You can't fuck with me.

Tilly bit her lip, instantly regretting her question. She didn’t want to think about Eric decorating his house with anybody else, even if it was just his mom and she had no reason to be jealous. She hadn’t put her own up yet, shooing Maria away every time she suggested pulling them down from the attic. However, she couldn’t let her ex know that he and the now painful happy memories it stirred was the reason the Worthington house wasn’t dripping with its usual extravagant Christmas spirit. “Not yet, we decided to get a new tree. We were meant to go pick one last week but Connie had book club, so,” They’d known each other long enough to know that Mrs Worthington’s book club was more of an excuse to guzzle glasses of wine in the middle of the day and make herself feel better about her misery by catching up on the town gossip. Obviously that took priority over spending time with her daughter, even if it was a lie it was a convincing one. Her mind flickered back to memories of getting Lexi as she watched the dog wander beside the boy, unconsciously smiling as she felt the soft fur brush against her own leg. She was a good barrier, a way to pretend that being this close was appropriate for exes. “You know him, he doesn’t like to feel lazy,” She chuckled, although she believed it was more a case of he couldn’t stand the sight of his own family when the alternative was making money, but she had no reason to complain, “He was back last week but that didn’t last long. He said he’d be back for Christmas but my Grandma said I could have dinner with them anyhow.” She wasn’t sure she should ask, she wasn’t sure she wanted to imagine that he had made plans for Christmas without even considering her for the first time ever, but she did anyway, “Got any plans for Christmas?”

Eric had yet to finish with the decorations and maybe a part of him was hoping that things would be well enough between him and Tilly that they could carry on like before with their holiday traditions. “I wasn’t joking you know. I really do want to watch the video.” He knew how bleak things were at the Worthington residence. He had known for a large majority of his young life. “We can watch it and I don’t know... maybe I can help you put up some of those decorations.” The thought of being around Francis for any length of time gave him the heebie geebies. “I thought this was going to be the year we fly out to my uncle’s for Christmas, but I guess they’re all coming out here.” Between his dad’s brothers and sisters, there was always somewhere fun to travel to during the holidays and it was apparently their turn to host their extended family. “They’ll all be coming in once school’s out for their kids and whatnot. My mom will always have a place for you at the table and you know everyone so...” This wasn’t weird right? No, not at all. What was weird about inviting someone who you thought of as your best friend over for a holiday party? Nothing at all. 

Tilly’s mouth suddenly felt very dry, a sudden intake of breath following the direct comment that Eric had made about the last year. Sure, she’d been the one to bring it up but she hadn’t expected him to actually continue the conversation - just nod and then awkwardly shift onto another topic before it came up again and they had another opportunity to dance around it. “Yeah,” She agreed, less because she did and more because she couldn’t think straight to formulate a proper answer. Of course the last year had been an adventure. If she thought back to this same time last December everything had been different. They were best friends, planning a stupid prank and since then they’d confessed their feelings to one another, gotten together, fallen in love and subsequently fallen apart. It was almost crazy to think of the roller coaster they’d had in just 12 months, that this time last year she’d never have believed everything that would happen but she certainly wouldn’t even consider that they would be apart. They’d always been best friends after all. She cleared her throat, breaking her own train of thought and quick to move on, “Yeah it was. You put the decorations up yet?” Maybe that wasn’t the best segway, considering they had always done that together - she’d even foregone looking over at the Bradford house in the likely event he’d done it without her, but it was the best she could think of it the moment.

The light atmosphere that they had worked so hard to maintain these last few weeks was slowly dissipating the more they continued this line of conversation. It had been difficult in general, trying to navigate all the awful and heart-wrenching emotions he had felt up until this point without be able to talk them out with the one person who could console him and make him feel better. Telling her would mean having to be honest about what he had gone through and that their breakup had effected him more than he had let on. “Most of them,” he nodded eagerly, glad she had steered the conversation away from the former. “Dad’s been busy at the hospital and mom’s trying not to rip her hair out between all her freshman classes so I think we’re all waiting until winter break to have a moment to ourselves... You?” Eric’s eyes followed Lexi walking upon the white snow, her tail wagging. He couldn’t help, but smile at the sight. He was so glad to spend some time with her... and her owner. “What about you guys? Has Tripp been back in town long enough to pretend he cares?” 

