the sleepless elite

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Notes 1: the story behind Darling's break-up sadness and the misery that follows the Charming siblings are written in the origin story 99 cent dreams so check part one and part two out before reading this.

Notes 2: In collaboration with Jezmaiya, which is no surprise, this bitch keeps coming to my room and telling me to write the weirdest shit. let grandma rest!

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the sleepless elite

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chapter one

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I was scared of pretty girls and starting conversations

– Vance Joy, Riptide

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The rickety air conditioner above the garage whirls and sputters warm air into Chase Redford's open door garage. Sweat rolls down his forehead and neck as he tries to endure the heat. It's the type of warm day that deserves to be cooled down by ice-cream and water gun fights and a trip to the ice rink. Not spent in his garage, working on motorcycles.

And if anyone asked, yes, Chase did have to do this. Work on bikes that is. Because, he's twenty-one and it is his official job. And he loves loves loves it to death. Sometimes he can't believe he's getting paid to work his dream job.

But, still, it was the middle of Summer, and he was spending it working!

Riptide by Vance Joy plays on the old radio that either plays songs from the 2010s or static. Chase finds himself bobbing along to the old thing (it's still a good song!) as he scrolls through his Instagram, butt planted on his own bike, the Red Knight. He was looking through pictures under the motorcycle hashtag when something caught his eye.

"Hm," A hum escapes his lips, he raises a dark brow and pauses then squints at the picture that caught his attention.

Surely it must be a trick of the light. He has been growing more and more exhausted since working – having a growing list of motorcycles to test out.

If he didn't have grease on his hands, he would have rubbed his eyes. So instead of blinding himself, Chase gives himself a moment before clicking on the said picture.

Low and behold, it wasn't a trick of the light. It was the real deal; the White Knight, a rare limited-edition motorcycle.

"Woah," Chase mutters under his breath, impressed, as he zooms in, eyeing the details. Under the picture, there read three sparkly emojis, no captions. The owner of the sweet ride was a person with the username no-man's-land.

One click in and Chase finds himself instantly blown away. no-man's-land's gallery was filled with one thing and one thing only, pictures of the White Knight in different angles with different beautiful sceneries in the background, not a person in sight.

An urge to reach out to this person surges through Chase. A prod in his chest to say something. Anything. Be geeky and ask if they could swap tips and tricks. But Chase holds back. He can't just go randomly messaging people he didn't know! In his mind, that would be incredibly weird. He needed a few days to mull things over at least. The least he could do was ...

He hits the FOLLOW button not even three seconds later.

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Notes 3: I ship both Darling x Apple and Darling x Chase. But, first and foremost, I am an angst nut so that triumphs over any ship any day. I honestly hate this chapter but I don't know how else to word this so I'll just post it and work on it as I go along.

– 6 March 2018