’ll do the job tomorrow- which Felix wont be happy about but if she isn’t getting any of the pay then who cares?Luckily she would already be headed towards that area. Which actually isn’t a good sign, this specific part of town is known for criminal activity, she’s seen it on the news a multitude of times. The neighborhood of Dorhill; it’s not small either, taking up a good chunk of uptown Downersgrove. It’s pretty far from her own prestigious neighborhood; it almost makes her want to laugh.-When she got to Felix’s humble abode, he had Rune and Koje over. It was actually fun to hang out with them all since they graduate next year. The three were having a small house party of their own. Drinking beers and smoking weed. Felix wasn’t too mad that she skipped the job and put it out for another day, he just teased her about getting ‘lazy’. Miki had chatted and joked around with the boys for a while as the sun went down and then she took a hit off of Koje’s cool looking bong, laid down in the big chair to the side of the basement, and promptly let herself pass out, tired from what the day had given to her. She also might have taken a hit that was too big, she doesn’t have much of a tolerance for marijuana yet.
The next morning Miki woke up quite earlier, around nine in the morning. It was just the start of summer vacation, so she was a little irritated at waking up so early. The girl was curled up in the big lazy boy chair in Felix’s basement, she sat up drowsily and scanned the room. A blanket that wasn’t there when she fell asleep slid off her torso. Felix was passed out on the couch while Rune and Koje were sprawled out on the floor with a makeshift bed under them. She chuckled at the sight. Miki kind of had a gut feeling the two older males had feelings for one another, and seeing them practically spooning each other on the floor of Felix’s basement just gave her confirmation.When she goes to stand up she nearly trips and dies as her foot gets caught under the big dog under the name of Roofus. The Saint Bernard jumps up at the sudden movement, also from practically being kicked, and looks up at Miki with droopy eyes- panting happily. Roofus is Felix’s family dog, who Miki adores. Roofus had been laying down at the foot of the chair right under Miki. She smiles at him and gives the boy scratches behind his ears. After giving him the needed attention he deserves, Miki looks around for the phone; which was sitting in the lazy boy- having slipped from her pocket.Swiping it from it’s place, she unlocks the small screen and immediately frowns. There’s two missed calls from Brooke and a ton of missed messages. She’s sure there would be some from her mom, but her mom still has her phone. She swipes and opens the messages. There’s a few asking why she’s dodging Brooke’s calls, and then there’s one that catches her attention.It says something about her mom. Something about her mom going crazy and calling everyone asking where Miki is. The girl groans from where she stands, shoulders dropping down in irritation. If her mom didn’t want her to leave then why’d she throw her outside? Nothing says: get out of here! More than that type of action.Sighing, she pockets the phone. Miki slips her shoes on and gives Roofus another pat on his head at the door since he followed her. “Sorry buddy, I have to go.” She tells him sadly as he licks her hand. Closing the door behind her, Miki makes her way back home in irritation.Once she gets there, her mother is sat in the kitchen having breakfast. Miki prepares herself for the tirade she was most likely going to get, but it never comes. Her mom just addresses her with a sigh, taking a drink of orange juice while pointing to their home phone that’s sat in the corner on their island bar in it’s charging station. Camilla swallows, “Go on, call your grandparents.”“Where’s dad and Flynn?” Miki asks, avoiding her orders but making her way over as if to look like she’s about to get on the phone. Camilla sighs, her fork scrapes on her plate.“Flynn is having a play date with the Welsh’s kid.”Miki rolls her eyes internally. She cant help but feel irritated, Flynn is out with a friend while Miki’s about to be sent away all summer. Not if she can help it though. She observers her mother eating breakfast, there's a practiced calm in the air. It feels different compared to the hostility of yesterday, but Miki supposes they’re just going to pretend the bad parts didn’t happen. Camilla shoots her daughter a look, a look of expectance. Miki bites her bottom lip as the gears in her head turn at almost a law breaking speed until finally she gets an idea.Grabbing the house phone from its dock, she dials her grandparents phone number. Miki shoots blue eyes to look at her mother, who seems pleased with Miki’s compliance. A grin threatens to pull on the girls face as she goes around the kitchen island to sit on one of the bar stools. She hesitates on the call button, quickly moving her finger to hit the end call button instead. The phone is brought to her ear, her mother isn’t watching her like a hawk- moving to clean up her dishes instead. Miki’s heart starts to race, if she gets caught then her mom will be even more mad at her.“Hey Grandpa.” Miki says into the dead line, she waits a second before spitting out more words, “I’m doing alright.. How are you and grandma? Hows Susie doing?”There’s no reply because there is no one on the other line. She waits, making up a reply he would give her inside of her head. After a moment she replies.“Well…” Miki tries to put on her best acting skills. “Actually, things aren’t all that great. I got in trouble.”She can see her mother nod from where the woman stands at the sink. Pretending she was asked ‘trouble with what?’ from the phone, she lets out a sigh, putting her arm onto the counter in front of her and laying her head down. The words come out quietly, awkward to be saying them in front of her mother and also she imagines that she’s actually on the phone with her grandparents. It doesn’t make her feel great. “I got caught having drugs in the house.”The older man would probably start yelling in shock, so she goes, “I know! I know… It was stupid, i’m stupid.” Miki grits her teeth for a second with her eyes looking up. Camilla is leaning back against the counter by the sink with her arms crossed.“Anyways..” Miki begins, sitting up again fully, “Mom’s sending me away to come stay with you guys for summer break.”Pretending to nod, she mhm’s as well. “That’s all, yeah, Love you.” The phone clenches tighter in her hand, “Bye.”“Wait Miki, I wanted to talk to him don’t hang up yet.” Her mom comes over with her hand out. Miki’s heart jolts erratically. She coughs, “Ah! He already hung up.”Her mom puts her hand down.“Sorry.” Miki mutters, clicking the hang up button, even though there is no one to hang up on, and puts the phone down.“I’ll talk to them later, I suppose… I am rather busy today.” Pivoting on her heel, her mother goes to grab something from the table. Camilla brings over a ticket of sorts along with a paper. She slaps it onto the island counter Miki’s sitting at. It’s a train ticket. Miki frowns, picking them up in interest. It’s a ticket to the city her grandparent’s live in, which is technically a state away- but it’s the first town over north of Downersgrove. City of Mistham.“The train is booked for tomorrow, and there's a paper with my signature just in case they make a fuss over you being a minor.”“You guys aren’t taking me?” Miki asks, a breath she didn’t know she was holding puffs out- making the words sound breathless. Miki chews on her lip. Her mother sighs.“I’m afraid not, Your father and I have an early summer business trip we need to prepare for. We are trying to see if the Welsh’s will watch Flynn while we are gone- he’s always liked their family.” Her mother explains, contemplating something internally. Miki stares at her.Out of curiosity, Miki asks, “How long is your business trip?” Camilla quirks a brow.“It’s about a month; we’ll be flying across the country. Our plane leaves tonight, so Rio will be taking you to the station tomorrow.”Internally cursing the world, Miki nods. She gets up to go start packing, acting nonchalant until she hits the stairs and books it. Up in her room, Miki grumbles to herself. She needs to think of a way out of Rio taking her. She just hopes her mother does not call her grandparents tonight or tomorrow. The redhead leaves her room to grab a suitcase from the hall closet. Miki’s wracking her brain trying to figure out an escape plan. While she is packing up some random clothes she yanks from her dresser drawers and pulls out from her closet- she gets a message from the guy she’s supposed to go sell to asking if the deal is off.“Ugh.” Miki groans, messing with her hair as she types out a reply- saying to meet sometime tomorrow. There’s no reply for a moment. Miki flops back onto her bed and finally open Brooke’s messages. Her heart speeds up as she reads them over again, sending a short reply back to show that she isn’t ignoring her. Miki makes up some excuse about her family making her do a bunch of chores.A knock sounds from her bedroom door and she flails about to hide the phone. “Come in.” She calls out after she has shoved the electronic device deep under her pillow. Her door opens and in comes her dad. She tenses a little.“Hey sweetheart.” He says, cautiously. Miki blinks at the affectionate word. Bentley surveys the room, eyeing her messy suitcase that’s laid open on the ground.“Hi.” Miki offers to him and he looks back at his daughter, bringing a hand up to ruffle his chocolate brown hair. He pauses for a second, hesitates, but comes and sits next to her on the bed. Miki purses her lips, putting her hands into her lap. A beat of silence passes between the two of them.“We’re not sending you away because we hate you.” He says, the words are practiced. Miki snorts at the statement, he gives her a look. “I’m serious.”