“Are you… Did your mom make you watch The Princess Diaries? Doesn’t matter. You missed me deciding that our project is gonna be a Hamlet Jeopardy game because I don’t trust you to pull your own weight in a playlist.”  

“It was family movie night. It was her turn to pick. The end.” Was it really that big of a deal? “Woah woah woah. Can we just chill for a second and let me help with this assignment like I’m supposed to because this is a group project?”

Tilly herself had been more than a little excited about the new addition to the family, she’d been twelve and Tripp was at least still pretending that he cared about her hurt feelings when he had missed her birthday. She’d forgiven him instantly when he greeted her with a pup as white as snow, almost as quickly as she had run across the street to get her best friend. Eric was the second person Lexi had been introduced to, right after her beloved owner, so their unbreakable bond should have been obvious. If she thought about it, Tilly might have felt bad about keeping her baby away from her ex, even if it was for valid personal reasons. “I love Blake, but I’m not choking on the grains just because he can’t work a coffee machine. Main street,” She answered, hardly noticing the snow until the video was mentioned, “It is December and it is tradition.” Of course the tradition had been broken last year, but she doubted they needed to visit why. Oh how the tables had turned.

“Alright, so no Dairy’s then.” He laughed at her comment, knowing just how true it was. “Last year was... an exception. I’d be down to watch it if you are.” He looked at the ground as they walked, his eyes on the white snow and Lexi who trotted before them. “Last year was an adventure wasn’t it?” he mentioned as casually as he possibly could. He should have let the topic drop, but for some reason he found himself thinking about it like he had many times before. Christmas, New Year’s Eve. It was all a giant whirlwind of emotions between the two best friends. It wan’t until after the fact that she had revealed to him she had feelings at the end of the prior year. How badly he had wished she told him then. Things between them and Rory Daniels wouldn’t have been so complicated. 

“ yeah! that’d be fun, really fun. ” anne enthused, she loved christmas, and she loved her friends. what better combination than a christmas movie sleepover? though, she noted that he listed tilly’s name at all as much as he did. she tried not to make it obvious. “ speaking of, though, you and tilly. ” she paused with raised brow. “ talking again? ” of course, she was aware her last conversation with eric hadn’t been the most pleasant, especially from her. but he’d learnt his lesson, or at least learnt that if he did something like that again, anne wouldn’t be so diplomatic as to ask him to take it down. so as long as he didn’t do anything like that again, anne had no reason to hold a grudge. everyone had to learn one way or another.

“Yeah,” he nodded along, almost in disbelief himself. “Every now and then it gets a little weird, but we’re getting there. Hopefully, we can sort of get back to friendly terms again.” He shrugged, the action speaking for itself. He wasn’t sure how things were going to work out between him and Tilly in the long run, but so far things were going well. “If I invite everyone and my mom provides the ultimate Christmas snacks, can I trust you to pick some awesome Christmas movies?” He knew his mom would be over the moon excited to provide sustenance for their evening. Plus, nothing said Christmas to Eric like homemade hot cocoa and cookies made by Penelope Bradford. 

