The next morning, Luz had slept in a while later than she'd intended. She didn't properly wake up until the sunlight was hitting her face directly over her eyes. She squinted against it and groaned, rolling over to face away from it. Her body was heavy, groggy, and she'd be lying if she said she didn't have a bit of an ache in her body. It was most likely due to how much traveling she had done the day before, between planes and the bus, and attempting to unpack. Her body was all 'go, go, go' yesterday without any proper rest until after she'd eaten dinner.
A lump of dread settled in her stomach when she was reminded of her move to the west coast. She'd almost forgotten with her eyes closed and momentarily being unaware of her surroundings. She also noticed the lack of heaviness occupying the space and figured that King must have gotten up some time before her to find Eda. Luz tried to open her eyes, feeling the crust around them crackle apart and grimacing as she blinked the sleep out of her vision. Her limbs were kind of haphazardly tangled in the sheets and blanket when she went to turn onto her back. It took a good few minutes for her to at least get her legs free, and she tiredly pushed herself up into a sitting position. She stretched out her back, feeling the satisfying pop in her lower back and shoulders.
At least sleeping on the new mattress wasn't so bad. It had been quite comfortable and it favored her body in all the right places.
Luz shifted around the blankets and sheets for her phone before realizing that she'd left it in her jeans pocket when she got undressed the night before. With a quiet groan, she swung her legs to the side and got up to retrieve her pants, followed by her phone which thankfully still had a good charge despite not being plugged in. The clock told her it was just after ten in the morning. She had a few of the usual notifications from Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and a couple of missed texts from her mom.
Mamá (08:35 am):
Buenos días, cariño.
¿Cómo fue tu primera noche con Eda?
I'll answer her later... Luz thought, knowing she probably wouldn't text her back until after she'd gotten a shower. She would let her mom think she slept in for another hour or so.
Luz hunkered down and unzipped one of the smaller pockets on her suitcase to locate her charger, pulling it out and just about to locate an outlet when she head the sound of glass breaking come from downstairs. Her body steeled, the sound jarring and chilling to her bones, and she turned her head towards the door.
"Eda?!" she tried to call, but her voice cracked with fatigue. Muttering a hoarse, "Fuck-", she took off in a light jog towards the stairs and skipped down them two at a time to get to the kitchen. She cleared her throat on the way, and her voice came out a lot clearer when she called Eda's name again from the hallway and entering the dining room.
One she hit the kitchen, she came upon the sight of Eda in her pajamas leaning against the counter with a look of mild pain taking over her features. There was a shattered mug and what Luz could guess was apple juice spilled by her feet and King was hugged up against her legs as if supporting her to keep her up. He hardly made a glance at Luz when she entered, his gaze worryingly fixed on Eda entirely.
"Eda?" Luz said again. "Are you okay? What happened?"
"Oh, hey. Morning, kid." Eda said tensely, and she tried to put on a smile but it came up as a wince instead. "Had a feeling you'd sleep in late."
Luz stepped further into the kitchen and closer to Eda, watching to make sure she didn't step on any pieces of glass as she went. "What's going on?"
Eda lifted a twitching hand and gestured to the stools at the island. "Help me sit first, and if you could grab my painkillers from my room really quick that would be great. My room is at the very end of the hall to the right of the stairs." she requested. "The bottle should be on the nightstand next to my bed. I'll explain afterwards."
Luz nodded and carefully made her way around, King only inching away once the teen had her arms secured around the older woman. Eda rested her body weight against her for the few moments it took for Luz to guide her to a stool, and once she was sitting down King was at her side again. She reached down and scratched his head tenderly.
"I'll be right back, okay?" Luz said. When Eda nodded stiffly, Luz immediately turned about face and went into another light run back towards upstairs.
