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     There was something unnatural about the way Eliana and Fez were so natural with each other, especially after spending so much time apart.  But neither party could stop thinking of the other.  Clouding up each other's thoughts was the only natural unforced and connate thing about what they had going on.

     "Bitch, are you even listening?" Grace swung her headphone around her finger as she stared at the brunette in front of her.  Yet another pair of unlikely friends, but Grace had given dear Ellie a lot of business back when Mikey first was arrested, and Eliana was grateful for that.  But that didn't mean that the two were the closest besties in the world or anything.  Even now, as Eliana was taking in the scene in front of her — Grace with a red and black plaid skirt, long sleeve black laced shirt, weight shifted to one hip as she stood in the hallway at their school.  

     "Did you just call me bitch?" Elliana asked.

     "Was I out of place?" 

     The two stared at the other for a moment before Eliana regained her thoughts, shaking out whatever was sitting in her brain.  There was no denying the filth and love and face of Fez was fogging up her moves, his actions staining her brain and his words encoded in her mind forever.  Nonetheless, she pretended he didn't.  "Prom isn't for a few months, I could get the dress to you before then and will probably even have room for edits should you choose."

     Grace eyed Eliana carefully, tongue sliding against her cheek as she chose her next words.  But the raven-haired beauty had always been one for bluntness.  As well as seeing right through people.  "Still hooking up with the drug dealer?"

     "Look, will you need a dress for prom or not?" 

     After a quick moment, Grace nodded.  "Yeah.  Yeah.  Um, you have all my sizing and whatnot?"

     Eliana opened the binder in her hand, going to the first blank page and taking a pen from the pocket out of it's spot and clicking it.  "It's all at my house.  You mentioned fishnets?"

     Grace tilted her head, drawing on her backpack strap.  "Yeah, maybe.  Mostly I just want something black, a sweetheart neckline, accents of red.  Go crazy, whatever two hundred and fifty will get me."

     Eliana wrote along the page, a teal green ink marking the previously pure page with cursive writing, brief noting for the dress that Grace would be purchasing.  Matte black coffin nails tapped at the pen in her hand.  She had a pretty good feel for her style already and was one of the easiest clients she had so far, especially since she'd been fixing her stuff up for years now.  "And then payment?  We can do 125 twice, or 83 three times."

     "I think I can only do 83 right now," Grace sighed, turning her attention down the hallway to the exit doors, unhappy that Elliot just walked in.  No doubt he just did some drugs by the trees and walls outside.  Another thing that dampened her mood.  "What's the latest you'll accept?"

     "May 20 for all Spring orders," Eliana answered, still jotting down notes.  "Trying to get better with my scheduling, funding, allathat."

     Grace nodded.  "That's real good."

     Putting the pen back into her binder's pocket and closing it shut, Eliana met the girls' eye again.  "I'll send you two sketches of different designs by the end of next week to choose from and we can go from there," the girl sighed, her dyed blonde hair sitting swiftly atop her head as she moved.  She tucked her binder under her arm, the plastic catching a bit on her soft gray crewneck.  She crossed her sweatpant-clad legs, sneakers scuffing the floor, as she followed the direction in which Grace kept looking.  Catching glimpse of the blonde haired boy with face tattoos who wouldn't stop looking at Grace, she decided to go with a simple question.  "Still making those bad choices?"

     Bad choices was a vague term the girls used in passing during their small talks when they spoke, both the girls knowing more or less about the other's hobbies and stories.  Eliana knew about Grace's brief time with Elliot and Grace knew about Eliana's soft spot for her old boyfriend.

     "Trying to quit," Grace replied with a long sigh.

     "Tell me about it."

     It was then a slightly distressed Lexi Howard came towards the duo from the opposite direction, stray strands of her auburn hair flailing behind her as she was quick in approaching them.  But it was Eliana that she wanted to see.  "Ellie, hey, I need to talk to you about something."

     Eliana barely opened her mouth, a little unsure about what to say, but Grace got to it first.  "Catch you later."

     "Yeah," Eliana nodded as the raven-haired girl left and went on with her day, leaving Eliana and Lexi together.  Lexi shook a bit, nodding her head to the side, taking some steps away from a doorway to an area where so many kids weren't hanging out by the doors to their classes.  "What's shaking bacon?"

     "Okay, I'm not sure where to start on this but you know how Fez attacked Nate right?

     Eliana scrunched her nose.  "Eh, I feel like attacked is a bit of a strong word—"

     "Ellie,  not the time!  My point is," Lexi stopped to lower her voice.  "My point is that Nate's dad showed up at my house yesterday, started asking all sorts of weird questions."

     Eliana furrowed her eyebrows.  "Weird how?"

     "Weird like he was asking us if anyone saw anything, if we might know who did it."

     "Yeah but... the police already did their questioning.  And Nate dropped the charges so... why's his dad going through the trash at your house?  No offense."

     Lexi blinked rapidly.  "Yeah, none taken.  She hasn't gotten any better."

     The She in question would be Lexi's sister Cassie, who somehow had entered a mid-mid life crisis, meaning that even though she was a teenager and was allowed to be emotional... her emotions were now overpouring from the crockpot of her life and seeping into her loved ones closest to her.  Needless to say, Lexi was worried about her sister.

     "Cassie didn't really see anything," Eliana said, more for herself.  She prayed and hoped that even though Cassie did see something, she'd still do the right thing and keep it to herself.

     "Yeah... that's the thing."

     Eliana's heart dropped to her stomach, like she'd just had coffee from McDonald's.  "What do you mean, Lex."

     "Cassie caved, she told him everything, which wasn't much... but she told him she knew who it was."

     Eliana gripped the binder in her hand harder.  "She what?"

     "He was threatening to get the chief of police involved and go through everyone's text messages!" Lexi said in a whisper shout.

     "Okay, first of all, I'm pretty sure they can't even do that—"

     "I mean I knew he was lying but she still fell for it," Lexi crossed her arms as she scoffed, falling back onto some lockers standing behind her.  "I just can't believe her."

     Eliana tried to make sense of it all.  "Uh, yeah.  I'm not sure why she'd care so much about it, especially with him and Maddy on the outs."

     "And you and Fezco."

     Lexi had been right there with them on New Year's Eve, she saw the way they were with each other — more specifically, the way Eliana was putty in his palms.  Eliana swallowed hard, her throat gone dry from this conversation.  "Yeah well... she doesn't know we've been hooking up."

     "Doesn't matter," Lexi shook her head.  "Together or not, you love him and she knows that."

     "Yeah..." Eliana sighed, staring down at her sneakers as she blinked back tears.  "He's the one thing I just can't quit."

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