Another Lifetime

Chapter 21

DeAnna Kastell

I took a doughnut and some cheap coffee then took my seat in the meeting like always. I checked my phone and I had four texts. One was from Jessie, one from Harry, another from Frank and the last one was from X.

'Jessie Bae: Missing the Hateful Eight babes!! x'

'Harrison Ford: dude, H8ful 8 is on and Jessie is losing her shit!'

'CopBro: working late again but will see you before school tomorrow, don't stay up all night'

'XGK: Come by later Dea, need to tell you something'

I put my phone away and tried not to think about how ominous that text was. "What's with the face?" Stephie asked me as she sat down next to me.

"Weird text from X but I'll call him about it later," I told her and went back to eating my doughnut.

"Your ring has changed fingers," Adrien noted as he sat down next to me, "and I'm sorry about my brother being such a fucking asshole," he said sincerely and I just shrugged it off.

"We weren't exactly meant to be and I was using him for some sort of idealised American dream," I pointed out to him, "besides, I rebounded quickly," I added with a smile and twisted the ring on my finger.

"So you and Griffin are back together?" Stephie asked me and I nodded, continuing to twist my ring.

"Oh my god! She's engaged!" Adrien realised loudly and everyone turned to us. "Oops," he muttered and pulled up his hood.

"DeAnna? Is this true?" Chris asked me.

"Yeah, X asked me on Friday night but he promised a big public engagement once we graduate high school," I told him and he smiled a little.

"I wish you'd said something, I would have got a cake to smash your face into," Chris complained and I laughed at that.

A tradition at these meetings was when a big event in someone's recovery came up, Chris would get a cake then their sponsor would push their head into it.

"It was a last minute thing and I've been super busy getting revenge on my ex-boyfriend and doing a commission for my father, and hanging out with my friends," I justified why I hadn't told him and he gave me a look.

"I'll push her head into the left over filled doughnuts," Stephie suggested and I was fine with that plan because I was just going to eat all the doughnuts in the meeting.

"I'm down for that," I said and went to go get another doughnut as Chris started up the meeting.

"So this is where you go on Sunday nights," Sarah said from behind me.

"Cornering me at meeting is a dick move," I told her and dunked my doughnut in the fresh cup of cheap coffee. I turned to face her and she looked a lot different than normal.

She was in sweats with no makeup on and her hair was just all scruffy. "I figured it was the only place I could talk to you without Jessie or Harry being there to verbally bitch slap me for what I did," she said and pulled at her clothes awkwardly.

"I idolised you when I first got here, Sarah," I told her, "you were this force of nature who didn't care what people thought about her," I said and she looked even guiltier, "you inspired this piece of art that I loved creating, my superhero world and it you won me an incredibly important competition for young artists as well as a internship with an artist I've worshipped since I found art in recovery," I told her and this really couldn't get much worse for her.