and i love her ▸ tate langdon ✓

04. rock star

Everyone's the same
We look the sameWe talk the same yeah
We even fuck the same

-

Marceline and Tate sit together in silence on her front porch. Her dad and stepmom were out for lunch, leaving Marceline alone.

"I start with a fucking math tutor on Monday," she says, breaking the silence they sat in comfortably. "It's bullshit. How I have to learn this crap that I'll never need," Tate just nods in agreement. He never liked math, but he understood it enough to have a good grade in the class.

"It's not my fault I can't focus for shit on tests," she adds, turning her head to face Tate. An idea sparked in Tate's mind as she said those words. "I have something that could help with that," he proposes.

Marceline arches her eyebrow, a look of both interest and confusion on her face. Tate stands from the porch, giving a signal for her to follow. Tate leads her back to his house, causing Marceline's heart to beat with excitement.

She was walking into the Murder House.

The house was grand and beautiful. More so up close. There were beautiful light fixtures and the stained glass designs were wonderfully crafted. All the furniture made the place more elegant.

Tate notices her gawking, a small smile spreading on his lips as he leads her upstairs and to his bedroom. His room had posters coating the walls. Bands like Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins, and Radiohead were the main ones on his posters.

He had a record player and multiple vinyls in a basket beside it. His bed was messy and unkempt but what could you expect? His entire room wasn't messy, per se. More like disorganized and cluttered.

Marceline watches Tate as he grabs a small box with a cheap lock off his desk and opens it. Inside holds all of the things Tate hides. His stolen medication, cigarettes and lighters, small bottles of fireball or tequila.

Maybe Tate wasn't this sweet, innocent kid people thought he was.

He hands her a white bottle of pills. She skeptically takes it, trying to read the label but it was too faded to make out any words. "What is this?" she asks him. "Some over-the-counter medication to help you stay focused," he answers nonchalantly, his words a lie but she didn't have to know.

Tate knew to hide his stolen medication in an old ibuprofen bottle so it looked like painkillers, not prescriptions that didn't belong to him.

"How do I take it?" she asks anyways.

"I personally like to crush it up and inhale it like coke. Works faster. You could do it normally but do it a good hour or two before your test or whatever," Tate explains, his words calm for him to be telling her how to take these drugs.

"Is it safe?"

"Is anything really safe?" Tate replies, his head tilted innocently to the side as his eyes stay locked on hers. "You can have the rest of those. I have a spare,"

Begrudgingly, Marceline nods. She was desperate for something to work. For something to help her focus and get better grades long enough so she could pass through high school and be done with it.

If it came down to it, she was fine with taking these mystery pills Tate had given her.

-

School went by slow and boring as always. The day ending with Marceline putting on her headphones and blasting music as she walked away from the school. She had to meet with her tutor today.