and we will be okay

becoming friends

Lauren crosses her bedroom floor, glancing back at her sister who is sleeping soundly in her bed after the younger girl declared she wanted to have a sleepover but passed out just before ten thirty.

The teenager presses her ear against the wall, listening silently to the murmurs of her mother who is up late doing work related things and talking on the phone with another company manager (whom Lauren thinks is little too invested in her mom).

She shrugs and pushes herself away. Lauren grabs her phone and her wallet and her keys. She pauses by her younger sister and smiles softly at the contentedness she has when she's sleeping. Lauren adjusts the soft blanket over her and feels her chest warm at the way Taylor hugs Lauren's stuffed Nala. Even though Lauren is more attached to the animal than any other inanimate object, she knows Taylor sees how it calms Lauren down and hugs it too when she gets too stressed.

Lauren knows the girl gets far too stressed for being so little.

Lauren takes a mind snapshot of the scene before pulling a sweater over her head and exiting her bedroom.

She makes her way downstairs in cautious manor and slips her shoes on as she makes her way out the door. She carefully slides against the house, aware of how the security systems are set up, and sprints across a space where she knows the alarms won't set off.

She finally makes it to her bike, pushes up the fence and bikes off the yard and into the street.

Lauren puts in her headphones and turns on music. She breathed in the midnight air, the sound of "Sweet Disposition" fills her ears and she closes her eyes for moment.

And just for a short breath, things feel okay.

-

A couple hours later that morning, Lauren stands in front of the mirror of one of the highschool bathrooms adjusting her makeup when the door swings up.

Lauren pays no mind to the girl until she recognizes it's one of her group project members, Ally. She gives a little nod, fixing to hurry up so she can get on time for class.

She watches from her peripheral visions the short blonde applies some sort of moisturizer and mascara and then some concealer over her eye bags.

"You haven't really responded to the group lately," Lauren suddenly blurts out before she can think. She looks over, putting her mascara into her little emergency bag of makeup and other supplies.

She watches Ally hesitate with her words and continue to apply the product to her skin. She sucks in a breath and shrugs.

"Family things," she says politely, "just family stuff. You know how it is," she tells the brunette, immediately regretting her words as soon as they come out.

Lauren just gives her gentle look, "yeah I get it. But you really should tell us if there's a better time. We can come over to your place or something I don't know. I just really don't want to fuck this up. Not that I'm blaming you or anything, I'm just saying. If you know what I mean."

Ally nods, putting her things into her backpack and washing her hands, "yeah for sure. Well, actually it's not just that stuff I work basically everyday so it's hard to find free time and when I do have free time I basically spend it studying and doing homework for everything else. I'm in all AP  like you so I'm sure you get it."

"Yeah. Well what time do you get off? We can meet up then. Even if it's only an hour or FaceTime or something," Lauren suggests, meeting her eyes.

"Sorry I get off pretty late so..but I'll find some free time and I'll text the group. Anyways there's only like five minutes until class and I need to go talk to a teacher. I'll see you in class," Ally says, exiting with a little smile and hurrying out of the bathroom.