SpicyMeatball

Palm Beach Royals: Senior Year

As they walked inside of the transparent tents that were set up outside, April couldn’t help but be at least a little bit impressed. Despite the circumstances surrounding this homecoming, so far April had little to complain about. Even the partner that was forced upon her was turning out to be not-so-bad afterall. Kavi was surprisingly easy to be with ever since they’d argued in the cafeteria.

There was just one problem. That tiny voice inside of her head still told her something was wrong. Something was wrong with her.

April shook the thought from her head as she sat down next to Kavi at a free table. She glanced over him with her warm brown eyes as Kavi scrolled through his phone, drinking in his rather handsome exterior while he was occupied. Even as she enjoyed the view, April could tell something was up with Kavi. A few thoughts went through her head, but the only obvious thing that could be an issue would have had to be something to do with the police chase. How they could possibly be arrested.

A moment later she realised Kavi was talking to her and managed only to miss a few words.

“...don’t be the hero and say you were the one driving. One, they’d never believe you because I’ll say I was and two, well actually there’s only one thing. And another thing, how are you feeling?”

The brunette stifled a laugh, shaking her head gently before she tucked her hair behind her one ear. “You expect too much of me, I get enough attention from the cops when I drive on my own!” She shot him a grin in an attempt to lighten the mood before she listened to the rest of what he had to say. “I’m feeling a lot better. I’m sure it was nothing.” April couldn’t help but feel like that was more of an attempt to convince herself than Kavi. Regardless, tonight would show it for sure. She glanced to her purse, but resisted the temptation to give in to the temptation just yet.

She turned to Kavi in an attempt to move her mind from the subject. “Would you care for a dance, my dear partner? It only makes sense, plus it would help you blend in…” April batted her eyelashes at him, her playful brown eyes sparkling in the dim light of the tent. Tonight would be interesting before anything else, that was guaranteed.

Steelbird Landing: A Roleplay After The End of it All [18+, 6 player limit!]

Sparrow, the Stalker

Sparrow

---

---

What Do You See?

---

---

¤ Age, approximately.
Late twenties.

¤ What Are You?
The Stalker

I am a hunter by trade. I wait silently amongst the trees for my prey to appear and strike without hesitation. Most believe that jaguars are the apex predator of the jungle. I am what the jaguars fear.

¤ What defines you?
COOL: Sparrow is icy cold under pressure and hard to rile. You are the very definition of a smooth operator. But of course, cold means distant…

Let Go of Your Past

---

---

¤ Who are you?
I am Sparrow. I go where others can’t. I was born in the chaotic streets of the city once known as Rio, used by the people around me to scavenge in places few others could fit. I was born in blood, the offspring of bandits fighting over anything and everything that remained. I was born in violence, punished for every failure. I was born, but I did not live. I was taught that nothing mattered but doing anything to get food. They spoke nothing of beliefs, the Gods did not want them in their mind.

They called themselves the Forsaken. They claimed that they had been abandoned by the Gods and that their ruthlessness and merciless killings were a result of it. I was taught no differently. I learned to kill without hesitation and without remorse. My elders always said I was good for nothing, that I was a runt among the children and that I would never be as strong. I was determined to prove them wrong. If they couldn’t see that I was strong, I was going to show them. In the Forsaken, you were judged for how good you were at scavenging and killing. So I scavenged and killed.

I was never taught regret. It was never an emotion I was familiar with. That has not changed throughout my entire life. That same night, I killed Leader’s favourite pupil. Slaughtered him in his sleep. I watched the light fade from his eyes as he awoke to his demise. I would not be cast aside any longer. Now that the competition was gone, I would no longer live in his shadow.

But instead of becoming Leader’s favourite, I became the most hated. I was beat until I bled, whipped until I could no longer stand. They cast me out into the wild with nothing but my clothes. Since then, I’ve lived off of the wilderness and the bounties it offered. I became one with the jungle and trusted nothing and no one but myself. I know the jungle better than anything and it now fuels my livelihood.

¤ What do you want?
I want to prove Leader wrong and be the most feared predator of my enemies. I live to sustain myself and I serve no one else. I live to show myself that we don’t need to scavenge to survive.

¤ What do you believe?
I believe that the two most powerful things in the world are patience and time. Nature’s pace is the only one I follow, patience will bring you sustenance if you give it the time it needs. Patience may be bitter, but the fruit it bears is sweet.

¤ What do you follow?
I follow the trails of the animals and the hints they leave behind with my eyes. When no trail is evident, I follow the sounds of their calls with my ears and their patterns of movement with my memory. If nothing else, I follow my need for self-redemption.

¤ A scarcity embodied:
I embody the scarcity of freedom. I am trapped inside my own head, fighting myself to earn the validation of a leader I despise. It is evident to those around me. A few have noted that I punish myself for simple mistakes, mistakes that others may see as nothing.

¤ Basic Instincts:
The pair of knives sheathed under my left arm never leave me, not even while I sleep. Without even thinking, I will landmark escape routes around me. In a conflict, I always keep my distance and let the arrows speak for me.

