"he has persuasive lips but terrible motives."
a story about young people navigating love, friendship, drugs and becoming an adult.
content warnings: mature content and descriptions of drugs, suicide and overdose.
edited in dec 2022.
Fuckshit could see the worry in her eyes and went up to her just as she hung up the phone and put it back on the hook.
"Everything okay ma?"
"I need to go help out my dad with something." She didn't feel like explaining, she would save that for when she had more time with him. Now she had to go before things would turn bad.
"Want me to go with you?" He looked down at her and a few curls fell forward.
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"No no, order pizza and I'll call you later." Isabella kissed him and then said goodbye to the rest.
She got her board and skated home as fast as she could without falling on her face. When Isabella approached her house she saw her. It was like seeing a ghost, a reminder of who she used to be that she was desperately trying to forget. Gemma looked the same. She had on a short skirt and a tank top, never afraid of showing too much skin. Her makeup was done to perfection and her hair was done in soft waves along her back. In her old friend group, Gemma had always been the prettiest. She could get anyone she wanted and everyone knew that.
"Well look at you..."
"Gemma? What are you doing here?" She replied and went straight to the point.
"Come on now, are you not glad to see me?"
"Of course I am. I just... didn't expect to see you on my front porch."
"Well... we hadn't talked in a while so I decided to pay you a visit." She didn't know what to say. When Gemma was around, trouble would emerge. There was always something going on and now that Isa had been away for so long, she hadn't kept up with the drama.
"And now you're here?"
"Are you not gonna show me inside? I wanna see how you have been living' here on the west coast." Isabella stepped up on the porch, her skateboard in hand as they entered the house. They went upstairs and got into her room. Gemma put down her bag on the floor and started going through Isabella's things.
"How long are you staying?" She didn't want to set Gemma off but she hoped it was a short visit.
"I don't know! I don't have any plans so..."
Isabella watched her as she went through her room. Gemma quickly found something that piqued her interest, it was a picture of her and Fuckshit. They had been to the mall one day and had to get some pictures taken at a photo booth. They were being goofy in most of them except for the last one when he leaned in to kiss her, which was her favorite one.
"Now, who is this hottie?" She asked with a devious smile as she looked back at Isa.
"Uhm... that's Fuckshit."
"Fuckshit? Maybe I should move to LA too if every guy out here looks like that."
She moved to sit down on her bed and let her keep on going through her room. Isabella didn't have much more to hide but she would've liked to get more time to tell her about fuckshit. Isabella had acted like a different person when she was with her old friends. She was timid and would go along with whatever the leader, Gemma, would tell her to do. It was hard to change a dynamic that had been created over several years. It was all so clear to her after the move, that Isabella didn't like who she was before she came to LA.
"You never said anything about a boy."
"I guess I forgot... we haven't spoken in a while, you know." Gemma sat down on the bed next to her, with her purse in her lap.
"Look what I brought us!" Proudly she dangled a small bag of pills in front of her. Isabella could feel her body tensing up at the sight of it. Gemma held out the bag to her but she shook her head.
"No thanks, I'm three weeks clean."
"For real? Nothing? No pills? No smoking?"
"Nothing."
"You know, the girls back home never thought you could stay off it. They thought you would've OD'd again by now. But I never doubted you, of course." Isabella didn't believe her. Many times she had thought Gemma was her friend but it turned out to be the opposite. It would always end up with a knife in the back.
"More for me then." Gemma said as she quickly put two pills in her mouth and swallowed them down dry.
"So what are we doing tomorrow night? I need to experience one of those LA parties."
"I uh... I can check."
"Good." Gemma applied some lip gloss as she looked into her small pocket mirror. Her dad was fine with Gemma staying, he was just happy she was hanging out with a girl instead of the boys for once. Gemma was quite the charmer and sure had swooned isas father with acting all innocent and nice. Isa brought out a mattress on the floor and prepared it for the other.
"I'm just gonna make a call, be right back."
"Let me guess, to the loverboy?" She didn't answer and just made her way downstairs. Isa dialed his number and waited for him to pick up the phone.
"Yeah?"
"Hi baby."
"Hey mamas, you alright?
"Yeah I uh..." She sighed deeply before she continued.
"A friend from back home decided to show up unannounced."
"Nice! Or is it a bad thing?" He asked, trying to read her.
"It's... complicated. I can tell you everything tomorrow but uhm... she's gonna stay here for a while."
"How long?"
"I don't know yet... and baby, do you know if there's anything happening tomorrow night?"
"Uh, I can check with the boys but probably. Why?"
"She wants to party." She exhaled slowly and paused.
"Don't worry about it ma. We'll figure it out together." His positivity calmed her down but doing it together was what worried her. Gemma wasn't an easy person to handle and she always had a secret agenda behind everything she did. Isabella just hoped that she could play nice.
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
"You guess? I'm always right, shawty, haven't you learned that by now?" She couldn't help but laugh. No matter what was going on in her head, he could always make her laugh.
"Yeah yeah, I'm going to bed now. See you tomorrow."
