Who: Rachel and Jessica What: Drinks and stuff When: After april fool's Where: A bar Status: complete Rating: PG-1
The only thing Rachel knew for certain was that she was neither high, nor drunk enough, for the bullshit. Living peeps, killer bunnies, all the other things that had happened in the six months since she’d moved but had been ignorant of until now.
And she was no longer ignorant.
It extended to other things too. Maybe seeing Mark’s behavior through Callisto felt like a splash of cold water. Maybe she was starting to question his other actions, and just why it was necessary she keep coverup around. Hell, the camgirl stuff and blog had been his idea too, but she was kind of an exhibitionist anyway so that wasn’t so bad.
At some point she’d ended up at the boardwalks and found a pair of cat ears that matched her blonde hair. Since she couldn’t smoke a joint, she settled for a cigarette, and a beer she’d swiped when someone wasn’t looking.
There was a lot in her life to be angry about and Rachel had always been the angry one under the service.
It had been a long week. A very, very long week. She had seen some weird things in her days as a PI, but nothing could have possibly prepared her for the scruffy looking guy who knew her name, killer rabbits that had apparently come straight out of a Monty Python sketch, or living peeps.
She’d spent the day at the Boardwalks looking for some ladies missing teenager, and had eventually found him and called his mom to come pick him up. She’d already rewarded herself with a bottle of whiskey, tucked safely in the brown paper bag in her hand, and was heading home when she saw a girl sitting alone. She looked familiar, and it only took Jessica a moment to place her as the girl from the Network.
She nearly kept walking. She didn’t know the girl and frankly she didn’t care if she never got to. But, well,she seemed to be one of the few sane people on that website that Jessica had stumbled upon. At least she wasn’t going on and on about dreams and magic or whatever other bullshit people were talking to. So Jessica changed her direction and walked toward her.
“Hey,” she said, leaning on the railing of the boardwalk.
It wasn’t that Rachel didn’t mind talking about dreams, it was mostly real dreams. Ambitions. And whatever the tacos she ate caused. But her dreams were also kind of mundane. Similar to her real life. She didn’t need to relive her dad’s campaign for DA again, or moving them to a boring coastal town in Oregon again. Arcadia Bay didn’t even really exist.
She looked up from her beer, unsure if Jessica was going to comment on it or not. “Hello.”
Jessica had nothing to say about the beer. Hell, she had been thirteen the first time she’d gotten wasted off of her mother’s sangria. The girl beside her looked old enough to enjoy a beer whether she was twenty-one or not. “You’re that girl from the Network, aren’t you?” she asked, twisting off the top of her own whiskey and taking a drink.
A beer, a joint… Rachel had considered the harder stuff her boyfriend dealt, but so far had resisted it. “There’s a lot of girls on the network.”
If that was the opening question, then Jess hadn’t seen Rachel’s other blog.
“But I think I remember talking to you. I remember the haircut in your profile. It’s kinda bitching.”
Jessica’s hand went to her hair, a little surprised. It wasn’t often she got compliments. Mostly because she was too busy glaring people down before they got the chance to give them. “Thanks,” she said after a moment. “I recognized your cat ears. Bold choice,” she said with a hint of a smile, and offered the bottle of whiskey to the girl. “So, you get through the Easter from Hell alright?”
“I was feeling catty that day,” Rachel responded. She took the bottle, like the cool kid she was and took a drink from it. “Oh god. That was fucking insane.”
And that was supposed to be tame? What could be worse?
“Certifiable,” Jessica agreed. “I almost thought I was losing my mind. I’m still not entirely sure I’m not,” she said, taking back her bottle. “You know I ran into some guy who claimed he knew aliens and cat girls? If I hadn’t watched him heal right in front of my eyes I would have sworn he was crazy.”
“Maybe he’s still crazy.” Rachel switched back to her beer. Aliens? Cat girls? Okay she wore cat ears sometimes, but that didn’t actually count. “Because that? Sounds fucking crazy.”
“Maybe I’m crazy for believing it,” Jessica admitted, taking another swig from the bottle. “I’m not sure if I’ve heard a single sane thing since I moved here though. Between the Network and … whatever the fuck Easter was, I’m beginning to think coming here was a mistake.”
“I moved here before Halloween,” Rachel said. If by move she meant ‘ran away from home’. “All this stuff kept happening and I didn’t see it until I found that stupid social network.”
Twitter was so much easier.
“Huh. Guess joining the Network wasn’t the first thing I should have done.” Well, okay, it hadn’t been the first thing she’d done, but it had been pretty high up there. “I don’t really care how this shit came about, I just want it to stop.”
“Something tells me that it’ll happen whether we want it to or not.” Rachel looked like she wanted to drink a whole lot more, and quickly.
“Yeah,” Jessica admitted, resigned. Jessica hadn’t been given much of a choice in the matter so far; she had no reason to think that would change. She pushed herself up from where she’d been leaning on the railing, and began to turn to go home. All she wanted to do right now was pass in her own damn apartment. But she hesitated. She had no desire to play babysitter, but something about leaving the girl alone just didn’t sit well. “I’m going to find somewhere less likely to get me thrown in the drunk tank to drink,” she said.
“Is that an invitation?” She looked Jessica over, definitely not against the idea. Besides, returning home right now was kind of a scary thought.
She just wasn’t going to think too heavily as to why.
“If you want it to be,” Jessica responded. She nodded her head down the boardwalk. “But only if you hurry up.”
“I’m hurrying,” Rachel replied, moving away from the railing. Maybe she could forget things for awhile.