Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

She doesn’t remember how she ended up here. In the back of a 2015 Jeep Wrangler with Hope Mikaelson.

That’s a lie. She knows exactly how she got there and the events that led her to this very situation. It all started 7 months ago: when Josie Saltzman came out. It wasn’t like everyone didn’t know that Josie was gay except for her dad, who was one of the most clueless people Josie has ever met. But to be fair, she has dated her fair share of guys so what else was he supposed to think.

Coming out for Josie wasn’t really that big of a deal to her, however in a small town like Mystic Falls where everyone knows everyone, it was huge news. It wasn’t like she was hiding her sexuality before, but she never explicitly said she was pansexual to others. When people found out, things changed for her. The way people interacted with her, the way they would stare at her, and the number of people that followed suit.

There was an overwhelming amount of support from the people who make their whole personality about being an “ally.” There was a small number of people who treated her like they always did, which she was grateful for. Finally, there were also people who used the stereotypes that they were aware of to initiate conversations with her. Obviously, there was some homophobic backlash, but it was mainly in the privacy of people’s home. The stares came every now and then at the mystic grill, the mall, school, and when she was walking in the town center.

The biggest change for Josie was the development of a new “friendship” with Hope Mikaelson, the most popular girl in school. Before Josie came out, they were acquaintances. They were the type of people that had friend groups that were friends with each other, but never personally interacted. They had very few classes together and if they did share a class they sat across the room from each other. Usually Josie would rarely see Hope, only at parties and on the occasional friend group hangouts when both their friend groups combine.

The first time they spoke to each other was the day after Josie came out. She was sitting in AP Calc, one of the few classes she shared with Hope, and she felt a tap on her shoulder.

“Hey Josie,” Hope smiled, “do you think you could help me with the homework sometime, I’ve been struggling a bit?”

It was such a simple question, and it wasn’t out of the normal for someone to ask Josie for help in this class, but it was Hope. Everyone knows that she does well in school, and it’s no secret that Calculus was one of her stronger subjects. Caught a little off guard, Josie still responds.

“Um, yeah sure. I have volleyball practice after school throughout the week but I’m free any time after that though.”

“That’s perfect. How’s tomorrow at 7? You can come to my house.”

Before Josie can respond or protest the bell rings and Hope is basically out the door.

The rest of the school day was strange. Every time Josie passed Hope in the halls, they had this intense eye contact. They only lasted a second but affected Josie all the same. They sent chills down her back and made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. There was something different about Hope that she couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was.

The next day Josie felt anxious. She didn’t know why helping Hope was making her this nervous. Maybe it was the fact that they never really talked to each other until recently, or the fact that Hope was probably the most attractive girl Josie had ever seen. Well, the latter was just a fact in Mystic falls, like the sky is blue. Everyone thought Hope was attractive ever since she moved here from New Orleans their freshman year. Hope Mikaelson was beautiful and that was a fact, so Josie shouldn’t be this anxious. She spent the whole day thinking about going to Hope Mikaelson’s house for their study session that she barely focused on her classes throughout the day. The only thing that seemed to attract her attention at all was Hope.

Hope was going about her day as usual, and it made Josie think she was thinking way too much about a simple tutoring session. There was no need to dissect the meaning behind why Hope had asked for help because it was just her simply asking for help from the best student in their class. When Josie finally calmed herself down it was lunch, and she was sitting with Lizzie, Mg, Jade, Jed, and Landon. Lizzie and Jade were talking about soccer try outs (Josie wasn’t really paying attention to their conversation) while Mg and Jed were planning the next legendary party at Jed’s house. Their conversation ranged from if they would have a theme, like rhyme without reason, to how much booze they were going to need. Landon on the other hand was drooling, It was because of his daily action of staring at Hope took place at lunch because her friend group was two tables down from theirs. From where he sat, Landon had a perfect view of hope and, not so subtly, watched her while he ate his lunch. If Josie was being honest, his obsession with the girl was kind of become a little sad because of how desperate he seemed.

“You’re drooling you know,” Josie whispers to him.

“What?” He snaps out of his daze. “No, I wasn’t.”

Josie does nothing but laugh. “When are you going to work up the courage to talk to her? You have plenty of opportunity but never take it.”

“I just have to find the right moment. She’s my dream girl I can’t just walk up and say ‘hi’. That would be insane. We need to have a meet cute.”

“Is it really a meet cute if you’ve known each other for a few years now?”

“Shut up.”

Josie laughs. “I’m going to be seeing her after volleyball practice.”

“WHAT?” He said a little too loud that he got the attention of the others.

“Calm down Lan. I’m just going over to her house to help her with calc.”

Landon looked just as confused as Josie was when Hope originally asked her, but his face of confusion quickly shifted into this beaming face of mischief.

“Josie….” Landon said with the biggest smile on his face, almost pleading. She already knew his question before he even asked.

“No.”

“You don’t even know what I was going to ask!”

“I don’t need to know.”

“Josie please. All I ask is that you casually bring me up and ask her if she might be interested. Simple” He smiles.

“No. I’m not going to bombard her with something personal like that. I know her as well as you do.”

“Josie please.” Landon begs. After pleading for what feels like an eternity, he finally wears down Josie.

“Oh my god. Fine Landon, but you owe me”

“THANK YOU. You’re amazing. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

Josie rolls her eyes and finishes her lunch. She goes about her classes as usual. When she gets to AP Calc today, she finds that Hope is waiting for her by her desk. This would be the second day in a row in which Hope Mikaelson has sought her out. If she were Landon, she would die on the spot, but she is more stable than Landon thank god.

“Hey, so I realized that I don’t have your number which would make it impossible for me to send you, my address.” The auburnette chuckled.

“Oh of course. Practice ends at 6 so just text me whenever.” She responds as she takes out her phone so that Hope can put her number in. There’s a moment where they smile at each other, and Hope makes her way back to her seat across the room before class starts.

Before Josie notices she’s at practice stretching with Maya and Penelope while they wait for their coach. She’s been on the team since her freshman year and since all their seniors graduated last year; she, Maya, and Penelope became captains. Their pre-practice talks were some of her favorite moments. The thing about Maya and Penelope is that they’re also a part of Hope’s friend group, which Josie attempted to use to her advantage for Landon, instead of asking Hope directly because she might die of embarrassment.

“So… you guys are friends with Hope right?” Josie asks in an attempt to be casual. Both girls look at her curiously.

“Yes… Why do you ask?” Penelope responds for the both of them.

“You guys talk about like who you guys are interested in and all that type of stuff right?”

“Josie what is this about?” Maya jumps in.

“Well, I was wondering if she’s ever spoken to you guys about… Landon?”

