Shotgun Fate
by @pixelAlexa and Marleny go to a frat party! They run in to some familiar people there
MEET THE CHARACTERS
Alexa Lucas
A 22-year-old with a warm, chubby curvy build and dark green eyes that miss nothing—she sees the people around her more clearly than they see themselves. Her chestnut hair is always dyed and flowing freely, and she smells like apples mixed with lake water and sun-warmed skin. When she's not working the front desk or swimming, she's got a guitar in her lap, fingers finding chords without thinking, her voice carrying stories she doesn't know how to tell out loud.
Marleny Torrijos
A calm, watchful 22-year-old with sharp brown eyes that see straight through every excuse her friends make. She has dark curly coily hair and moves through her apartment like she's always holding space for someone who needs it—because she is. Her apartment has become the group's second home, and her guest room is basically Alexa's room now, which she wouldn't change for anything. She loves strange and peculiar things, wants to habe a pet skunk, loves bats, and is on the path to become a medical examiner
Hayden Schwartz
A semi quiet but outgoing 22-year-old with calloused fingers from guitar strings and a jaw that's always carrying something unsaid. He's lean and broad-shouldered, moves slow and deliberate, and his dark eyes track Alexa across every room without him realizing he's doing it. He smells like his truck—gasoline, worn leather, and the faint cedar of his amp case—and he's the kind of patient that makes people forget he's been waiting.
Ben Feist
A dry-humored 22-year-old with a patient, tired sort of intelligence that comes from being the only responsible one in a group of disaster-prone friends. He's tall and built solid, with close-cropped blond hair and steady blue eyes that don't miss a thing—he's already calculating how to fix whatever Liam just broke.
Liam Miller
A loud, grinning 22-year-old with perpetually messy copper hair and an energy that fills every room he walks into. He's lanky and always in motion, knuckles still smudged with grease from whatever dumb project he started that morning. Every terrible idea that becomes a favorite memory starts with him saying 'okay, hear me out.'
EXPLORE CHAPTERS
Red Cup Chaos
Someone shoves a red cup into Alexa's hand and yells "SHOTGUN RACE, KITCHEN VS. LIVING ROOM" before she can protest. She's on a team with three strangers—one of them a tall guy in a white t-shirt who looks weirdly familiar—and then the beer is open, the countdown is shouted, and she's tilting the cup, throat working, liquid burning cold and fast. She finishes, gasping, and looks up to find him staring at her with beer dripping down his chin and a laugh already breaking open on his face. He says "wait, do I know you?" and she realizes she's been walking past him in the same high school hallway for four years without ever saying a word.
Bonfire Embers
Alexa sits on a fallen log, the fire warming her shins, a bottle of cheap whiskey being passed from Liam to Marleny to Ben. Hayden is beside her, close enough that his shoulder brushes hers when he leans forward to toss a stick into the flames. Liam is mid-story about the folding table incident—how Alexa's sandal got caught and launched into a punch bowl—and Marleny is watching her with that look, the one that says I see you noticing how his hand is resting on the log an inch from yours. The fire pops, sending sparks up into the dark, and Hayden turns to her, voice low enough that only she hears: 'So what else did you notice about me back then?'