[040] just like old times

                                                                      Courtney wakes up first, feeling arms wrapped around her. She looks down to see that it was Suki and a smile graces her lips. Sure, the night before had been pretty insane but it had gone according to Courtney's plan. Well, not completely. But regardless, Victoria was gone and now Suki was hers all over again. So in reality, all had gone right with the plan all along. She runs her finger through Suki's hair, just as she had done before, before looking up at the ceiling.

                                                                     But the peaceful moment is interrupted when she hears her phone vibrating a distance away. Courtney reluctantly goes to see what it was, pulling away from Suki so she could go. She slips on her shirt before she reaches the phone, opting to see who it was texting her. Unsurprisingly, it was Misty with a couple new updates for her.

                                                                    Misty: Thinking about getting rid of Jessica pretty soon. Any ideas??

                                                                    Courtney: Do something creative. Did you at least get any answers out of her about who she's working for?

                                                                     Misty: Nope, but she's still offering me book deals and such. Any luck with Victoria?

                                                                     Courtney: Let's just say we won't have to worry about her anymore.

                                                                     Courtney: Let me know when the Jessica problem is taken care of.

                                                                     Courtney sets her phone to the side when she hears noises coming from the bed behind her, a sign that Suki was beginning to wake up. Courtney goes ahead and rummages through her purse until she finds her pack of cigarettes and a lighter. She pulls out one cigarette before making her way to the bed where she sat on the very edge with the cigarette now hanging from her mouth.

                                                                      Courtney lights the end of her cigarette, taking a drag from it while Suki sat up. As she looks over at Suki, the woman instantly turns away from Courtney. It takes her a moment to realize why she was hiding her face so much, seeing as she wasn't wearing her eyepatch which left her completely exposed.

                                                                      "You don't need to hide it. I've seen it before and it doesn't terrify me. Nothing about you does," Courtney reasoned, smoke leaving her lips as she spoke, "I'm not like the other women you had before."

                                                                     "No, you're not," Suki responded.

                                                                     Courtney blows some smoke to the side then, reaching over to kiss Suki. Suki kisses her back, moving in as close as she could to make the kiss last a little while longer. The two of them pull away from each other to catch their breath, gently resting their foreheads against one another's. Courtney was over the moon, happy that she finally had Suki back again. The one thing she had wanted more than all of the money and success was finally hers.

                                                                      But there was one thing still bothering Suki and she glanced up at Courtney before saying, "You planned it all yesterday, didn't you?"

                                                                     "Huh?" Courtney blinks, opting to play dumb.

                                                                     "You came there with a shovel and everything. You even knew exactly where to bury Victoria without the slightest hesitation. You weren't leaving without her body last night, weren't you?" Suki questioned. "I can handle the truth, Court. Just tell me."

                                                                      Courtney sighed. "I thought she was bad news. I thought she fucked you over and I was going to get her back. And look... maybe we were wrong about the whole situation. I don't know. We still need to investigate Taissa to see if it's bullshit. But we can't take back what happened. We just have to move on and act like it never happened. Do you think you can do that for me?"

                                                                      "Yeah, I can do that," Suki replied as she glanced down. She didn't really have any other choice but to act like everything was normal.

                                                                      "Think about it... it'll be just like old times," Courtney insisted, tilting Suki's head back up so she could look at her properly.

                                                                      Suki closes her eye as Courtney kisses her cheek before moving back to her lips. This following kiss was a little more brief than the first, Courtney going back to smoking her cigarette. Suki, on the other hand, decided that now was the time for her to go and get ready for work. She still had her shop to run and she couldn't abandon it because of... all this.

                                                                     "Hey, where are you going?" Courtney asks, watching Suki go back and forth as she got ready for the day.

                                                                     "I'm going to go and work at my job. You know, the one you helped me to start. I'm the only employee there and I still have a lot of customers to take care of," Suki responded. "I'm already running late."

                                                                     "So what am I supposed to do? Am I just supposed to... wait for you or something?" Courtney questioned. More and more, she was acting like the bratty teenage girl Suki had remembered.

                                                                     Suki shrugs. "Beats me. Maybe you could pretend you're my little housewife and make the house your own. You've already gotten started on that. Just don't get in any trouble while I'm gone."

                                                                      "Trouble? Me? I'm as sweet and innocent as can be," Courtney replied, the smile on her lips quickly giving her away in seconds.

                                                                      "Sure you are," Suki scoffed.

                                                                      Courtney knew she couldn't force Suki to stay, even if the idea was awfully tempting. So she merely watched as Suki soon left, leaving her all alone in the house.

                                                                       Suki tried her very best to focus on work, just as she had before. But that was pretty hard to do when she had blood on her hands. Both metaphorical and physical. Nonetheless, Suki was able to go through most of her day relatively normal. There was one moment when she heard the faint noise of a police siren and she'd suddenly freeze as though waiting for the police to burst through the doors and arrest her for all of her crimes.

                                                                      But the crime they'd want her for wouldn't even be the worst one she had ever committed.

