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“How many people that I’ve gone out with have to get engaged before I can start taking it personally?”

“I guess it depends on who it is, you could’ve dodged a bullet.” 

“I think you’re in the wrong place. The drama majors are doing vocal exercises to channel childhood trauma down the hall.”

“What? Am I that transparent? I just came from there it’s weird. Even for me. I’m hiding.” 

“Sage Liu? I left for what, two years and you look like a completely different person.” Sam pulled her into a hug. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, this is so weird-- my mom says I’m not s’posed to talk to stran--” she’d been joking, clearly, but she barely got to finish and her arms instinctively wrapped around Sam. “You know, this, that-- the other. Has it really only been two years?”

Georgia cringed, unable to stop from laughing at herself. No wonder Kyle had never called her. Outing herself as part of a Dungeons and Dragons podcast was the final nail in her coffin before it was buried in the friend zone. “It’s okay, I get it. D and D is not sexy, nor first girlfriend material, say no more.” She thought about it for a moment. If Kyle was going to give her a chance, this could be her one opportunity to turn it right back around on her. Or she could be nice, for once in her life. So she stuck her hand out. “Hi. I’m Georgia, it’s nice to meet you. Do you go to school here?”

“I didn’t mean it like that.” Kyle had never used the word sexy in her life, she might have choked if she hadn’t been trying her hardest to keep her composure since Georgia’s apology, it was bad enough that the words first girlfriend material had caused her cheeks and ears to go pink, how had someone as cool and interesting as Georgia thought her the same? Stunned that she went along with her idea, she followed suit, nervously shaking her hand and nodding before she remembered she’d been asked a question. “It’s nice to meet you Georgia. I’m Kyle.” Silly, she felt silly, but she was getting a second chance. “I’m sorry for uh for ghosting you.”

“I really need to stop talking. Do you know the satisfaction I’d get seeing Alma try to bust some moves to It’s Tricky? Okay, I want to know nothing else, not a single detail. I want this to be my gift for the whole wedding. The second you tear the skirt off, I’ll be done.”

“I’m not saying no to a dog, I just think lizards are kinda cute and I’d love a bunny too. And then we get King James Spaniel that’ll cuddle with us. I can’t tell if you’re kidding or not because I wasn’t.”

“Now I’m definitely planning on it being one of those things where I sit you down in a chair and the whole number is dedicated to you. Might have to toss a couple other songs in there, do the puppet dance for some Bye Bye Bye. I won’t reveal anymore, keep the suspense.”

“Kyle.” Dylan stepped forward, enveloping her youngest sibling in a tight hug. When she let her go, she smiled at her. “I don’t know if this girl is worth it or not. She could be a total hag. But if you want to fix it, we can fix it. Anything is fixable. Let’s make you a snapchat. Then if you decide to talk to her again, you’ll have a good way. You can do this. I believe in you, young padawan.”

Kyle moved to protest for a moment, hands actually in front of her in an attempt at defense, but it was short lived. As much as she liked to think that she wasn’t a people person, Dylan was the one exception to that rule, each and every time. She buried her face in her sister’s shoulder for a moment, allowed herself a shred of vulnerability, it was okay with Dylan. “How do I get her snapchat?” She asked, not bothering to mention that she didn’t even know how to use snapchat. “What if she hates me already? Or what if I was right and she did think I was boring?”

“I’m sorry. I’m being stupid.” She wiped the tears away quickly, almost swatting at her own face in frustration. She hated that she was making this about herself, but it was the catharsis she hadn’t been able to find for years. “I know we said we’d try to be friends, but how can we really do that when you still hate me for what I did to you? We’ll be water cooler friends. We’ll say hi at the coffee maker, and that’s it, and I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. I just can’t. There has to be a reason we keep finding each other again. For better or worse, I honest to God believe we’re supposed to be in each other’s lives, and having shallow conversations about practice schedules for the next twenty years of our careers is going to kill me.” She took a deep breath, trying to steady herself. Her tears had stopped flowing, but she was still off-balance. “We don’t ever have to talk about this again, but… I just needed to get it all out in the open. Just once.”

