Lexi squinted at the girl, trying to remember which one Othello was. “Is that the one with the lady constantly washing her hands of blood?” Oddly, that was the only part she could remember. “If not, then that just shows how awful my knowledge of Shakespeare is.”

She glances back over at the girl when she realizes the brunette’s talking to her again. “Uhm it’s Shakespeare. I’m auditioning for my school’s play. They’re doing Othello and I decided to read it again. Are you a fan of Shakespeare?” 

Lexi nodded, understanding exactly what he meant. There was never a permanent father figure in her own life growing up. “Mine was never there for me when I needed him, so that’s why he deserves that title.” She raised her glass as well, barely anything in it, and took a sip of whatever was left. “No, I didn’t mean it like that - I’m sorry. You’re not a disgrace, I didn’t mean to imply that.” She could feel her cheeks get hot, she had humiliated herself. At the mention of the word superpowers, her smile froze in place. Sure, he was joking, it was clear. Unfortunately for Lexi, she had become to paranoid of everyone and everything around her, that she was second-guessing them. And that included a stranger who she just met; someone strolling through town. She cleared her throat. “Have you met anyone else here in Arcadia?”

Jacob shrugged. “Daddy issues? Not really. Not anymore, at least. Bit hard, without a father, I think.” More like an unresolved murder, long ago. She seemed to be more relaxed right now, and he dared to let go of the fear that she remembered who he was, what he had done to her. But he wasn’t the ideal father either, so I think I can toast on that…” He picked up his glass as well, and took a sip after raising it. “What did your father do to you to deserve such a title?” Then he started to chuckle. “Maybe that’s part of why it always works? Others hardly expect me to be able to beat them, so the underestimate me. Besides that? Training, experience…” He had always fought a lot. “Why di you think I was the disgrace of my father? And superpowers of course. Always go for the superpowers.” His grin changed into a smile, mocking his own words, even when they were true. 

Lexi laughed. “If I can’t find you someone big, strong, and handsome to take you home - I’ll just have to do it myself.” 

“I never knew you wanted to be a paediatrician, that’s so cool.” Lexi knew exactly what Rose meant by keeping the childhood innocence, and the way they blurt things out with no filter. 

She sighed. “I used to believe that there was only good and bad in the world; no grey areas. But, that sort of changed after my accident in the woods. Someone could be deemed ‘bad’ but have good intentions and vice versa. I guess it all depends on the situation and the person,” she added shrugging. “Risk someones life? I guess I would, yeah. I mean, if I truly cared about the person. Wouldn’t you?” She paused. A lust - interesting choice of words. Could Rose know about Erik being a vampire? “I think it’s like recovering addicts; you might be sober for six months, but one night you slip up and you end up in a spiral. No matter how much you try to fight it, you can’t. Now, with that being said that doesn’t make you a bad person, or a weak person; instead, it makes you kind of stronger. A fighter; because now you want to prove to yourself and everyone around you that you can fight the...lust.”

Girl Talk || Rose + Lexi

“We’ll see about that,” Rose laughed, taking a sip. “Oh, that’s good! And if I can’t walk straight who will take me home? Promise to find me some hunkey hunk to help me?” she winked.

Rose thought about it. “Yeah, but there’s such a thing as kid gloves. Did I ever tell you I used to want to be a paediatrician? It’s good to tell it like it is, but kids are innocent. Their wonder should be kept in tact. It’s important.”

“It’s…complicated.” Rose sighed and thought. “Do you believe in the goodness of people? Like, if someone is evil, and does evil deeds, has this…need to do evil things, do you think they can be good if they tried? Would you be willing to risk someone’s life in order to believe and trust them?” She looked down at her drink. “I don’t know that I believe in that. I don’t know that I could risk that. If someone has a…lust to do something bad, and they have to fight it every day…they’re bound to fall into it’s trap eventually. Right?”

“Kennedy Smith is as common as John Smith. Maybe you should include your middle name?” She suggested, raising her eyebrows. “What are you studying in college, anyways?” Lexi was always envious of those who were able to further their studies past high school. She was fortunate enough to get a scholarship, but it was out of state and her mother threatened to kill herself if Lexi went. Unfortunately for her, no matter how much money she saved up for a college nearby, she constantly needed to lend some to her mother to help keep a roof over their head. Not having money issues must be nice. 

Kennedy wanted to scoff at what Lexi was saying. She couldn’t know though. That her parents called her useless because she has yet to find herself. ‘Pick a fucking major that gives the family money. Don’t be stupid about the whole follow your heart thing.’ “Yeah.” She smiled. If she needed to act as if she was a spoiled princess so she didn’t have people questioning her and her family, then she has to. “It better say Kennedy Smith because I wouldn’t want anyone else thinking it’s their name.”