Spill Your Guts

---

---

¤ What is the worst thing you've ever done to stay alive?
The dead month... There was someone that had followed me from Rio, someone that I eventually considered a friend. For weeks we searched the jungles, waiting to find something to eat. We waited in the trees just like I’d done for years before. And nothing ever crossed our trails. It had been weeks of living off of leaves, mushrooms and the few berries we could find. My hunger got the best of me. As I waited in a tree above, I told him to go down to look for a trail and as he examined the jungle floor I put an arrow in the back of his head. He sustained me for another two weeks until I finally came upon a deer. The memory still haunts me to this day, as does the taste…

¤ Who do you owe?
I owe Pepsi for teaching me of The Ways. I give him a free pound or two of meat from each hunt so that he may continue to enlighten me.

¤ Who owns you? Literally or figuratively.
The jungle owns me, nature owns me. She holds my life in her hands every single day. My life depends on her bounty just as it depends on the tools I use to collect it. I am her apex predator, and she is my controller. She decides if I feed or if I starve, if I climb or if I fall.

¤ Who's intentions do you question?
I question everyone’s intentions. It’s the reason I still live and breathe to this day. Trust no one, question everything and never turn your back to a man with a weapon regardless of standing.

¤ Who or what do you worship?
I worship the Earthen Mother, nature herself. I pray to her each morning before the hunt so that I may live to see another day, so that I may nourish myself in her bountiful jungles and find my way out of them unharmed.

Hear the Whispers...

---

---

It comes to me while I pray. I close my eyes and as I speak, I begin to notice more and more around me. The silence, the smell of the jungle, the gentle touch of the wind and the humidity in the air, it all comes to me. Around me, there is an endless forest filled with life. I see a figure in the distance, just a silhouette in the fog. The Earthen Mother. She paces towards me, her featureless form made merely of mist. As she does, I realise I can no longer move. My eyes are fixated on her as the fog closes in around both of us. It is when she touches me that she begins to speak. A whisper, nothing more. A single word. Normally a location or direction.

Sometimes she remains silent and simply shows me. A gust of wind showing me the way, perhaps a trail invisible to me before. Always guidance, never judgement. The mother is fair in that way. She guides my step and allows me life.

Own What You've Become

---

---

Ah, Sparrow. Maybe they should have named you Falcon or Hawk... Their loss. Let's see what scars run deepest…

¤ You have seen one of the monsters from the western rift. What did it look like? What did it say to you?

It was nearly ten feet tall. Black as the night sky with yellow eyes that pierced through the darkness like arrows. I tried to take it down but my arrows bounced right off of it’s scaly hide. When it saw me, it turned to me and made a sound that almost resembled a laugh. When it spoke it’s four words, it sent a sickening feeling through me, “Your mother will suffer..”

¤ There is someone who wishes you join you on your hunts. Who is it? Why do you keep refusing?

Spade has been eyeing my place since I first started. He’s asked me countless times to show him how to hunt and to allow him to hunt on my grounds. I don’t trust him. He doesn’t take to the ways of the Earthen Mother, nor do I believe that he truly wants to be my partner in this. When we first met I caught him trying to steal a cut of meat from me. I won’t let him on the Mother’s hunting grounds.

¤ Who is your best customer? Your worst? Who wants to take control of your business? Names only, please.
The best? Pepsi. The worst? Shank.

Wants to take control? Spade.

Relationships Can Prove Fatal...

---

---

¤You had some kind of relationship with one of the other characters that is no longer the case. Who? And what was the relationship?

Avenue. We used to speak. He was the father of Milk's child. I respected him once, when he first introduced me to Hope. Avenue made me believe there was more than just violence, slaughter and mayhem in the world. And then he destroyed that image. That coward ran off with my sister's child in the night. I couldn't run fast enough to catch him and I will forever feel guilt for that. There is nothing between us now. He is a coward, nothing will change that in my eyes.

¤There is one character who you think could hear the voice of the Earth Mother if you could only teach them. Who?

Hemlock. I watch her harvest the plants without regard or care for the one who makes them. I watch her from the trees while she remains unaware. It would be dishonest of me to say that I haven't thought about ending her life while she defiled the Mother's grounds. I had gotten as far as drawing my bow before the Mother corrected my way. She spoke to me that night in my prayers, the same night I caught a glimpse of Hemlock spying on me through the trees. The Mother had shown me a sign. Hemlock can be taught of the ways of the Earth Mother.

---

---

Sparrow’s Song

---

---

Steelbird Landing: A Roleplay After The End of it All [18+, 6 player limit!]

Sparrow

Sparrow

¤ Age, approximately.
Late twenties.

¤ What Are You?
The Stalker

I am a hunter by trade. I wait silently amongst the trees for my prey to appear and strike without hesitation. Most believe that jaguars are the apex predator of the jungle. I am what the jaguars fear.

