golly

“Next time you should come find me sooner, so I have an excuse to get off the phone.” He squeezed her hand. “It’s okay. Like I said, I don’t like to be alone.” Peter held her head with both hands, guiding it down so he could press a quick kiss to the top of it. “Respectfully, I suppose you can do what you want.” Peter stood, though he had to crouch slightly to refrain from hitting his head on the wooden slats above. “Do you want to get out of here?”

“I am going to try my best!” As he squeezed her hand, Gadget smiled even if she wasn’t exactly feeling good in the moment. Do not get her wrong, it was a relief to get things off her chest and let Peter know what she has been anxious about since the night he first kissed her. However, their conversation didn’t really help in making her feel less anxious about those things. He told her that he wasn’t interested in being exclusive after all and along with said lack of interest came the possibility of him seeing other people. What if one of those people cause his feelings for her to change? As much as she didn’t want that to happen, it could so she was going to make the most out of the chance that she still has to be with him. The kiss he placed on the top of her head reminded her that, exclusively or not, there was no one else she’d rather be with. “Yeah, I feel like taking.a walk around the woods. Would you like to come?”

The corner of his mouth twisted into a pained smile. “Thanks,” was all he could think of to say. For them to be together, he would have to change. He couldn’t continue living how he did, flirting how he did, sleeping with other people. He couldn’t hurt her like that. His hand fell to meet hers, protecting it from the cool coastal wind. “Then you and I aren’t alone in that.” He let out a quiet, dry laugh. “That’s a terrible idea.”

“You’re welcome. I’m sorry if I got in the way of you getting the peace that you needed after the phone call with your parents. I honestly wasn’t planning on saying anything but it all came out.” But honestly speaking, Gadget was relieved that it did because they can never move forward if she kept everything to herself like usual. That was something that she needed to change before getting into the kind of relationship that she wanted with Peter. As their hands intertwined again, she found herself moving a bit closer to him. “We are not, and as long as you’d like to keep me around, I promise to never make you feel alone.” She shook her head then. “Respectfully, I disagree.”

Peter chewed at the inside of his lower lip. “Do you remember what you asked me? You asked if that was the real reason I wasn’t with anyone, or if that was the reason I told people.” A moment passed in which the boy noticed they were now sitting in the dark, the full moon pouring soft light through the slats in his make-shift roof. He reached past her head and pulled the string on a single lightbulb. “I like not knowing where my life is heading. I tried the long term thing. It made me feel old. I felt stuck. We ended up hating each other and now we barely talk.” His thumb brushed over the back over her hand. “But I don’t like being alone.” He let his other hand drift up to her face, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “I don’t want to hurt you, either, Jay.”

Gadget was so focused on their conversation that she did not notice how dark it actually was until he reached for something behind her head and turned on a light. It was the first time that they were together in the treehouse this late and it was also the first time that they had this serious of a conversation in the treehouse. Honestly speaking, she thought that the timing of both was in sync with each other and she liked it even if it was a bit hard for her to talk. “I did not know that, I’m so sorry. Please know that I have no plans of asking you to change for me.” She has witnessed her friends do that and not once did it end well. She did not want that to happen to her and Peter, not when he was very important to her. “I don’t like being alone either.”, she admitted before smiling at the feeling of his hand’s contact with her face. “I don’t think you will. I trust you, Peter.”

He squeezed back involuntarily, and his eyes darted to his hand as if he couldn’t believe it would betray him like that. He dropped her hand. His gaze met hers again, one eyebrow raised. “I understand.” His lips twitched into an uncomfortable, sympathetic smile. “I’ll be honest, love,” Peter took a breath, “I’m not interested in being exclusive. Not yet.” He looked away, out the window of the tree house. The sun was beginning to hide behind the horizon. “But I’m not going to make you wait for me. And I don’t want you to think you have to convince me that being exclusive is for me. It’s not.” He reached for her hand again. “But I like seeing you. I like spending time with you. And,” his eyes glinted, “I do like to kiss you.” He rested his elbows on his knees, his hands supporting his chin, and looked into her eyes. “If you don’t want that, tell me.”

A warm smile appeared on his face upon feeling him squeeze her hand as well and it took every bit of her strength to not let that smile go away because of him letting go or because of the change in his expression. Fortunately, she achieved that. “I know.” He is Peter Woods after all. She’s been friends with long enough to not be surprised by that. “Do you remember the first time that you brought here? That day, you told me that you like being a free bird. The last thing I want to do is to take the chance to be that away from you.” That is the very reason why she overthought everything that he said or did for her, the same reason why she prepared herself to accept that their thing would be a short-lived one. She still had hope that it would be much more than that but as the saying goes, hope for the best but prepare for the worst. “I'm just scared of doing this with you because I like you more than I should even if I’m probably not the only one you do those things with. I don’t want to get hurt again.” She looked down at their hands as their fingers intertwined. “But I don’t want to stop doing those things with you either.”