“Okay, first of all: the fact that you think I can actually fall for her, is insulting,” Tristan says. That’s like Eric acknowledging that Nik’s actually like, hot or doable. (Or is he saying Tristan’s lowly enough to fall for her? No, no, no. Don’t go down that hole.) "And played out, yes, but in movies,” Tristan defends on behalf of his brainchild. “No one ever actually does this shit in real life because it’s an asshole move.” Hence why he’s doing it. It’s ingenious, really. The more Eric doubts his plan and capabilities, Tristan finds his low motivation (thanks, Nik) renewed. Now he thinks he just wants to do this to prove Eric wrong. “And if it’s so played out, why did Nik essentially go on a date with me and say I’m a nice guy?” He points out, hoping to shove in Eric’s face just how much progress he’s made so he could reevaluate that doubt he has. “After you pulled your stunt by the way,” he points out, hoping to show just how much more impressive that is when she was so angry in the first place. “I’m not sure what you said to Nik about me, but I made it work and it actually kind of helped me score the coffee date so maybe I should thank you.” Even if he’s not feeling so great about telling Eric in the moment, he probably wouldn’t have made the progress he had without Eric making Nik so mad. Hey, maybe that’s something. Maybe he can get Eric to piss off Nik so hard so she’d have to believe Tristan was… ‘different’. “I asked her out on a real date and she turned me down. Said I wasn’t her type. Which like, bullshit – how am I not anyone’s type? Smart, athletic, and good-looking not her vibe? Even Tilly said it was crazy.” Oh yeah, he hasn’t mentioned that part to Eric just yet. "And Tilly’s in on this by the way.”

“Yeah, you’re right. As if you’d ever let yourself stoop so low.” The idea of Tristan and Anika together for real made his stomach turn. Gross. She was so annoying and rude and when you happened to dish it back at her, she started pulling the dumb jock/bully card. If he wanted a bucket of ice cold water to fall on her head on her way into Chemistry, he would do it. If he wanted to hide a dead rat in her locker, he would. Those were way too easy though and the stakes weren’t high enough. Sure, she’d be angry and maybe even tattletale to the nearest faculty member, but it wouldn’t be nearly as satisfying. “Tilly..?” Of course Tilly was in on the whole thing. Suddenly, Tristan’s reluctance to open his mouth at Dairy’s made sense. 

“Maybe she’s realizing that at the end of the day you’re still a jock and that you and I are still best friends and doesn’t want to get caught up in our awesomeness.” Tristan’s very association with Eric and Tilly and the rest of their crowd was probably what was making her reluctant to pursue the other jock. After all, Tris was right in his self-analysis. What more could a girl want in a guy? Eric chuckled, “Maybe it’s for the best. If I had to see you two together, I’d probably want to hurl. No way any friend of mine would be caught with a loser lik-” And suddenly, a light bulb went off in his head. “Okay, so this may or may not work, but...” Eric straightened up, leaning in as he spoke excitedly in hushed tones. “So she hates the popular crowd right? And probably hates me the most. I mean, come on- let’s be real. And she knows that we’re best friends. What if we pretend like we’re fighting because you actually like her and you told me and I’m like ‘What? Fuck no!’? We can stage a whole argument or fight or whatever at school so she can see and then she’ll have no choice, but to be convinced that you’re different. Plus, since you fought with me, your best friend, over the whole thing she’d have to believe you when you say you like her.” 

It was almost like she couldn’t help it, her hand reaching out to stroke the fur on Lexi’s back. She couldn’t remain unaffected by her dog’s charms, it was one of the reasons her pet was so spoilt in the first place. How could she be blamed? “Well you just seemed so eager to see her,” She argued, laughing over her shoulder as walked over to grab her coat. She wasn’t willing to admit that she might have been a little jealous of the animal, and she certainly wasn’t going to show just how elated she might have been that the invite had been extended to her. She’d thought it was a long shot, but maybe she hadn’t totally misread the signals she’d been picking up at their lunch. “Oh, your treat?” She teased, shrugging on the coat as she watched Eric and Lexi, “Well how could I ever refuse?”