¤ What defines you?
COOL: Sparrow is icy cold under pressure and hard to rile. You are the very definition of a smooth operator. But of course, cold means distant…

¤ Who are you?
I am Sparrow. I go where others can’t. I was born in the chaotic streets of the city once known as Rio, used by the people around me to scavenge in places few others could fit. I was born in blood, the offspring of bandits fighting over anything and everything that remained. I was born in violence, punished for every failure. I was born, but I did not live. I was taught that nothing mattered but doing anything to get food. They spoke nothing of beliefs, the Gods did not want them in their mind.

They called themselves the Forsaken. They claimed that they had been abandoned by the Gods and that their ruthlessness and merciless killings were a result of it. I was taught no differently. I learned to kill without hesitation and without remorse. My elders always said I was good for nothing, that I was a runt among the children and that I would never be as strong. I was determined to prove them wrong. If they couldn’t see that I was strong, I was going to show them. In the Forsaken, you were judged for how good you were at scavenging and killing. So I scavenged and killed.

I was never taught regret. It was never an emotion I was familiar with. That has not changed throughout my entire life. That same night, I killed Leader’s favourite pupil. Slaughtered him in his sleep. I watched the light fade from his eyes as he awoke to his demise. I would not be cast aside any longer. Now that the competition was gone, I would no longer live in his shadow.

But instead of becoming Leader’s favourite, I became the most hated. I was beat until I bled, whipped until I could no longer stand. They cast me out into the wild with nothing but my clothes. Since then, I’ve lived off of the wilderness and the bounties it offered. I became one with the jungle and trusted nothing and no one but myself. I know the jungle better than anything and it now fuels my livelihood.

¤ What do you want?
I want to prove Leader wrong and be the most feared predator of my enemies. I live to sustain myself and I serve no one else. I live to show myself that we don’t need to scavenge to survive.

¤ What do you believe?
I believe that the two most powerful things in the world are patience and time. Nature’s pace is the only one I follow, patience will bring you sustenance if you give it the time it needs. Patience may be bitter, but the fruit it bears is sweet.

¤ What do you follow?
I follow the trails of the animals and the hints they leave behind with my eyes. When no trail is evident, I follow the sounds of their calls with my ears and their patterns of movement with my memory. If nothing else, I follow my need for self-redemption.

¤ A scarcity embodied:
I embody the scarcity of freedom. I am trapped inside my own head, fighting myself to earn the validation of a leader I despise. It is evident to those around me. A few have noted that I punish myself for simple mistakes, mistakes that others may see as nothing.

¤ Basic Instincts:
The pair of knives sheathed under my left arm never leave me, not even while I sleep. Without even thinking, I will landmark escape routes around me. In a conflict, I always keep my distance and let the arrows speak for me.

¤ Spill Your Guts

¤ What is the worst thing you've ever done to stay alive?
The dead month... There was someone that had followed me from Rio, someone that I eventually considered a friend. For weeks we searched the jungles, waiting to find something to eat. We waited in the trees just like I’d done for years before. And nothing ever crossed our trails. It had been weeks of living off of leaves, mushrooms and the few berries we could find. My hunger got the best of me. As I waited in a tree above, I told him to go down to look for a trail and as he examined the jungle floor I put an arrow in the back of his head. He sustained me for another two weeks until I finally came upon a deer. The memory still haunts me to this day, as does the taste…

¤ Who do you owe?
I owe Pepsi for teaching me of The Ways. I give him a free pound or two of meat from each hunt so that he may continue to enlighten me.

¤ Who owns you? Literally or figuratively.
The jungle owns me, nature owns me. She holds my life in her hands every single day. My life depends on her bounty just as it depends on the tools I use to collect it. I am her apex predator, and she is my controller. She decides if I feed or if I starve, if I climb or if I fall.

¤ Who's intentions do you question?
I question everyone’s intentions. It’s the reason I still live and breathe to this day. Trust no one, question everything and never turn your back to a man with a weapon regardless of standing.

¤ Who or what do you worship?
I worship the Earthen Mother, nature herself. I pray to her each morning before the hunt so that I may live to see another day, so that I may nourish myself in her bountiful jungles and find my way out of them unharmed.

Hear the Whispers...

It comes to me while I pray. I close my eyes and as I speak, I begin to notice more and more around me. The silence, the smell of the jungle, the gentle touch of the wind and the humidity in the air, it all comes to me. Around me, there is an endless forest filled with life. I see a figure in the distance, just a silhouette in the fog. The Earthen Mother. She paces towards me, her featureless form made merely of mist. As she does, I realise I can no longer move. My eyes are fixated on her as the fog closes in around both of us. It is when she touches me that she begins to speak. A whisper, nothing more. A single word. Normally a location or direction.

Sometimes she remains silent and simply shows me. A gust of wind showing me the way, perhaps a trail invisible to me before. Always guidance, never judgement. The mother is fair in that way. She guides my step and allows me life.

Own What You've Become

Ah, Sparrow. Maybe they should have named you Falcon or Hawk... Their loss. Let's see what scars run deepest…

¤ You have seen one of the monsters from the western rift. What did it look like? What did it say to you?

