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INTRODUCING KJ APA AS VINCE GROVER

INTRODUCING ALEXA DEMIE AS ANNIE HARRISON

INTRODUCING ALGEE SMITH AS AJ CARTER

AND FINALLY, INTRODUCING MADELAINE PETSCH AS SIERRA LANDRACE

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WARNING:
major substance abuse, discretion is advised

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   "Move over pussies," Annie shoved her way into the backseat of the Benz, AJ grunting when he was shoved into Vince's side.

   "Nice to see you too, Annie," Vince grinned at Annie from the other side of AJ, Annie winking while applying dark lipstick to her already shadowy lips.

   In the backseat, AJ Carter sat squashed in between Vince Grover and Annie Harrison. AJ never understood why Vince did not decide to play for the school football team as the red-head boy definitely had the body type. Vince was tall with lean muscles, he would make a good running back if AJ said so.

   Annie was uncharacteristically short, but she was also what many people would envision a cheerleader to look like in this day and age. Pretty, perky, and reeking of self-confidence. Interestingly enough, not that anyone would ever know it, her and a certain Decepticon second-in-command would make quite the duo should they ever meet.

   Annie Harrison was a flyer as well as co-captain for the Memorial High cheerleaders. While she was the stereotypical popular girl, she was not necessarily on Vince's level of bullying, meaning Jack, Miko, and Raf did not have a problem with her (though none of them had ever actually spoken with her).

   Next to her sat football starter; AJ Carter. While her and AJ were by no means a couple, they were familiar booty-calls and had a good friendship (more like friends with benefits) on top of that.

    Vince Grover, while he was the apparent "rebel" of the group, was good friends with everyone in Torryn's car.

   He was also the one known as the bully of Memorial High. He messed with underclassmen, those who were nerds, and those who he simply did not like. Jackson Darby fell into the category of those who he simply did not like, he had held a grudge against Jack since the day in kindergarten when Jack spilled apple-juice on him and then proceeded to spread the lie of Vince peeing his pants.

   It may have sounded extremely petty, but it wasn't petty to Vince when he went friendless for the rest of the year with the name "potty-boy" stamped as his official name.

   Vince had an older brother, his name was Mark, and Mark was the absolute perfect child to their parents. His mother had even admitted to Vince at one point that he was simply an accident after one too many shots on a starry night during his parent's vacation to Mexico.

   Vince always lived in Mark's shadow, and even when he thought he had one-upped his older brother it somehow switched into Mark still being the better child.

   His parents were not exactly abusive to Vince, but it was no secret that he would be neglected in favor of Mark Grover any day. Eventually, once junior high rolled around Vince stopped caring. If his parents only wanted to focus on his older brother; fine, in that case, Vince was going to do whatever the fuck he wanted.

   When Vince acted out, his parents, especially his father would resort to screaming at him. He took it, would mutter a lifeless "I'm sorry," and then he would proceed to make the same mistake less than a day later.

   His parent's already low hope for him fell drastically when he began acting out, finally, they stopped caring the small amount that they did before. Instead of yelling at him, they realized their son would only brush it off, and so, they only signed off on the many reports and offenses made by Vince.

   It was because of this that Vince fell into the "rebel" group at Memorial High. Rather than try out for the football like many of his friends at the time, he instead took up to illegal racing, drinking, partying, stealing, sleeping around, bullying, drugs, marijuana; anything and everything that could get Vince any sort of thrill was on the table.

   If he was being honest with himself, the aggression he showed to those who he bullied was more out of envy than anything. With Jackson Darby, it was the want to have a mother as over-protective as his. While Jack may have not seen it, Vince wanted more than anything for his own mother to be as caring to him as Jack's mom was to her own son.

   With Rafael Esquivel, along with the number of other nerds at Memorial High, Vince was jealous of their smarts. Maybe, just maybe, if he was as clever as Rafael his parents would actually give a damn. And even if they didn't, if Vince was that smart, then maybe he would actually have a future that did not involve living in the slums of some random city.

   "Hey, look what I brought," Vince suddenly pulled a white zip-lock bag from the pockets of his green denim jacket with a wide grin.

   AJ and Annie pulled away from sucking at each other's faces, Sierra looking up from her phone in the passenger's seat, and Torryn using the rearview window to look back at her red-haired buddy.

   Raising a dark brow, Annie quickly began applying more lipstick, not wanting her recent makeout session to ruin her makeup which she had spent almost two hours on that day. Moving her sunglasses down, Torryn smirked at the sight of the Molly she asked Vince to bring.

   None of the teenagers in the car were strangers to drugs. Sierra was probably the only one in the car who had not gone past Molly though, that was the most extreme drug she would ever use, and she only ever used it rarely.