“Mom definitely hates me.” Miki huffs, using one of her hands to pick at the skin around her thumb nail on the other. Bentley puts his hand on her shoulder, coaxing her to look at him. She tilts her head to meet his own matching blue eyes.“She doesn’t hate you. We don’t hate you.” He squeezes his hand, hoping to get the words through to her and then removes it entirely. “We just think getting away from here, sending you to your grandparents, will be good.”She fights the urge to roll her eyes. “A break from it all will be good, and your sister has been bugging to see you.” Her eyes widen a bit at the words, confusion clouding her senses.“What?” She croaks, “Mom doesn’t want Susie around me though.” Miki’s gaze drops down to her lap.“What are you talking about? That’s not true. If it were the case, Flynn would be with grandma and grandpa too.” Bentley takes a breath, “There weren’t any schools that could work with her Mutism, but there’s one in Mistham. That’s why she’s there.”Ena-Susie had pretty bad anxiety as a child, she would barely talk to anyone- even her own family- she was mostly only comfortable around Flynn- which is her twin so it makes sense. Miki never really understood it, never fully knew about it. Susie has gotten a lot better now, even calls her parents frequently and talks on the phone with her brother a ton. Bentley explains once the twins start high school, she’ll come home. A sudden relief washes over Miki, she always thought it was because of her. The way her mom lets her know just how much of a bad influence she is had made her think it was her fault.“Anyways.” Her father pauses as he stands up, “I just wanted to let you know that we aren’t mad.”Miki scoffs at that, no way he isn’t lying. He gives her a stern look, “We just… we don’t know how to help you, or what to do with you.”Silence fills the room as Miki doesn’t have anything to say- doesn’t know what to say. He gives his daughter a small sigh as he heads for the door to her room. “Alright? Love you.”“Love you too.” She grunts out quietly, more of a mumble. He closes her door behind him.Miki kicks her legs out, frustrated. She can’t go to her grandparents’. She already faked a phone call to them, they won’t know she’s coming. The girl feels bad if her little sister wants to see her, but she can’t go. Not right now. She doesn’t want to leave. Maybe it’s because it’s orders, she’s being told to go so maybe that’s why she’s so against it.Miki’s also a little scared her parents won’t let her come home. That they’ll tell her it’s best if she stays. She’s so scared. Her fight or flight senses are going off.☆ ˖⁺ ˖The following morning her parents are already gone. She hadn’t seen either of them before they left- stayed holed up in her room for the night, didn’t even come down for dinner. Rio is knocking on her door at ten in the morning, seeing if she’s ready to go since the train leaves at eleven and he doesn’t want her to miss it. He helps her pack her one suitcase into his car, and then they are off.At the train station, that’s when things start to unfold. A foreseeable plan starts to come together once Rio asks her, “Do you need help with your ticket and stuff?”A grin almost breaks out onto her face, her heart speeds up at the chance. “No, I’ve got it. Mom gave me a slip too, in case there’s any trouble over my age.”He nods at her, looking only slightly unconvinced, she panics. “Also, I mean, doing this myself will build my responsibility.”“That’s true.” He agrees, handing her the black luggage from his trunk. “I’ll stay until you board on, just to make sure.”Miki gives a nod, biting her lip. He closes the lid of the trunk and goes back to sit in the driver’s seat, watching her from the windows as she makes her way to the outside service desk. She waits in line, starting to get antsy. Once it’s her turn, they take her ticket and look over the note with plain disinterest, scanning it and giving her the go ahead. Her body melts in relief.Walking over to the gate, Miki turns around to give Rio a wave. He waves back and gives her a thumbs up. Miki gives one back and then turns around to walk through the gates slowly, then jumping next to a wall to get out of his sight- peaking around it to watch the car. Rio starts to pull out, and eventually leave the parking lot. Miki can’t help but feel invincible, she internally cheers- a flood of adrenaline floods her veins as she books it out of there. Her suitcase rolls behind her, chaotically bumping, flying over every rock, jolting off of crack in the uneven ground. A few people give her odd looks, but she could care less.Her parents kept her phone. Rio said that they told him about how she doesn’t need one anyways, and will get it back after summer. Miki found that to be absolute bullshit, but wasn’t too bothered as she still has the one from Felix.Speaking of, she stops in her tracks and bends down to pull the phone out of the front pocket of her suitcase. Miki texts the guy, letting him know to meet up with her in an hour- since that’s how long it’ll take her to walk to that side of town. The girl is filled with
triumph, she can’t believe she was able to pull this off in the end. Looking back, it wasn't the smartest idea, but it brought her something she would never want to change.Miki finishes her job in a haste- not wanting to spend much time around the person who bought from Felix. Then she heads to the apartment complex address Felix had sent her days earlier, which is right around the block; dead set in the middle of Dorhill, which is basically the ghetto. It doesn't bother her as much as she thought it would though. Yeah, there’s some creepy looking people lurking in the shadows... but all she can hope for is that no one tries to mug her for her suitcase. The girl finds the building and enters, stalking up the steps. It’s the second floor to the left. She pounds two times, one light and one hard. Her ears catch yelling from inside. After a minute of waiting, she tries to open the door. It's unlocked.The yelling intensifies with the door cracking open, and now she can hear the sound of music playing; all static from shitty speakers."I'm coming in." Is all Miki shouts out as she lets herself in, some guy turns the corner and leans on the frame of the entry way; he's holding a pipe up to his mouth. He nods at Miki, and Miki only blinks back. "You the girl Felix talkin' bout?"Miki nods a confirmation as she ushers her inside, suitcase in tow. The first thing she sees is two people arguing, ones holding a gun by his side which makes Miki tense. After surveying the room she knows exactly what's happening, probably a disagreement, probably a misunderstanding. Probably the wrong order."You ain't gonna cheat us out of this shit again!" The one with the gun spats, the person standing in front takes a step back in caution. The man with the gun has black hair with neon green tips, his face has multiple piercings: right eyebrow, snake bites, and septum. He's older, Miki can see the fine lines around his eyes and lips. Maybe he's in his thirties, early thirties. Could be even late thirties; Miki presumes, she tries not to stare as the man takes a step forward to keep the other person accounted for.
"Give me the shit I fucking paid for, yeah?" The man threatens while he starts getting handsy, Miki gets a good look at the other person once they finally walk further past to where she can see his face hidden behind his gray hood.Oh, it’s a girl.Miki see's the girl’s hair tucked in, can see the fear flickering in her eyes, the horror on her face. Her own heart starts to speed up. She can see herself in this stranger- and for some reason it puts her on edge."Brent-" She breathes, "That's all he gave me, that's what he said-""NOW!" The gun rings out, not as loud because of the silencer, and a bullet goes straight into the wall opposite of them. The girl shrieks and brings her hands up to her ears as she ducks down in on herself, crouching against the floor as Brent breathes heavy above her. She's shaking, hidden by her oversized hoodie- but Miki can tell."Tell that bastard I'm done with him." The man, Brent, spits out and snaps. "I'm fucking done with your guys' shit. You better watch your fucking backs."The girl doesn't move."GET!" Brent hollers and kicks the girl’s shoulder. The girl scrambles to get up and bolts to the front door. She slams her shoulder into Miki, nearly tripping over the suitcase, and rips open the front door; not bothering to close it behind her as it bounces off the wall and nearly shuts on its own."What'd they cheat us out of?" The guy who met Miki as the door asks, he has shaggy brown hair that's clumpy with grease, his eyes are green just like Brent's, except they don't pop out as much."Fuckin' nearly four grams." Brent says, "Dude, look at this shit." He spats, beckoning his friend to come over and look at the baggies on the table. "This is less than fucking half of what we payed for, Liam."Miki stares hard at the back of the two males, she keeps her eyes fixated on Brent. She feels like she knows him, he looks so familiar. While the two bicker about how much they're out of, Miki looks around the area again, properly this time. It's dirty, everything's dirty. There's dishes left on the surfaces of tables and shelves. There's a yellow film from the amount of smoking that's gone on in here on the walls. The couch looks like they got it from the dump; a brown couch with even more brown on it. She wrinkles her nose. There's no curtains on the windows, there's a television on a TV stand in the corner of the room; it looks like a normal drug user's living room. She does not feel safe here all of a sudden, what the fuck was Felix thinking?There's clothes thrown around, Miki doesn't know who's they are; or if they even belong to the two adults here, she’s pretty sure she sees women clothing. There's a hall to her right that they were going to go down, she assumes the room she'll be temporary staying is