𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐊 𝐑𝐄𝐃 [ON HOLD] , cara ward

𝟎𝟏. bribery muffins

DARK RED
chapter 01 ── ⋆⋅
bribery muffins

▌CHARLY'S HEAD RESTED against the cool glass of the buses window. She let her mind drift in hopes she'd forget about every reoccurring problem in her life. It was something she usually found herself doing. It was an escape.

The bus held a comforting silence as it rolled down the tree-lined streets. Charly sat beside Ravi who had his headphones on. He was staring forward, similarly zoned out. They'd ride the bus together in the afternoon since Ravi had work and Charly had volunteering.

The midday light filtered through the window, casting a sunlight that rested on her face.

The occasional murmurs of the other passengers filled the air, but Charly remained lost in her thoughts.

Her fingers traced the edges of Sal's old phone, now safely tucked in her bag. She had read and reread his last texts, each word sticking out like a sore thumb.

It was me. I did it. I'm sorry.

As the bus neared their stop, Ravi and Charly stood up. The doors opened, and they stepped out into the warm air.

Upon stepping out of the bus Charly noticed a girl who seemed to be waiting for the bus. She had short brown hair and Charly recognized her from school.

She assumed Ravi didn't notice her since he just walked past her. Ravi and Charly's houses were in the same direction so they walked home together most days.

As they were walking alongside a fence Ravi suddenly turned. Charly followed his eyes who were on the brunette from the bus stop. She now seemed to be following them.

"Hi?" Ravi asked eyeing her, "Do we know you?"

"No, Just taking a walk." She indicated at the dog leash in her hand. She had a bin under her other arm and lifted it up a bit, "With muffins."

Ravi chuckled softly, which he rarely did after Sal died. Him and Charly turned forward and continued walking.

The shorter girl began walking at the same pace as them, which now made Rabi stop walking.

He looked down at her, his eyebrows furrowed, "Are you sure we can't help you with something?"

"Well how do you know I'm not just heading this way?" She replied quickly.

Charly spoke up, "Do I know you from school?"

"Wait- you did that assembly dressed as Florence Nightingale." Ravi said in realization.

"Ugh Emmeline Pankhurst, but yes, that was me." The brunette said groaning.

"That explains it. I was wondering why Florence Nightingale would chain herself to the gym apparatus." thought Ravi.

"Yeah... that didn't go quite as planned." She smiled, "Took them two and a half hours to cut me free."

"And who's this?" Charly said leaning down to pet the golden retriever.

"This is Barney." She handed the leash to the red head, "He's very nice."

Charly smiled taking the leash. She always had a love for animals.

Charly held Barney's leash as she walked a bit ahead of the brunette and Ravi. The three of them had reached the street now and had been talking the whole way.

Ravi was guessing the muffin flavors and not surprisingly, getting them right. Ravi was a muffin expert which the girl caught on to quickly.

"So, pedestrian with muffins... this is me." Ravi said as they reached his house. Charly handed Barney's leash back to the girl.

"I'm Pip." Pip said at the unusual nickname, "I've actually been wanting to come by and talk to you, both, about my EPQ and so these are kind of... bribery muffins."

"You're what?" Ravi asked confused.

"Yeah, I don't know if when you were at school, if you had to do an EPQ" She continued, "Anyway, we do, which everyone's realy annoyed about apart from me."

Ravi and Charly shared looks to eachother, both noticing Pip's blabbering about her school project. It was weird she wanted to talk them about it.

"It's an Extended Project Qualification I need to do for my university application." She shifted a bit awkwardly, "I was gonna do a feminist analysis of the graphic novel, but then i thought 'What's something that really matters?' "

Charly could feel the words that were about to come out of Pip's mouth. Lots of people harassed them about Sal after the case.

"Which is when I thought of the Andie Bell case, and your brother." Pip said her voice lowering at the last part.

It was like a pin had dropped. Charly could feel the tension arise at Pip's words.

Pip continued, "So yeah I guess that's what i'm doing.. and I was wondering if I could ask you guy's some questions-"

Ravi pushed the tin back into Pip's hands, "Oh wow I think you should go."

"But-"

"My brother's dead." said Ravi harshly. He walked into his house and shut the door behind him roughly.

Pip and Charly stood in silence for a while.

"Sorry I didn't mean to-" began Pip, but was interrupted by Charly.

"Whatever you want to prove, don't bring him into it, please." She advised.

Charly turned around, following behind Ravi. She didn't want Ravi getting hurt again. Sal was dead and there was nothing an EPQ project could do about it.

authors note
first chapter done!

updates will probably be really slow since i just started school but i'll try updating as much as possible :)