Kelsey 🍋

what about a red and black room isn’t relaxing??????

a dolphin is painting a picture and says i am artiste on the bottom ALT: a dolphin is painting a picture and says i am artiste on the bottom

thank you! I had fun giving him a dried blood face tattoo

Really getting mileage with her childish trait

I mean, in a way yes, but also he’s tragically still alive

Claudia can’t let a man like him ruin her. She won’t let him.

She nudges the feelings of shame and isolation to the back of her mind. Now’s not the time to fall apart. This is her time to shine, and she’ll be damned if she doesn’t show Britechester she’s the brightest mind this town’s ever seen.

Getting ready for the day is difficult when you can barely look at yourself in the mirror.

There are spans of days, weeks where she doesn’t think about her father. Why today of all days did she have to be reminded of everything that happened?

No. She’s not waking Marina up at 4 AM on their first day of classes. That would be selfish. Weak.

She needed to get up soon to get ready for the first day of her job at the campus coffee shop anyway. She’ll give herself some time to get her bearings.

Claudia: Get your shit together, Esposito. You’re not that scared little girl anymore. You’re too big to be crying over nightmares.

The upside to sharing a room with Marina had been having someone there when some nights were harder than others. She’s right across the hall and yet…

This is her new life, the one they all worked so hard for. She hasn’t seen 𝘩𝘪𝘮 since that day and he’s still managed to ruin nearly everything good she has.

Claudia: Damn it. 𝘋𝘢𝘮𝘯 𝘪𝘵.

The anger flushing her face makes the tears trickling down feel hotter. This shouldn’t still be happening. She thought she had moved on.

Claudia wakes up gasping for air, trying to steady herself as she takes in her surroundings. It’s not the barn house attic, but as she comes to, she remembers she moved. She’s okay. She’s not at the penthouse, and she hasn’t been for nearly ten years.

If only her brain would get with the program.

Claudia: 𝘗𝘢𝘱𝘪! 𝙋𝘼𝙋𝙄!

She barely remembers what happened after that moment, other than her throat going raw from screaming so loudly. Honestly, she doesn’t want to. She wants to forget all of it. The fear, the helplessness- 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘪𝘵.

Claudia: 𝘗𝘢𝘱𝘪! Papi, please! Don’t let them take you! 𝘗𝘢𝘱𝘪?!

She might as well have not even been there.

His avoidance of the twins their entire lives always made it pretty clear he wished they hadn’t.

There’s one thing she wishes she could remember.

The look on his face.

Regret? Shame? Hell, cruel amusement even. 𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨.

No. Her father always acted like he gave her the world, but he couldn’t even give her 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙜𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚.

The rest of the world disappears. The only three souls left are Claudia, her father, and the officer dragging him away. She stumbles, gritting her teeth at the sting of her scraped up knees. She swears sometimes she can feel it to this day, even though those wounds healed years ago.

Claudia didn’t know why she ran toward him. Deep down, she knew she couldn’t do anything to stop what was happening… but she couldn’t just do nothing.

Trent and the officer tried to call her back, but it was drowned out by the sheer force of her world crashing down around her.

Juan was hardly around, but he always came back. The gash between his eyes, the dried blood, the contrite posture made it clear even he knew he wasn’t smooth-talking his way out of this one.

He was leaving forever this time, and everything they ever knew was going with him.

An officer walked out of the penthouse, rattling off what Claudia now knows as the Simiranda rights, bringing with him the cause of all of this. Her father.

For most of her life, he was perfect, infallible, untouchable.

The facade was fully shattered.

Claudia: No no no this isn’t real-

Marina: I-I don’t understand-

Trent: Both of you, 𝙗𝙚 𝙦𝙪𝙞𝙚𝙩.

Trent never snaps at them like that. Hindsight is 50/50, she knows now he was barely holding on by a thread, but in the moment, it was a twist of the knife, their one safe adult telling them to shut up.

Marina: Trent, make these people leave! They're taking all our stuff!

Trent: Let me talk to them, sweetheart, everything will be okay.

Claudia wasn’t sure her brother was intentionally lying, but he didn’t really sound as confident as usual.

Trent: What do you mean you’re repossessing 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨? Where are we supposed to 𝘨𝘰?

Officer: Anywhere but here. Look, kid, I really am sorry, but this and any other properties belonging to Juan Esposito are-

It was hard to understand, but Claudia got the gist.

Their home wasn’t theirs anymore.

The day everything was taken from them.

Before the Esposito siblings registered those helicopters were a little too close to the penthouse, it all just... happened. Shouting and crashing and scattered evidence. There was a lot she didn't witness but one moment is forever carved into her psyche.

She wishes she could erase that day from her memory, prays for her subconscious to let it go. After months of peaceful nights, she thought maybe it finally happened.

The most deeply buried things can still manage to find a way to be unearthed.

Maybe it’s the nectar. Maybe it’s the nerves.

Either way, after a somewhat restless slumber, something happens that Claudia thought she had finally been able to bury and leave in the past.

Noodle wants to have Girl Dinner too but Gemma’s not having it.

Gemma: No kitties on the table, down.

Marina: Aww, let him stay!

Jade: Don’t listen to her, Noodle! Fight the patriarchy!

Gemma: If anything, this is a matriarchy!

Looks like she’s outvoted. Noodle’s reign of terror continues.

Fond exasperation at Claudia and Marina’s bickering is the only thing Jade senses from her sister, which is a pleasant surprise.

Jade: You seem zen tonight.

Gemma: Yeah, I had my therapy session with Rhys today, he told me the first day is pretty much just going over the syllabus. I’ll be fine.

Claudia: You’re lucky Gemma and I are even sharing the same table as you Britechester Buffoons.

Marina: Better a Britechester Buffoon than a Foxbury F-Word!

Claudia: We’re adults, Rina, you can say fucker.

Marina: No, I was thinking of farts.

Gemma: Four years of this.

I probably should have added 'resisting arrest' to Juan's CVS receipt-length list of crimes

yes??????