“I’m always excited to see her.” When the Worthingtons added Lexi to the family, Tilly shared the news with Eric first. He remembered the day like it was yesterday. Tilly was huffing at his doorstep, barely managing to breathe out that she got a puppy before Eric was dashing ahead of her to meet the new Worthington. Ever since he met the husky, they had a bond that was unbreakable. The last couple of months he spent without seeing her had been -well- shitty. “So we drinking diner coffee at Dairy’s or are we headed towards the coffee shop on Main Street for decent coffee?” he joked as they stepped outside. The ground was covered in snow and more continued to float gently down from the sky. “Man, today would be the perfect day to watch that pageant video.” 

“Hey! She’s a good girl!” Tilly would almost seem offended at the idea that her baby had done absolutely anything remotely considered wrong, if it hadn’t been for the grin that was overtaking her lips at that moment of course. Whether that happiness was from the scene in front of her, which admittedly was quite cute, or the same memories dancing around her own mind of Eric and her precious Lexi cuddled together on the couch - she almost didn’t mind giving up her own prize place for the dog. Former prize place. She rolled her eyes, almost chastising the boy for getting the canine so excited but was cut short by the shock on her face. “Oh you want me to come?” It seem unclear whether she was just surprised or pleasantly so. A smile quickly gave away the idea that she wasn’t totally opposed, going onto explain, “I just thought you might want some alone time with your favourite girl.”

“Yeah she is. You’re such a good girl aren’t you Lexi? Aren’t you?” He spoke in that voice strictly reserved for cuddly animals like Lexi and babies. Being around the dog always put him in the best of moods. Dogs just had the effect on people, didn’t they? It was true what people said. Humans didn’t deserve dogs, but he sure was glad they had them. “Yeah? I thought that was the whole point; getting coffee?” Isn’t that what she had suggested over text? Bringing Lexi along for the ride was simply a bonus. A really awesome bonus, but a bonus nonetheless. “Come on, my treat.” Things were going so well, he wanted to get the most out of every moment they had together before something went wrong. “Go grab your coat. We’ll be waiting right here for you.” Lexi barked almost as if she was agreeing with him. 

“I plan on fucking… destroying her,” Tristan announces gladly – but quietly, carefully, since they are in a public place after all. You can’t be too careful of who could overhear. “This isn’t just some run-of-the-mill shove into a locker or pants in the middle of the hall bullcrap, this is a big time scheme, long term, the holy grail of pranks. My big huzzah for Senior Year.” Building up to it makes all sorts of feelings bubble up in Tristan. He has a hard time not jumping on the table right then and making it worthy of the Globe Theater. He looks around, ensuring there’s no familiar faces from school. It’s a good thing he and Eric didn’t pick Friends of Mine to meet at, especially since West works there and it’s often frequented by Northlakers. Even with their obscure meeting place, Tristan is careful. He leans across the table to whisper the next part to Eric. “I’m gonna make her fall in love with me.” Like that’s somehow devious. But it is. With them, and their crowd, who they’re talking about, of course it is. “I’m gonna get her to trust me, fall for me, take all of her firsts, and tell her it meant nothing on Valentine’s Day.” It’s spoken with such sincere enthusiasm, anyone who isn’t them would think it absurd. “It’ll be so bad, she’ll probably be in therapy for the next 10 years.” He loosely quotes Tilly on that. But now that he’s gotten past the exciting part, he has to tell Eric… the unexciting part. The part that’s practically upsetting. He moves away now, falling back against the booth with a sigh. “But we’ve run into some issues.”

Eric couldn’t help, but laugh at the idea, immediately shaking of his head to defend the action. “I’m sorry. I’m not laughing at you. It’s... a good idea. It’s just... played out. Plus, this whole thing sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. What if you end up actually liking her? Isn’t that the way it goes in movies? You get her to fall for you so you can mess with her, but then you’re the one in the end who catches feelings and then it all gets messed up until you profess your undying love for her or some shit. I’m sorry, but I might barf if I have to see you with her. She’s insufferable. Also, it’s so played out that she probably sees through the whole thing already.” He had to admit, he wasn’t exactly helping by telling her that Tristan was most likely fucking with her. He grimaced, mentally kicking himself for that conversation. “How’s she to know that you’re being sincere especially when you’re, you know... not.” The gears in his head began turning as he tried to figure out what he could possibly do to help. “What issues?”

