GRACE ;; - [aly]

[kennedy paige york]

Kennedy felt stupid sitting in the Happy Lotus with her head covered by a large floppy hat she had bought off a stand in the market. It was black with a yellow ribbon, like her jacket (minus the ribbon, of course) and she'd pulled her hood up over so that it pulled down some instead of sticking straight out like a saucer as it had done her entire walk here. Yes, stupid was the appropriate word. The sunglasses didn't help either. They were large, the kind girls in movies wore when they were riding down a landmark highway in a convertible going a million miles per hour like it was actually legal. Kennedy hated them, as she did all big bug-eyed glasses but they were a loan from the person she was staying with (and she would point out later to him that he was completely a lady and shouldn't even own such a pair of sunglasses).

It wasn't really the sitting that made her feel like a fool. It was more the waiting that did the trick. She'd arrived earlier than she had planned, earlier than she had told Alyson she would be there and had to tell the lady who kept coming up to her table that she didn't want to order yet and she was waiting for a friend. The continued look of distrust on the old woman's face almost made the girl laugh. How many times in the past had she done exactly this and been less than serious about it? Luckily for the woman, who she could only assume was the new owner or at least a new employee (Ken had never seen her there before), she had intentions of doing more than sitting under the pretty paper lanterns and cracking open fortune cookies only to leave a few quarters to pay for them. It wasn't her fault that as a teenager her friends couldn't decide on a place to eat. She always held out for the Chinese though, always.

Looking like a fugitive out of a bad movie and feeling like the less great version of Jim Carey in the Dumb and Dumber sequel, she found herself doing just that. Un-packaging and cracking fortune cookies in half. She picked at a few of the fried cookies and sorted the fortune into three different piles. The first were good fortunes, the kind anyone would want to see in their cookie. The second was weird fortunes, things about crooked tongues and bird omens or something. The third was less than satisfactory fortunes, the kind nobody really wanted because at least you could laugh at the weird ones. And then, out of pure boredom, she took to sorting the three piles into numerical order by the first lucky number on the back of each one. It didn't take her long to do this. She wished it had though, and she didn't particularly feel like adding to her pile of uneaten, possibly stale, fortune cookies.

Maybe being so friendly with Alyson so quickly was a bad idea. She had no idea what the girl had been up to prior to today, aside from getting married to Finn Heaton, and for all she knew the other girl could still be mad at her for leaving the way she did. What a perfect opportunity to leave someone sitting alone in a restaurant looking like a complete idiot. The perfect way to stand someone up. Nice. She knew she shouldn't have assumed so quickly that Alyson would be keen on seeing her, even if her intentions were friendly. This didn't stop her from sending a hopeful glance toward the door.

"Prove me wrong, Aly."

[/color]

________________________________

[/b][/color] - 600
TAG[/color] - Alyson Kent
LISTENING TO[/color] - Nothing.
NOTES[/color] - Sorry for the suck.[/ul]
[/blockquote][/blockquote][/justify][/size]

[alyson sophia kent]

It would have been a lie to say Alyson hadn’t considered it; just not showing up to their lunch. To leave Kennedy sitting there, looking like the biggest fool in her identity concealing clothes. That kind of thing was okay when you had someone there with you, so you could both laugh at your combined silliness. However leaving someone like that alone? It was rather mean. And perhaps the perfect pay back for the fact Kennedy had just bloody left her hanging all those years ago. She’d needed her best friend. Big things had been happening. Her family broke apart.. She was still dealing with it all and Kennedy had just up and disappeared from the blonde’s life.

Part of her, the part that was petty and selfish, was having a hard time letting Kennedy back in; accepting her with open arms. The blonde was still holding into a lot of feelings in relation to the whole situation. She wasn’t always the best at letting go, especially when she had no closure or the person had offered no apology or even goodbye. This was that chance though. Lunch with Kennedy was a chance to really talk about it all. And if they couldn’t work it out, well at least they could have some sort of closure. She wasn’t going to lie though, She wanted them to be able to sort it out. Despite everything, Kennedy still meant a lot to her.