Once she hit the second floor, Luz followed Eda's instructions and took a right. She made her way down the hall and pushed open the already cracked door, stepping inside. If it weren't for the fact that it was an emergency, she would feel awkward about just walking into Eda's bedroom. She didn't take the time to appreciate the finer details of the room and instead focused on the nightstand next to the bed with, to Luz's dismay, more than one orange prescription bottle. She crossed the room and just picked all three of them up, having no choice but to leave it to Eda to differentiate the one she actually needed.
"I, uh, didn't know which one was which." she explained apologetically when she returned to the kitchen. "So I just grabbed all of them. I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize, it's my bad for not being more specific." Eda lifted her hand and coaxed her over.
Luz placed the three bottles in front of Eda and watched uneasily as said woman picked them up one by one to read the labels. She visibly relaxed when Eda settled on the third one and opened it, dumping out two pills and reclining her head back to toss them into her mouth. Her face contorted in displeasure as she tried to force the pills down, but once she'd successfully swallowed them she sighed and rubbed her head with the hand that was much more stable.
"So... Are you gonna tell me what just happened?" Luz asked, sliding into the stool opposite of Eda.
"To make a long story short, I was in a horrible car accident quite a few years ago." Eda said. "Left me with some permanent nerve damage in my hands and legs, it's not as bad in my neck and back thankfully, and I had to replace my eye with a glass one." She pointed to her silvery gray eye. "Dropping the mug was just a side effect of the nerve damage. King tried to warn me, but I didn't react fast enough. It's a good thing you came down when you did, otherwise I might've collapsed on him after another minute."
"Jeez, that's... I'm sorry to hear that, Eda." Luz murmured. Her eyes dropped to the countertop of the island.
Eda reached over and placed a hand over Luz's folded ones. When the brunette looked up, she was met with a warm and appreciative smile. "Hey, there's no need to feel sorry for me. I'm tough and can take care of myself. I've dealt with it for this long. But it's always nice to have an extra pair of hands around."
Luz returned the smile, Eda's words reassuring enough to ease her down for a minute before she remembered the broken mug on the ground. She looked down at the mess, seeing that the apple juice was already starting to dry and make the floor all sticky in some places. "Oh, I should probably clean that up for you." She withdrew her hands from under Eda's and looked around the kitchen. "Where's your broom? Or a mop?"
"Check in that little space next to the fridge." Eda said. "There should also be some spray under the sink."
Luz nodded and got up, moving to the fridge and peeking into the crevice beside it. She took out the broom and dustpan first to sweep up glass, taking care to make sure she got up every shard for especially King's sake. Once the broken glass was discarded into the garbage, she swapped out the broom and dustpan for the broom and spray under the sink. Eda watched her silently as she worked cleaning up the mess, a fond smile on her lips.
Kinda hard to believe this kid... Eda let her thought trail off, shaking her head in disapproval of herself. She had no place to judge Luz, or anyone for that matter. It wasn't like she'd done any better in her youth, after all.
"And done." Luz declared, smiling.
Sure enough, the mess had been taken care of. No sign of glass or juice left on the floor, and the only remaining sign that something had occurred being the drying cleaning spray in place of the liquid.
"Thanks, kid. I appreciate it." Eda said, watching the teen bend down and return the spray bottle to the cabinet under the sink. She lifted her right hand, repeatedly opening and closing it to test its recovery. She did the same with her legs, stretching them out and rolling her ankles. The pain had begun to subside, but there was still quite a bit of tingling. King gave her a warning huff from his perch by the stool. "Why don't you go grab yourself a shower and get ready to head out? I should be all set to go in another hour, give or take."
"Sure." Luz said. She turned around from tucking the mop back into place. "Do you want any help getting to the living room at least? Just so you aren't in here with nothing to do?"
"I'll be fine, I've got my phone. Maybe I'll check out that 'TikTak' you kids are always yabbering about." Eda joked.
Luz groaned with a roll of her eyes, body slumping. "Eda, please don't ever say that again. And it's 'TikTok.'"
