"𝙷𝙴𝚁𝙴'𝚂 𝚃𝙾 𝙶𝙾𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝙵𝚄𝙻𝙻 𝙺𝙾𝙾𝙺"
"Man, we really can't catch a break," JJ murmured, resting a hand on Tate's leg and blowing her smoke away from him.
Tate laughed softly. "Yeah, ever since I started hanging out with you guys."
"So t...
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"you told me victory's sweet even deep in the cheap seats / and you don't judge me / that's not your style / but I won't see you for a little while / and there's no worries, oh lord, who's got time / are these changes gonna fill your mind?"
~
Tate and Kiara leaned against the outside wall of the school side by side, Tate smoking a cigarette, Kiara watching her with mild disapproval. "First of all-"
"Don't start." Tate held up a hand. "I've got a test in Miss Kit's class sixth period and I need to pre-relax."
Kiara shook her head and pursed her lips, but she was secretly glad she and Tate were on speaking terms again. There'd been no formal makeup, no heart to heart, but when Kiara stopped at the Chateua that morning to give JJ and Tate a ride to school, she'd brought a bagel from Tate's favorite breakfast place and Tate had given her the answers to last night's math homework and things were solid between them again. "First of all," she said again, "-that's horrible for the environment."
"Noted."
"And bad for your lungs."
"Noted."
"And you're gonna get caught."
Tate snorted. "Nah, I never get caught."
Kiara sighed and pulled her hair up into a ponytail. "I give it five minutes." Then, she turned to Tate with a solemn expression. "Hey, my parents have been wondering where you've been." Her voice was suddenly serious.
Tate didn't look at her. "Yeah, I'll stop by at some point."
"You know you still technically work for my dad, right? And you're supposed to be living with us?"
She sighed and let her head fall back against the brick wall. "Kie, I know, okay?" she groaned. "I'll get to it. I just don't feel like answering your dad's questions right now and-"
"He's worried," Kiara interrupted. "He's not gonna ask you a bunch of questions, he just wants to know you're okay. You worked there for years, you can't just ghost him."
"I'm not!"
Just then, the door of the school swung open and a short woman with an impossibly tight bun in her hair, her nose stuck in the air, sniffing hard at the air. She rounded on Tate. "Are you... smoking... on school grounds?" she said, her voice dangerously low.
"It's my lunch break," Tate said calmly, bending down to put the cigarette out on the concrete. Her expression softened. "But yeah, sorry, Miss Kit. Won't happen again."
"I'm going to have to write this up, Johnson, you know that," said Miss Kit. "I wanna see you in my classroom after school today."
