001,  the beginning of it all

          ADELAIDE SAT on top of the wooden bench, waiting to resume her conversation once her bestfriend was off the phone.

          "That was Sam." Wes spoke as he hung up the phone. Adelaide raised her eyebrows slightly.

          "She's coming?" Amber questioned. "Yeah." Wes responded. Amber sighed, "Watch everything get worse."

          Wes failed to respond as Chad waltzed over to the group, taking a seat beside Adelaide. "Adel, accept my find my family request."

        Adelaide looked at him confusedly, squinting her eyes slightly. "How about no?" Chad frowned. "Why? It's a smart idea with a killer on the loose, I always know where you are, you always know where I am."

        "Aw, you can stalk me like a jealous boyfriend." Adelaide joked. "And you can stalk me like a jealous boyfriend." Chad smiled.

          Amber's jaw ticked as she spoke, "If this is what you guys are like before your even dating, I don't want to know how it's going to be."

        "Don't do it, Adel. There's a psycho out there. You make yourself harder to find. Delete social media, tape over your phone camera, disable GPS."

         "Ah, yes, thank you very much, Edward Snowden." Adelaide sarcastically put her thumbs in Wes' direction, which caused him to flip her off.

         "Actually, your mother just interrogated me about Tara's attempted murder, which was very fun."

          "I'm sure she's asking everybody, I mean, Ghostface is back."

         "The press still isn't saying ghostface." Mindy chimed in.

          "My mom doesn't want to cause a panic." Wes reasoned. "It'll get out by the second or third killing."

          "Jesus, Mindy, there wasn't a first killing, Tara's alive." Amber spoke, disgust laced in her voice. "That means she could still die."

        "What the fuck?!" Amber spat. "Or the killer could come back for her." Mindy continued.

        "Fuck, Mindy, come on!" Chad sighed. "I'm telling you, arm up, okay? Pepper spray, check Taser, check."

           Adelaide opened her mouth to make a joke, but her face turned into one of slight fear when she spotted a familiar man staring right at her.

          "Oh, shit. Is that... Vince?"

           "Wait. The creep you hooked up with last summer?" Chad questioned. "Yeah, he worked with me and Tara."

          "He worked with Tara?" Amber asked, but didn't get a response.

             "He's been stalking my instagram the last couple weeks, posting the creepiest shit." Mindy snapped a picture of the man, who creepily waved.

           "Probably time to introduce him to Hobbs and Shaw." Chad taunted, flexing his muscles.

          Adelaide grabbed his bicep, pulling him so he turned to face her. "Maybe not the best idea to incite violence right in front of the sheriff."

            Vince nodded in Adelaide's direction one last time before getting ready to leave. "Looks like he's leaving."

            "Thanks anyway, Chad." Adelaide kissed the boys cheek, making his smile grow larger and a small blush to cast on his face. Amber rolled her eyes, clenching her jaw before her eyes trailed down to Chad's arm. "Tara says she fought back hard. You've got bruises."

          "From football practice." Chad dumbfounded. "Oh, sure." Amber mumbled.

          "Tara's awake. She just texted." Wes voiced, turning off his phone. "I'm going to the hospital, you guys coming?"

        Everyone agreed as they got up off of the bench, walking towards the parking lot.

          "You wanna ride with me, A?" Amber questioned the brunette.

          "Sure."

✧˖*°࿐

         Adelaide had her head rested on Chad's shoulder as they sat in Tara's hospital room.

        At the sound of a door opening, Adelaide lifted her head up, spotting Sam and a man she didn't know.

          Everyone stood up in sync, getting ready to greet the familiar girl.

          "How are you feeling?" Sam questioned Tara, who had a shocked expression on her face. "You came."

           "Of course I came. This is my boyfriend, Richie." Sam introduced the curly haired man. "It's so nice to meet you. I'm so sorry if i'm intruding."

          Tara simply gave him a small wave, "Nice to meet you to."

          Sam came over to the other teenagers, firstly pulling Adelaide in for a hug, before copying the actions with everyone else.

            "Look at your hair. I like it." Sam complicated Wes' new hair, making him smile.

            "These are Chad and Mindy, the twins. And then Wes and Adelaide. I use to babysit them all." Sam explained to Richie, who nodded in response.

             "Which is always how I like to be introduced." Wes joked, causing Amber to chuckle. This drew attention to the brunette as Sam looked over to her. A tense and awkward wave immediately came over the group.

          "And Amber, hey." Sam awkwardly greeted. "Hi, nice to see you."

            "Hi, I'm Richie." Richie gave Amber a small smile. "Hi."

            "Where's mom?" Sam questioned. "She's stuck at a conference in London. She called me earlier."

            "Yeah, for all of ten minutes." Amber commented.

            "Uh, look, guys, Tara's really tired. Maybe we should just give her some space." A mumbled agreement was shared as the group left the room —
minus Sam, who Tara had asked to stay.

✧˖*°࿐

          Since the group knew Tara and Sam had a lot of catching up to do, they decided to get to their favourite bar — which they wasn't yet legal to drink at, but it was still fun.

            "Sam is so cool." Chad commented.

          "Yeah, you only say that because she let you wear Pokémon onesies to bed for a year." Mindy snorted

          "That's true. That's a true statement". Chad confirmed, causing the group to laugh.

           "Sam is not cool. Her dad left her mom, walks right out when Tara's eight, Sam's thirteen. Sam started acting out, getting in trouble with the cops. And then, on Sam's eighteenth birthday, she leaves. Ghosts them all, Maybe Sam's changed. I just don't want to see Tara hurt again."

          "Thanks for the recap." Adelaide mumbled, only loud enough for Chad to hear. He sent her a small grin in response.

            "So what, you're protecting Tara from her own sister now?" Wes asked. "Well someone has to."

            Adelaide scoffed. "Okay, so no guys are good enough for her and now her family's off-limits, too?" Wes snarked.

            "Mm, motive. If I can't have her, no one can." Mindy looked towards Wes. "What?"

           "We all know you have a crush on Tara." Mindy spoke. "Okay, come on, Mindy."

            "But we're all suspects." The group glanced around at one another.

             "Yo, Adel. You want a real drink?" Adelaide cringed at the familiar voice, as she turned to face Vance. "Or are you happy sitting at this kids' table?"

            Chad's jaw ticked as he spoke. "Alright, listen up, uglier Michael Myers, it was a summer fling. It meant nothing." Chad got up in the smaller man's face.

             "Was I talking to you?" Vance rhetorically questioned, "I don't fucking care who you're talking to."

             Vance looked over Chad's shoulder towards Adelaide. "Adel, let's go."

            "Don't you fucking talk to her! I don't want to fucking hear your goddamn voice!" Chad exploded.

              Adelaide watched in horror as Vance pulled out a flip knife. "Shut your fucking mouth. You better shut the fuck up."

          Chad remained quiet, but he didn't back down. "Hey! Get out of here or i'm calling the cops!" The bartender shouted.

             Nobody backed down for a moment, until Chad pointed towards the exit. "Go!"

          "I'll see you soon, sweetheart." Vance pointed towards Adelaide. "Hey, man, fuck you!"

            "You kids, too! Let's go!" The bartender continued. Adelaide grabbed Chad's hand as he turned to face her, his expression softening.

            "Thank you."

.ೃ࿐ 𝘮𝘺𝘢 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘴 !

+ i think adelaide and chad
are the best couple i've ever
written