Study Lounge

@Fukutomi Tsuki Unable to help the scoff of a laugh that escaped her, Jessica took both hands from her pockets in case she'd need them. "An understatement," she responded, gaze briefly flitting around the area for inventory of their surroundings.
It was times like this—somehow always involving Romie—that Jess wished her family had never moved to this cruddy little town. The good far outweighed the bad, yes, but that didn't make the bad any less vexing. All because some girl made it her mission to hate her. Every waking moment of her own life had to be dedicated to the other now when all she wanted to do in this moment was go home and take a long, hot shower. Maybe she didn't want Romie found. Maybe she wanted the case to run cold again, so she could finally move on with her life. She sighed, raking a miffed hand through her tresses while wracking her brain for two-year-old final words. "I don't know, I..." she paused, regathering the night's events from her end. "I confronted Romie—about her deal, her problem with me. Trying to be the bigger person and all that, which obviously didn't go well because she was—she is—a . She probably told me 'go to hell.' That's her favorite." She sighed out the next bit, ultimately finding her memory useless: "But don't know for sure. I never cared enough for anything she's said to me to stick for longer than a few minutes, really."

@Jessica Alexander She hadn't noticed the knife until Jess loosened her grip on it and Tsuki chuckled slightly, shaking her head. "You know that a knife won't actually do all that much to a lot of people? A lot of people are too strong so you should keep it hidden until you're using it. Rely on surprising them, it'll be easier." Tsuki offered the advice before frowning at herself. "That was weird, wasn't it? Sorry..." she mumbled and shook her head before taking a few more notes in the book.
Upon hearing Jess ask why it mattered, Tsuki rolled her eyes and exhaled looking up at her. "Because the police are useless and won't listen to anything anyone is saying, so if I want to avoid-" she cut herself off and shook her head. "If she's going to be found I need to do it myself." she stated, shaking her head. "Do you remember the last thing she said to you? She said some weird stuff to a lot of people and I'm trying to gather it all to see it there's any hints in it." Tsuki explained changing the page of her notebook to another one and waiting for some kind of response.

@Fukutomi Tsuki The sudden note taking made her falter, brows drawing together in a moment's confusion before she decided she wasn't in any immediate danger and took a half step back and let up on her grip of the knife. In the other pocket, she print unlocked her phone and used the dial tone playing in her single earbud to gauge which speed dial she was engaging. Even if this all went without a hitch, she'd need someone to take her home for her own sanity. And if things went south, well, there'd be an auditory witness. Victor, who had no life—proudly and by choice, of course—was the most reliable. "That's an understatement," she responded plainly, taking a moment to size the other up curiously. Though, it was more one-sided than anything—Romie's unrelenting hatred of Jessica with the latter only ever playing defense. She opened to continue but ended up rolling her eyes at the younger's choice of what to focus on. "Well, that hardly matters, does it?" she asked rhetorically before shaking her head. "It would take me ages to relay all the terrible things your /friend/ has said to me," she finally answered, emphasizing the relationship to placate the previous discourse. "And that's time I don't have. Why does it matter, anyway?"

@Jessica Alexander Tsuki kept her eyes on the other girl, not letting her eyes leave the blonde. Then as the girl moved closer, Tsuki took half a step back reflexively, her hands grabbing a notebook and pen from her hoodie pockets. ‘She can see me. I think she’s real.’ she wrote in messy scrawled handwriting before looking back up at Jess. “You both didn’t really like each other, right?” she asked, ignoring the words that Jess had said. “What kind of things did she actually say to you?” she questioned, blinking her eyes a few times before suddenly a frown spread across her face. “Wait, she wasn’t my girlfriend. She was dating lots of people but we weren’t dating.” she chewed the end of her pen as she thought.

@Fukutomi Tsuki Jess squinted, trying to get a look before the other stepped out into view. She lightly clicked her tongue, weight shifting from one foot to the other while her hand never left her pocket. Suspicions confirmed. Ts...Tsuki? Yeah, the best friend. "Bloody hell, as if I don't have enough heat with Detective Brickhead following me around," she uttered under her breath before her tongue darted out to wet her lips and she leveled her gaze back on Tsuki from where it'd briefly trailed in irritation. One would think the stalking would stop with the ring leader gone, not increase. But here she was: cops, crones, and more constantly tailing her in some twisted, unbeknown tag team. "Look," she started, tone stern and tightening her grip on her melee weapon in case she needed to engage. She was quick and confident in her strides, covering the distance between them until she was a little less than an arm's reach away despite the part of her that wished someone else was with her. "I don't know all about what happened to your little girlfriend, so Back. Off."

@Jessica Alexander She’d been keeping an eye on the slightly older girl for most of the day, and this wasn’t the first day she’d done it either. Every time so far had had no results, but she was to determined to try and find anything that made sense, and too stubborn to give up in trying to find out what had happened to Romie. She remembered the amount of times Romie had complained about Jess, and so Jess was her main target for now.
When the girl had stopped to look at her phone, Tsuki was intrigued, creeping slightly closer but staying close to the wall of the alleyway, hoping to stay hidden away, though as the girl turned to look her direction, a flash of panic ran through her and she began to hold her breath. After Jess called out, she waited a few moments, trying to decide what to do before finally releasing her breath and taking a few steps closer to the girl, stopping a few metres away from her but still not saying anything and instead just watching her, trying to gauge a reaction.

@Fukutomi Tsuki A soft groan escaped Jessica's lips as she rolled her neck, relishing in the satisfying sound of loosening kinks as she stepped out of the study lounge—affectionately deemed the "slounge" by her and few a friends. She makes it a ways down the street before stopping to look at a message after the bright chiming of her notification fills the still evening air. It's a dark spot, just out of the reach of the towering street light situated next to the slounge, but she's hardly concerned until the hairs on the back of her neck prick and she turns to scan the surrounding area for the potential culprit. A very hazy, barely-there blue gives away their location almost immediately despite their body actually being lost to the shadows. Plush lips set into a line, Jess sticks a hand in her pocket to grip the folding knife she always keeps. "I know you're there, just come out already," she calls into the distance.