"AJ?"

My head snapped up from the doodle on my hand, in the process of drawing bones along my fingers.

"Heh?" I exclaimed, raising my eyebrows as I met the dark eyes of my English teacher.

"I've been trying to get your attention for the last five minutes–" Her eyes trailed down to my hand before meeting my gaze again. "Did you finish that essay? It says it's missing in the Google Classroom–"

Shit. I totally forgot to turn that in—

"Uhh, yeah! Um– don't know why it didn't go through– I'll turn it in when I get home. Chromebook crashed last night with the wifi, power line went down, maybe that's why." I replied quickly, making up the fastest excuse I could.

"Uh huh..." Ms. Evan said, raising a penciled-in eyebrow. "Why can't you just pull it out and turn it in now? Hm?"

"Oh– forgot it ma'am." I answered truthfully this time. "Left it out to charge and forgot it on my desk."

"Ah." She sighed under her breath, one I recognized. This wasn't the first time this had happened. She glanced over towards one of my classmates. "Well, Jayde is using the spare one I keep on hand...I suppose I'll let it slide. Just make sure it's turned in. Tonight."

I nodded rather violently in what I hoped was a convincing way, streaks of dark dyed hair falling into my eyes. "You got it." Of course, I had no intentions of going home and starting it. Digo was picking me up. I wasn't going to be home till late. Hopefully I won't pass out while trying to finish it like I did last night...I couldn't even remember if I started it last night or not. Probably not. Yeah, I definitely didn't—

Oops?

***

My sneakers smacked against the pavement, the concrete completely dry despite the morning drizzle, due to the unusually scorching May sun peering from between the clouds. It was supposed to rain again later, too.

I weaved around freshman trying to hurry their way to the buses, running past the lined up yellow vehicles and dumpsters and out onto the street, searching for where Digo had parked in the mass of other parents, siblings and friends trying to pick up the students.

I nearly ran right in the way of a car, thank god it was only going ten on the twenty-five street or else I would have been barreled over. But they screeched to a stop before the bumper would have shattered my knees.

I avoided the very angry looking person's eyes, fighting back an embarrassed laugh as I gave them an awkward wave of thanks, hopping onto the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street from the school.

Quickly my eyes locked with a license plate that I recognized, reading GAY6969 (what did you expect?) belonging to a metallic blue honda civic, a small handheld pride flag plastered to the edge of one of the side mirrors. Probably not the safest or legalist decoration. I grinned, jogging across the sidewalk, making sure to step on every crack with the sole of my foot.

I rammed on the passenger window as soon as I came to it, my hand aching with the impact against the glass, startling the teen in the driver's seat. Digo had thrown themself against the opposing door, brown eyes shooting wide, until he of course realized it was me. The best person on the planet.

He gave me a fleeting glare, as if to silently say "how dare you", before returning my shit-eating grin and unlocking the doors.

"Hellooooo!" I greeted as I slid into the passenger seat, dropping my extremely heavy backpack onto the floor.

"Salutations fellow mortal! How was your day within the building known as living hell?" They asked rather cheerfully, leaning one elbow on the steering wheel and accidentally hitting the horn, causing both of us to flinch. "Oops–"

"Eh, wasn't the worst. Aiden was being an asshole though, per usual." I shrugged, leaning back in my seat and fastening the seat belt. See, I can be safe sometimes. "Totally forgot that essay from last night though– Quiet's gonna kill me." I added with a small laugh.

"Oof." Digo exclaimed, turning the key in the ignition, the jingle of several different trinkets and attachments on the keychain following the faint roar of the engine.

"How was work?" I asked in return, plugging my phone into the dashboard to find a good song to play.

"Some Karen got mad at me." Digo said with a roll of their eyes. "Wanted some plain old red fabric and got mad at me when I gave her the sparkly version. Not my fault she can't respect some dramatic flair."

"Some people." I sighed in agreement, finally coming across a good song in my playlist. Inertia by AJR. "We're going to Dunkin by the way. I need coffee."

Digo began pulling out of their parking spot. "As long as you pay for it. Also, I think it's a they/them day for me."

"Maybe. And noteddd." I smirked teasingly, pulling up discord on my phone to text Quiet a quick 'hey', before pressing play on spotify to start the music and shooting a fingerguns gesture towards the other. Everything was better with music. Everything.

Digo's expression twisted in recognition at the unintelligible lyrics at the beginning of the song, beginning to smile, one hand on the wheel while the other began to roll down the front windows.

"Don't you like it bigger, better? But you do what you can–" We both started in unison as soon as the second verse began.

"Don't you like a little better when you don't understand–?" I continued, before letting Digo take the next line.

"I was gonna save the planet but today I've got plans." They sang, smiling, eyes still on the road as the music blasted out the windows.

