Chapter 27 - Love Blooms

Really simple things are frustrating Tiara these days.

She's been eating even less.

Marie and Megan try to pretend that there's nothing to be worried about, but they're not idiots.

Dirk comes over every once and a while to lend Marie an ear and a friendly shoulder to cry on, at least.

"I'm just worried about her. It's like she doesn't even know what she's supposed to do with her life right now."

"I know, Marie, but you can't make that change. Remember? All you can do is be there for you...like I'm here for you."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I mean it."

"Just how here for me are you?"

Dirk chuckles. "In any way that you can imagine."

Marie takes him up on that offer.

"PLAY WITH ME, DAMMIT. >8|"

With her sister making out with Dirk in their bedroom and Melissa out at a friend's house after school, Megan decides she might as well go visit her cousin, Alec Toft.

Apparently her Aunt Athena marrying the Mayor meant that she did rather well for herself.

"Oh geez, Alec, it's the Mayor! What do I do?!"

"...he's your uncle and he's my dad. You'll get as used to this as I am."

 

Mayor Booker likes to get jiggy with it after a long day at the office.

It's...kind of hard to do homework when the Mayor is rolling with his homies behind you.

Obligatory picture of Adriana, the gorgeous child that Melissa has lucked out and become friends with.

When Megan's finished her homework, she discovers the other joys of the Mayor's house. However, none of them are quite taking care of the little niggling feeling in the bottom of her stomach. She just wants to...go out. Do something.

Stay out after curfew.

Hell yes.

Since there's only one hotspot in all of Appaloosa Plains, Megan takes herself to the Watering Hole. There's something dangerous about dancing behind the bar to classical music as the clock ticks past the minutes before your curfew is over.

It actually doesn't take long before a hottie appears, apparently as bored by his curfew as she is bored of hers.

"Yo, dude."

"Huh?"

"It's lame in here. Classical music? Seriously? If you're smart, you'll tag along with me out onto the patio and chill for a while."

"...and why the hell am I gonna do that?"

"Because I'm hot and you're hoping to get my number by the end of the night."

The teen flicks his eyes over Megan's face. All right. Fair enough.

He is a very stoic boy named Dorian, and apparently he and his family only just moved into town the day before. The two chill out on the veranda, Megan trying to exude just as much coolness as Dorian can in such a short period of time.

They talk about school. They talk about how much school sucks. They talk about pets and siblings and music and futures.

"Man, I don't got a clue what I wanna do," Dorian mutters.

"Seriously? Not a clue?"

"Uh-uh. Nothing really sticks out to me." He sighs. "If it was up to me, I'd be a jack of all trades. Made a shitload of money that way. What do you wanna do?"

"That's a...good question. I mean, I really love little animals. Like turtles and stuff? And I heard that the Science facility buys them like a - hot damn, is that a police siren?"

It is.

"Shit...all right, look, here," Megan spits out, quickly grabbing his cell phone and putting her number in it. "You run that way and I get caught. Savvy?"

"Cool."

"But you gotta call me, got it?"

"Cool."

Dorian stares at her as she runs off, his hand tightening around his cell phone, before he ducks into the bathroom to hide from the cops.

Tiara is displeased at her daughter being a hoodlum. Megan just wants to go to bed and dream about that hottie she met.