It should have been common knowledge for Kennedy that her blonde counter-part was not only incapable of being early, but she was more than likely going to be late. The girl, or well woman now, had always had issues with punctuality. She could not for the life of her stick to a time. On this particular day, she was blaming Finn; Big Hand Finn and his... well you get the picture. Let’s just say the saying was true. Anyway, they had been enjoying a rather lovely mid morning romp, instead of Alyson getting ready. She needed to release the tension though. Meeting Kennedy was, after all, rather stressful.

She had then had to rush around, trying to find her clothes and underwear- how had it gotten to the top of the floor lamp, she’d never know. Plus after dressing she’d decided to shower again.. And Finn decided he needed to join her, to save water of course, which took them a little longer to wash themselves then usual, clearly. Once she had finally gotten out of the house, it didn’t take her too long though. Considering she lived on high-street. Though, she did at one point get side-tracked with some pretty shoes in the window of a store. You couldn’t blame her for that though right?

At last though, she flounced into the Happy Lotus. Blonde hair covered with an over-sized floppy hat. Blue eyes scanning quickly for the incognito Kennedy. It wasn’t hard to find her. Perhaps she should mention the disguise wasn’t very convincing? Moving over to the table, Alyson sat herself down. “Darlene, you look a treat..” she drawled in a fake southern accent. Was that even Kennedy’s alias? Pfft, it was now.

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[kennedy paige york]

While Kennedy was unaware about just how Alyson felt about meeting her today, she would have found the truth quite unfair. She couldn’t deny that Alyson was going through a lot. Her family was falling apart and she had found out she had a brother who she previously thought was just the son of a family friend. But was that anything in comparison to what Kennedy had to go through? She had lost a child. A child, not to mention, that she had finally decided that she wanted. A life that she had carved for herself out of an accident, but one that she had fallen in love with, fell apart after her miscarriage. Something in her changed. Life still wasn’t easy, at least Alyson was finding her place and marrying Finn and her family was working it’s way through their problems.

It was selfish, in Kennedy’s eyes, for Alyson to think that her problems were greater than any Kennedy might have. But, what else could she expect from Alyson? The blonde had always been that way. She was at the center of attention all of the time and there was no breaking out from behind her. In some ways, Kennedy didn’t miss her at all. It was a horrible thing to even consider thinking about but Ken had lived in Alyson’s shadow for a long time. When she left it was for herself, to try and scrape some part of herself back up off the ground and piece it back together before she completely went over the edge. She grew tired of being the tag line to Alyson’s headline years ago.

Luckily for her, Alyson kept her thoughts to herself. Kennedy would have been far too quick to chew her out about being selfish when she honestly had no idea what it was like to lose something that was such a part of you. Instead, Ken’s focus was on the fact that Alyson actually showed up. This was a start, wasn’t it? Now that both girls were in the same room, Kennedy could apologize for leaving without a goodbye and staying gone for so long and Alyson could accept it. Hopefully. There was one thing, however, that Kennedy was not ready for and that was being the supporting role in Alyson Kent’s life. She was not going to step back down and buddy up to her old friend’s side again. She was her own person now, she didn’t need all of these imaginary strings to hold her up anymore.

Glancing up fro her pile o wrinkled fortunes and cookie crumbs, Kennedy allowed herself to smile as Alyson slipped into the seat across from her. Their disguises were horrible, but it was more for fun than anything else. Chances were in a few minutes she would grow tired of the sunglasses and remove them from her face, considering it was rather dark inside of the Happy Lotus. That definitely wasn’t something she had remembered. “Why Yolanda, it’s been an age!”

[/color] Her best attempt at an American accent failed and cracked after she got Alyson’s name out, the second half heavy her actual voice. Yeah, this charade probably wasn’t the best she had ever come up with and there was a good chance it would all be over soon. Oh well, what were the chances that she would run into Wesley today, especially here? She had other things to focus on today.

“Hey. What took so long? For a second there I didn’t think you were coming.”[/color]

________________________________

[/b][/color] - 586
TAG[/color] - Alyson Kent
LISTENING TO[/color] - “Loser” - 3 Doors Down[/ul][/blockquote][/blockquote][/justify][/size]

[alyson sophia kent]

Heh. Yeah. It was probably a very good thing Alyson was not voicing her opinions, and therefore hearing Kennedy’s rebuttals. Because they, now they would piss the blonde off. Alyson was not being selfish. Not in the slightest... Alright, so Alyson Kent had a history of being an incredibly self-centred girl. So it was easy to see how people may just assume that she was being now. Right, yeah, fair call- Only, she really wasn’t. How could Kennedy legitimately be upset with people for not being there for her, when she had simply not let anyone! Even before Kennedy had run off, she’d shut down.

