[right][sup][color=e52b50][b]Honey[/b][/color] // [color=fffacd][b]Roz[/b][/color]
[color=dimgray]Collab with [@Fabricant451]
Wednesday, Lunch
Text mssg from [color=80e5ff]Shiloh[/color] [@Silent Observer][/color][/sup][/right]
[img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/180917/324ae68d3fdf3271382c4c268088565a.png[/img]
[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/9lXcboh.gif[/img]  [img]https://i.imgur.com/pbdQ2l7.gif[/img][/center]
[right][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/180917/3339d959c4968f4e1161beb565bb80c4.png[/img][/right]
[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/LpZc76D.png?1[/img][/center]
[indent]Honey could not focus on any of her classes today. Experiencing her first hangover was ruining all her interactions with anyone, ever. After second period, she decided to keep to herself, quiet, and away from the many socialites of the school. Sitting outside, at a picnic table by her lonesome self, with a brown bag with leftovers from the Sunshine Diner, and an assortment of sweets from the bake sale on her napkin, she pulled out her phone to text Shiloh.

[indent][quote][b]To: [color=80e5ff]My Fairy God-Sister[/color]  
[color=e52b50]Heyyyyyyyyyy, Shi-shi. How was your night? My night was… fun. Was your night fun?[/color][/b]
[/quote][/indent]

After sending that text, she felt inclined to send another one. 

[indent][quote][b]To: [color=80e5ff]My Fairy God-Sister[/color]  
[color=e52b50]...should we talk to Riley? He actually made it on the morning show, and he looks… okay… but is he?[/color][/b]
[/quote][/indent]

She thought about the show, how Riley came in just when it was going to start with Brian Helmsley. He thanked him and took over, bravely addressing the things he said on his viral video: [color=426f6f][b]“Yeah, I know I said more than enough last night to get me sent to a psych ward, but you know what. Here I am, more me than you’ve ever seen. I don’t take back saying what we do to each other is bullshit and stupid. Don’t censor that.”[/b][/color] He glanced off camera briefly, then brought his attention fully back on the school. Staff, teachers, and students alike. [color=426f6f][b]“We’re in [i]high school[/i], guys, so... if you don’t take a stance, are you just going to let others walk all over you? You have a voice, use it. Honestly, no one is to blame but ourselves. Like politics, there are factions and forces at this school, but we choose our time here, not them. We fear people who aren’t afraid to show what they’re against and what they’re for. People who speak their mind. People who [i]fight[/i] for what they believe in. I’m not here to start a movement, I’m here telling you to stop pretending. If you’re not okay, that’s okay. Don’t be okay. Having a voice is not a bad thing, if anything it makes you, you. So, Beverly Hills High, I will survive here but this time, as me. If that means I’ll eat alone, from this day on, so be it. And yeah, I’m gay and I’m okay with that, because I’d rather be me than give people the time of day to drag me down. This has been Riley Wells on RISE, and believe it or not, I’m going nowhere.”[/b][/color] 

[indent][quote][b]From: [color=80e5ff]My Fairy God-Sister[/color]  
[color=80e5ff]my night was interesting
I kissed a girl
rather… a girl kissed me
which isn’t usually how that happens… but im into it
Identity to be disclosed at a later date, maybe
anyway, yeah, i planned to talk to Riley later today. im gonna invite him to LGBT+ council![/color][/b]
[/quote][/indent]
Approving of Shiloh’s course of actions, Honey grabbed a cupcake, dessert before lunch, and licked the frosting off. Absentmindedly, she went to her contacts to a new number added. The number of Roz Norcross. Honey didn’t see her throughout the entirety of her morning, so she couldn’t help but wonder if she was okay. The sunflower girl that was Honey Dalton didn’t want to appear too needy or overwhelming, but something in her was telling her to check on her. 

Taking a deep breath in, she pressed the contact name ‘Roz’ and subsequently, the green phone icon to call. This was so surreal that she was capable to do this... to call her crush. On her phone. As she listened to the ringback tone, she tried to think of things to say if Roz picked up her phone. [color=e52b50][i]Hey, it’s your stalker who wants to know all your secrets![/i][/color] Oh god, that reference from last night… how cringey. Maybe a different reference. [color=e52b50][i]So, a dare might not be legally bindin’ but I totally could be—[/i][/color] Okay, no references. They were horrible. Grumbling to herself, she munched on the cupcake. Maybe it would be better if Roz didn’t pick up. Saves her the trouble from embarrassing herself. 

