Who: Jen & Phee Where: The Marina When: Sunday afternoon, 06/10 Status: complete
It felt like forever and a day since Jen actually sat down with Phee face to face and talked. They'd run into each other but that wasn't the same. A week was a long time at eighteen, so much could change - and did change - in such a short time that it might as well have been a year. They'd talked a lot, but things had been hectic and then things had been weird. Or maybe they'd been normal, considering everything that had happened in this town. Jen was pleased to see Phee wasn't busy today, that she was awake and willing to come see her. In the grand scheme of things, the kiss at the party shouldn't worry her and she was too shaken up about everything else for it to be any kind of a meaningful anxious thing but still, she needed to be sure they were really cool with everything that had happened.
Phee had been at Greg's house but she was awake while he just wanted to sleep for hours longer so Jen invited her to come meet her at the marina. It was a lovely day - if she didn't count the dug-up graves - and they were both in the mood for some ice cream. It didn't take long to ride her bike there from the cemetery and she arrived first since Phee needed to get ready before leaving the house. That was okay. Jen found a nice spot to lounge and stare out at the ocean when she wasn't watching the tired few people who were finally out and about.
The weekend had been miserable, and Phee had been very grateful to finally sleep, but she’d never been a binge-sleeper no matter how tired she was, so she could only do it for so long. Staying at Greg’s had been the right choice, as the sleep she did get had been more peaceful and indulgent with his warmth against her back and his arm around her. After she’d woken up, Phee had just laid around for a while, browsing her phone while her boyfriend slept and just enjoying the rest. Then Jen’s texts had arrived, and meeting up with her sounded really good, so Phee hadn’t hesitated to answer. Part of her was a bit nervous about it, because they hadn’t really talked about what happened at the party but it wasn’t bad enough to deter her. Jen was awesome, and it wasn’t like she’d ghosted Phee until now.
She’d kissed her sleepy boy goodbye and gone home to change and freshen up before she got on her own bike to head down to the marina. It didn’t take her long to spot her friend, there were hardly any people around, and Phee walked her bike the rest of the way to where Jen was sitting, smiling at her already. “Hey,” she greeted as she parked the bike next to Jen’s. “You got some sleep, right?”
Jen got up from where she was sitting when she noticed Phee was there, not hesitating to go give her a hug and a cheerful greeting. There was always something grounding about hugging Phee and she needed that after the weirdness at the cemetery - and, if she was honest, to make sure things were still normal between them. "Yeah I slept, what a stupid weekend. You look rested too." She looked her over as she spoke and it wasn't a lie, Phee didn't look like someone who'd been sleep deprived so recently, but then again neither did Jen. Being young came with the benefits of bouncing back quickly, she supposed. She didn't want to dump everything on Phee right away so she gestured down the marina. "We want milkshakes, don't we?"
Phee was happy to hug her back, squeezing firmly and taking the chance to breathe in the smell of Jen’s hair. She didn’t know if things were normal like they had been before, but she definitely didn’t feel anything bad toward Jen. Just a little confusing, maybe. It was good to see her in more than passing though, and Phee smiled brightly at the semi-compliment. “Yeah, I got some good rest,” she confirmed. “Finally, ugh. Always a good time for a milkshake pick-me-up though, right? I hope they’re open.” She started to walk toward the ice cream shop next to Jen. It felt good to be outside, with the salty breeze coming in off the ocean blowing through her hair. “So what’s up with you?”
It hadn't even occurred to Jen that it might be closed today but now that Phee mentioned it, it could very well be. They'd have a perfect excuse for it too and business wouldn't be great this early in the afternoon after a weekend from hell. Fingers crossed, she supposed as she strolled along with Phee, feeling a little safer now that she was with her. Phee might not be an experienced witch but she was a witch and Jen had a feeling she was protected either way because of her family. "Ugh," she said simply to Phee's question before giving her a wry smile as a way of saying sorry for piling on more shit when things were already kind of lame. It felt so far away now though, the marina was such a nice place to be and somehow that kiss they'd shared last week seemed more newsworthy than all the crazy shit going on. That felt dumb though so she shrugged and decided to tell Phee what had happened earlier that day. "Well, you know, insomnia and all that and then I went to the cemetery today and at least two graves had been dug up. Again. It was creepy as fuck, someone took the bodies."
Point Pleasant was such a strange place to live -- on one hand it was so small-town, everybody-knows-everybody that Phee wasn’t afraid to walk around on her own ... but on the other hand it was more dangerous than most other places in the world. Phee thought so, anyway. She’d learned enough defensive magic now that she thought she would be okay if something supernatural tried to get her while she was out, but nothing was a guarantee. Still, she was so relieved to be rested and hanging out with Jen on a nice day, it didn’t cross her mind at the moment. Not until Jen started talking, anyway. Phee’s eyes widened as she looked at her friend. “What? Oh my god, that’s so fucked,” she said, making a face and giving a dramatic shudder. “Blech. Who would even do that? What the hell. Are you okay though? There was nobody around?”
"Rost was there," Jen replied quickly. "He called the cops, I didn't stick around for dad to show up and fret at me." She wondered if dumping this all on Phee was a shitty thing to do, but it was hard not to confide in her when Jen felt so jittery about it. "It was just so weird, I don't know who or what could have done that. The coffins were broken, I didn't see any drag marks or like mega-disturbed earth around the graves. So someone broke the coffins and just easy peasy picked up the bodies and left. Oh, and left their clothes." It was beginning to hit her just how awful it was for these people not getting any peace in death, for their corpses to be carried around naked by some lunatics - or monsters - to be used for god-knows-what. "Poor Rost, this is not the first time it happened."