Lexi gave her a nod, and went back to her own book. Once again she read the same sentence over, but this time it was her own fault; she was distracted. She looked back up at the girl. “So, what’s so funny? If you don’t mind me prying...”

She blinks, looking over at the girl. “Hmm? I’m sorry. I was reading something funny. I’ll keep quiet.” Biting her lip, Faye goes back to reading with a light blush on her cheeks. 

Lexi laughed and held up her hands, “alright, let’s do more!” She brought out a glass, filled it with tequila, and mixed another drink into it, threw in some syrups; and voila - a tequila cocktail. “These are the tequila versions of Long Island Iced Teas - you think you can drink one and be fine, but when you stand you can barely walk straight.” 

She frowned at the mention of her mother. “Yeah, parenthood didn’t quite suit her. She would always tell it like it is, no filter; whether it hurt your feelings or not. Kind of like you. It’s a great trait to have - sometimes deadly, but great.” Lexi gave Rose a reassuring smile. “Okay, slow down. What do you mean the world isn’t working the way you think it does? What’s making it different? What’s out there? Aliens? Monsters? Robots?” She grinned, showing she was partially joking, but Lexi was curious to see if Rose knew more about things than she did. 

Girl Talk || Rose + Lexi

“No no no! We’re doing more! I have a crazy high tolerance and can drink most the people here under the table. Maybe not a bartender,” she said, smiling at Lexi. “That’s pretty rude of your mom. I can’t really relate unfortunately, but still. Rude.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. I just feel like theres a bunch of people telling me how I should be, how the world works, and like…normally, I’d be pretty much like “fuck you, dude” but what if they have a point? What if the world doesn’t work like how I think it does, and I need to re-evaluate. And then I have people that I know, that don’t want me to change, or don’t think I could change to save my life. And…it’s not that I care what other people think…I’m five by five if you don’t like who I am. But…what if there’s more out there?”

“I never really thought about it, to be honest.” She shrugged. “I question a lot of things, so naturally, I questioned my parents beliefs. When my dad walked out on my mom and I, my mom would always use the term deadbeat, and I thought he was legitimately dead. I was like, 10, I heard the word ‘dead’ and I panicked. Anyways, I asked my mom if he went to heaven or hell, and you know what she said to me? ‘Oh Lexi, he didn’t go to either, although I’ll be damned if he made his way to heaven.’” She blushed, mostly from humiliation. She didn't like talking about her family, it wasn’t like her to air out dirty laundry. “Enough about me though. What makes you think that you’re losing yourself? What’s really going on?” Lexi gave her a sympathetic smile, and took the shot glass, putting it in a bin under the counter. 

Girl Talk || Rose + Lexi

Rose shook her head. “My parents were doctors. I grew up atheist. Science above all. What was it like? When you realised you didn’t believe? Did you question everything or was it just like you woke up one day and were like ‘nope, I’m done with that now’? I feel…I feel like I’m losing myself, and it’s painful, and it’s confusing, and I don’t know what to do about it.” She took the shot, putting the glass back on the counter, and sticking out her tongue shaking her head back and forth. “I’m gonna need some lime. I need to cut that,” she laughed.

She pondered for a minute, before nodding. “Not everything, but some things, yeah.” Taking Rose’s shot glass, she poured another shot for her. The topic of religion always made her uneasy. “I was raised a Christian, I like to think I believe in God...I mean, I believe in the idea of heaven and hell, and I believe in reincarnation. So I don’t know what that makes me. But lately, I’ve been thinking that...never mind.” She stopped herself before blurting out anything stupid. “Why do you ask?”

Girl Talk || Rose + Lexi

Rose threw back the shot, grimacing at the alcoholic burn, and laughed at Lexi’s question. The laugh continued on humourlessly, and ended in a groan as she rested her head on the kinda sticky counter. “Lexi…do you ever feel like everything in life as you know it is a lie, and everything you ever thought you were is in jeopardy? I’ve never been a faithful person. Were you?” She looked up at the woman. “Did you ever believe in religion or anything? Or like…philosophy?”

Lexi couldn’t help but roll her eyes. It was a little comforting to see that Kennedy’s issues were more petty and not as serious. “Well, whatever you choose to do in life, I’m sure your parents will be there by your side with proud, beaming smiles, and their wallets full. I wonder if they’ll donate to the College? Maybe name a library after you?”