“I think it’s more 906?” Tilly laughed, trying not to think too much of her memories of their movie nights or her sadness that she was missing out on one of the Bradford’s. Her smile only grew as it soon became apparent that neither of them had needed to call Lexi, the husky bounding out from the kitchen just at Eric’s voice. She quickly tried to suppress it, however, opting for a playful eye roll and a shove of the leash in he ex’s direction. “She’s only desperate for a walk,” She defended, aware that she was lying.

“You know, I wouldn’t be surprised.” He had seen it with her so many times, Eric could probably quote the whole thing by heart. Eric sat down on the ground with the dog, allowing her to take full advantage of his relaxed state to pounce. “Despite what you might believe, you’re not a lap dog Lexi bear.” Maybe that had only been a him thing. He could remember cold winter nights, watching movies with Tilly and Lexi taking up most of the space on the sofa just to rest her head on his lap. “Alright, alright... Who wants walkies?!” he asked excitedly and the dog visibly perked up, remembering that she was indeed in need of a stroll. “Atta girl.” He fastened the leash with care before standing up and looking to Tilly for the green light. “You ready?”

“Just a suggestion,” she said with a soft sigh, thinking it had been a pretty sound idea but thinking now that no matter what she said, it was going to be challenged. At his next words she raised her eyebrows, “Are you serious?” she couldn’t believe he was bringing this up again, “Why do guys always think that a girl is crazy when they don’t like something she does or something she says? It takes a big, big ego to think like that. You thought you were being nice, you thought it was a nice gesture but you were being an asshole, Eric, you sounded like an asshole and I reacted to you being an asshole,” she didn’t hesitate in her delivery, making it clear that she was confident in her own words, “Just like I’m reacting to you being an asshole now, it doesn’t make me crazy,”

“It’s not about you being a girl. It’s about you blatantly overreacting.” Eric huffed out a sigh of frustration at her all too familiar words. “Yup. M-hm. Asshole. Got it.” She wasn’t telling him anything she hadn’t already said. Eric offered her a thumbs up, only barely looking up from the textbook long enough to show the gesture before returning to his scanning of the page before him. “Have you thought of any topics you wanted to research or...?” he asked randomly, changing the subject before they got into another argument without getting any work done. 

“ i just might, you know. she should know better. ” anne threatened teasingly, of course she had no intention of following through on her words but it wouldn’t stop her from poking fun. “ oh the lion king is such a good movie, ” she cooed, holding a gloved hand over her heart. “ i haven’t seen it in so long, ” she thought aloud, mentally adding it to her list of movies to watch. but in january, not december. then a small excited gasp at his idea “ don’t say things like that to me unless you mean it, because it will happen and you will all have to sit through me crying through love actually. ”

“I agree completely.” Come to think of it, Eric hadn’t seen The Lion King in a while either. School always seemed to get in the way of fun, mind-numbing activities like watching movies or tv. He smiled at Anne’s reaction to his idea, glad that she approved. Their last conversation hadn’t been quite so cordial. He remembered how angry she had been at him for the video prank. “Yeah, I’m sure we can get a decent little group together, maybe even do a sleepover or something. You, me, Tris, Blake, Tilly...” He trailed off at the last name, not quite realizing up until that point that perhaps he and Tilly were actually on friendly enough terms that he could legitimately think inviting her was a good idea. 

