he  wants  to  leave  because  it  means  being  anywhere  but  here.  the  thought  of  having  to  sit  through  dinner,  under  a  microscope  to  these  new  people,  while  his  uncle  gives  him  discrete  looks  from  across  the  table  every  time  he  gives  a  stupid  answer  to  their  prying  questions,  makes  him  lose  his  appetite  all  together.  however,  jace  wouldn’t  mind  having  more  time  with  melina  in  the  process  of  ditching.  he  has  a  strange  feeling  she  held  back  when  gushing  about  the  classics,  they  could  continue  on  with  the  topic  while  sneaking  out  the  window.      “     i  don’t  know,     ”      not  knowing  the  small  town  too  well  yet,  jace  shrugs.      “     the  park?  i  have  five  bucks  to  spare.  we  can  give  it  to  the  guy  who  plays  unsolicited  karaoke  on  the  sidewalk.     ”

for  a  moment,  melina  considers  going  with  him.  she  doesn’t  remember  the  last  time  she  put  a  toe  out  of  line;  it  could  be  fun. tugging  her  bottom  lip  between  her  teeth,  melina bites  back  a  smile  at  his  suggestion.  “is  it  still  unsolicited  when  we’re  paying  him  for  his  performances?”  smile  fades  as  the  anticipation  of  the  thrill  turns  to  anticipation  of  guilt,  the  idea  of   ditching  dinner  less  appealing  with  each  passing  second;  mel  would  be  pissed.  “no,  we  shouldn’t  —  we   can’t.  kiki  made  all  that  food.  it’ll be  fun,”  she  insists,  heading  for  the  door  before  she  gives  in  and  follows  jace  out  the  window.  “and  if  you  give  it  an  hour,  i  bet  mel’ll  sing  for  you.  for  free.”

“but,” she lets out a matching, exasperated breath, “singing is just singing when you’re not there.” there’s long breaks between words and quinn doesn’t even realize. although, it isn’t because there’s hesitation in what she’s saying  ––––  there hadn’t been a declaration more true. in her current state of mind, and a few drinks ahead of everyone, she believes she’s talking at a normal speed. her gaze lifts to emma’s height, and now she wants her to know that she sees her. she’s really seeing what emma is to her. and yet it seems to go unnoticed as the other girl keeps her eyes shut. it might be because her friend wants whats best for her, what she’s always wanted, but to quinn it almost feels like emma is pushing her away. emma is letting her leave, barely putting up a fight. that is what they are, though, right? all this time. the kisses, the comfort found in one another’s arms. they may occasionally cross a very blurred line, but they’re friends. always a little too close, never close enough. strangely, quinn is chuckling again. a reaction brought on by these thoughts. fuck, we’re a mess.

yasemin’s gaze lifts as quinn speaks, softening at her words. so take me with you is what she wants to say. let me be there every night, with you. quinn has to know that yasemin would drop everything — blow up her life — for her. just as quinn would stay if yasemin asked, yasemin would go if quinn asked. but just as yasemin would never ask that of quinn, she knows quinn wouldn’t ask that of her, either. that isn’t their deal. their relationship is made up of stolen weekends and being home for the holidays. and that’s enough. or, it has to be enough. quinn gets too antsy for anything else — she has a tendency to run the second she feels pinned down, and yasemin refuses to lose her by holding on too tight. “you’d regret it if you stayed.” she insists, despite the ache in her chest as she does so. ignoring the urge to ask what singing is when she is there, yasemin reaches for quinn’s hand. “and you know i’ll always be here.” 

@honeysuckleds​            /            gabriel   &   jessica.

gabe  follows  his  dad  around  the  station  like  a  lost  puppy,  doing  whatever  he  can  to  convince  him  to  let  his  suspension  be  up  sooner  rather  than  later.  he  currently  has  a  week  left  off  the  job  while  his  dad  made  the  final  decision,  but  that  would  be  one  less  week  he’d  be  able  to  do  any  good  with  the  side  investigation  he  and  his  group  of  friends  were  conducting.  the  two  went  back  and  forth  for  a  while  before  the  sheriff  stopped  to  ask  him  where  he  was  last  night.      “     no  where,     ”      a  solid  answer  with  a  straight  face.      no  where,  huh?      his  eyes  go  passed  gabe  and  land  on  the  girl  who’s  walking  into  the  building  as  if  she  had  a  purpose.      why  don’t  we  make  sure  of  that?      he  moves  around  his  son  to  welcome  one  of  the  people  in  this  group  of  friends  of  his.      ah  jessica,  i’m  so  glad  you’re  here.      “     yeah,  hey!  great  timing,  by  the  way,     ”      gabe  greets  her  with  a  sarcastic  smile.      i  was  just  asking  gabriel  here  what  he  got  up  to  last  night.  you  wouldn’t  know  anything  about  it,  would  you?  and  before  you  lie  to  me,  remember  how  many  times  my  poor  wife  spent  all  hours  of  the  afternoon  cooking  you  a  homemade  meal  after  a  long  day  at  school.      he  can’t  believe  the  lengths  this  guy  will  go  to  prove  him  wrong,  though  after  all  these  years,  he  should.

