Everyone has baggage, but it's certainly not Selina's job to carry it for them.
*****
Radio talk show host Selina Locke was just looking for a peaceful summer in sunny Barcelona, but...
( — aretha franklin; american singer, songwriter, actress, and pianist. )
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THE FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS IS TO HEAD BACK HOME AND MOPE.
Selina feels downright awful, not to mention mortified, as she slides to the driver's seat of her car and buckles up her seat-belt (after all, safety comes first, even before allowing yourself to complain about how everyone is just awful). After clenching her fingers tight around the steering wheel and taking a deep breath (or, like, ten or fifteen), she starts the engine.
It's not like the car is old per se or, as Winona would have put it, a 'slowly dying piece of junk'. She'll be damned, but she loves the stupid thing; after all, it's still a BMW 328i, in spite of its age, and gets tons of compliments all the time. Besides, it has never given her any trouble, and gets the job done perfectly. What else could a girl want from her car?
One of the surveillance cameras set around the front gate of the mansion turns until it's facing Selina and her car directly. She knows they can't see her like she can see them, as her windows are tinted and prevent anyone from peeking inside whenever they're rolled up, but she still glares at the lens. A bright red light threateningly flashes in response, and Selina shows it her middle finger before driving off.
It's not the most mature thing to do and she knows it, but she's furious—furious at Cory, furious at herself—and most people aren't always self-aware when their emotions get the best of them.
She speeds across the streets, the palm trees turning into green and brown blurs and fading into the background, and turns on the radio to try and find a distraction. Cory's words have made their way underneath her skin, getting lodged in the gaps between her bones, and, if she didn't know herself better, she'd think they were what held her body together.
Unfortunately, not even the radio station she's listening to seems to be on her side this afternoon. The host announces they're playing a Summersteen song next, which she's definitely not in the mood to listen to, and Selina rushes to change the channel before she does something stupid.
Realistically, she knows what happened back there isn't Remus' fault or Cameron's. Cory is entitled to his opinion and that's fine, really, and there's no possible way every single person in the planet will like her, but she wishes she knew why he dislikes her this much. It's not personal—or so she thinks—but she can't let it drag her down. There's enough negativity in the world as it is.
Selina really, really needs to go back to the dating scene. Not because she particularly wants to or because she has been caught in the wave of wedding fever, but because being so hung up on a guy the entire world is watching closely is doing her no good.
