Note: Hey, my loves <3

I've been trying to write this all day, but the progress has been off and on, so I only just finished writing it. But it's longer than the last couple have been, and hopefully someone gets a laugh or two out of it.

So, this chapter is a combination of two requests, one that I received awhile ago and one that I received recently. I'm not going to write out what they are because I don't want to give anything away, but they were from Ash_the_nycotophile and poppyy97

In this chapter, Anna is eighteen.

the only tomorrow we need to worry about is today

Anna swung her foot forward and back, letting it hook around the leg of her chair Her shoelaces dangled untied on either side of her sneaker so the tongue hung loose, and she was wearing sweatpants and a crop top she'd cut herself, made from one of Dean's old Metallica t-shirts. He'd had the shirt for so long-- maybe since he was Anna's age-- that it was faded and the fabric worn thin near the collar and hem. She didn't usually dress this way to go out, mostly because she was massively insecure about her appearance but partly because she usually enjoyed putting together cute or badass outfits. But this morning, she'd looked in the mirror and thought she actually looked kinda cute as she was. Not to mention she was only going to the café to see her friends, and there was no more laid back setting to be found than that.

She felt a little jittery, tapping her other foot against the floor which her toes barely reached in the heightened café chairs. That was partly the caffeine. But it was partly the fact that she'd been waiting for almost ten minutes, and nobody had shown up yet, and she was starting to feel like people were staring at her. She probably looked like a loser who had no friends.

Well, actually, considering how often she could be found at the café, most of the people who were there-- customers and employees alike-- probably recognized her and knew that she was not, in fact, friendless, nor was she a loser. Sort of. Most of the time.

"I was about to say sorry I'm late, but considering everyone else is late too, I guess you could say we're both early."

Anna snickered, watching Alex breathlessly hang her black denim jacket over the back of her chair and flick her brown hair out of her eyes. "And I would have forgiven you if you'd been the last one here, because you don't have a car."

"You're bragging again," Alex laughed. "You really like to flex every chance you get."

"It's a fucking Cobra. I don't even have to flex. I just have to drive it. Instant jealousy from everyone who sees me."

Alex shook her head, but she was still smiling. "I'm gonna start saying yes when you offer to drive me around."

"You should. It's fun having a passenger. I feel less like a weirdo blaring Paramore and screaming the lyrics when someone else is doing it with me." Anna took a sip of her coffee, then looked up at Alex. "You want coffee? I have..." She unfurled the bills in her hand and did some quick counting. "Twelve bucks."

"You stole that?"

"Yup. From Dean. So it doesn't really count as stealing."

"I think I'll pass on any criminally funded cups of coffee today." Anna raised one eyebrow in question as Alex leaned back and dug one hand into her jacket pocket. She came up with a piece of plastic which she slapped down smugly on the table in front of Anna. "I finally got a debit card."

Anna laughed. "And I brag too much about my car? You should see your face."

"Don't you have a debit card?"

"No," Anna snorted, sliding off her seat to accompany Alex to the counter. "The government thinks I don't exist or something. I don't know exactly what it is. It's semantics. But Sam told me I could basically never have any kind of account that requires me to confirm my identity."

"Is this one of those things about your family I don't want to ask you more about?"

"Yeah, don't ask," Anna waved her off. A sweaty arm slung heavily over her shoulder, which Anna instantly recognized as Ethan, and a brown ponytail swung in her peripheral vision, Kate. "You guys stop and see a movie?"

"You're very funny," Ethan said dryly. That easily, Anna knew he was the reason they were late.

"He didn't gas up his car."

"Well, I knew I would be passing the gas n' sip on the way here today, so I figured I'd just wait."

"Except his car was at empty already."

"I can drive for a good ten miles once it hits empty," Ethan defended.

"Why do you know that?" Alex asked with a teasing smile.

"I'm lazy, okay? I admit it."

"You're not lazy, you're depressed," Kate corrected. "There's a difference. But for real, there's some stuff you gotta do."

"Wait, so you guys got towed?" Anna said. "At, like, seven in the morning?"

"No. He had a gas can in the trunk."

Anna and Alex exchanged a look of confusion, "So why are you l-?"

"It was empty," Kate said. "So we had to walk three miles to get to the gas station and fill the thing up, and Ethan very conveniently left his wallet in the car, so I had to pay for it, and I had like five bucks because I was expecting to buy coffee today and that's it."

"So you had to bring it back to the car and then drive to the gas station and finish filling the tank?"

Kate hummed an aggravated 'yes.'