It was nearly ten feet tall. Black as the night sky with yellow eyes that pierced through the darkness like arrows. I tried to take it down but my arrows bounced right off of it’s scaly hide. When it saw me, it turned to me and made a sound that almost resembled a laugh. When it spoke it’s four words, it sent a sickening feeling through me, “Your mother will suffer..”

¤ There is someone who wishes you join you on your hunts. Who is it? Why do you keep refusing?

Spade has been eyeing my place since I first started. He’s asked me countless times to show him how to hunt and to allow him to hunt on my grounds. I don’t trust him. He doesn’t take to the ways of the Earthen Mother, nor do I believe that he truly wants to be my partner in this. When we first met I caught him trying to steal a cut of meat from me. I won’t let him on the Mother’s hunting grounds.

¤ Who is your best customer? Your worst? Who wants to take control of your business? Names only, please.
The best? Pepsi. The worst? Shank.

Wants to take control? Spade.

¤Sparrow’s Song

Steelbird Landing Interest Check [18+, 6 players ONLY]

Definitely intrigued, I'll get on writing a character.

Palm Beach Royals: Senior Year

Truthfully, April hadn’t been feeling amazing today. She’d woken up with a wicked headache that put most of her previous hangovers to shame, then after she’d finally had her coffee her dad dragged her out the door to pick up her dress before she’d even had a chance to eat. Only after she’d practically begged her dad to stop at the closest McDonald’s did she finally satisfy her need for food. Between the headache, her father’s insufferable dad jokes and the nonstop driving around Palm Beach, her day hadn’t been great so far.

Following the chaos that was making the final adjustments to her homecoming dress--apparently something to do with incorrect waistline measurements--things finally calmed down a bit. April had insisted on driving herself to the hairdresser and so after being dropped off at home, she hopped in her Maserati and took off towards Fort Lauderdale. It wasn’t a terribly long drive. The shocking lack of police presence today meant that she could easily bypass the speed limit and finished the roughly fifty mile drive in just under thirty minutes. A stupid grin was plastered across her face as she pulled into the parking lot. Something about going 160 km/h (100 mph) down the highway and the sound of the Maserati’s engine always made her day.

After she’d returned, it was approaching four o’clock. Plenty of time to get ready. She quickly ate a small dinner and then made her way to her room. With the dress already laid out on her bed, April went to work on her makeup. April spared no effort in applying it while keeping her look more reserved. There was no point if the end result made her look like a clown.

With the finishing touches down, it was now time for the dress. She continued to question how the measurements had been taken wrong. It had only been two or three weeks since she’d gone in for the initial fitting. April pulled out her phone and brought up the photo she’d had her father take of her those few weeks ago, before she pulled on her dress.

April started at the mirror, her eyes glancing over every single inch of the dress. Every time she looked however, her eyes were always drawn back to the waistline. Something wasn’t right. Her heart sped up as she ran her hand down from her chest to her waist and then looked back to her phone, the pieces coming together in her brain.

”Fuck!” April exclaimed, albeit a little louder than intended.

“Everything alright sweety?” Her dad inquired.

”Everything’s fine! Just… … ... knocked something over!” April called out nervously, her heart pounding against the walls of her chest.

Palm Beach Royals: Senior Year

Normally April would’ve been excited for homecoming, let alone her final homecoming in King’s Academy. But this year was different. This year she had no idea if she was even wanting to go. Ever since the events in Santiago’s bedroom back at the party six weeks ago, she’d been thinking all too much about Santi and what she really meant to him. It hadn’t exactly been radio silence between the two since that fateful night. Santi had sent a few texts to her, only some of which April actually responded to. Most ended in one of them not responding to the other, with only one occasion of the conversation lasting more than a few minutes.

But one text. One single text from Santiago flipped her world upside down.

Look stop ignoring me sorry I slept with Xixi

When she saw that text, something snapped inside of her. April’s mind raced faster than she drove, a mix of resentment and sadness building inside of her. That was it. If Santi could do whatever--or rather whoever-- he wanted to, whenever he wanted to, then as far as April was concerned she was no longer his little Tiger Lily. Enough with the games, it was time to move on. It was time to stop thinking with her heart and to start thinking with her head.

“Hello Seniors!” Mrs. Sanders’ irritating voice brought her back to reality. “As you all know, our school’s Homecoming dance is scheduled to take place next Saturday evening. I’m sure you all have your little outfits picked out and all of that, maybe even have an idea of who you’d like to attend with… … ... But we’re actually changing things up a little this year.” Uh oh, that didn’t sound good. What the hell did this sociopath have planned this time? April narrowed her eyes in suspicion, glancing to Chanel and Julie to see their reactions. “What is she up to this time?” If Mrs. Sanders even considered ruining homecoming in her final year, April might have run her down in the parking lot.