Nik rolled her eyes and scoffed at Eric’s argument, “That’s not the saying, that’s just what people say to the early bird instead of worrying about being on time,” she insisted, already feeling as if their afternoon meeting was going to be a struggle from this point onward.  “ Okay, so, I think we should both do the hypothesis so that we both know what we’re doing, we should both record data and then compare to eliminate any user errors and then we can split the write up and work on a conclusion together,” she couldn’t help but feel like she was getting the simpleton tasks, anybody could put a powerpoint together after all, “I can do the presentation though, it won’t take long,” she added, throwing him somewhat of a bone since it hadn’t been a terrible idea.

His eyebrows shot up at her willingness to put in more of an effort. He had to resist the urge to roll his eyes at her words. Of course he wasn’t going to exclude her from doing any work. He would never let her just piggyback off of his efforts. “If you insist.” Eric had to make sure he double -no- triple checked everything after she was done with it though. She may have been improving, but Eric still didn’t trust her. If they had to share a grade, he didn’t want to leave anything to chance. Plus, there was no doubt that she hated him. Who was to say she wasn’t going to make the whole process harder on him on purpose? “I’d offer to help you with that-” he responded, referring to the presentation portion, “-but you tend to go crazy and scream at me when I offer to do something nice so I’ll just stick to whatever task you deemed worthy of this dumb old jock.” Eric pulled out his textbook and began searching for a topic for them to do the project on. 

“Early bird gets the worm, so” Nik retorted with a shrug of her shoulders, thinking it was better to be early than late, particularly if it meant she got to hold it against Eric for the remainder of their study sessions. “I haven’t really done anything yet, I cleaned the whiteboard so we can use it to workshop some ideas for our presentation, made sure my water bottle was filled,” she held up the water bottle in her hand and gave it a little wiggle with another shrug trailing her words, she didn’t want to be one of those group assignment partners that totally took control of everything.

“You know, I read somewhere that, that isn’t the whole saying. Hold up.” If only to make a point, Eric pulled out his phone and began typing away the familiar part of the phrase on google as he settled in. Before he could finish, the saying in its entirety showed up and he began reading aloud. “‘The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.’ I guess in this situation I’m the mouse so...” Eric stared at his partner for a moment. She really had done nothing. “Um okay... Well, we could start off by splitting up some of the work. I think I should handle the hypothesis, recording numerical data, and we can work on the actual experiment and the forming of a conclusion together. Did you want to be in charge of the presentation itself?” She was the artist after all.

“ well, don’t get me wrong it’s a great choice … any other month of the year. ” anne continued to tease, grin on her lips. although she’d been dissing the choice, head tilted to one side at the idea that the princess diaries, arguably one of the best movies she’d ever seen, was only not awful. “ alright, the what, pray tell, is a good movie? in your eyes. ”

“Feel free to tell my mom that, Annie.” Eric stuffed his hands into his pockets, hiding them from the chilly winter air. “You’re going to rip on me no matter what movie I say, but if I had to pick one it’d probably be The Lion King.” He had yet to meet a single human being who hated that one. “If we’re strictly talking holiday movies, it’s hands down Home Alone... Maybe we should get a group together and just have a Christmas movie marathon or something.”

“Hell no, I would never be that irresponsible,” Tristan is quick to defend. Besides, if he had knocked a girl up, he wouldn’t be standing around and waiting for Eric for 10 minutes. He’d outright run around town trying to find him because he’d be too in a panic to do anything else. “I want to talk to you about Anika West.” He smirks, the sound of Westy’s name making something devious bubble up in him. “Remember when you asked me what was going down? Well, something’s going down. But it’s top secret. Like super top secret. I’d ask for us to make a blood pact right now but that’s awfully unsanitary so we’re just going to put this on our many years of friendship.” Which is way more sacred than some stupid blood pact.

“Okay good. I was worried for a second there.” The mention of some dubious scheme against Anika perked Eric up tenfold and he slipped into the booth at the Main Street coffee shop. As he sat across from his best friend, Eric prepared himself for what was bound to be a fun story. “Alright, I’m listening.” Whatever it was that Tristan had been planning, Eric was glad to be involved or to at least have knowledge of what was going down.