Keystone Outcasts

[CrystalSmith]

Chloe smiles slightly, she saw through it easily, "I'm always here if you need to talk, yeah? Even though you probably won't because you don't really know me." She says looking at the art, "But yeah, Lee's is quite bad, isn't it." She says with a grin.


Joshua chuckles at Lee and Mel.

 

[buildingaspaceship]

"It's really really bad." He grins and turns back to the group, looking at them. He looks at Chloe, "And yeah, sure." He smiles at her a little and nods his head before looking at the time. "My mum'll kill me if the cancer doesn't." He mumbles. "I gotta scram."


Melanie looks up, "Already?" She pouts at him, "But this is operat-"


Lee shuts her up by talking over her, "I'm gonna walk you home bud!" He stands up and grabs the bag of things, putting some of the cans away in his bag. "I wanna see Linda."

 

[CrystalSmith]

Chloe nods at him, "Ahh, okay." She says with a smile, glancing at Lee and sitting down again. She smiles slightly looking around. Joshua smiles, "You coming back after Lee?" He asks.

 

[buildingaspaceship]

Lee shrugs his shoulders, "I might jam tonight, I got a new piece to work on for music, so..." He smiles and waves a little, "This is goodbye for me!" He strikes a pose like a model would on a catwalk, "Don't miss me too much," he winks, before walking out of the door and dragging Robbie with him. Robbie waves a little as he's pulled.


Melanie looks at Chloe and Josh. "Well, that gets rid of the most annoying person in the room. I swear to God he cannot be straight. Not with all that posing and stuff." She shrugs her shoulders.

 

[CrystalSmith]

Chloe laughs lightly, "Maybe he secretly likes boys and just sleeps around with girls to hide that." She says with a grin.


Joshua laughs lightly, "I'll have to go soon, dad gets angry if i don't go home." He says looking at Mel knowing that she'll understand what he meant by angry.

 

[buildingaspaceship]

Melanie gasps, "That would explain so much!" She puts a hand to her head. "I'm totally going to ask him that tomorrow. My little baby Lee could be in the closet!" She looks at Joshua, nodding her head understandingly. "That's okay, you should probably go now." She says, smiling reassuringly at him. "Just in case."

 

[CrystalSmith]

Joshua stands and nods, "Yeah, I should, I won't be in school tomorrow otherwise." He mutters looking away, "I'll see ya tomorrow." He says quietly, smiling weakly and heading home slowly.


Chloe smiles at Mel, "Just us girls." She says with a small laugh. She looks around, glancing at the graffiti they all just made and smiles,

 

[buildingaspaceship]

"See ya!" Melanie shouts to Josh as he leaves, and she turns to look at Chloe. "Are you sure your mum won't mind you being out? I don't know just uh... Something you said earlier." She smiles at Chloe.

 

[CrystalSmith]

Chloe smiles weakly, "Yeah, she worries about me. It's been a heck of a journey to become the person I am today." She says quietly looking away for a moment.

 

[buildingaspaceship]

"Do you mind if I ask what happened?" Melanie prompts, "Though of course you really don't have to tell me I'm just a nosey git." She shrugs her shoulders and smiles a little, standing up and going over to their artwork.

 

[CrystalSmith]

Chloe looks at the floor and then away and glancing at Mel, she she hadn't really spoke to anyone about it but she needed someone to speak too, "Back when I was a cheerleader, we threw a party at a friends house. Everyone was drinking and stuff happened.." She trails off, finding it hard to speak, "I got raped, and I couldn't even fight back or do anything about it." She mutters quietly trying not to cry, "I stopped caring about life, taking risks that could have killed me, walking in busy roads, taking drugs, cutting. Everything in my life went down hill." She says quietly. She takes a deep breath, "I changed, the whole of me, I quit cheerleading, and kept going on this downwards spiral. I stopped caring what people thought and I became who I am now. I'm not so easily charmed by guys." She murmurs shrugging, clearly holding back tears. She sighs lightly, looking at the floor.

 

[buildingaspaceship]

Melanie turns and looks at her, immediately by her side, with her arms wrapped around her, she hugged her tightly. "Chloe, I'm so sorry..." She didn't know what to say. She was useless at advice, awful at it. The only thing she could ever do was show her friends that she cared, and that she understood. "Your life has changed now, though, and I promise you it's for the better." She mumbles.

 

[CrystalSmith]

Chloe nods slowly, "Yeah, I know." She murmurs quietly, wiping her eyes and taking a deep breath. She hadn't ever spoke to anyone about it, but it felt good to get it all out. She smiles weakly looking at art and points at what she did, "The cheerleader me is what I wish I had been like." She murmurs with a small smile.