                                                                     When the store was relatively empty, Suki pulled out her phone and looked up the local news to see if there was anything about Victoria or even a dead body being discovered. But much to her relief, there was nothing there. No one had bothered to report Victoria missing yet and Suki wondered if anyone ever would. The only erson would probably be Jessica but Suki hadn't heard from her in a while. Suki just hoped they wouldn't have to worry about her.

                                                                      She snaps back into focus when she hears the bell above the door ring, signaling a new customer. Suki looks up to see a man walking inside of the shop, one that looked to be ten or so years younger than her. She had never seen him around before but that wasn't terribly unusual, given that Suki occasionally had some new customers here and there.

                                                                      "Hello there. What can I do for you?" Suki questioned.

                                                                      "I'm actually picking something up. I ordered it a while ago but neglected to pick it up sooner. I honestly wouldn't be mad if you tossed it or something," he responded with a light chuckle.

                                                                      "Seeing as I'm bit of a hoarder, there's a high chance I still have it in the back somewhere. And you are?" Suki inquired.

                                                                      "Just Adam," he introduced himself.

                                                                       "Well, just Adam. I'll have to take a look and see if I still have it. Be back in a sec," Suki remarked.

                                                                       She makes her way to the back, eventually finding his order. Suki remembered making it about a week ago, it being the sculpture of two lovers embracing. Suki had thought of it as romantic, seeing as she rarely did things like that anymore. But as she holds onto it, something dark and crimson dripped onto one of the heads. Suki sucks in a sharp breath, closing her eye as she tried to will the vision away.

                                                                      "It's not real. It's not real. It's not real. You're just freaked out about what happened yesterday. It's not real," Suki insisted.

                                                                       "Hey, is everything alright in there?" Adam's voice cuts through, causing Suki to quickly open her eye.

                                                                      She looks down to see that the blood was gone and Suki breathes a shaky sigh of relief before grabbing the sculpture, rushing out to the front where Adam was waiting for her. He instantly smiles at the sculpture, causing Suki to plaster a small smile of her own onto her lips.

                                                                       "Sorry about that. I have your order right here. Do you plan on giving it to a special someone?" Suki questioned.

                                                                       "You could say that. I just think she'd really like it," Adam shrugged. "You take card, right?"

                                                                       Suki nods. "Mhm."

                                                                       As Adam paid for the sculpture, she couldn't help but feel something odd. She felt like something awful was going to happen, although she couldn't really figure out why. Suki was convinced that part of it was her paranoia about Victoria's body being found. Perhaps they should've dug even deeper. Or maybe they should've burned her until she was nothing more than ash and rubble.

                                                                      That shit only worked in the movies though.

                                                                      Suki tries her best to shake off the feeling as Adam then leaves, making sure to add another thank you and goodbye before he does so. Suki sighs after he's gone, leaning against the wall and covering her head with her hands. 

                                                                     "Get yourself together, Suki. You can get through this. You've done this for over two fucking decades. You can handle this," Suki tells herself before she decides to get started on some more pieces.

                                                                     As much as she wished she could drink some more alcohol, Suki knew that the last thing she should be doing was getting drunk. She (unfortunately) needed to be sober throughout all of this. And plus, Courtney wouldn't really allow her to drink anyway.

                                                                      Meanwhile, Courtney was still stuck at the house where she was bored out of her mind. She had cleaned up around the house and even added her own little touch to it. But that had taken less than two hours before she was back to being bored again. As much as Courtney wanted to try and act like she could be a housewife, she already hated it. She couldn't see how anyone could possibly be happy living like this.

                                                                     They had to be the psychos, not Courtney.

                                                                     As Courtney went back and forth as to whether or not she should be visiting Suki at work or not, she suddenly heard knocks on the living room door. Courtney frowned, wondering who could possibly be visiting her at this time. Suki didn't really have friends (Courtney knew from all her years of observation). She wondered if it was the police but they would've let their presence be known by now.

                                                                      Courtney debates on whether or not she should just pretend that there was no one home. But when the knocking became incessant, she finally decided to just open the door and see who it was. However, the last person she expected to see was a slightly angry looking teenage girl.

                                                                    "Who are you?" she asks, making Courtney scoff.

                                                                    "I could be asking you the same thing, kiddo. You're at the wrong house," Courtney replied, preparing to close the door in her face.

                                                                   But then she holds the door open, preventing Courtney from making her getaway. "Can't be. This is Suki Blair's house, right?"

                                                                    Courtney raised a brow. "Depends. What's your name?"

                                                                   "Callie. Callie Sadecki," she introduces herself and just like that, the dots quickly connect for Courtney.

                                                                    "Holy fuck," Courtney laughs. "You're Shauna and Jeff's daughter. I should've known. Shouldn't you be at school or something? You have to be twelve or something."

                                                                    "First of all, I'm seventeen. And second of all, I can wait here 'til she gets back. Please. I don't wanna go home," Callie insists.

                                                                    Courtney huffs as she looks at the girl. "Whatever. It's not like I had anything better to do."

                                                                    She steps to the side, allowing Callie to come in. Courtney just hoped she didn't regret it. 

( 🌲🔪🦌 )

word count: 2081
notes: welp this is probably the only adam sighting we get of him alive before he... you know... and i know i'm pretty evil for leaving things at a cliffhanger but i am evil so you should've expected this by now