Roz was not having an ideal morning which in turn meant she wasn’t having an ideal afternoon either; though she had kept her cool, for the most part, with her brunch time meeting she made one mistake that cost her dearly. She let her pride get the better of her. She went for the slap on the wrist instead of the jugular and while it might one day prove to be a costly mistake - always go in for the kill, a true sentiment in journalism as well as warfare - her only solace was in the fact that for all the supposed heads of the class knew, they truly didn’t know Roz’s identity. 

Still, with the way it went earlier, Roz decided it was better to take a personal day rather than suffer through another day at an establishment where the only thing people cared about was who could ram their tongue down the most throats or who could drink the most without having to file a police report and medical history for alcohol poisoning. No doubt the talk of the day would be about the world’s lamest boat party thrown by the world’s most self indulgent one percenters, and that was not something she needed to overhear. There wasn’t even a post on Weekend Warrior about it precisely because the only juicy bit was tired old junk about snogging and idiot teens thinking drugs won’t negatively impact them and that they’re totally bubbles of personality that don’t need booze to be mildly interesting enough to hold a conversation without devolving into monosyllabic interjections such as ‘like’ and ‘uh’ and ‘dude’. 

A lazy trail of smoke wafted towards the ceiling fan as Roz watched in a stupor. The lit cigarette was in her hand but she hadn’t taken a single drag - nasty habit, it was. As the smoke wafted towards the fan only to be cleaved in two by the swaying blades, everything seemed to just be in slow motion, everything except the fan and the [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNXx26pRtcg]music playing on a loop in the background.[/url] Anger had come. It was still lingering. But more than anything else, right now Roz needed to be in her zone. People retreated to their happy places, Roz returned to her zone, where nothing could get in or out except her own thoughts as she drifted along the currents of her mood like smoke wafting upwards. 

And then, of course, her phone rang. 

Roz shifted her position on the dilapidated couch upon which she was laying, reaching out with a hand like she was trying to stop an old alarm clock without getting out from under the covers. In her current state of haze, her frantic slapping of the coffee table had her finger hitting the ‘accept call’ button - while she had been trying to hit the reject and mute button. With the ringing stopped, Roz assumed her task was complete and she could go back to doing nothing on her way to the zone. [color=fffacd][b]“Old piece of shit phone.”[/b][/color] 

[color=e52b50][b]“Hello? Is this Roz?”[/b][/color] A voice that contrasted the setting that Roz was in could be heard coming out of the phone. That kind of mellifluous sound that makes someone feel like they’re floating in air. Too pure, too sugary sweet for this dog eat dog world. A voice that would be hard for Roz to forget. 

Back outside, on school grounds, the girl that reminded people of sunflowers held the phone close to her ear, turning her body around on the bench to face away from the table. [color=e52b50][b]“It’s Honey! From last night! I was just calling to say thank you…. your company really meant a lot to me. I don’t really drink often… at all… so I’m sorry if I was a handful.”[/b][/color] She looked at the ground, at her feet, as she tapped them against the ground waiting for a response. [color=e52b50][b]“I just wanted to check on you. See how your day was going.”[/b][/color] Honey was impressed how well she was handling herself even if Roz had yet to say anything. 

The same hand Roz had used to accidentally answer the phone now ran down her face as the reality of her little error was made clear. It would be rude to hang up and it would be rude not to say anything at all but in the heat of the moment, such as it was, Roz had to search her memory for the owner of the voice. She wasn’t exactly used to hearing voices that could turn black coffee into that warm caramel shine so it took the honied voice of, well, Honey for Roz to put two and two together and come up with the answer. The drunk fangirl from the blackjack game, the one who went for a night swim, the one Roz kept out of trouble - the sharks on the boat surely smelled the blood of an inebriated girl.  Did she give Honey her number? Obviously, but in light of the morning’s events, the previous night was largely a blur by now. And to think she didn’t even drink. 

 [color=fffacd][b]“Did you go to school? Your hangover cure must be something else - you were kinda gone.”[/b][/color] Roz didn’t want to let her present mood influence her tone, the Dalton girl didn’t do anything wrong and Roz knew better than to lash out at the innocent party - but that didn’t exactly mean she was fully prepared for some kind of sudden phone call.  [color=fffacd][b]“As far as drunk people go, you were fine. You didn’t puke on me and pass out in my lap. What is it, like noon? This couldn’t wait until after school? Why’d you really call, Honey?”[/b][/color]

Oh no. Roz was super inquisitive. It made Honey tingley on the inside and undeniably [i]nervous[/i].  [color=e52b50][b]“Is it a bad time? I just…”[/b][/color] She bit her bottom lip, mustering what to say. She wasn’t lying when she said she was worried.  [color=e52b50][b]“I didn’t see you, and I hope I wasn’t the reason you didn’t come in today. I’ve been feeling like poop all morning but I didn’t want daddy to worry about me. I know he probably would’ve been okay with me staying home, but I don’t know. I didn’t want my bad mood to ruin my day. And I...”[/b][/color] 

Pause. 