"She's kinda mad at me," Ethan said unnecessarily.

"I'm not mad," Kate corrected. "But it was really annoying, and I'm never asking you for a ride again."

"Fine. At least then you won't complain about how messy my car is."

"I didn't say anything."

"But you were thinking it. You had that look in your eye."

Anna smirked a little. "She's neurotic, man, it's not like she was judging you. She was probably just itching to do a deep clean."

A muscle in Kate's face twitched as she looked away. Anna knew that look too. She'd hit the answer right on the nose. Kate wasn't a judgy person, but she was a perfectionist, and she could be neurotic enough that it got on Anna's nerves at times. Once, she'd come over for a movie night, and she'd insisted on doing the dishes when she saw the pile of them in the sink. Sometimes, when she and Anna were hanging out, they would decide to try doing each other's makeup or hair or try out wacky or cute outfits, just for the hell of it, and Kate almost always took the eyeliner pen out of Anna's hand to touch up or added another bobby pin or pulled off the pink shirt in favor of the orange one. It could be really frustrating, but Anna had learned not to take it personally.

In fact, she'd recently come to understand that Kate doing those things to her were a sign of how close they were, because Anna constantly watched Kate bite her tongue or hold herself back from correcting a lot of small misalignments in day-to-day life. But with her, Kate didn't feel like she had to hold back. She felt like she could release the neuroticism, because she knew that while Anna might get annoyed-- and she had to know that Anna could get annoyed-- she wouldn't judge her or get angry with her. She could stop self-policing. And honestly, Anna felt pretty honored to be that person for her.

"You guys ready to order?"

Alex stepped forward toward the register. "Lemme get you guys," she offered, waving her debit card a little.

"You sure?" Kate asked, but Anna could tell she was hoping for a yeah. She had just blown her cash on gasing up Ethan's car after all.

Alex nodded, then turned to the cashier and ordered an americano before letting everyone else order. Anna cringed a little at the nearly $15 total, but if Alex thought it was too expensive, she didn't let it show.

They all sat at the table from before, Ethan dragging over a chair from another table and getting a slightly annoyed look from the employee who was wiping down tables for it. "Wait, so why'd your dad finally let you get a debit card?" Kate asked and took a sip of her iced coffee.

"It wasn't that he wouldn't let me before. I don't think he really cares about what I do with the money he sends. I have to pay rent and eat, obviously, but he sends enough so I can spend it on what I want too. It was just that I was supposed to have a cosigner to open up a checking account, and he's been away for months. And when he is home, he usually isn't home for that long, so it just never happened."

"They don't require it once you turn eighteen?"

"Nope," Alex said, popping the 'p.' "I'm a liberated woman."

"Chill out, Alex, you're still in high school," Ethan reminded her with a snort.

Alex shrugged at that, but Anna watched her eyes flick downward to study the lid of her coffee cup and knew there was something about what Ethan had said that struck a nerve. "I don't know why this question just popped into my head," Kate said, "but are you going to college, Alex? I feel like I remember you filling out apps, but you never said how it's going or if you actually even want to go?"

"I haven't really decided," Alex admitted.

"Thinking about joining the military like your dad?" Ethan asked, poking his straw in and out of his cup noisily.

Alex huffed a laugh. "No. I don't want to go that route. But I don't know, I mean, college sounds kinda nice. But it's expensive, and I don't really know what I'd want to study or what job I'd want after, and it feels like a lot of time and resources to pour into something I'm not even sure about, you know?" She looked up from her coffee cup, and her eyes locked on Anna's.

Anna grinned. "I just think it's pointless." She got an elbow to the side. "Not for you, Kate. You're a pure sweetheart and a genius. You have to go to college."

"And I'm chopped liver," Ethan said with an exaggerated eye roll.

"No, your parents are pressuring you into it, so we all know you're gonna go," Anna replied. She picked up her coffee cup and shrugged. "But I still think you shouldn't if you don't want to."

"Yeah, see, that's the difference between us," Ethan said. "Kate's smart and motivated, and college is a ticket out of her low-key shitty home environment."

Anna half-expected Kate to glare at Ethan for casually bringing up her plethora of family problems, but instead she was wearing a look that just said Fair.

"Alex is smart but conflicted about her motivations, and she actually gets to make a choice about where she goes, so she's trying to make the right one. Commendable," he said to Alex, patting her arm in a way that seemed almost consoling. "You," he said, looking directly at Anna again, almost startling her with his directness, "are smart but lack any and all motivation to do anything other than the opposite of what everyone who loves you wants."

