Franchesca Ryans met life altering events after hooking up with Rafe Cameron at Midsummers last year. The seventeen yr old alcoholic finds herself back in her old ways after being released from rehab to come back home this summer.
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TW ✧ mention of violence
Last Year ✧ 7:38 pm
" Promise me we're getting out of here."
Her eyes left a fire, climbing in height as tall flames burned violently in front of the two.
The sky above the beach was dark, velvety. Summer air lingered with the briny scent of sea salt on damp skin and a smokiness from kindled firewood. And like most nights, the Island was wide awake, possessed by obnoxiously loud teenagers, creating chaos all weekend long.
This night was no different. An end-of-summer bonfire crowded the shoreline, with two sides of the Island, both celebrating the last Saturday before the start of a new school year. Going was Franny's idea. It usually wasn't, though, considering the past 24 hours she and Astrid had endured — endless wine coolers on a pretty beach was like a Marlboro after drinking.
Franny was hesitant as bruised lips slowly came together, forcing this small grin at the blonde standing right beside her. " 'Course we are. Ash, after graduation, I swear we—"
" Fran," her words idled, the waver in Astrid's tone voicing louder than the music on Aux. " ...I'm serious."
There were only two times Franny could count where she had ever seen Astrid cry.
Once when they were younger, six or seven maybe — and the three were running around a lily field in Kitty Hawk when K.C. had accidentally kicked a ground's nest open, urging this pissed-off mob of wasps to swarm after them. And the other was when she was twelve, first finding out her mom was sick, terminal, with only four months left to live.
It was rare to ever see Astrid break, which was one of the many things Franny admired most about her. This consistent ability to smile and persevere through almost anything life had tossed. And Kiara would always credit her Aries rising and Leo sun as the culprit, but Franny believed it was just who she was. Resilient, through and through.
Though, only failing to forget it whenever it came to her father.
Franny took her hand in hers, as four feet stood buried beneath grainy sand. " Two years from now, we'll be in a two-bedroom apartment in California. Working shitty office jobs—"
"Really shitty," Astrid added, a small smile finding her.
" With one cat, maybe three," she went on, as flickering firelight covered the two. " Plus, K.C.'s definitely getting into Santa Monica, so we'll go visit campus like every weekend." Franny's gaze fell to a small bruise across Astrid's cheek — faintly hidden beneath the same concealer she had pocketed a few months back.
The night before the bonfire, Franny was at Astrid's. It was a last-minute sleepover the two had planned, mostly consisting of lying in bed all day, reciting lines from Fast and Furious, and lighting joints from the bedroom windowsill. Everything was fine, normal, until Astrid and JJ's father, Luke, stumbled home drunk — searching the entire chateau for stashed rent money.