The girls look at each other and start giggling. “You’re joking right?” Penelope asks.

“I’m serious. Landon wanted me to ask her today, but I feel like that’s not really something you bring up when you’re getting tutored for Calc. Especially when we’ve never really spoken until recently.”

“Oh well she’s never said anything about Landon to us. Has he ever spoken to her?” Maya responds.

“Nope. I tell him to all the time like at parties and whenever both of our groups hangout but he just stays with Raf. Which is weird because he knew that he and Hope used to be a thing.”

“Yeah, personally Bird Nest is not my type, but Hope has more of an… open mind about these things than I do.” Penelope jokes.

“I don’t know Josie, I don’t think Landon is Hope’s type, especially if he’s never spoken to her. I mean you could still ask her. She probably won’t get weirded out.” Maya responds.

Right as Josie is about to say something their coach blows her whistle and practice starts.

Practice was brutal. Josie couldn’t feel her legs but somehow, she managed to make it back to her car and drive home. As soon as she got home she showered and ate something before she had to head over to Hope’s. She had no idea when Lizzie came back but she found her twin downstairs devouring a sandwich in the kitchen.

“How were tryouts?” Josie asks.

“Oh my god it was terrible. The freshmen are hopeless. I don’t know if I’m going to survive this season if I hear another dumb question.”

“Lizzie, you have to be patient. They’re trying their best.”

“Trying their best my ass. I mean how many times does it take for me to explain a basic drill for them to know how to do it?”

Josie rolls her eyes. “Was there anyone that you thought had potential from what you saw?”
“I mean yeah but the pickings just get slimmer and slimmer each year. There’s eventually going to be no hope for the Mystic Falls High soccer team.” She sighs. “How was practice today?”

“It was brutal. I swear coach is trying to kill us. By the way I’m going to head out in a few.”

“Where are you going?”

“Hope asked me to help her with calc tonight.”

Lizzie’s confused, “Hope Mikaelson… I didn’t know you guys were close.”

“We’re not, and you don’t have to be close to tutor someone Lizzie.”

“What did bird brain say when you told him.”

“He begged me to bring him up when I go over. You have got to stop calling him that.”

“I’m sorry but have you met him. I’m just speaking the truth, Josie and the hair doesn’t help. His crush on Hope is also becoming really pathetic.”

“Lizzie.”

“What? You can’t tell me I’m wrong. I bet you that Hope knows about his little obsession and is avoiding him.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Whatever Josie. Have fun at your little tutoring session with Hope.”

Josie takes that as her cue to leave. She grabs her car keys and as she’s about to leave she says bye to her dad who just pulled into their garage after coming back from Whitmore. He looked really tired; it must have been from grading papers. Josie got in her car and drove over to Hope’s house with the address that the other girl sent to her earlier during the day. When she pulled up to the house there was this long driveway up to the building. Hope’s house was nice, it wasn’t like a huge mansion or anything. It was more comfortable than most houses in town, but it wasn’t over the top. Josie pulled up to the front of the house and walked up to the door. She knocks and the door opens up a few seconds later to reveal a freshly showered Hope with wet hair,

“Hi Josie,” the Mikaelson girl beams.

“Hey” Josie smiles back.

“Come in. Um, we can work in my room. My parents are watching one of those reality match-making tv shows.” Hope chuckles.

Josie steps inside the house seeing a bunch of photos of what looks like to be hope and her family. “You have a big family.”

“Oh yeah, we go down to New Orleans to see them whenever we can.”

Josie follows Hope up the stairs and down the hall to end up in the Mikaelson’s girl room. Her room looked like something that came from Pinterest, it was cozy and was the type of place Josie could spend hours in. Her room was pushed against the wall on the farthest corner from the door and on the longer side of the bed there were posters of what Josie assumed to be her favorite shows and music artists. There were some polaroid pictures among the rest of the posters that had pictures of her at parties, at the beach, and just hanging out with her friends. Around the room there are shelves of plants and books that make the room feel alive in a way that Josie can’t explain. On the wall opposing the bed there is a desk that is completely covered in what seems to be homework. Before Josie could analyze the other girl’s room anymore, she is pulled out of her daze.

“We can work at my desk,” Hope says as she pulls another chair beside the desk.
The two of them get settled and begin working on the homework assignment together, and then go over what would be on their next test on Friday. After about 30 minutes of talking about derivatives Hope decides that they deserve a break.

“Do you want to get a snack or something, I think if I spend another second talking about derivatives I’m going to explode.” Hope shares as she rests her forehead on the sheet in front of her.

Josie laughs, “Yeah, I could go for a snack.”

They head downstairs to get some Oreos from Hope’s pantry and quickly head back upstairs. There’s a moment of silence between the two when they sit back down and after a second, they start talking. Josie thought that talking to Hope was easy and that just talking about silly things with her brought her so much ease. All of a sudden Landon ends up in the back of her mind, pleading for her to ask Hope about him. Despite her dignity fighting against her, Josie asks the girl in front of her.

“Hey… this might be a weird change in conversation, but I was just wondering if you ere interested in any one?”

Hope looked nervous she responded, “What do you mean?”

“I mean like have you ever like thought about Landon in that way? He’s a great guy and I don’t know I just think you guys would make a cute couple.”

“Oh. Landon Kirby right? Um, I mean I’ve never really thought about him in that way, mainly because I don’t think I’ve ever spoken to him. I mean other than when I was seeing Raf.” Hope explains. Josie thinks she hears slight disappointment in Hope’s voice but she doesn’t try to dissect what it could mean.

“I was just asking because he may or may not have asked me to ask you about what you thought of him. I told him to lower his expectations for those exact reasons.”

“I figured that when you asked. And if I’m going to be honest, he’s not exactly subtle about it.”

“I keep telling him that. I mean he is a nice guy and I think if you’re up to it just give him a chance, assuming that he makes the first move anytime soon.”

“I mean I’m not really looking for anything right now, but if he does try, I won’t immediately shut him down. Shall we get back to the form of abuse we call AP Calculus BC.”

After another hour and a half, Josie and Hope finished the homework and tackled some of the topics that will be on their test next Friday. Hope walks Josie to the door and before she leaves, she asks Josie some unexpected questions.

“Do you think we could do this again sometime, preferably next week before the test? You really helped me out tonight.”

“Yeah, of course. Just text me whenever.” Josie says as she’s about to take another step to her car.

“Ohh and I was wondering if you were going to Jed’s party Saturday night?”

“I honestly don’t even think I have a choice. He and MG are claiming it as ‘the party of the year’ and Lizzie would kill me if I didn’t go as well.”

