CAPACITY FOR WONDER. | alex albon

iii. sunset pink

This was a moment Juniper regretted. Cornered by two sides. Parallel forces. She sat opposite Charles and Charlotte, both too smug with how their plan turned out to see the obvious glare she was giving them. Or perhaps they just knew how this glare translated, despite its rarity. It told them one thing, gave them one message.

Well done.

It wasn't like she wasn't easily tricked nor had she not fallen for a trap before but theirs was so smooth, she hadn't suspected anything for a second.

Charles and Charlotte weren't facing Juniper alone. Beside her, happily enough, completely oblivious to her obliviousness, sat Alex.

Like she could admit, it was smart of them. A small gesture at first, saying they wanted to get back into normality now they had made and broken their new years' revolutions already. Charlotte for letting her younger sister steal her clothes and letting her get away with it -- something she promised she would stop doing, yet Charlotte was as placid as ever. Charles had made a deal with Arthur to not interrupt any of his time with his girlfriend when they went to see their mother on weekends. He never had any intention of keeping to it, but the satisfaction of leading Arthur to believe he might was, as a direct quote, 'more than enough for him.'

Thankful to see that both of them realised they'd never change so specifically just because the year had, she agreed. She would've been wrong to do so when Charles presented the fact he felt like he had barely seen her since Lewis' party and Charlotte's time with her got taken away a couple of days before.

It's not like they weren't affectionate, they were -- certainly to each other, but sometimes Juniper knew that she wasn't wanted. They'd always told her wanted wasn't the right word to use, but until another existed for 'not necessary at the moment, but maybe later', she settled for wanted, or rather unwanted.

They were sweet enough too when she arrived, to the point where she now sat there wondering how long it had taken them to plan this. Alex's job seemed seasonal from what they had discussed before, just like Charles', but to match 4 schedules at once seemed all too much like hard work. Especially with how loose Juniper's sometimes was -- Charles had once described Juniper as a horizon, something she hadn't understood at the time but as he began to use it more frequently, it became obvious.

Juniper was a horizon because every once in a while, every emotion and every thought took control and in replace of her presented nature became a red sky, wherein the mornings, not only shepherds took warnings. Other times, there was no mix of colour at all and instead of a blended personality, there were layers. She dictated which layers she showed, when, and where too, and to get from the surface of blue to the depth of pinks took courage that she knew most people didn't have. She'd blaze through the day so eyes never lingered and by night, she had burnt herself out into the oblivion of darkness in preparation for her neverending cycle.

Charlotte had also commented that not all sunsets looked as pretty in pictures as they did in real life too, and as separate as it was, it applied to her too. Any version of herself she put into the world was great, that was made sure of. But there is an undeniability, where the person she was around them was so different to who she was around them - because it was hard to get into the in-group with some of Charles and Charlotte's friends, let alone stay there.

A foot collided with her shin in a kicking motion. Once, twice, and then for a third before a voice followed the action.

"J, come on, you gotta order," Charles said as his legs returned under his half of the table, a surrender in the game of footsies she was tempted to begin. "Unless you just feel like dehydration is it for you today?"