TEENAGE KICKS

EPILOGUE: DANIEL?

BEING BACK IN Encino Valley, Los Angeles was weird after not stepping foot in it for 10 long years. 10 long years since Aurora Lawrence had last said goodbye to West Valley High and hello to Harvard University.

Nothing could describe what she was feeling except for 緊張感. Nervousness. The girl had enough time on her hands to learn a couple of languages since being an Orthopedic Surgeon had to do with many different people that only spoke a select few languages.

Why is Aurora back in Los Angeles, may you ask? Well, with the news of Cindy fucking Kettering having a baby shower popping up in her messages after she had texted the brunette, Rory just had to fly back in to celebrate.

She hadn't seen the now pregnant girl in at least 2 years, not since Cindy had visited her at the Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. And she was thrilled to hear about the redhead and her husband of 3 years who had been trying for a baby, finally get what they wished for.

So here she was, staring out the window of a cab as she made her way over to her best friend's house in none other than Encino Hills. Cindy had married a rich man who was the president of some oil and gas company down in California, so she had been bumped up a few classes.

"Yo lady" Aurora was snapped out of her daydreaming, letting her eyes flutter tiredly over to the annoyed taxi driver "you gonna get out, or just stare out the window?"

Quickly rushing to pull a $10 tip out of her purse, (authors note: I'm not American, so I have no idea how much you guys are supposed to tip) she leaned over to slap it into his awaiting hands before climbing out of the car and rounding to the back. Seeing that the man wasn't going to be any help, the Lawrence girl lifted her suitcase out of the trunk and slammed the boot closed.

Before she could even say thank you, the taxi was already halfway down the road in a rush to pick up some other moneymakers needing a ride. The sound of her name being called made the girl whip around and just in time to catch the body being flung at her.

"RORY! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE FINALLY HERE!"

Cindy Kettering, or now Cynthia Robertson, was currently squeezing the living daylights out of a wheezing Aurora who couldn't breathe.

Trying to take in a deep breath, she tapped the weeping girl on the shoulder "Cindy...Cindy...I-I can't...Breathe"

"Sorry" she apologized, wiping at the dripping mascara beneath her eyes and leaving nice black smudges in the creases "I just haven't seen you in so long, and being pregnant has made me moody and apparently...stronger"

"I can see that" Rory laughed lightly, leaning backward to crack her stiff back "now, how about you show me inside?"

Cindy nodded enthusiastically, quite a drastic change from her crying form a few moments ago. So, pulling up the handle of her suitcase, Rory rushed after the girl.

The inside of the house was much more grande than the outside, and that was saying something. It looked as if an 1800s interior decorator vomited all over the interior. It wasn't much of a surprise to her anyway, Cindy had always been a history buff (probably the only class she actually enjoyed all throughout high school).

She was led up the wide staircase to the second floor where at least 6 bedrooms could be seen, and she was stuck with a room the size of her own living room. Turning quickly to face the grinning redhead, Rory shook her head with wide eyes "Jesus Christ Cindy, this room is humongous...I'm feeling a little underdressed right now"

"Only the best for my greatest and bestest friend in the whole wide world." Cindy must've been on pain meds because she seemed a little out of the loop with her mood swings and middle school vocabulary. "Now, let's get you settled"

Cindy made her way for the door before turning around to face the girl again "and remember, breakfast is served at 8:00, baby shower is at 10:00"

Just as she disappeared behind the door, Rory caught a glimpse of her teasing smile. Like as if she knew something that the brunette didn't, and Aurora didn't like that one bit.

★ ☆

AT EIGHT O'CLOCK on the dot the next morning, Aurora, Cindy, her husband Elijah, and their close family that couldn't find a hotel to stay at, were seated at a large dining table that was filled to the brim with food. Pastries, sandwiches, sparkling grape juice (Cindy couldn't have alcohol, she was pregnant-plus, it was eight in the morning), and other delicacies were the only thing the girl could currently see and she didn't mind one bit.

"Elijah, darling, can you please pass the orange juice?" Cindy lay her hand on his arm, looking over at him with such love that Rory almost wanted to gag. Sure, she was happy for the two, but did they really need to shove their lovey-dovey relationship in her single ass face?

Reaching over to pick up the jug, he poured it into her glass and set it back down. She could clearly see that most of the family didn't seem to notice the tiny little glances and touches they would exchange, probably too distracted with their own lovers and eating their breakfast.

She hadn't felt that way since high school with...you know who. Ahhh, that failed relationship definitely topped all the others. The last fight they had was still pretty fresh in her mind. All those nightmares she had seemed to say "this is your fault" and "fuck you!"

Aurora could probably recite word for word what they had said to each other, and her nightmares were true...it was her fault.