somewhere down here. She returns her gaze to the living room, and the two boys are weighing the contents of the baggies on their scale warily. She notices then, the sheriff outfit that's laid out on the floor in front of the couch, it probably fell off.It hits her and her eyes widen and she looks at the back of Brent's head incredulously.No fucking way.This guy was the sheriff of one of the police stations in Downersgrove, one of the more popular ones.The main sheriff of their town owns a drug hub.What the…? Miki can’t process this right now.Miki's standing in disbelief as she looks back to the uniform, walking barely a few steps closer to read the name tag: Gidden. Yup, that was the sheriffs name. Brent Gidden. She doesn't remember the sheriff having neon green in his hair though... Miki looks back over to the boy, who's now looking at her. She tenses for a second but then throws him a smirk, tips her head towards the uniform, he follows her indication and then laughs himself."Woah, caught me." He puts his hands up, "Don't turn me into the police, pretty please, doll face?" Brent is making his way towards her, and his tone is a mix between somewhat flirtatious and sarcastic. Miki has to bark out a laugh herself,"Oh no, this is way more interesting."Liam smirks, his arms crossed as he comes to Brent's side, "This is Felix's girl." and Brent gives a hum of thought, looking Miki up and down. Miki scoffs, leaning her weight onto her right foot."I am not his girl. We just do business.""Same thing, sweetie." Brent says slyly, a knowing tone, she grimaces. "You get to crash in the pad at the end of the hall, don't fucking damage any shit in there, you got me?"Miki nods, " 'Course not." She turns to look down the hall, and starts to make her way,"And mind your fucking business." Liam calls out behind her, his tone threatening. Miki throws a thumbs up over her head, dragging her suitcase with her, then deciding to bark back,"Likewise."She opens and shuts the bedroom door behind her. Miki leans against the closed door. After conversing with the two, she isn’t as uncomfortable as she was before. She blinks herself back into focus as she takes in the room. It’s… not as bad as the living room. A shelf that has random items stored on it, a closet with no doors, an extremely dirty bare mattress pushed into the far corner on the floor- no bed frame… or sheets. There’s a dresser with a television on it next to her on her right, but it has a hole the size of a fist through it- so it’s definitely broken. Luckyily for her there’s a half bathroom attached- a toilet and sink. They probably rent this room out for money. Miki has to wonder just what kind of deal Felix made with the two of them to get her to stay here with no charge herself. She chews on her lip.“Well.” Miki mutters to herself, letting out a sigh, “Time to get settled in I guess.”-Living at this place, did not go as expected. Even though, she doesn’t know what it was that she had been expecting in the first place.The first night, everything seemed fine. Miki got her room, she just assumed they'd be doing drug deals here. She was wrong, not only did they sell them but they made drugs here. They had their own little set up in one of the rooms; that shit smelt so fucking bad sometimes it was hard for her to sleep. There was an extreme lack of cleanliness, so bugs seemed to love it. There was gnats, there was spiders, there was roaches. Miki's woken up countless times to a roach or two crawling on her body. Since the mattress was on the floor, it was easy for them to get on it. It was grimy.People did drugs in the apartment, they'd come down in the apartment. The amount of people, the different type of people, that came into this place actually made Miki worried for her safety. At least there was a working lock on the door. It was unreal, it felt like a goddamn fever dream. It had only been a week. Just two days ago Brent actually shot someone. Then turned around and gave the guy to police for drug use. Hypocritical much?He's the sheriff, he can do whatever he wants. It goes like this: If you don't get him what he paid for, if you don’t do what he says; you're going to jail.Oh no, just staying here had Miki on the edge, what if he turned her in? She's a minor selling drugs, sometimes doing them, and he clearly knows about it with the way he commented at her when she first got here. She’s on edge.The only good thing that's happened is she hasn't heard from her family. She knows it’s only because she doesn’t have her cell phone. Miki bets that her mother is regretting the decision to take it away from her now, but then she wonders if her parents even know that she didn't go to stay with her grandparents, she wonders if they even care.Miki learned quickly that the kitchen isn't communal. She wanted to laugh at herself for even thinking it was, this wasn't her house. These were not her friends, who did Miki think she was? There wasn't much food in the cupboards anyways, but the fridge was stocked with beer, always. She'd take one or two, even when the two males were sitting on the couch; drugged out of their minds, but she saw them look at her open the fridge, and they didn't say anything the first time so she thought she was good.Miki never knew she was so naive."Fuck..." Miki breathes out as she brings a hand up to cradle her aching head. It takes a second for her vision to return to normal after skewing sideways. Miki tilts her chin up and blinks at the guy who just knocked her head into the side of the fridge. She didn’t know it was going to get physical."Don't take shit that ain't yours!" The guy spits in her face, forcefully grabbing her wrist in a bruising grip as he yanks it up, ripping the can of beer out of Miki's hand, she gasps as pain shoots up and down her arm. He throws her arm back at her which causes her to stumble backwards a bit."Don't touch any of our shit, you fucking hear me, little girl?" He gets in her face, cracking open the can and taking a huge mouthful out of it only to spit it all over Miki's face. She splutters, furrowing her eyebrows as she brings her hands up to wipe it away from her eyes."You're here as an errand boy, that's it. That's all you are. Take one more thing from this kitchen and we're dropping your ass out on the street! I don't give a flying fuck what Felix has to say about it, bitch!"She feels frozen, heart pumping fast. There’s a feeling of familiar anger bubbling in the pit of her stomach, threatening to crawl out of her throat and attack the man in front of her. It wouldn’t be a smart decision though."You fucking understand?!" He shoves her back into the fridge handle, it digs against the knobs of her spine and she gasps out slightly, wincing. That was going to leave a bruise. She knows better than to say anything so she just nods with her teeth grit tight."Good." The man straightens himself and grabs her shoulder, pulling and then pushing her out of the kitchen. Miki's brows knit in irritation at being pushed around, "Stupid bitch, you're fucking buying us another six pack." She hears him mutter as he walks into the dirty living room. Miki can feel her phone buzz from her pocket, but it doesn't fully register.That was Liam. She could smell the drugs and alcohol seeping out from his very being. Miki vaguely wonders if he even comprehends what he did. She knows that they don’t care, clearly, having a police officer on your side gives you certain advantages. Miki doesn’t really know how he expects her to buy them another six pack either, but whatever."Asshole." Miki scoffs under her breath as she glares at the back of his head before he rounds the corner. She goes to the room she's crashing in and grabs her red plaid backpack that she had packed into her suitcase. She pulls the black and blue jacket that was sitting under the bag out and throws it on, then slings the bag over her shoulders right after, it is packed with everything she needs during the day, then looks around for her phone. Most of her time here was spent smoking cigarettes or playing on her phone. Miki fully blames her new addiction on this place, sure she'd smoke one here or there when she lived at home, but now it was everyday. Multiple a day; chain smoking out the clunky window of this run down shit-hole.Miki rushes to the front door and leaves, not before swiping one of the small baggies off of the dresser that's set up right outside the hallway. Miki smirks as she leaves. She had decided that she'll come here to sleep, that's it. She can find somewhere else to go in the daytime. She shuts the door behind her.