Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The darkness of an alley covered the shared passion of a pair of star crossed thespians, breathing in tandem between kisses and smiles. Cynthia tries to pull her head back a little, but Lydia pulls her even closer, their lips brushing against each other as they speak.

“We’ve got to stop meeting like this” Cynthia says, arms wrapped around Lydia’s neck and hearts in her eyes.

Lydia pressed another kiss to Cynthia’s jawline “I guess I just can’t stay away, handsome.” and their lips met once more. The sound of one another did enough to obfuscate the sound of a small group of teenage boys, drunkenly stumbling past the alleyway before one noticed the two girls. He shouted out to his friends, which finally alerted the two of their presence. They pulled apart quickly, but stood stunned for a moment, just long enough for the rest of the boys to arrive in their vision.

The one that had seen the two, Neil, spoke first “Looks like we got a couple of dykes boys!” He exclaimed, “C’mon, don’t stop on our account, give us a kiss ladies” walking up to them, Cynthia stood in front of Lydia, who was still frozen in place.

Cynthia leaned back and spoke quietly “when I say, run.” she turned back to the soc boy who was now a few feet away from her, his alcoholic breath assaulting their senses. “Hey there fellas, we’re just jiving, and running lines, you know us thespians, always rehearsing” Cynthia said, incredibly unconvincingly. For an actor, she sure could be a terrible liar.

“Nah I saw you two, I bet it was you, freak. Corrupting the nice ladies of our town.” He punctuated with a shove against Cynthia, that being the signal she needed that maybe they needed to get out right now immediately.

“Run!” She yelled, Lydia finally coming to her senses and booking it to the other end of the alley and turning a corner, Cynthia followed for a brief time, pulling a dumpster out behind her to slow down her would be assailants but was stopped when another boy tackled her from a side street and, with the help of one of his friends, picked her up and held her in place by her arms.

She struggled to get out of their hold, but even in their inebriated state, she was still too small to escape “Let go of me, you don’t know who you’re messing with!” She voiced, “The pink ladies and the T-Birds are gonna hear about this!”

Neil finally made his way over “I ain’t scared of no greasers and I sure ain’t scared of a couple of girls. But I guess you don’t count as either you little faggot” He spit out, grabbing her signature pink jacket at the collar and getting in her face. “That means you don’t get the privilege of a girl neither” and pulled his fist back, sending it square into her face.

Cynthia stumbled in the arms of the other two boys before being lifted back up and being made to take another blow, this time to her stomach.

“Fuck!” She exhaled, coughing and losing her footing again. He sent another punch at her face before grabbing her jaw and forcing her to look him in the eyes. The blood coming from her nose spilled over his hand, but did nothing to stop him.

“Don’t you remember what your little girl gang did to us at Dot's party last week? I bet this is why you didn’t play spin the bottle with us normal people. Why don’t I show you what it’s like to kiss a real man?” He leaned in, and Cynthia was more terrified than she’d ever been in her life, suddenly kicking out and hitting her assailant between the legs, sending him to the ground in pain. The other two boys strengthened their hold on her for a moment before one let go and the other threw one final haymaker and sent Cynthia to the ground.

Through blurry vision, she tried and failed to get up silently chanting to herself 'get up get up get up' before succeeding and slowly attempting to make her escape while the boys tended to their de facto leader when he pointed in her direction and sent them back after her. She tried to move faster, but she was pushed to the ground again with one of them putting their knee on her back and pushing her head into the ground. The first boy limped awkwardly toward them and squatted next to Cynthia’s head, grabbing her hair and pulling to force her to look at him.

“You know, maybe if you apologize, we won’t have to take this up with Buddy's dad? It'd be a shame if everyone knew the class pres's little friend is a queer” He sneered, tightening his grip. Cynthia, ever prideful, spit in his face, and gave a blood drenched smile.

"You hit like a girl"

The prep boy slammed her head into the ground, making her vision swim once more before standing and stomping on her outstretched hand, hearing a sickening crack and a scream come from the girl. She pulled her hand in close to her chest, writhing in pain in a small pool of her own blood.

Slowly it dawned on her, these boys could kill her right now.

Cynthia had no way out, no potential saving grace, and no way to know whether they would ever stop. She could only hope that they would get bored and leave her there on the ground, broken.