   Sierra Landrace, while she was popular, did not necessarily like involving herself in the teenage drug network. She knew it was bad for her and that she was better than that; however, when everyone around her was taking something she did not want to be the only one sober and be viewed with a stick up her ass.

   "Is that Molly?" Sierra asked with her brows furrowed, taking no mind to the desert passing by.

   Jasper did not have a mall as it was too small of a town, so they were forced to go to the next town over; Acre Springs, for the mall. Acre Springs did not have the most impressive mall, but it was still better than nothing. It was times where Torryn was going to the mall that she missed the huge multitude of malls and shops she had access to back in Seattle.

   The drive to Acre Springs wasn't too bad, a short forty-five minutes in the opposite direction of the Autobots base. Acre Springs was more on the way to California while the base was on the route someone would go if they wanted to end up in Arizona. Not that Torryn could see why anyone would want to go to Arizona, that was desert hotter than Nevada for Christ's sake!

   "Yep," Vince grunted while opening the bag and taking a small pinch of the white powder onto his finger. "Oh, yeah," he moaned while snorting the white powder.

   "Yo, don't hog it!" AJ complained, taking the zip-lock bag out of his friend's hand and snorting some for himself.

    "Dude!" Vince sighed, though his voice sounded much more relaxed and almost lazy, a sheer sign the powder was a strong dosage and working.

   AJ, who did not take drugs nearly as much Vince, sighed as the sudden feeling of relaxation and euphoria washed over him. Annie rolled her eyes, plucking the bag from him. She snorted the drug, and Vince, Sierra, and AJ gave her shocked looks when she barely even flinched, giving no indication that she was affected by it.

   "What?" She shrugged, pursing her lips while her fingers worked over her phone at the speed of light.

   Shaking it off, Torryn gave a glance. "Pass it up here," sometimes Torryn wished she could be above drugs, but she knew at this rate it was nearly impossible.

   Not unless she asked someone for help, which she was not doing anytime soon.

   Torryn realized the Buspirone and Molly could have negative rebounding effects on each other, but she gave zero fucks. The whole time she had been driving, her mind remained on Smokescreen, and she needed a break. She just needed to feel the euphoria of the power of drugs.

   "Wait, what? You're driving, Torryn." Sierra stated worriedly,  kicking herself when she realized no one else in the car was worried like she was.

    It had barely been thirty seconds since Vince had pulled out the Molly and Sierra already sounded like she had a stick up her ass. Though she would never say it to their faces, Sierra liked her friends way better when they were sober. Or, in Torryn's case, as sober as she could get since she was constantly on Buspirone.

   Torryn could not even remember the last time she was technically "sober". God, if Torryn suddenly went sober now she felt like her body would shut down from shock and seizure from all the withdrawal symptoms.

   Now, when Torryn truly got high, especially when she was around Vince and others, she tended to get extremely reckless and loud.

   Sierra still remembered the time at the last party Torryn was at with them when she stood on top of the roof of the house singing Don't Stop Believing. She then proceeded to order Vince to catch her while she jumped off. Neither herself or Vince was able to stop Torryn before she jumped, and Vince was only lucky that he had been sober enough to actually catch her.

   "So?" Torryn laughed while taking the zip-lock bag from Annie, the three in the backseat shooting questionable gazes at Sierra as well.

    None of them truly cared if Torryn was high while driving it seemed, well except for Sierra.

   Releasing a breathy sigh, Sierra gave a false smile. Maybe she needed to relax.

   Sierra was well aware with how close Jack and his other two friends were with Torryn, which is why she was slightly surprised with him being okay with Torryn so casually taking drugs. However, she was willing to bet he didn't know and she did not exactly want to tell him seeing as that would lead to him finding out about her taking them occasionally as well.

   Jack was sweet and everything Sierra could ever ask for in a guy, he was even taking their relationship slow much to her relief, she did not like how most boys always wanted to speed things along, it just wasn't her style.

   "Nothing," Sierra sighed, warily watching her friend take to somehow manning the wheel with her knee.

   Taking a good amount of powder on her fingers, Torryn examined the stuff which could almost be mistaken for sugar. Molly was generally taken in a small pill form, but Vince had taken multiple small pills and crushed them up so they would be able to inhale even more Molly than the pill version could give.

   Glancing at the road to make sure she was still straight, Torryn was greeted by the sight of a simple two-lane street in the middle of the desert which was empty of anyone but her car. This only proved to be good to her, less things for her to potentially crash into.

   Looking back at the powder on her finger, Torryn made sure to keep her knee stable and quickly she brought her finger up to her nose.

