madness and ecstasy // leo valdez

-appearing blondes-

welcome to the four-years-later rewrite y'all <3 

this books getting renovated so i'm cutting out a few of the subplots i never used grammars getting an invitation also plot holes beware i'm coming for you. i hope y'all enjoy i'm so pumped for this!

IF ANYONE REREADS THIS AND THEY SPOIL ANYTHING FOR OTHER READERS I'LL BLOCK THEM IM SERIOUS [ofc you can comment stuff if you find foreshadowing or character development and all that jazz but if you actually spoil major shit you won't get reading privileges]

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Teqi sniffed. She rubbed her nose, not daring to open her eyes.

Whatever she was leaning on, was made of the most awful scratchy material that smelt of dried soft drink and sleep. Then she sneezed, accidentally kicking the back of the seat in front of her. Someone swore, and an empty juice box hit her forehead as she blinked and looked around. 

Everyone else on the bus was either napping or staring out the window with glazed eyes and AirPods in their ears.

She looked out the window, past the smudges. Those balls of dead plants that belonged in cowboy movies tumbled across the endless red dirt. It stretched out as far as the eye could see and made the bright sky even brighter. The sun was just as harsh.

Shifting in her seat, Teqi groaned, and stretched. "Ugh, my legs've gone to sleep."

"Well yeah, you were sleepin' like a baby."

"You and I must've looked after very different babies, cause lemme tell you..." Teqi mumbled, rubbing her heavy eyes. She squinted down at Leo, who was fixing the collar of his scratchy jacket where she must've pulled it down. "And maybe I would have actually gotten some sleep last night if I hadn't had to stand guard outside that old goat's room while you snuck in... Bitch boy."

Leo just winked; except he scrunched up his whole face brown pointy face in the process. He turned in his seat, kicking the juice box off it without realising. "Yeah, right, Jason. We've all been framed! I didn't run away six times. Piper didn't steal a BMW, and Teqi hasn't... what did you do again?"

"Threw a cop through a window."

Piper narrowed her eyes. One of them was brown like Leo's, with sections lighter, and the other a dark blue. "Last time you said it was a fire alarm at an art gallery, and I didn't steal that car, Leo."

"Whatever you say, Pipes," Leo muttered, glancing to the white-blond boy sitting beside Piper with his eyebrows raised.

Teqi had never seen him before.

She rubbed her nose again. How did Leo handle wearing such a musty army jacket all day? She much preferred her soft hoodies, even if they got stringy after too many washes. There were less pockets, though. She stuck her hands into the pockets of her hoodie. It was the colour of a strawberry. An overripe one.

She fished out a snapped hair band and a very old stick of gum. Teqi also had a packet of stickers, a collection of knives, a few safety pins, and a polaroid photo in her pockets.

Leo tapped her knee. His curly dark hair had flopped in front of his eyes. It looked very soft. "Teqi, Jase reckons he doesn't know us! It's totally cause of the glue in the toothpaste thing."