jess  is  sick  of  gabe  moping  around  about  possibly  losing  his  job.  sure,  in  theory  it’s  helpful  for  them  to  have  someone  with  access  to  police  records,  but  so  far,  it  hasn’t  gotten  them  shit.  and  gabe’s  too  cool  to  be  a  pig.  she  shoves  the  door  of  the  station  open  with  her  shoulder,  ready  to  drag  gabe  out  by  his  ankles  if  she  has  to,  but  she  catches  the  sheriff’s  attention  before  she  gets  a  chance  to  tear  into  him  for  being  pathetic.  “hey,  mr.  cortez.”  she  nods  in  greeting,  but  her  gaze  goes  straight  to  gabe,  assessing  him  with  an  almost  imperceptible  narrow  of   her  eyes.  “last  night?  yeah,  he  was  with  me.”  the  lie  is  effortless,  she  covers  him  without  question  or  confirmation  that  he  needs  covering  for.  unsurprisingly,  sheriff  cortez’s  attempt  at  guilting  jess  into  honesty fails  miserably.   “as  for  what  we  got  up  to?  nothing.  we  went  for  a  drive  before  we  remembered  there’s  not  shit  to  do  in  this  town.”  her  tone  turns  teasing,  “even  when  we’re  looking  for  trouble  we  can’t  find  it.  we  got  a  milkshake  and  headed  home.”  she  shrugs.  “why?  is  he  in  trouble?”

he  nods  at  the  support  of  her  sister.  it  must  eventually  become  endearing  if  his  uncle  can  manage  to  deal  with  it  for  longer  than  ten  minutes,  but  jace  isn’t  planning  on  sticking  around  long  enough  for  that  to  happen.  he’s  calmly  searching  for  any  way  out  as  melina  lists  her  favorites.  and  they’re  all  what  he’s  expecting.  he’s  read  the  classics  and  those  three  authors  have  written  some  of  his  favorites  as  well.  they  have  a  few  things  in  common  already.      “     i  can  see  that.     ”      dinner’s  ready,      mel  shouts  from  the  kitchen.  closing  the  book  in  his  hand,  he  uses  one  to  gesture  towards  the  window,      “     well,  if  we  act  fast,  we  can  ditch  dinner  now.  you  in?     ”

jace  seems  like  he’s  distracted,  nodding  absently  at  her  response.  for  a  second,  melina  wonders  why  he  even  bothered  to  ask,  if  he’s  so  disinterested.  she’s  about  to  ask  him  exactly  that,  along  with  what  two  books  he  has  read,  but  then  mel  calls  them  for  dinner  and  melina  loses  her  nerve.  eager  to  no  longer  be  the  main  focus  of  his  slightly  unsettling  attention,  she  heads  for  the  door.  she  stops  in  her  tracks  at  his  suggestions,  and  she  turns  to  face  him  again,  blinking  in  confusion.  “what?”  her  eyebrows  draw  together.  “no.”  she  shakes  her  head,  feeling  guilty  by  even  the  suggestion  of  abandoning  the  dinner  kiki  made.  “where  would  we  even  bail  to?  it’s  eight  p.m.  on  a  wednesday.”

if  jace  was  in  the  mood  for  a  real  conversation  he’d  probably  ask  why  melina  and  her  sister’s  names  were  so  similar,  the  curiosity  sitting  with  him  for  a  moment  longer  until  he  shrugs  it  off.  instead,  he  takes  a  book  off  the  shelf  and  opens  to  the  last  page.      “     great,     ”      he  scoffs,  referring  to  mel’s  not  so  charming  commentary  on  the  night  thus  far  and  how  it’s  only  just  beginning.  it  helps  to  know  melina  has  a  decent  variety  of  books  in  her  room,  at  least  she  has  a  good  head  on  her  shoulders.  maybe  he  could  find  a  piece  of  her  to  be  interesting.  it  beats  sitting  in  the  kitchen  with  his  uncle’s  scolds  and  chef  kiki,  who  hasn’t  stopped  praising  the  lemons  since  he’s  walked  through  the  front  door.      “     i’ve  read  a  book  or  two,     ”      is  his  answer,  though  it’s  not  entirely  the  truth.  jace  reads  more  than  the  average  person  his  age  and  he  has  a  genuine  love  for  the  hobby.      “     you  got  a  favorite?     ”

melina  doesn’t  miss  the  sarcasm  dripping  off  of  the  single  syllable  jace  speaks.  despite  the  strains  in  their  relationship,  she  still  feels  the  need  to  come  to  mel’s  defense.  “you  get  used  to  it.  and  honestly,  somewhere  along  the  way  it  even  gets  a  little  bit  endearing.”  his  response  does  little  to  satisfy  her  curiosity.  it’s  vague  enough  to  be  a  lie,  but  he  could  also  easily  be  the  type  that  truly  doesn’t  read,  having  not  even  picked  up  the  required  readings  for  school.  not  that  she  wants  to  judge  him  so  quickly.  “when  i  have  more  than  two  options  to  choose  from,  it’s  kind  of  hard  to  pick  a  favorite,”  she  teases  gently,  lips  quirking  up  in  a  small  smile.  “austen,  plath,  tolstoy;  a  few  of  my  favorite  authors,  at  least  as  far  as  classics  go.”  melina  shrugs,  sticking  with  popular  names,  and  stopping  herself  from  running  through  her  laundry  list  of  notable  titles.  she  doesn’t  want  to  bore  him  too  much.