Hope smile grows (which josie thought was slightly strange) “Okay cool. I guess I’ll see you there then.”

“I guess so.”

Josie finally heads to her car slightly confused and in shock. Little did she know that it was just the beginning.

Chapter Text

“So… what did Hope say about me?” Lunch started less than 20 seconds ago, and Landon was already bombarding Josie with questions about last night.

Josie hesitates for a second before she responds, “Oh… I uh, I forgot to ask. We just got caught up in the work that it slipped my mind. Sorry Lan. But I think if you really like Hope you should talk to her. I mean how else is something going to start between the two of you.” Josie didn’t think it was the best idea to tell Landon that Hope had never thought of him in the slightest. It would be detrimental to his emotional state, and she didn’t think he needed to hear something like that.

“It’s fine. Maybe I’ll take your advice.” Landon sighs.

For the rest of the lunch period Landon goes back to his usual task of looking at the Mikaelson girl with this look of optimism present on his face. Josie on the other hand joined in the conversation of Jed’s party that the rest of the group started.

“So, who’s all coming?” Jade asks as she’s about to take a bite out of her sandwich.

“You know the usual; Penelope’s group, the basketball guys, the soccer girls, ohhh I think we got some Academy kids to go as well.” Jed answers her.

The mention of Academy kids coming gets the attention of Lizzie. Academy kids are the rich kids of Mystic Falls whose parents think that public education is not good enough for their precious children. Little do their parents know that their children are all dicks that have bigger egos than the size of their extremely large trust funds. There are a few of them that everyone is able to tolerate and are known around the town, but most of them are highly disliked by everyone else in town. They usually get invited to parties because they always bring the best and most booze and weed each and every time.

“Do you think Sebastian is going to be there? I really don’t want to see him again after what happened over the summer.” Lizzie questions.

“Don’t worry I already made sure that he got the message.” Jed assured her. MG comforts the blonde next to him by rubbing her back in soothing circles. “I’m so excited for this one guys. You have no idea how much time I spent planning this party. It’s going to be my biggest one yet. Basically everyone is going and I will be going down as the greatest all time”

“Okay calm down hot shot,” Jade jokes.

Before she knew it, lunch was over, and Josie is heading to her next class. As she’s walking out of the cafeteria with her sister, Josie and Hope make eye contact. There’s nothing necessarily weird about the interaction, from the point of view of someone looking at them the eye contact would go unnoticed, but to Josie there’s something special in the way Hope was looking at her. It was only for a second, but it felt like an eternity to Josie. If she was being honest with herself, she might have wanted it to be more. Josie always had a small crush on the auburnette because looked at her. She was the definition of beauty, but as far as Josie was concerned Hope was straight and definitely not interested in her. This was enough reason for Josie to shrug off the overthinking she was doing about the eye contact and her to her 5th period.
The next few days went by the same for Josie: go to class; make eye contact with Hope more than usual; suffer at practice; got to sleep. The whole week went by so fast that Josie didn’t realize Jed’s party was in a few hours. Lizzie was already stressing about what she was going to wear, and MG and Jade were already on their way over to pre-game before they walked over to Jed’s house. Thankfully, this weekend their dad was at Whitmore this weekend for some important thing that Josie was only half listening to when he bought it up. Usually, they would go their mom’s and Stefan’s house, but they were on their honeymoon in Italy, so it was just Josie and Lizzie with the house to themselves.

“JOSIE” Lizzie screams to the point that everyone in the whole town could hear her.

“Oh my god Lizzie. Could you be any louder?”

“The situation I am in called for the yelling. Which one do I wear?”

“Are you serious? You had to call me like that to help you pick out your outfit.”

“Yes I did. Josie this party is where I’m going to have my first hookup since… anyways I need to up my bang-ability.”

“Do you really think hooking up with someone is the best thing for you right now? You took the whole thing with Sebastian pretty hard Lizzie.”

“Hooking up with someone else is the exact thing I need right now. The only way to get over someone is to get under someone new.”

“I don’t think tha—”

“PICK Josie” Lizzie has the sweetest smile on that it could rot someone’s tooth. Josie knew Lizzie wasn’t going to listen to reason, so she just gave her an answer and waited patiently until her twin was ready to talk about what happened between her and her ex.

No one really knew what happened exactly, only that one-night Lizzie came home sobbing, telling Josie that she and Sebastian were over. She spent days crying and sitting in her room listening to Lana Del Rey. Josie even heard from Finch, one of her friends that goes to academy with Sebastian, that he was taking the breakup hard as well.
The doorbell rings and behind the door when Josie opens it is Jade and MG. MG is carrying a bag that Josie assumes is filled with alcohol and Jade is carrying her car keys which confuses the brunette.

“I thought you were drinking tonight?” Josie says as she invites them inside.
“I was planning to, but my brother has a game tomorrow and if I go hungover my mom would actually kill me, so I decided that being DD would be my best bet if I don’t want to pick up a drink.”

Josie nods as her response and starts pulling out shot glasses from their cabinets. Lizzie made her way downstairs already expecting a shot to be put in her hands and is a little disappointed when it doesn’t happen. All of them, except for Jade, take two shots before they’re out of the house.
It’s already dark out and the place is basically packed when they get there. Luckily Jade was able to find a spot that was close to the house in no time. They walk in and they’re hit with this energy that only comes from Jed’s party. From what Josie can see everyone seems to be having a good time. She separates from Lizzie, MG, and Jade to head to the kitchen where she finds more drinks all together. She doesn’t like drinking from public bottles so she just picks up a can of Truly that is in one of the coolers by the table.
She sees her friends by the pool sitting at a long table and makes her way over to them. As she gets closer, she notices there are more people in the group: Hope, Maya, Penelope, Rafael, and Kaleb.
Hope looks particularly good tonight. Truthfully, she always looks amazing if Josie was being honest, but tonight something about her was different. As she walked over to the group, she and Hope made eye contact. This girl’s obsession with looking at Josie is going to be the demise of the brunette, but Josie would never admit that to herself, let alone aloud. Those blue eyes sent chills down Josie’s back, and she didn’t have the strength to look away. It’s like swimming in an endless sea of blue. They felt dangerous and deadly, and warm and inviting all at the same time. They pulled Josie in a way she’d never felt before, and the fact that she was a little drunk was not helping the situation. Hope’s eyes looked as though they were searching for something in Josie’s eyes, but the taller girl didn’t know what for.
As she got closer to all her friends their laughing forced her to break eye contact with Hope. This allowed her to get a good glimpse of what was all going on: Landon (clearly drunk already) standing really close to Hope with the biggest smile on his face, like he had just won the lottery. They weren’t really speaking to each other from what Josie could see, but that didn’t matter to Landon as long as he was in the same vicinity as Hope. Josie was immediately hit with guilt by the heavy eye contact she had with the other girl.
When she made it to the group Landon finally looked towards and gave her this big smile that screamed “I’M NEXT TO THE HOPE MIKAELSON.” She smiled at him and gave him a little look that told him she was proud of him, and she genuinely was.