Phee didn’t feel dumped on, just shared-with, and that was a good thing. They all needed to support each other to survive the nightmares in this place, and she wanted to be there for her friend. Jen seemed shaken, which was unusual for her. It sounded like whoever was stealing bodies was using magic of some kind to do it -- Phee wondered if an earth witch was involved, to dig up the coffins without really having to dig. Frowning sympathetically, she nodded. “Yeah, that has to be so hard to see,” she murmured. Phee reached to take Jen’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “Sorry you had to find it. Even without the bodies themselves, that’s just ... awful.”
"Yeah," Jen sighed, squeezing Phee's hand right back. "But I'm also like excited about it, like it's a mystery to be solved, which is totally fucked up on its own. I just really want to know why someone would do something like that. Is it dark magic? It can't be cannibalism, those bodies were probably embalmed but what if they're zombies? Or..." She trailed off on purpose, not really wanting to dive into the details of the ideas she'd had so far, mostly to spare Phee. "The true crime junkie in me is just flipping out. I swear we could start a podcast about all the shit that goes down in this town but it would have to be called something like Unsolved Mysteries and that's already a thing."
She gave a short laugh that wasn’t terribly amused, because Jen was right. They could fill hours and hours of airtime about the fucked up shit that happened around here. “Pleasant Mysteries? That’d be a total lie,” she said. Phee’s brain was picking up on what Jen had said and trying to think of possibilities too, though it was still kind of tired from the days of insomnia. “Why would zombies take their clothes off, though?” she pondered. “And they couldn’t dig themselves up, right? It would more just be like ... a hole in the ground they crawled out of. So my money is on dark magic somehow. It’s out there.”
"Yeah I meant more like... Someone raised them," Jen replied as she thought about it and much like Phee didn't have a whole lot of other ideas. "Dug up the graves and then walked them right out of there. So dark magic either way." They were almost at the ice cream stand which appeared to be open and Jen didn't really want to have this conversation in front of other people but it was hard to think about anything else at the moment. "You've lived here way longer than me, can you think of someone who'd do that? I can't, but then maybe people don't exactly look like they're evil like they're cartoon villains." Phee knew more about the witches in town than Jen did so she might know who was capable of this, if not in personality, then possibly in power.
Phee wrinkled her nose a bit. She didn’t really know many of the witches in town, except by name and what they looked like, because a lot of them lived in Overlook. She didn’t know much about what type of magic they did, since the adult witches around her didn’t gossip to her about that kind of thing. She did remember who had saved Bash from being possessed, but that had been a good thing, right? “I don’t really know, I don’t know all the adult witches well,” Phee answered after a moment, her voice lowering as they got closer to the ice cream place. “Maybe the D’Onofrios? I know they’re at least like, really powerful. I could ask Zania maybe, see if she has any ideas. Or Nic, he does some like ... small necromancy with animal bones and stuff.”
Jen's eyes widened a bit at that and it was fair to say her interest was piqued. "So what, like dancing little mouse skeletons or something?" she asked and she'd be lying if she said that didn't sound pretty cool - unless it was cruel, she didn't exactly know the mechanics of it. She vaguely knew of the witches who had helped her brother and all of those names were familiar to her at this point but it still felt like there were so many people in town who could be supernatural without her knowing about it. It was a little overwhelming at times but she tried to remember that knowing didn't make her any less than she had been while she was oblivious to it. If anything she was possibly safer because Phee had helped her get some protective wards.
She couldn’t know for sure, of course, but Phee was pretty sure it wasn’t Nic doing the grave robbing. She couldn’t imagine either of the Castell twins getting involved in something so dark. But maybe she was just a naive kid who didn’t know anything. Or maybe this whole thing didn’t have anything to do with magic. “It doesn’t dance, but yeah, he’s got a mouse I think -- or a rat? I’m not sure how to tell without like ... skin and fur and stuff,” Phee said with a faint chuckle. “There’s a skeleton snake and a couple of birds too. He told me he didn’t kill any of them himself, he just found the remains. Gabriel’s real cat chases them around.” She pressed her lips together as they stepped up closer to the ice cream vendor, eyes skimming the menu for a flavor that sounded good.
Phee had told Jen enough about the witches she knew that she didn't feel completely lost hearing about them and she laughed at the thought of a little kitty playing with scurrying skeletons. "That sounds kinda cute, actually. Reassuring too. Unless that cat is like evil embodied then it can't be outright evil. Animals always seem sensitive to things that aren't natural." She wrinkled her nose and looked at the menu. "Unless it's just a really dumb cat." She felt like she audibly code switched when she ordered her ice cream, that polite customer act overtaking her own personality for the minutes it took to get the kind of ice cream that she wanted. In any case she felt a sense of relief as they walked away from there to find somewhere nice to sit. "Have you seen it? The cat? I'm trying to picture what it looks like and for some reason all I see is Duchess from The Aristocats."
