care for each other • paxton hall-yoshida

raising suspicions

fallon sat in the student lounge with eleanor, fabiola, and devi, who was currently discussing her punishment for going to trent's party. fallon, however, was barely tuned into the conversation. her songbook had been cracked wide open, finding some less than fortunate inspiration after the party's events. she couldn't describe exactly what she was feeling, but the lyrics that were practically pouring out of her were doing a good job at the expression she couldn't voice.

white flowers and love letters
you say i'm yours forever
but it don't feel romantic somehow

"fallon?" devi waved a hand in front of the girl's face, noticing how spaced-out she was, "are you listening to any of us?"

it wasn't that devi needed the girl to listen to her, but at the same time she would have liked the extra set of ears to sympathize with her atrocities. not to mention, eleanor had just been talking about her mom and fallon hadn't even bothered to blink in her direction.

the girl smiled sheepishly, slightly embarrassed about how engulfed she was, "sorry, guys. i'm kinda on a roll here and it's hard to put it down."

devi nodded, trying to understand the girl's hobby, but not entirely interested in anything that didn't involve academia, "did you get in trouble for going to that party? my mom's gone totally insane."

fallon shook her head, not able to relate to devi's total lockdown of a social life, "not by my parents, no. i mean, i used to go all the time when i-"

"right." devi nodded awkwardly, feeling bad for bringing up the sore subject. whatever joe had done to fallon, she needed heavy reconstruction before she could talk about it so casually. despite how easily she threw his name around the previous week, she had been reset to her former, heart-broken, and overly sensitive self.

"yeah, so they're all used to it now," fallon finished her sentence, giving devi a small, comforting pat on the shoulder, "but if it makes you feel better, me and him talked during the party and now i feel like the sky is falling."

eleanor gasped, smacking the girl harshly on the shoulder, "how are we just now hearing about this?! you have to tell us what happened."

the three girls sat on the edges of their seats, knowing this was a huge bomb that their friend dropped. they didn't get to hear a lot about fallon's life, she kept very private always, but they knew she would talk about this. she had to get it off her chest.

"fine," the girl spoke timidly, still not sure she understood the situation herself, "i saw him at the party and he was drunk and alone, so he called me over. we talked in a really weird, cryptic way for a little and it kind of felt like it did when we were dating. but then, i don't know, paxton sat with us and then joe left, so it was just me and paxton. then devi got bit by a coyote and joe texted me saying that he had fun and i didn't answer, and then by the time i wanted to answer the next morning he had unsent it. so now i'm just feeling weird and sad and like i missed an opportunity."

devi looked at the girl with knit brows, knowing this was the first time she had heard of any of this. it was true, she was pretty wrapped up in paxton, but that then raised the question: why were fallon and paxton hanging out during the party? however, the girl knew better than to bring that up while her friend was ranting about her ex. it seemed to be in poor taste.

"have you seen him since?" devi asked, staring at the girl with suspicious eyes. she didn't want to grill her friend, but she had no choice. she wanted to know exactly what was going on.

"in the hallways." the girl replied, but quickly clamped her mouth shut as she saw the hot pocket entering the space.

"hey, coyote girl, over here." trent smiled, gesturing for devi to come over and sit with the group of popular boys.