As Sanders droned on and on, spewing the bullshit facade into their faces like they were young children, April sat on the edge of her seat in anticipation. Her mind raced as she tried to figure out what could possibly be going on here. “Oh wait.... No...she wouldn’t--” April’s self-talk was interrupted by Mrs. Sanders once again,“So for this homecoming dance, I’ll be in charge of deciding who attends the dance with who, with a little help from these bowls here.”

“What the fuck!” April exclaimed a little more loudly than she had intended, drawing a few eyes from the crowd and a stern glare from Mrs. Sanders before the speech continued. April gritted her teeth and looked to her partners in crime for something...anything. “She can’t do this, can she?”

“Mr. Salvador, you are paired with Ms. Foster.”

Salvador? The name rang a bell somewhere in the deep recesses of her brain, but she just couldn’t place a face to it.

Oh. Right. Kavi Salvador, the only person on the planet who could properly piss of Santiago. The one person that Santi would absolute hate to have partnered with her. April looked back to Santiago himself, sending him a smug look that just screamed *This is what you get* before returning her gaze to the front. This was too perfect. The person Santi couldn’t stop hating partnered with the one he was closest with. The fact that he was easy on the eyes was just bonus points now. This homecoming would certainly be the most interesting one yet.

As the assembly came to a close, she said a quick goodbye to Chanel and Julie before turning and following Kavi out. She stayed back for a bit so that it wasn’t super obvious, but then sped up as they got closer and closer to the cafeteria. Upon arrival, April went about her own business and grabbed a few items for her lunch, timing it so she’d be right behind Kavi when he got in line. It almost felt like she was on the hunt. Hunting for prey that was already hers for the taking. In a...happy, not blood shedding way though. As she walked up, April carefully balanced her tray on one hand while she quickly tucked her hair to the side with the other.

With a stupid grin plastered across her face, she walked up behind Kavi “Cute butt, is it free for the taking?”

Palm Beach Royals: Senior Year

I'm alive, April's here to stay. Not sure I could take on another character with school.

Palm Beach Royals: Senior Year

---

---

No, I just don't understand why
You won't talk to me
It's hurts that I'm so unwanted for nothing
Don't talk words against me
I wanted to know you
I wanted to show you

---

April’s head pounded lightly as she sat on top of the unmounted set of racing tires next to her car. She’d spent the last two days after the party doing next to nothing in her house, reflecting on the night of the party. Particularly noteworthy, she’d drank herself into a borderline coma on Sunday evening and passed out watching Brooklyn Nine Nine, something she deeply regretted now. April just couldn’t get the image of Santiago kissing Bea out of her head, it was like it was trying to haunt her. She needed a distraction. School didn’t matter right now, April needed to feel something other than heartbreak right now. She looked down to the tires she still sat upon and a small grin spread across her face.

Ten minutes and one air-powered impact wrench later, the normal summer tires on her Maserati were swapped out with the significantly more expensive racing tires. Another ten minutes and she had changed from her school uniform into jeans, a tank top and her black leather jacket.

April hopped into the driver’s seat just as her dad walked into the garage. She shut the door and let the custom tuned V8 engine roar as she cranked the ignition before hearing a gentle knock on her window. “April, what did I tell you about skipping class? I know you had a few rough nights, but that's not an excuse.” Her dad spoke in an irritated, but calm tone, knowing full well what went down at the party on Friday. April had come clean in her drunkenness and regretted telling him anything now. She rolled down her window a crack and looked to her father, taking in a deep breath before speaking a few short words. “First two classes suck, I need to blow off some steam.”

Moments later, she shot out of the garage and sped out of the Foster Estate driveway like a bat out of hell, her face masked by the visor of her racing helmet. The world around her was all but blocked out as her driving playlist blared through her earbuds. It was just her and the road now, time to tear it up. April turned onto Interstate 98 and checked her mirrors for cops before flooring it, the racing tires screeching on the tarmac before the Maserati GT took off down the road at breakneck speeds. The eight cylinder engine’s roar echoed through the air as April ripped down the same strip of road she’d raced Diablo down more times than she could count, watching her speedometer climb well past 150mph. The roads were very empty for this time in the morning but April paid it no mind, only really hesitating behind the wheel as she screamed past a police cruiser. “Shit!”

Sure enough, as she flew past the cop, the lights came on and the sirens wailed. She was done for now. Her father was gonna kill her. There was a brief moment in a dark corner of April’s mind that screamed You can outrun him, but April knew that even if she did, it wasn’t hard to track down one of the very few arctic white Maserati GT’s in the area. Especially with the license plate PR1NCSS. Reluctantly, April slowed down the car and pulled over to the side of the road. She waited with the feeling of absolute dread as the officer approached her car from the left, flipping up the visor on her helmet and preparing her papers.

“License and registration please, Miss Foster. Do you have any idea how fast you were going?”

April grinned. If she was gonna be charged, might as well have some fun.
“Faster than you. Topped out at 160 before you flashed me.” She batted her eyelashes and cocked her head to the side as the officer looked over her license and insurance. Then an idea started forming in her head. A glorious idea. A mischievous idea.