“Perhaps we’ll get coffee sometime and I’ll tell you all about it.” It wouldn’t be for a while. Peter almost never talked about his family. They weren’t a part of his life, except the occasional phone call. He tried to think of the last time he visited for a holiday, but it escaped him. His eyes narrowed, and he leaned ever so slightly closer to her. “We, are everything,” he chuckled, “and nothing.” “We don’t have to be anything other than you, and me.” Peter gestured towards the two of them as he said it. “Why do we need to be something?”

“Okay dokie! You know how to find me when you’re ready to.” Despite telling herself to do otherwise, Gadget reached for his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze because even if he didn’t talk about it much, she felt like it was so much more than he let on. As he leaned closer, she felt her heart beat faster than normal. “I’m confused.”, she admitted. Honestly speaking though, she wasn’t surprised by how this conversation was turning out. Peter himself gave her a clue on where he stood with relationships after all. “Please do not get me wrong, I really like just being you and me.” She looked down at the band aid on her hand then because it scared to see how he’d react to the next words that would leave her lips. “Because... well, I don’t do things the way you do and I don’t want to stay confused throughout whatever this is.”

Raising an eyebrow with a certain mischief in the gleam of his eyes, not being able to avoid bending over to hide a laugh. “Hey! You really know that what you said was terrible.” Luckily, Dash had that day off and had decided to simply spend it in a relaxed way: Doing what he wanted whenever he wanted. Not the worst plan. At the question about the holidays, a shrug followed by a smile was used as an answer. “Pretty good! We texted almost everyday but was good to stay with the family and have presents. What aboout you?” Looking at the bike, curiosity took over him. “So, whatcha got there? Planning to do something funny?”

“It absolutely was but hey, at least I tried, right? I promise that the next joke I’ll make will actually be a funny one.” It will probably take her a long time to get that done but Gadget is a girl of her word and she was going to do everything she can to accomplish that. Upon seeing him shrug at he question, she raised an eyebrow at him. “What was the highlight of your holidays, and what was the best present you received? As for my holidays, it was really fun! My little brother went on and on about his experiences in school and I loved every minute of his storytelling! I got to bake with him and my parents again too, I haven’t done that in a while.” All of those things, she unsurprisingly said in just one breath. “Not really, no! I was just thinking about taking my bike around and find something fun to do. Would you like to come with me?” 

“Fine. I spent most of them with Matt and his grandpa… And I decorated for the first time.” She admitted, not feeling too embarrassed. “And I visited my brothers for New Years, tried to convince them to come here… Again. And I think I failed. Again.” Shock added, her eyes going down to the floor for a moment, she was still a little down because of it.

“That sounds exciting! I hope this does not come off as rude or anything but who’s Matt?” There were so many people living in this town that even if she’s lived there for two years now, she did not know everyone yet. She was hoping to get to know more of them though, starting with whoever Matt is. “Did you have fun with your brothers? And oh, I am so sorry to hear that! Who knows though? Maybe they’ll come around and arrive when you least expect it!”

“Pretty standard. Spent some time with my family. My mom forced us to take a lot of pictures. We had a ton of food and kinda forced conversation until it was not so awkward. You know.” Viv replied with a shrug, still even if she didn’t say it much, she loved going back to Boston to spend time with her brothers and sister. “Why, were yours actually interesting?”

“Yeah, I do! When things weren’t so awkward anymore, did it become fun?” There was a hint of hope in Gadget’s voice as she asked that because she really wanted Vivienne to have had a fun time with her family. “Oh and can I see the pictures?” She smiled. “It was! I haven’t seen my parents or little brother in a long time so they had so many stories to tell and I loved every single one. Plus we followed our tradition of making Christmas cookies. It was a mess but it was the highlight of the holidays for me.”

“You seem to be a bit accident prone,” he noticed aloud. He lifted his head, “Hm? No, no I’m alright. Parents are just… parents. You know, getting on your nerves and all that. I don’t want to talk about it here, though. It ruins the vibes.” He wasn’t exactly sure what she meant. In his book, a kiss was usually an indicator of a great night. “Do you think I would have kissed you if we weren’t okay?”

“I am a little bit, yeah. It’s something that I have gotten used to over time.” That is why she had a small first aid kit in her backpack, one that she accidentally left in her dorm before coming here. “I am sorry to hear that. If ever you want to talk to someone about it here or anywhere else, I’m a pretty good listener.” She smiled at him, and that smile disappeared just as fast as it appeared because of his question. “No, I don’t. It’s just- I don’t really know how to act around you now that you’ve kissed me. I mean I don’t know what we are.” While she wanted to find that out, she regretted it implicitly asking because doing so might just ruin whatever it was they already had.

