Fictober 2019

"Can you stay?" - Cazzie

Summary: After having a rough night, Casey tries to comfort Izzie. Turns out she wasn't doing such a terrible job at it as she thought.

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'I can't believe that woman!' Izzie exclaimed angrily as she entered the student lounge room.

'Yeah, no. That woman is such a bitch,' Casey Gardner agreed wholeheartedly from her seat even though she didn't have a clue what was going on. 'Quick question, who are we talking about?'

'My mother if she can even be called that,' the Clayton Prep student filled her in. 'She brought home another one of her douchebag-boyfriends and of course, they started arguing the second they walked in. Their shouting alerted one of our neighbours and they called the cops on us. Now, they're looking into my mom to see if she's fit to parent us and until then we have to stay with our grandma,' she explained. 'Don't get me wrong, I love my grandmother but she won't be able to keep us long-term, and if my mom is deemed unfit to care for us, which wouldn't surprise me at all, then we'll be placed in the system.' 

'Oh, god. That's awful,' the brunette sat up quickly. 'I'm so sorry that's happening to you, Izzie.'

'Thanks. There's nothing we can do about it,' the athlete sighed as she plopped down in the couch next to her best friend. 'So I'd rather not talk about it anymore.' 

'Sure, we can do whatever you want,' Casey concurred. 'We could ditch school and get some ice cream?'

Izzie raised an eyebrow at her proposition and glanced at her amusedly before the former Newton High student shook her head understandingly. 'No, we cannot do that unless we want to get suspended and put our whole future in jeopardy. Shit, sorry, I'm bad at this. Do you want me to leave? Because I can totally find another place to hang out for the next five minutes,' she offered and got ready to stand up. 

The other track runner grabbed her wrist and pulled her back with a soft laugh. 'You're doing fine,' she promised. 'Actually, can you stay? We can just sit here and talk until the bell rings. It will keep my mind off of certain things.' 

The record breaker smiled, a little surprised by the simplicity of the request. 'I think I can manage a conversation with you, Iz.'