*ੈ𖤐‧₊˚

[ chapter two, jealousy, jealousy ]
( episode one ; pilot )

— warnings: drinking & driving, mentions of drug use

⠀  BROOKE MADE SURE TO BRING ALL THE DRESSES she knew Maddy liked on her. Not because she was afraid of what Maddy would say if she didn't or anything. Of course, she valued her friend's opinion but not enough to let it dictate her style and what made her feel hot.

No, this was about jealousy and revenge. Brooke loved Maddy. She loved Maddy. So it hurt to see her in a never-ending off-again-on-again cycle with her asshole brother. It hurt, but Brooke loved taking the opportunity to fuck with them both, mainly during the on sections but off worked too cause it meant they'd both be extremely pissed. Because making Maddy jealous and pissing off her brother were two of her favorite things to do.

By the time her aunt dropped her off at Maddy's, Kat and BB, were already there. Far more relaxed than Maddy who was frantically rushing around her room although having been dressed only moments ago. She hadn't even noticed Brooke creep into her room, brow raised as she exchanged confused glances with the other clueless girls in the room

"Hey, Mads..." she trailed off, finally drawing attention to herself and snapping Maddy out of her frantic state

"Brooke!" skipping over enthusiastically, Maddy wrapped her arms around the shorter girl's shoulders in a tight hug, "Thank god," she teased, "those two are useless,"

"Hey!"

"Bro?"

Kat and BB only laughed as Maddy took Brook by the hand, leading her to the bed and sitting her beside Kat, "I need your expertise,"

Brooke frowned, "What about the pink skirt you just had on? That was cute, you posted it and everything!" sighing, Kat looked up at Brooke from her laid down position on the bed

"Yeah, Nate got all in her head from that stupid fucking comment,"

"Oh, fuck him, who cares? He's an asshole," Maddy sighed deeply, staying silent as she turned to look at herself in the mirror, staring at her body intently. Brook knew what she was doing. It wasn't just the comment she was thinking about, it was every other little thing Nate had ever said about her body and how she dressed and how she wore her hair -- things he had no fucking business giving his opinion on.

Rolling her eyes, not at Maddy but at the thought of her brother, Brooke dramatically flopped backward on the bed, glancing up at the harsh glow of Kat's phone when it dinged.

•••

iMESSAGE
from jules

jules
kat! gonna skip party tn ily

❀ུ۪

⠀ CURIOUS, BROOKE SAT UP, LEANING ON KAT'S shoulder to peer at her phone, not recognizing the name of the person messaging her friend. Which was a big deal to her because, in East Highland, everybody knew everybody.

"Who's Jules?"

Chuckling with a raised brow, Kat looked back at the girl leaning on her shoulder, "Some privacy, please?" her teasing request was only met with an innocent shrug

"What? I'm curious! You never text people I don't know,"

Jules moved from the city to the suburbs after her mom and dad got divorced. She doesn't really like to talk about it, but dads almost never get full custody, so you know some shit definitely went down. She went to, like, three weeks of summer school with Kat, who failed Intro to Visual Arts...

Amused, Kat chuckled at Brooke's need to know anyone and everyone that her friends spoke to, "This girl I met at summer school," she explained, "She's actually super nice,"

Glancing at Maddy briefly with a smirk, able to feel her gaze through the mirror that she was still facing, "Is she pretty?"

Kat nodded, pulling up Jules' Instagram on her phone, "Mmhmm," more often than not Kat would stay uninvolved in the whole Brooke - Maddy - Nate drama, but sometimes it was fun to add fuel to the fire

"Woah! She's gorgeous!"

"Well, she's not coming anymore so,"

"Bummer," monotonous and catty tone in her voice, Maddy glanced at her through the mirror once again. But Brooke only smirked at just how easily wound up Maddy was. Still facing the mirror, Maddy reached for the straps of her top and slipped them down her sleeves, "Do you think my areolas look weird?"