"Yeah, that's what I said." Eda's eyes were twinkling with mirth, and that told Luz that she was genuinely just messing with her. The older woman dismissed her with a wave of her hand. "Go ahead and get ready. I'll let you know when we're heading out. We'll grab some McDonald's on the way to the store."
"Got it."
Luz exited the kitchen and made her way back to her room, gearing up to take a shower.
As she'd promised herself, Luz answered her mom after she got out of the shower. She apologized as she did last night for texting her late and gave her a brief rundown of what had happened when she woke up, though she tweaked the major details a bit since she didn't know how Eda would react to her spilling her business. If Eda hadn't told her mother herself what she'd been going through the past few years, she wasn't going to make it her place to do so.
She got dressed in a simple black and gray flannel, white t-shirt with a cat on its front that read 'overthinking and also hungry' under it, black jeans, her usual beanie, and worn black converse.
Not too longer after that, and after they'd stopped at McDonald's for something to eat, she was cruising down the highway with Eda and King in the backseat chewing on one of his toys, a beige colored bunny with a blue button eye. It was clearly a little tattered from what Luz assumed was years of play, but it made him happy and kept him [mostly] in the backseat. He would still occasionally stick his head between the seats, to which Luz would respond by scratching him under his chin.
"We're heading to the nearby supercenter," Eda said as she switched lanes. "It's pretty big, plenty of food options for you to choose from. Just don't go too crazy, okay?" The woman gave Luz a teasing smile. "I told your mom that I'd be taking good care of you, and unfortunately I have to uphold that promise. So just, y'know, don't go grabbing a bunch of junk."
Luz laughed softly and nodded, dropping her hand when King ducked his head back from the seats. "Don't worry, I won't."
"We're only gonna need enough food for you for the next week, since after that you'll be moving onto campus, but do grab some stuff to have on the weekends in case you stop by." Eda further explained. She changed lanes again for the approaching exit, merging into traffic and down the winded road. "I was also thinking that once we get back and all the groceries are put away, you could hit the town and get a feel for it. Just so you know your way around. And maybe you'll run into some kids also going to Hexside, have some friends to go in with."
Luz's shoulders slumped at the mention of her new school, that familiar pit of dread settling in her gut again, but she forced a smile and turned that slump into a nonchalant shrug. "Yeah, probably."
Luz turned her attention out the window as Eda turned into the parking lot of the Walmart Supercenter. The lot was only moderately full, which made Luz hopeful that this would be an easy trip. Once they were settled in a parking lot, they hopped out of the car and Eda let King out of the backseat. He jumped out and gave his fur a quick shake.
"They let you bring King inside?" Luz asked. She was mostly sure that King wasn't a service dog, as he didn't have the vest, but also knew that if he really was helpful in helping Eda and her conditions that he needed to be around her often.
"Oh, they love him here." Eda said. Having leaned into the back of the car, she came back out with a leash in hand and stooped down to attach it to King's red collar. "As long as I keep him on a leash, they don't have an issue. C'mon, let's grab a cart and head inside."
Luz hummed quietly and went on the hunt for a good cart while Eda and King headed to the entrance of the store. It took her a few tries to find one that didn't have a busted wheel, and when she did she picked up the pace to catch up with the duo at the door.
"Hey Eda, King!" the greeter said when they were inside. King's tail perked up and he trotted over to the greeter's feet, expecting pets that were given to him graciously. The greeter took a peek behind Eda at Luz and smiled. "Seems you got someone tagging along behind ya."
"Katya, this is Luz. A daughter of an old friend." Eda introduced them. "She'll be in town for a bit while she attends Hexside."
"Ooh, Hexside, huh?" Katya said. "I went there myself when I was younger. Wish you the best of luck, kiddo."
"Thanks." Luz said, conjuring a polite smile.
"Alright, we'll catch you on our way out." Eda said. She gave a gentle tug on King's leash and he returned to her side, following along when they walked away. Luz wheeled the cart close behind.