“You’re not.” She backed away immediately, putting as much space as she could between the two of them. There was an overwhelming amount of emotion in the room, almost dizzying and Reid was sure she wasn’t equipped to handle it. She’d gotten through her heartbreak with nothing but rage and hatred, having to face it head on now with anything but would be difficult. “I don’t, I don’t still hate you Daisy, I don’t. I won’t lie to you and tell you sometimes I wish I still did, that I wish it was that easy, but it isn’t.” She felt her mouth going dry at the idea that they were supposed to find each other again, she’d never really thought about that sort of thing. Kismet. Destiny. but the theory had a lot of weight in it, she had to admit. “You really think that?” This time she took a step closer but stepped herself from reaching out again. “You think this is what-- serendipity? That this is all meant to happen?”

“Nearly four years old. I’m stressin’, Co. I’m about to be a PTA mom to a little one, we’re gonna go to his holiday pageants and science fairs. Goodness, but you’re right. S’all for another day. You and I haven’t had a proper date night in ages and I’m finally over havin’ a cow every time he’s left alone with your brother. We should enjoy ourselves, get a milkshake with two straws.”

“Yeah, see even hearin’ you say it’s makin’ me a little dizzy. Four. And he talks so much. And he’s just-- four. I think we got a couple years before we’re worryin’ about science fairs and I know it’s crazy cause we’re just used to havin’ him at home all the time but it’s gonna be real good for him and we’re gonna pick the best school there is, he’s gonna have a lot of friends. C’mon-- let’s enjoy this, feels like we spent a lot of our time worryin’ about Seth when we could have been havin’ cute dates. And y’know Deac’s not so bad once he stops usin’ Seth to flirt with women. Milkshake with two straws, huh? And here I thought my moves were lame.”

Ophelia took a half step back, but kept both of Ashley’s hands firmly in her own. It was going to hurt even more now to sever contact, but right now, she was on a high she’d never felt before. On some level, she had known for a long time how she felt about Ashley, but it was all hitting her at once. She was in love. And the girl of her dreams loved her back. “How am I supposed to say goodbye to you now?” she asked. “I’m so glad you did it, Ash. I shouldn’t have waited. How can you love me when I’m such an idiot? We could have had so much more time together.”

At that moment, she was so damn happy that she’d almost forgotten that in the next few minutes she’d have to let her go, she’d have to watch her walk away for who knew how long. Ashley would have been perfectly content to live in just that bubble and hold on to Phi for as long as she could. “I shouldn’t have waited either I thought-- I was afraid we’d just--” she didn’t finish her sentence, instead pulling in Ophelia to wrap her arms tightly around her. “You’re not an idiot, you’re not, if anything I am and this-- this is just the beginning okay? A year is nothing. I’m gonna miss you like hell but in the grand scheme of things it’s gonna be nothing at all.”

“There’s no way you bombed. If you did half of what you did when we went over lines, I can promise you there was no bombing. But I got it, Italian it is. And you shouldn’t worry about where you’ll land, those viral people do get jobs though, look at that lady who sang Shallow in the subway.”

“You say that cause you have to. And your efforts at cheering me up are making me sad. I don’t want to ride the subway. This is a long time and I know what you said about every director being different but this feels like torture, like they’re doing it on purpose, I just wanna know. I need cheesecake, too. Or maybe tiramisu. If no one’s gonna cast me in anything then I’m just going to stress eat.”

Anytime Cody willingly admitted that he enjoyed spending time with her, Blue lit up. His exterior was so tough and unbreakable; any glimpse beneath the surface made her glow, grinning as she gave him a sidelong glance. Her smile quickly fell when he said Andrew’s name. Her foot pressed down harder on the gas as they hit the highway. “What if I’d said dare? You coulda dared me to drive with my feet.” She felt that antsy, itchy, stir-crazy feeling that almost always preceded a stupid decision, like she wanted to jump out of her skin. “Yeah, I guess he’s really my fucking boyfriend,” she said, keeping it light, joking so she wouldn’t feel anxious. “He’s not really my usual type. I don’t know. It just kinda happened. I don’t think either of us expected it.”

“Don’t drive with your feet,” he warned, half alarmed, half amused. He’d felt stupid the minute he’d brought up the name, something about the kid had made him feel on edge, he didn’t trust him and that whole nice guy bullshit he had going on. “What’s your usual type then?” He focused on that part instead, knowing full well it was probably a bad idea to talk about their brief encounter where all he’d wanted to do was punch him square in the mouth. 

“I’ll just remember to have one too many fire extinguishers in our new place. You’ll still help me pick out the place, right? I know this is my area of expertise, but that’s all part of the process.”