Neil signaled to the boy on top of her to get up and they began to walk away, leaving Cynthia choking back tears but thankful to whatever imaginary power was watching over her in that very moment and curled up on the ground before the last boy reeled back and kicked her in the ribs as a final statement.

With her breathing labored, coming in hiccoughs, Cynthia quietly sobbed. Her senses dulled, she didn’t notice a figure hurrying up to her, before it gently placed a hand on her shoulder, startling the girl before her eyes managed to focus on the angelic form above her.

Chapter Text

“Ly-Lydi-” she was interrupted by her own rough coughing attack, punctuated with a spittle of blood. Lydia gently pushed her girlfriend over so she was laying on her back and her head was in her lap

"Shh, it's okay, you're gonna be okay"

"Did you get hurt?" Cynthia choked out

Lydia was flabbergasted "Did I get hurt? You could've died and you're asking if I'm hurt?"

Cynthia winced and looked at Lydia's beautiful blue eyes "Of course I'm worried about you, what would we do without the second best actor in drama club" she joked.

Lydia rolled her eyes but carressed Cynthia's face regardless, taking a handkerchief from her pocket and dabbing away at the blood on her paramour's lips. Cynthia hissed, but did her best to keep a brave face for Lydia. This became harder by the minute, as the blood loss began to catch up with her, and her eyes began to droop.

Lydia took notice, as she always did of Cynthia's most minute idiosyncrasies, and moved to get up. Her love however had other plans, reaching up with her good hand and holding onto a small piece of Lydia's skirt

"Please don't leave." She asked, slurring her words. The motion of grabbing Lydia's skirt seemingly having taken the last of her strength as her head fell to the ground instead of staying held up strong, as she was known to do. The strong girl Lydia knew was broken in front of her, and in spite of what her heart said, she knew she had to go get help, lest her girlfriend's condition get worse.

"You're scared."

"I'm scared."

"You're scared."

"'M scared." Cynthia let go of Lydia's skirt and closed her eyes with a deep breath, drifting into state of unconsciousness, her adrenaline finally giving in.

"Shit."

Lydia gently placed Cynthia's hand on the concrete and sprinted faster than she ever had to where she knew the closest of their friends lived, the Valdovinos. She ran solidly for three blocks until she came upon the modest house, lights still on despite the late hour and rapidly banged on the door. The commotion inside subdued slightly as the door opened to reveal exactly who she was looking for.

Lydia had replayed what she wanted to say a few times on the run over, but now, her chest heaving, she was unable to get the words out, as though speaking them would make the entire experience real. Standing there huffing and puffing she looked like she was about to throw up on Olivia.

"You have five seconds to leave before I call the cops" Olivia began closing the door, but was blocked by Lydia pushing it back open.

"Cynthia, hurt, need phone." She spoke between breaths finally getting some air back in her lungs.

At the mention of Cynthia's name, Olivia perked up. "You better not have done anything you evil-" she began speaking Spanish far to quickly for Lydia to understand whilst simultaneously letting her inside and calling emergency services. She hand the phone to Lydia as she gathered her jacket and put on her shoes, prepared to mobilize as soon as Lydia got off the phone. "LUIS! Can you call Jane and tell her to meet us wherever Lydia says on the phone? Its important Lu!" She yelled to her cousin upstairs.

"Hello? Lydia Simcox. My friend, she was attacked, she's on fairway Avenue and king street. I don't know who did it, just send help. I'm leaving now." She hung up the phone and ran back out the door, Olivia following close behind.

"What the hell did you do to Cynthia" Olivia asked, running slightly ahead of Lydia and scanning the street where Lydia said her friend was.

Lydia only gave a quick "This way" before ducking into an alleyway, causing Olivia to need to double back slightly. What she saw when she turned the corner however made her double over.

Cynthia lie a few feet away from the entrance to the alley, one arm underneath herself and the other, mangled hand outstretched. Blood pooled under her face from her nose and a cut on her chin. Lydia kneeled next to her and and gently shook her shoulder, lightly asking her to wake up.

Cynthia stirred, whimpering in pain as Lydia moved her onto her back, hoping to get her as comfortable as possible until help arrived.

Olivia pulled herself together as well as she could and asked "Cyn, what happened to you?" She approached her downed fellow pink lady and kneeled on her side, opposite of Lydia.