Adrian Channing makes an entrance!!!

you're all going to see what i mean when i say he's... "interesting".

minor warning: he has the same mouth as his sister, so sorry for the swearing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

no super long notes today, let's just get right into it!

-𝓶𝓲𝓷𝓽𝔂

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Lance hesitated at the door. 

He took a step back, eyes scanning the house that was before him.

The Channing Household looked like your perfectly average suburban home. On the outside, that is. 

The outer walls were coated in a fresh layer of light blue paint, and the bushes in the front yard were neatly trimmed. The yellow roses that lined the path to the front door were blooming.

But it was all a facade.

Lance wasn't sure that anyone else knew that, though. He quickly brushed away that thought.

Would Adrian even answer?

Lance knocked on the door. 

It was quiet for a moment

"I already told you damn police I'm not gonna tell you anything--!" a voice growled angrily from inside the house.

A voice that Lance recognized. A voice that was definitely not Adrian Channing.

Oh no--

The door swung open.

"Mrs. Channing...!" Lance tried to hide his surprise, and he could feel everyone else glaring daggers into him. He had told them all that Rosaleen's parents wouldn't be home, but standing before him was Rosaleen's mother.

The woman was in her early fifties. Her hair was the same fiery red as her daughter's, but frizzled and grey at the roots and ends. Her green eyes were clouded, and she seemed unsteady on her feet. There was a half-empty glass bottle clutched in her fingers.

"I... I didn't expect to see you here," Lance said, not very smoothly.

"Well, Lance, any other day I'd be at work, but I'm on leave," Mrs. Channing grumbled, leaning against the wall. "--Something about 'emotional trauma'."

"That's--" Lance started, but Mrs. Channing cut him off.

"What... what are you all doing here?"

"We're--"

Lucia maneuvered her way to the front. "We're Rosaleen's friends. We just wanted to check in and see how her family was doing."

Mrs. Channing's eyes scanned the crowd skeptically.

"Rosaleen never talked about her friends..." She let out a snort. "She never talked about anything. Rarely saw her. Where's... what's-her-name--? Sarah?"

"Oh, Sam? She's--"

"--sick!" Evan chirped in. "I'm her brother, and she's at home. Her-- Her lung infection still hasn't really gone away, and she didn't feel well enough to come with us."

Mrs. Channing was quiet for a moment. Then, she pulled open the door and stepped out of the way.

"Come in."

The group stepped inside.

Lance had been inside Rosaleen's house many times, but he never really got used to it. He highly doubted he ever would.

The inside of Rosaleen's house was a complete disaster, and that was not hyperbole.

The paint peeled off the walls into curls. There was a family portrait in which Rosaleen and Adrian were just little kids, but it had been flung off the wall and the photo had been torn in two. Furniture was tipped over and busted into pieces.

It had been like this for as long as Lance could remember. No one had bothered to fix it. No one cared.

"Watch out for the glass," Mrs. Channing warned, before slipping into what Lance knew was the master bedroom. Despite the fact that the door was nowhere to be found.

Lance turned around to face everyone else, only to see that everyone's faces had gone pale.

"Oh my... God..." Aisha's hand found itself over her mouth.

"How do you live like this...?" Arthur asked, his voice barely a whisper.

Lance just shrugged. He didn't know.

Lance fumbled over his words.

"Ad--Adrian's room is this way..."

They followed in dead silence as Lance led them through a hallway and then they started down a staircase into the basement.

Evan coughed, or maybe it was more like Evan choked.

"Christ, it smells awful down here," Wyatte said, plugging his nose. "It smells like... like--"

"Like weed," Aisha said with no hesitation.

"How do you know what weed smells like?" Lucia asked.

Aisha only raised her eyebrows in response.

There was a door at the bottom of the stairs. Lance didn't hesitate before knocking.

There was an angry, wordless yell. But then the door opened. 

In the doorway stood a man, just about 20 years of age, who was most definitely Rosaleen's brother. Aside from the same hair and the same eyes, he had the same judgmental and impatient glare that Rosaleen carried herself with.

"Who the hell--?" Realization dawned on the young man's face as his eyes landed on Lance. "Oh, I know who you are."

Lance didn't back down. He held his chin up high, looking directly back into Adrian's eyes. He wasn't going to be intimidated.

"You were her plaything," Adrian said. "Her 'official'. Did you know?"

Lance understood exactly what Adrian meant by that question. "Of course I knew."

"Maybe you're not as naive as I thought," Adrian said, narrowing his eyes. "But what do you want?"

"We want to ask you about Rosaleen."

A smug smirk appeared on Adrian's face. "Of course you do. But who says I want to answer?"

"Oh, would you stop playing coy already?" Aisha snapped suddenly. "You might be able to get away with that because everyone else here is younger than you, but I know what you're doing. Just answer our damn questions and we'll leave."

Adrian raised his eyebrows, leaning in the doorway as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Oh, playing tough, are we? Such a fuckin' bad girl, aren't you? One of the oldest girls in school, if I had to guess. Probably raised by a single parent. Ooh, or maybe you've got a step-parent."

Something flickered in Aisha's eyes, but it was gone in a moment. "I saw your mother when we were upstairs, and I can only guess at where your father is. I really don't think we need to go at this."

"Do you really think I care?" Adrian said lowly. "Here, I'll tell you: Father's off with another woman. Even a blind man would notice the lipstick stains. Mama doesn't wear that shade. Oh, speaking of, Mama's got a bit of a drinking problem 'cause of it. This house bears the scars of their fights, doesn't it?"

Adrian let out a dry laugh. He paused for a moment, looking over each of them individually.

"Why don't you come inside? We can talk."

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*i honestly don't know whether Adrian or Rosaleen is worse, that's up for you guys to decide

they're both awful, and you don't anything about Adrian just yet...

*Rosaleen had some... home troubles,,,
it's not an excuse for all the awful things she did, but...

*aaaaa cliffhanger!!!

-𝓶𝓲𝓷𝓽𝔂