Alyson couldn’t say she knew what it felt like; to lose a baby. She had very little experience in her life with death, so that wasn’t a surprise. She had tried though. In her own Alyson Kent way, she had tried. The blonde was good with distractions. She’d took Kennedy out crazy places. Or, well as crazy as Lampton Hill got. She’d tried to distract her with planning parties. Everything she could think of. Okay, so she never actually sat down and tried to get Kennedy to talk about her feelings about the situation, but that just wasn’t her style. It was mildly insulting to suggest she hadn’t tried though. She didn’t like being insulted, you know.

Thankfully, for both their cases, they hadn’t voiced those feelings. Yet. Maybe they wouldn’t have to? Or though, that was probably the whole point of clearing the air. The best hope was that they could discuss it all staying calm, without getting upset at each other. That may have been a little too much to ask for, considering their history. They’d been ‘frienemies’ since, well.. Always. As much as they cared about each other, there was just crucial character defining traits that kept them at odds. Still though, they came through it all mostly un-scathed.. Some times. They were older though now, that had to mean something right?

What she needed to do right now though, was play it cool. Alyson knew that. If she went into the situation all guns blazing, they’d have no chance at all of sorting anything out like adults. Which was why she had a smile on her lips, as she picked up a menu and answered Kennedy’s question. Really, she could have chosen to get offended but again, that would not get anything done. Instead, she shrugged. “Oh, you know me dear. Incapable of sticking to anyone’s schedule. Including my own. I swear, I’m going to be late to my own wedding.”

She let out a light hearted chuckle. Putting the menu down and glancing around. She was playing nice. Smiling and saying the right things. Though Alyson knew it was forced. She hadn’t realised just how strained this meeting would be until just now. It was actually really uncomfortable and she wanted nothing more than to go home, slip on her sweat-pants and watch Roman Holiday. Her favourite comfort movie, in case you were wondering. She couldn’t just get up and leave though.. Could she? Hm, the idea of her just getting up and walking out was tempting, but she knew she needed to see it through.

Instead though, she was kind of letting her discomfort get the better of her. The smile growing largely false. Brushing her hair away from her shoulder, she looked at Kennedy straight in the eye. “You know, when you left town you left a big mess behind you, right?” Her tone was pleasant and conversational, however there was an edge to it. Oh yes, Alyson. What a perfect way to start this little reunion; by letting your bitch flag fly. It was too late now though, wasn’t it? The words were out, the fake smile on her face. They were about to rumble, whether they wanted to or not. Alyson had made sure of that.

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[kennedy paige york]

Kennedy found herself taken completely by surprise at Alyson’s accusations of leaving a mess in her wake when she left for school. It wasn’t as though she didn’t expect the conversation to come but apparently Kennedy wasn’t as keen on sensing change as she thought she was. Way back when they did the do-si-do around the big issues and pretended things were fine until they ultimately exploded. She should have been thankful that this was happening now rather than later as she wouldn’t have to wait around for the bomb to explode in her face. But instead she found herself almost offended and completely nonplus.

Why was Alyson attacking her now when she had so many opportunities to do it before? It wasn’t as though Kennedy was so cruel to not pick up a phone and have a conversation if Alyson so requested it. The other girl hadn’t made too much of an attempt to contact Kennedy in the time that she was gone. Apparently gone meant gone forever and Alyson was much more suited on stitching up her wounds while Ken was gone and then letting them rip open when she returned. Kennedy felt bad enough when she left but to face this right now without so much as even a few lines of small talk aside from their greetings made her feel even worse.

Regretting her decision to return to Lampton Hill at all, the young woman sat wide eyed and slightly stumped across the table from the silver tongued blonde. Clearly the other knew what she wanted to say and as much as Kennedy felt like picking herself up out of that chair and completely removing herself from the restaurant, from the town, even from the country, she simply pulled the sunglasses from her face, folded them up and put them down on the table in front of her. "I’m not going to apologize for leaving. I killed two birds with one stone by going to school and getting away. It was never my intention to leave behind any kind of mess or upset you.”