Happy to have a cold cup and spoon in hand and a bit more freedom to talk once they walked away from the ice cream place, Phee laughed a bit. “Yeah I’ve seen her -- it’s a girl -- she prowls around the yard a lot. She’s a Siamese, so not like Duchess and all,” she said, amused. “Her name’s Bastet, like the Egyptian cat goddess. Gabriel can talk to her and she understands, so I think she’s pretty smart. He’s got like, three whole animal familiars, they all listen to him. The dog’s always with him, and I saw his snake once, it was pretty cool.” Phee realized she was getting off topic and rambling now, so she tried to bring it back around to what was worrying Jen. “But yeah, I can ask them if they have any ideas about what’s going on at the cemetery. I think Zania knows Rost pretty well? So maybe they can help.”
It was pretty nice to have the topic changed to something lovely like that and Jen tittered at all the animal information, most fascinated by the presence of a snake. "It'd be nice if someone helped him," she replied. "I don't know if he'll ask for help, he looked so sad. Like, more sad than upset. Guess he's just seen it happen too often now to be shocked by it." Unlike Jen who'd been far more shaken than she was ready to admit, it embarrassed her now, like she should be far tougher than that, a cool cat who was nonchalant about scary things. It was just easier to be that way about fictional horror, this was happening in the town she lived in and it was scary.
Phee gave a little hum as she ate some of the ice cream off her plastic spoon. She’d never really talked to the man in the cemetery, but she knew some kids from school bought weed from him sometimes, and she’d heard he was pretty cool, if kind of weird. Weird was all right, and if Jen liked him then he must be an okay guy. Phee was glad for it -- the last thing this town needed was some creepy scary groundskeeper or something cliche like that. There were enough creepy people around. “Pretty fucking depressing, huh?” she muttered as she got another small scoop. “Hope somebody can figure it out and make it stop. Even the dead don’t get to relax around here, damn.”
Jen definitely felt better talking about it and it was easy to let the discomfort fade away now that she was sitting in the sun with Phee, eating ice cream. She felt more normal again, huffing softly at Phee's statement. "No rest for anyone." It was a miserable topic to dwell on and she was sure they'd said all they needed to say about it so she gently bumped her shoulder against Phee's arm. "How've you been though? With everything." She thought about the weekend before, but she didn't get a feeling anything was wrong between them so it wasn't stressful at all. Some part of her still wanted to ask about it, make sure things were cool, she just needed the right moment.
“Me? I’ve been okay,” Phee told her, giving a little smile. “Trip left early in the week, but like, him and my dad were fighting the whole time, pretty much, so it was kind of a relief. Mom’s been hella moody too, but she’s got more of an excuse. Everything was pretty good up until we all couldn’t sleep, so I’m glad that’s over.” She huffed and rolled her eyes a bit, took another lick of ice cream, and raised a brow at Jen. “How about you?” Phee had thought about her often over the past week, and their kiss ... which had been so good and something she wanted to do, but looking back at that whole night was strange. She’d done so many things she didn’t think she would ever do.
Jen rolled her eyes a bit at the family thing because everything seemed to be a fight with Phee's dad. She'd never say it to her face unless Phee did first, but her dad was kind of a douchebag. Everything had been a fight with her mom's now ex boyfriend and Hunter so it wasn't so hard to imagine, but she couldn't imagine Grady ever being like that. Family was supposed to be a safe haven so you let a lot of things slide for the sake of keeping things good. Maybe that wasn't healthy too, but at least they weren't fighting over petty shit all the time. "Just looking for a job and kinda half-assing it," she replied. "And, you know, not sleeping. Which I'm pretty sure was just a Point Pleasant thing, Hunter slept just fine this weekend. He's going to California this fall, which is like so him it's obnoxious." She laughed a little, even if this wasn't really what she wanted to talk about. "I missed you though," she added, leaning in against Phee. "It's been a dumb few days."
James and Trip arguing about shit was so standard for them that it didn’t really bother Phee, it was more of just an annoyance. She thought they were both dumb and wrong about certain things, but nobody asked her opinion, so it didn’t really matter. She’d almost forgotten how much quieter it was without her oldest brother around. It was just going to get even worse -- better? -- when Sebastian left. Phee didn’t like to think about it too much, even though it might only be a few months away. She focused on Jen again, the warm pressure of her arm against Phee’s sending a sweet little tingle through her. She gave a smile that probably looked kind of doofy, but she couldn’t help it. “I missed you too,” she said. “You can call me whenever you want, you know. I mean, I might be sleeping sometimes, but ... I don’t have many plans this summer, so I’m around. To like, hang out and stuff.” Phee was so glad that things didn’t feel weird between them, but she knew they probably should talk about the kiss. She just didn’t know where to start.
"I'll be bugging you all the time this summer," Jen promised. "We need to make the most of every good weather day, when we're not working anyway. I'll come visit you at work when I'm not busy." It wasn't like they needed to make the most of their time before Jen went off to college, she was going to a community college and a lot of the studies were online. Hunter thought she was cheating herself out of a great social life but that was him projecting his own needs on her. She was far happier doing her own thing and so far Point Pleasant had had plenty of wild parties. Could college even compete with that? Probably. She just wasn't super excited about it yet. "So," she started, nudging Phee again. "I hope Greg's not regretting giving you permission to kiss me." She grinned, though it probably came off every bit as doofy as Phee's smile. It was easier to ask that than it was to ask if Phee regretted it, that was for sure.