“You’re going to puke Jed. I would put my whole life savings on that.” The argument between Jed and Kaleb rips Josie out of her thoughts.

“I’m telling you man, I’ve got a stomach of steel. Just ask Josie.”

“Just ask me what?” The girl jumps in as she’s about to take a sip out of her drink.”

“Jed tells us that he can take 5 shots of any concoction and then run a mile under 6 minutes without throwing up.”

“I actually wouldn’t be surprised if he could. In all honest Jed, you’re a freak of nature. I once witnessed him down 2 gallons of milk and chipotle and then play an aggressive game of tackle football without stopping. I was expecting him to implode and throw up everywhere. It was like of traumatizing.”

“BOOM!”

“Whatever, I still don’t believe you could do it.”

“You want to make a bet”

Their argument continues and all of a sudden, the group is in the kitchen watching Kaleb make the most horrendous drinks for Jed to make. Josie notices her Truly is finished and grabs another. She has absolutely nothing to do tomorrow so she plans on getting drunk tonight and having a little fun after the week she’s had. She goes into the cooler and ends up next to Hope. The Mikaelson girl looks just as tipsy as Josie with a beer in her hand and her eyes dilated. She’s resting on the table opposite the one Kaleb is using to make his mysterious drinks. Josie decides to join the other girl by resting next to her.

“Sometimes I question the type of people I’m friends with,” Hope’s statement catches Josie off guard, especially because the girl looks as though she didn’t just say anything.

“You got to admit, they are entertaining though.” Josie returns with the same nonchalance as Hope.

“Oh, there’s no doubt that the things they end up doing doesn’t make me laugh, but it’s all still very questionable.”

“Okay fair. I see their foolishness as living their teenage years to the fullest. Some people think about consequences too often that they never get to experience everything life offers them.” This causes the shorter girl to look over at Josie.

Josie slightly panics for some reason, “I don’t know why I got really deep there.”

“No, you’re right,” Hope smiles, “and I have to say, Jed is very brave for willingly putting that poison Kaleb is making him in his body.”

This causes Josie to laugh and lighten up a bit. She doesn’t know why she was tense before. The table in front of them pulls their attention from each other as Jed is on his third drink already. The drinks in front of the boy look absolutely revolting, and just looking at them might make Josie throw up.

“I don’t know if I can watch him down another one of those.” Hope admits in disgust.

“Yeah, I don’t think I can either,” just as she says that Josie catches Penelope and Maya leaving the kitchen to go to the rest of the party, “let’s leave with Pen and Maya before he finishes the last one.”

Hope nods following Josie away from the rowdy set of guys in the kitchen yelling Jed on. Somehow, they spend most of the night together with Penelope and Maya, which is unusual for Josie. Every now and then she would see Jade and MG hanging out, or her friends dancing, but she mainly stayed with Hope. She’s never hung out with Hope like this before. It was fun. It was intoxicating. Something about the auburnette was pulling Josie in, and with the number of drinks that she had in her she didn’t have the soberness to fight it.
The night passes Josie in a blur and now she finds herself on a couch sitting next to Hope. Mostly everyone went outside to play in some beer pong tournament that Raf seemed to have started. They’re basically one of the few people who decided to stay inside. Josie’s pretty drunk at the moment, same as Hope, but it wasn’t to the point where they were absolutely gone. The two were sitting pretty close to each other to the point where Hope’s scent was overpowering Josie’s nose. The taller girl didn’t mind it because the Mikaelson’s girl was completely intoxicating. It was comforting and Josie didn’t want to move a single inch from the other girl. Josie’s sense of comfort was ruined when Hope moved forward.

“You know sometimes I wonder what guys are thinking when they kiss you.” The question completely catches Josie off guard.

“What?”

Hope stares at the couple that’s doing a terrible job of hiding their make out in corner.

“It’s just that they’re always so bad and eager. I just don’t get how someone be so excited to do something they’re mediocre at.”

“Not most kisses are like that you know.”

“I know, but I have yet to come across a guy that is a good kisser. What is it like to kiss girls?”

Another question that catches the brunette off guard. Hope can’t just ask these types of questions and say all these things out of nowhere to Josie. Josie’s just going to blame it on the alcohol. It takes her a second to muster up an answer.

“If I’m going to be honest, I wouldn’t know. There was only one girl I’ve ever kissed and even then, I wouldn’t really call it a kiss because we were like 10 at the time. There’s not that many gay girls in Mystic Falls.” Josie looks over to the girl and finds Hope staring at her intently.

“So, you’ve never had your real first kiss with a girl?”

“There aren’t really any girls that are lining up at my door you know.”

“Somehow I just don’t believe that.” This forces Josie to look over to the auburnette next to her, and she finds the other girl looking at her with those blue eyes again.

Suddenly nothing in the room matters to Josie. She couldn’t really tell when they got this close to each other from the beginning of the conversation, all she knew was that they were, and it was suffocating. She could smell Hope and it sent her in this state that was comforting and hyperaware of the girl in front of her. Everything else in the room was silent and all Josie could pay attention to was Hope’s eyes. What feels like hours of staring into the other girls’ eyes actually lasts for a minute or so before they’re interrupted by Maya jumping to sit in between them. From what Josie could tell, the girl was wasted. She was hugging her and Hope close to her chest telling them what amazing friends they were.
As she came back to reality, Josie realized that the party had made its way back inside. Despite what she felt, she and Hope were not in the room alone together and she thought that the booze was really getting to her because there was no way that she had what could’ve been a “moment” with Hope. Especially knowing that Hope was straight and more importantly, Landon was planning on asking her out. She couldn’t possibly do that to a friend who had been one of her closest friends since she could remember. What kind of friend could do that to another?
Josie took the interruption between the two as an escape from the tension that she was building up in her head. She excused herself from the two and headed to get another drink. Her solution to the crippling tension that she felt was to get more drunk. And that’s exactly what she did.
She doesn’t really know how much time had passed since she last saw Penelope, but she somehow ended up seeing her and some other girl making out in a room that the brunette was planning to lay in for a second. Caught off guard, she squeals and apologizes before quickly shutting the door and scurries off. Interesting she thinks to herself. She makes a mental note to remember that despite how drunk she was. This was also her sign to start drinking water to sober up a bit and make the hangover she was going to have tomorrow a little better before it actually happened. Before she gets the chance to take more than 5 sips of the water bottle she picked up, Josie is dragged into some room with a bunch of people sitting in a circle and a bottle in the middle of them. Oh no.
Josie recognizes Lizzie as the person that drags her into the group. Before she knows it, she’s playing a game that didn’t even realize was going on.