"Okay, Jesus, I feel attacked. I told you, I'm going into the family business," Anna said and took a sassy sip of coffee.

"Whatever that even is," Ethan rolled his eyes. "And I am only marginally smart-" It was everyone else's turn to roll their eyes.

Anna kicked Ethan under the table. He was crazy smart, and not just academically, but about people. He was literally demonstrating his uncanny ability to understand people's choices and feelings in that very moment, and he had the gall to call himself 'only marginally smart.' "Someone take over. Ethan's fucking up his story."

Kate laughed but elbowed Anna again, and Ethan continued, looking a little annoyed but a little pleased at the correction that he was, in fact, very smart. "Fine, I'm smart," he said, voice dropping a little on the word, "and not that motivated, and very confused about what I want, so basically whoever pushes me is gonna convince me to go in whatever direction they push me."

"Which is your parents," Anna finished, nodding her understanding and taking another sip of her coffee, this one much calmer.

"I think college is a valid choice for anybody. It's more the fact that it's not easily accessible for Anna or Alex that makes it that much more of a hard decision for them to make."

"I could figure out paying for college if I wanted to go," Anna said.

She wasn't sure why she was being defensive about her funds. There was nothing wrong with being broke-- well, nothing personally wrong. It was hard being perpetually broke, but it didn't reflect upon her character, so she didn't know why she was always getting so defensive. Maybe because there were people-- at school, in the towns they visited for hunts, even just around Lebanon-- who sometimes seemed to think that Anna's worn out OSIRIS high tops that she'd had since she was fourteen did say something about who she was.

"So could I," Alex added. "But you're not wrong either," she told Kate. "Like, I think if my dad had forty-thousand dollars laying around, I'd go without caring that I don't know what I want."

Anna shrugged one shoulder. She wanted to say she wouldn't go if she just had the money laying around. But she didn't know. And she didn't like this conversation anymore. "Okay, can we stop thinking about next year? We got like six more months as high schoolers, and we should really not spend them thinking about being adults."

"We are adults," Alex said. "Technically."

"Not Ethan," Kate jibed, smiling sweetly across the table at him.

Ethan made a face and picked up his iced coffee with attitude. "Don't start this. Please."

"He's our baby," Anna cooed at him, giving him a playful tap on the shin under the table with her foot.

"You're seventeen?" Alex asked as she smirked at all the teasing.

"Yeah, I turn eighteen in April."

"Yeah? What's your birthday?"

"The nineteenth," Ethan said, then beat Anna to the joke when he caught her opening her mouth. "One more day, Mom," he said like he couldn't believe his shitty luck.

"Buddy, we can celebrate your birthday on 4/20 anyway," Anna assured him. "And we will find marijuana, if that's what you want."

"You know, I low-key wanna try pot. Like, how did we manage to get this far and not try it?"

Anna shrugged, and across the table from her, she saw Alex do the same. Kate, however, had an actual answer. "Didn't we talk about it, like, freshman year? None of us wanted to."

"We weren't as stressed then."

"I was," Anna mumbled, and she thought she heard Kate say 'same.'

"I've done it," Alex said. For some reason, this surprised Anna. She looked up at Alex with a question in her eyes. "I used to go to some real lengths to find friends. I tried acid once too. But, like, pot? In some of the places I've lived, it's weirder not to do it. I used to smoke every weekend. I swear, every kid in town had a bong."

"Why are you so cool?" Anna breathed and got punched in the arm for it.

"We aren't doing that."

"Why not?"

"Did you forget that drugs are bad?" Kate hissed.

"Come on. Who doesn't experiment a little?"

Kate shrugged, looking uncomfortable. "Kate, you don't have to. Seriously. No pressure. At all. Don't do anything you don't wanna do," Anna said earnestly, watching Kate's expression lose some of the tension. "But what if I want to? Not necessarily a lot. But-" She shrugged again. "I wanna know what it's like. Maybe I'll like it, maybe I won't. I just want the experience."

"I do too," Ethan said.

Anna turned to him, almost startled. Sometimes, she and Kate held eyes and their communication-- verbal and not-- was so strong that she forgot there were other people around them.

Kate shook her head a little and sighed. "Well, don't let me mother you out of this," she said. "But practically, where are you gonna get pot, and how are you not gonna get caught?"

"Nice rhyme."

"Shut up, Ethan."

"I know a kid," Alex said.

All three of them looked at her in confusion and a little concern.

"What?"

"You've been at this school for three months."

