Hey, guys! Been updating quite a bit recently, curious what you think about the story so far!

XOXO

'Are you alright?' Brick inquired, knocking on the bathroom's door.

It had been a few hours since they left the beach and Brick had found them a place to spend the night: it was a summer villa owned by some millionaire. A bit of convincing and a display of their powers was all it took for the guards to let them stay.

Blossom had glued herself to the toilet ever since they had arrived a few minutes ago. A combination of seeing Butch's conquests and the cheese she had eaten earlier had made her sick enough to want to spend the rest of her evening close to a toilet. She felt light-headed from all the puking, probably dehydration.

She heard Brick knocking again. When she failed to respond he barged in and observed Blossom in all her glory.

'I've told you about this before. It might have happened to you, too.'

Every barrier she had put collapsed, and she snapped at him in anger:

'Yes, but you don't see me actively going out and fucking people into oblivion.'

'It's hard to keep your cool while clinging to a toilet seat' she darkly thought.

'I don't understand why you're surprised. Did you expect Butch to act differently?' his brow furrowed in confusion.

'SNAP!'

'SNAP!'

'No, I don't expect any of you to act differently. You're all psychopaths.'

Her reply threw Brick into a fit of laughter.

'This is what I want from you, Red.' he stood tall in the bathroom frame, almost mocking her with his stature.

'Tell me how much you hate me for snapping that boy like the twig that he was.'

Blossom had enough. Weakened or not, her fist managed to make contact with his cheek and throw him across the room.

This seemed only to further excite him.

'How could you give yourself to such a weak man? Did you hear his cries? He almost asked for his mommy.'he taunted her, awaiting another blow.

'It's actually about this, yes? Not Butch's girls.'

Blossom felt another wave of sick coming up, and she went back to the toilet seat: when he was done she just felt empty.

'Just leave me alone, Brick.'

His gaze softened and he left momentarily, coming back with a glass of water and a small pill in his hand.

'Take this.' he motioned towards the pill.

'You'll feel better. I'll be in the room if you need anything.' he said, closing the bathroom door to give her privacy.

Blossom felt too bad to NOT take the pill, so she gulped it down with the glass of water. A few minutes past and she did eventually feel better, so she made her way back in the room.

She was vaguely surprised to see she's sharing a queen sized bed with Brick, and he noticed the twitch in her eye.

'You can have your own bed if you want. I just wanted to keep an eye on you tonight, if you don't mind.'

Blossom nodded as she snuck herself under the blanket, too tired to further pursue that conversation. She did make sure to stay as farthest from him as she possibly could.

Exhaustion creeped in and her eyelids started to close slowly. As she fell asleep Blossom felt his hands tucking her in and cold air filled the room as he flew out the window.

Her head pounded when she woke up the next day. She looked next to her, he was nowhere to be found. Instead, a set of neatly folded clothes and a note.

'I'll be back later

I hope they fit you this time.'

Blossom blushed as she realised he must have noticed as well how small yesterday's swim suit had been.

She checked out the clothing: a simple red t-shirt, black shorts and modest underwear. Blossom was surprised, for some reason she had expected him to give her something sexier to wear.

But no, it was all very proper and functional and this time, well-fitting.

When she went downstairs she found Boomer smoking a joint by himself in the living. She recognised the smell from the few house parties she went to as a teen, but had never tried it.

He beckoned her to come closer and invited her to take a puff.

'No, thanks... I've never tried it.'

'It's only a plant, it might calm you down a little. Butch really did a number on you last night with his habits. It will help you cope a bit.' 'Aaand it's fun' he added as an afterthought.

'I don't know about it.. Where's Brick?' she tried to weasel herself out of it.

'I don't know. Didn't see him leave.' he replied , now munching on some sweets.

'This is such a good strain, haha. Please, Blossom, give it a try. Brick's not home till later. It'll be between us.' he attempted to wink and failed, which sent him into a fit of laughter.

'I don't think I'll like it..'

'C'mon...I've been nice to your sister, yes? You can pay me back now.'

'He's got a point, he could have treated Bubbles worse.'

His hand was extended towards her, holding the blunt, a pleading look in his eyes.

'And truth be told, this month is going to probably be the craziest of your life, so you might as well go to town.'

'Alright.' she said, grabbing the joint. She took a puff and then violently started to cough, the smoke irritating her airways.

'Wait, let me show you. You haven't smoked normal cigs either, eh?'

Blossom shaked her head and continued coughing. Boomer grabbed the blunt and took one continuous deep breath, then exhaled.

'You have to take a deep breath so it gets to your lungs..if you stop sooner you're going to choke. Ok, now you try it.'

'You're insane if you think I'm trying that again.' she replied, her cough finally subsiding.

'Trust me.'

She grabbed the blunt and took a deep breath, then exhaled a thick cloud of smoke.

'Oh, yeah, that's it, very good! You learn fast!'

Blossom tried once more, this time as she exhaled she felt herself getting lighter.

'Puff, puff, pass, Blossom.' he reached for the blunt.

They continued this way for two more times, and Blossom could feel her body tingling and everything getting heavier against her, like walking thought a fog. However, it wasn't an unpleasant sensation, she had never felt so light-headed.