Having spent all of her summers in rural Maine, Phee knew all about taking advantage of the good weather, so she heartily agreed to that. She was glad that Jen was sticking around town -- even if it was a crazy hellmouth place to live -- but the transition from high school to college was still a thing, and she hoped that they would stay friends in spite of it. It wasn’t like Phee had an abundance of friends, much less a list of them who wouldn’t make kissing at a party weird. Speaking of ... Phee’s cheeks flushed at Jen’s question, but she laughed a bit anyway, shaking her head. “Pft, are you kidding?” she said, her tone light and playful. “It’s probably like, on repeat in his spank bank or whatever.” She rolled her eyes affectionately, then laughed again and tucked some curls behind her ear, both nervous gestures, but not in a bad way. “I mean, no, sorry, that’s probably gross to you. He seems fine with it, he hasn’t said anything, anyway. So it’s not like, a problem. Not that I thought it would be, but you know, I dunno, that party was crazy, wasn’t it? Like everything felt so ... something. Intense. It was good though. The party. And kissing you.” Oh gods, was she rambling? She was rambling. Phee made herself shut up, biting into the corner of her lip.
"It was good but yeah, super weird," Jen said and laughed as she felt a faint blush color her own cheeks, remembering what she'd done after kissing Phee. Masturbating at a party hadn't been on her to-do list, that was for sure, but at least she'd found a private spot for it. "Everyone was acting kinda crazy. I don't regret it though. It was good." She gave Phee a warm smile, endeared at her reaction. "I just don't want it to make anything weird, I love you and I want us to be cool about it." It had been pretty amazing though, but part of what had made it so easy to enjoy was the lack of pressure. Phee was in a relationship so Jen didn't need to wonder what they were or were going to be. They were just friends who had enjoyed kissing each other at weird parties!
The way Jen flushed too made Phee feel kind of fluttery inside. She’d thought about that kiss a lot since it happened, and what it might mean about her sexuality ... and also how hot it had been. Which was another point in the ‘I’m not straight’ column. It wasn’t like she wanted to break up with Greg to be with a girl, and she was really glad he’d let her try it, even if he’d been influenced by whatever party-drug had been in the air that night too. It hadn’t seemed to bother him after the fact, so that was a good sign. But it was a good thing to know about herself, Phee supposed. “Yeah me too,” she told Jen with a relieved smile. “I want to be cool about it, I mean. And I love you, you’re great, you’re my best friend, pretty much. And that was like, my first time ever ... kissing a girl, so .. I’m glad it was you.” Her voice dropped a bit on the ‘kissing’ part, but Phee resisted the urge to look around for any eavesdroppers. “Was that your first time?” she asked a little shyly.
"Yup," Jen said with a hint of a laugh because talking about this felt weird but she was still glad they could do that instead of wondering and fretting in separate corners. "It was definitely eye opening and I might not be as... disinterested in people as I thought." She hadn't been ready to march out and buy herself an Ace Flag yet or anything but she'd been fairly comfortable thinking she might not be into sex at all. Of course she only had experience with one guy and she hadn't exactly been super into him but that also just didn't seem to happen to her much; being super into people. Kissing Phee had been super arousing and she didn't know if it was because she was a girl or because something had been really weird at that party. Thinking about it now, in the light of day and stone cold sober, it still made her feel a little flutter so it couldn't have been just that.
For some reason that was kind of a relief to hear. At least she hadn’t been the only one experiencing that for the first time. She’d known that Jen wasn’t really into anybody, but Phee’s hormones were so loud it was hard for her to imagine an asexual headspace, so she’d just assumed nobody local had caught Jen’s eye. She didn’t know if that meant Jen was interested in her or not, beyond being good friends, but she wasn’t exactly free to pursue anything, so she decided not to ask. “I always like, thought some girls were really pretty and stuff like that, but I was like ... the definition of inexperienced before me and Greg got together, so I just didn’t really know if it was admiration or what,” she said. Phee gave another smile that felt happy and sheepish at the same time. “Guess I know it’s more than that now.”
Jen always felt like everyone was a little bi whether they realized it or not, her own sexuality was a mystery to her though as she didn't have a whole lot of interest in people to begin with but that didn't mean her hormones weren't raging. "Well, thanks for being my first girl kiss," she said and licked ice cream off her spoon before her grin widened. "And my first good kiss, really. You know I've only been with one guy too and it was..." She wrinkled her nose and while she couldn't say it had been awful or anything, it still felt a little mean to talk about it. But this was Phee and if she couldn't talk to Phee about stuff like that then she'd never tell anyone anything. "Not great. Kind of boring. Vibrators are more fun." She let out a little laugh and looked around to make sure there were no scandalized people around or gawking kids.
Hearing she was Jen’s first good kiss sent a wave of delight through Phee. She’d been so unsure of herself when she’d started kissing Greg, but she felt like she’d learned fast, and it was good to know she wasn’t good at kissing only him. Maybe the bizarre confidence she’d had that night had something to do with it, but Phee wanted to take a little credit at least. The bit about vibrators made her giggle and blush even more. “Are they really? I don’t have one,” she said, grinning as she scooped up some more ice cream. “But you’re welcome, it was my pleasure. Like, literally.” Phee gave Jen a flirty sort of look and then tittered again. “Greg’s a good kisser, I think, to me anyway. But I don’t like, have any comparisons but you, and I feel like kissing girls is always gonna be kinda different. I’m so glad you liked it though.”
