passionfruit//Hazel C.

|07| death's door

      At home, Riley dressed the cut on Hazel's forehead, she had hit herself while under the car. Although she was being very gentle, Hazel would shift around and Riley would mutter a small 'sorry' every time she winced.

      Once they were settled in bed, Riley looked up at the ceiling and her heart thumped painfully in her chest. "Hazel?" she asked quietly, unsure if the other girl had even heard her. Hazel turned to look at her but Riley kept her eyes locked on the ceiling. "I um," she huffed, "I know Josie and PJ started the club for Isabel and Brittany–"

      "How–?"

      "I suspected," Riley interrupted, "Sorry. Anyway," she chuckled awkwardly, "you didn't join because I was promised to you, or, or, something like that, right? I mean," she paused, licking her lips, "I wasn't some sort of prize, right?" Riley finally looked over at her, and Hazel could see the fear and apprehension in her eyes and voice.

      Hazel sat up and tried to hide her offense in the sack of reassuring her girlfriend. "Of course not." she said at once. "Riley," Hazel grabbed her hand, "I swear I had no part in whatever Josie and PJ were planning. I joined because I wanted to make the club mean something, you know?" Hazel said intensely. "Riley, however this happened, it happened organically," Hazel gave a small laugh.

      Riley cleared her throat, "I'm sorry–"

      "Don't be sorry," Hazel said immediately.

      "I just didn't want to offend you."

      "I'm not offended. You can talk to me, Riley," Hazel said gently, "we're both new at this aren't we?" Hazel smirked, knowing it wasn't true for either of them. Riley gave a shy smile. "But seriously, you can ask me anything, I'm all yours."

      Riley leaned forward and kissed her gently, before covering both of them in the duvet, her thoughts and worries finally silenced by Hazel's reassurance.

      "Alright, well, some of us clearly have a different definition of egging, but if we keep our mouths shut, stay calm, we'll be fine." PJ told the group, everyone was sitting on the bleachers. A general consensus laid upon the group and everyone but PJ had come to terms with the club nearing its end.

      "They're gonna shut us down, aren't they?" Sylvie asked.

      "What? No. We don't know that." PJ refused to believe.

      "Principal Meyers will believe whatever Jeff and Tim say." Brittany pointed out, "I don't really see how we recover from this."

      "You know, it's been real guys." Hazel said softly, looking around.

      "Okay, let's not jump to conclusions. With the goodbyes and..."

      "–I'm gonna miss you guys so much." Hazel continued, ignoring PJ's interruption.