“Okay bitches, you know the rules, but we’re going to clarify so there’s no confusion: Spin the bottle, kiss the person it lands on, if it lands on your sibling spin again because we don’t support incest weirdos, and finally we’re not 12 anymore so no pecking.” Alyssa announces as she sets up the bottle in the middle of the room.

Josie finally has time to process who else is in the circle. On the right of Alyssa is Jed, then Jade, Maya, Mg, Kaleb, Lizzie, her, Landon, Rafael, a girl named Cleo from Academy (she’s more of Jed and Kaleb’s friend than anything), Ben from Academy, Hope, and Penelope. From the start of the game, Josie is mainly focused on what she saw before: Penelope and the random girl in the room. Other than that image submerged in her mind, the game ends up being pretty entertaining if Josie was being honest. Everyone who was playing seemed pretty comfortable with who they were, for example when Jed spun the bottle, and it landed on Kaleb they in someway made it have the same energy as their bets. Things got really heated when MG landed on Penelope, and she looked like she rocked his world. It even got some whistles and catcalls from everyone in the room.
Josie ended up kissing Landon and Rafael, which was a little awkward but not as bad as it would be for most. The round went by pretty smoothly and Josie was actually fun with the middle school game. The second round came along and that’s when things got interesting for Josie. Throughout the whole game Josie was hyperaware of the bottle whenever it was Hope’s turn even if she didn’t admit it to herself. During the second round, the bottle came Hope’s way quite a bit, almost like the game was rigged. She kissed Raf, Penelope, and Jed. It was Landon’s turn, and to his luck, it landed on the auburnette girl. Before this, you could see him die a little inside every time someone had to kiss her. Josie’s knows that he only played because there was a possibility that he could get to make out with Hope and his chance came. They made their way to the middle and as soon as it started Josie felt the need to look away. It was kind of like MG and Penelope’s kiss, and it was making her nauseous.

“Okay wrap it up bird boy. If I see your tongue one more time, I think I’m going to throw up al the Pink Whitney that I downed tonight.” Lizzie says. Everyone laughs and thankfully that gets them to stop. Out of the 2 of them, Landon looks especially pleased with himself. Josie couldn’t read Hope, she looked so indifferent.

It was now Hope’s turn, and Josie started paying closer attention to the bottle again. When the girl spun the bottle, it felt like it was spinning for hours, but as it slowed the pit that was resting in her stomach grew. When the bottle landed it took her a second to realize that it landed on her.

Chapter Text

You know that scene in Ratatouille when Remy was trying to teach Emile how to enjoy food with the combination of cheese and grapes. The whole screen went black and the flavors of each ingredient were represented by swirls of colors that gave the whole scene meaning. Nothing but the flavors that were being tasted mattered. That’s what kissing Hope Mikaelson felt like. Josie was completely absorbed by the warm lips that were moving with her own. It created this feeling in her chest that demanded the kiss to never stop. It became consuming. Before she knew it, the feeling was gone and they pulled away.

In reality, the kiss only lasted the normal length and to the outside eye it was anything too special, but to Josie… it felt like everything and nothing all at the same time. She didn’t realize when and how she sat back to where she was before she kissed the girl, but when she was pulled out of her daze the game was still going on. Luckily no one seemed to have notice her reaction to the kiss with the auburnette and people were invested in the game. She looked over to Hope and there they were again, those eyes. They had this glazed over look to them that Josie wasn’t able to handle. She decided she had enough of the game.

Josie gets up from her spot and tells the person closest to her that she was going to get a drink. Instead of heading to the kitchen, she decides to take a step outside to get some fresh air. As soon as she steps out, the overwhelming feeling that was consuming her vanished. She was not ready to analyze what she felt behind that kiss with Hope. Hope was drunk and so was Josie and the alcohol was the cause of the feelings that were confusing the brunette. There was no need to dig deeper because it meant nothing. At least that’s what Josie told herself.
After a few minutes to herself, Josie finally heads back inside to find the spin the bootle has been disbanded and to fill it’s place was a very drunk Sebastian being pushed to leave. Josie immediately searched to see if Lizzie was any where around. She has no luck finding her twin, however she finds Mg and walks up to him.

“Hey, where’s Lizzie? Does she know that he’s here?” Josie slightly shouts over the music into Mg’s ear.

“She’s with Jade right now. He came during spin the bottle and got absolutely heated when she saw her kissing someone. He caused a whole scene. Luckily, Jade was able to rush her out of the room and Jed was stopping him from following.”

“Shit. Do you know where they went?”

“No, all I Know is that they went up the stairs.” Mg reveals as points in the direction of the stairs.

As Josie leaves to go find her sister and Jade she sees Sebastian essentially being carried out by Jed while essentially screaming about how Lizzie is an ungrateful bitch. Her self-control was really saving her from going back over there to punch him straight in the face. She has the strength to continue up the stairs to look for her sister. It takes her 3 doors before she finds her and Jade sitting on a bed talking. Lizzie looks like she was crying with puffy eyes and a slightly red face, and Jade was attempting to be comforting and was just holding the other blonde close. Josie walks over to the end of the bed where Lizzie’s legs were hanging over and brings her hands to her sister’s.

“1-10?” Josie asks her twin. It’s their way of determining what the other needs in the moment.

“A 7.” Lizzie sniffles out after a moment. Josie nods and sits on the other side of Lizzie and wraps her arms around her twin along with Jade. They sit there for a few minutes in silence.
Josie knew that when Lizzie was ready talk about what happened between her and Sebastian, Josie would be the first to know but until then her sister needed to grieve this on her own. After hearing a deep huff from the blonde twin Josie and Jade let go and watch the girl in the middle of the with concern and patience.

“Where does he get off on coming here knowing that no one wants him here?” The blonde twin breathes out. The other two girls don’t say anything and just nod.

“Like we ended things and I’ve moved on. He literally has a new girlfriend. Why does he think he has any right to get pissed when I kiss someone else. I can’t believe I dated such a douche.” She’s standing up now and pacing furiously in the room.

“A complete douche.” Josie says.

“An absolute asshole.” Jade adds on.

“Right. Thank god I’m on to bigger and better things. He’s not going to ruin my night. Absolutely not. This is supposed to be the party of the year. THIS IS MY FUCKING NIGHT. FUCK HIM.” Lizzie says with a sense of finality. She walks out of the room with a new sense of confidence and attitude.

