𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞, 𝐓𝐚𝐫𝐚 - 𝐄𝐮𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚

01

September 3rd, 2024 - Present Time

"Have a good day baby!", "Yep", Tara exits her house, pressing the button on her car keys to unlock the car door. She gets inside and rests her head against the steering wheel lightly.

"One more year Tara that's all you got...", she whispers. Eventually she pulls herself together enough to begin driving. But she could really use a blunt right now.

Music played lowly as she drove to school, her eyes focused straight but her mind was elsewhere, far away. She wondered how her sister, Ana, was doing; Harvard was always taking up her time.

They hadn't spoken in months unfortunately due to neither of them having the willpower to pick up the phone. There was still some tension between them, the girls mother, Ramona, only hoped it would end soon.

She needed her daughters to stick together now more than ever.

Eventually Tara got to East Highland Highschool, students were outside the school like zombies, everywhere she looked there were kids.

Once Tara found a parking spot she reached into her bag grabbing her schedule, that only contained 3 of 8 classes. Perks of being a senior.

She had until 2nd period to do whatever, which started at 12:15, it was currently 8:30. As much as she begged to stay home today, with her mother telling her she didn't want another visit to court for her absences, her mind was drawing blanks on what to do.

"I guess I could stay in the library", she got out and entered inside with a bunch of other kids.

Her attention was on her phone when all of a sudden she bumped into someone, looking up she realized it was just a random guy. She moved away too fast for him to say anything, disappearing into the crowd once again.

Her AirPods played Brent Faiyaz on full blast as she made her way to the library. But a growl from her stomach caused Tara to change direction and walk towards the cafeteria.

But she immediately regretted her decision when she walked in; Naomi was there. Sitting next to Josh smiling and laughing about who knows what.

Tara rolled her eyes and continued past them, catching Naomi's eye unfortunately. "Oh my gosh, Tara! I haven't seen you in forever...".

She says with fake enthusiasm, Tara simply ignores her making those around Naomi laugh quietly, Naomi didn't like that. She hated being embarrassed and she wasn't about to let Tara off the hook.

She got up and followed after her, tapping her on the shoulder. Tara turned around with a bored expression. "What?", "Just wanted to ask how your summer was!", "It was... fine, why?", "Just wondering, after all it must suck having to spend another year here in East Highland instead of at Josh's private island! I could only imagine the boredom you endured!".

Tara nods emotionless irritating Naomi who wanted a reaction out of her. "You won't be able to keep this unbothered act up for long, I know you're still upset that Josh left you for me!".

"More like I broke up with him because he clearly valued a quick hookup over our relationship!", Tara says with a fake smile.

Someone in line ahead of them snickered causing Tara to turn around and Naomi to look behind Tara, "What are you laughing at Ash? I dumped you for him!".

Ashtray held his hands up with a smirk, "I don't care what she said was funny as fuck, and true!". Naomi looks at him in shock and Tara grabs a breakfast sandwich from the counter.

Naomi started cussing at Ashtray so he told her angrily, "Yo get the fuck outta my face Naomi!", she walks away realizing she was causing a bit of a scene. But her anger was clear as day.

"Yo don't let her talk to you like that Tara", Tara slightly mugs him and says, "Stay outta this Ashtray...", "How can I when I play a part in it? I was cheated on too remember?", Tara looks him up and down before pursing her lips.

"You made it known to everyone you didn't want to be with her anymore, I never wanted that relationship to end, we're not the same.".

Ashtray shrugs with a head nod, "True but still, why don't you ever cuss her out? Or beat her ass?". Tara shrugs and begins to walk away.

Her mind was solely focused on her sandwich that she could wait to eat. "You applied to Harvard yet?", she jumped not knowing Ashtray had followed her.

"What?", "Harvard, you applied yet?", "No.", "How come?", "Cause I'm not going to Harvard!". Ashtray furrows his eyebrows, "Whatchu mean you not going to Harvard, Einstein?", "I meant what I said".

"But you were supposed to be my lawyer if I ever got caught!", "This is the longest we've ever talked Ashtray, what made you think I'd be YOUR lawyer?".

He holds his chest pretending to be offended, "I'm offended that you wouldn't be my lawyer! I thought we was cool!".

Tara rolls her eyes and enters the library. Ashtray following in behind her, "Don't you have class?", he shakes his head since his mouth was full of food.

Her shoulders dropped and she just let him follow after her all the way to the back of the library.

"So where you finna go now?", "I don't know". The truth was Tara had no intention of going to college anymore.

She lost all motivation years ago; after her dad died from a rare blood disorder. As hard as the doctors tried, there unfortunately was not a cure.

Tara was never really the same after that, Gia moved away to Georgia, and Naomi slept with her boyfriend.

Unfortunately Josh had some pictures Tara isn't proud of, and he leaked them. Which resulted in a screaming fight with her older sister, Ana, and all of this happened within Freshman year.

Yeah, Tara's life was really fucked up.

"Are you going to college?", Ashtray shakes his head. "College ain't for me", "Why do you say that?", "People like me... we don't belong with that kind of crowd. We're bound to cause trouble so it's better to just stay away all together!".

Tara nods and they fall into a silence that wasn't awkward nor comforting, it was just silence.

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I don't know how to feel about this chapter 🫤