─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

For as long as she can remember, Jet has shared a bed with her little sister. It had never been discussed or contested. From the moment Lenore was old enough to be out of her crib, she slept next to her big sister.

Nobody batted an eye, really, because despite the age gap of four years, the sisters moved almost like twins. They used to do everything together, went to the same schools, got the same teachers.

They could even be mistaken for twins, with their matching dark hair and round, girlish faces. The only noticeable difference is Leni's blue eyes in comparison to Jet's dark brown ones.

However, even as they grew up, even as the differences between them grew more pronounced and Jet began to fry her hair with bleach (at first it had been a dare, but then she had grown to like how it looked) which further distinguished their appearance from each other, they continued to share a bed.

It's one of those things that just is.

Like the way Jet can pinpoint someone's exact mood and temperament, or the way Leni always knows if it's going to rain.

The practice was partly for practical reasons. It helped with their sleep talking—somehow, whenever one of them starts talking in their sleep, the other wakes up and puts a stop to whatever words are being mumbled in that hazy, subconscious state.

—Stopping the sleep talker is important, for whatever they utter in their dreams, in this state of in-between, might be made manifest in the real world. The girls had almost a sixth sense for each other in these moments.

Admittedly, this made sleepovers awkward; Jet's peers didn't always want to hang out with a younger girl, and without Leni to put a stop to the sleep talking, it's difficult to explain why sometimes the group having the sleepover would wake up covered in chicken feathers (Jet had a phase of dreaming about flying, specifically flying with wings, and her childlike magic manifested that into different sorts of feathers.)

Jet took matters into her own hands; she simply stopped going to sleepovers where Leni isn't welcome.

Their sleeping habits only strengthened during the death of their parents, an unfortunate car crash that left them orphaned. Sent off to live with their eccentric aunts in a small town in Massachusetts where everything is new and baffling, the girls found solace with each other.

Unfortunately, their small haven only lasted so long. At eighteen, Jet got accepted into a university in the city, with a scholarship offer that was too good to pass up. And so she packed her bags, armed with a citrine crystal and a sleeping concoction of chamomile and a secret ingredient Leni refused to name in order to make sure Jet sleeps deeply.

Without sleep talking.

It was difficult, being so far from each other, but Jet was diligent, always, always telling Leni where she is, so that in case something happens to her, there would be a trail to track. Leni, for her part, lit Jet's favorite candle every night, the one that smells of cinnamon and amber, and mutters a few words of safety for her older sister.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

The year is 20─ and Jet has finally learned how to use Uber. And by that, it means she's found a way around the protection curse. In the past, she had tried to book a ride, but her location just would not show up on her phone, as it had always done for basically her entire life.

Until recently. The idea had come from a colleague at the law firm she works in, who had been (rightfully so) paranoid about putting her address out into an application. Instead, she would pin a location at least two streets away, and when the driver is nearing that street, she'd walk the short distance to meet her ride there.

Jet is a little annoyed she herself hadn't thought of that sooner.

But she did learn it at a perfect time, because on the 18th of August, she had driven to this penthouse party with Lucas, but she was going to be leaving without him.

Because, you see, decent people will stop flirting once they find a partner. Especially when they declare exclusivity.

Jet had thought she and Lucas were exclusive.

That is, until his wife had cornered her at this penthouse party, screaming bloody murder.

Jet had been too stunned to even defend herself, even though she's been working around enough lawyers to know exactly what to say during a confrontation like this. But the complete betrayal of the situation had rendered her completely speechless. He made her the other woman, the rat bastard.

She couldn't explain that she didn't know because the wife had grabbed the bowl of cheese dip and hurled it straight at Jet. It spilled everywhere, even got in her left eye which promptly watered and gave off the impression that she's crying. As if she would ever cry for a man. The last time she did was for her father, several months after the funeral. But it looked like she was crying on that night, the 18th of August, cheddar flavored tears burning down her face in ugly streaks.

What a humiliating affair.

Jet had run down the stairs as fast as she could, and Lucas, the treacherous rat, had run after her. Go back to your wife, she had wanted to scream at him, don't chase after me, I'm not taking you back. And for her sake, I hope she doesn't either.

It only took her hiding in the fire escape to lose him. (Or perhaps he gave up quickly; Jet isn't sure if that's the work of her curse, or Lucas' own pitiful attempts.)

With trembling hands, she had managed to book a ride. The Uber driver had been sympathetic, but he also eyed her cheese stained blouse warily.

"Just don't get it all over my seats, all right, miss?" the man had said with a chuckle, as though the whole thing was a joke. Jet certainly feels like it is. The universe playing a long, cruel joke on her for six goddamned months.

Okay, so maybe her favorite candle had refused to light whenever she invited Lucas to her apartment, and she had always dreamed of him with another woman. But he'd said she was just paranoid, and Jet had to admit she had a tendency to be paranoid. And that she liked that he knew she was paranoid.

She liked that he knew her, from the specific shade of blonde dye she used to the sizes of her shoes (it was a women's six in open sandals, but a 7 in closed shoes and boots.) And so she had ignored the signs, and continued to date him, liking the fact that finally, a man had taken enough time to get to know her.

In the meantime, she didn't know him.

She isn't sad about the revelation; sadness would have ached in her stomach, made her chest feel hollow. But that night, Jet had felt as though she would burst. She was angry. So angry that the car's speed would not go below 20 mph, despite whatever attempts the Uber driver made to slow down.

No, she didn't want to slow down. She wanted to get home as fast as she could, open up whatever book of curses she could get her hands on, and begin one for Lucas, the fucking rat's asshole.

When they had arrived at her building, she had thrown a crisp bill at the driver, apologizing for her rudeness and telling him to keep the change, then rushed all the way up to her apartment on the third floor. Jet had every intention of cursing Lucas at that moment, but when she reached her bed, the emotional exhaustion of the night finally took a toll.

Instead of finding the spell book, she had stripped off her cheesy clothes, murmured a spell to make sure the dip and color didn't stain, and crawled under the covers, missing Leni. Leni would have stayed up and cursed Lucas for her. Something silly and inconvenient, like Lucas never finding his matching socks. He had a perfectionist streak, and liked things to be orderly, and mismatched socks would have made his everyday life miserable.

But she was so tired. that she promptly fell asleep even without drinking the tea to keep herself from the habit of sleep talking. She wonders if she'd see her sister in dreamland.

Instead her dreams are filled with mismatched socks and a pair of scruffy converse.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Notes:

Once again thanking Mya for this idea because I'm having so much fun writing this! Poor Jet, fuck Lucas we say in unison.

Oh, and this is set after season 15, so no real cases, but it will make references to certain plotlines so be careful with the spoilers if you haven't made it that far! Spencer-centric chapter up next.

Anyway, please leave a comment, I love reading them and interacting with you guys! Thank you for reading <3 bisous.