“Miss Foster, step out of the car.” Time to put her plan into action.

April followed his instructions, but not before pulling down the driver side visor and retrieving two tickets to an F1 race in Monte Carlo. “Say, officer Flores, was it? You’re into Formula One racing, right? Thought I saw you at the Palm Beach track when they had a small scale race. I’ve got two tickets here to the 2019 Monte Carlo race, trackside with banquet access. If you let me off easy, they’re yours. I could probably cover airfare too.” In truth, the tickets were supposed to be for her and Santi to go. But after their little debate and how Santi just wanted her for the extra curricular activities, she’d figured it was a fair trade. That and the looming threat of being arrested drove the stakes even higher. It was all or nothing now.

The officer hesitated as he pressed her against the car and finished cuffing her one hand. She had hit a weak spot. Victory.

“Do you know that it’s illegal to bribe a law enforcement officer?”

“Do you have any idea how much these tickets are worth?”

“Is that the full package?”

“Two laps in a two seater car, yacht parties, accommodations. Roughly fifteen grand for both tickets.”

April was rewarded with a satisfying click as the officer undid the handcuffs. She turned to face the officer and dug the tickets from her jacket. Dates are on the back, you’ll need proper attire for the banquet. I’ll transfer your airfare when you book the tickets. You have my number on file if you need to contact me.”

“If I see you again, Miss Foster, you’re done.”

April grinned from under her helmet and hopped back into her car and started it, pulling a quick U-turn on the road before taking off back towards the school. She stayed under the limit until the cop pulled off and disappeared in her rear-view, before dropping the gear and flooring it once again. No one could keep her from the road.

April pulled into the school parking lot ten minutes later just as the lunch bell rang, making extra sure to squeal her tires as she came dangerously close to clipping Santi’s red Lamborghini. After she let the sight sink in to all of the onlookers, she pulled into the spot right next to it and turned off the engine. She looked into her mirrors to check if Santi had actually seen what she’d done. If he could play with her heart, she could play with his most prized possession. She hopped out of the car and peaked around the passenger side, grinning as she saw how little room she’d left for Santi to open his door. Now, for lunch. April was starving. Hopefully the cafeteria had something decent today.

Palm Beach Royals: Senior Year

Lovin' you is like a fairytale
I just can't pick up the phone again
This time, I'll be on my own, my friend
One more time, I'm all alone again

Sex with you is like I'm dreamin', and
I just wanna hear you scream again
Now you're gone, I can't believe it

Time I spent with you deceivin' me

I don't care if you believe in me
I still wonder why you're leavin' me
I don't care if you believe me

I still wonder why you tease me

After leaving Beatrice to think about the mindblowing kiss she’d just received courtesy of the devil himself, the signature arrogant smirk was back on Diablo's handsome face as he took a moment to look around his surroundings to see what was happening. When he looked up at the balcony that lead to his bedroom, he was expecting to find it either empty or full of his friends from the island acting like the animals they were. What he wasn’t expecting was to find his grey eyes on none other than April herself, who gave him her most burning death glare before storming away .

The young man let out a groan. He had definitely fucked up now.

Cursing under his breath, Diablo made his way around the group of party-goers and up to his bedroom. He had just enough time to close the door behind him before April went off on him, basically calling him ungrateful and asking him if she was just not good enough for him anymore. All throughout her tirade, Santiago kept his head down and listened to her, hoping to appear sorry for his behavior. However, her love confession hit him like an unexpected punch to the gut. His previously hanging head snapped up, and he suddenly looked up at her like a deer caught up in the headlights. If there was anything about him that she knew well, it was that the particular word she’d yelled out at him made his blood turn to ice. Being in love meant commitment, and commitment meant kissing his casanova life goodbye. And he knew in his heart that, no matter how much of a jewel April was, he was much too young to do something like that.

“Fuck, Lils…” Diablo muttered, running a frustrated hand through his shortly-cropped hair. He had absolutely no idea about how the hell he was supposed to handle the situation. This was the reason he didn't get into anything serious in the first place, puñeta! It always came back to bite him in the ass. "Look, I didn’t know you were here already, alright? As far as I knew you were back at your place getting ready, and I didn’t get a text from you saying you were here. And you knew fully well getting into this that getting attached was out of the question. You fucking promised me you wouldn’t get attached after the last time! You knew I was despicable or whatever the hell you want to call me long before you decided to give this shit a try again, so don't come throwing that in my face now, April!"

It was true. April had known that this...whatever this was between them, it wasn’t a commitment. And yet, even knowing that, April couldn’t seem to sway her feelings that had been present for as long as she’d known Santi. Intimate contact had a way of drawing two people together. The two of them had been through everything together since the first day of high school when their eyes met in the hallway. Everything from the drama that was the pair of them in their early days, to the tough times at school that brought them together. They had been inseparable at one point. It was evident that she knew what he was saying was right, simply by the fact she’d gone silent since he’d stopped talking. April wasn’t one who typically backed down from an argument.