Should she say it? 

Well, she already got this far. 

[sub][color=e52b50][b]“...I wanted to see you.”[/b][/color][/sub] Her soft voice dropped to a whisper. Her free hand covered her beaming red face, near immediately. Her heartbeat was pulsating through her ears. Every single pound, booming from her chest, running through her veins and through the entirety of her petite body. She did it. She said she wanted to see her again. Courage wasn’t failing her now! There was no turning back. Still not a full on confession, but if her signs weren’t getting more and more obvious,  then she was terrible at this ‘love’ game. 

Technically after the morning meeting? Every time was a bad time where Roz was concerned, but she obviously couldn’t say that to the girl. Well, she certainly [i]could[/i] but it would have been both rude and not at all Honey’s concern. In this bloody battle of wits and the published words, Roz couldn’t afford to drag genuine innocents through the muck. Roz might have been a bit of a muckraker, but fortunately that term didn’t mean what it sounded like. Hell, the girl was basically so pure that she didn’t even use the obvious profanity that was as commonplace as janitors being weird. How someone like that survived this long at BHHS was...a mystery. Mysteries were never Roz’s strong suit but she was nothing if not considering a change of perspective. 

[color=fffacd][b]“I think you might still be a little drunk there. You said you wanted to see…[i]me[/i]?”[/b][/color] That was enough to get Roz from a prone position to a seated one, with her curious gaze levied at the phone like it was an alien device. For someone that supposably understood people enough to write about them...Roz was finding this particular person rather atypical. The mystery. It couldn’t just be so simple, there had to be an angle...right? Was she put up to this? That didn’t seem possible, Roz met Honey before she was even a blight on a brunch...but that was the only thing that made any sense...because clearly this girl who couldn’t say ‘shit’ and was a bit of a lightweight couldn’t genuinely [i]want[/i] to see Roz for no particular reason. Right? 

[color=fffacd][b]“You sure you got the right number? What, you tryin’ to hang out with me? You don’t wanna be in the dirt with me, you’re better than that.”[/b][/color] Roz felt lower than dirt at the moment; she couldn’t even see the light from her depths, but at least she didn’t shut it out completely. 

[color=e52b50][b]“Don’t think so negatively about yourself!”[/b][/color] Honey retorted, in a rather scolding manner. Eep. [color=e52b50][b]“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to yell.”[/b][/color] She said sorry too much. Taking a moment to breathe, Honey stood up from her seat, her feet planted, keeping ground. Roz needed to believe her when she said the things she said. [color=e52b50][b]“I’m calling Roz Norcross. She gave me her number last night and took care of me when my brother was busy working and my best friend was seeing colors. I got lucky because I never thought we’d actually talk… in person. With us being different years, and all, but we’ve met before, believe it or not. I don’t know if you remember me, since I sit in the middle of the room, but we share photography together. Before winter break, for our midterm, I was the one who did the photo essay at Sunshine Diner. Just a simple, peaceful day at a family diner. Hard working people, trying to brighten their customers’ days.  I’d like to think I got my message across.”[/b][/color] 

She was getting off topic.  [color=e52b50][b]“You, Roz, are a mystery. No one knows anything about you! Not saying I tried to find out or anything… but last night was new for me. I chose to go to a party. I never go to parties. But I did! And then we talked. I want more talks like that… I [i]want[/i] to get to know you.”[/b][/color] Honey’s expression was completely resolute. If nothing else, she was determined to build a bridge between her and this girl that thought she was in the dirt. She wasn’t dirt. She was sensationally awesome!  

With the apology came the immediate response of Roz’s laughter; it was more akin to a scoff, but one that came with a dry little chuckle. It had felt like an eternity since something had made Roz laugh in genuine fashion. If that was her idea of yelling, Roz wondered what it was like if she ever actually got upset or angry. Roz didn’t exactly recall the specifics of last semester’s midterm but who was she to say otherwise - the important bit was that this girl clearly knew Roz. Not [i]well[/i] but enough to be intrigued. She might have been the only one who did notice her and that was...curious where Roz was concerned. Spend enough time being invisible and the one person who sees through the spectre is one that sticks out. 