   Okay, Torryn would admit that spending time at the base had actually helped her a shit ton. The only drugs she had in the past month came from the Buspirone, other than that, Torryn had been clean.

   The visions had not come since Lyndia Eisley a few weeks ago either. However, this was a good thing considering Smokescreen sat outside her house nearly every night. It was a miracle he hand not picked up on the fact that no one else other than Torryn had actually ever left the house. Meaning, despite Torryn's words, no mother, no father, no family. Then again, Torryn supposed Smokescreen just was not familiar enough with Earth's culture for him to think about something like that, she only hoped it would stay that way. But she highly doubted it would.

   Cringing as an image of Smokescreen picking Jack over her popped into her mind, Torryn quickly banished the thought. Yes, she was being overdramatic, but this was Torryn fucking Wilde we were talking about, everything about her was dramatic.

   With that, Torryn snorted the Molly, feeling the familiar burning sensation as it passed through her nose only to go down many pipes in her body.

   Suddenly, her world exploded in a familiar mass of happiness and colors. Her ears were ringing, her vision was swirling, and she was vaguely aware of the relaxed sigh she released. A hue of pink and blue seemed to take over everything she looked at, the hazy nature of it all only stemming to make her happier.

   Her friend's voices were no more than ringing, the girl sticking her tongue out unknowingly. Her heart was pounding; however, to her, it almost felt like it was moving slower than normal. Everything was, and it wasn't until the ringing stopped that she managed to hear Sierra's shrieking.

   "TORRYN! You're swerving, YOU'RE IN THE WRONG FUCKING LANE!" The red-head screamed, Sierra, hiding her face in her hands, praying that God was on her side today.

   Torryn giggled, moving the steering wheel so it pushed the Benz back into the correct lane. She was only thankful no one had been in the other lane, otherwise, they surely would have crashed. "Sorry," she giggled, adjusting her shaking grip on the wheel, taking note to the way the other three high teens were laughing from behind them. "I'm just so..." Torryn paused, trying to figure out what exactly she was feeling.

   It was feeling that had not come around a whole lot in recent years. Miko, Jack, and Raf were able to cause this feeling, the base was able to cause this feeling, and Smokescreen was most definitely able to cause this feeling. But so were drugs.

   And like that, Torryn was able to place her finger on what the feeling was.

   Her lips quirked into a lazy grin, her eyes drooping from behind her sunglasses. "...I'm just so happy."

   But was she really?

   Torryn was not sure, but suddenly, she became acutely aware of the fact that the next few hours passed by in a literal blur of colors, happy singing, the sound of a card swiping, and many, many bags. She was even sure Annie had thrown in a compliment to her Gucci attire somewhere in there.

   She was not sure how many times she snorted some Molly, but she knew that Vince and she were definitely the ones who did it the most. Sierra might have done it once, but Torryn couldn't be sure, because she herself had taken so much Molly by the end of the day that she truly could not even remember what happened the moment after she got into the correct lane on the way to the mall.

   Things were just a blur of happy voices and colors. Sure, she slightly remembered flashes of certain scenarios, like buying a pair of gold and diamond-studded sunglasses, a nice fluffy overcoat, and nearly kissing Vince because for whatever reason she thought he was Smokescreen's holoform. She was pretty she was even calling him Smokescreen, but Vince was just as high as she was, he didn't notice and if he had he did not give a shit.

   The better question was, why the hell would Torryn even try to kiss Smokescreen?

✰✰✰✰✰

   Torryn was not sure what time it was when she woke up, but she felt like shit. Groaning, Torryn nearly vomited everything inside her at that moment. Slowly, the girl cracked her eyes open, catching nothing but darkness around her.

   "Alexa, turn on lights and open my curtains," Torryn croaked while sitting up, the lights flickering on while her curtains lifted up.

   Torryn was still clad in the clothing she wore to the mall yesterday, her mouth smeared with drool, her hair a mess, and her newly bought gold and diamond-studded sunglasses sitting on her head. Torryn reared back at the smell wafting around her, the girl cringing when she recognized it as the fruity smell of her Juul's smoke.

   Thinking back on it, while her memories were mostly blurred from the Molly, she recalled a few instances where she hit her Juul during her time spent with the other teenage delinquents. Torryn hadn't hit her Juul for months, she decided to at least try taking one step in the right direction, no matter how small it was. However, it seems her clean state was wiped away with what seemed to be a night of drugs and smoke and, based on the way there was a half-empty glass of Hennesy sitting on her desk, Torryn realized she was probably drinking her problems away as well.

   It was then she took note of the thirty or so shopping bags sprawled across her floor.

