burning - topper thornton s1 & s2

seven

"astrid it has come to my attention that topper and sarah have broken up." mrs thornton says to the girl who was seated in front of her.

"oh, uh yes ma'am i guess they did." astrid says, confused.

"i have also heard that you may have played a part in that." mrs thornton says and her eyes widen.

"i'm sorry, what?" astrid asks, shocked she's being accused of this.

"a friend of topper's says he saw you... kiss my son a few nights ago while he was still in a relationship." she tells astrid, astrid's heart pounding in her chest.

"y-yes we kissed but-" she's cut off by the woman.

"no buts. i will not have a home wrecker work for me. you are fired." astrid's face fell. she needed this job, even with her parents being kooks, astrid was still forced to pay for things herself.

"mrs. thornton, i assure you i had no role in their breakup." astrid tries.

"you. are. fired." she simply says and astrid gapes for a few seconds before standing up and leaving the office. she quickly made her way to topper's room. she needed to give him back his shirt which she had luckily brought with her today.

she knocked before quietly walking in. topper was still asleep.

she folded the clean shirt and put it on his nightstand before leaving his room and leaving the house for possibly the last time ever.

-

"i'm leaving!" topper heard his mother say as he walked out of his room.

"where's astrid?" he asked as he yawned. she was usually here by this time.

"oh i fired her." his mother said and he paused in his steps.

"w-why?" he asks and tries to act calm.

"because she is a bad influence on you and the twins." his mother tells him and then walks out the front door. topper knew the kids were at their friends house still, they went there last night because they can't go to midsummers.

he goes to his fridge in his room and pulls out a beer bottle, downing it quickly. he didn't drink in the morning often, but today just seemed like the right day to do it.

-

later that day astrid heard someone knock on the front door. no one else was home, her brother was at his girlfriend's house and her parents were still at work. she walked downstairs and opened the door, confused as to why the person in front of her was here. he wasn't looking at her, he was tapping his foot while looking back at his car.

"topper?" she said his name and he turned quickly.

"hey-hey uh how are you?" he asks and rubs the back of his neck.

"i'm fine, do you want to come in?" she asks him and he hesitates slightly.

"sure." he says and she steps aside, giving him room to walk inside her house.

"so, why did you come over here?" she asks while he looks around her house. he'd never been inside, only once when atlas had a party but it was dark so that didn't really count.

"well w-we didn't really end last night well." topper stumbles over his words and astrid squints her eyes at him before they widen suddenly.

"are you drunk?" she asks in a hushed tone even though no one else was home. he sighs and runs his hand over his face.

"my mother was annoying me." he grumbles and looks away from her, focusing his eyes on the tv.

"topper! you can't just get drunk whenever things don't go your way." she scolds him and he looks back at her angrily.