Westbane

Episode 5. 14 Needles, Debts and Dottie?

8:54AM

Picklewood Patridge

School was back to normal, and Picklewood could no longer see the long faces the students had carried after the news of Brody's death.

This was how it was in Westbane; she had always tried to figure out exactly how fast people could turn their backs and smile through life changing situations. Almost like they were forgetting all the ill that happened in the town, and focusing on the good stuff that seemed to leave out her family from its daily blessings.

It was probably why she always carried a scowl on her face anytime she saw other people being so damn ignorant of the problems in the world. Not that she was angry at the fact that people were happy.

She was angry at the fact that they were happy and couldn't keep it to themselves.

Even though it was all just a front to cover up their faults, it was sickening to see the fake smiles, the cheers and the whole noisy silence all around her, each and every day.

She knew almost every face around her, could spot her ex-crushes floating around without even sparing a glance her way.

Picklewood had pretty much given up on the topic of love as it was.

All her life she had shuffled between crushing on boys and girls... and she had also never been one to hide that feeling from them either, it was probably the reason why she told each and every one of her crushes about her feelings.

It never went down well with them... well except for one time.

It had began when she started handling the responsibilities her dad ever so gracefully neglected when he befriended alcohol, still hurt by the fact that her mother had left him high and dry, full of debts and with the responsibility of taking care of two teenage girls; One who found a perfection in every imperfection, and the other who didn't give a fuck about life and the things that were meant to be normal.

Each day she would go to the sheriff station to pick up reports for the newspaper, and that was how she met Carly White. At first sight, she had thought Carly was really pretty, but she was still head over heels for a girl at her school, so she didn't really give way for those thoughts to linger.

Every day, she would reach the station, and Carly would always reserve one of her life changing coffees for Picklewood, after commenting on how tired Picklewood always seemed to be. Little did Carly know, she wasn't tired, she was just some high teenager taking up adult work.

It went on for weeks, and Picklewood began to give way to these feelings, noticing the littlest things about Carly, how beautiful her laugh was, how her skin seemed to glow... her dark brown hair always in perfect shape, her body all sexy in that police uniform...

It honestly didn't take long for Picklewood to get crazy over Carly. She had caught Carly staring at her a thousand times, and it always made her feel all warm inside.

The night Picklewood confessed her feelings to Carly at the start of Westbane high last summer break, Carly had been so surprised, but didn't reject her...

They started seeing each other in secret over the summer break, and when the break was beginning to draw to an end, Picklewood noticed Carly began to grow more distant, she was scared to ask what was wrong because she was scared of the response she might have gotten.

But on the last day of summer vacation, Carly had opened up to Picklewood about her concerns... she had been worried about what people would say about their age difference and all. Apparently, someone had taken note of their little secret, and Carly had freaked out.