"A whole semester," Alex said. "That's plenty of time to figure out who's who. Every school's the same, guys. And there's always a few people who are really into drugs. I've been observing, and I know who those people are."

"Okay, well, so, that's one route," Ethan said. "But I was actually thinking we could go to a party."

"And you couldn't have said that before things got weird," Alex grumbled into the lid of her coffee cup.

"What party?" Kate asked around her straw.

"I was talking to Arya, and she said there's a huge party at the college at the end of finals week. It's how everyone blows off steam and celebrates the end of the semester. It's awesome."

"Aren't college parties kind of wild? Free alcohol and drugs doesn't exactly indicate that it's a safe place. And what if someone gets slipped something?"

"We can just be careful. We'll stick together-- at least one person with you at all times, and guard our drinks with our lives. If you look away from it for a second, you dump it. Shit like that. That's what my sister taught me."

"I'm not gonna lie, all that advice just made me ten times more nervous."

Anna smiled a little, but she had to admit-- just to herself-- that she felt a little nervous herself now. If they were at that high a risk of being drugged and assaulted, she wasn't sure getting stoned would be worth it. Not to mention, if they were going there so they could get stoned, she didn't see how they were supposed to protect themselves. Maybe it was the way she'd grown up, but she hated the thought of being defenseless, even for a second. All weaknesses, however temporary, can be exploited, and everything can change forever. She knew that lesson well.

"I think we should stay all together. That way, we have the best chance of staying safe. And I don't think everyone should be high or drunk at the same time."

"I've been high before," Alex said. "So, I'll have, like, one drink and that's it. Or I'll space drinks out, you know?"

"I don't want to get stoned anyway," Kate added. "And I think I'd rather bring my own drinks."

"Yeah, okay," Anna said. "So, Ethan," she said. "Looks like we're gettin' fucked up tonight."

Ethan grinned at her, and she returned it.

()()()

"Can I go to a party tonight?"

Sam's body froze and she watched his expression tighten before he turned his head to look at her. "Where?"

Anna shrugged nonchalantly. "Leb."

Sam squinted at her as if trying to determine whether she was lying or just telling a half-truth. "Where in Lebanon?"

"The college."

"You know what college parties look like, right?"

"If you mean drugs, music, and hookup culture then... yes?"

Sam looked deeply conflicted. Anna was surprised to even see that much on his face. She'd expected a pretty steadfast no. That was, after all, why she'd lied and asked to go to a party 'tonight' even though the one Ethan had brought up was actually next weekend. "I think you should ask Dean," he said eventually.

"What?"

Sam sighed. "Just ask Dean, Ladybug."

Anna found herself stuck somewhere between a smile and a frown. "Why?" she asked.

Sam looked like maybe he thought he shouldn't say what he was about to say. But then he sat down at the kitchen table across from her, holding a beer that had yet to be opened. "Because I don't know."

Anna snorted at him. "You? You don't know? Dude, you're the one who always knows the right answer. I mean, you realize that's your thing, right?"

"Anna-" Sam started. He heaved a sigh and set the beer bottle down with a dull sound against the tabletop. He started moving his hands when he spoke, but his wrists stayed at the edge of the table, making every movement subtle. It was the kind of small hand gesture she almost only saw in Sam but saw frequently in him. "I know you think of me and Dean really differently than you would if you were our age. Or even maybe just five years closer to our age."

Anna could sense this conversation going in a direction she'd only heard it go during some of the hardest times of her life. The period after her mother died, her first depressive episode, her first heartbreak, the father-daughter dance from forever ago. There weren't many instances where Sam or Dean felt like they needed to clarify verbally their roles in her life, and there were even fewer instances she felt like she needed to hear it.

"For obvious reasons--"

"That we don't need to get into," Anna said.

"Right," Sam agreed. "For obvious reasons, being your brother has meant something really different than what being a brother means for most people."

"I follow," Anna drawled, copying Sam's slow speech. "Why are we talking about this?"

"Because I know that you see us more like parents than brothers-"

"Why did you say that?" Anna mumbled. He'd gone to such lengths to get around that stupid word, and she'd known exactly what he was doing and why, and yet he'd still pulled it out in the end.

"And, yeah, I'll be honest, I usually see you as more of my kid than my sister-"

"And you put it a different way," Anna grumbled a second time, trying not to let herself feel the slight burning in her cheeks and the much stronger burn in her stomach.

She didn't like it. She didn't like that she almost liked the thought of being his kid, because she was already someone else's kid, and she didn't want to be his kid, because she wanted to be his sister. And it was a complicated, stupid, terrifying feeling. She liked it, and she hated it, and she hated it more because she liked it even though she hated it.