 

[buildingaspaceship]

Melanie looks at it and then back at Chloe, she lets go of her and sits in front of her. "Right. Well in which case, I'm about to offer you something I would never even offer anyone else. Mainly because you're the only person it can apply for." She makes a confused face before continuing. "Right. Well, there's cheerleading tryouts this Friday." She says slowly. "And I reckon that you could probably make the team if you made a Canadian one." She grins a little, "And if you're embarrassed about trying out alone or something then I'll try out too. I won't make the team at all, but it's worth a try, right?" She grins a little, "Plus we could probably throw Mandy off the top of a pyramid."

 

[CrystalSmith]

Chloe smiles, "Cheerleader me is in the past but it would be nice throwing Mandy off the pyramid." She says quietly looking at the floor, "I'm pretty sure I could make cheer captain too if I tried." She murmurs with a grin, "Maybe I will." She says, "I'll think about it." She adds.

 

[buildingaspaceship]

"Good!" She grins, "If it's something you used to enjoy then it's totally worth a shot." She grins, then feels her phone vibrate in her pocket. She pulls it out and looks at the text that her brother just sent her. "Well... Looks like this is the end of the Outcasts for the night." She shrugs her shoulders, "Sorry, my brother needs me back." She doesn't explain why. "You need help finding your house?"

 

[CrystalSmith]

Chloe smiles and nods, "I should be fine, I think I can remember how to get there." She says with a small smile. She stands, dusting off her dress and smiling. She takes off the jacket and passes it back to Mel and grinning.

 

[buildingaspaceship]

Melanie shakes her head, "No you can keep it till tomorrow, it's cold out and I have no idea how far away you live." She smiles, "Besides, it looks good on you!" She grins and begins to walk towards the plastic scrap, opening it and holding it open for Chloe.

 

[CrystalSmith]

Chloe smiles and puts the jacket back on before going through the plastic scrap and smiling as she heads home. It felt nice to have had someone to talk too and she knew her and Mel were going to be good friends.

 

[buildingaspaceship]

Mel heads in the opposite direction to Chloe after waving and watching her go. She was glad that the day had brought a new friend, and she was happier than she'd been for a while. In her mind, so was Robbie and even Joshua.


(Want to time skip to the morning, when they wake up?)

 

[CrystalSmith]

(Yeah. )

 

[buildingaspaceship]

Melanie woke up, her alarm clock blaring the exact same tune as yesterday. She pressed the button to turn it off, but it didn't, so instead she threw it at the wall, grimacing as it smashed. She now needed to buy a new alarm clock, just great. For a moment she laid in her bed, almost dozing off again, until she remembered she had school, and that was why she was up so early. She slides out of bed, sitting on the floor for a moment, her hair was in every direction, teaching her that she ought not to sleep on it when it was wet. She stands up slowly and shakily and walks to the bathroom.


Lee was again woken by voices, but this time it was Linda's, Robbie's mum, trying to wake him gently. He had stayed at Robbie's, sleeping on the couch in their small living room. He smiles at Linda and sits up, hearing her go into Robbie's room to wake him up.


Robbie sat up when his mother came in. Smiling weakly, she asked him if he was okay but he didn't hear her. And thats when he threw up.

 

[CrystalSmith]

Chloe looks at the clock, she hadn't slept much all night. She stands going and showering and changing into her black skinny jeans and a tanktop. She blinks looking around, simply doing her eyeliner and then sitting on her bed.


Joshua yawns sitting up only having just woke up, he looks around and sighs gently.

 

[buildingaspaceship]

Lee hears Robbie throw up, hearing Linda squeal and call for her husband, Robbies father, Adam. He doesn't hesitate, standing up from the couch and running into Robbies room, he gasps at the sight of him. Robbie sat there in the pile of his vomit, hands over his mouth and vomit on his hands, he looked anywhere but Lee. "Get out!" He mumbles, then repeats it louder, he didn't want Lee to see him like this. Lee shakes his head and grabs the bin from Robbies floor, rushing over to him while his mother ran out of the room, calling for Adam to help.


Robbie was a shaking mess of tears and vomit, as he again did it into the bucket this time. His father came rushing in again, but Linda stayed in the kitchen. Robbie could hear her on the phone, calling for an ambulance. He just wanted to die of embarrassment. He was covered in vomit and now a bloody ambulance was coming to pick him up. He looks at his father through tearful eyes, and then looks at Lee, he spits into the bin, his entire body shaking slightly.


Melanie runs a brush through her hair and groans, unable to tame it completely, before brushing her teeth and looking in the mirror. She walks back to her bedroom and turns on her straighteners, then straightens her hair to the best of her ability before sticking in many brightly coloured and odd clips to hold it in place. She gets dressed into a pair of black skinny jeans and a baggy black best top, then pulls on her boots, before heading downstairs. It was almost abnormal, the silence that was settled in her house, there was no arguing. Her mother and brother sat at the kitchen table, a place laid out neatly for her. She sits, grabbing a slice of toast and buttering it. She always ate breakfast with them when they weren't arguing.

 

[CrystalSmith]

Chloe looks around, clearly not wanting to go to school. She sighs, and taps her desk, her hands being scrunched into tight fists. She looks at herself in the mirror, her snakebites making her face a lot better.