2 | Defiance Discipline Dream Repeat

Give it to me, lass! - Sophia's POV

I decided to bring Zander, Jasper and Oliver outside for tea today because I'm quite sure retelling last night's event in front of everyone in the lounge will cost me a one-way ticket to isolation. Just as I imagined, sharing what I saw last night had my mates surprised and captivated.

"GOOD AFTERNOON, LADS AND LASSES!'' Bella sings lustily, and our best girlfriend comes galloping around the corner of the old garage with her hands on her head, holding the cerise beret in place.

We wave at her and shout to her to come over, and I gesture for her to sit next to me on our picnic blanket. Jasper reaches for the bag in the middle and takes out a raspberry muffin to give her.

Slumping cross-legged beside me, and as if she was starving, Bella shoves the entire muffin into her mouth. ''Can I have one?'' she mumbles with her mouth stuffed, implying my cigarettes.

I look askance at her. ''Are you a smoker now, Bella babes?''

''Sure,'' she replies, grinning at me roguishly.

''You're slipping out some untrue words now,'' Jasper quotes Bella herself, chuckling.

''Hush, silly boy!'' she shushes, placing a finger over Jasper's lips. ''Pretty pleaseeee, Phia love?''

I waver for a moment. It feels immoral to offer your non-smoking friends a cigarette, especially if they are like Bella. And I wonder if this could get me in trouble—if not with Sebastian, will her mum come and chide me? Jody isn't the scolding type of mother, though. Maybe Debbie, but she's not the mother to either of us, though she tends to think that, and she also smokes like a pack a day herself.

"...Don't blame me for an expensive addiction or health issues." I grab my pack and pluck out a cig for her while Oliver reaches for his lighter and hands it to her.

She takes them and appears somewhat puzzled over what to do. She puts it between her lips but struggles with the lighter and becomes a bit frustrated, eventually giving it to me so I can light it for her.

I'm still hesitant about this...

"Give it to me, lass!" Bella's sudden caw—an exaggerated imitation of Debbie makes us laugh and honestly a tiny bit frightened.

"She doesn't sound like that! Her voice isn't that raspy and fierce!" I scold.

"She sounded like that when I took her phone and kept mimicking her for a good while," she grins, giggling.

"You're dancing with the Devil–"

"Give it to me now, lass!" Bella's squawk echoes in the abandoned car park, and my startled reaction to her imitating Debbie jeeringly again is the new reason for my mates' laugh.

"Shut up and never do that again!" I hastily light it because of her impatient stubbornness to try. ''Don't swallow the smoke now."

She sucks in smoke to instantly blow it out, wincing. ''It doesn't taste as it smells." She studies the cigarette and tests it again, resulting in coughing and grimacing. "It seems like an unnecessarily complicated skill to learn only to harm you."

''I couldn't have worded it better myself," I remark.

''Let that be your last ciggy, Bella,'' Oliver says.

''Deal! I don't think I want to finish this.'' She sticks her tongue out and pants like a dog, rummaging through her bag for a water bottle.

''Wise choice," Jasper comments praisingly and takes her cig to stub it out.

''It feels like the nasty taste sticks to your mouth and throat," she says and begins gulping water from her vampire-themed bottle.

''Bella Everly!''

Now, that's one incensed voice I do not recognise. Bella pulls a hot pink phone out of her sleeve and shushes us when we look at her questioningly.