Sam was right. However many ways he felt he had to say it, his point was the same, and he was right. Anna had never thought about her brothers in the context most people saw older brothers. She had to get permission from them before she could go do things-- though she liked to think that wasn't true anymore now that she was eighteen, it was clear to her that the boys disagreed, and anyway it was almost second nature by now to get approval before she did anything she thought was big or important. She looked to them when she was scared or confused-- that may have been a slightly more common role for an older brother, but it still wasn't everybody's older brother by any means. She craved their attention when they were gone too long or too distracted. When she was sick or sad or in pain-- physical or psychological-- she wanted them there with her.

She hated the feeling it gave her to explicitly say the word parents or even to let herself think the word parents about them. But that had nothing to do with Sam and Dean. How much more explicit could their parental nature get than just the daily actions and interactions and feelings?

Instead it had everything to do with John and Chloe. Anna could barely remember a day John had been alive, but she could remember enough to feel a bone-deep ache when she thought about him. She could remember extremely well the few days she'd known Chloe, and the djinn-induced dream she'd had about her. All those memories could bring her to tears on a good day, and they could consume her on a bad one.

And that feeling... hope and disappointment, promises unkept, possibilities left open and unattainable, grief, anger, self-loathing, guilt... all of it rolled into one... that was what parents were to Anna. And that wasn't Sam. It wasn't Dean.

She felt a hand latch gently onto her arm, and she was shaken a little. "You okay?"

"Yeah," she said, looking Sam dead in the eyes. "But just don't say that again. I know how you mean it, but I hate it. It doesn't feel to me the way you feel it." She sighed. "That wasn't articulate."

"It's okay, Ladybug. I know what you mean. And I'm sorry, I know you hate that. What I meant to say is that even if that's mostly what things are like between us, and I know it is... it's not everything. You know, I still have moments that I feel like I'm just your brother the way that Dean is just my brother. That first date... you were so cute, and you were happy, and I really wanted to be proud of you for landing a guy without even trying. And I was. I was proud. But I had to be responsible and worried too, and so did Dean, because we were the only ones who could do that for you. And we know someone has to do that for you."

"Are you explaining your protective streak?" Anna asked with a soft smile on her face. "Or are you telling me it has a beginning and an end?"

"Second one," Sam said. "And I won't pretend it's not a mile-wide protective streak," he admitted, returning her good-natured smile. "But seriously. And that's why I don't know. I don't want you to go to a friggin' college party, because I've been to college parties and I know what they're like, and I know that you would have to be really, really careful at one. I know there are drugs and sometimes drugs are a lot uglier than they are fun. And there are some really fun, great people, and there are some really awful, shitty people."

"So that's what 'dad-mode' you is thinkin' about? I mean, that's the protective side, right?"

Sam chuckled, "Yeah. Put it like that, and make me feel as old as possible."

Anna smirked and didn't assure him that he wasn't old.

"I guess the other side of me is thinking about how much fun it is. I still think you should go to college, but since you're being stubborn as a Winchester over it, who knows if you'll ever end up there-"

"I will never end up there."

"-and college is where you blow off steam before you figure out how to be a real adult, so... I don't know. Maybe part of me wants you to get the chance to be a little crazy before you have to figure yourself out."

Anna stared at her brother for a minute, watching him stare right back at her. Sam was an open book in a way that Dean wasn't. He wore his heart on his sleeve. But his eyes were deep too. They made you look twice. It was easy to read the emotions on the surface, to see what he was doing-- Anna could always tell with one glance at his eyes whether he was scrutinizing her, smiling at her (or down at her), or scolding her-- or feeling. But there was always more there that couldn't be uncovered. Anna often wondered if her eyes were like that too. After all, she had inherited Sam's habit of thinking too much for too long.

Sam's eyes were layers deep today. But on the surface, though they looked nostalgic for a second, they soon seemed sprinkled with mischief.

"So, I'm supposed to ask Dean, or just go?" Anna asked, letting a slow smile spread onto her face, her eyes twinkling to match his.

Sam rolled his eyes. "I think we both know you were gonna go no matter what I said."

"Yeah, I mean I lied and said it was tonight instead of in a week just in case you said no and took no questions."

Sam gave her a look that was almost impressed but also very disappointed.

Anna gave him a consoling smile. "I'm not always that good at lying to you. You usually catch me. I mean, I get away with maybe 1 in every 10 lies."

"That's too high a statistic," Sam said as if he shouldn't find the number comforting.

