The last thing Audrey wants to deal with right now is another video of herself going viral, but, hey, much like her classmates, the universe has a twisted sense of humor. She's not sure what she ever did to deserve this - except, well, yeah, that one thing.
As she and Noah cross the school parking lot the morning after the movie theater prank, Noah does his best to dispel the idiotic comments of some passing jocks by trying to convince her this is nothing more than a new extension of her celebrity, but he doesn't get it, not really. He's all about putting himself out there with the podcast, not only drawing the internet's attention but aggressively seeking it. Audrey doesn't want attention - not from anybody, online or otherwise. Since the woman she brought to Lakewood killed her friends and her girlfriend, she's having enough trouble simply existing, let alone being watched while she does it.
"OK, I've got a good one," Brooke announces, suddenly appearing from behind a car, and Audrey welcomes the interruption to Noah's "This is so good for your brand" spiel.
Honestly, part of Audrey still does a double-take whenever Brooke talks to her, even though they've been inextricably linked by the whole Lakewood Six thing for a while now. She looks the other girl up and down: Brooke's purse matches her skirt, which is an off-white color the designer probably calls ecru, while Audrey's in mostly black, as usual. She could almost be Brooke's photo negative.
"Go on," Noah says eagerly, and sometimes Audrey wonders how they manage to be best friends when he likes to know everything about everyone and she prefers to remain a closed book.
"My down-low affair with Jake Fitzgerald is officially over."
"What?!" Noah exclaims, more than compensating for the careful flatness of Brooke's tone. Ever the tactician, he follows up with, "Since when? What happened?"
If they were in class, Audrey would've kicked him under the table.
"Are you OK?" she quickly asks Brooke in a hail-Mary attempt to derail Noah's detail extraction mission.
She sees a flicker of indecision pass across Brooke's face, as if the girl is trying to decide whether to remove her mask of matter-of-factness and let her emotions show, then her eyes go cold as steel.
"Let's just not concern the feelings," she says smoothly. "I'm only telling you 'cause Jake's gonna tell you anyway, and I probably come off really bad in his version." She readjusts the strap of her bag. "Anyone seen Emma? It's her first day back to school since the infamous meltdown."
Audrey thinks about that day almost as much as she thinks about Piper's reign of terror over Lakewood. She wishes she had the power to ensure everything goes perfectly for Emma today - no stares, no special attention, just seamless reintegration without fanfare - but, hey, she's already getting comments about the dumb video from last night, so that scenario seems unlikely.
Of course, when Emma walks up, they all go way overboard greeting her (Audrey's pretty sure she says "fantastic" twice, a word that isn't even in her working vocabulary), and Emma raises her eyebrows.
"Enough with the eggshells - let's go," she tells them purposefully, striding toward the school, and Audrey hopes she's even half as confident as she seems.
Brooke falls in line beside Emma while Noah and Audrey follow behind, and it's OK at first, just a regular day, a regular climb up the too-thin staircase that gets jammed with kids at peak times, but then some asshole drops his book and Emma balks. It's not, like, super-noticeable or anything - not like the last time - but Audrey still steps forward to grab Emma's hand.
"Hey, you good?"
"Yeah," Emma says in a strained voice that leaves Audrey less than convinced. "I'm fine."
Audrey doesn't push it, just escorts Emma, Brooke and Noah to their first-period psych class, ensuring Emma's triad of protectors stays intact until the last possible second. Noah bounds in first, excited for his favorite class, and Audrey awkwardly drops Emma's hand as the remaining trio stands by the doorway.
"So, uh..." Audrey pushes a stray strand of hair off her face. "See you in study hall?"
"Yeah." Emma's smile is a little more convincing this time. "Don't worry, I'll be OK; Noah's here, and Brooke."
"Like I'd let anything happen to you on my watch," Brooke says silkily, her voice sweet but laced with something dangerous.
Weirdly, Audrey feels calmer about the whole situation than she has since Emma got here - and then someone calls Emma's name and she's instantly on edge again.
"It's just Ms. Lang," Brooke hisses after both Audrey and Emma tense up, and Audrey's kind of regretting that coffee she chugged on the way to school this morning.
Emma laughs nervously, then waves to them both and heads over to the teacher's desk.
"Ms. Lang probably has some grand plan for making up all the work she missed," Brooke speculates. "I don't even pay attention in this class, but I know it moves fast."
"I guess Emma won't be coming to you for help, then," Audrey says drily.
"Oh, please." Brooke rolls her eyes. "Emma's, like, scary-smart. I bet she'll catch up in a week."
"True."
They share a grin, and Audrey wasn't going to say anything in front of Emma, but now that it's just the two of them...
"Hey." She pulls Brooke away from the doorway, keeping her voice low and her head down. "I know today's about Emma, but if you need to talk about Jake..."
Audrey sees sadness on Brooke's face for a second, then the other girl blinks her long lashes and flashes her too-white teeth.
"There's nothing to talk about," she says succinctly, but her smile doesn't quite reach her eyes.
Audrey sighs. She knows there's a real human hidden in there somewhere. Honestly, the only good thing about the day she shot Piper was the time she spent with Brooke earlier in the evening.
"OK, well, if you ever..."
She hesitates for a second. She's not good at this type of stuff and she knows it, so instead of finishing the sentence, she brushes her fingertips across the back of Brooke's hand and hopes Brooke gets the message. There's a flicker of electricity when they touch.
"Thanks," Brooke says huskily, and Audrey can't be sure, but she thinks she sees the other girl's bottom lip tremble for a fraction of a second. "Well, I'm gonna be late for class, so..."
Audrey steps back and raises her hand in a wordless goodbye - the hand she touched Brooke with, the hand that's still kind of tingling from the contact. Brooke nods at her, takes a deep breath, pastes a bright grin on her face, and walks confidently into the classroom.