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Rand was leaning against the gym walls, the odor of teenages was pungent, and Rand longed to just slip out and get away from this shitty room. Unfortunately the gym teacher seemed to be intent on watching him like a hawk today. He scratched at his arm, the shitty gym uniforms making him want to rip them off his skin. He couldn't even smoke since his cigarettes were stuck in his jacket pocket, his poor babies. He glanced over once, and saw Rebbeca walking towards him. He tilted his head.
"You wanna skip gym with me?" She started pretty strongly with. He raised an eyebrow as Rebbeca chewed on the end of a cigarette she pulled from her pocket. Rand had remembered seeing her smoke before- but even more than that, he more often had seen her chew on cigs more than she smoked them. He mourned the wasted cigarettes that she had chewed. He couldn't imagine how many cigs she had wasted with this habit of hers.
Rand was rather curious. This was new. Usually at the very least Kian would be with them to skip. He didn't see him today though, he didn't see Rolan either. He took a quick headcount of everybody here, eyes sweeping around the room, then back at her when he didn't see either of them.
"You got more cigarettes?" He asked first. He wasn't sure how much longer he could go with the dodgeballs hitting the walls or the fucking gym clothes that were itchy and sucked on his skin. He used to be shocked about Rebecca Jones smoking since she was such a goody two shoes, but she chewed on them too, so. It still rocked Rand's world sometimes, though he was getting over it rather fast, since she often slid them full packs that she didn't smoke. It was free cigarettes, so there was no way Rand was going to complain.
She rolled her eyes hard at him, digging into the pockets of her jacket and tossed over one to him. He dived forward nearly tripping over himself to catch himself before it hit the ground, and sighed in relief. He wasn't sure how much longer he could go sober in this fucking class before he snapped at somebody. Or preferably beamed a dodgeball at somebody, but either worked. He held the cigarette between his fingers, standing up and brushing himself off with a hum. That was that, he didn't see why he shouldn't go. It was a excuse at least to get the fuck out of here.
"Are Kian and Rolan coming?" He took another glance around the gym, and she shook her head as she started to walk past him. He followed behind.
"I've got a pass for us," She said instead. Rand gave a sigh in relief. At this moment he was more than grateful that she was a good kid. He glanced backwards, and seeing the back of the gym teacher's head, he did what all mature teens do, and flipped him off. He saw a couple of kids gasp or giggle and he sped up his pace to catch up with Rebecca grinning. He had always wanted to do that.
They slipped through the doors of the small shitty gym class, and Rand took out his lighter to light his cigarette up, one he had stolen from his dad. Rebecca was still chewing on the end of hers with a blank look, and he didn't really get how or even why because they could not fucking taste good. He looked down at the unlit cigarette in his hand…did they?
"No, no, uh. They aren't coming by the way." She said briskly, taking the cigarette out her mouth and tossing it in a trash can they walked past. Rand snorted, and lit the cigarette he was holding, taking a puff and exhaling.
"A Little late," he teased, and she didn't respond to that but gave him a small hum, and they kept walking. Briskly, as his mind finally caught up he had just accepted an invitation to just skip gym without any real plans behind it, Rand paused.. "Wait, wait, what – exactly are we doing–?" He leaned over to get a look at her face. He hadn't even thought to ask, the price of escaping gym class seemed enough. Well, no, he wasn't ungrateful for that it definitely was enough.
She turned back to him with a look. "Skipping gym? Duh?" He blew out smoke as he rolled his eyes.
"Yeah no shit, I mean, you've never. It's just us, so. You wannaa…..i dunno fuckin' smoke or something?" He hit his head with his palm. "You don't smoke, sorry. I mean you do– "
He paused. He'd seen her do both so she smoked, but she often denied smoke sesh Kian offered her, so. Huh. "Do you?" He blurted out.
She laughed at that, and it felt a little mocking but Rand was gonna ignore that.
"I have a pack of beer?" She shrugged, and It sounded like an offering good enough for Rand. Like Rand would ever deny free booze. "It's in my parents' car….We can't drink 'em" in there, though."
She pushed open the school's door and pulled out car keys, leading Rand to a pretty rusty and old purple spray painted car. Rand could tell it was spray painted, and pretty shitty-ily too, from the white car that peeked through the purple spray paint. There was a lot of peeling. He glanced over at her.
"Do you smoke?" He asked again. He was sure she didn't hear, but he really didn't know– Kian told him she could be shy, but Rand had seen her jump a fence too. He didn't care that much though, it was free booze. She didn't answer for a second, unlocking the car door and looking over at him.
"Yeah," she said slowly. Then she considered it. She was wearing darker makeup today– he didn't even notice.
"No," she said in the same tone. Rand gave a confused look. She didn't elaborate, instead grabbing the pack of beer and smiling at him. It didn't look right with all her makeup and dark gloomy clothing.
"You got a car?" She blew her bangs out his face. He brought his own keys up, and sighed as he lowered them.
"Yeah– but. Nah, we can't use my folks car, if they smelled alcohol they would be pissed." He motioned over down the block "There's a playground down the street?" She nodded.