"It's not like we can go around and test the theory," Jen said with a little grin. "But I guess that's what drinking games are for. There's just more people I don't want to kiss than there are people I do, so that makes those games not as appealing, I guess." Maybe it mattered less when she was very drunk, she sure as hell could have kissed a lot of people at Jules's party. "And you should get a vibrator. I bought mine online and it's just his little bullet thing but it's nice. Of course you have Greg and he seems pretty energetic." She giggled, which felt a little weird to her but it was just a weird topic and she'd probably crossed a line or something, not that she thought Phee would really mind.
It was a slightly weird topic for Phee too, considering she didn’t have any female friends she talked about this kind of stuff with, but it was nice at the same time, for the same reason. It didn’t sound like Jen had enough experience to really compare notes, but if she didn’t mind hearing it, Phee was happy to gush a little. “Energetic is one word for it, yeah,” she agreed with a giggle of her own. Her blush apparently wasn’t going anywhere for a while. “We have a good time already, but like, I think he’d like the idea of me and a vibrator. And he can’t be around all the time anyway. It’s so stupid, I slept over with him a bunch of times while Mom was gone, and my dad didn’t care at all, but now that she’s back, they don’t want me to do it anymore.” Phee rolled her eyes. “Like they know we have sex, I’m on birth control and everything, what’s the big deal? So dumb.”
"It's so stupid," Jen sighed. "It's not like you're a kid anymore and you're so responsible! I guess our parents will treat us like we're babies for as long as they possibly can." She knew all about how James McCarthy had dropped the ball when his wife went missing and on some level she couldn't really blame him, but he'd chosen to have kids, he should be there for them when they needed him the most. The hypocrisy of the rules getting stricter as soon as Brianna came home was astounding too, but oh so typical. Maybe Hunter was onto something, going so far away for college but Jen didn't want to do that and compared to Phee she had it easy at home.
It was nice to be validated by her friend like that, even though Jen’s opinion wouldn’t hold much weight with her parents. She just sighed heavily, tossed out a rhetorical “right?”, and rolled her eyes again. Phee was very grateful to have her mom back, she would’ve traded all that time at Greg’s to have never lost Brianna in the first place, but still, it seemed like closing the barn after the horse ran away or whatever that saying was. Pointless. Sometimes she thought she would never understand her parents. “So anyway,” she said, wanting to bring their conversation back around to more fun things. “You should kiss or not kiss anybody you want, in my opinion. If you don’t ever feel like it, then totally don’t, you know?”
"Oh trust me, I do what I want," Jen said haughtily before laughing at how dramatic it came out. "If I hadn't wanted to kiss you, I wouldn't have kissed you." She knew it had a lot to do with how strange that party had gotten, her feelings had been extremely heightened that night, but she didn't know if the fact she wasn't dying to kiss Phee right this moment was because of the fact there was a time and place for that sort of thing and this wasn't it, or if she was only interested when she was drunk. The thought of kissing made her stomach flutter a little because it had been a damn good kiss but it felt more like the sort of thing they could do when they were drunk and silly. "I'm trying to remember I don't have to have it all figured out at eighteen," she added a little more seriously. "But I might come ask you for another kiss when I get drunk, fair warning."
Looking back on that party, there had been more than alcohol at play, so Phee wasn’t sure if it had been whatever was in the air -- because it hadn’t felt like magic to her, it had felt like something else -- or if she’d just been drunk enough to be confident and brave. She did know that if she’d been single, she would’ve been angling to kiss Jen some more. Maybe not here on the pier, but somewhere, sometime soon. Phee wasn’t a cheater though, and she wasn’t going to assume that Greg’s permission extended beyond that night. It did make her stomach happy-clench to know that Jen might want to do it again though, and she smiled. “I’ll look forward to it then,” she said, briefly biting her lip before she licked some more ice cream off of her spoon. “But I agree. About not needing to have it all figured out yet. I sure don’t feel like I do, even though I’m like, sure that I love Greg right now. The only other thing I feel sure about is I don’t wanna end up like my parents.”
"I don't think anyone wants to end up like their parents," Jen said, thinking of her own parents in comparison. They weren't bad people, far from it, but her mom was so unhappy and her dad worked too damn much, she didn't want to be like either of them. "But especially not our parents," she added with a mirthless laughter. "I hope Hunter turns out to be the happy kinda gay guy who gets married and has kids one way or another, then I can do whatever I want without any pressure, you know? At least you have one straight brother." In a relationship no less, though Jen had a feeling most of the pressure was on Phee these days, from what she had told her. She had one more year to figure it out but her parents seemed like they expected the best from her after that, the best college, the best life. Jen at least didn't feel that kind of pressure from her own parents.
“One straight brother who my mom really doesn’t want to let go of,” Phee said with a sigh. “She pretty much hates every girlfriend he has. She was like, suggesting at diner that Trip invite her along on like, a family trip to Hawaii or something so we can meet her. And probably scare her off.” She chuckled a bit and licked her spoon again. “I bet Bash will end up one of those gay guys with kids,” she went on. “He’d be a good dad. Eventually I mean, not right now.” That was one good thing about being gay, Phee supposed -- nobody had to worry about getting pregnant. But she could definitely see Sebastian adopting one day, he was so much of a caretaker type. Phee had the vague notion that she would have kids too, she just didn’t know when yet. Or what kind of college she would go to, or anything. At least she had plenty of older friends to watch and learn from while she figured it out.