Kat was quick to roll her eyes, both at the idea of Maddy being self-conscious of her boobs and the fact that she was using that fact to jab back at Brooke, "No,"

Maddy span on her heels to face Brooke and Kat, "But, like, the edges, though," she pointed, Kat not noticing the subtle glances between the former friends-with-benefits

"Maddy, they're fine,"

Paranoia continuing, Maddy raised a brow "Fine like they're kind of weird, or fine like nobody but me would ever notice what I notice?"

"Fine like shut the fuck up, Maddy," BB called from the bathroom, sat in front of a mirror to do her makeup

But Maddy remained unconvinced, turning back to look in the mirror and pretending to ignore Brooke getting up to approach her, "I'm disgusting. I literally look disgusting,"

"Maddy," Brooke's gentle touch sent shivers down her spine as she stood behind her, chin resting on her shoulder. Without her go-to platforms, Brooke was, actually, shorter than Maddy. But with Maddy yet to put on her shoes she stood shorter than the blonde staring at her through the mirror, "You are the hottest fucking person I know," eyes glued to the Brooke in the mirror, Maddy smirked as she continued to allow her to shower her with compliments, "You are... ethereal," Brooke's fingertips trailed down her waist only to reach across her body and catch the other side of the pink skirt that Maddy had been wearing, holding it tightly against her hips. Maddy had to remind herself not to let her eyes flutter closed in front of her other two best friends that were actually just her friends, "And Nate is a jackass. He doesn't deserve you, or your mind, or your beauty," smirking, Brooke finally let go, and Maddy could finally breathe again, "Or your perfect ass," she teased, using the skirt to smack her on the aforementioned ass

BB and Kat stared at one another, not in shock but just genuine confusion and amusement, "Well that was super gay,"

Brooke knew better than to take a comment like that to heart, especially since she was so far out of the closet with unconditional support from her friends that BB calling them gay when they were being kinda gay didn't get under her skin.

"Brooke's right, Maddy, you need to snap the fuck out of this," Kat continued as, finally, Brooke began to rummage through the bag of clothes she'd brought with her for Maddy to choose from, "You're hot as fuck. Nate's a loser. Who cares?"

"He's not a loser," Maddy was quick to reply, pulling the straps of her top back up as she stared at her reflection, "He's a dick,"

"All dicks are losers. Duh,"

BB nodded, heading to the closet to nose through Maddy's other clothes, "Look, bottom line: y'all need to walk into this party like your pussy costs a million dollars,"

Maddy scoffed, running a hand through her hair as she adjusted her outfit, "For real, I'd settle for like fifty grand,"

"Fifty grand is a million dollars," Brooke whipped her head around to look at BB with an amused yet fond smile

"Fifty grand is not enough for any of you bitches to settle for," she tried to tell them, but Kat and Maddy only watched one another through the mirror with the same doubtful expression

"I'd settle for, like, four Corona Lights and some non-rapey affection," Kat confessed much to Brooke's horror

"That's kind of depressing," BB frowned, throwing a top on the bed next to Kat with one hand as she held her vape in the other

"Well, I'm not settling for shit," Brooke replied confidently, grabbing her skin-tight black dress from her bag, "because for every man that won't pay the million for your pussy," unfolding the dress, she displayed it over her body to show her friends in case it wasn't even worth trying it on, but from the enthusiastic nods from Kat and BB she'd picked the right one, "There's a woman that will," Maddy stared at Brooke's reflection with narrow eyes knowing that comment was partially directed at her and her need for Nate's approval. But the blonde remained unfazed, winking back before throwing the dress on the bed

"Yeah, but, guys are so hot," Kat giggled, BB smirking in agreement to earn a displeased eye roll from Brooke

"Whatever you say," slipping off her shoes, Brooke headed to the bathroom for more space to put on her dress

But even after Brooke's tension-filled pep talk, Maddy doubted herself, "Nate's totally ruined my confidence," Brooke looked up upon hearing her brother's name, glad she'd gone to the bathroom from the sheer rage that entered her body every time she thought about how Nate hurt her and how Maddy still kept going back to him, "You know when somebody just constantly criticizes, like, everything about you?"