"See you, Eda!" Katya called after them.
"While we're here, I need to head to the pharmacy and see if my next prescription is ready." Eda said. "Just go grab a few things you want and I'll catch up with you in a bit."
"Uh, okay." Luz said.
She watched as Eda walked away with King towards the pharmacy, then turned her attention to the signs in the aisles. With a minor shrug to herself, Luz started down the cereal aisle. She eased her way past a few other customers and made a beeline for some of the more sugary cereals that she preferred over the ones her mom would occasionally make her eat. She picked up a box of Lucky Charms, raising an eyebrow in consideration before tossing it into the cart. She took hold of the handle again and worked her way around to the next aisle. It was almost like a game of snake, the way she was winding in and out of the aisles looking for foods she wanted. She picked up some things for sandwiches as she went, along with some coffee since she'd noticed Eda had a coffee maker before they left for the store. She thought it best to grab cold things last since she didn't know how much longer they were going to be in the store, nor what else Eda would want to go back for.
Eventually she found her way to the chips and soda aisle, and waited a bit for the passing crowd of people to disperse before heading down it. She stopped at the chips first and scanned the shelves, trying to get a feel for what her stomach was in the mood for. She had her hand to her chin and her lips pursed in thought when, in her peripheral, she saw someone from the corner of her eye stretching to grab something from the top shelf. She turned her head to look, seeing the party sized bag of Tostitos that the person were going for.
"Here," Luz spoke up, and took a few steps towards them. "Let me help." She reached up, albeit having to get up on her toes just a little bit, and grabbed the bag of chips closest to the edge of the shelf. She brought her hand down, her gaze casually following to look at the person as she offered the chips out, and nearly froze at the sight of golden eyes staring back.
The girl behind the golden eyes was only a few inches shorter than her, with green hair in waves down to just past her shoulders and brown roots peeking out underneath and from her hairline. She wore black and pink plaid pants with a chain attached at the hip and a white t-shirt that had a neon pink skull in the middle. She had three piercings along her right earlobe, but a simple cuff and chain attached to an earring on her left. A pair of light pink Doc Martens with black trim completed her look.
But nothing was more stunning than the smile she wore as she took the chips from Luz's hand.
"Thanks." she said simply. She glanced back to the top shelf a little sheepishly. "But, um, I need more than one bag."
"S-sure." Luz reached up again and grabbed a second bag, handing it over and watching as the girl supported both bags in one arm.
The girl went to open her mouth to say something, most likely another thank you, but someone calling from an aisle over made her stop and instead seemingly blush in embarrassment.
"Mittens!" the male voice called once more.
The greenette rolled her eyes and sighed, offering a now apologetic smile and a small wave as she awkwardly backpedaled to make her way towards the voice. At the same moment she turned her back towards her, Luz heard her own name being called.
"There you are, kid." Eda said from behind, aided by the sound of King's nails clicking on the tile floor. She leaned over to glance past her, catching a glimpse of green hair as it disappeared around the corner. "Already making some friends, huh?"
"No, it wasn't like that." Luz explained. "I just helped her get something from the top shelf."
Eda hummed with a nod, chuckling. "Alright, well, come on. Let's finish up so you can go out and make some friends later."
Luz took hold of the cart and followed behind the older woman and her dog, trying to shake the image of gold from her memory.
It was a good three hours later that they'd successfully completed their trip to the grocery store and got back to the house to put everything away. Luz was pretty proud of herself for not actually grabbing a bunch of junk and properly planning out some meals (okay, some of it may have been due to Eda's persistence), and the two came to an agreement on who would cook and when over the next week. At the end, when all the food was stashed away in its proper places, Eda gave Luz the go ahead to see the town.
"I'd take you around myself, but since I closed the cafe yesterday and today to make sure you got settled in I need to prep for tomorrow." she said. "I'm sure you can use your GPS to direct you towards downtown. It's not too far of a walk, but if you need bus fare to get anywhere else I might be able to scrounge some up for you."