"I hope Hunter doesn't," Jen said with a laugh that was probably a little mean. "He's so self involved. I mean, I love him but I can't imagine him with kids." Maybe that would change as he got older but he'd always been a bit carefree, to put it nicely. "And I think he'd faint if he had to change a diaper. Dork. Bash though, yeah I can see it. He's so sweet. Way too good for Hunter." He wasn't really the kind of guy Jen saw herself being friends with but he was really nice and hadn't made her feel awkward coming to his house after her brother broke up with him. That was a giant plus in his book. "I wish I could have met your older brother, like properly, see if he's anything like you guys." Wasn't that part of friendship? Meeting the family? Not that Phee had met Jen's mom but she might one day! Jen had only run into Trip briefly at graduation and they'd barely exchanged more than two words.
It was hard to imagine any of the boys around their age having kids, really. Even though Phee felt like Greg would eventually be a good father, were any of them ready for that? No. Maybe Hunter would mature into that type of person later in life, or maybe he wouldn’t. Not everybody had to have kids, after all. She felt like she would, but that was too far in the future to really think about yet. Who knew what life had in store for any of them? She laughed a little at the bit about Bash being too good for Hunter, then wrinkled her nose slightly. “Trip’s pretty different,” she said, shrugging one shoulder. “He’s like ... he used to be the perfect golden boy back when they didn’t want us to learn magic. But he still hates magic, so now that’s something for him and my dad to argue about. But he’s still like, popular, smart, handsome guy, gonna save the world, that kind of thing. His girlfriend turned him vegan or whatever too.” It was hard to describe Trip, since the two of them had never been very close, considering their age gap, he just didn’t feel very similar to her and Sebastian.
Jen groaned and rolled her eyes. "Such a waste," she said with a pout. "He should give his magic to someone who wants it, like me." She was joking but only to the point where she was pretty sure nobody could give away their magic like that, especially not to someone who wasn't a witch. If it was possible though, she'd gladly accept it and then she and Phee could practice together. It was a dream scenario in the very literal sense that it was unattainable and she sighed at the thought. She didn't think she'd want fire anyway, if she could choose what kind of magic she wanted to work with. Earth or air sounded more her speed and with how destructive fire was maybe Trip wasn't totally wrong in resenting his magic.
Phee laughed a little, but she kind of thought it was true -- Jen would make a better witch than Trip did. She didn’t think it was possible to transfer power like that, which was a shame in some cases. “You would make an awesome witch,” Phee told her with a smile. “But you’re awesome anyway, so it’s not that much of a stretch. You should totally come to the greenhouse sometime and see all of my-- Zania’s plants.” She gave a sheepish chuckle. “They feel like mine, when I go in there and help them grow. But anyway there’s always stuff to learn that doesn’t require magic, like medicine herbs that are just that way because nature. I’ve taken so many notes.” It made her itch to touch the leather cover of her grimoire, but she hadn’t brought it with her.
"Shared custody," Jen said, still smiling from the compliment. She would make an awesome witch, she was sure, but it helped to hear Phee thought she was great without it. "I mean, you're pouring your magic into those plants, they're at least part yours, right?" She would love to visit Phee at work and made a note of actually doing that sometime and not just make a plan about it that would never come true. "You think it's okay? If I just show up?" Zania seemed cool enough but people showed different faces for different occasions and maybe she wouldn't love a non-witch hanging around her very magic garden. What she really wanted was to live vicariously through Phee, at least for a little while, to hear about the spells she was learning and maybe seeing some of them in action.
Phee liked the thought of shared custody of the greenhouse plants. She knew what they were all called by now, though she was still learning all their quirks and preferences. “I mean, probably, but let me make sure first,” she said, wincing a tiny bit. Phee didn’t see anything wrong with it, and Zan and Nic were cool, but it was probably best if she didn’t assume something like that without asking. “I wonder if like, there’s a plant that any of your bugs would really like? I could grow you something, I bet. It would be good practice, especially if it’s not a plant I know really well yet.”
"Can you grow fruit?" Jen asked. "I mostly feed them fruit. I'll be raising some larvae soon and they eat decaying stuff so if you have any stuff you're throwing out I'll take it." It was always a joy to talk about this stuff with Phee, she was one of the very few people Jen knew who didn't cringe when Jen talked about her pets. Her dad was always disgusted by them and refused to go in her room much and he'd probably lose his shit if he heard her now. Raising larvae? In his house? What he didn't know couldn't hurt him. "I'm not sure though, there might be something. I'll have to look it up. I wouldn't pass up the chance of getting you to grow something exotic, maybe I'll just make you do it for me." She was mostly joking, but not really. Plants could be fun too.
She wrinkled her nose skeptically in answer to Jen’s question. Phee had never tried to grow fruit specifically before, and it seemed like it was probably complicated. At least to conjure up out of nothing -- by now she was sure that she could magically nurture a fruit tree, if it already existed. Were there any that existed up here? Phee wasn’t sure. Maybe she could talk her mom into letting her plant some berry bushes in the yard or something to practice on. “We don’t really have any fruit at the greenhouse, so I dunno, but I’ll keep an eye out for anything going to rot,” she said. Jen’s bug-pets were nothing but interesting to her. Maybe it was her connection to the earth or maybe everyone else were just pussies. She gave Jen a lopsided little smile. “I’ll grow anything for you,” Phee said.