   "Stupid, stupid, stupid!" Torryn hit her forehead, only to cry when it pounded in protest from everything she had done the night before.

   She could not believe this. She acted like an idiot yesterday, she went off the rails because Smokescreen was with Jack, like what the hell was wrong with her? Who did that?

   Jesus Christ, she needed help.

   Torryn was aware of her own problems, she was by no means perfect, far from it in fact. She made mistakes but did not tend to learn from them, she went off the rails often, she was impatient, a complete bratty bitch, and was hard to handle. That was it, there was nothing she could do or say to deny that.

   Torryn was not claiming to be a perfect or even good person and she knew her own negative tendencies, but at the end of the day, she was still just a kid. A kid who had a shitload of problems and needed a hell of a lot of help.

   Whimpering, Torryn rubbed her forehead, suddenly becoming aware of how very bright it was. That and the fact that her bladder felt like it was going to explode.

   Leaping from the bed, Torryn slammed her way into her bathroom, practically ripping her skirt off while sitting on the toilet. Looking up, Torryn was greeted by the image of herself in the mirror sitting on the toilet using the restroom. But that was not what had caught her attention, it was the fact that in big black bolded letters (most likely sharpie) sat a series of words.

   "What the actual hell happened?" Torryn muttered, moving her hair as she read the phrase "HOT MESS" stamped on her forehead.

   It was then, sitting on the toilet with the phrase "HOT MESS" on her forehead, the girl looking like an actual hot mess, that Torryn finally admitted to herself she had to apologize to both Smokescreen and Jack. She knew she was too much yesterday and she lashed out at Smokescreen for no good reason.

   Torryn groaned, knowing that she did not deserve the innocent cute young Autobot soldier.

   "I fucking hate emotions," Torryn finally mumbled, pulling a piece of toilet paper in a scarily aggressive manner.

   As it would turn out, it was already eleven o'clock in the afternoon on Friday, meaning Torryn had inadvertently skipped most of the school day. Of course, Memorial High got out for the day at two-thirty P.M., but Torryn found no point in going to school as by the time she cleaned her room, put all her new shopping items away, and got herself ready there would no doubt be a little less than an hour left.

    She had received a bunch of texts and calls from Miko, Jack, and Raf, the Autobots even getting in on it as she had two missed calls from Arcee, one from Ratchet, twenty-five from Smokescreen, two from Bulkhead, five from Optimus Prime himself, and surprisingly enough there was a voicemail from Bumblebee.

   Torryn rose a brow when she saw the voicemail from the yellow scout and opened it out of pure curiosity.

   All that came through was the familiar whirring noise of Bumblebee, but Torryn smiled at his obvious concern.

   The thing that really caught Torryn's attention was the text message from Vince saying there was a party that night at some volleyball player's house. There was an address attached to the message, an address that was not too far from Memorial High.

   Sighing, Torryn realized a party was definitely not the best thing for her right now, especially since she was thinking about how to apologize to Jack and Smokescreen, so she ignored the text while continuing to lounge around her house.

   All her new clothes and other random items which were clearly picked out in her high state were put away and Torryn had scrubbed herself in the shower thoroughly getting rid of the stench of fruity smoke, alcohol, and drugs that seemed to waft around her. Her room was also rid of the smell, the half-empty Hennesy bottle now back where it belonged in her father's alcohol cupboard.

   Now, as she sat on her couch, sipping a bottle of water to try and ditch the pounding of her head, Torryn ghosted over the keyboard to her phone debating on what to say to her friend and guardian.

   The redhead groaned in frustration when nothing came to mind, her gaze flickering to her active television which was playing re-runs of George Lopez.

   She laughed loudly when George accidentally walked in on his mother; Benny, while she was in the shower. Torryn watched in amusement as George screamed before racing downstairs to his wife who was packing their kid's lunches, demanding she shows him her body so he could get the image of his mother wiped out of his mind.

   A sudden ping caught her attention, the girl looking down to her phone seeing a new message from Miko popped up.

   MIKO:
Smokes picked Jack up from school so they could screw with his boss or something, so if u need a ride Bulk will give you one today.

   Like that, the anger that Torryn previously buried slammed back full force, jealousy and the feeling of being second-choice racing through her veins. Suddenly, Torryn was not planning on apologizing to either Smokescreen or Jack anymore, the girl gritting her teeth.

   "Fuck this!" She screamed, slamming her hand down in the spot next to her.

   Gripping her phone, Torryn was running on adrenaline and brashness as she opened Vince's contact. Eyeing the invitation to the party, Torryn decided she had not been to a party in a long enough time. She needed a fucking release or she might just storm into the base and scream.

   TORRYN:
   In for the party tonight. C u there.