LILITH

"Who's that?" I ask Quinn, who just got off the phone and returned to the science lab, where we are secretly hanging out before Kai's dumb fight begins.

"It's Addison. They're on their way."

"They paid for those?" Suri consulted Quinn.

She was sitting on the teacher's desk, gulping a giant bottle of tequila before handing it over to ED, Clarke's cousin, who's staying for a week.

I don't really like him, but I didn't care who came for the fireworks event. Then again, I didn't like Clarke or any of those pathetic kids dancing in the assembly hall.

"I've gotten the credit alert," Quinn confirmed and found a place to squeeze between Suri and ED before she snatched the bottle and brought it to her mouth.

The event was only starting, and the girls had long lost their lipstick; I am sure I look the same, maybe even worst, given who I brought as my date and his obsession for my lips.

"Bitch." Says Suri when Quinn winced at the dominating taste while it washed down her throat.

"Have you ever tasted this?" Clarke whispered into my hearing as I had my eyes studying my two best friends.

He was behind me, chuckling very often in my ears.

When I looked down at what he was offering between his fingers, my stomach flipped.

Beers are okay. Some party combo wines are something natural. Four to five tequila shots are fine, but some white pills in a small ziplock were an extreme red danger.

I press my lips and shake my head, hiding between the bottle of tequila we had been sharing around to avoid flashing the timidity in my features that had me all flushed and breathing hard.

"I am okay with my drink."
It sounds confidential, but I wasn't even close to it.

"Chill ou. Is going to be fun." He chuckled and nibbled my ear.

He was high and alert. He smells like worn socks and the boys restroom. I need an escape, but I lured him to me earlier, and now I am doomed to dwell beside him for the of the night.

Clarke isn't very much of my option for people, but take him like a conquest, a trophy I wear to earn privileged ever since Leigh and Embry left.

He wasn't my first, but he was better than the other I wasted my time on; he was tolerated among the school because he was the captain, not as lucky as my brother was, but he was respected. Bringing him to my league was like having the whole school to myself for senior year.

So I admit, it was beneficial for both of us until right now! I never hated anyone as I hate him; I wish he could take the hint and let go of me.

He isn't only a dickhead but a junkie.

"I am fine." I snapped and pulled away from him. I am growing slightly annoyed at his persistence and awfully annoyed at his presence.

Remind me why this guy is here with us again?

Oh yes, I called him over to my house to get Ava jealous.

What was I thinking? Granted, jealousy is a seed that grows in people the more you feed them something to worry about, but with Ava is different.

She actually would never even give a fuck who I fuck with. She clearly doesn't have any feelings for anyone.
I'm screwed up for believing time will change her when truly no amount of time will settle down in her and let her live life a little.

It's Ava Lancelot, for fuck sake, the typical modest English girl who sniffed the air last year and decided to strangle herself from every excitement this summer.

I wonder why suddenly, though.

She claimed her distance once more and cried for London after every little misunderstanding; Leigh is lucky she didn't welcome him like a stranger, or worse, like an enemy.

"Just have one. It doesn't kill." Ed offered to the two inebriated girls.

I wanted to slap him and pull them with me even though I could barely stand on my feet, but Suri was able to deny him.

"I don't think it is a good idea. Jordan is waiting for me." She frighteningly said and scrambled down the desk, looping her arm around mine.

This is among the reasons I love these girls. They never get played, even when intoxicated.

"As you wish." The boys chuckled annoyingly; it kept crawling under my skin and making me want to scream, but I focused on the two girls as we headed out of the lab, almost stumbling on our way.

"Let's go get you some water," Clarke suggested.

***

Those short memories are the last thing I can still remember, even after four hours of sitting on the lawn trying to figure out what the following minutes were going to be like. And when it came, I waited for the next and the next and the next, just right here before my destructed vehicle until hell could swallow me and burn down the paradise I'd been building ever since my first grade when I took an oath to study hard and fly high, out of the earth, if truly the stars would bring me closer to my mother.

Who could do such a thing?

But that is not the question the cops will ask when they get here. Those men would be more fascinated to know how I have the key to the school building, why I held out fireworks on the premises. They would charge me for it, then tint every reputation of mine and tell me no report of the suspect was found, that I might actually be intoxicated when I did it myself. All because I had ordered every camera off before the fireworks event started.

If only that were all, but I fear my dad's resentment and mostly my college endorsement.

What have I done?

Brandon had reported the deflect of every camera around school and the neighborhood from two miles away.

Ever since learning it's all over, I drilled AirPods into my ears and listened to the calmest voice of the woman I can't remember holding me.

Through these excruciating hours, I pushed away every apologetic and sympathetic contact from everyone, including Suri and Quinn, who were sprawled over the grasses, sleeping behind me under the pouring sun.

Everyone had raced out after learning about the vandalism; no one stayed apart for Suri and Quinn, not even Clarke who got me in this shit at first, or the Francios girls, our family friends, that I learned were present at the fireworks just when the sight of my wrecked car sobered me up.

The first person who came to my mind was Leigh; he would get me out of this. He always does, but when I called him. It ranged and ranged, and it cut off.

He probably was asleep.

My ego is still over my shoulders; I didn't feel like calling Ava after she had blatantly rejected me yesterday.

A part of me knows I had to let her know I was screwed, but the other part of me feels hesitant and dragged down; I almost agreed to screw her up only yesterday. I am sure she heard the girls mentioning it. She probably would never forgive me for it.

Despite all that I took some hours ago, I feel sobered, and if I have a hangover, then my grief is more profound than the headache because it's entirely unnoticed.

It was already late; it's a miracle the cops aren't here yet.

My head falls into my arms, and I pull my knees to my chest, bracing myself for what is coming.

I try to focus on this moment, to my mom's soothing whispers, continuously reading my bedtime story through my ears.

It felt almost real, just like every time I turn it on.

It was bliss until I felt a pat on my back, and I realized that my little moment of silence was over.

"What happened here?" The officers asked.