⁺ ☽ ˖ ☆ ˖⁺Brooke's been becoming increasingly more suspicious as the days go on. It's been a little over one week, closer to two since Miki's been staying there. She is dirty, she's wearing the same pairs of clothes over and over. She does not know what to do about showering. She’s been using a spare shirt to towel herself down in the sink of the adjourned bathroom. Other than that, she’s been putting on tons of deodorant and perfume to try and mask her rank smell. Thank god she packed that kind of stuff, same for her toothbrush. At least her perfect teeth would not suffer. Her hair is starting to get grimy and greasy.It's not like there isn't a laundry room in the apartment, there is. Its just that the last time, and only time, Miki went to use it Liam had slammed the lid down onto her hand and yelled at her about running their water, to go to a laundry mat and waste her own money. Miki isn't actually sure he remembers when these events happen, Liam always reeks of alcohol. The girl doesn’t see Brent a lot but wonder if he’s as out of it as Liam is. She wonders if he does drugs on the job."Miki" Brooke snaps, clapping her hands in the girls face and Miki jolts. She looks up at the girl sitting across from her. "What?" Miki asks confused, she didn't realize she was lost in her thoughts."Are you sure everything's okay?" Brooke presses in concern, taking her sandwich out of her lunch box, ripping it in half, and handing one side to Miki- who once again didn’t bring any food. Brooke tries to subtly check to make sure it's the bigger piece that she gives to her friend. It isn’t that much of a shock. Miki's parents never made her lunches, but they did pay for the school ones, so Brooke’s used to Miki not bringing food. They weren’t in school though, so there’s no cafeteria for the girl to get free food from. Miki takes the sandwich slice gratefully and takes a big bite out of it."Have you been eating?” Brooke asks when Miki doesn't reply, her eyebrows are knit with concern with makes Miki moves her gaze to stare at the park surrounding them, looking anywhere but Brooke. "Also, this is the third time you've worn that outfit..."Silence is the reply she gets. Brooke sighs when Miki makes an obvious point to take a bigger bite out of the side of the sandwich to fill her mouth. "Are you even going home?"Miki's shoulders tense, and that's her dead giveaway."You aren't, are you?"Miki sets the sandwich down, onto the dirty wooden table which gets her a disgusted look from Brooke and looks up to meet the other’s worried gaze. The girls dark eyebrows are knit together, her black bangs falling neatly between her expression, her lips are pressed down into a frown. Miki lets her shoulders fall and crosses her arms onto the table, moving the sandwich over to set it on the plastic bag Brooke has in front of her."No, I'm staying with Felix." Miki comes up with the lie on the spot, she feels guilty already. Brooke's eyebrows raise in surprise, "Felix?" She asks.Miki watches Brooke's face intently, it contorts from shock to confusion to disbelief and Miki clicks her tongue, feeling like Brooke knows she’s lying. "Why are you staying with him?"Brooke pops open her fruit cup and takes her spoon out of the bag she brought, "I ran away." Miki says with dramatics, picking the sandwich back up and shoving it into her mouth to keep it busy. Brooke rolls her eyes at the girl."Liar, you didn't. What happened?"Miki chews her sandwich in a slow manner and then takes three large gulps of her grape soda she bought from the park’s vending machine. Miki swallows even more slowly than she chewed. When she focuses back on Brooke, the girl gives her an irritated and impatient look."You're lying about staying with Felix too."Miki looks down at the table and brings a hand to pick at frayed pieces of wood."And you keep averting your eyes, you do that when you're hiding something."Miki laughs at being called out by her best friend. Brooke is so sharp, maybe the only person who knows her so well. "I'm just admiring your mother’s cooking." She changes the subject and deflects.Brooke rolls her eyes and scoffs, leaning in over the table to get closer in Miki's face, "Fine, if you won’t tell me I'll just have to find out myself."Miki's heart is racing at Brooke coming into her bubble, which confuses her, so she takes her soda and downs the rest of it while looking over at some family sitting at the barbecues not too far from them. She feels her face heat a little, but Brooke goes moves back down and continues to finish her lunch quietly.☆ ˖⁺ ☽˖⁺
Over the days during summer, her and Brooke have been meeting up- trying to have lunch with each other at their park a few times a week.They don’t want to become distant like some friends do once a school break starts. Today Brooke and her had been sitting at the same bench they always sit on until the sun finally went down. Soon after it’s departure, Brooke got called by her mom on her phone to go home. Which made Miki pout."Are you sure you don't want to come?" Brooke had asked, worry etched onto her face. Miki can see a nervous smile pulling her lips, one of her dimples barely showing. So cute! Her chest flutters with feelings she doesn’t fully understand."Yeah, my mom's expecting me home..." Miki just told her with a fake smile while trailing off, she made sure she didn’t avert her gaze, though she felt her nose flaring. Brooke slings her backpack on and walks over- leaning down to give Miki a side hug, "Happy birthday." She says with a warm smile, both dimples pressed into her cheeks and Miki had felt her whole body flush warm, her heart nearly jumped out of her throat. Brooke slipped her hand into the pocket of the hoodie Miki was wearing. All Miki feels is the slight pressure of Brooke's hand nudging her lower stomach through her jacket pocket, which sends a jolt of electricity through her, right before the girl pulls away.Miki takes a quick breath, “My birthday was a few weeks ago?” She asks- puzzled and disoriented."I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" Brooke doesn’t answer her question as she adjusts her bag.Miki closes her mouth nods; eyebrows furrowed as Brooke walks past her. The girl turns around and calls out to the redhead, "Don't stay out too late!"Miki throws her a thumbs up over her shoulder. “Okay mom!” and she hears a distant laugh in reply. She gives it a few minutes, or maybe it was seconds, before she looks back and Brooke's already further off into the distance, she had turned onto the sidewalk that leads out of the park.After Brooke was gone she opened her backpack and fished out the crinkled plastic bottle with no label wrapped on it, uncapped it and took a generous swig. Her nose wrinkles since the liquid is warm, the alcohol burns her throat and nostrils as a shudder runs through Miki's body at it. “Bleh.” She lets out a noise of disgust.She can still feel Brooke's arms around her, the feeling imprinted through her clothes and onto her skin. Her heart skips and she takes another drink. She realized her feelings for the girl sometime last year, over last summer. Not knowing what to do with them, Miki just buried them and acted like they weren't there. As if she'd fuck up the most important relationship she's ever had with anyone ever, Brooke is her rock. Her best-est friend in the whole entire universe. Her favorite person. Besides, she was pretty sure Brooke didn’t swing that way- even if there’s no solid evidence to back up that thought.The park is quiet, its empty, and it’s dark. The light posts are spread out, there's not one above where Miki sits and finishes her drink in the dark. She feels pleasantly buzzed, so decides its time to head back to her crash pad. Miki scowls but then he feels her face flush as she starts thinking of the girl's embrace, her lips quirk into a goofy grin. When she stands up something weighs down in her pocket, catching her attention and causing her to pause. Miki knocks her bottle off the table as she pockets her phone, she doesn't pick it up.Miki reaches into her other pocket and pulls out a small velvety box. Her eyes widen as she remembers the weight of Brooke's hand sliding in during the hug. Miki's hands shake as her fingers pull it open. It's a silver ring. It glistens, catching light from some lamp far in the distance. Miki squints to look at it in the dark, pulling it out of the velvet holder.It has two stars on it, one bigger and a tiny one next to it. She runs her fingers on it, feeling the cool and smooth metal as her eyes water. There's engraving inside the ring when she runs her finger all over it. She re-pulls her phone out and turns on the flash. Miki holds the ring out, and tilts it to see inside. The engraving is small, Miki has to hold it closer- squinting to read the tiny words,'you are my shining star'She feels her heart clench painfully in her chest, the watering of her eyes intensifies as a few tears threaten to slide down her face. She laughs a little, blinking rapidly, a smile pulling her cheeks before she slips it on one of her fingers, it fits perfectly around her right ring finger. The implication of having a ring from her crush on that specific finger gives her butterflies, and she curses herself for being such a big softy.She stands up with a smile while staring at her hand for a good few minutes before she grabs her bag and slings it on, only on one shoulder. Miki holds her phone out again and takes a picture of her hand with the ring on and sends it to Brooke with the caption: 'I'm in love.'The whole walk back, which isn’t that far- their park is actually only a couple blocks away from the Dorhill neighborhood, Miki keeps her thumb rubbing at the metal that encloses her finger. She keeps a lopsided grin most of the way, that could just be the alcohol talking though. She's so consumed in the ring that she doesn't hear someone following her. She doesn't hear the extra set of footsteps echoing around the small alley she’s in. It’d be easy to sense someone else’s presence, the evening is dead- streets bare. Which is a little odd because this is the time of day that the crazies start crawling out from their caves. Miki hops up some steps to the back entrance of the shitty apartment complex, and it's all so sudden when someone grabs her bicep and yanks her back.Heart dropping low, Miki yells out a noise, shock, she tries to turn and push the person off but she’s on the floor before she even has the chance to turn around. Her body makes impact with the ground, she gives a thanks to the alcohol for numbing the pain. She blinks and then realizes lost her footing on the bottom step below her. Which she wouldn’t have, if someone didn’t grab her."What the fuck Miki!?"Miki blinks her vision and looks up at the girl looming over her."Brooke?" Miki asks the familiar voice, her breathing picking up from the fear that just went through her."What the fuck?" Brooke repeats, waving a hand up to the building, then gesturing to the alley way around them with wide, frantic eyes. She looks livid and scared at the same time."I knew you were lying, but what the hell is this!?"Miki frantically shoots up to her feet, stumbling a bit, "I thought you went home." she speaks out fast, bringing her hands up to hold Brooke's shoulders in urgency, "You shouldn't be here, you got to go.""I've got to