Re: Bonfire-adjacent: Aubrey/Lou
Lou stood square on her heels. Looked like the kind of person who wasn't from small towns. She was. Looked like the kind of person who didn't get mired in anxiety. She wasn't. The cigarettes were habit. So was the stoicism that sat over the top of what felt like broiling oil. She was mad about her cousin. She was worried about Patrick. She regretted deeply and she felt guilt and all of that moiled itself together into something simmering. Didn't look like it.
She wasn't dressing up. Lou never had. Never bothered, never would. Gone out into the world determined to be whoever she was, as much as she could be. The cigarettes were habit but they were also her, and Lou was herself, completely. "Scotch?" She looked at the plastic cup. It had taken a lot to sink her before the turn. Thirteen when she started. Fourteen when they added pot and sex to the mix. Bored kids did what bored kids would and Lou wasn't hot on kids' psychology these days but she knew skin on skin was comfort as much as it was a thrill for a girl who hadn't fit. Getting drunk took a load off. Didn't get much of a load off these days.
"Expensive." Observation. Agreement. "Bar tab's a bitch. You feel the need to get drunk?"