Before The Storm ( wlw / lesbian )

Chapter 12

"Grace, you have to talk to me!"

The brunette was met with eyes filled with contempt. The words came to her, dancing around on her tongue but she couldn't speak. She knew not to speak.

"It's your fault." Grace spat back. No one else was around, and yet it felt like a million voices were speaking; a million eyes watching her. "You did this to me."

Toni's eyes followed the path of Grace's lithe body, down to the blood seeping through her clothes like ink. Bruises were developing on soft alabaster skin, red rimming once fiery eyes. "Im sorry, I never meant for you to get hurt-" Toni choked out a sob, trying to reach for the gingers hands, but she just seemed to slip further away from her grasp the more she tried. "Please Grace, please don't leave me..."

"You should have died instead of Christian."

Toni felt her heart stop at the words that left her mouth. She sounded angry, as if something was possessing her. But what was worse was the look on Grace's face. So broken and lost. She hated her. "No- Grace I- Please wait-"

Toni woke with a start, groaning at the thumping in her head and pounding at the door to her trailer. Casting a glance to her bedside table the old digital alarm clock beamed 3:42 am mockingly back at her. It had taken her two hours to fall asleep, slaving over a stack of homework she'd neglected while spending her time with Grace.

Grace. Even when she wasn't around, she was all consuming.

Toni threw the covers off of her and stumbled into the kitchen, careful not to wake Dakota up on the couch as she pulled the door of her trailer open to reveal a disgruntled looking Coen with Susie, Matt and Veronica trailing a few feet behind. Their faces were solemn, stoic. "Um, hey guys?" The girl greeted half heartedly, "What are you doing here?"

"We need to talk, Toni." Susie answered on behalf of the group, looking past her to the living room where the little girl slept peacefully, having transported herself for late night TV at some point. "Can we come in?"

"Uh," Toni scratched at her head, blinking a few times to gather her bearings. "Yeah, okay? Let me just-"

She quickly moved to pick up her little sister, carrying her into the warmth of her bed. She kept snoring as if nothing had happened.

One day, you'll be a Raven, and will miss these days, kid.

-

"Dead? Are you sure?"

The core four looked amidst themselves, sipping at the shitty coffee Toni had made for them due to the ungodly hour and pounding headaches they all were facing. "Yeah," Matt modded solemnly "It was... fucked up."

"Half of her head was..." Veronica inhaled between her teeth. "Smashed in like a pumpkin.."

"Toni, um..." Susie grimaced at her best friend's comment, Coen squeezing her shoulder reassuringly "You don't.. think it could be Grace, do you?"

The words tasted bitter on the blondes tongue and felt like poison to Toni's ears. "What the fuck did you just say?"

Grasped in one hand was her mug looking as if she was about to crush it to pieces. She's livid - anger bunching her brows together, pursed lips, and usually doe-like eyes narrowed and sharp - more like a ferocious bear than any deer.

The harshness of her sudden outburst made her friends flinch, but she didn't really care about their precious feelings, what with Susie insinuating her own cousin was a cold blooded killer.

Coen was methodical. Always planning. The cogs in his head never stopped turning. He didn't even take a beat before cutting into the tension-filled conversation.
"Look, isn't it weird that Grace skips town and then suddenly we find her abusive mothers dead body in the brush?"

It was weird. Toni gave him that and sighed, releasing some tension bunched in her shoulders that had festered there since December.
"I know that Grace hates her mom but I doubt she's capable of murder."

Coen looked skeptical, but didn't press the matter, knowing better than to push Toni about matters that came to Grace.

Matt didn't know so much. "You have no clue what the head bitch in charge is capable of..."

Toni's jaw clenched, fiery eyes glaring at the red headed boy who was being scolded by his girlfriend. He was vapid at times. She cleared her throat to avoid biting his head off before speaking, "Well, as much of a pleasure this has been, I'm damned tired."

The group all stood, thanking her for the coffee and the girls sharing a few hugs before they filed out of the RV, Coen pausing at the door, soft features illuminated by the moon
"Just.. Be careful, alright? There's already been so many deaths around here."

"I can take care of myself, Coe. Always have. "Toni replied, although grateful for her best friend's concern.

It was too much, all that been happening. Grace left her and now she was a suspect in her own mother's murder.

The Raven decided there was no point in sleeping, knowing there was a slim chance she'd be able to with the procuring thoughts in her mind, and the probability of being awoken with kicking to her head by tiny feet, and instead flipped on the TV and cracked open a lukewarm bottle of beer.

-

School was mind numbing. But with Rich's operation in full swing, Clairfield High's students found it a bit easier to withstand even the most painful of Principal Hart's morning announcements.

So during practice, the Clairfield Angels were practically bouncing off the walls; minds sharp as ever and adrenaline pumping. To the co-captains in charge due to the redhead's absence who weren't participating in the powdery fun; it was like the rest of the team chugged a shit ton of pre workout.

"It's like a bunch of amped-up addicts." Veronica cut into their horrified silence, surveying the girls who performed maneuvers none of them were capable of before the influx of drugs.

"Well, the Ravens are being paid pretty damn well so I'd imagine so." Toni said, turning to face the other two. "So um.." her voice lowered "Any new news about Beatrice?"

Susie casted her best friend a look and shrugged, eyes fixated on the cheerleaders practicing over Toni's shoulder. "Coen thinks someone must've snuck into the hospital and knocked her out then escaped without anyone noticing, maybe wanted something from her then tried to get rid of the body. Of course, not very well."

Toni  nodded softly. "Do you think.. Grace knows?" Even saying her name panged her with a wave of sadness.

"I dunno, Toni." Susie answered, her voice threaded with sympathy.

"Aaanyway," Veronica perked up, smiling in attempt to change the uncomfortable topic. "Are you guys coming to Mattie's party this weekend?"

"Is there ever a weekend Northside kids don't have a party?" The Raven quipped with a laugh, grateful for the determent.

"You'd think so, but none of us hardly ever actually study so, why not?"

"Holy shit!" A girl shouted, Amanda, who caught the other girls' attention. Their reflex of shock quickly melted into laughter at the sight of one of the Angels running around shouting happily with her uniform in one hand, a speaker blaring Shut up and Drive by Rihanna in the other as she ran across the field, the football team whooping in encouragement.

In that moment, with her friends beside her laughing, and feeling as if she was finally experiencing a carefree high school career; Toni felt okay, like maybe she'd be alright without Grace.

Until the drugs wore off, that was.