✓ DYING MOURNINGS, original

twelve : brent maxwell

┌─────━┿──┿━─────┐

𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐕𝐄 : 𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐌𝐀𝐗𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐋

└─────━┿──┿━─────┘

Thursday was surprising in every way.

I woke up around seven to a phone call from Blondie. School was canceled because of a valve break in the boy's bathroom. The hallway was flooded which meant we had a four day weekend on our hands. She told me to come pick her up and we'd head over to the church for an early day, but we'd start with a coffee run.

I arrived at her house just a little after eight, surprised she wanted to be up this early even when we didn't have school but she came out of her house with a fresh face and her gym bag thrown over her shoulder.

When she got in the car, the first thing she asked me was about the party.

"You are going to Bridgette's party tonight, right?"

"Why the hell is she even having one on a Thursday night?" I asked as I drove down her street and towards town. "Did she know school was going to get canceled?"

Blondie laughed. "Her parents are going out of town and they'll be back Friday afternoon, so Thursday seemed like the best option and plus we can just have a ditch day and not go to school the next day. Like, no biggie."

"Says you," I mumbled with a laugh. "You actually have your school work done. I have so many missing assignments I'm practically drowning."

"Does seem kind of unfair," she said, pointing for me to go right and towards the drive through coffee place near the grocery store, "that you're out here saving the world and you still have a french exam and an english term paper coming up." She shrugged, pulling out her wallet. "At least you get more time to finish your homework so we can go out tonight."

"You're really dead set on this party, aren't you?"

She nodded eagerly. "I heard Brent Maxwell is going to jump into the pool from the roof. Said he was going to do a backflip and everything."

"Who the hell is Brent Maxwell?"

"Bridgette's totally cute boyfriend."

"And that makes the whole party thing worth it?"

She nodded, reciting her coffee order to me so I could repeat it at the window. When she had her latte in hand, hazelnut with almond milk and a splash of vanilla, she began to tell me her reasons why we should go to the party.

"There will be boys," she offered to me first before rolling her eyes and mumbling, "Okay, so, yeah, that doesn't change anything but there's going to be freeze booze."

"There was free booze at your party and I got shot."

"You'll finally get to meet your classmates outside of me and Luke."

"I don't need to meet them. We graduate in, like, two-ish months? I don't know."

She rolled her eyes, licking the foam off her lips after she drank. "You'll get to actually forget about all your problems for once, Blaire. When was the last time you actually just forgot for a second that all of this was going to end in doom and gloom? And don't say my party because you didn't get the chance to forget but Tobias is gone, okay? He's gone and John, Ace, and whoever wouldn't think of crashing."