[/color]

How dare she! What kind of mess had there been that Alyson had to clean up? Okay, so they were friends and Kennedy didn’t make any sort of last hurrah before she ditched town. Surely it was understandable why she wanted to get away! Was Alyson really going to hold all that against her and make her out to be the bad guy now? “You know, Alyson, if you don’t want me here I can always go back home. I should’ve known better than to come back here, I don’t know why I even allowed myself to be talked into this. I know the way I left wasn’t ideal for everyone but I honestly believe if I would have stayed here it would have been worse. Leaving gave me a chance to heal as much as a person can without having to be constantly reminded every single day by the people I spoke to or saw that I lost a child. I felt like less of a woman and I had to go. Do I regret cutting everyone out the way I did? Absolutely. But I’m trying to make up for that.”[/color]
[/blockquote][/blockquote][/justify][/size]

[alyson sophia kent]

Wow. They were really going to have this out, weren’t they? Not that she really had a right to complain. After all, she had been the one to start it. That was the thing with Alyson though, she expected everyone else around her to act like the adult and control themselves when she couldn’t. Kennedy had long since stopped following Alyson’s rules though, so why should it surprise her that she was breaking all the rules now? Again, that was Alyson though. Bright, innocent eyed whenever anyone strayed from how she thought it should play out. Sometimes she seemed to forget other people had their own agendas.

Scoffing, the girl shook her pretty blonde head. She could hardly believe the words falling from her once best friend’s mouth. Did she really think she was making up for it? Marching back into town- high horse in toe and just expecting everyone to just get it? The world didn’t work that way. Even Alyson knew that, and she was the queen of self-centred tantrums and expecting everyone else just to fall in line. Kennedy had told her enough times to stop being a tool, so why was she herself acting like one now? The girl was straight tripping if she thought anything she’d done up until now had made up for anything.

“You know..” She started, her tone soft, but icy. “Stalking in her and claiming you don’t owe any apologies isn’t making up for anything. It just makes you sound like a self obsessed bitch, and I’m pretty sure this town already has one of those.” She raised an eyebrow at the other girl. Eyes boring into her with such intensity it was a surprise they latterly didn’t burn holes in Kennedy’s skin. “I think you owe a lot of people an apology. Everyone who tried to help you through your pain who you just shoved aside. Wesley...” She hadn’t wanted to bring him up, but there he was. Hanging out there between them like a bad smell.

She’d seen Wesley go through a lot in the whole ordeal. She wasn’t his best friend, but they’d both really cared about Kennedy and bonded with the child. Was Kennedy so selfish that she thought she was the only one that had loved that baby? “He went through hell and back when that kid died Kennedy, and then you tore his heart out and left. You weren’t the only one who lost a child. Fuck, I was more excited about being a god-mother then you were for being a mother.” As soon as she’d said those words, Alyson had regretted them. She knew she’d gone too far.

Sure, Kennedy had taken some time to warm to the idea of having a child, but by the time the tragedy had struck, Alyson knew that her best friend had bonded with her baby. Fallen in love with it. Hanging her head in shame, Alyson bit the inside of her lip. She really wasn’t sure how she was supposed to go back now. She had pushed the boundaries of what was fair and rational, and sometimes there was really no making up for that. She didn’t need Kennedy to tell her how out of line she had just been- This was one time she could see it for herself, and believe me she really did feel ashamed.

“Look.. I..” she started, but the words really weren’t coming. Hot tears of shame were stinging her eyes. “Maybe this really was a bad idea..” She said softly. Doing her best to keep her eyes shielded under the brim of her hat. She did not want Kennedy to see her cry. For some reason, right now, it seemed like a private act that she just wasn’t comfortable sharing with the other girl. “I’m sorry I wasted your time... Maybe I should just go..” That would probably be the best anyway. She’d already completely screwed everything up..