"That's because you're the best," Jen said warmly and arched sideways to give Phee a kiss on the cheek, lingering for a moment to breathe her in before pulling back with a little smile. "And you're the coolest person I know. If you ever want a snail or a beetle, I'll get you as many as you want. Not for the greenhouse, of course, they'd just wreck everything." She doubted Phee's parents would indulge her in keeping those sorts of pets but the offer still stood and it was one of the few things Jen felt like she could offer that wasn't readily available everywhere else. That, a shoulder and an ear, of course. "You'll help me pick names for my new critters when they're ready, right?"
Even though it was just on the cheek, the kiss gave Phee a thrill, and the way Jen stayed close for a second made her tingle a bit. She didn’t think she was cool at all, so that was a high compliment, and it made her laugh softly. “You’re the coolest person I know, so I guess we have that in common,” she said, giving a cheeky little smile. She had no real desire to keep bugs and snails for herself, even though it might be a cool hobby to pick up later in life. Phee could always just go visit Jen if she felt the need to pet some ‘gross’ creatures. Plus she didn’t want them to escape and eat up all the plants in her room. “And thanks! I’ll definitely help you name them!” she said with enthusiasm. “How many do you think you’ll end up with?”
"Probably just two," Jen replied. "Of the beetles anyway. When I finish college and get my own place I'm going to have a lot more but right now I'm on thin ice with dad." Not in a bad way, her amused tone made that very clear, but poor Grady didn't need to have too many critters in his house. "I don't have the space for too many right now but like, my dream apartment just has walls of aquariums and enclosures. Or at least a room that's just this dark critter heaven. More than just beetles and snails, snakes and spiders." She smiled at the thought and it all seemed so distant and unattainable at the moment but it was a decent goal.
The part about Jen’s dad made Phee grin a bit. It was always funny to her that the big bad sheriff of this haunted-ass town was afraid of bugs. Or at least didn’t like them. Not that Grady had ever been anything but nice to Phee, she was sure he was a lovely, normal man. His job just had to expose him to far grosser stuff than beetles. “I demand an invitation so I can look at all your little beasties,” she said, still smiling. “Wherever you end up living. You should go work at a college or something, teach bug biology to people or do research or something.” Her brows rose quickly as she remembered something they’d talked about before. “Oh wait, you’re aiming for, like ... what do you call it? Forensic something?”
"Yes," Jen said with a slight hiss in the way she drew out the word. "I think dad hates it, he probably wishes I'd work in a pet store or something, nothing but sweetness and cuteness but I'm kinda fascinated by it all. Even the gross stuff. But he can't complain, at least I'm not becoming a cop. He would hate that even more. And duh, you're always welcome at my awesome bug house, probably one of the very few who actually wants to visit a place like that. Maybe I will end up teaching bug biology at college." The thought was funny but Jen understood that she might have plans now and then get swept up by some strange inspiration later on and completely change her track. She was at least ready for that, excited to see where the maelstrom would bring her.
Phee supposed it made sense that Jen’s dad would want her as far away from law enforcement as possible. He’d probably seen a lot of bad shit he didn’t want her to see. But just like Sebastian wanting to be a nurse, Phee thought it was kind of a noble profession to go into, trying to solve murders. “Well whatever you do, you’ll kick ass at it,” she said with total confidence. Jen was just that kind of person. “I don’t even really know what I want to do, so you’re way ahead of me.” She gave a wry huff and shrugged a shoulder as she finished off her ice cream. Phee was sure her future was aimed toward plants in some way, but damned if she knew how she wanted that to manifest as a career. She didn’t really feel like she had a calling. Maybe someday she would, but it wasn’t there yet.
"You can do anything you want," Jen said with just as much conviction because as much as Phee believed in her, she also believed in Phee and even stripped of her parents' money or her magic, Jen could see her go far. "Right now we should just explore as much as we can, figure out what makes us tick. I'm totally gonna take some random ass electives just for the hell of it. Like pottery classes or, I don't know, fuck. Weight lifting." She snorted at the thought. "Photography would probably be handy for working forensics, maybe it's included. I need to check it all out better. Not a lot of it makes sense to me right now, it's like going in blind even if I'm trying to prepare." She felt like she should be more nervous about it, but it just felt so far away, it was hard to stress when she still had to find a job for the summer.
The idea of Jen getting all big and buff and lifting huge weights made Phee giggle a bit, even if she knew her mental image of it was outlandish. It was cute. “You totally should, take as many random cool-sounding things as you want,” she agreed with a grin. Jen didn’t exactly sound nervous, but Phee could understand why starting this brand new chapter in life could be nerve wracking. She put her arm around Jen’s shoulders to squeeze her for a moment. “You’ll figure it all out,” she said. Jen might not need the encouragement, but Phee was going to give it to her anyway. That was what friends were supposed to do. “And then you can tell me all about it, so I’ll be ready when it’s my turn.” Phee chuckled. “I’m going to miss seeing you guys in school. Most everybody in my grade sucks.”