And Anna had even skewed it in his favor. She got away with at least 1 in 5.

()()()

The music was already loud and the energy high when they arrived. But it didn't feel like any party Anna had been to before. Everybody had grouped off into little bubbles. Some people were talking-- though they had to yell to be heard over the music-- while others danced. Everyone was drinking or smoking something, and some people were losing their minds, jumping and dancing and screaming at no one and nothing in particular.

A familiar song that Anna had never listened to by choice seemed to set the perfect mood now.

We've had our fun

But now I'm done

Anna felt invisible in the best way as she walked through the mess of people, shoulder-to-shoulder with her friends. Kate's most prominent worry on the way over had been that they would somehow be caught out as the high schoolers that they were and get arrested. But it was instantly clear to Anna that nobody would notice them.

"What were you worried about again?" she yelled over the noise, linking her arm in Kate's.

"I don't know," Kate yelled back. Anna could feel her tension, but she could see her trying to relax too. She jostled Kate playfully and grinned, trying to put her at ease.

"This place is crazy," Ethan marveled, and Anna caught Alex smiling at him.

They'd reviewed their basic rules which had been set when they first thought about the party before even getting out of the car so it wouldn't be an issue once they were surrounded by alcohol and sweaty college kids.

"You guys ready?" Alex asked, squeezing herself between Anna and Ethan. She gave them both pats on the back. "Go berserk."

Anna and Ethan looked at each other, smirked, and began to sing along to the music at the same time. "I don't wanna, I don't wanna, I don't wanna die young," they belted badly into the noise around them, not making a dent.

()()()

First she just coughed. But then. "Yo," Anna drawled, pulling back and blinking slowly. "That. That feeling. That is weird." She passed the bong off to Ethan and watched him laugh at her. She coughed and shook her head. But she didn't feel anything. Not really.

She watched the boy who'd let them use the bong get it ready for Ethan and tried to memorize how to use it. Then she watched Ethan do the same thing she had-- breathe in the smoke in one long drag, pull back, and look startled. "Dude," he coughed.

"Give it back, give it back," the frat boy who'd handed them his bong said. He took it out of Ethan's hands and pulled his lighter out of his pocket again. After he'd smoked some more himself, he said, "Here, here. Let me show you." He put the lighter and the bong in Ethan's hands, and he told him how to use it, even guiding his hand to the bowl.

Anna watched, and she noticed that the frat boy had blue eyes. They reminded her of Cas. She wondered how he was doing. She was pretty sure Cas had tried weed, because she remembered Dean implying it once when she was a lot younger, and she'd picked up on it. She picked up on stuff she wasn't supposed to all the time.

"Ethan," she whispered, but realized her voice sounded really loud anyway. "You feel?" She paused. That wasn't quite right. "It?" she added, completing her sentence.

"Wow," the frat boy said, passing the bong back to Anna. "You got hit fast."

"This is it?" Anna asked, shaking her head.

"It gets better," he said, then gestured to the bong. "Go ahead, it's ready."

She didn't cough so much that time, but she still couldn't believe how unpleasant it was actually breathing the crap in. That alone was enough to make her feel like maybe she wouldn't bother with weed again after tonight. They both stopped at two hits.

It didn't take much longer before bong-guy disappeared, and Kate and Alex came over to sit with them. They'd been standing just a short distance away, waiting. "Weed," Anna said, leaning against Kate when she sat in the grass beside her, "only makes you feel like this because of the THC. And I heard-- well, I looked it up on google, but I used incognito, because, like, I think that Sam checks my search history-- and I found it kicks in so fast," she said exaggeratedly. She smacked Kate in the arm as if sharing intense news when she added, "But! It's most-- at its most highest point when, like, it's been half an hour."

"Dude. She's, like, sensitive to this stuff," Ethan drawled beside them, smiling and laying down in the grass. "I'm just, like, I think we should all take time to enjoy it."

"What?" Kate asked.

"He thinks that we should enjoy it," Anna repeated for her. "The high. How often do we get to, like, just, like, be at ease?" she said.

"Yeah. Enjoy it," Ethan said with passion. He reached over and grabbed Anna's arm, pulling her backward until she sighed loudly.

She flopped down in the grass beside him, and Alex laid down on her other side. Kate, meanwhile, sat back on her heels, watching them and swatting at the mosquitos that were trying to eat her alive.

"I heard," Anna said like it was hot gossip, "from that guy's girlfriend that the campus police don't even try to find parties and stop them, because they're, like, all 'it's college.'"

"Is that so?" Alex entertained.

