Edge of the Dark // Noa Olivar

vi. i thought drug dealers were supposed to be fun

When Joey woke up the following morning, her phone battery was drained. The power was out completely, and her eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. It was laying on her pillow, right by her head instead of its usual place on her drawer where she leaves it charging for the night. But right as the confusion began to creep even further, Joey recalled the fact that she and Noa had fallen asleep whilst on the call.

Guess old habits didn't die hard.

Whilst they dated, there were days where they would set up a call throughout the night and sleep to the sound of the other breathing — of simply being there with them. It was more so for Noa's sake if anything, the brown eyed girl had some difficult nights of insomnia at times and occasionally took magnesium pills to help her sleep, but having someone sleep with her helped her far more than the pills could ever.

Joey did her the unspoken favor of keeping the call going through the night and waiting until she knew for sure that Noa was asleep, but she might have forgotten to end it before she passed out too.

Before she could read too much into things, she plugged in her phone into her charger while she got ready for school. Her alarm hadn't gone off since the battery died before it turned five, so  Joey was already late to school, and she'd be even more late after she stopped by Nurse Simmons' office. With a sigh, she left her house and roamed the streets of her hometown. A vibration in her jeans had her taking out her phone and glancing down with a smile.

Baby KiKi: Leslie's finally giving me time to use my phone today. Can we call later? ik you're at school but I really want to talk to you. I miss you

Luckily, she wasn't anywhere near school, so she hit the dial button and put her phone up to her ear. Kiara answered right away and she sounded awfully cheery at the sudden call.

"Hey! I didn't think you'd call right away!" Kiara exclaimed happily, her familiar voice putting a larger smile on her older sister's face. "Aren't you supposed to be in class right now?"

"Well technically, yeah," Joey sighed, walking across the street carefully as she sped up her pace. "but I forgot to charge my phone last night and the alarm didn't go off, but I'm on my way right now. How've you been? How's Leslie treated you?"

Leslie Williams was Kiara's current foster parent, her temporary placement one town over from Millwood in which her little sister was staying at. Joey planned on figuring out a way to get her placed back in Millwood.

Her first foster parents had been from their own little town, but they never kept their foster kids for long, so Kiara was placed somewhere else. Somewhere outside of Millwood, and part of Joey's probation requirements was that she couldn't leave town.

The second she got the rusty piece of metal off her leg, she was driving all the way to Kiara and spending the entire day with her. Afterwards, she'd try visiting every so often so she wouldn't be all by herself over there.

"She's — a very spiritual person." Kiara responded hesitantly. "Not that I'm saying that's a bad quality to have. But she's the opposite of how Carter was and it's a little overwhelming right now."

"And then she's also the fact that she's super strict on technology." Kiara groaned. "She won't let me use my phone to call you, but I promised to willingly do some yoga with her later today so she's giving me my phone for the day."

"Is that why I haven't heard from you?" Joey asked.

"Yeah." Kiara hummed. "I've tried to get her to let me call you sooner but she's still skeptical about letting me use my phone."

"Do you think I can visit once I get my ankle monitor off?" Joey asked, faltering in her steps as she thought about something. If Kiara's foster parent didn't want her around then there was literally nothing Joey could do to be there for her little sister. "Or do you think she's gonna say no? 'Cause I was planning on heading over there once I got it off, but—"