[/size]

[kennedy paige york]

This was another reason why Kennedy wished she had just forgotten about the existence of Lampton Hill entirely. Alyson Kent’s reign over every person she ever met was exhausting. Her twisted logic and self-important agenda was so frustrating that half the time Kennedy wanted to put a hand on each side of the girls face and just pull until her shiny blonde head dislodged from her neck. It was a horrible way to think of someone, to believe that dusting out their skull would do them some good, that a reset button was the only way to fix them. But Alyson brought it upon herself. It was as though inside her head was a world where everyone bowed to her and said the words she pre-programmed into them and when one of her little robots had a malfunction she would drill into them until they were fixed.

Kennedy had enough of it a long time ago. And now, as the blonde female across from her said everything she had ever wanted to say to her for five long years, Kennedy could do no more than cross her arms over her chest and stare. It was quite childish, like two young girls fighting over the prettiest Barbie, but a Kennedy/Alyson stand off was long overdue. To be honest, Kennedy was willing to sit through it. Up until Alyson crossed the line anyway. She could have brought up anything under the sun but when she took that giant leap over the line in the sand Kennedy’s face lit up bright red and furious and she couldn’t stop herself from slamming her hand down on the table between them. Chances were if it wasn’t there she would have attempted to tear Aly’s head right off her shoulders.

“You shut your whore mouth,” Kennedy spat back, standing up, shaking in anger. “I’m supposed to apologize to you because I lost my baby and my relationship suffered because of it? I’m supposed to apologize to you because I had a hard time dealing with being pregnant in the first place? And I’m supposed to apologize to you because I left, because I couldn’t stand being here, being around him, around everything that reminded me I was a failure at what I was born to do? And I’m selfish because I didn’t let you help me? Because there is no greater medicine than the comfort Alyson Kent can give? You see nothing but yourself, you’re a hypocrite and god knows why I ever cared about you in the first place.”

Positively fuming, Kennedy couldn’t bring herself back down from her comments. What she had intended to be a low key lunch between two friends, with all serious conversation intended for a later date, had taken a turn for the worst. “No, I don’t need an apology from you.” She spoke, tone still harsh as she picked up her things and tucked them under her arm. “And don’t be bothered, since I’m so good at it I think I’ll leave.” She didn’t stay. She didn’t wait for Alyson’s rebuttal, for her to come up with something to make her sit back down, to calm herself. She just left the table and headed toward the exit.

It was times like these that Kennedy wished she had some bad habit, like smoking or drinking. That way she could release her anger differently. But, no, instead she was stuck pacing back and forth on the sidewalk outside the restaurant. She would leave, she just needed to calm down first. Otherwise everyone in her path was doomed for a similar lecture.

[/justify][/size]

[alyson sophia kent]

Alyson didn’t move, or go to stop the other girl from leaving. What was the point? She knew she’d crossed the line with her comments about the baby. It was a wound that Kennedy would probably never be able to heal, and Alyson had just picked it open, and poured salt water into it. Going after the brunette right now wasn’t going to get them anywhere at all. They were both way too worked up. Even Alyson, as much shame as she felt- she couldn’t trust herself not to mouth off at the comments Kennedy had just shot at her. Even if she did deserve a lot of it, she was still rather hurt and shocked at what Kennedy had just said to her. In all honestly, she wasn’t uses to anyone telling her off.

So instead of doing anything useful she just sat there, head hanging down. Cheeks a dark shade of red. Staring at the table the blonde took a few deep breaths. Willing herself not to cry. It really wasn’t any good though. The hot salty tears were pressing behind her lids. Stinging her eyes. She was going to cry, so what was the point in trying to stop it? She was going to be rather pleased when this whole wedding was over, and her emotions could go back to normal. For eff sake she was honestly so tired of crying at the drop of a hat. For a girl who was used to holding it all in and breezing through, of course it was going to feel odd that she was crying so much.

Once the other girl had left, Alyson got up, slipping a twenty onto the table. She wasn’t sure if Kennedy had ordered anything, but she didn’t want to just walk out without leaving just a bit of money. Besides, for that little display of immaturity. Without even looking anyone in the eye, she left the restaurant in a very similar way Kennedy had. Well... That went just smashingly. Maybe she should ask Kennedy to plan her hens night? She’d probably use it to drag Alyson through the mud. Wouldn’t that be just fantastic? Bloody fucking hell she needed a drink... Fucking Kennedy.....

Finite

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