"No, it's okay. I have plenty of money saved up from my odd jobs back in Connecticut." Luz said. She patted her pocket with her wallet in it. "But I'll let you know if I need help with anything else."
"Alright. Be safe, kid." Eda said. "And I know I'm not your mom, so I'm not gonna be breathing down your neck, but don't go anywhere too far without letting me know."
"I won't. Bye, Eda!" Luz said.
With a scratch behind King's ear as she passed him, Luz left through the back door and cut through the cafe to exit the building. She pulled her phone from her pocket and called up her maps, typing in the directions to get to downtown. Eda was right, it was only about a twenty minute walk to get to downtown. Taking her headphones from around her neck, she connected the bluetooth to her phone and opened up Spotify to pick a song. Unable to pick one from her massive list of likes songs, she opted to hit the shuffle button. 'Yeh I Fuckin' Did It' by Labrinth flooded her earphones and Luz smiled to herself.
With one more look at her maps, she headed the way it was directing her to in order to get downtown. When she zoomed in on the app, it showed her a few places of interest that she could surely check out for a while. There was a public library, an arcade, a few shops, and plenty of food places to choose from. It also looked like the buses all centralized there which would make it easier on her to get anywhere else if she saw fit down the line.
She passed other stores along the way that she noted she could check out at a later date, such as a comic book store, an arts and crafts store, a couple of clubs that looked interesting along with some more. As maps said, it took her only twenty minutes for the downtown area to come into view. Waves of people, swarms of cars and busses alike. Voices, horns, pedestrians' footsteps, the smell of food and vehicle exhaust mingling together in one wash of sheer existence. Luz would be lying if she said she hadn't felt exiled from society over the past couple of days since she left her home state. Non-stop surrounded by people left and right, but alone in and with herself. Maybe if the circumstances as to why she was all the way across the country away from her mother had been different, she wouldn't feel like her lungs were finally filling with proper air compared to the suffocation of adjusting she'd been going through. She was grateful that Eda wasn't trying to stifle her or keep her in the house, though it wouldn't surprise her if her mother had tried to convince her otherwise until it was time for her to transfer to her new school and dorm.
One thing was for sure, she wouldn't take Eda's kindness for granted.
Luz tucked her hand in her pocket and fiddled with her wallet, debating on what she should check out first as the song she hadn't been paying attention to in her headphones shifted to 'Bitter End' by CHVRCHES. A couple of stores caught her eye, clothing and other merchandise alike, but she poked her bottom lip out in contemplation. She figured it better to try and follow Eda's guidance and try to find some kids her age to get along with, thought she didn't know how easy nor hard that would be. But her best chance at that would probably be the arcade across the central area of downtown. She hoped so, anyway, knowing that everyone was in their final full week of Summer so kids, teenagers, and adults alike would be spending it any way they could to enjoy it.
Suddenly, the idea of being in an arcade that could be filled with a bunch of whining and screaming ten year olds sounded a lot less appealing than Luz initially thought. Still, the idea of mindlessly mashing buttons and wiggling stiff joysticks salvaged the thought enough for her feet to guide her that way.
When she reached the arcade, she turned off her headphones and slipped them back down to around her neck with one hand while the other opened the door. She eased her way inside the darkened room illuminated only by the neon lights around the walls, blinking arcade machines, and filled with the sounds of beeps, blips, whatever song was playing overhead that she couldn't quite make out, and voices. The place wasn't as full as she'd thought, but there were definitely a few young kids still loitering around at some of the machines. There was a smell of fried foods in the air and a quick look around told her that the snack bar at the other end of the room was the culprit. Well, at least she wouldn't have to go far if she found herself hungry, though she was skeptical about paying hiked up prices for a single hot dog or a slice of pizza that had obviously been sitting in the heater all morning.
