that could have gone better
i said i would and i did i guess? thanks to @thetaoofbetty my lovely hype wife who will literally enable me to write anything because she is unconditional like that. and huge shoutout to this fictober prompt list that i loved and used for this little thingy.
For weeks now, she has managed to avoid Ace as much as two people who work together and have the same group of friends can ever attempt to – she volunteers to open and work the morning shift, and she’s out of the diner before Florence’s engine turns off and Ace walks in, ready to wash dishes and chat with Bess all afternoon. He’s a common presence in her own house, though, invited by Bess, so she hides in her room, blaming her aloofness on her post-Wraith headaches or Columbia’s admission process. Ace’s soothing, calm voice floats up the stairs, often followed by Carson’s chuckles and Ryan’s cackles and Bess’s soft chiding, and inside her something that feels like a balloon that’s too full and ready to burst grows and grows and grows until she’s left breathless and with a pain in her chest that rivals the one left by the Wraith.
read on ao3 here