go!? What the hell are you doing in this place?” Brooke questions and then she gasps, “Is this where you've been staying?" Brooke's voice raises and Miki hushes her, starts pushing Brooke out of the alley and away from the building, Miki looks back to make sure no one came outside, to make sure no-ones around. She eventually moves to grab Brooke's hand and pulls her along the sidewalks for a while till they are on the outskirts of the neighborhood, only then does Miki feel the tension in her body ease. She doesn’t want Brooke anywhere near this place."Well?" Brooke asks once Miki lets go of her hand and their pace turns less frantic."I had nowhere else to go." Miki points out, shoving her hands into her pockets, playing with the empty velvet box. Brooke scoffs from behind her, her expression turning mad- not that Miki can see it;"Hello?!" Brooke’s voice cracks on a yell and Miki turns her head around with wide eyes at the sudden loud tone, "I'm right here. Why didn't you come to me?" Her tone of voice is taught; it comes out almost broken and it makes Miki’s chest hurt and her nose sting. She’s hurting Brooke’s feelings- no- she hurt them. Miki feels like an asshole.Miki turns back around and away from the hurt expression Brooke is displaying and narrows her eyes down at the ground in front of her. "Why are you doing this, Miki?" Brooke asks and puts a hand on Miki's shoulder, Miki shrugs it off."I'm doing what I have to."Which is such a lie and the words make no sense. Miki turns around, all but stomping as she passes Brooke- stopping right behind her to say, "Go home Brooke. Go. Home. This isn't a place for you." then continues on, leaving Brooke to turn around in her spot and stare at the back of retreating Miki's head.“It isn’t a place for you either!”Miki ignores her, gritting her teeth and pulling in on herself as she picks up her pace."I'm not letting you stay there!" Brooke yells out and Miki hunches her shoulders up to her ears, "I'm not!""GO HOME!" Miki barks out over her shoulder, walking away faster, she checks behind her to make sure Brooke isn't following. She isn’t. It's quiet after that. Miki climbs the fire escape up to the window of her room and climbs in- since the window was broken and the lock didn’t work, her elbows land roughly on the disgusting floor as she pulls herself in. She grunts in irritation, and flops onto her back to rip off her shoes. Miki doesn't bother closing the window as she drags her body onto the disgusting mattress and buries her head into one of the hoodies that used to be Brooke's, which was left at her house the last time they had a sleep over- on her birthday. She's been using the hoodie as a pillow.She fell into a restless slumber rather quickly from the alcohol, which she was sure had worn off. It was probably only around ten at night when she passed out, but she had slept in until noon. It's the sound of a female’s voice that wakes her up. It wasn't the sound of druggies, it wasn't the sound of a trade gone wrong or a gunfight. The voice was familiar, she hears Brent say something back; just the deep murmur of his voice is all she can get- unable to make out actual words. It goes quiet and then there’s footsteps coming down the hall. All the way down to the room she’s inside of, there's bangs on the door."Miki!"It's Brooke's voice, just what is Brooke doing here? Panic shoots through her entire body."So help me Miki, if I need to call your parents and get them involved, I will." And that's the motherly voice of Karen Kelly. Miki jolts up from the mattress; she looks around the room frantically. She has no idea what she’s supposed to do. What is she supposed to do!?All she can think about is what are they doing here?! Over and over. Then the events of last night played out in her head and Miki cursed under her breath.God damn it Brooke. Why did you have to go and get involved!?⁺☽ ˖☆ ˖⁺
WinterNew yearsIt is right before Christmas break when Miki texts Brooke and invites her over for New Years. It's shocking because Miki's never invites Brooke over for any holiday, they’ve only spent one Easter together. She always claimed that her family is very... “family orientated”. Brooke knows now that it's because her parents are all about business so even their family holidays rotated around that. Miki made it out that Brooke's presence is mandatory this time, and that this is a very special occasion and to dress at least a little formal. Brooke could do that. She was excited.They don't have any contact except for a quick call on Christmas; Miki tells her that she won’t be able to make it over for that evening. She got extra grounded last month because her and Flynn got into an argument the morning their mom got home. Flynn then decided to exaggerate how she treated him over the weekend and Camilla of course believed Flynn over Miki. It's always been that way. So, Miki was on lock down, still, for the near future. Will she ever get a break? Her mother gave her a chance to redeem herself, and she didn’t. It was on Miki.The days pass slowly and Brooke can’t fight off the excitement. For the simple act of being invited and also because she gets to see her girlfriend. Brooke misses her, it is just not the same when she isn’t around. New year’s Eve finally comes around and she dresses herself in a simple black dress that goes a little past her knees. It has a sweetheart neckline and the sleeves are short on her shoulders, slightly puffy. The dress is more of a stiff material. It used to belong to her mother. It had gloves that came with it, but Brooke scrapped those. She wears her down with her blue bangs framing her face delicately. She also uses her mom’s white shoulder bag that has a silver chain.Walking up to Miki's house is intimidating as it is always. Brooke's mother dropped her off and gave her a wave and a wish of good luck, also shouted at her through the car window to have a good time before she drove off. There's a lot of people here, she notes, most of the cars are expensive. She swallows and wipes her clammy hands on her dress as she walks up. Brooke uses the front gate that leads to a path that goes straight up to the front door. Following the sidewalk- she looks at the expensive looking grass lamps as she approaches the front porch; where's she's greeted by Miki sitting outside sitting next to a boy. Said boy is Jacinth Chaire. Miki has a cigarette hanging from her lips and she's dressed in a peter pan collared dress. Its black, with a slight red plaid pattern and white cuffs.Brooke's seen her in it before, on last year's Christmas, so she can make it out even in the dim light of the evening. It's always strange seeing the tom-boyish styled Miki in a dress, but Brooke thinks she looks beautiful. Miki always prefers a romper if she's going to need to be dressed up; a romper or a suit. Miki says it is more flexible for her that way, whatever that means. Brooke herself would find it more constricting."A-yo!" Miki says as she notices Brooke approaching, she stands up and dusts off the back of her dress. Her normal mary-jane shoes are on her feet. Brooke gives a bright smile, pink dusting her cheeks as Miki stalks up to her and plants a wet, sloppy, kiss to her cheek. It leaves a smudge of red from the lipstick she’s wearing. A small giggle sounds and she reaches to wipe most of it off of Brooke's cheek with the back of her hand that's holding the cigarette. Brooke cringes away from the hot cancer stick and Miki chuckles a bit louder this time."You look great!" Miki says slyly and gives her a dorky thumbs up, adding a clumsy wink which makes Brooke snort. Jacinth stands up from the porch, walking a few steps closer to them. The boy is in a gray suit with a blue tie and brown shoes to pull the outfit together. "You too!" Brooke smiles while she wipes her cheek off even after Miki already did."Long time no see, how have you been?" Jacinth asks with a friendly smile. Miki switches the cigarette to her other hand and slinks her arm around Brooke's waist, fitting flush against her side. Which makes Brooke blush shyly."I’ve been good!" Brooke smiles and he gives a gentle smile back. Miki takes a drag of her cigarette and blows the smoke through her lipstick clad lips- generously away from the direction of Brooke's face. Who appreciates the simple yet honest gesture."He's been working business, a real professional." Miki boasts, leading Brooke past Jacinth and up the steps onto the porch and towards the front door; which is muffling the commotion of the people inside.Jacinth rolls his zircon colored eyes, that in the sunlight might look orange; maybe red sometimes. They are a very vibrant brown. "I don't know about that," He starts with a snort and turns to follow them inside. "I just do some office work.""Yeah and you dress in a suit when you go to work." Miki teases, pointing to his current clothes with the cigarette hanging from her fingers, “Like the one you got on now.” Jacinth blushes and Brooke chuckles at his bashful reaction,"Oh, can it, would you? It's called dress code!""I liked you better when you worked at the beach, there were may more benefits to that. Like... free ice-cream and free floaties."“Is that all I am to you?” Jacinth shakes his head with a sigh, feigning hurt, “Just extra perks?”Miki laughs out loud, “Now you’re starting to get it…” which causes Brooke to snort beside her in amusement at Miki’s antics.“Lucky for you, I’m applying to work part time at a bowling alley.” Jacinth lets her know. Miki cheers at that, tossing her cigarette away before they go inside. “More free stuff! You better let us play for free.”