“Yes! Yes I promised I wouldn’t get attached to you. I promised that three years ago and I bit my tongue every time that the thought came into my mind. But things change! People change! We’ve been doing this for so long, Santi. You text, we get together, we sleep together, and then nothing! Just nothing more than a meaningless fuck fest. You wouldn’t let me in, not even to support you when your grandmother died. It’s like there’s nothing between the two of us, not even as proper friends.”

The brunette slumped onto the bed and held her face in her hands, breathing shakily as she tried to calm herself down. The blood she’d drawn from her palms gently stained her cheeks, watered down by the trails of a few tears. “I-I...I’m trying so hard…to have something more between us. Something more than just the meaningless sex.” April's hands shook as she pulled them away from her face, placing them on her thighs to steady herself. “What is this to you Santi? What we have here? H-how do you see it?” Her tone now wasn't harsh or angry anymore, but genuine. She wanted to know. No, she needed to know.

Now it was his turn to shut up and listen to what she had to say, because she was right in some things. It was absolutely true that he hadn’t given her the chance to really get to know him, but not because she was doing anything wrong. He knew that the second he let anyone in, he would be vulnerable, and that was a risk he wasn’t willing to take just yet. On the other hand, it was not true that she was just meaningless sex to him. Had she been any other girl, things between them would have ended back in freshman year after their initial break-up. Yet here she was, three years later and still on the grind. If that didn’t tell her that he certainly felt some type of way about her, then he truly didn’t know what to do. Changing who he was was not an option.

Bottom line? This whole situation over a stupid kiss was giving him a migraine.

“Why the fuck are you doing this to me, Lils?” Diablo asked her in a low voice, pleading to not have to answer her questions. “Why do you do this to yourself? To us? You do mean something to me, but maybe it's just not in the way you want me to right now! Lils, you may not believe me, but you really are my best friend. We have a good thing going on. Why can't we just keep things how they are?”

April took in a shaky breath, looking down at the floor as he spoke. “The way they are right now...” The brunette stood from her seat and faced him from across the bed, one hand placed on the footboard of the bed to steady herself. “H-how are we best friends if all we do together is…best friends do more than just fuck, Santi! Best friends talk to each other, support each other through thick and thin, hang out at more than just every other party!” April was almost shouting now, her voice slowly breaking over the course of their argument.

“I want to be there for you when you need me! I want to help you through everything you need me for, be the shoulder you can lean on for support.”She carefully wiped a tear from her eye, taking care to not mess up the carefully applied eyeliner that only made her look more saddened in this moment. “Right now it feels like it’s all I can do to just talk to you! I don’t even know what you want to do after high school, what you want to do with the rest of your life! How are we friends if I don’t even know that?!”

If there was one thing in the world that could always make Santiago truly weak, it was seeing the woman that he cared about in tears for whatever sad reason. He'd died on the inside when her grandmother saw him on her deathbed and burst out into tears at possibly not living long enough to see him become the successful young man she knew he would be. His heart had broken when he saw his mother sob uncontrollably after her mother's passing. And now here was his best friend, tears streaming down her beautiful face in the same place he had made her feel so good before.

God, he hated seeing April cry… And knowing that he was the reason behind it made him feel like more of a piece of shit than he already was. But his stupid pride was above anything and everything else.

“So what do you want me to do, huh?” he asked her, feeling truly lost about what to do. Even though he wanted nothing more than to fix the situation, Diablo was growing frustrated and incredibly resentful at having been put into this position in the first place. “Tell you all about me and my secrets and all that shit? Because I can do that, sure. But don't ask me to get tied down, because that's not the kind of man I am, and you know it!”

“I want you to try Santi, there’s no effort from you between us! You don’t try to be a friend, you just sit there and use me, thinking I won’t be hurt if I see you with someone else.” April was feeling defeated. It seemed like he didn’t understand that there was a difference in being her friend and being her boyfriend.

“I...Santi I need a break from all this…” April could hardly believe those words had come from her own mouth, but it was true. She was tired of constantly trying to make it work with Santiago only to have absolutely nothing given back in return. “I need some time away...s-some time to figure out what I really want.” April had no idea what to say otherwise, the conversation would just keep looping back to her trying to get through to Santi. And it wasn’t working, not one bit. Her efforts had been in vain thus far it didn’t seem like that was going to change.

It wasn’t something she’d wanted to say. In an ideal world, Santi would come around and they’d run off into the sunset. But this wasn’t a fairy tale.

The second Diablo heard April say the words ‘break’ and ‘time away’, he knew it was time to pull out the big guns if he had any chance left to not further mess things up with her. Even if he wouldn’t commit to her it didn’t mean he didn’t care about her, much less wanted to set her free and risk the chance of seeing her with somebody else. Call him the biggest hypocrite in the world, but if his Lils ended up in the arms of some other fucker out there, he didn’t know what he would be capable of.