“I meant more as… I’m sympathetic to your pain,” Peter clarified with a soft chuckle. His brows knit closer with each of her tiny whimpers. He smoothed the bandage over her skin before catching her glance. “I’m fine.” Not used to hearing the big we, it took Peter a moment to collect his thoughts, causing him to stumble awkwardly over his response. “We? Erm– yeah, why wouldn’t we be?”

“Thank you then! But it really is fine. It’s nothing compared to the time when I fell off the ladder while climbing up so I broke my ankle.” It did not help that the main reason why she wanted to stay in his treehouse that time was because she missed him. She wasn’t going to tell him that though.  “Are you sure? It seems like there’s something bothering you.” When he answered her second question, she rubbed the back of her ear with her thumb. “Yeah, uh- I just wanted to make sure. Things kind of changed since that night at the beach.”

His thumb brushed over her scratches gently. “I’m sorry,” he said, his eyes meeting hers. Peter dropped her wrist. He turned, opening a small door in the side of his treehouse to retrieve a box from the storage compartment hidden behind it. He unpacked a couple of bandaids, “for emergencies,” and some Neosporin, both of which he applied with great care to her wounds. “There, good as new.”

“This is nothing you should apologize for!” As his eyes met hers, Gadget give him a small smile in hopes of him believing her. She stayed silent after that and just watched as he treated the scratches on her wrist. Or at least she tried to be silent. It was difficult for her to stay that way when he applied the ointment on it, and there were times when she winced both out of surprise and the pain. On the bright side, he covered it with a cute bandaid. That made her smile grow a little. “Thank you.”, she said while dropping her hand to her lap. “So are you okay?” A pause. “And, uhm... are we?”

Peter’s hand jolted to grab her bag, and he held it close to his chest. “No, sit,” he said, sort of unsure if he meant it. “Did you hurt yourself?” Peter set the bag down, reaching for her wrist to inspect her arm.

His sudden movement surprised her but that has become a normal thing for her at this point because when it came to Peter Woods, Gadget did not know what to expect or even where she stood. It did not help that she did not have the courage to ask him. “I fell during my first try so yeah but it’s fine.” It actually wasn’t. It still hurt. “I’ll be fine.”

Peter had just ended a phone call with his father and was looking for a place o let off some steam He was surprised to see shadows in his hideaway, but was even ore surprised that those shadows belonged to Gadget, as he hadn’t seen her in at least a month. “I– erm, it’s not your fault. I’m the one who showed it to you. I should have expected you to use it,” he said, though he couldn’t hide the slight grit in his jaw. “Did you have a hard time getting up here?”

There was something different about the way he looked and spoke to her and as expected, that made Gadget more nervous about this whole situation. Now, more than ever, she wished that she was capable of reading people’s minds. “I still should have asked permission. I mean this is your spot. I can go if you need to be alone?” She started packing her things up just in case. “Yeah, I still have a long way to go until I can climb up unscathed.”

Meg rolled her eyes. “Stop being so pleasant.” She listened to the rest of Gadget’s sentence and sighed; the whole ordeal didn’t sound like her ideal evening but Gadget was excited and– not as if she would ever say it out loud, she was great with kids. “Ugh. I swear someone picked you out of a children’s book and placed you in our crappy universe. Fine. I’ll go. I’m warning you, I’m going berserk on the piñata if no one breaks it after the first round.” Her words dragged on in her usual annoyance, but there was a clear fondness written all over her face… half of that came after she took a bite of the cupcake. “When are you writing a recipe book? Or is this the one thing you’ll allow yourself to be righteously selfish about?” Meg eyed the treats, convincing herself she didn’t need to eat another one.

If Meg told her that three years ago, Gadget would have apologized and stopped talking after that. A lot has changed since then, though, and she has gotten used to her friend’s sarcasm that it doesn’t scare her anymore. “Nope, never.” She laughed at the comment that was made about her. “If that is how I got here, I do hope that I am making the universe less crappy for you.”, she said to go along with it. “I want you to have fun at the party too so go ahead! You might be making the kids happy by doing that so thank you.” Watching as the older girl taste the cupcake and react to it, she could not help but be proud of herself. “I never actually considered making one but I can for you! It’ll be an exclusive.”

“Oh, I’ll eat it now,” Arista replied, nodding. Her mouth was already watering at the thought of it, so to wait until she got home seemed like torture. “How much is it again?”

“Okay then!” Gently taking the cupcake out of the container it was, Gadget gave it to Arista then smiled. “It’s 2.50 dollars! I promise you that the money will go to a good cause.”