"Most everyone at school sucks," Jen corrected her and wrinkled her nose. She didn't hate the kids at her school as much as she had when she was younger and she wasn't sure if it was because she was older and wiser, or if the kids in Point pleasant just sucked less than the kids in her old school but plenty of them were still more than worthy of her disdain. "At least you'll still have Liam," she added. "And Brynn is okay. Still wish you'd graduated with me, we could be college buddies." She leaned against Phee again with a rush of gratitude that their drunken weirdness hadn't made things really weird. "And if anyone messes with you and Greg is busy, I'll come kick ass. I'll be buff in no time."
It was true that she did still have some good friends in school with her, and they would probably become even more important to her through her senior year. But it wasn’t the same as having her brother and boyfriend and bestie there all at once. Even though she knew it was probably silly, part of Phee was still worried they would all forget about her as soon as they went off into their adult lives. Or she at least wouldn’t be as involved with them. Phee just had to trust that she would stay important. It was easier to feel that way when she was sitting in the nice sunshine with Jen. Phee dropped her head to rest against Jen’s shoulder and chuckled. “I’ll keep that in mind,” she said. “We’ll just be like, cross-generational buddies ... for a year. Then I’ll be in college too.” Phee wasn’t sure what that would look like for her yet, but she would figure it out.
It might be worse when Phee went off to college, she might decide to go to some fancy expensive one far away and then Jen would never see her. At least next year wouldn't be that big of a change - as far as she knew - since she'd be spending a lot of time in Point Pleasant. Not that she really knew what it all looked like yet, her mom was a little upset she'd chosen to go to school in Bangor over Portland when she could have stayed with her and saved herself the drive. Oh well, it was all complicated and maybe she'd change her mind next year. For now she and her snails and beetles were staying put in Point Pleasant and she couldn't even really explain why she felt like she would miss out on something amazing if she moved away too soon. "I hope you don't end up going far away," she admitted. "I sometimes feel like everyone wants to get as far away from their hometown as possible."
Phee wrinkled her nose a bit. “Yeah ... I mean, I get it, especially if your hometown is tiny,” she murmured. “Or like, super haunted, like ours. I dunno what I’m going to do yet, but ... I’m glad you don’t want me to go.” She gave a pleased little huff and found Jen’s hand with her own to squeeze it. She knew all of that ‘go to college’ pressure from her parents would probably be turned on her as soon as she became a senior, and Phee didn’t know what decision she would ultimately make. There was still a year to think about it, at least. Phee wanted to think that no matter where they ended up in the world, she and Jen would still be friends. The internet was good for stuff like that. But it was a little scary to think about everything changing.
Jen thought maybe she should want Phee to go, she should want everyone who lived here to go, but she didn't. Despite the scary moments the place held a fascination for her and at least the witches had a one-up on survival skills. "Of course I don't want you to go," she said with a playful frown. "Don't be silly. I don't know if you've noticed this about me but I don't get close to people very easily." Most people sucked so she didn't feel like it was entirely her fault, but even the ones who didn't always felt a little out of reach somehow whereas Phee was so warm and present and easy to love. Jen gave her hand a little squeeze back and set the now empty ice cream container on the bench next to her with the trash can a little too out of reach. "Who knows, maybe I'll turn into a real party animal at college." She punctuated that particular thought with a snort. Yes, she did enjoy parties lately but it helped that she had friends who attended them.
Whenever she thought about ‘growing up’ and leaving Point Pleasant, Phee got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. She’d always chalked it up just to anxiety about the ‘growing up and moving on’ part, but sometimes it felt like she shouldn’t leave. The family she was close to was here, the Castells’ greenhouse and shop were here, Greg was here, Jen was here ... She supposed she would find out. There was no use in stressing herself out about it when she had another year to go in school and everything. In any case, Jen liking her above other people gave Phee a nice warm feeling in her chest. It was like when a particularly antisocial cat decided it liked you and you alone. Only with better conversation. “I don’t either,” she agreed with a faint chuckle. “Get close to people, I mean. I’m trying to picture you as a party animal and just ... no.” Phee laughed and shook her head a bit, curls bouncing. “But that’s okay. Your like, ‘college experience’ can be whatever you want,” she added, using her fingers for quotes. “But let’s have fun this summer when we can, right? It’s too nice a day to think that far ahead.”
"Agreed," Jen said firmly because Phee was right. They had a couple of months to dick around and have fun - when they weren't working, anyway. That was the only thing she needed to be fretting about and not even right now because it was a Sunday and she wasn't about to go hand out resumes even if it had been just a regular Sunday but especially not with the state of everyone in town after this bizarre weekend. She felt a lot better, just sitting here and talking to Phee, and the ice cream sure as hell didn't hurt. It almost made her want to bring Rost some ice cream but that was probably silly. "You wanna walk on the beach for a bit? See if we spot any crabs or scuds?"
“Yeah!” Phee said with enthusiasm and a bright smile, already moving to stand up. Walking along the shore and poking around for critters was way better than conjecturing about a future they couldn’t predict. If the past six months had taught Phee anything, it was that they didn’t have any real control over what happened to them. They could try to influence their paths, but there were huge mysterious forces working in the world, creating the winds they all blew around in. All they could really do was make the most of the time they had and try to enjoy themselves. That was the philosophy Phee was trying to live under now, anyway. And at the moment she wanted to enjoy the summer warmth and sunshine with her best-friend-slash-girl-crush.