Luz sighed and thumbed the cover of her wallet in her pocket, making her way over to the ATM machine that would turn her dollars into change for some of the machines that didn't accept dollar bills. She might as well keep her options open since she didn't know how long she'd be here. And with a handful of change now tucked away into her other pocket, she shifted her way around to scope out the different games the arcade had. They had a majority of the classics, such as Pac-Man, Dig Dug, skee-ball, pinball, and others that she hadn't heard of like Princess Quest and Pak-Rat, the latter she assumed was just a knock-off of Pac-Man because would wouldn't want to cash in on that success?
Luz wasted her time shifting from game to game, putting a couple of kids to shame at skee-ball and the air hockey table and beating a few of the high scores on a couple of the machines. After a while, she sidled up to one of the claw machines for the hell of it and pulled out her wallet to take out a dollar. She eased the dollar into the slot and stood up, closing her hand around the joystick. She waited for the machine to do its little start up sound and for the timer screen to stop flashing zero, but after a few seconds nothing changed. She quirked an eyebrow and looked down at the price sticker over the slot to check and make sure that she didn't need to add another dollar. Nope, the sticker said just one dollar. She wiggled the joystick and tried pushing the descend button, but still nothing. The claw didn't move an inch, nor was their any sound indication that the machine had finally decided it processed her dollar to start.
"Goddamn it." Luz grumbled, kicking the machine.
"You're not going to get it to work like that." a male voice said from behind her, a laugh in his voice.
Luz turned around, eyebrows wrinkled together when she spotted a bespectacled girl in a yellow jacket, black shirt and dark jeans with a shorter boy with mildly spiked hair, a jean vest with ripped sleeves over a white t-shirt, and blue jeans torn at the knees watching her from a few feet away.
"Yeah? Then what do you propose?" Luz asked, eyeing the boy skeptically.
"Well, first I'm gonna get you your dollar back." the boy said.
Luz's face scrunched up in confusion and she stepped aside as he walked over and crouched down beside Luz's legs in front of the machine. He gestured to the girl he'd been standing with, who nodded and immediately took up a watch guard position by discreetly glancing around the arcade. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out two small seemingly custom lockpicks, immediately getting to work on the door meant to house the received dollars and coins. Luz caught on quickly and repositioned herself to hide the boy as much as possible while he did his thing. She glanced down to see him poking his tongue out a little in determination, expression all focus, and he looked like he was pretty good with handling the tools in his hands. It took only about a minute or so and he let out a quiet little whoop of success when the coin door popped open. He reached into the compartment and, sure enough, handed Luz back a dollar (and she was pretty sure she saw him pocket a few more but who was she to snitch?). He closed the door back discreetly, no trace left of the escapade.
Tucking his tools back into his pocket, he stood up straight and gave Luz and inviting grin. "Now I'll ask if you wanna get out of here." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder towards the exit.
Luz's face lit up at the suggestion, a smile slowly touching her lips. "Hell yeah."
"So you're from Connecticut?" the girl - Willow - asked her, leaning against the 7-Eleven they were outside of. She took a swig from the grape soda in her hands.
"Yeah. Just came in a couple days ago." Luz said. She was seated on the curb of the parking lot and had her own snack in her hands, a bag of chips that the boy - Augustus, or Gus - had insisted on treating her to with his newly acquired funds.
"What are you doing here?" Gus asked from beside her. He was munching on some M&M's.
"My mom thought I could use a change of scenery." Luz lied easily through her teeth, accenting it with a roll of her eyes. "So she sent me here to stay with a family friend and go to Hexside for my last year of high school."
"No way! We're going to Hexside, too!" Gus said excitedly, gesturing between him and Willow. "I'm going for engineering and mathematics." He reached into his back pocket and pulled out one of the lockpicks. "I designed this last year, made it with my own two hands."
"Was it so you could steal from the arcade machines?" Luz teased, and Gus flustered a little but waved the gadget in defense.
"No!" he said. "Though it does have a benefit in that."