“I know you’ll never let me live this down and I wouldn’t have it any other way, but I guess I propose that when the time is right, I’ll ask you.”

“Yeah, course I will. It’s gotta have a nice bathroom and a big enough closet. Don’t worry I know a thing or two about how to pick out a place. I know I pretend to ignore you, my dad and Sutton and your boring real estate talks but I listen sometimes. ”

“Jack, I’m not– that’s not something you have to offer, it’s not what I was getting at here. Not that you won’t be a great dad, but you’ll have that on your own time too. You don’t have to– that’s too much to even try to wrap my head around and the logistics of what that’d look like and I’m fully prepared to do this on my own, you know? With you it’d be– you’d be there.”

“I’m not offering out of-- out of some weird sense of obligation or pity or anything like that. I’m offering cause I-- cause I know you’d be an amazing mom one day and cause I care about you. I want to see you happy, for you to get everything you want. But-- I mean you’re right, it was stupid of me to even think about it much less bring it up. I just thought-- you know-- I figured maybe we’d make a good team, but I get it, if you wanna do it on your own.”

He walked beside Frankie as they entered the restaurant, keeping one hand behind the small of her back but not quite touching her. It felt odd to touch so casually. He wasn’t really sure where the boundaries stopped and started with their situation. “I think at least some of it’s gotta be instinct. Of which, I have none.” It was still early in the day, the Please Seat Yourself sign out. Blake Hawthorne was behind the bar, scowling up at the TV as he wiped down a pint glass. “Long as you’re not feelin’ too sick. I got myself down a Google rabbit hole–big mistake. Don’t ever Google anything. It said there’s some chicks who get so sick when they’re pregnant they end up in the hospital.” He shuddered at the thought. “Well, yeah. That couldn’t hurt. And, I mean, that’s a good question. Y’know, when he’s…out,” Jack said, “where’s he gonna live?”

“I think everyone’s different. Some days I don’t even wanna think about the word food. Others I feel completely normal like m’not pregnant at all.” She whispered the last part of her sentence, despite the emptiness of the restaurant, rumors and gossip fueled quickly in this little town. “First two weeks after I found out I think all I could handle were graham crackers and apple juice.” She took a seat in a booth and immediately grabbed the rolled up silverware and took them out of the napkin, she’d always tear them to bits in situations like this. They were having a nice conversation but she was still mostly nerves. “Yeah, some women have to go on bed rest for weeks it’s--” she trailed off, it was absolutely terrifying. “I hadn’t thought about that.” She had, of course, assuming that it would just be with her, but it was before he’d even made the decision that he wanted to be involved that she’d given it more than a passing thought. “We both have our own place, I think we just gotta you know come up some sort of schedule, make sure we get equal time.If that’s somethin’ you want of course.”

“Are you– I guess I should ask now instead of being left to wonder, but are you and Reed going to plan some type of elaborate dance for the reception? Not that I mind, I don’t mind at all, I encourage it. I just need to make sure the camera’s in the perfect place. Christmas socks but that’s it. I always thought we’d get some cool, exotic kinda pet, but I’ll settle for a dog as long as it’s a cute dog, anything but a Pomeranian. Let’s do it, let’s elope tonight. We won’t tell a single soul until we plan the whole reception and they get really confused as to why there’s not a ceremony.”

“I hadn’t thought about that. I can’t believe you just gave me that idea. I mean is a few months enough time to choreograph a whole dance routine, do you think my sister would help? I-- I guess I’ll have to keep it a surprise for now, huh? Do they make tearaway wedding dresses?”

“They’ll call you. You know every director’s different when it comes to turn around time, but you can’t keep pacing back and forth like that. Let me take you out to dinner, ease your mind.”

“I can pace. I can totally pace. Just watch me pace here back and forth until I wear a hole in the damn floor. What if I bombed it? What if I peaked? What if I’m doomed to community theater or worse I have to work in one of those stupid singing diners that go viral all the time? I need about a pound of pasta to ease my mind.”

“I’m sorry, I’m really tryin’ to let loose and detach from everythin’, ‘cause I know we need a break, but I’ve got a whole list of preschools runnin’ through my head on repeat.”

“Trust me, I know you do, cause I do too-- actually m’more thinkin’ when did he get to be this age that we gotta pick out a preschool now but-- I promise you we’ll sit down tomorrow and make a big list, pros and cons, all that stuff. Not like we can really pick one out now, right?”