Tereze could smell Dave Strider from a mile away. His candy apple T-shirt and black licorice sunglasses were like music to her ears. Only it was her nose.
So it was no surprise when the coolkid came knocking on the Lalondes' door. It was no surprise that Terezi was already waiting when he did. Of course, it was no surprise when Terezi grinned from ear-to-ear and wrapped her arms around the littlest Strider and inhaled deeply.
It did kind of startle her when he didn't hug her back, though. When she pulled away and he lowered his shades, deep red candy apple irises gleaming sadly in the sun. That surprised her.
She leaned against the doorframe, looking defeated.
"I'm sorry, Ter," he said. "I just can't deal with the responsibility of all this right now."
What was she, a huntbeast? An Earth dog?
"Well, Coolkid," she'd murmured in response. "I thought we'd be together forever." He just shrugged.
She closed the door gently before collasping into a heap of sad teenage girl on the floor. She'd tried crawling back to her room, but she couldn't smell anything. See, her nose gets stuffy when she cries.
So Terezi just laid there, sobbing softly utnil she couldn't cry anymore. When Ms. Lalonde returned from her Earth job a couple of hours later, she helped the poor girl back to her bedroom, where Terezi slipped on the aviators that Dave had given her for her last Wriggling day.
Everything in the room reminded her of Dave. The sunglasses, his sweatshirt (he'd left it there for her), the drawings covering the walls. There was an apple juice stain on the carpet because she'd surpsied him with a tackle- I mean hug.
What was life without Strider?
Striderless. Quite a sad life indeed.
AN: Uhhhhhh I don't know what this is. All I know is that they're about sixteen, Terezi lives with Rose, and that's it. I don't know why they all live near each other or anything so don't ask me because I wrote this while I was in the middle of writing the third chapter of Better Off Dead.