The following Friday, Lila and Rose returned from their afternoon classes to discover their worst nightmare, though the dread clasped within Rose's eyes seemed more prominent.
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How was it that she and Dion were born on the same day, within the same hour, yet he could never manage to follow her principles? Heavy rock music erupted through the speakers and spilt through the open windows. Beyond them were piles of drunken students, basking in the sweaty euphoria they had created over the past couple of hours.
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"Ugh. It's like a footy boy infestation," Lila commented, moulding a face of disgust as they ventured through the littered front yard. Nearing the porch, they noticed Sienna and Harper were rutting their way out through the doors, ignoring the group of smelly stoners in their trail who were still trying to convince them to stay.
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"Congrats, Rose. Your douche-hole brother's barely been here a week and he's already given every loser on campus free range of our house," Harper stated in a bland tone, fumbling through her handbag for a cigarette, whilst her sidekick displayed her own lack of amusement through folded arms and a creased brow.
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"Listen," With bright lipstick staining the paper, she lit the end and inhaled. "I get that boys take longer to develop mentally and all, and it's worse in his case, you know? Because all he does is sit around smoking weed. In fact, I don't even think he's showed up to any of his classes yet."
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"No offence, but he's a total bum," Sienna chimed in, peering back into the house, where the slob in question was behaving like his own stereotype, lips glued to the glass tube of a glow-in-the-dark bong. The leaves were being sparked to life by the hand of none other than Keisha Davies. "I don't know why that girl is so into him. Maybe she has a thing for guys who don't shower."
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"He does shower," Lila, like always, raced to her high school obsession's defence. "You just have to... Remind him sometimes."
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Harper lifted a brow. "Isn't he like nineteen?" There was a pause, giving her enough time to take another drag of her proclaimed stress relief stick. "Look, if I'm going to live out my childhood dream of becoming Elle from Legally Blonde, I can't live with somebody who treats college like a mating ground. This party's a total bust. We'll be back when El Dipshit and his pack of wild apes clear out." With her eyes practically rolling to the top of her skull, Harper's platform pumps took the lead down the porch steps, her human accessory following closely behind.
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"Well," Rose began, sarcasm written in her smile, "I'm gonna go check our bedrooms and pray no body's fornicating in them. Go yell at my brother for me, okay?" Stepping over some moron who was passed out by the door, Rose left Lila to her own endeavours.
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She had met Dion's lifted gaze with a glare, though he would only respond with an oblivious grin. "Hey, Lil. You look kinda tense. Have no fear, though, this bowl's got your name written all over it," He waved the stained piece in front of her vision as if to spark temptation, though she seemed more focused on the way Keisha's hand wound around his arm. "Actually, can I talk to you, alone, for a second?"
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"Sure, I guess." Dion left the bong, his pride and joy, in the care of his new friend, before following Lila's lead to the back veranda, where their now cluttered pool glistened from the distance. An inebriated ‘footy boy' launched from the diving board, his proceeding splash covering anybody in a ten-metre radius. Dion's cheeks dimpled with his amusement. She wished his smile wasn't so –
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"Pretty dope party, huh?"
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"...No, Dion. It isn't. Do you know how long it's gonna take to clean this all up?"
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"I mean," He shrugged, looked around, "I'll help."
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"No you won't," There was dry laughter from Lila, "You'll probably get hammered, pass out in the kitchen, and sleep in 'til three in the afternoon while all of us clean up. You know, this is just so typical of you –"
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"– Typical?" Harbouring the soul of a sensitive musician, offence was always quick to strike. "What's that supposed to mean?"
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"You know what I mean." Her voice softened upon instinct. "This party was all for you, Di. Admit it. You just wanna be the guy who everyone likes, and you don't really care who you need to inconvenience to make it happen. But if you'd just take a step back and realise that these people are only using you, you wouldn't be doing all of this for them."
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"Wait – Hold on. Using me? Look. No one's using me, alright?" Dion took a breath that sounded like a sigh, and his voice lowered as though he were trying to spare her some embarrassment. "Listen, I know you weren't that popular in high school, so you don't really get how this all works –"
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"Hey," With furrowed brows, there was a not so confident leap to her own defence. "I was... Popular."
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He only smiled, something sympathetic about it. "You played the cello. Speaks for itself."
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Lila scoffed, her mocha orbs rolling to the side. "At least my friendships aren't based solely on how cute I am."
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"Aw. You think I'm cute?" Now he was just being a nuisance. She met egotistical eyes with a gaze that sparked pity. "I did. Not so much now. I like seeing you do the things you really love. Like... When our parents took us to that open performance night at the tavern, and you borrowed my uncle's guitar and sung that Smashing Pumpkins song." Her eyes closed in thought. "Ugh... What was it?"
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"The Tale of Dusty and Pistol Pete." He spoke the title like it were a piece of timeless poetry. "Classic."
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"Yeah, that's the one," She smiled, but only for a moment before it fell victim to that look in her eyes. "I don't know, back then, I thought you were really cute. But this fake persona you have? Pretty lame, dude."
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"I dunno." He paused for a moment, considering the murky waters he was about to enter. "Keisha seems to like the way I act."
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Lila fought the urge to take a passerby's drink and douse him with the scent of his own addiction, but it just wasn't in her nature. "Di, I'm telling you this as your friend," Her hands met his shoulders and she looked at him like he was a helpless puppy. "She's cute. She thinks you're cute, but she doesn't care about you."
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With the gentle grasp slipping past the creases in his outdated NIRVANA shirt, she left him with a final touch of truth. "It's a shame that fragile ego of yours won't let you see it."
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If Lila knew anything about Dion, it was that he hated being wrong. She knew he would take her words to heart, that they would grant him with a desperate need to demolish all of her "stupid assumptions."
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And if he needed to learn his own lesson, she would let him.
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Agitated, the formulaic Piscean ushered himself back through the drunken tide in search for that distinctive set of auburn dreads, though the owner of them had found him first. "There you are. Thought I'd lost you."
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Thin, jewelled wrists draped around his neck, the whiff of her perfume taking reign over his nostrils. "Sorry, babe," He let her strawberry aroma act as hypnosis, softened his eyes, and exclaimed a bold proposal. "Maybe we should head up to my room. So that it's only the two of us, you know?”
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