𝑨𝑵𝑮𝑬𝑳 𝑶𝑵 𝑭𝑰𝑹𝑬

nonverbal starters ft. @potentas ( always accepting ! ) 

      lip had gotten off.. relatively scot-free. gash on his head that the doctors’ had stitched up and sent him on his way with a prescription of fuckin’ painkillers that he doubts he’ll get the chance to take before frank gets his fuckin’ hands on them. home was the last place he was thinking about when they released him and that’s how he finds himself here, dozing off in the chair right next to her bed with his hand lazily grasping at her own. he had convinced alex to go and get some rest before he passed out on the fuckin’ ground and the guy had been pretty damn stubborn, but finally decided to go get the needed rest with a promise that lip wouldn’t leave her until he got back. that promise wasn’t even necessary because there was no way in hell that he was going to leave her after everything that had happened. 

    the car was fuckin’ totaled and the only thing that was stuck on a loop in lip’s mind was all of the blood. so much fuckin’ blood. he thought that’d be somethin’ he was used to from living on the southside, but it had been enough to make his stomach flip and bile to burn at the back of his throat. the same aching in his chest from that night still resided there, and sometimes - - - sometimes, breathing felt like the hardest damn thing in the world. it wasn’t too uncommon of a feeling for the gallagher. you get born a gallagher and having the crushing weight of disappointment on you is basically your birthright, but this was different in its entirety. 

    with karen, it had been betrayal that weighed heavily on him and made him want to pound his fist into things until his knuckles bled and drink until he was so off of his ass that he couldn’t even remember who he was.. but this? this was just numbness. something that he knew he couldn’t fill with any amount of alcohol or any amount of violence. this was loss. the loss of his child. their child. lip can’t ignore the feeling that it’s his fault. if he would’ve reacted in a different way or, or paid more attention to the road.. how do they even fuckin’ come back from this? 

this is her first event after coming out as bisexual to the public eye. she remembered all the press it caused; it was the only thing the fashion world heard about for the past few weeks. mia really didn’t expect it to blow up to this proportion. although, she definitely does not mind all the new business it brought for her magazine, though. hey, if she gets to flaunt her bisexuality and get some money doing it, why the hell not? now, here she is, a fashion gala in beverly hills, ready to make her appearance as the first bisexual editor-in-chief of a fashion publication.

arriving at the beautiful beverly hills hotel, mia applies a few more touch-ups for her look: a dab of lipstick here, flatten down a fly-away there. immediately, she’s greeted with paparazzi, most, if not all, hawking to get answers about her bisexuality. she gracefully poses, showcasing a beautiful floral dress from elie saab’s winter collection; perfect for the weather and occasion. she waves hello to a few people she knows from the industry, but she turns her head when she sees the woman in the car behind her.

“kamden prescott,” mia says, walking up to the fashion designer. “fancy seeing you here.” it wasn’t like they hated each other, but being two up and coming women in the fashion industry, there’s bound to be a sense of competition and rivalry. she’s about to ask who exactly invited her, but the inquisitive voices of the paparazzi distract her. “amelia! is that kamden prescott?” “is kamden prescott your plus one to this event?” “are amelia liu and kamden prescott dating?” “ooh, now that’s a fashion power couple!” suddenly an idea pops into her head. something that could potentially benefit her in the long run. stepping towards kamden, she loops her arm around the other. “since you’re here,” mia whispers to her. “and if anyone’s wondering, you’re my date.”

    “i’m sorry?” between the woman that she wasn’t exactly friends with approaching her and the questions that she had been bombarded with before she had even gotten a chance to properly get out of the vehicle, it’s understandable that she’s more than just surprised and her face says as much. it would not have been a fashion gala without kamden prescott and that was exactly why she had spent the better portion of the month prepping for the particular occasion. clearing everything from her schedule, finding the absolute perfect outfit, the whole nine. none of which included having amelia liu on her arm at said event. this might’ve been a charity event, but her charity did not extend to her. 

     kamden had seen the twitter stories and posts when the news of her sexuality had been released and if she’s being honest, she had rolled her eyes a time or two. why did suddenly being open about who you are get you more fame than before the world knew? sexuality had always been something that kamden was open with and she had never seen a billion and one articles on her. she wasn’t jealous. she was just tired of people making big deals about things that should be entirely normal. 

            since the moment he sat down he had been waiting for ethan to say something. oliver was hardly going to be the first person to do that, break the silence, the tension. only as he does prove to open his mouth it takes everything within to not roll his eyes. it’s such a silly statement. one that, maybe, in another time he would have found funny. nothing was all that funny as he sat here looking through the menu. “you always get the same thing.” he comments as he glances up at him. the gaze is meant to be something that is quick but as he lingers, feeling the ache in his chest, he cannot help himself as he tries his best to think of something far more clever to say. He comes up short after he realizes he has been looking at him too long. he looks at the menu before he looks around. it felt so much like everyone was staring at them, at him, even as they all seemed like the two of them were the last thought on the minds of so many. he needed a drink. a lot of drinks. he missed ethan. it was that plain and simple. he wanted to be on friendlier terms or any terms at all. more than that, actually. but he kept those thoughts to himself as he took a sip from the drink in front of him. “let’s not have this awkward. we’re…friends.” not that oliver actually believed any of that. they hadn’t been friends in a very long time. “we don’t have to talk about the menu. or the weather. or all those other things people talk about when they don’t know what to say.” 

    upon speaking, there’s immediate regret when oliver proves to be the first to respond and a frustration clashes with it at how he pretends to know him. well, it wasn’t pretending if he did know ethan better than everyone else that was seated at this table, but it still annoys ethan to no end. he doesn’t get to make comments like that, not when they’re like... this. whatever this was. in fact, ethan’s decided that he’s going to make it a point that he doesn’t get the same thing every time he goes out. take that, oliver. he wants to say something in return about how that isn’t true or ask him how he’s so sure of that, but he can feel the eyes piercing into the both of them, and he decides against making things more awkward for the time being. instead, he does something that’s worse than anything else. he lets his green eyes cross the table and meet with oliver’s and his throat feels like it’s closing in instantly. had it always been this hard to breathe in here?