#ofdreamsspinelli

Gretchen sat with her head in her hands after Flynn left her apartment. Her phone was on the table, looking thrown there haphazardly amongst all the other papers and books. She couldn’t even imagine how things got so messy. Sleeping with Flynn was literally the last thing she ever wanted to do, and she knew it was only a matter of time before everyone and their dog knew what happened. Spinelli was amazingly angry at her, she’d never seen her best friend this angry. 

After her conversations with King Bob and Gus, Gretchen steeled herself for the inevitable reintroduction with her best friend, Spinelli. Knowing the other girl, she was probably still harboring a grudge or two over the fact that everyone had left. Not that she could blame her. It had been years since they had had a sit down, and Gretchen was nervous. She had asked around for where Spinelli’s apartment was, and she’d gotten a couple of different answers. So she wrote them all down on her hand and thought she’d make her way through the list.

   Are they here? 

It had been Gus’s first and only question when he entered the Circus of Dreams. In fact, it had probably been the one question he had been pondering about for the last few weeks. He had asked nearly everyone by now; ringleader, circusers and even random visitors, if they knew something about TJ, Spinelli, Vince, Mikey or Gretchen, but all he had gotten were shaken heads or annoyed glares.

Calvin Wyrm eventually was the one who gave Gus the answer he had been looking for for so long, the name he wanted to hear. “Spinelli, Ash-” “Okay!” Quickly Gus interrupted the man and turned his head to look around, almost as though he’d expect Spinelli to jump out of the shadows to tackle them. One should think that after getting trained to fight in a war, Gus would be less afraid to step on his friend’s bad side, but growing up around her he’d learned his lesson. Never ever say her first name... Unless you hate life and you have a serious death wish. “Thank you, Sir!” Gus gave Calvin a short nod, shouldered his bag and walked into the direction he’d been pointed at.

A hint of a smile was showing on his lips as he walked through the oddly familiar place. It wasn’t the Disney Circus and yet it was like he had come back home. If only he knew he’d be welcomed like that as well.

Cecil, Fairhurst, Drakos, Laurent... Gus’s eyes wandered from one name plate to the other until they stopped on the one he was looking for. Hesitating he lifted his hand to let his thumb brush over the engraved surname. It wasn’t his apartment. It was hers. He was either brave or completely stupid for coming here, but if he was going to face her and his judgement - and there was no way around it - he’d at least do it voluntarily.

Gus straightened up, brushed over his clothes and before he could change his mind, he knocked on the door firmly. Three times and with ever knock another Oh shit was running through his mind. He hadn’t thought about what he would say, or what she could do. Shit. Shit. Shit. If he was lucky, she wasn’t home. Though... were those steps behind the door? Shit. Somebody help! The door opened and although he suddenly wished he’d have stayed in the army instead of coming here, a smile forced its way on his lips.