“Babe, wait,” he said, closing the distance between them and cupping her face with both of his hands. He was hoping his gray eyes would, as usual, be able to give his words the extra boost of convincing needed for April to disregard what she’d just said and give him another chance. “Lils, I’m sorry, okay? I’m an asshole, and I’m sorry. Gimme a chance to make things better for us. I promise I’ll try my best to do whatever it is you think is we’ll need to be okay. I can’t fucking lose you too.”

“What is it exactly that you mean when you say you can’t lose me? You never had me. Have you been listening to anything I’ve said?” April clenched her jaw as tears began to roll down her face once again, taking in a deep breath in a futile attempt to calm herself before she spoke once again. “I need a break Santi. I need t-time to think...I’m not sure how long I can keep doing this...without any reciprocation.”

And with that, April turned to grab her leather jacket--she’d apparently forgotten to grab it when she left to get ready for the party--before she paced towards the door. Her lips quivered as she breathed shakily, standing at the door a moment to see if he’d say anything. One last chance. One more moment to say the right words.

“Babe, please,” Santiago begged, but made no motion to approach her again.

April just silently shook her head, twisted the door handle with a trembling hand and left the room without another word. She took care to take the less traveled hallways in the house in an effort to save herself from embarrassment, before finally making it to where she’d parked her car. After closing the door, the brunette put her face into her hands and wept softly. April was never one to handle emotion well and tonight had been especially taxing.

If the ride to the party was awkward, the ride home to Chanel’s and Julie’s places would be tenfold. April quickly texted the pair before trying to pull herself together.

“Hey party animals, ready to head home? I’m in my car”

Palm Beach Royals: Senior Year

---

---

Ever fall in love with someone.
Ever fallen in love, in love with someone,
Ever fallen in love, in love with someone you shouldn’t have fallen in love with…

April had never felt more awkward at a party in her entire life. It was a foreign feeling, to be among so many people she knew and yet feel like a total stranger to every single one of them. Had she really been such a shitty person to these people? Her years at the academy certainly hadn’t been the most glorious for friendships; she’d managed to piss of both Julie and Marisol simultaneously when she first got together with Santiago, Sonny hated her guts for reasons untold and god knows who else wouldn’t even bother approaching her. With a grumble, the brunette quickly decided that the only way to drown out these thoughts was to drown herself in booze.

One shot down. April shook her head and shuddered. ”Thats...more potent than I remember. I need more.” she mumbled to herself before downing another one almost immediately. Much better. Now, a few housekeeping things before she went to see her dear Santi again. First up, make sure nothing too wild was happening out on the floor. It was a weird feeling inside of her, like she was responsible for all of these people.

The brunette ran a hand back through her hair to straighten it quickly as she walked out onto the dance floor, just in time to see Marisol land a solid punch on some poor junior. April scowled and made her way over, only to see Marisol run off before she could get a word in. “Damn it Sol. Nothing’s ever easy with you is it…” She glanced over the poor guy before shaking her head and pacing back from where she had come from. April had to at least look the part of a proper hostess, so without hesitation she quickly gathered some of the dishes laying around and brought them back into the relatively quiet kitchen, at least compared to the rest of the party.

She needed to drown out all of the drama, the noise, the music. Something inside of her was off tonight. Nothing had started off liked April had hoped. Maybe her little argument with Julie had just gotten herself all riled up and now she was paying for it. “Breathe April, you’re here to relax, not to stress yourself out anymore.” Maybe Santi could help her cool off and relax. He’d been the only one able to in the past, why should tonight be any different? April walked over to the staircase and proceeded up to the balcony to see if she could spot him.

As she got to the edge of the balcony however, what she saw did not calm her down or make her relax. No, what she saw only threw more fuel on the fire inside of her. April couldn’t even think straight as she watched the entire thing play out in front of her like the scene of a movie. Her eyes narrowed and stared invisible daggers into the unknowing Santiago. After he had left Bea, April made sure Santi had seen her on the balcony before she went back into his room and waited. Waited for him to walk into his room and right into her trap. Waited for her temper to finally get the better of her. April had no clear thoughts anymore. She was no longer in control of the situation. So when Santiago came walking into the room, she let loose.

“How long are you going to drag me along, Santiago? We’ve been...whatever the fuck this is, for three god damn years now! And now I’m no longer good enough to satisfy your desires? Now you have to go around chasing skirts at a party that I made possible?! That you knew I was coming to?! A party I have worked tirelessly to make absolutely perfect?! I worked for hours today and this is how you thank me? By making out wi--” April could barely breathe she was so mad. Her heart was racing a mile a minute and no force in the entire universe could stop this landslide of venting from happening now. Not even El Diablo himself. “You are despicable Santiago, everything Julie said about you was true. Don’t even have the goddamn decency to hide it. Right in plain fucking sight. You know how much I love you. And yes, I’ll say it a thousand times until in engrains itself in your thick skull. I love you Santi! ...Or at least I tried to.”

April paced anxiously, her hands balled in tight fists and her nails dug into her palm so deeply that she was beginning to draw blood. She breathed rapidly, not even making eye contact with Diablo. All she could do was wait to see what he said now. Her piece was done.