until the dawn

five

"Absolutely fucking not."

I scoff and look at Theodore with my eyes widened and my mouth agape. No ways in hell did those words just leave his mouth.

"What the fuck is up your ass? You are a such a party-pooping little butthead, do you know that?" I ask in a very annoyed tone, I was over his bitchy little attitude, only I was allowed to be like that.

Layla and Jade erupt in the laughter from the backseat, while Theodore just looks at me weirdly as if I'm speaking a foreign language.

"Did you just call me a butthead?" He asks lightly chuckling, while stopping the car at a red light. "Yeah and I'll fucking do it again if you speak to me like that." I state confidently,

After Layla calmed down from her laughter that seemed to go on for eternity, she lightly taps my shoulder, causing me to flip my head to the back seat once more. "Stella wanna come to mine and hang out with Jade and I?" She asks, flashing me her puppy eyes. "Well my dear Layla your cute little face is so convincing, I have to say yes!" I exclaim happily, pinching her cheeks like every grandmother whenever they see you. 

"Fuck me..." Theodore mumbles, looking at the amount of cars stuck in a traffic jam. Cars we packed bumper to bumper. It looked like there was another accident on the highway, classic Friday afternoon.

-

"Welcome to my humble abode." Layla states, her arms spread out wide, with a proud smile on her face showing us her house. We were stuck in the traffic for about 30 minutes, not too bad honestly.

"I know it's not much, but it's mine and I'm so fucking proud about how amazingly I decorated it." She giggles. She lived on the same property as Theodore, just not in the same house, in the guest house that was facing their gigantic pool. 

Let me tell you how fucking gorgeous and big this house is. It has such a cute Scandinavian look on the outside, and an alluring interior. It was a wide double story house painted white with a flint colored roof. They had 2 garages, and a huge ass pool. Even the guest house Layla lived in was huge. I mean first of all how many houses have a fucking guest house, and 2 bedrooms in that guest house? 

"I know it's not much." I mock, imitating her tone. While sitting down next to Jade in her living room. "Oh guys please take your shoes off. I don't want the shit at the bottom of your shoes ruining my carpet." She asks gently, but in a slight demanding tone.

I look at Jade with big eyes and we both giggle, hoping Layla doesn't hear us. I follow Jade by taking off my shoes, slightly struggling to untie my red dirty converse. God they were so worn out but I absolutely love them. We place our shoes on a rack next to a small fiddle leaf fig plant, these were both situated conveniently close to the door. 

Layla had run off to her bedroom quickly, and now it was just Jade and I sitting in silence as we waited for Layla to finish whatever she was doing. "So how've you been Estrella? I've been hearing whispers around the school about what happened to your sister after you started missing classes more." She beamed gently, knowing this was a difficult topic for me to talk about, or even think about for that matter.

I gulp, already second-guessing if I should've come here. Everyone knew what happened to Carmen unfortunately, the news spread like wild fire, making the whole situation worse, and making me want to fucking obliterate off the face of the Earth even more.

She places her hands on mine and says, "I know how close you were with her. I'm sorry and I know that must've hit hard for you, and-and," She stutters while looking down at our hands. "I don't know, I guess I just want you to know that it'll get better, and you're still the cool badass girl from my childhood." She chuckles throwing her head back, lightening the mood.