one shot | multifandom

01 || the things they carry

JULIE AND THE PHANTOMS
JULYNN + SUNSET CURVE
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content warnings
mentions of drugs, abuse, eating disorders;
general warning for dark themes (check tw)
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trigger warnings
brief mentions of implied physical abuse;
mention and descriptions of drug abuse;
implied homophobia; implied and briefly
described eating disorders; darker themes
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Julie and Flynn love their apartment building. It's close to their old neighborhood, and even closer to their new school. It has an elevator that always works, a community pantry in the lobby, and a landlord who leaves holiday cards taped to the door of every residence; and not just the big holidays, no, the smaller, sillier holidays like National Pancake Day or the anniversary of the day "jawn" was added to the dictionary. The girls have movie nights and family days and friends over for sleepovers. They host study groups and self care nights. They bake cookies for the community pantry and babysit twice a month for the Anderson family on the floor above. Overall, it's affordable and it feels like home and it's, to put it simply, perfect.

What's not perfect, is the arrival of new floor-mates four doors down. The girls have nothing against the four boys, honestly, but there's something there; something hiding in the baggy clothes and dark circles, something in their sporadic sightings and the visits from equally mysterious guests. It's not that there's something overtly wrong, but there's definitely a constant, underlying feeling of weird.

It's little things at first. Like the way they never see the boys alone, there's always two or more of them wrapped up in arms and shuffling around the building. Or the way they only ever talk in hushed tones and keep their heads down, seeming to be on the lookout for someone (or something).

It's the way the only real furniture in their apartment was a beat up couch and the way none of them had seemed to be unpacked, seeming to live out of their backpacks and boxes. And the way the four of them shared a two bedroom apartment. And the plastic jar in the kitchen filled with cash and coins.

And then it's bigger things. Like the first time Julie had officially introduced herself to the four boys. It was two weeks after the boys had moved in and she had come home and found two of the boys– the one with the leather jacket and the one with the leather vest– huddled in the middle of the hallway, two doors away from their opened apartment door. Jacket was slumped against the wall, his chest heaving as Vest tried (and obviously failed) to match their breathing. She barely had time to question them as the other two boys– the blond one and the shaggy haired one– came rushing out of the apartment.

"It's not in there, man. I told you, it's with them," Shaggy spat the last word and his friends tensed.

"Yeah, well there's no fucking way we're going back there," Vest responded, his words laced with an equal amount of venom. "There's gotta be something else. Lex, c'mon, what do we do?"

Julie continued down the hall, getting closer to where the boys had congregated. Blondie– Lex– was running his hands through his hair, shaking his head.

"It's not a panic attack this time, Bobs," he spoke. "It's a full blown asthma attack. I don't know what to do with this, I mean, panic attacks I know through and through, but I've only ever seen him like this once and it was a while ago and we had the inhaler but that's–"

"Yeah, yeah."

She had gotten close enough to be noticed now. Shaggy, Lex, and Bobs had snapped to glare at her, the three boys stepping defensively closer to Jacket.

"Nothing to see; move along," Bobs barked.

Julie's steps had faltered, the sudden outburst directed at her had caught her off guard. The boys in front of her were nothing like the ones she had shared an elevator with, or passed in the hall or at the entrance to their building. These boys were vulnerable and scared and defensive and– oh my god they were crying?