If you know Lizzie, this was a huge step for her in managing her feelings. Typically, when things like this would happen, it would completely consume the other girl. It would have ruined her whole night and the rest of Josie’s night as well. Josie was still concerned about her sister, but she felt a little better knowing that the other girl did what she needed to not let her emotions overwhelm her. Jade and Josie look at each other with worry in their eyes but followed the brunette none the less back to the party.

By the time they got back downstairs Sebastian seemed to be long gone and Jed and cKaleb were by the bar shot gunning some beers. Everything seemed to be back to normal and Lizzie took this as her opportunity to party. As the night went on Josie kept a close eye on her twin and completely avoided Hope. But to her surprise it wasn’t as difficult as she assumed it was going to be. Hope was no where in sight. Like the girl completely vanished without a trace left behind. Maybe Josie was being a bit dramatic, but she didn’t see the auburnette for the rest of the night which in all honesty was not long. They spent another hour at Jed’s and then people were starting to trickle out as soon as it hit 1:30 A.M. Josie, Lizzie, Mg, and Jade headed out not too long after that time and headed home. Josie was just glad that she was on her way home to sleep in her bed. Away from weird feelings and drama of the night.

The weekend was the exact opposite of Jed’s party: calm and uneventful. Josie spent the weekend finishing any homework that she had due that week, watching movies with Lizzie, and having Jade and Mg over. More importantly, Josie had a Hope-free weekend. Although she fully convinced herself that she had no feelings for the shorter girl whatsoever, she was not ready to face her just yet. When Monday rolls around, Josie is slightly on edge. She’s bracing herself for when she sees Hope.
As she and Lizzie get out of her car (Lizzie did not want to drive today and her soccer conditioning finished the same time as volleyball practice) she feels a presence behind her.

“JOSIE!” Landon shouts to scare the girl.

“FUC— Landon what is your problem.” Josie launches back.

“Nothing I’m just really excited.” The curly haired boy smiles.

“Excited…?” She questions.
“Yes excited. I have news.”

“News that made it necessary to nearly kill me with a heart attack??”

“Yes.”

“… What’s the news?” Josie had this pit in her stomach, almost like she knew what she was about to hear would be really upsetting.

“I asked Hope out at Jed’s party. And she said yes.” The boy basically jumps up and down as he tells her.

Something inside of Josie plummets. She feels empty.

“Oh my god Landon. I told you that all you have to do was shoot your shot. The worst she could’ve she said was no.”

“No there are other things that she could say that would have caused irrevocable damage to my mental state… BUT she didn’t so this is great news.”

“I’m really happy for you Landon.”

If she was being honest with herself, no she wasn’t. This made a feeling of disappointment take over Josie. If she was being honest with herself she felt something I the kiss and got her hopes up because of the way Hope and her were with each other majority of the night. But Josie knew the other girl was straight and that her feeling would be one sided. She was subconsciously reading into things. She had to stop before she got hurt any more. She needed to be happy that her best friend finally took a step out of his comfort zone and asked Hope out. She was happy for this big step for Landon even though it slightly stung.

Once Josie left Landon after he walked her to class, she was dreading having to see Hope later into the morning. She felt as though the kiss would make things awkward between them, at least Josie might begin to act awkward in the presence of the girl. She went to her next few classes slightly unfocused because AP Calc was coming up soon and she would have to face the shorter girl. Her steps slowed as she made her way from her locker to her Calc class during passing period. She was hoping that if she was there a little later than usual then maybe she would lower the chances of running into Hope at the door like they usually do.

She was wrong.

“Hey Josie, how are you?” Hope said smiling. It was a normal question and she didn’t appear to be acting strange at all. It took Josie a second to respond.

“..Oh um, hey Hope I’m great. How was your weekend?” Josie answered precautiously trying to continue to read the other girl.

“It was filled with an enormous headache and heaps of homework. I didn’t really do anything fun, except went to get ice cream with Pen Saturday night.” Hope sighs out. “And how was your weekend?” The auburnette continues as she walks to their desks.

“It was kind of the same, I spent the weekend hanging out Jade, Mg, and Lizzie and doing homework.” They end their conversation with a sweet smile and Hope makes to her desk after dropping Josie off.

Hope was acting completely normal. More proof that Josie was overthinking things. They were at a party, things happen and there was no need to dwell on it.

The rest of the week carried out the same. Landon would walk Josie in the morning to class planning out his date with Hope. She would talk to Hope during the days they finished their classwork early for AP Calc. She would go to lunch and half listen to the conversation that was being held at their table and seldomly chipping in. All that was running through her mind was the kiss she shared with Hope. She knew thinking about it would just bum her out but she couldn’t stop herself. It hurt a little every time Landon would bring up the older girl, but the more it happened the less it hurt. Almost like she was becoming numb to the pain. She thought that talking to Hope would be more painful than anything if she couldn’t get over the kiss, but it brightened up her day every time they would talk about the simplest things.

If Josie was honest with herself she knew that she was developing a crush on Hope Mikaelson.

Chapter Text

        It’s been 6 weeks. 6 solid weeks and Josie still can’t get the kiss out of her head. Thankfully she hasn’t made that known to anyone because unfortunately for her: things between Landon and Hope seemed to be blossoming beautifully. At least that’s what Landon has been singing every time he gets the chance. She wants to be happy for the boy, but his joy is eating at her emotional state. She finally admitted to herself that she has a small crush on Hope. If she really thought about it, who wouldn’t? But she had to squash these feelings no matter how small they might have been because the likely hood of her and Hope being more than friends was slim to none.

        Each week has been easier as it progressed. The only thing that was difficult was when the auburnette would invite Josie over to work on Calculus together. They would end up sitting side by side at the shorter girl’s desk. How Josie was able to focus and actually do her work stumps her. There arms would brush each other sometimes and all Josie could pay attention to was the soft and silky feeling of Hope’s skin. The scent of coconut and vanilla that came off the other girl. It was different from what she smelled like at school, almost as though coconut and vanilla was just her natural aroma. The next thing that she noticed was her hair. It slightly covered Hope’s face as she looked down at the question was working on. Its color was mesmerizing with hints of red with in the brown. It looks so soft and moved so freely. Every now and then Hope would lift her hand and gently push the strands behind her ear. Before she could get caught for staring, Josie would quickly shift her focus back on the page in front of her.