"It's kinda." She paused, and shrugged, "Nevermind, let's go." He didn't push as she closed the door behind her with the heel of her foot, and locked the car door. As they walked down the street. It was a little awkward as the silence hung in the air with nothing to talk about. Rand smoked as they walked, and Rebbeca kept walking without a sound. He noticed she was squinting up to the sky, covering her face from the sun with her palm. She was so fuckin' pale she might as well be a vampire.
Was she a vampire??
He hit his forehead with his palm. No, he reasoned, because she would have shriveled by now since she was in the sun. Plus they weren't real. That too.
When they made it to the park, she quickly, with more speed then he'd ever seen her, slipped under the slide, squatting down and motioning for him to follow. Rand paused for a second, nostalgia filling his nose as he smelt wood pines and piss. He craned his neck to truly get a glance around. This place was still shitty, with the rundown playground that the highschool kids used more for drinking and fucking around.
He didn't remember the last time he visited this place, and it was surreal to see it in its full, shitty glory.
(He remembered through, how Rachael would constantly beg for him to take her here after she found out he had been sneaking out. He only took her once to catch fireflies, and she couldn't stop grinning when they walked back.)
("You're such a pain in the ass," he said affectionately.)
He dazedly blinked tears out of his eyes, and shook his head as he wandered over to Rebecca and sat next to her. He opened the container of beer and cracked open a beer. She only watched with her dark eyes and messy eye mascara through her bangs, not even reaching for a beer.
He wondered why she had brought him out here, vampires were stuck on his mind. He hoped she wasn't a vampire. If he turned into a vampire he would be pretty pissed, actually. Could he even drink anymore if that happened—
"I'm sorry I popped your tires," she said suddenly. Bluntly. Her voice scared the fucking hell out of Rand, since she hadn't talked the entire walk here.
Rand spit the beer out – narrowly missing her as she dodged back faster then he's ever seen her even move. He choked for a second, struggling to breath as he coughed and ducked his head,trying to catch his breath from the sudden comment.
"Wha– what the fuck–?" He scrunched his eyes to try and remember what the fuck she was even talking about. Vaguely, he guessed he remembered his parents' tires being popped once. But those were some kids he assumed who didn't like him, and there were a lot of those so he didn't really try and figure out who ever did that. He did a double take, Wait.
"Did you– wait – are you talking about my parents' car??" He squawked, and she had the audacity to look embarrassed.
"That was your parents car??" She said, her voice sounded miserable, cracking slightly.
"YES?" what the fuck. So she had fucking popped his parents tires. He had suspected her for sure, and thinking back maybe it was a bit obvious, since even Kian had mentioned that she had gone popping somebody's tires once. He didn't fucking
think it was his parents fucking tires. What the actual fuck.
"What the hell– do you know how much money that co–" he put his head in his hands, and sighed. "Can. Can you at least fucking tell me why?"
She played with her sleeves, not looking at Rand as she breathed out slowly. He didn't know what he was expecting. Nothing, literally nothing could prepare him for this talk. He leaned over and angrily cracked open another beer to drink. He was expecting I don't like you, I came to turn you into a vampire, something something.
"I–" she muttered softly. "I uh," she mumbled something softer under her breath. Rand huffed.
"Can you– what?" She stared up at him with a blank stare. "I didn't hear you."
"I thought your parents' car was my exes." Rebbeca said clearly. Rand blinked at her several times. What.
"You were going to pop your exes tires." She nodded.
"But you popped my parents' tires by accident." He was not sober enough for this. She nodded, again, looking away.
He could not do this. He shot his head back and chugged his beer, nearly choking on it as he started to giggle, then laugh. He doubled over trying not to not spit the beer out and giggled, and laughed, and laughed, and cackled. He could not fucking do this. Kian had really picked the most batshit girl he could fucking find. She sat there with a straight face, as he chortled and giggled trying not to choke on shitty beer from down the road. His shoulders shook as he finally started to calm down coughing and spluttering as he swallowed the beer.
"You–" he got through heavy breathing. "You're so, I." He was speechless. For once he was speechless, which was saying a lot since he usually never shut up.
"Rebbeca Jones, you – ." he sighed as he took another beer from the container. "You're something fuckin' else. You know that?"
She puffed her cheeks out, scratching at her cheek with her nails. "I wanted to say sorry."
"So you got me beer?" She started to say something and he raised his hand. "No, no, let me get– you got me beer because you popped my parents' tires?" She closed her mouth. She ducked her head as she hid her face behind her bangs.
"Shut the fuckk....im trying to say sorry, dickhead." She hissed. Rand raised his hands up.
"No, no– I'm sorry, I know.'' Rand blinked. "Wait, why am I apologizing– I take that back, actually I'm not." He raised the beer and took a swig.
"The beer helps so. Okay, I forgive you, 'kay? Just…" he trained off. "Uh, don't. Make sure you get the car next time?"
He grabbed a beer and offered one to her, grinning. She stared at it for a second, and huffed as she grabbed the bear from him, cracking it open and taking a sip.
"You're a pain in the ass, Timothy Rand." She was smiling through.
He grinned back, "Right back at ya, Becca Jones."