"Oh... yeah," Anna said seriously. "Like, why do they do that? If they're not on campus, they can get arrested. But if they're on campus, they're, like, safe. Why? 'Cause, like, there's so many underage kids-- that are underage-- getting drunk and high. Don't they know that?"

"Anna," Kate said.

"What?" Anna asked with concern. She loved Kate so much. Kate was the best friend ever. Anna really hoped she was having fun. She knew Kate hadn't been all that excited to come here.

"You know you're one of those underage high kids right now. Right?"

"That's the entire point," Ethan said, impassioned again. He shook his head, looking up at the sky. "Why shouldn't we get high? What are we worried about?"

"Okay," Alex said, rolling onto her side so she could watch both Anna and Ethan. "You guys are definitely stoned."

"Tomorrow," Anna said. Ethan's passion was contagious, and he was convincing her of how important it was that they be allowed to live in the moment. "Ever'body is worried about tomorrow. 'Cause, like, this... right now, this is great. Great," she repeated, then realized she'd already said that. "Sorry," she said. She giggled and covered her mouth with her hand. "Sorry," she said again.

"Wait wait wait," Ethan said.

"What?" Alex and Kate asked together, both seeming half-wary.

"Today is tomorrow."

"What?" they both repeated, this time voicing utter confusion.

"Oh my god," Anna breathed, her shock so intense it looked a little like horror. "Low-key yeah."

"What is happening?" Alex demanded.

"Like for yesterday," Ethan said. "Literally, we're always about tomorrow but, like, today is tomorrow."

"Okay, man, post it on Reddit in the morning. You ready to get out of here?"

Kate nodded big in response. "Can you scrape Ethan off the ground?"

"I might be able to handle that."

"Cool." Anna marveled up at her when Kate hit her knees beside her. "Come on, Anna, we're leaving."

"We just got here."

"We've been here for an hour," Kate corrected. "And you're wasted."

"Did you drink anything?" Anna asked. "You said you would have fun," she reminded, wagging a scolding finger at her friend. Kate worried too much. So did Anna, but Anna knew how to let it go for a minute sometimes, and Kate had a harder time with that.

"I had tons of fun," came the reassurance.

"Me too," Anna said emphatically. "Weed is so good."

"Literallyyyy," Ethan agreed.

"It's bad for you," Kate said, tugging Anna to her feet and nudging her in the direction of the car. They had to walk through a crowd of people again first. Fortunately, while Anna and Ethan were both definitely high, they were still perfectly able to walk.

"I don't think either of 'em is gonna do it again. Not a lot anyway," Alex said. "They're both, like, weirdly responsible considering how irresponsible they are."

As they moved away from their grassy little haven, the noises they'd faced on the way in grew louder again. The music was something current and catchy. But Anna didn't like it.

She heard Kate sigh. "Is this your own version of a stoned realization, or are you just speaking in paradoxes because you like them? Anna used to do that."

"I hate paradoxes," Alex said. "They're just lies."

"I guess," Kate said, her voice getting smaller.

"So is your mom home? We could go back to the apartment," Alex offered. "It's just me, so no one would get busted."

"I actually have to go home," Anna informed them. "I... have school tomorrow."

Alex and Kate looked at each other. "It's Saturday."

"Yeah," Anna agreed with a little contented sigh. It was Saturday, all right.

"Tomorrow's Sunday."

"Mmm," Anna hummed in the affirmative. Tomorrow was indeed Sunday.

"We don't have school on Sunday."

"Not usually," Anna said. "But you never know what could happen."

Kate sighed heavily. "I think it's pretty safe to say there won't be school tomorrow, A."

"I'm not a gambler."

"That song," Ethan said. "My dad used to love that song. It's not even that good. But he was, like, so into it. He literally played it on repeat in the car. Not even as a phase. Like, for years."

"Daaaamn," Anna reacted.

The music of the party had faded to mere background. The car was in sight.

"I have to go home," Anna said again.

"You don't want to spend the night?" Alex offered. "You... you know you're gonna get caught, right?"

"Oh yeah. No, but I can figure it out," she assured Alex, patting her on the shoulder. "I snuck out, so I have to be home in the morning, or I'll get in trouble."

"You're eighteen," Alex reminded her. "How do you get in trouble?"

"I get lectured," Anna said, a little defensive. "You literally know Dean. I have to go home."

"Okay, I'm not sure how point A led to point B there, but fine. If you seriously want to go home and surrender yourself to the forces of guardianship, that's okay too."

