dreaming of you: on my block

twlv

the group ended up doing nothing for the rest of the day, as elena rationalized they deserved to veg out before they start high school. when cesar counterpointed they still had two weeks, elena closed her eyes at him sleepily.

"okay, i didnt know you listened to so much music elena. are you a cool girl in disguise?"

"not amy dunne cool girl, because then this summer would probably take a turn."

elena rolled her eyes, lightly pushing ruby's shoulders as she shook her head.

"well, listening to music isn't that interesting of a thing. we all do it, no?"

"no elena, i don't listen to 8 hours of elevator music a day. actually, it's not that cool now that i think it over and say it outloud. i take back what i said."

ruby and elena bust out laughing together, monse eventually joining in too because of the proximity. jamal watched with easy eyes, for once finally at peace with elena now integrated into the group. cesar talked idly to the guests who were there for elena, making small talk until elena remembered they were there.

"hey!! remember how we used to watch gossip girl and compare the old sets to where they were supposed to be?" elena asked, fully turning to aurora now with her eyes wide in excitement.

"they're some of my best memories. why do you ask?"

"because, i feel like we didn't give enough credit to those poor 2000s set makers. moving here has really opened my eyes to how much work is involved in everything. work is everywhere!! what bubble did you have me in to where we never noticed, huh?" elena laughed, aurora laughing too after a beat.

"yeah, you make a good point. i guess you're growing without me just like you said you wouldn't, huh?" aurora asked, swinging her arm over elena's shoulders. elena laughed at that, clearing her throat before assuring her longtime friend that she was just having a shift of perspective.

"so, how much privilege do you think these two got elena while she was under their wing?" ruby whispered to monse, who snorted down a laugh before making a serious and almost-scolding face to him. "what matters is she's here, right? roots are all we have sometimes. don't make her feel bad for the way she used to live." monse stated, making cesar chuckle eavesdropping-ly.

"so, what are we doing tomorrow?"

the week went by seamlessly, aurora and tanner getting close to the group just the way elena wanted them to. she got a little emotional knowing both groups from these totally different parts of her life were now so close, but she figured that was a good sign about her own personal growth.

when she had to wish them goodbye, she let her freeridge friends comfort her for the two days that followed. they all hung out so frequently, but never really at elena's place. monse knew that it still bothered elena knowing her dad wasn't home yet, and also knew they shouldn't force that on their new friend if she wasn't ready.

so she thought.

"hey, how come we've never met your family?"

jamal asked brashly, making elena look up from her phone. "oh, i don't know. ruby's met them, right?" elena said, breaking off into a loud laugh as she suddenly remembered what happened when ruby visited. "oh, yeah. nice people. nice house. nice." he said curtly, suddenly very interested in the blades of grass under them.

"wow, favoritism! im hurt elena, truly." cesar said, dramatically frowning at elena to which she stuck her tongue out at him. "i mean, it's just my house. i don't really think it's a big deal, but if it's so important how about you guys come over tomorrow? i need time to clean and all of that.

"what food do you guys want? and what should we do? should we watch movies?"

monse looked at the group and they all broke into laughter, making elena huff at them. "well, you want to come over, and i want to make sure you guys have a good time! my idea of a good day in is watching tv in a big shirt and even bigger sweatpants. maybe it should be just a me and monse thing, hm?" elena said teasingly, sitting next to monse and linking arms.

ruby rolled his eyes playfully, jamal clearing his throat before explaining that planning it makes it less fun. elena disagreed, saying she likes to maximize her time, and then they were off. 

"so, tomorrow at elena's. what time?"

"i mean.. 10am? not too early but still early enough to where we can get some things in."

and so it was set, the group getting ready to call it a day and go home until jamal had one last suggestion.

"what about a sleepover? tomorrow marks the last half week before school starts, you know. we need to celebrate as much as we can!"

okay yall. first i'd like to say i literally wrote this from 2:14am to 2:54am so please forgive how painfully filler-y it is, but i also want to clarify something:

i'm going to be doing some major editing on this book.

i cut the whole oh aurora and tanner visiting thing completely out bc like.. why does it matter yk 😭 like i don't know why i added it in the first place but i figured it was good for elena's character development in giving her peace at fully putting her former self to rest i guess. something philosophical like that lol
but also, i was rereading the book bc i could not for the LIFE of me remember what the timeline i had set for this book was so now i'm just assuming i had it to three weeks before school started now one week gone which does mean what's her face is coming 😏 anyways so i was reading trying to see if i had mentioned anything but intuition told me i had said three weeks AND I FOUND SO MANY ERRORS. so if you see me updating it's me editing them bc it's fr so bad like man i'm abt to start college to study literature and i didn't even use the right heals 😣😣 embarrassing fr ANYWAYS!!
as always i'm so so grateful for the patience you all have had and all the beautiful words you have left me. i'll be honest and say a big part of me didn't want to update bc the story had strayed from where i wanted it to go when i had the whole oh aurora and tanner thing going and that was the main reason i didn't update simply bc i lacked the patience, but lately i'm realizing i needed to do something about that and i have the time so why not, especially bc you my dear readers deserve it <3 more to come!! i'm also killing off how i included outfits at the end of each chapter bc it feels cringy to me LMFAO unless yall want me to keep it but for the time being that feature has been retired ❤️
- yours, emma