"I guess this is just what I am."

***

"Yeah uh– can I have a small caramel iced coffee, no whipped cream?" Digo said as they leaned out the window in the Dunkin's drive through, simultaneously turning down the volume of the song that was now playing (OK Overture).

"Will that be all?" A choppy, feminine voice replied through the speaker.

"No, uh–" Digo had started, before breaking off with a small yelp as I leaned over across them to poke my head out the window.

"A large iced caramel latte with almond milk, please and thank you, byeeee–" I said before pulling away and sitting back down, the seat belt having started to dig into my throat.

Digo gave me a look just as the woman spoke over the speaker again. "That'll be $9.49, please pull up to the second window." Digo simply gave a thumbs up out the window before pulling up behind the car in front of us.

"You are going to be so freakin' hyper. More hyper than usual." Digo exclaimed after a moment, handing their debit card through the window to pay. "A large coffee, Jesus–"

"I know, I know, I'm a daredevil." I smirked sarcastically, kicking my feet up onto the dashboard. "Sue me."

"...nah. I'm not going to be the responsible one. That's Rain's job." Digo shrugged, the corner of their lips twitching into a smirk.

"I think you overestimate their ability to put up with me." I joked as Digo pulled up to the window, resting their elbow on the car door as we waited for the Dunkin's employee to pass out our drinks. I turned the radio up a bit again, lyrics from Headcase by Derivakat meeting my ears.

Digo snickered, unbuckling themself to lean out the window and grab our drinks, saying a thank you as they pulled them through the window, setting them in the two cup holders in between us. Or tried to. I grabbed a bunch of empty water bottles and energy drink cans that littered it, throwing them into the back, so they could put the coffees down and buckle their seatbelt again.

"Holy shit Arlo this is the size of your head–" They started, gaping slightly at my coffee as I grabbed it out of the cupholder.

"Heh, yep." I grinned, taking a sip.

"I'm not wasting my gas money on you if you have another SVT over excessive caffeine intake." Digo teased while they pulled out of the drive through. "You can walk to the hospital."

"Fair enough." I nodded.

"And if you do end up going to the hospital, I'm stealing your stickers–" They added.

I snorted, nearly spitting my mouthful of coffee back through the straw and nearly out my nose. "Heyyy those IVs hurt, I'd deserve the stickers–"

"Sure." Digo joked with a roll of their eyes, before their gaze returned back to the road. "C'mon, coffee me." They said with a tilt of their chin towards their own small (and pathetic–) coffee in the cupholder.

I picked up their cup, jabbing the straw towards their face and nearly stabbing the plastic up their nose.

"I ASKED FOR COFFEE NOT AN EGYPTIAN BURIAL RITUAL–" They yelped, jerking their head away. "I'd like to keep my brains intact in my skull, thank you."

"Oh– I didn't think you had a brain to worry about." I smirked, jokingly of course. Maybe– definitely joking.

"I'll have you know I am actually very smart and cool- I didn't fail high school did I?"

"And I didn't either! Yet–" I replied, bringing the straw more gently towards Digo's mouth so that they could take a sip of the coffee that they paid for. Not me. There was no way I was actually going to pay them back–

"Sure, yet." Digo teased after swallowing their sip, gesturing for me to put the cup back down.

I gave them a look, before changing the subject. "Now I need to get home– I have to edit that stream from last night for a YouTube video."

"Righttt. That. Got it." Digo replied, waving a hand dismissively like a used car salesperson showing off a car three seconds from explosive death, which really described Digo more than the car. "I'm going to raid your fridge once we do get there though, I don't feel like going grocery shopping."

"Fineeeee." I sighed. "I sacrifice my sources of sustenance in exchange for a chauffeur home."

"An honorable sacrifice, my dude–" Digo said with a somber nod.

I fell silent, still grinning, leaning back in the passenger seat as I sipped on my coffee. I watched the first few drops of rain splatter against the windshield, eyes following while they raced down the glass. I frowned when the windshield wipers started up, ending the little raindrops race and lives– the poor little guys. It took me several moments, despite watching the water, to realize it was actually raining. Again. I loved rain.

"How far away are we?" I asked, turning to Digo.

"It's your house–" Digo pointed out, before replying. "Like maybe five more minutes? I hope, I hate driving in the rain."

"Alrighty." I sighed, turning the radio up louder to drown out the pitter patter of the rain on the roof of the car, right as a song was ending.

'All for freedom and for pleasure.

Nothing ever lasts forever.

Everybody wants to rule the world.'

***

You asked and I delivered :]

I apologize, this chapter is a bit short but I didn't know what else to add without cutting into Chapter 3s plot point- but I hope you enjoyed!

Thank you to Indigo, again, for helping me with this chapter! 

Votes and comments and feedback are very appreciated :>