"He made them because he kept locking himself out of the house. With his keys inside." Willow said with a laugh.
"Willow!" Gus said in exasperation.
"And you chose to create lockpicks instead of, say, getting a clip to attach them to your pants?" Luz asked.
"That would be stunting my creative genius." Gus huffed, and he put his lockpick away. "Plus it's more interesting than Willow's thing with plants."
"Agriculture." Willow corrected him pointedly. She turned her attention to Luz. "I want to become a botanist. Or a florist if that backfires."
"She has a really nice greenhouse in her backyard." Gus interjected.
"And I also grow some medical things as well." Willow emphasized with a wink, laughing when Luz's eyes widened a little. "So if you ever need any, feel free to let me know."
"Anyways, what are you going to Hexside for, Luz?" Gus asked curiously.
"I, uh... I dunno yet." Luz said with a shrug. "I was kinda just thrown into this last second, so I haven't had time to figure it out."
"What are you interested in?" Willow said next.
"Well, I like art. And literature. And animals." Luz gestured vaguely with her hands in front of her. "And a bunch of other shit I can't differentiate right now."
"Hm. Well, I'm sure you'll figure it out by the time we're due on campus next week." Willow said. "I think Bump is pretty lenient on giving students time to figure it out, you'll probably just end up doing core classes until you do."
"Bump?" Luz echoed.
"The Headmaster of the school." Gus clarified. "Dude looks as old as dirt, he's been running the school for years. But he's kinda cool."
Luz nodded, her lips pursed in thought. It seemed that the conversation was drifting into a semi-awkward silence until a phone went off. Gus reached for his in his pocket and took it out, unlocking it to check what the notification was. Upon doing so, his nose crinkled up in moderate disgust and he rolled his eyes.
"Looks like Amity is throwing her annual end of summer party." he said.
"How would you know that?" Willow asked, looking at him with playful scrutiny. But Luz noticed how her shoulders squared subtly.
"Skara posted it on her instagram." Gus waved his phone. "Trust me, I'm not following Amity."
Willow settled a little and huffed. "Whatever. Not like we're invited anyway. We never are."
"Uh, sorry to butt in here, but who's Amity?" Luz piped up, raising her hand slightly.
"Only one of the most richest bitches in this town. Probably in the state. I wouldn't be surprised." Willow scoffed in clear distaste. "Her parents own Blight Industries, and they're renowned inventors in security and other shit like that."
Gus leaned in towards Luz, lowering his voice. "Willow is a bit salty because her and Amity used to be friends when they were really young." he said.
"Really?" Luz looked back at Willow, though the other girl was obviously unhappy with the revealed information.
"The keywords are used to." she said. She practically spit it through her teeth. "And then she became a colossal bitch and dumped me to be friends with other cunts just like her."
Luz fell silent, the information of this injustice both upsetting her and intriguing her. She tapped her foot against the asphalt under her feet. She may not have known these two for very long, but she already felt like they could all become really close friends - best friends, even -. And she kind of understood where Willow was coming from in her plight. No, she really understood. And who would she be if she didn't stand up for such injustice in the name of new friendship?
"Hey, just... hypothetically speaking here." she said finally. "If I wanted to avoid this... Amity chick, and definitely not got to her party, what part of town would I not be going to?"
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Yes, yes, I know I said Amity wouldn't be introduced until [possibly] chapter 3, but this chapter unfolded this way naturally and I liked the direction it took so I kept it. Besides, it still isn't technically a lie as they didn't introduce themselves to each other yet ;). Also, I hope you liked how I brought in Gus and Willow. Of course their personalities are tweaked just a little because, y'know, they're the beta versions. But there are still remnants of their canon selves laced in there somewhere that will be shown from time to time :).
And yeah, normally I come up with my own knock off brand names but thanks to experiencing creative burnout I just used actual products/companies and made references to other properties as little Easter eggs, haha.
