Title: "Sparkle"
Author:
that_1_incidentFandom: "Scream"
Pairing: Audrey Jensen/Brooke Maddox
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: ~500
Summary: Just a little vignette based on Audrey and Brooke's interaction in 1x10, because that chemistry tho.
Disclaimer: "Scream" is a behemoth of a franchise with which I regrettably have no affiliation.
Author's Notes: This is cross-posted to
AO3 and
FF.net.
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Brooke has always reminded Audrey of a deer, with long legs and big eyes and an ever-present frenetic energy that crackles around her like the hum of an electric fence, the feeling in the air before a storm. Yeah, her whole Regina George thing is ever so slightly irritating, but Audrey mostly doesn't care. She's got her own shit to focus on, like films and Noah and Rach, but then the video gets leaked and Rach isn't around anymore, isn't there, isn't alive, and sometimes Audrey feels like it's always been this way but other times it's as if it happened ten second ago.
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So Audrey's not quite sure why she came, but here she is nursing a beer by a fire pit in the Maddoxes' unnecessarily ostentatious backyard, listening to Brooke talk about how Emma bailed on her, Jake spied on her, and the rest of her friends are dead. This sad state of affairs officially makes Audrey her favorite person at the party - so, hey, at least Audrey's got that going for her.
Honestly, Audrey was hoping the beer would take the edge off everything a little more, but the camcorder in her brain refuses to stop replaying how Emma reacted to her suspicions about Kieran. It makes sense her mind's eye would be as stubborn as the rest of her.
"I found something that looks like Emma might be sleeping with the enemy," she finds herself telling Brooke, "but she didn't want to hear it and I didn't want to see it."
"Kieran can't be the killer - he's too pretty," Brooke counters instantly. The red cup in her perfectly manicured hand seems incongruously low-class. "Although I guess Ted Bundy kinda proved that hotness doesn't cancel out crazy..."
"True." Audrey leans forward in spite of herself. She's sick of trying to handle this night by herself, of hoping the sting of Emma's words will miraculously go away if she drinks enough. "I just don't wanna see her get hurt."
"I know," Brooke says softly. "You're just looking out for her. It's what friends do - or at least what they should do."
Audrey watches Brooke gaze out at the pool and the people in it, the people who come to her parties but don't have her back.
"You know, I kind of like this whole real human thing you got going right now," Audrey admits, and maybe the beer's doing something after all because her sober brain would definitely have deployed a sarcastic retort by now.
Brooke's smile is genuine, wide, and perfectly white. "Are you flirting with me?" she asks lightly, her eyes sparkling.
"Oh, you wish," Audrey shoots back, and, hey, look at that: At least her defense mechanisms haven't failed her altogether.
She hates to admit it, but Brooke's grin is contagious. She recognizes the spark of a connection she hasn't felt since Rach died, but then Jake swaggers over with a wisecrack about hot girl-on-girl action because they're, you know, sitting next to each other, and just like that, Audrey's back to hating the entire planet and everyone on it. More or less.
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