"Yep," BB nodded, "That's, like, every guy,"

"You just need to catch a dick and forget about your troubles," eager to shift the subject from Maddy getting dick because, you know, that's the last thing Brooke wanted for her, the blonde strutted out of the bathroom towards BB whilst pointing at her zip and mounting the word 'please' before saying,

"Girl, you just need to catch a dick,"

Kat smirked knowingly, "I'm serious, the best thing to do after a breakup is to fuck someone new, and then move on," Zipping up her dress, BB took Brooke's side when seeing her brief yet not well hidden jealous expression through the mirror, BB raised a brow at Kat

"Please, Kat, remind me again how many guys you've fucked?" Kat looked away in slight embarrassment," And, oh, yeah, cat-fishing, that don't count," smirk dropping at how they may have taken it a little too far, Brooke looked at Kat apologetically, in much contrast to BB's amusement

Coming to her best friend's defense, Maddy laughed at BB "Can you not be a cunt for like, 15 seconds?" she half-joked, setting off the other girl's giggled too. But before any further retorts could be formed Maddy's father opened the door, only to ask what they'd like for dinner, but forgetting to knock much to his regret when he was met with the judgement of four teenage girls

"Dad, stop being a pervert! We're literally, like, all naked!" putting a hand up apologetically, he back out of the room, knowing it would be hopeless to argue as the girls all burst out laughing.

❀ུ۪

⠀ MADDY ALWAYS INSISTED SHE COULD BE designated driver to and from parties. But, whatever the fuck she needed to do to get back at Nate was clearly going to get in the way of her ability to stay sober so Kat was able to negotiate her down from driving them home to driving them there instead.

Which, unfortunately for Kat, meant a night of semi-sobriety for her. Cause let's face it, nobody's gonna snitch if you drink and drive.

Anyway, I didn't go to Lexi's. That was a lie. So, I was walking to McKay's party, because, on the subject of drinking and driving, I have this rule that I don't drink and bike, 'cause like...

Rue had fallen off her bike so many times whilst attempting to ride it drunk she decided, for once, to learn from her mistakes. Although, walking alone at night may be a mistake in itself.

Music blasting from the speakers, Maddy drove slowly around the corner, squinting when she noticed the tall figure in the middle of the road, "Is that...?"

Kat looked up from her phone and Brooke leaned between the drivers and shotgun seats to see none other than Rue Bennett stumbling her way down the middle of the road

"Oh, shit. Slow down,"

"Dude, that's Rue," Brooke smiled, half-relieved she was alive and half-amused that she was clearly high as a kite while just out of rehab, "Oh, my God,"

"Wait. Didn't Rue, like, die?" Shrugging, Brooke flopped back in her seat as BB simply stared out the window, vape in hand

"Oh, my God, I hate ghosts," Brooke snickered in amusement at how genuine BB's statement sounded whilst Kat rolled down her window to yell at the stoned, accidental hitchhiker

"Yo, Casper!" Rue stopped in her tracks, confused but unbothered at the nickname, "You want a ride?"

Quickly, Rue made her way towards the car, arms swinging as she leaned right in to examine just who's car she was about to get into. But, recognizing Kat, and peering at Brooke's enthusiastic smile in the back, she knew she was safe and nodded,

"Why, thank you,"

getting into the longer chapters now (i feel like this is a good length anyway bc in other books i've done like an episode per chapter but euphoria my chapters would be wayyyyy too long 😭)

apologizing for spelling mistakes too bc it's like 3am for me but i wanted to get this chapter out so i stayed up lmao
i've used grammarly but sometimes that misses thing so i'm hoping i caught my mistakes

also just a reminder incase it's unclear but the parts in italics are rue's narration like on the show lol

stay awesome homies n thank u for reading!