        If they weren’t at Hope’s desk it was because they went to get a snack and ended up talking rather than staying focused the task at hand. They would go downstairs and rummage for any snacks that were there. Once they found something that satisfied them, they headed back upstairs and sat on Hope’s bed and eat. This was Josie’s favorite part about going to Hope’s. They could talk about the simplest things and never get bored. This was also the time where Josie could actually look at the shorter girl without feeling like she’s being creepy. She could see just how blue her eyes were; how her lip quivered whenever she would get upset during her rants about soccer; how when she smiled there was a dimple that would go unnoticed unless you really paid attention to her. She also felt extremely comfortable talking to Hope about things that she would usually only tell Lizzie or Mg. They would talk until it was time for Hope to walk Josie to her car.

        Spending more time with Hope was probably the worst thing she could do to get rid of her little crush, but she couldn’t help herself. She would eventually get over the auburnette, so why should she stop herself from becoming better friends with the other girl. What was starting irritate her was Landon. He would go on and on about Hope and how perfect she was. It was less about him talking about the girl she liked, but more about how he was letting their “situation” become his whole personality. It was like he was no longer Landon, only Hope Mikaelson’s Situationship. It was non-stop: at lunch, at group hangouts, whenever he had the opportunity to speak.

        They’ve been on a total of 3 dates and he was more obsessed than before. She knows this because he would tell her every single detail about them the next time he saw her. The first date was at the movie theaters. Josie thought his decision should’ve made that their last date. Watching a movie is a terrible first date. There’s not really a time where you guys could get to know each other; everyone knew that—well everyone except for Landon. She was a bit shocked when he told her that Hope agreed to a second date with him. This time he made the better choice of taking her bowling. Not the best choice, but you know a better choice. And there most recent date was the fall festival. According to Landon it was amazing, but it's been almost 3 weeks since their last date and it sounds as though Hope might be dodging Landon. However, Landon seems to be oblivious about this.

        Penelope and Josie are out for ice cream—a typical post-game tradition they and Maya have since freshman year—unusually without Maya who had to go start her history essay that is due that night, when Josie decided that it’s the perfect time to bring up what she saw at Jed’s party. She would’ve mentioned it earlier but every time they were hanging out there was another person with them, and the last thing Josie wanted to do was make Penelope uncomfortable. There conversation comfortably dies down as they both take a bit of their ice cream.

“So… I’ve been meaning to ask you something.” Josie says that causes Penelope to raise an eyebrow. The taller girl was playing with her ice cream trying to appear innocent.

“Yes..”

“At Jed’s party, I saw you… with a girl.”

“Oh.”

“I’m not bringing this up for you to explain to me what happened, I just wanted to let you know that I’m here if you ever want to talk.”

        They sat in silence for a while and Josie took that as Penelope telling her she didn’t want to talk about it. She was perfectly okay with not talking, she just needed Penelope to know that if she was questioning things that Josie was here for her.
        With the silence between them, Josie was about to change the subject so Penelope wouldn’t feel any pressure or obligated to do anything when the other girl speaks up.

“I don’t really remember how I got there. Well, no that’s a lie. She was standing next to the cooler searching for a drink and I just felt the need to go talk to her. Anyways when we started talking she was flirting with me. I mean how could she not, I’m hot.” Josie rolls her eyes at the other girls ego.

“I didn’t tell her ‘Oh I’m not into girls’ or anything that indicated that I wasn’t interested and then one thing led to another and all of a sudden we were making out. I think it would’ve gotten farther if we didn’t get interrupted because when someone came in and I started panicking then bolted.” Penelope admits. Josie feels a little guilty because she was the one that interrupted them.

“Have you seen her since Jed’s?” Josie asks.

“No. All I know is that she goes to Academy and is friends with Finch.”

“Hmm. So what do you think this means for you?”

“I don’t know. It was very confusing. But hey, if I do like girls then you might have shot at all of this” Penelope winks. Josie slightly pushes the raven haired girl to fake annoyance and they laugh. Little did Pen know that Josie used to have a crush on her their junior year.

“Well if you ever need to talk to someone; ask a few questions; or just need a listening ear I’ll always be here.”

“Thank you, but if you want to get in my pants you could just ask. You don’t have to play the long game of waiting for me to get emotionally attached.” Penelope joked but Josie could see that she was really thankful that Josie would be there for her.

“Whatever.” Josie playfully rolls her eyes. They go back to eating their ice cream and talking about nothing of significance until it was time for them to leave.

        The rest of the week passes and Josie is in the middle of finishing an essay Saturday evening when she receives a call from Penelope. She picks up.

“Hey wha— ”

“You will not believe what just happened. I just ran into her.”

“Into who?”

“THE GIRL FROM JEDS PARTY JOSIE. KEEP UP.”

“Oh my god. Now I’m with you. There’s no need to scream.”

“I disagree but this is not the time where I explain to you that I’m right. So anyways, her name is Dior—fitting, really— and she was telling me how she had a really good time at Jed’s party. Then she told me that she was having a party for halloween and suggested I come.”

“Halloween is next weekend…”

“I KNOW. You have to come. Bring your whole friend group actually. I can’t go to this party alone.”

“Woah wait she didn’t invite us she invited you. You know how Academy kids are with their parties.”

“Oh my god Josie, clearly she said I can bring whoever I want with me. I’m not a dumbass.”

“Um okay, again no need to attack me.”

“This is urgent and you’re not going at the speed I need you to.”

“Fine. Do you think something is going to happen between you two at the party?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you want something to happen between you two?”

“Well I wouldn’t be going if I didn’t.”

“You would go for the free alc.” Josie deadpans.

“True, but I would only bring Maya if this was the case. More people means less booze to go around.”

“Okay. Well do you need to have a plan?”

“A plan?”

“Yeah like a strategy to get you guys alone or to leave if things aren’t looking too appealing to you. Lizzie sometimes creates one.”

“No… but thank you for supplying me with more ammo against Lizzie.”

“Oh my god Pen.”

“Okay, I have to go now. I’m at dinner with my parents.”

        Penelope hangs up before Josie could say bye. Josie just shakes her head and goes back to her homework smiling to herself.

        On Monday Josie tells her lunch table about the party. Everyone looks hesitant at first because of Lizzie’s situation with Sebastian, but once the blonde twin revealed that she wanted to go their moods seemed to change. Before mentioning it to the table, Josie asked Lizzie that Saturday night if she would be comfortable going. Lizzie seemed excited when Josie brought it up and said that she was kind of scared that they wouldn’t have any exciting Halloweekend parties to go to this year. At first Josie was concerned, but Lizzie seemed to actually been doing well since the whole debacle at Jed’s party. She’s been happier recently. Josie has also noticed that the blonde has also been hanging out with Mg more often than not.

“Do you know if Hope’s going?” Landon asks. No one else really pays attention to what he says because they’re to caught up talking about their costumes so Josie is really the only one who hears him.