“I don’t know about that...”Brooke shakes her head as the two bicker; her focus being captured by the amount of fancy people inside and all the decorations that are put up around the house- and they’ve only just entered inside to the foyer too. It looks like royalty in here. There's a lot of older adults and she feels Miki's hold grip her tighter once they're entering the keeping room that's to the right. Brooke turns her head and fits her gaze to Miki's face, who gives her a reluctant smile before she lets go of Brooke completely, leaving the girl to send her a questioning look to which Miki avoids. It makes Brooke frown a little.Miki steps away and brings a hand up to fit her slightly curled hair behind her ear and Brooke eyes the star ring that she got the girl for her birthday earlier in the current year. It makes her heart swell on emotion and her lips stretch into a warm smile. She also notices ear rings in Miki's ears, pretty and sparkly dangle ones. Brooke can assume that wasn't Miki's decision; most definitely her mothers. Miki doesn't like that specific earring type. She complains that they get caught in her hair and it hurts. Brooke smiles fondly, they’ve been through a lot these past few months."I'm going to have to go help." Miki tells the two of them, gesturing to the group ahead. She gives a funky expression towards everyone and then looks back to the two with a stern face, "If anyone asks who Brooke is, don't tell them at all. Just say she's our special guest."Something about the way Miki words that gets a gross feeling pooling in Brooke's stomach. Her face contorts, but Miki's already wishing them luck with an obnoxious thumbs up before she bounces off in the direction of the kitchen. Brooke takes her contorted face and looks up at the boy standing next to her,"The hell did that mean?"Jacinth laughs nervously, "Nothing!" He brings his fist up to clear his throat… suspicious, "Nothing. Just Miki being Miki, you know how she can be.."Brooke narrows her eyes, "Uh huh..." And at that he looks away from her, "Maybe she wants to be the one to introduce you!" Jacinth throws his hands up in a quick gesture as if he just came up with that. It could be true but Brooke's not buying it."Right." She deadpans, "Must be why I'm the 'special guest'." Brooke mocks Miki's previous words and Jacinth starts ushering inside,"I'm getting really thirsty, are you? You hungry maybe? Lets go find a snack." He grabs her wrist and pulls her inside the group of people, leaving Brooke with a huge suspicion.There's classical music playing in the background and Brooke finds herself wanting to laugh because now she knows why Miki hates classical music so much. She lets Jacinth drag her off to the little venue table; set up all beautiful. Holy shit, is that a chocolate fountain? Her focus is then re-captured by the mountain of champaign glasses set up neatly on top of each other. A champaign pyramid. On the opposite side of the table is another pyramid of red wine. This probably took hours to do, though Brooke figures they most likely hired someone to do that.Jacinth notices her staring at it, "Impressive, right?" Brooke looks over to him and nods with a smile."Yeah and it’s pretty too.""Miki and I spent ALL afternoon setting up," He boasts, and then laughs a little as he runs a hand through his choppy and very uneven hair, "Jeez, Miki threatened to knock it over so many times."Brooke laughs through her shock. She can’t believe they built those. The Miki she knows has absolutely zero patients. "Yup, that sounds like Miki. I'm surprised she didn't actually do it."Jacinth nods in exasperation, "Seriously! You should have seen the look in her eyes! Pure evil." He reaches up and plucks one off of the top to hand over to Brooke. He gives her a 'shh' gesture as if to say ‘our secret.’ She laughs again, graciously taking it and starts sipping on it. It was high quality, most likely top of the line and very expensive. Brooke almost felt weird drinking it. Jacinth takes one for himself,"So, if you're hungry... there's cheese boards on every single corner. There's some other real fancy stuff too, like fois gras or pissaladière." Brooke looks up at him and gives the boy a weird look at his sudden French accent,"Sorry? What the hell is that?"Jacinth laughs through a breath, "Goose liver and a fancy type of pizza, I guess." He hums and points over to another table, "There's some deserts over there; macaroons, crepes, palmiers, and I think even some mille-feuille- those are so good I really recommend those. "Brooke's face sours at 'goose liver' and takes a generous swig of her Champaign all while she pats Jacinth on his shoulder "I really have no idea what you're saying anymore." he barks out a laugh, "But I do know what macaroons and crepes are so I'm going to go get some of those."They make their way to the other table and Brooke gets a small party plate to put some sweets on it. These all look way better than whatever goose liver was. Brooke leans against the wall next to the table and takes a macaroon of her plate to take a bite, she notices Miki's mom talking to some guests in the entry to the kitchen. she's dressed in a really fancy emerald green evening gown. Camilla keeps looking around, seemingly trying to find Miki if she can. Jacinth gets called by his mother, who apparently is also helping host this party. Brooke nods at his departure and lets him go, deciding then that she'll go look for Miki herself.The first place she goes is upstairs to Miki's room, which is locked. Brooke knocks a few times and calls out, "Miki?"A few seconds pass and there's no answer. Brooke sighs and steps back from the door. She turns around to walk back down the hall. It's dead empty up here. There's a few family photos, just pictures in general, hanging on the walls. Miki looks stiff and forced in mostly all of them, she can only imagine Miki's mother trying to get the girl to sit still AND smile at the camera. Brooke chuckles to herself at the thought as she folds her arms across her chest and stops by the staircase. Should she attempt to check further upstairs? Brooke's never explored Miki's house before. Out of respect she scraps the idea and makes her way down to the party again. Miki probably wouldn't be up here anyways, no one else seems to be.Brooke passes through the foyer once again and back into the group of overly dressed old people. Her eyes dart around to no such luck and then she decides to make her way into the kitchen.She finds Miki in their overly large pantry, of all places."What are you doing in here?" Brooke asks, “I’ve been looking for you all over.” She startles Miki. The redhead spins around, and a smile coming to her face immediately."Brooke!" Miki heaves breathlessly, "You found me!" Brooke gives her a suspicious glance along with a lopsided smile. Was she supposed to be looking for her?"Are you hiding out in the pantry?" Brooke wonders aloud, looking at the shelves stacked much higher than the two of them. The light isn't on and it’s dark in here, what a weirdo..."I wish! I was actually ordered to come get a can of artichokes, but the damn light is burnt out!" She scoffs, gesturing above them. Brooke chuckles under her breath,"Yeah and our phones come with flashlights for no reason.”Miki clicks her tongue at the sarcasm, "I'm grounded!" She folds her arms across her chest, pouting. Brooke wonders where the phone that Felix gave her a long time ago was. She comes to the conclusion Miki wouldn’t want her mom finding it."Luckily I'm here." Brooke boasts after a small chuckle and takes her phone out of her white clutch that’s hanging from her shoulder and sitting on her hip. Miki's face lights up, "That's so true!" and she takes a step forward to plant a kiss onto Brooke's lips. Brooke kisses back and laughs."So where are the artichokes?""I'll give you an artichoke." Miki says lowly, right over Brooke's lips and Brooke's face flushes as she smacks the other girl on the arm, groaning in annoyance- also from being flustered, "Miki!"Miki cackles and pulls the girl in for a deeper kiss, the light from the phone bounces around them as Brooke flails her arm to wrap around Miki. The girl grins against Brooke’s lips, their teeth bumping for a moment before she pulls back barely an inch.“Let’s just stay in here all night.” Miki all but whispers, staring into Brooke’s emerald eyes- which are dilated from the lack of light, also maybe from something else. Brooke smile, pecking another small kiss to the taller’s lips, who chases back for more.“What would be the fun in that?” Brooke eventually asks and Miki giggles in reply.☆ ˖⁺ ☽˖⁺It's around mid-eleven o'clock, the party is still buzzing. Most of the adults are now buzzed, maybe even fully drunk. They somehow keep it classy though, it's very eerie. The only parties Brooke attends are the one's Miki drags her to, and those are.... Insane. Everyone here keeps their cool, they keep their voices low and composed. Every now and then there will be a boisterous laugh from an older gentleman.Miki kept Brooke occupied in the pantry closet for a little while before once again disappearing with the few cans of artichoke she initially went to get. It was for a short amount of time, a good thirty minutes at most. She did return this time, however, Brooke found familiarity in her jerky movements and dilated eyes from the party they attended a few months prior, making her throw looks of concern towards Miki. She really wants to ask about it but doesn't exactly know when to shove a question like that in. A question that could ultimately turn into an argument and ruin the night. The red head is bickering with Jacinth to her right all while being pressed close against Brooke on her left."Miki, stop messing around with the glasses." Jacinth scolds seriously while he reaches out to shove Miki; who bumps into Brooke and they stumbles over a couple steps. Miki huffs out a laugh, bringing the Champaign glass to her lips and taking a generous swig. Brooke narrows her eyes, and takes the glass from her. Miki eyes her but doesn't comment when Brooke makes it look like she just wanted a sip. Brooke doesn't return the glass though."I wasn’t!" Miki tries to protest through her giggles, glancing around the room at all the stuffy adults with a sharp inhale of air.