Kennedy shrugged. She didn’t really want to give away her family secret, so she decided not to think about it all that much. The less she thought about her parents the better she felt with lying. “It’s nothing really. Just thinking about what I want to do with my life. I finished freshmen year of college, and I have no idea what I want to be.”

It had been a particularly slow night for Lexi with the exception of a group of truckers stopping by. They harassed her for a couple beers before she kicked them out and let them go on their way. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw Rose walk in. She studied the girl; the usual air of confidence in her was overpowered by something Lexi could only think of as stress. 

“Tequila?” She raised her eyebrows and grabbed two glasses, filling one with tequila, the other with bourbon. “Cheers. So, a penny for your thoughts?”

Girl Talk || Rose + Lexi

This was one of those poor life decisions. Rose knew it. But it was either this or go out and hunt, and the only leads she had were too big for her to handle right now. She’d end up getting herself hurt. Plus, the last time she hunted landed her in the situation she was currently in.

So, if she couldn’t drown herself in blood, she’d drown it in alcohol..

She bit her lower lip softly, and pulling out her card, the one that said Rose Wythe, she handed it to Lexi. “Tequila. Open tab.”

“Oh. Okay.” Lexi tried to mask her slight disappointment. She tried to change the topic, something a little less serious. “So, what else is stressing you out? Because dead bodies might be on the top of that list, but it looks like there’s more things.” She poured Kennedy another drink.

Kennedy raised an eyebrow. She thought Lexi was going to finish her sentence. She shrugged. “No we parted ways before all of that happened. Haven’t really spoken to him since…or at least about it.”

“No, you--” Lexi bit her tongue before she said anything to truly hurt Kennedy’s feelings. If Kennedy left, she couldn’t think of another person to get information out of. “No reason, it just seems like you two were close at the Ball, and then the dead body appeared, so naturally I thought it would’ve come up in conversation.”

Kennedy was confused at why Lexi suddenly smiled. She was kind of freaking her out. “Do you have a thing for murders or something?” She asked without a thought. She was taken back by her question about Erik. “I…I don’t know what Erik things about all of this. We never talked about it….Why?

Lexi’s lips curled into a small smile. Finally, someone said what she was thinking out loud. “I never crossed out a murder”, she admitted. While the night she got attacked was fuzzy for her, she knew an animal couldn’t do that. She knew exactly what sort of human could, but she refused to believe it. “So he’s out there,” she said, a sinister smile. She loved spooking people, she got a kick out of their reactions. She was about the watch Kennedy’s greatest reaction of all time with her next question. “What does Erik think? I mean, you two are close, right? I’m sure this has come up in conversation.”

Kennedy raised an eyebrow. She didn’t think about that, nor did she really demand to know what happened. It scared her to the bones. That could have been her, dead. She took a deep breath. “I think there is a murder, or some sort. There can’t be sudden animal attacks when we never had that problem before. Plus, wouldn’t they have found the animal? Secondly, how could an animal make it’s way into a building and kill someone without anyone knowing?” She took a big sip of her drink.

She mimicked him with putting her hand over her own heart. “My, my, what a shock!” As comfortable as she seemed to be, Lexi was still on guard about who Jacob was and how she recognized him. She was so sure she had seen him before, but she was willing to put up this act until the truth came out. “Daddy issues, then?” Something we have in common, she thought. She picked up her glass and raised it, “here’s to those children who had to live with piece-of-shit-father’s!” She finished off the drink and furrowed her brows. “No offence, but you don’t look like you’d be able to fight off men who are stronger than you. Just judging by physical appearance, that’s all. What’s your secret? Steroids? Superpowers? Some unique form of self-defence they study on islands?”

“Well… consider me shocked.” He put his hand over his heart in a mocking gesture. “A small town with his own secrets? That surely has never happened before.” At least he knew he wasn’t responsible for any of the deaths here. Not yet at least. Ironically, his only victim here was standing right in front of him, something he wasn’t used to. “Because it’s bloody normal to have a crime wave here? I should have done my research better.” He chuckled. “What scares me? Not much, darling. I’ve not encountere many men stronger than me, and I’m pretty good at defending myself. Is there anything that should scare me?” He shrugged. “I guess my father already called me reckless, so maybe that’s my problem.”

Lexi sighed for the umpteenth time. She was trying to enjoy her coffee and read her book in peace, but odd noises here and there from a person’s mouth kept distracting her. She looked up and saw who was the cause of it: a brunette. She stared at her, “I’ve been reading the same sentence five times in a row now because of your....noises..”

Faye’s sitting around, making whale noises  looking over her script, grinning to herself as she reads something funny, barely noticing the person staring at her.