Chapter Text
As she steps out of her old brown car after a 4 hours drive from Shadyside to state college, Deena can’t help but close her eyes and take a long breath. Unfortunately, she can always count on her best friends to ruin the moment.
“I can’t feel my butt,” Simon says touching his butt with a pout.
Deena sighs, turning to look at the blond boy. He’s squeezing his posterior trying to get rid of the numbness. Deena rolls her eyes and starts heading to the trunk of her car, to get their things.
“Do you want me to kick it for you? Might help with the issue.” Kate eyes him, offering a smirk.
“You would do that for me?” Simon answers, looking at her, truly grateful.
Kate stares at him, mouth now agape. She’s at loss for words. She slowly turns her head to Deena whose attention is now on her two friends. Their eyes meet and they can’t keep from laughing at Simon, oblivious to the sarcasm in Kate’s voice.
“Dude, are you high or something?” Deena asks, trying to catch her breath.
“Yeah, did you swipe some pills while I wasn’t looking?” Kate questions, looking at a cardboard box in the backseat.
“What? No! It’s no fun to be high alone.” Simon responds seriously offended. “But now that you mention it, it would have helped with the trip.”
Deena frowns, emptying bags from the trunk. “What about the trip?”.
“It was long and…you’re not really peachy when you’re driving,” Simon adds, still standing to the side of the car, not helping at all.
Deena stops what she is doing, a box in hands.
“Now this is gonna be fun.” Kate whispers in a smile, crossing her arms, her eyes looking from Simon, to Deena.
The curly haired girl raises an eyebrow, staring at him.
“What do you mean exactly?” Her question clearly sounds like a threat. She’s not actually asking. But Simon is, as usual, clueless.
Kate glances at Simon, trying to warn him to stay quiet but he doesn’t catch the unspoken warning.
The boy frowns but answers in all seriousness. “Well, you’re just like…”. Simon extends his arms, hands gripping on an imaginary steering wheel, eyes staring in the distance, frowning, looking like he is focused on the road. “Simon, put your ass down, I can’t see shit!” He says in a slightly more high-pitched voice, trying to mimic Deena. Needless to say, she doesn’t sound like that. At all.
Deena slowly puts down the box she was still holding and gazes at Simon, ready to murder him.
“Dude, your ass was literally in my face!” She shouts, throwing her hands in the air. “We finally got out, alive, from Shadyside which is like a miracle, so forgive me if I don’t want to go back there in a damn casket!” Simon shrugs, considering her words but not really interested in the fight.
“Well, that was fun but since we established that we’re all happy to be here, can we actually move in? This place is pretty great but I’ve had enough of hanging out at some random parking lots for a lifetime.” Kate steps in, taking the box Deena previously had in hands and put it in Simon’s.
“Whatever.” Deena sighs and takes the last bag from the car before slamming shut the trunk. She goes past Simon giving a death stare but the blond boy grins, making her smirk and roll her eyes. They both know she can’t stay mad at him. It’s like trying to stay upset with a puppy, which is very much impossible.
She gets her backpack from the backseat and closes the car before following her best friends to the campus entrance.
Deena, Simon and Kate stop in front of the main building. They all look up, taking in how huge it is. It’s not necessarily modern but compared to Shadyside High it could surely be considered new and…charming. Deena smiles, she looks at her friends and back at the building. She feels almost at peace. Though the campus is really crowded since it’s one week away from the start of the semester and almost all of the students are moving in just like them. But it’s nothing like Shadyside. And thinking about Shadyside, makes her think about her brother, back there, alone, with their father. She feels a heartache, still guilty that she was so excited to move out while he was still stuck in the cursed town they’ve been trying to escape since they were little kids. But Deena promised him she would come visit regularly – or at least try to – and stay reachable 24/7. Josh reassured her before she left. He only had one more year before, hopefully, moving out and join Deena, Simon and Kate.
Deena thinks about his last words, just 5 hours ago. “Come on Deena, get your ass in the car and go. It’s a miracle that you actually graduated so don’t fuck up.” She had shoved him before pulling him into a tight hug despite his protests. When they separated, she’d seen the smile he was trying so hard to suppress.
At the thought she pulls herself together.
Right, don’t fuck up Johnson.
She glances at Kate and Simon, and enters, ready to make her brother proud and prove that, shit isn’t actually as doomed as she thought not so long ago.