"You most definitely were." Brooke says, "Like a moth drawn to the flame.""I built this!" Miki protests or brags, and Jacinth throws in a counter remark; “We built this." Miki waves him off and starts to talk over him."I'm not actually going to knock it over." Miki states with a stern facial expression- looking between the both, her lips twitch. "But if it were to fall over, I wouldn't be mad."Brooke and Jacinth roll their eyes in sync. Miki turns and tries to take her drink back from Brooke's grasp, but the other holds the drink up in the air and back out of Miki's reach; despite being the shorter of the two. Miki gives a toothy smile and presses her body again Brooke's in an attempt to grab it- though she would be able to grab it perfectly fine from where she was. Her hand’s trembling in the air."Miki!" Brooke laughs as Miki's hand nudges the glass, nearly causing Brooke to drop it and some of the drink sloshes out of the rim and down onto the floor, splattering everywhere from the height of the drop. Miki hollers a laugh but eventually gives up and stands up straight."Fine! I'll just get a new one." Miki turns to reach for another glass, but Brooke's empty hand locks around her forearm. Miki turns back to face Brooke, a little startled and wide eyed. Brooke can see a line or irritation or confusion start to crease between Miki's brows. "What?""Just... No." Green meets blue as Brooke stares into Miki's eyes. Brooke gives another stern look and a beat of silence stretches through them. Jacinth looks at the two of them with confusion at the sudden tension. Brooke silently speaks with her eyes, moving them to gesture to Miki's hand, which is twitching and trembling."It's fine." Is all Miki says, taking the hand Brooke was looking at and placing it on top of the other girl’s hand that's still gripping her arm. "I’m fine." Miki tries to reassure her girlfriend, emphasis on her words. Brooke sighs deeply,"What's going on?" Jacinth asks, "I feel like a third wheel all of a sudden." His words break their icy silence, and Miki turns to him with a sudden grin and laughs. Her words come out loud and obnoxious, "Of course not, Jacinth!"He gives her a look of confusion, and Miki's hand tightens on Brooke's and then she lets go. She opens her mouth around her smirk to continue speaking,"You were already the third wheel.""Hey!"Miki clumsily swipes another drink from the top, now down to the middle, of the pyramid. Her elbow knocks one and Jacinth frets to catch and steady it, Miki rolls her eyes. "What a priss." She says to the side at Brooke. Jacinth gasps, then mocks her and Miki throws out another insult; letting go of Brooke to get in his face, the two ending up in a little wrestling match, their drinks caught in the middle and making a mess. Brooke sighs inwardly and ignores them, she swallows down the nerves in her stomach with the rest of Miki's first glass that was still held in her hand. She glances around the room and finds it a little odd that she's barely seen Miki's parents, they were hosting the party weren't they? No ones even sparing the teenagers any glances, it's a little unnerving. You'd think seeing a group of under-aged kids hanging out by an alcohol pyramid that they'd at least be getting some disapproving glances. It's almost like they were invisible.Miki's arm slides around her shoulders which pulls her attention back to present time. Brooke snaps her head to the side to meet Miki's bloodshot eyes and sharp grin, "What'cha thinkin' about?"A lopsided grin starts to tug at the corner of Brooke's lips, "Nothing." Miki's grin widens as Brooke brings her arm to circle around Miki's waist. The redhead comes forward and plants a kiss to the corner of Brooke's lips. Brooke catches Camilla and Bentley coming from the kitchen out of the corner of her eye. Miki lets go of Brooke swiftly, but locks their hands together; her smile not leaving her face. Miki's eyes narrow though and the two watch the adults talk overly polite to some of the guests. There's some cooks coming from the kitchen, filling the table that the girls only noticed have been cleaned off. They're placing down dinner entrees, for once midnight hits."What time is it?" Miki asks, not having her phone on her. Their grandfather clock that is set to go off when twelve in the morning hits is in the other room. Brooke opens her purse and fishes her phone out, unlocking the screen, she tilts her head back towards Miki with a soft smile; "It's eleven fifty."Miki's face brightens, her lips tugging on an excited smirk. She can hardly contain herself as she brings the hand resting over Brooke's shoulder to play the other girl’s blue hair. Brooke's eyes soften at the gesture and Miki places a kiss on the temple of Brooke’s head, she keeps her lips there for a few seconds and then move's her mouth to hover over Brooke's ear."I have something planned." Miki whispers with a smile, which causes shivers to go down Brooke’s spine, and then pulls back to gauge her girlfriend’s expression. Brooke's eyes jump, then her face contorts into questioning confusion."It's a surprise. Just trust me."Famous last words, really. Brooke slowly nods, not wanting to have suspicions of Miki right now. Even though it’s hard… Miki’s surprises are never good. She convinces herself its a new years gift or something alike. Miki's smile goes tight lipped as she lets go of Brooke. Camilla and Bentley have finally joined the crowd, ready to start conversing with the people now that everyone has arrived. Miki's mother clinks her wine glass with a small serving spoon; the noise catching the room's attention and people quiet down, turning towards the two who stand in the front of the room by the entry to the kitchen. Some people come in from foyer, most likely moving in from the living room on the other side."May I have your attention?" Camilla boasts out, standing tall in her heels. There's a slight murmuring through out the room, "Thank you. I hope you all are enjoying yourself this fine evening. It’s so great to see everyone together like this."Miki rolls her eyes and crosses her arms, shifting on her feet. Brooke gives a nervous glance around the room, feeling small and out of place."As you know, it's been a big year for the company!" Bentley interjects, a good-man smile adorning his face, "To start with, we'd like to thank everyone here for that!"A few people cheer and some laugh."It wouldn't have been possible without any of you." Camilla says, nodding along with her husbands words. Brooke hears Miki scoff from beside her, then feels Miki nudge her elbow,"Time?" Miki says in a hushed tone, as her parents talk about more business stuff. It blurs in with the background as Brooke brings her phone up and checks again; then shifts it so Miki can look down at the screen.11:56 p.m"Perfect!" Miki exclaims while Brooke slides her phone back into the bag and freeing that hand up. Miki moves and grabs Brooke by the wrist, pulling her to the opposite corner of the room, over by the sofas sitting under the three big arched windows that look out into the front of the house. "Miki!" Brooke hisses under her breath, stumbling behind the girl who's pushing through people. They actually get a lot of disapproving glances at this."So we would like everyone to please enjoy this dinner and welcome another amazing work year to come!" Camilla finishes with a bright smile, Bentley wrapping his around his wife's waist. "Yes, please enjoy! We will be announcing the new recruits next Monday!" He lets everyone know and the couple smiles together. Bentley fixes his suit as most people flock to the newly brought out dishes; famished from their glasses of Champaign and non-filling delicate snacks.Miki swipes a fork from an empty plate on the glass coffee table and steps up onto the couch, the white couch, with her dirty shoes. She yanks Brooke, who is trying to protest, along with her jerky movements. They catch a few of the closer people's attention, other people were staring to notice the commotion. Brooke feels the heat of embarrassment color her face, her heart speeds in her chest from the now public attention. Her stomach spins in disdain, her brain swirls in confusion."Miki!" She hisses again, tugging her wrist back; trying to rip it from Miki's strong grasp. Miki tightens her grip, and for such a small girl she pulls Brooke up with a harsh yank; Brooke steps her shoe's onto the sofa reluctantly to avoid being injured or, worse, tripping and making a huge fool of herself in front of such fancy, rich, people. She glares at Miki."Wha are you doing?!" Brooke frantically whispers closer to Miki, trying to keep it discreet as people start to turn and stare up at them- their faces are more annoyed than interested. Brooke can see Camilla and Bentley talking to someone in the corner, their backs turned. The chance to stop the crazy girl is lost when Miki snags the empty glass out of Brooke's other hand, letting go of her while also ignoring her questions. Miki brings the glass in front of her with shaky hands and the fork up next to it. She taps it with more effort than needed, closer to the top."I also have an announcement I'd like to make." Miki's words come out fast, tumbling over one another as the girl stands high and mighty on the couch. She doesn’t seem to have a care in the world. Brooke, on the other hand, wants to shrink into herself and disappear from this situation entirely. Miki makes sure she hits the glass harder with the fork so that it breaks. It does so, the top part cracks off and falls to the marble floor beneath them. She's moving fast, wanting to make sure she gets this before the grandfather clock in the opposite room goes off and echoes through out the vast house. The glass shatters loudly, startling and shutting up anyone who wasn't paying attention.Camilla turns around quick at the sound, almost loosing her footing if it weren't for Bentley standing sturdy next to her. They both stare at their child with wide eyes, Camilla looks enraged. The group shuffles closer, very few with dinner now- shoveling food into their mouths and watching the teenagers as if they were one of the sit-coms on the television."What is the meaning of this?" Camilla voices out, politely strained. Her eyes read danger, and Miki just smirks. Some guests start whispering amongst themselves. Brooke feels a cold sweat cover her, looking between Miki and the crowd with a nervous expression."As you know, the new year is upon us in probably less than two minutes." Miki rushes out, bringing her hand up to gesture to everyone, "The company is doing so great!"It's sarcasm, but most don’t pick up on it and cheer drunkenly."Which is why, I will NOT be joining the team next spring."Many of the somewhat sober employees start looking around, trying to locate Camilla, whispering confusedly as Miki had been announced to join one of their higher teams a few months ago. She was supposed to start working, as one of the leads in the marketing department. No one had any idea she didn't want to, who wouldn't want to? She's born into wealth, born into a good job that will keep her stable if not for her whole life. Is she not ready? What's going on?"Miki! Get down from there, you don't know what-" Camilla tries to coax her daughter, but Miki talks over her, putting her hand up quickly. She needs to hurry."This isn't about that though.” There is no time for pauses, “I would like to introduce you guys to someone," Miki drops the broken glass onto the couch, it bounces and luckily rolls into the crease where they are standing rather than the floor. Miki grabs Brookes wrist again and pulls her to stand beside her instead of half behind. Brooke makes a noise in the back of her throat, a noise of protest."This is my Fiancee!" She announces to the entire room. Brooke's eyes bug out, much like many of the suit clad people