a book of shots | tbn one shot collection

LIPS AND TEETH

Laces — or Térèse De La Guerra, as she'd been christened — had once thought herself to be the luckiest girl in the world.

Back then, there'd been Brock. There had been promises built on the lie that they just might live to have a happy ending. To him, she'd been a queen, and he, her king. They had been royalty.

Until they'd fallen.

Finch was the one who had told her about Brock's death. She'd been one of the first to know. That day, they had been rescuing Finch and Lane from the Refuge. Finch had been the one to find the body. She hadn't expected that to be their last day together.

And then, afterwards, The Unknowns. While Laces was still grieving, and trying to figure out what exactly had happened to Brock, other newsie leaders began dropping like flies. This was the position she, herself, had been promoted to, so it was no surprise that this was the last place she'd wanted to be. But Brock had been the one to appoint her as his second in command, and she hadn't wanted to let him down.

When Lane had entered the picture, she'd been furious. Lane had been one of the kids Flushing helped to get out of the Refuge. Sure, it had been Finch, too, but she'd known Finch for years. Lane, however, was new to their world, and even more than this, a Delancey.

In what world did a newsie fall for a Delancey?

That wasn't all.

Soon after, Laces began getting suspicious of Lane. She didn't understand how it could've been a coincidence that something so centered around the girl could end with her lover killed. When they got her and Finch out of the Refuge, Brock had been murdered while no one was the wiser. She didn't think it was unreasonable to think that Lane had purposely attracted attention to herself to divert it from Brock. And so Laces' investigation began.

She met again with Frisks, who, at the time, was on her side. The girl told her past stories of Lane, horid, horid stories that hardened Laces' heart even further against the redhead. But when Domino joined Lane's side — or however that situation had played out  — Laces began to reconsider things. And so when Lane and Racetrack Higgins had found themselves inside the Refuge yet again, she'd finally come to the conclusion that Lane was not at fault for Brock's death.

Long story short, she got them out, was reunited with her brother whom she may or may not have left for dead, and, a few weeks later... kissed Race for the first time.

"He wasn't a stranger," she muttered to herself, stalking the streets in search of a new customer.

It was true—he wasn't. But she hadn't known him as intimately as that before. Soon after the Refuge incident, when Domino had gotten him to gamble for her old laces, something had brewed within Laces. Something she hadn't felt since Brock's death, months before.

And she hated it.

Domino's mother had been imprisoned.

Soon after Kyle Delancey's death, the bulls received evidence of the woman's affiliation with his secret organisation, The Unknowns. From what she'd heard, the woman had gone back to Saint Patrick's cathedral to collect her daughter's lifeless body. Yet she hadn't been quick enough, thus landing her in jail.

Domino, on the other hand, received a funeral. Her mother had pleaded for one, and she'd been permitted only to attend the funeral, and even so, had been forced to stand at the back with a police officer.

Laces, too, had been in attendance.

Brock hadn't received a service, only a hasty burial. She was glad that at least one of her dearest friends' lives had been celebrated. Though she hadn't been in the mood to celebrate much of anything for the past few months.