“I don’t know Landon. Shouldn’t you ask her?”

“I mean I would but she’s been really busy recently and I don’t want to come off too clingy you know.” Landon actually looks a bit worried, Josie starts to feel bad for the curly haired boy.

“I can ask her the next time I see her.”

“Thanks Jos, you’re amazing.”

“I know.” Josie jokes.

        Luckily for Landon, Josie and Hope had plans to study for the Calc quiz they were going to have on Friday. This time Hope actually goes over to Josie’s house because of the construction that was going on at Hope’s. Her parents were having their pool and the room right next to Hope’s renovated. Instead of starting on their work right of way, Hope admires Josie’s room once she walks in. She looks at all the pictures Josie has hanging up, her medals from club volleyball, and goes through her vinyl collection.

“I see you’re a boygenius fan.”

“I am. Have you heard of them?”

“A bit, but their not really my style. I’m more of a beabadoobee fan. But some of their songs are good.” Hope continues as she walks past the music and gets close to where Josie was sitting on her bed when something catches her eye.

“OH MY GOD”

“What??”

“IS THAT A BABY JOSIE!! YOU WERE SO CUTE!”

“Oh my god. no. You were not supposed to see that. I thought I took out all my embarrassing pictures from anywhere you could see or reach.”

“Um, excuse me. First of all, you were so cute as a baby. And second of all, I’m not that short. I can reach everything in this room if I really wanted to.”

“Mhmm.”

        Hope gasps at the small attack on her height. She believed she was perfectly capable of reaching everything in the taller girl’s room despite her height. When Josie goes back to the bed, Hope sneaks a picture of the baby photo before she puts the frame back where she found it.

“Moving past your rude comment about my perfectly normal height—because I’m mature and the bigger person here—have you decided what you are going to be for halloween?” Hope changes the subject. Josie stares at the girl with a look that screams “sure you are,” and then answers the question.

“Um, not yet. I always end up figuring out my costumes like the last second and some how they come out pretty good. Why do you ask?”

“Well Pen was telling me how your groups was going to the Academy party as well and I was hoping I could get some inspiration.”

“Oh. So you’ll be going?”

“Yeah, but I think I’m going to be late. I was going to stop by Alyssa’s and then head over there. I haven’t totally decided my night yet.”

“Oh so she’s a party hopper.” Josie teases.

“Okay how about we don’t get ahead of ourselves. Maybe we should study now.”

“Okay, okay. But I was just stating the obvious party girl.”

        Hope slightly shoves Josie and giggles. It was the cutest thing that Josie has ever heard. She wants to say another joke just so she could hear it again but her minds runs blank from how close she is to Hope. They’re shoulder to shoulder and all of Josie senses were completely tuned into the other girl. She really thought she had made progress with killing this crush on Hope but she was wrong. She was back to staring at the other girl, absolutely mesmerized by her presence. She shakes herself out of the trance that she fell under before Hope could realize and made herself comfortable.

        They carry out the evening like they usually do whenever Josie goes over to Hope’s house except Hope seems to stay a little longer than Josie would tend to. It was pushing 9:00 P.M. when Hope asks Josie a question that catches her off guard.

“How did you know you were gay?”

“Oh… uh”

“I’m sorry. You don’t have answer, that was so rude of me?”

“No, no it’s fine. You just caught me off guard. I guess I kind of always knew. It just was more of me coming to terms with it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well… I remember in kindergarten there was this girl I had a crush on. Her name was Savannah and I was obsessed with her. I would write her love letters and always try to impress her, and she was so nice to me and sweet. And over the years it was less of me realizing I had a crush on a girl and more of me just thinking I really wanted to be her friend. I think it wasn’t until 6th grade when I really understood that I liked girls too. I watched Jennifer’s Body with Lizzie one night, and Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried just flipped a switch for me.”

“So it wasn’t like this big moment?”

“Not for me, no. But there are a lot of people who don’t find out until some life altering moment. Everyone’s story is different. Why do you ask?”

“I was just curious.”

“…Okay.”

        Josie had the sneaking suspicion that there was something deeper behind that question but she didn’t push any further. She doesn’t think she could handle where the conversation went to if they went down that rabbit hole.
Hope doesn’t end up leaving until 11 P.M. and before she does so she makes plans with Josie to study at her house next week.

        Once Hope was gone, all Josie could do was think about what Hope had asked her. She didn’t want to over analyze things because she’s been asked that question before, but it felt different when Hope asked her. I mean they are close enough to Josie that Hope would feel comfortable enough to ask Josie anything, but it felt like there was more to the question. Josie went to bed with the thought of the question running around in her mind along with the over whelming feeling of that kiss. Their kiss.

        The day of the Academy party, Josie’s and Penelope’s group decided that they would meet up at Jade’s to pregame because Jade’s parents were at a party of their own and her house was walking distance from their intended destination.
Josie somehow managed to create a cute version of the murderous Patrick Bateman the same day. Lizzie dressed up as Regina George, as expected; MG was Spiderman because he was a child at heart; Penelope and Maya decided to be spies; Raf and Caleb went as the Men in Black; Jade was a vampire; and Landon decided to go as Luke Skywalker. Cleo and Hope decided to go to Alyssa’s to help her set up for her party.

“So is she coming?” Landon snuck up behind Josie as she was pouring herself a shot.

“Yes she is.” She responds. She figures he’s trying not to get the attention of the rest of the group from his hushed tone, so her voice reflects his.

“Landon, I just don’t see why you were not able to ask her yourself.” She continues in her lowered voice.

“I just can’t. I need to maintain a certain level of mysterious. I don’t want to run her off. I can’t really read her, so I’m trying to play it safe. I really appreciate you being my eyes and ears with her. I just really like her you know.” He confesses.

        Josie feels a pit in her stomach as she listens to him. She feels so guilty. Guilty for crushing on the same girl as her best friend. I mean he has a better shot than she does because Hope is straight, but something in her gut was telling her that she was wronging him. She just smiled and nodded at him before she threw the shot back. Maybe the burning sensation will distract from the feeling that evades her.

        After about an hour of pregaming, they start to make their way to the academy party. There was a very limited amount of kids rom their school that was going to this party so they were all kind of dreading their arrival. Mainly because of the way the stuck up Academy kids get when they come around, and more importantly because there were going people (Sebastian) that no one wanted to see since the last party.

        The whole walk to Dior’s house Josie had a feeling in her stomach about tonight. Something about this night, this party, seemed as though it might completely change her life. Although she knew she actually could not predict what would happen at this high school party, there was something whispering in her ear that something was going to occur. No matter how hard she tried, she wasn’t able to shake the feeling at all.