Chapter Text
it was a girl the first time, she was tall, blond and beautiful. her hair shone like honey in the sun, and her smile made everything bright. She always looked at Lance with a look he couldn’t quite place. it was soft but jagged, and maybe a bit pitiful, but it was everything to him. she stood out in a crowd, and she thought he did too, lance would always say it was his dazzling personality. but knew better.
he couldn't remember her name, probably out of sheer spite, or sadness. he was never quite sure which, but betrayal anyhow.
they had met in high school, freshman year, first block Spanish. Lance was loud, and she was adventurous, or just desperate. He was never sure. He was loud and boisterous, he had charmed the teacher by bringing some Cuban food for her. saying something about appreciating a teacher, something he did every year. “his mama had raised him right”, he would exclaim, laughing and smiling.
she would always linger on him a bit too long, or smile at him a bit too bright. The looks turned into greetings in the hallways, conversations by their lookers, kisses behind the tribune, and a bit more behind closed doors.
Their secret ‘kisses’ turned into getting to know each other's friends, and fast food runs with the ‘squad’ at 2 am. and ultimately it turned into a Snapchat video of her making out with some jock at a party she swore she didn't go to. and that was that, that was first love. it wasn't spectacular like the movies made it out to be, it was underwhelming and short-lived. but at 15 anyone can break your heart, truly be the first person you thought could be someone. but lance was naive and soft, and now heartbroken.
sophomore year passed no more heartbreak, no more pity dates and no more her. Lance wasn't quite sure what had happened to her, but he never saw her again after freshman year. He had kept their shared friend group as she disappeared, something he hadn’t expected. but loved to pieces, it had started with hunk, matt and Keith. but over the years turned into, hunk, pidge (matts sibling), matt, Keith, Allura and eventually kuron. who seemed pretty cool… maybe… or just weird, but lance loved him like the rest nonetheless.
then it was the second one, he met them in the summer before senior year. The squad were hanging, and Hunk had brought a friend. Which wasn’t uncommon, but slightly weird. they had been chill, and to be honest, lance was pretty drunk. So he went along, they'd talked for a couple of hours. Reminiscing of high school, what they had done and who they had done. lance had passed them a Whiteclaw as the sun went down, and they toasted to the sundown.
“Here's to our last year of high school, may the parties be dope and the weather hot!” lance had slurred out. The rest of the gang raised their drinks and cheered and hollered. and lance thought, this is high school, getting drunk on the beach with your friends, may it never end. it did end, unfortunately, just weeks after. Their name was Arlo, they had green hair and they were also a senior, Lance found out the next day.
Arlo had become a frequent guest in their ‘little’ squad, joining the gang for a party the following weekend. they had split into three cars, hunk, pidge and matt in hunks car. Keith, allura and kuron in allures car. and lance and Arlo in arlos red chevy pickup truck.
Lance couldn't remember much of the party, he remembered the pre-game he had with Keith and kuron. how they had egged each other on to do the most shots and who could shug the fastest. so the trio was pretty drunk when they all spilt out of their cars. He knew that he had played beer pong at some point, then flirted with some girls in the kitchen. Then Arlo gave him a drink, some bubbly shit. was apparently a mimosa, lance didn't care what they called the drink. just knew he was getting drunker and funner, thank you very much allura. He was a fun party drunk, always becoming a fun social butterfly.
The rest of the party went by in a blur of voices and colours, until he couldn't walk anymore. He didn't know how he got into arlos car, or how he lost his shirt. (authors note, he had taken it off and spun it in the air sometime earlier, singing some popular pop song.) what he did know was that he was in arlo’s car, arlos kinda dirty pick-up. But who was he to judge when his car looked like a dumping ground?
Lance just giggled, a bit out of himself and dozed off in the passenger seat. not knowing what was happening, or having the faintest idea. arlo smiled at him, right before he dozed off.
he woke up sore, and sticky, with one hell of a headache. He was delirious and groggy. not really knowing where he was, but knowing who the mastermind was. very aware of the heat radiating from the body next to his, the green tuft of hair sticking out of the blanket being a dead giveaway.
Lance had of course heard of roofies, he just didn't think he was… the target audience. He sat there for a long moment, trying to piece together what had happened. trying to figure out how his night had turned into… his body ached at the thought, at the implication, of what that brought with it. he would deal with that later, or preferably never. He sat there, in a puddle of fluids he didn't want to think about. trying to figure out where he had gone wrong.
the mimosa.
and that was that, Lance dressed in the remainder of his clothes. grabbed his shoes and mini purse, which had his phone, chapstick and 40$ in emergency cash. his phone had 32%, he called an uber to him and allura’s apartment, the rest was history. mostly because lance didn't remember or didn’t dare to.
he cried that day, in alluras arms, then Keith's. The rest was a blur to him, the trip to the police station, giving his statement, the kit and getting home. and the teen who was trusting, loud and social became the opposite. He retracted into his shell, barely leaving the apartment the first few weeks after the event. and when he did, he just sat there staring blankly into space.
he never saw or heard anything more about/from arlo, they disappeared just like she had years prior.
Eventually he came out of hiding, out of shell (AN, and the closet ). he took his finals, and sat, all the others. applied to universities with the squad and moved on, partially. Lance didn't think he would ever be over it, not completely. arlo had taken something from him, something that fulled his life and personality.
confidence.