"Come on, Aurora!" an angry Daniel snapped, rubbing his face tiredly at the fuming girl whose temper was still short after a year of them dating "just calm down so we can talk about it!"

"Talk about what? What is there to talk about, Daniel!" she yelled back "I can't keep living like this, I can't keep flying back and forth from Boston to here!"

"Then I'll fly over, we can make this work!"

Shaking her head with a bone-chilling laugh, a 19-year-old Rory Lawrence pointed a finger at her long-distance boyfriend "oh shut up with that bullshit. What happened to calling every day? I had to sit at home and wait for a week, a bloody fucking week, for you to call!"

"You could've called first, why's it always my fault?!" Daniel shouted exhaustedly, seeming to be tired of the girls screaming.

"You know I don't want to seem clingy, with that big job offer you got...I'm just...I just..."

"You what!" he threw his hands up in the air "Jesus Aurora, I can't be at fault for your own insecurities, someday you're gonna have to grow up!"

"I know-"

"No, you don't know. We've been arguing for the past 2 weeks straight about the same old fucking thing" he suddenly seemed to grow quieter "when will it all just end, when will things go back to how they used to be?"

"See, that's your problem" her eyes turned to slits as she took a daring step forward to come eye to eye with her soon to be ex-boyfriend "you want things to go back to the way things used to be so bad...but newsflash sweetheart, we've all changed and-"

"And what?"

"And, I just think that maybe-maybe, we just aren't compatible anymore" tears sprung to her eyes, trying to choke down a violent sob "it's just like you said, we've been arguing over the same shit for 2 weeks, and that's not what couples do"

Daniel took a step back, feeling as though he had just been punched in the gut a relentless amount of times (but this one hurt more than his karate matches) "so that's it huh, you're just gonna give up, give up on us?"

Rory didn't say anything, hugging her arms closer to her waist as if to appear smaller. Danny took the clear message she had given him, he could already see her building up her walls again in an effort to shut him out.

"Guess this is goodbye then, Rory"

A hand tugging at her sleeve made the grown woman jump out of her thoughts, flickering her eyes over to an ecstatic 4-year-old who was pointing towards the maple syrup. Rory laughed and handed it over to the young girl that immediately drenched her pancakes in it.

"May I-uh, be excused?" Aurora's voice came out a little weaker than she intended it to, but luckily, Cindy and everyone else didn't seem to notice.

Her best friend nodded with a wide smile making her stand up, bid goodbye, and hurry upstairs to her temporary room.

★ ☆

THE LONG AWAITED time had finally come, and Cindy's baby shower was in motion. The last-minute preparations were hectic, with everyone basically running around just before the other guests started to arrive and enter the back garden.

Cindy had always wanted an April baby shower since it was spring and apparently, she wanted a straight-out-of-a-book experience for when she found out the gender of her soon to be born child.

Rory was currently sat on the garden swinging bench, braiding flowers into some little girl's hair, the same way she had done to 2 others. She was wondering if maybe she should've become a hairstylist instead of an Orthopedriatic surgeon, that would've surely pissed off her parents.

It was honestly either become a lawyer or a surgeon, and everyone knows that Rory doesn't act rationally when it comes to arguing. Just take a look at how all her relationships ended...they couldn't handle her hothead and left (or she left them).

"There you go, sweetheart" she pat the 8-year-old on her shoulder, watching as she lightly touched her hair, grinned, and ran off to show her mother. A tap on her shoulder made her crane her neck to catch a glimpse of a familiar face.

Gasping slightly, Rory stood up and brought the woman that had raised her into a hug. Sure, they weren't that close and had had their fair share of a few fights, but the two were still family and loved each other "mom"

"Hi, sweetie"

Slowly seating herself back down, her mom took the open seat where the 8-year-old had last sat and held onto her daughter's left hand. The woman took in the girl's features, slightly jealous at how youthful she still looked at 29 years old.

The two had a lot to catch up on, and before they knew it, the gender reveal was being announced as Cindy ushered for everyone to get closer.

Rory hadn't felt this content with life for a while, bathing in the feeling of the sun on her fair skin and the way the wind brought about a cool breeze. Everything was just...perfect. Maybe a little too perfect, but she couldn't care enough at that moment.

Being back in Los Angeles had brought many memories back into focus that she wished it didn't, but like the balloon, her best friend was about to pop, Rory was going to let it all out and start anew.

It seemed to be in slow motion that the countdown started, the hundred or so people chanting those 10 daunting numbers that made the girl squeeze her hands in anticipation.

The sound of her name from behind her was a mere echo amongst the now millions of voices in her head, all jumbled up in a confusing mess. She couldn't turn around slow enough. Maybe if she continued to watch Cindy, they would go away and she could avoid speaking to them for the rest of her life.

But God seemed to have other plans as the balloon finally popped and Aurora Lawrence finally turned around.

"Hi Danny"