#auradonvaughn

Ally: hey computer buddies! I just wanted to reach out to everyone and ask how we're feeling about the updates on the school website? I think it's looking pretty slick!

With the morning light streaming through the blinds came the inevitable question of, “What now?” Only she never bothered to ask, picking up the articles of clothing strewn about the room as quietly as she could before dipping out of his room and into hers, getting dressed in record speed before she bolted out of their shared apartment and went just about anywhere else she could. Now, it wasn’t that she was ashamed of what had transpired against them, absolutely no stranger to the one-night stand. But those type of encounters never stemmed further than that; she lived with Vaughn, and beyond that, they were friends. How could they pretend to go back to normal when there was a large elephant in the room that loomed over them anytime they walked by each other down the hallway?

Well, it was simple: avoidance did wonders in veering one from awkward conversations neither wished to have. And up until then, Lena had been doing an outstanding job at it, but her luck would run out sooner than she thought.   

While in the living room one afternoon, she muttered an obscenity under her breath as she tried to unravel the stream of fairy lights she had ordered to adorn her room with, the tangles seeming to become worse and worse with every move she made to undo them. With one exasperated ‘Fuck this!’ she grabbed the lights by the handful and stood from her spot, deciding she’d just throw them into a corner of her room to be dealt with at a later time. Only when she turned the corner to get to her room, she bumped square into Vaughn, and she lost her footing, bringing him down with her. She landed directly on top of him, and vaguely, for a brief moment, she recalled them being in this very position before. Shaking the thought from her head, she made a move to stand back up, but the tangle of fairy lights had enveloped the both of them in the process, making it difficult to pull apart from one another without worsening the knot.

‘Well, fuck. Me.’, she thought to herself, an embarrassed flush rising to her cheeks as she cleared her throat. “Fancy seeing you here,” she said if only to break the deafening silence, “you, uh, you come here often?” She withheld her wince at her words, quickly wishing she could take them back, but anything seemed better than nothing at that point.