Boomer motioned her to sit next to him on the couch, so she lied down, her head spinning.

'How are you feeling?'

'Weird. Light. Somehow, clear-minded.' she waved her hands in front of her face, seemingly fascinated with their movement.

'Better?' he inquired.

'I guess so... can I have some of your chips?'

'Haha, sure, sister, go to town.' he giggled, and Blossom had to take a double take at him to make sure it wasn't Bubbles instead.

Time seemed to dilate and constrict, Blossom could only focus on the extraordinary flavour of the chips he provided. Boomer opened a laptop and looked for trippy videos online, inviting her to join. The shapes sprang at Blossom, sucking her into a vortex of colors.

'You know, I sometimes wonder what it would be like if I lead a normal life. How different would everything be..'

'It's not that great.' Blossom blurted out without realizing.

'Oh...?'

'No, I mean...yeah, it's fun. Bubbles really likes working at the animal shelter.

'Yeah, she told me about that. Wish I could try it.'

'Why don't you?'

Boomer scoffed.

'It's complicated.' he outlined with his index finger imaginary circles on the ceiling. 'You don't know what Brick is like.'

'I think I've got an idea.' Blossom gave him a cynical smile.

'Oh, yeah, fair enough. He's pretty single-minded. He fixates on some ideas. Would lose his shit if I dared to live normally.'

'Can't you refuse?'

'Can you?' pain permeated the smile that creeped on his face.

More time passed, and they were already through their third blunt.

'Your sister is cute.' he said, checking for her reaction.

'Mhm.' Blossom nodded, now munching on a piece of chocolate.

'Do you think she'd ever...?' he mumbled as he rolled another joint.

'Maybe.' the redhead flashed him a genuine smile, it was hard not to feel comfortable in his presence.

'Maybe is good. I can do maybe.'

The mood was ruined by Butch storming in, soaked, his clothes drenched in mud.

'Eyyy, what are you fuckers doing here?' he hollered, going straight to the kitchen.

Blossom heard him opening the fridge door and grunting in frustration.

'What the fuck, Boomer? There's nothing in here.'

'We only came here last night, what did you expect?'

'I expected your gay little ass to snatch us some damn beers since you bought out the whole supermarket for your stupid munchies.' he came back into the living room, leaving mud stains on the carpet.

'Didn't peg you as a stoner, sweetcheeks.' he smirked, grabbing a bag of chips and wolfing down.

Boomer laughed, almost toppling over.

'We almost went through all of my stash. She's fun.'

'I'm more of a coke guy myself. Say, how about we go on a bender together? We can, you know, have fun, too.' he bit his lip and thrust his hips forward. 'I'll give you the time of your life.'

'So I've seen.' Blossom replied darkly.

Butch was taken aback by her reply and snapped :

'Oh, I'm sowwy, was widdle Pinky hurt by sewwing the two floozies die?' he mockingly wiped some imaginary tears.

'Grow the fuck up, Blossie.' he said, throwing the muddied bag of chips back on the table. 'They died doing what they loved.' he pointed at himself with both thumbs. 'Me.'

'Brick needs to knock some sense into you.' he continued, leaving the room and flying upstairs.

'You'll get used to him.' Boomer said, lighting another cigarette.

'Do I want to? Blossom teased back.

'You'll have to.' the blonde replied with a blank voice.

Blossom shuddered. She had almost forgotten who she shared this day with. He was ultimately an enemy who she'd have to destroy at the right time.

'He's disgusting. He muddied up the place.' Blossom said, looking at the trace of dirt that followed Butch upstairs.

'It's fine. We're leaving tomorrow anyway.'

'We are?'

'Brick never likes us staying too long in one place. Townsville was an exception.'

he took another drag at the joint.

'I've never seen him so obsessed with something as he was with getting you.'

Blossom felt her cheeks light up, hoping it was the weed, actually knowing it wasn't.

'I hope he's happy now. Well, happiER. He's never been a happy kinda guy.'

Blossom never through she'd find herself in the position of someone describing her counterpart. She was fascinated, yearning for more.

They were interrupted by Brick's frame appearing in the doorway. His brow was furrowed, he did seem like a grumpy sort of guy, yes, Blossom agreed.

'Tense. Tense is a good word'

He was carrying a bag full of takeout, she could tell by the styrofoam containers.

'Quite impressive, really. I leave you one day with Boomer and you're already a stoner. Already losing your edge?' he teased, resting the bags near their munchies.

'Yeeeessss, warm food. Thank you, Papa!' Boomer beamed, almost wagging his tail at his brother.

'I told you to stop calling me that.' a spark of annoyance lit over his face.

'Papa?'

Blossom started to laugh uncontrollably, barely pausing to catch her breath.

This made Brick's features relax as he took out the boxes and gave them one each.

Butch was already back at the mention of food, freshly showered and only wearing a towel.

'Chinese? AGAIN?' Butch moaned as he opened his.

'If you don't like it get your own food.' Brick replied calmly.

'Ugh, fine.'

Everyone was digging in silently, and Blossom looked around. In her hazy state, it seemed like an average family enjoying a meal.

Brick gave her a curious glance above his box of takeout. She met his gaze but couldn't hold it, however, it still pierced though her.