standing under them. The clock in the other room dongs loudly, echoing the stone floor and ringing from one corner of the house to the other. Fiancee? Brooke’s head is spinning, flooding with so many thoughts she can’t keep up. They've only been dating for around a year and a half! What the hell is Miki talking about? The girl starts to get dizzy."Happy new year!" Miki yells out to the group, smirking proudly at her mother and father's shocked face. Well, Bentley is shocked- mouth parted and eyebrows raised. Camilla has a look of rage. Miki tops it off by turning to the side, wrapping an arm around her girlfriend, pulling her in for a harsh kiss to the lips, which she doesn’t respond to. Miki stays like that for a little longer than necessary and then releasing her. Brooke's in shock, her face red and body frozen due to nerves. Fiancée?"Miki Miya!" Her mother scolds out. The group of people snap out of their shock, or their applauding, turning toward the source of the voice, "What do you think you're doing?"Miki hops of the couch and helps Brooke step down, then links their arms together; starting to lead Brooke to the buffet of food, blatantly ignoring her mother. They receive a few confused looks and congratulations- but it all comes out more like a question than a celebration. It's clear people don't know what to say, but Miki has no care for these old people, they weren't the aimed audience. They pass by Jacinth, who tries to grab Miki by the shoulder but she shrugs his grasp off quickly and keeps moving. She hears him mutter, "Miki, what the actual fuck?" and she ignores that too, pushing past him. That's the exact reaction she enjoys, the reaction she wanted. Of course, it's not going to look good if it seems the head of the company's daughter is completely abandoning her 'duties' and running off to get hitched before she’s even an adult. She hopes she succeeded in embarrassing her parents.When Miki finally looks back at Brooke to ask if she's okay because the girl is moving so stiffly and slowly, she sees her head is bent down to hide behind her hair and can see the small tremor in Brooke's shoulders. Miki curses herself, swallowing roughly and then redirecting the course of her movements to go upstairs. She embarrassed Brooke too. Not her goal. Shit…The two can hear Camilla in the background, apologizing for the behavior and for the commotion: happy new years, please ignore this incident, enjoy the food, have a couple more drinks. Miki wants to laugh so hard, but she has a bigger issue at hand.Miki and Brooke are halfway up the stairs when the sound of angry clacking heels sound behind them, she looks over the railing and see's Camilla speeding after them in a hostile manner. Miki rushes up the rest of the stairs, careful not to cause Brooke to trip, and into the pajama lounge, the fork between the right or left hallway."Miki!" Her mother growls, rushing up the steps after the two girls. Her fury is extremely visible. "What in the world was that?!" Brooke rips her wrist out of Miki's grasp and takes many steps back behind Miki. She isn’t accustomed to family arguments, she grew up with only her mom- and her mom wasn’t the type of woman to argue with people."What were you thinking?! Fiancée?! What the hell is that about?" Camilla demands, throwing her hands up in exasperation- in confusion. Miki crosses her arms over her chest, scoffing and looking away."I was introducing Brooke as my girlfriend to you, I don't see what the big issue is." Miki down plays it, bringing one hand up to fiddle with her curled hair; almost being dismissive. It does what it’s supposed to and successfully pisses her mom off."No, that was you embarrassing me on one of the most IMPORTANT nights of the year." Camilla steps forwards, looming over her daughter; a few inches taller than normal because of her fancy heels. Miki gapes for a second before glaring daggers,"What the hell is embarrassing? Is it because I'm dating a woman? Is that embarrassing?" Miki throws her arms to the side, her fists curled as she scowls at her mother. Then she throws out a voice of accusation, "Are you homophobic?"Camilla blanches and her face turns red as she brings her hand up, smacking Miki square on the cheek,
"What the hell has gotten into you lately? I'm not homophobic! You're disgracing the company, Miki! I did not raise you to be this way!”Miki's hand is up at her cheek, cradling the now reddening skin and Brooke's eyes widen as she brings her own hands up to cover her mouth, shrinking in on herself."Stop acting like this! I'm so tired this. It's not about homophobia. You getting engaged at the age of sixteen.” Camilla scoffs as if to say, ‘oh please.’,“You're not even an adult yet! It looks awful on the company!" Her mother scowls, her breathing coming out faster, "It looks awful on me and your father! What the hell are you thinking, wasting your perfectly good potential on some girl? None the less a Kelly. Everybody knows the Kelly's are trailer trash!"The last name of Brooke is said to be almost as if it’s a slur and Brooke freezes behind Miki, her body going rigid. She stares at Miki's back, completely losing focus on the argument they’re having around her, it sounds muffled now. Feelings of her being out of place claw at her skin."What the fuck?!” Miki yells, her hand still cradling her face, "That's far from the truth!""Is it?" Camilla scoffs, "Sure." She rolls her eyes too, regaining her posture, "You are NOT marrying her, call of the engagement. Your father and I will never allow it."Miki lets out a frustrated growl through her teeth, "I LIED! Okay?! I was just over exaggerating, joking around and you all are idiots to fall for it so easily! We aren't engaged-" Miki pauses, a haughty smirk pulling onto her face, "At least not yet! You don't own me! You're hardly even a mother to me!"Camilla's mouth is gaped slightly, about to reply before someone else does, "Miki Mallory Miya! That is enough!" Her father's booming voice cuts in between them as he rounds up the last steps of the stairs."I don't know what's gotten into you, kid, but we've just about had it up to here. You will NOT talk to your mother this way. We provide a lot for you, which is way more than we should be doing at this point."Miki scoffs, folding her arms over herself and looks down at the ground. Bentley glares, walking forward and taking grab of Miki's arm, she hisses at him and tries to yank it away from him; whining out protests as he starts to pull her down the hall that goes to the right from where they are standing."That's it, young lady, you're going to your room. As for you, Brooke? Just go home."Brooke tenses on her name, bringing her head up to look at the two- only to see Miki looking back at her with a worry riddled expression. She’s flailing and she's pushing at her father's grasp; yelling out at him to let her go. Camilla is staring at Brooke with judgmental, narrow eyes, her arms are crossed. Brooke feels a surge of unsettlement go through her body and swallows hard, feeling as though she can't move."Look what you're doing to Miki." Camilla says as she moves in closer to Brooke, who only cringes back, "She's going off the wall, and I know it’s because of you. She has always been a problem child, but ever since you came into her life it's been worse."All she knows about Camilla is her calm and composed, maybe snobby, exterior. She’s never heard the woman talk like this- she feels anxious at the words being thrown at her. Her heart is thumping loudly in her ears, dread pooling in her stomach and making her throat constrict tightly."Get out of here, and don't come back. Stay the hell away from my daughter. You come near this family again and we'll make your life hell." Camilla chuckles, "I know a few things your mother wouldn't want brought up again and used against her. So lets keep this professional, shouldn’t we?"Brooke goes even more rigid, she was being blackmailed. She didn't know what the hell Camilla was talking about, but whatever it was; she doesn't want any trouble for her mother. Karen Kelly has enough on her shoulders.“If you don’t listen to me then you might as well consider you and your mother homeless.” Camilla spits out, and then walks away. Brooke watches as she tries to compose herself before re-entering the party downstairs. Miki’s mom is nasty and Brooke gets a little more of an understanding of just why Miki never wants her to come over.Brooke just stands there, utterly frozen. She couldn’t even just tell you what happened if you asked, but she knows it all just went to shit.Eventually she finds the means to move and stumbles down the steps towards the big front door, she opens it and slides out quickly, shakily moving off the porch and down the front path through all the grass lamp lights. Her body is trembling, what the hell was that?All she knows is that Miki’s parents hate her now, and she didn’t even do anything wrong and it’s the worst feeling ever. Suddenly, Brooke wishes she never came here tonight.“Brooke!”As soon as Miki’s voice sounds out she stops in her tracks and just freezes, taking a second to turn around with her eyes scanning everywhere around the yard only to see Miki hanging out of one of the windows on the second story.“I’m sorry!” Miki shouts out through the cup of her hands that are around her mouth, her voice strained and cracking. Brooke clenches her jaw and turns around, “Hey!” Miki tries again, but Brooke just moves towards the gate quickly; opening the squeaking metal and closing it behind her. Miki yells out one more time, a curse following behind the attempt, but then there's nothing. Brooke feels tears well up in her eyes as she pulls out her phone to call her mom; freezing on the call button and eventually sighing and putting her phone away.She’ll just walk home, even if it is kind of a long distance.⁺ ☽ ˖ ⁺ ˖-The girl dodges Miki’s calls and texts for the following week. She feels so mad and so scared at the same time. One hand she’s scared of Camilla, on the other she’s so pissed off Miki would use them getting engaged to get at her parents. As if that was some joke.The job at the cafe she had applied for had called her right before their winter break ended, bringing Brooke good news, so the seventeen year old has been busying herself with work- completely throwing herself in so hard to the point where eventually she’ll burn herself out. She can’t bring herself to care. Winter break ended causing school to start up and it’s a lot easier to get to school now that she’s back staying with her mother in Downersgrove. Her mother wouldn’t let her go on homeschooling, so she had to make the twenty almost thirty minute drive back into town each day of the week by bus- for school, while she was with her aunt. She had been losing sleep because of it, for a whole school year.It’s not that she stopped staying at her aunt’s because of Miki. The only reason she was staying there was for the girl, after all. Just so that she could be closer to Miki- even though Miki still went home everyday. Brooke doesn’t know how her family did the almost two hour drive every day of the week for Miki, though she knows Miki normally took the bus.It was just bad timing. The shit show on New Years and then her getting the job right after, bad concoction of events. She just can’t stay in Morris while working. So she went back home to her mom. She was happy to be home.Her cousin, Grace, had called Brooke one day and told her about how Miki had apparently gone over to her aunt’s house after school looking around for her. It made Brooke upset, but she just doesn’t know what to say. She doesn’t know what to do.Camilla Miya’s words keep ringing out in her head, bounding her to something she doesn’t want to be bound to. Brooklyn Kelly feels trapped and she doesn’t know what to do about it.☆ ˖⁺ ☽˖⁺
Text
Text
Text
Text
Text