[color=fffacd][b]“It seems we both have a thing for mysteries, yeah?”[/b][/color] Roz could admit when she was intrigued. It was in her nature, but this time it wasn’t for a blog or to raise awareness. This one was more of an editorial. And completely off the record. [color=fffacd][b]“You like coffee?”[/b][/color] 

[color=e52b50][b]“Mocha only, I prefer hot chocolate. Coffee can be a little too bitter for me but when you add chocolate, it’s not half bad.”[/b][/color] Not once was Honey anything but herself. Nor did she look at their conversation as a quiz or a test. Really, Honey thought if people were going to be in her life, they would love her for her, regardless of her opinions and what she liked or disliked. Honey’s hold on the phone tightened, waiting in anticipation. Was this going to lead to a date? Was Roz going to ask her out on a date? [color=e52b50][b][i]Don’t think too far ahead. Don’t get your hopes up. Maybe she just wanted to know if you liked coffee.[/i][/b][/color] 

Roz knew the type of person who responded like that. The literal response, the type who didn’t understand the intent behind it - or maybe the type that didn’t think they had any right to think of the intent like that. It was cute in its own sort of oblivious kind of way; she supposed that’s what she got for trying to play a little bit coy and loose. [color=fffacd][b]“Honey, I was asking you out. You want to get to know me better, I assure you there’s not much to know, but from what I remember last night you weren’t awful to be around. We can make it hot chocolate, Miss Mocha.”[/b][/color] That, it seemed, left little room for misinterpretations. 

[color=e52b50][b]“OH MY GOD.”[/b][/color] Oh. Honey said that outloud. Frantic now, she spun in circles. What should she say? What should she say? What should she say? Abruptly, she reached for the table for stability. Hungover and spinning. Bad combo. [color=e52b50][b]“I mean, cool. Yeah. Perfect.”[/b][/color] Her eyes glanced up at a couple staring at her from a different table. Her cheeks were stained rose and she had no idea if this feeling would ever go away. [color=e52b50][b]“You, me, Mocha chocolate.”[/b][/color] A date. Yes. A date. A DATE! [color=e52b50][b]“I totally knew that.”[/b][/color] She anxiously giggled, before the sudden recollection of something from last night popped in her mind. 

[color=e52b50][b]“...can we consider last night our first date?”[/b][/color] Because then she would be a first for Roz.

That was definitely not something Roz heard every day: genuine excitement. It seemed the student body at BHHS lived in a constant state of blase and malaise where the only emotion was indifference or lust. It was exhausting which was why Honey’s reaction was working as kind of a mood enhancing stimulant. Like a shot of honey in tea. Funny, that. [color=fffacd][b]“Sure, why not. We’ll avoid the trap of an awkward first date then.”[/b][/color] Roz didn’t seem to understand the simple significance, but she did have quite a lot on her mind of late. [color=fffacd][b]“It’s a date, then.”[/b][/color] 

[color=e52b50][b]“Absorutely!”[/b][/color] Pause. [color=e52b50][b]“Er, absolutely. Just text me where and when?”[/b][/color] The school bell rang. Did Honey forget to eat? She looked at the single bite in her cupcake. Yeah, she sure did. Who needs food when she had a second date with Roz! A date. Her cheeks started to hurt from how wide her dimpled grin was becoming. [color=e52b50][b]“I have to go… I’ll see you?”[/b][/color] Honey didn’t want to hang up, but she had to. Like a puppy with a wildly waggy tail, she waited for the ‘ok’ from Roz, still clinging to her phone like it was her most prized possession.  

[color=fffacd][b]“That sounds like the school bell, Honey. Go try and learn something and I guess I’ll talk to you later. Maybe call after school next time, yeah? The delinquent look works better on me.”[/b][/color] Roz wasn’t so much in her stupor and she figured there was one person to thank for that - the tragedy was that the person would never know. Still, Roz appreciated the gesture even if she didn’t think it was one she exactly deserved. Maybe this one she wouldn’t fuck up irreperably. [color=fffacd][b]“Be seeing you. Sooner rather than later.”[/b][/color] It was off to a good start, at any rate. 

[color=e52b50][b]“For a second date! Yay!”[/b][/color] The second warning bell went off. Ooooh no. Roz was right. She wasn’t much of a delinquent but she wouldn’t mind expanding her horizons with her sexy warrior! [color=e52b50][b][i]Don’t think ahead of yourself. She’s just going on a date with you. She doesn’t actually ‘like’ you. If anything this is probably a pity date...[/i][/b][/color] Shaking her head before depressing thoughts got into it, Honey quickly, yet still politely, dismissed herself, [color=e52b50][b]“I can’t wait! Bye-bye, Roz. Thank you so much!”[/b][/color] And with that Roz’s phone line went dead. [/indent]