()()()

Anna made a face when the bunker door opened loudly under Kate's hands. "That's so annoying," she said. "I hated that the first day we got here, and it still does that. Nobody listens to me. We shoulda fixed it, but it's not a priority for them. We never align on what we want, and 'cause I'm younger, what I want is out the window."

"Okay, Anna."

"I think it's a communication thing," Anna said reasonably. She didn't want to shit-talk her brothers. But really, it was a problem. "Communication is big."

"Huge. Yeah, it's key," Kate played along, walking her down the steps into the war room. "Sam?" she called.

"You hear that forever, don't you," Anna marveled. "Communication... blah blah blah." She shrugged. "I'm kinda hungry."

"Yeah, why don't we go find you some dinner."

"You know what sounds so good?" Kate raised her eyebrows as if to ask what? "Pancakes. Maybe Dean will make them. He's so good at it."

"Hey," Sam said, stepping into the war room from the library. "What's up?"

Anna made a conspiratory face at him. "Me? Right now?" She watched his face, and when he looked like he was waiting for an explanation, she stage-whispered, "Stoned."

Sam frowned. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah. I don't feel as weird as before. I think I'm a little better. But wow, like, bongs are pretty complicated, huh? Who even knew there were, like, steps? You can't just bam smoke it."

"Yeah," Sam breathed a laugh at her, but he looked conflicted as he walked over to her. "Thanks for bringing her home, Kate. You're gonna wanna run before Dean gets out here." Kate gave a little mock solute and hurried back up the stairs and out the front door.

"I love her," Anna said matter-of-factly. "Like, wow. Who has that good of friends?"

"Yeah, I hear you, Ladybug," Sam said. He prompted her to take her jacket off, and, upon smelling it, reared back a little in surprise. "Listen, it's getting late, and you've had a long day. Why don't you go to bed?"

Anna nodded. "Yeah," she said. "I guess so." She put both hands to her mouth then, muffling her own, "Oh my god." Her eyes flicked sheepishly up to Sam. "I was supposed to sneak in. I forgot."

Sam shook with laughter, and Anna looked down at the ground, disappointed in herself. "Dean doesn't know."

"Dean doesn't know what?"

"Fuck," Anna muttered.

Sam looked for a second like a deer in headlights, but he schooled his expression easily and quickly.

"Well, I heard that," Dean grumbled as he stepped into the war room. Fortunately for Anna, one of the few things he actually had lightened up on since her eighteenth birthday was letting her swear without jumping down her throat. "I thought you were asleep, Rugrat."

"It's only eleven," Anna said. "I was thinking about pancakes."

"Okay, weirdo, you don't make pancakes at eleven o'clock. You're like... Sam when he's drunk."

"Oh my god," Anna breathed, turning to Sam with wide eyes. "He knows," she stage whispered.

"Anna," Sam sighed.

"Alright, what the hell? Are you drunk?" Dean demanded, looking at Anna.

"No," she said resolutely. "But I'm a little high." She pinched her fingers together. "A little. I only smoked a little weed, and it's been almost an hour, so my levels of the THC? Low. Pretty low. Lower than a little while ago."

"Getting lower all the time," Sam said, suppressing a smile.

"Are you kidding me?" Dean said. "You think this is funny? She's eighteen. And we did the whole don't do drugs talk."

"Marijuana is not drugs," Anna said earnestly.

"Do you hear yourself?"

"It doesn't count," she insisted.

Dean looked to Sam and threw his hands out to the side.

Sam shrugged, "It doesn't really count."

"Are you kidding me?"

"Dean, come on, she looked worse when she came home drunk."

"Yeah, at which point we talked about nothing like that ever happening again."

"I didn't have any alcohol," Anna said proudly. "You think there's a way to do that with a bong? It would blow up, right?" She watched Dean rub his temples. "Yeah," she said. "It's flammable."

"Okay," Dean muttered. "Okay. You're not making pancakes," he said, looking tired. "Go to bed, Anna."

"I'm hungry."

"There's pizza in the fridge from yesterday."

Anna shrugged. That sounded okay to her.

"And leave your clothes outside your door when you go to bed. I'm gonna wash 'em overnight so they don't smell like shit in the morning."

Again, Anna shrugged. "You got it," she said.

"And brush your teeth."

"I will," she promised.

"And don't smoke anything else."

"I won't."

"Ever again."

Anna made a face like she thought that one might be a trap. "Good night," she said cautiously.

Dean shook his head at her, but he hooked an arm around the back of her neck and pulled her in close. "You wreak," he murmured into her hair.

La Fin